miscellaneous stuff

Just hours after writing about my self-imposed "no buying new music" diet, I caved and bought a new album from Amazon. It's true that am weak, but I had good reason to jump on this opportunity. . . really, I did! You see Amazon was offering Copeland's newest album You Are My Sunshine on MP3 for only $3.99! Crazy! So I bought it and downloaded and it was well worth it. My review will be coming soon. . .

Also going back to my previous post, was the video of the House of Heroes song I posted. The video was hosted on Vimeo, which I guess I have seen videos from them before but had never really paid attention to it. Anyway, I checked out their site today and was pretty impressed. It seems like the video quality is waaaay better than YouTube's, and you also don't have the mess of random crap on it either. Add to that, the HD capabilities of Vimeo and it all seems pretty nifty. For your viewing enjoyment, I 've included an example of an HD video posted on Vimeo.

London (harder, better, faster, stronger) from David Hubert on Vimeo.

[OK, so I just tested it and it looks like you have to go to Vimeo's site to watch it in HD.]

This video, by the way, was shot using only still photographs - its pretty sweet, plus it uses a song by Daft Punk, which makes any video automatically sweeter.

One last thing I wanted to mention, was some photos that I took of my brother Jake as he was skateboarding. He just got his license and to celebrate he made the trip up here from Clemmons last week because he had Veteran's Day off. Anyway we hung out on Tuesday and we went to a big indoor skate park in Raleigh of off Six Forks Rd. called Project 58 (it was some arbitrary number, and I'm pretty sure it was 58 but for all I know it could have been something like 74 or 39). So we did that and then on the way back we passed by some huge concrete tubes off of Hwy. 70 and we pulled over and I took some photos of him shredding the tubes. Later on, we went to downtown Durham and hit a few spots as well. It was all lots of fun and I got some pretty good pics, and I've been playing around with them on Photoshop a little bit. Here are some of them, let me know what you think because I think I want to choose one style and then create a poster of the different images to give to Jake. . .

music i like, pt. 1

So one thing I'd like to do with this blog is express my views various expressions of art such as music, movies, books, etc. in order to inform my friends about stuff they should be exposing themselves to and also to demonstrate my superior indie/artsy-ness by discussing cool, obscure bands and movies and books that make me seem smart. OK not really, but I do like talking about this kind of stuff - especially music - and I think that by discussing it, it will give me a greater appreciation for it and also will allow me to receive feedback/suggestions for other stuff that might be similar to what I'm currently listening to. So if you have cool stuff, holla at me and let me know, and then I'll be the judge of whether its really cool or not. :)

[Speaking of cool stuff, that new Kanye joint "Love Lockdown" is really good. The dude's crazy and I'm really disappointed by the way he represents his "Christian faith", but the man knows how to make music and "Love Lockdown" is a jam. Its completely different from his usual stuff and it feels different from what other people are doing too, and I resepect that. It just straight up catchy and that African drum beat that comes in and out is awesome. Check it out.]

So the band I wanted to start this thing off with is House of Heroes. They just released their second album, entitled The End is Not the End. Now, I don't own this one, (i'm on a strict music diet currently - its called the "No CDs until you have a job" plan, but i do have their first one Say No More). Anyway, I like them because they are different. When I listed to their stuff, they do things that are not the normal. You expect songs to follow a certain pattern, and these guys seem to bust that pattern and do something 2x sweeter. Take for example their first single off of The End is Not the End, "In The Valley of the Dying Son", this song goes all over the place from catchy pop-rock, to trippy electronica, to bumping dance beat, to space opera, to rock your socks off.

In The Valley Of The Dying Sun from gotee on Vimeo.

Another song of theirs to check out is "Buckets for Bullet Wounds". Its on their MySpace site and its off their first CD. I love the change in tempos and homeboy has a killer voice - that scream after the bridge is sick!

barackin' the suburbs

A lot has happened since my last post on Halloween, and while I've wanted to blog about certain events not having Internet access in your home makes things difficult. We're still figuring what we want to do as far as internet goes - its just all so expensive!

Anyway, I currently have a glimmer of wireless action from an unknown, but much appreciated neighbor (thanks lewis, whoever you are) and so I will use it to my advantage and spout off about a few things.

Halloween night was awesome. We attended the Avett Brothers concert at the War Memorial Auditorium in Greensboro. It was definitely one of the most fun shows I've ever been too. The Avetts just seem to know how to have a good time and their blend of pop-rock-bluegrass is just so catchy and "sing-along-able". The energy and passion with which they hammer their banjoes and guitars and scream at the top of their lungs, is unreal and one can't help but tap toes and nod heads. The fact that it was Halloween probably made it all the more crazy, and there was much alcohol consumed by the fine folks around us, but the audience was so into it and most people there seemed to know almost every word and they sang along as loud as they could. The Avett Brothers are one of those bands, much like Mute Math, that even if you don't know or even like their music you are going to come away from their performances amazed and a fan. It was great and I can't wait for them to pass through again. . .

And on to the election. . .

Its been a crazy week, since November 4 when Barack Obama was elected the next president. I mean I think in the back of my mind I knew that this was going to happen (McCain gave it a great effort, I think he just had too much to overcom) but I don't think I really knew what to expect when it did. It was pretty surreal watching him give his speech in front of thousands of people in Grant Park.

[side note: I was at a similar rally in Grant Park several years ago after the Chicago Bulls won one of their hundreds of championships, and watched Dennis Rodman, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson and the rest of the Bulls stand on a stage from about 3 miles away - there was A LOT of people there. It was cool and I really don't remember much, and I despite growing up just outside of Chicago never really liked the Micahel Jordan-led Bulls, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Its just cool to say all that because when Obama had his rally, i could say "been there done that" like I'm special or something.]

Anyway, I wasn't as pumped about Obama winning nor was I down about it as a lot of people were. I did vote for the man, and the feat he accomplished is incredible and it's cool to say that I saw it happened and I'm definitely glad he won. I'm also excited to see what the next for years will bring, but I try not to get too carried away with all this stuff. At the end of the day, I'm just going to be me. I'm going to do my thing and live my life, and I know that my hope and salvation does not rest in a young African-American man from Chicago - nor does it rest in an old, 70-something year old white guy from Arizona for that matter. God is going to do with our leader and this country what He sees fit and I'm going to trust in Him and be okay with that.

I watched the election unfold first at Jerry Crain's apartment and then later (after the crushing of the Republican party began) at Clayton and Kristen's and one of things we did was to keep an eye on our friends' facebook profiles. Watching the statuses changes as history was being made was at times humourous, uplifting, but most of the time appaling and depressing. People I know and respect and feel safe calling a brother or sister in Christ said things about Obama that were straight up shocking, and truthfully made me question where there faith lies. Is it in Jesus Christ? or in the US government? It makes no sense to me why people get so caught up in this stuff. Government is not going to change the course of this country and it sure as heck is not going to change the hearts of people. Regardless of who's in charge of this country, the church has a lot of work to do, because its the church and Jesus Christ that are the ones will truly bring change and hope to the people of this country and the world.