Dazy Mojo: Work It

  

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Jobs. Work. Both four letter words and for good reason. Doing things for money you wouldn’t normally do for free is kind of a ridiculous concept on many levels but it’s also part of the human experience. Some people are lucky to get to do the thing they love to do and would do regardless of payment, for a living and I fell into that category of magical unicorns for most of my adult working life. Acting was my passion and profession and only source of income for close to 10 years. This, like most fantastic to-good-to-be-true things, did not last. Unfortunately, residual checks and parental financial assistance only goes so far. Then what? “Get a job you hippie”, that’s what. Easier said than done for a plethora of reasons not least of which is a total lack of experience in anything other than professional pretending. Lucky for me, pretending to know how to do something is 80% of everything. Those numbers may be factually inaccurate but because I’m pretty good at pretending to know what I’m talking about, you probably believed me anyway. So, in the spirit of professional pretending (and complete financial disarray) I did what 99% of everyone reading this did at some point and finally got a god damn regular job.

First of all, some clarifications: The job is part time; the job is relatively easy; and most importantly of all, I’m still a working artist. Am I getting paid for my art? Negative. I am however, treating my art like a full time job (when I’m not at my part time job) and have no plans to put acting or music on the back burner…ever. In fact, in light of these new revelations, I’ve finally begun writing music again and am currently experiencing some kind of unimaginable embarrassment of creative riches in the form of nine new completed songs in just under three weeks. It’s super exciting and equally scary as hell but it’s proof of what can happen with a little discipline and focus. Also a trip to New Orleans doesn’t hurt.

So Joe finally get’s a regular job like everyone else in the world. So what? Nothing really. It’s my blog, I’ll say what I want. Full disclosure though, I came incredibly close to quitting after only two days of training. Learning an entirely new job at 35 in an industry lousy with 20 year olds can totally mess with your sense of self and I already have pretty shaky confidence or a “dazy mojo” if you will (Oh you will! #dazymojo). Regardless of all that, I’m sticking it out (for now) and it’s proving to be a positive experience that I most likely desperately needed for a long time, just like everyone and their dog have been telling me for years. 

As far as acting goes, I’m at a bit of a stand still at the moment. It sucks to not be getting opportunities anymore but I’m weirdly not too worried about it. I’ve always shifted focus back and forth between music and acting ever since I can remember so if I’m currently in a fruitful music mentality that could lead to Dazy Mojo releasing an album, touring across the country and ending up on SNL the same week Jim Carrey hosts for the fourth time, I guess I’m OK with that. The important thing is, I’m doing what I should be doing again, creating. Writing, singing, acting, playing, performing. These are all equal parts of who I am and when I’m not actively engaging in at least one of those things at any given moment in time, I’m not accurately representing my true self and the results are nothing short of apocalyptic. Losing sight of who you are is the fastest path to depression and self destruction and while it may not be the only ingredient in the shit stew that is hard times, it’s definitely the overpowering flavor in mine. Thankfully, my world is back on track and hopefully I keep that bastard of a ball spinning in the right direction from now one. Long live the Joeascence!

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Sober City Redux: Epilogue

  

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During my recent (and way-too-short) visit down south, I started writing a new blog post in-between taking countless pictures of the beautifully gothic Louisiana oak trees, and enjoying countless world class musicians and Bourbon Street Bloody Marys. The post was about being yourself and me being Canadian and trying to be American or something like that like, but I decided to shelf that one for now and do a little epilogue to Sober City Redux instead. As I announced in my last post, Sober City is in the process of becoming Dazy Mojo and switching from a blog about me not drinking to a blog about whatever the hell I feel like blogging about. In light of that upcoming (albeit somewhat slight) shift, I feel like a quick recap of my post sobriety-breaking adventure in The Big Easy is in order. Spoiler alert: It was awesome. 

First off, I kept true to my word and held off imbibing until April 1st, which provided me with two full days of vacation sobriety. Vacation Sobriety, as we all know, is the Jar Jar Binks of sobrieties. It’s primarily enjoyed only by children and most people over 20 do everything in their power to forget it even exists. Regardless of this, holding off on the booze for a couple days was easier than I expected. Turns out crawfish boils are just as delicious as I remember even without the frosty Abita Amber cooling the heat. This didn’t really surprise me so much as provide me with a good reminder that booze can be good but it’s not the thing that makes the good. That last sentence was brought to you by Third Graders. Third Graders: “Making write good. Good writing make good.” 

