May be the coolest thing I've ever done!
Just found this pic from 2004. It’s me leaping off the wall of a 200 foot high canyon attached to a wire and swinging across. Half the ride down is free fall and then the line catches you and you pendulum up and back down a bunch of times. 10x better than a bungee jump and there’s no way it’s legal in the US, so next time you’re in New Zealand you gotta check that sh*t out! It’s one hell of a rush.
Hello All, it has been a while.
I’m writing to you from the confines of my new midtown Manhattan office cell. We’ve come to the point in the starting of this company where I get to sit inside every day, stare at a computer screen, pour over budgets and generally make sure we can afford to pay the bills. The company is doing well…so well that we’re growing at what is becoming an exponential rate. I just have a difficult time sitting in here when the world outside is so much more interesting and in need of my personal exploration.
As one might assume, I’m getting that familiar itch to travel once more. By itch I mean I need a few gallons of Calamine lotion because I’m about to claw my skin off. The wanderlust is coming back and it’s pretty serious.
So what to do? Well short weekend respites have been my solace to this point and have kept me going. I see where this company is headed and it is entirely worth what we’re doing. It has been non-stop since February, which is consequently when I last posted, and shows no signs of letting up. Great for business, bad for traveling.
I’m thinking Brazil in November. One of my pals wants to head that way and I would like to get back to South America. I actually bought the Lonely Planet for Brazil when I was in Argentina, but got sick and was never able to make it. I will not be eating salads next time I venture south of the equator that’s for damn sure. But Brazil man, it holds some kind of sexy allure that I have to check out. Of the handful of people I know that have visited at least half of them have been robbed in some form or another. It’s not the safest place, but that’s what makes it feel desirable.
I need something to peel back this layer of sedentary sludge that has coated my flesh. When I climb into my car, crank the music, press too hard on the gas pedal and cruise up 95 I can feel it slough off like a snake shedding its skin. It is amazing. This weekend I threw my body into the ocean with reckless abandon, drank a shitload of beer and listened to some great tunes. I also fell asleep outside with the bare earth as my bed, ran through tide pools, stared in awe at the stars in the sky and stood outside in the pouring rain. Fuck it was good to feel again.
New York doesn’t really do much for me. It’s a great place to visit and there is a lot happening here, but it’s too much of the wrong thing for me. The bloated metropolis has too many people. I appreciate that if you work hard, you can make it in this town. In fact it may be the last place in the United States where the old “pick yourself up by the bootstraps” adage holds true. If you show up in the concrete jungle and are willing to work 24/7 and are intelligent, you will get somewhere.
In real news, the US debt rating was just downgraded to AA+ from AAA for the first time in history. I’m worried about America. We’re racing toward the edge of the world, burning money, swiping credit cards, firing our guns and hoping that the car we’re in learns how to fly by the time we reach the precipice.
Fuck it. Live your life, do what’s right, avoid the strife and never lose site of what you love.
xo,
The Wanderboy
I heard a segment on NPR the other day that examined the economic debate. I forget the names of the guests, but they are irrelevant. It was the classic conservative vs. liberal scenario that is all too familiar. The basic message from both sides was that, “We need to increase and stimulate growth.” What the guests failed to discuss was how to do so and in which sectors they thought growth was possible.
This is the issue with modern day America: everyone talks and pays lip service to their voting base, party and agenda, but nobody acts. The United States began as a country that, for better or worse, led by its actions and now it is a nation that is lagging behind with its rhetoric.
As a people we have become used to what is EASY, which translates into complacency on all fronts. Somewhere along the line, the captains of industry decided manual labor was largely the work that “other people” should do and shipped it overseas to other places while hundreds of thousands of Americans were left to find employment elsewhere.
Now it is popular to complain about China, yet nobody wants to look inward and speak the truth, which is that the outsourcing of American industry almost single-handedly created China’s booming economy. Those who initially realized it was much cheaper to have products made overseas started an all too popular trend for other first world nations to follow:
Ship your manufacturing abroad for cheap and collect higher profits for your company at home no matter the consequences.
