New GoFund Me Campaign Launched

I am working on raising money for a few efforts, most notably getting to the Kerrville Folk Festival in May. My car needs quite a bit of maintenance revolving around a timing belt, a tensioner, idler pulleys, water pump, serpentine belt, a set of brake pads, and a few other bells and whistles. The cost of parts has gone up on these things as well as the cost of labor. If you feel up to helping out a bit, I would be so honored. I’m also trying to refresh my merchandise as I have sold out of most everything I have, and get caught up on a power bill that is pretty out of control:

https://gofund.me/16929c3a

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

My Friend Mar and I

Mar and I

This is my friend Mar. I haven’t been able to visit him for almost a month because I caught the Bird Flu and wanted to be on the safe side, and not risk him getting ill from me.

Mar and I met from a Synchronistic event. I couldn’t care less if you believe in such things. They sound incredible and maybe even silly, unless you have experienced one yourself. They make you a believer, I assure you. It’s as if something larger than yourself winks and nudges, and lets you know it’s out there.

Mar feels the same way.

Today we talked about his experiences in the Vietnam war. He was born in the Philippines, but fought as an American soldier, because he is American.

He is 78 years old, and still kicking ass. Thank you for being my friend.

The Original Story of Mar and I Meeting One Another:

https://mikevitalemusic.com/inside-my-head/2025/3/24/friends

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

Kerrville Folk Festival | Kerrville New Folk Song Competition

You could probably blind fold me with dental floss in this picture, however, the smile is very much me as well.

I’m thrilled to be heading back out to Kerrville, Texas to play the Kerrville Folk Festival, New Folk Competition and more importantly, to re-connect with friends I made last year, and to hopefully make some new friends this year. To me, that’s what life is all about: making friends, authenticity, and to be fearless.

Let’s face it: I’m lousy at competing, especially when it comes to music.

Thank you for letting me tell a few stories again. It’s all I want with my life: to tell stories, and to listen to them from others, and to have the words “welcome home” said to me, again and again.

Home isn’t a place: it’s people. My two cents.

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

If I Only Had a Brain

First off, this is only slightly my own arrangement of this classic masterpiece of music. Harry Connick Jr. arranged this song as a young man, on piano. 

I adapted this from his arrangement. I did so, because I cried uncontrollably the first I heard it.

This is “If I Only Had a Brain.”

Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/mikevitalemusic

Consider becoming a paid member.

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

Synchronicity I by The Police

One of the happiest days of my life was getting to see/hear The Police live when they did a reunion tour. My girlfriend at the time, Katie: she knew me. She bought good gifts. This was a gift to me—a birthday gift.

Katie had a lot of other baggage that made it difficult to be in a relationship with her, but when it came to seeing me as a person: she definitely saw me.

I think about Katie sometimes—and not in a I-want-her-back-kind-of way. Moreover, she lives on inside of me. I find myself saying things that she used to say to the cats we had together. She lives on in me in that sense—making a mark on me that will last a lifetime.

Thanks Katie (if you ever read this),

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

New Songs for the Month of April and The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

I find that taking the time to talk about things that are going to be done, or have already been done, is something I would one day love to delegate to someone else. It could be my cat—but more likely a bi-pedal human with an awesome brain, sense of humor, and kindness, and an aptitude and pension for music business.

If that’s you and you like my art, please reach out.

I’m doing the juggle.

Speaking of juggles, I wanted to drop you a quick line—so I am, to let you know about all the new singles I am releasing in April.

One of the new singles, has brought me good fortune—but I can’t announce it until later in the week. This is the release schedule fort April though.

April 5th - Mess It Up

April 11th - Graceland

April 18th - And It Stoned Me

April 25th - Rare Bird

My goal is to be releasing one song a week, so I have been since February.

On a side tangent that also is not a side tangent: I’m concerned about the economics of musicians. Having been a professional musician for a number of years, I have continuously watched musicians be mistreated in a myriad of ways: whether it be as a gigging musician or even within the realm of selling the art (as an album or singles).

