'Separately' - Together we do better

Hello friendlies,

Straight off the metaphorical bat, here is the song 'Separately' by Donny Stax & [adj], lovingly encoded for the internet by soundcloud angels.
You can continue to read this while the song is playing, so don't be shy, press the little play button above right now if you haven't already done so. I know you might be eager to rush ahead on this here blog and skim read the waffly bits to get to the golden nuggets of information, but you can still have a little listen at the same time. This kind of 'reading' and 'listening' exercise stimulates parts of your brain that are usually out having lunch with other unused parts of your body.

So 'Separately', well, what can I say about this song that hasn't already been said a million times before? Lots and lots, because not many people have heard it and I've never said anything about it here in this blog. This is our best shot at a big chart single in my opinion, so we need to get it some exposure.

This song needs to be taken to a park and forced to stroll around in a trench coat, flashing innocent passers-by and inquisitive dogs. It needs to be rolled up and spitballed into little girls hair. It needs to be injected directly into the temples of all major religions while being consumed in liquid form by the obedient servants of Atheism. It needs to be placed in the inside of every ear in every country on every planet in every universe ever discovered. I will not rest until this task has been completed, I shall remain at my post diligently until everyone has heard it, I shall not be broken by any distractions...or...hmm, what's that on my finger? I need to sleep.

This song that you should still be listening to, unless you are a really slow reader or didn't press play, has been played many times by my good friend Benjamin Stubbs on redshiftradio. Ben even made it his record of the week a couple of weeks ago. Winning!

'Separately' has been nominated for a total of 0 awards and it has so far won everything it has been nominated for, which is quite an achievement for a song by unknown artists. Please vote for 'Separately' in the upcoming imaginary awards in my brain, there are still some seats available if you would like to attend the main event, just write your name on a sponge and i'll get back to you.

You can buy a copy of it along with it's summer album brothers and sisters from http://howboutthatrecords.bandcamp.com/,

When you hear this song at lunchtime on the radio in the future, think back to this time of listening to it while reading the stupid ramblings of an adventuring creative, it will help create an infinite timeloop with you in the centre of it, this song as the backing track, and the memory cemented in the mysteries of time itself. Well done, you have progressed to the next level of existence and are entitled to pick any item from the table that you desire to take on your next adventure.

Now spread the word....err......hmm....let's see...ummm........err....ok, got it, now spread the word 'Goatfiddle' to everyone you encounter who is carrying a goat under their right arm. Good luck

Peace and infinite love
[adj] - Andy D Jackson

Busking this week? Weather says 'NO'

Hello friends,

What a beautiful existence we get to enjoy here on planet Earth, it might be a low level, sometimes thick as week old porridge, struggle at times, but it sure does beat not existing at all.

So a quick hooray for existing, and now we can move on to the bulk of this here blog. As an adventuring creative type such as I am, I like to do some adventuring from time to time, in-between bouts of intense creativitude. The summer had some lovely adventuring, but this week, the weather has turned which has put quite a crimper on my busking exploits.

Me busking (with a fully strung guitar)

Busking is good fun, sometimes it can be tough, sometimes it flows in ways you wouldn't expect. People like to talk to buskers, sometimes to give a friendly 'Nice One', sometimes to give advice on how to not sound so terrible and sometimes just some good old fashion jibberish direct from planet crazy. One woman once came up to me and told me I needed strings on my guitar if I wanted to make anyone happy (my guitar obviously had strings already!), she then offered to show me how to play, trying to snatch my guitar off of me. When I refused the impromptu lessons on the instrument I've played for 15 years from a woman with leaves in her hair and at least one dodgy eye, the woman proceeded to shout at the top of her voice "Don't give this man any money, he hasn't got any strings".

Well, I couldn't busk this week, because it has rained every single day. The rain has varied in size, from super mega power shower, to marble sized hailstones, to that ninja rain that you aren't sure if it's actually raining or not and the only give away is how damp your face is. This has been a lovely long week of rain punctured with small bursts of the sun peeking through and saying 'Remember Me?'.

I remember you Sun, and I hope you will be out to play again soon.

