Right now I am writing this blog post from UW-Sheboygan! I have a half hour before my first class begins, so I decided to kill some time by working on this week's post!
Only problem is...as the title suggests, I'm at a loss for an idea. I had a week to think about it, but somehow within that week I haven't been able to come up with anything. Some of you have pointed out that my topics so far have been exemplarly, and for that I thank you! But for some reason this week the streak of inspiration and good ideas had fizzled out, like a can of Coke left in the fridge for too long. When you drink it it's flat, insipid and lacks that signature Coke taste and zing.
I'm not sure if you'd call it writer's block, but perhaps it's something like it! I know for certain that if I were to work on one of my stories right now I could do doubt whip something up effortlessly. So why then, can't I think of a blog post idea?
Perhaps what I'm writing is my idea! Maybe I don't need a certain topic like volunteering, or writing or music but it can be just a general idea, like having nothing to write about! I'm sure we've all been there with our own blogs or perhaps it's a looming college essay, a speech, a story you were hoping to work on...or any number of things. We sit down with every intention of writing something but...instead of cruising blithely down the proverbial literary highway we instead find ourselves with a flat or an overheated engine. Thus we are stalled on that highway, forced to submit to the shoulder where writer's block is waiting, like a bear in the woods.
Of course a thousand ideas ran through my head at the time, but not of them suited me. Like I mentioned before, I'm harder on myself than anyone else. Sound familiar? When I write my blog post the topic I write about has to fit the bill so to speak. I also have to make sure I'll have enough to write about where that topic is concerned! So when I logged onto the computer today with the full intention of writing a blog post...and nothing came, you can imagine my frustration.
But, you might be thinking, something did come. Look at what you've written so far! And of course, you'd be right. But I find it hard to convince myself that I indeed wrote about anything! To me this blog post is just a rambling commentary on my habits as a writer and the infamous writer's block that plagues us all. Even if you don't see it that way, I know I do.
In a half hour I'll be going to my Creative Writing class. After taking one online during the Fall semester I'm excited for this second class. Albeit I still face it with a hinting of trepidation like that bite of spice in your food that's just hot enough to burn your tongue, but yet not set it on fire. The professor warned us that the writing would be constant, which is something I strive for despite my somewhat-busy schedule. I believe if you take time to write a little bit every day, no matter the substance or quantity of it, you'll be better off. Not only are you flexing your writer's muscle but you're also honing your skills and developing the creative side of yourself. If you're anything like me then you always have a story tossing around in your mind like a particularly tantalizing piece of candy that never looses it's allure. And when I talk about writing daily, I don't just mean a story you're currently working on. It could be part of that college essay you've been foolishly postponing, or that one article for your school's newspaper you need in by next week, or even a blog post idea that's been forming in your mind all week and your fingers consistently itch to spread it across the keys. Writing of any kind on a daily basis is a healthy exercise in many ways.
Well, after all that, perhaps I don't have writer's block after all! It just goes to show that no matter how dry you think your creative pool is, there's always something there. It may not be what you wanted or exactly what you had in mind, but in my opinion? If it's there, and you feel strongly enough to write about it...then it's worth it! So just let it out on a computer, or even with pen and paper. I can guarantee there's someone out there who will listen to it and take something from it. Maybe the only person to do so will be you, but even if that's the case you're still doing yourself a favor in putting it out there.
My class now starts roughly in fifteen minutes. I never would have guessed I'd write for fifteen minutes! Who knows? When you experience writer's block or a complete lack of ideas bobbing to the surface of your creative pool...you mind end up like me and write a whole lot of nothing, that may be a whole lot of something to someone out there. In closing, all I'll say is this...good luck to you on the proverbial literary highway. You'll experience flats and breakdowns along the way, but there's smooth sailing too. The key is finding the balance between the two.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
You can be an influence on yourself!
Have you ever had those moments where you remember a snippet of information but can't remember where you picked it up? Was it from a friend, a co-worker, or the chatty woman behind you in the fast food line? Was it on the radio, the TV or the Internet?
I guess where you picked it up isn't important. Remembering it is the real challenge! What will often happen with me is, I'll be reading, writing, cleaning or about a dozen other random things and suddenly...a word, quote, saying, funny line or joke will pop into my head out of nowhere. Does this happen to you? More than likely if it's a word I'll feel a sudden compulsion to look it up. Usually it'll be one I know but can't remember the definition for. Very vexing in my book! Often times I'll be writing and a word will pop into my mind and it'll be the perfect one I need. I love words to an extreme level and am always on the look out for new ones.
