This is not good.

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

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

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

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.

It’s Not About Abortion…

Dear Christian Friends,
There’s a lot more to it than abortion. Nobody wants to have one of those anyway. It’s really about Christian values. It’s a WWJD question.

Should you vote for the party that wants to feed the poor, heal the sick, and welcome the immigrant? Who accept all people as equal, regardless of religion or gender or skin tones?

Or should you choose the ‘Good Guys’, the one’s in Red Hats, who think they have the right to force their ‘Christian’ beliefs upon all American women? Upon the rest of secular America. It’s not the Beliefs, it’s the forcing. Don’t let them lie to you: Christians aren’t hated for what they believe. It’s more what they DO in “God’s Name” that pisses people off.

At some point, you gotta ask yourself honestly: How would you like it if someone forced YOU to join the Satanic Temple? Or if they changed The Pledge to “One Nation, Under Allah” and forced you to say it. Or put “In Beelzebub We Trust” on the Greenback? Putting 666 on every bill, coin or credit card?

Because if you allow them to do it in Jesus name, they could do it in Lucifer’s in 2028, right? We’d all be much better off, by the way, because the Satanic Temple would allow us freedom to worship as (or IF) we please. #FirstAmendmentRights are important, right?

But finally, it’s your choice to make. Decide wisely, while you still have a choice. Re-read that last Book in your Bible (before they censor IT…again) and maybe seek God’s advice, if you STILL have doubts. You don’t need me to tell you what it says about…well, you know. #AwakeNotWoke

Protest for Women’s Rights
WWJD?

Religion isn’t about God

It doesn’t matter which God you choose to call your own, RELIGION is the ultimate problem that mankind must overcome. Religion is, by definition, perversion of God to manipulate people into behaving a certain way. God just IS (or isn’t). What you believe about Them isn’t relevant to anyone, except to YOU and God.

At best, religion is a distraction from finding your own spiritual destination. Easy answers to reassure, instead of clues about your truths. At it’s worst, religion has brought us countless Crusades and Jihads, The Holocaust, 9/11 and The War on Terror, and so many other atrocities committed by “righteous men” in the Name of God.

Religious hypocrisy is legendary, and yet the sheep keep coughing up their tithes to reach enlightenment or avoid the scourge of Hell. I completely understand the need to believe in something. I just think it’s better to search for, and believe in your own truths, rather than in others who might profit off your faith.

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.

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