I posted yesterday about reading “The Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith. I am trying to solve the problem of musicians being taken advantage of.

If it wasn't a record label in 1996, it is Spotify and Apple Music now.

Musicians should not have to invest $10,000 in an album, only to essentially provide it as an expected service to be consumed for free. Sure, someone pays Spotify $11 a month, but we as the creator of the art being consumed, do not see that distribution of wealth. That doesn’t feel right to me. It feels queer, in the traditional sense of the word. We even do it with words: take them and repurpose them without thought of how that effects others around us.

So, I consult the book that fashioned the use of what Smith referred to as “Commercial Society” but what we now call “Capitalism.”

Self interest was of huge concern to Adam Smith. He devoted chapters to it in the “Wealth of Nations” as pointed out by Prasannah Parthasarathi in the introduction of the edition I purchased yesterday. Wisely so. Look at how musicians have been getting fucked for years.

My solution came from a friend I made in Photo Club named Matt Sloggy. He is an Economist based out of Riverside, California. He spoke to me about Reciprocating Economics. What does that look like? Allow me to show you.

A company like Spotify or Apple Music or Deezer, could have a department devoted to publishing Songwriter and Full Band Material to Television, Netflix, HBO, Movies, Commercials. We flood their service with art: they could be reciprocating by doing the work of getting high paying placements for us. It’s a lot of work making music: thank you for being selfish and not paying attention to how musicians are literally dying from suicide overworking themselves. If new companies in America are going to be subsidized with Tax Payer Money, pay it forward to those who are from those taxpayers, who are directly providing the service you are offering. What you have done Spotify, is shoved your service between the musician and the audience with a shoe horn: a shoe that has no damn sole.

People make the argument that humans are innately selfish. Even if that is true, Smith mitigates this notion in the following manner:

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interests. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never to talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.”

We have value, brothers and sisters. It is time we take our value back rather than give it away. Adam Smith was a wise and intelligent person. We should listen to wise and intelligent people who take the time to write a treatise of Economic Theory. Because holy shit, have we not lost sight of the beginnings of “Commercial Society” in favor of what we now call in modern nomenclature, repurposed: “Capitalism.”

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

So Beautiful, or So What

I’ve had several songs bouncing around in my head like a 1980’s pinball machine: long hair and leather jacket, 4:20 on the clock. Ping ping. Ping ping.

The clickers and clickety-clack of flippers, knocking that shiny reflective orb into the playfield.

Playing.

We all need a lot more playing. Taoists call it Wu Wei. It has a lot of different names. It could just be takin’ it easy. Easy riding. Chillax. Effortless living. The Way.

The Dude.

I was tasked today with having fun. Just doing whatever the fuck I wanted to that makes me happy, in the moment, so I did that. It has been a beautiful day. I choose to feel happy. I could have woke up miserable too, and I did cry—but I then said, no, today will be a good day. I choose happiness.

Speaking of dudes. I visited my dad yesterday. I’m getting over that Bird Flu (not sure yet but it hasn’t been a normal cold or flu or what have you; it’s been 10 days).. Novel viruses. Coughing up the stuff in my body that no longer serves me. I didn’t want to get him sick, so I waited to see him.

He’s supine in a bed, and he suffers being where he is at. He just wants to go home. I totally get it. We all just want to go home. Like Odysseus in The Odyssey. Back to Ithaca. The war’s over; I just wanna go home.

He’s had multiple strokes over the past several years and he also does everything in his power to hide this notion amongst other things, while also not doing the best job of that either. That’s okay by me.

I’m happy we got to the bottom of things yesterday. It was Scooby-Doo and the Gang, all piling into the Mystery Machine, to solve the case of why my Dad is the way he is.

What I really want, is to grow old with my Dad and for him to fight for his life. It’s a gift for all of us, especially—especially when we treat it that way, for what LIFE really is: sacred.

Sacred as the human breath. Voluntary and involuntary. The perfect way to calm down: controlled breath and meditation.

