June News...


From Me...

Hi Friends,

All kinds of good stuff happening this Spring…the weather is warming up and hay fever season is finally waning a bit…the pollen has been terrible around these parts…I’ve been getting by fine in recent years using only Jedi mind-tricks and the occasional over-the-counter meds…this year I’ve also started taking wheat grass tablets and that’s been helping too…but I’ve still had to resort to the pills more than in past years…looking forward to Summer!

This past month was a lot of fun musically. We had our first “Willie Nelson’s Birthday Bash” at The Wild Goose and our 12^th annual “Bob Dylan’s Birthday Bash” too. Both were great and there are video links below.

I’ve also started competing in our newly revived “Rogue Poetry Slam”. It’s been a real challenge to read my lyrics as performance poetry. I’ve done all right so far but I have plenty of room for improvement. I’m really enjoying this venue for my stuff and it’s refreshing to perform for a room full of people who not only listen to words, but actually enjoy them.

My new album “Already There” should be done and posted on my site soon and I’m very happy with it. I’ll send out a separate announcement when it’s up on my site…

Samarra’s busiest season with teaching Tango is coming to a close and we’re looking forward to having more time to spend together. Her sister Serae is about to have her first baby so Samarra will be going up to Canada later in June to be there for the birth, but after that things should open up schedule-wise for us.

So here we go…starting with the usual information about where to find my music, videos and pictures, including information about new projects, and then followed by information about local shows in case you’re in the Rogue Valley.

By the way, if you've gotten to this point, I thank you. I’m offering all this stuff in a “just in case you’re interested” spirit. I really don’t expect most people to even make it this far.

So…in case you’re interested…

Recorded Music

My latest album, soon to be second latest, is called “Why Start Now” and like all my other albums (28 so far…), it’s available for downloading free or with a donation at my website: www.GeneBurnett.com

I’m very close to completing what’s turning into my “annual Spring album”. The title is “Already There” and I hope to have it finished soon. The recording itself is complete and I’m very happy with it. I just have to finish all the logistics involved in getting hard copies into the world as well as getting it uploaded to my site. I’ll send out a separate email as soon as it’s available. 

Videos In General

Overall Mission: I post a lot of videos on youtube, over 700 so far! I'm not trying to build a fan base...In fact, I'm not trying to build anything. I'm not expecting you or anyone else to follow what I'm doing or watch all of these videos. Posting videos is just part of my overall plan to make my music (and my T’ai-Chi and Nature videos too) as freely available as possible and see what freely comes back. I think of each video as sort of like a message in a bottle...and more I toss out there the more likely one of them will land on a friendly shore and something good will come back to me. So here are some video links in case you're interested:

How to Find My Videos: First of all, I've set up a "Videos" page on my website (www.GeneBurnett.com) with a menu similar to what you see below as well as a digital tip jar in case any of you want to contribute to my cottage industry. Every little bit helps and not just financially. 

I've also set up some blogs that make navigating and viewing my various videos much easier. You can go to any of these blogs and see thumbnails for all of the videos posted there. Scroll across the thumbnails and you will see the titles of each video. Click on it and a page will open that will let you watch the video right there without going to youtube. My latest videos are always in the upper left hand corner.

To see all of my Music videos in one easy to navigate place, click here: The Unforced Videos

To see all of my T'ai-Chi videos in one easy to navigate place, click here: The Unforced Movement

To see all of my Nature videos in one easy to navigate place, click here: The Unforced Nature

For a quick and easy way to sort through, listen to, or download all of my albums free or with a donation, click here: The Unforced Music

To see my regular blog “The Unforced Life”, click here: The Unforced Life

To visit my youtube channel and possibly subscribe, click here: My Youtube Channel

To see all of my youtube playlists click here: My Youtube Playlists 


Some New Videos:

For Now (I performed this song at a recent Hip-Hop Poetry Open Mike at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival)




Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond Of Each Other (from the Willie Nelson’s 80^th Birthday Bash Celebration)

Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die (from the Willie Nelson’s 80^th Birthday Bash Celebration)

If You Stop (A song about ambition, climbing and letting go…)

Don't Like Me Too Much (Rogue Fam Jam) (A new song played by me and some musical friends at the Rogue Fam Jam here in Ashland.)

