From The Blog Series… 365 Blogs To Finding Pinocchio A Home Last night I had the pleasure of attending an inspiring NSAI event with my songwriting partner, Jason Waters, at Five Towns College with Grammy Award Winning Songwriter, Jon Vezner , as the Guest Speaker. Jason Waters, Jon Vezner & Jennifer Vazquez What a pure joy it was to listen to Jon’s well constructed and heartfelt tunes. There is nothing that gets me higher than experiencing a GREAT songwriter, up, close and personal. And, sitting in on that Master Class provided both Jason and myself with key reminders for what tools and rules allow for the creation of a GREAT SONG! (Be sure to check out Jon Vezner when you get a chance. He is not only a great songwriter, artist and musician, but a solid person all around. And while you’re at it, check out his musical partner Jeff Gilkinson! Wow, what a player and songwriter!) Here’s some reminders for ALL you songwriters out there: ~ TO BE EFFECTIVE as a songwriter, CREATE TENSION in the song, either in the Melody, the Tempo or the Lyric. ~ EVERY LINE of your song must act as an ACCELERATER for the next one. ~ SHOW IT! DON’T TELL IT! ~ BE SIMPLE:[…]
365 Blogs
Blog #47: Get Ready Los Angeles
From The Blog Series… 365 Blogs To Finding Pinocchio A Home GREAT NEWS! On Friday, October 11th at 7pm, “Sleeping With The Fishes” will be showing at The Chinese Cinemas on Hollywood Blvd! The film made it into the 16th Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival. Since I won’t be able to be there, I would love for all my LA friends to go and be there for me! And make sure you stay till the very end, as ALL those credits role, cause you’ll get to hear my NEW single,“Getting Out Of My Own Way”. Check out this month’s news to find out more about it: OCTOBER NEWS I leave you with these thoughts…. Beauty starts from within. And then, as time passes and you accept that beauty, everyone around you cannot help but see your inner beauty shines oh so bright and abundantly on the outside. Silence the mind and find out all you can be and do.
Blog #28: The Perfect Snowfall
From The Blog Series… 365 Blogs To Finding Pinocchio A Home I was going through my past photo albums the other day and came across this picture I took up at Mohonk Mountain House back in 1993. The day was as calm and quiet as snow falling. As I walked out of Mohonk Mountain House in the early morning, to see how much snow had fallen the night before, I was blessed with this visual. I hurried to capture this most serene picture of The Perfect Snowfall. It was not planned, it just happened. I did not question it’s beauty. Instead, I quickly rushed back into my room to grab my camera and quickly returned to the front porch to find nature’s beauty untampered with and snapped the shot! And this is how I plan on moving forward in 2013. As the journey continues of finding Pinocchio a home, I make a promise to simply live my life, take my chances at doing what I love and not question how or why, but rather just step into abundance naturally, as it comes, taking pictures to capture the tiny little miracles that cross my path as I venture into unknown territory[…]
Blog #22: “Editing Is Everything”
From The Blog Series… 365 Blogs To Finding Pinocchio A Home So, a few months back, I took a songwriting course at Gotham Writer’s Workshop with Jody Gray. What a learning process! In that time, I practiced the “art” of songwriting, using the specific rules and tools given in each class. I was reminded of what humility and willingness truly means. I also found the courage to put aside my already learned techniques and self taught ways so that I could allow other songwriting methods in. I am so grateful I did. It has allowed yet another door to open to get me closer and closer to being a full time singer, songwriter, composer and performer. If I had to summarize the 10 week course into two sentence, here is what I would say. 1. Learn all the rules to the game so well that you never have to think about what to do again to craft a “GREAT” song, one that is universal and authentic! 2. Editing is everything. (Sure, the first draft is a great start, but that’s all it is! Once the first edit is in, that’s when the real fun begins!) What I found great about this class was[…]
Blog #21: I Live Through Music
From The Blog Series… 365 Blogs To Finding Pinocchio A Home So, I just wanted to tell you more about another project Pinocchio is on. As you know, I released “I Wanna Be Pinocchio” on July 4th and it’s been an interesting turnout thus far. I want to tap into this for a moment. Music has become this product that people consider “FREE”. As an artist, I am giving songs away monthly because I want people to listen and join me on this journey. But the truth is, without a team, a pretty solid team, behind me, it’s pretty darn challenging to make money just as an artist. I actually spent a few months searching for an intern and finally found the perfect match in June. I am very grateful to have her on board. Things are moving along very nicely since she started! So, anyway, I am not upset about my not having a big team behind me. Instead, I am using what I have and making it work, one step at a time.
