Nothing You Can Do

There's nothing you can say to me
There's nothing you can do
I'm letting all my love run free
And coming after you

Ladies and gentleman at the center of the ring
Is a featherweight contender defending a dream
Floating like a butterfly stinging like a sunburn,
Turning to a diamond from the pressure I'm under
If beat my chest I'll make a mess in my hands
Because I come from the heart, It's my second favrite organ
Demand me to your event planner, I'm coming to getcha so check your scanner
Review mirror, I'm getting nearer,
I wanna be closer than I am appearing
Issuing a ticket just to give you my digits,
And is it wrong for me to think that well assume the position
Now keep your hands on the wheel and steady your vision,
I'm into playing it rough but wouldn't want a collision
Hear my cacophony? Ill cover my mouth,
Because I might go viral, if you like the sound
I got my feet on the ground, I got my head in the clouds
I got my heart in my hands and I'm standing up proud (to say I)
I fought a whole lotta fights to be here,
So thanks for coming out it's nice to see ya
Hello Leroy, who is your master?
Shonuff! It is love we are after
Bellwether will deliver the glow
And i what and i what and i want you to know
Im a Shogun Assassin taking action
Painstakingly exploitating whats happening
And I could use some assistance please
So here comes the part where you sing with me

There's nothing you can say to me
There's nothing you can do
I'm letting all my love run free
And coming after you

Big bang I read some article
I'm a disarray of brainwaves and subatomic particles
And today I'm living like an animal
Slaving away on a chain like a criminal
Subliminal message, a vegetative state
You can be in the right mind but still in the wrong place
Face to face, baby nice to meet ya
I'm a bright white dwarf, hey yo, wheres Beakman
Using fusion if we try
Atomic b-bonding d-deep inside
Cause is it me or is the energy
a little out of control, You know, invariably
The attraction I'm feeling's a reaction to stealing
the core of your being you know what I mean
Have I lost your attention, if so I should mention
My implementation of rocking a beat
(beatbox for 4 bars)
We rocking the system and shaking the table
I'm coming at you hard so you know that were stable
I'm physically charged and enlarged and I'm able to be
Singing about our chemistry while making bad analogies
Come boys and girls wont you sing it with me

There's nothing you can say to me
There's nothing you can do
I'm letting all my love run free
And coming after you

Like Sly Stallone I’m Over the Top
I put my hat on backwards and I’m ready to rock
My sleeves are off, your jaw is dropped, a Rocky start got him a coupla nods
And two more Oscars than Jim Henson rendered
I’m trading my words in for more legal tender
So please put your hands up as if you surrender
And put them together for now and forever
And pray for the harmony displayed on the dice
The blacks and the whites play together quite nice
There's controversy from me to you
So if you misheard me, well think it through
Plain and simple its a matter of fact
And you can measure it out if you can figure the math
Cause I got nothing to hide, right? I'm clean as a bath
My freshness is endless and unsurpassed
I'm after a pad to absorb my mind
And after the show I'll keep the flow going all night
Keep me protected from toxic disease
Infecting your bloodstream if you don't release
Emotions a notion that goes with devotion
And there's always commotion about what matters most and
It seems like you're frozen in a ride you ain't chose and
You hold in your breath until last you explode
And you know that you're going to go to nowhere and fast
And so you're tapping the gas while you're circling the track
And you're laughing in fact but you're faking the laugh
And if it stays where its at then you should stray from the path
You think that you're static, you're shocked that you're free
Like a doctor who's farming I'll drop a sick beat

Now the seed has been planted, the stamp of approval
Has been guaranteed with no chance of removal
Pushing up daisies some day we will shine
So lets do this chorus just one more time

There's nothing you can say to me
There's nothing you can do
I'm letting all my love run free
And coming after you

2010: Living and Giving

After looking back on the idea of another decade gone, I find myself thinking about my life as an evening news special: Looking Back on the Aughts. And I'll admit that at first, I didn't realize how much time has actually gone by or how considerably life has changed. At the turn of the century, it seemed our world was such a simpler place. Whereas then we worried about what would happen when Y2K hit and what would happen to our money and our computers when the clock hit midnight, now we can't board an airplane without a full colonoscopy courtesy of airport security. And I still can't watch an airplane flying over magnificent New York City without thinking about whether or not I'll be a witness to another kamikaze assault on liberty and democracy.

