[September 2003]

The Writ is proudly one month older, one month more sophisticated! We have words pouring in from all corners of the globe. Keep them coming!

We are proud as a Olympic athlete parents to be featuring Joshua Jones this month. This man is passion and confession poured into words and sound, and I am blessed to have seen him live. We're talking true inspiration here. Check him out as soon as you can.

And while you're at it, scan through our Contents and click every single creative piece because they're all worth your time and attention.

I also want to point out that we have a baby links page that needs nurturing (special thanks to Michele Filgate and Nick Sabin for giving birth to it!), so send us sites you'd like to see represented. Check out all our amazing advancements and just imagine what we're going to give you for October!

All the best,

Sarah Dopp
Editor-in-Chief

Rachel Johnson has been practicing art since she was first able to pick up a crayon. With "Terra," she plays with the connection between female bodies and earthly bodies, letting the watercolor paint make the piece. Her art usually includes illustration, portraiture, nudes, and celtic knots. She is also a talented actress, musician, and web designer. For more of Rachel's work, check out remj.com.

Selected Lyrics Ballad of Collin Dupree Breached Breathe' These Days

by Julian Esteban Torres
Staff Writer

Without knocking, or any formal introduction, his words -- carrying a conversation with themselves and the music accompanying it in the background -- walked into my concentration. Startled, I dropped the pen my right hand usually holds in day dreaming contemplation and allowed for my ears to silently shake hands with his voice.

This is how I felt the first time I saw Joshua Jones perform live. When he took stage I was drowning in trance, thinking about a poetic piece I was currently working on. Then, out of the silence arises this beautiful tapestry of sounds coming from the stage, weaving both the threads of words and acoustics into one, awoke me.

Not only are his lyrics a marriage between poetry and story telling, but the stories he tells to introduce every piece when he performs are as enjoyable as the songs themselves. This is one artist one cannot fully experience until going to see him live. With the CD, one can only listen to the pieces; during a live performance, one can also understand that which has nourished the roots of his artistic seeds. He allows the audience to not only know of him but also actually get to know him.

JET: Do you remember the first time you ever wrote a song or wrote a love poem to a girl? If so, what was your muse/inspiration? What was it about? How did it turn out?

JJ: I have been writing songs (or trying to write songs) ever since I learned my first few chords on the guitar when I was 11. I know there were a few songs I have written to try and impress a girl, but not being able to remember them from that far back I can be sure they were not all that good, so I will tell the story of the first songs I wrote that got a girls attention..

Back in high school one of my very best friends was a beautiful, blonde haired, blue eyed girl that just about everyone in school seemed to have an eye on. Being best friends with a beautiful girl can be a very difficult thing for a high school boy, especially when your feeling goes beyond friendship, but are not returned in that way. As beautiful girls always have boyfriends and for some reason their boyfriends are always jerks, and they always talk about their jerky boyfriends to their "best friend" to look for advice.

By this time as you know my songs, you may be thinking, "Blonde hair, blue eyes, ah he is talking about 'These Days'."Well you would be half right. The song I am talking about know was a prequel to 'These Days' called "Everyday Valentine (Just one kiss)" Written for the same girl These Days (and a few other songs) was written for.

Though I never play the song anymore live. Reason for this was the main part of the songs music sounds just like the Matchbox 20 song "Push" (even though I wrote it well before Push came on the air). Since they were getting popular and I like to try be somewhat original, I shelved it, and went back to write a more original sounding song. But if I remember correctly the first verse went a something like this...

Read more...