Loud Music + Moshing = ??

If you follow Squeaks' blogs, either Hidden Doorways or The Minstrel Warrior, you'll know that she got to go to a Manafest concert on Monday. Read all about her Epic experience here. I suggest you check it out; she has some insight into things I didn't even pick up on.


Now, that isn't nearly as random as some of you may think, because last night my siblings and I (plus one of Goose's friends) went and saw him too. (I was actually going to invite you, Squeaks, until I read your post and realized you had already seen him. :)


Leauphaun and I knew about seeing Manafest for several days, but we kept it from Goose (who really likes Manafest) until yesterday morning. When we told him that we were going to "a pizza party... with Manafest", his eyes practically bugged out of his head. *happy grin* It was so worth waiting to tell him.


Yes, pizza party. After the concert -- which was completely awesome, as there were maybe 100 people there, tops -- we got to hang around with the band and eat pizza with them. Correction: the band didn't eat pizza, but everyone else did.


Prior to last night, Leauphaun and I had each seen Manafest twice and met him at YC Alberta 2010. When Leauphaun approached him (last night) to get a drawing she did of him signed, he mentioned that she seemed familiar, to which we replied that we'd already met before at YC. Because of that, Chris actually stood and talked to us for a good five minutes after most of the people there had gotten what they wanted signed. He's such a nice guy, very friendly and encouraging too.


There were dozens of funny moments that happened over the course of the evening, but probably the best one was at the end when we were waiting for our parents to come pick us up. Manafest drove his van/trailer around the church so that they could begin loading their gear into it. As he drove by where we were sitting, he rolled down the window and asked us if we wanted to go on tour with him. Of course, we all said yes, then Leauphaun added, "'bout time you asked!" o_O I don't think he heard her.




Leauphaun and I bought t-shirts and got them signed, and Goose bought a hoodie and Manafest's live CD/DVD combo, which he had the band sign it. That makes it... *counts on fingers* Four DVDs of bands Leauphaun and I saw at YC.




All in all, I had a great time last night. Oh, sure, I can barely move my neck and right shoulder, and I'll probably fall asleep during supper tonight, but who cares? I actually got to enjoy a Manafest concert, had Chris scream in my face at one point (during the concert) and got to headbang to my heart's content. Now I can't wait for September. TFK, Newsboys, Manafest...


I can't wait.


PS: Happy anniversary, Chris!! Thank you for sacrificing your eighth anniversary to be with your fans. But make sure you do something for Mrs. Greenwood. Soon.
 ~God Bless~

YC Is Back In Full Force

Hello, Blogger world. Long time no see. Oh, wait. That's not true. . .

As I said yesterday, I have "finally recovered from a full month of spazzing out/screaming in my brother's face at very random moments/general weirdness that I've been plagued with."

Hopefully now you are curious. And even if you aren't, I'll tell you anyway:

As I mentioned three posts ago, Thousand Foot Krutch was getting ready to release their first ever live CD/DVD set. The one that Leauphaun and I got to be a part of (even if we aren't "actually" seen on camera).

Yup. We bought it.

*points at CD cover* Hey, Leauphaun, look! It's YC!!!!!

Well, maybe I'm not entirely back to normal yet...

Anyway, we're so happy that we did buy it (the day it came out, of course). The details of the concert have grown fuzzy over the last year, and it's awesome to have the memory completely refreshed.

I love every song on the DVD (except What Do We Know? and Already Home), but my absolute favorites are Move, Rawkfist, and Puppet. The entire album as a whole is incredible, however.

There are one or two issues, though they are fairly small. First, the DVD cut quite a bit of Trevor's speaking, while they left most of those parts in the CD. I would have preferred that they reverse that. Another thing is that the DVD isn't in surround sound. I mean, come on! Why wouldn't they put it in surround sound? *throws up hands in exasperation*

There aren't any special features. *teardrop* I wanted to see Dad eating wasabi peas in the mile-long lineup for TFK signings. (Really. You just had to be there.)

And the final thing that bugged me (although I was actually expecting this one) was that they cut out the part where Trevor had us singing O Canada. I can understand why they wouldn't put that in a DVD that's going to be sold all over the world, but it was a bit disappoint not to see it in there. (In real life, it was quite the random moment, but totally awesome!)

Then again, I don't think we sounded very good, either. Most of the singing in the DVD is dubbed (but don't tell anyone I said that), and I think they left O Canada out on purpose, so as not to wreck peoples' hearing. Or sound systems.

We now have at least four live DVDs, including Skillet's Comatose Comes Alive, U2's Live From Chicago, the TFK DVD, and RED's special edition End Of Silence. Visually, I actually like Skillet's DVD the least, as it's so effects heavy, it's hard to figure out what's going on some shots. But that's a completely different rant... er, blog post.

