In my personal life back on Earth, my estranged 1st love called me out of nowhere.  A call I dreamt of for 3 years had come.  She requested that I see her, but at that exact moment in time I felt like I had moved on.  Straight out of the end of “Swingers,”  I suddenly felt nothing for her anymore.  I credit her for creating the hurt in me that drove me to write all of my songs, but at that second, I was over it.  I felt a new page turning.   Even if the world was about to die, I was fine by myself with music and the idea of something new around the corner.  I learned a lot about myself that night and what I admired about life.

The next ten years for me brought so much.  There were crushed dreams and let downs, new beginnings and hopes, tons of life changing decisions and hard work, and even more simply some of the greatest days I have ever had. — Exploring Bali, snowboarding Aspen, learning to see beauty in man’s creations in Barcelona through Gaudi’s eyes.  — Living my childhood dreams out recording an album under the sky in Malibu and finally, returning to my birthplace in Montauk.   – 10 years and all the space in between.  This year alone, I visited every state in this country including Alaska, where I swam in white water and saw the sun and the moon dance as it never got completely dark.  So many faces and so many seconds that make it all worth it.  Those mental snapshots we all take in our minds, get us through the harder times so we can keep discovering this life over and over again.  Over and over again we live and die every day.  We are reborn every morning with hope and possibility, so let’s all continue to make the best of this.  Don’t let anything keep our spirits down and if you feel that weight coming, run as fast as you can, escape your body and LET YOUR SPIRIT RUN, and you will find a new home in life’s next moment.  Nothing is permanent, nothing is forever, and nothing is so serious.  Keep smiling and have the greatest New Year ever.

2 eyes, 10 fingers

Hello 2010!

My raves of the decade – add your own below here in the comments section for me to see.  Thx

Barack Obama

Singing on the streets

Adaptation

Michael Phelps

Lord of the Rings

Coldplay

Bill Gates

Iranian Election Protests

Facebook

Beauty out of Tragedy

Michael Jackson

Steve Jobs

Almost Famous

Conan O’Brien

Stem Cells

Vitamin Water

Kings Of Leon

The financial bubble bursting

Chris Rock

Big Fish

Whole Foods

Emile Hirsch

Joaquin Phoenix

Emma Stone

Natalie Portman

Larry David

Sigur Rós

Al Gore

Heath Ledger

Garden State

The National

Eternal Sunshine

Love, Love, Love…

My friend, who I will be headed down the mountain with today, won the silver medal for Holland in the Athens Olympics, and is on break before the world championships begin.  We are trading war stories from the road and realizing the similarities and the differences in what we do.

I’ve always loved sharing my stories of how young I was when I started my life with music – from putting on shows as a five year old, to playing my first gig at CBGB’s in NYC with my band STAGE.  Many of you probably don’t know that although my parents were super supportive of the arts, my family for the most part was the “Athletic Family.”  Years ago, my older brother was a professional Triathlete, so many of our vacations revolved around his and my father’s (marathon runner) work-out schedules and races.  By default I had to keep up.

Although I love getting my heart rate up and experiencing that natural high you get from a good run, I never had the stomach (literally) for competitive racing.  When I was a kid, my dad would enter me into several races that the rest of my family would do.  I was super, super fast and I would be leading my age group up until the end.  When I  saw the finish line 100 yards out, and heard the cheering of the encouraging crowd, my nerves would burst.  I would keel over and start hacking.  Nothing would come out, (I believe the technical term is the dry heaves) everyone would pass me by, and I would walk with my head down past the finish line, losing minutes to my puking session.  I did a triathlon once and all that meant was 3x the heaves.  I was a mess.  Put me in front of an international TV audience of millions and I was fine, but put me on the starting block at my high school varsity swimming race, and I wanted to die.

Then there were my little league years.  In training, I was Mariano Rivera in the making – but put a batter in the batter’s box and kiss the hitter goodbye.  I would usually nail him in the arm or something.  It made my decision to choose my passion of music over the professional world of sports easy.  This life journey of experiences made it easy to be in awe of what professional athletes do and how focused they need to be.  I never wanted to “be like Mike,” but I did want to write his theme song!

Click here to view the embedded video.

