what do you get when you mix together a musician, a seed, and an assignment to make the seed grow?
let me give you the answer-
a sad musician, a dead seed, and a failed assignment.
haha k so unfortunately this is a true story. for my marriage and family class, I was asked to grow this seed and keep it alive all semester. sadly, for me, my baby seed never even sprouted!
i am reminded of a radiohead song, "fake plastic trees." (my entire radiohead repertoire has to be completely credited to my friend McKay.) (ignore the weird... i mean creative... album cover...)
so, as far as this assignment is concerned, i get another chance. do you think my teacher would notice if i... maybe just... took a little different approach? isn't college about expanding my horizons?
OH THE KILLERS! Thanks to my dear, sweet, roommate Natalie, I have been on this kick that I just can't seem to shake. In 2006, the Killers released their album Sam's Town. Absolutely brilliant. Let me tell you. Actually, don't let me tell you. Go Youtube it for yourself. Anyway, on that album is a song entitled "Why Do I Keep Counting?"
Here's a vid. watch it.
So here is what I love about the Killers. They are phenomenal. Easy enough right? So truthfully, Nat has had me listening to them for about a year, but I could never really feel it. Then one day, we sat down and watched a Blu-ray of their live concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
I was converted.
They are such musicians! They are so sensitive to musical concepts and BOY can those men feel! Passion literally emanates from the stage when they perform. I will see a Killers concert before I die.
So this song. Why Do I Keep Counting? Let's talk about it. To me, this song is Brandon Flowers, Ronnie Vanucci, Dave Keuning, and Mark Stoermer, simply pleading for help. What poets. "Father, help me get down! I can make it!" Life is hard. It's beautiful, but it's hard. Trials make us humble. Humility is what brings us to Christ.
They use the line "If I only knew the answer, I wouldn't be bothering You." I translate this to "Good thing I didn't know the answer or I wouldn't have had this opportunity to come closer to You!!!!!" The whole song is just a big, helpless, emotional prayer.
In pursuit of an incredibly witty title, I searched a thesaurus for words related to stories. An online dictionary told me that an exploit is an act or deed--especially a brilliant or heroic one. The second major definition was (when used as a verb) to make use of selfishly or unethically. Now, my intention is to adhere to the former, because I believe music to be among the most brilliant acts being constantly created by man. A musician, Bunting, describes, "Musical rhythms and tensions seem to mirror the flow of feeling within us in a direct, non-verbal and non-illustrative way. Most of us would consider this music's most important quality and it is not a thinking process but a feeling one."
Thus begins my pilgrimage.
K. Too many words. Let me tell you stories from my life. They will also be about music. Is everybody ok with that?
