Joe Bunting

Please leave if [vol. 3]: Interested?

you’re not that interested. There’s no point in wasting your time. As Alex Hitchens says, “They’d both probably go on to lead the lives they were headed toward. My guess is they’d do just fine.”

Confessions of a Wannabe: Integrity and Identity, Part II

This is part of the promised follow-up to Integrity and Identity, Part I.

I have a confession to make: I want to be famous. Not just any kind of famous though, I want to be historical. Forget the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I want to be Bethoven. I have a childish dream that people will be remembering my words for centuries.

One of the big questions that we studied as English majors was, “Who gets included in the canon?” The canon being the list of works that every English major should know, the same as every American should know about George Washington, WWII, and Elvis.

All the time we were reading these authors and poets I was thinking, What made these writers the best? What made them worth reading 300 years later? I was taking notes, of course, on how I was going to emulate their success.

But Merton always knocks me back down to earth, as he says:

Many poets are not poets for the same reason that many religious men are not saints: they never succeed in being themselves. They waste their years in vain efforts to be some other poet, some other saint. For many absurd reasons, they are convinced that they are obliged to become somebody else who died two hundred years ago and who lived in circumstances utterly alien to their own (1949 p51).

What is success? For some, being famous to their own generation is the ultimate success, but that won’t necessarily make them historical. Van Gogh didn’t sell any paintings, and William Blake lived like a pauper was one of the least read authors of his time. Now, both are considered to be some of the best of all time.

Maybe their greatest success wasn’t fame, but their relentless pursuit of their identity, of their own style, of their own way of looking at the world. As Blake’s character in Jerusalem, Los says, “I must Create a System, or be enslav’d by another Man’s. I will not Reason & Compare; my business is to Create.”

What is success to you? Who are you trying to copy in order to get it? Do you know your greater purpose?

Performance Lessons from Tiger Woods

Stewart Cink, who lost to Tiger Woods on Sunday, Feb. 24, made some interesting comments about performance psychology. Find them at the bottom of the article.

Performance is the same, whether it’s golf or a rock concert, and Woods is a master performer. Here are some of the things that Cink points out:

1. Self-confidence - This isn’t pride. Self-confidence comes from doing something well a thousand times and knowing that you’re going to do it well again.

I know that I have to practice a song at least 15 times perfectly before I can perform it with confidence before an audience. That’s 15 times after I’ve learned it. It could take hours or days to build the muscle memory to even play the song through once, but confidence comes from knowing you can play it perfectly consistently.

2. Mental Control - Cink says Woods takes control to a whole new level, controlling even his heartbeat. Woods was on the podium (and Cink wasn’t) because he regulated his body even to the subconscious level.

For singers, control over the mind is just as important as over the body. One of the hard things about singing is that you are both an actor and a musician. You’re telling the audience a story, and it takes preparation and a certain amount of mental toughness to be able to both make it sound good and make the audience believe it.

3. Physical Control - Woods has been playing golf since the age of three, and still he is constantly working on his swing. It is impossible to have mental control (and self-confidence) if you do not know what you’re body is going to do every time.

The key here is that all of these take massive amounts of practice. Emmons and Thomas say peak performance takes place on the right side of the brain with occasional jaunts into the left. The right side of the brain is automatic, the left side is critical. Without preparation, you
will spend too much time on the left side and be ineffective.

Practice Singing at Work / In Class

Well not exactly singing. Can you imagine the look on your co-workers / classmates faces if you busted out some opera in the middle of the afternoon.

No this is just an easy breathing excercise that I picked up from Jamie Vendera,
the man who proved it really is possible to break glass with your voice. I’m horrible at supporting my voice with breath, so this is a great excercise for me.

1. Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds. Exhale through your mouth for 4 seconds. Do this 5 times.
2. Inhale through your nose for 2 seconds. Exhale through your mouth for 2 seconds. Do this 10 times.
3. Inhale through your nose for 1 seconds. Exhale through your mouth for 1 seconds. Do this 20 times.
4. Dog pant for at least 30 seconds, longer if you want. I practiced this part discretely at work. Mostly though, I skipped it.
5. Reverse the cycle.

The key is to breathe deeply and try to imagine the air going to your lower back. This should cause your stomach to tighten to tighten too. After doing this several times, my throat started to get sore. I realized I was breathing completely wrong, placing the air in my gut and chest, and it was causing strain.

One tip from Jaime is to pretend you are inhaling when you breathe out. I forget exactly why, but I think it is to maintain the connection with your diaphram.

This is a really great excercise to do in class or at the office, and it’s very helpful. I’m doing it right now!

Congrats Brett!

I just wanted to share with you that my roommate just gained a new baby brother! Rider Stuvland was was welcomed to the world yesterday morning to his overjoyed parents, Megan and Craig. Congratulations to Brett and his family! We’re all very excited for you.

Thanks for having us Westmont

“The sleepiest show Westmont has ever seen” was a huge success. Thanks to everyone that came. You guys were a lot of fun to play for. Special thanks to Eric Winter and his beautiful poetry (not sonnets though), Erin Rozelle who booked the room, and Shannon Hickey who took care of the Hot Chocolate.

Dream on!

PANIC… at the Disco?

It’s a lot of work hosting your own show. Joe Bunting and the Downers are hosting “The Sleepiest Show Westmont Has Ever Seen” tonight, entirely by themselves, and the stress is piling up.

Here are some factors to consider when your putting on a show:

1. Scheduling with the venue - this can be one of the most challenging things, especially if you have to figure out multiple people’s schedules. Rule of thumb: plan well in advance (2 months or so)
2. Making sure you have all the right gear - new strings, mics, cables, amps that work, and much more
3. Lighting - who knew lighting could be so complicated, but I guess it is
4. Advertising - a full room is much better than one with three people (but don’t worry if you’re one of those three, we’ll still play our hearts out!)
5. Publicity - when you get the attention of good people in the media, it’s great, but most of the time they couldn’t care less
6. Set-up - this is where roadies come in handy. By the way, anyone want to haul amps in Santa Barbara for us tonight?

Oh yeah, plus you have to be well practiced and prepared. At least, you do if you’re me. I’m definitely excited, but I don’t think I’ve been more tired in my life!