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thinking about all the fun I’m going to have with my new Flash I’m picking up tonight!!! hurray.

just thought you might want to see my excitement.

We’ll see how many Volumes I can amass for the “Coolness” topic, but this video needed to get posted, so thus a new Vol. begins. Andy Davis is playing in Atlanta twice next week. Eddie’s Attic on Tuesday and then in the Atlanta Room @ Smith’s Olde Bar on Wed. An amazing songwriter, but I mostly appreciate his melodies and his creative guitar arangements. This song just caught my ear today.
check him out on virb.com/andydavis

well, maybe not completely back in the saddle, but I did get to play some of my songs live last night @ Smith’s Olde Bar here in Atlanta. It was a blast to get to be on stage again and play a few tunes. I even busted out a song I wrote the night before, which went pretty well. Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out on a Tuesday night, I know that’s not the best night for a night out. But, they do want to book me again in February, so I’m already looking forward to that.

The new song I wrote the other night (title TBD) is just about the recent reflection I’ve had on how blessed I am. I think it’s so easy to think of our lives in terms of how we can improve, get more money, make more friends, be funny, drive a sweet car, etc etc. Thinking about improvement isn’t necessarily wrong, but when it puts a fog over all of the blessing you have in your life, that’s a problem. I think in the last couple weeks I’ve just been reminded of the blessing in my life. From Kristine and all she is to me, to Adler’s laugh & even his cry, to the friends we have, to our home, etc etc. God is amazing and real. The song basically wrote itself in 15 minutes after I heard Adler crying into the monitor and just realized what a blessed sound that is to get to hear. There’s so much hope in the sounds and smells of your loved ones. I find so much security in the smell of Kristine’s hair when we’re laying on the couch watching a movie with her asleep on me. I’m so thankful for what I have.

Hopefully I’ll do a rough version of the new song in the next day or so and post it.

Wow…it’s been a long time since I’ve done a music review, probably because I feel pretty disconnected to music at current. I’ve missed my guitar and writing music, as other responsibilities and hobbies have required more of my time. But in the past week or so, a message of renewal in my spiritual life from a Jeff Henderson talk at Buckhead Church, I found myself looking for not only music to ride the wave with, but spiritual music that helps my heart to chew on some of those thoughts…enter:

ROBBIE SEAY BAND:
I’ve been an RSB fan for a long time. They’ve always been a solid Christian band, one that is original and has somehow avoided some of the “cheese factor” that some Christian artists can adhere their sound too. But their latest album “Give Yourself Away” is by far their most mature to date. They got a great sound out of the studio, and Robbie’s extremely original voice rings through in each note. Lyrically, an album of hope, and musically an album that gives my hands reason to play congas on my steering wheel as I drive home from an often monotonous day in a cubicle. Thanks for a great album Robbie Seay and Band. You guys are awesome and I hope everyone else catches on to your catchy, inspired music.

In addition to snapping so many pics over the last few weeks for some friends, as I kick start this photo biz thing, I’ve been trying to find unique ways to offer up some edits of the photos that I take. For instance, I’ve found that using textures along with photos (thank you Flickr friends) really does wonders for some pictures and just adds some interest, so here are a couple of my first stabs at this technique.

yell at the clouds, originally uploaded by Stevo28andgrowing.

Commercialism!!!

I find my day job inside the walls of one of the world’s biggest retailers, working for the largest independant Advertising Agency in the United States. I love good advertising. I love bad advertising, too…though for a completely different reason. I’m surrounded by creativity on a normal basis, though it’s creativity designed to sell stuff. All that to say…I do think Advertising is the industry for me…at least for now.

BUT…the thing that drives me more crazy than sitting in stop dead traffic on 285, while watching cars fly by me on the shoulder of the interstate (which I hate, hate, hate) IS when companies start their holiday advertising before Halloween!

Holy Smokes does it chap my hide (that’s right…I live in a western) to hear the barf inducing sounds of the Haverty’s Furntiture Christmas commercial with the adorably sales driving white puppy clad in red bow prancing around the shiny new couch of the season. Literally it makes the hair on my crawling skin crawl.

Who decided this would be a good idea? I mean, I get it…this year has been tough economically for retailers and humans alike. It’s been rough for investors and everyone wants a push at the end of the year to get as close to the black as possible, but you’re killin me people! Oh, and news flash: next year will probably be the same, OR worse.

The nostalgia of Christmas time has begun to get sucked out of the air by this onslaught of Holiday jingles and Santa on TV while the air is still not cool in many of the 50 states. I mean, as I sit here right now…a week before Thanksgiving…someone ONE cubicle over from me is reviewing a Christmas spot that will run in the next few weeks and thus I’m blessed to hear “way to go Santa!!!” over and over…For cryin out loud, the Turkey for Turkey Day hasn’t even been purchased yet…the pumkin from Halloween hasn’t been trashed…but thank goodness the Christmas albums, both Christian and Secular alike have already been put on the shelves so that their sweet melodies can warm our hearts into a trip to crowded malls, long purchasing lines and possibly even some hot apple cider, to be sipped outside in 80 degree weather of course…this advertising season, I may need a little somethin somethin to mix into that cider!

SharpTopCove-8779.jpg, originally uploaded by Stevo28andgrowing.

So true….Coke in a can just doesn’t measure up to Coke in a bottle…and not the plastic bottle, but the glorious glass bottle…with that shade of green and full of memories of childhood. What’s better than an ice cold bottle of coke?

what products do you have nostalgic experiences with?

SharpTopCove-8769.jpg, originally uploaded by Stevo28andgrowing.

Took this driving back to Atlanta from Sharp Top Cove over the weekend. Adler and I had a great time hanging out together. He was such a trooper and all the YL kids are so cool to him. It’s like he’s on the team with us.

Happy Monday!