Archive for the ‘blog’ Category

… to find out go and watch Seamus.TV – episode 5

(it is about marketing music (or anything really) in the kooky new Internet world so don’t click if this doesn’t inherently interest you, and it is a video blog post too I should point out)

By Seamus Anthony

I was just reading a blog post that explained something I kind of knew but hadn’t really thought about – that the old gatekeeper barriers (to a career in the creative arts, creative business, etc) that the Internet has famously blown away were only ever a smokescreen anyway and that the real barrier still exists – hard work, persistence, focus – all that tough stuff that we don’t wanna do a lot.

Just so happens that I was also just reminiscing with an old friend who I used to live with in the 90s and with whom I have recently made contact with again ala Facebook. We were talking about where the time goes and how did we get this “old” already so fast and I said something about how I wish I could time travel so I could go back and tell the very happy-go-lucky 26 year old me to get the fuck on with it and do some hard work (that mattered, as opposed to tending bars until 4:30am like a crazed go-bot for minimum wage).

Then the thought struck me that I CAN time-travel and that I SHOULD and that in fact it is VITAL to do so.

By Seamus Anthony

This is a Good Samaritan story that revolves around the New York September 11 tragedy. It’s a true and amazing reminder of the power of love and forgiveness – or of fate at the least.

My Grandmother, 80, is such a charming lady. She’s from Dublin, as is my Grandfather, and both going strong. They moved to Australia in the late ’60s but they both still have their wonderful Irish brogue and their cheeky sense of humour.

Being of an Irish Catholic family, and the era being as it were, my Grandfather was blessed with 12 brothers and sisters. And Ireland being what it was then, most of them left for foreign shores. Some of them made it to New York and apparently there is still a brood of my maternal bloodline going strong there.

Now it was one of this brood, one of my Grandfather’s sisters, that had a husband once, with whom she had children, but at some point they separated or divorced. For what reason I am not sure, but apparently he did the wrong thing by her and the family, and was out on his ear.

Hey – Seamus here – Just wrote a post about this over on my other blog called:

Are You Suffering From “Trapped Musician Syndrome”?

Yes it focuses on musicians but it applies to all of us to some extent I am sure…

Click here to listen and/or download my music FREE (or pay what you feel).

Hi, Seamus Anthony here …

Just a quick note to let you know that you can listen to and then download my CD “Dogs May Bark” for FREE very easily, in hi or lo fi (i.e. lossless wav etc. or good old mp3) via this URL:

Seamus.bandcamp.com

Explore the site, there are some cool features, like the “share” feature – and I would very much appreciate it if you would use that feature to tell your Facebook mates, twitter, etc to come and grab my tunes free.

Here’s a taste for you right here, right now:

Over the coming weeks (months?) I will be adding ALL (ok – most) of the tunes I have ever recorded which is like, ten billion songs.

And then after that I have some new stuff to record and release.

Meanwhile – go! Download my music free!

They have made it easy for me now (the awesome geeks at Bandcamp.com) so look out!

By Seamus Anthony

Everything has an opposite. Every Yin has its Yang. Therefore it makes sense that if there is a Law of Attraction there must also be a Law of Repulsion.

Well a quick Google search revealed plenty of articles about this, but here’s my take, a little counter-intuitive mind game to motivate myself to do those things that will lead to great results, but which can be hard to do (or not do).

Attract What You Want By Focussing On What You Don’t Want

The seed of anything lies in it’s opposite. This is described nicely in the Yin Yang model: a spot of white in the black half and vice versa.

Therefore if you are having trouble motivating yourself to get things done, or if you don’t even know what you want out of life, try focussing on what you DON”T want.

But Wait … Isn’t That Back-To-Front?

OK Stop: First let’s digress, in order to clear something up. There’s a lot of superstitious hokey-pokey about how if you focus on what you don’t want you attract that very thing into your life. This is probably true on a level.

By Seamus Anthony

“Business is a good game, lots of competition and a minimum of rules. You keep score with money.” Bill Gates

The above quote moved me when I first read it because as a wanna-be entrepreneur of many years, I always struggled with bringing my ideas out and into the marketplace successfully – purely (I now know) because my definition of success was fuzzy.

You see, for me, money is not a great motivator. It is abstract and boring. You want to know what I think when I look at my bank account balance?

“Oh … some numbers … “

There are other currencies that I find way more exciting. For example – applause.

Sad, I know, but once you have stood on stage in front a crowd that’s wildly applauding and cheering what you just did – well, sorry to say, “some numbers” just doesn’t compare.

This is why I have always rolled my eyes when people say (about an aging, wealthy performer) “Oh he’s only in it for the money these days”. I bet that’s not the reason at all. Once you have a lot of money, it is pretty easy to stay rich by investing your money sensibly.

By Seamus Anthony

What follows is the massively-inspired, half-drunk process of me trying to finally define what “Rebel Zen” means in a slogan …

Rebel Zen: It’s not about being perfect – it’s about being alive.

or

Exploring what it means to be alive…

or maybe

Exploring what it means to be human…

or

… and the Glorious Art of Being Imperfect

Yes! That’s it!

Rebel Zen and the Glorious Art of Being Imperfect!

‘Cos to me that is the point – it is about what it means to be a human – warts and all.

What it feels like to be alive; the search for meaning, for authenticity, what it feels like.

The very thing artists strive to express – musicians, poets, madmen.

Forsaking fantasies of perfection – Zen as in “being here now”, whether that feels good or not.

What it feels like to be a human being, with all the inherent imperfection and beauty and baggage that comes part-and-parcel with it it.

What IT means.

THIS.

What THIS all means.

Meaning – and the absence of meaning.

By Seamus Anthony

If you are anything like me then you are sometimes a messy blob of anxiety, stress and over-imaginative worry.

Between you and me, I think we should get over ourselves already and get on with enjoying our lives while we still have the chance. Easier said than done? Here are some unconventional ways to help you live a little:

Take Some Time Out To Really Imagine The Worst

There’s a lot of advice out there about setting aside some time to visualize all the good things that you’d like to come into your life – you know – the whole Law of Attraction thing.

Have you ever actually watched The Secret?

I mean – pluh-eeez … as IF!

I think far better advice is to throw out your superstitious hokey-pokey and get real. Spend some time conjuring up all the worst things that could happen. I do this sometimes and I find that by naming my fears I somehow strip them of their power.

By Seamus Anthony

One of the most liberating things you can realize in life is that there are no rules.

People will try to tell you there are – but it’s not true.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there are no consequences for your actions. There most certainly are, but my point stands – you can choose to find happiness and success your way and without buying into somebody else’s self-serving nonsense.

And even better, there are so many people (ordinary, non-guru people) online and off, just waiting to help you make up your own mind by chipping in their own angle on “Life, the Universe and Everything”.

We Don’t Need No Guru – We ARE the Guru!

In fact, in this Age of Connectivity, and on the heels of the Information Age, we can not only find enough information to make up our minds, to find our own ways to worldly and/or spiritual success, but we can very easily find many people online willing to help, whether directly by conversing with you, or indirectly by publishing their own helpful content.

This is what I mean by “we are all the Guru”.