http://masonjennings.com//site/index/ en info+mason@oniracom.com (Mason Jennings) Copyright 2010 2010-02-15T22:08:12+00:00 http://www.masonjennings.com/news/towers/ http://www.masonjennings.com/news/towers/ When I was out in LA last week to play at the premiere for Kelly Slater’s new 3-D surf movie (which ruled by the way) my friend Dan took me to the Watts Towers. For those of you who have never heard of them, they are towers that a man named Simon Rodia built out of the top of his house using left over materials from his construction job: cement, plates, glass all kinds of stuff. He built it for 34 years!!! They were really moving to behold. Looking up at the blue sky, the world hasn’t changed at all since he built them years ago and I could imagine him scaling the sides and working up there at dusk looking out over the city of angels. The house has since burnt down but the towers remain as a park. Check it out!Back to the surf movie: It was fun talking with Kelly about surfing. In the movie they mentioned that he is the best surfer that ever lived and they speculated that the reason for this is because he loves it the most. Sounds right. I asked him if he ever thinks while he is surfing. I heard Keith Richards once say that the stage is not for thinking it is for feeling. Kelly says he doesn’t have time to think on the big waves, it is all reaction. He said on the long barrel waves he can look down the barrel and envision what he will do because there is more time but, for the most part he is just reacting. That certainly rings true for me with music. I can barely remember being onstage. At first that was troubling but then it seemed to make sense. Letting it come through me. One of the great drummers I worked with a few years back, Peter Leggett, always said that every movement when you are playing the drums should originate behind your body and pass through it on the way forward and out. That feels right too. That stuff totally fascinates me.On a last note, the Olympics are in full swing which is so fun. I love that I am home for them this time around. I just wanted to comment on the way NBC handled the death of the Georgian Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. I thought it was covered very poorly and disrespectfully. I turned on the TV with my wife and two young sons to watch the opening ceremonies in time for their broadcaster to mention that the next scenes were gruesome. I quickly turned the channel, waited five minutes and turned it back to a photo of a bloody face being given mouth to mouth. I turned the channel again for 2 minutes and came back to an image of the luger’s body flying through the air. Welcome to the Olympics, kids. I turned the TV off and came back a half hour later. My question is this: Why on earth would they show a person being killed on television? What motive other than ratings could have prompted them to show that? How would that feel if that was your son or brother or friend? Why is TV turning into Faces Of Death? Why do I have to change the channels at 7pm during commercials because most of the images on the commercials are too violent for my kids? The only thing I can think of is because images of Death grab your attention (through horror) more than any other image besides maybe porn. So, since TV is a free medium I expect that things will only get worse and more terrifying on TV and its advertising as they attempt to compete with the internet and cable. Brutal.Well, in most ways things certainly are the same as they always were. The root of this issue is the same as most issues before it: human nature. Maybe it is time to start building more towers out of the tops of our houses. I will look for you all across the trees. Above the metropolitan roofs and bloody antennas and satellite dishes full of fear. Up where the air is clean and the sky is the last word before Outerspace. Up where it still feels good to make something for fun out of our hands.MasonFrozen Lake Country, Minnesota2.15.10 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:08:12 -0800 http://www.masonjennings.com/news/free_download_of_machines_via_kashi/ http://www.masonjennings.com/news/free_download_of_machines_via_kashi/ Make sure you pick up a box of Kashi ® cereal to get a chance to download Mason’s song Machines from the 180° SOUTH soundtrack.  The films documents an environmentally aware adventure in Patagonia. Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:49:06 -0800 http://www.masonjennings.com/news/the_game/ http://www.masonjennings.com/news/the_game/ Ok, pre warning: this blog is all about football (which I love), in case you don’t enjoy the sport etc….. I am and have been a huge football fan my whole life. The game has always fascinated me. The theater of it, the strategy, the real time in-the-moment unfolding. I have always thought it is a sport that helps us face our own deaths. Every team loses in the end but one and then the next season that team loses too. So with death comes life, it teaches us how to live. Well, in all my years I have never seen a game that has stuck with me and bothered me like the Vikings NFC Championship game this past Sunday. I just can’t for some reason wrap my head around it. If it was a movie I would have gotten over it. But, that is why I love football. It is a collective drama that is real and holds secrets and clues to our own lives. Allows us to work out our own issues with our own limited humanity. The game on Sunday was so painful for me I think because it was centered around mistakes. The Vikings kept making mistakes, they turned the ball over 5 times and had 3 other fumbles on top of that. And they kept on