I own John Mayer. It's true. He's mine and he has to do everything I command him to do. If I want him to hug a friend of mine, he has to. If I want him to wink at someone, he does it. He'll even poke the people I want him to.
What I'm talking about is the Myspace application "Own Your Friends." It's basically a game where you accumulate "money" for doing certain activities, and if you have enough you can purchase your Myspace friends as virtual "pets." Once you own them, you can make them poke, hug, wink at, smack, and high-five your other friends.
Well, JMMA has owned John as a pet for about a month now and during that time I've received a handful of requests from people I don't even know saying, "Can you please make John poke me?!? Pleeeeeeese!!!" Uh... okay. I almost want to write them back afterward and say, "Was it good for you?"
Anyway, my point of this is... I'm going to begin leasing John out. If you want him, please post a COMMENT at www.myspace.com/jmmagroup and let me know when you want him, how long you want him for, and what you're willing to pay for him. What you do with him is your business. Just please hose him down after and let him drip-dry. (He shrinks and fades in the dryer.)
Want a personalized JMMA membership card for your Myspace page? Just message me at the JMMA Myspace page and let me know how you want your card to read.
Name: Number (in this format: xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx): Member Since (must be 3/07 or later):
If you'd like to increase the circle of your JM friends on Myspace, complete the questions below and we will feature you as the "JMMAer of the Day" in a Bulletin. Please cut and paste the questions below into a message and sent it to us at the JMMA Myspace account (www.myspace.com/jmmagroup).
First name: Where do you live: Favorite Quote: Interests/Hobbies: Three things you love besides John Mayer: What 'table' did/do you sit at in high school (popular, jocks, geeks, band, etc): Three words you'd use to describe yourself: Would you like other JMMAers to add you (yes, no): Anything else you'd like to add:
Also, please specifiy what picture you'd like us to use from your Myspace gallery.
That's it! Have fun with it, kids. This isn't a test. :)
The JMMAgazine covers have bonded JMMAers in a way that I never would have dreamed. Once I started posting these in our gallery, JMMAers started commenting on each other's covers and the next thing you know, they were adding each other as friends.
We've had lots of people ask us how they get one themselves. It's simple: Just ask. Well, there's a little more to it than that. I'll lay it out in steps:
1. Send us a message at the JMMA Myspace page saying you'd like a JMMAgazine cover. 2. Include the picture that you want on the cover, or let us know which picture in your gallery to use. Remember that it has to be a decent sized picture to work. 3. If you have any specific headlines you want on your magazine, let us know. Otherwise, we'll make them up on our own. *evil grin* 4. Give us a couple days to complete your cover, and we'll email it to you at your Myspace page when it's done.
Simple, huh? And all that we ask in return is that you comment on a few of your fellow JMMAers covers and make friends. :)
Have you ever wondered what the initial conversation was like between John and DRH when they came up with the idea of playing each other's guitars? Hmm...
*dreamy fade out*
*fade in to John and DRH, at John's apartment*
JOHN: Y'know, I was thinkin' it might be cool to play each other's guitars on stage.
DRH: Sure, you can use my guitar anytime, Jo--
JOHN: No, not using each other's guitars. PLAYING each other's guitars... while we're wearing them.
DRH: While we're... What?
JOHN: Like this...
*John gets up, walks behind DRH. Puts his arms around him and cups his stomach*
DRH: Ah, you know... I'm not really sure--
JOHN: WTF? You don't like it when I touch you there?
DRH: I'm not saying THAT, John! It's just--
JOHN: Chaves didn't want to do it either, and look what happened to him.
Okay, I've been running JMMA in one form or another for over four years now. During that time, I've had lots of crazy ideas on how to get people more involved in the discussions in an effort for us to get to know one another better. The funny thing is I'm always thinking, "It's not going to work - they're not going to respond." But you always surprise me! And the latest is this JMMAgazine thing.
What I love most about it is the interaction between JMMAers - the compliments on each other's pictures; the good-spirited poking fun at one another and the headlines; the general kindness we're showing one another. THAT'S what this Group is all about! Yeah, we're all here because we love Mayer's music. But it's starting to go beyond that: We're all here because we're fucking cool. =)
So thanks for always surprising me with your responsiveness to everything we do at JMMA!
Since John’s been listening to a lot of Frank Sinatra lately (see his blog from a couple weeks ago), I thought it would be appropriate to snag one of Ol’ Blue Eyes’ songs for the name of this Blog. But it wasn’t just a very good year; it was a great year, and that’s due mostly to all the wonderful friends of JMMA. I used think I had “friends” and then I had “online friends.” Now, I simply have friends, some of which happen to be online. Geographically speaking, we’re unable to touch one another; but that doesn’t stop us from touching one another. And I’ve been touched by so many of you that I couldn’t’ begin to thank you all... except to say, thank you.
