change we can taste11/11 by JM

Election night cake making...
hi!!11/10 by JM
Hi out there...
thought I'd check in to let you all know what's up in my world...
I'm working on the next CD, which I'm sure you will immediately hate until you eventually love. I'm basing out of LA because I'm working on a side project that is extremely cool. (I'll tell you about it soon.)
A quick point about all things media/gossip/paparazzi related, as I know there's been some chatter amongst the fan boards lately...
I am not darker, angrier or moodier these days. In fact, it's just the opposite. All that's happened is that I've given up on trying to find a way to use unwanted media as a form of entertainment. (It still was worth a try.) A walk to the car isn't the best time to try and analyze my mood or disposition, so you'll probably always get a bad read from it.
Here's what I think some of you might be missing... I'm enjoying off time right now. That means I'm not really playing any shows as I concentrate on making the next album. Traditionally that would mean that you never see me at all, and my absence makes your hearts grow fonder, and then I appear again with my next collection of work and we all get grooving again. Things have changed a bit, and the decision to slide on and off your radar isn't so much my own anymore. But I'm too young to stomp my feet about it. All I can do is concentrate on keeping my heart and soul correct and then redecorate around it.
So the life you see in pictures of me might not resemble the one you saw when you first picked up my music, but I'd be willing to bet your life looks different since then, too. All that matters is that the evolution of being a person stays correct, and I think when you hear the next album you won't regret a thing...because I sure haven't.
And I get it... I don't apologize for a lick of it, but I get it... I just think sometimes in the middle of all the gossip madness you just need to hear my voice to let you know that I'm still here. So here I am. Well, not "me" me. I'm dictating this to my assistant Rolando while I enjoy an invigorating Watsu massage. And maybe from now on I'll give you some more updates so that you don't feel as if I've disappeared and been replaced with a robotic clone, like in that movie The Last Starfighter, though if I had been, I'd want you to know that I'm very happy where I am defending the great planet of Rylos, long may she prosper.
Sorry. Sorry. Where was I?
I think that covers it, just a quick check-in... Hope you're all well and as excited about the future as I am. I'm looking forward to the show on December 6.
Catch up again soon...
John
ray lamontagne10/17 by JM
If you haven't heard Ray LaMontagne yet, you owe it to yourself to check him out. I've seen him twice in the past two weeks and I can't get over how powerful he is. He's so pure, it's arresting.
People ask me all the time what artists I'm listening to, and what I think of certain singers or bands out there.
I think Ray LaMontagne is as brilliant as any artist that has ever lived.
Wait, let me think about that again. That came off pretty bold.
Nope, that's still what I want to say. Ray LaMontagne is as brilliant as any artist that has ever lived.
And he's getting better; tighter, more focused, more self-assured.
But what happens to the back catalog of an artist that begins to truly break through on his third record? What happens to the brilliant songs that define Ray LaMontagne's lineage as a writer and a performer?
I took to iTunes and created an iMix of songs I know you'll love from Ray's previous two albums. Like musical Cliff's Notes.
Catching Up With Ray LaMontagneIf you want to know a songwriter's songwriter, and a singer's singer, it's Ray.
I should be writing songs when his CDs are playing.
ENJOY.
testimonial07/31 by JM
Read this morning at Los Angeles City Hall...
---------------------------------------------
I am one of the most media-friendly celebrities around, and my being here this morning is not in contrast with that; rather, it's in keeping with it. There is no doubt that the new frontier of entertainment is taking place informally on the street. Sound bites that used to be given on red carpets and in arranged interviews now take place beside a restaurant's valet stand, and there's no changing that. I don't want to beg the city of Los Angeles to give me 1987 back. I love being a famous musician in 2008. I embrace technology, but I also believe in thoughtfully adapting it to fit within a societal framework. And in the specific areas of both tracking and close-quarter engagement by the paparazzi, there are changes that must be made.
