Singing Women

Ok, as talents that reflect image go, there's really not much that's hotter in a woman than one with a great voice... unless she is a dancer with a great voice. (am I right guys? *amen*)

So why is it that I just can't seem to get into female artists? It appears that I love female singers, unless they're leading a band, at which point I'm either bored, or annoyed.

Put in a male as the lead and I'm all over it. Better yet, add a solid female vocalist as support in a song lead by a man, and it's likely it will find its way to one of the most enjoyable in my list. But give that girl a mic and free reign to sing on her own, and I' done.

What's the deal with this? Wendy and I were talking about this the other night, and strangely she also seems to agree with me.

So what is it about female artists? No really - I'm actually asking you... what's the deal?

Notice the playlist to the right? Yeah. Devoid of femininity in its entirety. I'm not wanting to be a chauvinist... it just appears that I am one anyway. At least as music is concerned.

Let me drive home the point (yeah, I know... you've got it already, but this blog is called The Long Winded for a reason, so deal.):

Caedmon's Call. Enough said, yes? Awesome band. Great music. And most of my favorite songs involve female vocals in the background. Yet you give that girl the mic, and I wanna tape her mouth shut. Ok, that was harsh (yet slightly true all-the-same)

On the other side you have Faith Hill. Yes, she's talented, and certainly she's good looking... but she's also boring. Excruciatingly so. I may not want to tape her mouth shut, and I'm not put off by hearing a song or two, but as far as buying one of her CDs? What a waste!

So what's the deal? I'd say, besides the annoying/boring factors, there's also an inherit lack of credibility as a headliner if they're female. I'm not saying it's not possible, I'm just saying that being female immediately puts them at the bottom of a far steeper hill than their male counter-parts.

Which brings me to more specifics:
What the heck is with female Christian artists? I semi-appreciate Rebecca St. James, and Michelle Tumes, but that's it. That's all I got, and if I'm frank; I gotta tell you that these two aren't even that great of choices... they're just the best I have.

Is it the way God intended? Is there a deeper spiritual meaning/reason behind men's voices being (overall) more pleasant to listen to? Do you even agree with me? Do you have any Christian female artists that you actually enjoy?

When God Moves

I'm in awe. Really, I am. I've felt God moving in my life now (significantly) since last Oct. Obviously, that isn't to say that He hasn't been moving in my life before that... I just never felt it.

I'm now changing my mind about this though. Perhaps God isn't moving in my life at all. Rather, I'm beginning to think that He's just moving... He's in action... and I can either step up and be a part of it, or watch His work pass me by.

As many of you know who speak with me regularly, and certainly those of you who read my blog whenever I post - God's in action. He's doing something. This becomes far more apparent to me as the people I know, the people I love, are beginning to feel the force of God's hand in their lives, and they're responding to it. Simply read a handful of the blogs you see on the list to the right. Almost all of them have recent posts about God calling to them, wanting more from them, desiring to really have a relationship with them.

God's speaking out right now, and almost everyone I deeply care for is hearing Him. I don't know what He's up to, but damn ... I want to be a part of it.

I couldn't get this image out of my head, so I searched Google images until I found one that fit exactly what I was feeling. This exactly represents what I'm picturing in my "mind's eye". God is right now drawing His fingers across the surface of the earth, and it's creating waves... it's stirring so many people into motion, into action.

There's a lot that goes on during surfing. Vigilance is an important quality for good surfers, because you have to constantly be paying attention to make sure you don't miss the best waves... and I'll tell you, there's a lot to distract you from them. Whether it's the hot blonde on the board a few yards away from you in the skimpy bikini, the fog or overcast lighting that obscures the waves or blends them into the rest of the ocean, the enjoyable conversation you're having with your buddies, or even the hypnotizing, calming motion of the small waves as they roll by; there's always plenty to keep you from noticing the perfect wave.

The problem is, you have to work to catch waves. Simply seeing them coming isn't enough. When you see them, you have to start paddling to get enough momentum so that the wave takes you with it, rather than just flying by you. You have to move to get correct positioning so you can ride it, instead of being in a bad spot, where the force isn't enough, the wave isn't formed well, or worst, the wave is gonna land right on top of you.

