Horse Hero

Oh, Kris Straub. I have a noted dislike of both Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but this is a game, I would actually play.

Mostly because there's no way I could or would learn to ride a horse in real life. So it's legitimate to do it in virtual life.

Again Of Derek Webb

I already talked about the show, but I forgot this picture. I have another one on my phone, but we'll see how that goes:


You can't really make it out, but he had two strips of LEDs on either side of him broadcasting an assortment of colors depending on the song. And of course, the kick drum.

Rarities Don't Always Make My Heart Happy

My phone is jacked up somehow. My technologically-astute-and-slightly-idolatrous housemate Joel tells me it's updating it's software. I'm not on the Geek Squad, but something tells me it should be taking 12 hours to do that.

So if you have called or texted me in that time, I'm not a jerk, at least not in this instance, I'm just unable to reply at the moment.

Derek Webb's 'Black Eye' Tour

So, this is a little late, but here goes:

Thursday the 24th of September was a small but momentous occasion for me: the first concert I have been to in quite some time. I remembered why I love to go to them.

The performer was Derek Webb, accompanied by his former Caedmon's Call bandmate Josh Moore (who partnered with him for the album), and the drummer Chris Kimmerer. Having listened to the CD heavily, and knowing it was laced with heavy electronic melodies and beats, I was very interested to see how Derek would go about performing it.

I was not disappointed in the least. He performed the entire album, including his controversial song "What Matters More," in it's full, explicit glory. Having Josh their doing the electronic work live was absolutely amazing, and Chris on the drums just added a powerful, beefed-up sense to the songs.

Derek let Josh and Chris have a break halfway through and performed several requests from his older stuff, including a cover I didn't know existed, of Bob Dylan's "The Times Are A-Changin'"

While I was there I picked up some new music as well.

I particularly enjoyed the use of three bass drums, each being kicked by the three performers during "The Spirit vs. The Kick Drum," a song that (unbeknownst to me) includes the voice of Bert. Derek is apparently being sued over his use of Bert's audio. He said that Sesame Street didn't want to be associated with the kinds of things his CD contained, and "Apparently the letter 'L' on Sesame Street stands for 'Litigation'."

Finally, and almost importantly, one of the coolest parts of the show was the backdrop they had behind Chris on the drums, it displayed an assortment of colors that coincided with the songs.

Blackmail by Creed Bratton

As a good many of you may be aware of, I am a fairly big fan of The Office. I'll admit, I'm a little perturbed by its "trendiness" in the past year or so, but it still makes me laugh, so I'm committed for the foreseeable future.

I stumbled upon the Blackmail Webisode, featuring Creed Bratton. It's pretty funny, although Creed's acting is a little off. One of my favorite things was Andy's statement: "Creed, you are gratuitously creepy." So true.

Watch it and tell me what you think.

Polar War Show

Went to the Polar War show tonight. I say the Polar War show even though they were opening for All Get Out, mostly because I went to see Polar War and not All Get Out.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised and quite impressed. Not that I thought they would suck, but I had yet to hear their stuff, and it was excellent. Which equals me, pleasantly surprised.

Even though the room the actual show was in consisted of a single, normal size doorway and about 400 square feet, with about 30 people packed into it, and the acoustics were less than stellar, it was still a pretty well performed show.

Being a longtime friend of Will, it was difficult not to pick up on slight hints of Haze Grey and From Morning On's vocals, but that's not a bad thing by any means. If tonight's show was any indicator, he has definitely progressed and matured far beyond my memory of his role in those bands. His vocals were not polished, not pristine, but instead were an enjoyable full and passionate, laced with a sense of depravity. I can't wait to hear him once they record something.

Nog and Andy's background vocals were daggum amazing. That's a professional term which means WELL DONE. A lot of times background vocals can seem superfluous or unnecessary, but each time they stepped up to the mic, there was a pleasant harmony or cacophony with whatever Will was singing. They also threw in some gang-type vocals, technique I've always loved.

Dave was, naturally, going crazy on the drums. From where I was standing I could only see his arms as he bashed out a pleasant medley of heavy-hitting drums, but it was enough to see the intensity with which he was playing. The drums were another aspect that did not overpower but rather supported the rest of the instruments, a surprising feat for the venue.

I'll admit it was difficult to hear the guitars simple because of the confines of the building, but that's my only criticism about their contribution. I really enjoyed the volume of Nog's bass, and the variety of what he was playing--it wasn't a typical monotonous bass line. I was also unaware that Will played keys as well as guitar, at least in the band--a worthy contribution and again, enjoyable.

Basically, I went because they were friends but I'll be going back because they put on a pretty bangin' show.

The Return

This past weekend was Family Weekend at the prestigious Winthrop University. It was pretty cool to see my parents and little siblings (minus Liz, who I saw last weekend), and have them see my uh, house. I guess little is a bit of a misnomer as well, Jeremy's almost as tall as me, dang it. If he surpasses me in height, you all as my witnesses I will punch something cute, innocent and vulnerable. Currently I'm thinking bunnies or kittens.

Anyways, back to the point of this post: On Saturday night, the entirety of the Schley clan that was in Rock Hill went and saw a DSU event, a performance by the Beatles tribute band The Return.

Now, judging by my last sentence and their website, you will probably roll your eyes and think incredulous, doubtful thoughts as I did. But beware, unbeliever, their performance was a-daggum-mazing. So good, in fact, that my brother and I spent the first 24 minutes [an exact figure] of the show trying to figure out if they were just playing the music and lip-syncing to the original Beatles vocals.

(We finally figured it out on their rendition of "Paperback Writer" during which their harmony was noticeably different than that of the Beatles. Not bad, just not the exact same.)

I'm not going to lie, it was pretty interesting to get the feel of what it would have been like to be at a Beatles show. Sure, there were not hundreds of hormone-driven teen girls inundating the stage, but from what I could tell, they really captured the feel of the Beatles as a group. Right down to their British accents and the exact instruments they play, the same types the Beatles played, according to my dad.

It was also entertaining to watch the middle-aged and up women get into the aisles and start dancing. From "Hold Your Hand" straight on through the last song I heard before we had to go, "Yellow Submarine," it was delightful performance to say the least. I'd recomment going to see them if you ever have the chance.

Oh, Kanye

Just for the record, I'm not a fan of Kanye West as an artist or a person. I don't hate the guy, but I'm not inviting him to any Office/Community/It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Thursdays at the Testosterhome anytime soon. To say the least, I agree with President Obama's analysis of Kanye and his actions at the award ceremony I couldn't care less about.

That being said, the Kanye jokes that have surfaced since his idiotic interjection onstage are pretty dang hilarious. A friend sent me this one, from the quite hilarious site Halolz:


Comedic gold. Plus, it induces reminiscent memories of That Glorious Gaming System that was my first real committed interaction with video games. I still have it, it's at the Testosterhome. I'm thinking some old school Vectorman and Sonic is in order.

Blog Subscriptions

I don't know how you keep up with this blog (if you keep up with this blog), but for my subscriptions, I use Google Reader. It's a pretty bangin' tool, and makes it fairly easy to get all of your subscriptions in one location.

That being said, I have roughly 120 subscriptions, everything from friend's blogs to ministries' blogs, some authors, and several different webcomics. Over the summer, because I couldn't get online every day, I got way behind on my subscriptions. Like 400 unread posts behind.

Yesterday, I took it upon myself during my three hours at work to clear them all out, and I did. At 3:30 yesterday I had zero unread posts.

Now, I get on today and had 26 unread posts. Is that bad? Some people update two or three times a day, so it's a little understandable. But I could easily see blogging becoming as big a hindrance as Facebook was. Bleh.

How do you get your blog posts? Do you think it can be a hassle to keep up with them?

Martin Luther On Fun

Philip Melancthon:
"Today, Martin, you and I will discuss God's governance of the universe,"
Martin Luther:
"No, Philip. Today you and I are going fishing, and we'll leave the governance of the universe to God."

I am very glad that God leaves me to play video games and man the computer lab, write poetry and hammock, enjoy the fellowship of my friends and live, love, laugh while he takes care of the bigger picture.

As a theologically minded control-freak, I constantly want to know what is up when it comes to God's will, direction, and action. But I don't, and since I don't foresee me becoming God anytime in the near eternity, I never will. So I'm going to ride my bike.

What are you glad you can do instead of worrying about God's governance?

[from Jared Wilson via Jason Boyett]