This past year I played over 200 shows and pretty much traveled to or at least through every state in this country.  Yes, even Palin’s country up there in Alaska.  It is known that most of this country has become homogenized with the same strip mall stores off of any given exit off of any given highway.  Our search to be comfortable has sucked out all the different-ness these places once had to offer.  The only way now that I can appreciate where I am is by the people.  What a gift it is to meet so many incredible individuals along this journey with my music.  I treat myself after every show I play to meet everyone who sticks around.  Often times, I will even grab my guitar and do some sing-a-longs or requests. You might be reading this because you have met me and know what I am talking about, but if you are here for the first time then let me assure you the greatest part about touring is touching each other.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If I were in Motley Crue circa ’88, that would mean something else, but for now I feel everyone is in a place where we need each other in different ways.  It is a heavy time we live in now and I am sure every generation says it, but we know what we are going through right now.  In a way, it is scary and uncertain, but in another way, you get to see the goodness of people shine.  Meeting so many of you out there this year inspired me to make a music video for my song “Breathe” with a little more substance than your typical bootie shakin’ hotness.  I made it about people and my experiences on the road.  I even set up a web site called Breathe4jobs.com to raise awareness about the unemployment problem that I witnessed out there first hand.  My belief that people are good started years ago being in NYC on 9/11.   I truly saw what it means to be one for a brief moment and it was beautiful.  This holiday season let us all give a hand, even if it’s just smiling at a stranger.

My observations from the road:

Prettiest girls – Louisville Kentucky

Darkness – New Orleans

If you want to live in a fairy tale – San Diego, (or as many know it as a whale’s vagina)

Most beautiful – Montana and Northern California

Best Food and Energy – NYC

Most Unique – San Francisco

Most Boring Drive but the best shows – Pennsylvania

Most Trouble – Vegas Baby

Surprisingly cool  – Omaha

Artsy – Santa Fe

Most likely to get lost while late for a show – New Jersey

Most likely place for your band to get into a fight with drunk idiots and then have your asses saved by Hells Angels – Detroit

Easiest girls – Ohio (oh hi ho)

For me, there are so many life learning metaphors that go along with this sport:
1. When you are going down the mountain look ahead to where you are going, but then enjoy the ride. 2. Look around and feel the greatness around you.
3. If you think that you will slip or if you start questioning yourself, you will most likely fall flat on your face–snowboarding is so much a mind game, much like the lives we live.

The greatest lesson I ever learned happened only 2 years ago on New Year’s day.  I started the day very conscious of the beauty around me and with huge admiration for the world.  Then I headed up the mountain.  I found out that past the highest chair lift, there was a trail that you could  hike up to reach an even higher state.  It was about an hour of treacherous climbing conditions and no places to rest because the trail was very narrow.  When I arrived to the top, there was a group of people all bummed out because the ropes were up due to avalanche conditions on the back side of the mountain, so everyone had to take a different way down.  It wasn’t the worst thing, but it wasn’t what we set out to accomplish.  I stayed up there for a while with my friend, took some pictures and just enjoyed where I was–we were after all on top of the world.  After a while, we decided to begin our ride down once everyone else had finally gone.  At this moment a ski patroller for the mountain lifted the ropes and announced the top was now open.  So with great excitement, we walked up the final few hundred yards to the very top and went down for the greatest ride of my life.  This experience hit me so hard because I realized then, that we are all floating out there in the world.  Some call it luck, chance, chaos–but really it is just life.

You can’t just sit at home and eat a turkey sandwich and say I hope I get lucky today.  You can’t just pray and wish that something will happen.   For me to even get to that point up top, I had to learn to snowboard, get my ass to Colorado, climb up the mountain, and still it came down to something beyond my control.  The world wants us to win.  It wants us to get what we want and it wants us to be happy.  We just have to show our intentions to it.  Wake up and say, “this is what I want” and be thankful. It is a powerful thing.

This is no secret–it has been written about over and over again.  This was just my personal experience that showed me there is more than just logic to life.  There is science and there is spirit!

Be a spirit today!

If you like this, check these life afirming books out:
1. The Alchemist
2. Shantaram
3. Siddartha

My favorite Aspen pop culture moments:

1.  Dumb and Dumber
2.  The X Games
3.  The New Year’s bomber (Dec 31, 2008)
4.  Charlie Sheen gets arrested (3 days ago)
5. Jane’s Addiction small New Years show at the Belly Up (3 days from now)

Click here to view the embedded video.

According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours per week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). This means that in a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years staring at a television.  There was a time when I completely stopped watching TV in my life.  I thought it was the drug to make us all passive and easily brainwashed.  I still feel that way, but like any good high, I couldn’t stay away from its romance forever.  So instead of bowing out in shame, let’s talk about the good side of it all.

I firmly believe that entertainment is the key to world peace.  I used to think the solution was in education, but I have realized a generation’s hate just breeds more hate, so what we get is just more of the same.  It takes a third party to come in and shake everything up.  Enter TV.

