Creating Separation

In football, one of the requisite skills that turns a receiver into a playmaker is the ability to get open. A guy will use his quickness or his strength or sometimes just his sheer speed to make some space between him and his defender, creating a window for the quarterback to deliver the ball. The same goes for basketball; guys develop a stepback or a crossover to get an open shot, or they lower a shoulder into a defender on the drive to secure a lane for a layup… it’s all about creating separation. So most all of my analogies are sports-based. I watch a lot of sports.

I think the same applies to the entertainment industry. It’s a case of different but the same. Music and TV and film - they’re so saturated that it can feel impossible to make a mark. Some people are able to achieve massive visibility through a massive marketing budget, but not everyone is so flush with resources. Even then, you can’t really guarantee the results you want just by throwing money at the campaign. (I think we may have reached the point in time where we have to stop assuming the audience is dumb. This might not be a novel idea, but it’s one I’ve been thinking about recently. Everyone that has a phone or goes on the internet can recognize an ad, and their bullshit meters are getting more and more refined. They live online and are inundated with information so why would you assume they don‘t know what they’re looking at?) The one thing you have to do is find a way to stand out.

“I’m working on it,” I screamed into the digital abyss, head spinning, back aching, and tears welling up, wondering if I’d ever be heard.

I’m just kidding. It’s not that bad. Yet.

-J.P.

…To the Skies?

Hope you had a nice Christmas! If you celebrate, of course. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed your Monday. I had a very nice time with my family. A lot of good food, way too many desserts, and a very long karaoke session. Also a lot of chasing my baby cousin around the house. Kids can really wear you out man.

We went to the mall today to return one of my sister’s gifts. My dad took a route that we take maybe one out of ten times to get there, which took us past the Hudson Valley Regional Airport. To my surprise, there was a new building, the Dutchess Community College Aviation Center, right on the side of the street. I had no idea it was there. But it got me thinking…

I write about flying a lot. Like A LOT a lot. I’m enamored with space. In another life I’d be an astronaut. But it takes experience to write, and it takes living to create. What if I actually learned to fly? It had never occurred to me as an option. But I mean, I have time right? I’m not gonna lie, it’s really piqued my interest.

-J.P.

Quickly, Before Santa Comes

I’m still awake so it’s still technically Christmas Eve for me and I just wanted to put some well wishes here for anyone who might find themselves reading through my thoughts. I hope you are surrounded by love and warmth and smiles this holiday season, whether that means your family, your friends, or anyone else. I hope you get what you want, presents or in life, and I hope you find yourself in a moment where you’re able to appreciate the time and experiences you’ve had up to this point. I’ll try to do the same.

-J.P.

Life is Really Sucky Right Now

Direct quote from my dad. Mom says we need a good sitcom that you can giggle at. I agree. Most all the media I see or hear is really depressing. Given the opportunity I would like to do something opposite of that, in hopes of restoring a little bit of balance. I’ve probably said it before. I’ll say it again. It feels like people are afraid to do something different than what they know is going to work. Gross.

In other news, it’s Christmas time! Happy holidays.

-J.P.

Gotta Fly

Another year in LA in the books. Time to wrap up. I’ll think a little more on it while I’m on the plane. We’ve done a lot this year, and sometimes it feels like we didn’t do anything. That’s a weird feeling to understand. There’s a couple things I wanna talk about here before I finish but I’ve got some packing and things to do, so we’ll talk soon.

-J.P.

So Close…

You know the rest. Today is another one of those days that feel further than closer. It’s ok. I don’t know that they’ll ever feel any different. But today’s it’s raining on top of the fact that I put my shampoo on my scrubber by accident and the roof might be leaking and the sink is definitely leaking. Gonna try to just keep my head down. Keep going.

-J.P.

Say It Loud/By Design

“Say It Loud” is a song by The Corner Store that came out a little while ago and it flew under the radar. Truthfully that happened because I let it happen. My three pronged plan has proven pretty ineffective, but we’ll save the reviews for later.

Say It Loud was one of the first songs we recorded in 2022, and it served to start us down a new stretch of our musical journey. Understanding came into an MPC and had spent a lot of time making beats and it had been a really long time since I had rapped. We tracked this before we even had the idea for The Corner Store, but the attitude that exists in the track became one of the foundational pieces for building out the world of 1000Kicks and MadUrthur.

Un really let it rip on this one if you ask me, so I tried to stay out of the way as much as possible and let him vibe. The beat is one of my favorites he’s ever made.

The newest release from The Corner Store is called “By Design”, which came out last Friday (on my mom’s birthday). Now that I think about it, the demo version of this song was done way before even Say It Loud was, so we really had no idea what we were making when we started it. It’s one of my favorite verses to do and one of the most fun songs I’ve made.

I think that was a big part of what made The Corner Store so appealing to me. It really became the outlet for the songs that I considered to be the most fun and the most free in creation. Sometimes the other acts feel like they have a certain pressure on them to be something specific. Working on The Corner Store essentially amounted to just locking in and trying to write the best raps I could.

That being the case, it’s disappointing to look back on the lack of reach the music had this year. I consider that a personal failure. The silver lining for me though, is that I think the world of 1000Kicks and MadUrthur has a lot of potential to be further developed and we have an idea we’re working on behind the scenes. Hopefully if we realize that potential we can give the music a second chance to find its audience.

We’ll see how all that plays out in the time to come. For now though, I just want to say thank you on behalf of The Corner Store, for listening to our music, and we hope that it served you well.

Peace.

-J.P.

Changing Perspectives… Again

A day late and a dollar short is early to the next sale.

-J.P.

Shhh

I don’t know why people feel the need to say something when they’ve got nothing to say. Then again, I post here just about every day. I don’t always have something to say. Maybe we’re all practicing being interesting, hoping it will pay off in the future.

In other news, today is my mom’s birthday! Happy birthday mom, I love you very much, and I could never thank you enough for everything you’ve done to provide me the life and opportunity I have to follow my dreams. Hope you had a wonderful day.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about The Corner Store a little bit. G’night!

-J.P.