The Puzzle (Acoustic)

May 13, 2025 by Mike Vitale in Music, New Music, Life, Blog, Brain Droppings

I’m a deeply curious person. I look at the world around me, and I see endless mystery.

Potential quantum fields, where you as an observer have just as much importance in the creation of reality, as a particle within that quantum field, that seemingly chooses one state once you observe it.

Wow.

And you’re living in this. What I just said a second ago is how a quantum computer works with a qubit. That qubit exists in a superposition until it is utilized for computation.

I mention all this, because that’s what this song is about. It’s about reality and life here on Earth. It’s about mathematics and religion and science and whether these are things we discover or if they are human inventions.

I’m reading this book by Carl Gustav Jung right now called “Answer to Job”. It’s about the Book of Job from the Torah or the Old Testament.

YHWH. Jung made this speculation: what if God is Unconscious?

I can only shrug my shoulders—but what I can say is that I’m immensely thankful that I am conscious and I get to ask questions and be curious and read books and write songs that celebrate this mystery that we live in. We take it for granted; I take it for granted.

The Puzzle. That’s what this song is called. It’s on an album I just put out called Desert Dogs.

You can stream it. You can buy it. I’m gonna go for a walk and appreciate all this natural splendor today and be thankful. If you like this tune, it's also available to listen to in its original form, here:

https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/mikevitale/desert-dogs

A Recipe for Kooky's: https://linktr.ee/mikevitale

Bob Loblaw's Law Blog: https://mikevitalemusic.com

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:

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Graceland and a Dream of Mine, Analyzed

March 30, 2025 by Mike Vitale in Good Music, Music, New Music, Love, Stories, Life, Dreams, Cover Song

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?

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Breathe (In the Air) | Pink Floyd

January 13, 2025 by Mike Vitale in Music, New Music, Cover Song

Pink Floyd was a profound influence on me growing up. My older brother Clark used to play Dark Side of the Moon while my parents would be away. He would have it up loud enough to hear it all over the house. It is an experience—not just music. I was fortunate enough to make a few friends in high school, that all loved this album as well, and that is when I started paying attention to the beautiful lyrics written by Roger Waters. He calls them "a little adolescent and naïve in its preoccupations, but I'm not belittling it. It's like a rather wonderful, naïve painting."

I would be willing to argue they are not naive in their preoccupations. Breathing. It is the very first thing we learn to do in this life, once we emerge from a very warm and dark place for the first time. It is the control of our own perturbations—meditation.

I humbly offer my heart to you through this song. What a blessing it was to make this yesterday. The Los Angeles wildfires are burning all around me. I had to find a quiet take for this song, as there were helicopters and planes audibly dropping much needed extinguishers all over these burning wildfires. I live in Eagle Rock which is very close to where the Eaton Fires are burning. Thank you to all the brave men and women who are working day and night to allow me the opportunity to continue doing this: making music and trying to connect with others—and to breathe—to breathe in the air.