Peace and infinite love

[adj] - Andy D Jackson

Autumn season 2012 - Countdown to the End

So friends,

Summer is almost done, I know we are all hoping for an extension on it, and if we are lucky then we may just get it. Regardless of the weather status, there will be much musical loveliness to wish away the hours to. There are literally thousands of awesome musically talented people making amazing music right this very second while you are procrastinating on the internet, how brilliant is that?

It's very brilliant is the answer, very, very brilliant.

I did a radio interview with my good friend Benjamin Stubbs on red shift radio back on the 13th of September. Here is the listen back link

The Midweek Uplift - 13th September 2012 - One World Special with Andy Jackson by Themidweekuplift on Mixcloud

So coming up this Autumn, expect some new songs from Donny Stax & [adj]'s third album for the year. We have quite a few, and most of them are pretty epic in their scale. We have been working on a slower more chilled out track as well though, it will hopefully be our strongest musical outing of the year, following on from our previous two albums.

We have been getting lots of radio play of late, which is doing wonders for our ego's and hopefully is paving the way for some bigger outings of musical splendour. Mr Stax has been doing some excellent work which is opening more door as you continue to procrastinate on my blog.

Also coming in the Autumn will be songs from my first electronica album 'Sounds for Drowning Robots', it will go out under my [adj] branding, even though it has no guitar or folky leanings. Here is a sample track from that upcoming record
And a video I made to go with it as well...
So the Autumn season will see more original musical exploits, just the same as the Summer and Spring did. Winning!

Also, lots of live appearances in the pipeline, expect to catch Donny Stax and a whole heap of other How Bout That Record's crew live shortly. I am also performing as part of Swingtech http://www.hypno-techarts.co.uk 

I have my very own performers page on there too :D

Peace and infinite love

[adj] - Andy D Jackson

So what you doing?

So friends,

What's going on with me I hear you not asking? Well, let me tell you...

I have been busking on the streets of Brighton for the last week, a full blog about that to come with picture and video evidence to back up my blogging claims. You can trust me, I couldn't afford any expensive green screen technology or any actors to come walk across it and make the expensive green screen all dirty so I would have to hand over more cash i don't have to get the damn thing cleaned!

Anyway, moving on... There are gigs in the pipeline, I've called an experienced plumber to come and dislodge them from the pipes, at which time I will inform you of the dates, until then, just know they are pipelined up. One of dem gigs is a circus :D Things are about to get wild people!

Mr Donny Stax and myself are still in the studio crafting our third album for the year, now we are aware that most musicians knock out one album every three years, but we wanted to do it the other way around, so three albums in one year it will be god damn it! We have about 8 tracks in some form already, and we will write a couple more, expect to see the album before the year is through, with some punchy radio singles to boot. We have continued to get radio play for some of our tunes, 'Separately' from our second album 'Free Music (Donate Now)' {which can be downloaded for FREE from http://howboutthatrecords.bandcamp.com/ } has been played by my good friend Ben Stubbs on his radioshow on redshiftradio a few times {Thanks Ben}. Winning!

So here is the complete soundcloud link for Donny Stax & [adj]'s 2012 exploits so far, have a listen and enjoy (if you so desire, if not, just skip past it, ignore it, don't press the purple play button of pure pleasure, don't, don't, don't press it, NO! Please, think of the childrens limbs!)
There will be more Donny Stax and [adj] to come very soon.

In the meantime, come and catch me busking in Brighton if you get the chance.

Now smile, life is awesome.

Peace and infinite love

[adj] - Andy D Jackson

Everything is OK (Surprise workshop with Danny Shine)

Hello friends,

So, while at One World this year in Reading, Abi and I got a surprise workshop exclusively for us with Danny Shine. Danny is the man behind the 'Everything is OK' series of street performance video's that are quite popular on youtube. His channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/spiritualentertainer and it is well worth a visit to see many of his funny and crazy video's.

Danny Shine has been a regular One Worlder for a while, and I remember him from 4 years ago (which was the last time I went to One World, before this year). It was an absolute pleasure to spend time with him this year, he is a very funny guy. He put on a workshop called 'Friends of Bill W', which began as a big performance piece in which Danny and Joao (the main guy running One World) switched identities. This was mainly done to confuse people, and it worked a treat, many people were utterly perplexed by it. Both Abi and I knew Danny enough to know that it was one elaborate ruse sent to screw with peoples minds, so we went along for the ride, knowing it would be worth it.

