In life, there is nothing to accomplish. More is not more. Less is more. When you have the bare minimum, you have enough. Less than the bare minimum is dying. But more than the bare minimum is excess. Excess is not good. Moderation destroys all sorrow.
People get addicted to all kinds of things. Some drugs are legal, some are not. Sugar is actually the worst, most addictive, and most destructive drug there is. But they put it in every item in the grocery store. Once you are addicted to Coca Cola or Cheetos or Frappucino, you are hooked for life. Sugar has caused more death than tobacco, alcohol, heroin, cocaine, etc.. combined. Some drugs are legal, some are illegal. Addiction is a matter of health and not morality or crime or sin. These are all false concepts.
I've met people addicted to sex, to marijuana, to gambling, to alcohol, to cigarettes, and obviously, to sugar. I myself love sex. I see nothing wrong with any form of sex for money. It is in the bible. There are good and bad prostitutes. Prostitution is everywhere. It might be lurking next door. Sex addiction is an addiction. Of all the addictions, I think gambling is the worst. In gambling, you throw away your money in hopes of getting more money. But it is just an illusion. Gamblers always lose. The house always wins. I think sex addiction is the most innocent addiction. But that is just me. It seems like sex for money is America's biggest business, not a problem. It's business as usual.
This post is called No Particular Place To Go after a Chuck Berry song. It one of his classics. He invented the genre known as rock n roll. The music of youth and rebellion. The actual song is a story of a man and his girlfriend driving around with no destination in mind. It is cute and ironic and ends with a twist. Chuck Berry was a songwriting genius. There were other great musicians out there. But he was special.
In my life, I have no particular place to go. I have no ambition or goal in mind. I simply want to live and die in peace. I enjoy music and food and sex and I exercise if I have to. I tend to be lazy. But that's just me.
So far, I have produced 6 albums and 2 books. One album came off the market. Some music platforms are better than others. Some are a rip off, some are sleazy businesses, some are good business paradigms where both parties benefit. A good businessman believes in mutual welfare and beenfit. He is not interested in making a short term killing and making off with the loot. That is sin. That is crime.
The whole premise of society is the economy. If you do the right thing, work with enthusiasm, and get good results, you will be succesful. It is all karma. Do good and get good. Do wrong and get punished.
So the beat goes on, and I continue making music. I want music to be my career. Life is too short to do something boring and useless just to make a paycheck. I am going to die just like you are going to die. Only God doesn't die. Camp Undefeated. So if my time is short, I want to have money and fun at the same time. Music is the best career ever.
The distance between rich and famous and unknown starving artist is shrinking. There are more full time muscians making between 30,000 and 40,000 per year than ever. But they have advanced marketing savvy. My talent is extraordinary. But my business savvy is intermediate. So I must learn how to market and reach a bigger audience. 1000 streams gets you 7 dollars on Spotify. That is pesos. That means you need 1 million streams to make 7000 dollars. So every musician needs a huge following to make real money.
Taylor Swift knew Spotify would ruin the music industry. But nobody listened. So music fans get it for free, and professional musicians have to hustle. I know I am a good musician. I am not exactly Beyonce or Kanye West but I got my own skills. I play acoustic blues and flamenco. I am sure there is someone out there who digs it. I could be a full time musician. Dollar and a dream.
So I have no ambition, but I do have something in mind. I have a goal. I don't want to use my college degrees and trade time for money. My hours are worth more than 15 dollars, or even 100 dollars. I just want to live and die in peace and live on a budget. I also want to find a latina who is good looking and humble but not rich and haughty. I want to make about a part time income from music. In this part of the world, that is between 500 and 1000 per month. If I learn marketing, I can increase streams, downloads, and views. And then I can branch out into other forms of music. Like gigging out, teaching guitar, making music-related art, and also syncing and licensing. It turns out, streams and downloads is the worst way to make money with music. But right now, that is my only income stream from music. So I am not rich. But somebody likes it out there. So what I must do, is target my niche audience, learn to how to advertise to them, create relationships with the customer, and above all, keep churning out good quality content. If the content is not good, you have nothing. But you don't have to have master skill to be rich. All you need is intermedate skill and advanced business savvy. Business is more important than talent. Get real.
So I have hope for the future. I have other things besides music, but that is what I find most joy in. And my college degrees did not help me that much. College is a scam. All a degree is, is qualification to apply to a job. It doesn't mean you know the job, can do it well, or even know you are talking about. In reality, you learn by doing. Experience is the best teacher. It takes 20 years to master a skill. But these days, people with ten of fifteen years experience are teaching. Don't worship false gurus. It takes a generation. I have mastered more than just music and martial arts. But I want to do music. I feel it is my last chance. So I really have somewhere to go. I have a goal in mind.
Through music, you can rebel and spread ideas and lead people without inciting violence and hatred and bias and scorn. John Lee Hooker sang a song called, 'The Healer'. In it, he sings, 'the blues is a healer, it healed me, it can heal you!'. He was a simple black man who understood music has more value than just entertainment and getting groupies. It is part of politics, religion, education, culture, medicine, besides other things. So I am a disciple of John Lee. I need more than one chord to write a song. But I am pretty good too.
So I know my desire and I have a goal to work towards. All great musicians overcome great odds and limitations to become legendary performers. Music is better than boxing. In music, nobody gets knocked out. In boxing, there are winners and losers. In music, everyone wins. And that is nice.
Look out for my next album which will be ready by the end of this summer. I will use Routenote to publish it. It's going to be a good album. The money doesn't matter, I am building momentum towards the payday. And that is what I want. The big old payday.
Peace.
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