In 1999 the frustration was waiting for your modem to dial up (or getting kicked off if your sister needed to make a phonecall) and now it seems we can't go the length of a conversation without checking our phones for missed calls, emails, facebook updates, youtube comments, myspace friends, SMS texts, BBMs, and firmware updates. Sure, since the invention of the television, the nuclear family has been glued to their screens, but only in the last decade have we gotten to the point where everyone feels the need to be not only in front of a television, but on it. Or at least to watch how others may live their own boring lives in the "reality" sense. (It can be comforting to see how little other people do with their time as well, but I do not believe in measuring myself by other people's lifestyles.) And sadly enough, I have fallen victim to this along with my fellow gen x'ers. I have found myself in a place where I am reaching out via video postings, photos, and status updates/tweets, etc. to get as many eyes on me as possible, disappointed when a status update doesn't get enough comments or "likes". And for what? To what end?

This realization has put me on a new path towards a new destination: living to give. I don't think the great writers of human history were simply providing stuffing for heavy leatherbound quotationaries for your dorm shelf when they were writing things like:

"Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others."
-- St. Augustine

"You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give."
-- Kahlil Gibran, philosopher

“Before giving, the mind of the giver is happy; while giving, the mind of the giver is made peaceful; and having given, the mind of the giver is uplifted.”
-- Buddha

"Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give."
-- William A. Ward {American Anthropologist

"Giving people a little more than they expect is a good way to get back more than you'd expect."
-- Robert Half

"It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving."
-- Mother Teresa

"To give is to love and to love is to live."
--Unknown

These are some of the greatest minds we know - the movers and shakers of the cerebral realm. At the age of 26, I have so much to be grateful for, and yet I so often find myself lamenting over something I can't seem to identify. And it is with all the conviction in the world that I say that this sadness is due to an exhausting search to receive rather than give. It may have taken longer than it should have to learn this, but alas, I have learned. And now, with two feet firmly planted in the will to give, I feel the smile that has been hiding, creeping back to my face. It is as if I already know how much happier I will be, and how much happiness I can bring to others.

So that being said, I encourage you to go out give of yourself.
Make someone laugh not to prove you're funny, but to lift his spirits.
Make someone smile not to appeal charming, but to bring them happiness.
Help someone out not to gloat that you did, but in hopes that it will encourage them to do the same for someone else.

There is no smile too big, no compliment too courteous, and no life lived with too much love.

Give. It is what we are supposed to do.

It's your life. Live it such that you'll love it.

Big Bang

Big bang, I read in some article
I'm a disarray of brainwaves and subatomic particles
And today I'm living like an animal
Slaving away on a chain just like a criminal
Subliminal message aggressive vegetative state
Well you can be in the right mind and shine in the wrong place
All the hands I was shaking and all the shit I've been taking
It's like I'm bluffing and faking and hating every day
So now I'm packing my boxes and rocking out in the street
And like a farmer at the doctor I'm a drop a sick beat

You know what its like when your mind goes on strike
and life may as well pass you by
And routines form circles that started as hurdles
and turn into zeros you're leaving behind
We all try to write the biography we'd like to read and believe is
Real life and not just some fantasy sci fi you watch on tv

This is what we've got whoa is it good enough?
This is what we've got whoa is it good enough?
This is what we've got whoa is it good enough
For you?

I face the morning in the noose of a neck tie
Wearing the white collar, telling the white lies
Alarm clock, rocking buzzing and screaming
And taking me away from the freedom of dreaming
Floating through the air with the greatest of ease
I got imagination engine and wings made of sheets
Like Icarus I
Am flying too high
And getting to close to sun
The wings on my back
Are burning at last
And now I'm gonna crash into a life that I own
I'd given up on love
And it ain't no crime
I'd given up on love
You came at just the right time
So now I'm thanking my sources while the microphone's hot
Like a Ying Yang twin I'm gonna beat this box

This is what we've got whoa is it good enough?
This is what we've got whoa is it good enough?
This is what we've got whoa is it good enough
For you?

