The Year 2010

Wicked. That is so fun saying 2010.

I am very excited about this new year. It is beautiful and minus 10 degrees here. If you have never been in weather this cold I will tell you that the first thing you notice is the sound. Everything sounds like it is amplified through a metal horn and across the hills. The silence is so huge that you can hear your own footsteps echo back at you from 100 yards and they sound like slapping the side of an airplane with a magazine.

Here is my New Years’ quote for you:

“Most things that are important, have you noticed, lack a certain neatness.” -Mary Oliver

We heard metallic coyotes and magnified owls on our silver marsh of the moon last night.

A brand new year.

Peace and love,
Mason
Below Zero
Minnesota
1/05/10

Blog 12/17/09: Numbers

I have been thinking about numbers lately. How many days till Santa
comes?

How much can we afford? How many people can live on one planet? I read a
piece once that Jorge Luis Borges wrote about a flock of birds flying
past. He said that he didn’t know how many were in the flock because he
couldn’t count them but that there had to be a number.

Or did there? Makes me think. My brother reminded me of one of my favorite
videos lately. It is of Bob Marley singing Bad Card at his Tuff Gong
studio the year he died. It is so powerful. When someone dies and I watch
videos of them I can’t help but think about numbers. How many breaths
did he have left? How many nights of sleep? If he had known, would he have
slept? It’s as if time gets frozen and then its value increases and takes
shape.

Death is funny and unique that way. Like one time I saw a video of Miles
Davis and John Lennon playing basketball and all I could think about was
how there was an exact number of breathes that they both took in their
lives. Number of laughs. A fixed number. Where as mine are still
dynamic, expanding, possibilities open. Got me thinking about my own life.

How many times have I kissed? How many times have I sang on stage? How many songs
have I written? How many times have I said “I love you”? Taken a shower?
Brushed my teeth? Taken a step? Flown in an airplane?

Cried….Danced…driven a car….hugged…how many thoughts? It makes
me wonder what I have done the most and what I have done the least. There
has to be a number. I bet the answers are surprising. Or maybe they are both
the same thing. Like “freely loved”......Or if there is no way to know
the numbers, do the numbers exist at all?

Mason
Minnesota
12/17/09

Typewriter

Well, Cormac McCarthy auctioned off his typewriter this week.
It was expected to sell for between $15,000 and $20,000. He wrote every one of his books on it. Well, it sold for $254,500. That’s more like it. All the proceeds were donated to the Santa Fe Institute of which McCarthy is a member.

It was minus 7 degrees here when I woke up. So beautiful. I slid/drove sideways past my driveway down the hill yesterday in a snowstorm which was exciting. I did not enter the woods and head straight down the ravine through the trees like I thought I was gonna. It was pretty mellow after all. It usually is.

A friend of mine I haven’t seen in 12 years got in touch with me this week and was asking me about songs that I wrote back then that I had completely forgotten about. I went rummaging through some old tapes and found a bunch
of stuff. I am not the best at archiving things. Haha. Hopefully, she will get me copies of her old tapes she has too. Maybe I will dust off a few songs for the show next week at First Ave. Really looking forward to playing.

You know who rules as a songwriter (and just all around rules) is Regina Spektor. She is the real deal.

You know who else rules is Wes Anderson. I saw The Fantastic Mr. Fox this week and it was just amazing. Can’t wait to see it again. And the co-writer Noah Baumbach is awesome too. His movie The Squid and The Whale is so much like my early life that it is just crazy. Uncanny.

I hope you are all remembering to chill out this holiday season. It can be crazy. And, damn it gets so dark so early. It can be kinda rugged. And beautiful too. Just hang in there. Maybe make some cookies. Or at least eat some cookies. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip are my favorite. Maybe my favorite food period. The rest is kinda beside the point.

xo
Mason
The Dark, Minnesota
12/10/09

Mason on NPR’s World Cafe Today!

Mason will be featured on NPR’s World Cafe on TODAY! December 8th, 2009.

The World Cafe with host David Dye can be heard on over 200 stations nationwide. Mason fans can find their local station by clicking here and selecting a state from the pull-down menu.

Worldwide, fans can connect to the WXPN Philadelphia stream Monday through Friday, 2pm to 4pm EST here

Late in the day of broadcast, the audio will be available on the NPR website
here

Blog 12/03/09

A Fine Balance

It is snowing lightly out my window. I just watched a squirrel run up a tree with half a red apple that I threw out into the woods last night. I am just starting to settle in to being home. And when that happens, new songs come up. I haven’t written anything complete in 8 months; have just been present with the Blood Of Man songs during these last few months of touring. Now a new kind of song is coming up in me and that is an awesome feeling. Been humming a new one in my head all week. This winter I plan on recording again and staying mostly close to home. It’s a fine balance.

I guess it might sound strange to some that I am a songwriter and haven’t written for months. People might ask: Does that worry you? Well, quite the opposite actually. I feel like the downtime of not writing is the most important part really. Letting it be. I could force myself to write and that would be fine but, where is the growth in that? Just like muscles needing to grow over ripped fiber before you can work them again and strengthen them, so it is with songwriting. I like fresh ground. Uncharted water. That is where I like to work. I know it is time to work when the water is finally still and no vibrations from past work are dominating
the pond. Ya know? Then I pick up a rock, take a breath, and chuck that little fucker as far as I can.

PS-Is there a better song than Silent Night? I haven’t heard one.

Mason
The Woods
Minnesota
12/03/09