Thought

Matt Blanchard — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:19:07 +0000

“I like to party.
And I like to drink.
I like a woman who can me think.
I like adventure.
And I like to dance.
I like a woman who’s taking a chance.

I’d like to be lovers, between you and me.
Between you and me.”

- Mike Williams (from the new Thought record, “Politics for Kids”)

Amen, Mike.

Commercials

Matt Blanchard — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:45:22 +0000

Over the past few months I’ve recorded saxophone on a few television commercials for Crest Toothpaste, Trix Yogurt and Quilted Northern. The testing phase for commercials can be a very long time so at this point the Crest commercial is the only one on the air. I’ll write an update when the others go live. Listen for the saxophone:

Matt Blanchard — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:58:28 +0000

“Re-examine all you have been told, dismiss what insults your soul.”

- Walt Whitman

Aliens

Matt Blanchard — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:19:36 +0000

Yesterday, the Vatican announced that it is now “OK” to believe in extraterrestrial life and that it does not interfere with a belief in God. This is highly significant. You can read more about it here: Vatican Aliens

However, continue to make sure not to have sex before you are married.

A New God Has Risen

Matt Blanchard — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:03:24 +0000

Graffiti on a wall:

“Go to work, send your kids to school, follow fashion, act normal, walk on the pavements, watch TV, save for your old age, obey the law. Repeat after me: I am free”

If There Is Music Playing Where You Are Right Now, I Hope It Sounds Like This

Matt Blanchard — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 23:03:40 +0000

The sun rises from behind a new mountain, starting today. The wind whispers a little quieter, starting today.

I guess it’s the next lifetime that we will break bread together beneath the apple tree.

I kiss your forehead goodnight tonight for the last time.

–

“And so it is, just like you said it should be, we’ll both forget the breeze, most of the time.”
- Damien Rice

The Wisdom of the Slake

Matt Blanchard — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:22:01 +0000

“When someone close to you dies, you are forced to see yourself. You see your own fear, the real stuff, the stuff you hid under a carpet somewhere. You think it hurts, but you can’t tell. Death as the path for all humankind is never more lucid than when a loved-one dies.”

- Ed RosenBerg

Sunshine on our Shoulders

Matt Blanchard — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 02:58:00 +0000

This past week I finally made the move to NYC. Not until recently had it felt the right thing to do. I’ve lived in Buffalo, Philadelphia, and Atlanta postponing the big move. I think it’s very important to ride the wave of life. Society likes to tell us otherwise. It feels great to be here and I’m glad I waited.

Atlanta will be greatly missed. It’s funny how the brain works, never truly letting go of certain things. I’m going to miss those unique moments, being on stage with some of the greatest singer/songwriters alive. The warm evening air gently blowing through my hair. A guitar softly playing with lyrics soaring over the top that hit right at my core. The poignant stillness in the air at the end of a slow love song and the communal exhale from the audience as the final resolving chord is reached.

I wish I had a soundtrack for my life, I absolutely do in my head.

The 15 minute subway ride to my office is a journey around the world. I fall in love with at least three women every morning, but only for a second. But I tell you what…I dream a thousand dreams in that second.

Are we all exactly the same? I’m beginning to think that no matter how wise or intelligent we might think ourselves to be that those might just be warm blankets to cover us and make us seem more than just procreating beings. But I hope not.

Walking down the street with you holding your hand, sunshine on our shoulders, the aroma of freshly cut grass filling our nostrils, a gentle breeze rustling the leaves of the trees beside us, sharing a vanilla ice cream cone in comfortable silence.

–

Sunshine on my shoulders, makes me happy.
- John Denver

I Had a Dream About Us

Matt Blanchard — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:53:39 +0000

The sun reflected off an unexpected window into my eyes at the same moment the thought of you was overwhelming me.

The sun will never set tonight.

You are the sky to me.

I’m sick again.

Where is this thing that you’ve promised me?

I’m sipping your care but in my mind it’s flowing down my chin.

—-

I suck my tongue in remembrance of you.
-Bjork

It Would Be a Different World If We Could Read Each Other’s Minds

Matt Blanchard — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 03:39:45 +0000

I was looking in a store window the other night when I noticed something. I could either focus on what was actually in front of me on display behind the glass or I could focus on the reflection of myself and what was happening behind me. Both sounded completely different.