It’s the simplest forms of what all of us have, that will make this world a better place.

Say, (CBT) Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as a friend of mine, put it to me, over the phone. I mean, just talking in plain English to each other and being as honest as possible,

Breathing. That’s simple too.

There are all these simple answers to problems, right under our noses: our mouths.

Every action, was first a thought, before it is acted out.

Think about it.

Life is what we make of it; so beautiful, or so what (that was one of many songs pinging around this playfield of mine/mind).

My Dad

When I was twenty-two years old, my dad grabbed me by the throat, threw me over in a rocking chair and began to choke me to death—spittle showering my face, while he volleyed demonic and sweltering red-faced obscenities towards my shocked and gasping expression.

Meanwhile, my own mouth-gapped response, changed color to a ghostly white from a lack of oxygen.

I had, moments before, locked him outside the house, after he chose to walk outside that beautiful French Double Door that my parents had chosen together in a custom home on Sweet Street—to fist fight his own son.

What on Earth could I have done to warrant him trying to murder me in a moment of unbridled rage?

I had told him to “Stop talking to my mother that way. She is your equal,” at the dinner table.

Moments before that, he had told my mom, ”Shut the fuck up, woman.” That is not an exaggeration or a misquotation. That is the way my dad would speak in private to my Mother, and to us Children.

I would often hear from complete strangers, growing up, how lovely of a person he was.

My thoughts would wander back to watching him as a child, try to murder a VCR with a butter knife in rage because it wasn’t doing whatever it was that he thought it should be doing.

Sometimes, I would think back to the day he hit and slammed my older brother against a wall and physically assaulted him. I was a young child with no musculature to help my older brother. My dad also kicked him out of the house as a minor at the tender age of Seventeen.

I would thank back to me dad breaking a wooden cutting board in two using it to spank me, or the welts and cuts on my body from a cowboy belt buckle, in which the buckle and leather were striking and hissing against my skin from a similar form of punishment.

Him throwing a radio across a room and smashing it against a wall simply because his favorite baseball team lost.

Him calling me a stupid asshole, when I proudly purchased my first electric guitar and amplifier with money I earned through my own hard work on a paper route, beginning when I was twelve years old. Yes, I started working for money when I was twelve. I’ve had a job ever since; sometimes even two or three of them at a time.

Him once again calling me a stupid asshole when I proudly answered a question he asked me regarding what I was going to do now that I graduated from California State University Fullerton on my own dime. My parents didn’t pay for my education. I did.

Him spending twenty years of his life asking me when I was going to get a real job, in my pursuit of doing music professionally.

Him loaning my own car out to my younger brother for six months after rebuilding the engine, while I made the car payments and insurance payments. He chose this piece-of-shit-used car for me, before I went away to college, and then made me pay for it. I didn’t argue. I just did as I was told. I walked to work for six months in Fullerton and continued working my ass off at the Home Depot.

Him spending hours at a time by himself in a car watching a mobile television plugged into the cigarette lighter, running the car battery dry, while on family camping trips to Santa Cruz.

Endless arrays of memories like these…

My mind would stop wandering, and I would snap back to the present moment with this stranger: I would just politely try to pull my cheeks up towards something that resembled a smile, when faced with people who were telling me what my dad was.

This is my dad:

He often speaks from a place of complete ignorance, while simultaneously being completely unaware that he is doing it.

One of my Aunts calls him a “little stinker” on occasion as if he is an innocent little kid, because she knew him when he was an innocent little kid.

If she means asshole—yes, I would agree, that is what he is. He’s an asshole. I tight wad of sphincter, that spouts waste and shit, and punishes punitively with little thought, self-reflection, empathy, or even sympathy.

If all this seems harsh to you: my sincere apologies. This is my life. This is what honesty looks like. We could all use a bit more of that.

These are the stories of my life.

Why do I tell them? So that people may know that they are not alone in the way they feel.

None of this is meant to hurt my father. Frankly, I told him that I am doing this. I have told him this to his face. He knows that I am doing it. I told him before I did it.

