38 for 38

38 for 38

Today is my 38th birthday and I want to invite all my friends into the celebration, as much as I’d love to have everyone come over for pizza and cake tonight, the Missus might be a bit irked and besides seeing as my friends are flung far and wide across the Us and other parts of the globe I decided to throw a virtual party!

When it comes to parties you need to have a killer playlist, so I have selected 38 of my favorites songs from 38 of my favorite artists. Not really a best of list because there is no order and there is only 1 track per artist, you might be surprised just how difficult it was to maintain those guidelines. There are most likely more then a few that you’ve heard of, hopefully some that you haven’t and while there are probably a few that aren’t your style there is most certainly something for everyone. Anyway lets get this party started, just click on the title to go the playlist on Spotify or if you want to do it the old fashioned way throw the following onto your MP3 type player

38 For 38

1. The Boxer- Simon and Garfunkel
2. Summer of `69- Bryan Adams
3. Meant To Live- Switchfoot
4. Santa Fe- Beirut
5. Motorcycle Drive By- Third Eye Blind
6. WWOZ- Better Than Ezra
7. Machinehead- Bush
8. Round Here- Counting Crows
9. Ants Marching- Dave Matthews Band
10. Helplessness Blues- Fleet Foxes
11. Hey Jealousy- Gin Blossoms
12. Hanging By A Moment- Lifehouse
13. Ambling Alp- Yeasayer
14. Nightcall- Kavinsky
15. Rites Of Spring- Fredrik
16. Feed The Machine- Red
17. Tighten Up- The Black Keys
18. Cracklin Rosie- Neil Diamond
19. Michigan- The Milk Carton Kids
20. Mr. Brightside- The Killers
21. My Heartstrings Come Undone- Demon Hunter
22. Dear X, You Don’t Own Me- Disciple
23. Home- Daughtry
24. Billie Jean- Michael Jackson
25. Apocalypse Dreams- Tame Impala
26. Return Of The Singer- Kevin Max
27. Talk- Coldplay
28. Sugar Rush- Joy Electric
29. The World I know- Collective Soul
30. Lazuli- Beach House
31. Swim- Surfer Blood
32. Hurt- Johnny Cash
33. Odd Soul- Mutemath
34. Automatic- Starflyer 59
35. City Lights- Blindside
36. Icky Thump- White Stripes
37. The Kill- 30 Seconds To Mars
38. Fire and Rain- James Taylor

When I grow up I want to be…

What do you want to be when you grow up? A question I think I was asked pretty much yearly kindergarten through 6th grade, and as a father and youth worker it is a question I know I ask quite frequently. My oldest who is a first grader this year when asked a year or so ago what she wanted to be replied “A baby doctor and hair cutter” noble aspirations indeed. Now this year when asked the same question we hear more about popular singers and actors, and while I would love for my daughter to be jet setting around the world performing to thousands of fans I know the odds are stacked against us, not impossible, but improbable. Just for grins I thought I’d take a look back at my 5 year old ideal occupation and compare it to where I am today.

At age 5 I had my life all planned out, I’d be a soldier that became an astronaut who also played professional football, living the life. Here I sit some 30+ years later scratching my head wondering where I went wrong…
I did make a halfhearted attempt to get into the Navy when I was a senior, mostly based on the thought that I’d be graduating a with a nursing degree which would automatically bump me in rank and pay (at least according to the recruiter).
I have always appreciated science, and would still love at some point to go to space but unless they are developing a study where they test the results of mass media consumption in space, I’m most likely out of the running.
And the professional football player thing, yeah that never went anywhere either. I was courted by the coach at school for a minute but mostly due to lack of motivation on my part I never even went out for the team, and just when I was thinking about giving it another go in high school I had a career ending knee blowout in a pickup game of basketball.

Based on what the 5 year old me wanted to be I am a complete failure, I’m pretty sure that I’m not alone in this. Based on a more adult me I am pretty pleased with where I am today, that’s not to say I am completely happy and have met all my aspirations but when I look at my wife and family and friends I realize things could be a whole lot worse.

So, about that blogging thing…

See I guess somewhere in my mind I have the notion that blogging should be about something specific. I follow blogs about music, toys, spirituality, TV shows, video games etc they all have a specific theme but ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you I most certainly don’t have a specific theme.

So I have more or less decided (at least for the moment) to make my blog about everything that interests me, which I warn you has a tendency to change from week to week… okay more like moment to moment. And as a caveat I also want to state that unless I specifically state it as so, my thoughts/opinions/stance on any one this is neither representative of anything or anyone I align myself with, nor is it set in stone. I am a Christian and there are some things I hold sacred and am fairly immovable on, but as a free thinking human there are lots of things I’m not.

There it is, my mission statement type thing, hopefully now that I have freed my mind from the specificity trap i can let loose on here and share my thoughts and ideas with the blog-o-sphere!

First Listen: Bon Iver, ‘Bon Iver’ : NPR

First Listen: Bon Iver, ‘Bon Iver’ : NPR.

I really like Bon Iver, not entirely sure why, although I’ll bet NPR could tell me.  Bon Iver seems a bit less pretentious then For Emma, Forever Ago, certainly with addition of other “voices” on the album it seems less stark and solitary, that coupled with the celeb love that has been heaped on Justin Vernon I can see this album getting some mainstream traction. I don’t see anyone who liked For Emma hating Bon Iver but this is definitely not just more of the same

Are you ready to go!

I have been thinking about this whole “blog” thing for a while now, and when my wife decided to start one, I took it as a personal challenge.

I am quite varied in my interests and ideas so I doubt there will be much cohesive flow, but it should be a fun ride anyway.

I can’t stand by forever, I’m a kid with a bullet soul!