If I recall correctly I was college hunting online and was perusing a certain college's website when I stumbled upon a quote of certain notability. I'm sure we've all encountered those quotes that make us pause in our mad dash of life, force our minds to mull it over and maybe even prod our hearts to feel the emotion said quote wants to pull out of us. After all this it becomes more than a quote but a feeling, a memory, a reflection on your life, a fresh perspective on things.
One such quote for me came towards the end of my online Creative Writing class. As a whole - and perhaps this comes as no surprise! - the class was one of the most rewarding I've gone through. I loved the assignments because they challenged me and pushed me into "rooms" of my "writing mansion" which I had tentatively peeked into in the past but had never been so bold as to step into them, swinging the door wide and displacing any doubt. I credit the class with opening my mind up to the possibility of writing in third person - something I'd never tried before! - and also got me back into writing poetry, which prior the class I had never fully understood and had shied away from. The quote was one by Anne Tyler and was found in the textbook we had to read from for the class: "I write because I want to have more than one life." That is exactly how I feel. I love throwing myself into my character's worlds and feeling like I'm walking and living beside them. I love spinning entire towns, lives, neighborhood's and relationships out of nothing, and make it all seem so real to me. I love the places that books take me and how I can so easily remove myself from my own world and place myself inside a character's head. For anyone who is a writer I'm sure you can relate!
Back to the quote I mentioned at the beginning of this post, like I said before, I remember stumbling briefly upon it while perusing a college's website. Somehow, amidst the labyrinth of other college site's I delved into, the quote stuck with me, much like a word I don't know, or a certain witty line in a book while haunt me. What bothers me more than not remembering exactly where I found the quote, is that I can't recall it word for word. Which of course is something you can't naturally expect right? Apparently I never learned this. To briefly insert a most famous quote: "I am my own worst enemy." After all, there's no one harder on you than yourself right? Such quotes and human habits are two foundations upon which many of my story's characters have taken shape.
Even though the quote is vaguely floating in my mind like remnants of cigar smoke lingering around the stools at a bar after the last call I still find it notable enough to talk about in my most recent blog post. It talked about how our habits, passions, hobbies, interests and activities as children can serve as guidelines as to what we'll eventually do in life or consider as a career or make our life long passion. To give you more of an idea of what I'm talking about, I'll give you my own example of this.
When I was a child my favorite toy was a white plastic horse I got in Hardee's drive-thru. Growing up my room was running rampant with horses, and even today horses are everywhere! There's six alone on my computer desk right now! My love of horses - albeit naturally inherited in thousands of girls around the world - has led me to enroll in 4-H, drawing classes, they've inspired many of my stories, and like I've mentioned before horses were my main focus in my senior-project for high school and what led me to Sunrise Horse Farm in Reedsville where I still volunteer. I eventually hope to have a horse of my own and get riding again. It's been too long!
Another aspect that led to my current hobbies is my writing. I began writing in middle school. My first story was entitled Eye of the Storm. It revolved around the lives of two sisters and their father who lived in one tornado-prone state or another, I forget. Back then I obviously had yet to master the finer points of writing - and I'm not claiming to now it all even today! - but even when my writing was at it's most naive my teachers saw something special and worth nurturing there. Many of them told me they "knew they'd be reading my books someday". What child doesn't cling to words like that and dream? I still have those notebooks where I started that story long ago. The words are smugged, the handwriting is horrible, and the sentences are rambling and I get a good laugh out of reading it all over but I know even way back in sixth grade I had a passion for writing, and even though I literally had no idea how to go about writing a story, I tried anyway! Because there was something within me that said...you love doing this. You need to do this. It's been that way ever since. I am now looking to major in Creative Writing and am checking out different colleges in hopes of finding one with a good program.
Perhaps tying in closely with writing because of its creative aspect is graphic design. Two blog posts ago I talked about my passion for the now-disbanded Christian pop group Jump5. Their music, albeit geared towards middle schoolers and blatantly cheery, generally substance-less bubble gum pop was just plain "feel good" music and with all of that aside did present some valuable lessons and messages that any kid at that age needed to hear.
For how much I loved them, I also loved expanding on their flamboyant CD designs. I would have my Mom photo-copy them at work, then I would cut and paste them onto cardstock. I would make posters, cards, my own personalized CD covers or anything I could think of. I'm sure I'm not the only one to do such a thing. After all, haven't we all been there? We love a particular band or artist so much we emblazon their name or moniker upon everything and soon our rooms are covered in their memorabilia. I still have some of the things I made, and even won a contest when I sent in a poster I had made. I got a notebook - which I still have! - and two folders, which sit unused in one box or another in my room.