No, I am not exercising demons either. I did that years ago. I am a well-adjusted human through hard work and determination and effort and education and therapy and reading.

I am also a storyteller. That is what I do for a living. It is what I was put on Earth to do.

So, I will return to the original story:

My family is gathered around the dinner table. My mom often cooked all the meals. That was her responsibility.

While we were eating, my dad asked me what I learned that day attending College of the Sequoias. I was taking a two-year music theory course from Dr. Timothy Lynch. We were studying composition, music theory, ear training, and dictation. Dr. Lynch had me able to dictate simple music from a piano, to standard music notation, by listening to what he was playing on a piano. Something I never thought or dreamt I would be capable of doing in my life.

I answered my dad, and told him that we were analyzing a composition by a particular composer.

My dad stopped me, and corrected me on who the composer was who wrote the piece that I was talking about.

My dad was incorrect. I know this because I was just studying the composition that day. I was literally answering his question, and then he corrected me on something that I just was working on.

Rather than argue with him… I paused. I thought for a second, and said the following:

“Dad, why am I in school? Didn’t you send me to school to learn?”

He didn’t answer.

I continued, “This is what I learned today.”

He replied, “Well, you’re wrong.”

I said, “No, I am not.”

He volleys, “Yes you are. Michael. You know, I used to play trumpet. I know a lot about music. That piece was written by Tchaikovsky.”

I replied, “No Dad. You are wrong. That is not even remotely close to the correct time period of music that we are discussing. I am talking about J.S. Bach. We are learning to compose in the style of Bach and the rules he used to compose music, such as no parallel fifths or octaves and using Augmented Sixths: Italian, French, and German Sixths. Please don’t argue with me about this dad. I’m just answering your question.”

My dad, replies “Well, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

At this point, my mom interjects: “Jim, please stop.”

My dad says: “Shut the fuck up, woman.”

Me: “ Don’t talk to my mom that way. She is your equal.”

My dad stands up and kicks his chair away from him: “ You wanna take this outside?”

My reply, “Yeah, let’s take this outside.”

He rushes with enthusiasm towards the backdoor. A beautiful French Door set, that is the entrance to a gorgeous backyard that my mom maintained and created with love.

He pulls the door open violently and takes his stance outside to beat the shit out of me.

I slowly close the door on him, and lock it, and shake my head at him.

He begins to violently beat on the door.

My mom starts begging me to open the door.

I refuse.

My dad’s anger and rage and hatred swells. He beats violently against that door and shouts like the animal he is.

My mom, pleas to me: “Michael, if you don’t open that door, he’s going to break it.”

I unlock the door and take a seat in the rocking chair to receive my punishment.

My dad thrusts open the door, grabs me by the throat, throws me to the ground, and begins to choke me to death.

That is a part of my dad that none of those strangers ever knew. That is a part of my dad that you didn’t know. Now you do.

I love him. I forgive him. He has made me who I am today, and I am grateful for that. I fall on my knees in gratitude to him for making me who I am.

I am proud of me.

This story is called My Dad. Thank you Dad. Thank you. Thank you.

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

Graceland and a Dream of Mine, Analyzed

I had a dream a few years back where I was at The House of Blues. It looked a bit like the one I used to perform at in Anaheim, California. Near Disneyland. But certainly not identical.

Paul Simon was in that dream. I was sitting at a table with him and two other musically inclined gentlemen. You might call us skeezy musicians: I lean towards storyteller, with a pension towards taking liberties.

I needed to use the restroom. I got up from the table and headed towards a set of binary doors, one to the left, and one to the right.

I took the door to the right, and was immediately greeted by a person trying to squeeze by me with a backpack brimming with who knows what. I don’t even know—and I’m the one slow cooking this chili con carne of a dream.

Ironically, he was exiting, just as I was entering. It was an awkward exchange between a doorway.

What I found on the other side of that doorway was a bustling kitchen of people—chefs and other assorted folks working in tandem.