'Friends of Bill W' was about addiction, and the 12 step programme, which Bill W was the creator of. No one in the group present knew this, so we sat in a room all laughing confused at the situation as it unfolded. Once Danny revealed the purpose of the group, he invited us to leave, so Abi and I left.

On the last day of the festival, we met Danny on the main field in the afternoon. He was trying to drum up some people to go into Reading with him to make an 'Everything is OK' video. No one wanted to go, except for Abi and me. So into Danny's car we got and into Reading we drove. It was the funniest car journey I have ever been on, with Danny on top form, jokes flying left right and centre. We disobeyed the sat nav and went on an exciting round trip of Reading, before parking in the centre.

We exited the car park and walked up the road a tiny way, turning the corner and being right in front of Reading train station. Danny had his megaphone, I held his 'Everything is ok' sign, and Abi filmed the whole thing from across the pavement.

This is what happened....
After the Jesus brigade, Danny turned his attention to the suspicious yellow drinks being handed out
The camera ran out of juice, but the adventure didn't end there. A guy from the Mountain Dew company came over and started filming Danny, getting shirty with him and storming off back over to the giant radioactive looking van. We followed him across and had a discussion with the police that were standing there. Abi and I both got into the spirit of it and helped Danny question the police about the situation. The police kept staring at Abi and me, thinking we were filming them, or recording them, but we weren't. It was a powerful moment, and on the way back to One World, Danny dropped us off near the festival and shot off to another festival.

We got back to One World and quickly got ready for the cabaret ending to the whole thing. It was a crazy day, but one we won't ever forget.

Big props to Danny Shine for challenging convention.

Peace and infinite free radioactive drinks

[adj] - Andy D Jackson

One World Festival 2012 - A retrospective perspective

Hello friends,

For two weeks in August 2012 I have been present whole beingly at the One World festival in Reading. Not to be confused with the corporate sanctioned Reading festival, the hippie-fest that is One World is something unique and special, with it's own healthy menu on offer daily, activities and seminars with a forward thinking twist, which make it truly something very special.

Me and Abi at One World 2012

I blagged my way there, by emailing the organisers and asking if I could come play music there, with my beautiful partner Abi as well. By the time we got there I was essentially the DJ (something my name itself told me I would eventually become), and Abi was working in the office part time to cover her wristband.

There are so many things on offer at One World that it's always hard to decide what you will get involved with, as whatever you choose means you miss out on lots of other options. This works well in the festivals favour as everyone there gets a completely unique experience based on their chosen path through the beautiful chaos. I can only write about my experience, as I am me and I witnessed my own experience first hand the whole time, other people that were there were each having their own amazing collective experience.

While at One World I couldn't help feeling the love, compassion, openness and beauty that was emanating from everyone present. We put our tent over in the quite section of the school grounds on which the festival took place. It was a five minute walk from our tent to the main activity hub, at least on the first day it was a five minute journey. As each day passed, the journey got longer due to stopping on the path to have a chat and share some love with new friends. By the end of the two weeks it would take anywhere from 10 mins to half an hour to get from tent to action centre.

Some awesome fire poi on the cabaret night week 1.

One World opens you up, and helps with all feelings of self happiness and wellbeing, the diet does help with this too. There are three meals at set times, breakfast was from 7:45 - 9:00, lunch from 12:45 - 14:00 and dinner (or tea for my northern friends) was at 17:45 - 19:00. This regimented time keeping for eating had several benefits. Firstly, the food was all macrobiotic, and macrobiotics is a big part of the festival from cooking lessons in it, to every meal being bacromicrotic, to many jokes being based around it. There is no meat in a macrobiotic diet, and there is no dairy either, it is a 60% wholegrain diet. I didn't go to any of the macrobiotic lessons, lectures or discussions, but I did eat the meals everyday and felt the benefits. I had more energy then usual and was at least 34% more active and alert in all my activities ranging from the mundane to the superfantastico. Abi did learn lots about it from a wonderful teacher called Cecilia, and she informed me about each meal and how macrobiotic vs non-macrobiotic it was. We both had a lovely connection to Cecilia, she mainly taught tennis but did two lectures on macrobiotics which Abi attended.