The point is, my love designing may have started with my obsession for Jump5, or even before, but today I love designing things online and will often spend hours in Word or PowerPoint designing things for the heck of it. I love making my own Christmas cards and will naturally pay attention to even the smallest details. I am somewhat of a perfectionist and curse myself when something doesn't come out to my standards. I'm naturally detail-oriented and perhaps this dominant characteristic of myself is what has fueled passions for both creative writing and graphic design. In my writing because I often pour out the details in my stories when an image of a scene pops in my mind and I inexplicably feel I have to convey every last thing, and in my graphic design because I'll add that extra flourish or little detail. I operate on the notion that if it doesn't feel done, then it probably isn't. Just like in my writing, I almost always have to stop either at a break between scenes in a chapter, or at the end of a chapter. Anywhere else and I feel like the story is too-wide open, and because I don't know when I'll return to it, it'll make it all the harder to go back and pick it up again.
Maybe you see yourself in my habits and passions, or perhaps you find yourself reflecting on your own childhood hobbies and what they've transformed into today. Look back on those hobbies and passions! Like me, you might find that you're still tapping the same vein you were back then. For all that's changed over the years in our lives, some things stay the same!
I guess where you picked it up isn't important. Remembering it is the real challenge! What will often happen with me is, I'll be reading, writing, cleaning or about a dozen other random things and suddenly...a word, quote, saying, funny line or joke will pop into my head out of nowhere. Does this happen to you? More than likely if it's a word I'll feel a sudden compulsion to look it up. Usually it'll be one I know but can't remember the definition for. Very vexing in my book! Often times I'll be writing and a word will pop into my mind and it'll be the perfect one I need. I love words to an extreme level and am always on the look out for new ones.
If I recall correctly I was college hunting online and was perusing a certain college's website when I stumbled upon a quote of certain notability. I'm sure we've all encountered those quotes that make us pause in our mad dash of life, force our minds to mull it over and maybe even prod our hearts to feel the emotion said quote wants to pull out of us. After all this it becomes more than a quote but a feeling, a memory, a reflection on your life, a fresh perspective on things.
One such quote for me came towards the end of my online Creative Writing class. As a whole - and perhaps this comes as no surprise! - the class was one of the most rewarding I've gone through. I loved the assignments because they challenged me and pushed me into "rooms" of my "writing mansion" which I had tentatively peeked into in the past but had never been so bold as to step into them, swinging the door wide and displacing any doubt. I credit the class with opening my mind up to the possibility of writing in third person - something I'd never tried before! - and also got me back into writing poetry, which prior the class I had never fully understood and had shied away from. The quote was one by Anne Tyler and was found in the textbook we had to read from for the class: "I write because I want to have more than one life." That is exactly how I feel. I love throwing myself into my character's worlds and feeling like I'm walking and living beside them. I love spinning entire towns, lives, neighborhood's and relationships out of nothing, and make it all seem so real to me. I love the places that books take me and how I can so easily remove myself from my own world and place myself inside a character's head. For anyone who is a writer I'm sure you can relate!
Back to the quote I mentioned at the beginning of this post, like I said before, I remember stumbling briefly upon it while perusing a college's website. Somehow, amidst the labyrinth of other college site's I delved into, the quote stuck with me, much like a word I don't know, or a certain witty line in a book while haunt me. What bothers me more than not remembering exactly where I found the quote, is that I can't recall it word for word. Which of course is something you can't naturally expect right? Apparently I never learned this. To briefly insert a most famous quote: "I am my own worst enemy." After all, there's no one harder on you than yourself right? Such quotes and human habits are two foundations upon which many of my story's characters have taken shape.
Even though the quote is vaguely floating in my mind like remnants of cigar smoke lingering around the stools at a bar after the last call I still find it notable enough to talk about in my most recent blog post. It talked about how our habits, passions, hobbies, interests and activities as children can serve as guidelines as to what we'll eventually do in life or consider as a career or make our life long passion. To give you more of an idea of what I'm talking about, I'll give you my own example of this.
When I was a child my favorite toy was a white plastic horse I got in Hardee's drive-thru. Growing up my room was running rampant with horses, and even today horses are everywhere! There's six alone on my computer desk right now! My love of horses - albeit naturally inherited in thousands of girls around the world - has led me to enroll in 4-H, drawing classes, they've inspired many of my stories, and like I've mentioned before horses were my main focus in my senior-project for high school and what led me to Sunrise Horse Farm in Reedsville where I still volunteer. I eventually hope to have a horse of my own and get riding again. It's been too long!
