a mix of the 20 best/most influential albums of my life.

1. Dc Talk- Free at Last. I remember having to hide this cassette from my dad because at that time he thought fast music was bad. Until we showed him the lyrics to "that kinda girl." then he liked it.

2. Jars of Clay- Self Titled. This album is one of the best in Christian music, and the music isnt dated even if you listen to it now. On the other hand I remember standing at a Cd Release party at our tiny Christian bookstore in wooster, ohio to get their second album "much afraid." That cd blows. And Jars of Clay has yet to release something that even comes close to touching their first album.

3. Boys 2 Men- II. This album is ridiculous. I was in 4th grade when it was released and I don't think I have ever been to a dance where they didnt play at least one of their songs. I still believe that if you sing along with Boys 2 Men you will become a better singer, just because of their vocal control.

4. Seven Day Jesus-The Hunger- 1996. This album is probably the most impact-full and probably the first of many to push me in the direction of wanting to do music. Yes I was in 6th grade. The song "strength" on this album is incredible. Brian Mcsweeny was Ledgend-ary.

5. Dashboard Confessional-Swiss Army Romance. This album although girly and whiny, is unbelievably written. "the brilliant dance" this is just great lyrically " and breathing is a foreign takes, and thinking is just to much to ask, and your measuring your minutes by a clock thats blinking eights" great stuff.

6. David Crowder Band- Can you hear Us? This isn't even my favorite David Crowder cd, but its on this list because it took worship music in a different direction. Up until this song the standard worship music was stuff by Michael W. Smith, he made it acceptable to have drum loops and stuff to make music more exciting! So I can say that because of the shift I have a job doing worship music. Thanks Dave.

7. Damien Rice-O. This album is again one of those that won't ever feel dated. It is just good music. And you can always listen to a little Damien.

8. Coldplay- Rush of Blood to the Head. Even though this album was multi-platinum and all that, it is still under appreciated. The songs that people skip on this album and never got radio play are still insanely good. Coldplay reinvented piano rock with this album and bands after them, even if original seem like they are copying them. Sorry Keane and Aqualung.

9. Jay-Z-The Black Album. This took the rap genre and made it actually worth something. Yes there are other good rappers, but this album is ridongculous. Any album that can be stripped of all music and put to others music, (beatles, coldplay, lincoln park) and be just as good if not better?! Still amazes me that this is possible.

10. Jimmy Eat World- Bleed American. "sweetness," "the middle," "get it faster," "hear you me." Thats all I should say, this is an album you need to buy.

11. Relient K- Self Titled. I remember seeing this band open up for some crapy band named Occams Razor, at the gund arena(now known as the Q), before Relient K even released their first album. All they had at the table was their ep. And me and my friend Andrew Berg walked out of the other two bands shows and talk to Matt Thiessen and Matt Hoopes. Who were ridiculously down to earth. The next time I saw them I was in a boy band called wild guys. And I had drawn fake sideburns drawn on my face. Thats a long story.

12. Shane and Shane- Clean. This is quite a recent one. I like harmony and this album is full of it. Again lyrically this album is on par and I love acoustic music, so it all adds up to me loving it.

13. Lincoln Park/ Jay-Z- Collision Course. I mentioned this in the Black Album section in number 9. But I had to give it its own slot. When this came out I have to say that I was literally blown away. Just how clean the transitions were between artists who really arent even in the same genre at all.

14. Muse- Absolution. This is just a fantastic album. Muse proves over and over that they are the most talented rock band out there right now, especially for only having 3 members in their band.

15. Kanye West- College Dropout. Even though this guy is an egotistical moron, I could not leave this album off the list. I remember buying this album at the Virgin Megastore in NYC. And I listened to it probably 10 times over on the drive back to Ohio. Sorry Josh Saefkow, that probably was very annoying. "School Spirit," "All Falls Down," "Jesus Walks."

These are some of My personal favorites, may not be the best of all time but they are on my list.

16. All American Rejects- Self-Titled. This album came out the year I graduated and it is the soundtrack to the summer before college. You know that summer, where it feels like you are soooo free. Have the weight of High School off your shoulders, and feel all grown up. Good stuff.

17. Jack Johnson-Brushfire Fairytales. This album is perfect. If there is anyone I would switch lives with it would be with Mr. Johnson. Record music in the basement of my beach house in Hawaii. Then go surfing. Anyways, good memories are wrapped in this album, with my first year at liberty. Kameno has some good memories with this too I think.

