Skip to main content

Jay Brannan: The Youtube Wonder





Every once a while you stumble (or in this case a dear friend named Matteo Tatteo informs you) upon a talent that speaks to you.

Jay Brannan, the youtube wonder.

Refreshing.
Simple.
Raw.
Blessed.
Strangely familiar.

Go to youtube and type in his name and take a listen.

He is a singer/songwriter that performs many of his songs from his NYC apartment. I enjoy that he just sits there (most of the time shirtless due to his apartment being too warm) and performs. It is just so damn pleasing to the heart and the ear.

His voice is pleasant, honest, and his lyrics are at times thought provoking, fun, and charming. I appreciate that he is an out gay man that is writing stories that are captivating and that I understand. It is a winning, self-effacing and fresh voice and perspective.

I adore his seemingly humble self-perception. (and it does not hurt that he is easy on the eyes...)

Youtube really has revolutionized the world and how one can discover talent. Jay made his career out of his youtube postings. Amazing, huh?

It is rare that I like a new artist this much, but I have been listening to his material over and over the past few days and have favourited over twenty of his videos.

I hope you enjoy.

Jay:
I will follow your career and look forward to more material from you. You are a true talent and seem to be such a wonderful soul. Thanks for creating stories through song that speak to me and make me feel "full". You are precious. :-)

Dustin

I am including the lyric concept to "26- Hour Day" which I find IMPECCABLE.

26-hour day
music and lyrics by jay brannan

once upon our time
in a land far gone
where hate crime’s enforced by state crime
even though they say the land of the free was made for both you and me

well, the girl next door might have cancer
and the hospital nearby’s got the answer, but
she’s never been there, can’t afford healthcare
in the arms of the home of the brave, she’s carried to her grave

marionettes for presidents, strung out on wars
and we’re not sure who’s american anymore
division of church and state is my kind of separatism
spreading god’s love through scare tactics is casual terrorism
and if abortion’s murder, let’s strip that right away, and
who gave women the right to vote anyway?

so many babies
brought into the world today
amongst so many maybes
like maybe they’ll feel loved, be provided for, and have a place to stay
but instead of placing them in loving stable homes
that might not fill the conservative bill
they’re tossed around the foster system like a hot potato
instead of making friends of dorothy
they’re thrown to the tornado

death warrants signed by murderers
who came to power through the back door
is this democracy or a monarchy
what do we hold elections for
you write your personal agenda on a post-it note
and leave the constitution lying on the bathroom floor

this is for the world trade center, for columbine
for oklahoma city and the lost and lonely friends of mine
for ireland, iran, iraq
and the suffering caused by the indian ocean’s attack
for falun gong and the berlin wall
the homeless, the hungry, and slaves to drugs and alcohol
indian, australian, african slaves
native americans whose amber waves of grain
were melted down into white men’s riches
victims of war and for salem’s witches
for boys who were told to act more like boys
and girls who were told to only play with girl toys
the voiceless, forgotten, plagued by disease
god help us please, please, please

maybe one day i’ll stop alternating
between thirteen hours of eating and thirteen hours of sleeping
and do something about it with what i guess could have been a twenty-six hour day


© 2004 Great Depression Publishing (BMI)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Call to Action

This past Saturday I, with thousands of others across the country, attended a protest/rally of Proposition 8 and Act I (the adoption ban in Arkansas). My dear allies in this battle were Jay, Karen, their joyous son Quin, our mutual friend Greg, Amanda, Carter, Sarah Jane, Liz, and the brave Arkansans that showed up for the rally on the steps of our Capitol. It was bitterly cold and grey, but within I was ignited with passion and newfound purpose. As I listened to the stories of my fellow brothers and sisters, gay, straight, bisexual, transgendered, I was struck by the power of the many speaking as one. Then I began to visit my own story and was struck at how far I have come... to think back fourteen years ago when I had my brother tell my parents that I happened to be gay because I was so frightened as to what they would think, say, how they could ever love me, this abomination.... To now, a man standing with his friends and proclaiming "This is our right, What you have done is ...

The Kick Ass Brothers (And the Theatre Room I Am Going to Steal)

I just spent the day with my brothers, Bran Flakes and Patricio watching "Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood", "Sin City", and "Live Free or Die Hard" in Bran Flake's KICK ASS KICK ASS KICK ASS Theatre Room. (It deserves all three kick asses and then some actually.) It was a Testosterone Day and I made it all the way through. Can we say the same for Patricio? (Titty baby. Ha.) I think that was the first blog smack talk I have "thrown down". I had never seen "Sin City" or "Live Free or Die Hard". Both were excellent. I did not want to leave the nirvana that is the magic room of cinema wonder. So, thanks to Bran Flakes for hosting and for having the idea. And Patrick, let me know how that nipple is treating you. Here's to smack talk... How liberating! (Especially when I am in control of the forum!) Here's to a kick ass theatre room. And to even more kick ass brothers, Dustin

Scampering Back From the Hiatus

I awoke with these names in my head... surely they are characters from a forthcoming story tentatively entitled, "The Merman's Song": Briinan Jossuraje Arthero Zyne What a perplexing and delicious way to greet the morning, I love it when that happens. Jer is heading over to bond and I am trying to break the habit of making him wait when he arrives for me to finish getting ready. It is a tad ridiculous and just keeps happening, one of those atrocious habits that is born out of sheer laziness and poor time management skills. I just love, love, love, love that guy. If I am the toothbrush, he is the floss, the Ron to my Harry, the Patty to my Sandi, the Pepper to my Doctor, the Dorothy to my Rose, the world's best person and my FAVOURITE. He keeps me sane, he really does. The picture is from the wedding in which I performed last weekend. I think it is a classy and interesting shot. There is loads to deliver and reveal as I took a brief hiatus, not intentionally, but I...