I've already forgotten how much fun it was (only because we're already playing shows). here are the videos from the studio:

Episode 6: In The Studio, Week 1

Episode 7: In the Studio, Weeks 2 & 3

Episode 8: In the Studio, Weeks 4, 5 & 6

so yeah, we just finished being in the studio for four months solid.

and you will hear more from me very soon.

stay tuned.

miss ya'll.

much love,

luke

Ben Romans is involved. Phil Galitzine is too. Eric Espiritu is shredding. Tobias Smith is breaking more drum heads as a result.

Atomic Tom is in the studio. Ben Romans is henceforth known as "The Producer" saying things like "Brign" and "Shimmery" and "Do you remember that movie with whoopi goldberg and the nuns?".

It's our first full length record. And it sound really, really good. I can't wait for you to hear it.

We've been filming everything too, so they'll be a few videos as well.

till then, check out the facebook page for daily updates and quotes.

Love ya'll,

Luke

i'm running.

into a sea swirl. an oncoming wave. it's about to crash and burn me. the water. it burns.

it's time to dig deep. to the places i'm afraid to go. and we're going to bring all of you with us.

i'm not scared.

Celebretism.

Fans.

Screaming.

Stage on fire.

Limos.

Secrets. No Secrets.

Bono is still a man. So is Akon. And Chris Martin. And Taylor Hanson. Maybe.

To write. A song. That speaks to people. It's here. At your chest. Digging deap. It's romanticized. It carves a something-shaped hole - never fills, only reverberates and magnifies. He hates it, but she loves it. It takes you to a moment you forgot. And the rain falls. And you want that moment to repeat itself. You want to save it and put it in your pocket and pull it out when you're in that place again. Like when you were with your best friends in the summer on the beach and you couldn't remember ever worrying about anything. Like when you weren't upset about your brother or your parents or your school or your job or your paycheck. But now the songs speaks to your paycheck. And you listen to it with your headphones on because you don't want anyone to steal the experience you're having right now. You feel it, again, and again. And finally, you want to share it. So, you show your best friend, you share that white ear bud, even though it's splitting the stereo, you both still get it. And you both feel it, again and again. Because someone wrote a song. Because someone dared to write a song. For some it's as easy as sitting down and typing a few words to a simple melody. But for all, it's a risk.

And an adventure.

I'm glad you're listening.

I got an email yesterday from the International Rescue Committee who have people helping out on the ground in Darfur and surrounding regions, and, the word is that the government of Sudan, whom the rest of the world has been begging to be more cooperative in helping with the conditions and ridding the country of the malitia destroying and pillaging... the government is kicking the IRC and other peaceful, helpful organizations, out of the country. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

Go here: http://ga3.org/campaign/aid_sudan and let your voice be heard. Tell the Sudanese government to let the rescue services be reinstated so that the good work can continue.

Thanks for readin... and stay tuned!

I wanted to share this short animated film with you!

Chris Loope - a childhood best friend and collaborator - wrote, directed and animated this intro to an animated series we're writing together. The theme was inspired by the lyrics from "Maybe I'm Wrong" from our first EP "Anthem For the Disillusioned". Chris is the same talented guy who did our recent photo shoot. Music by Atomic Tom. It will be the first of many collaborative experiences. Check out Chris' company Quantum Media.

Cheers,

Luke

Atomic Tom: Episode 1 - Memories that string you along from chris loope on Vimeo

.

I'm on set. Filming an indie. Last week, Atomic Tom was in the studio - workin on a new tune. Rehearsing all this week. I'm going nuts. And i love it. This is an awesome start to 2009.

And February is gonna be an awesome month.

Why?

We're playing with two other kickass bands (one of them the One Love's very own Crash Moderns) and the other an amazing New York band, Rich Girls, fronted by my friend Matt Basille.

The show is here in New York City, at this very cool venue called Canal Room and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention will be there, hosting the event. It's this coming Thursday, February 12th and it's part of the One Love February 2009 charity sponsored events.

More importantly, you should come. It's 18 and over, and we want all our friends to come out and support the show. All the money from ticket sales and merchandise sales will go to the AFSP

and...

Atomic Tom is playing new music.

pumped?

See you there!

Luke

ps. click here to checkout the facebook event invite and chat with other peeps goin.

