the world is bright and beautiful

This is dedicated to some very special people. You know who you are.

Coldplay have, after spending quite a bit of time flying under the radar, dropped a new single! Available as a free download from coldplay.com, Violet Hill is a very interesting re-entry for the band. If this single is a good indication, the upcoming album “Viva la Vida” is going to be very enjoyable. The band are departing somewhat from the borderline-unbearably happy riffs and hooks that we know and love; here we see a migration towards a heavier, darker sonic landscape. I am very fond of the way the track almost skips through, making you unsure if you’re hearing drum machines, a kit, or both. The fuzzy guitars are a brilliant change of pace from Johnny Buckland’s typical sparkle tones; gone is the single-guitar hook, (a la “In My Place, Yellow, Talk, etc…) Violet Hill’s Buckland proves to be significantly darker and way, way more atmospheric in approach. I think this single is really killer with it’s stutter-step pacing, Edgy guitars and…what? A Coldplay guitar solo? Yes, my friends. A Coldplay guitar solo. “Viva La Vida” is set to drop ins the US on June 16, and based on the single, I’m pretty excited for the record. Your thoughts?

Man. Mott the Hoople is so good to hear it! I’ve spent the morning enjoying 1972’s “All The Young Dudes,” and it’s just so good. The guitars are ahead-of-their-time heavy, the melodies are so danged anthemic, and David Bowie wrote the title track! What more could you want? The album’s only real downfall is the fact that it doesn’t serve cocktails while you listen to it. Anyways, now that I’m done geeking everywhere, let me tell you about my new loves:

• Facebook chat. I come alive on late-night IM, people. Some of the best conversations of my life have occur ed over IM, including the time I [successfully!] told  my roommate’s cousin that I was an El Salvadorian student having a hard time adjusting to the English language, (I want french fries but I order chicken fingers by mistake,) and pursuing thin-figured American women. It was one of the best times in my life.
• Mott the Hoople, but you already knew that.
• WordPress stats. I love being able to keep track of this stuff; for example, my views have plummeted mercilessly from last week’s high of 142 to a confidence-shattering 23, but my authority is climbing. Climbing!
• Bulleted lists. In fact, my love for bulleted lists can only be matched by my zealous enthusiasm for numbered lists, as recent posts will show.

Tell me: is my love for lists a delightful quirk, or the shadow of something far more sinister? Hints of dementia?

So, last night actually turned out to be a really, really good night. The work meeting was pretty fun, and I had a chance to get up and talk in front of around 500 people. I have to admit that when I get up in front of people, I feel like I’m on fire, NBA Jam style. My legs shake and I feel like vomiting, but I also feel madly bummed out when it’s finally over and I have to relinquish the microphone. It was also fun to ride up with a couple friends from work. I was able to successfully ruin Damien Rice’s song “Blower’s Daughter,” by letting my crew know it was the first song I ever made out to. (Try to enjoy that song now!) I was also able to forever ruin Taking Back Sunday by…well, playing TBS and plunging us all back into the angst-punk emotions of our younger years. However, the night closed well with all of us pulling in at 10:45 singing “When You Were Young” at the top of our lungs. It was a night well spent, in spite of my complaining.

I’m about to head to a work meeting; I am furious about it. Less than 20 minutes ago, my car was very close to not starting in the parking lot of a Safeway to which I had longed ago wished never to return. I would rather sit in a parking lot, wait for a tow truck, go to small group and walk to work from now on then waste my life at this meeting. Some days, not even Sleeping at Last can fully pull you out of the crapper.

“When the world welcomes us in,
We’re closer to Heaven than we’ll ever know.
They say this place has changed,
But strip away all of the technology
And you will see
That we all are hunters,
Hunting for something that will make us okay.

Here we lay alone in hospital beds,
Tracing life in our heads;
But all that is left
Is that this was our entrance and now it’s our exit,
As we find our way home.

All the blood and all the sweat
That we invested to be loved
Follows us into our end,
Where we begin to understand

That we are made of love,
And all the beauty stemming from it.
We are made of love,
And every fracture caused by the lack of it.

“You were a million years of work,”
Said God and His angels, with needle and thread.
They kissed your head and said,
“You’re a good kid and you make us proud.
So just give your best and the rest will come,
And we’ll see you soon.”

All the blood and all the sweat
That we invested to be loved
Follows us into our end,
Where we begin to understand

That maybe Hollywood was right:
When the credits have rolled and the tears have dried,
The answers that we have been dying to find
Are all pieced together and, somehow, 
Made perfectly mine.

