Lately I’ve been listening to some pretty cool music by some beach bum named Jack Johnson. The tunes he plays really touch a chord within me. They are just so honest and selfless, like stories being told by a wise old palm tree that has endured countless days of peaceful monotony, and yet have also experienced the rare tropical storm with gale force winds. I decided to have a look for his website, as I have come to know that humans have written about just about anything of interest on the Internet.

I found out some interesting things about this soft, rhythmic flowing voice and guitarist on his official site, http://www.jackjohnsonmusic.com. The guy is hardly a beach bum; he’s been a pro surfer, is a popular surfing film producer, and the weirdest tidbit of knowledge is the fact that he didn’t really want to be a famous musician at all! He’d rather surf some waves, and maybe that’s why his music is so natural and unforced-he hasn’t let his popularity affect his priorities.

The site has got all your average categories: Photos, biography, news, show dates, forum, and music/film releases. The part that grabbed me the most was found in the Photos section, a small link entitled Articles. Here there were postings of actual news releases about Johnson from tiny local papers to big magazines. After recording one song that he usually just played for fun on surf video trips with band G-Love, that one track became the single hit track from their album. After turning down million dollar record deals to keep his already enjoyable surfing, filmmaking lifestyle, he recorded his first album with a tiny record label.

Look, I won’t go on and on about his story, you can check it out yourself, or better yet get his album called ‘On and on’. I just reckon it’s cool how you can add dimensions to your views of reality by surfing the waves of the Internet. To find out a little about the true identities of people you admire for their achievements is just one small aspect of the Internet. Surf’s up man! It’s time to ride the big, hard to get to waves of our minds.

By Jesse S. Somer
M6.Net
Jesse S. Somer is a peaceful soul who has surfed the occasional downhill road as well as virtual tidal wave. :o