We called off our sessions this past week and probably in the next few days. Boobop declared he needed to spend more time with his thesis, the rite of passage of graduating students. With the hectic schedule I've been having of late at my work, I confess I myself wasn't too eager with our agreed songwriting sessions. Temporarily, of course. A case of work-related fatigue affecting my attitude towards my music.

My ad agency job and my band. Advertising and music. Work and art. There's a duality and eerie parallelism here I'd like to tackle if only in brief.

Similarly enjoyable, I need to do both for reasons both different and the same -- sustenance -- the former, monetary and practical, while the latter, artistic and emotional. Both forms I need, without a doubt.

There's more. I work during the day and play during the night. Both are creative in nature. Both are essentially communication and both involve stories - one sells them while the other tells them.

Both unite people. Advertising, the seller and the buyer, while music, the artist and the listener.

One is overt while the other covert. As such, everyone detests the former while all are drawn to the latter. Ironically, one is free while the other is for sale.

Advertising is unavoidable. Music is inevitable. Both are necessary. A necessary evil and a necessary good.

I am beginning to believe, after much thought and self-debate, that somehow, I have unwittingly uncovered within this grain of truth dissected, a wicked balance in my affairs that has kept me going, uncharacteristically, this long.