Oh what little did I know that Hanson/HelloGoodbye tour dates would be posted yesterday. I assumed they would be up later this week, but Monday? That's just amazing.
The insanity began already with people rushing to get in touch with friends they haven't seen in months to see who can stay with whom and who can car pool with whom to the next show. Flight arrangements, hotel arrangements and the like are already made. I think Hanson fans can make a strong argument for being event planners. Not only do we arrange the travel of our own and friends across the country we do it all under the limitations of work and school schedules and various budgets. Some friends have already been discounted as lost causes while other friends who usually can't be relied upon are stepping up to the plate. The beauty of tour, we are all for this month, sisters with a common mission. Musical bliss and avoiding the insanity.
The tour this year is the "Use Your Sole" tour. A nice twist on words.
Lyric for the day: Early in the morning I am reminded how few things change, we've been through it every time it's the same old phrase. Never should have said it, but you should know what I ment to say, so we're back on the rocks, we've been here before will it ever stop? I've tried to change, but we're gonna fight so we can make it right.
Living in the moment we fight the thought of the everyday, monday morning in twenty twenty it seems so clear. Even though I see it, give into weakness and wind up here. So we're back on the rocks, been here before will it ever stop? I've tried to change but we're gonna fight so we can make it right. I'm not giving up.
I'm not giving up. If I give in to reason then I'd stop believing and just move on, I can't move on. So we're back on the rocks, we've been here before will it ever stop, I've tried to change but we're gonna fight so we can make it right.
I like it on the rocks. I'll take it on the rocks. So we can make it right.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Believe
Monday, July 13, 2009
Ne me Quitte Pas!
A little French in honor of Bastille Day!
Saturday was a busy crazy day, full of lazy day activities but there was always something going on!
Saturday morning Mom came over and took the Walk with me and Von in Tower Grove Park. Takethewalk is an organization that encourages people to take simple actions to create a large impact in someone else's life. We hear all the time about the huge problems of AIDS and poverty but because the numbers are so huge and we're so far removed from the location we shake our heads and go on with our lives, relegating the problem to governments that are too tied up in red tape to do anything about it. But if we go out and DO something. If we look at the situation and realize that we can help even a handful of people then the problem isn't as huge, if we're all taking charge of helping five or six people (because it doesn't cost that much to save a life $1.50 a day for a month will provide the medicine a woman needs to prevent passing AIDS on to her unborn child. Total cost to save that life $45. )
But it takes us doing something to help. It takes us donating to the largest hospital in the world. It takes us paying for a months worth of communication between doctors and patients. It takes us buying a pair of shoes so that company can put a pair of shoes on the feet of a child who doesn't own any. It takes us buying a water bottle from the Blood:Water Project so they can drill a water well so a child doesn't have to walk ten miles to get water. It takes us buying a shirt so a school can be built that will give children a lifeline to a safer, healthier life so they can lift up their family and pay it forward.
The amazing thing about takethewalk.net is that you already see, already know, that the little things we've done have added up. Since 2005, the collective actions of thousands doing small things (purchasing a $1 download, buying a pair of Toms Shoes, etc) have already funded a school that will help end the cycle, we've put shoes on the feet of 50,000 kids, we've given over 250 babies the chance to see their third birthday. This isn't the work I've done, I've helped but it's the small actions of thousands that's made a huge difference in lives of others.
Africa and AIDS isn't a daunting thought anymore. Africa and AIDS is an achievable goal. That's awesome. So Take the Walk.
After the Walk, Mom Drew and I went to Soulard market. The Farmers Market is a staple of St. Louis. It's one of the things that makes every foodies to do list when they're in town. I see why. We happened upon it on Bastille day so the flea market feel was all the more robust. Soulard Park was home to the Bastille Day Festival, complete with live music and more shops. We didn't stick around for that, but were glad to pick up on the extra hype at the Farmer's Market.
Bastille Day has been an topic of confusion apparently. I forget not everyone took French in high school and that not every one is from (and relishes the fact) a French colonized city. Bastille Day is the day the French stormed the Bastille Prison (home to political adversaries and reformers who King Louis XVI felt were a threat) and freed the prisoners. The storming of the Bastille marked the beginning of the bloody French Revolution. The French Revolution brought new fame to guillotine used to behead French royalty, nobility and their sympathizers.
But Drew picked up three bags of veggies and breads on this day for less than ten dollars, so I'm enjoying the thought "Let them eat cake" because it looks like our cake will be Zucchini bread! Yum!