fighting and kept coming back to score and tie the game. Which was so amazing. And then a severely battered, 40 year old Brett Favre brought the team to within field goal range with 18 seconds left. And suddenly the Vikings got a penalty for 12 men in the huddle. What??? Then he threw a late pass across his body which was intercepted and that was it. He never got another pass. The Saints won in overtime. Now, Favre ended his Packers and Jets careers with interceptions. He ended the Championship game 2 years ago with an interception…..why did he throw it? Well, because he is human. And I guess that is what is hard for me to face. No story ever written would have the hero do that. He wanted to win the game, and he didn’t. It is not pretty at all. But, that is sports. That is the beauty of it. So many times in life things happen that we can’t get back. we make mistakes. People get hurt. We sometimes make the same mistake we have always made and then have to live with it. That is where grace comes in. Who knows what the bigger picture is for us. We have no idea. Only our higher powers know that and the turning over of our wills to a higher power is an amazing thing. Profound change and growth comes from that. So, thank you Brett and the rest of you Vikings. It was a wonderful season and a profound last game. Blessings to you all. Mason Minnesota 1/26/10 Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:48:16 -0800 http://www.masonjennings.com/news/isolation/ http://www.masonjennings.com/news/isolation/ Ok. So winter is kinda becoming a head trip. Sometimes it feels like looking out at the moon or looking out at somebody telling me a story about the time they dreamed the moon or looking out at myself remembering how much the moon looks like this place and the forgotten name of this place. Hibernation seems like the option here. Hibernation and self scrutiny. Haha. In a bright spot I have been enjoying the films of Terrence Malick. Days of Heaven, Badlands, The New World etc. He is so great. What a joy to watch his movies. Like poetry of light. Sissy Spacek is amazing too. I probably was drawn to the films because of the light and the lush nature imagery (usually not filmed in winter). And the long shots of running water. That is a sound you don’t hear much of in the winter up here. Yoga is key. So is meditation. And the blessing of being with my wonderful family. Also, I have been enjoying the writing of naturalist Sigurd Olson whose books are often about the boundary waters in Northern Minnesota. Hope winter is unlocking something deep inside you all. Mason Minnesota 1/14/10   Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:00:26 -0800 http://www.masonjennings.com/news/the_year_2010/ http://www.masonjennings.com/news/the_year_2010/ Wicked. That is so fun saying 2010. I am very excited about this new year. It is beautiful and minus 10 degrees here. If you have never been in weather this cold I will tell you that the first thing you notice is the sound. Everything sounds like it is amplified through a metal horn and across the hills. The silence is so huge that you can hear your own footsteps echo back at you from 100 yards and they sound like slapping the side of an airplane with a magazine. Here is my New Years’ quote for you: “Most things that are important, have you noticed, lack a certain neatness.” -Mary Oliver We heard metallic coyotes and magnified owls on our silver marsh of the moon last night. A brand new year. Peace and love, Mason Below Zero Minnesota 1/05/10 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:42:18 -0800 http://www.masonjennings.com/news/blog_12_17_09_numbers/ http://www.masonjennings.com/news/blog_12_17_09_numbers/ I have been thinking about numbers lately. How many days till Santa comes? How much can we afford? How many people can live on one planet? I read a piece once that Jorge Luis Borges wrote about a flock of birds flying past. He said that he didn’t know how many were in the flock because he couldn’t count them but that there had to be a number. Or did there? Makes me think. My brother reminded me of one of my favorite videos lately. It is of Bob Marley singing Bad Card at his Tuff Gong studio the year he died. It is so powerful. When someone dies and I watch videos of them I can’t help but think about numbers. How many breaths did he have left? How many nights of sleep? If he had known, would he have slept? It’s as if time gets frozen and then its value increases and takes shape. Death is funny and unique that way. Like one time I saw a video of Miles Davis and John Lennon playing basketball and all I could think about was how there was an exact number of breathes that they both took in their lives. Number of laughs. A fixed number. Where as mine are still dynamic, expanding, possibilities open. Got me thinking about my own life. How many times have I kissed? How many times have I sang on stage? How many songs have I written? How many times have I said “I love you”? Taken a shower? Brushed my teeth? Taken a step? Flown in an airplane? Cried….Danced…driven a car….hugged…how many thoughts? It makes me wonder what I have done the most and what I have done the least. There has to be a number. I bet the answers are surprising. Or maybe they are both the same thing. Like “freely loved”......Or if there is no way to know the numbers, do the numbers exist at all? Mason Minnesota 12/17/09 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:14:53 -0800 http://www.masonjennings.com/news/typewriter/ http://www.masonjennings.com/news/typewriter/ Well, Cormac McCarthy auctioned off his typewriter this week. It was expected to sell for between $15,000 and $20,000. He wrote every one of his books on it. Well, it sold for $254,500. That’s more like it. All the proceeds were donated to the Santa Fe Institute of which McCarthy is a member.It was minus 7 degrees here when I woke up. So beautiful. I slid/drove sideways past my driveway down the hill yesterday in a snowstorm which was exciting. I did not enter the woods and head straight down the ravine through the trees like I thought I was gonna. It was pretty mellow after all. It usually is.A friend of mine I haven’t seen in 12 years got in touch with me this week and was asking me about songs that I wrote back then that I had completely forgotten about. I went rummaging through some old tapes and found a bunch of stuff. I am not the best at archiving things. Haha. Hopefully, she will get me copies of her old tapes she has too. Maybe I will dust off a few songs for the show next week at First Ave. Really looking forward to playing. You know who rules as a songwriter (and just all around rules) is Regina Spektor. She is the real deal.You know who else rules is Wes Anderson. I saw The Fantastic Mr. Fox this week and it was just amazing. Can’t wait to see it again. And the co-writer Noah Baumbach is awesome too. His movie The Squid and The Whale is so much like my early life that it is just crazy. Uncanny.I hope you are all remembering to chill out this holiday season. It can be crazy. And, damn it gets so dark so early. It can be kinda rugged. And beautiful too. Just hang in there. Maybe make some cookies. Or at least eat some cookies. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip are my favorite. Maybe my favorite food period. The rest is kinda beside the point.xoMasonThe Dark, Minnesota12/10/09 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:49:51 -0800 http://www.masonjennings.com/news/mason_on_nprs_world_cafe_today/ http://www.masonjennings.com/news/mason_on_nprs_world_cafe_today/ Mason will be featured on NPR’s World Cafe on TODAY! December 8th, 2009.The World Cafe with host David Dye can be heard on over 200 stations nationwide. Mason fans can find their local station by clicking here and selecting a state from the pull-down menu. Worldwide, fans can connect to the WXPN Philadelphia stream Monday through Friday, 2pm to 4pm EST hereLate in the day of broadcast, the audio will be available on the NPR website here Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:01:57 -0800 http://www.masonjennings.com/news/blog_12_03_09/ http://www.masonjennings.com/news/blog_12_03_09/ A Fine Balance It is snowing lightly out my window. I just watched a squirrel run up a tree with half a red apple that I threw out into the woods last night. I am just starting to settle in to being home. And when that happens, new songs come up. I haven’t written anything complete in 8 months; have just been present with the Blood Of Man songs during these last few months of touring. Now a new kind of song is coming up in me and that is an awesome feeling. Been humming a new one in my head all week. This winter I plan on recording again and staying mostly close to home. It’s a fine balance. I guess it might sound strange to some that I am a songwriter and haven’t written for months. People might ask: Does that worry you? Well, quite the opposite actually. I feel like the downtime of not writing is the most important part really. Letting it be. I could force myself to write and that would be fine but, where is the growth in that? Just like muscles needing to grow over ripped fiber before you can work them again and strengthen them, so it is with songwriting. I like fresh ground. Uncharted water. That is where I like to work. I know it is time to work when the water is finally still and no vibrations from past work are dominating the pond. Ya know? Then I pick up a rock, take a breath, and chuck that little fucker as far as I can. PS-Is there a better song than Silent Night? I haven’t heard one. Mason The Woods Minnesota 12/03/09 Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:56:45 -0800 http://www.masonjennings.com/news/home/ http://www.masonjennings.com/news/home/ Well, the Fall tour is over. It was such a fun one. We had such a great time playing the new songs and seeing you all out there. This country is huge!!!!! It never ceases to amaze me. I suggest everybody take a drive coast to coast sometime. It will change you. Hell, go on tour for 10 years and it’ll give you hair like mine…. Thank you to all of you for coming to the shows. I know times are hard right now and we appreciate your support so much. You guys are the reason we can do this. Thank you!! It’s great to be home. We added another Minnesota show at First Avenue on December 19 since the first show sold out so quickly. That will be so much fun! First Ave always reminds me of the holidays. Gotta get my Grinch suit pressed. I attached a photo from Michigan that my mom took of my whole road crew. From left to right is: Matt, Me, Chris, Jake, Brian and Chad.  The guys in the band all showed up with basically the same shades and this picture shows how funny that was to me the first time I saw them all. (That said, I have the same shades too. Haha.) Stylistic geniuses. The soundtrack for me this last leg was the inspiring new Flaming Lips record Embryonic, Department of Eagles, Pheonix, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Greg Brown and Dan Auerbach. Some of the many books were: No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey, The Blind Side by Michael Lewis and poems by Mary Oliver. Hope to see you out there soon! Love, Mason Jennings Minnesota 11/24/09 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:24:05 -0800