What? Really? I don't understand!

There’s a different language in every crowd.

Radio people are a special breed; with it comes unprotected verbiage the average consumer of sound would find more fascinating than 98% of the songs played over and over again. Ten minutes with a long term on-air talent and you’ll learn more about connecting with departed imaginations than John C Maxwell during a motivational address.

Bowlers, fans of Charlie Sheen, Face Booker’s, nurses and burger builders at Sonic are no different. If your soul is being poured into a beaker that boils over the description of being just a hobby; the inside scoop isn’t what you know but how you’ve turned it into a language of your own.

Being part of the Barnes and Nobel Poets circle in the 90’s introduced me to a clan of imaginations the outside world still hasn’t come up with a name for. Freaks that dig computers are Geeks. Big black framed glasses while sporting a pocket protector makes you a Nerd. A life completely addicted to running, lifting and chasing trophies makes you a jock.

Writers are…

It’s ok to say it…weird.

Although we’d like to be recognized as visionary’s constantly in touch with a future that won’t arrive for another thirty seconds; the beauty of setting free what the mind speaks isn’t art but rather a different language.

Every so often writers meet on streets not always paved with gold or hot blacktop. The cobblestoned paths that pushed the pen closer to its crescendo held nothing more than the freedom to emote.

What?

Exactly!

To a Poet such playfulness in expressing could become the missing lyric to a piece held not for a day but I’ve met writers who’ve hidden works of words for decades. Then poof! A passing black crow with lungs the size of Christmas calls out in the middle of spring and all things blocked are released acting as if nothing was ever wrong.

I wouldn’t enjoy being a Microsoft or Apple employee whose future is based on the next great invention. Then again I write and produce radio commercials that are designed by thirty two years of listening to the masters in my life Joe Van Riper, Fred Story, Brian James, John Causby, Charles Holloman and yes even actor John Cryer whose Wells Fargo/Wachovia commercials are the best delivered one on one conversations on the radio today.
How are we expected to make it through each day? Through constant demand with little to no communication! Go ahead and fight, your boss will develop more reasons for you to complain, celebrate or walk away from.

The disconnection in this country has nothing to do with high prices and an out of control Stock Market. If your second grade teacher was here today she or he would send you home with a note that strongly suggests that you learn how to get along with other players.

Inside a current state of being politically correct or else…the end result are separated cells floating around a living breathing energy source called America. Because of who we are and what we’ve become the language has changed and continues to evolve faster than a monkey becoming man.

A recent interview with a Japanese woman who was asked about the enormous amount of fresh fish her nation eats daily and how its been interrupted by nuclear waste in the open sea, “I’ll teach myself to eat fish from a can.” In reality the 9.0 earthquake has forced residents of Japan to learn a new eating language. What they're doing today will affect the next seven generations.

How can this be possible?

While recording in a “real” studio with “real” musicians I’ve spent the past year being honest to the producers by exposing my dark haired roots. All this fricken music in my head isn’t so original after all…if you listen to what’s falling out you’ll hear nibbles and bites that resemble Lennon, Bowie, Tom Petty, The Electric Light Orchestra and because of Adam Lamberts rendition of Mad World that song has completely reignited the storyteller that Freddie Mercury planted in the skull years before the world discovered Bohemian Rhapsody.

The language our circles speak is being carried to the new people we meet. We’ve gone from a Metro-sexual male society to a get down and get dirty Mike Rowe approach. The hot new Dodge Charger might rock your middle aged world back to teenaged fantasies but the end result remains the same; no car is ever going to be fun until they bring back the outdoor movie theater; fogging up the windows required precision and perfect timing and every great mechanic knew of the magic but never sold their souls to secrets of what it really took to make an engine hum sweeter than Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven.

What?

Exactly!

Now you know what it’s like to place ten fingers on a computer screen and speak like today is your last day. Shakespeare had his own language. Mariah Carey has a five octave range. Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. You might recognize the language but to understand it means becoming part of their winning circle.

Try that trick at work day…rather than boggle up the system with I can’t. It’s not part of my job! I don’t do that! Or the infamous I don’t have time. Pick up a new language and grow forward.

I will always believe in you first.

arroecollins@clearchannel.com

Does technique control your destiny?

My Jr. High chorus teacher Mr. Anderson once barked, “Music isn’t something you learn from a book. You live it by breathing life into the lyrics the artist has elected to share with you. If technique is your desired performance, please leave this class and don’t come back…awareness carries the true expression.”