Speaking of RED . . . (yes, it's true I can't go much longer than three or four posts without talking about them), the other reason I was very close to freaking out was because they released their "Feed The Machine" music video on Monday. I've just been too busy to post about it until now.

As many people have already said, this music videos plays out more like a mini-movie than a music video, what with being a full seven minutes and twenty seconds long. Do take the time to watch the full thing, even if you aren't a huge fan of RED. There's an inspiring message in this song, and the video shows that in a very literal way.

As one comment I saw said: I agree, but let's not just watch the video. Let's do something about it. Let's wake up and kill the machine.

If this video doesn't get as many views as bieber and gaga... i'm really worried about what my future kids will listen to... :S

Hmmm. After watching it again, I feel there may be an interesting plot here somewhere. . .

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the video?

PS. Having identical twins in a band makes for some very interesting family moments, does it not? *laughs* Randy's choking Anthony. Oh, that's just great for their relationship as brothers, isn't it? Check out RED's Death Of Me video for more twin verses twin action.

~God Bless~

As Promised...

...Here's the link to YC Alberta 2011. When the evening starts (8:00 MST, 10:00 EST) there will be "watch live stream" button that you can click on. The schedule is somewhat buried, but unfortunately I can't find a link to it. Explore a bit, I'm sure you'll find it.

I'm waiting to watch Bluetree tomorrow, and maybe (if we have time Switchfoot tonight. Sadly, this year most of the "good" bands (see: Disciple, The Letter Black, Worth Dying For) are playing in the afternoons, which I don't think are going to be streamed live. All I can say is that I'm so glad we went last year and not this year.

Hope everyone enjoys watching YC Alberta 2011!

~God Bless~

In Which I Spazz About Three Things

Contrary to popular belief, I am not dead. I've just lost my motivation for blogging. In fact, I've lost my motivation for a lot of things right now. A quick hint: tags help me blog more often. *wise nod* Very inspiring.

In other new: YC ALBERTA 2011 STARTS IN LESS THAN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I'm excited about this. Since I can't be there this year (and there's only three reasons to be there anyway) I guess I'll have to take the next best thing: watching it live on the website, where they'll be streaming it all weekend. I'll post the link either tomorrow morning or afternoon.

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S BEEN A YEAR SINCE WE WERE IN ALBERTA!!!!!!!      Creepy...

Leauphaun's line of the day: You know you have too many drawings when you forget you have some.

I did this the other day with my writing. I went back and read the half-completed short story-turned-novella I've had on the go for several months and read the second half again (as I can't stand the first half). I was pleasantly surprised at my writing, even to the point where I'd completely forgotten that I'd written several thousand words. It made my, uh, night.

Several months ago, I got an idea for another story, the summery of which sounded something like this:

Two characters (Eldra and Daymond?) must protect a family from a corrupt government that is persecuting them for their faith.

Okay, so the entire summery was a bit longer than that, but you get the idea. Two weeks ago, I woke up one morning and had huge chunks of plot fall into place. I wrote almost half the plot and four character bios on my iPod before I even got out of bed. As of today, the basic outline is over five hundred words, and I'm about half way through the plot. I've decided to cut Eldra from the entire story, as I'm more interested in Daymond right now. (And once more I fall for the bad boy.)

The unusual thing about this story is I'm hoping to focus more attention on character development and the spiritual aspect than the crazy action/fight scenes that I seem to be so fond of.

Two songs in particular seem to be inspiring me: Fades Away's "Right Now (We'll Stand), Skillet's "Hero". If you listen to the lyrics in both songs, the first one is talking about not being a hero, while Skillet's song is about being a hero. That's the direction I want to take with Daymond in this story (and his overall life). Plot details for this new novella will emerge soon.

Also, I have received an award from Barriss!!! Thanks!

To accept the award I need to list seven interesting things about myself.

1. I CAN'T WAIT for the new RED music video to come out. (clip #1 here and #2 here)

2. If rock music wasn't invented, LOTR music would be my favorite, specifically Concerning Hobbits.

3. I've seen Skillet in person one time and twice online, all before Ben Kasica left. *teardrop*

4. I've discovered that Daymond (my anti-hero with heroic qualities) is a more complex character than I'd ever dreamed, even surpassing Eldra (my main character and protagonist).

5. I could live with snakes, if only I never had to see another spider again in my life!

6. I prefer supper foods for breakfast. Leauphaun is the exact opposite.

7. CLU has officially become my favorite TRON: Legacy character, surpassing Sam by miles.

I must pass this award onto 15 other people. I won't list anyone in particular, but if you haven't received this award yet, you are free to take it, as long as you comment with a link to your post.

And speaking of CLU, Leauphaun completed another music video yesterday to Skillet's remixed song "Monster, now titled "Monster: Unleash The Beast". Check the video out below.

This song fits CLU perfectly. I dare you argue that point with me. *disarming grin*

~God Bless~