Mathias Frost

So, let's get to some music. Today I want to feature a YouTube channel that I stumbled across and fell in love with it. His name is Paul Thompson and he is from Pittsburgh, PA. His channel is awesome. Minimalist, educational, no fluff, just groove and the ability to pull out some of the killer bass lines, mostly funk and soul, that many of us just hear as part of a whole and don't really think about. Well, except for bassists. I'm a drummer first who is the son and step-son of two bass players, and as a tot, I grooved all the time to music like this. Man, I tell you, I would never trade growing up in the 70's and 80's for anything, at least as far as music goes. Y'all should check Paul's channel and his videos, starting with this one. Don "Minister of Funk" Blackman, who left us in 2013.

Rest in the Pocket, reverend.

The (Low-key) Funkiest Album Of the 1980s Unearthing a gem from 1982: Don Blackman's incredible self-titled jazz/funk/soul album (Arist...

In my life I've worn so many hats it's no wonder I am bald. But one thing I've always wanted to do was write fiction. I've been an avid reader since I learned how to read. So, I am dipping my pen in the ink and starting to write stories. I don't have anything to share just yet, but I do plan on ding so when I have more material. In the meantime, this shirt still applies because I *do* write music and lyrics.

The shirt reads, "I AM A WRITER. That means I live in a crazy fantasy world with unrealistic expectations. Thank you for understanding".

That about sums it up. If TL;DR is not your thing, you can stop here, but I am going to make an observation.

As far back as I remember, I wanted to create something. Art really captured me at a very young age. I saw the works that others had created, from my classmates, family members, to the great works shown in museums, to the songs that emanated from the radio, and even the stereo and speakers that were somehow designed and made to transfer that sound to my ears.

The noise that each musical instrument makes, and where, in an arrangement of many instruments, that note is played. The melodies that tie all of the sounds together into one resonant piece of audible art. Watching my grandmother and my mother ti**le on the upright piano, and thinking to myself, "I can do that. I can put notes together and make a melody". And I did.

It was a long time before I actually got my first drum kit in 1988 and taught myself how to play, and even more damning, I had no intention of actually being a drummer because I was always just *dreaming* about being a musician. But, one day I boxed myself into a corner and told a lie that changed the course of my entire life. I told a friend, who, at age 14 was an amazing metal guitarist, that I played the drums. He believed me and said "we should start a band!" and the rest is history. That is one aspect of my life I would do without hesitation every time, should I die and wake up in my own teenage body in the mid-1980's.

And that brings me to my first attempt at writing a long-form story.

A couple of years ago, I was scrolling though recommendations on Audible for a good time travel book, and I came across The Unusual Second Life of Thomas Weaver by Shawn Inmon. At first I wasn't willing to give it a chance because the run time was only about 10 hours, and I'd burn though that in a day or two. But, then I noticed that Shawn had many books in this setting that he called "The Middle Falls Time Travel Series". At the time I discovered it, he had about 19 or 20 entires. Luckily, many of his earlier books in the series were bundled into omnibus packages, so I purchased the first three books, and again, changed my world.

I'm not going to spoil any of these stories for you, but they are fantastic and I highly recommend that you check them out. The premise is that each protagonist, upon their death, wakes up at some point in their past and gets to relive their life from that moment on. It's up to them to figure out why this is happening. Some folks only repeat a few lives before moving on, and others live hundreds of lives over and over again. The characters retain their knowledge of their past lives, but when they wake up, they're the only ones who do remember. Any friends or family only remember that person up to the point that they wake up.

The story I am working on falls into this general setting. It's not truly "time travel" because the person isn't staying in the current timeline. They wake up in their own body, so they never encounter or see themselves as a separate entity a la Timecop or Back to the Future. They cannot move forward through time any faster than we do now- day by day. They are never restarted at a point prior to their birth because they did nit exist until then. In a way, it's more like a contained reincarnation.

These are more like soft sci-fi stories that don't contain a ton of whiz-bang action (although some do) or attempts to change huge events (although one does). It's more or less the personal tales of folks who, for better or worse, get to live again and again until they're ready for what comes next, and even that is left to the reader's imagination. These books are light enough for YA readers but they don't pander to the excessive magic and epic nature of that genre, and for older adults, they provide a sense of introspective reflection on our own lives, and prompt us to think what we would do if we died and woke up at some earlier point in our lives, knowing all we know now. And yes, some folks DO buy Microsoft and Apple stock. Anyway, give them a read, and when my tory is done, I will also share it with hopes that folks will find it entertaining and thought-provoking. Cheers, y'all.