Technique…



Can someone who’s unique fulfill their role inside a world where technique is God? Technique has nothing to do with catching a unique rabbit? The best way to achieve accomplishment is you neek up on it… Awareness molds champions.



From the outside the word technique looks bold, daring and confident. Sadly, get too close you’ll be introduced to overbearing. Technique carries weight, those who hold it’s Yoda like powers become the heavy weight kings of bragging holding down important positions of decision making turning every horizon into lopsided presentations of purpose without reasons to believe those following should continue. You can’t learn how to downhill ski from a book.



Nobody wins a Tae Kwon Do or other Mixed Martial Arts tournament without proper technique. Spend a few more minutes looking at the entire picture and within seconds you’ll begin to take note of mechanics. Inside blocks followed by front kick, land it, double punch, side kick, blah, blah, blah. I feel like we’re watching Kate Gosselin on Dancing with the Stars. Having a great hairstyle doesn’t win you a beauty contest.



I’ve fought Ivan Torres nearly 20 times—half my size, his technique the sharpest I’ve seen since meeting Grand Master Jung. Ivan nearly ripped my nose out of its place not because his round house kick is fed by rivers of proper technique but his ambition to study the entire picture through measures that are completely loyal to awareness creating a path to follow my bad habits, once the nose became open…the blood began to spurt.



What makes an employee, student or competitor unforgettable isn’t perfectly designed technique but their willingness to breathe life into the lyrics the artist elected to share with them. Bill Gates’ passion wasn’t to become the worlds richest man…he found value in creating a computer that non-nerds with giant pocket protectors could easily learn then better their life.



Apple’s introduction of the IPad entertains stockholders and Wall Street gamblers who have no clue who the client is or they would’ve made the computer fully capable of opening more than one application at a time. The IPhone should’ve been connected to the project! They’re using technique as the money making opportunity tool. Outside of the IPod, what’s been Apples next best thing? Happy investors.



How can we turn our chapters around and start performing like real rock stars? Rollingstone Magazine recently published a reader’s response to The Black Eyed Peas being named one of the most influential bands on earth. The fan of the pages wrote, “How can you call them a band when none of them play instruments…its all created in a recording studio by a club disc jockey.”



Author Lou Solomon believes its time to stop fitting in. Your daily goal should be set on living in your own skin. Your knowledge is extremely important but experience, insight and the stories created while climbing the ladder teaches others to become better players in a Corporate American world where you’ve got the bosses permission to be lazy because we’ll soon replace you with someone lazier.



As popular as Larry David is with Seinfeld and Curb your Enthusiasm, history will one day call him the cheapest date in the entertainment business. He finds no value in creating scripts—the scenes are set then you perform. If you’ve been attached to his past few seasons it’s easy to tell the difference between great actors and those who are nothing without the aid of someone putting the words in their mouth.



If I were to sit down with Adam Lambert and ask him to write a song on the spot…he’d exceed the limits. Bon Jovi, Bob Dylan, Usher, Nelly and Trace Adkins are no different. Put the microphone on Kanye West, Rihanna, Fergie and Carrie Underwood they'll scream for their bodyguards and tour managers to rid their world of the crazy man in front of them.



Through technique they are major money makers and shakers but can you see, feel, taste and be influenced to share the experience with someone using their art as a tool? My white guy booty can bounce with the best of them during Boom Boom Pow and I still can’t get enough of Party in the USA from Miss Miley Cyrus. But which one truly has staying power?



Watching Miley is a learning experience because her roots are sheltered by a connection to Disney…her evolution into superstardom and acceptance with all people rather than kids and young adults is nothing more than the rebirth of Little Ricky Nelson from Ozzy and Harriet. She’s using technique as a format to which she falls back on when knowledge, experience and insight are sitting in class preparing themselves for a much wiser place to breathe.



How does Charlie the car mechanic step away from technique? What about Juan the college student and busboy Mike from the family restaurant barely hanging on? Rather than watch Hells Kitchen, study Gordon Ramsey. Instead of watching old video’s of past American Idol contestants take the time to learn Simon Cowell’s path. Don’t read John C Maxwell, Anthony Robbins and the other 400,000 motivational books now 20% off at your favorite book store…study those books like your life depends on it. Every sentence holds the fuel that could lift you up and over this dull life and style you’ve adopted and blamed it on everything but choice.



People ask me all the time how I’ve survived 31 years of constantly changing radio…my answer has never bent…I don’t work in radio. I’m in the people business and business is always great.



Now sit up straight and do your own thing. I believe in you…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com