A few months ago Martin Kelley invited me into the Friends Journal offices to talk about Quakerism and the arts, though as usual the Spirit called the conversation to the most direct and crucial elements of our faith journey.
Read the full interview here.
This is an instrumental, from The Art of Fully Being. I put some pictures to it.
Many of us feel alone, even when we are surrounded. This song is a meditation on our loneliness, our need for connection and our lack of tools for facilitating it. This song is an invitation and a prayer.
Please feel free to share and use however you feel led.
Download: http://bit.ly/ZvT66s
More Instrumentals: http://bit.ly/ZXPuH0
This is my most ambitious song. I don’t say that lightly… my last full length contained some pretty epic stuff (see: this). But this one has more tongue twisters than that lady on the seashore. And the music cuts out. Twice. And the whole song shifts halfway through. Not to mention the cello work by Jake Thro
But why keep talking about it? Listen:
Also. My YouTube Channel just passed 200,000 views! In celebration, I am offering this song for free download. Enjoy!
Friends,
Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) is doing a week of action to bring the national conversation around to our bloated military budget. No self-described peace loving nation would ever (in its right mind) spend this much on war!
You can get involved!
Just download this form, print it out and post it online!
Here’s me and Megan:
Jon Watts and Megan want to cut Military Spending
In the year 2000, when I was first getting into underground hip hop, I came across this rapper from Minneapolis who blew my mind.
Edit 12.12: Eyedea was from St. Paul
Eyedea was a master of his craft.
Eyedea was a musical prodigy, beginning to tour at just 16 years old, and already starting to develop his signature style of fast paced delivery with mind-bending lyrics. He released his first work of genius at age 20.
Unfortunately, the underground hip hop scene – which had shown so much promise at the turn of the millennium – all but disappeared in the next decade. Eyedea released a few albums during this time, but they mostly went ignored (I was in school in North Carolina, deep into indie rock territory).
I imagine that he struggled with feeling insignificant or unnoticed, especially in the wake of his incredible success at the beginning of his career.
Eyedea died in 2010 at the age of 28 from an overdose.
Only now, as the online tools for spreading amazing art is falling into the hands of those of us who were influenced by geniuses like Eyedea, is this kind of hip hop starting to re-emerge.
Eyedea had the ideal mixture of emotional vulnerability, intellectual philosophizing, and straight up braggadocio. My hip hop trifecta.
But the man never got his propers. It is my feeble attempt to put his work in the spotlight that I included him in my Coverage project. So here is my version of his song “Smile”:
If you like what you’re hearing, here are some more of my recommendations for Eyedea’s work:
