{"id":669,"date":"2007-01-27T19:36:59","date_gmt":"2007-01-28T03:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2007\/01\/27\/greetings-from-to\/"},"modified":"2007-01-27T19:36:59","modified_gmt":"2007-01-28T03:36:59","slug":"greetings-from-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2007\/01\/27\/greetings-from-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Greetings From T.O."},"content":{"rendered":"

All I really really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you too<\/em><\/p>\n

We’re running on empty.<\/p>\n

You see we didn’t get to bed until 3:30.<\/p>\n

Oh, we had a fine time with Jake and Lisa at Omi, eating a million dollars worth of sushi while listening to everyone from Bob Marley to Nina Simone.\u00c2\u00a0 But when we got to the King Edward, after midnight, after a flight into the snow from Los Angeles, there was no heat.\u00c2\u00a0 And the lack of heat and the travel and the sake combusted, emotions flared, we got deeply into it as Felice lay in the tub trying to warm up.<\/p>\n

Relationships are hard.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t teach you that in the movies, certainly not in school.\u00c2\u00a0 If my ex had learned this lesson we’d still be married.\u00c2\u00a0 But perseverance is no longer an admirable attribute, the seventies ethic still reigns, if it doesn’t feel good, jump ship, search, try to find someplace where it does.<\/p>\n

And there’s a time to move on.\u00c2\u00a0 But usually endless searching does not deliver the answer.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually, it’s about staying in place, trying to unravel the mystery.<\/p>\n

I’d like to tell you we did this.\u00c2\u00a0 But there are still a lot of unanswered questions.<\/p>\n

The best relationships are equal.\u00c2\u00a0 If both people aren’t playing, aren’t revealing themselves, aren’t at risk, then what you’ve got is an attachment at best.\u00c2\u00a0 But to let one’s self out.\u00c2\u00a0 In a culture of winners.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just too tough.<\/p>\n

Oh, I’m not talking about the culture of recovery.\u00c2\u00a0 Wherein you break down and lay yourself bare.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather, I’m referring to playing, warts and all.\u00c2\u00a0 Trying to forge ahead, but not denying your deficits.<\/p>\n

You don’t do this in business.<\/p>\n

You do this in art.\u00c2\u00a0 In art, we reveal our emotions.\u00c2\u00a0 And the artists serve as inspiration to the community, informing the populace, arousing people’s feelings.<\/p>\n

Oh, there’s power in today’s beat-driven music.\u00c2\u00a0 It will set you free.\u00c2\u00a0 The tracks and a bottle of Cuervo…you’ll let go.\u00c2\u00a0 But that music doesn’t speak to your heart.<\/p>\n

Joni Mitchell’s music speaks to your heart.<\/p>\n

Maybe someone laid out their truth in tunes prior to Joni, but no one I know.\u00c2\u00a0 Prior to her, tunes were oblique, they were riddled with platitudes, there was no personal truth.\u00c2\u00a0 Joni was always about personal truth.<\/p>\n

We’re in Toronto for Joni Mitchell’s induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, I’m supposed to be downstairs at the inductee dinner right now.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’m not ready to go.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m unsettled.<\/p>\n

And when one is unsettled, music salves the wound, gets one through.<\/p>\n

That’s what the labels don’t understand.\u00c2\u00a0 There IS NO competition for the entertainment dollar.\u00c2\u00a0 Because music is not entertainment, when done right, it’s life itself.\u00c2\u00a0 Joni Mitchell’s music is life itself.<\/p>\n

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
Traveling, traveling, traveling
Looking for something, what can it be<\/em><\/p>\n

Today at lunch, Ezrin told me there’s nothing worse than being lonely.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the scourge of humanity.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why social networking burgeoned on the Web, people want to connect.\u00c2\u00a0 That connection is not present on television.\u00c2\u00a0 Nor in the movies.\u00c2\u00a0 But you can get it in music.\u00c2\u00a0 I got it to such an extent that I needed to be in this business.\u00c2\u00a0 I needed to be closer.\u00c2\u00a0 I needed to be here all the time.<\/p>\n

