John Goraj

I saw him play at Plush tonight.

Unlike other shows I've seen there which the artists play on the stage, John just played in the lobby. So I got a beer, sat down on the fun couches and just sat for 2 hours and listened to him play :)

I happened to sit on the couch right next to where he was playing, so when he took a break he introduced himself, and i told him i just bought his record and it'd been fun listening to it over the last several days.

So then when he played a song off the album i just bought, he dedicated the song to me :) never has that happened to me, and i've been to LOTS of shows, so tonight was a fun little gift from Jesus...

here's the song:


sorry it's kinda far away. it's the only video of this song on youtube

i thought it was rather ironic (or God) that the lyrics go "sing, sister, sing" and the name of the song is "Possible" - what are you trying to tell me God??? :)

go Thursday night!

Cinema La Placita: Singin’ in the Rain

Cinema La Placita is a long-standing Tucson tradition. is there anything nicer than seeing a movie outdoors on a Thursday evening? This week, come and watch Singin’ in the Rain, starring starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, and Jean Hagan. Plot overview: A silent film production company and cast make a difficult transition to sound.

I don’t know how true it is, but I heard once that Gene Kelly was so sick when he was performing his most famous dance routine that he almost collapsed.

Quick reminder . . . these Thursday night movies are an important and wonderful part of Tucson life. If you have a chance, please come out a little early to help the volunteers set up chairs. Or possibly stay a few minutes after the movie to help tidy up.

(Posted from Tucson on the Cheap)

Day 2 - to Indianapolis

After picking up my dad in Houston, eating at some amazing HUGE crablegs, and staying at his AWESOME hotel, we drove - for 19 hours...

From Houston to Indianapolis. in one day. and yes, it was long.

Driving this day felt MUCH longer than driving the day before, but I think it's because the speed limit for most of our drive the day before was 75 or 80 and this time it was 65 or 70 and there was LOTS of construction...

Highlights of the day:
-Drove through Arkansas and listened to one of my favorite artists who is from Arkansas while in the state
-Seeing tons of water
-Experiencing Midwestern farm land again - it's crazy the things you end up missing when you move from the place you grew up
-Laelia playing her recorder while we were at a dead stop in a construction zone in Missouri or Illinois with really pretty evening lighting

guess who i finally got tickets to see...again

sorry i keep changing the background

i'm not sure if there are too many people who notice, but the background keeps feeling too busy, so i keep trying to find something i like better...

...we'll see if this sticks :)

musical interlude

So I will continue the trip ramblings tomorrow...

Today I actually sat down and wrote a few songs - shocking, i know.

Thanks for the motivation Jesus - seriously, it was all God. I have had absolutely NO motivation whatsoever to do anything musical this summer. none. AT ALL.

I've been telling myself i should pick up my mandolin, and i played my harmonica for a second last night, but nothing was stirring my fancy.

Then today, I put on Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago and just SOAKED in the album - i bathed in the haunting vocals, i looked up the lyrics to every single song to see how he wrote, i even researched Justin Vernon's (main guy) life which caused him to produce such a beautiful album (this is what summer is about for this teacher - woohoo)

all in all - it helped get my inspirational juices flowing. And while I definitely didn't write any songs nearly up to his caliber, it was nice to finish a few songs i'd started and actually work out some that had been up in my head for a while.

maybe i'll even post them one day - but not yet :)

here's the song I had on repeat most of the day. he doesn't really play it live, so all that's on youtube is the album version with a picture of him.

the Trip: Day 1 - Tucson to Houston

Well, I seem to have found enough gumption to start writing about the trip. it's been rougher getting back into the swing of things, but I think I'm ready!

So here we go....

DAY 1:

This day is not dependent upon pictures, because mostly we drove through Texas. Arizona and New Mexico breezed by in the first 6 hours (ish) and the other 12 hours driving were spent in Texas. And it wasn't exactly picturesque....

My dad works for a company that is headquartered in Houston, TX, so our first day's travels sent us driving to Houston to meet my dad.

Here was the basic view of the drive:


Except it looks less hilly...and there were signs every 50 miles or so saying "Please Maintain Your Vehicle", as if you say "You'd better keep an eye on your fluids, because if something goes wrong out here, ain't no one gonna find you and you're probably going to die in the heat".

To support that theory, the post speed limit was 80 mph - seriously.

Here's the map of the day's drive:


And we were off! From 4:30AM Pacific time to 8:30PM Central time, to Houston we went...