This is a an appropriate look at the charity I write about and support. Important exherpts from the article follow:

"...Any organization which claims it can save Darfur is courting hubris, at the least.  At the end of the day, Darfur - and Sudan - have to save themselves..."

"...The simple fact is that neither the US nor Europe has the leverage or the means to force the Sudanese Government or the rebels to negotiate and uphold a sustainable peace.

For instance, it took over two decades to end the most recent conflict in South Sudan, a conflict that claimed far more lives than Darfur; a conflict which only ended when both sides realized they had nothing to gain by continuing to fight.

That said, there is a role for advocacy in all of this.  The US has some influence, although limited - some policies are more effective than others..."

read more...

Click here to make some noise and let President Obama know that we STAND with Darfur and Sudan against the genocide and human atrocities occuring there.

From the website: "STAND, the Genocide Intervention Network, the Save Darfur Coalition, and ENOUGH are partnering to let the Obama administration know that this time around, the American public expects the President of the United States to do something about Darfur."

Click here to remind President Obama we stand with Darfur.

You know that moment where you need to silence your brain? You will do anything to shut down the firing of your synapses and not move for hours. We need to hear ourselves think. It's so easy to shut ourselves out from ourselves when ad noise and internet noise and tv noise surrounds us 24/7. Here I am saying that while typing on my computer. According to John Cleese, the labtop is not the friend of creativity.

We need space in time to breath. A moment of silence to create. To remember where you are. Why you are. Doing what you're doing. What brought me here in this moment of tranquil peace.

I will slowly be downsizing my labtop time this year and increasing my creative time. We need to refill our artist' cups and mine is ready to overflow.

So, here's the deal:

there is a company called PetroChina that contributes directly to the insane-ness in Darfur. And many of America's financial institutions support PetroChina, are investing large sums of money into PetroChina. So, essentially, if you have money invested through JP Morgan Chase, Capitol Group, Fidelity, or others (see notes and sources), then your money is helping destroy lives in Darfur. The craziest part is that the US gas companies are barred from investing or working in that area, but American investment banks are allowed to invest in their competitors doing exactly that in the region.

so, here's what i did, and what you can do. Sign the pledge to call those financial companies away from investing in companies like PetroChina.

i'm a fan of 24. despite it's somewhat favorable depiction of torture - which i am 100% against. the current story line depicts a country in Africa on the brink of disaster and many, many civilians in mortal danger because of the threat of a rebel force re-invading and slaughtering innocents.

Darfur is in the same moment of time today. A rebel force known as the "Justice and Equality Movement" - a seemingly positive name is "diggin in" against their rivals the SLA (Sudanese Liberation Army) and 30,000 civilians are now at risk of being "caught in the middle".

It's really, really hard for me to consider any sort of practical way to think "I can stop this". How does a rock singer living in New York City, more than 5000 miles away offer physical, practical help that produces positive results in a horrible situation like this?

In this situation, there is light at the end of the road. The UN/AU peacekeepers force is expanding there over the next couple months to protect civilians.

Read Michelle's blog on change.org to find out more...

And to answer my own question... it really is a matter of SPEAKING UP. Saying something. Here. Vocally. Physically. To anyone and everyone who will listen. Make noise. Real noise.

vote now to signal to our new president that America is Making Darfur a priority in the new government.

change.org has setup a website that allows us to determine what causes we care about and which ones we want Obama to care about. They have causes like "Stop the Genocide" and "End Human Trafficking".

Bono, the never-ending frontman for U2, just wrote an amazing op-ed for the NY Times...

"The Big Bang of pop music telling me it’s all about the moment, a fresh canvas and never overworking the paint. I wonder what he [Frank Sinatra] would have thought of the time it’s taken me and my bandmates to finish albums, he with his famous impatience for directors, producers — anyone, really — fussing about. I’m sure he’s right. Fully inhabiting the moment during that tiny dot of time after you’ve pressed “record” is what makes it eternal. If, like Frank, you sing it like you’ll never sing it again. If, like Frank, you sing it like you never have before."

check it out

check out his organization ONE which focuses on beating AIDS, starvation and extreme poverty, especially in war torn areas of Africa like Darfur, Sudan and the Congo.

Colonization.