Just like surfing, I see these waves coming at me made by the hand of God as he draws those fingers through the water... I can either let them by and miss the ride; either because they look too big and intimidating, or because I'm not paying attention and watching until the waves right in front of me.

It's funny how well surfing fits as an analogy here. When surfing with Kirk, we'll often be talking, and then notice that people around us (or perhaps even one of us ourselves) will suddenly change position on our board and start paddling. It's infectious, and you can see it easily, even from shore. Like a school of fish, one begins to move in a direction, and suddenly everyone is doing it to hopefull catch the wave.

Well, I see all the people around me paddling for the wave. it's invigoration, because I can feel it happening, and for once in my life, I can actually see that God has something big going on, and I'm not kidding/fooling myself, because clearly ther others around me are feeling it too!

What's He up to? I don't have that answer, but I really wanna be a part of it. it's time to start paddling to position myself properly and get some momentum going.

Don't get me wrong - I know that God is always doing something... but I don't believe God always works in grand gestures.

Now, however, I get the impression that what He's doing is grand... it's huge! And I can see it and feel it... and I'm reinforced with the knowledge that so do the people around me.

There's some waves coming. Wanna ride?

MotM - Brandon Heath

Yes yes, I know some of you complain about these music posts... just know that it is shedding some light on one of my huge passions. Music. So it IS in fact worthy to be called a blog post. Plus, there are others of you who like it.

With that said, I've stumbled across Brandon Heath (not to be confused with Heath Brandon, a different artist). He's very, very talented.

Check him out in the playlist on the right.

Enjoy!

FYI: he kinda is along the same vein as Bebo Norman

An update on the Corolla

It seems that my Alarm was outta-wack. My alarm (as most do) has a kill switch on the engine. Thus, if someone tries to break in and steal it... even if they have no fear of the noise it makes... they have no chance of getting the car started.

Anywhoodle... apparently, even though I kept turning on/off the alarm thinking it might be it, I was actually turning the alarm off. However, it wouldn't release the kill-switch.

Anyway, the dealership took my car to the alarm company, and they're either gonna fix the alarm, if possible, or replace it.

Why the last 12 hours have Sucked!

Just a quick word:

In the last 12 hours, both my "less-than-one-year-old" 2009 Corolla, and Wendy's "8-day-old" Veracruz have both suffered some sort of tragedy.

Last night, when I climbed into my Corolla at the Starbucks in Ladera Ranch at 9:10pm, I turned the key. The lights turned on, the radio turned on... but the car didn't. No "click-click-click" of the firing of the starter... nothing. It just didn't turn over. I tried again and again. I checked the fuel shut-off valve (the safety equipment that triggers in an accident). I made sure my gas cap was completely, tightly closed. I turned on/off/on/off the alarm. It just wouldn't even attempt to start! Finally, I went and got a personal pizza at Lamppost right next door to Starbucks, while I waited on the tow truck to come. By 11:30pm, I was back home after having my car towed and dropped off at the Toyota Dealership all the way in Orange. Boo!

This morning as I was putting on my gear to ride my Vespa into work (remember, I'm without a car), I get a call from Wendy. She's crying, and tells me that on the offramp to her work, a woman in an RX300 ran into the back of her car! Yes, the very car that she's had since only last Wed. Clearly upset, she at least was OK, and uninjured. I'm super sad for her, as I know she was extremely happy about her new vehicle. It's such bummer.

Needless to say, I was a bit paranoid driving my scoot to work this morning. Such bad vehicle luck! At least we're blessed to even own 2 new vehicles. They are after-all just cars. It's a bit of a frustration, but we have our health (thank God!) and they are just cars. I keep telling myself that... they're just cars. They're only cars...

Boo.

Vegas and Scooter Rally 2009

So Vegas was very fun! Thanks to Wendy and her Big Win right before we left on Mon., we came home up $60 (not counting hotel stay and food).

Crazy that she dreamt about the machine she wanted to play, and then hit big! For those curious, the machine is setup like this:

The "20"s on the side represent "lines" played.
Of the 2 rows of white buttons (5 each per row), the top row represents # of lines to play [1,2,5,7,or 9]
The bottom row represent # of credits (in this case 5¢ per credit) per line [1,2,5,10,or 20]

As you can see in this picture, she played 9 lines, at 20 credits ($1) per line! That's right... a max bet of $9 for that spin!!!

