is a work in progress

Most radio stations showcase a band of the month. Some artists have song of the day or songs for the week recommendations. I’m not sure that I’ll ever be that ambitious or routine, but today I’d like to talk about the band known as Stars.

I was listening to their incredible 2007 album In Our Bedroom After The War while driving on the highway the other night and a few thoughts went through my mind:

• This is my favourite Stars album. I hadn’t listened to it for a while so it immediately felt like I was connecting with an old friend. Newer releases always bump the older ones out of the CD wallet in my car but I wish I had never taken this one out.
• This is an excellent CD to listen to while driving! With a wide variety of beats and melodies you can listen to it loud or soft, whether you’re alone with the stereo cranked up or listening to it in the background while having a conversation.
• My favourite song on the album is the second track The Night Starts Here. It’s a beautiful male/female duet that starts out light and dreamy but ends in an epic bass driven alt-pop orchestra – I love it!
• I enjoy whistling along to most of the songs on this album when I’m alone. I didn’t really realize I was doing this at first, it just felt natural.
• I think this would be a fun album to sing along to… especially the duets.
• This album is upbeat enough to keep you awake yet smooth and calming enough to prevent road rage and traffic frustrations from making my drive unpleasant.

In conclusion, this album is wonderful and it deserves more attention, go listen to it right now!

Music is important to me. I spend as much time as possible listening to great music each day! I am a bit of an audiophile (in the sense that I am “an individual who is very interested and enthusiastic about the sound quality of a stereo or home theater system” but not in the sense that I am insane or full of money). I own humorous t-shirts like this one. I have a turntable. I still enjoy going hunting for records on weekends. Even though the rest of the world has generally stopped buying CDs I still do sometimes!

You get the picture, I enjoy and value music in my life! Maybe it’s because I respect musicians so much. I have never played any instruments with a measurable proficiency myself so I look up to those who are experts in their craft. Now that I think about it, really, I look up to anyone who is an expert in their craft.

Another reason I love music so much is that it is one of few asynchronous activities I can do. For example, I can listen to music while working, cooking, exercising, reading, etc. It’s not so easy to cook while exercising, or to read a book while riding a bike, etc! So, because music is so important to me I would like to share some of my personal favorite artists and tracks. Once in a while I will publish some of my playlists on this blog under the Music category. Stay tuned!

From a press release on the Athletics Canada website:

I am pleased to be joining the (Athletics Canada) team and am truly excited about bringing my experience to the fold in continuing to assist in the development of Canadian Officials to be the best in the World.

I’ve decided to work on my identity. Primarily my online identity, but not just that, my scope is larger than that. You see, I came to the realization that I may have all these great ideas, fascinating interests and profound opinions floating around in my head, but how many people (even those who know me well) are aware of all these things if I don’t express them?

This is why I’ve started this blog. So I can say what I want to say. So I can be proud of who I am and stand up for the thoughts and opinions I have. So I can help spread interesting information and promote new ideas. So I can connect my network of projects, hobbies, interests, peers, beliefs and opinions together under a single personal website. So I can help people better understand who I am and what I stand for.

I hope this will benefit me by activating parts of my brain that are usually on auto pilot. It’s time for me to put more effort in. It’s time for me to make my future what I want it to be. I’d like to invite you to subscribe to this blog, follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on LinkedIn. Let’s see what happens next!