Mom went home, and Drew and I went out for dinner at the City Diner. Then we headed out to Walmart where I ran into a college roommate of mine, Zee. Surprisingly, Zee moved to St. Louis and had been meaning to look me up... but we saw each other in the parking lot at Walmart. Funny because that's where I seem to meet a lot of my friends. Drew and I proceeded to shop for cookie supplies and kick knacks for the living room so that I can claim a corner in the name of me. I still haven't quite figured that one out yet... but I think I have a plan...
Headed home, I fell in love with Castle Crashers a game on Drew's X Box and I spent a good deal of time playing on Sunday too. We had a random cleaning fit around 10 and when three am rolled around the thought "hey we should be sleeping" jumped out at us and we gave up for the night.
Sunday was another day for cleaning and we took the opportunity to crack open the windows and enjoy the thunderstorms.
Viva La Revolution!
Saturday was a busy crazy day, full of lazy day activities but there was always something going on!
Saturday morning Mom came over and took the Walk with me and Von in Tower Grove Park. Takethewalk is an organization that encourages people to take simple actions to create a large impact in someone else's life. We hear all the time about the huge problems of AIDS and poverty but because the numbers are so huge and we're so far removed from the location we shake our heads and go on with our lives, relegating the problem to governments that are too tied up in red tape to do anything about it. But if we go out and DO something. If we look at the situation and realize that we can help even a handful of people then the problem isn't as huge, if we're all taking charge of helping five or six people (because it doesn't cost that much to save a life $1.50 a day for a month will provide the medicine a woman needs to prevent passing AIDS on to her unborn child. Total cost to save that life $45. )
But it takes us doing something to help. It takes us donating to the largest hospital in the world. It takes us paying for a months worth of communication between doctors and patients. It takes us buying a pair of shoes so that company can put a pair of shoes on the feet of a child who doesn't own any. It takes us buying a water bottle from the Blood:Water Project so they can drill a water well so a child doesn't have to walk ten miles to get water. It takes us buying a shirt so a school can be built that will give children a lifeline to a safer, healthier life so they can lift up their family and pay it forward.
The amazing thing about takethewalk.net is that you already see, already know, that the little things we've done have added up. Since 2005, the collective actions of thousands doing small things (purchasing a $1 download, buying a pair of Toms Shoes, etc) have already funded a school that will help end the cycle, we've put shoes on the feet of 50,000 kids, we've given over 250 babies the chance to see their third birthday. This isn't the work I've done, I've helped but it's the small actions of thousands that's made a huge difference in lives of others.
Africa and AIDS isn't a daunting thought anymore. Africa and AIDS is an achievable goal. That's awesome. So Take the Walk.
After the Walk, Mom Drew and I went to Soulard market. The Farmers Market is a staple of St. Louis. It's one of the things that makes every foodies to do list when they're in town. I see why. We happened upon it on Bastille day so the flea market feel was all the more robust. Soulard Park was home to the Bastille Day Festival, complete with live music and more shops. We didn't stick around for that, but were glad to pick up on the extra hype at the Farmer's Market.
Bastille Day has been an topic of confusion apparently. I forget not everyone took French in high school and that not every one is from (and relishes the fact) a French colonized city. Bastille Day is the day the French stormed the Bastille Prison (home to political adversaries and reformers who King Louis XVI felt were a threat) and freed the prisoners. The storming of the Bastille marked the beginning of the bloody French Revolution. The French Revolution brought new fame to guillotine used to behead French royalty, nobility and their sympathizers.
But Drew picked up three bags of veggies and breads on this day for less than ten dollars, so I'm enjoying the thought "Let them eat cake" because it looks like our cake will be Zucchini bread! Yum!
Mom went home, and Drew and I went out for dinner at the City Diner. Then we headed out to Walmart where I ran into a college roommate of mine, Zee. Surprisingly, Zee moved to St. Louis and had been meaning to look me up... but we saw each other in the parking lot at Walmart. Funny because that's where I seem to meet a lot of my friends. Drew and I proceeded to shop for cookie supplies and kick knacks for the living room so that I can claim a corner in the name of me. I still haven't quite figured that one out yet... but I think I have a plan...
Headed home, I fell in love with Castle Crashers a game on Drew's X Box and I spent a good deal of time playing on Sunday too. We had a random cleaning fit around 10 and when three am rolled around the thought "hey we should be sleeping" jumped out at us and we gave up for the night.
Sunday was another day for cleaning and we took the opportunity to crack open the windows and enjoy the thunderstorms.
Viva La Revolution!
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Rockin' the Suburbs
My right ear is still ringing.
