funny songs

day 25 - a song that makes you laugh
geez... there are so many by brad paisley. the fishing song


i'm still a guy


and a couple from my childhood:
ray stevens - the mississippi squirrel revival


ray stevens - the streak



ok, maybe 3 - ray stevens - it's me again margaret
(i definitely didn't know what this one meant as a kid other than it said the word "nekkid." justin and i got ray stevens t-shirts that said "are you nekkid?" on the back on one of our vacations to nashville when we were still in elementary school. we were even on crook and chase for about 7 seconds after a commercial break!)


last one - mike snider - snuff dipper

funeral songs

day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral
hey man, if i can play a song at my funeral, what the heck am i doing there! besides, my dad always said i'll be late to it anyway.

james taylor - sweet baby james

And as the moon rises he sits by his fire
Thinking about women and glasses of beer
And closing his eyes as the doggies retire
He sings out a song which is soft but it's clear
As if maybe someone could hear

dave matthews band - lie in our graves
(i used to have this guitar... meg's wearing it and an epiphone les paul on her left hand now!)

I can't believe that we would lie in graves
wondering if we had spent our living days well

(i think that was my "senior quote" in our high school yearbook)


and of course you need everyone to sing a hymn:
it is well with my soul

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

wedding songs

day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding
seeing as we're married, here's one i put on the playlist:

first dance - jump, little children - by the way they dance


and one every married guy should learn... i won't put the title. it will ruin the punchline. just listen to it! it's by brad paisley and my favorite dj of all time - gerry house.

cause in the middle of the night
it's cold and it's dark
when i hear my name in vain
i know i haven't done my part
she just wants me to support her
and the best way that i've found
is with a gentle hand and a loving touch
i put that toilet seat down

sad song

day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad
collin raye - little rock

had a hard time thinking of a sad song, and thought i'd stretch from my usual "go to" artists. this is more of a nostalgic song (i mean, after all, i grew up a church of christ kid!), but it's still a good one. lyrics are a little goofy, with various obvious rhymes (which typically bugs me in a song).

happy time

day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy

okgo - you're so damn hot
long before their "one-take wonder" videos with treadmills, rescue dogs, and this progressive machine thingy, they put out poppy little numbers like this gem.

angry song

day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry
this song is the best breakup song ever if you're mad and want to say "told you so!"
jeff buckley - last goodbye

Kiss me, please kiss me
But kiss me out of desire, babe, and not consolation
You know it makes me so angry 'cause i know that in time
I'll only make you cry, this is our last goodbye

on the other hand (and off topic) this is the nicest breakup song i've ever heard.
vertical horizon - sunrays and saturdays

You'll write me letters
I'll call you on the phone
A wire away from touching
And never quite alone

We'll get to know ourselves again
And we'll heal our hearts
It's not that we're bad together
We're just better off apart

i'm glad i don't have to break up with anyone ever again!

favorite album

i might have said this already, but the most influential album on my youth was counting crows' august and everything after. here's a song you might know from it.

day 19 - a song from your favorite album
mr. jones

the rains came down and the floods came up

just over a year ago, nashville flooded. we weren't affected directly because we sit on top of a hill, but had a lot of friends who were. a freak weather pattern kept a long ling of storms tracking along the same line like train cars for 2 days straight. we had a record amount of rainfall for the entire month of may in 2 days.

our church was really involved in the relief effort, and josh wilson used photos from our church's projects to make this video.

day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio
josh wilson - i refuse

wearing out the radio

day 17 - a song you hear often on the radio (let me amend the category to "a song you hear often on the radio and don't change the station because you're so sick of it")

it's a toss up, so i'll share 2:
thompson square - are you gonna kiss me or not


the decemberists - this is why we fight

flip flop

day 16 - song you used to love but can't stand

i loved this song the first 3 times i heard it. after that, it got more and more repulsive.

plain white t's - hey there delilah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbJtYqBYCV8

still here

well, it's no surprise that we're all still here, and yet another prediction of the end of the world has come can gone.

Luke 26:8 [Jesus] replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them.

my thought is the radio, billboard, and rv advertising campaign did little to scare anyone into salvation (as if that's ever an effective means). i reckon it started a lot of conversations, and hopefully those were put to good use.

Matthew 24:36: No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

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day 15 - a song that describes you

really, any of john mayer's first 3 albums had multiple songs on them that made me think "that's what i've been trying to say!" or "man, i should have written a song like that!" or "hey, i wrote a song about that too!"

this one hits closest to home now:
john mayer - stop this train
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e1FHJkVoFE

surprise, surprise

song 14 - one that no one would expect you to love
chantal kreviazuk - surrounded

have a little bit o' canada, eh!

guilty pleasure song

day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure

my youngest brother is about to turn 21. when he was little, he watched disney movies all the time. i'm surprised the vhs survived. i can -- to this day -- sing anything from aladdin, the lion or king, or the little mermaid word for word. add to that list just about every disney cartoon's theme song from the 80s and 90s, as well as the animated frosty the snowman.

problem is, kids today have never heard these songs so i'm way out of touch with my students!

this one's probably my favorite:

band you hate

hate is such a strong word, but i've never liked this song and think its recent resurgence in popularity is comical.

day 12 - a song from a band you hate
journey - don't stop believing

favorite current band

day 11 - a song from your favorite band
needtobreathe - garden

i shared this with our community group easter week:

hammer holds

day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep
bebo norman - the hammer holds



my buddy justin and i used to play music together about once a week when i was at gc&su. it became our tradition to close on this song, and eventually we'd get sleepy playing it. luckily, we usually played at my apartment and i didn't have to make the drive home.

