Sometimes you can't see the horizon between the ocean and the Earth

Road blog: Houston - day 2

Spent last night in the hotel room, not sure if I mentioned it but I'm staying in the hotel attached to the airport here so there's nowhere to go and nothing to do here but stay in your room, and got a little work done while watching a movie and found myself getting completely sucked into the film and staying up way too late because of it. the movie was Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten and I not only love this film but I now totally love Joe Strummer. More than I did already, the guy is an inspiration to me in a bunch of ways, not just because he wrote White Riot.

it's incredible how consistent the man was when you look at the arc of not only his career in music but his life as an artist - sure his musical career had some low points and stupid decisions but the things that drove him followed a clear and consistent vector that is very rare - An artist that follows the things that inspire him to create art and in that found enough drive to sustain and move him.
Watching him go from playing stadiums to being out flyering for his shows on the street to unsuspecting people that had no idea who he was and through it all only being concerned about just making music and bringing it to the people. That's it. Not millions of people or for millions of dollars - just playing for the people that showed up.
As someone that has always fancied himself 'an artist' it was kind of humbling beyond just the fact that he became Joe Fucking Strummer but also because it makes you consider all the compromises we make out of fear or uncertainty and imagine what is possible if more people had the balls to do it.

The film was full of quotes from the man that struck a chord with me but his talking about writing song lyrics was great and moving and makes me want to get off my ass and create more, all the time. He apparently used to carry markers and note cards everywhere and was constantly writing down chunks of lyrics and when he was without a band it all dried up - he didn't write anything at all for years and then when he decided to form a band again he wrote 9 hours of music in a single night.
He talked about how art will come to you only if you have an outlet for it - if you're making music then your brain is always working on your art because you're using it, and you can't just sit around and not create until something comes to you - it doesn't work that way. You have to exercise it and work on it and create.

the quote that really nailed how he was really looking at things with different eyes was this -

"What 'punk rock' means is simply exemplary manners to your fellow human beings"