ESPA/Vlog #14

Samuel talks about the Eugene Storefront Art Project and some other stuff.

Check out The Eugene Storefront Art Project here:
http://www.eugenestorefrontartproject.org/

Check out the Japan Tsunami and Disaster Relief Benefit (music and art auction) here:
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161175263942128

Open Mic #62

Tonight I was at Mulligan’s Open Mic in Eugene Oregon.

Teddy Boy Roix was playing when I got there, and man can this guy play.

Teddy is an amazing local singer songwriter who pretty much lives at Mulligan’s.

He was a member of The Soulsations with Steve Ibach who is also a very talented local musician.

Look these guys up!

It’s kind of intimidating following someone like Teddy but I just did my best.

I played: “Room Full Of Mirrors” by Jimi Hendrix, “After All” by Me, “Dying Song” by John Frusciante and “MJ” by Me.

I’ve been thinking about a post that I put up a while ago that may have come across as sounding kind of like I was complaining.

I don’t ever mean to complain about what I do and I would just like to say that I love playing music and I feel very blessed that I’m able to do it.

It means the world to me when people tell me that they appreciate what I do but that’s not why I do it.

I do it because I love music and I want to share that love with you.

Thanks for listening.

Craig Chee’s Birthday

Sometimes I just like to blog about the places I go and the things I do.

I didn’t play any music tonight but I thought I would blog about my experiences anyway.

Tonight I easily could have stayed home, listening to the new Lady Gaga album all night.

Instead I choose to go out to Craig Chee‘s Birthday Celebration at Cornucopia.

Jesse Meade play’s at Cornucopia every Tuesday night and on this particular night he invited Craig Chee along with a few other musician’s to join him for Craig’s Birthday.

I sat at the bar and drew a sketch of Jesse while he played.

Next up to the mic was Robert Meade (no relation.)

You would think that the more you sketched, the better the sketches would get, but that was not the case this evening.

I feel like my sketch of Jesse was really the best at capturing his character.

By the time Scott Austin got up to play a few songs my artistic ability seemed to have left the building.

Robert encouraged me to at least finish my sketch (while making fun of the fact that Craig Chee resembled George Washington). :-)

After poking some fun at me for a while Robert drew a sketch of his own.

After Scott & Craig played for a while Craig invited his band up to play.

You may be able to tell from the picture that Craig was having a pretty good Birthday by this time in the night. :-)

As I said before, I spent most of my time at the bar enjoying all the great music.

I ate some soup and salad and chatted with a few folks.

Sometimes I feel very blessed by all the new people in my life.

Happy Birthday Craig! You’re a pretty cool cat and I’m glad to have met you.

Thanks for listening.

The End Of The World/Vlog #13

It’s the end of the world as we know it.
Check out Cris Hardy at: http://www.reverbnation.com/crishardy
Check out Michael Conley at: http://www.myspace.com/michaelgconley
Check out Scott Austin at: http://scottaustin.bandcamp.com/
Check out these cool pet videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/GessoNpals

Shows in Basements

Last night I went to a show in a Basement.

It had been a very long time since I had been to a show in a basement and when I first got there, I didn’t even know how to get into the basement. ;)

We finely found it and when we did there was no one down there. We thought we were about two hours late but in fact we were early.

After hanging out on the porch for a little bit a girl came out and informed us all that the music was about to start.

Everyone shuffled into the dank little basement where someone called Luc Gunn was performing on his guitar and keyboard.

Apparently most of the music he played was from a movie that he had made.

He was pretty good.

Apparently he is also a member of the band The Blimp who played later that night.

After he played for about forty five minutes there was a little break and I went up stairs to the kitchen where I played some banjo and chatted with my good friend Hansa El Din who was also there.

Next up was local psychedelic sensation On The Tundra.

On The Tundra is an instrumental psychedelic rock band heavy on electric guitars.

They were celebrating the release of their new “7 record, which I picked up for the very low cost of $5.

I really like On The Tundra.

If I didn’t I probably would not have bought their record. ;)

Their set was amazing as always.

Speaking of psychedelic, check out this Jesus that was also hanging out in the basement.

It’s a good thing he was there because you know the world is supposed to end today.

By the time On The Tundra got done playing it was well after midnight and the world was still here, so we had to cut out.

We missed The Blimp but they’re playing the WOW Hall soon though so I’ll check them out soon for sure.

Thanks for listening.

The Super Summer Show

Looking for the free EP? Click Here.

With Live Music by:

Samuel Ferris Harmon

Cris & Amblin

Michael Conley

Scott Austin

$3 at the door

21+

$2 Featured Micro Brew until Midnight!

http://www.reverbnation.com/crishardy

http://www.myspace.com/michaelgconley

http://scottaustin.bandcamp.com/

This is going to be awesome and you don’t want to miss it!

Open Mic #61

After I played Tsunami Books, I headed over to Mulligan’s Open Mic.

Tonight I wasn’t really sure what I was going to play especially after playing all originals at Tsunami Books.

It was a pretty mellow night.

Scott Austin was there.

Scott will be a part of The Super Summer Show at Luckey’s on June 2nd.

Tonight I decided to stick with originals but play some of my stranger material.

I played: “Ice Cream“, “Trails Of Paranoia“, “Home” and “Nothing”.

Sometimes when I play my more “out there” material I’m not always sure how it will be received.