I'd like to define the scope of my argument by first defining what lies outside of it. I'm not here this morning to talk to you about the media at large, blogs, tabloid magazines, or entertainment news shows. I'm not even here to talk to you about photography itself. You don't have to ultimately be photographed to have been dangerously pursued in the attempt of getting a shot. The danger exists in methods and tactics having absolutely nothing to do with picture taking. In fact, removing the camera from the equation is a very effective way of looking at this situation candidly.
A scenario:
It's two o'clock in the morning and you're driving home from a friend's house. You notice there is a vehicle behind you that has no license plate and that has been following you for the last 15 minutes. The driver is so brazen that he or she has even taken to ignoring red lights just to stay behind you. As you begin to turn onto a small neighborhood street just blocks from where you live, you now realize this person has definite intentions of engaging you at your house.
The question I ask you is: Are you in danger?
The answer is YES. Not "depends if you're on TV."
It doesn't matter what you do for a living, and it doesn't matter that there might turn out to be a digital camera on the passenger seat. You are IN danger. Danger is defined as the possibility of suffering harm or injury.ᅠ And without knowing who is following you, you do not know why you are being followed, which brings about a very real possibility for suffering harm or injury.
So what about that camera on the passenger seat? Recently, it's come to serve as all but an official license to encroach on someone's right to protect themselves from threats of danger, along with every traffic law ever devised. It's also the most socially acceptable way to come within inches from someone who you do not know and who does not know you.ᅠ Sadly, if I were someone who wanted to do harm to a celebrity - of which there are many - my best bet in succeeding today would be to hold a camera.
Here's a true story.
Last month at Los Angeles International Airport, forty men, holding no tickets to fly and with nobody to pick up, swarmed an arriving female passenger inside the terminal, shouting at her, disorienting her and denying her a safe exit. Does that sound like something that should be allowed? Should the fact that the forty men were holding cameras change that answer?
Sadly, the very real and present risk associated with being pursued as a celebrity pales in comparison to the daily, imminent danger to the public at large.ᅠ If you've ever raised an eyebrow at an especially bullish driver declaring him or herself the third in a line of cars making a left turn on a light that had just turned red, I ask you to imagine what your reaction would be to watching eight cars do it.ᅠ And it happens not just daily, but turn-for-turn. I don't need to look in my rear view mirror to know it's happening behind me. All I have to do is listen; listen to the dissonant array of car horns as unsuspecting drivers are taken by surprise while a pack of reckless paparazzi muscle through an aging red light.
The person being followed knows there is wanton carelessness behind them. The pedestrian crossing the street, or the car expecting to have the right of way does not. A severe accident occurring from this kind of vehicular pursuit is not a theoretical possibility, but a situational certainty.
What does any of this have to do with photography? Or with celebrity?
The answer is simply, nothing.
This is about safety. Defined as "being protected from danger, risk, or injury."
I don't sit before you today to ask that you ban the paparazzi. I'm asking you to regulate it. Officialize it. Tax it. Legitimize it. A big white P on a yellow license plate says the driver works for an accredited photo agency. Press credentials worn in plain sight do the same. A law governing an acceptable filming distance from an unwilling subject keeps everybody safe and misbehavior becomes accountable. Regulating the paparazzi won't bring an end to modern day media coverage, just as the newly enforced hands-free law hasn't stopped people from talking on cell phones while they drive.ᅠ It's only an adaptive measure put in place to respond to some of the ways that living in a technological free-market can compromise personal safety.
chicago.07/18 by JM
1 hour, 12 minutes post-show.
Chicago...
This has become more than just ticket sales and career advancement.
In fact, this has nothing to do with it.
These shows have transcended.
This is about making 20,000 people feel okay in the world.
Not alone.
Full.
Hopeful.
JOYFUL.
To the magazines, blogs, entertainment shows, et al...
I say to you with my chest out and a big part of Chicago to stand behind me and back me up:
You may have my image, but you cannot take my sound.
Thank you Chicago.
With love for music...
and my band,
David Ryan Harris - Guitar/vocals
J.J. Johnson - Drums
Sean Hurley - Bass/Vocals
Tim Bradshaw - Keys
Brad Mason - Trumpet
Bob Reynolds - Saxaphone
Robbie McIntosh - Guitars/Vocals
john
meet isaac07/08 by JM

