To Our Valued Patrons, As part of an on-going effort to improve your experience here at Zachvinson.com (in accordance with our corporate mission statement and by-laws), the powers-that-be who run this site have delevoped an exciting new feature that we are calling The Shoebox.

Today I went to the grocery store. Bacon was on sale. I put it in my cart. It did not ring up at the sale price. I asked them about it. They gave it to me for free. The...

Last night and this morning I've been thinking quite a bit about the phrase "Love your neighbor as yourself." It was first said by Jesus Christ, who was telling his fellow Israelites something along the lines of "Hey, instead of trying to remember all these rules about how you should treat other people, just remember this one rule instead: Love your neighbor as yourself."

Since we moved to Nashville, I’ve started spending more time keeping tabs on what other musicians are up to. It probably borders slightly on stalking at times, but in this golden age of tweets and blogs and all those other technological things that I don’t really understand (foursquare? Rss feeds?) we have strangely easy access to the personal lives of other artists.

Head on over to the online store (via the "shop" link on the top right) for $3 T-shirts (Yes, three dollar t-shirts), $7 "Cracked Open" CDs, and the last 3 hand-made, hand-sewn copies of "The Streets Will Turn to Streams" that you can find anywhere!

I've heard people talk about how important it is for performers to be able to play and sing with as little tension in their bodies as possible. In theory, it sounds good. In reality, I am horrible at it. Instead, I always stand on my toes when I'm playing guitar, which pretty much means my whole self is tense when I'm playing. I don't particularly recommend it.

Just to re-iterate that title, my hair is in a ponytail. Which is either awesome or disgusting, depending on whether you talk to me or my wife.

Good Saturday afternoon my furry little friends, I'm soaking up the almost warm(ish) rays of Grand Rapids, getting ready to drive over to Lansing to play what is certain to be an enjoyable house show this evening. Yesterday morning, the kind folks over at WYCE (which for those who aren't familiar, is the independent community radio station here in GR) had me in the studio to play a couple of songs. They posted a video of one of them. Ta-Da:

Good Morning B's & G's, It's about that time again. Time to pack up a pillow, at least two changes of clothes, and all my music gear in the ol' station wagon and hit the road for a few. This will be the first time since I moved down to Nashville that I'm heading back through my old stomping grounds to play some shows.

A couple years ago I read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. It's roughly 700 pages long, feels strangely bleak most of the time, and talks a lot about architecture (not the most glowing review, I suppose). I didn't hate it, but I haven't exactly been itching to re-read it. However, there is one passage in it that I still think about all the time. Here it is: