City and Colour with Pink - What Makes A Man
This is not a cry for pity or for sympathy.
So, wake—wake up.
I can hear my train coming. Looks like time is not on my side.
Record Store Day 2011 Wishlist
Must finds:
7”
Death Cab For Cutie – …In Living Stereo! – 3000
Death Cab for Cutie - Home is a Fire b/w You are a Tourist
Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues / Grown Ocean – 3000
Michael Jackson – Hollywood Tonight / Behind the Mask
Manchester Orchestra – Simple Math / The Plan
Rival Schools - Wring it Out - 1500
10”
Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band - Gotta Get the Feeling b/w Racing in the Street
Mumford & Sons / Laura Marling – Dharohar Project - 3500
LP
Big Star – Third (Test Pressing Edition) - 2000
Circa Survive – Appendage - oxblood colored vinyl – 2000
City and Colour - Sometimes 2xLP 180g - 500
Glassjaw - Worship & Tribute
Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American - 3xLP – 1500
Touche Amore - To the Beat… 180g white - 250
No, I am not where I belong.
I will see you again…
Latest track to be released from the upcoming “Little Hell” due out this summer.
Tattoos!
My friend Allen asked his followers what tattoos they had and what they meant. I have a few and I am really into the culture, so I typed up a million words describing mine. And then I figured, I might as well post it here. I don’t do too many personal things on here. But oh well. Here ya go. Excuse the errors, it was typed in a plain text editor.
I got my first tattoo at 20 after joining the Navy. It’s a Sailor Jerry ship with “homeward bound” in a banner. I got it because my grandfather, whom I am named after, got the same tattoo by the actual Sailor Jerry when he lived in Hawaii in the 50’s and 60’s. Kind of a cool story, I think.
I have my chest, two sparrows (a maritime tradition. Sailors used to get two sparrows after crossing the Atlantic), with a prayer torch and lyrics from my favorite coheed song, “Pray for us all.”
I have “uva uvam viviendo varia fit” on my right forearm. Latin, and loosely translated, “a grape changes when it is near another grape.” I got it done in Sicily a few years back. It comes from the movie Lonesome Dove. It is a motto painted on the sign for Woodrow and Gus’s farm. Those two guys are the best depiction of true friends I have ever seen.
On my right calf, I have a Day of the Dead mariachi band, complete with mustaches. There is a banner that reads, “Nadie nod detiene. Somos libertad,” which is spanish for, “nobody stops us. we are free.” My mom remarried after her and my father split up. Her new husband is Mexican, so I was around a LOT of the culture growing up. It really means a lot to me.
On me left calf, I have a jeweled sugar skull with a gold tooth and, “LIVE POSI. DIE HAPPY.” in script. Again, it’s a nod to the Mexican culture I grew up around. Also, the phrase is something I really live my life by. Anybody who knows me would co-sign on that.
On my left forearm, I have a japanese style white crane with an arrow in it’s wing. A nod to the Decemberist’s album The Crane Wife. That album came out in a very pivotal moment in my life. I was on my first deployment out to the middle east and things weren’t perfect for me. I listened to that record so much. The story that the album is coined from is a Japanese folk tale with a pretty awesome moral: be happy with what you have. Another mantra I live by.
Also on my left arm, on the bicep, I have an anatomical heart and a banner that reads, “bring me your love.” This one is a reminder about the one that I let get away from me. Something I have to carry with me for the rest of my life. Pretty perfect.
Annnnd finally, on the inside of my lip I have the words, “still ill.” It’s a Smith’s song (which rules) but it is also a testament to still be straight edge after all these years. Twenty-five years old and still holding on. Still ill!
