Music update

Current Listening

The Caged Bird by Boulder Acoustic Society

Lots of links

Hope you cats had a good weekend.  I spent mine with Halberton at a sweet Citizen Cope concert.  It was my first experience at the legendary Stubb's Bar-B-Q; great place.  Perhaps my favorite part was a cover of Radiohead's Karma Police.  Taken on a phone camera from our little spot of dirt:

But I'm hopeful for the summer

Spent the weekend in Abilene.  Talking and laughing with my brothers carried into Sunday evening and night so rather than do a late pm drive back to Belton, I went early Monday morning.  Beautiful, calm drive.  Fog and mist in the dark of morning.

Explosions In The Sky, my traveling companion.

I couldn't shake a phrase uttered in a prayer at church, "God, it's winter in so many ways..."

It wasn't the phrase that got me; it was the fact that it resonated with me.   

There wasn't another soul on the road, I could drive as fast as I wanted.  But I slowed down, set the cruise under the speed limit because I didn't want the trip to end.  The stars vanished and the sky began to lighten, and I wished I was driving west.  I knew the sun would bring day, which would bring people out on to what had become my road.  

The phrase still on repeat, God, it's the winter in so many ways.  You feel it too?  

Gym Rats, a transcript

At 24 hour fitness center yesterday evening.  Predictable cast present: aerobi-glider spandex senior woman; short shorts on the treadmill doctor; muscle-head, shaved-arm, watch themselves in the mirror dudes; hasn't started working out yet but stretches a lot and watches himself in the mirror guy.  Me.

Shaved-Arm Dude: "Hey man, is that move you're doing for your post-anterior deltoid?"

Luke: [pulls out earphone right at the good part Enrique Iglesias' Do You Know (the Ping Pong Song)] "I'm sorry"

S.A.D.: "Does that work the post-anterior deltoid?" [points to inside of his shoulder and moves arm in circle while obviously flexing entire body for effect]

L: "um...yes?"

S.A.D.: [in a used car salesman kind of way] "Ha, yeah I thought so.  It's workin' for you bro.  You've got some squibbly shoulders."

L: "um...yes?"

 

If it is bragging to be publishing the fact that I have 'squibbly' shoulders, then I'm sorry.  But I think I might have been out-vocabularied by shaved-arm dude, and that's nothing to brag about. 

Life's better with music

That's what I've been living lately. Music in the morning, music all day at work, music in the evening. I've set up a menu for a day. Spoiler Alert: explicit language ahead.

When it's morning and you want to do some thinking and reading: George Winston's Autumn Album


When you're at work on a computer and you just want to fly: In Rainbows by Radiohead


or Hopes and Fears by Keane


or Our Love to Admire by Interpol



When you get back to the house and it's time to rip, you don't want entire albums. You want select songs:

Buck in Here by DJ Felli Fell


Hustlin' by Rick Ross


If you try this for a day and you wind up soaring in the stratosphere, you're welcome.

Let us Lament

I blame the workplace.

The other day at work I'm listening to Pandora Radio. If you're unfamiliar with this site, it compiles and plays music similar to the artist or song or genre you select. All for free.

I'm working in another tab when this new song begins to play. Unapologetically poppy and rhythmic. It's playing softly in the background and then the chorus hits. What's this?...It's kind of good...Yeah, I dig this.

I'm subtly bobbing and weaving to the beat in my chair as I'm editing a web page. That chorus hits again. Yeah baby. I've got to check what song this is.

Then it happened. I switched tabs. 20,000 volts of regret jolted through me. Oh crap! I like Bo Bice!

Benjammin'

Good weekend. George Winston's show on Friday was a dream come true; a beautiful piano, guitar, and harmonica filled dream come true. It was like God took a dozen sleepy puppies and dipped them in clouds, then put them in your lap next to a cozy fireplace and wrapped you in a cashmere blanket then handed you a suitcase filled with large, non-sequential bills and tossed you the keys to his Winnebago. It was that good.

In family news, Ben rocked Sing Song. The Blu Ray is expected to go platinum. Highlights include head-to-toe denim with a dinner plate sized belt buckle.



I'll upload more pics soon. Have a good one Blahglievers

Bring on the Music

Big weekend for music, Blahglievers. Brother Ben is hosting Sing Song this weekend here in Abilene, and tonight I'm making the trek to One World Theater in Austin to see one of my all time favorite artists Greorge Winston. The 3.5 hour drive will be an audio mosh pit of solo piano awesomeness:

Current Listening
December
by George Winston


Autumn
by George Winston

Winter Into Spring
by George Winston



Forest
by George Winston



Summer
by George Winston

Nietzsche lives in the Swishahouse

Current Reading
Twilight of the Idols
by Friedrich Nietzsche

This is my first experience with Nietzsche. If you're unfamiliar with ol' Fred, listen up. He's the 19th century edition of Swishahouse: marked by altogether unintelligible words that only make sense with the help of substances that aren't even legal in China's pharmaceutical industry. Watch the first 30 seconds and then shut the crap off. You'll get a perfect idea of Nietzsche.

Mahler Nature

A balding qwerty-jock recently wrote, "Texas midnights under the bruised but smog-free sky are never anything short of transcendant." Last midnight in Abilene was one of those. If I could accurately convey here in words not only the events of the evening, but the feelings they induced, your expression of awe would be child-like. Mother nature performed one of her best symphonies. The overature begins. Lulled, growling thunder from a seemingly nonexistant source beyond the horizon; barely audible at times. The haughty but brilliantly talented guest soloist, Lightning, enters before he's cued, with a magnificent fortissimo burst betraying the fragile crescendo the conductor had established. Nature's sopranos and altos, the chirping insects and slithery breeze, go silent allowing a second soloist to take the stage next to Lightning-his opposite but necessary dueller, Thunder. Now the audience watches and listens to a battle of showmanship. Whenever Lightning displays his talent, Thunder answers with an equally impressive solo of his own. The battle raged for more than 2 hours and with a cup of joe in hand, I had box seats on the couch on my front porch. The rain drops splintering after colliding with the ground and spraying my legs only increased my number of goose-bumps. Unwilling to budge for fear of missing a key part of the show, not even the audience's uninvited delinquents, the mesquitos, could move me from my seat. Well, the concert couldn't continue forever and slowly the two soloists acknowedged eachother's talent and gracefully exited the stage, blowing to the south but promising to return for an encore soon. The symphony is on tour-get tickets to the next show nearest you. You'll be glad.