My song “Trails Of Paranoia” is all about being paranoid of chem trails and thinking that someone or something is coming to get you because you plan on speaking the truth about what’s going on.

It’s not exactly a pop song.

“Home” is all about your parents leaving you over and over again and being left out in the world with no way to come home.

Again, not exactly something that people are going to sing along to.

Surprisingly, I got really positive feedback from everyone in the room after I got done playing.

I guess it just goes to show that you never really know what people are going to like or what people are going to respond to.

For example, when I decided to plug my little synthesizer into my guitar amp and take it to the open mic I never ever expected that a few months later I would record my self freaking out on my keyboard and Travis Keller of Buddyhead.com would take an interest in it.

It’s a big old crazy world we live in.

Thanks for listening.

Song Writer Showcase at Tsunami Books

May, 18th, 2011, I was at Tsunami Books in Eugene Oregon for a local song writers showcase.

I was very lucky to be a part of this event!

My friend Luke Scott-Hinkle invited me to play it and it was a lot of fun!

Most of the people were songwriters more so than musicians or performers which was a very unique experience for me.

It was mandatory to play original material and I had kind of a hard time figuring out what I was going to play.

I decided to stick to some of my more “normal” songs.

I decided on: ”After All“, “Lost Words” & “Nothing” one of my newest songs.

I don’t even really think of my self as a songwriter most of the time.

I’m a musician who plays songs, the songs write them selves, I just have to play them.

This event was meant to showcase some of the people who attend a monthly songwriters workshop that meets at Tsunami Books every month to share songs.

You can learn more about the group at their website.

This was a really fun event and there was even a woman who did sketches of all the performers as they played and they were really cool!

I’ve never been to the songwriters workshop but I just might check it out in the future, I’ve always been hesitant because it meets kind of early in the morning on a Saturday. ;)

Thanks for listening.

New Art Posted

I posted two paintings in the Art section of the site today!

The first is:

Cave Of Dreams 2011

Acrylic on Canvas 16X20

$200/OBO

Please contact me if you would like to purchase this painting

I also posted a:

Self Portrait 2011

Acrylic on Canvas 12X16

$150/OBO

Please contact me if you would like to purchase this painting

When I say or best offer, I mean or best offer, any reasonable offer will be considered.

I’m also open to trades, especially for art.

Insomnia & Allergies

Today is Monday.

Today I have had some of the worst allergies I’ve ever had in my life.

I think it’s because I stayed up too late last night working on this website and it’s compromised my immune system.

Today has been slow to say the least.

I went to the store and got some shampoo because we didn’t have any.

I took a shower and I checked my email.

I ate some nacho flavored corn chips.

I watched TMZ, my guilty pleasure.

I recorded a Vlog with my webcam.

I took this picture of the thing causing my misery.

Sometimes I struggle with leisure.

I think that this is pretty common, but I have a really hard time really relaxing.

Often times I find my self beating my self up inside my head about the things I “should” be doing instead of enjoying the things that I am doing.

I often think of my self as a rather lazy person.

People have often told me that they think that I’m lazy and I guess I just took it to heart.

What exactly does it even mean to be lazy though? Why does society always expect us to be doing things?

I mean really, is doing something just for the sake of doing something a good reason to do it?

How far will that really get you in life?

I guess that’s kind of what I’m doing right now.

I don’t really have anything that important to blog about.

There are no big exciting things going on that I have to talk about.

I just thought that I would start writing and see what happened.

I took a few pictures of the things that are causing me pain currently and I started complaining about them to you.

Is complaining doing something?

I would tend to think that it’s not.

That’s the thing about laziness, it’s all relative.

Someone might say that I’ve had a lazy day today because I didn’t go to work.

On the other hand, I went to the store, and I made my self breakfast, I shaved, I took a shower and washed my hair.

I even walked to the store to get the shampoo, I could of driven and I think that probably would have been lazier.

I’ve always been amused at the expression: “He work’s hard and he play’s hard”.

How excatly do you play hard?

(I really didn’t mean for that to sound as dirty as it does.) ;)

What does it really mean to relax and when is it appropriate to do so?

How does one really find leisure in their lives?

I find that creating things relaxes me and leaves me feeling less lazy than watching TMZ or even reading a book.

I guess everyone finds their own ways to relax and “take it easy”.

People tend to like to drink alcohol or take drugs to relax.

I used to do a lot of drugs when I was a teenager and I drank quite a lot in my twenty’s.

Now I don’t drink or take drugs and sometimes it can be challenging to figure out how to “let loose” and “party”.

I think that sometimes people assume that because I’ve chosen not to drink or do drugs anymore that I’ve chosen not to have fun anymore.

This could not be further from the truth, I have so much more fun now that I’m not numbing my self to the world.

I have no problem with people drinking or doing drugs, if that’s something that they want to do with them selves I’m all for it, what ever makes you happy.

It’s just something that I’ve chosen not to do for my self anymore.

Every second of every moment we choose what we want to do and who we want to do it with.

Life is not as black and white as I had once perceived it to be.

Perhaps doing something just for the sake of doing something is all right.

It’s probably better than beating your self up in your head and thinking that you’re lazy.

I think that beating my self up in my head is one of my biggest problems in life.

I guess just doing something other than that is good enough.

Thanks for listening.

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