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Elvis, Basketball, and Spring

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

Recently, I spent my birthday amazon gift card on some Elvis. Specifically, I purchased Walk a Mile in My Shoes, a box set of the King’s essential 70’s recordings. For those of you at home keeping score, that’s 5 discs of 120 songs. Now I sound like a PBS pledge fundraiser.

http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Mile-My-Shoes-Essential/dp/B004LR5K0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1426219405&sr=1-1&keywords=walk+a+mile+in+my+shoes

But one of those songs took me back. The memory was driving at night in Christiana, TN, and the song in question was T-R-O-U-B-L-E, which I’m sure I haven’t heard since I was much smaller and weighed a lot less. And I was a huge Elvis fan.

The only problem with that is that I remember the song from an 8-track of dubious quality where on that particular song Elvis sounds as if he’s singing through a oscillating fan. The CD version was too cleaned up, at least in my opinion, to truly recreate the memory from that night. But it was close enough for me.

In other news, yes it is finally spring. I love the fact that I can wear a t-shirt and not get hypothermia. And I’ll take all the rain from the past few days over all the snow and ice from a few weeks ago. That was nice for a bit but got old rather quickly. Being stuck at home for a week tends to have that effect.

Finally, March means one thing for true sports fans– March Madness. That means LOTS of college basketball, lots of excitement and close games, and quite possibly one or two memorable and miraculous buzzer-beaters.

It also means I will be filling out multiple NCAA tournament brackets once again in hopes of finally winning the jackpot. So far, I’ve come close once or twice, but haven’t actually won any money.

FYI, if you’re looking for some good Elvis music, I recommend these fine compilations. Both have 30 songs on them and both have the best sound of any Elvis CDs that I’ve heard.

http://www.amazon.com/30-1-Hits-Elvis-Presley/dp/B00006AG5N/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426219096&sr=8-1&keywords=elvis+%231

http://www.amazon.com/Elvis-2nd-None-PRESLEY-ELVIS/dp/B0000AUHOX/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1426219132&sr=1-1&keywords=elvis+2nd+to+none

 

 

Three Days Till My Birthday!!

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image

First of all, I couldn’t think of anything worth blogging about. Not a thing. Sometimes that happens, especially when you have to come up with a new topic every day.

So I’ll blog my birthday wish list. If money were no object, I’d like:

1) A red Mini-Cooper, preferably with the British flag emblem on top.

2) A MacBook Pro laptop with retina display (white, please).

3) The complete Friends TV series on blu-ray.

4) Dinner at Loveless Cafe.

5) Gift cards to anywhere, but ideally to McKays, Best Buy, Starbucks, Frothy Monkey, and amazon.com.

6) Lots of wells being built in Africa so the people there have access to clean water.

7) Getting to hang out with YOU.

8) Officially ending every form of human trafficking.

9) Every orphan finding a forever home.

10) One of the original slinky toys.

11) Anything and everything on my amazon.com Wishlist.

Yeah, my birthday is in three days. I will be as old as Elvis was when he died, which is both odd and disturbing. But the good news is that I will still be alive, which is more than I can say for too many people who died way too young.

I’m thankful for life and I realize how precious a gift waking up every morning is. And yes, I do take Visa, Mastercard, American Express, cash, coins, . . . . . .

What I Want for Christmas in 2013

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catslist

You read the title and thought, “Aww, he’s going to wish for things like world peace and global sing-a-longs.” Not really. I have some selfish wants that I’m sharing as well as some (mostly) altruistic wishes. 

1) I would like world peace, but I know the heart of people too well. All I can hope and pray for is peace within the hearts of as many people as possible who are willing to surrender everything to Jesus.

2) One red Mini-Cooper, preferably with white stripes and/or a British flag emblem on the roof and/or on the sideview mirrors.

3) For a personal trainer or someone who will help me get more motivated to live healthier.

