Edwin’s Corner – Happy Thanks Givings Craft from Student Life on Vimeo.

This endorsement wont be too long. Its been a rough and long week.  Today’s musician is a 22 year old singer Joss Stone. The first album I had of Joss stone’s was her “mind body soul”. Good stuff.  I pretty much bought it because of her single “You had Me” This album is a little different. If you are a gospel listener you will really like this.  This thing is old school R&B kinda music you play for your girl after a nice dinner and you’re chilling on the couch.  It has been my 4:00 music in my office to end the day.  The song that gets me every time is Girlfriend on Demand. There is a story behind the cover art that I’ve been trying to research. This is what they say the album used to look like. My research  brought me to this blog. You should check it out especially if you are looking for cover art.  Joss Stone is a great artist that I dont think gets enough play. For me she is at the top of my play list. So take the time and have a listen enjoy and Happy Friday.

If you’re an NPR listener then you know exactly what I’m about to talk about. If you are not let me introduce you to a program that will make you one.  I discovered the show This American Life when I was in college . For some reason our family listened to shows like Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion on Sunday afternoons so it was pretty natural for me to move right into this type of story telling.  NPR is one of those things that either you are or you aren’t. You either always have it on that station when  you’re in your car or you listen to two fat guys talk about guns, politics, eating and church.  Here is what TAL is. It is story telling at its finest. What they do is take a topic and break it down into three or four acts taking on the topic at different angles. Some of my favorite stories are Heretics and Giant pool of money.  One is about a man who said there was no hell the other was about the financial recession. I think what fascinates me so much about this radio program is that its about real people. Its the kind of stories that you say “come on that can’t be real”  Ira Glass the host weaves all of these stories together by filling in the gaps for us. He has a way of speaking for us. Saying the things that we would be thinking if we were interviewing those people. Something else that I like about the show is that they also record on location. Its some dude or girl with a microphone that goes out to where the story is. It isn’t us just listening to people in a studio talk. It’s not just an interview or call in show its storytelling.  That’s kinda the part that makes the show pretty awesome.  This American Life has become so popular that they even started a television program. They kept the same style on camera that they had on radio and that’s pretty cool.

I have always said I would rather hear a true story than one that’s made up.  That’s why I like biographies and that’s why I like documentaries.  Those will always beat a fiction story for me every time. People are just that interesting to me. So here is what I think you should do…. give it a try. You can listen to the ones I suggested or ask for some others that I like or you can check out the podcast. They always have up the past week’s show. (so many choices) Or you can tune in on WBHM if you live in Birmingham  at 5:00 on Sunday.  If you don’t live here you need to check your NPR station’s website and see when it is on.  On a side note if you want get away from the shock jock, or the two fat guys and you just want to hear what’s going on in the world try turning to your NPR  station in the morning. Its not as colorful as those guys or other news shows its just straight news.  You remember when that happened.

Oh I do have one question what do you think of the new layout and the smart phone version. I’m trying out some new stuff.

A couple months ago I went to seattle. While there I was able to visit the Experience the Music Project. They had an entire exhibit dedicated to Jimi Hendrix. Before that I was kinda like most people. I thought he looked cool while playing the guitar.  I never really listened. Wow. leading up to this woodstock was having an anniversary so I got  a little taste of him. He was the closing act at the festival.  I would now call myself a Jimi Hendrix fan.  There is something about his music that takes music to a whole different level. Not just his playing but how he defined a generation. If there was any time period I would want to visit it would be that one. They seem to be a generation that still effects us today. It may also be the only album I can listen to in its entirety while running.  Great sound great fun. So you may have one or two songs in you itunes I would challenge you to buy this album you wont regret it.  Every once in a while you have to reach back to some of the people that have made music how it is.

drewfrancis.com

Kuroshio Sea – 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world – (song is Please don’t go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

So there you go. A bunch of stuff I would have done differently.  One being get help earlier. Jared helped me out. I don’t think I would have been able to have done this without him. Well there is still a bunch I need to do to clean up. I have to clean the edges will figure that out on thursday.  I may also take up some of the square blocks and put in some paver plants. I’ll a take a picture when its all cleaned up to show.

I start class when I get back into town.  I will be taking Marketing and fundraising this year for non-profits. I read the syllabus and it really looks like it will be fun class.  That’s it.

And now for your moment of zen and a video I just like.

They say this was done in one take.

So I was turned on to these guys a couple days ago by the great Steven Bush activist, father, musician, lover fighter…ive now worn it out. There is a particular song that causes me to pause.  Poison and Wine. Maybe one day I’ll figure out why.

I had an interesting conversation this week about blogs. Whether they are diaries or not.  Its a good conversation. It came to mind this week when I started watching 2/8 life. Interesting online show. It starts out with a girl wanting to chronicle her life through a video blog. Now these kids were in middle school while I was in highschool but I dont think we are too different.  We all were raised by parents that believed that a nice home a good job and a beautiful mate is who and what we were meant to have.  I think some of us have disappointed. Some of us are right on track.  So how does the conversation on blogs or this show fit. Well I don’t know if it does. Here is what I think.  There are a few of us that have realized that, that dream isn’t what we had in mind. We sit up at night and contemplate the meaning of life through our blogs or website or whatever you call it. (there is some debate on what a blog is).  Maybe its because we are wired that way or we are trying to channel what our parent’s once dreamed of until their parents snapped them back into reality.  Now with our single families we see that that 50′s family is broken and some of us cling to our faith while other just blow in the wind. Moving from one cause to no cause to nothing. Maybe its a little bit too late.  And this album may be getting a little sad. I may need to put on some Black eyed peas before too long.  Lets have some fun. Tomorrow I’m going to try something.  I’m going to think of just what I will do for the next hour. Baby steps.  Well check out those links. You wont be disappointed.