Old Guy Cell Phone Rant (Just what it sounds like…)

“Cities and States” playlist below…

“Willie Nelson’s 80^th Birthday Bash” playlist below…

“Rogue Poetry Slam” playlist below…

“Dylan Night 2013” playlist below…

New Youtube playlists:

Willie Nelson's 80th Birthday Bash

"Cities and States" Themed Open Mike




Rogue Poetry Slam (I’ve been competing in our local Rogue Poetry Slams. A real challenge to read my lyrics as performance poetry…but I’m doing OK so far…I’ve won one and come in second and third in two others…I’ve got my performances from the last two slams here…)

Dylan Night 2013 (Featuring highlights from the 12^th annual Bob Dylan’s Birthday Bash Open Mike as well as complete songs from me and a couple of my friends…)

Pictures


I've stopped posting pictures on facebook, (for many reasons), and started posting them instead on Flickr, which I like much better.

Here's a link to my "home page" at Flicker: Photostream.

I have many photo galleries there but a few of my favorites are:

Small Miracles (mostly Nature related stuff)

The Dish Whisperer (I started posting a daily picture of my dish stacking work over a year ago. This month I passed day 500. I have no idea how long I’ll keep doing this. I’m so used to it, it hardly takes any effort at all to continue. I made a video for my song “I'll Do The Dishes Tonight” that featured a slideshow of the first year. If I make it through this second year, I may write a new “Dishes” song or use some other song I’ve already written to make another video.) 

"Head" and "Boot" (devoted to our two gerbils)

"Humor" 

"Me Playing Music"

Bathroom Pond Mural

Ashland Creek Ice,

Weird Book Covers




Upcoming Shows:

Monday, June 3^rd, I'll be playing at one of my favorite Ashland venues, Liquid Assets. A relaxed living room vibe with great service, excellent food and wine, and a really nice place to listen to music. I play from 8-10pm, maybe longer...

Wednesday June 5th, I'll be hosting my regular Themed Open Mike at The Wild Goose. Usually this happens on the First Wednesday of each month. This month's theme is "Number Songs", so musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and poems that mention a number in their title or within the song or poem. We're never too strict or narrow about the themes for this event. The main idea is to focus our attention a little to hopefully inspire and motivate us creatively. These are always fun. No Cover at the friendliest bar in town. Sign-up is 7:30pm. Show starts at 8:00pm. 

*A heads up for next month: Wednesday July 3^rd , 2013  “Love Gone Wrong”

Friday June 7th, I'll be playing at Paddy Brannan's Irish Pub with my good friend Robbie Lindauer. We play from about 9pm 'til around Midnight. Stop by after the First Friday Art Walk for a pint and some music. I've always liked the friendly and fun vibe of this place. I've done several First Friday shows here with Robbie and it's becoming one of my favorite places to play.

Tuesday, June 18^th, I'll be competing with many other poets at the Rogue Poetry Slam which happens at Northwest Pizza and Pasta in Ashland. Sign-up is at 7:30pm and the show starts at 8. If you've never been to or competed in a Poetry Slam, I highly recommend this one. Come to watch, compete, or be one of the judges. Some people think of slams as hardcore hip-hop events or places where people are mean and talk trash, but nothing could be further from the truth. All kinds of poetry are welcome and people are very supportive. And it's so nice to participate in an event which is all about the words, or in my case, lyrics. For me it's really not about winning or losing, but just the fun of sharing my words with people and seeing what happens. 

Wednesday, June 19^th, I'll be playing at The Wild Goose. Just me solo from 8-11pm. Friendliest bar in town. Never a cover at The Goose. I usually play here on the Third Wednesday of every month.

Saturday June 22^nd, I'll be at The Downtowne Coffeehouse in Talent, playing from 10am-Noon. Great acoustics, super friendly neighborhood scene.

Sunday June 23^rd, weather permitting, from 2:30-4:30pm, I'll be playing at The Lithia Artisan's Market, behind the Plaza in Ashland. Come support local music and art! 

For more info on these and all of my shows, and to confirm that there have been no cancellations, click here: Calendar  

Since I'm putting this newsletter out once a month, it's possible there may be a cancellation of a given show by the time it happens. Please double check with my web calendar if possible to be sure the gig is still happening. I'd hate to have you come out for nothing. Also another gig or two might be added or times or locations might change, so do check the calendar for the latest info.  