I appreciated seeing this for a moment, but also didn’t find the bathroom.

I head back to the table I was sitting at with Paul Simon. He wasn’t alone either. There was a drummer I knew from living in Long Beach, as well as the bass player from the band Weezer, that left the group after the success of their first album. Matt Sharp.

I make some sort of snide crack about the restroom being cursed and that I couldn’t find it to begin with.

Paul replied, we all feel that way from time to time.

Everyone chuckles.

The drummer and bass player and Paul all have a short chat of sorts, before the bass player and drummer politely bid fair-well and leave.

I once again feel the urgency of the restroom—and as I rise, Paul showers me with kind compliment and I reply the pleasure being mine.

And as I stand, I notice that Paul is sitting on my coat.

As much as I would love to think that image in my dream was Paul Simon—all of those people are me.

We find Grace on the inside, in a house of blues. Not always what we anticipate either—especially when trying to get there urgently.

It’s not as hard as you think to analyze a dream. It’s all symbolic. Metaphors. The cast of my craft and poets alike.

I found grace hearing what my friend Rory sent me today. It was his second guitar part for this arrangement.

Wow, music is magic and casting spells—and dreams? They are wild. Primal. Older than your language. When symbols ruled for communication in a young monad’s dream.

This is Graceland by Paul Simon.

It’ll be available on all the streaming services April 11th.

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

Home Life

This song took on a special meaning for me recently. It was my favorite song on an album called “Heavier Things,” by John Mayer. The song is called Home Life.

The chorus of the song, he speaks of wanting to live in the Center of a Circle: that is a Monad.

He also speaks of wanting to live on the side of a square: that is referring to the Golden Ratio and φ. You will see this if you look at the Symbol of a golden ratio which has been used for years by both artists and mathematicians. It is the mathematical ratio for an infinite spiral, arrived at my the Fibonacci Sequence and The Ratio, Phi. It is an infinite set of numbers, like Pi, which deals with circles, and leads back to the Monad.

Both are symbols: The Monad and The Golden Ratio. John may have done this on purpose. He may have done it unconsciously as well. I would like to ask him myself in person one day.

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

Friends

Yesterday was magic. I assure you. If you were me, you wouldn’t be able to put it into words either. You would just give it a try though.

I experienced Synchronicity. I met a man named Mar holding a very small copy of a few Bible verses, standing by his rod iron white gate. I’ve passed his house, thousands of times on morning walks or runs or any sort of locomotion, really.

Mar is an older Filipino man and delightful and was praying to skies for a friend, as I was talking to one, pretend. I ceased talking to my pretend friend for a block, and thought it would be nice to make a new one. Then I saw Mar.

I smiled and said good morning to him. He was glowing! So was I. We were effervescent, like a cauldron or a soda pop.

We talked for about 45 minutes, and he invited me inside to sit and chat. I gave him my number on the back of an envelope and I shared with him one of a million favorite books that I thought he might like, “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho.

It’s not the first time I’ve ever experienced something like Synchronicity, but—I find people curling their face in interesting knots and not’s like an anti-effervescent stroke of magic, when I start telling the story of such things.

I love making friends. Often, I just don’t feel like I have the time, being suffocated by ambitions or the real world. What does that even mean?

You touch a table—yet do not touch the table. You may even say, you are the table too. No, that’s not a joke. That’s Quantum Physics.

You are surrounded by the gift of magic and so am I. Please don’t take it for granted.

As I arrived back at my bungalow, my best friend Josh invited me to a photo club meetup in Chinatown, and suddenly I am surrounded by brilliant Scientists, and Celebrity Photographers, and Economists, gathering to do something they love. I made all sorts of new friends and my heart is full. I toyed with Vintage Cameras and resolved to the ease of an iPhone. I took pictures of people taking picture! Who does that (me).

I assure you, the world is what you make of it. Literally.

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

Playing Vine in Long Beach on Sunday April 6th

This is my friend Taylor.

In thinking about it, I’ve cried a whole bunch in front of her over the years. Probably enough so to make any reasonable person uncomfortable.

