The Game Plan.

Okay, so here's the deal: I really enjoy sharing the moments of my life through this blog, but I'm starting to notice a need to begin separating my professional entries from my personal ones.

I didn't really have a specific purpose in mind for this blog when I first started keeping it in May. This blog was originally meant to only be a fun project to try out. But in the six months of keeping this blog, I have discovered that I really enjoy being a part of the blogging/videoblogging community.

For that reason, I think it would be a good idea for me to give a little more thought over the content that I post on my blog. Not only that, I would also like to put more thought into how I present my content to the reader or viewer. It does look kind of strange when I'm performing with DJ Johnny Juice in one entry, only to eat lettuce in another. Even though both of these entries represent me as a person, I know that they don't necessarily belong in the same place.

Obviously, having two blogs is the answer. So, look for a new http://pauldateh.com launching sometime in early 2008 for all my professional, music-related happenings. In the meantime, I'll keep posting my personal entries on this blog.

Blogging Forward.

Although I couldn't be happier about last week's small victory against the "overzealous" and "incendiary" actions of Miri Ben-Ari's legal team (as admitted by Ms. Ben-Ari's own manager), I have decided to archive my blog entries that document the facts pertaining to this issue.

I am a musician, and therefore music is my ultimate priority. I would very much like to put the events of the past week behind me and move forward to work on new and exciting music-related projects.

However, I will be happy to release these archived posts to anyone that requests them for research purposes or educational use.

I would like to sincerely thank everyone for offering such incredible support during this past week. I couldn't have done it without you!

I look forward to making more music for you to enjoy.
pd

P.S. Stay tuned! I have some exciting news to share with you all soon. :)

The FlyPoet Showcase

"They say that it's now or never. I say that it is now. Not never. It is now." - Sekou the Misfit

Every month, I have the privilege of being part of an event called The FlyPoet Showcase. FlyPoet's main goal is to bring "underground talent" into the light and regularly features musicians, dancers, and spoken word artists from all around the country that are on the "up and up".

In the most recent showcase on this past Wednesday, the lineup included the incredible Sekou tha Misfit and Steven Connell.

Both Sekou and Steve were great when they performed solo. However, they decided to perform a joint piece at the end of the night, and it was beyond anything that I could have ever imagined.

They performed a piece on the concept of love, and while I have come to let myself believe that anything written about love is cliche and boring, they completely surprised me by presenting a seemingly unending list of new definitions for the word.

Poets have the ability to give new definitions to words that you thought you knew. With each new piece I hear, I feel as if I am being let in on a special hidden part of the English language; poetry allows us to enter an arcane place of communication that is otherwise inaccessible as we are distracted by the daily routines of our lives.

I love being a part of this event, not only because I have the opportunity to share my own work with others, but mostly because I get to see amazing poets perform. Spoken word is an art form that is largely ignored in the mainstream -- except for maybe when Maya Angelou speaks at a political event or when Def Poetry Jam airs on cable -- and it is an immensely powerful form of artistic expression that definitely deserves to be seen and heard.

Thanks to John Hensley, for putting together such a great event every month!

Television? Come on, let's be real.

Talks about establishing an "a la carte" model for cable television have come back up to the surface recently, and i find myself wondering if it's too late for everyone to even bicker over such a model.

I mean, does everyone still really watch television on television?

I know that there are still plenty of folks out there that like their TV the traditional way: by appointment only, no timeshifting, no on-demand. But, everyone that i personally know gets their television in different ways -- mostly online. And i don't roll with a necessarily tech-savvy crowd, either.

My mentee is 17, and he and his friends access their shows through sites like www.tv-links.co.uk. It's kind of like a library of links to streaming videos hosted all over the web. And almost every show you could want is on the list: sitcoms, dramas, anime, cartoons... They even have full-length movies (watch out itunes, netflix, movielink, etc.!) all neatly alphabetized, eagerly awaiting your mouse's click.

And these aren't links to shows created specifically for the web. No, these are genuine network shows, created by and for network television.

Not every show is available all the time, of course. Those DMCA takedown notices can cause the links to break occasionally. But check back in a couple days, and you'll find that the links have been updated.

Can sites like this be sued? Maybe. Napster got sued for hosting a centralized server that allowed people to trade files containing copyrighted content. So, sites like tv-links could be found guilty for essentially doing a very similar thing: hosting a centralized location that allows people to link to copyrighted content.

But even if sites like tv-links are sued, I don't think it really matters. Suing napster didn't do much to revive the music industry, so i don't think it'll do much for the television industry, either. The fact is that the world of content delivery is changing, and networks need to find a way to ride this new tech wave, rather than push against it and angering everyone in the process.

I own a television, but i rarely even turn it on. I watch all of my shows online. In fact, i'm just about to "tv-link" an episode of Planet Earth while I catch up on my RSS feeds.