It's a dirty word in Africa. As it is in parts of south east Asia. It signifies a reign by European countries over previously independent regions of Africa. Africa is a beautiful continent. You might not know it from all the sad news pouring from there into our blog readers. But many of the greatest wonders of the world are located in what was once referred to as the "Dark Continent". 

Post the horrific slave trade of the 17th and 18th centuries, European countries such as Belgium, with small space in the mainland, wanted to grab as much as they could of the virgin land. It was the new "new world", and quickly become a land grab opportunity. The residents of regions such as the Congo were enslaved in their own lands, and through torture, starvation and being worked to death, millions died over the Rubber, Ivory, Tin and Steel industries that flourished because of the vast amount of natural resources in that area. The lands were traded for mere trinkets, and European and US profits soared.

The 20th century saw uprisings against the French, British and Belgium colonizations and horrible civil wars ensued (and still ensue). Apartheid - a period of racial segregation enforced by the National Party of South Africa - brought parts of Africa to what many thought would be its lowest point. South African Black people were stripped of their citizenships and rights. Entire towns and regions were designated only usable for members of the "White Race". 

Aight. So, enough of the history lesson, right?

What are we up against today? I can't begin to serve justice to the true story.

In Darfur, Sudan, The Congo and many other areas of Africa, thousands are still enforced into slavery, porters are paid miniscule amounts to ferry heavy loads of natural minerals such as the steel and tin that reside in this MacBook Pro I'm typing on, the military and guerilla groups work together to sell the beautiful parts of Africa to multi-national corporations at the cheapest value world-wide and millions (yes, millions) are displaced by the infighting that results. Raiding parties slaughter infants by throwing them against trees or cutting them in half, sexually maim women, kidnap young boys and force them into inebriated soldier duty, and kill the young leaders.

All of this brings everyone who reads it to ask two obvious questions: How did this happen? And what can I do?

This is why I write about Darfur and Africa in general. Awareness is such a huge part of knowing "How and Why". Books like "King Leopold's Ghost" help to answer that question. And honestly, I've found out more by just wikipedia(ing) topics like "Apartheid" and "Mobuto" and "Bishop Tutu". 

What can I do? 

1. make yourself aware. tell your friends.
   
2. donate your time, money or resources to causes working in those regions.
   
3. go and stand together with the Africans in solidarity.
   

One day, Atomic Tom will go and learn first hand what the struggles are - and It will change us like nothing else.

And I can't wait.

It's Friday morning, January 2, 2009. The hangovers are gone, the confetti is washed away, the blank stares are returning, and everyone's realizing that the office/school didn't disappear like we really hoped it did. DAMN!

Ben Romans is asleep on the couch. Eric Espiritu was on the couch not four hours ago, but he woke up and went to work at his new job in New York City (hollla) and BR totally took his spot. I'm drinking what will be the first of several cups of coffee today and I'm contemplating all the amazing things I expect from this year.

One thing I, personally, would love to see happen in 2009 - all of us here on this blog becoming more active on a global and international scale. In particular, the horrors occuring in Darfur, the Congo and surrounding countries; sex and Human Trafficking (see Ben Romans blog), and the rise of Fair Trade for developing countries perpetuated and instigated by current super powers such as the USA and China. 

Yeah, it's easy to wonder what we can do, insignificant us. The truth is, we are no longer insignificant (and we never were). Blogs like The One Love have created such a huge platform, and people are reading. People are paying attention to you. Here are a few really cool stories from 2008 about the significance of one person like you and I:

"Stoves Help Keep Darfur's Women Out of Harm's Way" - CNN

"A Banner Effort to Aid Darfur" - Boston Globe

"A Witness Account and How You Can Help" - MTV

So, every blog this month, I'm going to focus on real, relevant ways that we can spread the word, create awareness and actually give aid to the people of Darfur, Sudan, the Congo and surrounding countries.

The most important thing we can do now, is to educate ourselves, make ourselves aware - speak intelligently about the horrors:

"The Women of Darfur" - YouTube Video (International Rescue Committee)

Check out that video, and comment back your thoughts. I'd love to hear them...

"Spencer Brodsky, 17, learned about the violence and decided to raise money to purchase fuel-efficient stoves to send to Darfur."