Life can be hard sometimes.

But it’s the friends in life that pick us up and dust us off, and send us back into the world to try again. That’s persistence. It brings us to success, eventually. Always. I believe that.

I’m stoked to be sharing a spot with her to play some music at @vine_lb in Long Beach on Sunday April 6th. It’s a free show, and I’d be happy to have you there as well, dear reader. Deeply.

4pm - Me

5pm -  Taylor Crawford

6pm - Rod Harrison

May we all be so lucky to have friends like you.

And I can’t emphasize this enough, Taylor: it was really hard for me to miss your wedding day (I’m so sorry), because nothing makes me happier than seeing my friends happy.

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

Simple

Simple

Words and Music by Me

I know that I am simple

Perhaps the butt of jokes

The swishing tails of bovine

Two by two in yoke

Pulling the plow is good

I’m happy to be of use

I wasn’t always docile

A call to help refused

If you look into my eyes

You may see they’re soft

You may see into my heart

As I’m drinking from the trough

My sharp edges dull

In head and horn alike

How may I be of service

To the people in this life?

I know that I am simple

It was here I found my mirth

The light of sun was clouded

By earthly things and worth

To sew the seeds in Spring

To harvest in the Fall

To laugh when things are funny

To answer when people call

If you look into my eyes

You may see they’re soft

You may see into my heart

As I’m drinking from the trough

My sharp edges dull

In head and horn alike

How may I be of service

To the people in this life?

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

Our Own Personal Rainbow

A rainbow. It requires three ingredients: moisture, sunlight, and consciousness. The latter. That is what I wish to speak about.

You may be familiar with the thought experiment “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

The rainbow is refracted light. However, it requires us to be seen. It requires an observer to be noticed in the fashion which I describe.

Scientifically, sunlight is being refracted through rain drops or mist or other such moisture, however, it is the observer who creates the rainbow. Without us observing it, there is no rainbow: there is just rain, and sunlight.

And, when you and I are standing next to each other, admiring that beautiful arc of color in sky, we do not see the same rainbow. It will be unique for either of us, depending on the location at which we are standing, relative to that phenomenon that appears to us in the sky.

A beautiful ghostly image, that disappears the moment we stop paying attention to it, or when the sun is obscured, or when it stops precipitating: whichever of those three come first.

Our own personal rainbow—and this notion, when understood, applies to much more than rainbows. 🌈

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

Good Morning

I try my best to go on these morning walks.

Sometimes I just think. Sometimes I listen to music. Sometimes I write. Sometimes I listen to podcasts and audio books or whatever else seems nourishing.

This morning I was listening to an idea that John Archibald Wheeler, theoretical physicist, had in regard to The Universe.

Him and several other Physicists saw that we are active participants in what we perceive as reality. The Universe is dreaming us up, just as we are dreaming up our own existence by everything we say, think, touch, and feel.

I like this idea. It is the basis of Quantum Theories and the computers being built right now with qubits. Possibilities. Infinite possibilities. A cloud of possibilities with one manifestation at the present moment, determined by the duality of these two dreamers, dreaming at the same time with each other.

But in real world terms, it can be as simple as saying good morning to the person you pass by on a morning walk, or as complicated as believing you can make a difference in this world. You do regardless.

Think about it. And Good Morning by the way.

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

I’m sorry, I don’t believe in sentences.

I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine, however, I can’t—for two-fold reason: he’s dead—and I never knew him in-person.

I found him on a book shelf in Portland on accident.

He is just my speed though, with titles to books, such as “What is the name of this book?” and “The Tao is Silent.”

His name is Raymond M. Smullyan. He strikes me as a ball of creativity, never destined to be at rest on a flat surface. He could tip the world even in his absence. A mind that’s always moving something, if not me and my sense of humor.

If that’s not magic, I don’t know what is. He could do that too: magic I mean. Illusions.

He was an advanced mathematician. Polyglot. Loved puzzles, to the point of being a Logician. And to boot, he was a musician.