We are made of love,
And all the beauty stemming from it.
We are made of love,
And every fracture caused by the lack of love”

I need to take a moment to reflect here. I do not in the least bit understand my obsession with The Killers. But God as my witness, they make my absolute favorite, favorite music. The reaction I get in my guts and feet whenever a Killers track comes on…man, I’ll freak you out. 3 things you need to understand about me and The Killers.

1. If I could find a drummer, bassist, and guitarist as Killers-crazy as myself, I would start a cover band and play nothing but the “Sam’s Town” album through. Yes, that is weird. We would be called Muerte.
2. You know the 16-year-old girls you always see in old Beatles footage? The girls with their hands in the air who cry and scream when John, Paul, George or (to a lesser extent,) Ringo appear? I’m that girl. Or boy. Only it’s when Brandon, Mark, Dave, and Ronnie appear. 
3. One of my greatest dreams is to write a musical (not “rock opera,”) based entirely on Killers music. Love and murder in Las Vegas; you couldn’t have asked for better material. 

I understand my love for The Killers is largely foreign and irrational to most of you. I’m bewildered by it myself. But doggone it, it is my favorite, favorite band. Thank you.

So, yesterday I failed to blog. At all. I feel like less of a person when I don’t get a post in (because, lets be honest, people who don’t blog are lesser people.) But yesterday was a freaking blogworthy day! Hosh and I spent time traversing the lands of Home Depot, enjoying the local russian culture (Pudge Bros,) and Red Boxing our little hearts out. And thanks to our local Albertson’s representative, we procured a bottle of Tabasco for 25 cents! A million f#$@ing diamonds! But the highlight of the day was getting to hear the new Death Cab single. About this time every year I re-discover my love for DCFC, and I realize that out of my entire collection, “Transatlaticism” and “Plans” are 2 absolutely essential albums for me. I have to have both of those records in their entirety ready to play at a moment’s notice. 

I also had fun playing “Doom” on Hoshi’s PC. (The only good reason to torrent,) and then we watched “Juno” and “3:10 to Yuma.” I really enjoy “Juno,” I think it’s a freaking good movie, and “3:10″ was awesome, though my faith in humanity is shaken by the fact that the best Cowboy actors we could rustle up are an Aussie and a Brit. There’s something not right about that. 

So, wordpress has this neat little feature that, when you roll your mouse over a link, a little window pops up with a graphic preview of the linked page, and a set of buzzwords (”tags,” to the avid blogger,) along the bottom that apparently coincide with the content of said page. However, when I moved my mouse over the link to my old band, Cameron At Bay, these are the tags that appeared:

Free translation    Worship Music     Mark Thomas     Italian Food.

That wordpress has us pretty much pegged, because the next time I rolled over, “Narcissism” was the first tag to appear. I love technology.

Once again, it is a beautiful day here in the glorious DTC. Yesterday was, undoubtedly, off the chain. I discovered the love that is facebook chat, ate a spicy cheddar dog from Circle K, and delighted in the retardation of good friends. The highlight though, was for sure the rehearsal session I had with Mark (avid blogger,) PA(dead link at this point,) and Carlos (non-blogger.)We took PA and Mark’s original tunes and began the process of brainstorming and tweaking. Allow me to say that what was already great material has begun the journey towards full on “OMG” status. I have never played or heard anything that absolutely phenomenal in my life. Cameron At Bay’s Marquis show was a close rival, but may not really stack up. I am absolutely stoked off my gourd to be living out God’s call on my life here at ORCC and with Elevate. This place rocks.

Things I’m stoked about for today:

• The weather. I laughed on my way to church that I feel very awkward and out of place in the sunshine. Where’s my jacket? Why am I not shivering? What is this?
• The blog “Stuff Christians Like,” namely for the “porn post,” and for saying “Even if that meal spent an hour too long in your hot belly, it’s OK. You won’t burn it. You won’t hurt it. Your love is tender,” when discussing Crock Pots.
• Accountability with Peter Colon. A huge blessing, but lets face it: accountability sucks. The whole point of doing things you don’t want people to know about is that PEOPLE WON’T KNOW ABOUT IT. Still awesome.
• Catalyst. Because Catalyst is where it’s at. Wednesday nights, 7pm. You belong.

 I am in a good mood. This is a good day.