04/21/2003; 1:11am;

Ok... so i dont really do much with this old hunk of web space anymore. I used to love this site so much and it has kind of fallen to the way side. Every now and then i will float by and see what was going on years ago.. its actually a funny read at times. I am recording again. i dont know how it happens but occasionally i go through these spells where i can't touch my music... then one day, something happens, i pick up my guitar and it just starts coming out. I hope to have a whole albums worth of new material completed by june. IF you would like to hear some of it or keep posted on new material, go to www.purevolume.com/michaelrawls. it should be up within the week. as for all you guys who pop up on this thing after so much time has gone by just to see if i am still alive, yep... they havent killed me yet.

06/17/2003; 9:25pm;

OK. It is impossible for me to catch everyone up on how much has changed and what all has happened in the past few months. Lets just call it TRAGICALLY BEAUTIFUL or perhaps AWFULLY WONDERFUL. Two sides of the same coin... Needless to say. I am happy. Not just happy due to circumstance or lack there of... just happy. Everything reloads and the cycle continues... the awful and the wonderful... the tragic and the beautiful... without one the other would be pointless anyway... so i embrace that which i cannot hold and accept that which i cannot let in... look around for something in the middle... remembering none of this is real anyway... and drink another starbucks white chocolate frappuchino.

04/07/2003; 9:25pm; WORLDSFARE!

So things havent gone as planned... Story of my life. The more that things seem to come together the faster they seem to come apart. Just when you think you are making a right choice, life has a way of pulling the rug out from under you and laughing. isnt that special. On a lighter note, I am back in the studio with a producer named Kyle. (yes, i am sure he has a last name but i have no idea what it is at the moment). He has a killer Pro Tools studio and lots of experience... I am planning on bringing Steven over to record some drum tracks for me around Easter. We have got some pretty cool stuff done so far and have alot more ground to cover. It is about the only thing keeping me sane at this point. :P :) :o No more whining,,, Someday everyone says goodbye.

09/06/2002; 10:37am; WORLDSFARE!

Despite popular rumor and sport, I am alive and well in Lafayette. (Although crazy car drivers in Lafayette have attempted to snub me out of existence.) I am really settled into my new job and into my new apartment. I have met alot of really cool people and some not so cool people through trial and error... but so goes life. Although they call New York the cirty that never sleeps, Lafayette can't be very far behind. There is always something happening in this city and for the first month i was here, i didnt know quite how to process all that. Now I have learned to turn off my phone when i go to bed (so that those who get off work at 2 and 3am wont be calling me) and have learned to have more fun playing little acoustic shows than i have had playing for hundreds of people. I do miss the band up north quite a bit, but for now world's fare has to fly solo down here in cajun country. I will try to update a little more often but if there is one thing i can honestly say i am enjoying these days it is life outside the internet. I love you all and you are in my thoughts and prayers. Please keep checking back for future updates.



07/02/2002; 11:59pm; WORLDSFARE!

Well moving to a new city is such a scary and extremely exciting thing. I was approved on the apartment i wanted yesterday and i'm in the process of boxing away my life right now so that i can relocate it to cajunville...lol my family has been incredible, especially my mom, through this whole thing and i know i wouldnt be where i am without there continued support. For all of you who have emailed me about the band and the concerns there in: DONT SWEAT IT! World's Fare will always be around and doing what it does best. Steven and I will continue to make music as always and a little distance cant put a damper on something we love so much. I think it will just take a little more driving for right now. :) The songs we have written over the past year or so are as much a part of me as my right and left arm are. There is no way I could walk away from it. Anything worthwhile takes effort and work. Plus, we still have CD's to sell. So go buy some!!!



06/25/2002; 2:06pm; WORLDSFARE!

When I first began this site (way back when), my very first quote of the week was this: "life is not about removing the confusion, but rather learning to operate within it". It is fitting that i reflect back to that seeing as how much of life right now is just that, confusing. I can honestly say i don't know why alot of things have happened the way they have. I dont know why Steven, Adam and Greg all got pulled away this summer leaving me to float world's fare all alone. I don't know why one of the places i worked closed its doors after struggling so hard to survive. I don't know why many of my personal and professional relationships have gone through such a rollercoaster ride emotionally. And I dont know why I was offered a management position in Lafayette, LA that will pull me away from those i love the most for an undetermined amount of time. But regardless of my lack of understanding, I am thankful for the blessings within them. When the guys from the band left for the summer, it allowed me tofocus on my own writing and create lots of new personal material for my solo project "Someday Goodbye". The fact that a business closed its doors allowed me to take steps that lead me to a much better job and way of life. All of the relationship ups and downs have challenged me in new ways and made me grow as a person. The move to lafayette could potentially allow me to be finacially secure for the rest of my days. "These are the blessings inside the confusion. These are what I cling to. These are the mysteries without immediate resoultion. I operate within as I trust in You."



06/18/2002; 11:59pm; WORLDSFARE!

Alot of stuff is going on these days and some of it is more exciting than others. For all of you who don't already know, World's Fare is on hiatus for about another month while steven wrpas up his tour with SPUR58 In the mean time i have been working diligently on my side project which is a collection of new songs i have written over the past month or two as well as some of the more personal songs I have written over the past year that weren't quite fitting to what we do in World's Fare. I am very excited about this material and the opportunity to play with some more really talented guys. The dilemma of the moment is what to call this new project!? I have narrowed it down to a few names i really like but that isnt to say that i will stick with one just yet. 'Sooner You Break' , 'Someday Goodnight', and 'Splendor Tainted' are my faves' so far. If you liek one of these more than another email (darthmik99@aol.com) or IM me and let me know!



