Charlie Magdaleno: Blog

When I was a little boy, the one thing I wanted more than anything was to save the world, to be a hero.  I wanted to be an unbreakable pillar of ideals, a beacon of hope, of justice, of compassion.  I wanted to be the best of mankind.  I wanted to serve actively as a savior, and passively as an example of what we as people can be and should be.
For a while, in some respects, I was successful.  With nearly every encounter, I was able to provide honesty, empathy, intelligence and kindness to the lives of those I met.  There were sacrifices that were needed to be made on my end- time, personal wants and comforts; but that was always expected and understood- that was the point.  I wanted to show people that in their times of need, there was someone out there willing to put them before himself and face their crises alongside them.
Unfortunately, there was a flaw in the system, in my understanding.  While I worked to rectify the inequities of the lives of [...]

Hey folks, if you didn't notice, this week's entry is a little early, but I'll be out of town Sunday so I figured I'd post it now.
For this week, instead of filling the entry with a bunch of text and introspection, I decided to give you a glimpse of one of the songs from my upcoming EP.  The song is called "Better" and is actually going to be a sort of bonus track.  I'm not exactly sure yet what the stipulations are gonna be for receiving said track but I just wanted to give you a preview anyway.
As a warning/disclaimer/excuse: I've been a little sluggish on the guitar lately and so I apologize ahead of time for any mistakes or bad notes in the playing or singing.  Also, the audio quality is kind of poor (the video is in HD!) but I think you'll be able to get the idea.
In any case, I hope you enjoy it, and for those who want to follow along the lyrics are located below the video.  
I'd love to hear your comments and suggestions as well! =)
Thanks,
Charlie
 






Better
Verse:
She [...]

  Today I had the opportunity to visit with my family and I spent a good portion of the evening talking with my mom and watching "17 Again."  For those who haven't seen it, it's essentially "Big", except reversed (protagonist is an adult turned into a current-day adolescent instead of the other way around), thrown together with elements from "Back to the Future" and, believe it or not, "High School Musical."  In any case, after watching the film, I realized how much I had in common with the main character (the pessimistic, whiny Matthew Perry version, not the charismatic, six-packed Zac Efron version).  
  For quite some time now, even at my young age, I have been wishing I could just call a "mulligan" on my life and start over.  I think that, if given the opportunity, I would do nearly everything different.  There have been so many mistakes, so many wasted and missed opportunities, and so many people hurt by my embarrassing stumble through life [...]

Hey folks,
For this week's post, instead of writing something in regards to Valentine's Day, I wanted to offer something that maybe would make you take a second to think about how you've been approaching your life and your outlook towards it. So, I decided to repost an old Facebook blog I wrote about the difference between a "good" man and a "great" one. Keep in mind, however, that I only use the term "man" for simplicity's sake. Everything I've written below applies to both men and women. The reason I decided to go with a re-post as opposed to a brand new entry is that I felt that this particular post had a lot to say, in few words, about greatness and that when I posted it before, it was more of a personal post seen by only a handful of people, and was worth sharing with more.
Those last few statements weren't meant to be me "tooting my own horn", but rather me explaining my reasoning. In any case, I hope you enjoy the short post below and can find an idea to apply to your life. [...]

Howdy partners,
I decided for this week's article to go lighter on the content (both subject and length-wise) and give you a quick-read that maybe, just maybe, will make you smirk a time or two.
Have you ever heard of the game Donkey Kong Country?  If you haven't it's an old game that came out for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), or the Super Famicom as our Japanese friends probably know it, that showcases Donkey Kong (from the original NES Donkey Kong games) taking over the protagonist role alongside his kid-nephew Diddy Kong.  Their mission is to retrieve their banana hoard from the evil King K. Rool and the Kremling Krew.
In any case, it's a really great game and it's available as a download for the Nintendo Wii for those who have it.
However, while trying to figure out what to write this week's blog about and suffering through watching my friend, though I love her to death, miss the same barrel shot 12 times in a row, or jumping into Zingers (bees with [...]