18. Bon Jovi- Slippery when wet. "living on a prayer," and "wanted dead or alive" are both on this album. good stuff.

19. Audio Adrenaline- Bloom. This album is the one that made me want to play electric guitar. The solos in "good people," "big as jesus" and "im not the king" made me ask for an electric guitar for Christmas that my brother learned to play and I just put it on hold and played with ninja turtles instead. Poor choice.

20.John Mayer- Any Given Thursday. I hated John Mayer, because I hated his first single. But then I realized how good he actually was. And this live album was where I developed a now 6 year man crush on him. By far the most talented musician of my generation. The song "comfortable" is one of my favorites of all time.

kay pettigrew. greatness.

again simple things. If you enjoy music then you should watch this.

The Bonus Jonas-es.

If you are reading this and you do not know who the Jonas Brothers are you probably have kids. And those kids of yours are probably in love with one if not all three of them. I do not know much about them, other then noticing that they bare a huge resemblance to the band Hanson about 10 years ago. Not in the sense of long blonde hair, but there are 3 of them, they are brothers, and they make tweens (9-13yr olds) do this....

I took this picture while watching some show about winning tickets to the new Jonas Brothers movie coming out sometime soon. And I paused it and took a picture. Again, very reminiscent of what the old school Hanson Brothers used to cause emotionally in young ladies. But enough of about that... I want to get into the subject of the extra Jonas-es. Look at this photo...

The Jonas Brothers?? Who are the guys on the bass, drums and keys? Come on Jonases give some credit to the people that make you sound good. I even tried to find out who these guys were and could find nothing. So if you want to beef up your resume just add that you played bass for the Jonas Brothers on their last tour, no one would ever know. No, don't do that.

This blog is dedicated to the musicians that stand in the background for celeb-uscians. You will be honored here if not anywhere else. Good day to you.

Oscar

Thank you Ben Stiller for livening up the deadness that was last nights oscars.



and if you have no idea why this is funny, watch this one, then you will "get" it.

Enjoying the Simple things.

Had to share this, basically because it is ridiculously awesome. The only thing that is bad with this video is the guys hat. Enjoy.

The Grammys.

Well the grammys were just the other night and I had actually taken some notes to write a little bit of a recap...

The night started with U2, which would have been a good choice 3 years ago. Boring song. Bono I love you, but it was weak.

Following U2 was Whitney Houston, who looked surprisingly good for all the rumors about abusing drugs recently, but we will move on..

Whitney annoucned the winner of R&B Album which was Jennifer Hudson. Okay, so I feel for this girl losing her family and all, and shes got a good voice, but Oscar and Grammy within 1 year~Im not convinced shes all THAT talented.

The Jonas Brothers performed with Stevie Wonder. Don't know who thought of that pair, but that wasn't smart.

Chris Martin performed Lost with just him and a piano, then Jay-Z walked in and dropped a verse in. Good stuff right here. Then the rest of Coldplay played their cd title and grammy nominated song Viva La Vida. Again if you can pull off beating a symphony drum, a miniature version of the liberty bell, and have no typical drum set at the grammys you are doing okay.



Carrie Underwood performed after this and she had some weird outfit on that was like a shimmery see-thru curtain and some daisy dukes had a love child. Strange to say the least, I don't remember what song she sang cause I was trying to figure out her outfit.

Sheryl Crowe and Leanne Rimes gave out an award for sounding like a dying cat, Sugarland won this one and it was not a contest.

Song of the year went to the deserving Coldplay for their song Viva la Vida, which was followed by a unusually sharp dressed Kid Rock who sang his song "Amen"

ITS MILEY... Miley Cyrus and Taylor swift performed a boring song.

They then announced that Allison Krauss and Robert Plant won for best collaboration. One of their many they won during the night.

Jennifer Hudson sang and cried.

Blink-182 gave another grammy to Coldplay for best rock album and also announced that they were getting back together.
yes, Blink 182- is back together, everyone reminisce about that tongue piercing you almost got and how "punk" you used to be. Hey and it only took their drummer nearly dying to pull it off.

Katy Perry sang “I Kissed A Girl” and she sounded like she lost all her breath from running around the giant fruit that was onstage?! Kanye West and Estelle did an abbreviated version of, “American Boy”. Kanye was rocking an awkward afro mullety thing. Strange days we are living in. They announced the Best New Artist and that went to Adele.

Kenny Chesney performed still inside the where you hang them clothes. P.Diddy, Herbie Hancock, and Natalie Cole announced the winner of the Grammy for Record Of The Year. Once again Robert Plant and Allison Krauss. Kinda far from Led Zepplin.

