In Continuum.

Kings of Hearts

The blues, the blues. There has got to be a reason why blues is so called, why the color blue instead of all the colors in existence. It must have been the association of that color with the human emotion of depression or sadness, the way we always say that a person is "feeling blue" when he or she is having a bad day. That is a little like the musical genres, only the music coming out from the Blues has a very nonchalant feel to it. It feels like a man in a darkened bar, after drinking a shot too many and one cigarette too few. He just suffered from a bad relationship, drinking his heart out at the bar table but still sober. He talks about his old love with the bartender, who listens half heartedly while serving the other customers at the table as well. But the man cares little about whether or not anybody is really listening to him, because he is enjoying the aftertaste of the relationship.

It's kind of like the way the taste of chocolate lingers in your mouth even after you have swallowed it, or the way the first kiss lingers on your lips for the rest of the night. You know in your heart that from the moment your lips parted with hers, that was the end of the first kiss, and every subsequent kiss would be just another kiss. But there is always that bittersweet sensation, knowing that you have just went through some of the most life changing moments of your life. That - to me - is the Blues. Like all kinds of music, it is always the sweet aftertaste that matters. Not the note played, but the silence that ensues. And when it comes to the Blues, it is always the way the note is rings in the air after a long improvised riff is being played that is the most wonderful. Part of the beauty of the Blues is that a true blue Blues guitarist - haha - goes up onto the stage without really knowing how his song is going to turn out like. Of course, for any song out there, there is a standard set of riffs you have to play in order for the audience to know what you are playing. Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix, Layla by Eric Clapton, the songs HAVE to start in a certain way. But the spaces in between the verses and the choruses, it is really up to your skills and imaginations. Because that is the spirit of the blues, you go up there and let the music find you, and not the other way around.

I can't say that I know a lot about blues though, I've only known the genre of music for this long. I am merely a person that enjoys the genre, especially the majority of the materials that have been thrown on me in the past few years. I love the way every note sounds in my ears, and how the players are going for melody rather than the speed. In an age whereby music is no longer music, it is such a breath of fresh air when you hear a piece of music that puts so much heart and soul into the melody. I am sure the people out there who likes rock and metal has their reasons, but sometimes I just don't understand what they hear in those riffs being played at ungodly speeds. Which must have been why when Ahmad heard that Stevie Ray Vaughan ring tone on that stranger's cellphone, he became so excited. In our time, not a lot of people know what good music really is anymore. The legends are going to pass the baton to the next better player, and they are going to be forgotten in the sands of time sooner or later.

I was just watching a video yesterday night about a competition organized to find the best amateur blues guitarist in America. It was the finals, and it was being held at the legendary House of Blues, the same place with the giant neon lights at the porch that says "In Blues We Trust". With special guests like B.B.King and John Mayer, I was interested in finding out how the contestants fared. It is always nice to see a younger generation playing the guitar, trying to replicate the beauty of the genre on those fret boards. But there is just that little something missing in all of their playing, or something they are adding to the riffs that is taking the beauty out of the music. It is inevitable to be influenced by a dozen different bands and artists, since we all have access to them with a single click of a button. To be influenced by other genres is inevitable, and to fuse those genres into blues is always original and respectful. But when you are overdoing it, it becomes a little pretentious somehow, like you are trying too hard to please the judges, or you are just putting in way too much effort in a genre of music which isn't supposed to be so difficult. I do appreciate how these youngsters - though I am a youngster myself, and I am making myself sound incredibly old - are picking up the guitar after being inspired by the legends. But the same time, bordering on bastardizing the genre of music is not going to do it justice at all.

Which is why I have to say - again - how much I respect Mr. Mayer as an artist. He is certainly not the best player around, certainly not half as good as the players whom we call "The Legends". But I feel that if he is capable of bring the genre of blues to so many teenagers out there - like myself - through his own music, then this man ought to be respected in his own ways. Besides, when the true legends are handpicking him to play alongside them on stage, this guy has got to be better than everything we hear on the radio these days. It wouldn't be injustice to have him represent our generation in the world of Blues, because this guy has got what it takes to be crowned with that name. I just respect this guy for knowing what he wants to do at the age of fifteen, doing everything he can to achieve that dream and then end up playing five feet away from the people he grew up listening to. How cool is that? And this guy did it before the age of thirty, playing next to the people he grew up respecting, playing air guitar in his bedroom before he started working at the gas station to earn enough money for his first Stratocaster. By the way, he is STILL using that same Stratocaster he bought when he was fifteen, on stage these days.

