rockwatcher.co
Hola! My name is Bryan Miles and I am a musician, scientist (geo), and an inconspicuous philosopher. I also love being a father and trail running. Rockwatcher.co is my creative outlet. Music, Environment, Philosophy; These are the north, east and south. West on my external compass includes things that don’t necessarily conform to the other three cardinal directions. West is like this penguin, an outlier. An explorer.
I absolutely love what Music does for me.
Music conveys emotion and helps us express it in astounding ways. Much like humor, music is a human invention that doesn’t seem to have any evolutionary advantage, at least on its surface. From my perspective, music is invaluable and has kept me straight down the middle. If life comes in waves, then the crests and troughs are the extremes. Extreme pleasure, pain, comfort, discomfort… extreme anything for too long is never a good thing. Music keeps me on a healthy cycle from crest to trough; from Rage Against the Machine to Ryan Adams. While riding the wave of life, playing and listening to music keeps me straight down the middle.
I play the guitar and have been singing aloud since anybody can remember. During one memorable 3-day road trip from Georgia to Utah I rode in my uncle’s car and sang every word of Michael Jacksons Off the Wall over and over again for two thousand miles. I was eight. I’m sure it was annoying.
These days, I write music as well as reinterpret covers. I have this chair in my living room that is over 100 years old. It was discarded, then found by a state champion fiddle player from West Virginia. Mac Guthrie refurbished it, passed it on to his daughter and now it resides in our living room with my guitars. I love to sit in it, spontaneously sing my favorite songs and draw the day to a close.
We are a product of our environment.
Where we live, who we interact with, how we were raised, where we work or go to church… It all matters. But I am specifically talking about the earth. I was a geologically privileged brat growing up skiing/snowboarding/mountain biking in Utah and skateboarding/surfing in SoCal. My formative years were spent being dragged from one wilderness to the other by my adventure-phile father who happens to be a PhD in paleo-botany. I call him the hick genius. On any given weekend I was trailing behind my father as we were fishing something out of the water, shooting something else out of the sky (sometimes being shot at), hiking up something, floating down another, waking up with snow on my sleeping bag and otherwise avoiding hypothermia or heat stroke and trying to survive. I can’t think of a better way to grow up.
So, naturally, I became a geologist. I received a B.Sc. degree from UCSB in Geological Sciences and have had a 16-year career protecting the environment, and managing natural resources. The earth is our home and I feel passionate about taking care of our home. It is my playground and the more time I spend outdoors the better. I think the greatest misunderstanding of our global paradigm is that our relationship with the earth is symbiotic. It is not. I hope that I can help people to understand this and learn to appreciate our beautifully blue mother earth.
The Philosophy bit sounds a bit pretentious so here’s the definition; stripped down into its flat-lined, un-emotive description.
A philosopher is someone who practices philosophy, which involves the rational inquiry into areas that are outside of either theological dogma or science. The term “philosopher” comes from the Ancient Greek φιλόσοφος (philosophos) meaning “lover of wisdom”. Its origination has been ascribed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras.
Truth is, I just love to think about shit… and explore ideas.
So, this bean gives you a little taste of what the burrito will taste like. As I tell my stories and share my music at rockwatcher.co, I will be as authentic and transparent as I can. It is my hope that I give us something to talk about. Take Part!
Music • Environment • Pilosophy : rockwatcher.co
