30 Day Song Challenge day 11 - a song from your favorite band

HAHAH! Yes! I've been waiting for this one for soooo long. This is the very first song from RED on their very first record. This song is what hooked me to RED. I've now seen them 3 times in concert. This song has EVERYTHING:

Strings
Screams
Guitars
Sick Vocals
Guitar Spins(the twins spin their guitars in unison when they perform this in concert: its sick.



Also,
Check out some of these lyrics


And this is how it feels when I ignore the words you spoke to me
And this is where I lose myself when I keep running away from you
And this is who I am when, when I don't know myself anymore
And this is what I choose when it's all left up to me

Breathe your life into me
I can feel you
I'm falling, falling faster
Breathe your life into me
I still need you
I'm falling, falling
Breathe into me
Breathe into me

30 Day Song Chalenge day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep

I don't know if there is any song that "makes" me fall asleep. I feel like this is kinda like asking "what is the most boring song you've listened to?" I dont like that question. So instead I'm going to change it to "What is a song that you can fall asleep to and/or that helps you fall asleep? Yes Yes that sounds much more pleasant. It also leads to an answer. This means the song must be a slow moving soft song that helps you reach peace. I can only think of one song that this applies to:

The Dark Side of Indoor Track Meets by Falling Up

As a side note, the video i link to right there won an award at the 2008 Fargo Film Festival for Best Music Video. I love falling up(as has been evident by my constant tweets about there new CD "your sparkling death cometh" which if you dont have you should go buy..now....no seriously i'll wait...................)

Anyways, the music is original and beautiful and melodic and the vocals are perfect.

A special side note should also be put in that this was really hard to choose between Falling Up and Future of Forestry.

30 Day Song Challenge day 09 - a song that you can dance to

This is so easy! I went to ODU for 4 years and went to every single men's basketball game. That means I can dance to

Ice Cream and Cake by the Buckwheat Boyz

ODU BABY!

30 Day Song Challenge day 08 - a song that you know all the words to

Well to be fair I know the lyrics to pretty much every song I own. I have a fairly good memory and i'm a huge fan of strong lyrics and/inane lyrics. Mainly what i am trying to get at is I like to know what I am listening to.

However, I ended up choosing Bounce by TFK

This song is from the CD Phenomenon. It was my first "rock" cd i ever heard. See in the house i grew up in, drums and electric guitars could probably be considered the worst thing ever. We were listening to edgy music when we listened to "Shout to the Lord" So one day when i was at the library I noticed this CD in the "christian" section and convinced my mom to let me check it out. To this day it remains one of my favorite cd's and i can quote every song by heart.

30 Day Song Challenge day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event

This is another easy one. The song i chose is Switchfoot - Meant to Live

Switchfoot was my first concert. EVER. It was a really fun experience. I even got to do the VIP experience. However, my biggest memory of the event was getting in line for autographs for the band right after this song played. We were going to go beforehand but honestly i didn't want to miss this experience live. So, i'm waiting there in line as the concert finishes up, and the stop the autograph line RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. I was super bummed. Luckily my girlfriend at the time had a father who was the head of security. He snuck us backstage and I got to talk to Jon Foreman and they gave us their picks from the show. A TOTALLY awesome experience.

30 Day Song Challenge day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere

Going to make this one really quick since its the weekend. I'll actually give you a TON of songs that remind me of somewhere.

The location: Camp Hope Haven

I worked as a camp counselor there for 6 years and it was so challenging but it was so amazing. Part of the fun was taking events that happened at camp and turning them into songs. So visit this sight and listen to many of the famous songs of Hope Havec.

30 Day Song Challenge day 5 - a song that reminds you of someone

Here Comes Santa Claus Reminds me of Santa Claus..does that count? Or the little drummer boy reminds me of the little baby jesus(you thought i was going to say the drummer boy didnt you?!)

I also didn't want this post to be about songs that were "our songs" while i was dating girls cuz that is sooo boring/passe/angsty.

So I finally decided that I would choose a song that reminds me of a lot of someones:

College Kids by Relient K

This song reminds me of so many experiences during college and all my friends. Having friends who struggled with school, the dating scene, and with wondering what the point of college is totally epitomizes my college life. It was always a blast.

Also i've realized school teaches you nothing and being able to create my own degree with calligraphy would be awesome.

