Andrew Belle
I’ve been playing Andrew Belle’s latest project, “The Ladder”, consistently since the day it came out. It’s a great cd that pulls you in with a few favorites and keeps you listening to the rest because of the caliber of the songs [he didn't just pump out some other crap songs to get a full cd]. First round of favorites for me included: “The Ladder”, “Static Waves”, and “Oh my stars”. If you like Mat Kearney, then I’m confident you’ll be a Belle fan.
The XX
Lately I’ve been listening to a band called ‘The xx’. It’s a great chill cd with good beats and a guy/gal duo that’s reminiscent of Mates of State. I’d recommend it. Great project music.
This picture of the band cracks me up. So 90′s and the guy on the right looks like a possible scenario for John.
Summer love
This Summer has started and has started out great!
Terra and I have been going to New Heights Church for a few months now and we really enjoy it. Sunday night we went to the Discovery Group (basically an introductory small group to future small groups through the church) and absolutely loved it. Composed of about 25-ish people (3/4 people my age, the others are older) it’s being lead by Jim Hall (one of the pastors) and his wife Pam. Walking into a new house to meet a group of strangers is actually fun for me. We entered to find mostly adults, who I practiced my dad-jokes on (not jokes about dads, but cheesy jokes that a dad would say), who were very welcoming. Some very spiritual testimonies were shared after eating, and Terra and I left feeling very revived and excited in our faith. We really look forward to the great potential we see in relationships – our growth in Christ and fellowship with new friends.
Tonight I’m looking forward to a date night with Terra. A bike ride on the trail (weather permitting), making dinner and probably redboxing a movie. We really enjoy cooking with each other, and at our 7 month anniversary she gave me a cookbook (a legit hardback) of a lot of our favorite recipes, quotes/inside jokes, and pictures of us. I think she did it just in time for mother’s day so I could show it to my parents and g’parents who were visiting, but I don’t mind.
Current listenings:
Mat Kearney – City of Black and White
A great CD to drive to, work to, probably run to (I’m not really a big runner, but hey, I might start up again just to find out if it’s good to run to). I think Mat’s voice and musical style is very aesthetically pleasing.
Lyric sample from ‘All I have’:
Lord, I’m still trying at this my hardest
To pick us all up from a fall
Rip a little corner off the darkness
Just to crack a light in the middle of it all.
My Brightest Diamond – A Thousand Shark’s Teeth
Most enjoyable. My favorite songs at the moment are ‘Inside a boy’ and ‘To Pluto’s moon’, but the whole disc is great to have as background for reading, working, and just general project-ing.
Lyric sample from ‘Inside a boy’:
Inside a boy
I found a universe
And in his eyes
Are a thousand stars
On a dark sky
Current readings:
As my last post mentioned, I’m reading Joker One, by Donovan Campbell and I really like it. Just over 50 pages in, it’s a book that I think about when I’m not reading and a story that’s captivating, moving, and inspiring already. His writing style is so effortlessly lucid and pleasing that I initially thought, ‘Oh, I can write like this’, but then realized no, no I can’t at all.
A new chapter
Today I’m starting this new blog to document a new chapter in my life: the post-college, young professional chapter.
I am currently 26, living in the Ozark Mountains, I have 4 brothers, 4 roommates, 1 girlfriend, and I just graduated from architecture school with a minor in art. After graduation I always planned on moving to a different city, but with the current economy, my brother and girlfriend in town, and knowing that I’m not planning on moving back to Fayetteville any time soon I decided to stay for another year-ish.
Graduation was on a Monday and I began working for Mark Zweig 2 days after. He does high-end home renovations in the downtown, historic area of Fayetteville, AR. My work for the past 3 weeks has been primarily surveying houses and drawing up architectural plans from them, but my current focus, however, will be the website – maintenance, graphics, layouts, etc. I’ve never made a web page before, but it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do so ‘I excite!’ So far I’ve really enjoyed this job, the people that I interact with, what I bring to the table, and the potential for where I’ll be in the next week/month/year.
The past weekends have been great. Two weekends ago Terra (my girlfriend) and I surprised my mom by driving to Dallas. I always love visiting because pretty much every meal is enjoyed with loved ones (brunch with the parents, breakfast with the grandparents, etc). It was great to see the family, and the bro’s Fulton, Nelson, and Leighton were also in town which made for some sweet, but short, hangout time. It was also great seeing Ali, bebe Kennedy, and Ali’s mom. Like every trip to Dallas, though, there were about 2 dozen things that we wanted to do that we didn’t get to. Artfest, however, was one thing that we did get to do. My parents and I went on a double date, and we perused tent after tent of hand-made goodies as we weathered the weather. It was hot. But it was fun.
Nelly, the foreman.
Artfest 2009.
Lil Kennedy after a nap.
This past weekend was very relaxing. Terra and I went hiking at Lost Valley on Saturday. Having only been there a few times, this was the first time that I had been since the Ice Storm of ’09, the first time I had seen other people on the trail, and the first time I had been with Terra. It was a pleasant day to meander along the trail as the sun danced through the trees. Each of the 3 waterfalls that we came across had people pausing by them just taking it all in. After about 3 weeks of rain, it was a great weekend for being outdoors.
Nay-tuuure.
Trees - beware of people in relationships.
This meteoroid just missed us.
Lately I’ve been listening to:
- Paper Route – Absence
- Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
- Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
- Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating us
- Passion Pit – Manners
As far as reading goes I can’t wait to bust into Joker One by a family friend, Donovan Campbell. In it he talks about his experience of leading his marines in Iraq, and after reading a snippet in an email I know it’ll be a quick read.