Sharon and I talk all the time, and the thing we love best about running JMMA is the friendships it seems to help forge. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me feel when I see a comment on someone’s page that says, “Hey, thanks for adding me. I saw you on the JMMA page.” I like to think of JMMA as the John Mayer version of Hands-Across-America because in my twisted mind, that’s how I see us: as a GROUP, a GANG! We all have this wonderful thing in common – the love of John’s music – and that helps get us in the door with one another. And sometimes that’s all it takes to get a friendship off the ground because the next thing you know, we’re not just talking about John’s music - we’re telling each other what kind of mood we’re in through a Mayer-disguise; we’re asking each other to pray for us and for loved ones; and we’re supporting each other by just letting each other know we’re thinking about them.
Anyway, I can go on and on about this, but the bottom line is that the quality of people here is just mind-boggling and Sharon and I couldn’t be happier to be associated with such an amazing group of people.
Today at JMMA we're starting something called our "Song of the Day." Each Wednesday we will choose one John Mayer song to talk about from whatever perspective we'd like: lyrically, musically, personally. The first song we've chosen is "Wheel."
Here are some of my thoughts on the song. I wrote this for the JMMA Yahoo Group back in March of 2005.
Wheel - A Most Positive 'Negative' Love Song by Rob
"Wheel" is another example of why I love John's lyrics. It's like "Clarity" where he knows what he SHOULD be doing (enjoying moments as they happen instead of worry about the longevity of it all) but that doesn't mean it's easy to do.
To me, "Wheel" is the rationalization of why love goes away: IT'S SUPPOSED TO. Love is one of the few businesses that we can fail at 99% of the time and still be successful if the 1% is the right one.
People have the right to fly And will when it gets compromised
I love this. He's talking about the "Fortress Around Your Heart" that Sting sings about... how we built walls to protect ourselves. For some of us, as soon as we feel things are getting too serious (our "right to fly" getting compromised), our hearts say "move along" and our minds agree. Let's move it along." So we do, but someone is always left behind.
The next stanza is like something from a Paul Simon song where we've got the setting and the characters. A couple is saying goodbye at the airport. But it's more than this. Someone's LAST goodbye is blending in with someone's sigh. It's easy to know which is which. The one "going home" is saying goodbye, holding a single rose given to him/her by the other. The other is the one "sighing," the one whose heart is breaking. Because when you think about it, an "amicable breakup" is an oxymoron. Anytime you hear that a breakup is amicable, someone is trying to save face. Someone is almost always crushed.
But that's the way it is, John tells us. That's the way the wheel spins. He's not going to be the last person to love her, and she wasn't the first to love him. It's all very impermanent. And here's part of the problem:
You can't build a house of leaves And live like it's an evergreen
Those are my favorite two lines from "Wheel." If someone asked me to summarize "Tracing" in two lines, I'd repeat those lines from "Wheel." "Tracing" is merely an expansion of this thought. How many times do we rush into a relationship because we want it to work SO BAD, but we haven't laid the right foundation first? We try to convince ourselves that because we both love Mocha Almond Fudge ice cream and "Joan of Arcadia," we're meant to be together forever. What we need to remember is "there is a reason strong moves slow." But again, we are just following the natural course of love:
It's just a season thing It's just this thing the seasons do
The seasons change every year, and love changes too. We shouldn't be surprised by it.
You can find me If you ever want again I'll be around the bend I'll be around the bend I'll be around
It's appropriate that John is "around the bend" because the song takes a complete U-turn at this point. So far John's led us into a dark tunnel where love never lasts and love dying is as predictable as the seasons changing. Then he shows us the light (albeit a flickering one) at the end of the tunnel:
And if you never stop when you wave goodbye You just might find if you give it time You will wave hello again You just might wave hello again
This is me reading into nothing, I suppose. But when a relationship ends and someone is hurt, there's that period where you just reflect on things. Everything slows down because it has to. And maybe if we learn to take the "slow and steady" mentality and apply it to love, it may grow back in the same place where it was uprooted before. Maybe. John DOES say "might" twice in that stanza, hence the "flickering light" at the tunnel's end.
You can't love too much one part of it
The thing to do is not get too caught up in any one cycle of the wheel because it's GOING to run its course... many times. We're going to love and lose, then someone else is going to love us more, but we may have to let them go. It's as simple as directions on a shampoo bottle:
Love. Lose. Repeat.
And then comes the most positive message of the song:
I believe that my life's gonna see The love I give returned to me
This is the last cycle of the "Wheel." This is where the fortunate deboard the circle and hope never to ride it again.