If you want to know more about macrobiotics, then do a search on the internet, don't ask me, I don't know anything, ask Abi, she knows more. All I can tell you is that it is a way of living, not just a diet, now go do your own research if you want to know more.

Everyday there were four day sessions, each with multiple activities in each time block. I didn't often make it to the morning session after breakfast, usually because I had been up late the night before DJing and bouncing around like an idiot. One of the early sessions that I did manage to make it to was Palmistry with Ginat Rice, which both Abi and I found immensely interesting. It was a shame it was in the early slot otherwise we would have gone more often to it, but still, big props to Ginat, she crams lots of information into a short session, my palm has never looked so interesting.

I also had some eye opening moments due to Numerology which was run by Sheldon Rice, Ginat's other half. They are such a glowing loving couple, and the numbers that surrounded me did help me to look at my life from a different perspective, most informative indeed. Again, if you want more information on palmistry and numerology, I suggest you type 'Palmistry' or 'Numerology' into your preferred search engine (or google if you are too lazy to have a favourite search engine), or you can visit Sheldon and Ginat's website The Rice House here http://www.thericehouse.com/

One of the very special legends of One World is Mr Tony Mills, he is an energy healing expert, and also a wonderful glowing human being. I had the great honour of doing improv comedy with him everyday, and on stage in the cabaret. His workshop was called 'Divine Magic' and was a breathtaking experience in self reflection and energy alignment. His website is http://www.energetic-wisdom.co.uk/ and worth a visit :)

The improvisers, making stuff up about curtains.

My personal favourite workshop was Improvised Comedy with Maureen Levy (and on a couple of days it was Musical Improv Comedy with Julia Collins). This took place everyday from 11:30 to 13:00 and it was always funny, uplifting, challenging but most of all exciting. I have experience of improv comedy going back a few years now, and it was such a treat to get to play with the amazing novice to expert improvisers that came along. Collectively the loose troop of improvisers goes under the name 'The Soggy Biscuits', a name that sat with us well. We did some random performances most nights during the Open Mic, as well as having slots in the cabaret in both week 1 and week 2. Quite a few of us gave birth to alien babies at some point across the two weeks, and during one performance of 'The Village' I was an evil baker that was poisoning all the villagers with my hypnotic sugary buns. Other highlights included having a fingerless massage, playing New Choice with Tony Mills, having to tell Alan that I had impregnated his daughter, going to war with Ben my magical talking horse, singing a song about my naughty child playing up while I was getting my nails done, giving Matt the doctor an extra chakra in his shoulder, disagreeing with Maureen while her out of control arms kept being self playful and a whole heap of other amazing weird things that only ever happen in improvised comedy. The biggest laughs of the whole two weeks took place in the Improv Comedy workshops, and moments from it keep coming back to me and making me chuckle to myself. Big love to Maureen, Julia, Clair, Matt, Tony, John, Alan, Ben, Brian, Alex, Russell, Carol, Kath, Ruth, Fiona, Simon, Christa and the rest of the improvisers, it was the highlight of my year so far.

Okay, I'm getting somewhere with this now, having got improv written about, it's time I shift over to the music. One World is not a music festival, but it does have some amazing music on offer. Matt Kemp is the no.1 dude when it comes to music, and Maria (Matt's partner) beamed sunshine across the whole two weeks. They are a musical act together called 'Three Colours Red', and they did an awesome performance on the second to last night of the festival. Their show is completely audience interactive, with each original song having a unique twist for the audience. If you get the chance to see them in action then you really really should. Their website is here http://threecoloursred.com/
They also ran a singing workshop, and another workshop called 'Express Yourself'. I got to work closely with both of them and loved being with them and their musical energies. Abi and I had some amazing moments with them, including seeing a strange light going backwards and forwards in the sky, all thinking it was a UFO until we realised that Reading festival was starting so it was most likely a light from there. I spent most evening with Matt, Maria and Ben (Golding - the sound guy, with the biggest smile in the whole universe) helping out with the amazing live bands, the open mic and then the disco/music after the live acts. These guys are amazing and I love you all, can't wait to do more music soon with you.

Mega orbs in the big final dance-off after the last night cabaret!

