Love and Sex According to Michael Johns: “Follow your heart and try and be the best person you can”

Last week, singer and songwriter, Michael Johns released his brand new EP, Love and Sex, a three track compilation containing songs about two of the most intricate subjects that continuously baffle our thoughts, emotions, actions and ultimately, relationships: love and sex. What exactly are they? Films have been created, songs have been written – it’s something our society ponders everyday.

I had the opportunity to pick Johns’ brain and touch on the subjects, figuring out what love and sex means to him. He has written several songs about love and his album Hold Back My Heart is a sheer testament of the depths he dove into to showcase his emotions in the best way possible. In some sense, he truly wears his heart on his sleeve.

Johns knows what he feels and as an observer, I’ve come to realize he’s someone who is very in touch with his feelings, proving how good a head he has on his shoulders. When I ask him what love is, he knows and answers without any hesitation. “I believe [it’s] defined by feeling totally selfless towards another being, putting their feelings first and having their back through everything.”

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Talking “Love and Sex” with Michael Johns

Two of the most complex emotions that we face in this life might just belong to matters of the heart: love and sex. Without the obviousness and a dictionary definition, what are they? Singer and songwriter, Michael Johns has it figured out in his own style. His new EP, Love and Sex, a three track release arrived in digital music stores this past Tuesday and showcases a mutual vulnerability and angst regarding the subject.

Johns, who released his debut album Hold Back My Heart nearly four years ago has undergone a fascinating transformation, emerging as an artist who truly understands and feels for his music. With everything he has done since his debut, listeners can hear a vocal and lyrical maturity showing an impressive artistic growth in Love and Sex that delivers and encompasses raw passion, desire and that burning love within the three track EP.

I caught up with the ever congenial and charming, Michael Johns to talk Love and Sex and as always, he’s an absolute delight to talk to. He shares that he was strictly in the mood to write this specific collection of music so he did it, without any intention. That’s a notable characteristic within Johns and shows how versatile he is as a singer and songwriter.

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Adam Yauch Remembered: Too Sweet To Be Sour, Too Nice To Be Mean

Life is hard. We all know it and feel it through our work, our relationships and just figuring out what it is we want at the end of all of this. One thing that I know helps get me through the rough patches in life is music. The moment you play a song, that melody and those lyrics enchantingly carry you off to a place of a mutual understanding where you realize you aren’t alone in your thoughts, fears and aspirations. Music, is something that washes from the soul, the dust of our everyday life and it allows us to see a new perspective, start anew and realize we’re not alone in anything.

I must have been at least four years old when I first discovered the Beastie Boys, while sitting in my basement with my older siblings. I remember watching the music video for “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)!” and thinking, what a cool song this is and whatever lyrics I could understand, I kept repeating them over and over until my brother got annoyed, sat me down in his room and played the whole song for me that he taped off the radio, a rather fuzzy quality at the time but said, “These are the words of the song, okay?”

…This past week, someone from my childhood left this world, sinking my heart to depths of unfathomable consciousness. Adam Yauch, also known as MCA and one-third of the Beastie Boys, died on May 4. While it may not come as a complete shock to many since he was battling cancer before, a loss of life, is still always a loss of life. The heart becomes heavy at any cost and I’ve realized those that heal me through music and laughter, can’t last forever in the physical but instead, have been immortalized for all of us and these generations to come. It is with great sadness that I write this whole piece.

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Caileigh Scott: “No good art comes without intense effort”

One of the likeable things about acting is that it isn’t like any other profession. It’s a job where one can go in and do something different each time while recreating themselves every day. They’re able to meticulously absorb personalities from script and translate it to screen or stage by adding their own familiarities between the similarities. It’s a talent not everyone can easily achieve or slip into but Caileigh Scott is an actor proving her worth in Tinseltown.

It’s been known that the best acting is instinctive. It’s not intellectual or mechanical but something that should come off natural. For Scott, being in that world seems innate as she hails from a family of artists and supporters of the arts. As an only child growing up, she tells me how blessed she is with such a supportive family around her. “I’ve certainly never had to face the stern looks around the Thanksgiving dinner table, asking, ‘So when are you going to give up this acting thing and become a lawyer?’” she quips.

The young fiery red-headed actress shuffled around quite a bit in her early years between Detroit, rural Pennsylvania and New York City but shares with me how moving at such a young age brings about the opportunity for one to reinvent themselves. Whether from the east coast or to the current west coast in Los Angeles, Scott says while theatre in the Big Apple matured her as a performer growing up, being in L.A has turned her into a savvy business woman; a quality both equally important to maintaining a career in this industry.

