Karaoke & Reflection
Before I get to a moment of reflection on my career, and where it’s gone in the past year, I want to start with the news that I actually got up and sang karaoke last night at Southport Brewing Company in front of a packed house. I know I’m not a great singer by any stretch of the imagination but I picked a song that I felt not only suited my vocal skills, but would also get everybody hyped up. The song, however, was so lude that the manager of SBC complained to the DJ in the middle of the performance. The DJ apparently turned to him and said something along the lines of "look at your bar. Everyone is laughing and having a good time. This is a good thing!" The song choice? Adam Sandler’s "At A Medium Pace." A classic song that many people in the crowd knew, but the priceless reactions came from the folks who hadn’t heard the song before, most notably a table full of girls right by the makeshift stage area. As soon as I got to the line "spit on your hand and stroke my cock at a medium pace" their heads whipped around pretty damned fast. LOL! The story of the manager coming up to the DJ is something that will live in SBC karaoke folklore because I know the DJ loved telling it.
Making a fool of myself for the amusement of others was fun, but I’ve also been doing some serious reflection on where my career’s been going in the past year. The Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament was back in New Haven last week and it reminded me that only a year ago I was taking a side gig there to earn a few extra bucks. It was during that tennis tournament that I finally got an article accepted by Elemental Magazine, my Walye Oyejide interview. Since that interview was accepted I’ve had over 30 articles accepted by various publications, two dozen of which has already been published. So while last year at this time I was hyped to finally get an article in a major magazine, today I’m hyped because I’m going to be having the cover story for that same publication later this month! Looking back, it’s been one heck of a year and if I can equal that kind of career growth in the next twelve months it will be interesting to see how far I go. It’s great to see where a little hard work can get a person if they’re not afraid to sweat and bleed a bit.
Speaking of hard work I’ve been inundated with CD’s this week, so much so that my usual way of dealing with them, which is simply to listen to them over the weekend, wasn’t going to cut it. In the past two days I’ve listened to EIGHT CD’s (The Odd Couple, The Pussycat Dolls, Vinyl Thug Music, 7L & Esoteric, Ghostface and Trife Da God, Kaze, Fat Lip, Building w/ Bricks Vol. 1). I still have five more to go and the mail hasn’t even arrived yet today. I’m amazing even myself with the times I’m finding to pop a CD in just to get it listened to. The funny thing is when people ask my for feedback now I simply tell them whether or not I remember anything about the album. I listen to so much that if I remember anything about a particular album it’s usually a good sign for the artist because it means something stuck out as either good or unique that made me subconsciously keep it in the memory banks. The most notable songs that stood out in the group of albums I just listened to include Fat Lip’s "Writer’s Block," some of which hit close to home, lol, and Kaze’s "What’s Good." There were a lot of other dope tracks, those are just the first two that come to mind when thinking about that group of albums.
The weekend is shaping up to be pretty good. I’m already planning a trip to the mall to pick up my GNC supplies and once I’m there I’m going to make a point to walk around for a while. With the price of gas being so high it makes no sense to go anywhere for a quick minute anymore. If I’m making a trip of more than five miles there better be something I can spend a lot of time doing at the other end of that trip. I’m already scared to gas up over the weekend. I have a feeling I’ll be one of those dudes still trying to walk to places in the middle of December, but at over $3 a gallon can anyone blame me?
Making a fool of myself for the amusement of others was fun, but I’ve also been doing some serious reflection on where my career’s been going in the past year. The Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament was back in New Haven last week and it reminded me that only a year ago I was taking a side gig there to earn a few extra bucks. It was during that tennis tournament that I finally got an article accepted by Elemental Magazine, my Walye Oyejide interview. Since that interview was accepted I’ve had over 30 articles accepted by various publications, two dozen of which has already been published. So while last year at this time I was hyped to finally get an article in a major magazine, today I’m hyped because I’m going to be having the cover story for that same publication later this month! Looking back, it’s been one heck of a year and if I can equal that kind of career growth in the next twelve months it will be interesting to see how far I go. It’s great to see where a little hard work can get a person if they’re not afraid to sweat and bleed a bit.
Speaking of hard work I’ve been inundated with CD’s this week, so much so that my usual way of dealing with them, which is simply to listen to them over the weekend, wasn’t going to cut it. In the past two days I’ve listened to EIGHT CD’s (The Odd Couple, The Pussycat Dolls, Vinyl Thug Music, 7L & Esoteric, Ghostface and Trife Da God, Kaze, Fat Lip, Building w/ Bricks Vol. 1). I still have five more to go and the mail hasn’t even arrived yet today. I’m amazing even myself with the times I’m finding to pop a CD in just to get it listened to. The funny thing is when people ask my for feedback now I simply tell them whether or not I remember anything about the album. I listen to so much that if I remember anything about a particular album it’s usually a good sign for the artist because it means something stuck out as either good or unique that made me subconsciously keep it in the memory banks. The most notable songs that stood out in the group of albums I just listened to include Fat Lip’s "Writer’s Block," some of which hit close to home, lol, and Kaze’s "What’s Good." There were a lot of other dope tracks, those are just the first two that come to mind when thinking about that group of albums.
The weekend is shaping up to be pretty good. I’m already planning a trip to the mall to pick up my GNC supplies and once I’m there I’m going to make a point to walk around for a while. With the price of gas being so high it makes no sense to go anywhere for a quick minute anymore. If I’m making a trip of more than five miles there better be something I can spend a lot of time doing at the other end of that trip. I’m already scared to gas up over the weekend. I have a feeling I’ll be one of those dudes still trying to walk to places in the middle of December, but at over $3 a gallon can anyone blame me?
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