Secondly, once I did have that first drink again after three months, it was no big deal at all. The skies never filled with rain clouds of whiskey, the sea level never rose to Captain Morgan proportions, and I wasn’t visited by the ghost of John Belushi with a never ending bottle of Jack Daniels cascading down his “College” sweatshirt. I had a glass of red wine while reading Tom Robbins in the Louisiana sun, and it was perfectly perfect. That’s it, that’s all.

Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t just have one glass of wine on April 1st, tip my hat to Emily Post and retire to my drawing room in quiet reflection for the evening, but I also didn’t dive face first into Bourbon Street for Hurricanes and Hand Grenades either. Truth be told, I definitely drank more over the course of the trip than I would have had I not been in the greatest city on the planet for live music and world class cuisine, but I definitely didn’t overdo it and I have zero hangovers to prove it. That’s the whole point of it all really. “Have fun. Enjoy life. Don’t get hangovers.” I’m pretty sure Gandhi said that or something. 

Anyways, all is good in the Joe camp and more goodness is coming your way soon if you so choose to keep following along after Sober City is but a speck of dust in the rear view mirror of the Internet. I’m getting pretty excited about DazyMojo.com and I hope it actually materializes into something fun and consistent. I’ll be posting various new songs as Dazy Mojo very soon as well, so get ready to be bombarded with some smooth polka-jazz infusion sprinkled with a hint of death metal. Am I joking? Am I serious? You’ll just have to wait to find out. Until then, I’m joking. They’re just regular old Joe MacLeod songs written in German and sung in Inuit throat singing as always. Top 4040 here I come!

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JM

Sober City Redux: Day 90 (+1)

  

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90 days. That’s how long I spent on the good old proverbial wagon we all know and hate. Currently I find myself sitting outside a Lafayette hotel with a glass of Merlot and a Tom Robbins book in sun soaked Louisiana. The wine is decent, the book is amazing and the moment is nothing short of perfect. Perhaps the perfection of the moment is the sum of all it’s part or perhaps it’s just the Louisiana sun playing right into my hand. Either way, it’s a good day to be alive. As I type these words into my some what shackled Canadian iPhone, I can’t help but wonder what the future holds for me. Sober City has come to an end once again but new life has taken root in this artist’s soul and I’m ready to blossom these buds into a whole new adventure. As I said before, this blog isn’t ending with my sobriety, it’s beginning a new, and I finally decided on how it will proceed. Dazy Mojo. 

Some back story. I used to be in a band called Day Theory (aka the greatest band in the world) when I lived in Vancouver from roughly 2002 to 2004. I’m pretty sure the term “Glory Days” refers directly to a small island tour we did in Nanaimo, BC or maybe one of the countless post gig sessions hanging out at The Roxy Burger on Granville Street. Confidence reigned supreme in the Day Theory realm and faithful followers were in ample supply. It was at some point during this time when Dazy Mojo was born. The band was scheduled to appear on a local TV show and I had this brilliant (read terrible) idea to show up to the studio in character announcing that Day Theory couldn’t make it and we would perform in their place. Nobody knew who we were of course so this plan was flawed from the start. We came up with a fake band name by combining all of our first names (DAve, JesSE, MOrgan, JOe) and taking some creative license with spelling. Thus Dazy Mojo was formed. Luckily we bailed on the idea before they recorded our segment but our ridiculous mismatched persona is forever immortalized in clips on YouTube (link not found). 

The name basically died that day save for some infrequent inside references and what not but I continued to use it in my private life for go to online handles and the like. Recently I started using it more and more and I suddenly realized how personal the name is to me and also how perfect it fits. Dazy Mojo basically means “shaky confidence”. It’s one of my defining struggles that I’m sure I share with a lot (if not all) of you reading this, so what better title for this blog? Welcome to DazyMojo.com

For now I’m just redirecting my wordpress site to that address but a proper website is in development and will be available as soon as I get it presentable. In the meantime, I’m taking this whole Dazy Mojo thing in all directions. In light of my last post pertaining dust on my guitar, I’ve managed to not only start playing again but I wrote 4 new songs with a bunch more in the works. I’m super excited about the direction my music is headed and I’m going to be using Dazy Mojo as my new musical persona as well. All good things. All Dazy Mojo. 

So I bid a fond farewell to Sober City and a generous how do ya do to Dazy Mojo. I’ve written it more than enough times already to burn it into your brains so I’ll leave it where it is and hope you all keep paying attention to the weird things I have to say. Once again, thank you for all the love and support and thank you for indulging me in my wacky nonsense. I’ve got plenty more where that came from. Cheers!

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JM