Website

I continue to offer all of my albums for downloading, free or with a donation at my website: www.GeneBurnett.com I started doing this about 5 years ago and considered it a 5 year creative experiment. Well the 5 years are up and I've decided to start calling it my "ongoing creative experiment" as I have no plans to stop. Since I returned to my folk roots and stopped climbing, or trying to climb, the industry ladder, I've been enjoying music in my life more than ever before. And enjoyment, rather than achievement or worldly success has always been dearest to my heart anyway. So now I focus totally on what I love most: writing, recording, performing and sharing what I create. If other people like it so much the better, but getting other people to like me or what I do is no longer my goal or focus. I'm out to please myself first. I want to do my music exactly the way I want to do it and see who likes it that way, not figure out what people will like and try to do it that way. I put it out there freely and see what comes freely back. So far so good. I've never had more success and appreciation than I have since I started doing it this. Go figure. 

Thanks, as usual, for your support and well wishes even if you don't make to any shows. I hope this monthly format is working for you. It certainly saves me a lot of time and energy to do this all at once.

GB

www.GeneBurnett.com

Martial Yoga?

Or Combat Training?

When I decided that I wasn't committed to real time combat training I hesitated to call what I was doing "martial arts". But when I looked at what I was doing, it still involved kicking, punching, deflecting, timing, centering, targeting, pushing, pulling, dealing with physical pressure and so many other things that are "martial" in the sense that they pertain to fighting.

I thought, Well, even though I'm using martial training games primarily for health and personal development, I can strike way harder and faster than I ever could before I learned this stuff, it certainly involves martial components and attributes, it is useful for "self-defense" in the sense of dealing with the physical world, gravity, and time...And it might even "work" in physical encounters with average untrained but potentially threatening people.

I was hard pressed to call it a dance or just a health art. Dancing is very presentational, expressive of personal emotion, and does not usually pertain to things like punching and kicking...so I decided to compromise and call it "martial training" or "martial yoga" to differentiate it from "combat training" or real time, real intensity, fight training. Compared to some T'ai-Chi teachers, I'm very martial. Compared to others, hardly at all. I know it's not an ideal compromise but it's one I can live with.

I certainly do not tell my students that I'm going to teach them how to fight. I tell them right from the outset that we are going to learn about components of fighting but at slower speeds and lower levels of intensity. I tell that we'll be using martial training games to develop better balance in all kinds of ways. I tell them that what I show them will be a good posture and movement foundation for going further into combat should they every want to, but that they would have to find a different teacher should they go that direction.

Actually, very few people come to me wanting to learn how to fight. Most of them are out of touch with their bodies, have no sense of themselves in space, have no ability to push or pull or even know where their centers or boundaries are. Not to mention issues like bad posture, muscle tension, emotional blocks, tight breathing, poor balance...I really like helping regular people get a handle on this stuff. Some of them are more interested in the martial side of the equation and we go into more of the partner work. A few want to go further into more combat related stuff and when they do, I send them off in search of teachers who can help them do that and with my blessings.

There are also lots of things that work in different life arenas. I'm proud and happy to be doing what I'm calling "martial yoga"...I do forms, partner work, some structured and some improvised, but all with an eye towards maintaining, while it is being challenged, the essential T'ai-Chi principle that I call "unforced balance". I have core general principles that guide me as well as specific forms, exercises and training games to help me understand and apply them.

To me, the main difference between martial yoga and combat training is the arenas where the principles are being tested and how deeply they are being tested. I test the hell out of my T'ai-Chi, I just don't test it in martial combat. What I do might be useless in a street fight but it is plenty useful to me in many other ways that have been just as life-saving.

There are plenty of combat experts who are not so good at staying married, or being happy, or taking care of their health, or balancing their checkbooks, or expressing emotions, or being good friends, or playing the guitar. And I can still respect and admire these people. They've just chosen to apply their principles in certain areas. We can romanticize the idea of the enlightened master who applies the deepest principles to every single area of life equally, but I've never met anyone even close to doing that.

There's a tendency to downplay or ridicule people who choose to apply their principles in arenas that we don't. For instance people who train for combat may say positive things about people who do martial arts for health and fitness, but sometimes I can feel an underlying vibe of disrespect or dismissiveness. Likewise, people who train for health might give respect to people who train for combat but again there can be this underlying vibe of judgment against the violence involved.

