HAPPY 55!

Lexi-Fest 2019

Another birthday!

And for those who read these annual posts, I'm not dead.

Haha! Referencing last year's birthday post, re: recurring dream of dying before my 55th birthday. I didn't expect to die, of course. Not in any literal sense. But I also trust my subconscious and assume its telling me something. But more on that later.

It was a great day.

Went over and woke up the kiddos after packing their lunches and making their breakfast. Got hugs as my ex took the 2 oldest to school. Then I played with the youngest for a bit before taking him to school.

Tiffaney singing with Greg on bass & me on guitar!

Then it was GYM TIME!

Ripping workout, then trekked over to see the older 2 for lunch at school. (They ate - I just hung out.) Then I went to lunch myself....giant salad and bison tataki. Then hit the grocery and treated myself to some out of date antipasto! Hahaha!

After a full day of teaching guitar (private lessons at Hurst Music), I went home, had a bit of "out of my pay-grade" rum that I got last year as a gift from my good friend Eddy, and called it a day.....because days before, Greg Rhodus and I had our Birthday Jam at Twisted Cork (pictures coming as I get them) and I'll also be at Taziki's this Friday (tomorrow, from this writing).

One of my favorite singers!!

The Cork jam started slow and worked into a fevered pitch, with us just absolutely winging the last 3 songs ("Walking the Dog", "Purple Haze", and "Suzie Q", if memory serves).

Taziki's tomorrow should be a blast, though far more laid back.

As I do each year, I'm posting an ODIS picture (that stands for "Old Dudes In Shape") as a challenge to my buddies who also post ODIS. Good accountability and keeps us all motivated!

If you are interested in the stories & photos from past birthdays, you can start with LAST YEAR, which also links to all other posts.

That's it for now. Gotta get to work on the Lexi Music Awards now, and then go teach the first day of a new group guitar session at Willis Music!

See y'all soon...in person, online, on TV, or wherever we shall meet!

#StayFierce #SkinnyDevil #FierceAF #SDMLguitar #LexiMusicAwards

I need to post one that is more ab-friendly (haha!), but there ya go!

FALL Lifestyle Challenge

HELLO OCTOBER!

From Sept 2019 at Lexi-Fest 5.

For those new to the challenges, it isn't to compete against others. It's to push yourself to greater heights, have some company & inspiration along the way, and a few ideas the help get us focused. For example, you can use this waving of the analytical knife to help organize your goals:

1) Exercise/Diet - Set a specific plan or goal(s). Keep us posted weekly (or more) on your progress!

2) Creativity - Music, art, writing, acting...set a goal to complete by month's end. Keep us posted!

3) Personal life - Re-affirm your personal relationships, get to that project/chore you've been avoiding, or just read a book you've always wanted to read!

4) Professional life - Set a work goal or change jobs or....just tell us what it is and keep us posted!

I usually say that I'll post my goals below, and then provide weekly up-dates...but I think I'll make a few plain right here.

1) Exercise/Diet - I will get more area focused while still maintaining my 4-5 day per week workouts. Also trying to shorten the workouts, as they were turning into 2 hour events (haha!). so cutting to under 90 minutes per workout.

Onstage playing electric guitar!

I have specific OCTOBER goals, with the birthday ODIS photos coming up (haha!). RIP! Past Birthday Posts are available, of course.

As I mentioned in the Spring Challenge, I've been asked about doing a health & fitness E-Book that includes a variety of my workout routines broken into 4 groups: Spring, Summer, Fall, & Winter. This will include not only exercise plans I've followed, but dietary habits.

This notion makes me somewhat uneasy, as I have discovered over the years nothing about what works - only what works for me. But I am happy to share that info. And will.

Doing a "Sober October" (which I started early to hit 30 days since I'll likely drink on my birthday, which is 10-23).....and shortening the time frame again on my eating window (common parlance is "intermittent fasting") from 8 hours to 3 hours. Still high raw, but quasi-paleo (not vegan).

