Birthday in Brazil?

I'd really like get a group of friends together and go somewhere exciting for my 25th birthday this year. Somewhere with lots of culture, flavor, and great beaches.

Perhaps Rio?

Maybe Barcelona?

Or we could tour the Greek islands?

I came to dance, not to socialize

Clearly this is becoming more of a music blog than anything else. I'm ok with that.

I love Robyn. I love Diplo. I'm happy. Check out "No Hassle" here. If you're a Robyn fan, definitely check out El Perro Del Mar's "Change of Heart (Robyn's Rakamonie Remix) as well, here.

Pump, pump the jams!

If you know me at all you know that I just finished performing in West Side Story with a local theater company. I am so in love with that show and with my cast. Here I am with my boys rocking the end of "Jet Song" and awkwardly grabbing my crotch for no apparent reason.

As I watched the Grammy's the other night I was really impressed by a some of the performances (Lady Gaga with Elton John, Beyonce, Pink, the Dave Matthews Band) but I kept thinking about two things the have been bothering me about popular music lately. First, where have all the men gone? I'm all for girl power but I really have been craving a strong masculine push in music in the past year. (See "Forever" below for what I hope is the beginning of a masculinity trend, especially Eminem's verse... He just puts cherry on top of an already great track.) Secondly, can autotune please go away for a while? Cher was light years ahead of everyone when she did it in 1998. It's time to play instruments again, "musicians."

This is what I've been listening to in the past few weeks.

Recent jams:

Remixes:

Happy New Year

First things first. At some point I may begrudgingly change my mind on this subject but for now, let me just say this: It is "two-thousand ten." Not "twenty-ten." And definitely not "oh-ten," whatever that nonsense is.

Once, while pondering my life after a horrendous break-up, one of my best friends gave me some advice that changed my outlook not only on the break-up, but in every aspect of my life. I had said something to him along the lines of, "I'm not sure what to do with myself now." He quickly responded, "Be a better friend. Be a better son, a better brother. Be a better worker. Take all of the love and positive energy you were putting into your relationship with him and put it back into the ones who are still here for you." With this advice as my guide I start 2010. Thanks, Jake.

Down with 2009!

I've been reminiscing a lot today, and as I do so I can't stop thinking about how grateful I am for my family and friends. In a lot of ways this has been a really challenging year for me. I've lost a lot of people that have been incredibly important in shaping the person I've become, and without the friends and family I still have around I don't think I would have made it to this holiday season with the sense of emotional stability I have today. That said, I've also grown a lot on my own and I'm really thankful I've had the chance to do that, even if most of that growth was caused by pain. Hopefully it's laid a good foundation for the coming years.

As I reminisce I remember all of the music that was important to me in 2009. This is my song of the year:

(P.S. How amazing is that freeze frame?!)

Songbird

"Songbird" by Fleetwood Mac is my absolute theme song right now, especially after I did a little research and found this quote from Christine McVie, who wrote the song: ["Songbird" is] "about nobody and everybody... In retrospect, it's like an anthem... A little prayer of sorts."

Purpose

I try to find beauty in every day but sometimes I forget, or I get caught up in the negative things surrounding me. This blog is intended to be documentation and, perhaps, a forum for random inspiration.

With that said, here is my first post. I don't normally enjoy rhyming poetry but this poem has always made me smile.

Ode

Arthur O'Shaughnessy

We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world’s great cities.
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire’s glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song’s measure
Can trample an empire down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth.
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself with our mirth;
And o’erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world’s worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.