4) A MacBook Air ’cause they are so light and fluffy. And because PC laptops are just too slow and clunky.

santaswishlist

5) For each person to see his or her true value in Christ and to know that true beauty comes from being uniquely and marvelously designed by a Creator and loved infinitely.

6) A trip to New England at some point in my life. Ideally in the fall but I’m not picky about when. I would love to try Mystic Pizza🍕 in Mystic, Connecticut and visit a few lighthouses while I’m there. 👍

7) A date with Kari Jobe. 😁 

8) For chocolate to not have fat grams and calories. 🙏

9) Gift cards to amazon.com, Best Buy, Frothy Monkey, iTunes, and Ecko (so I can look swanky).

10) To see every cat and dog in a shelter find loving homes with loving people who will take care of them and treasure them.

11) That stone house in downtown Franklin with the red door that looks so homey.🏡

12) For Concord Road to be four lanes instead of two with a turning lane.

13) A really nifty cowboy hat.

14) Anything I’ve listed on my Amazon wish list.

15) For more kindness and compassion and understanding between people.

economy

The Perfect Album

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eastmountainsouth

For those who stay up late at night wondering what my all-time favorite album is (yes, both of you), here is my answer.

It’s the self-titled (or eponymous) debut of a group called eastmountainsouth.

I discovered this album 10 years ago when I was entranced by one of their songs, You Dance, and knew I immediately had to rush off to amazon.com to buy the CD. No digital downloads for me on this one. I had to have a physical copy in my hands.

Honestly, in the opinion of this humble yet musically-astute blogger (said in jest), this is the perfect album. The vocals are flawless, the production is immaculate, the arrangements are just right, no more and no less. Even the sequencing of songs is perfect.

To this day, I compare all albums to this one. In my mind, a really good album is one that makes me feel the way this one did the first time I heard it. An album that reminds me why I love music so much.

As far as I know, this is the only album from eastmountainsouth. I can’t imagine why they didn’t have a massive breakout like The Civil Wars. I guess the timing wasn’t right and the world wasn’t ready.

It almost feels like my own little secret that I’m finally sharing with the world. I know that I’m not the only one who loves this album and wishes there could have been more. But then again, maybe the idea of more albums would take away from the uniqueness of this one.

I doubt you’ll find it at Best Buy or Barnes and Noble. To my knowledge, the only place where you can buy it is still amazon.com. And yes, that is a shameless plug and an order. You will thank me later.

 

Victorian With a Twist

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

Charlotte Markham

I know. It sounds like a cocktail gone horribly wrong. It would be. But for a novel, it fits together quite well.

I’m talking about the book, Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling by Michael Boccacino. If Emily Bronte and Tim Burton had a secret love child, it would be this book, a sort of Jane Eyre meets Beetlejuice. Needless to say, I loved it.

The atmosphere starts off gothic and gets weirder from there. I was immediately captured from the very first sentence and could hardly put the book down until I read the very last sentence. I could very easily see this book turned into a motion picture directed by the above-mentioned Tim Burton (or some other director with an eccentric and unorthodox flair).

I won’t give away any of the plot surprises other than to say that the novel starts off with a newly-hired governess to a man recently widowed and his two sons. Then there’s a horrible, unexplainable murder. And it gets better from there.

If you loved the book Johnathan Strange & Mr Norell by Susanna Clarke or any of the fantasy writings by George MacDonald or C.S. Lewis, (another amazing Victorian/fantasy blend), you’ll love this as well. If you don’t care to have your perfect Victorian world sullied by the supernatural and otherworldly, then I’d advise you to skip this one.

It took me approximately two years and two days to read it. Two years to think about buying the book and then deciding to put it on my birthday wish-list and once I had it in my hands, two days to actually read it. It would have been less if I hadn’t had to bother with trivial things like eating and sleeping.

All that to say this: check out the book. You’ll like it. I’ve saved you the trouble and put the link to the amazon page on here, so you have no more excuses. Now go and buy it.