Oh the wonders of working on the west coast while wining and dining on...KD?

This blog started way back when, with me talking about how I was off to Vancouver.


Well I'm baaacckkk!


I'm here working this time instead of hitchhiking with weapons-dealers, but hey...it was a free trip again, so i'll take what i can get (plus it's actually whistler, which is 'nestled' in the mountains). I will try not to spend more than I make, which basically means going to the (still overpriced) store to buy and make food. There's no excuse--my room has a kitchen. However, i was thinking...

If they stopped putting such ugly people on our money, perhaps we'd spend less of it and be more inclined to keep more attractive faces in our wallet. Think about it. I should run for PM and change the world with sexier money.

Check out this Spicy Song, cuz I love it.

Is There A Ghost

Band Of Horses

Cease To Begin

This song actually reminds me of Iceland, and we used it as a basis for the sound of 'Lost' in some ways, but traveling anywhere reminds me of this song because I discovered it flying over Greenland as I began Josh And Darcy's Epic Adventure. Good times.

Also, the New Pornographers song was written about Vancouver, so it is in some ways fitting. Though I'm not a huge fan of their songs in general...but i am a huge fan of vancouver. Go Canucks? Oh yesyoubetcha, go Canucks. Why? because they have skill, and Calgary doesn't. See that bandwagon? I jumped on it...for now.

Josh is busy this weekend,

Please leave a message after the tone.

Spicy Song Of The Week

A year ago, I was back from my trip, on the high of my life, just starting a new semester at school. Everything was good. People were cool, easy to talk to, and I felt healthy after trekking the world. I'd seen a disproportionately extensive number of places around the world for being gone only 4 months: Iceland, Spain, Morocco, Egypt, Athens, Jordan, India, Thailand. Traveling pushes you in so many ways. You make more memories than you are capable of remembering, and slowly they will fade. However, a year ago, they were still fresh. Every day was governed by living by the rules I had learned while traveling. I knew a happiness greater than any happiness before or since.

But there was a problem. I had a new perspective. Uh oh, right? So here I was, doing the exact same thing that I had been doing before I left: school, work, band, friends, whatever. But this time I was doing it with a new perspective, an new mindset. Entirely different thoughts. As it turns out, it's impossible to think differently and yet do the same things. Something had to give.

Sadly, for the most part, I've long lost the mindset, and still cling to the same life as before. Sure, there was a lot of changes to my thought processes, and I was no longer craving escape like I had been, but in effect, I was just Josh again. I fill the role that is expected of me. We all do. I got so frustrated about all the things I seems incapable of changing about myself.

In a way that only music can, Silversun Pickups became an audible form of my identity. I lived in this album. Every note, beat, and lyric. I sung these songs as I went from my highest high to my lowest low. They needed to be in this play list eventually, so why not a year after their initial significance?

Rusted Wheel

Silversun Pickups

Carnavas

Unless you've seen us live+full band, you won't be able to make the connection, but Silversun Pickups was a huge source of inspiration for me writing the music for Cross Your Fingers.

Ok. Breakfast time. Yeup...eggs.

Memory: Slowly, It All Will Fade To Black.

Some random mumblings on the idea of memory, the past, time, and forgetting. 

Why they concern me today? I don't know.

 

 _________________________________________________

I want / I'm waiting for / How can I find

something new / something forgotten / something lost

___________________________________________

Me: Grandma, one day soon, I'd like you to tell me the story of your life.
Grandma: Well, usually they tell that story at the funeral.

Me: ...I'd like to hear it before then.

_____________________________________________

A recollection of a girl:

When a memory loses the war with time

I've lost all that once was mine.

When the little things are forgotten
(but surely there were little things, right?)

When she has forgotten that there were the little things
(Vague, dim, hazy...)
When she forgets that she has forgotten.
 (Damn it, Time, what is left for us?)

What's worse than forgetting?--

Losing physical traces of what she remembers.

Losing the people who share her memory.

Losing people to time, to distance.

The people I shared those memories with:

When they forget

and I forget

Then suddenly, it's like it never happened.

There's nothing like living in the past,

Always with her head turned around

looking the other way.

It hurts her after a while.

The present is just a single fleeting breath

between where she will go

and the place she just left

It is of little use, since her past led her here

and her future will lead you away,

 Nothing more than a reference point to gauge her next step

A chance to pause, and:

to forget what never mattered, to love and regret what did,

to focus on what hasn't happened yet,

The challenges she has not met.

The future-

so uncertain!

And yet to fear it is so irrational

Passion is a better fuel than fear, no doubt.

For if a turned head led me in here-

to this cave of craving something I once knew,

then perhaps forgetting will lead me out?

Then let it go:

The good, the bad, that longing for that which I've never had.

And grab hold:

Something new, something better, something true.

And allow the memories to wither, as the many become the few.

Spicy Song Of The Week

I just discovered a whole ton of music on my iPod that I don't even know how it got there. I think it's because the Music Gods like me and bless me with a live feed of new music right into my iPod. Upon analyzing this new music, i found it was mostly acoustic. That's fine by me, except for it wasn't very original or inspiring acoustic music, which made me crave some high quality and fantastic acoustic music.

So I listened to the best acoustic music I could find...like..ever.

Excuse me while I

before we continue.

Yeah, it was bound to happen...the Spicy Song Of The Week is one we wrote. I just listened to Walking Backwards' second album, Clarity Amid The Chaos, today for the first time since....um...June? It was really enjoyable experience, and so I felt I oughta share our music with you guys.

There's a million stories behind this album. It was written by my cousin Darcy and I while traveling the world last year on Josh and Darcy's Epic Adventure. There's stories of bull fights, scams, death threats, canned tuna, camels, sleeping on park benches, and wine-throwing fights. I'll eventually finish writing my book about that adventure, but today we can just enjoy a song from the album.

The title, Clarity Amid The Chaos, was conceived by Darcy after reflecting about the most memorable and powerful moments of the 4 month trip. They were tiny moments that you had to catch and cling to, or you never would have noticed them. These little moments were Clarity. Whether we were puking in the Sahara or getting thrown around in the back of a bus while traveling bumpy roads in the foothills of the Himalayas, we found ourselves completely overwhelmed not by what was going on around us, but by simplicity of the big picture. We could be at complete peace, knowing that whatever will be will be, and we can't try to control everything.

When traveling through chaotic lands and cultures, you often have many moments of clarity. Times when you can focus your thoughts and gain insights that you wouldn't have been able to discover in the comfort of your home.

This little EP debuts the stuff we worked on during the trip. Moments of clarity amid the chaos.

Cross Your Fingers

Walking Backwards

Clarity Amid The Chaos

Fittingly, it's about the need to pick up the pieces of life and move on. Goodness, I plan these things well doncha think?