In my profession, web development and design, I have a lot of time to sit at a computer and listen to music. I listen to music in headphones for about 7-8 hours everyday… that is approximately 6 albums worth give or take a few. I go through a lot of music and I consider it one of my passions. However, over the last 5-6 months I have found it difficult to really get into any specific albums. Some of you know the love that I have for Cloud Cult and Frightened Rabbit, these artists have made loving music more difficult for me because the bar is now so high.

However, I have two new prospects and I will mention them here… Note: You can listen to the full albums at the end of the post, just sign up for a free lala.com account.

Number 1: Karen O and the Kids – Where the Wild Things Are OST
I don’t know if I have a thing for albums written for kids, or if it’s that I was the ‘Bull’ in the Grand Rapids Ballety Company’s performance of Where the Wild Things Are, or if it’s that Spike Jonze directed the new film, or even if it all stems to Arcade Fire doing their trailer… either way, this film has been getting me more and more excited. I recently picked up the Original Sound Track and have been unable to put it down. This album is fun, it is interesting, and really, it keeps me on the edge of my seat. I don’t know what ethos this film is going to be, but I believe it is going to be a dark and honest representation of what it is like to be a child, while still being playful and redemptive. This album really transcends this idea of love vs. struggle. I’m really enjoying it so far.

Number 2: The Mountain Goats – The Life Of The World To Come
Every track on this album is titled after a bible verse. I’m not entirely familiar with the intricacies of this album yet, but have given it some serious time and I would recommend it. John Darniel really hits on the serious side of what I am trying to do with my music writing.

I have always been looking for a WordPress gallery plugin that I can easily throw together and manage some images, galleries and albums on this blog. Well I found the perfect tool. It is called NEXTGen, and for anyone who is as geeky as me, it is sweet and lives here.

I uploaded some pictures from the Winter Wonderland trip that I took this past winter. We took a weekend and went up past Northport, to the tip of the pinky of Michigan. We stayed in a wonderful cabin called “Whispering Pines”. It was a small cabin that had 3 rooms (one of them a loft) a really cozy living room with a wood burning fireplace, and a hot tub on the back porch. It was located in the middle of a pine forest right outside of Leelanau State Park.

I should have uploaded these a while ago but I didn’t. I will upload some more pictures of other events soon. You can get there by clicking on the ‘Gallery’ link under ‘Pages’ in the navigation to the right. I will give a link in this post as well for anyone who gets these in their emails or RSS feeds.

Aaron’s New Gallery

Now I generally don’t subscribe to guerilla/viral marketing (which this definitely could be), but this guy openly confesses that this started out as a fluke. He had always danced like a goof-ball (since 2-3 years old) and still dances that way. One day his traveling buddy said, ‘Dude, do that annoying dance you always do and I will film you’. Eventually people found that video and it became popular. Then people from Stride gum contacted him and asked him if he wanted to make another video that they would sponsor. He of course said yes. They kept their hands out of it, not requiring anything except that he create it. (Get the whole story at http://wherethehellismatt.com/).

The coolest part about this whole thing, is that after the first video he had massive popularity so he could contact tons of people, tell them when he would be in their city and ask them to join him. So he contacted Stride again and asked if they would sponsor one more trip, a trip that would include local people dancing with him.

I watched part of one of his talks and he talked about bubbles, and how people are so comfortable in their little bubbles (apartment bubble, car bubble, workplace bubble, shopping mall bubble, etc.) He is using this opportunity as a way to try to get more United States Citizens to do more traveling and step outside of their comfort zones. I will say that it definitely worked on me. I want to travel now and feel lame for not ever really taking that option seriously.

So here it is… I hope either you have seen it, loved it then and don’t mind watching it again, or love it when you watch it for the first time now.

Here is the first video

Here is the second video (the one with many people displaying their own culture).