Because Your Phone Doesn’t Love You Like I Love You, by Davin Michael Stedman

What a photo of Justin Smith and I at possibly the last Staxx Brothers show in Seattle. This was not long before I stripped down to my boxers and made deep precious love to that hammond like the sexy and consensual piece of furniture she is.

Yesterday a customer came in the shop and said “wait, you’re in The Staxx Brothers. I saw you get naked at Sea Monster Lounge. That was an awesome show.”

We were on fire that night. What an 8 human orchestra. You don’t impregnate an organ in front of that many people unless the music is right.

Photo by Mike Martin. He filmed the show. I am reviewing footage soon. I actually wish I didn’t do what I did in terms of discarding my wardrobe. A standard straight ahead performance would have been a fine reference and document that needed little explanation.

But if there is a Holy Ghost, there may also be a slipperier spirit that inhabits The Funk and can only be conjured by gently caressing the folds of space and time, then opening up The Pocket and shouting into the abyss.

Or that is all a bunch of new age hoodoo Harry Potter Quasi Spiritual jive, and I just had to blow off some steam. I had a lot on my mind and I was feeling what the 8 folks behind me were throwing down.

It’s also a great shot of a good friend and and I at the end of one era as we push on to the next.

I have been lucky to have friends like Justin and Tom Wilkinson that I can rely on like Brothers in Arms. Those are guys I would go to War beside, and I am grateful we don’t have to. Because War is a very ugly exercise in turning peace into human despair.

Music is turning despair into peace in the sexiest way. At least that is how and why I still try to do it.

We have owned the stage on hundreds of nights, and handed them back to national acts. Great things happen when you let people do what they were born and they trained themselves to do.

That’s what I tried to do as a band leader and a friend. If taking my clothes off made you pay more attention to what was happening away from your stupid phone, you are welcome.

Michka Mirzanejad and her Body By Impulse team are turning me into a cold blooded Soul machine with the power of Electricity. Tesla would be proud.

Look out for a story on Michka and her bold vision…and these super hero suits in The Seattle Times on Sunday.

I lost 75 pounds on my own, but trying to maintain that, no trying improve on that, that’s the challenge. I’ve been coming here the last 5 weeks.

It feels awesome. Then I’m sore the next couple days which I love. The only hard part is not working out after. When you’re hooked on that feeling of endorphins and runner’s high, it’s just a fix. A really good fix.

I wonder if when I was eating more than I should, if I was chasing the feeling of how great it felt to be in be in great shape when I was playing basketball every day.

I feel fortunate to be able to even get back to this shape I must have been in as a teenager, because bodies break down. I used to wonder what would happen if I got back here.

Don’t get me wrong, I rocked all those shows at 300 lbs, and people would laugh when I said I was in good shape, and that I was an athlete. Now the world just sees what I see. What was happening underneath.

I was always working out. I was doing three sets a night moving like Mick Jagger. But I was still gaining weight. But it’s all math. You get broke and rich, fat or thin on pretty slim margins. You just don’t just up and quit food, like might hard liquor. Quit soft drinks. You might as well be pounding bowls of cane sugar. At least that’s cane sugar.

I wonder how far I can take this. I am so grateful I have some help. Because I am half way there. Not weight wise. I could not lose another pound on paper and I would be fine. But how good can I get?

We’ll see with the power of electricity man. This is that Super Hero suit.

221. I should probably not go below 215, and focus on building muscle. But guess what? The BMI is so jive, even at 215, I am “overweight”.

That means anyone with a large solid frame is going to be malnourished chasing the dragon of absurdity that all humans have that same frame.

The BMI index for a 6′ 2″ gentleman says that if I am 195, which is even under my playing weight in high school as Small Forward, is smidge overweight. No.

LeBron James is not overweight at 250. It says he would not be underweight until he was 164! LeBron James would be a corpse at 164.

The BMI index may be quilty of causing eating disorders. If you have a six pack you are not obese or overweight, you are an athlete.

Davin’s new song has become a global earworm and Caribbean dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN. The video is now available on Youtube.

– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com. In the spring of 2018 he spent weeks networking in and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica. He will return there soon for more recording. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is available here.