weekend at the gatlinburg

jess and i (and jordan) had a great weekend in gatlinburg spending time with God and listening to a great lady speak about her life. it's always an inciteful time. and it always comes about the time i need that break and a reminding of what life's about.

however, there was a dark spot on the weekend. and that was during the 30 min or so steve and i were playing music on the piano (and his guitar) in the hotel. we were having a great time singing and playing, when these 2 guys and 2 girls came up and asked if they could play a song. so i was like, "sure" (not knowing what was in store for us). so i thought, i guess they want to play some worship music too or something. no, one guy sat down and started play edwin mccain's "i'll be" while the other guy started belting out the lyrics in a very "emo" tone (he had a decent voice, but it didnt make this any cooler). so i started smiling and holding back the laughter. this was sheer amazement laughter, mind you. amazement that someone would come up and ask us to move so that they could play this song. and the reason the song bothered me is because NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would come down there and sing this around all these people (there were a lot of people around. it was a lobby sort of area.) unless you were just trying to show off and/or impress everyone (girls). i was speechless. steve asked if i wanted to stay and play after they were done. i said, "no". as if this wasnt bad enough, the farther they got into the song, the more people began to sing along with him. wow. never have i recieved such a musical slap in the face. and then on top of that, the friggin song has been in my head ever since.

yes, i know i shouldnt have let this consume me as it did, and i can tell this because i chose to write more about this one incident than the whole weekend. but man . . . that guy.

. . . he even had the "dashboard shelf" haircut.

links

i think i've discovered (and by that i mean, i'm the first) the cause of the death of america. may i recommend NOT getting the Double Quarter Pounder® with Cheese? (yes i may.)

kind of cool.

this is sort of funny because they're putting the worst of tv in the internet so you can watch it again and again.

top 100 gadgets of all time

pinky & the ...josh

pinky 

me and pinky 

the best of both worlds

i thought this was a pretty cool picture.



(ps - it's not real)


but this is... this guy takes pictures of his rabbit balancing objects on it's head. pure gold. except that the rabbit dies and it's really sad.

Oolong even has his own winamp skin!

best valentine's day ever

i think it really may have been. at least it's way up there. jess and i went out for an early dinner at Cancun's mexican restaurant. after some enchiladas and a Monster Margarita (i think it was about a liter of margarita) we headed over to the newly renovated Tennessee Theatre for a viewing of Casablanca. andi must say, i was blown away at how beautiful it was (the theatre. it was like stepping back in time. i dont recall seeing many like it here in the states. quite remarkable. then on top of that the whole entertainment side was an experience of it's own. first, an old guy playing a huge organ slowly came up on a rising floor and played music from Casablanca and the Tennessee Waltz for about 10-15 min (apparently this pre-game organ playing has gone on for as long as ...i dont know ...entertainment has existed ...or something) and then once he was done (he was really good too) the raised the curtain for a short 3 Stooges film (one pertaining to WWII). that lasted another 10-15 min. and THEN they played Casablanca. and i'll go ahead and say, i enjoyed the movie about enormaously more than i did the first time (back several years ago). at the time, i was put off by it's slowness and cliche-esque dialogue (and yes, i know it's only cliche because it set the precedent. it was the first. but still...). but this time was a completely different experience. i found more humor in it due to being surrounded by others who were most likely around to see it in theaters the first time around. because sometimes it's hard to recognize old humor (particularly humor this dry). so that was a plus. on top of that i didnt find it nearly as cheesy and was able to see it more for the amazing movie it is. i was able to let myelf be drawn into the environment of 1942 n. africa. so all of this really helped make the movie. not to mention the fact that we were watching with an enormous group of people in a theater that made you feel like you were in fact screening the movie for the first time.

in conclusion, it was a delight to get to spend "date time" with jess. we dont get too much of that nowadays.

thanks jesse.

:*

music vs. my conscience, cont.

