www.andrewmackay.net:

Tonight, we were cooking and I popped this album into the CD player. It has legs. Seriously… this is like 10 years later? (Stop to check their website… yep, released in 1999.) This album is well worth picking up if you never heard it… or even if you did. It’s a solid, no skips listening experience.

A lot of times when I go back to albums I loved, I find that I loved them in spite of their quality, not because of it. This album doesn’t fit that mold. Lyrically, it’s gold. There’s depth, there is beauty, there are really great analogies, like 40 Acres of redemption to be found just along, down the way.

Seriously, go buy it… from a store, from itunes, from wherever. You won’t regret it.

I had a great reminder tonight from a dear brother that the best motivation to keep doing something is simply that you love it.

(aside directed at Sam… if I could, I’d bring you real chips, because your statement that “you eat a bag of chips when you’re not thinking” was the only thing I disagreed with all night. /End aside)

There is a reason that I read so much… I love it. There’s a reason that I watch the same movies over and over with my wife: I love them (and her). There’s a reason that I don’t do so hot with writing: I have not made steady my affection for it. I don’t love it. Or, I don’t love it more than I love eating a bag of chips and watching 30 Rock reruns.

It’s a problem. It’s a discipline problem. But, if I start to think about it like I think of “discipline” I start to chafe… it’s the same reason I was never a good runner. The idea was good but the work part of it was too hard.

But if I loved it… clearly, you do the things you love. So, maybe the thing to do is… just choose to love something different. Love different.

love different is a trademark (registration pending) of the Andrew Mackay Media Empire (AMME), all rights reserved… any similarity to trademarks belonging to fruity computer companies are coincidental, I swear. Also, you owe me a bag of chips for reading this paragraph.

Today is Canada Day… and I am sick. So, combining laziness with my love for my country, here is great song about Canada by Andrew Osenga:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck-vCjGFeLU]

You and I are falling in love
it’s the same old story
as everyone else
Oh Canada
is showing me how it’s done

My trains need to run on time
the Queen should be on my dime
I should speak French, the language of love
and still use English to get things done
I need to be more like Canada

We should play hockey, eh?
care about Dave Coulier
be my Alanis, say it’s ironic
when things go bad
I think i’m chronically
addicted to my Canada

you could be my Geddy Lee
I’m not a hoser, will you dance with me?
I’ll be your mountie, you’ll be my tuque
we can eat timbits until we both…
yaks are everywhere in Canada

Your eyes are the truest blue
entrancing like some strange brew
like the clear waters in the arms of
the snowy capped mountains of British Columbia
darling it’s you
you could be my Malibu
let’s get poutine for two
I’m in love with you, my Canada

I love new beginnings. Whether a blank piece of paper, a new day, a new year, or just a new attitude, I appreciate the opportunity to start fresh — even if you can’t forgo what has gone before. One of my favorite songs ever talks about just that… Andrew Osenga performs “New Beginning” on his album, The Morning. A favorite passage of mine:

He said, “I’m done with trying to reach the top
The richest dead man’s still just dead
So let’s call in sick and take a walk
I want to fall in love with you again
I know we can’t undo what’s done
So let’s open our hands to forgiveness
Unlock the secrets we’ve become
And leave them all in search of
A new beginning”

So, this morning, it’s a new beginning. Another week. Another opportunity to live the way I mean to.

The Take a Listen posts will be another regular series that I hope you’ll read around here. Hopefully it will catalogue some things that are obscure, some that are popular, some that annoy you, and maybe even some that annoy me.

Jakob Dylan’s voice is imprinted in my head along with some very distinct songs from my teenage years. Most of those came from the album Bringing Down the Horse by the Wallflowers. Songs like The Difference and One Headlight are so catchy that right now, if a drummer appeared in my family room and started tapping out that distinctive beat from One Headlight, I could probably pick up my guitar and figure out at the very least the bass line to it. And sing along. Not at all as well as Jakob Dylan, but perhaps in line with his dad’s vocals.

So, anyway, when I heard that Jakob Dylan had a “solo” album out, I thought self, that’s worth a shot. My wife and I first listened to Seeing Things on the hour-long drive over a ridiculously windy mountain to her parents’ house. It was the perfect companion. I cannot express how quickly we were caught up in the music. It’s just downright good. A very moody album, varied musically (much folky-er than his work with The Wallflowers), it’s just plain dynamite.

So, here’s my endorsement: go check out Jakob Dylan. Punch his name in at Pandora.com and you’ll get a great playlist, plus you’ll probably get to hear some songs off of the album. If you’re as hooked as I am, you’ll be a buyer.