Parenthetically Yours

Favorite Things Friday

So, let's see. It's been a month. I honestly never meant to go this long without writing. But, alas, no one is paying me to do this so you can all get over it. All ten of you out there. See? You're already over it.

There has to be a great spiritual metaphor in here somewhere about best intentions vs. quantifiable actions...but today isn't the day for that.  It's Friday (again) and it's time to kick the weekend off right. Or left.

AMOS LEE

I realize that Mr. Lee is not new news, but here in the Williams house, Katie has inexplicably become obsessed with his song, "Arms of a Woman." I've always been impressed with his voice, but I always filed him away as the male Norah Jones. Plus, who knows how someone actually sings anymore with all the computer-aided correction that happens on 99% of records made these days. I hate to burst your bubble, but Taylor Swift can't sing very well. She can write a good song and wear a dress well...but sing? Not on your life. So, when Katie and I discovered these homemade videos on YouTube, we were transfixed. The guy has deep soul. 

The first video is laid back, like the recording, but delicate. The second video is the same song, but greasy and with attitude--a totally different vibe, but similarly mesmerizing. Notice how his notes are effortless, coming from somewhere other than simply breath and vocal chords, beyond thought. His talent is a genuine, real gift that only comes along every so often and, unfortunately, rarely shows up on pop charts. Think Stevie Wonder, Alecia Keys, Al Green, Jeff Buckley, and Merle Haggard. Old soul, brewing up from hidden places. They all have (had) it. So does Amos Lee.

SURPRISE WEDDING ENTRANCES 

I love this kind of stuff. Try not to enjoy it. Try not to actually feel like those in attendence. Go on. Try. 

MOVING

Ok. That one is sort of a joke. I don't like moving. We're moving this week from our cute downtown cottage to a nicer, newer condo a mile away. Yes, we're leaving the creaky old house (and requisite spiders and poor insulation) for new digs. I love the process of going through our stuff and throwing and giving away things that take up space. It's incredibly therapeutic to simplify and streamline your possessions. Anybody want 10 years of old SPIN magazines?

PUNS

If you know me, you know I love puns. This morning I asked Katie what would happen if such-and-such happened. She said, "I'd have a cow." I said, "Don't do that because then our first child would be a cow." With zero delay she said, "But we could name her Moo-lissa." AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. 

Yessssss! 

(rw)

Favorite Things Friday - MONO CASE!

I'm not usually one for blatant promotion. Oh, wait. I totally am. That's what Favorite Things Friday is all about. 

From time to time I like to mention a cool piece of gear that I've run across...like this week. For those of you who aren't musicians, don't tune out. I'm sure there's a musician lurking around your family or friends...and don't they have a birthday coming up? 

This week, I'm all about MONO CASE. If any of you have ever travelled with a guitar in a gig bag, then you understand why I get so nervous when I fly. I have literally $1,000s of dollars invested in my guitars so that's reason enough to get skittish. Now, put those expensive guitars in a case that has no hard edges and no bracing to protect the neck. It's not that big of a deal, as long as I have control over my bag. Back in the day, I could check up to three things, but now I have to simplify and carry-on as much as possible. Even then, half the time I have to hand my darlings over to a a burly bag handler who would like nothing more than to set them gently under a 500 lb steamer trunk. It's enough to make me want to take up a cheaper profession. And Kung Fu.

About two months ago, my buddy Barry Graul showed up on tour with his new Mono Case. It looked like something out of Star Trek and I knew instantly I needed one, but one that carried two guitars. He said the company was working on a new double gig bag and it would be out soon. Well...SOON is here!

Gorgeous! 

Even if you're not a musician, you have to appreciate the design. It just looks awesome and say, "I do this for a living." Is that a little smug? Maybe.

The best feature, however, to me is definitely the neck brace. Now, I won't have to be scared to check it. As long as the neck isn't moving around, I can hand the case to the burly baggage beast with confidence.

Like I said earlier, you don't have to be a musician to love the cases. In fact, they have a pretty awesome line of messenger bags/cases if you travel with a laptop, headphones, books, etc. It will definitely make you stand out in the coffee shop or airport. And let's be honest, isn't it kinda cool to be the guy/gal with the coolest looking bag? Is that just me?

