moving back

anyone still here?  i'm moving back to tumblr.

jugglemank.tumblr.com

see you there!

haha

gotta wake up very, very early in the morning, so short post tonight.

these two tunes are songs that i've been listening to a lot lately that literally make me so happy i laugh each time.  isn't that an awesome feeling?  i laugh all the time at funny stuff, but i think the best laughs result from happiness that can't be contained!

smile!

-jglmnk

kids and pups

pictures 1-7, 13-16 by me.  the rest are by jawa.

just a short one tonight.

i've been re-watching mad men with anna and this was the end-of-the-episode music for the last one we watched.  i bet my mom's gonna be surprised to see simon and garfunkel on here!

...and to see a picture of herself!  love this one of her and chica-butt.  i'm also attaching a long-exposure of chicago i took the other night.  i'm pretty intrigued by long-exposure photography, so i'm hoping to get a tripod before too long and really give it a shot.

good night, loyal readers.

-jglmnk

"i see the power of music"

got to hop back home for a couple days this weekend.

it was great!  the pool was refreshing, chica was full of energy, and the company was excellent.  when i went to visit my aunt cindy, her and i got to talking about what music we'd been listening to lately, as we always seem to do.  she spoke of some great bluegrass josh had recommended and i replied with some great story-driven music.  i love music with a story.  after all, what more is a musician than an aural story-teller?

today i'm sharing two great stories with you.  the first is a phenomenal ted talk by one of my favorites, abigail washburn.  i'd tell you a little bit about her, but i'd hate to spoil any of the impact of her wonderful lecture.  at the top of the post you'll find the full version of the song she sings in the talk, "taiyang chulai."

next up is a short history of one of my favorite's avett brothers tunes, "signs."  again, the video is so awesome that i really don't want to spoil anything.  you'll love it.  the avett brothers version is at the top of this post.

all right, these two stories should tide you over for a few days.  look for another post sometime midweek.

-jglmnk

...aaaaand we're back!

ok, ok, you can stop holding your breath.

it sure has been a while, but here we are!  as you can see, the changes to the site are certainly not worthy of the extended delay y'all have been experiencing, but that's just how it ended up.

let's talk changes.

first of all, updates are going to be a bit more spaced out.  while i'd love to keep recommending a song each day, i get too obsessive with my listening, and new stuff takes a while to work in.  the songs i'm including in this post have been on heavy rotation, with multiple listenings per day.  for now, i'm hoping to include three to four songs each week.  the tracks might be spaced out through the week, or, in tonight's case, they may just be in one post.

secondly, i'm switching over to an embedded spotify music player instead of youtube.  i've talked about spotify lots and lots, but, if you don't remember, it's rad.  download it, log in with your facebook account, and listen.  i don't think you need an account to listen to anything via the embedded player i'm using, but let me know if it's not working for you.  (yes, you, the four readers that might see this.)

i'm also going to include some different content now and then.  i'll probably throw in a video game post, some "day in the life" type of things (you'll see), and maybe even some style/fashion stuff.

and, it looks a little different.  you like?

all right, that's enough of that.  let's get to the music, shall we?

first up is "beacon" by disasterpeace.  this track comes from the soundtrack of one of the craziest video games i've ever played, "fez."  on the surface, "fez" is an indie platformer with a sublime art style with rad music, but it quickly turns into an unbelievably challenging puzzle game.  seriously, this game is nuts.  it took the entire internet over a week to solve the game's final puzzle.  can you imagine that?  a puzzle stumping the internet for an entire week?  that's like a decade in real time.  to top it off, the final puzzle was only beaten by "brute force," as players on the internet made a website with the over ten thousand possible answer combinations and started trying combination after combination.  someone eventually the correct sequence, but no one knows why it solved the puzzle.  still.

anyways, keeping with the retro pixelated art style of "fez," disasterpeace composed an 8 bit soundtrack that further draws you into the game.  "beacon" is probably my favorite track.  that lick at 1:38?  so joyful, so nostalgic, so beautiful.  and then it goes up the octave in the next statement!  perfect.

the opening area of fez.  so cool!

another song that has been getting a ton of play time in my car lately is "i've got this friend" by the civil wars.  before all of this recent downtime, i recommended a few of their tracks, and i've been listening to their album "barton hollow" more and more.  "i've got this friend" is absolutely infectious!  i challenge you to listen to it without cracking a smile.  it's sincere, flirtacious, playful, and supremely cute.  love this one!

the last song of the week is a big surpirse...

...wait for it...

"the weight of lies" by the avett brothers!

for my money, there aren't more sincere lyricists than these guys.  i mean, come on.

"the weight of lies will bring you down/and follow you to every town/'cause nothing happens here that doesn't happen there"

if there's a book that i want sitting next to my Bible, it's a full score of the avett brothers' discography.  i learn something new from every song.  these are some very wise souls.  if you have the opportunity, i suggest listening to this one at dusk, in your car, with the windows down.  i think i've said this before, but it seriously feels like praying to me.  amazing stuff.

well, i think that about wraps it up for this post.  check out the music and leave a thought!

-jglmnk

under construction...

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

the civil wars - you are my sunshine (live)

these guys are so rad.

and...

...well...

...her...