It’s been a hard road.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just about as hard to make it in the music business, and STAY in the music business, as it is to make it as an act.\u00c2\u00a0 But we persevere.\u00c2\u00a0 Because we believe.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the music touched us.<\/p>\n

At Chapters this afternoon, over hot chocolate, Jake said that playing cards with his high school buddies someone remarked that he was the only one who lived his dream.\u00c2\u00a0 That he always wanted to be in the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 And ultimately succeeded.<\/p>\n

Jake may be a judge on "Canadian Idol" today, but he started out as a lighting designer for a Top Forty band.\u00c2\u00a0 He had to endure a parting of the ways with the Tragically Hip.\u00c2\u00a0 How does one cope with the ups and downs?<\/p>\n

By listening to music.<\/p>\n

They say that Patti Smith belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because of all the people she influenced.\u00c2\u00a0 Fuck influence.\u00c2\u00a0 What do you MEAN to me, how do you AFFECT ME?\u00c2\u00a0 Do I still listen to your music?<\/p>\n

Joni Mitchell’s music sounds as fresh today as it did the day it was cut.\u00c2\u00a0 Probably because it didn’t sound like anything else, she didn’t follow any trends, rather she blazed her own path.<\/p>\n

Do you know how hard it is to blaze your own path?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you know how hard it is to delve into the darkness?\u00c2\u00a0 It would have been easier to keep the issues between Felice and myself under the rug, let them lay dormant.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s not how Joni would do it.\u00c2\u00a0 And I don’t believe in the Bible, but the songwriters, the musicians.\u00c2\u00a0 All I know about relationships I learned in songs.<\/p>\n

Joni famously sang:<\/p>\n

We don’t need no piece of paper
From the city hall
Keeping us tied and true<\/em><\/p>\n

Marriage is an institution.\u00c2\u00a0 Relationships are a bundle of emotions, connections, joys and defeats.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like riding a bucking bronco.<\/p>\n

Not that anybody tells you that.\u00c2\u00a0 I learned that listening to the tunes.<\/p>\n

It was so beautiful landing in the snow.<\/p>\n

But it took us the better part of an hour to get to the gate, there being utter gridlock at the airport, what with all the de-icing.<\/p>\n

Jake had a great theory about EMI.\u00c2\u00a0 That Paul McCartney should buy it and then sell off everything but the Beatles catalog.<\/p>\n

Ezrin is an encyclopedia.\u00c2\u00a0 Of not only music, but business.\u00c2\u00a0 Very few have talent in the studio and the boardroom.<\/p>\n

I want to have fun, I want to shine like the sun<\/em><\/p>\n

And now it’s time to go downstairs.\u00c2\u00a0 Hang with Barbara and Michael.\u00c2\u00a0 Talk business.\u00c2\u00a0 Laugh.\u00c2\u00a0 People…that’s where the fun is.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’m going to shake off my malaise and play.<\/p>\n

And the reason I can shake off my mood is because of what’s pouring into my ears.<\/p>\n

I try to do it like Joni says:<\/p>\n

I want to be the one that you want to see
I want to knit you a sweater
Want to write you a love letter
I want to make you feel better
I want to make you feel free
I want to make you feel free<\/em><\/p>\n

Consider this a love letter.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s trying to make you feel better.\u00c2\u00a0 Make you feel like you’re not alone.\u00c2\u00a0 That you may be the only one in your house, but there’s someone who feels what you do, who’s just as fucked up as you.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s me.<\/p>\n

And I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t listen to all those Joni Mitchell records.<\/p>\n

I wanted to be more than a name on the door on the thirty-third floor.\u00c2\u00a0 I NEEDED to be more than that.\u00c2\u00a0 My life had to have meaning.\u00c2\u00a0 I know you’re searching for meaning too.<\/p>\n

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All I really really want our love to doIs to bring out the best in me and in you too We’re running on empty. You see we didn’t get to bed until 3:30. Oh, we had a fine time with Jake and Lisa at Omi, eating a million dollars worth of sushi while listening to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-aN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}