- http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/12/27/stoves.darfur/index.html

Merry Christmas from Atomic Tom.

I realized a couple years ago, that as an US born guy, my country's history has always been the only history our schools spend much time on. At least in my personal experience. I knew/know next to nothing about the histories of other countries and cultures. So, I've been scouring wikipedia and amazon over the last couple years for histories of eastern and european civilization. But only recently have i discovered history, compelling history on Africa. And I'm still very ignorant about African history. I know it's such a rich and beautiful and for much of it, an incredibly sad history that is still being written. You've read a lot of the horrors that still exist there in this very blog. One book that I read that literally and completely changed my understanding of the culture and suffering still going on (specifically in the Congo) was "King Leopold's Ghost" and I highly suggest you check it out and pour thorugh it. It's incredibly upsetting and it's befuddling how much of the issues that are accounted in this book from the late 1800's are still perveyant today. Check it out...

and P.S. I don't mean to suggest that the entire continent of Africa and all of African History is sad and depressing. There is sooo much beauty in that country and i'm looking forward to discovering that more and more.

to help, visit here

it's easy to write rant blogs.

it's easy for me to get angry at something and post an amateurish attempt at writing for all to read.

it's even easier for us, when we're finally learning how to tighten our wallets, to also tighten our hearts and forget people who aren't just low on cash, they're low on personal freedom, water, freedom of mind, body and sou

a few things to think about as we get closer to the holidays:

in the 21st century, the one we live in currently, where scholars and philosophers would claim we are the most enlightened, the world has the largest population of slaves, forced labor ever known at 22 million.

Africa, especially Darfur and Congo (and surrounding areas), continue to be depleted of it's natural resources to serve the west and northern hemispheres insatiable desire for product and consumerism. Europe, the U.S. and now Asia continue to rape that continent of it's dignity so we can sell more labtops and mp3 players. The direct result is forced labour, rape and murder of their own, genital torture and mutilation, and sucking dry of the natural resources that would make Africa a commerce continent that could compete in the global market.

Sex traffiking ravages Cambodia, Russia, Europe, Central America and sadly and suprisingly, a large market 50,000/yr over the central american borders), is America. Children, women stolen from their families, who are then threatened to silence or their family will be murdered, are sent to fulfill the pleasures of men with money in my own country. In India, numbers range around 200,000 girls under 14 who have been sold into sexual slavery.

I don't say all this to shock you. I say this for my own sake too.

We are a generation that is capable of saying no to all these horrors, to making them visible, to tearing down the curtains that hide them from the public eye and mind and revealing the monsters who steal the souls and essence of the innocent. The world is scalable. The world is so connected. The world is smaller now. And, the governments aren't doing enough. The multinational corporations are complicit, and we are comfortable.

Am I bugging you? I don't mean to bug you.

Get involved...

the wonderful freedom of political choice was excercised yesterday.

record numbers voted.

record numbers of every race and creed voted.

record numbers that spanned all age groups voted.

the campaigns were fought hard, and people decided.

and yes, we can all embrace the fact that to large extents on both sides, much of what we heard, watched and were told is retoric - conventional, illustrative, colorful retoric - designed to please our ears and hearts.

and we can also recognize that for many, many of us, the candidate desired didn't win. and that can be heartwrenching because we are a passionate people and we want our issues to be resolved, taken care of by  a "greater" political force.

and now that the contest is over, and history is made, many are faced with "what now".

it's easy for the defeated to continue in creating an attitutude of fear about the president-elect. but i have to wonder, do people respond to "fear-mongering" in any sort of positive way anymore?

it's also easy to just say, "they won, and now i want to move to another country". and i while i agree America has many significant problems that have complicated all our lives, i really don't see you ever living up to that threat.

regardless of whom you voted for, lets start this new political era with a new ethos: end the american hate. detabte, don't yell and scream, and create fear. argue intelligently with people you disagree with. see issues fromm soeone else's eyes. discover why you believe what you believe. refuse to be a parrot of stances merely because it's where your party stands. the internet has created and incredible atmosphere for political independence, just like it has for individual taste in music. it's so much easier to speak and be heard. if you are in disagreement with the current president-elect, the best thing to do is start debate on all the issues you disagree with, find out why you disagree find out where your passions cross paths, and create waves because you're carrying on a healthy debate. and for your own sake, qualify your sources. read more, break out of your own comfort zones and challenge yourself to learn and educate yourself completely on issues your passionate about.