He’s over my head. Sometimes he’s in my head, and I’m like “get out of my head” but without the quotation marks because that was in my head.

I’m trying to say that I like him and I’m happy he took the time to share his thoughts with others, such as myself. Maybe you might enjoy him too.

I leave you with his thoughts:

“I’m sorry, I don’t believe in sentences.”

And

“I have free will, but not of my own choice. I have never freely chosen to have free will. I have to have free will, whether I like it or not!”

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

Mike's Career, Car, and Home at Risk: Lend a Hand

This is my fourth or fifth attempt at doing this today. Why you may ask?

Because I am beyond embarrassed…

I have wanted for nothing more in my life, then to create and play music and connect with other people.

It has been a dream come true driving around the United States and making new friends and performing for folks from all walks of life. I am humbled and honored to have had this privilege.

The reality of my situation though as a touring musician:

I have put an extensive amount of mileage on my car. The timing belt became a notion of something that needs to be changed in my car when I got to around 120,000 miles last year. That is easily an $800 to $1,000 repair, as a lot of car parts need to be removed to reach the timing belt, which unfortunately is made of rubber in V6 engines, and not a metal chain timing belt like four-cylinder engines. No one wants a timing belt to go out when so far away from home. It causes irreparable damage to the engine, especially when in motion as it happens.

So, I was planning on not touring as much in 2025, because of this. $1,000 is a lot of money to me. I was exploring the option of trying to change it myself, buying the part and using Youtube to fix it like I do most other issues and repairs, not car related.

However, things have gotten worse for me.

When I took my car in for a tire rotation and oil change around mid-December, I was told that my car has serious suspension issues that will cause my brand new tires to wear in sporadic spots (I had a tire blow out in late 2023 in Texas). They refused to do the tire rotation, and quoted me $3,000 plus, to do the repair work on my Suspension and Shocks.

Okay.

However, things have been worse beyond this yet still, and this is in addition to the added uncertainty caused by the Wild Fires in Los Angeles, which is where I live.

I am two and a half months behind on rent.

Also, I owe nearly $2,000 to LADWP which is Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

I have a company that I did a bunch of work for back in October of 2024, that owes me a significant amount of money, but I can’t seem to get this money from them, let alone an email response. I have been writing and communicating with the recruiter who brought me on to their booking agency, and that has been my only line of communication with the company. This issue, in itself, is so convoluted that it makes me sick to my stomach. My liaison did inform me today that the company is sending me $360 from that significant chunk of money. Nonetheless, its been three months now of waiting for those funds.

My landlord wrote me today that he needs to get this $2,250 I owe him ASAP, and I owe him another $950 as soon as February comes around.

I am also two months behind on nearly every bill I have that is not credit card or auto insurance related: phone bill, cable bill, car payment.

My monthly Car Payment is $464.

I am in dire straits.

My initial reaction was to fold into myself today and cry.

I deserve everything that comes to me. All of this is my doing.

It doesn’t matter how hard I work, how well I book, how often I contract, how many miles I drive, how many times I setup and breakdown a PA system, how many new skills I learn, how well I promote myself, how many lives I affect, how many shows I play, how many videos I make, how much music I write; record; and mix, how many covers I post, how well executed my release strategies are, how much I communicate on social media, how many festivals or conferences I attend, how many emails I write, how many doors I knock on… everything costs money, my pay stays the same, and cost inflates—and the bill always comes due.

This is going to sound insane:

On the flip side, I have never been happier in my life, than I am right now, creating every single day.

I have been at home for the most part given both, my financial situation, and the scarcity of work during the winter as a performing artist.

However, I have been trying to make the most of the time

Starting in the Fall of last year, I resolved to create high quality videos of me performing covers, to sell myself to clients for new cover gigs for the Winter months. I started to canvas Southern California with these new videos, writing emails to local businesses: Temecula Wine Country, Inland Empire, Orange County, Los Angeles County, San Diego County—I am reaching out to as many new places as I can find.