In reality we all pick and choose where and how deeply to apply these principles. None of us has unlimited time and talent to study and apply everything everywhere. I just see it as differing levels and areas of application, all of which have value. We can't study every grain of sand on the beach, but we can study the ones that call to us and admire others who are called to study different ones.

I do think that without some free-form pressure testing, whether it be daily life, combat, or both, the arts tend to be more theoretical than practical. But there are many ways and levels to pressure test. I think it's up to every practitioner to decide how far to test what they're doing. And I think it's a very good idea to be as honest as you can with yourself and others about where you train and apply these principles and how deeply, as well as where you don't or haven't yet.

The Best of Gene Burnett...

For What?

Since I write and record so much music, people sometimes ask me if I have any “best of” CD’s. In fact I have 4 that I put together a couple of years ago. Sorry, they’re not available at my site, I only sell them at shows. (All of the individual songs are available for downloading free or with a donation, along with the rest of my music, at www.GeneBurnett.com )


I decided to put them in categories because different people seem to prefer different aspects of my music to others. I called them “Clever”, “Explicit”, “Serious” and “Love”. I don't really think in objective terms when it comes to songs, but I tried to pick a blend of my own favorites and songs that other people seemed to like the most. 

Recently a facebook friend asked me if I'd make a non-categorized “Best Of” album, like the best 10 songs that pretty much “sum it up” for me.

This post is my answer.

Since I have a musical parliament in my head and heart, I really can't pick any 10 songs and say, these are the "best"...I always think, "The best for what?" I don't really believe in good or bad or better or worst when it comes to songs. They're like medicines really...only valuable and "good" if you've got the condition that that particular medicine can treat. I wouldn't say aspirin is a good or bad medicine...it's good for headaches, not so good for bleeding ulcers.

I think I used to be more consistently "me" in my songs. They were a deliberate attempt to express and convey a consistent worldview and personality and emotional experience. But somewhere along the way...sometime around 2005 or 6...That whole project sort of fell apart. I began to be more comfortable living in the dynamic tension between my opposites, rather than picking sides and trying to become my ideal self. Or maybe my concept of "ideal self" widened dramatically. In any case, I started to see myself as more of a parliamentary discussion between aspects of my self, rather than as a single entity seeking some kind of purity.

As a result, I turned myself loose from writing mostly about my personal emotional life and began to give more and more of my internal "members of parliament" their songs too. I could write in characters, I could bend my experience, I could express emotions and opinions that I wasn't in 100% agreement with, I could write topical songs, funny songs, silly songs, songs with adult language, basically whatever the hell I felt like writing about, whatever released a charge for me. It’s writing for the joy of writing and for the catharsis of personal expression. It's definitely not writing with an eye towards a professional career in "the business".

I still write about my personal experience of love and life, and all of my songs express a more or less Taoist world-view...but the songs themselves come at these things from all over the map in very different ways. I have some favorites but they come and go over time and generally lean towards whatever I’ve just finished...I like them all...but for me to decide which songs are "best", I'd have to know what you'd want the music to do for you.

I tend to think that most people want to laugh these days. At least the people I meet at shows...whenever I have my "best of" CD's for sale at shows, hands down the best seller is "Clever"..."Explicit" (which is more or less an R rated “Clever”) is #2...with "Love" and "Serious" a distant 3 and 4. Not that “Clever” and “Explicit” are not also serious in their own way, because they are, but they’re also light-hearted and on the humorous side. I also have a few fans (hate the word but don’t know what else to call them…) who tolerate the funny stuff but whose favorites are all songs that most of the other people who like my music have never even heard of. I'm actually about a half dozen loosely connected songwriters.

Doing What Feels Most Deeply Right...

Is What Feels Most Deeply Right To Me.

One of the things I write, sing and talk about a lot is doing what feels most deeply right to me, rather than doing what I think is right regardless of how it feels. To me, this is in keeping with the Taoist principle of wu-wei or so called “non-action”, which I like to translate as “unforced action”. The idea is that the best actions are unforced, uncalculated, and flow naturally from one’s inner being in response to one’s environment. By doing what feels most deeply right, I am trusting that right feeling, that inner feeling of “Yes.”, to guide me to the right life for me.

