A Band That I Dearly Love, As You All Know...

Visual Delights

I've been meaning to post this for a LOOOOOooong time. I believe the artist is a friend of a friend of Amanda's. She sent me the link and I just had to share it with the world. Click on the 'visual' button and then search through some of the painting options. I hope you enjoy the paintings as much as I do! The sculpture I could do without...

http://owenrundquist.com/home.html

I won the last TWO games in pool, but unfortunately my team isn't doing that great overall. We have a home game this coming week and then a 'bye' week, which will be a nice break. I've been so busy lately! I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekday evening!

I'm slowly but surely working on getting some color onto my white bones. Although I did manage to get a bit of a heat rash this weekend... Ek!

FPPC is making Italian tonight! Looking forward to learning something new!

Hi all! I am happy to report that the bachelor party for my cousin went off without a hitch, thanks to some wonderful friends willing to have a great time and celebrate the love of two fantastic people. It was especially great to meet Andrew, the groomsman from New Zealand, and learn about Kiwi ways.

I am also proud and relieved to report my dress for the wedding should be completed in less than a few hours! MUCH thanks to my sis, Jillian, for supervising this project. I couldn't have done it without you! I will take a picture of the dress and post it after the wedding - I am so thrilled that this project worked out!

The weather in Spokane has been happy lately. I am very thrilled about this.

On a more somber note, I need to post this amazing song by Eminem. Come on now, give it a shot. I know it's rap, and you don't like rap, but this song is really incredible. Eminem has put out some crazy stuff in the past, but his new album, Recovery, is about dealing with his addictions and turning his life around. It's rather inspiring, to be honest. He is the best lyricist I've ever come across in the rap world - that includes Tupac (although of course Tupac is RIGHT behind!!). So, give this song a nice long listen to, and make sure you can catch all the lyrics. It made me cry while I was sitting in traffic. Who knows, maybe it was just an emotional day for me. I've been in the type of relationship he's talking about, though, and I have yet to ever hear anything that comes so close to encompassing all the conflict and turmoil that occurs. Mad kudos.

Today I am a lazy river otter.

Romantic

Following the incredible wedding weekend I just had, I thought it fitting to post this video of an amazing guitar duet that I think you'll love. How could you not? I've known about these two guitar masters for a couple years, but had never seen pictures of them. In fact, I never looked much past the beautiful sound they create to realize the 'band' is comprised of just a man and woman. Somehow, that makes the music they play more romantic. Rodrigo holds the strong backbone of the tune together while Gabriela seems to use that foundation to let her fingers dance all over the strings. The speed and precision of their fingers is incredible. I hope you enjoy it. If you like this song, it is WORTH IT to check out some of their other stuff.



As noted above, Sara's wedding was a complete success, an organizational masterpiece and the best time I've had in a years. Although I haven't seen many pictures of the evening yet, I did my part by dancing the night away and celebrating with many old friends.

I lost my pool game last night, but only by two and it was an even game all along. I managed to make a couple of pretty impressive shots, despite the outcome of the score. After having last week off, though, I feel like I could use some practice.

I'm going to Eatonville for the 4th of July and looking forward to it! Lots of explosives to watch and good people to hang out with.

Today I am a cheerful red caterpillar.

Wedding Weekend

I am taking Friday off work so I can dive into the wedding festivities of the weekend. I am INCREDIBLY excited.

We had a 'bye' week in pool, so nothing new to report there. Well, nothing besides the fact that I need to practice.

The weather seems to be turning around a bit, although we had a kickass thunder storm last night.

I've been listening to a lot of great music lately. I finally got my hands on Gaslight Anthem's new album, "American Slang." It is fantastic! Every bit as good as their first. I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with it on my long drive this evening.

I wanted to post two songs this week that have been making me smile a lot lately. The first is from a band that is almost a bit too hipster for me to handle, but this song feels like 'magic melting down my spine.' (P.S. I have no idea what's going on in this video... just go with it... As unbelievable as it might sound, this video is actually less strange than the official version. Which is traumatic, to say the least. In fact, I'd recommend not watching either video at all. Just listen to the music.)




The second is from a French band that does not speak English (from what I hear). But they sing their songs in English. Which I find interesting. But their sound is unique and always gets my toes tapping. :) And as it happens, the video rocks, too.



P.S. April Smith will be IN SPOKANE TONIGHT performing FOR FREE! Compliments of 96.9 The River. I'm not sure of the location, but check out The River's website for more info. I'm sad I can't go! Please go in my stead!

Something Fresh

A friend of mine forwarded a link to music video for me to check out. She knows me well. :) I LOVED it. So much that I want to pass it on to you. I've checked out a few of her other songs. I'm impressed that she has a fair amount of acoustic stuff out there. Unfortunately, a lot of it seems to be teenage angst-ish. It might be worth looking at her other video "Cesar," but again, this bordered on the 'I'm young but trying really hard to show the world that I am raw and fierce." The song I'm posting, though, is incredible. The video is pretty darn amazing, too. Whoever directed it deserves quite a bit of credit for the fluid style and fashion conscience it has. I donno. Maybe you won't agree.

It's worth noting that the singer is Sting's daughter. You can tell she leans on his style in this song, although I couldn't tell it at all in the other stuff I listened to. In any case, I think that's why I like it so much; I have a tendency to enjoy music that has a touch of old-school mixed with new, fresh material.

She looks young still. I think she could have an amazing career ahead of her post this teenage angst phase.


I Blame Coco - Self Machine

This Is My Obsessed Face

PLEASE take the time to listen to The Gaslight Anthem's new album. It is all kinds of old school rock n' roll meets amazing lyrics. The album can be heard at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127405836

I hear the album will be for sale later this month. I'm getting it!

In other news, I lost my pool game horribly last night, but I played against a one who was obviously a two. If not a three. So that's helps a little. We lost over all, though, so that sucks.

I transplanted my sunflowers a few days ago. They haven't died yet! I'll keep you posted.