I’d like something quiet.

Sometimes We All Have to Swim Upstream

Matt Blanchard — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:58:29 +0000

I had a dream last night about running through the countryside, all the leaves on the trees where perfectly round. Their trunks were perfectly brown. The grass was perfectly green and provided a soft cushion beneath my feet. The sky was perfectly blue. The sun warm on my back. The few scattered houses all had rounded corners…no hard edges and bold, solid, perfectly painted colors. Everything was perfect. Except as I ran, the tree branches kept scraping my face and threatened to hit my eyes. No one was living in any of the houses. I kept switching back and forth between a birds eye view of myself, where everything seemed perfect, to a first person perspective in which the branches scratched at my face. I was simultaneously running toward something and away from something.

I suddenly stopped in a backyard and glanced to my right. There she stood. On her deck. Looking at me. Then I woke up.

Choices

Matt Blanchard — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:51:37 +0000

If you know what the inside of the lock looks like, you can make the key.

Some Things Never Change

Matt Blanchard — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:16:11 +0000

The Never Ending Quest

Matt Blanchard — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 18:09:00 +0000

I remember the exact moment that I became aware of my existence. I was a freshman in High School, first period band rehearsal, 9:30am. It spontaneously occurred to me that if time stopped, assuming we live at the edge of time, that literally nothing would exist if I was to go even .00001 of a second into the future. That was the beginning of it all. The constant questioning, the constant contemplating, the constant search for any kind of answer.

Problems cannot be solved by the level of awareness that created them.
- Einstein

Once you start thinking about the universe, you can’t stop.
- Wayne Shorter

Things Change

Matt Blanchard — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:00:46 +0000

A parable about a Zen master:

In a village, a boy got a pony, and all the villagers said, “That’s good.” The Zen master said, “We’ll see.” A couple of years later, the boy fell off the pony and broke his leg. All the villagers said, “That’s too bad.” The Zen master said, “We’ll see.” Then a war came and all the other young men went to war, but the boy couldn’t because of his leg. All the villagers said, “That’s good.” The Zen master said, “We’ll see.”

The Sound of Music

Matt Blanchard — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 19:55:00 +0000

Jerseyband was invited today to play at a major European Music Festival in Saalfelden, Austria, August 21-24, 2008.

I guess it’s time to get my Maria von Trapp on…nun style.

The flight itself, with all of us, will be worth the trip, if any of you want to come along.

New Pics

Matt Blanchard — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:05:21 +0000

Warm-up:

Backstage:

Sound Check:

Teaching the kids:

Teaching the kids:

672 hours

Matt Blanchard — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:45:05 +0000

Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it and to fight for it.

- Barack Obama

Completion

Matt Blanchard — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 22:37:37 +0000

I’m writing this from 30,000 feet, flying out of a snowstorm into the welcoming climate of the south. Night is taking over and the feeling of change makes its presence known. We just crested the clouds and off in the distance the remaining sun is creating a very subtle orange-blue-gray glow on the horizon that I can only imagine is still warming my west coast friends. I can barely see the cloud cover below but its creating a false sense of untouched landscape, Mother Earth’s seal for the garbage below.

And then, of course, there are the stars. Just a few at the moment but enough to take all my worries and cares and put them in a package that reads “meaningless” on the tag. Jeff Buckley singing in my ears, “she’s a tear that hangs inside my soul forever.” It’s moments like this that could last a very long time in solitude and could last forever with the woman who reads this and understands.

I can see so far into the distance that I can just begin to make out the curvature of the earth. The clouds are thinning, some of them glowing from the cities beneath them.

How is it that the stars seem so damn wise? They look down upon us knowing everything about us and offer that peace and comfort only a mother can give her child in a time of pain.

—-

What the head makes cloudy, the heart makes very clear.
- Don Henley

4th of July in Slow Motion

Matt Blanchard — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:38:03 +0000

How many of you have your entire escape planned? And how long has it been planned? How many of you would escape if the guard fell asleep with the keys in his hand where you could just barely reach them? How many of you would stare at those keys all night but do nothing? How many nights have gone by where you’ve dreamt about those keys falling right in your lap? How many mornings have you woken up behind those same bars? How close have you gotten to those keys? How close are they right now? How long have those keys been hanging there?

You are the bars. You are the guard.