Click on MONO CASE to see everything I'm talking about. Tell 'em Randy sent ya.

(rw)

Larry Jon Wilson

I've got an unusually busy week, but I found this gem of a video that I had to share, if for no one else, for my family. If you love music, you'll love Larry Jon Wilson. I was obsessed with this guy when I was a kid when my Aunt Arleen had met him in a recording session in the 70s. There still aren't many funkier or more soulful. Talk about someone who deserved to be a superstar, but never was.

Nobody makes records like this anymore. 

Dang.

(rw)

You Had to be There

There are some things that you just “had to be there” for. The retelling doesn’t do it justice. That’s because the retelling can never satisfy the details necessary to explain why something was so funny, or epic, or sad.

For instance, all the words I could muster up could never clearly explain why it was so funny last night that my friend Lee choked on rice while laughing at Katie as she successfully guarded her tongue after burning herself and dropping a pan of brownies. You'd have to know that Lee also choked on a noodle a few months ago while sitting at the same dinner table. You'd also need to know that he'd just hit his funny bone so hard it put him in the floor with a numb arm. Epic, funny stuff. 

Also,if you happened to be at this year’s Gospel Music Association’s Dove Awards, you know that if you weren't there, you wouldn’t have been able to understand just how poignant and brutal Steven Curtis Chapman’s performance of “Cinderella” was. For those who don’t know, "Cinderella" is SCC’s song written for and about his adopted daughter Maria, who tragically died several months after the release of the song. 

If you were there in the audience, though, you would’ve known that during a commercial break, singer Donnie McClurkin came onto the stage, got our attention, and made an announcement that Aaron and Amanda Crabb were rushing to the emergency room because their two year old daughter had just fallen from a window and that it didn’t look good. We in the audience were shell-shocked. We prayed, we whispered, we prayed a again for little Eva. Then I noticed that the stagehands were setting up Steven’s band. I recognized his son Caleb tuning his guitar. There was his other son Will adjusting his drumset. Will is the son who was driving the vehicle that Maria ran in front of that fateful afternoon. I thought, “Surely he’s not about to come out and sing that song.” Sure enough. He did.

We were stunned and silent. Honestly, it was too much. Not a dry eye. In spirit, we were in two places at once: on the stage with him and in that ambulance headed to the hospital with the Crabb family. When it was over, we stood for well over a minute with a mixture of tears and applause. It was the defining moment of a show that was, quite frankly, void of meaning. But in that moment, the Dove Awards show was transcendent, and ironically, sacred. It took on a depth and weight that is never present or expected at awards shows. Even tributes and memorials come off feeling put-on and manufactured. But you couldn’t have manufactured this moment, which is precisely what made it bigger than the sum of its parts.

And that’s the miracle of Providence.

But you had to be there.

(rw)

Favorite Things Friday - Good Friday Edition

In honor of Good Friday, this week's edition of Favorite Things Friday will all be Easter/Resurrection themed. Well, except one, but we'll get to that in a bit.

CARNEY "Resurrection"  There's a undiscovered genius in Los Angeles named Reeve Carney. He and his brother Zane (a ridiculous guitarist) have a bandly aptly named Carney. I happened to catch one of their famed shows at L.A. Molly Malone's on Melrose Ave a few years back and was shell-shocked and speechless...and that's putting it mildly. It was kind of a big deal. What's even better is that they're all sold-out, crazy Christians. They're making unbelievably passionate and genius art that is dripping with the Gospel, but it sounds NOTHING like what you would hear on Christian radio stations. Thankfully. Fall in love with Carney. Please. In keeping with this week's theme, here's a video of them performing their song "Resurrection." Be forwarned, it's an epic 9 minute musical free-for-all. The editing is lame and the audio is even worse. But the tag of the chorus is "It don't mean a thing without the Resurrection." The band has other better-produced videos available to watch, but search out my personal favorite "Think of You."