and if you care about issues like Autism, or the horrors in Darfur, or the scarcity of water and natural resources in deprived areas, or the ongoing human slavery that is still rampant in even the USA... than place your passion there. there's plenty of "evil" to go around that's worth defeating without imposing it upon a young father who just made history.

and seriously, if you truly think that Barack Obama is a) a muslim arab, and b) that muslim arabs are by their very nature bad people... know that i love you, but you are rascist, uneducated, inflammatory, grossly-inaccurate, and need to learn to not hate yourself.

it's been a while since i've brought something not about myself or the band to the blog - shame on me - and it's exhilerating - and incredibly sad - to see an issue that gets very little attention making the cover of cnn.com.

one of the first books i read when i met my girlfriend/wife/lover megan was the book "The Vagina Monolgues".

now that we're done with the guffaws...

the CNN story was interviewing Eve Ensler (the author of said book) about an iniative, rather a campaign, she is working in the Congo to raise awareness, support and care for the many, many women being raped and destroyed through the constant warfare going on. A clip:

"What's going on in the Congo is so extreme and so out of control," she says, "that if we don't intervene on behalf of women there, it will spread and something much more horrible will happen.

"You cannot let something that inhuman go on."

also of note, UNICEF claims the death brought on by the tragic bloodshed in the region to be worse than anything since World War 2. I find myself asking myself, how was i lucky enough to avoid being in such a place? how can we just walk through our days forgetting that **** like this is happening to innocent people in places we ignore as a nation (or nations)? how can i get myself and the band down there and stand with those people in recognition of not just their existance, but also the horrible things that are happening to them?

read the article here...

back from tour. got dog sick immediately. still recovering, but good times this week.

show last night at a local college - surprisingly awesome show.

the tour was amazing. nashville is such a cool city, chicago was my favorite. can't wait to go back to toronot. and we'll def be hitting up boston and virginia a few more times in the next few months. some awesome and crazy experiences. check out our blog on the myspace page to read more...

for such a relatively small area (2500 miles of driving), and 10 intense days, its crazy to think how much driving we've got to make happen to cover the rest of the world. can't wait to play in asia, europe, even africa. it will be awesome when we get there. 

went to the film premeir after party for Gary King's New York Lately with all the peeps. had a fab time. loooking forward to next week and taking things to a new level. thanks for listening.

cheers.

Holy crap. we left at 6am and got to the venue at 7:30pm. Load in time. Damn. Customs gave us a little trouble. something about working for the bar, we sat there for 30 minutes while one dude asked us if we'd ever heard of Tori Amos (condescendingly of course). I don't get it why people automatically assume that other people are stupid. I guess some people feel the need to be "powerful". And when respect isn't earned, it's often demanded. But i digress.

Toronto is such a HUGE and beautiful city. We drove through a good bit of it and saw some amazing places. I wish we had stayed longer and checked the rest of it out. I haven't been since 2003. We ended up playing really late, but rocked it regardless. Eric took some really sweet pictures of us backstage, Phil slept on the stairs for an hour, k. rice and i went exploring for a bit.

My friend Justis is putting us up. His parents are amazing, treated us really well. One thing we're learning, there are a lot of really good, decent people who are totally willing to take care of you. And we're really thankful for that. Back on the road for yet another long drive tomorrow, and after the three hour sleep from boston, I'm looking forward to 6 hours or so before we head to Chicago. Stay tuned...

Luke

Hey everyone,

we're gonna TRY to put out a blog every show day of our tour so you can stay tuned and hear what's going on.

so we got in town early, hit up the TC5 rehearsal space, grabbed some sushi, palled around town for a bit, phil got a haircut, eric, k. rice and i hit the sbucks for some office hours time, met up with our friend who plays guitar for the Virgins - they were playing the Paradise that night - and then set up for the show.

