When?

When will you come back home?

Tele

I am borrowing Dan's Squier Tele - Alright!
Sounds really good, especially through Mark's amp.
I am such a musical-instrument bum.

Dag, yo!

It's been a long time since I picked up my guitar. In a study "break" today (I didn't do much studying) I picked her up, and it was nice. I'm not mad that Dan knows so much about music and is willing to share it with me. I'm not mad at all.

Aaaand, we're back.

Hey!
Feedback's playing at the fall devotional conference. Get stoked.
The Amitie is weak, very weak indeed.
Find some other music to listen to.
Know yourself.
Grace and Peace
Love
Ben.

Friday Afternoon Blues

Today I got the Friday afternoon blues, and I'm writing a song about it! I'm very excited, because it's happening quite easily, which is a good sign! I started playing guitar more since camp, especially because I haven't been at soccer or basketball for a few weeks, so I have way more energy than normal, which is really nice! I play piano every once in a while too, to the great chagrin of my brother and sister and niece. I lost my iPod recently, and the lack of constant music has maybe led to me being able to be a little more creative. I like it, kinda.

Ah.

Alas, it's been a long hard month of no blogging, but it reflects a long hard month of no creative action. I guess I'm like every other musician who says "YEAH!" but then writes "blah." I think my problems lie in two places:
1. I come home from work and I am too tired to write anything. Instead I have a drink and go to bed, or I go play soccer or basketball or do some other crazy thing. I guess my tiredness excuse doesn't work. I suppose I should say I'm too busy to write.
2. I have no formal music training. Therefore, I can't sit down and play cool music from my own head. I can only play guitar, and not very well at that. All the chords I know sound the same, and none of my four guitars is any better at inspiring me with the way it sounds when I play it than the next.
My solution for these two problems: practice. Wishful thinking, but it's the only way, I think.

haitus

Right now I'm in the throes of the final week of high school, and songwriting is at the very bottom of my list. The great part of my creative energy is right now being directed towards "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" by Max Weber, upon which I have an essay to write. As you may have read at the motherblog (benbouwman@blogspot.com) I recently had a neat experience with some fireflies. They truly are some of the coolest things in God's creation, and I see a lot of symbolism in them. Hopefully I can capture some of this in a few songs maybe. I'm also moving to a new house next week, requiring me to say goodbye to my faithful Ibanez G10 electric, and my mom's CBS Masterworks acoustic guitar. I will still be able to play the masterworks on the weekend, but the electric is going back to my brother Derek, it's owner. I remember picking it up for the first time, feeding it back and starting into some Weezer tune or other. I also remember bringing it over to the Lodder's for the first time, plugging in, and learning rock music. It's with nothing but fondness and nostalgia that I remember this. An electric guitar is such a mysterious object, with so much stigma involved in strapping one on. Wearing one of these, musicians since the 50's have been pissing off their neighbours and abusing their listener's ears. Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Robert Johnson, Bo Diddly, Buddy Holly, Mark Knopfler, all the legends played this instrument. I will miss "Elsie." But, Ryan, being the man that he is, is off to camp this summer and cannot use his black Epiphone SG. I'm keeping it company until he's back. I'm excited!