THIS COMMERCIAL FROM THE 80s:

 

TO BE ANNOUNCED  Ok, so this is not Resurrection themed, but it's a favorite thing this week. I'm out on a tour right now and the opening band, Addison Road, had to bail on the tour because the singer had a baby last week. We've had a few bands substitute and fill in the opening slot but tomorrow we don't have anyone to fill in. To cure this, several guys in the crew formed their own band called To Be Announced and they're opening the show. It may not sound very interesting to you guys, but it is AWESOME! These are the guys who work the hardest (first up, last to bed) and get none of the attention. A couple of guys have even made a fake documentary about this. None of what you see and hear in the documentary is true, except that they really are playing tomorrow to open the show. I give you, TO BE ANNOUNCED!!

It don't mean a thing without the Resurrection

(rw)

Favorite Things Friday - Northwest Edition

Today's Favorites come from the most beautiful part of these United States, the Pacific Northwest. I'm in all of my favorite cities this week (Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco), so it's only fitting to trump up these towns. If you're into the best culture and coffee the US has to offer, you have to come up this way at least once in your life. 

WEIRD PEOPLE - The strangest and oddest people live up here. I think it's because they didn't really fit in anywhere else, so they made their way west and when they went as far as they could without falling into the ocean, they called it a day. There also seems to be an abundance of homeless people in these cities. I don't know about you, but if I were a homeless person, I'd figure out some way to get to the NW and settle down. It's gorgeous, really liberal (lots of handouts), great bookstores (see below), with lots of free things available to the public. Make your way over to the grungy artist/musician parts of town and you'll feel that you stepped back in time, as if you just walked into a metal/goth/grunge documentary circa 1991 (completely void of hairspray). Do you like to people watch? Your eyes will be full all day in any of these cities. 

 

POWELL'S BOOKS - I have a fascination with bookstores. I'm not sure why, but somewhere in college I developed a slight obsession with them. When I'm away from home, my favorite way to pass the time is to sit in a bookstore (preferably an independent one, but I'm not picky) for a few hours reading the most random assortment of books and magazines. My favorite bookstore in all of America (and I've been to more than a few) is the crown jewel of Portland. Spanning an entire city block, Powell's is the largest independent bookstore in the world. Plus, let's say you'd like to own Jack Kerouac's personal copy of The Collected Poems of John Keats (and you have an extra $11,000), they have it in their rare books room. I've spent literal hours in this place and feel like I've only scratched the surface. 

QUEEN ANNE DISTRICT - In Seattle, most visitors head straight to Pike Place Market to see the guys throw fish, or buy fresh produce and flowers, or get a glimpse of the very first Starbucks. Or they head to Capital Hill for some funky food and people watching. Nothing wrong with any of that, but for my money (or lack thereof), I like the Queen Anne district. It's more of a neighborhood and not really a tourist destination, although it's dangerously close to the Key Arena and Space Needle, so I'm sure there are plenty of vacationers who happen to make a wrong turn, as I did when I first found this spot. Many of the condos and apartments here were originally hotels built for the 1962 World's Fair (which unveiled the Space Needle). Most have been updated, but they still have some of that retro-modern feel. My favorite places here are Caffe Ladro (best coffee in Seattle, period) and Easy Street Records, a great indie music store that has an unbelievable selection of foreign music magazines and pretentious alt-literature (which I secretly love). Hours of geeky fun on these streets.

Enjoy the weekend.

(rw)

Favorite Things Friday

It’s good to be back on the blog and to be sharing all my opinions with anyone who will listen (er…read?). Turns out, that’s about 100 people. Not enough to swing an election…but more than enough to, say, help me move. A good number. (note: no. I’m not moving. Just a figure of speech.)

It’s Friday. It’s time to let you in on my little secrets this week.

KONA COFFEE  So yeah, I went to Hawaii last week and got back this past Monday. Before I even boarded the plane in Nashville, I knew what I would be bringing back home: a tan and some Kona coffee. Only coffee grown in the Kona region of the Big Island can be labeled “kona,” therefore it’s a very limited (and expensive) coffee. On the mainland, it’s generally only available once a year (late spring) and usually fetches $30-$50/lb. I thought it would be much cheaper in Hawaii. Ha. Nothing is cheaper in Hawaii. Even sunburns have a consumption tax. I bought two 8 oz. bags (one for me, one for a friend) at $19 a pop and am a third of the way through mine. You really can tell a difference. It’s mild and mellow, like Hawaii. Even this dark roast I’m sipping this very moment has zero bitterness, but strong flavor. I’m more than a little tempted to drink this other bag and not tell my buddy I got any for him. Is that wrong?