i played this for our community group the wednesday before easter and it had the same effect on me then!

i met bebo and gabe scott (accordion player) at his show at uga when i worked "security" for it. super nice guy! when i asked his advice for someone who wanted to make money making music he said, " you know, start small. play churches, put yourself out there... no, no, scratch that. pray that God will compel you to do it."

thought that was pretty good advice.

dance song

day 09 - a song that you can dance to

sublime - badfish

and no... i can't dance.

boy scout sing alongs

day 08 - a song that you know all the words to
counting crows - round here

i can't tell you how many times on hikes or just sitting around a camp fire we sang this song acapella. i was quite obsessed with the album and to this day, it's probably the most influential on me as far as my taste in music.

this is the first time i've ever seen the video. (grew up in the country - never had cable. probably better for it!)

first real concert

i turned 16 in october. one of the first trips i took was to pick up my friend nick and sit outside in 18 degree weather in front of the classic center box office to get tickets to see counting crows. i had been to plenty of country concerts at the georgia mountain fairgrounds, but this was my first show on my own. and first rock show at that.

fiona apple opened, and i remember thinking "wow, she's on something."

i'm pretty sure this was the opening song:

day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event
counting crows - recovering the satellites

college music

day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere
filter - take a picture

this song came out my freshman year of college. it reminds me of georgia tech, caldwell dorm, riding the bus, and all the growing up i hadn't yet done.

those were the glory days of napster, and this beauty of an mp3 player that held about an hour's worth of music and would skip if you bumped it too hard.

i had a lot of fun, but man i would have made a lousy engineer!

beatitudes

our sermon series at church and current discussion topic for our community group is the beatitudes. they come at the beginning of the power packed "sermon on the mount" and are really quite revolutionary.

the first is: blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

if you grew up in church, you naturally change the way you pronounce the word "blessed" to give it 2 syllables: bless-id. am i the only one who feels less holy by saying "blessed" as one syllable? :)

poor in spirit is the epitome of humility. it's beaten down. when you're that low, you truly understand your need for God.

it's all about what's in your heart. if you're humble and understand your nothingness, your sinful nature, your lack of control, then you open yourself to a God-driven life.

if you're confident and feel capable in your own abilities, then that is your blessing. you've got it as good as you're going to get it.

now there's nothing wrong with confidence and happiness and success, but it's about your heart and your recognition of where those wonderful things have come from. when you're beaten down and poor in spirit, you rely on God, and therefore are able to receive all the blessings that come with a Christ-filled life.

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day 4: a song that makes you sad (youtube's "embed" link isn't showing up, so you'll have to click on it the old fashioned way.)

mindy smith - one moment more
she wrote this song about her mom who had just died of cancer. i was dating a girl whose mom had died of cancer when i got into mindy smith so it really hit hard then.

the right way

i firmly believe there is a right way, a better way to do most things. it's ingrained in me, and i get it honest from my dad. sure i failed out of engineering school, which means there's probably a better way than the one i came up with and you can prove it with math. so i go through life as a perfectionist, worried about doing something the right way rather than just getting it done. but in all my years of wisdom, i've come to know that my way isn't always the best.

exhibit a:
the toilet paper

the best way to put the toilet paper on a roll is with the end coming over the top towards you. it makes it so much easier to grab. you don't have to reach behind it aimlessly searching for it. i'm sure this is likely a debate in many households, and one company even devoted an advertising campaign to it. well, before meg and i got married, we settled the debate, and she learned to do it the right way.

life has it's way of humbling you, and cosmo the cat managed to slap my arrogance in the face with this:

so now, the right way is no longer the best way. 'tis much easier to "search" for the end than go through a roll a night.

song of the day
day 3 - a song that makes you happy
ben harper - steal my kisses

osama

i can tell you exactly where i was and the look on everyone's faces that terrible morning of september 11th.  i know that i won't remember last night's announcement of the death of osama bin laden with the same permanence.  ten years is a long time, and i frankly don't think his death has the same significance as it would have immediately following the attacks on america.  i'm still trying to figure out what to make out of all of this.  i don't react immediately to things.  i let them percolate.

some immediately reacted with jubilation.  others turned it into a political statement, either criticizing obama for saying "i" too much in his speech, or saying things like "now that we've got him, we can fully fund npr and planned parenthood." it's even spawned a fake mlk quote.

this does not require political discourse.  he was brought to justice for the terrible things he orchestrated, and that is all.  this wasn't republican or democrat, conservative or liberal, or even christian or muslim.  this was good vs. evil, and in this small instance good won, though in a brutal fashion. 

if anything, the death of osama bin laden has just reminded me how fallen our world really is and how desperately we need the grace that only comes from God.

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it's impossible to smoothly transition to this, so here's the song of the day:
day 2 - your least favorite song (well isn't that a little ambiguous?)
here's the first thing that came to mind.  i apologize now!

bringing back the blog

howdy! this is probably the fifth or so blog that i've started, and i've got to say it's quite amusing to read back through them. i started blogging in college, so some of my happiest, saddest, cockiest, and most frightened times are documented there.

i've been tempted to delete them, but figure it's a good reminder to know that we do indeed change over time -- hopefully for the better.

some dear friends of ours got married last night, and it was a wonderful celebration. it's been so great to be a part of their lives through our community group, to watch them grow spiritually and in their relationship with each other. congrats lynn and aaron!

8 out of 12 of our community group members squeezed into the photo booth.  they told us it was a record.

a friend posted a "30 day song challenge" on facebook, so that sounds like a good place to start!

day 1 - your favorite song
jeff buckley - lover, you should have come over