April 20, 2012

TGIF: Beat Up Your Blog Edition

Phew! It's been a busy bloggy week for me. But I love it, so it's all good.

However, because it's been busy, I am glad to welcome a guest for TGIF.


He is @TLanceB on the Twitter. His blog is titled My Blog Can Beat Up Your Blog. He is a fiction writer and a music lover. And he is here to share his HAPPY with us! It's not your typical sort of syrupy-sweet, giggly happy. He's a guy with inner demons.

* * *

In the pre-apocalyptic wasteland the Internet tends to be, when a nice person asks you to write about what makes you happy, you accept. I'm married to my best friend. She's tall, blonde, voluptuous, funny, sexy, smart and interesting. You'd think that was enough to make me happy on a consistent basis. Throw in three beautiful, talented, unique daughters aged 16, 8, and 7, and you'd wonder why in the hell am I not ridiculously happy to where I shouldn't need to write, blog, tweet, and the Facebook? Well, it's hard to explain.




My childhood was a mixed bag of okay and life altering nightmares. The only thing that got me to be good enough to be around my wife and kids, today, was music. I started early. My first memories that I can recall involve taking my parents records, yes, vinyl albums that looked like this: 


I immersed myself in music. There were times where I thought Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson were my cool, outlaw Uncles. Stevie Nix was my babysitter in 1977 when Fleetwood Mac's Rumors album came out. My parents weren't audiophiles like me. They liked music, I loved it. During difficult times in my life, especially my rough teenage years, I dreamed of being a rock star. The guitar riffs, chord changes, and fragments of art and poetry inside a three-minute pop songs or five-minute rock and roll epic transfixed me. 


I'm one of the most internally morose people you'll ever meet. On the outside, I'm presentable. I'm like an Ace of Base happy pop song but on the inside it's a melancholy marathon of The Smiths, Bauhaus, and Jeff Buckley. Music always finds the balance. My wife will sarcastically remark, "You're in a bad mood. Go listen to one of you T. Rex or New York Dolls CDs and come back to me." A few days ago, I was trudging through a terrible morning. I decided to break away from the Sturm and drang of the office and go grab a sandwich. While in line, Sister Golden Hair by America, one of the 1970s bands my parents had a vinyl record of, began to play. For three minutes my inside and my outside met in simpatico. It was a microcosm of my life. My wife called me shortly thereafter and I guess my voice had some giddy-up. She muttered, "you must have heard a good song. Thank God for your music. I love you."

* * *

Family + music = HAPPY. "Music always finds the balance."

When I'm in a bad mood, turning on some favorite music I can sing to helps me tremendously.

Thanks so much for this, Lance!

Leave the guy some love, and check him out on his Blog, Twitter and Facebook!

Then, write some HAPPY, grab the button --> and link up!
(Linky open all weekend.)

4 comments:

  1. Just Jennifer's Dad here, Lance. I design loudspeakers, and you and I are kindred spirits my friend. Music is Magic.

    Just ordered 3, count them 3, Joe Bonamassa DVDs. Can't wait!

    Great to meet you.

    Randy

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    1. Thank you Jen's dad. Yes, I bet we;ve had a lot to talk about and listen ot.

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  2. Lance's love of music is contagious. I feel like I'm remembering to listen to music again.

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  3. I can still recall dancing to The Rumours album (that's not a typo) with my mom when I was a little girl. I actually have a couple of songs on my iPod now!

    now I dance with my kids in the kitchen most evenings while I cook and clean up. great times!

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