trifecta

my trifecta: music + writing + love = ___________________

the blank is the most exciting part. most times i have no idea what will be there. in today's case...it was a song that i wrote. i know you're probably thinking that's an obvious outcome when you combine the three, but it's not always true in my case. a lot of times it's just thoughts. boooring.

when i listen to music...i'm constantly breaking it down. anything from the lyrics and what they REALLY mean...to the guitar parts and what they REALLY mean. i listen for background noise, too. i always try to put myself in situations where i can apply the song to my life and break it down that way. in case that doesn't make any sense...i basically overanalyze music to the point where it's borderline obsession/psychotherapy.

writing to me is not a form of therapy. i'm not the type of person that goes through some situation and thinks, "dude...i have to get this down on paper or else i'll explode." i simply see it as more of a way to express my ideas/thoughts/personal findings/beliefs. that doesn't even make sense to me, so don't feel bad.

love...is awesome. did you know that the philadelphia international airport is the best airport for making a love connection, according to an online survey. seriously, i guess if you're on the hunt for that special someone...schedule a flight there.

anyway...back to the part about the song i wrote. my trifecta...music, writing, and love. all three were involved/happening when i was working on this new song i was calling "fight." creepy part is...i titled it before i had lyrics...dun dun dun! it'd be really cool if i had it recorded and i could put the song up here for all to hear...but i can't at this time.

this is what happened: a few weeks ago i wrote this cool guitar part and wrote it down. then, i kept playing it and kept changing things here and there until i liked what i heard. about a week ago i wrote some lyrics down and tried it out. it sounded okay...to me. i played it for emily (she's my honest critic) and she gave me some classic "emily's corrections to make this sound better, please don't hate me for being honest, but i think it could sound better, even though it sounds okay now, it should sound better than okay, please still love me" advice on how to make it better. i made the changes..and yes, it was better...and i still love her.

so today...i'm playing through the song and i make another small change. then it happened...it turned into the saddest song i've ever written and i think it's incredibly depressing. it's a song about divorce. see why the title is so creepy now? most people know that musicians don't always write about their own lives. obviously in this case...this is one of those occasions where the song isn't about me personally.

back in high school, i had quite a few close friends with divorced parents. i can actually remember each of them telling me when it happened. at the time...my reaction had to be meaningless. they knew i'd never gone through it, so what would i feel? mostly true...all i could do is feel bad and try to love that person through their tough time. hopefully i did some good. that's what i learned/re-learned through this song. no matter what happens to you, someone you know, or a complete stranger...love is always present. lennon was right...all you need is love. so now the "BOOYAH" part: if all YOU need is love...where are you getting it? is it healthy? if it's true love it is. this could very easily turn into some sort of "you need Jesus" speech..and as much as i believe that to be true...i really just want to love you and everyone else in the entire world. don't you think that if every human had this approach to life...the world would be a little better? please don't take this the wrong way...i didn't invent this and i'm not saying i'm the only person trying to live this way. there are TONS of people doing a way better job loving others than i am. i'm simply stating what i'm striving to do and hope that it might motivate someone to do the same. have you ever seen the powers of ten video? the universe is big...so what? like we can't make an impact by loving people. yeah, i guess you're right...we might as well not even try. ORRRRR...we could make an all out attempt at changing the world and making it as awesome as possible!

"love to an 11!"
-tony

SHE

today is me and emily's 3 year wedding anniversary. should i have put "emily and i's" or "emily and me's" in that previous sentence? man, i don't know. that's also a rhetorical question, so don't try and be Mr./Mrs. English and correct me. anyway, instead of doing the typical, like going on national television to tell her i love her. or having a famous person sing for her. or taking her up in a hot air balloon to watch a sunset with wine....i'm going to write some random (in no particular order) reasons i love my wife and why she's the beez neez.

-she’s beautiful, inside and out.
-she’s a runner.
-she supports me in almost everything i want to do. (she won’t let me die my hair black anymore)
-she loves great music.
-she dresses really cool.
-she's hilarious!
-she loves the Lord.
-she can sing.
-she loves to have random dance parties in places such as old navy, our bedroom, and/or any other place where dancing might be looked at as “odd.”
-she has the same passion in life as i do.
-she has been married to me for 3 years now and i'm pretty sure that she really wants to or else i think she would've left by now.

there are a TON more, but i have to save them for future anniversaries. can't use up all my bullets at once. funny that i used bullets in my list isn't it?

i'll now end this post with some words of wisdom i came across:
"Do not argue with a spouse who is packing your parachute."

support YOUR troops

friends are cool, right? at least in your opinion. they could be total geeks, but if you get along great with geeks...then you think they're cool. chances are they think your cool, too. you've heard it before: "friendship is a two way road." well you know what happens on two way roads...car crashes, road kill, potholes, broke down cars, slow farm tractors, getting pulled over by the cops...bad things can happen. bare with me here, i promise i'm getting to what i believe to be a "cool point."

lately (mostly since i started this blog) i've noticed how good i feel when people actual make an effort to let me know that they support what i do by giving me words of affirmation. "hey tony, good job on that run." "wow tony...you look great." "tony, your blog is the best thing i've read since the Bible." "dude..tony...i want to be you." (ok..it's not quite like that, but you get what i'm saying.) and of course when someone would tell me i'm doing a good job or doing something cool before i'd always feel good, but lately it's been different. not sure why, but it has. maybe that's what changes when you turn 25?

all i'm saying is that it's awesome when someone who you may know well, or barely know at all, goes out of their way to say good job to you for something you're doing. i think to myself, "you didn't have to say that to me...why did you say that? you obviously actually mean it, right?" i believe the answer to be "yes" in majority of cases. if someone were to come up to you and say "good job" or "keep up the good work" and later you find out they were just being facetious you should slap them in the head (don't really do that, maybe the infamous stink eye will suffice.)

so go and support your troops. all of your friends and loved ones who are doing something that's worth a "good job" or an "attaboy" (i guess "attaperson" would be more p.c. these days) deserve to hear it! the coolest part about doing something good for someone else is the feeling you get from it. it's scientifically proven that chemicals are released in your body that give you a good feeling after doing something good. that's actually true...not just me being obnoxious. ask emily, she's a psychology major. maybe even a cooler thing than that (it's a tie between this and the first cool thing) is that the person who receives the verbal support will be more apt to tell someone else they know that they're doing a great job at something because they know how boss it felt to hear it from you. and then they'll tell 10 friends, and they'll tell 10 friends, and they'll tell 10 friends, and they'll tell 10 friends, and they'll tell 10 friends......

also...you should still support our troops, too. you know..like, the soldiers. they are awesome and don't receive enough credit for what they do.