Love is more than just a game for two

I’ve gotta be honest, I’ve generally been a fan of Valentine’s Day - even when I was single. And I owe this in large part to my parents. We always celebrated Valentine’s Day as a family and it always seemed like a holiday to celebrate love more broadly (rather than only in a romantic relationship).

But today I’ve been reflecting on Nat King Cole’s iconic song, “L.O.V.E” and considering how this relates to the most important personal relationship in my life - the one with myself. I’d say for a lot of my life, I had an abysmal relationship with my self. My internal dialogue was one of constant judgment and I didn’t really enjoy being with myself. But over the past decade or so, I’ve really begun enjoying the person I’m turning out to be.

L - Look
What do you see when you look in the mirror? Can you reflect on where you’ve been and where you’re headed? Give yourself a pat on the back for all the challenges you’ve overcome and know that there are good things ahead.

O - Only one
One thing that has helped me is to stop looking to other people to cultivate joy in my life. I am a complete and whole person and I’m not looking for anyone else to “complete” me.

V- Very extraordinary

We all need a little affirmation sometimes. Why not be your own biggest cheerleader? What are the very very extraordinary things about you that you love?

E- Even More

I’ll be honest, I don’t totally understand the Nat King Cole line here, but I’m gonna take this in my own way. What are the “Even More” things that have been missing in my life? I recently made a list of all the things I love to do and all the things I dread and I realized that I needed to find a way to get more of the love list things worked into my daily routine. Of course, I must do things like take out the trash, but the more time I can spend doing yoga, reading & bringing music into my life, the richer everything feels.

So give yourself a little L.O.V.E this Valentine’s Day :)

Art Matters. Music Matters. People Matter.

I had the joy of growing up in a musical family.  We’d travel around and sing at churches, and I learned young that you better not step on someone else’s harmony part.  My Dad’s inclination to learn something new has lead him to pick up a variety of brass, woodwind, percussion & stringed instruments. My mother’s classical technique and astute ear still amaze me to this day.  Looking through their portfolios of compositions inspires me.

And though they’ve had published works, taught music for many years, and composed entire musicals, their careers have lead them to new spaces.  Currently, my dad is a TSA officer and my mom manages a department in higher education.   They are both hard-working, driven, intelligent, and superb human beings and the fact that they aren’t full-time professional musicians speaks nothing of their caliber – but everything of the world we live in.

It’s not a profound or complex thing to understand: it is tough to make a living as a musician.   This isn’t new.  A person can work incredibly hard and master their art and yet, without meeting the right people at the right time, it may not bloom into a full career.  And those who do land a contract with any of the major labels will find that the payout is not nearly the picture that’s painted.  Unfortunately, it’s not rare to hear experiences of being taken advantage of, walked over, and directed to sacrifice artistic quality for the sake of profits.

At Rock It Man Entertainment, we want to resist this world.  We not only want to meet the needs of our clients, but seek to build meaningful opportunities for the talented players we have the honor of working with.

We want to live in a world where musicians aren’t required to hold a side job in order to make a living.  Where “doing what you love” does not require that you must take whatever pay someone may throw at you.

We know the value of our players and we want to help them make a living that is worth the decades they have poured into their art.  And ultimately, we want to preserve this art for future generations, so that these opportunities don’t end with us.

So you’ll have to forgive us when we resist bargaining down our prices.  Or when we stick to our policy of increasing the pay for increased time.  Or when we factor travel costs into our packages.  The bottom line for us is this: what kind of world are we creating?  What kind of precedents are we setting for our players?

We’ll be honest – as a company, we have often been short-sighted and we’re grateful for those in our industry who have stood their ground and helped to shape the values we hold and the practices we will continue.  We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: hold us accountable in this because it matters. 

Art matters.  Music matters.  People matter.

We know the value of this art and we intend to do what we can to preserve it in a world that would seek to devalue it.

One quote that has stayed with me is this: “If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.” - Yann Martel

Signing Off for now!

For both of you who follow this blog, I thought it might be helpful to keep you in the loop.

We're expecting Baby #2 to join us any day now, so I think it's time to take a little break from blogging while we embrace this new little bundle of joy.  

The plan is to be back in June, so until then, hope you keep listening to stellar music and dancing along.  

Take Care!

Caris