Went to the Paramore/ No Doubt concert last night with Von. It was amazing. Paramore was better than I was assuming they would be, but as usual if you go in with low expectations.... So I was impressed.
No Doubt was truely awesome. Gwen is an awesome showman, and the rest of the band keeps up, together it was a show that was worth every cent I paid to go and sweat my butt off in this heat. I was amazed by how much of their music I closely associated with my youth. I mean, it's No Doubt... I knew I know a lot of their stuff and I knew I would go "Oh I remember when this came out" but I never realized how much of their music matched moments in my life and still fits, almost more so now than ever. "Simple Kind of Life" in particular is an amazing truth of what I wanted and where I wound up. Maybe if I had listened to Gwen things would be different, maybe.
That aside. There were some really dedicated fans behind us on the lawn. People who wistled so loudly I felt my ear drums rattle, blood vesels rupture and I fought the urge to turn around and smack them. I'm all for yelling at concerts (in fact I'm proud of how loud the St. Louis crowd gets for Hanson, I take it as a badge of honor that they released songs recorded in St. Louis to their fan club) but when you're loud enough that people in front of you plug their ears and duck when you start to whistle/scream you might need to redirect that sound. I can still hear ringing in my ear and it still hurts. Thanks people behind me. And thanks for complaining loudly that it was the longest encoure you've ever seen and leaving before the last song. I was able to enjoy "Sunday Morning" much more without you there.
I'm dreaming of other concerts this summer (Cheap Trick, Styx, Trace Adkins, Weezer) but I know I can't afford it. So next summer when my life settles down I'll have more time and money for these shows, for now I await the next Vandeventer concert in Tulsa.
Went to the Paramore/ No Doubt concert last night with Von. It was amazing. Paramore was better than I was assuming they would be, but as usual if you go in with low expectations.... So I was impressed.
No Doubt was truely awesome. Gwen is an awesome showman, and the rest of the band keeps up, together it was a show that was worth every cent I paid to go and sweat my butt off in this heat. I was amazed by how much of their music I closely associated with my youth. I mean, it's No Doubt... I knew I know a lot of their stuff and I knew I would go "Oh I remember when this came out" but I never realized how much of their music matched moments in my life and still fits, almost more so now than ever. "Simple Kind of Life" in particular is an amazing truth of what I wanted and where I wound up. Maybe if I had listened to Gwen things would be different, maybe.
That aside. There were some really dedicated fans behind us on the lawn. People who wistled so loudly I felt my ear drums rattle, blood vesels rupture and I fought the urge to turn around and smack them. I'm all for yelling at concerts (in fact I'm proud of how loud the St. Louis crowd gets for Hanson, I take it as a badge of honor that they released songs recorded in St. Louis to their fan club) but when you're loud enough that people in front of you plug their ears and duck when you start to whistle/scream you might need to redirect that sound. I can still hear ringing in my ear and it still hurts. Thanks people behind me. And thanks for complaining loudly that it was the longest encoure you've ever seen and leaving before the last song. I was able to enjoy "Sunday Morning" much more without you there.
I'm dreaming of other concerts this summer (Cheap Trick, Styx, Trace Adkins, Weezer) but I know I can't afford it. So next summer when my life settles down I'll have more time and money for these shows, for now I await the next Vandeventer concert in Tulsa.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Lay Me Down
I went to Tulsa for Independence Day. What better way to celebrate our freedom than to get away from the world? As usual I took what should have been a quiet relaxing and fun trip out of town and turned it into another quandary on life and what's really important. (Mom usually claims that when I do this I'm over analyzing. I probably am, but what can you do about it?)
But as I got into Oklahoma I was quickly reminded that this land is home to countless numbers of Native Indian tribes that weren't in this part of the country before my ancestors got here. A sign for the first city along the Will Rodger's Turnpike, Miami, claims that we should visit because it's home to "8 Native Tribes". Eight tribes. That's eight tribes who didn't used to live right on top of each other. Eight tribes who used to be unique and are now lumped in as the number one reason to visit, a tourist attraction, kind of like a life sized zoo.
As usual, I see this sign and note to myself that I won't be visiting anytime soon. But as I get further down the pike I enter the Cherokee Nation. And I can't say that I don't cry every time. If you take side roads through the Nation you'll find a lot of the stereotypical run down homes, and you'll find the liquor stores, but you'll also find good homes, good people and tradition clung to so tightly that you almost can't tell John Ross traded everything he raised to be to get the US to leave his people in peace.