Another aspect that led to my current hobbies is my writing. I began writing in middle school. My first story was entitled Eye of the Storm. It revolved around the lives of two sisters and their father who lived in one tornado-prone state or another, I forget. Back then I obviously had yet to master the finer points of writing - and I'm not claiming to now it all even today! - but even when my writing was at it's most naive my teachers saw something special and worth nurturing there. Many of them told me they "knew they'd be reading my books someday". What child doesn't cling to words like that and dream? I still have those notebooks where I started that story long ago. The words are smugged, the handwriting is horrible, and the sentences are rambling and I get a good laugh out of reading it all over but I know even way back in sixth grade I had a passion for writing, and even though I literally had no idea how to go about writing a story, I tried anyway! Because there was something within me that said...you love doing this. You need to do this. It's been that way ever since. I am now looking to major in Creative Writing and am checking out different colleges in hopes of finding one with a good program.
Perhaps tying in closely with writing because of its creative aspect is graphic design. Two blog posts ago I talked about my passion for the now-disbanded Christian pop group Jump5. Their music, albeit geared towards middle schoolers and blatantly cheery, generally substance-less bubble gum pop was just plain "feel good" music and with all of that aside did present some valuable lessons and messages that any kid at that age needed to hear.
For how much I loved them, I also loved expanding on their flamboyant CD designs. I would have my Mom photo-copy them at work, then I would cut and paste them onto cardstock. I would make posters, cards, my own personalized CD covers or anything I could think of. I'm sure I'm not the only one to do such a thing. After all, haven't we all been there? We love a particular band or artist so much we emblazon their name or moniker upon everything and soon our rooms are covered in their memorabilia. I still have some of the things I made, and even won a contest when I sent in a poster I had made. I got a notebook - which I still have! - and two folders, which sit unused in one box or another in my room.
The point is, my love designing may have started with my obsession for Jump5, or even before, but today I love designing things online and will often spend hours in Word or PowerPoint designing things for the heck of it. I love making my own Christmas cards and will naturally pay attention to even the smallest details. I am somewhat of a perfectionist and curse myself when something doesn't come out to my standards. I'm naturally detail-oriented and perhaps this dominant characteristic of myself is what has fueled passions for both creative writing and graphic design. In my writing because I often pour out the details in my stories when an image of a scene pops in my mind and I inexplicably feel I have to convey every last thing, and in my graphic design because I'll add that extra flourish or little detail. I operate on the notion that if it doesn't feel done, then it probably isn't. Just like in my writing, I almost always have to stop either at a break between scenes in a chapter, or at the end of a chapter. Anywhere else and I feel like the story is too-wide open, and because I don't know when I'll return to it, it'll make it all the harder to go back and pick it up again.
Maybe you see yourself in my habits and passions, or perhaps you find yourself reflecting on your own childhood hobbies and what they've transformed into today. Look back on those hobbies and passions! Like me, you might find that you're still tapping the same vein you were back then. For all that's changed over the years in our lives, some things stay the same!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Volunteering
I think my willingness to volunteer began in high school. You see, I went to a private Christian high school in Sheboygan, and therefore had to pay tuition. If you couldn't pay it in full you could do what was called "service hours." These were basically hours you volunteered at different places to supplement your tuition. Therefore I volunteered at places like Good As New, which is a thrift store in nearby Cedar Grove where all proceeds go back to Christian High, the name of my former high school. I also volunteered at the local animal shelter and at the school itself as well, helping out with certain events or cleaning and such.
Not only that, but when I was a senior we were required to complete a project called Capstone. Which was basically a year long project that revolved around a local problem in Sheboygan and how as Christians we could produce a solution. I had decided to do mine on horse abuse and slaughter, since the slaughter issue was being heavily debated in congress at the time. I came up with myriad information and had no problem writing my lengthy paper and presenting a display. But the most rewarding part of the experience? Was the mandatory service hours I had to put in for the project. These service hours took me to two different horse rescue farms around Sheboygan. At one I learned a great deal of information but at the other, that was where I found the real information. That farm happened to be Sunrise Horse Farm in Reedsville, Wisconsin run by Mary Ellen Kiel. I didn't know it at the time but when I first interviewed her I had stumbled upon a very special and kind woman. I left her farm yearning to return and have been returning and helping out ever since! One special thing about volunteering is you never know what kind of doors it'll open for you, or where it'll take you.
All of these experiences has led me to continue volunteering in my free time. Which includes going over to Sheboygan's local library each Tuesday and helping out my former co-workers with different tasks, and every Thursday helping out with the cats at PetsMart that come in from the Humane Society. Both of these volunteering "jobs" are very fulfilling and help add flavor and variety to my life. It's also stretched me as a person, especially with the PetsMart volunteering. I've always loved cats and find it very rewarding to get to play with and care for them. Also, to meet potential adopters and see the cats go to their "forever homes." I love that!