I think it is such an inspiring thing, to play alongside your favorite guitarists by the time you make it big yourself. I mean, what other possible honors are possible if you are able to achieve that? The awards, the critical recognition, the money, everything is just another aspect of our materialistic needs, and nothing is going to compare to playing a guitar duet with your favorite guitarist, or singing a verse that he wrote for himself, but he is allowing you to sing it with him simply because - you are good enough. I wonder if that is what a lot of artists out there are striving for, not just in the field of music but elsewhere as well. Like, wouldn't it be a kind of honor to have your favorite author come up to you and shake your hand, and then tell you that he was greatly moved by your work. Or like what Shia Beouf said while having an interview with a website I go to rather often, about working with Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas in the next Indiana Jones movie. I think it is more than a honor, but a kind of goal that we should all strive for one way or another. Of course, I am not saying that I intend to work alongside Spielberg, and certainly not play a guitar duet with John Mayer or Buddy Guy. All I am saying is, there is something out there for us to achieve, and you can always reach it if you want to.

Going back to the topic of the blues, nobody can really resist the temptation of the music. You can say "Nah, Rihanna really isn't my thing", or "Linkin Park really pissed me off with their half-baked album". But when you pop in a CD with a bunch of blues on it, nobody is going to say "Oh God, turn that off". Even if you don't understand the blues, even if you cannot appreciate it, you won't be turned off by it anytime soon. That is the power of it, the way the music lives on even in our generation, and it is going to be the same way throughout the coming generations too. And I am not being optimistic about the genre here, because that is really going to be the case. If there is a form of music that is going to last on forever, it is going to be the blues. It evolves with every age, and yet retains enough of the old for you to feel the bittersweet aftertaste - like the first kiss.

Perhaps this may be a post right before my examinations, to tell myself that I can achieve more than I expect myself to. It has happened in the last semester, and it may just happen this time all over again, the way I surpassed everybody's expectations, especially my own. I just read in the latest issue of TIME magazine that moved me quite a bit. It is an interview done with Will Smith, an actor and rapper whom I have loved and respected ever since I first saw him in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and not to mention after hearing "Boom! Shake the Room!". He has always been a sort of inspiration for me, something which not a lot of people know. Besides, my Chinese name sounds kind of like his, and I liked the idea of it for some reason. Anyway, the quote from the magazine goes like this:

"Willard Christopher Smith Jr. hatched his scheme for global supremacy at 16, after his first girlfriend cheated on him. "In my mind, she cheated on me because I wasn't good enough. I remember making the decision that I will never not be good enough again."

Despite his growing fan base, in Smith's first five years in Los Angeles, he couldn't get a meeting with a director or a studio. "Nobody cared," says Lassiter.'"You're a rapper. You got lucky, and you got this television show, but that's all you can do.'" At this point, many would-be movie stars would have been weighing Plan B. Not Smith. "I don't want to get too metaphysical, but by even contemplating a Plan B, you almost create the necessity for a Plan B," he says.

Smith applies the same kind of arithmetic and discipline to his personal life, and as a result, he enjoys a Hollywood rarity: a stable 10-year marriage. "Out first official date was with a relationship counselor," he says. "The math of it is simple. Start while it's good. Do it three times a week while you're laughing and still having fun. You get so much more work done. You head off problems. Do it during the ether time, and do it aggressively. There's nothing you've ever been more successful at that you didn't work on every day." Who knew one man could have learn so much from being cheated on at 16?"

I just feel that that should be how we work in life, no matter if you want to be a rapper, an actor, a guitarist or the assistant to the regional manager of a local paper company. What matters is that you work at your Plan A and you stick with your Plan A all the way. You do not stop until you have attained your goal, because that is the only way you are going to make it somewhere. I am probably going to refer back to this entry a lot in the future, whenever I trip on more imaginary ropes in the bushes. But one thing is for sure though: the only way to win is to work like a king of hearts. These are the people putting themselves out there, telling you how they made it in their lives. Earning twenty million dollars per movie, playing the guitar five feet away from your childhood idols. This is how you do it, and that is to do it with a lot of heart. To be the king of kings, and have a whole truckload of heart.

Crossroads by Eric Clapton, with John Mayer


(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man by Buddy Guy, with John Mayer


And this is how you do it. This is how winning sounds like.