*swoon*

enjoy,

-jglmnk

abigail washburn - bright morning stars

"bright morning stars are rising/bright morning stars are rising/bright morning stars are rising

day is a-breaking in my soul"

this song is absolutely stunning.  i can't get enough of ms. washburn!  her music is so completely rejuvenating to me: physically, mentally, emotionally, musically.

amazing stuff, people.

enjoy,

-jglmnk

frank sinatra - mr. success

2:23: "i couldn't be a failure even if i triiiiiiiiiiied"

so good!

enjoy,

-jglmnk

abigail washburn & the sparrow quartet - a fuller wine

soooooooooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooooooood.

"everywhere i go i look for you"

beautiful.  beautiful!

enjoy,

-jglmnk

abigail washburn & the sparrow quartet - banjo pickin' girl

Banjo Pickin' Girl uh oh, you guys, i'm about convinced.

of what, you ask?  of moving down to the south with only a banjo in my hand.  gals like abigail washburn are making it hard to resist!

couldn't find a youtube video for this one, so click on the little black play button at the top of the post.  it'll open a myspace audio player with the full track.

yeeeeeeeee hawwwwwwww!

enjoy,

-jglmnk

ellie goulding - your song

found this song thanks to shuffle today.  i'm pretty sure my cousin jennifer recommended it to me, and boy, she did well.

my favorite line: "and you can tell everybody this is your song/it may be quite simple, but now that it's done/i hope you don't mind, i hope you don't mind that i put down in words/how wonderful life is now you're in the world"

life is beautiful, guys.  let's remind each other, shall we?

enjoy,

-jglmnk

weezer - island in the sun

man, weezer rocks.  why don't i listen to them more?  why don't you?  let's fix that.

this is the perfect song for today's weather- a balmy 38 degrees, according to my weather widget...

enjoy,

-jglmnk

the avett brothers - i thank God

Avett Brothers - I Thank God from Record Store Day on Vimeo.

here's a slightly different Easter celebration for ya.

i listened to this beautiful song a lot this weekend.  it really reminds me of how lucky we all are and how easy it is to get caught up in the stresses of every day life.  the priest at mass on sunday wished everyone an "amazing" easter, after commenting on how liberally the word is used today.  life truly is amazing.  there is so much that happens everyday that just passes right by me without appreciation.  songs like these remind me to both the person i was raised to be and the person that God wants me to be.

usually i just give little snippets of lyrics, but i wrote out the full text below:

"this wonderful world we live in
is God's masterpiece of art
and i live each golden moment
with His love in my heart

i thank God for blessing me
with eyes to see each wondrous day
and i thank God for hands to help
my fellow man along the way

He gave me lips to speak the simple truth
and ears to hear the magic dreams of youth

i thank God for giving me
His blessed book with words divine
for now i know, dear God i know
the miracle of life is mine

yes, now i know, dear God i know
the miracle of life is mine"

-jglmnk

widor - "toccata" from symphony 5

happy Easter, guys!

one of my favorite things about Easter is playing in church Easter morning.  the past few years i've had the pleasure of playing with a fantastic organist named todd gresick in a beautiful church in winnetka.  he ends each service with this gem from widor's fifth symphony.  if this doesn't get you in the spirit, nothing will!

life is good, friends.

enjoy,

-jglmnk

austin wintory - i was born for this

i recently played an amazing bit of interactive art called "journey."

"journey" puts you in control of a robed creature at the beginning of a long trip.  the only thing the game shows you is a mountain in the distance with light shooting skyward.  there is no heads up display, no tutorials, no text, and no directions- you're simply on a journey.

i absolutely loved this game.  i could go on and on about journey, but alex navarro of giantbomb.com, my go-to videogame website, has said it all.  check out the review @ http://www.giantbomb.com/journey/61-31772/reviews/.

the music throughout the journey is incredible!  if i had to choose my favorite track, though, it's "i was born for this."  the music absolutely sounds like a journey.

there are some really amazing things happening in the game world right now from smaller developer studios.  you might remember me mentioning both "braid" by jonathon blow and "bastion" by greg kasavin and supergiant games.  what a great coincidence it is that all three of these games are incredible experiences with amazing music!

enjoy,

-jglmnk

tenacious d - rize of the fenix

the d is back, baby.

tenacious d is one of my very favorite bands.  they're insanely talented musically and absolutely hilarious.

some great inspirational lines in this one:

"'cause the fiery heart of the champion can not be quelched/by a failure or an embarassment, no way, no!"

"hold it KG, what's that on the horizon?/it's a big old fireball of hope!"

they're blowing my mind over here.  yeah!

enjoy,

-jglmnk

yael naim - far far

oh man, i'm way behind.  sorry dudes!  i'm telling ya, i'll catch up.  my trend of getting obsessed with one song/artist for a while can be somewhat of a disservice when trying to post a new song to a blog every day.  i was thinking of maybe creating a new spotify playlist every week of new music that people have recommended to me and trying to only listen to new stuff for a bit.  we'll see...

anyways, here's a new one for y'all.  you've heard some of yael's stuff before, and this one is just as awesome as the rest!

and why not, here are some pictures i took the other day with my photog friend tess!  sumer is icumen in, y'all.

good to be back :)

enjoy,

-jglmnk

the acorn - dents

man, this song is rad.  it makes me so happy!

their song "slippery when wet" is easily one of my favorite songs, and this one has been getting more and more playtime in my car lately.  really dig their sound world.

enjoy,

-jglmnk