"If I were a seed, I'd give birth to redwood trees, and if I were a tree, I'd generate the freshest air to breathe"

ah, michael franti in the morning. The man can take lyrics just on the edge of cheesy and turn them into poetry. If i wrote about sprouting things from seeds, it would not turn out like that.

Speaking of music, yesterday I was on a Phish kick. It was really my first major kick since the break-up. After the dissolution I went into some sort of phish abstainance for awhile...not intentionally, that's just kind of how i drifted. A mental homage perhaps, meditation and musical fasting period in honor of the most influential music of my adolescent life (and even now). So yesterday I was in a somewhat melancholy mood, over-analyzing financial conundrums and other such stresses over and over in my head, when unconsciously I put a phish CD in, and felt instantaneously better. The healing power of phish. There's a multitude of music that calms and soothes me (jazz in particular these days), but i have such a long, solid listening history with phish. At 15 years old I found myself in possession of "Hoist" and then "A Live One" when it was released the summer I turned 16, and from there every concert, boot leg, and conversation surrounding the mona lisa of modern jambands became a soothing and electrfying experience. Times of irritation in that whirlwind they call adolescence were made easier by those four nerdy musicians. The grateful dead was important to me as well, though i didn't latch onto them as quickly or vehemently as with phish. I discovered both bands at nearly the same time. And being 15 it was cool to have no preconceived idea of either bands place in music history. I was just a kid that heard some songs, and these songs made me tingle, dance, and think. Concluding that this was an amazing thing - I bought some music. Before phish, I owned one Grateful Dead cassette tape - Skeletons from the Closet of course. In the summer I would walk the mile or so from my house to tennis practice, always be-boppin to my old school walkman. For about a month straight that walkman saw nothing but that GD cassette. I daresay if i had a musically inclined family member to guide me through that initial GD addiction, I may have been one of those hardcore GD, not so much phish fans. But that's another story altogether. For the most part, my musical taste is a kaleidascope now, but it all started with 4 quirky guys from vermont just trying to play some music. The simplicity of the intention is ironic when considering the 4-headed monster that sprung. Born of good intention - that's what matters.

"this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way..."