New song from J.M.

Here's a little somethin' I found on YouTube.
You're welcome.

[Is this illegal?]

Happy Turkey Day!

My sister-in-law, Valeen, is hosting her first Thanksgiving dinner this year. Good luck, Val!



ht: Carolyn

Ethiopia

I love that I get to work for Compassion! But sometimes it's hard not to get bogged down in the day-to-day work and forget that what we're doing is changing lives.

Thanks, Shaun, for reminding me.

Be sure to watch the video at the bottom.

Chivalry Ain't Dead!

It's great to have a boss you can depend on.

Especially when that entails chivalrous duties outside the realm of the workplace such as rescuing damsels in distress. [And by damsels I mean me. And by distress I mean stranded on the side of the road in my car with no gas.]

This whole situation is rather embarrassing, seeing as I've had 13 solid years of not running out of gas. And seeing how my gas light had been on for several days. The gas light, however, is quite misleading, because it comes on when I have a quarter tank left. That's like five gallons which means I can drive for, like, 100 more miles. So I've always ignored the gas light and just watched the mileage to figure out when to fill up. So much for that technique.

As I was being so gallantly rescued by Tim tonight, I started thinking about how truly chivalrous he is. He always opens doors for women. He always walks on the street side of the sidewalk, closest to traffic. He always carries boxes, or pulls luggage, or picks up something that got dropped ... always tries to make life just a little easier for us. And it's ingrained in him. He doesn't even have to think about it. So even though I endlessly give him a hard time for treating us like fragile, helpless little daisies, in all reality, it's great to be looked out for. I never have to wonder if I'll be taken care of when Tim's around. And that's a great feeling of security.

I wish more men were like this. Truly chivalrous men are few and far between.

So ... thanks, Tim.

Some Stuff I'm Thinking About

I'm having trouble putting my thoughts into any sensible order tonight. I sat down to write a new post and so far it's gone in about 17 different directions. So I'm going to stop trying to organize my thoughts and instead, simply write whatever comes to mind. Here we go...

My dog is sick. Again. All over my house. So instead of spending the evening as I had planned, I spent it steam cleaning the carpet. I'm not sure what's giving her the Big D regularly, but I have a hunch it is the rawhides I got at Walmart. Reason #3,764.

Compassion is restructuring. I found out yesterday that my team is being disbanded and my job is moving to the Web and Interactive team. While this will provide me with lots of opportunity for growth and new challenges it also means being on a team with four men. Which I guess can also be considered an opportunity for growth.

This is the first year in 11 years that I will be home for Thanksgiving. I've spent the last decade giving thanks in Callifornia, Minnesota and Morroco. This year I will be giving the most thanks that we have not yet had a blizzard in Colorado Springs.

That's it for now. I'm going to bed. I'd wish myself sweet dreams, but I never remember them. Ever. It's really weird.

Lynden

It's not very often I come across a CD where I literally love every single song on the album. But it happened.

Lynden recently released their first CD called The Act of Becoming.
And I. LOVE. IT.

If you haven't heard of Lynden, listen to them here.

Life Without the Tube

This article on CNN.com about the TV writers going on strike got me thinking about my own TV experience.

We grew up without a TV. It wasn't for any religious or moral reason - we just didn't have one. I resented it sometimes, especially when my friends at school would be talking about what happened on Saved by the Bell, 90210 or Party of Five, and I'd have no clue what they were talking about.

When my friends would invite me over to spend the night, I would look forward to watching a movie, something we rarely had the chance to do. I never understood why they "didn't feel like" watching TV. Who wouldn't want to?

I think raising us kids without a TV was one of the best decisions my parents ever made. We were forced to create our own fun. We spent thousands of hours in the backyard. I spent a lot of time reading. We spent a lot of time playing house, restaurant, school, office ... you know ... the "fun" grown-up activities. ("Is this a good activiteee?")

We were always having to come up with new ways to entertain ourselves when most normal kids were watching TV. Some of them are quite memorable:

1. Go search the basement (an adventure in itself) and find all sorts of dress-up clothes and items to serve as props for the melodramas we would make up. Next we would round up as big an audience as we could gather (usually just my parents, with the occasional appearence of Oreo, our tail-less cocker spaniel, may she rest in peace.) We would then perform the melodrama, complete with multiple acts, full set and costume changes, and an encore.

