Where is Jake in Two and a Half Men???

The thing I miss the most about the new Two and a Half Men is not Charlie Sheen. I do miss Charlie but I've got eight seasons of reruns to relive those moments of debauchery. The person I miss the most is Jake Harper! Where has he been. I've watched the two newest episodes that air on Monday nights and Jake is not there!
I think that kid made the show. Sure Charlie Sheen was the main fixture at first. I was attracted to the show because of Charlie. I had never heard of John Cryer before Two and a Half Men, but I fell in love with the character Alan Harper. But Two and a Half Men IS NOT Two and a Half Men without Jake Harper. He is the "Half" in the title. So I really hope to see more of him in this new season.
Two and a Half Men is in a very experimental phase right now. I like some of the jokes and humor, but it still feels like I'm getting use to Charlie not there. Ashton Kutcher is great though, don't get me wrong. I'm right there rooting for him because its not just Charlie I love, I love the show! I may be the biggest fan of Two and a Half Men.
But seriously I really need Chuck Lorrie to write scripts with Jake in it. The show needs Jake and I'm interested to see how the character will transition from childhood to adolescence with the absence of his crazy uncle. I just hope that the writers, directors, and producers go beyond my expectations.

Nirvana Live at Paramount

VH1's presentation of Nirvana Live at Paramount was spectacular. By far the best program EVER on VH1 or VH1 classic. For me, VH1's credibility has been restored. I had a great time, all by my lonesome, drinking Coors light and eating popcorn! Some of those performances I've never seen before. Just over all a feeling of excitement and inspiration.
Nirvana inspired me when my mother bought me the In Utero album at the Syracuse Barns and Nobles. In the parking lot I put the album in my CD player and Serve the Servants blasted through my ear phones. I was hooked immediately. From then on, my whole life had changed. Within months I had picked up guitar and started writing my own grunge rock songs.
Kurt Cobain influenced me in some positive and negotiate ways. But the fact that he could even influence me at all from beyond his time is just extraordinary. Cobain had been dead for over ten years before I listen to Nirvana. And for me, the rest is history.
I guess its bitter sweet for me. The Nirvana 20th anniversary album is being released on Tuesday. I was maybe three or four when Nevermind came out. A part of me wishes I could have been there, if I were born twenty years earlier. Been there like as in an adolescent when Nirvana and grunge hit mainstream. But I'll never forget the first few experiences I had listening to their music. No other artist ever has influenced me as much as Kurt Cobain and Nirvana.
So it's 9/24/11 and I am sipping my last Coors Light. I am tipsy and feeling good. I hope some of you read this and can relate. So now I am going to watch some Jenna Marbles videos, cause she's awesome, and try to sleep soon.

Centurion

So I've watched this movie about three times and I still want to see it again. I love anything about Mideval Europe or Anceint Rome. This movie just does everything a good action, sword fighting, no fantasy bullshit, hot girl fighting movie should do for me. This movie is fantastic and you should watch it.
Now the character development is limited, if any at all, but why develop the characters if they are just going to fight and die and run around the whole time. Kinda of reminded me of Daniel Day Lewis in Last of the Mohicans. Almost every great scene the Roman soldiers are running from their enemy over this amazing scenery like the scenes in Last of the Mohicans.
The story line is so interesting to me that I had to go to Wikipedia and check out who these people the Picts were. Supposedly, the Picts were the people that slaughtered the 9th Spanish Legion of Rome arround 200 AD I believe. I'm too lazy to look it up but it was right before Rome started to collapse. The Picts occupied modern day Scotland and were defending there land and culture from the advance of the Roman empire into their realm.
And they were a sophisticated people too. No one knows what language they spoke because all that still exist are place names and names of people, but in the movie they speak Gaelic. The forein language sounded awesome and made the movie very believable.
Now if you watch this movie you'll have to agree that the Pict girl that helps the last three soldiers on their run from the Picts is like, wow, gorgeous. She talks in this really thick accent, I guess its Scottish or Northern English but it fuckin turns me on. So I looked this chick up on the internet, because I'm weird like that, and, and her name is Imogen Poots. lol. Now this is significant and funny for me because number one; I never knew Imogen was a name. I love the artist Imogen Heap but I thought it was a word she must have made up. Tells you how ignorant I am. And her last name is Poots, so when you say her whole name its like saying Imogen Farts, which really wouldn't sound anymore strange to me. But for real this chick is really cute and I wish I was Quintus Dias at the end of the movie and I would be living out my days with Imogen in the Scottish woods!