and DAMN we had an awesome show tonight. packed house at TTs in Boston, lots of energetic people jumping up and down, and lots of great music. the other bands rocked... opened with The Wellingtons from Australia - me and Ben Romans introduced them - and then Atomic Tom rocked the stage for 40 minutes - my mic kept turning away from me and coming unplugged - which was more funny to me then annoying - then the surprise guests The Click Five took the stage and worked some new material - i'm a huge fan of the two last songs - which i've heard in rehearsal, but they ROCKED it live. def a very cool new vibe thats coming across from them.

and then the Crash Moderns rocked the stage as headliners - and it was good times. tomorrow we hit the long road to toronto, canada. stay tuned.

is it by or bye?

i am riding on a bus. to virginia. and yes. it's been a while. my deepest apologies to those who have been missing out on my one love notes. love notes. one notes.

it's been a crazy summer. when is life not crazy?

my band finally released some new tunes that we wrote and recorded with mr ben romans. probably some of the best recording experiences we ever had. i played on nate's record over the summer. we did a lot of writing and re-writing and getting hang time as a band.

now we're stoked, cause we'll be on tour in exactly two weeks, starting in boston, which happens to be one of my fav cities in the states, and going to canada, and nashville, and virginia and all kinds o places in between. and seriously, i can't wait to go to asia - thanks to everyone who comments on our myspace daily about us going... have no fear, we're coming your way soon (we're shooting for 2009)... keep leaving us the comments though. we like it.

and yeah, you should def check out the tunes, if you have yet.

Red Light Warning Sign

and

Take Me Out

both on our myspace page, and both you can download and play as often as you want for free.

and everyone's working. i hear everyone's new tunes and it's incredibly exciting to be a part of this music community. we're finding our voices and it's so much fun to watch.

exciting times. it's good to be alive and kicking.

i love family guy. guilty pleasure. watching it this very moment. i love when south park makes fun of family guy. or when the simpsons make fun of south park making fun of the family guy. i grew up not watching a ton of tv. ok, not watching any tv. in fact, all i watched (per parental instruction) were musicals from the 40s. how embarrasing.

now i feel like i'm catching up with 18 years of tv depravity... is there tvholics anonymous?

to live. to free myself from the couch, from 25 minutes of advertising an hour. from half-wit plot lines and cheesy soundtracks. it was warm today and i could smell the good times coming back. i don't know why but since college, every winter i get that cold depression in my bones, and it's amazing how much i sit up and notice the warm weather coming in. it breathes life and excitement and adventure.

in other news, ATOMICTOM is recording demos this week and next, traveling to virginia later this month for week of writing in the state that's "for lovers" and gearing up for some great shows in April and May. love ya'll!

it's effffffing cold.

but.

i'm content. it's been a good week. my boy nate is back in town. although.

from the way things read. we're losing him to.

nashville.

love all the new artists on here. ben and jade and cassie are.

ruling this onelive site.

i hate limbo. that moment before the storm. or the crazy. or the "what the **** was that" moment. i guess i'm.

impatient.

you ever get to that place where you feel like you're totally in control, and then you're reminded every so subtley that you're.

not. of course.

it's stupid. this is the process. the journey. and in all honesty. i'm enjoying this crazy ride. and i should. because who knows. when the moment comes. it could be.

dull and boring.

love the process. love the journey.

btw. the cult are amazing.

it has been a CRAZY week.

i'm up early. 7am is early for me. we're about to venture out on a mini-tour with our boys the click five. gots to get going. but i wanted to share a few things with everyone.

first, you HAVE to check out Eric's blog about his "mac-n-cheese" experience in NYC. it's HILARIOUS!

NEXT, check out our tour dates on our myspace page. if you're near a show, PLEASE come out and support, 'cause between Ben Romans and I, these shows will be NUTZ.

Also, check out the new mix of "You Always Get What You Want" on our myspace page... we released the inevitable "radio mix". Yi-YEAH! 

Finally, we FINALLY took some "official" pictures. you can check them (you guessd it) on our myspace page... 

The excitement for this tour and especially the New Jersey and New York City dates is off the charts. It's gonna be good times with The Click Five boys... so def hit us up and let us know if you're coming out!