Oh and sometimes we write here because its better than doing and saying nothing. Too bad we have to be grown ups some times. I’m listening to a new album right now but i’ll let you know about that later.

drew

edit:

I dont have a bunch to say but I’ll give you a little update on the old life. Wednesday I hung out with a friend Hannah. Watched a whole episode of American Idol her. It was good times.  Paula Abdul is crazy.
This morning had a great run. I may have ran past your home. On thursday after work I’ll be by Samford track if anyone wants to come.
Had a meeting. No fun
Had a meeting. Some fun
Had a meeting. hmmmm
Re-edited something…not so much
Had a headache that start this morning. Sucks

You know I’m feeling a lot better. Tomorrow is Thursday it’s going to be a great.  Going to give the staff a surprise tomorrow.

Well Ive been gone for  a week and I know I haven’t been missed. Back to cacophony of bad grammar and spelling bonanza. Enough of that I have to talk about  a new show that for some reason Ive started to watch.  I have a love hate relationship with Mtv. One I hate it when they treat teenagers as a commodity and then I love that they give them air time to just talk. I will go months without it in my life then suddenly it all comes back and I find my self watching hours upon hours.  Right now I’m watching a show called Taking the stage its a show kinda like Fame (some of you will know that)  only its a reality show. How reality is unsure. When they are practicing there is suddenly a smooth dolly shot that rings the dancer. Did he get that on the first try? Hmmm. Anyway you should check it out. So i’m real jealous.

In other news. I went to see Hannah in a play last night. I have to admit I liked it.  (Pause) They are doing Pedro the movie.  My generation knows that is the guy on real world that died of AIDs. Wow I’m getting old.  Any way I went to see Hannah’s play “Over the woods and ___” Old people can be real funny.  It was good to see her do her thing.  Today will be writing idea day. I’m heading to Erin’s church today then a Starbucks to work come look me up at patton creek bucks. (back)  I’d like to shrink my world a bit.  It is a smaller church so I wanted to check it out.

Oh and here is a rough draft of a video that we are working on.  It won’t be played like this. But it’s a little taste. We shot this at Ramsay highschool.  The guy in the video is part of a dance group at his church. Today I’m going to figure out how to put that in a video.  Well here you go.

Road This s an excerpt from This American life episode.  Someting for nothing. Ok now I’m done.

there is so much that I could say. So much. It is weird to be on the other side. I’m at a world changers event. I dont really know about it but the yellow hats camp out.  Some of you know what I’m talking about.  Schedules are out the window.  Right now the boys in my room are debating basketball.  Yeah I know nothing about that. Absolutely nothing one good thing. Internet who knew that in wiggins alabama we have wifi…that’s something.  Ok I’m going to collect my thoughts. I’ll talk to you later.

drew

Ok I’m back because I want to talk about today a little bit. It has been great being around these guys. I found that Im not the goofy guy. I actually am so curious about their life that I dont want to waste it just goofing off and trying to be the funny guy.  Like take Mark “I’m going to change their names because they can find this by just looking up my name”…I hear that he’s picked on at school or the leader who doesnt alway want to lead but will take the roal. Or the girl that is figuring out how to be a woman in a world that preys on them. Don’t get me started on how pissed I am at men. Or it could be the friends that are realizing that they are on the outside of this group..Any way they are all here.  Its such a short trip its hard to imagine anything can happen here. Funny thing is I think God could do something. Here are the awsome things that I have seen so far. A schedule that has been thrown out the window. We really dont know what is going to happen at the next moment. Worship leader seems like a real nice guy. This is low tech which is good for these kids. For some reason they try to let tech stuff creep in and well it was real bad. Video was real bad but hey they tried.  Note to other org.  tech is not the answer to everything. If you dont have it be real we’ll enjoy that more than you trying. It really is ok. I’ll post some pictures of all the SL stuff that I saw today. JLC tshirts, lanyards on the main dude. We have infiltrated the small church. How did that happened. Must go to bed soon. Chatting with Amber so I got to go.

Peace

More to come on that project.

Is it really that hard out there? I used that phrase a couple of times the other day when describing dating.  It came about because of a situation that I wont really mention here but, is it really that hard out there.  Dating.  I’m not a dater. I have had friends that were and I envied them.  Not so much about the dating part but how simple it was.  Dont get me wrong I’ve had plenty. You ladies know who you are. Obviously they didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted but it was a learning process.  I dont believe that there is this one person out there. I do believe that the ultimate goal in life is not to be married.  That was a weird way to say that.  Anyway are some people that hard up.

It sucks when you can’t come up with anything. Today a co-worker of mine had us in a brainstorm meeting trying to come up with some videos for a summer thing we do.  I wish stuff came to me fast.  It doesn’t and some times I have to write it out and still I dont think its that good.  The people I work with are always coming up with good ideas. I on the other had come up with three good ideas a year. Sometimes its enough to live on and other times… Well I blow it.  I try to stay real quiet so I dont ruin other people’s thoughts. Ok this is getting long.

New t-shirt design. Let me know how many you want.