(i dont know if any of you have read jess's blog or not, but it provides the same account from her side.)

so saturday night me and my girlfriend went out for a night of local music and had a wonderful time. it didnt start out so great because i thought the guy we were gonna see (scott biram (see below)) started at nine, but that is apparently when doors opened. so we want down the street and listened to some bluegrass and had a couple beers. good time. THEN we went to Barley's and listened to Blue Mother Tupelo (dont let their ugly website scare you away from their music. it's really good). eventually we went back to the Pilot Light (a somewhat creepy place with weird people and fairly rundown surroundings) and caught the end of American Plague (a pretty decent punk band (not New Found Glory punk, like Ramones punk)). then finally we the show we paid for 4 hrs earlier.

great night. the radio station, 97X has really reopened up a the world of nonmainstream music and i'm diggin it.

music vs. my conscience

i dont remember the last time (or ever really, for that fact) that i was torn between listening to music i enjoy and doing what i thought was probably the right thing to do. well, tonight i was truly torn. jess and i went to listen to this guy, scott biram, and i'll be honest, i dug the music. a lot. i mean it was the kind where you could just feel the raw passion (and fun) behind it. i loved it. he's a "one man band" and the music was a combination of blues, bluegrass, and good rock, played through a distorted acoustic guitar (he did percussion with his feet). (you can hear some songs on his website.) however, the content of his songs where questionable to say the least. it was kind of raunchy, there was definitely some anti-religion overtones every now and then, and these things together with a bunch of people (who you can probably guarantee dont go to much church) dancing around to it like it was the greatest thing ever, just didnt make me (and definitely jess) feel too great about supporting it. man, i wanted to buy the cd so much. well, i didnt and now i'm filled with plenty of regret and relief. after listening to some of the songs (non-live versions) i'm beginning to think that a lot of the raunchiness was due to it being a live performance.

anyway, this just struck me, i think, because i rarely have to choose between music and morals.

didnt know it'd be this tough.

just call me Josh McHTML

okay i'm beginning to think that my counter stopped counting long ago because i probably messed something up in my template. shat. man, and it was a long time ago too.

i think i may have to fix that because it's definitely bugging me.

JEFF . . . ASSEMBLE!

see you in, mount juliet

so i created a new blog for anyone and everyone to use (there seemed to be a demand for it?). here it is

http://mjtn.blogspot.com/

anyone is free to write on it, so by all means, go to town. this seemed to be a simpler alternative to a message board.

so here's todd's new home...

http://toddburka.tripod.com/blogger.shtml

if it's any consolation, my blogger "dashboard" has stopped counting my entries after 213. it just stays at 213. go figure.

you dont know what a hill is till you ride a bike up it

so true. my bike tires were low so i finally aired them up with my car air compressor. then i figured while i was out, i might as well take 'er for a test toast. so i rode across campus making detours here and there. then rode up "the hill" (basically the route the "T" takes). man that was tiring. and of course riding back up from the "money wall" over the humanities hill is no cakewalk. anyway, pretty good ride. think i'll do it more often.

played some 4-on-4 frisbee today. pretty laid back. good time.

if you havent heard of the band Tilly and the Wall you should check them out. i dig 'em. they're kind of modern folky. and their percussionist is a tap dancer. or rather, the percussion in their music is tap dancing. it works. trust me.

and if anyone listens to internet radio, i highly recommend 97X (BAM!) the future of rock and roll. it's got lots of "independent" music on it. really great.

time for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

diet much?

so i was attempting a "diet" this week to see how it worked out. well, the diet was this...

morning: apple
lunch: 1 can of tuna, 10 triscuits
dinner: salad, can of corn or green beans

...all in all totalling about 700 calories. (plus i was drinking water and taking a vitamin.) it went pretty well for the first 3 days, but yesterday... well, lets just say i was feeling a bit sub-par. dang. OH, and i was getting up early and running some (and a few other various excercises, i.e. situps and whatnot). i wasnt able to do that this morning because i came into work at 8. i'm still not feeling amazing, but better than yesterday. talk about run-down.