A question just dawned on me last weekend when I was on the Facepage: Hey Mike, what in the fuck are you getting accomplished on this thing? Here are the only answers I could really come up with after giving that question a good long 10 seconds of undivided contemplation:

  • Sign language for boring

    I’m bored and have self-diagnosed A.D.D.

  • Facebook = boredom and self-diagnosed A.D.D. junk food

I can’t afford to burn my boredom away like that. I’ve got too much other shit I should be doing. What am I accomplishing by telling my Facepage acquaintances that I think that songs like Prince’s Darling Nikki and Soul Coughing’s 4 out of 5 are the coolest ever? Are people actually going listen to shit like Extreme’s RUN if I post it on Facebook… and rather than laugh it off as washed up hair metal dudes actually be able to appreciate Nuno Bettencourt’s stellar, impeccable guitar work and vocal harmonies? Do people actually click on that stuff and not only sit through it but experience the same rush that I do when I hear it? Probably not. I used to write and draw a lot more than I have the past few years. I’ve neglected several aspects of my music. I need to keep my websites updated, pay closer attention to local music stuff, and focus on creating more in general. I have piles and piles of 4 track recordings I made in the 1990s which need to be transferred to digital format and preserved before something happens to them. Sitting and clicking LIKE on something or responding to comments that inevitably disappear into the Facebook ether isn’t going to help me get any of these tasks accomplished.

So I bid the farewell, http://facebook.com/micycle. We need an indefinite amount of time apart. I’ll still drop in every once in a while but primarily for music related shenanigans. I’ll probably keep on twitting on The Twitter (@micycletricycle). As much as I hated the concept of that when it started I’ve come to really appreciate its minimalism. It’s kind of like farting: You let out what needs to be let out, experience immediate relief, and move on. There are no Liking and Commenting spirals to get sucked into. I think I’ve figured out how to automatically sync my website posts to Facepage (this posting will determine that) so those will appear from time to time along with anything else having to do with music, but my daily grind boredom stuff has got to go. I feel just like Willy Wonka in this here scene:

To those of you who send private messages via Facebook: I was already horseshit with corresponding that way so consider this a warning that I’m about to get a lot more horseshit with it. I’m pretty quick with good old fashioned email though so please take that route if you happen to see this.

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Now that I’ve got that out of my system, 2011 was a damn good year as far as getting the music ball rolling and connecting with bitchin’ new people to surround ourselves with. Thanks to much better work hours this past year I was able to focus on my music stuff again. The focus never really went away but it became something I wanted to do vs. something I was actually doing. When 2011 rolled in I could fumble through two or three of my solo acoustic tunes at best. My guitar’s case was acting as more of a coffin for that poor little guitar than a guitar case. All of a sudden 2011’s winter dissolved and an inexplicable fire was lit under me arse to sit down and relearn all of my songs and get out and about in the city to play them. Bryn, being the awesome and supportive wifey that she is, booked a few back-in-the-saddle gigs for me to get my feet wet. Eventually I got both my Finnegan and Iced Ink grooves back as if we’d never been apart. The time off actually seems to have dramatically improved my playing, perhaps because I’m at a point where I can really focus on it rather than be emotionally shitting my pants wondering if we’re going to survive here.