Anyway, she didn't know it was that much money when she did it. Furthermore, while she always played all 9 lines, she jumped around at the number of credits per line... thus it was God's good graces that she hit during a max bet scenario (9x20)!

In that picture, you can see that she hit 6 of the 9 possible lines (the blurry 20s are not the lines hit, but rather the other 6 are). Super cool! Here was the final outcome:




Wendy, being the very fun wife she is (I'm not being sarcastic here) let the machine count all the way up, instead of pressing the button to instantly view the winnings. It was way fun as it kept going and going and going.

Anyway, I'll let her tell you more on the story... that's the basics of the game.

The rally was very cool. Lots and lots of classic scoots; Lambretta's, Vespa's, Stella's, and others. There were a few new Vespa's like mine, but not many.

You can't see many in my pictures, but there are all sorts of interesting characters that associate themselves with this scene. It's really quite fun to be a part of, though those of you who know me can just imagine that my relatively "basic all-american" type of image didn't exactly blend. Luckily, I'm not one to feel uncomfortable, and so I had a very good time. It's not like anyone was actually paying attention to me "standing out" anyway.

One of my favorite parts of the "image" that you'll see around the scene are the girls. No, no, no.. you're misunderstanding me. I'm specifically talking about their image. Many of them have this 50's rockabilly style (Kirk will probably have more appropriate words to describe the specific image, but this is the best I have). It's super cool, and they don't go half-ass with it. Quite the contrary, they appear to spend a significant amount of time with their hair, make-up, and clothes. It's really fun, and makes the "classic feeling" of the scooter rally feel that much more genuine.

I couldn't count, but as you can see by the pictures, there were quite a few bikes there. Some acutally were really really well done, and it just gave me an itch to get my own classic to restore. There were big event rides Fri. Sat. and Sun, but Kirk and I didn't go on any of them. We missed Friday's, Sat. was not going to be a very interesting one, and Sun. was wayyyyyy too windy.



We did however get a small group of Kirk's friends from the Fresno region, and rode our scoots into Downtown Vegas (Fremont Street). Apparently they were having some sort of event or tribute to Knight Rider, because there were at least 20-30 Kit car replicas parked on the main Fremont walk!







It was very fun downtown, and was also my first "group ride". We got a bit of attention while on our ride, and on he way back, we drove down the middle of The Strip. So freaking cool, I can't even describe it! It's a very unique way to experience the strip.

A few more pictures... we ate at a BBQ place in the Rio, and they had this plate called "The Baron". They describe all the meats on it in the menu, but also say "Great for one, or a gang". Given the number of meats listed, we figured Kirk, Roger and I should share, and it would probably be enough. Boy, were we correct! It was WAYYYY more that we could handle. I'm not sure what kind of individual they think can handle this when they say "Great for one". I'd like to meet this type of person (or perhaps I wouldn't the more I think on it). We only finished maybe half the plate between the 3 of us... but it was mighty tasty. And, it was only $49.95!!! What a deal!




Kirk and I also went on Sat. to the Hoffbrau House. It's a german restaraunt/pub/beer garden place. Whatever it is classified as, its food is AMAZING!!!! So good in fact, that we went back again on Sun. with Roger! It was a very spacious building, with a german guy named Yohan who played tons of different instruments, and generally entertained everyone. At one point he whipped out that freakishly long horn thing you see in two of the pictures, and played the Star-Spangled-Banner. It was cool. We're definitely going to make this place a Vegas tradition.

Becoming a MAN - Update

So awhile ago I posted on what it means to be a man, and I briefly mentioned my desire to become an extraordinary man among guys.

Well, shortly thereafter, I began to pursue this desire. I received a book from my parents for Christmas, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell. It's basically an entry level (cliff-notes style) book on being a leader. It was awesome, and I highly recommend it.

In this effort, I decided that it would be a good idea to meet with some influential, strong leaders that I knew personally. So, I came up with a list of 3 name of men who I felt exhibited strong leadership qualities... men of character and influence. Each of them agreed to meet with me, and so I got together separately with each one in Jan. It was a success, and I felt like I was headed down the right path.

Above all, it was certainly apparent that in order for me to become someone who didn't just have a leadership position, but lead by influence, and did so with strength of character and integrity; I would need to get right with Jesus Christ.