I should clarify that when I say that “I do what feels most deeply right", I'm using the word “feeling”, not so much in the sense of, “I am feeling angry.”, but more in the sense of “I am feeling this table.”

I'm looking for a "right" sensation in my whole body, which includes my emotional response, my rational pondering and planning, my gut reaction, everything really that makes up "me" as I know me, which is essentially a bodily phenomenon. It's a holistic, all things considered, "feeling" that I follow.

I’ve found that the physical practice of T’ai-Chi, at least the kind I do, has really helped me to let go of a lot of the tension that previously blocked my experience of my body and therefore clouded its messages to me regarding what felt most deeply right. This is because this right feeling is a total body feeling. It includes thoughts and insights and sometimes words, but it is essentially a bodily experience. And, as my body became better aligned and more relaxed, it was easier to feel into my thoughts and feelings and to zero in on which paths, choices and actions felt the most deeply right. I could say the same thing about the practice of writing songs and singing, both in private and in public. I keep getting better at being able to tell the difference between what feels right and what I want to feel right. This can be tricky sometimes. So far, trial and error has been my main and best teacher in this process. 

I should say too that this has a flip side and it’s a very important aspect of my life that I also get tremendous value from listening to what doesn’t feel right. Often I get a very good sense of what feels right by digging into what feels wrong about something I’m doing or thinking about doing. For instance, someone might propose an adventure of some kind that might initially appeal to me, but after a little while something starts to feel wrong about it. I might dig into that feeling and realize that this adventure is not for me, that I need to embark on a different kind of adventure or that some aspect of the current adventure needs to change in order for it to feel right. Through trial and error over time, I end up finding the adventure that’s right for me. But what helps me zero in on that right feeling is examining what doesn’t feel right.

Once I find that “right feeling” way to go, it’s up to me to follow that feeling and go with it, and this is usually not very difficult. Sometimes it’s hard to face that what feels right isn’t what I hoped would feel right, but once I commit to that right feeling direction, things just move and I don’t have to force them.

For instance, say I wanted to lose weight. If I just thought about the rational reasons for doing so and used those reasons to force myself to exercise and not eat things I really wanted to eat, my effort would be pretty much doomed, as most pure exercises of will are.

However, if I want to lose weight and really delve into why, I might come up with some reasons beyond aesthetics or ego. I might find that there are some physical things I'd like to do that my weight prevents me from doing. Suppose I then start doing one of those things, at whatever level I'm able to do it. Not just jogging, unless of course, that's something I really wanted to do. I might really want to hike more, but my weight is in my way. So, I start by walking around the block after dinner. And then twice around the block. And then maybe I start walking to work. And then I pick up the pace, walk longer, etc. What I would do is find things that I wanted to do and do them at whatever level I could. If I found I didn't like that activity, I would find another. But one way or another I would find something I like to do, something that felt right, that also burned calories.

In my experience, I cannot change my nature, I can only allow it to change. This process usually involves surrendering something I've been holding on to, something I've been doing to keep my nature from changing. Often, paradoxically, this thing I've been doing to keep my nature from changing is…trying to change! Surrender, at least for me, only comes when I accept the futility of further action. Accepting the futility of further action comes from seeing that this is so. When I see that trying to change is actually in my way of changing, I can let go of trying to change. This is where insight alone can affect change.

I've tried other methods of changing and none of them work, at least not like this: I’m look for currents I feel like joining rather than mountains I think I should climb.

The ultimate use or outcome of any of our actions is unknowable, especially in the long term. But, if I do what feels most deeply right, it's hard to regret anything I do. I feel that doing what feels most deeply right is the only clue I really have about what I "should" do. And again, by "feels most deeply right" I don't mean the emotional whim of the moment. I mean what feels deeply right in my whole being: head, heart and gut. I have faith that following this feeling will lead me to my part in the whole play of existence. I'm done with trying to write my part. I just want to find it and play it. And this feeling leads me there. If playing my part leads to some bad consequences, what can I say? I should have done what felt wrong? Nope. I do what feels most deeply right and let the leaves fall where they may. And I keep checking because what feels most deeply right is always changing. And sometimes I think something feels right, but I'm actually over-ruling a bad feeling and pretending it feels right because I want it to feel right. After years of living and learning about this, my sense of what feels right has gotten better. But I'm always checking.