This is my new friend Isaac. He's 4. We met before my show in Toronto. He's one of the coolest kids I've ever met. Isaac has what's called
MPS. But that's not what makes him special. You'd just have to spend 30 seconds with him to know what I'm talking about. Isaac's a huge fan and loves the Where The Light is DVD. His favorite parts are the backstage scenes of the band walking through the hallway. He loves them so much he asked me if the venue we were playing had a hallway. (it does.)

I thought Isaac was so cool that I asked him if he'd help lead the nightly "hands in" and walk the
hallway to the stage, and he said yes.

Here's the walk to stage. Isaac loved every second, and so did everyone else in the band. Look at that guy! He's a tour manager in the making. We opened with his favorite song, Vultures.
Isaac has a web site his parents set up to help cure his disease.
Check out
The Isaac Foundation.
I just found out Isaac went into another (planned) operation this morning. I'm cheering for him and I hope he spends less time in a hospital bed and more time hanging out at rock concerts from now on.
apologies/humiliated07/06 by JM


Photo Courtesy: TMZ
I want all my fans to know that it is with great humility and embarrassment that I have to inform you that I was arrested tonight.
I hope that my forthrightness and honesty will help to ease some of your hurt. Here are the facts.
After my show in Mansfield, MA, I decided to try my hand at mixing the perfect watermelon margarita. Having served more than two dozen, and sipping from each drink as it was delivered, I became very inebriated. The rest makes me sick to my stomach, but here goes:
I thought in my impaired state that it would be a good idea to play Grand Theft Auto 4: Liberty City. It was not. As I left my cousin Roman's apartment with the afternoon to spare, the alcohol (and the loneliness) got to me. The combination of Patron, Triple Sec, Watermelon Pucker and my cousin Roman's misleading promise of the American Dream brought out the darkest side of me.
I decided to walk into traffic and stop a cab. When the driver came to a halt, I opened his door and ripped him from his seat. This is when I began to pummel him without mercy. When he fell to the ground covered in his own bright red blood, I slid into the driver's seat and drove through a busy park with reckless abandon.
I won't lie to you. I hit many, many people. While I can't say how many it was exactly, I garnered 4 white stars and a large police search canvas area. I know I should have surrendered, but I just don't know what got into me. While listening to my favorite hip-hop station, I led police on a three-mile chase through areas dense with innocent people. I was eventually shot, leading my vision to become monochromatic.
I want all my fans to know that I will do my best to redeem myself in your eyes. Though I came-to outside of the Liberty City Police Station two hours later after my arrest, I know that the damage has been done. I have decided from this point on to obey the plot's directive; to figure out just what the hell I'm supposed to do in this game while hitting fewer people and lampposts.
I hope those who hold tickets for the upcoming dates on my tour will still come to enjoy the shows to come.
Regretfully,
John,
proprietor,
Niko Bellic
summer 2008 is here06/29 by JM

I'm laying in my London hotel room in one of my least favorite scenarios: the job is done today but the plane takes off tomorrow. The European tour was an absolute blast and I think I speak for the band and crew when I say that all sights are set firmly on the US tour and making it the best ever.
As a 30-year old with an eight-year mainstream professional music career, I couldn't be happier (and more thankful) to still have a gig. All I can think about when I'm on stage these days is how terrible it would feel to have learned how to make the most out of each and every show after the gig was up.
It's a funny time to be alive right now, in that I'm not quite sure we're celebrating like we should. I don't mean the "Hand me your keys, Dan!" celebrating. I mean the very innate act of celebration; human appreciation. Group reveling. A general sense of "This is my tribe and this is our fellowship." Like a concert.
I know I've written along these lines before, but do you know why it matters? Because someday you're going to be old, and things are going to change. Your body is going to turn on you. I already know where the L-5 and L-6 discs in my back are, because they're wearing down a little, and when I ask the doc how we lick this, he says "It is what it is. You're not 18 anymore." I have 3 gray hairs that I insist are "mutant clear hairs" but they're not. They're just gray. And right on time.
Chances are you won't get hit by that proverbial bus people always talk about when they're smoking a Lucky Strike and tipping back on their chair. Odds are also on your side (thank God) that you won't ever get the news from your doctor that you have only months left to live. But you know what he may very well tell you? That you need a new hip. Nobody ever says "live it up because someday you might need a new hip" but it's the truth. They don't say "Be good to one another because in time we'll all know a medical lab technician on a first name basis" but it happens every day.
My point is that whenever that someday comes, when I slide into the MRI scanner and the thing starts spinning up, spitting lasers and screaming into my ears, I may very well say to myself "I wish I had just one more of those summers."
Being a young man is kick-ass. Being a young man who knows that being a young man is kick-ass is what it's really all about. And as a musician, I'm finally learning to distinguish the notes that matter from the ones that don't. I'm also getting better at knowing those notes as a person, too. I'm excited to bring it all on stage, and even more excited to see you all out there.
Thank you for another one of those summers.
John
desktop picture 106/16 by JM

Thought it might be cool to start sharing some photos I've taken by way of desktop pictures.
Optimized for a 15" MacBook Pro.
Number 1 - road case...
(make sure to "save picture as")
Enjoy.
JM