Somewhere over the air on the way to Boson, MA

Yo what's up dear Dasher?
I received your letter. On a plane headed for Boston and thought I would take a minute to respond. I understand your concerns and I hope that what I offer will be of some slight service. Something came to me this morning dog. so in answer to your questions about what to do and what not to do for your career, here's some off the head babbling... read at your own risk my brother.

As you make your move to your new place. a few things came to my mind to relate to you:

This place is outside the city so its going to be easy to chill more, relax more, lay back more, and read/dream more. BUT DON'T. YOU MUST STAY IN THE ACTION ALL THE TIME RIGHT NOW. SEIZE ALL OPPORTUNITIES THAT COME YOUR WAY. WHAT YOU’RE DOING RIGHT NOW IS BUILDING YOUR NAME. BUILDING THE BRAND KNOWN AS Dasher, the handsome man about town and up and coming actor. That means you have to get that shit out there EVERYWHERE.

With your roommate smoking a lot of weed, the tendency is going to be to smoke and drink and talk and plan things. DO NOT DO THIS. IT IS GOING TO WASTE YOUR TIME. YOU MUST AVOID THIS KIND OF ACTIVITY. PLENTY OF GUYS DO THIS DURING THEIR TWENTIES AND THEN LOOK BACK LATER AND REALIZE THAT THEY FUCKED AWAY SOME GOOD YEARS. SO DON'T DO IT. its fine if other peeps want to do that with their time. but YOU don't want that. I know what you want. And I'm telling you right now, don't even waste your time with it.

I'll tell you a true story my brother: and I hope it gives some clarification for where you are right now just in case you ever need to reflect on this story. When I was 25 I quit doing drugs. Just decided I didn't want to do them anymore. Did more than a fair share as you know and feel damn lucky to be alive. A few pills here and there, no problem, or getting drunk now and then is probably a good thing to do for the mind and the spirit, as you well know, but all other drugs, I said fuck it, especially pot which is the drug of the lazy dreamer with lots of ideas but no resources and no desire to go out and get the resources; or the rich kids with a lot of time on their hands and no ideas in their minds; [there will always be exceptions to all rules, the great God Chaos, but you show me a hundred pot smokers who are rich and kicking ass and one who is poor and always behind the eight ball rather than the other way around and I'll change my tune. You know what I'm saying?] Either way you're fucked if you hang with these types too much. I could see where this was going and I didn’t want to go there myself. I would see my friends sitting around doing drugs or drinking and talking talking taking. Always making plans and talking. while they did their drugs or got drunk. Usually I would bail on those scenes. in the music and art and entertainment business everyone does drugs, drinks, and smokes, so it isn't easy. All around you find reasons to smoke or drink or do drugs. But I knew that if I could create enough strength to quit all that stuff then I would be STRONGER, as opposed to if I continued to do that stuff I would be staying the same. I did it. and yes because of doing it, in order to do it, I became a much stronger man. Its like this. anyone can be a Robert downey jr or a Kurt cobain if you will. the entertainment world is filled with them. some of them lucky and some of them not so lucky. but to be a Robert Redford or a Sting. Now that my friend is a rare commodity indeed.

Now fly ahead a few years. I started meeting people again from my early twenties who never did make the leap. They kept on smoking and drinking and doing drugs and used every excuse in the book for why they were still doing that stuff. what I saw was very depressing. Men who were still not men. People who were only half of what they could be. you know what I have achieved over the last five or six years so there's no need to go over it with you. I left that scene in the dust and never looked back. now bro I'll be honest, it isn't easy sometimes to be this way. when you pull up and jump out of a back of a limo or a Ferrari or whatever and everyone else is still looking for gas money for their beat up Honda or Toyota, sometimes that's hard to feel cool around them. You can feel them judging you in the air. as if you aren't as ‘cool’ because you aren't as poor. It’s a funny thing, that is true. so I'm going to tell you this: DON'T EVER WORRY ABOUT FITTING IN. I feel that potentiality in you sometimes. But don't ever let yourself worry about the success that you want out of life. That's all you and you shouldn’t feel bad for it.

Cannot stop watching The Last Waltz. I'm becoming obsessed with this band called The Band. 

