I’ll continue blogging here about personal stuff and all of my various projects, but if you’re interested in exploring an entrepreneurial side, join me at Neon Citizen!

I’ve started blogging as Neon Citizen. Add it to your feeds folks!

In early March I got called to attend SXSW for various clients. I met up with a friend in Dallas and drove to Austin for my first time. On the way there, my friend asked me what projects I had been working on lately and I shockingly didn’t have a list to share. The Motley – the was it. He asked me if I’d think about concentrating more on video production again and I assured him that I would when the time was right. It’s difficult to be twenty-two (almost twenty-three) and completely concentrate on a singular goal.

From the beginning of March and up until now, work has entirely flipped around. I haven’t gone a single day since the first week of March without working and I’m extremely glad that it has been that way. April doesn’t look like it’ll be any slower either. I’m booked from now until at least April 20th and I can’t imagine what May will look like.

It isn’t easy to go almost two months without work after you’ve gone five years with a consistent job, but I’m glad that I’m learning how to deal with it early on. I’m glad that I was able to take a quick break. I’m excited to be able to start planning another trip or two in May or June. I’m really, really excited about this summer and I have absolutely no idea what it’ll bring.

I hope that you all are enjoying Spring.

Even more honored to say that the last shot in the piece is mine. Enjoy!

He always saw a bit of himself, first in my entrepreneurial drive, and then in my decision to work in the music industry.  He worked with RCA for over fifty years eventually heading all of their manufacturing.  His biggest account was Elvis, in which he had immense control.  He was one person on a small team that developed Elvis into the multimillion dollar property.  He retired from his job and became the family man that I knew him as.

In my late teenage years we’d talk about the music industry and he’d tell me how glamorous it was and I’d tell him how much it is suffering.  He didn’t understand why – or how an industry that was so powerful could fall apart over the course of half a decade.  I’d try to explain, but that takes explaining of the internet first.

I was recently Googling him and found a US Patent document that he filed through RCA under his name.  I’m not entirely sure what it is for (something related to producing vinyls), but seeing his signature at the bottom of each page is symbolic of all of his achievements that he’d tell us about.

Perhaps the greatest knowledge that I took away from him was the willingness to take risks.  He taught me how to take a risk, fail, get back up and try again – a lesson that I’ll pass on.  He told me to create things.  It didn’t matter what I was creating (he’d admit that he had no idea what I was doing when I’d talk about video and MTV and the internet) but as long as I was developing new things and, at some point, making money off of it, he’d approve.

As my life further develops, that’ll always be one character trait that I can relate directly back to him.  Be strong. Be brave. Take risks.  But greater than all of that, understand and appreciate the value of being able to pursue what you love.

You taught me well.

This year I’m going to try to take my diet a step further – eating 75% vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains and grain-like crops, 15% poultry and 10% irresistible carbs and products with unrefined sugars.  I ate far too many carbohydrates and too much sugar before (I’m assuming accounting for nearly 50% of my diet) and I’m bringing that to a stop.

I’m not going to repress myself because I think that is unnecessary.  If you have to repress yourself while trying to be healthy then you’re doing something wrong.

What are you changing in 2012?

Track listing:

Ray Charles “Winter Wonderland”
Ryan Adams “Kindness”
Fleet Foxes “White Winter Hymnal”
Bright Eyes “Blue Christmas”
Mumford and Sons “Winter Winds”
Act As If  ”Sleigh Bells and Reindeers”
Jack Johnson “In the Morning”
The Civil Wars “Tracks in the Snow”
The Ray Charles Singers “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”
Phantom Planet “Winter Wonderland”
John Lennon “Happy Christmas (War Is Over)”

The imagery that he created (angles, colors, movement) is so incredible. Great job, man! To those checking it out, enjoy.