30 Day Song Challenge day 04 - a song that makes you sad

I can't really think of a song that makes me sad. When i listen to music the last emotion i want to feel is sadness so i don't think i listen to music that does that. I'm aware that i could just do an easy out and say Simple Plan or The Christmas Shoes BUT...neither of those are my sad songs. Nope. My sad song is a song that literally made me cry every time i heard it as a young lad:


The Melody Within

Now why did this song make me cry?

Well if you have never seen the 1993 movie Rigolleto then you are missing out...well not really but sorta. Is a off shoot of beauty and the beast/ phantom of the opera. Bonnie(the chica doing the singing) has been trained by the big bad "monster" Ribaldi. Over the movie you find out he is actually kind hearted/loving. Bonnie leaves to go and perform this song at the national competition. While she is away the villagers storm Ribaldi's mansion and...


SPOILER ALERT

They kill him.


It still makes me sad actually :(

30 Day Song Challenge day 03 - a song that makes you happy

This is easy. There is one song that whenever I hear it will instantly make me smile. That song my friends is the smooth stylings of The Friendly Indians singing I Know You Know
Do I really have to explain this? Psych is a HI-LARIOUS tv show. And this is the theme song to the show. Its been done with a Christmas theme, in spanish, performed Bollywood style in Hindi, covered by Boyz II Men and Tears for Fears. Its awesome. And I always know that once it plays i can sit down for an hour be prepared to relax and laugh.

30 Day Song Challenge day 02 - your least favorite song

Wow. I think the popularist in me wants to say Friday By rebecca black or Baby by Justin Beiber. But i love the parodies of those songs so obviously i don't HATE them. That means I have to look for a song that I've listened to and gone "no, that is not for me." And also i wanted to make sure it was something i felt comfortable linking to on my blog.

That said I'm going to go With Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over by The Devil Wears Prada

I just dont like the song at all. I like my fair share of screamer music(Underoath, August Burns Red, Demon Hunter) but this song seems inane and isn't very coherent and lacks good guitar work. It just noise.

30 Day Song Challenge, Day 01 - Your Favorite Song

So my friend Sean is doing this and I need to blog more. I figured it couldn't hurt to try it as well. We start off with a hard question. What is my favorite song? I feel like that is such a vague question, similar to asking what my favorite ingredient in food is(flour...no wait salt...no wait...um mm milk...dang it!). I preface this to say that this song is currently the most played song on this iteration of my itunes install.

But first...the criteria. Any song I like must have solid vocals. I really don't like wimpy vocalist who are soft and quite. I also like my lead singer to have good enunciation(which means screamers are out).

My favorite song currently is: Believe - The Letter Black

First lets look at the song musically. I'm a huge fan of strings in music(see my love of RED). Sarah Anthony has a great voice similar to an Amy Lee and Lacey Sturm. However, she also gets to play off the great voice of her husband Marc.

Lyrically this song is simple yet profound

"I'm not afraid anymore
Of what I don''t know
Believe (I put my faith)
In the unknown
Believe (I put my my hope)
In God alone
Have faith in what you don't know "

Its simple and beautiful and reminds me a lot of Never Alone by BarlowGirl(which is probably top 3 songs I've listened to the most EVER.

Musings

These musings are the sole property of the brain of Michael Harper. They do reflect how scatterbrained he is. This post is not copied right from wikipedia and may be used without the expressed written consent of the National Football League

• My Dallas Mavericks won the NBA Finals! WOOT!
• A band i really like called falling up is releasing a new cd called "you sparkling death cometh" and you can check out one of the songs here
• Looking at the title i was really hoping it was an announcement that Edward and all vampires were going to die.
• I ate at Orapax last night...I love their greek food. If you are ever in Norfolk you should go there. Period.
• I am working an 18 hour shift today so lets hope i get home alive.
  

Identity

In the 11th grade we were asked to read a book on our own accord and write a paper about it. I looked through the list of books like Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities, etc and saw nothing special. I ended up picking Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. This book ended up affecting me sooo much. To make a long story short, the book can be summarized by this quote from the last few chapters:

"And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone’s way but my own. I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself. So after years of trying to adopt the opinions of others I finally rebelled. I am an invisible man."

I love this idea of finding peace in your identity. On Sunday, Marvin taught about Romans 12 and how if we as Christians focus on Christ and surrender to Him, He places us to our God given talents to their best. It was a reminder of this thought of identity

Then YESTERDAY, Red released their video for Feed The Machine. Now whether or not you like this style of music, the video is powerful and echoes this thought. Enjoy!