Simultaneously, I had been posting each of these efforts to Youtube as I make them. I even started chopping them up into tiny pieces, making them vertical videos, and posting those to Youtube Shorts.

Much to my utter surprise, each of these videos kept attracting more and more and more attention from people on Youtube. So, I doubled my efforts further. Even more people began to engage and like the things that I was was posting. My Subscriber count went from around 1,200 people to 1,400 to 1,600, to 1,800.

Just now, it reached 2,000 subscribers as I am writing this. I’ve gained nearly 800 subscribers in the past few months.

I can’t help but see optimism in every video I have been posting to Youtube.

I see that something I create or have already created, can and will reach a lot of people—one day very soon. I see this in real world metrics and statistics on the backend of Youtube.

However, I am quickly running out of time, especially when it comes to having a roof over my head, a car to drive (and repair), and power and water. Despite my best efforts, most of my work that I have been getting is down in San Diego, Carlsbad, or Southern Orange County. They are low paying and the gas used to get there and back, eats into my profit margin further.

As proud, humiliated, and fiercely independent as I may be—there is no other way out of this. I need your help.

I created a GoFundMe Campaign yesterday and last night after consulting with my friend Susan who has hosted me out in Ann Arbor, Michigan the last two years to perform. Here is a link to the GoFundMe Campaign:

https://gofund.me/0d1d637b

Any money raised from this effort, will be used to try and make a small dent in what I have listed above.

For those willing to contribute and to those unable to contribute, I will perform a daily Live Stream on Youtube in Vertical Format, 1080p HD and high quality audio, at 11AM PST Monday through Sunday starting today January 15th 2025 all the way through the month of January.

So, even if you are unable to tune in during the week, there will be options on the weekend as well.

Here is the link to watch my Youtube Live Streams either from your phone or tablet browser or Television, in the Youtube App, or on a home computer:

YouTube Live Stream Link

You can also visit my Youtube Profile and click on the "Live" Tab. Here is a link to the channel:

YouTube Channel

The Live Stream I performed recently on Saturday January 11th felt like magic to me. All of my live streams are archived under the "Live" Tab.

If you are unable to attend any live streams, I can also provide you downloads of any of my albums that you might wish to own.

I want to be useful to you—please let me know what I can do to be useful to you. I can write a song for you, record it, and mix it. What can I do for you?

This is what I learned about life from two separate encounters with a bee | INSIDE my HEAD

This is what I learned about life from two separate encounters with a bee | INSIDE my HEAD

Today I was reminded of a story from 8 or 9 years ago. I had just got dumped. I was devastated. I wasn't initially. But, that's because I was in shock.

The aftermath... boy, was that complicated.

What is easier to discern, was that I was trying my very best to take all the hard knocks I was feeling, and to turn that into something positive: art.

I would write on the balcony a lot, in the morning as I drank coffee and smoked—and that's how I met the bees.

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

This Picture Could Be a Motivational Poster in a Business Office

This picture could be a motivational poster in a business office.

Somethings about paths diverging around bends or some other horseshit.

What I really wanna talk about is boogers. Sometimes, after a cold, you get these little crusty things around the edge of the nostrils and it is oh so satisfying to pick those away.

Yeah.

There’s some shit around that bend. Don’t pick your nose, unless you want boogers on your phone.

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS

I In Genus

“Astronomer by Candlelight” by Gerrit Dou

I In Genus

by Me

Who put the I in Genus?

Would it be best not to admit?

Living within the lines

Of Samuel Langhorne’s wit

“Thousands of geniuses live and die

Completely undiscovered

Either by themselves

Or the company of others”

Counterfeit’s a worry

And people can be cruel

Yet ingenious enjoy the act of creation

Alone in one’s room

What I can admit

Faintly whispered if I try

When I have made like the maker

I know, because I cry

Photo: “Astronomer by Candlelight” by Gerrit Dou 1613-1679

WHO IS MIKE VITALE?

I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify:

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

INSIDE my HEAD RSS