Bas thinks I've lost my mind. This is pretty far from rock. “You're going redneck man. Don't let it happen to you.” And then this cat Dr. John. You know, you can understand this obsession we have with musicians making their music. Its like this deep expression of our souls and when you see someone getting really into it and doing a good job at it, its like they are expressing that for you. You can get off on music through them. and its more than just you know good music, cause a lot of times it doesn’t even have to be technically “good music.” No. its something else. Its something that you feel. The music can be absolutely perfect but that doesn’t matter as much as feeling that something special. When these guys are singing some of their songs that's what happens to me. And I guess I just never thought about it before, you know, that dynamic that creates us really getting into music like that. When brother Beav gives me advice about my music I always listen because I know he gets off on music like a musician does, even though he is not a musician himself. He can tell whether something is real or not. What the underlying intention is. So when he tells me oh that is so cheesy, I listen to him. You know, even though I end up doing my own thing anyway, but I still like to hear his comments. I remember this one time in college and my roommate at the time the white bear who was a few years older than me took me to this concert, I'll never forget it, lee Ritenour and Dave Grusin, and he was so into it. it was this soft kind of television jazz. I think that's a good way to describe it, although I'm sure jazz aficionados will off with my head upon discovering my total ignorance, but that's what it sounded like to me, you know, these guys write a lot of soundtracks for TV shows and movies. And I just couldn’t feel it at all. it just sounded like generic TV music to me. and my friends are like, “man aren't they good? you being a musician probably really appreciate these guys huh?!” and I was like, “uh, yea sure.” And I just had no clue how to relate to it. I just didn't feel it in my gut. I could hear that they were technically very talented musicians but that just never mattered to me. being good at music making, or being a good musician never mattered to me. I was always into the vibe or the art of it, I don't care if its through music or painting or making movies, or performance art. I'm not a technocrat. I could care less if myself or anyone else is great or even good at their art. I just like to feel it inside. I got a lot of friends right now who like to talk shit about the Strokes, saying that they aren't cool, that they are “wanna be Indie.” To me that's the same type of thinking that fucks all music up. when someone goes to their head like that rather than just feeling the music. I don't care if those guys were prep school kids living on their parents money and a total put together group. Who cares? That album fucking rocks and those songs are good. and you can tell that Julian writes from his heart. So what else matters?   

THE STROKES!

Up all night tossing and turning. We have had to cancel seven shows in total for the upcoming tour due to Infinito’s decision to stay in town to keep his cover gig. We didn't have enough time to get a sub. So we are only playing a few of the shows. I finally got out of bed and looked at the clock . it was 6:36am. I hadn't slept all night. just tossed and turned worried about the clubs, our agents, the fans. Our reputation, everyone’s hard work. I took half a valium and finally passed out about 7am. Slept till 10. The guys came and picked me up. I told the guys if I have to ride in the van with Infinito right now we would come to blows because I am so mad. Vancouver acted as a middle-man, helping calm me and Infinito’s tempers. I wanted to fly instead. They convinced me to stay on board and take the ride. I am glad I did. we have had a blast so far. Me and Infinito blew up at each other for a while, screamed and shouted, and then it was all over. We decided to come up with a band agreement and all sign it so everyone is clear about what our commitments are to each other. All of that is pretty unclear right now and now is when we really need it the most. The thing about being in a band versus a normal job is you are so dependent on other guys. One minute you can be going along doing your job and in the next you can become totally unable to do that same job just because of one guy in the band. So that aspect of this whole thing totally sucks. But when you do come together and make great music there is nothing more euphoric. 

We wrecked the van already, not even out of South Florida. Smashed into a cement pole. Picked up the newest song order--version 4---of the new CD from Fred’s house. It's almost there, not quite. Lot of songs on this new album. some very hard songs and some very soft ones. Drove all the way up to Brunswick, GA. Stopped for the night. we take turns playing stuff from our own CD collections. Every guy brings his own bag of cds. I made everyone listen to Phoenix of course. Father Bloopy played 2 cds of Beatles recording session bootlegs. Listening to ‘because” from abbey road. It was so beautiful. I thought, how can you write this? I closed my eyes and created that I will write songs this beautiful one day. that I write songs this beautiful. I tried to feel it. Vancouver ended the trip by playing the most horrible thing I have heard. Utopia’s third album. I felt like a rat in a cage being slowly poisoned. We all shared with one another where we were when we first met or when we first saw the others for the very first time out in the scene, on what stage at what club, and reminisced how we all came together to form the band that we are now in.