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The Two Skillful Brothers Scott: TV’s ‘Property Brothers’ Finding and Building Dream Homes

Good character is not given to us nor is it handed down. Like building a home, it must be carefully developed piece by piece, creatively through thought, choice, courage and determination. In some cases, it could very well be praised more so than talent and with that inner drive, one can go much further.

Jonathan and Drew Scott, 33 are not just the hosts of the popular real estate and home renovation show, Property Brothers on the W Network and HGTV but they are also twin brothers with a tremendous amount of passion and heart. Recently nominated for the prestigious Rose d’Or award in the lifestyle show category, the brothers are fast becoming TV’s newest sweethearts.

The show follows Drew, the licensed real estate agent and Jonathan, the licensed contractor to find fixer-uppers for homebuyers to turn into beautiful homes without busting their budget but undergoing a major transformation just enough to make it beautiful yet practical. Together they help out families while maintaining a strong heart throughout the process. It’s not easy but the two make it as comfortable for their clients as possible.

I had the pleasure of chatting with the charming brothers one evening last week while they took a break from filming multiple episodes of their show down in Austin, Texas. The dynamic duo had just come off their trip to Orlando, Florida for the Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game and as a fan of basketball, I had to ask them how it was.

Touchdown! Indianapolis Welcomes Super Bowl XLVI

Excitement and fun are crawling around Indianapolis this week as the Circle City prepares to host thousands in anticipation for America’s favourite informal holiday, the Super Bowl. Taking place this Sunday February 5th, the championship game this year sees AFC and NFC title holders, the New England Patriots and the New York Giants battling it out again after four years of what some may consider the best finish in Super Bowl history, given the fact that neither team this time around has perfect records on the line. This matchup is bound to be tight and quite thrilling!

I’m not ashamed to say this but I will mention that I am an Indianapolis Colts fan. Yes, I bleed blue and after the crummy season we had, it’s not surprising to see some of us fell off the bandwagon but we did have two wins near the end so that’s alright with me. As a fan not just of the team but of the great state of Indiana, I am especially proud that the city gets to showcase itself and all that it’s about to a new audience that’s willing to take in and adore a city that isn’t just gorgeous architecturally, culturally and for reasons of sport but has a tremendous heart. I guess there’s redemption in there for the Colts and us fans; a renewal of fan-ship in some sense because call it what you will — perhaps it’s Hoosier hospitality, but these fine folks know how to throw a party and the days leading up to the Super Bowl are clearly proving it.

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Everybody Poops: Talking Crap for World Toilet Day

We all poo! Yup. It may sound funny to say out loud and even read back, but we all do it. The gorgeous Victoria’s Secret models are not exempt from this either, nor are any of People magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive – we’re talking to you, George Clooney! This is a reality and though it is one of the most taboo topics of discussion, it is also one of the most important ones to have in order to raise a global awareness.

No invention has saved more lives than the toilet. Since its creation, the toilet has brought great benefits to better sanitation, health and hygiene but every day, 2.6 billion suffer from improper access to clean sanitation. That means, a third of the world’s population do not have somewhere safe, private and hygienic to go to the toilet. Can you imagine going to the toilet in a muddy ditch? Or defecating in rivers, lakes, fields or railway tracks? That is the reality for many around the world and fact is, more people today have a cell phone than a toilet. If that isn’t reason enough to bring massive awareness to such an issue what is?

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Age Shouldn’t Matter Unless You’re Cheese

What is it about aging that scares some of us? Is it the influx of age defying facial lotions advertised between sitcoms like Cougartown or the commercials of a dapper silver-haired fox driving through the desert in a truck for Viagra? Whatever the case, age isn’t something society is accustomed to embracing in a positive and quite frankly, age shouldn’t matter unless you’re cheese. If you are cheese, well that’s a pity because in most cases, you would smell like feet.

I had the honour of interviewing one of my favourite actors a few years ago and we stumbled upon the discussion of aging in the industry quite briefly. He told me that disclosing his age factors into some of the roles he wants and it does make sense, sadly. I think it has for many decades. Look at Hitchcock’s Vertigo for example with a then 25 year-old Kim Novak lip locking with a nearly double her age, Jimmy Stewart or The Misfits starring a 60 year-old Clark Gable with a 35 year-old Marilyn Monroe. Sure, it was downright hot but there were plenty of other actresses with sex appeal and talent who could have played those roles and been older. The thing is, young is sexy in some twisted way and cinema has shown that spectrum throughout the years.

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{Daily Prompt, March 22 2014: Young At Heart}