I remember hearing how TV stars have a harder time walking around in public because people feel like they know them.  Unlike movie stars, TV actors are right in our living rooms once a week or every day.  We feel like we know them–after all, they are in our house on a regular basis, so why wouldn’t we?  As much as this might be a headache for Ross and Chandler, it is the secret weapon of mass destruction when it comes to hate.  From the Cosby show, to Will and Grace, to Glee, we have invited people with different backgrounds and beliefs into our homes and have embraced them.  This is the time when the younger generation can stand up for what they believe and actually educate those before them.

On another note (but in the same vein), I am sure, like many others, we have fallen victim to a new kind of TV.  HBO created it with more of a cinematic feel.   With shows like 24, House, Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, Lie To Me, and my favorite LOST, we have been saved from the age old saying of “nothing is on.”  Its all on—you’ve just got to choose one or two series and stick with them, or that scary 9 year statistic is going to turn into 50!

See our linked 5 Most Interesting HBO characters piece here

My Favorite shows this year

Lost –  I got into Lost 2 years in and I couldn’t believe how incredible it was.  Now, as it is about to wrap up, I don’t know what I will do with all of my free time–where I am not trying to understand exactly what is going on.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Curb Your Enthusiasm – I take every word of this show like it is The Bible.  Simply brilliant.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Family Guy – True art in Randomness.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Glee – I got turned onto this show by ten year old girls.  Shocked that their parents let them watch it, I am so impressed with its content.  The way it is edited is definitely for the Ritalin generation, but there is something so incredible with all the character development.  I love when film or TV can create a heightened version of our reality.  In Glee it is done with song.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lie To Me – Not just for the obvious reason that I wrote the theme song, but this show is awesome.  Tim Roth is pulling from his Reservoir Dogs bad ass days.  You really can learn how to tell when people are lying with this one.  Check it out.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To many, these are the levels of “Rock Band” or “Guitar Hero” but for me it is very real. From the early age of 14, I have been on countless stages.  A parentless, friend’s basement party, a small smoky room you can hardly call a bar, the city’s premiere Venue, a stadium in Prague, these all come in so many walks of life, but what remains the same, is the perfect symbiosis of performer and a crowd.  This magic is always unique and always raw no matter how planned it can be.  The live experience is what I feel people love and what will continue to keep people coming out to see music–even when every album ever made is sitting in our pockets right at our fingertips.

I always thought the best shows were the ones where a mic went down, or a guitar cut out, or strings broke–because it reminds us that we are creating a new moment.  Unrehearsed raw energy comes only from when you are unprepared and your instincts kick in.  I am sure it is like this for any profession whether you are a lawyer or a sports star.  It is always the unpredictable moments that we remember as “lightning in a bottle.” In a world where we are getting really good at being accurate, let’s remember it is the imperfections that make so many things in this world beautiful (even Kate Moss and David Beckham).

My Best Tours of 2009

Nine Inch Nails – When I was 15, I believed Trent Reznor put on the best show I would ever see.  This year, in what he called his farewell tour, I still believe nobody puts on a better show.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Leonard Cohen at 75 years old–he is more rock and roll than anyone I have ever seen.  My favorite poet holds all the knowledge and lets you in a little more with each song.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Pixies – more proven Veterans of music—give us the quintessential rock band experience and show us how to incredibly pull off classic albums live.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jay Z – Never thought he would have made my list, but this year he got me.   You saw it too.  Enough said.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When I was a kid I remember the day Mark Foo died.  This revolutionary big wave surfer never came up after riding his wave in.  It was as if this liquid mountain was his chariot to the world beyond.  He was riding in his passion and will always live on in the hall of greats.  As a kid I grew up surfing on the east end of Long Island.  Montauk is the place that I consider my birthplace–where I learned who I was.  Spiritual is how I felt the day I heard Mark Foo died doing what he loved.  I didn’t think about his beliefs, his status, or his bank account.  I thought about a man who was in one moment living out his purpose and then the next literally ceased to exist.  He was a hero to me and that is because fear could not follow him where he was going.   I like the idea of living without that fear.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Snowboarding has become a metaphor in my life for controlling fear.   If I am riding down the mountain, I am glancing at what is ahead so I don’t run right off a cliff, but mostly I am focused on every passing second–enjoying the ride.  When I stop to think about what might happen if I fall, then that’s exactly what happens.  I fall.  When I focus on actually getting to where I am going and in the style I wish to do so, I get there.  That is how you get to where you are going.  We are all creating our own realities.  Every second, we are our own Gods of how we see ourselves.   When I am snowboarding, I am in control.  As I sit here writing this blog and packing for my New Year’s trip to Aspen, I think about what we fear and I laugh in its face because we all know it’s not real.  We are the creators of our destiny and we should all ride the mountain confident in what we are doing-we are just people searching for some fun in this world for a bit, while we visit.

Top moments of my 2009

I am truly happy when I am on the stage and this year I played close to 200 shows so I will always remember this year as a great one.  I have been so blessed to me et so many amazing people out there.

New Years Day. One of the best days of my life.  I started by meditating for the first time  that day and then Snowboarded the back country in Aspen.   I feel like I found truths and secrets to my life that day and have been different ever since.

January 7th My birthday was spent debuting my band and my new songs to a small sold out club in nyc.

March 2009 after touring extensively we came back to my hometown and sold out The Bowery Ballroom.   Its where I grew up seeing shows so for me it was a dream come true.

The day I saw the video for my song “Breathe” completed.   It was so special to me to have this video be the visual to a song that truly means the world to me.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Happy Holidays and check here for more on our special Guest Artist Ryan Star

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now, years later, I am humbled by having my songs appear in so many various worlds.  My song “Brand New Day” is the theme song to one of the coolest TV shows out there called “Lie To Me” on FOX and other songs of mine have already started to appear in films, sports and promos.  To me, it is a perfect marriage of the arts.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To this day, when I am asked who my influences are, I somehow assume they are talking about film and not music.  I guess my wires got a little crossed the day I found rock and roll in a movie soundtrack.  Realizing this, I often bring a notebook to the theatre and take notes when I watch.  I don’t steal the dialogue but I like to note the emotion and colors the films create.  The way a film pulls us in over two hours, a song has to do in 3 minutes.  Just call me a lazy filmmaker.

My Best Soundtracks of the Decade
Vanilla Sky
Into The Wild (Eddie Vedder)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Moulin Rouge
Garden State

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kill Bill

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check here for more Ryan Star

Click here to view the embedded video.

When I watch a football player running into the end zone, I see someone who is living.  Their spirit and their body seem as one and we as humans are in awe and inspired by it.  I know people who don’t even like or understand sports but they will still watch a big wave surfer conquer the liquid mountain and ride for all of us.

The title, 11:59, points out a time where we all stop and check ourselves- where we are at that very minute.  For me, my moment of greatness is when I am on the stage performing – it is where I feel home and at peace.  It begs to ask me the question, what is your 11:59?

In this spirit of living life ‘Right Now’, here are my best sports moment of the year:

James Harrison, 100 Yard Interception Return, Super Bowl 43 – This is what I am talking about.  Seeing someone living out their purpose for us all to witness makes us feel so alive.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Yankees win the World Series – They were playing my song “breathe” during the playoffs and as a New Yorker it was an honor but the World Series was even better.  A fine tuned machine knowing they were going to win from the start.  I watched the final game in a sports bar (very unlike me) in NYC just so I can feel the collective spirit come alive.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Usain Bolt breaks the world record AGAIN, winning the 100-meter race in 9.58 seconds at the world championships, Berlin World Championships – This guy has that incredible wisdom that in life, nothing should be so serious.  He has got style, confidence and I can’t help but watch in awe.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This Could Be the Year ….. the title of one of my favorite songs off of my upcoming album 11:59.  This song is the marriage between 2 passions of mine: sports and music.  It stands for what I truly love about life and the soundtrack music gives it.   When I sat to write this song, I wanted a song that I could hear blasting in stadiums for the World Series or the Superbowl–a modern day “We are the Champions.”  I was lucky enough for this song to be embraced right away by ESPN and the WWE, and have seen it appear on many year-end highlight reels already, even before the album has come out.

I listen to music most when I am at the gym or running outside in NYC, so it makes sense that many of the new tracks on 11:59 are about feeling the moment we are in.  Songs like “Right Now,” “Brand New Day,” and “This Could Be the Year” have all found their way into the sports world this year and it really makes me feel like they are living out the destiny for which they were written.  My favorite songs have always been the ones that make me feel like I can fly–when you hear a song and it speeds up your heart rate and makes you want to go faster, be stronger.  Some songs tap into your spirit and say “nothing can stop me now” and that is so powerful.  Better than a coach in the last quarter telling me it’s my time, I look to songs to make me feel that inspiration.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In a few days I leave for a week of snowboarding out west.  It is where I will be reborn for next year and I won’t be alone up there.  I have made a list of the songs of 2009 that have found their way into my psych-up play list.  Enjoy…

Paramore – Looking Up
TV On The Radio- Halfway Home
Phoenix – Lisztomania
Run This Town- Jay Z
Muse – Uprising
Brand New – Vices
Pearl Jam  – The Fixer
Manchester Orchestar – Pride
Lily Allen – Everyone’s At it
Silversun Pickups – Growing Old is Growing Old
Brand New – Vices
Regina Spektor – Machine