2. Compete in the final game of the Ping Pong World Championships.

3. Make gourmet "salads" in our sandbox, including (but not limited to) shrubbery leaves, poisonous red berries, dandelions and sand.

4. Gang up on my sister Sara. This entailed nothing more than the remaining three of us telling her we were "ganging up" on her, which would inevitably make her cry.

5. Ride our bikes around the block for hours at a time, pretending that when we rode in front of our house, we were riding in front of the judges. (What they were judging us on I haven't the slightest clue.)

6. Rearrange the furniture in our bedrooms. This occurred regularly every couple weeks.

7. Record ourselves singing on tape and then play it back and pretend we were famous singers.

8. Find all the decks of cards in the house (we probably had at least 30!) and construct enormous card castles. They usually covered most of the living room.

Ahhh those were the days. I have a TV now. I'm thankful for it because I'm single and there are, quite frankly, times when I'd rather watch a TV show than dwell on the fact that I haven't yet found Mr. Right. But I'm thankful, too, for my TV-less childhood. It made for some amazing memories. And it now often makes for hysterically funny family meals when we reminicse about the old days when we lived life without, to quote my mom, the boob tube. [Insert snicker here.]

I Heart John

I love John Mayer. Most of you know that. I've seen him several times live and every concert I go to reminds me of why he remains my favorite. He's the real thing.

So many mainstream artists have huge teams of people behind them who write their songs, produce their records and promote their albums. The "artist" gets famous because they sell the music. They sing someone else's songs in front of millions of people.

John Mayer is different. He writes his lyrics. He writes his music. He can tear it up on the guitar like no one else. Seriously. The best stuff I've ever heard him play is during the encore of his shows when he unplugs his guitar, goes totally acoustic and improvises. My favorite album of his is called The Village Sessions, and it's him on an acoustic guitar alone in a studio. It's John Mayer raw. The guy is amazing.

So I was excited to read one of his latest blog entries:

It's been a long time since the days of my playing small acoustic club dates, and though I'm more than happy (and extremely lucky) to be where I am these days, one thing I've missed is the creative spirit of working without a net. Some of my best songs were written because I had a show nearing and needed more original songs to take the place of covers. It was creation by way of necessity.

It's been my stance for years that I don't want to work out new songs on stage for fear of them getting out in their raw form. I've always believed that in music, the first impression is the most lasting, and I wanted to have the say as to when a song would be heard and in what incarnation.

I'm ready to change that stance now. I've realized that there's a new level of access into my life, one that I accept as a by-product of both lifestyle and technology. And if there's going to remain such a large window into my life off-stage, I feel like I need to open the window to my music equally as wide. I am still as devoted to music as I've ever been, and I won't let anything redefine that against my will.

I'm going to return to that firefight, taking small late night gigs around New York City and Los Angeles, writing songs and playing them when they're still fresh. The date of the gig is my self-imposed finish line and I will play a new song with each set I perform.

Lat night I played a set at Mercury Lounge, where I tested a new song called "Let a Man Be Lost", and it was amazing to be back in that place of staring at my feet to read lyrics that I wrote that afternoon.

One of the side-effects of this process is that these works-in-progress will probably be available to you in one way or another. It's your decision to listen to them if you like but it's my decision to rework them, strip them down to just their title and re-write from the ground up, or just burn them down completely, never to play them again.

I'm also ready to accept the fact that some people will try and read into the lyrics and make gossip out of them, but I can't worry about that. Trying to avoid that would be the worst thing for my songwriting. I won't let the success I've had make me comfortable, or the media exposure make me fearful of expressing myself.

Stand-up comedians like Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld have it right. They get to the top with their act, only to deconstruct it and start from scratch in a brick basement. That's the only way I can see staying vital as a musician; picking fights with all the hundreds of excuses that curb creativity.

See you on the street.

John

I doubt he'll ever come play a club in Colorado. We're sorely lacking in the arts department in this state. I think Boulder's our best hope. But if he ever does, count on me being in the audience.

P.S. For any other fans out there, here's his his new duet with Alicia Keys. You're welcome.

You can call me Tina.

I went to a Murder Mystery party this past weekend. The characters were from TV Shows. I was on the sitcom team and was assigned Tina Fey from 30 Rock.





I've never seen the show, but I googled some pictures of her.
What do you think? Did I pull it off?

Here. Read this.

I have many random things to post about, but haven't had the time. New posts are coming soon, though. I promise.

For now, enjoy reading my newest blog addiction.

She makes me laugh every day.