LTJ GNV FLA

I went to see my most favorite band in the whole world the other night and it was a rare experience because I also got to meet them!! Finally after 13 years of being a deticated fan, official card carrying fan club member, lol....I got the added excitement of interacting with the band members. I was thrilled!

"I can't listen to all the reasons, I just need one more thing to believe in. The one thing that will keep me breathing. So, I'll kiss the dirt when I hit dry land" -LTJ

During a random morning check of Myspace, I saw that the band was going to be appearing at the Virgin record store and playing an acoustic set and would be signing stuff that afternoon. I got there and purchased the new album and received a vinyl which I had the whole band autograph. It was awesome. Chris and Roger, two of the more well known members played a few songs and I rocked out still marveling in the fact that they were making such an intimate appearance. In all the times I've seen them play, I never saw them come out and talk to fans, at least not formally. I had a ton of things I wanted to say to them but when I got up there I pretty much just said hello and told them they were awesome and thanked them for making such great music that has inspired me and been with me through thick and thin.

"Surviving is my best revenge, what hurts you once won't hurt you again. She meant what she said" - LTJ

Later at the show, a few ska bands opened who were all pretty good - including Mustard Plug, a band I came to know on a youth group trip one summer after 10th grade. It was fun to see them play and then finally LTJ!!! They played a kick ass show as always and as usual, played lots of old songs. Their traditional confetti cannons shot off during 'All My Best Friends Are Metalheads' and then again during the finale song 'Plastic Cup Politics'. I was in heaven. It's amazing how that same environment can be recreated again and again, it's like I'm back at the Electric Factory in 1998 skanking away with my friend Jason right after Hello Rockview came out, having the time of my life.

"I always walk the line between lows and the highest highs and I don't mind" - LTJ

The pit was pretty rough, a lot rougher than I remembered for a ska show but I didn't mind getting pushed and shoved, elbowed and plowed against in the instance of being at one with the music that describes my soul. I stood beneath the spot where Roger played because I love watching him, he has such great expressions and stage presence and makes a lot of eye contact with the fans and I always get more out of the show when I can feel like I'm connecting with him.

"Just standing in this crowded room still makes me feel alive. The thoughts that's in our brains, were razor sharp but all the years made them fade or wrote them in a different way" - LTJ

The new album is really good. I didn't know how I felt at first because it's a little different than their more recent stuff. However, it goes back to the roots of what Less Than Jake is all about. The band started their own record label Sleep It Off Records, moving away from Warner Brothers, and are going back to what their true character is, with the fast punk rock horn sounds of their early days. That's fine with me because Losing Streak is my favorite album and I think LTJ GNV FLA is more or less comparable to that, Pezcore and Losers, Kings & Things We Don't Understand. LTJ FOREVER!!! :o)

"And the cities skyline hasn't looked the same, since the boom in South Florida's real estate. It's turning into more than I can take. Too much too soon, too little too late" - LTJ

Cinderella

Cinderella by: Steven Curtis Chapman

This blog is inspired by a story and reflection I heard in church the other day. It touched me deeply. I'd like to share it with you.




Three days after her 5th birthday, Steven's 'Cinderella' Maria was tragically hit by a car and killed.




This is an awful reminder that all we really have are moments. Don't let them pass you by.

Cuteness

My best friend is in love. Sweet, spinning, skipping, spooning, never-let-me-go, kind of love. I am so happy to see her...this happy. I remember what it's like to be cherished to my bones and cared for so strongly and I am tickled to know that she has found the reflection of her soul's beauty in another to this magnitude. It is quite special to have been involved in the process of watching two people find each other when the odds were stacked against them from the beginning. To realize that when two beings have the desire to be together, nothing will stand in their way is jolting and refreshing.

We are all made for this kind of loving. Sadly, I believe some people will never experience it or will only find it fleetingly in their lives. People are afraid to really open their hearts to another person. But when you do, you will find the most beautiful and fulfilling feelings you've ever known. I am thankful to have felt loved and to have been allowed to give my love so deeply to another and I look forward to future love as it awaits somewhere out there for me. In the meantime, I will keep watching an exquiste love story unfold in my own backyard. Cheers my good friends <3

Fabulously Ever After

Last weekend I, wishing I had my entourage of fabulous women friends to share the experience of seeing a classic chick flick with, went to see Sex and the City - the movie by myself. Geography and busy schedules kept me from getting my wish but I could not wait to see the movie version of a tv show that has inspired me and served as therapy to my sometimes weary soul.

Around the time of my fairly recent break up, I ordered Season 1 of Sex and the City from Amazon. Instantly, I was hooked. I was enamoured with the storyline, women in their thirities living in New York City trying to find a suitable partner while experiening all the challeneges and mishaps of dating and relationships many of us face today. Strong, successful women who celebrate being single and fabulous in a culture where women in their thirties are more or less expected to be married and having children. I feel that this tv show is so important. It sheds light on many issues women have never felt safe talking about before. The voice of Carrie Bradshaw (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) who plays a writer on the tv show, through her sex column asks real life questions so many of us struggle with such as 'Do you have to play games to make a relationship work?', 'Can there be sex without politics?', 'Is timing everything?', 'Is honesty really the best policy?', 'Are we getting wiser or just older?' The threaded theme of the story is the glue of female friendship.

As I sat in the dark movie theater, I was relieved that I had come to this movie alone because I found myself surprisingly overcome with emotion. I cried during much of the movie. I cried for the love that I have lost, for the strength that I have found in myself and for the deep longing I feel to be reconnected to my girlfriends as we once were. I cried for the unfairness of life circumstances and for finding humor through it all. I realized it was the first time I had let myself go like that in a long time. I stayed through the credits because I became aware of those around me and felt slightly embarrssed. The strong bond you feel between these women on the screen recaptures that sense of togetherness and belonging I once felt with my 'chick clique'. Then somehow, life gets in the way. If you manage to stay close with just a few friends through the years, consider yourself lucky.

Afterwards, I put myself back together and as if the movie had subminially brainwashed me, I suddenly had the intense urge to go shopping. And just like that, I got my stride back.

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tip of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can dissapoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusations of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes!"

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else fails away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

From The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer