I Am The Messenger

I have a Zune. I bought a 30 day subscription to download unlimited amounts of music for 30 days for about $15. The music will stop working after the 30 days are over, but I’m having a ton of fun checking out some albums I’ve been wanting to for a while or have owned in the past and either had them stolen from me or lost the digital copy I had on my hardrive that crashed. I’m bored, so I’ll list the albums I’ve downloaded so far and for some fun audience participation, I would like some suggestions from you!

Stuff I’ve dowloaded so far…

Artist/Album name:

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead: So Divided

As Tall As Lions: Lafcadio, Into The Flood

Augustana: Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt

The Bravery: The Sun and the Moon

Ben Kweller: On My Way

Colbie Caillat: Coco

Coldplay: Parachutes

Copeland: Dressed Up & In Line

Danielson: Tri-Danielson!!! (The video for rubbernecker was brilliant), Ships

Death Cab For Cutie: Narrow Stairs

Hot Hot Heat: Happiness Ltd.

Jack Johnson: Sleep Through The Static

Joshua Redman Elastic Band: Momentum

Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures

Kanye West: Graduation

Keane: Somewhere Only We Know (EP w/B-sides)

The Killers: Sawdust

Minus The Bear: Planet Of Ice

Muse: Black Holes and Revelations

The New Amsterdams: At the Foot of My Rival, Story Like a Scar

Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

The Perishers: Victorious

The Police: Outlandos D’Amour

The Postmarks: The Postmarks

Queen: Classic Queen

Radiohead: Hail To the Thief

The Rocket Summer: Do You Feel

The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow

Simon & Garfunkel: Greatest Hits

Smoosh: Free To Stay

The Strokes: First Impressions of Earth

Tegan & Sara: So Jealous, The Con

The Terrible Twos: Jerzy The Giant

Thrice: The Alchemy Index Vols. 1-4, Vheissu

The Ting Tings: We Started Nothing

U2: War (Deluxe ver. 2008)

That should give at least a clue of the type of music that I am into…but I’m looking to branch out. Give me some suggestions, I’m open to them…unless it’s country or nu metal, in which case if you suggest that to me then you should punch yourself in the pee pee.

**Just added*

The National, Boxer

**Downloaded by your recommendations**

The Smiths, Louder Than Bombs — Although any songs involving Morrissey are unavailable.

Vacations are always too short.

Megan and I just got back from a week long trip to Massachussetts. For the first time in a while we had a family reunion. Megan and I also took off for the Cape (Cod) for a couple of days to spend some time together as part of an anniversary trip. It was refreshing. Our hotel room was free as we are a part of a points system with Priority Club. We stayed at a very nice Holiday Inn…which doesn’t sound nice, but it really was a nice hotel. The Cape can be expensive in the way of food. A simple milk shake and sandwhich meal and fries meal for the 2 of us at Cooke’s  cost us almost $30. Talk about highway robbery. And speaking of highways, we took 28 south, hopped onto 6A and drove all the way up to the very tip of Cape Cod (we rented a car for a couple of days). We ended up at a beach at about 6pm and played in the Atlantic Ocean a little bit. In Provincetown, we drove the town a bit and ended up walking on a jetty. The jetty as we soon found out was probably a mile long, stretching out toward the peninsula. We walked about half of it and turned around.

Being away from everything with just Megan was extremely relaxing. We didn’t have a schedule, a set place to go, we just hit highway 28 and drove. It was the ultimate in “getting away from it all”, and you’ve gotta love driving on a strip of land wedged between water.

Back with the rest of the family there were BBQ’s, swimming, Super Smash Brothers Melee, and good conversations. My family is filled with amazing cooks. My Aunt Michelle makes an amazing Quiche. We stayed with the Lathrops for the days we weren’t staying at the hotel on the Cape. Megan and I were very greatful to the Marbles and Lathrops for all of their hospitality. We ended up avoiding Boston this year, and it ended up being kind of nice. We usually end up taking the train into the city at least once on most trips, but this year it was nice to just stay away from all of the hassles of the big city. I feel so relaxed after coming back. We took some family portraits at Sears and took lots of pictures. If I ever get around to it, I’ll post some up here.

Other new things, I’m currently reading John Adams, written by David McCullough. David is an excellent storyteller and I highly recommend his 1776 book. John Adams is a little bit of a slower read, but it is still good nontheless.

I always like to read books involving New England history when I head over there. It gives you a different perspective on the place.

Also, if you haven’t already gone out and bought it, I highly recommend getting Coldplay’s new CD: Viva La Vida.

It is easily their best album yet as their last releases were only ‘good’. This latest endevour is excellent and they do more experimenting with music and different sounds, while still maintaining that Coldplay signature sound. The album has a very vintage/ancient feel to it. It’s a great CD to listen to when you’re surrounded by history as I was this past week. It will forever be the soundtrack to an amazing vacation, its epic sound frames the sight of an awesome thunder/lightening storm I viewed from a plane, and be the flowing backround music to the road trip up the Atlantic coastline with my wife. I will always have a deep sense of love for her whenever I hear it.