06/04/2002; 11:40pm; WORLDSFARE!

Today was a fairly calm and uneventful day as a whole. The a/c finally was repaired and it just so happened that the guy working on the unit was an old friend of mine that i hadn't seen in a long time. He is a great drummer and has an incredible set of musicians who play with him. (The guitar player graduated from the Atlanta Guitar Institute and knows Kyle Cook of Matchbox Twenty) How cool is that! So things may work out as far as me playing with them since i am really wanting to put together a side project while World's Fare is on a temporary hiatus. Speaking of which, GO TO THE MUSIC SECTION AND BUY MY CD!!!! :) It's only 5 bucks!



06/02/2002; 11:00am; WORLDSFARE!

The concert on friday went really well. Steven and I played 8 songs (6 regulars and 2 brand new ones I had written). We got a really good response from everyone and got some confirmed airplay on 88.7FM because of it. We are now being played on 100.9FM and 88.7FM. Steven did and incredible job playing piano and I can honestly say i have never felt more relaxed on stage. Things are going pretty well musically. I have alot of new material in the works that i am putting towards a solo project... maybe i can post some samples soon. Thanks to all who came out to the show!



05/03/2002; 12:22:pm; WORLDSFARE!

First let me say this, Thank you to everyone who still visits this site. I have been doing this site for quite a few years now and I can't believe how far it is come. According to my hosting service and AlexaWebSearch I have recieved 19,569 hits this year. (A hit is counted everytime someone views your site). I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who takes the time to interact in my little world. Worldsfaremusic.com is almost ready! :)



04/24/2002; 01:48:pm; WORLDSFARE!

I am feeling very anxious these days. Anxious to do what i dream. Anxious to have the life i want. Anxious to grasp the things i feel are dangling in front of me... if only i could figure out how to hold them. I feel like so many things are happening all around me and so quickly that i barely have time to think about them all and yet nothing is really happening as a direct result of decisions i am making. i dont know if any of that makes sense. On a lighter note, the cd's come in today (FINALLY!) and i should have a way to purchase them up within the week. I am redesigning worldsfaremusic.com (which has been down for a month or so) SO BE SURE TO GO CHECK IT OUT when its complete.



03/20/2002; 03:30:pm; WORLDSFARE!

Ok, no gigantic ramblings of wanna-be wisdom today. lol. Today is my brother's birthday so let me give a big HAPPY B-DAY to mitchell. On a different note, since so much has been changing here lately i think i am in the mood to redesign this site. While this layout is my favorite so far, i think it is about to for something new. Finding the time to create it is another story.. :)



03/10/2002; 10:07:pm; WORLDSFARE!

We are forged by fire. There is nothing quite like the feeling you get when life FORCES you to stretch beyond your current capabilities and become more than you were before... or simply put "grow". i am particularly perplexed by relationships, interactions between two people specifically. As far as i can see, all relationships are made up of one basic principle: equal compromise must occur on one level or another so that peaceful existence and growth can be maintained. Since the basic premise of co-existence is to get along (live peacefully and productively) with someone who is not exactly like you, compromise is the only way we can all live in peace. So what happens when someone in that equation/relationship stops compromising/giving and begins to only take? The other party is forced to continue to compromise what they think, feel, or believe even to the point where they are doing things that hurt themselves emotionally or mentally just so that peace can be maintained. This interation i believe leads only to destruction. The party who is no longer compromising loses focus of the other party who still is and becomes less aware of their feelings and needs... henceforth becoming more self-absorbed. Since the equation is not balanced, the party who is giving will eventually run out of steam or simply lose their own identity all together... which is a travesty. Think about all you relationships: your friends, parents, lover, etc. Are you giving or are you doing all the taking? Are you keeping that equation balanced by giving as much as you are taking or are you possibly hurting someone around you and not even knowing it? Also, when you choose your friends or potential lover make sure that they are going to enhance your time on this planet and not detract from it. you only get one life, live it to its fullest.



02/05/2002; 01:31am; WORLDSFARE!

I am greatly fascinated by relationships of all sorts right now... the simple interaction of two human beings is mind boggling on so many levels... everything, from the relationship with my boss to the the relationship with my family to the relationship with my girlfriend, yeilds results that are worth a lifetime of study... I mean, after all these years, so many things are constant yet always morphing. I think that I am finding that the better the relationship, the more work and upkeep it actually requires... which is somewhat of a paradox in itself... since i always had an idea in my head that really good relationships just happen... but in reality, i think that is far from the truth... which would put a new perspective on love... what if we found our soul-mate and simply let them go because the relationship actually needed maintenance, upkeep, and work to survive... what if we allowed TV and movies and imaginary things to dictate a mode of laziness to us that caused us to believe that love is simple and easy... lol.. ofcourse i could be wrong about all of this... (thus is the beauty of your twenties)



01/30/2002; 11:15am; WORLDSFARE!

Well, one day left and counting... tommorow i will be 23 years old... it is absolutely amazing because after all that has happened over the past 5 years, i feel about 33 years old... and yet at times i dont feel a day over 19... since the average male's lifespan reaches 60 years old, i have officially lived 1/3 of my life and that is rather odd to me... perhaps in the next 23 years i wont spend so much time growing older rather than growing up....



01/08/2002; 12:41am; WORLDSFARE!

I am very excited right now guys. I know it has been a long time since i posted but that will change soon. i am planning on scrapping this layout soon and moving to a new design. So keep checking back for updates. THE OFFICIAL SITE for WORLD'S FARE is almost ready to roll out!!! we are working hard to get everything done for you . Check it out! Soon there will be tons of music and images to download! The cd is almost done. It has been a very long process but i hope you will find it as worthwhile as we have. later!