All the people I know well they call me a stranger
The things I don't learn I can never forget
And I always feel safe when there's imminent danger
The greater your fate when you got no regrets
This dimension you're censoring tension considering
eggshells are blistering cutting your feet
Have I got your attention if so I should mention
the instrumentation of rocking a beat

Well in my head, there's just one girl with so many faces around this world
She gets me goods, she got me right
So lemme take a second to mention what she's like:

She's one heartbreaking drug addict
Music television wannabe fanatic
(beat) She's on my level but her frequency's static
Running through the circuit working traffic
Got tats all over her body
Not the kind of girl you wanna show your mommy
Blowing rings of smoke while drinking
Set on fire battleship sinking
She taking off on a project runway
Sleeping through church on every Sunday
Beats Johnny and the devil on fiddle
Squeezing her tooth paste tube in the middle
Like a t-shirt, wears me out
Even though I know it she will bring me down

This is what we've got whoa is it good enough?
This is what we've got whoa is it good enough?
This is what we've got whoa is it good enough
For you?

So take your love and pack it up and send it care of me
So take your love and pack it up and send it care of me
So take your love and pack it up and send it care of me
Ad nauseum

Inquiry...

If there was a chicken pot pie recipe that substituted out the chicken for rabbit, would it be called a Hare Pie?

The Boxer

I am a boxer
I have spent my life in sin
There's a price for pride and honor
There's a cost for weighing in

I am a boxer
Armored with a shattered heart
No desire for redemption
No attention to my scars

I am a boxer
I have broken many bones
Though I've slept in many places
I have never called them home

I am a boxer
I have taken many lives
Leaving children without fathers
Taking husbands from their wives

I am a boxer
Black and blue from self-defense
Sutures hold my faith together
Iron cools my loneliness

I am a boxer
Who has never learned to cry
Though I've never been a champion
I have fought for all my life

Well I guess this is growing up...

I think it's a sign of maturity that I now appreciate the cookie portion of an Oreo so much more than I used to.

Where You Gonna Run?

A young boy on the beach in the winter,
His eyes to the sky and his toes in the sand
He stands ready at the edge of the water
With the smooth of the stone in the palm of his hand
He can not help bu think about, wonder:
the possibility of reaching her door
And while he knows all the laws that oppose him,
the thought of the rock on the ocean floor

Where you gonna run, where you gonna hide
Whatchoo gonna think about with nothing on your mind
Who you gonna trust, who you gonna doubt
When you're outside and you can't run out
Whatchoo gonna say, whatchoo gonna do
Who you gonna talk to, who you gonna talk to
Who's gonna talk to you
How could you believe in something you were never seeing
Now you're dying to agree to a situation you can't prove

Part afraid of the current situation,
A little unsure of the consequence
But confident that in the moment he was breathing
He couldn't lose a thing that he didn't have yet
Eyes closed and a heart wide open
He fired that stone to the middle of the sea
He didn't know, would it go where he wanted,
But it would surely end up where it needed to be

The small ripple it created in the ocean,
It grew larger over days and days
And like a feeling oh it grew so quickly,
And like emotion it became a great wave
That traveled far over earth and water,
And moved on with no remorse
Back home he was shrugging his shoulders,
The stone's weight was a cure and a source

Where you gonna run, where you gonna hide
Whatchoo gonna think about with nothing on your mind
Who you gonna trust, who you gonna doubt
When you're outside and you can't run out
Whatchoo gonna say, whatchoo gonna do
Who you gonna talk to, who you gonna talk to
Who's gonna talk to you
How could you believe in something you were never seeing
Now you're dying to agree to a situation you can't prove

See the moment of the recent situation
Was all right but the timing was wrong
And so I'm standing at the edge of the water,
Casting my stone in the form of a song
And maybe waves are just a little more subtle
than the words that I've written in the lines of this tune
I couldn't take the chance of water freezing over
When the sun goes down and the winter takes June