Whether you are an avid volunteer, have just started out, or are throwing the idea around and trying to get a good feel for it, I hope you can relate to my experiences. Volunteering has taken me so many places and given me so many opportunities! Take Sunrise Horse Farm. If it hadn't been for my high school project and a little digging around on the Internet, there's a big chance I probably wouldn't have ever heard of it. Sure it's forty-five minutes away from Sheboygan and because I don't drive someone always has to drive me back and forth but...the chance to help out with the horses and be around some amazing people is worth it. Like I've said hundreds of times before, for me there something so healing and liberating about the countryside and being around horses. Just as there's something so rewarding about volunteering! Whether I'm brushing a horse or filing paperwork at Sunrise, or copying old newsprint articles or discarding books at the library or petting and brushing cats at PetsMart, it doesn't matter. All of these things are considered volunteering and make my life better because of it.
If you've never volunteered and don't consider yourself the type of person to do so, I ask that you please consider the thought that maybe you are. I'm a naturally introverted person who doesn't like stepping out of "my shell" per se and meeting new people, doing new things. But after just a few days with Mary Ellen on her farm I opened up and began realizing how special volunteering is and how it affects so many people. Who knows? Maybe you'll surprise yourself! I know I did.
Not only that, but when I was a senior we were required to complete a project called Capstone. Which was basically a year long project that revolved around a local problem in Sheboygan and how as Christians we could produce a solution. I had decided to do mine on horse abuse and slaughter, since the slaughter issue was being heavily debated in congress at the time. I came up with myriad information and had no problem writing my lengthy paper and presenting a display. But the most rewarding part of the experience? Was the mandatory service hours I had to put in for the project. These service hours took me to two different horse rescue farms around Sheboygan. At one I learned a great deal of information but at the other, that was where I found the real information. That farm happened to be Sunrise Horse Farm in Reedsville, Wisconsin run by Mary Ellen Kiel. I didn't know it at the time but when I first interviewed her I had stumbled upon a very special and kind woman. I left her farm yearning to return and have been returning and helping out ever since! One special thing about volunteering is you never know what kind of doors it'll open for you, or where it'll take you.
All of these experiences has led me to continue volunteering in my free time. Which includes going over to Sheboygan's local library each Tuesday and helping out my former co-workers with different tasks, and every Thursday helping out with the cats at PetsMart that come in from the Humane Society. Both of these volunteering "jobs" are very fulfilling and help add flavor and variety to my life. It's also stretched me as a person, especially with the PetsMart volunteering. I've always loved cats and find it very rewarding to get to play with and care for them. Also, to meet potential adopters and see the cats go to their "forever homes." I love that!
Whether you are an avid volunteer, have just started out, or are throwing the idea around and trying to get a good feel for it, I hope you can relate to my experiences. Volunteering has taken me so many places and given me so many opportunities! Take Sunrise Horse Farm. If it hadn't been for my high school project and a little digging around on the Internet, there's a big chance I probably wouldn't have ever heard of it. Sure it's forty-five minutes away from Sheboygan and because I don't drive someone always has to drive me back and forth but...the chance to help out with the horses and be around some amazing people is worth it. Like I've said hundreds of times before, for me there something so healing and liberating about the countryside and being around horses. Just as there's something so rewarding about volunteering! Whether I'm brushing a horse or filing paperwork at Sunrise, or copying old newsprint articles or discarding books at the library or petting and brushing cats at PetsMart, it doesn't matter. All of these things are considered volunteering and make my life better because of it.
If you've never volunteered and don't consider yourself the type of person to do so, I ask that you please consider the thought that maybe you are. I'm a naturally introverted person who doesn't like stepping out of "my shell" per se and meeting new people, doing new things. But after just a few days with Mary Ellen on her farm I opened up and began realizing how special volunteering is and how it affects so many people. Who knows? Maybe you'll surprise yourself! I know I did.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Country Music Of A Different Color
I'm sure we've all experienced it, some perhaps later than others. It could have been a gradual change, like riding your bike and realizing the seeming flat road you're on is inconspicuously going uphill (I hate that!), or it could have been a sudden abrupt change that made you recklessly abandon the road you'd been cruising down and blaze a new path. Somewhere you'd never gone before, but realized soon enough, it was where you belonged all the while.
So...have any idea of what I'm talking about yet? Well I'll help you out! I'm talking about one's gradual change in music over their lifetime. The different styles, sounds, genres and bands we've all loved and lost over the years. In this blog post I'll be talking about my own "music journey," and a particularly obvious one I've found residing on right on my iPod!
Before I had any idea of what type of music I truly loved I listened to pop music and more specifically whatever was at the top of the charts. Looking back I can't believe I could have never liked any of that stuff. There's a local pop radio station in Sheboygan called The Point and at one time it was all I used to listen to. In hindsight I would have called myself lost but at the time? I thought it was the greatest music out there! I even had a running list of songs I wanted to download once I purchased an iPod. Which thank God, by the time I did get one I was far beyond the deceitful clutches of pop music.
