November 9, 2009

I don't drink (except for on the very rare occasion). I don't smoke. I don't do any illicit drugs. I have only had sex with one person, to whom I have been faithfully married for over a decade. I have three children whom I support both financially and emotionally. I attend church three days a week and regularly study scripture and pray. But I'm evil.

How am I evil? I mean, besides that whole pesky original sin way.

I am evil because I have the audacity to accept that my heterosexuality is merely a happenstance of birth. I am evil because I do not believe that heterosexuals possess a monopoly on love and its legitimate expression. I am evil because I do not believe that my government should "define" my marriage as the only legitimate way to be married.

By the way, "conservatives" who do believe that should reexamine your conservative cred. Even I, the liberal who believes that the public option for health care should be a public mandate (because some things, like our health, should not be ruled by a profit margin), thinks that form of government intrusion is way too far.

I'm not saying your pastor has to perform the ceremony. I'm not saying that you have to attend. I'm not saying your children have to be taught that it's OK to be gay and they should give it a shot some time to see if they like it. I'm just saying that it is fundamentally unjust for the government to prohibit same sex marriage while endorsing heterosexual marriage and providing all of the benefits that my spouse and I enjoy.

And that makes me evil. Pray for me. Maybe I'll come around.

-Tom

November 5, 2009

As you may (or more likely may NOT - since you probably spend less time here than I do) have noticed, it's been a bit desolate around here. It's not that I haven't been up to anything, it's just that I can't seem to be bothered to take the time to tell the internet all about it. There's a new band in the works, there's always new material being written, there will be a few new studio projects over the next year, and there's ALWAYS something to make fun of. For all of those things and more (not to mention the promise of updates more than every few months or so) I have decided to join the Twitteratzy in the Twitterlution and become a full fledged card carrying Twit. You may follow me on Twitter now.

This site is not dying or anything, I just have not maintained the proper feeding and watering schedule to nourish it the way that I would like to. As always, I intend to correct that some other time. In the meantime, please follow me on Twitter.

-Tom

June 27, 2009

It has been far too long, but I am still going to make this brief. The writing process for the Jackrabbit Dares project continues, and I am taking this opportunity to post six demos I recorded today. They are a bit rough. It's just me and a guitar. Everything here is a first take only mixed during playback. I even flubbed a couple of lines (no, I won't tell you which ones).

You can download a tarball with the mp3s here.

As always, any feedback is appreciated.

-Tom

March 15, 2009

I'm passing the torch.

The other day my five-year-old son, Caleb, asked me if we could work on a song called "Lightning Strikes". I've been listening to Live's Throwing Copper around the house lately while cleaning and what not, so I assumed he meant "Lightning Crashes". I played it for him to see if that was what he meant and he told me that it wasn't. In fact, he said, that song was "boring". He then sang for me more of what he had in mind. It is truly a Caleb original. He let me know the general idea of what he wanted on guitar and then he sang even more. I'm not sure where he got the ideas behind the lyrics, maybe it was from watching too much Weather Channel with his Pops.

Anyway, I told him that I would record it with him and we did today after church. This is a first take, just me and Caleb, with one mic in the room. Without any further ado, I present to you "Lightning Strikes".

UPDATED: Due to a script issue I have yet to solve, you must go to the permalink to hear the demo. Sorry.

I will keep you posted on what's going on with my music hopefully in the near future.

-Tom

January 3, 2009

I have been writing for the new Jackrabbit Dares album at a much faster pace than I can record. In the spirit of the new year and as an apology for not keeping up with posting regularly here, I have decided to post the rough acoustic demos for some of the songs that will most likely make the album. I have written about 30 songs so far, but some of them really suck. Here are the demos of 5 of the ones I am happy with (the songwriting, not necessarily the performance) and will begin recording "for real" in the very near future:

UPDATED: Due to a script issue I have yet to solve, you must go to the permalink to hear the demo. Sorry.

You can download a tarball with the mp3s and the lyrics here. The name of the file is a little weird, but I promise it's just music.

As always, any feedback is appreciated.

-Tom