Blog #16: Why I Need To Fail To Succeed
From The Blog Series… 365 Blogs To Finding Pinocchio A Home I know that making mistakes and failing is not a comfortable space to be in. I used to get extremely frustrated and depressed when things didn’t turn out the way I had planned. But a while ago, I was able and willing to see what failure really is and why it is something that I want to welcome into my daily life. Simply put, making mistakes and failing over and over again is the only way to succeed. As Ralph Waldo Emerson stated, “Men succeed when they realize that their failures are the preparation for their victories.” I am starting to find success in every mistake and failure that comes about. I am also learning to not ponder over where it is I am supposed to start and just take an action, any action that, in some way, surrounds my creative vision. Simply starting something suddenly eliminates the fear of taking the risk because when I am in action, and not in my head, I am just doing something active, which then gets me clear on what the next action is that I need to take. But[…]
Blog #11: “Thoughts Become Things”
From The Blog Series… 365 Blogs To Finding Pinocchio A Home I met a man last week at a speed dating event who had a very negative attitude towards the music industry and the creative industry overall. He said there were no great artists anymore, and that there was just no way to make money doing art. He was once, as I discovered listening to him talk a bit more, a man of passion when it came to writing and story telling. His passion must have been stomped from society’s pressures and maybe he felt he had to give up his vision job as a writer and take on a safer job that paid well. As we talked, he said how he was a writer and how he had been a news reporter as well for some time in his past. He went on to say how he knew how to write a story, a real story, coming from nothing more than a few simple facts, but those skills, could not pay the bills, and so he took a job on Wall Street working as a copy editor years ago. He then said how he hated the job,[…]
Blog #10: Saying “Yes” to The Power of Positive Thinking
From The Blog Series… 365 Blogs To Finding Pinocchio A Home I am sitting on my bed with my wonderful friend, “Mr. MacBook Pro” on my lap doing some music business and I am thinking, “What about if I just write a blog now, right in this space of abundance that I am feeling right now.” Let me explain, you see, I have been spending a great amount of time over the past year praying and staying connected to my higher power asking him for guidance on what action to take next on this journey of life. And as I have been practicing this concept of living with faith rather than living in doubt and lacking, I am noticing that abundance is coming into my path pretty smoothly without my pushing or pulling or tugging or controlling any part of it. The great news about it is that I am not letting those fears, “False Evidence Appearing Real”, scare me away from this abundance. In the past, I most definitely would have and I have spoken about that need to stay under the radar to keep myself small in past blogs and it is wonderful to share with[…]
Blog # 9: Letting Go Of “The Plan”
From The Blog Series… 365 Blogs To Finding Pinocchio A Home What do I want to talk about right now? It’s been a few weeks since I wrote the last blog. As that time has passed, I have experienced quite a bit of new awareness surrounding the vision I have of making money fully through my art and the money it is going to take to fund this vision correctly, in the hopes that by being focused on this vision, day in and day out, it will guide me towards financial abundance. As this awareness has recently hit me, I have found a new willingness to begin the process of finding another “B” job to continue to fund my “A” job, my vision. This awareness of my need to search for another job became even more clear when I was faced with a family emergency that forced me to think about the areas in my life which still remain to be off balance. It is my responsibility to be willing to do what I need to do to allow abundance into all the areas of my life.
Blog #6: Making “Uncomfortable” the “New Comfortable”
From The Blog Series… 365 Blogs To Finding Pinocchio A Home Where do I want to start? Well, this is Blog #6 of “365 Blogs to Finding Pinocchio a Home”. I committed to writing this blog series a little over two months ago, and I am finding out that by taking actions and having to report back here, to you, it is making this journey more about being my word than about getting somewhere or recieving something in return. This blog is becoming my own reflective template and my own personal playground, where I get to have fun while I share the actions I have taken, day in and day out, towards finding Pinocchio a home. Now, as I begin writing Blog #6, what comes to my mind is this phrase, “Dialing Pain”. An aquiantance of mine called me up recently to ask for a little bit of guidance and feedback in reference to some pressures she was dealing with in her personal and financial life. During the conversation, she said something about her “dialing pain”, and it stuck in my head, so much so, that I feel the need to talk further about it here. This concept[…]