But before I completely moved on I came to fall in love with a Christian pop group called Jump5. Now, I wouldn't be surprised if you'd never heard of them because they weren't all wide-known and after '05 had fallen into somewhat of an obscurity with a label change and a group member dropping out. But for all of the six years they were a group I was as obsessed with him as one of my Pandora friends is with a Finnish rock band! A lot of their music was as substance-less as today's chart-topping pop, but I ate it in handfuls like the sugar-loaded bubblegum candy it was. Which isn't to say that all of their songs were like that, because they weren't. It was more like their songs were always generally geared towards young high school students and middle schooler's. It wasn't long before I realized I'd outgrown them, and soon had sold all of their CD's.
Even still, they'll always hold a special place in my "music journey" because of their significance in it and how, ironically enough, when I stopped listening to them, doing so helped open me up to other artists...and even different genres!
Which, for anyone who knows me and has read the beginning of my bio on my Pandora profile page was country music! Like I said in my bio my passion for country music started roughly in '04 or '05 when a friend of mine played the song Any Man Of Mine by Shania Twain and Holy Water by Big & Rich. I loved the songs so much I went out and bought the albums, and thus my curiosity was quenched like a desert-stranded man getting his first taste of water, and I found...I couldn't get enough!
Here's where the explanation comes in when I mentioned a few paragraphs up, when I talked about a rather obvious "music journey" residing right on my iPod. It involves my first tentative steps into country music, as well my rather naive journey. You see, it's obvious country music has changed drastically over the years and there was a time when...it didn't really matter to me. I liked the new country-pop sound, in fact it was blatantly reminiscent of the pop music I'd recently left behind! And when Taylor Swift hit the scene in '07? I instantly fell in love with her music, never realizing how far she'd thrown the apple from traditional country music until I'd looked back, only to realize that, to no surprise, I had traveled far away as well. It was time to get back to basics.
But not before I'd won an iPod Shuffle and had downloaded more than a handful of these country-pop songs, two of which - and I cringe while writing this! - were by Taylor Swift. The first, regretably, being fearless and the second, albeit I still kinda-sorta-like it, is Should've Said No. I've learned over the years, thanks to a couple of my other Pandora friends, that just because a song is played on country music and had as a convenient sprinkling of fiddles, steel guitars and fiddles...doesn't necessarily make it a country song. Ironic isn't it? Looking back I wish I would have came to my senses quicker, or at the least had someone step in front of me and holler stop! So I wouldn't have an iPod scattered with artists such as SheDaisy, LeAnn Womack, Sugarland, Miranda Lambert and the like. Although, truth be told? I still do listen to these country-pop songs, and not just because I have the mentally that just because I paid for them, I should therefore listen to them. It's because I still like them, although admittedly not as much as my other country music.
Which is where the title of this first blog post for 2010 comes in! When I say "country music of a different color" I'm not just deriving it from the title of Big & Rich's debut album, which was horse of a different color, but because when I came to my senses and looked upon this new movement of country-pop with the disdain it deserves - most of it anyway - I realized my true love was there along, fighting for my acknowledgement against media-indulged artists such as Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. So, you ask, what was my true love in country music? Well, it was 90's country music!
That too is declared on my Pandora profile, and it's undeniably where I find my passion lies in greater density than anywhere else in the genre. Why do I like it? Because back then country music was true. Sure artists like Shania Twain and others were already paving a yellow brick road for country-pop but, honestly? I like a lot of her songs! Which I'm not sure what it says about me, but you can come up with your own conclusion. In the 90's country music just had an inimitable sound that has been all but abandoned nowadays, in favor of media-flavored, mass-marketable music that feeds the hungry youth of America.
Some artists who's 90's music I love are: Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Patty Loveless, Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, Big & Rich, Jo Dee Messina. In the case of Tim McGraw I strongly believe his 90's stuff was world's better than what he's putting out today. Which isn't to say I hate it all, because I don't. But now he's catering more and more to the mass-market, and falling in right behind all the others who seem hellbent on melding country music with pop. His '95 album, All I Want, as well as his '01 album Set This Circus Down are by far my favorites of his.
