Tag Archives: Labels

A Night at GIG

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I sat down excited, and stimulated by the retro-lounge décor that filled every inch of GIG, a one room venue that hosts original, “no covers allowed”, open mic nights every Thursday. With about twelve people total in the audience, the environment was extremely mellow, leaving me feeling incredibly close and officially inducted into this random assortment of musically, comically, and poetically inclined individuals. Jim from Michigan was up first, a tall, rugged old soul who played acoustics about puffing the times away and loving one another. Very whiskey and sunshine. As he played, the acoustics and sounds filled the entire room, disco ball, spotlight, and assorted color rotating disco ball all a blaze. Surreal; as if I had just taken a time machine back to the seventies, situated in the living room of my great-uncle Jim as he shared with us his assortments of string plucking and mid-Vietnam sentiments. Incredible. The rest of the night warped me through the same tunnel of stranger intimacy, allowing me to realize that at GIG, it was about the present emotions and content over the looks or previous accolades. We were twelve strangers given ten minutes and a microphone.We were twelve strangers, now connected with each other emotionally. We were twelve strangers, with our wedding veils pulled back.

In San Antonio and interested in performing your original work?
I highly recommend performing at GIG.
http://gigonthestrip.110mb.com/

Most important thing to do…show up with an open mind.

Labels

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Put a label on something, and you’ll know exactly what to expect inside and exactly what should comprise the entity it describes. Unfortunately, we get into this habit of label-ization with people each and every day…but why? Humans are too complex and too unique to be packaged together into restrictive sectors of our social society…and although it may seem that we are generalizing based on say physical truths, political ideals, or religious beliefs…all that genuinely matters is how we interact, learn from, share and collaborate with each other. Nature and materials aside, we’re all we’ve got…not matter what part of the globe we come from…no matter what we look like. The day we come to realize that we are all simply human, we are all individual, and respecting that we are all subject to our own opinions…is the day invalid assumptions, underestimating negativity, and intrapersonal injustice will cease to exist

Labels
The labels of our world
Overcome every inch of our innocent bodies
I got a sticker for everything I represent…
No, for everything they think I represent
STAMP- Hispanic, Smart, Liberal, Jesus Freak
STAMP- Short, Hairy, Nerdy, Physically Weak
Accumulating
Until the soul has no painless means of unraveling from
This stereotypical tangle
We “fit in”…
Only because they say so

Slowly unpeeling these adhesive generalizations
You will find
The one that speaks to all faces and nations
HUMAN
That permanent tattoo ingrained under the surface
HUMAN
The one incapable of tearing us apart
From the concrete reality
Of what it means to be
HUMAN

See, each and every one of us-Feels, Breathes, Lives
In this same world
Born, raised, and deceased
Through similar fleshy mediums
We are simply
HUMAN
Not confined by titles
But ideally by the words that flow from our throats
What we do and what we create
What we value, believe, and advocate

Just know you can escape, though,
From this jungle of assumptions
Because when the panthers, the cheetahs, and jaguars conspire
They attack with no meaning because you’re what they desire
A young soul to chew up…all due to these labels
You’re now the target, and so willing to accept it
Yet all of these attacks, no matter what has been deemed
Mean nothing at all
For it’s your own self esteem
That defines
Who you are and
What you will do
In this life…
Your ambition
Your own inner truth