JOHN MAYER "Born and Raised" Album Review

"Don’t be scared to walk alone 

Don’t be scared to like it 

There’s no time that you must be home 

So sleep where darkness falls" 

-Mayer

 John Mayer miraculously managed the rare feat of courting the mainstream, yet staying true to himself. The country-tinged sounds of his latest album 'Born and Raised' wouldn't have been the idea of Columbia Records, but it's where he wanted to go; just like when he formed the 'John Mayer Trio' for some more bluesy fare.

This isn't John Mayer's best album. Half of it is mediocrity. But that happens - nobody can be great all the time. Rembrandt produced nearly 700 paintings, Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, they're not all genius.

But what Mayer never fails to deliver is those little, understated moments that you can't help but relate to. A little turn of phrase, a little pluck of the guitar; there's no-one like it. That's MASTERY! He toured the shit out of his early records; and those hours that new artists spend whoring themselves out on Facebook pages, he spent practicing guitar. That's why he deleted his Twitter account; it was a distraction from his art.

The highlight for me is 'Something Like Olivia' -- a wonderful track about finding the perfect woman who's exactly what you need; but she's caught up in another relationship.

"There's only one man in this world

Who gets to sleep with her by his side.

I'm thinking something like Olivia

Could keep me through the night."

And 'Speak For Me' is another great track. I don't know what it means yet, I'm still figuring it out. Same goes for 'Walt Grace's Submarine Test, January 1967', which may be great, I'm not sure; it's too early to tell.

This guy's voice is incredible. The legend is that Mayer's a complete asshole. The music suggests the exact opposite. My opinion? He's both. Just like all of us.

PS: As I was writing this, I played the album again -- and feel my 'Half of it is mediocrity' comment may be a tad harsh. This record is a grower! 

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The Random Screenplay

I'm going to write a short screenplay, just for you guys, based on your suggestions!

Please suggest;

A character name: 

A location: 

A conflict: 

An object: 

A long, hard to pronounce word: 

And at some point tonight, or tomorrow morning, I will close comments; and write a little screenplay based on your ideas, and then share it on the blog!

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10 Tips: Rediscovering Your Creativity On Projects That Are Lying Dormant

1. Open up the project file (this is the one we resist the most).


2. Go straight to the issue that is causing you the most stress. The nagging sound issue, the second act plot hole, the bad acting from that girl you should never have cast ----- go to it! WORK ON IT! Just do it! 


3. Turn your phone off. Close down your web-browser. Dedicate an hour to it. The problem is never the WORK, it's the resistance we feel BEFORE doing the work. 


4. Accept that less than perfect is okay (Perfection in art is rare, and even if it did exist, it should probably be avoided).


5. Show your work to a friend and ask for three POSITIVE pieces of feedback. Often we struggle because of how fragile we are when it's going wrong. Getting that rare burst of positivity can help us rediscover what's good about the project. 


6. Ignore the brain wave that rushes into your head and says "Actually, I have a great idea for that OTHER project!!". That's just avoidance, ignore it. The other project can wait. 


7. Read this poem. 


8. Fall in love. You'll complete your project in three days just to impress her/him.


9. Get dumped. You'll get ANGRY. You'll want to take over the WORLD! That burst of energy will ignite you to great heights! 


10. Focus. Once you're 12 minutes in and focused, you're fine -- the time will fly by. But you have to do the work to get past the initial few minutes where all the distractions come racing in. 

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Big Sea Of Nothing: A Rant About the Internet and Shiny Black Devices

What the hell are we all doing here on this internet thing? Smashing out blogs at an alarming rate, updating our statuses, poking and tweeting and retweeting and messaging and telling people where we are and how we feel.

And whatever we wrote last week is consigned to history. I mean, the data grabbing marketing people have it, but we have no use for it. I've seen the stats on my blog, my latest articles get read a lot but the old ones get about 4 hits a week.

Yet we keep churning it out. Is this the best use of our time? Do I blog for you or is it just my own ego trying to look like I know what I'm talking about? I've written nearly 1000 blog posts in three years! Should I have written a novel instead, or spent that time getting deeper into my screenplays?

Did you know I've been single this whole time? I'm good at writing statuses and making people laugh and inspiring people to maybe sort of start writing a script; but where's the intimacy? What am I doing in my life?

Is your productivity better this year than three years ago or worse? There are so many people online with advice, tips, help. How much of it is useful and how much of it is a pile of shit? Did Shakespeare need to read Seth Godin's blog every day, or did he just get on with it?

Social networking is useful in that I've met great people, shared my projects and even garnered some interesting work. But most of the time, it's wasteful! Every moment I log into Facebook is a moment I could have spent writing, or getting to know someone better face to face.

I'm not techno-phobic, I've always embraced it all. But I don't think this is it, I don't think that on our death beds we'll be wishing we spent more time on our MacBooks. All my friends sit around the dinner table with their phones out. Everyone in the cinema is texting. Are we capable of two hours without BBM'ing and tweeting, or is it too much for our wired up brains?

When iPads were first released, thousands of people lined up to buy them. Nobody even knew what they did, they just wanted them. And everyone wants the next iPhone. We're locked into this model of consumerism where we always want the next thing and then the next thing.

You can say it's healthy and I'm sure for many of you: it is. But far too many people are just spending all their money on devices which detach them further and further from their lives. And the next shiny black metal device isn't good enough, cause you'll get a newer one in six months.

But don't worry about me, I've finally decided to be in a committed relationship. With a Kindle.

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(Real Life) Character Development

They say insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result.

It's okay to fail, just don't keep failing in exactly the same way.

On the other side of your self-perceived limitations is where the river is flowing.  You have to adapt, change, learn, grow.

I can't sleep so I've been sitting here figuring out all the dumb ways I self-sabotage.

Not sleeping is one of them. Calling my self sabotage dumb is another, I am actually extremely sophisticated at self-sabotage! I can make a script problem seem like it was caused by the paper jams and I can convince myself a relationship problem was caused by international terrorism.

But it's when you see your same patterns repeating that you know you have to change.

It's like that moment in a movie when the main character has to decide whether to grow and save the world/get the girl, or to just curl up at home.

In life, even after you change and grow, you can still lose.

But if you don't at least make the leap, you might as well just throw in the towel.

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