Category: blog

Social Media and Creativity

jamie

If I judged my music by the reaction I get on social media, I’d quit making music.

No. Seriously. Getting people to watch more than 3 seconds is a lot harder than it should be. Seems like everyone has the attention span of a flea…swipe on, America. Feed that scroll demon.

But you know what? I keep creating and sharing. I know a few people like what I create. That works for me. It’s enough. I’m not trying to get a zillion followers. Just connect with a few people, and maybe leave a record of what I’ve made. For my kids, or whoever might care.

I think that people shouldn’t judge things by what everyone thinks and likes. Everything is subjective, and what everyone thinks is great, rarely is. Life should be about what YOU like. What brings YOU joy. Who cares what everyone likes?

Besides, everyone knows that the best things in life are the secrets that hardly anyone knows about.

Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.

Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

jamie

Twas the weekend before Christmas
We were broke as could be
We were freezing our asses
By the fire and TV
When what did our half-frozen
eyeballs then spy
Was a snowstorm to bury
All our firewood in ice
It got colder and colder
We shivered and shook
As the wind howled and sliced
Out the window we looked
More snow was falling
I can’t wait till it melts
The basement gets flooded
mud up to our belts
May your Christmas be white
May your driveway stay plowed
May we all make it through
All this hate, fear and doubt.
May the season bring joy
May you somehow find peace
In the dark years ahead
Love and light will not cease.
~

Upstate NY

jamie

Upstate NY…the part we live in is actually part of Appalachia. It’s not actually as bad as the Simpsons say, and somehow, red and blue voters have always been able to get along in the past. The truth is that everyone you ask cares about the same things.

“We’re headed to the one place that will never decline, because it was never that great. Upstate New York.”
Read more “Upstate NY”

This is not good.

jamie

I have no words for my disappointment in the American people. I’m sure the words will come. Just none available right now. Stay tuned.

Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.

Eight Years of Gloom

jamie

The past 8 years have been a hard road. A lot of loss. A bunch of struggle and worry. Thanks to the pandemic, it seems like the whole world has been living under a shadow of gloom and doom, and me…I’ve been hiding under a rock, keeping my head down. Crazy fucking times. I rarely go anywhere anymore. Who can afford it anyway?

Strong emotions and insane politics tend to bring the muses round over here. A lot of new songs have come my way during the half-decade of torment, though I’ve been too distracted by my life to really bring any of them to into their own. I think some are pretty good, grain of salt, being my own post traumatic opinion. But I hope you’ll agree, as I share the songs, and some of the process, in the coming weeks.

I took up the bass, I’ve been playing electric guitar a LOT, and still working on making midi my bitch. I have a bunch of elaborate arrangements fighting for a chance to be recorded. I’m such a perfectionist, those will take time. I’ve been trying, but never seem to make much progress.

Well now, I’m tired of waiting. I want you to hear the songs. So, I’m gonna share the songs, raw, as they were written. I write most stuff on an old six string acoustic. That’s where everything starts. The roots of the song. Where everything the song will ever be already exists, hiding amongst the crude bangings and ringing open strings, with no distracting background vocals.

So later, when the ‘album version’ drops (not too much later, hopefully), we can all look back and say, “Why the fuck did you do THAT to it, man?!”.

Stay tuned. ~jamie

Success

jamie

In the end, I’d like to be known for making the world a better place. I’ll settle for not being known for fucking the place up royally.

A long time ago, somebody asked me what I thought being successful meant. Since then, I’ve thought it meant a lot of different things over the years. I’m still not really sure I’ll ever feel like my life’s been a success.

But if I fail, I’ve failed the way I wanted to. I made the best choices I could at the time. Things came out this way, and that’s the way it is. I’m still here. I’m loved. I’d call it success.

In the end, I’d like to be known for making the world a better place. I’ll settle for not being known for fucking the place up royally.

Being unknown is ok too.

Jamie Gray – musician, writer, human being

Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.

Co-Ed Pro Sports

jamie

Why are there no women in the NBA? I mean, there are women in the WNBA with more skills than some of the men in the NBA. Are the boys too scared of getting upstaged by a girl? Do we really need to protect their fragile egos?

I appreciate the existence of the WNBA, but in a lot of ways it seems like the ‘separate but equal’ flavor of discrimination, that isn’t equal at all.

I think basketball would benefit from women in the NBA, and they could replace the WNBA with ‘farm teams’ like in baseball, so second best would be reserved for those who aren’t quite ready for the big league…male AND female.

It’s just my opinion, but I hope the amazing ladies in the WNBA demand their right to play in the NBA. Their right to compete for equal salaries is being denied because the WNBA doesn’t have the sponsorship and fan base of the NBA, and likely never will. Look at the USFL and other attempts to compete with the bigs. It doesn’t ever work.

Women can only compete equally if allowed to compete in the NBA. Separate but equal is never really equal. It’s just gaslighting, meant to draw attention from the discrimination.

Authors note: I don’t really watch basketball, or any pro sports really. I think many of them make too much money for doing what they love. But this isn’t about sports. It’s bigger than sports. It’s about equality for all.