The unfortunate reality that everyone seems to be ignoring is that America has virtually no industry. The country that embodied the Industrial Revolution ironically has nothing but depressed mill towns and overpriced converted factory lofts left to show for it. We find ourselves neck deep in a recession without the necessary bootstraps by which to pull ourselves up.
With few industry and manufacturing jobs, there is very little room to grow. The tech boom is long over and companies have been successful enough at trimming the fat in the past few years that there is no need or incentive to hire a large population of workers. Even if there was incentive, those jobs are limited. Unless another all encompassing revolution such as the one experienced with the explosion of the Internet shows up, the unemployment line will not become noticeably shorter.
So how do we solve America’s economic anemia?
It is clear that the government, which is so mired in partisan politics that it has become woefully and dangerously inefficient, is nearly incapable of doing anything to help the problem. It is also embarrassing that the two major parties in Washington refuse to resolve their differences on all fronts for the greater good of the nation. The fact that they are incapable of doing so, no matter who is in the oval office, is a testament to how far from the course the nation has strayed as a whole. Have we forgotten the axiom, “united we stand, divided we fall?” By all means, have your opinions, but don’t polarize the nation and freeze all political progress with childish name-calling and king of the hill antics typically reserved for a middle school playground. In other words: agree to disagree and get to work!
In the end, the private sector will be the one to stem the tide and help rebuild the nation’s poor economic status. Politicians could help by doing more to encourage small business and manufacturing, but it comes down to those captains of industry. Are they proud to be Americans in a time when the country needs decisive action or does their pride simply come from collecting the most cash?
Those jobs that were shipped “over there” need to come back. America is a voracious consumer, but until we once again make the bulk of the goods we use, we are in trouble. Even if we are spending again, those dollars are largely going back overseas when the bulk of them need to be going into the US market.
The formula for at least part of the turnaround is in front of us and it is simple: manufacture what you consume in order to establish a self-sustaining economic cycle. It is not going to be easy to implement, but the answer is not a great mystery to be solved.
Ultimately it is time for this nation to realize there is no quick fix, roll up its sleeves and get to it. We need to stand up and stand behind the three-word tagline that was once the global standard of excellence: Made In America. Before we can pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, we must first put our nation back to work and manufacture them.
Shot a video for Kustom Footwear w/ my boy Nick Giannino and his new 7D. Video features The Honors music and drummer Jay Trikakis. Dope kicks, great track and some sick drum shots. Check out the video and then do yourself a favor and pick up a pair of these sneaks. Your feet will thank you. KustomFootwear.com
This feeling inside
A confusing notion;
Empty as a sieve
After sand’s ticking motion.
I travel where I please
Excited for the day,
But only for an instant
As enjoyment fades away.
I am left with a hole
In my mind and my eye,
A hole only filled
By the fresh things I try.
I taste tropical air,
It heals cracks in my skin,
But cracks of wanderlust
Are hard to fill in.
It makes me feel lost
No guide to my life.
Should I be content
With a life full of strife?
Some people are simple
They enjoy things for all time.
To that line of thought
My mind will not rhyme.
I need new things to challenge,
To awaken my senses.
Words do not stimulate
By altering tenses.
It all eats away
At my mind, you know?
So where’s the next place?
Where the hell should I go!?
I falter without change
Constants bore holes in my head
If everywhere is here
I’d rather be dead.
-The Wanderboy
I had an interesting conversation the other day with my pals Jay and Jared. We were at The Press Room, a longtime music scene staple in the NH Seacoast area. On this 
particular evening a trio was playing old blues, jazz and assorted other upbeat songs from years gone by. I asked if they knew the song “Compared To What?” which is an anti-Vietnam War tune made famous by Les McCann and Eddie Harris and recently covered by John Legend’s new album featuring The Roots.
Unfortunately not everyone in the band knew the song, but the bassist strummed a few chords from it and they appreciated the request.
Jay, Jared and I began discussing the current state of music and what was inspiring today’s musicians. Jay, a musician himself, said something to the effect of, “Music is being made for the sake of making music, for entertainment.”
I have to agree with that. I thought about the music that I listen to now and much of it finds very little root in anything tangible. Not that it has to, but it seems that art typically stands for something and yet a lot of today’s music stands for nothing outside of artist’s personal issues (see Eminem’s uninspired self-loathing diatribes), partying and money.