My shift towards 90's country music, and even older, can be accredited more to Pandora than anything. After all, if it wasn't for that site, I might still not have stumbled upon the amazing, tried-and-true country artist Patty Loveless. I can honestly say that all of her albums I've listened to I've liked almost every single song with the except of one or two. With so many other albums I've listened to, there seems to be a few hit songs here and there with the rest taking on the role of "fillers." Patty Loveless consistently puts out well-rounded albums were every song is a hit, and just as strong as the former. Patty Loveless sort of embodies my two loves in the genre. While admittedly I still have a soft spot for that country-pop sound - although nothing like Taylor Swift mind you! - I've come to understand that I can appreciate, and find my true love in music when Patty sings songs like those off of her latest CD, Mountain Soul II. The album was a tribute to her Kentucky, blue grass roots, and a sequel to the first Mountain Soul CD she put out in roughly 2001. The first Mountain Soul was a tribute to her coal mining father, who died in '77 of black lung disease. At first I was doubtful when learning that Patty had modeled the album after her native blue grass music, as well as mountain music but after listening to it? I wasn't surprised to find out I loved every song, just like all the rest of her albums!
Listening to Patty Loveless has really opened up my mind to a bunch of other artists I knew I would have never run into without the exposure to her. Which is sad when you think about it because, if all of this great music was just sitting out there, waiting for me to discover it...and it took years for me to stumble upon it, and an online radio station not an actual radio station, what does that say about modern country radio? I don't even want to go there. Honestly. Because while blindsided DJ's are busy wearing over the top-of-the-charts artists with the hottest songs and the most popular status, amazing artists like Patty Loveless and others like her are falling through the cracks, lost behind the glossy veneer of media-touted artists.
I've truly found myself in artists like Patty Loveless, as well as Lorrie Morgan, Tanya Tucker, Emmylou Harris, Suzy Bogguss, Kathy Mattea and 90's country. I'm eternally grateful to many people, and Pandora as well, for turning me away from the stuff country radio plays today.
As for a more recent music journey I'm taking is my rediscovery of my love for 90's, 80's and 70's rock music. I've already downloaded a few songs by Bryan Adams and am looking to score a few Def Leppard and Journey songs off my brother. The only problem is, upon purchasing my iPod Nano I had the phrase all country engraved on the back! How could I have been so foolish? :)
In closing, the next time you listen to your own iPod, perhaps you'll find yourself thinking...what is my music journey? Take a few seconds to think about it. Like me, you might find it noteworthy! Happy listening!
So...have any idea of what I'm talking about yet? Well I'll help you out! I'm talking about one's gradual change in music over their lifetime. The different styles, sounds, genres and bands we've all loved and lost over the years. In this blog post I'll be talking about my own "music journey," and a particularly obvious one I've found residing on right on my iPod!
Before I had any idea of what type of music I truly loved I listened to pop music and more specifically whatever was at the top of the charts. Looking back I can't believe I could have never liked any of that stuff. There's a local pop radio station in Sheboygan called The Point and at one time it was all I used to listen to. In hindsight I would have called myself lost but at the time? I thought it was the greatest music out there! I even had a running list of songs I wanted to download once I purchased an iPod. Which thank God, by the time I did get one I was far beyond the deceitful clutches of pop music.
But before I completely moved on I came to fall in love with a Christian pop group called Jump5. Now, I wouldn't be surprised if you'd never heard of them because they weren't all wide-known and after '05 had fallen into somewhat of an obscurity with a label change and a group member dropping out. But for all of the six years they were a group I was as obsessed with him as one of my Pandora friends is with a Finnish rock band! A lot of their music was as substance-less as today's chart-topping pop, but I ate it in handfuls like the sugar-loaded bubblegum candy it was. Which isn't to say that all of their songs were like that, because they weren't. It was more like their songs were always generally geared towards young high school students and middle schooler's. It wasn't long before I realized I'd outgrown them, and soon had sold all of their CD's.
Even still, they'll always hold a special place in my "music journey" because of their significance in it and how, ironically enough, when I stopped listening to them, doing so helped open me up to other artists...and even different genres!
Which, for anyone who knows me and has read the beginning of my bio on my Pandora profile page was country music! Like I said in my bio my passion for country music started roughly in '04 or '05 when a friend of mine played the song Any Man Of Mine by Shania Twain and Holy Water by Big & Rich. I loved the songs so much I went out and bought the albums, and thus my curiosity was quenched like a desert-stranded man getting his first taste of water, and I found...I couldn't get enough!
Here's where the explanation comes in when I mentioned a few paragraphs up, when I talked about a rather obvious "music journey" residing right on my iPod. It involves my first tentative steps into country music, as well my rather naive journey. You see, it's obvious country music has changed drastically over the years and there was a time when...it didn't really matter to me. I liked the new country-pop sound, in fact it was blatantly reminiscent of the pop music I'd recently left behind! And when Taylor Swift hit the scene in '07? I instantly fell in love with her music, never realizing how far she'd thrown the apple from traditional country music until I'd looked back, only to realize that, to no surprise, I had traveled far away as well. It was time to get back to basics.