I know, this has been pretty much a shameless plug blog. but i'm just REALLY giddy right now.

good times.

have a kickass week. we'll keep you posted about our adventures on the road.

luke 

impulse. pulse. e.

i love connotation. i love subtext.

does this mean i love manipulation?

television. vision.

i love distractions. i think i'm a.d.d.

lighting.

set the mood. take you to that place.

should songs ever be about more than just writing about where i'm at and what i want to speak about?

intentional. there's nothing wrong with being.

intentional.

control. i want it. i don't have it.

honesty. i want it... 

i'm climbing up something. not sure what this mountain is made of. but when i hit the summit. i'll send you a text. 

one month.

since my last blog.

i hope this finds you well.

two holidays.

crazyness.

its so easy for me to look at this space and think, "how can i complain today?". no good.

its 2008. i don't do resolutions.

i will say this about the new year.

i'm very excited.

i'm most excited about being with my friends. about learning from them. about making dinners and band brunches and coffee slash french beer writing sessions and loud, crazy dance moves at shows and singing miley cyrus at the top of our voices and coming up with new things we've never done before...

i'm excited about the freedom of spirit.

i'm excited about the healing of artists.

i'm excited about chilling the F**K out.

i'm excited about hanging with my lady.

i'm excited about fresh perspectives. about good strong coffee. about the art of the pop song. about the increasing measure of the independent artist. 

good times.

echos.

millions.

saying the same thing.

gawd do we want to be unique. but we already are. there is only one of you.

snow on the ground. 6am sunday morning. i'm the first person in all of brooklyn to walk on it. or so i'd like to believe. please leave me my dreams.

sleep last night. first in a week. dreams keep me from sleeping.

i'm not telling you what you already don't know. but maybe i just need to hear it. type it. 

me and paul giamatti in the elevator today. he forgot to push his floor button. speaking of the button gods. 

what's in a song. why do you get goose bumps when you hear the first point zero two nine seconds of the song. because its beaten into your head? not anymore. because you and that song had a steamy love affair over dry bean coffee and the world wide web.

i want to create love affairs while dreaming when i'm awake talking to paul giamatti about how to make good movies that involve spanish wines in the snow. 

famous last words. self-occupational-termination. now. 

listen to hard-fi = good music.

millions.

echos. 

what the hell!?

writing is such a fascinating craft. you start off with a crazy entrance sentance, something to grab the reader with, then throw a few ridiculous sounding statements that contain the hint of truth, draw conclusions based on emotional response, and then end with a hanging question...

or at least, that's the very critical opinion of this blogger. actually i have a huge respect for people with an actual talent for writing. i don't count my vomitting on your computer screen as a legitimate form of that craft, but hey... you're still reading...

i had a crazy weekend in the land of New Jersey, America. People died and were buried. Still such a bizarre concept to people who have yet to really live. It always sobers me. For about point zero two nine seconds. Now i'm back in the land of the not-yet-living. What do you do? I am a songwriter.

I am a songwriter.

People in other countries NEVER ask as their first question in a conversation... "what do you do?" Only us Americans are freakishly concerned with playing the ego game when it comes to how we make our money. BUT, our dollar sucks. so WHY!!!

i found this on a myspace page today and it hit me right between the eyes...

"I'm never bored. That's the trouble with everybody - you're all so bored. You've had nature explained to you and you're bored with it, you've had the living body explained to you and you're bored with it, you've had the universe explained to you and you're bored with it, so now you want cheap thrills and, like, plenty of them, and it doesn't matter how tawdry or vacuous they are as long as it's new as long as it flashes and fucking bleeps in forty fucking different colors. So whatever else you can say about me, I'm not fucking bored." - the film NAKED

i read something in this book "the artist' way" about "paying attention..." - to the colors and life around you. i have a distinct memory of this evening back in boston, i was soooo brain fried... just in a crazy place... too much input, not enough letting go, i was walking to my then girlfriend's apartment... and the colors of every sign and billboard just blared out at me (no, i wasn't on shrooms...). it was my brain crashing... my body telling me there was too much going on... i got to my girlfriends apartment and just curled up in this chair, and didn't move for an hour... my brain had to "restart". i was "paying attention" to all all the "fucking bleeps in forty fucking different colors" rather than all the incredibly beautiful things and people going on around me. and i have so many incredible people around me. i hope i get an opportunity to add value to their lives, as they do for me.

i have a show. a big show. people are coming from everywhere to see us. we're getting press like crazy. everyone is excited. and...

i have jury duty. right now.

