I'm a man that sincerely loves his musical community and I can't help but be flattered by my recent nomination by the Orange County Music Awards this year for the BEST WORLD MUSIC category for my song "Joy". It is a huge privilege to be recognized for something I made and although I may not win the category, the recognition alone is enough to make me feel thankful and blessed to stand along side such wonderful local musicians and talent. We all work hard for what we squeeze from a dry stone, rocking nonetheless. 2009 is a good year!
The Orange County Music Awards will take place on Saturday April 4th at The Grove of Anaheim! While it may seem that this type of event has a built-in audience and is a mainstay attraction to Orange County, your support and attendance on April 4th not only solidifies your interest in the music scene, but also helps to support the continuation of this event and it's ability to recognize local talent from the music scene here in Orange County (in other words, buy some tickets and join the fun this year).
For those of you interested in attending this years Orange County Music Awards (and I would love to have you there to support), you can purchase tickets for $25.00 at The Grove of Anaheim box office OR at Ticketmaster:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/09004166A5B84495?artistid=1271733&majorcatid=10005&minorcatid=0
You can also find more information regarding this years OCMA's at their website:
www.ocmusicawards.com
Thank you to everyone for listening to my music! I can't imagine my life without a guitar in my hands and a microphone in front of me. To me, that is living.
Cheers and I hope to see you out on April 4th at The Grove!
~ Mike
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
A Haiku, Seattle University, and a Whale's Tale from Portland
Good morning! How about I get this moving with a Seattle Haiku:
9:30 AM
the continental breakfast
is already gone
In all fairness, Days Inn told me 5:30 to 9:30 AM... and apparently, they are very serious about this.
Seattle University was amazing last night. I came in expecting something far different then what I received, and to say the least, I am anxious to come back. Few things in life make a 1,000 miles seem like a jaunt, however, my reception last night pulls its weight in charm. Thank you! I had your attention and you have my gratitude... and consequently my CD, and that's cool.
I'm on my way out the door to see Seattle a bit. I did a lot last time I rolled through town:
SPACE NEEDLE - check
EXPERIENCE MUSIC PROJECT - check
PIKE'S PLACE MARKET - check
DOWNTOWN - check
MUSEUMS - check
Where's the fun in repeating yourself though?
As a side note, I was in Portland the night before, and my friend Joy was telling me a story about a whale that accidentally became beached somewhere along the Portland shore. Now, the whale unfortunately died or was dead upon arrival, but this left an enormous creature lying along the banks of their waterfront, begging the question, what do we do with this enormous dead carcass? The wisest of what Portland had to offer met and devised a plan.
Do we chop it up and dispose of it? NO
Feed it to sharks? NO
Do we find someone that could try to make good use of it, perhaps for study? NO
Can it be buried? NO
THE ANSWER:
They blow it up with dynamite. Hard to believe? Yes. So, this is for you:
Coming to you from Seattle, this is Mike Vitale with KATU Channel 2 News.
~ Mike
9:30 AM
the continental breakfast
is already gone
In all fairness, Days Inn told me 5:30 to 9:30 AM... and apparently, they are very serious about this.
Seattle University was amazing last night. I came in expecting something far different then what I received, and to say the least, I am anxious to come back. Few things in life make a 1,000 miles seem like a jaunt, however, my reception last night pulls its weight in charm. Thank you! I had your attention and you have my gratitude... and consequently my CD, and that's cool.
I'm on my way out the door to see Seattle a bit. I did a lot last time I rolled through town:
SPACE NEEDLE - check
EXPERIENCE MUSIC PROJECT - check
PIKE'S PLACE MARKET - check
DOWNTOWN - check
MUSEUMS - check
Where's the fun in repeating yourself though?
As a side note, I was in Portland the night before, and my friend Joy was telling me a story about a whale that accidentally became beached somewhere along the Portland shore. Now, the whale unfortunately died or was dead upon arrival, but this left an enormous creature lying along the banks of their waterfront, begging the question, what do we do with this enormous dead carcass? The wisest of what Portland had to offer met and devised a plan.
Do we chop it up and dispose of it? NO
Feed it to sharks? NO
Do we find someone that could try to make good use of it, perhaps for study? NO
Can it be buried? NO
THE ANSWER:
They blow it up with dynamite. Hard to believe? Yes. So, this is for you:
Coming to you from Seattle, this is Mike Vitale with KATU Channel 2 News.
~ Mike
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Funny, yes. EVIL... yes.
Funny, yes. EVIL... yes.
see more pwn and owned pictures
see more pwn and owned pictures
see more pwn and owned pictures
If you like this (shame on you... shame on me), you can find plenty more at:
www.failblog.org
... the above are some of the more domesticated examples. Just fair warning.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
It's 6:00 AM. What are you doing?
What started as a trip to the refrigerator for a bottle of water and a quick pre-morning ass scratch turned into an early morning romance, my creativity and I, alone on the couch, with no one watching.
For me, sometimes falling back asleep becomes this sort of futile effort; it starts with a barrage of thoughts, sort of like being stuck between two protesters on soapboxes a foot apart, screaming starkly contrasting opinions at each other through bullhorns.