But not before I'd won an iPod Shuffle and had downloaded more than a handful of these country-pop songs, two of which - and I cringe while writing this! - were by Taylor Swift. The first, regretably, being fearless and the second, albeit I still kinda-sorta-like it, is Should've Said No. I've learned over the years, thanks to a couple of my other Pandora friends, that just because a song is played on country music and had as a convenient sprinkling of fiddles, steel guitars and fiddles...doesn't necessarily make it a country song. Ironic isn't it? Looking back I wish I would have came to my senses quicker, or at the least had someone step in front of me and holler stop! So I wouldn't have an iPod scattered with artists such as SheDaisy, LeAnn Womack, Sugarland, Miranda Lambert and the like. Although, truth be told? I still do listen to these country-pop songs, and not just because I have the mentally that just because I paid for them, I should therefore listen to them. It's because I still like them, although admittedly not as much as my other country music.
Which is where the title of this first blog post for 2010 comes in! When I say "country music of a different color" I'm not just deriving it from the title of Big & Rich's debut album, which was horse of a different color, but because when I came to my senses and looked upon this new movement of country-pop with the disdain it deserves - most of it anyway - I realized my true love was there along, fighting for my acknowledgement against media-indulged artists such as Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. So, you ask, what was my true love in country music? Well, it was 90's country music!
That too is declared on my Pandora profile, and it's undeniably where I find my passion lies in greater density than anywhere else in the genre. Why do I like it? Because back then country music was true. Sure artists like Shania Twain and others were already paving a yellow brick road for country-pop but, honestly? I like a lot of her songs! Which I'm not sure what it says about me, but you can come up with your own conclusion. In the 90's country music just had an inimitable sound that has been all but abandoned nowadays, in favor of media-flavored, mass-marketable music that feeds the hungry youth of America.
Some artists who's 90's music I love are: Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Patty Loveless, Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, Big & Rich, Jo Dee Messina. In the case of Tim McGraw I strongly believe his 90's stuff was world's better than what he's putting out today. Which isn't to say I hate it all, because I don't. But now he's catering more and more to the mass-market, and falling in right behind all the others who seem hellbent on melding country music with pop. His '95 album, All I Want, as well as his '01 album Set This Circus Down are by far my favorites of his.
My shift towards 90's country music, and even older, can be accredited more to Pandora than anything. After all, if it wasn't for that site, I might still not have stumbled upon the amazing, tried-and-true country artist Patty Loveless. I can honestly say that all of her albums I've listened to I've liked almost every single song with the except of one or two. With so many other albums I've listened to, there seems to be a few hit songs here and there with the rest taking on the role of "fillers." Patty Loveless consistently puts out well-rounded albums were every song is a hit, and just as strong as the former. Patty Loveless sort of embodies my two loves in the genre. While admittedly I still have a soft spot for that country-pop sound - although nothing like Taylor Swift mind you! - I've come to understand that I can appreciate, and find my true love in music when Patty sings songs like those off of her latest CD, Mountain Soul II. The album was a tribute to her Kentucky, blue grass roots, and a sequel to the first Mountain Soul CD she put out in roughly 2001. The first Mountain Soul was a tribute to her coal mining father, who died in '77 of black lung disease. At first I was doubtful when learning that Patty had modeled the album after her native blue grass music, as well as mountain music but after listening to it? I wasn't surprised to find out I loved every song, just like all the rest of her albums!
Listening to Patty Loveless has really opened up my mind to a bunch of other artists I knew I would have never run into without the exposure to her. Which is sad when you think about it because, if all of this great music was just sitting out there, waiting for me to discover it...and it took years for me to stumble upon it, and an online radio station not an actual radio station, what does that say about modern country radio? I don't even want to go there. Honestly. Because while blindsided DJ's are busy wearing over the top-of-the-charts artists with the hottest songs and the most popular status, amazing artists like Patty Loveless and others like her are falling through the cracks, lost behind the glossy veneer of media-touted artists.
I've truly found myself in artists like Patty Loveless, as well as Lorrie Morgan, Tanya Tucker, Emmylou Harris, Suzy Bogguss, Kathy Mattea and 90's country. I'm eternally grateful to many people, and Pandora as well, for turning me away from the stuff country radio plays today.
As for a more recent music journey I'm taking is my rediscovery of my love for 90's, 80's and 70's rock music. I've already downloaded a few songs by Bryan Adams and am looking to score a few Def Leppard and Journey songs off my brother. The only problem is, upon purchasing my iPod Nano I had the phrase all country engraved on the back! How could I have been so foolish? :)
In closing, the next time you listen to your own iPod, perhaps you'll find yourself thinking...what is my music journey? Take a few seconds to think about it. Like me, you might find it noteworthy! Happy listening!
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