2) Creativity - Continue to play more gigs though I've pushed back the work on 2 album releases for this year. to 2020. I've discussed these album projects here at Skinny Devil Universe, but in short, one 3-song EP of me covering local writers, and one 3-song EP of my new original material).....and keep moving with the Monday Classic Covers series, which has been huge fun AND good instructional fodder for students.

A few years ago hanging with Greg & holding Rylan.

3) Personal life - Organize, organize, organize....and spend more time with ALL the grandkids....AND decipher last year's recurring death dream.....

4) Professional life- organize, organize, organize....and double my productivity. Higher focus, less waste, increased marginal gains, law of averages. Live gigs, workshops, more student opportunities, Lexi-Fest & Lexi Awards......and everything discussed in the January post mention above.

Sooooo.......How about YOU?

Let us know in the comments below!

5 in 5 Songwriting Challenge!

5 in 5 Songwriting Challenge is, for our purposes, designed to see the skeleton (basic chord progression, form, melody, and lyrics) of a song written each day for five days....with each song performed and recorded in demo version (a quick phone video is perfect, uploaded to youtube and then shared)....and then you have the remainder of the month to flesh the songs out and then re-perform and record (demo version still fine, so youtube video still works great), and shared.

Sharing below in the comments is a much better route than sharing just as a reply to any particular social media post (I'l be sharing this via facebook and other social media as well as email and text), so that we have a central hub to come to so we can keep each other honest.

Soooo.....let's kick it off tomorrow - June 1st!

Here we go.....

Spring Lifestyle Challenge

HELLO APRIL!

For those new to the challenges, it isn't to compete against others. It's to push yourself to greater heights, have some company & inspiration along the way, and a few ideas the help get us focused. For example, you can use this waving of the analytical knife to help organize your goals:

1) Exercise/Diet - Set a specific plan or goal(s). Keep us posted weekly (or more) on your progress!

2) Creativity - Music, art, writing, acting...set a goal to complete by month's end. Keep us posted!

3) Personal life - Re-affirm your personal relationships, get to that project/chore you've been avoiding, or just read a book you've always wanted to read!

4) Professional life - Set a work goal or change jobs or....just tell us what it is and keep us posted!

I usually say that I'll post my goals below, and then provide weekly up-dates...but I think I'll make a few plain right here.

1) Exercise/Diet - I will get more area focused while still maintaining my 4-5 day per week workouts. The idea being that I can rehab needed areas as well as build on specific strengths better if I rest areas more AND work them harder when they are worked....but keep the benefits of a full-body workout.

I've been so asked about health & fitness, I plan to do an E-Book that includes a variety of my workout routines broken into 4 groups: Spring, Summer, Fall, & Winter. This will include not only exercise plans I've followed, but dietary habits.

This notion makes me somewhat uneasy, as I have discovered over the years nothing about what works - only what works for me. But I am happy to share that info. And will.

Dietarily, I'll be having an Alcohol-Free April.....and probably shortening the time frame again on my eating window (common parlance is "intermittent fasting") from 8 hours to 6 hours. Still high raw, but quasi-paleo (not vegan). BTW: Is "dietarily" even a word?

2) Creativity - Continue to play more gigs as well as write & work on 2 album releases for this year. I've discussed these album projects here at Skinny Devil Universe, but in short, one 3-song EP of me covering local writers, and one 3-song EP of my new original material.....and keep moving with the Monday Classic Covers series even as I add a free songwriter series and a periodic Ask Me Anything series.

3) Personal life - Organize, organize, organize....and spend more time with ALL the grandkids!

4) Professional life- organize, organize, organize....and double my productivity. Higher focus, less waste, increased marginal gains, law of averages. Live gigs, workshops, more student opportunities, Lexi-Fest & Lexi Awards......and everything discussed in the January post mention above.

Sooooo.......How about YOU?

Let us know in the comments below!

MONDAY - Classic Covers!