There was such a range to the music, from gypsy to soul to rock and roll to acoustic folk and many other styles inbetween. The party never seemed to end until Joao came and told us to turn it down. The campfire raged on for a big chunk of the night, but I didn't really take part in that this year as I was too hot and sweaty from having bounced around to music all night long. A big shout out needs to go to Seth Newman and his ecstatic dance temple. He put one on every night, and ran a workshop everyday, he is a super hardcore music dance ninja. I managed to get along to one of his dance temples and it was amazing, took me into a trance and left me buzzing with intense energy for ages afterwards. http://www.facebook.com/EcstaticDanceTemple link on facebook. You should go to one if you can, everyone needs a bit of ecstatic dancing and movement in their lives, it shakes away the spiritual cobwebs made by ghost spiders. Seth had his tent right next to ours in the quiet tent bit and we had some beautiful times with him. Megalove to you Seth. He also did the DJing on the final night and kept us all dancing into the early hours - blissful.

A quick shout out to Roger Coghill for being such a legend. I didn't go to see him speak this year, but Abi did, and I have heard him in the past. Visit his website and find out more about him now http://www.cogreslab.co.uk/medcross.html

Joao, the main man

None of the festival would be possible without all the amazing volunteers that help keep it together, and the main couple that breath the heart and soul into the One World gathering - Maria and Joao. I did not get the chance to speak with Maria, but I had some wonderful moments with Joao, including facing off against him in the air guitar competition (which I lost). Super mega love to you guys, you are the illuminati of the One World Festival, and you have such big hearts <3

Ben, Me, Abi and Victoria :D

Now I come to my personal connections that have touched my life the dearest. One World is full of new friendships and connections, and I have a list longer then my arm of people that made a deeply profound impact on me during the two weeks, many of them listed above. Special mention has to go out to Benjamin Stubbs and Victoria Ikoku. From the first time we met, Abi and I felt a deep soul connection to both of them, like we had known each other for lifetimes. We spent so much deeply connected time together over the course of it and we can't wait to get together again and continue from where we left off. Ben ran the Law of Attraction workshop and unofficially he ran the Weather appreciation workshop with me on several mornings. The four of us had such a good time together, and will be connected from now until forever. Also, Alex and Gayle were part of our little connection and we can't wait to see them again. I could write a whole blog about just these connections (and I probably will in the future).

Rich Stix doing a bit of fire spinning :) Winning!

One other main king of dudeness requires very special mention in this blog - Rich Stix (and the twins). From the first moment we chatted to Rich outside the music hall, having a sneaky ciggy, there was a connection. We spent several late nights laughing and joking with him, sharing our stories and anecdotes, and he so kindly gave us a lift back to Brighton on the last day. He is a circus legend and already a good friend, I can't wait to work with him more on his circus arts.

Then there was Danny Shine - but that's for the next blog.

...also, there was a wizard walking about, by day dressed as a mild mannered security guard for the festival, by night, a full on wizard! I did not dream this, it was real.

For everything I have mentioned here I have missed off 50 things, it's just not possible to sum up such an amazing experience in a blog. My energy is still flowing and my chakras aligned, I wish it was like this all year round (...aim to feel better, it's the first step, right Ben:)

Peace and infinite love
[adj] - Andy D Jackson

Need a Hug? - then come on in :D

Hello friends,

Share the love, that's what I always say, or write on this occasion. What goes around comes around, and a Hug shared is a Hug received. Now, I know that's just standard bilbo that gets shafted down our mind holes regularly, but there is some truth in it. Especially the hug bit.

Give someone a hug, the next person you see, I guess, because of cultural practices you should probably ask them if you can hug them first, and if they say no to your hug offer, then don't be offended, just take your hug with you to the next person you encounter. The best thing about hugs is that they are almost limitless in all ways. You can't kill a hug, and even if you could it would be back again in a different form straight away.

So, here you go, have a special [adj] Hug from me...
See what I did there, I gave your ears a Hug. Now take that hug and pass it on to everyone you can. You don't have to share my song with everyone, but share the sentiment of the importance of moments of connectedness with other human dwellers of planet awesome, or just have a Hug. You can hug tramps as well if you like, I know that they would love it ;)

We are all in the together, if we like it or not.

Peace and infinite Hugs

[adj] - Andy D Jackson