Lot’s of this:
and not enough of this:
What do you do; sulk and watch TV? Sometimes, yes, but not this morning… and I’m hard pressed to call this sort of thing insomnia; I have no trouble falling asleep initially, it’s more along the lines of me waking up after 5 or 6 hours of sleep and my brain just chooses a bad time to talk; you know the drill, the cell phone rings, it’s an old friend, and the conversation goes, “I would love to talk, but I’m busy walking a tight rope over a vat of hot lava at the moment and I could really use the extra concentration right now, besides the balancing pole that you see all those circus people using to keep their balance is taking up all my hand space, so I’m attempting that patented squeeze my cell phone between my head and shoulder trick, it’s not working, and I’m starting to get a kink in my neck, can I call you back?” All of this, aside, falling back asleep seems like an easy enough task right?
Step 1: Close your eyes
Step 2: Go back to sleep
However, somewhere in between step one and step two, I find too many stray thoughts running rampant… or maybe they find me. It’s hard to say. Sometimes it’s worries; sometimes it’s just random thoughts:
I wonder if Bill Cosby likes jazz as much as he does Jell-o pudding?
It probably depends on how much Jell-o is paying him.
I miss the Cosby Show.
These sheets are cold.
Why didn’t I go to the bathroom before I got comfortable?
Pillows do fantastic things to my hair; it’s like a Christmas present every morning when I wake up.
What time is it?
This morning was no exception, so I went on a pilgrimage to the coffee pot, looking for answers. While on my trek, I found my cat’s tail by accident; it was sort of like braille for my foot because it was dark in the house; he was not pleased.
I settled on the couch with my cup of coffee and no cat (he was too busy sulking), and began running through a couple of free object writing exercises that I recently read about in a book by Pat Pattison called “Writing Better Lyrics”. Today’s object: polyester. Yeah, that was a tough one. However, it really hashed up some great memories from my childhood; I’m not sure if your grandparents had an affinity for polyester clothing, but mine sure did. They’re pretty fun exercises; you should try them sometime. I’m on the second chapter at the moment where he discuses the creation of interesting metaphors… I hope you had better luck sleeping this morning that I did! That's not to say that I'm not perfectly content with where I'm at right now.
“Good morning, starshine… the Earth says hello!”
~ Mike
For me, sometimes falling back asleep becomes this sort of futile effort; it starts with a barrage of thoughts, sort of like being stuck between two protesters on soapboxes a foot apart, screaming starkly contrasting opinions at each other through bullhorns.
Lot’s of this:
and not enough of this:
What do you do; sulk and watch TV? Sometimes, yes, but not this morning… and I’m hard pressed to call this sort of thing insomnia; I have no trouble falling asleep initially, it’s more along the lines of me waking up after 5 or 6 hours of sleep and my brain just chooses a bad time to talk; you know the drill, the cell phone rings, it’s an old friend, and the conversation goes, “I would love to talk, but I’m busy walking a tight rope over a vat of hot lava at the moment and I could really use the extra concentration right now, besides the balancing pole that you see all those circus people using to keep their balance is taking up all my hand space, so I’m attempting that patented squeeze my cell phone between my head and shoulder trick, it’s not working, and I’m starting to get a kink in my neck, can I call you back?” All of this, aside, falling back asleep seems like an easy enough task right?
Step 1: Close your eyes
Step 2: Go back to sleep
However, somewhere in between step one and step two, I find too many stray thoughts running rampant… or maybe they find me. It’s hard to say. Sometimes it’s worries; sometimes it’s just random thoughts:
I wonder if Bill Cosby likes jazz as much as he does Jell-o pudding?
It probably depends on how much Jell-o is paying him.
I miss the Cosby Show.
These sheets are cold.
Why didn’t I go to the bathroom before I got comfortable?
Pillows do fantastic things to my hair; it’s like a Christmas present every morning when I wake up.
What time is it?
This morning was no exception, so I went on a pilgrimage to the coffee pot, looking for answers. While on my trek, I found my cat’s tail by accident; it was sort of like braille for my foot because it was dark in the house; he was not pleased.
I settled on the couch with my cup of coffee and no cat (he was too busy sulking), and began running through a couple of free object writing exercises that I recently read about in a book by Pat Pattison called “Writing Better Lyrics”. Today’s object: polyester. Yeah, that was a tough one. However, it really hashed up some great memories from my childhood; I’m not sure if your grandparents had an affinity for polyester clothing, but mine sure did. They’re pretty fun exercises; you should try them sometime. I’m on the second chapter at the moment where he discuses the creation of interesting metaphors… I hope you had better luck sleeping this morning that I did! That's not to say that I'm not perfectly content with where I'm at right now.
“Good morning, starshine… the Earth says hello!”
~ Mike
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Wrapped Around Your Finger
You'll have to forgive my brevity.
Control is a funny thing. We all need and want to have it over something, whether it be ourselves or someone else. By my own estimation, I would say that we try the most to exercise this action over other people, however, sometimes without even realizing it. That's the nature of power, right? You can't exercise power over something unless you first have control of it.
I think that's why I like this song below so much. When he have the opportunity to turn the tables on someone exercising power over us, it feels good... and that's what this tune is about... albeit, dressed in the hooded garb of magic and the supernatural.
"Wrapped Around Your Finger"
~ Mike
Control is a funny thing. We all need and want to have it over something, whether it be ourselves or someone else. By my own estimation, I would say that we try the most to exercise this action over other people, however, sometimes without even realizing it. That's the nature of power, right? You can't exercise power over something unless you first have control of it.
I think that's why I like this song below so much. When he have the opportunity to turn the tables on someone exercising power over us, it feels good... and that's what this tune is about... albeit, dressed in the hooded garb of magic and the supernatural.
"Wrapped Around Your Finger"
~ Mike
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