As a consequence of living like this, I often do things that make no sense to people who have different goals. If my goal it to make money and develop a following and become famous, the rational thing to do is not to give all my music away on my site and record 2 or 3 albums a year. But if my goal is to do what feels most deeply right, enjoy a creative life, be true to my muse and get heard a bit while I'm still alive, well then, my methods make more sense. People often assume that others have the same goals they do, and then judge their actions accordingly. 

I cannot know the ultimate consequences of any of my actions, but I can do my best to aim for something that I think of as "good". But I generally don't do that. I take in everything I feel like taking in, plan as best I can, and then look for that "right" feeling to guide me to my part in the big play. I don't think of myself as the playwright and I don't know what my part is. Good guy? Bad guy? Example to others of what to do? What not to do? Hero? Fool? Ballast? I don't know and none of it matters in the long run anyway. So I just follow that feeling and have faith that whatever the Universe has "in mind" for itself, I will best serve it by using the body that it evolved, to tell me where my entrance is, which lines are mine and when to leave the stage. Others can judge and review my performance should they wish, but I just want to play my part well and be as sure as I can that it's my part I'm playing, not yours or anyone else's. 

Bad Sound..

And What I've Learned From It.

Why does the sound usually suck for opening acts? Sometimes it takes a sound guy a little while to get the right mix and the opener is the guinea pig. (And I say sound “guy” here because to be honest, I don’t know if I’ve ever had a gig with a female sound person.) Sometimes he just doesn’t give a shit. Sometimes he doesn’t like the opener and, consciously or not, doesn’t want them to sound good. Sometimes the main act has their own sound guy and someone who's not very good at sound is given the job of doing sound for the opener. Sometimes it's accidental, sometimes intentional, sometimes un-professional and even unethical, but, it's been the fate of opening acts since there have been opening acts.

I complained about opening act sound guys and bad sound guys in general for a decade or two until I finally just gave up and decided to just make the best of it. Now it just seems to come with the territory and the way things are, the upper tier and the lower tier, one protecting its turf and the other coming after it. This division is, I suppose, at least partially maintained to keep people hungry, climbing, and competing since it sure does that. But since I'm not hungry or climbing or competing anymore and am pretty much a lifetime lower-tier guy, I pretty much take what I can get.

I try to keep my expectations as low as possible. If I can more or less hear myself and the room can more or less hear me, I just pretend there is no sound system at all and play with as much presence as I can muster and hope the essence of what I'm doing gets across. When I expect more, I just get disappointed, with my expectations as low as possible, I am occasionally surprised by a great mix right off the bat that just gets better as I go. But then I'm a solo folkie and my main interest is in being happy and enjoying making music. For bands that are more ambitious, it must be tougher to deal with. In any case, my favorite gigs are just me, solo, acoustic, and gear-less.

Another thing that used to drive me nuts was when the sound guy would get a decent mix by the second song or so and then just leave the board and walk away. These days I just adjust and roll with the mix I've got. This is one way that having bad sound guys has actually helped me as a performer. I don't expect anyone to make me sound good anymore. It's a bonus. I've learned how to adjust my volume and presence, vocally and instrumentally. I've learned to really listen to the sound I'm making versus what the system is putting out. I've learned in short, to correct for all kinds of bad sound issues, the biggest and best correction of which is this: step out from around the mikes, unplug and play acoustically. If you've always had perfect mixes, dialed to perfection by real pros, I wonder, can you step up and just play gear-less? I've seen plenty of upper tier artists who are not so good at it, usually because they can't produce much presence and volume without amplification and electronic effects.

And another thing about those upper tier artists, when I don't get what I want sound-wise, I immediately start working with what I have and I start focusing on the show, doing my best and enjoying myself; When they don't get what they want sound-wise, they tend to start throwing tantrums and focusing on themselves or blaming the sound guy. I’ve seen them do it right on stage. I once heard a famous jazz musician tell the sound guy, on the mike, that he should consider another career. Nobody enjoyed that show much and the main act, right or wrong, came off as a whiner and a prima donna.

I’m just looking at the silver lining here. I'd rather win, but the upside of losing is the opportunity to get over myself. And nothing I've ever done contributes to my happiness and well being more than doing that. So thanks bad sound guys! Seriously. You’ve helped me become a stronger performer and maybe even a better and happier person.