AMERICAN IDOL  Yeah. It’s that time of the year (we’re about five or six weeks deep at this point) and I have to admit, I’m completely hooked…again. For the most part, there’s a ridiculous amount of talent on that show, year after year and my picks have won the past three years running. The top 12 was just rounded out last night (I picked 10 out of the 12 so far, thank you) and now we get into the popularity contest of it all. My picks for the final two? Lil Rounds and Danny Gokey. They both have great stories, humility, charm, and talent for days. I used to be totally ANTI-IDOL…but with my growning appreciation for David Cook, Carrie Underwood, Eliott Yamin, Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson, etc…well, you can’t argue with genuine talent. I’ll admit a few big disappointments so far this year (which I won’t mention for risk of sounding too much like a super-geeky-fanboy), but all in all, once again, Katie and I are glued to the TV every Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW. My friend Tony Lucido gave this groundbreaking book by Philip Yancey to me a little over a year ago. I’m just now picking it up to read. Why did I wait? I recommend this book to anyone who grew up going to church.

Thank you, and good night!

(rw)

Either/Or

Last night we were sitting on the couch watching the season premier of American Idol (our favorite winter/spring time sink) and it was highlights from the Phoenix auditions. A young man with a penchant for making tasteless, gory horror movies (but also seemed to have the combined estrogen of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders coursing through his veins) took his place in front of the judges. He was surprisingly good.

Katie says, "He looks like one of those goth kids...what are they called? An emu?"

Yes. An emu.

Just for reference, here's an emu:

...and here's an emo kid:

As you can see, they're practically interchangeable. 

(rw)

Favorite Things Friday!

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the first Favorite Things Friday of 2009. I'm really starting to look forward to these weekly entries because...well, I think my opinions are pretty awesome.

Ok, first up, the Timberland Frozen Coast boot. I picked these up on super-clearance at an outlet mall five days ago and haven't worn anything else since. Literally. They are the perfect winter foot accessory. Indoor, outdoor, houseshoe, workboot, etc. I may just wear these on into the summer. They have a Smartwool lining so your feet stay nice and toasty without getting all sweaty and clammy. 

Next up is Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago. This is my winter soundtrack. Bon Iver is a loose French translation for "good winter." The guy's name is Justin Vernon and the story is that after a rough breakup he holed up in a remote Wisconsin cabin with some recording equipment. For Emma, Forever Ago is the heartbreaking result.  The record is sung almost entirely in falsetto, giving it a sense of vulnerability and uncertainty. It is the sound of heartache, the sound of winter, the sound of lonliness. It's also incredibly beautifully imperfect. It's been a long time since I've heard something this raw. I can't stop listening to it. Thanks to Tony Lucido for turning me on to this EP.  Here's a couple of videos I found:

That's enough for this week. Yeah, a little heavy, but good heavy.  Hope your weekend will be as great as mine, but it won't be. Our one-year anniversary is Monday and we're celebrating all weekend. I'm out...but next week you'll be hearing about more neck pain and squirrels in our attic.

(rw)

Favorite Things Friday!

My first fave this week is my wife. Today she got up early, scraped two inches of snow and ice off the car, drove in 4-wheel-drive to work, worked a full day, managed to get 200 cds copied, Christmas cards printed, and made it to the Opry House where she's meeting her friend Adie to watch the Rockettes. How this woman manages to get it all done is beyond me. And why she likes me is an even greater mystery. I miss you! 

My second favorite thing today is college towns. I'm in Lincoln, NE today and you can't beat a good college town for great food, great music, and great shops. Austin is my favorite college town but it's followed closely (and in no particular order) by Nashville, Oxford, MS, Athens, GA, Denton, TX, Columbia, MO, State College, PA, Fayetteville, AR, and Boulder, CO.  They're always a tad funkier than most cities and you can always find great coffee, weird people, and cheap food. 

And finally, there are few things I look forward to as much as my buddy Dave Barnes' Christmas (or Balumtime-th) YouTube greetings. I'm not even gonna set it up. All you need to know is that he's a wickedly great singer/songwriter with an equally sharp sense of humor. 

(rw)