Here's something I wrote a few years ago after some people in the JMMA Yahoo Group asked some questions about specific parts of the "Clarity" lyrics. I was reminded of this when a conversation with someone led me to share it with them. Hope you like it. :)
Clearing Up "Clarity" by Rob (JMMA)
I should start by saying I didn't care for "Clarity" the first time I heard it. It was such a departure from what I was used to from John, and I didn't think the horns worked with John's music. Of course, they DO work (wonderfully!) and it was my own resistance to John's evolving as a songwriter that was the problem. Slowly I began to like parts of the song – like the way the guitars jump in just before he sings "And I will wait to find…" It's such a simple guitar phrase, but gorgeous in its simplicity. So I started to look forward to that part of the song. Then I started to like the three-string chords John uses to frame the song. Then I started to like the horns. Then the piano in the beginning, etc., etc. The song completely grew on me. And I'd have to say it's the one song on "Heavier Things" that hasn't peaked for me. It still gets better each time I hear it.
I think of "Clarity" like I think of poems by Ezra Pound or TS Elliot – it's not going to appeal to the masses (as true art never will), but for anyone who's willing to put some effort into REALLY listening to it, they're going to start to understand the greatness of it.
Okay, on to what the song means to me. I somewhat agree with the suggestion of others here on the boards that "Clarity" is about John worrying about whether his celebrity will last. But that's just the beginning. I think what he's really saying in "Clarity" is that any time we spend worrying about how long something will last takes away from the moment at hand to be enjoyed. ("By the time I recognize this moment / This moment will be gone.") That can apply to his celebrity status, as suggested, or to a relationship that is going well, which I think is John's main subject in the song.
But the BRILLIANT thing about "Clarity" is how John will negate the previous statement with the next statement, showing his struggle to accept the concept he himself knows to be true. Yes, he realizes the moment is gone, but that doesn't stop him from going back and trying to recapture the happiness he SHOULD have felt when instead he was wondering how long the moment would last. I love the line, "But I will bend the light / Pretending that it somehow lingers on." "Bending light" is a Newton/Einstein theory about how time slows when light passes by a gravitational pull, and John's reference means he's trying to slow down the moment so he can enjoy it. Absolutely freakin' brilliant.
He goes back and forth like this throughout the song. He's scared, worrying how long any given moment will last. He thinks up a million scenarios that could ruin his moment ("I throw my fear around"). But then for no explainable reason, he feels calm. The brilliance of the ACTUAL moment (the "diamond") comes shining through for him, melting away the false brilliance (the "rock candy," which looks like diamonds but lacks the essence) that lies in the hope that the moment will last forever.
And even though he knows the moment WON'T last forever, that the moment CAN'T last forever, he can't help asking himself if it will. The first time I heard "Clarity" I thought it was redundant for John to repeat the line, "And I will wait to find / If this will last forever." He sings it consecutively, and I thought, "Couldn't he have come up with a different lyric?" But stupid me – I didn't realize that he was putting in words the feeling of waiting… and waiting. Again, brilliant on his part. Not so brilliant on mine. 8)
He asks himself if there was even a second of time that he lived in and enjoyed the moment. Or did he simply move on ("sail through") through the moment, failing to stop ("drop my anchor down") and experience it because he was worried about how long it would last. He regrets that there wasn't a moment that he simply said, "I'm here, she's here… THAT'S what matters. Not whether we'll be here a week, a month, a year from now." (John gives us a similar message in "St. Patrick's Day." "If I can just get through December, January, and February, perhaps…") Next thing you know, he's wasted the afternoon reflecting on things he should have enjoyed in June. Hmm, I wonder if she thinks about it, too? ("How `bout you?")
Again, I think the brilliance of the song lies in the struggle John has of accepting what he knows to be true. When you think about it, can we really just STOP worrying? No. We can realize it does us no good, but it's impossible to stop altogether. But there's no doubt we'd be living more fully if we COULD stop worrying about future problems ("rainy weather") and get on with enjoying the moment at hand.
I don't know about everyone else who missed the MayerCraft, but one of the things I was most disappointed about was not being able to bump into a bunch of people that I'd recognize by face from the JMMA Group. Well, in a strange, small way, I feel a little better about this because of the photographs here:
I literally felt like the Romper Room lady with her magnifying glass. "I see Jaime, and Sue, and Stephie, and Jen, and Jay..." And the funny thing is, I'm not pulling names out of my crack! I really SAW those people in the pics! So check them out. It might be therapeutic.
We've added a GREAT cover of "Good Love Is On The Way" by Soulajar to the JMMA music player. Be sure to check it out and add them as a friend! (Soulajar's Myspace page has been added to our "Top Friends" list.)
Also, if you like what you hear, you can pick up their debut CD on iTunes or here:
Tuesday's Mayer "Mystery Bag" topic was: If John were strapped to a chair and connected to a lie detector ala "Moment of Truth," what's the ONE question you would ask him?
We had quite a few responses in the JMMA comment section... some funny, some serious, and some downright scary! Be sure to check them out...
This is the BlogSpot page for the John Mayer Music Appreciation (JMMA) Group's Myspace page. JMMA is dedicated to John Mayer cover songs as recorded by his fans. Add us at: www.myspace.com/jmmagroup.
:)