in fact, i'm writing from the "jurors' lounge" in downtown brooklyn. here to serve my country.

so far, no throwing myself out the window... but it's only 10am.

the past week has been crazy. if you read nate campany's blog, you'll get a glimpse of a few things happening that are good times. nate, my friend phil (bass player for ATOMICTOM) and I played a CMJ week show at one of my fav venues. there was a cool little writeup on mtvnews. "nate campany writes like a man in love"... love it.

i've been doing these morning pages - which means i wake up and the first thing i do before i breath is write three pages of freewrite. it's mostly shit that's vomitting out of my brain and no one will ever be aloud to read it. and i hate it. cause it's carving some craziness out of me. but i'm hoping it'll get me closer to the good stuff.

anyway, my country calls. def check out the mtvnews.com writeup... and just in... apparently my song "you always get what you want" did well in the New York Songwriter Competition... just to tute my own horn there. good times. red times. red sox that is...

i love contrast. visually and lyrically it can so powerful.

but my head is spinning around the contrast of feeling so alive... and seeing friends looking like death is laughing at them. my good friend nate loves the fall. we share this love... the changing weather does seem to bring a crisp clarity to life... even as all organic life from the ground dies around you.

my weekend back home in virginia was... really strange. people i hadn't seen in ten years or more. it wasn't a reunion officially, but it might as well have been. and i just saw all this sadness around me. so many dreams unfulfilled, so many of my friends realizing that everything they thought life would be actually never happened. and instead, life, literally was sucking their "essence" away.

people think that new york city is a crazy place, with pillaging and murder and muggings. but to be honest, i found my hometown to be an incredibly sad place, empty, disillusioned with the lack of anything exhilerating. and i love being here, in new york. it is filled with people seeking their dreams... looking for fullfillment... looking for love... looking to live... to be alive. god i love this town.

ps. rusty... save darfur. 

stream of concious. im awake. at the butt-crack of noon. and i'm seeing two of everything. this from my xbox rager till the wee hours of the morning. gears of death will give you nightmares.

virginia is such a beautiful state. so serene. so quiet. too quiet. i can't stand it for very long. but in this moment. i hear nothing. incredible.  i have this desire to just lay my body flat on the grass outside and make grass angels.

i'm curious. does the social network world have a beginning, middle, and end? business people will tell you that every "product" has a life-span. and it certainly seems like myspace is about to die a horrible, flaming, gut-pouring death while writhing on the ground in eternal pain. or maybe that's just i wish it would do. but another rises to take it's place. really. the blog to analyze social networking sites has been written too many times. but i'm curious. how much of real life has ebbed away in the poorly programmed pages of myspace? ugh. 

we write because we cannot afford therapy. 

so, as we are less than 10 days away from the new Radiohead album (which they're releasing for whatever you want to pay for it - genius), i'm dusting off the older albums... preparing my brain for the onslaught of what is sure to blow me away. if i don't prepare, by listening to the entire catalog from Pablo Honey through B sides and rarities (like the acoustic version of Motion Picture Soundtrack) to Hail to the Thief, my brain won't get it... it'll turn to itself in the mirror and say "what the hell is this?" I've got 10 days to listen to over 400 songs and not kill myself in the process. Should be easy - i'll be in Atlanta for three days, then NOVA for three more. If you don't see another blog... then i'm dead. death by radiohead. sounds like a drug...

cheers.

Radiohead Has Changed the Game

Radiohead Has Got People Thinking

Radiohead (bob lefsetz)

i only say that because i find it hard to locate in myself sometimes. i don't refer to telling lies versus telling the truth. i mean opinions - as in what you find in blogs. i mean when someone asks you what you think. i mean being honest in conflict. i mean taking risks in relationships.

blogs seem to give honesty a second chance. it's always been easier for me to write down what i'm thinking in my head then to actually say it. i suspect it is that way for many of you readers / bloggers. 

so, here, on The One Love, I am looking forward to sharing with you our honesty, adventure, risk and a few random stream-of-conciousness thoughts. so, while we wade together through endless amounts of content... i hope we find the few moments of magic that still exist out there.

and, if you haven't already, check out (and by check out, i mean, visit, volunteer, give, slave away for, become a vital part of, change lives with) the charities that this blog super site supports. it's why we're here...