Friday, May 29, 2009
Why did the chicken cross the road?
I never watch the news. Too depressing. But I left the tv on the other night and saw something quite interesting. The story was 'Why did the chicken cross the road?' And there it was. A chicken crossing the road. A very busy street I might add. To get to the other side. Where the doughnut was. A chicken in front of a busy doughnut shop gobbling up a doughnut. Imagine that.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Rockin' a Hard Place: My Collective_Soul Testimony
Ok, so its true. I'm 34 years old and I'm mad for a rock band. My friends make fun, my family roll their eyes, and my colleagues beg, "Do we have to listen to this agaaaain?" Yes! Yes! YEEEES! I'm mad about Collective Soul!
I've known about them forever. After all, my college years began about the same time they became big. If you haven't heard their music, you have to be living in the Victorian era. 'Shine', 'The World I Know', 'December'....need I go on? The two songs I remember the most from the 'ol days are 'Run' and 'Why, pt. 2'. I actually went out and bought Blender because of the one song 'Why pt. 2'. And this ends my experience with Collective Soul--for a time.
Now, let me pause for a sec here and give you a fact about me. I'm hearing-impaired. I have a 70% loss in both ears. It's genetic. My grandfather, dad, brother all had/have some kind of hearing loss. So 'loudness' and 'noise' have always been a big part of my life. We the hearing-impaired--we're a different kind of people. I swear, the neighbors think we're freaks. Just imagine--a man (my dad) sittin' in his car staring ahead at the garage and the car vibratin' so awful it could just explode (this is where he gets his 'alone with the music' time).
So, because of my hearing it was always a challenge to recognize a song. I mean, up until a few years ago, I thought that song, 'Don't Dream it's Over' by Crowded House went 'Edna, Edna..' instead of 'Hey Now, Hey Now..' In fact, I thought the name of the song was 'Edna'. NOPE! Because of the internet, ipod, itunes, satellite radio...I actually know what I'm listening to now!
Ok, so back to my main point. I'm a designer, a print designer. A big part of my job is computer production on my Apple. I listen to music a LOT while I'm working. As do my colleagues. Over the years I've shared a lot of music. WEEEELL...an older colleague I used to work with would recommend this great rock band to me all the time. 'Yea, yea, yea, I've heard of Collective Soul, I have some of their stuff, sure, sure.' I mean the guy really pestered me about it. So when he gave me all of their cds to listen to I dragged them all into my music folder. And then I didn't give it another thought. One day, as I was working, on came 'December'. And I freaked! WHAAA? That's Collective Soul? I always thought that was Smashing Pumpkins! Then later another one I would recognize and again had mistaken it for some other artist. But even then, I started hearing these songs I'd never heard before and they just kept getting better and better and better and pretty soon I was O..M..G! COLLECTIVE SOUL! Rock gods of our time!!!! I immediately went out and bought 'Youth' their newest album and was very impatiently anticipating 'Home'--it just couldn't come out soon enough! I started doing research on the band and was very intriqued and very inspired by their story. So inspired that I even designed some album mockups for a future album! (which you can find at www.behance.net/dunndealdesign [Scroll down and click on Collective Soul mockups]) AND I was able to send it to them with a positive response! How many bands out there are accessible in this way? None that I know of! I haven't designed their album yet but I'm def gonna be rockin' to their tune in Tulsa on 7.7 during their summer tour! You can check out their live tour dates below (the 'live' link). And in August, another great album is coming out! I'll def be investing in that one!
Collective Soul's music (not to mention their manners) is so positive and inspirational. Life can get pretty hard and overwhelming. But their story and music has made my life (and many other lives) a little more bearable. What can I say? These guys really know how to rock that hard place!
http://www.twitter.com/collective_soul
http://www.collectivesoul.com/blog/
http://www.collectivesoul.com/live/
I've known about them forever. After all, my college years began about the same time they became big. If you haven't heard their music, you have to be living in the Victorian era. 'Shine', 'The World I Know', 'December'....need I go on? The two songs I remember the most from the 'ol days are 'Run' and 'Why, pt. 2'. I actually went out and bought Blender because of the one song 'Why pt. 2'. And this ends my experience with Collective Soul--for a time.
Now, let me pause for a sec here and give you a fact about me. I'm hearing-impaired. I have a 70% loss in both ears. It's genetic. My grandfather, dad, brother all had/have some kind of hearing loss. So 'loudness' and 'noise' have always been a big part of my life. We the hearing-impaired--we're a different kind of people. I swear, the neighbors think we're freaks. Just imagine--a man (my dad) sittin' in his car staring ahead at the garage and the car vibratin' so awful it could just explode (this is where he gets his 'alone with the music' time).
So, because of my hearing it was always a challenge to recognize a song. I mean, up until a few years ago, I thought that song, 'Don't Dream it's Over' by Crowded House went 'Edna, Edna..' instead of 'Hey Now, Hey Now..' In fact, I thought the name of the song was 'Edna'. NOPE! Because of the internet, ipod, itunes, satellite radio...I actually know what I'm listening to now!
Ok, so back to my main point. I'm a designer, a print designer. A big part of my job is computer production on my Apple. I listen to music a LOT while I'm working. As do my colleagues. Over the years I've shared a lot of music. WEEEELL...an older colleague I used to work with would recommend this great rock band to me all the time. 'Yea, yea, yea, I've heard of Collective Soul, I have some of their stuff, sure, sure.' I mean the guy really pestered me about it. So when he gave me all of their cds to listen to I dragged them all into my music folder. And then I didn't give it another thought. One day, as I was working, on came 'December'. And I freaked! WHAAA? That's Collective Soul? I always thought that was Smashing Pumpkins! Then later another one I would recognize and again had mistaken it for some other artist. But even then, I started hearing these songs I'd never heard before and they just kept getting better and better and better and pretty soon I was O..M..G! COLLECTIVE SOUL! Rock gods of our time!!!! I immediately went out and bought 'Youth' their newest album and was very impatiently anticipating 'Home'--it just couldn't come out soon enough! I started doing research on the band and was very intriqued and very inspired by their story. So inspired that I even designed some album mockups for a future album! (which you can find at www.behance.net/dunndealdesign [Scroll down and click on Collective Soul mockups]) AND I was able to send it to them with a positive response! How many bands out there are accessible in this way? None that I know of! I haven't designed their album yet but I'm def gonna be rockin' to their tune in Tulsa on 7.7 during their summer tour! You can check out their live tour dates below (the 'live' link). And in August, another great album is coming out! I'll def be investing in that one!
Collective Soul's music (not to mention their manners) is so positive and inspirational. Life can get pretty hard and overwhelming. But their story and music has made my life (and many other lives) a little more bearable. What can I say? These guys really know how to rock that hard place!
http://www.twitter.com/collective_soul
http://www.collectivesoul.com/blog/
http://www.collectivesoul.com/live/
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