So, bicker about "a la carte" all you want, cable network people. And get mad all you want, major network people. I don't know if it'll really matter for that much longer.

*UPDATE*: Here come the lawsuits.

import market gum

i went to the import market today and found gum with some funny names.

*UPDATE*: i recently tried the green candy. see the photos on my flickr account here.

The Monsters on the Road

It was a late Saturday afternoon in October. I was seven, and my parents were driving my sister and me home from our respective music lessons -- a weekly event that I had come to dread. When you're seven, music lessons are weekly bits of scheduled torture. I'm sure that my sister would have agreed with me, if I ever would have asked her.

Each week, we would be robbed of our Saturday and instead be reimbursed with a creaking metronome and an old lady yelling, "Play that passage again, but this time more slowly!" But, as much as we hated it, we would mysteriously find ourselves complying. And at the end of each hour, we would leave the lesson feeling dejected and completely betrayed by our own actions.

Metronomes were the real enemy. When you're a kid, being forced to divide time into equal amounts of musical measure is like going to the beach and only being allowed to count out individual grains of sand during your “playtime”. Every cracking click from the evil box only further reminded us of the one thought that gave us kids true pain: we're missing Saturday morning cartoons.

But after some time, the clicking box would drown out any thoughts at all, and the concept of Saturday morning cartoons would fade away. Eventually, we learned to become tolerant of our weekly lessons, and we passively accepted them into our regular cycle of living.

Besides my sister, my only friend that I could depend on each Saturday was the road. From traveling on it so often, I felt like the road and I had come to share a very special bond. Each week, he would have something new to show me: a shredded tire, a renegade box that had escaped off a freight truck, or (if I was really lucky) an old, abandoned car. No matter how unbearable the lessons became, the road would always deliver something amazing for me to see.

This particular day in October wasn’t very different from any other day in October – or any day at all, for that matter. But, I will never forget it because of what happened next during the car ride home.

We were passing through El Monte, when suddenly my dad cried out, "Yuki! Paul! Close your eyes! There's something really scary coming up on the side of the road!"

My mom immediately joined in, "Oh no! Your father is right. It's horrible!"

Upon hearing the sheer terror in their voices, my sister and I quickly covered our eyes and buried our heads in our laps, hoping that it would be enough to save us from the evils on the side of the road.

My father continued, “Don’t worry, kids. We’re not afraid of these monsters. We’ll protect you!”

As I sat there with my hands tightly cupped over my eyes, I began to think of my friend the road. Why he would suddenly want to show me such horrible things that my parents would have to protect me from? I felt betrayed and ashamed that I had ever built any trust in our friendship. From the darkness of my mind, I cursed the road and put him on my mental “ex-friends” list. And with my magical psychic abilities, I sent a silent message of gratitude to my brave parents for boldly protecting us.

After what seemed like enough time to have another music lesson, my mom sent out the safe signal: “It’s okay. You can open your eyes now. The monsters are gone."

I couldn't help myself. I had to see what the horrible monsters which my parents had so courageously battled looked like. I carefully turned my head ever so slowly towards the car’s rear window. My heart began to beat faster as I thought of the unspeakable horrors I could potentially see.

I fearfully looked out the window, only to find my old friend the road blankly staring back at me. Then, I noticed it: the faint blinking of carnival lights waving goodbye to me from a distance.

inverse rocked it.

the show @ knitting factory was off the hook. the house was packed, and the crowd had such a great energy. inverse rocked it, of course, and i was happy to be there on stage to contribute my two cents.

brother ali was there, and it made my night when he shook my hand and congratulated me. that was a cool moment.

all this excitement has made me miss performing my own material. lately, all i've been doing is behind-the-scenes stuff. of course i really do enjoy the studio work, and i have fun guesting on other people's sets, but i'm really starting to miss the direct connection to an audience. it's a good thing i'm in the process of booking some solo shows as we speak!

and now, some random thoughts:

i have finally cleaned my apartment, and now i can start to think clearly again.
it's looking like a good weekend to take my comp book and start penning some lyrics down.

i've just passed the two-year mark on my phone, and it's looking like it's time to replace it.
i like the treo line, but i wonder if there's anything better coming up soon.
maybe iphone? hmm...

i love the internet, but i realize i need to read more books.
yeah, books.

gotta practice some scales and arpeggios on the old fiddle.
i hate practicing scales and arpeggios.

i want an mbox2.
soon.

people.

i've been meeting a lot of new people lately (through work, industry connections, and just life in general), and i have made the following conclusion:

people really are weird, man.

a lot of them are bulls***ers and have no problem straight up lying to your face even when they know that you're fully aware of their dishonesty. it's kind of a let down, actually. i'd much rather you just be real, whether your truth favors me or not.

otherwise, it's a complete waste of time.

new week.

it's monday.

a new week has started.

let's make it a good one!