Jordan Yaruss

I’m building my photo portfolio of people doing their favorite thing — the thing that makes them feel most joyful, most alive, most like the self they want to be. It can be anything: kayaking, walking the dog, doing yoga, mud-wrestling, dressing up like a bass and terrorizing fishermen in the East River…no judgments from me, just so long as it’s one of the things that makes them happy to be alive.

Here are a few images of my girlfriend, Jordan, doing one of her favorite things — swimming. Some text from her is below the thumbnails.

“I have always loved the water. As a child, I swam below the surface. I chased the rainbows as they ribboned in waves across the bottom. I would point my face downward and kick against the air in my belly that wanted to rise, flipping on my back and letting my breath out slowly from my mouth and nose – watching the bubbles rise – my own ribbon of silver jellyfish trailing after me as I had the rainbows.”
- Jordan Van Aken

Taken from my father’s balcony on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

I’ve spent the past few days copyrighting a big batch of songs so I’m feeling inspired to put a new one up here for ya.

Jeanie Sleeps

Enjoy!

Welcome home, me!

Yesterday, I signed a six-month lease for a room in this sweet little house in the Wellington neighborhood of Breckenridge. I have two housemates, Steven and Carolyn, who have the upstairs rooms and whose names I am likely spelling wrong. They seem very laid-back and cool so far. My room is the master bedroom, pictured below, and I have my own bathroom. It’s just a few minutes from the gondola by free bus, and a short walk into town. I am thrilled.

I also found out today that for $199 I get unlimited snowboarding lessons at Breckenridge! I can take a lesson per day, Thursday through Sunday, all season. They’re group lessons, up to 10 people, and are broken down into 9 skill levels. Amazing.

I’m flying back to New Jersey in a couple days, will be there for three weeks to close down my apartment, and then will drive back out here to arrive sometime toward the end of November.

This is gonna be fun.

Heyyy! I opened up my mailbox and found an envelope from BMI containing a royalty check for $153.18 for “college radio” airplay! Very exciting. I have no idea where it’s been playing, or how often, but I do know the tracks:

Back Home
Cosmic Confirmation
Fell Out of the Sky
Friendly Fire
Telenovela

I’m pretty thrilled.

I’ve switched webhosts (thanks Skellyweb) and I am now receiving email through the contact page.

In other news, I’m expanding the scope of this blog to be more of a journal for stuff besides music. Mainly, I expect this to cover whitewater kayaking, traveling and my upcoming move to Colorado (from New Jersey). But first, here’s a new (to you) song.

Sherwin Shake it Up

Messages sent to me through the “contact” page don’t seem to be getting to my inbox. I don’t know how long this has been going on, but I’m working on fixing it now and will post when I have.

I’ve been trying to make a living from music for a bunch of years now, but It hasn’t happened yet. What has happened is that the joy has been sucked out of the process. So, I’m going to stop trying to make a living from music and hope that the joy comes back.

To that end, all my music is now available for free download on the audio page. In addition, I will be uploading a few new tracks in the coming weeks. If you listen and like what you hear, what I would like more than anything is your comments either here or through my contact page. Knowing that someone is out there on the other end would be greatly encouraging and inspiring to me.

Thanks. I feel better already.

My song, Back Home, is a top-10 finalist on OurStage.com! Now, fans vote by text message to decide the final ranking (and who will win fabulous prizes such as CA$H). Check out the top 10 here, and then vote for MEEEEEE!!!!

To vote for me, you have to send the text message “ROCK02″ to STAGE (78243), and they getcha for 50 cents, but if I win I will buy you a sandwich. I’m currently #5, and there haven’t been that many votes in the contest so far, so your vote really will make a big difference.

Oh, and you only have until tomorrow, so you have to do it right now! Thank you!