So I find myself wondering, what tradition/religion is it that this generation is clinging too? What will help us keep our identity when we find ourselves relocated and our best laid plans fall asunder? What's our passion? And what really ties this country, this nation together? I can't say that I have an answer.
On a whim my egnostic brother bought me C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. I'm sure at the time the only thought he had was, "I think she likes C.S. Lewis and I don't think I've seen this one in her room". But what he gave me was much more than just a book. The book brings to light the difference between claiming that you follow traditions and actually following them. Lewis talks about a Christian who is Christian in motion alone and not in belief or in truth at all. I'm starting to believe that today's American celibrates holidays for the motions of tradition alone and has no true reverence or comprehention of why we celibrate.
Freedom has become an assumed way of life, it is taken for granted and we assume the rest of the world is "free" as well. But we've lost the definition of the word and have lost the value of it. Somewhere along the line we have forgoten what it cost to gain it and what it cost those we've taken it away from. Freedom has become a word written in red, white and blue but no one looses their breath over the blood that flows from the innocents who fight for it. We shout for the freedom of countries half a world away but believe it should cost us and those we fight for nothing. Have we forgotten the thousands who gave their lives, on the battle field or sitting at a congressional desk, for our freedoms? Have we forgotten the thousands who fought for their own as we stole their land?
Until we can understand the cost of our freedoms and can celibrate soberly the holidays and traditions of our people I don't believe this generation will ever really stand as one, and this house will remain divided. No longer are we divided by the Mason-Dixie line, now we are divided by those who care and those who don't.
Independence Day is not about fireworks and who had the best barbeque or the best red,white and blue shot at the bar. Independence Day is about this Nation banding together to stand for what is right, what is just. Independence Day is about cherishing what we have inherited from our fathers (and mothers) and working to make it better.
But to improve what we have, we first must learn to embrace what we have been given. By God, at least sincerly thank a Veteran.
But as I got into Oklahoma I was quickly reminded that this land is home to countless numbers of Native Indian tribes that weren't in this part of the country before my ancestors got here. A sign for the first city along the Will Rodger's Turnpike, Miami, claims that we should visit because it's home to "8 Native Tribes". Eight tribes. That's eight tribes who didn't used to live right on top of each other. Eight tribes who used to be unique and are now lumped in as the number one reason to visit, a tourist attraction, kind of like a life sized zoo.
As usual, I see this sign and note to myself that I won't be visiting anytime soon. But as I get further down the pike I enter the Cherokee Nation. And I can't say that I don't cry every time. If you take side roads through the Nation you'll find a lot of the stereotypical run down homes, and you'll find the liquor stores, but you'll also find good homes, good people and tradition clung to so tightly that you almost can't tell John Ross traded everything he raised to be to get the US to leave his people in peace.
So I find myself wondering, what tradition/religion is it that this generation is clinging too? What will help us keep our identity when we find ourselves relocated and our best laid plans fall asunder? What's our passion? And what really ties this country, this nation together? I can't say that I have an answer.
On a whim my egnostic brother bought me C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. I'm sure at the time the only thought he had was, "I think she likes C.S. Lewis and I don't think I've seen this one in her room". But what he gave me was much more than just a book. The book brings to light the difference between claiming that you follow traditions and actually following them. Lewis talks about a Christian who is Christian in motion alone and not in belief or in truth at all. I'm starting to believe that today's American celibrates holidays for the motions of tradition alone and has no true reverence or comprehention of why we celibrate.
Freedom has become an assumed way of life, it is taken for granted and we assume the rest of the world is "free" as well. But we've lost the definition of the word and have lost the value of it. Somewhere along the line we have forgoten what it cost to gain it and what it cost those we've taken it away from. Freedom has become a word written in red, white and blue but no one looses their breath over the blood that flows from the innocents who fight for it. We shout for the freedom of countries half a world away but believe it should cost us and those we fight for nothing. Have we forgotten the thousands who gave their lives, on the battle field or sitting at a congressional desk, for our freedoms? Have we forgotten the thousands who fought for their own as we stole their land?
Until we can understand the cost of our freedoms and can celibrate soberly the holidays and traditions of our people I don't believe this generation will ever really stand as one, and this house will remain divided. No longer are we divided by the Mason-Dixie line, now we are divided by those who care and those who don't.
Independence Day is not about fireworks and who had the best barbeque or the best red,white and blue shot at the bar. Independence Day is about this Nation banding together to stand for what is right, what is just. Independence Day is about cherishing what we have inherited from our fathers (and mothers) and working to make it better.
But to improve what we have, we first must learn to embrace what we have been given. By God, at least sincerly thank a Veteran.
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