Filed under: Music | Tags: acoustic, city and colour, dallas green, indie, Music
Dallas Green (love the tats) - City and Colour
So… here’s some music I accidentally found one day while surfing the net: City and Colour. Alexisonfire’s Dallas Green performs under this name when he feels the need for some solo acoustic– an escape from Alexis’s screaming. Rough but meaningful. Poignant. Beautiful. I love it. All of his songs are amazing… I especially love Against the Grain. It’s a song about doing what’s best when life just swallows you whole, and It’s probably my anthem at the moment. Green just has the knack to use his voice, guitar, and words to express a little something inside that I think we all wish we could express. Check it out, you won’t be sorry…
Myspace Live Session (Beautiful)
[RACHEL]
Filed under: Music, School, life... | Tags: Music, sting, the police, vacation, work
Life’s brought a few rainclouds over my head, and they’ve been at the forefront of my thoughts for a while… but don’t worry. Life is still rad despite recent gray skies.
Last week I got to go back to the beautiful state of California for a week to visit family. I forgot how much fun the weather, driving a car, having yummy food every night for dinner, and being with my family could be. I had a great time filled with shopping, the beach, running, hiking, kayaking, and of course… sunburns. I’ve got a nice tan now… but it came with quite the price.
This is a sunburn. On my leg.
Back in Utah, I had the chance to see The Police live. Holy smokes. That was quite the show. I would first like to mention that the audience pot smoking was kept to a minimum, as was the creepy drunk men quota. Maybe it’s because it’s Utah… and the concert-goers were of an older age demographic than the shows I frequented in California? Who knows… all I know is that I did not get high off of the air, no creepy guys tried to have a cuddle-frenzy with me, and no one dropped their Jack Daniels on my feet. I’d say that made the concert experience much more enjoyable than past experiences. It was so great to see the songs I loved as a kid performed in front of me. It was so fun to be with a bunch of old people all dancing and singing, and so incredibly happy. It was wonderful. I would also like to mention that Sting’s still got it. That man is blazing HOTT! He looks so good and sounds so awesome! I think my heart melted or something… I will admit that the only celebrity crush I ever had was as a sophomore in high school when I was all about Gordon Sumner, the delicious man known as Sting. I think a little bit of that came back as I rocked out with the Police… and a bunch of thirty, forty, and fiftysomethings. It was the best.
So, vacation was great. Almost a little too great, as it was extremely difficult to go back to a full time job and real life. Talk about a rude awakening 
But, life wouldn’t be quite right if we could just run away to California when things got bad, then go back to a clean slate. There is always experience to be gained by facing it all.
[RACHEL]
Who knew that choosing to make the right choice could hurt so bad? That is one of life’s greatest mysteries at the moment. I did what I had to do… my burden has been lifted and relieved… but it has been replaced with a sadness I have never before known in my life. Things happen and we don’t always know why. The best thing we can do is search high and low for a reason to smile. The clarity will come sooner or later (most often later). Life goes on. Smile through the pain, gritting teeth through joyful expressions… fool the world until it becomes a reality. It works, I swear. The trick is finding real reasons to be happy. Maybe it’s that there was a decaf Dr. Pepper in the Fridge of Caffeinated Doom (caffeine is not my heart’s friend AT ALL and Dr. Pepper is my favorite) at work. Maybe it’s that the sun shining through the trees is so beautiful. Smiling is a great way to work at moving forward in life when we lack the strength and confidence to stand.
I almost didn’t do it, but realized that I needed to be true to myself. Standing up can be hard. But when it’s for the right, God provides us a way to get back to good. Another mystery of life is exactly what is good in the aftermath of this situation. Patience and faith. That’s what I need for now.
[RACHEL]
to be surprised. Sometimes life calms down just enough for me to catch my breath. This period of time lasts for usually about a week before a new challenge sneaks up to teach me a lesson I needed to learn. Sometimes the challenges are benign, the kind of thing you can laugh at after going through it and sleeping it off. Other times, the challenges placed (or thrown at high speed) before me are the kind of thing that leave me hollow, like my heart has fallen through my body and onto the floor. The kind of thing that is paralyzingly difficult to endure. Last week, this was the case. The initial shock left me feeling oddly calm. And then it came. The weight of my world was almost more than I could pretend to bear. My sadness and confusion overwhelmed me. What I hadn’t yet come to terms with was the fact that sometimes things happen that are beyond my control. Ultimately, it’s my choice how I deal with the circumstances before me. I can’t change what happened, but I can be in charge of how I deal with the consequences of someone else’s choices. In one moment, the future I thought I had ceased to exist. In my moment of weakness, I was looking at life with a limited, narrow outlook. But, I soon learned that if I wanted to get better, then I needed to change my attitude. Every day, I began to try my best to celebrate life’s small victories. It’s amazing the perspective one can gain by looking at life through wider eyes, to rise above the moment and try to see everything else. I’m still confused… I have some big choices ahead of me. What’s different now, though, is that I am not torn up anymore. I am also not as scared of what’s in front of me. It will all work out in God’s way. He knows me better than I do, and knows what’s best for me and the situation. Now, it’s just a matter of getting on the same page. I think I am ready.
[RACHEL]