On stage at the 5th Lexi Music Awards

A NEW SERIES that I decided to start after various requests for both original music & more covers. It's called "Monday Classic Covers" and we're 5 weeks deep. Songs so far include "Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding, "I Can't Stand the Rain" by Ann Peebles, "Fly Away" by Lenny Kravitz, "Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix, and "My Girl" by the Temptations.

Songs in the cue (by request) include "Long Black Veil" by Lefty Frissell, "The Times They Are a Changin'" by Bob Dylan, and more Jimi Hendrix. I'm trying to keep track of the other requests...and please feel free to leave requests below or contact me directly or via facebook, youtube, reverbnation, and the like.

Of possible interest: a new SONGWRITING series and possible music-centric "Ask Me Anything" series....also hosted at my Youtube channel (please feel free to subscribe & share!).

You can see the Monday Classic Cover playlist HERE!

2019 Goals & Lifestyle Challenge

Ssooo....I figure perhaps we'll do our annual "goals" and our periodic "lifestyle challenge" all in a single post this time!

Lexi-Fest Florez Benefit show.

Lifestyle Challenge

For those new to the challenges, it isn't to compete against others. It's to push yourself to greater heights, have some company & inspiration along the way, and a few ideas the help get us focused. For example, you can use this waving of the analytical knife to help organize your goals:

1) Exercise - Set a specific plan or goal(s). Keep us posted weekly (or more) on your progress!

2) Creativity - Music, art, writing, acting...set a goal to complete by month's end. Keep us posted!

3) Personal life - Re-affirm your personal relationships, get to that project/chore you've been avoiding, or just read a book you've always wanted to read!

4) Professional life - Set a work goal or change jobs or....just tell us what it is and keep us posted!

My goals include doubling my shoulder strength (now that rehab seems more or less complete) and - more nebulous - a greater focus on leg strength and a more varied workout routine (alternating light & heavy days)....all while pushing bodyfat percentage well below my current 10% or so.

Creatively, I'd like to release TWO albums this year....one featuring original compositions of mine and the other recording original compositions of singer-songwriter friends like DJ Crowe and Travis Warnken. I also have some very specific guitar technique goals I'll be chasing.

Personal life goals is to find better balance so I can spend more time with ALL my grandbabies and more frequent trips to Georgia to see my parents and sister.

Professional life....well, that could be an entire entry. To over-simplify: financial stability and increased creative endeavors (including more custom composition work for commercial purposes and more stage time).

How about YOU?

Lexi-Fest Festival with Brandi Hart

New Year Goals

I've seen interesting "health" break-downs over the years, but recently revisited the concept. I rather like the one listed below, and I include it here in the hope that it is of some utility to you.

1) Physical health

2) Psychological health

3) Intellectual health

4) Social health

5) Environmental health

6) Occupational health

7) Spiritual health

8) Financial health

The breakdown is fairly arbitrary, of course, with some systems combining occupation & financial, for example, or spiritual/social/psychological, for another. But I like the extra category(s) for a finer granular approach.

Soooo....I'm re-evaluating my diet & exercise plan, working towards a focus on banishing negative thoughts, re-focusing on intellectual exercise (more on this later), getting out more in social settings & see friends more often, I'm feeling pretty solid on environmental & occupational health at the moment but have a few difficult to articulate spiritual goals (more on that as I narrow the focus), and finally financial health.....the area of biggest concern for a self-employed musician.

Without being overly specific, I clearly need increased stability, more robust return on current revenue streams, and the creation of new highly viable streams. This is of special concern to all of us who are self-employed (as it takes twice the annual income as our employed peers to match their standard of living since we have to pay 100% of things like unemployment/disability insurance, business insurance, health insurance, various retirement plans, and the like). In concrete terms: the per capita income in KY (the state where I live) is roughly $39,000 per year (far below the national average, but not so bad when adjusting for geographical cost of living). That means someone self-employed (to enjoy the same lifestyle and retirement as someone employed) has to net roughly $78,000 a year.

Soooo...there's that.

What about YOU?