Take one of the biggest songs in the past 18 months – Kings of Leon’s Sex On Fire. It is exactly as advertised by the title; it is a song about sex. Not that we don’t need or want songs about sex and the beat and music are great, but the guy is just going on and on about hot sex. It just seems that perhaps there are more pressing matters taking place in the world.
I’m not quite sure how to describe my feelings here. I have felt, for quite some time, that popular music is lacking something. Maybe it isn’t standing for something because not everything has to stand for something, but the soul and passion of music seems to be missing. Maybe that is because it is now all about the sound of the music and the sounds and types of music that are “popular” are changing so rapidly that coming out with the newest sound is more important than the actual content and subject matter.
While I’m at it here, maybe this conversation over the lack of soul and passion in current music is representative of a larger conversation about our generation? I’m not even sure what generation I am to be honest – there is nothing substantial that really defines what me and my fellow late 20th Century born compatriots stand for. It seems that there is an overabundance of individuals that just don’t know what they want to do. And even the people that are doing something aren’t convinced that it is what they want to or should be doing.
We were all told as children that we could, “Do whatever we wanted” with our lives, that anything is possible. But the excruciating reality is that truth has long since become a falsity. In the post-World War II era when our parents grew up, many things were possible. The country was expanding, invigorated by a resounding victory of war on a grand scale. The nuclear bomb had been invented, we were on our way to the moon, civil rights activists were on the march – everyone believed they could do whatever they wanted and found other people that wanted to manifest and do great things alongside them.
But now, the idea is a paper-thin glossy coating on what really lies in front of us. The world is reeling from financial recession. The United States for the first time is not the leading global superpower and shows very few signs of being able to bounce back. The mentality may still exist, but the means may not be there. Worse, the motivation is lacking. The soul and passion may be lacking in music because they are lacking in daily life. We are pacified and placated by technological devices, television shows, the lives of celebrities and material wants and desires.
Creating just to create and living just to live are not enough right now. What will it take to shake America from its malignant lack of motivation and empower everyone to stand for something?
I’m worried that if you’re not standing, you’re sitting and if you’re sitting you could be sleeping and if we’re all asleep who’s going to wake us up?
-The Wanderboy
So I have been slacking BIG TIME, but I’ve been really busy. Working on a new production company venture down in NYC. Not going to say too much about it right now, but things are definitely moving along. Still not getting paid, but so it goes when starting a new venture. If you do good work, the money will come.
I’ve tentatively relocated to northern New Jersey. Yes, the state that I believe I wrote at least some of, if not an entire post, about it being the armpit of America. Well I still feel that way, but it’s free and I need to be near the city to be involved in this project, so that’s how it is. I had been crashing on couches.
Basically what happened was this place became available and I strapped my bed to the roof of the ever trustworthy Toyota Camry and headed to the NJ state. Pretty much everyone I knew thought the whole strapping the bed to the roof was a terrible idea, including my father who ultimately helped me attach it.
Honestly, it was a pretty ridiculous idea (as evidenced by the image). The minute I got up to 60mph, the tarp that was covering the bed came loose and started flapping like a bastard. Luckily I had a 50 foot piece of nautical rope in my trunk (why I have no idea) and I tied that shit down tight. About 45 miles later the tarp got loose again. It actually pulled out from underneath the rope, which is pretty impressive.
Deciding that I wanted to be done f*cking with it, I stopped at Sears, bought a roll of duct tape and used the entire thing to secure the tarp. It STILL got loose, but to a much lesser extent. Needless to say, that tarp won’t be of much use; the wind tore it to shreds.
I also switched blogs and started a new homepage-esque site in a cool spot called Flavors.Me. It allows you to have one page that ties together all your social media. It’s pretty badass b/c I own the URL thewanderboy.com, but on my old blog it was $20/month to have the domain mapping feature. On Flavors.Me it’s only $20/year and then I can link to this WordPress blog that is free. So I went from $20/month to $20/year. That savings will pay half of next month’s health insurance bill. Yay!
When the hell are we getting socialized medicine?
More to come soon. I’m out.
- The Wanderboy
