Damien Rice is an exceptional singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Ireland.  His studio albums are wonderful, and his live performances are powerful exhibits of the human condition.

Rice's compositions, arrangements, and lyrics align exceptionally well with my current existential paradigm.  I am traveling through a chapter that is illuminating my strength, courage, and a path forward that is more honest, humane, emotionally regulated, interconnected, and interdependent than I've ever been.

It is the sixth anniversary of the Driven 2 Drink Podcast.  I have come a long, long, long way in 6 years. 

Today, I read a piece I wrote, "Traumatizing as Praxis," and we spend time with Marvine Gaye.  Music is medicine for me, and I suspect it is for you as well.  If you're here.  Regardless, I love and appreciate yinz and hope you find some respite in the time you spend with me.

-G

Okay.

Fact is, without knowing what I was attending at the time I was attending, I attended a concert held at the very venue where Bob Marley and the Wailers and the I Three held their final concert ever.  The concert was explicitly scheduled to coincide with the 30-year anniversary of the original.  The Marley family plus the surviving I Threes recreated the set list from September 23rd, 1980 on September 23rd, 2010.  And I was there. Which was luck. And a great spouse.

You may have read the letter Twittler wrote to his entertainment labor union, SAG AFTRA.  I certainly did, and offered a joke that I should dive into the deep end of under the influences and perform it.  Well, here is that.

Additionally, I offer you a mini lesson in the creation of keto-friendly/sugar-free cocktails on a limited budget.

And? Plenty of music because this always has to be a listening party.

This is a fun ride, folks.

Love that yinz're here with me.

-G

The world can be a better place for everyone. But it requires sacrifice, discomfort, suffering, and a resolve to address and dismantle the very racism and colonialist genocide that is the foundation of the land we, non Native people, call the United States of America. On stolen, bloodied, desecrated land.

Hang out, let's think about the work together, and harness all the anger and rage into some sort of existential healing. With music by Th1rt3en.

-G

We've lost so much.  So many.

Some of us experienced it close to home. In home.

This is my offering, a requiem for Josie, for the Covid dead, and the unspoken words of we survivors.

It's also a listening party. A gathering of remembrance and perhaps a bit of revelry.  Not quite a wake.  We're not nearly there yet.  Some some room to breathe.  Perhaps. Together.

-G

My Mom is the reason I love music.  My Mom is the reason I'm the person I am right now.  Point blank.  You dig Greg?  Thank Josie.  Have ever done some kindness for you? Brought you a smile?  Thank Josie.

Herein are the albums and artists that my Mom, Josie, gave to me.  Herein are the artists who, had Josie not given them to me, would not have penetrated and brought me peace and joy and some semblance of homeostasis.

James Taylor, The Four Tops, The Temptations, and Earth, Wind, & Fire.

This is the Michael McDonald Listening Party, but with the sound better balanced and polished.  And without missing parts.  I'm so very sorry about that, if you happened to listen and feel disappointed.  As I did.  I've added an additional intro and some traveling music before the intro and transition music to the actual thing.  Yay.  I hope.

Love yinz.  Hang out.

-G

I keep forgetting that Michael McDonald is more than a pretty voice.  He reminded me when he recently performed a Tiny Desk with just a couple of keyboards and a microphone.  I consistently forget how amazing a musician, incredible a song-writer, and intensely fluid an improviser he is.  Again, he reminded me.  And I'd like to share my time with that performance, plus another of one of the most perfect pop compositions of all time.  Won't you?  I hope you do.  You're certainly welcome.

-G

Another week of a self-care offering.

Over an hour recorded beachside in Corolla, North Carolina.

Wind. Waves. Birds. And you with your breath.

Meditation is such a balm for anxiety, self-discovery, decompression, re-energizing, regulation, homeostasis, peace, and joy.  I find the sounds of the Atlantic Ocean deeply resonating.  I find myself easily settling into a meditative state.  And I hope you will too.

Take care of yourselves and each other.

I love yinz.

-G