a day in my shoes

So I had just finished writing a 40 page research paper on the American Southwest. I learned to much to remember. After turning it in I had the melody of this song called Excuses by The Morning Benders stuck in my head. I played it in my head as i was walking away from class. I wanted to share......

on a side note I got the Iphone 4 on my birthday. I made this video with my new phone.

The Legend of The Tyler Rose

Well football season is starting to get into the meat of the season. Usually it's around this time of year that I sit down and look up my favorite football power run I've ever seen. This year was no different. What is different is normally the only video I could find of it cut off at the end and the video quality was really really bad. I've still never seen anything like this. If you have please let me know. Ya see what had happened was........ Earl Campbell hits a poor Rice defender just inside the 5 yard line and propels him into the end-zone. You would not want to get in the was of this guy in his prime.





also don't forget to check out:

http://www.earlcampbellmeatproducts.com/

Keeping the music alive

So there's this band that I have been wanting to go see for over a year now. Deadman is their name. They play often at the Saxon Pub, which is one of my favorite bars. The timing has worked out so I have yet to catch them. I have, however, looked them up on youtube to see what the buzz is about. I dig it. They remind me of that one band....what was their name? oh yeah...The Band. I love it when new bands get together and takes cues from an older genre of music that you don't get to hear that much anymore. Of course Deadman is different then The Band. Which makes them even better. (i'm not saying they are better then The Band) They make their own music and it's a breath of fresh air. Which is something I love about Austin. There are so many great bands and musicians playing on any given night of the week. Another good band in the same vein as Deadman is a band called Slowtrain. I would suggest checking out both bands if you can. Here's some clips from Deadman to check out. (couldn't find any recent ones from Slowtrain, here's a link to their myspace link: http://www.myspace.com/slowtrainmusic )

link to Deadman: http://deadmanonline.com/

I actually just saw that Deadman is playing on my birthday at the Saxon. hmmmmm......probably a late show and the wife has to work the next day so i don't see it happening....but maybe?








Some words from the front man of Deadman I found interesting:


"Current music lacks significance. some people would call it substance but it's really significance. Because you have substance in modern songs, but you don't have the significance of why they should exist. And when the balance is thrown off the struggle is success over significance. But you can't have success without significance...you can have it... but you can't have true success without significance. That's like the cart before the horse. In today's times we see a struggling music industry, we see a struggling economy and I think the result is you've got everybody grasping for success, but they are forgetting the significance of what they do. And that may be in music, that may be in banking, that may be in the auto industry. And when that goes awry you have problems."
---Steven Collins of Deadman

The Jazz Singers

So I guess it was about a year ago when I first heard of Melody Gardot. She was tragically hit by a car and used music as therapy to recover from her very traumatic injuries. She doesn't wear sunglasses to try to look like a rock star. She is still sensitive to light from her injuries and has no choice but to wear them. I included two videos here. Both taken from the same Norwegian/Swedish talk show. for some reason they don't have shows like this in the states. At least i don't know where to find them. The first video is an interview where she explains a little bit of what she went through. The second is her performance. Lets just say I immediately bought her album after watching these a year ago. I was just reminded of them and had no choice but to share.

Just for the heads up it takes about 15 min to watch them both. I suggest watching the interview before the song.

The interview


The performance


since we are on the topic of jazz singers......
a bonus video......Kat Edmonson is a local musician in Austin that has been branching out but still very much local. Saw her once at a wine festival and left with the vinyl. Excellent album. Who knew I was such a Jazz fan. I have to thank Miles Davis and Stan Getz for getting me hooked.

Boom Goes The Dynamite

I just want to say that I'm very proud of Brian Collins. I heard on the radio that he landed a job as a sportscaster somewhere north of Texas. I wanted to post this infamous clip in honor of him. Good stuff. The catch phrase happens right around 2:30 in. Way to overcome bro. You're an inspiration to us all.




Some more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Collins_%28reporter%29

Happy Birthday Mr. Simon, and how some things have changed

On October 13th, 1941 Paul Simon was born. I guess I really listened to him for the first time when I was around 16 or 17. That's not counting the video he made with Chevy Chase for his song "You Can Call Me Al". That was my favorite when I was a kid, but I only knew him from that one video. I'm sure I had heard his music but it didn't really make as much sense when I was young and naive. When I became older his songs started making sense and I could tell how much of a unique and different songwriter and singer he was compared to everything else I heard on the radio. To sum up....when I was young I didn't think much about his music, but when I got older and wiser I realized just how great it is. At least that's my opinion. But when looking up a video of Paul Simon to post I was reminded of something. As everybody knows things have changed a ton in music and the marketing of music over the years. Most of the time it appears that it's not even about the music at all, but about how many dollars can be made in selling what the bigwigs think will be the most profitable product. Which of course is not what music is about. Here's my example of how things have changed:

Paul Simon on Sesame Street around 1978 (and yes i'm using Sesame Street as my example) Just Paul sitting and singing with some kids.



Now flash forward to 2010 and take a look at what Sesame Street is now showing the kiddos



2010 is just a little different and in my opinion all smoke and mirrors with no substance. I can understand if kids like it because they don't know any better. I just hope they are like me and grow up to like good music and realize what it's about since the mainstream media won't unless it puts more money in their pockets.

Didn't mean to get on a soapbox or anything. Just something I noticed. If you don't agree with me then fell free to tell me:

The guitar is full out sobbing

Say what you will about Prince. Some people like him. Some people don't. I've never really formed much of an opinion about him either way. But one thing is for sure. That guy can play the guitar with or better then the best of them. I barely even noticed him on here and then he magically appears about 3:30 min in and plays a killer guitar solo that basically lasts the rest of the song.

Elephants are underated

They can paint self portraits





play music



and sports




Just in case you were wondering.

OK GO

So there is this band called OK GO. I've never really listened to them very much. But one thing that has perked my interest are their music videos. Always very creative. I don't know how they do it. They just came out with one recently to raise money and awareness for homeless animals. They did the video all in one take and had some help from their animal friends. If only MTV played music videos then maybe it would get seen.






Here's another one of their masterpieces

Saturday Afternoon Jam......and I'm not talking about jelly

This last saturday myself, my father-in-law, and his father-in-law (Mr. Gimble) ended up hanging out and playing some music. It seemed like some history being made so I hit record on my Iphone voice memo app on my phone. Two guitars and one mandolin. Tons of fun. Look for us out on the road. I thought myself and my father-in-law did a pretty decent job considering the guy playing mandolin has won a couple grammys and something like 9 CMA awards.


Jammin' on a saturday | Upload Music
That color was Blue