So I stumbled on this like years ago but I still love this version of Nirvana's Smells like Teen Spirit. I've been in kinda a Nirvana mood ever since I picked up the latest issue of Billboard with Grunge on the cover. I guess Nevermind is being reissued on CD and in a box set soon. Not that it matters to me. I can't even remember the last time I listen to a CD. My short attention span tells me to go to my dads Pandora account to listen to music.
So anyway the reason I posted this video is because I want to talk about how you can really sell a song, and do it totally your own way. Which is really a metaphor for music in general. Making your own rules along the path you choose to take. Tori Amos voice is so haunting and the feminine perspective on a very male rage song is interesting and unique. I wonder if she tried to be as awesome at this song as she is.
So I sit at my piano and try to play these Basshunter songs I've got stuck in my head. Or I go to my acoustic guitar and try to cover Taylor Swift. I'm doing this just for fun, but maybe it helps me think and write outside the box. Like an exorcise to help me push further into my long lost creativity. I just play this shit because I love singing it. Probably will never do it live, and definitely would not attempt to record these covers because that would just be vile. But Tori Amos singing Smells Like Teen Spirit is inspiration to go and do my own thing within a genre that I didn't create or embrace when I wuz younger.
So instead of using all of my time physically playing an instrument, I've committed myself to getting on the computer and composing some Techno tracks in my FL Studio 9. Its a totally different world for me, but I need to embrace another experience. I may not be very savvy with the computer but I'll figure it out as I go along, and if I don't I'll just make up my own rules for the kind of Techno music I might someday release.

Techno and Acoustic

I love writing songs. I love making music. Its just something I have to do everyday. Feels like something inside of me always pushing me to pick up the guitar and get in front of Microsoft Word and express my feelings. I love singing the melody and figuring out what words I'm going to put down "on paper" to get a message across. When I hear my favorite guitarists or songwriters, rock and country, I am inspired to do what they do. Write.
There are other times when I listen to a completely different style. Electronic and Techno music really attracts me into its synthetic atmosphere and I feel like I'm in a dream when I listen to an artist like Basshunter, or Gummibar, or David Guetta. When I listen to Techno I just get inspired to do something different. To just bob my head and lose control. Especially listing to European artist. As if I'm listening to a strange alien music that I've never really let myself be exposed too. But these sounds make me want to be apart of this kind of music too!
Its confusing though. I could go in either direction. I could really focus on my pop songs. Study songwriting in Nashville. Become a songwriter, if ever I could. But then I wake up and there are days I would rather spend all my time at my computer working in my Fruity Loops Studio 9 program studying dance, trance, and techno beats. Exploring all those complicated applications and plugins, and developing my own style within a genre so foreign to my American ears.
Then I also had the thought, why not do both? Why not focus on both? Songwriting in the traditional sense, and then when I get bored with playing guitar, run to the PC programs I adore. Could I do both? As an artist could I do both and get away with it? I can apply my lyrical skills and musical background to my techno tracks, hopefully making up for my ignorance with computers and audio production. But as a performing and recording artist could I get away with releasing different kinds of music like that? Could anybody get away with it?
I guess I wont ever know till I get back to recording my music. Been on hiatus for over a year now, and the time has come and I am motivated. Some moments I feel that I can do both acoustic songwriting and also techno music. But then I have a moment or two where I catch myself discouraging the wild all over the place artist that I am saying "focus on one or the other."
Anyway check out this video. The melody is a Basshunter original but this artist is swell!!