Now, I don't mean that in the Christian-ese manner of speak... it's a legit expression. I've spoken AT God for about 7 years, and have neglected listening. Sure, God is bigger than even my ability to ignore Him, and in truth, I have heard Him speak to me within these past years... but certainly it wasn't due to anything on my part.

So, with that little back-story, here's where I'm at:

I'm still pretty on fire to learn to be a great man of leadership and influence. I just recently started meeting with David Arellano on a semi-regular basis for men's growth and accountability, and soon we will mark the first time that we also include Jason McClure and Troy Souther. It won't take the place of just the two of us getting together to talk one on one, but it will be nice to extend that brotherhood. We're learning to be open, vulnerable, and completely real with each other. I'm excited to see where this goes.

My own relationship with Jesus is improving... slowly, but still... improving. I’ve been struggling to start a habit of reading scripture. It's been chaotic so far. I had about 2 weeks of awesomeness, but since then it's been a struggle. I'm still working toward it though. Additionally, I'm working to peel away those things that stand in the way of following Him fully. That's part of what meeting with the guys is about too... generally it's about getting straight with God as a first major step to being that extraordinary man or character, leadership, and influence. I'm tired of the "christian-ese" style of living and talking. I'm working on either living and being it, or not.

I went to church 2 weeks in a row... that's pretty good considering. It felt good to be back at church (though this week I'll be in Sin City). As you know as readers of this blog, I've been getting into new Christian music too! It's always been a passion of mine anyway, though I hadn't searched for new material in quite awhile. My big sister, Laurel, once told me about how her mother-in-law always has Christian music playing somewhere in the house, to fill her home with the God's spirit and word. I like the idea, and though I probably won't have it on all the time, I plan on surrounding myself with words that glorify Him.


In short - I have a long way to go. I haven't seen much success from a leadership element of things, but I have seen movement back toward Christ, and I'm happy to see where He takes me.

MotM - Jadon Lavik

Weird name, yeah? Anyway, this guy rocks! I wanted to mix it up a bit from the sounds I had been posting, so if you weren't "thrilled" with my previous choices, you'll still wanna check this guy out. Here's another just awesome find.

He's got a Chris Tomlin, Tim Hughes, Jimmy Nedham style sound. Just listen! I've included a couple of his songs... mostly worship remakes (his way) with the last 1 or 2 being his own songs.

Anyway, my plan is to regularly post different music as I come across it. I already have my next band to share picked out, but I wanna space it out a bit.

Also, I am very interested in your opinions on these bands, so please fill me in. Plus if you have suggestions... anyway.

Enjoy!

EDIT: One other note. I'm rearranging the way I place music. Bands will now be grouped, and the newest entries will be listed at the top.

When too little, is just too much

Because I'm every bit a real life guy, I'm not planning on watching Dancing with the Stars anymore.

Why? Just read the title of this blog post.

Enough said.

MotM - Chasen

Yet another really cool band. I unfortunately could only find 2 songs available to add to my playlist, so I encourage you to either Pandora™ them, or listen to their song samples on iTunes.

Here's excerpts from the iTunes Review (I had to retype since iTunes doesn't allow you to copy text)

On this impressive debut album, South Carolinian trio Chasen manage to capture spiritual grandeur without succumbing to rock histrionics or revivalist excess....

...The group favors an acoustic-based sound, capturing some of the fresh energy of early Jars of Clay or Caedmon's Call...

...A psychedelic-tinted arrangement lends punch to "Crazy Beautiful", while "You and I" displays the instumental torque of classic U2. Worth special notice is "Stars Are Meant to Shine," a dreamy little tune recalling Paul McCartney's early '70s work.

Yup, that's quite a comparison! I like em'. If I can ever find more tracks to add to the play list, I'll be sure to update you all. For now, enjoy the two I found!

Random Depression

Just a quick word to say, I'm suffering from very light, and very random, depression. It's been haunting me for days now.

Don't get me wrong... it's not like I don't have mucho fun-o where ever I go, with whomever I'm with... It's just that I have this overall emotion that doesn't go away as things quiet down.

My guess? Sleep deprivation, dietary issues, lack of exercise... or all 3. That's just my guess, but I'm willing to bet that I'm spot-on.

So, I need to change some things, cause this sucks. Really.