Queen Latifah got whistled at as she walked on stage to introduce a very prego M.I.A. with T.I., Jay-Z, and Lil’ Wayne. “Swagger Like Us” what a dumb song. Actually disappointed that Jay was with this ensemble.

Kate Beckinsale introduced Paul McCartney, who sang, “I Saw Her Standing There”. Kate Beckinsale was more memorable then Pauly.

Jack Black and Charlie Haden announced the winner of Male Pop Vocals, which went to John Mayer for his song, “Say”. I could have a very big man crush on John Mayer.

Sugarland and Adele performed. Sugarland sang her song by herself, then joined Adele and almost ruined it with her cat screaming. Radiohead performed on acid more then likely. Lil’ Wayne performed alongside Robin Thicke next, the xerox copy of Justin Timberlake, and if you don't get that...xeroxes are very poor quality compared to the original.

Will.I.Am and T-Pain announced Best Rap Album to Lil Wayne. Allison Krauss and Robert Plant sang two songs from their album...bland. Green Day announced Album Of The Year. drum roll...Robert Plant and Allison Krauss “Raising Sand”.

Stevie Wonder closed out the show with his performance of “All About The Love Again”.

obsession.

Do you remember those old Calvin Klein ads where people would just be standing around without shirts on, and there was just a white backdrop; then someone would look straight into the camera and whisper "obsession." Oh I get it, the white back drop is a metaphor for life on earth and shirtless means you are still a child inside and um... wait, no it meant nothing!! Those commercials and ads were stupid, they did the job cause here I am talking about it 10 years after the fact, but none the less, stupid and very heroin sheik.

That really had nothing to do with anything I am writing about other then the name of the product they were trying to sell, Obsession. What is that? What does this word mean. Well I was pretty bored yesterday so I thought I would take a gander at the true definition, so here are two different ones for ya; 1. "The domination of ones thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, ect" 2. "An unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation with something or someone."

I am a youth leader at the church I work at, and two of the girls in my group are obsessed with a Korean boy band. There name...Big Bang. They have played some of there music for me and I won't say its bad, but I will include the link so you can decide for yourself... http://youtube.com/watch?v=cYr9pkxUOrI&feature=related and yes they did steal the whole song from Maroon 5.

But I can't point my finger and laugh to hard at Ester and Olivia, because when I was there age I had obsession with someone, her name....Jessica Simpson. Yes, I was in love with this woman. Now, don't get me wrong this was pre-skank days of Jessica. Pre-Newlyweds fam. Pre-divorce-trashy looking days. I bought her first album and fell in love. "I wanna love you forever" oh it takes me back to my youth.... Anyways, everyone has some kind of obsession, could be sports, could be your g/f or b/f, it could even be facebook. But this all depends on the person.

So my thoughts of obsession turned to the Bible, and I asked the question, "out of all the Bible, who was obsessed with God?" You could probably name people all day, from Moses to Paul. But one person jumped out at me. David. David is the only one in the Bible who is referred to as a man after Gods own heart. It is a known fact that David himself wrote AT LEAST 73 of the chapters in Psalms! Try to grasp this, out of all the Bible the book of Psalms is completely different, its not history, or prophecy, its a book of songs. So David had at least 73 songs, published for people to read over the past 3000 years. I am sure he wasn't the only guy writing songs back then, but he was the standard. He was the Ben Folds, the Jay-z, or whoever you think writes good songs, Chris Tomlin? One of the best examples is Psalms 63. You can see his passion in the first verse.

Psalms 63:1 "..Earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water."

What in your life makes you feel like this. I am engaged and I don't ever want to live with out her, but the honest truth is I could and she could live with out me, even thought it would be very tough. But David is here screaming out to God saying "God I thirst for you! My body aches and longs for you, I am like a man wandering in a desert!" wow. David was obsessed with God.

You may think you feel that way about some new thing you have. An ipod, clothes, maybe even a girl or a boy. But its fleeting, it won't last. There will be a new ipod out next summer. You will get a hole in your jeans. That girl or boy will break your heart, even if he/she doesn't, you aren't going to hold hands and follow each other into the dark...thanks death cab. Bottom line is you can live without Jesus. You can go through every single day of your life with out him. But as soon as that second life comes around you won't be able to live without Jesus, and you will have lost your chance to.

Obsess over Christ. let me repeat the definitions, and put Jesus in this spot..."Jesus dominates my thoughts and feelings, I am persistent in bringing all my reasoning back to Him, I am compulsive and preoccupied with my relationship with Jesus." If you put any other thing instead of Jesus, it is wrong. But its okay to be obsessed with Christ. So do it.