Life in the city is good for me. Nederland was a relatively small town, and College Station all in all wasn't much different. My two years here has been a big demonstration of how Dallas is a whole new world. I love the sights and sounds of day to day life in the city. There are so many people coming from so many different places. In the mass of people and places, there are the sights I see every day. Two guys who work as parking attendants in two separate lots on opposite sides of the street that seem to love their jobs. Whether they do or not, I don't know, but I could certainly learn a thing or two about taking pride in what I do from them. The homeless guy at the corner, some days asking for money, some days drinking malt liquor, and some days just sitting being there. The one lady who always looks like she is in a hurry. I know nothing about her, but for some reason I always assume she is lonely. The older Muslim guy that has taken to talking to me, and I have taken to talking back to. You end up feeling a little bit like you know people. People have their place in your life without even knowing it. I don't know if it sounds creepy, but this is just the way it is for me.
I took a good long walk alone today for lunch. For me these solo lunch walks serve at least three distinct purposes: to go get food, to break up the day of life in a cubicle, and to people watch. Lately I have been exploring more. I make it quite a ways away from that cubicle I sit in the rest of the day. Different areas of downtown are completely different worlds. As I have explored more, my once relatively tiny downtown world has grown to include more worlds. New people in a rush, new homeless people, new places to explore. It has been really eye opening. It has me thinking about things in a lot of different ways.
I bought myself a new tiny Bible that I could easily take with me when I go out for lunch and for other situations when such a tiny Bible might be handy. It was nice to sit down today and read a little bit. The twenty minutes or so I sat down to read was more than I had read in one sitting in months. I decided that I would start today with Acts. The story of the day of Pentecost never ceases to amaze me, though I tend to think that I would be in the group accusing people of being drunk rather than seeing God's presence for its power and wonder.
I ramble on and say all of this to make a point to myself of how much I need God. The only way I can love my wife, love my job, and love people the way I should is with His help. Maybe one day I be better at talking to people and expressing who God is to me, who I am, what I think, how I feel, all of those great things, but I am in constant need of reminders that change and growth do not come from me. It can only come from God. All that is asked of me is to be willing to listen and to be open to His guidance.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Weird Music at its Finest
It isn't often that I make the trip up to Denton for a show. Plenty of good ones come through, but the trip is such a pain. Saturday night a band came through that was worthy of the trip. I have seen Danielson (in different groupings) several times before and knew that the show was not to be missed. It has always been fun, but this night was the best Danielson I had ever seen.
"I said it would be fun....I didn't say it would be easy." This was a comment made by Daniel Smith on Saturday night during the show. His statement was made in reference to a particular beat for a "clap-along," but it makes for a pretty good summation of the whole show and his music in general. It takes a little bit of time and effort to get into. You probably aren't going to like it on the first listen or maybe even the first ten listens, but eventually you will start to love it.
The show consisted of mostly songs from the new Danielson album Ships with a couple of old songs thrown in for the encore. I was really surprised at how well the new songs translated to a live setting. Ships has a lot of people playing a lot of instruments, but the six members of Danielson pulled the songs off perfectly. The frontline of Daniel, Meghan, and Evan was extremely entertaining to watch, and the backline kept things together nicely.
As much fun as it is to see Daniel in a giant tree costume, I would take this setup any day. The show was much more animated and fun than I had ever seen an incarnation of Danielson be. It was certainly worth the drive and the lost sleep.
"I said it would be fun....I didn't say it would be easy." This was a comment made by Daniel Smith on Saturday night during the show. His statement was made in reference to a particular beat for a "clap-along," but it makes for a pretty good summation of the whole show and his music in general. It takes a little bit of time and effort to get into. You probably aren't going to like it on the first listen or maybe even the first ten listens, but eventually you will start to love it.
The show consisted of mostly songs from the new Danielson album Ships with a couple of old songs thrown in for the encore. I was really surprised at how well the new songs translated to a live setting. Ships has a lot of people playing a lot of instruments, but the six members of Danielson pulled the songs off perfectly. The frontline of Daniel, Meghan, and Evan was extremely entertaining to watch, and the backline kept things together nicely.
As much fun as it is to see Daniel in a giant tree costume, I would take this setup any day. The show was much more animated and fun than I had ever seen an incarnation of Danielson be. It was certainly worth the drive and the lost sleep.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
The emusic Recommendations Begin
On the basis of my superior taste in music, I have convinced Swaffy to join emusic and download albums based on my recommendations. About once a week, I will give him recommendations of at least 1 album, and he will at least give it a listen and decide whether to download it. Really I don't have superior taste in music, but I do like to search out new and different bands, and emusic is a fun and relatively cheap way to do it. For you who are unfamiliar with emusic, it is a music download subscription service that maybe you would love or maybe you would hate. You aren't going to find much of anything that you would hear on the radio, but you can find a lot of great stuff from a lot of great artists that are a further outside of the mainstream. If you are interested in joining, let me know. I can send you an invitation...you get some free music, I get some free music...it is a win win situation.
I suppose I will start some recommendations. This week, I will do two eps.
Half Handed Cloud ~ What's the Remedy? - I think I have mentioned this ep in a post about going to see Half Handed Cloud. HHC is a bit hard on the download count since the albums have over 20 songs a piece, but this is a good start into a fun band. It clocks in at about 7 minutes, but these are some really good songs.
Jens Lekman ~ Maple Leaves - This is my favorite of the three Jens Lekman eps I have. All of the songs are included on the Oh You're So Silent Jens album that was released earlier this year, but I think this is a good start into his music.
I'll be interested to hear what Swaffy thinks. I think he has heard both of these with me before, but he might not have given them too much attention. If anyone else wants to play along, feel free to do so and post comments. It would be pretty fun to do this on a bigger scale. I did open up comments to anyone, so you don't have to have a blogspot login to post.
I suppose I will start some recommendations. This week, I will do two eps.
Half Handed Cloud ~ What's the Remedy? - I think I have mentioned this ep in a post about going to see Half Handed Cloud. HHC is a bit hard on the download count since the albums have over 20 songs a piece, but this is a good start into a fun band. It clocks in at about 7 minutes, but these are some really good songs.
Jens Lekman ~ Maple Leaves - This is my favorite of the three Jens Lekman eps I have. All of the songs are included on the Oh You're So Silent Jens album that was released earlier this year, but I think this is a good start into his music.
I'll be interested to hear what Swaffy thinks. I think he has heard both of these with me before, but he might not have given them too much attention. If anyone else wants to play along, feel free to do so and post comments. It would be pretty fun to do this on a bigger scale. I did open up comments to anyone, so you don't have to have a blogspot login to post.
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