Coldplay - 19/12/08

I like to be prompt with my blogs, I have managed to get this up only one month after the gig! It seems like a lot longer than a month; since Coldplay I have celebrated my first Christmas with my wife AND been skiing to Bulgaria.

Christmas was good but brief as we left for Bulgaria on the 27th December. Skiing was great fun, there wasn't much of the white stuff but the company made it. I won't bore you with photos - see Scotty's blog for a visual insight into our excitement. On the last day I went off and done a black run that wasn't really open yet and ended up wrestling bears & wolves and trekking across the mountain. I am very brave.

Anyway, back to Coldplay. They were impressive; not as impressive as Biffy Clyro though. I was particularly impressed with Chris Martin, always had him down for a bit of an awkward git but he was lovin' playing live. He was jumping about like a mad man. During yellow they released dozens of big yellow balloons from the roof that looked pretty spectacular. I wanted to upload the video I took of Fix You; I took the whole thing as it's possible the best song ever made, it's so euphoric. However, turns out it was 3MB too big. You will have to make do with Chris Martin singing Back For Good by Take That.

Festive Cheer

I don't know why but I haven't been feeling at all Christmasy (Is that a word?!) this year. I know a lot of people are feeling the same so I hope lifts your Christmas spirit. If it doesn't you are lost to a lifetime of being a Scrooge. It's Foy Vance and Duke Special singing Silent Night with the Salvation Army. Enjoy.

Biffy Clyro - The Academy, Dublin (15.12.08)

Was at the Biffy Clyro concert on Monday night and I have to say it was awesome. I am generally not an enthusiastic person so I don't say that lightly; it was easily one of the best gigs i've been at. They are so energetic live, you really get into it. They sound amazing as well; really tight (so J Mac and Seagoe say anyhow, I don't have a clue what it means!) I checked youtube for clips from it and have found this one. The rest of the concert was a lot heavier but I am posting this as it covers 2 acouctic songs he did in the middle - Folding Stars and Machines. They were pretty special; Folding Stars is about Eleanor(the lead singers(Simon)mum)who died a while back. Must be weird for him to hear the crowd singing her name back at him. The clip is all the more relevant as it is recorded from right beside where we were standing, I even think I know the girl who recorded it. It's up in the VIP area, don't know how we managed to get up but it was great not having to be in the middle of a mosh pit! Anyway, enjoy......
I was hoping they'd play this track, it's off their Blackened Sky album and it's called Christopher's River. This is from another gig.........
Asides from the two first 2 acoustic songs above my favourites of the night would have to be Now I'm Everyone and Justboy. Here is Justboy, flipping lethal I tell thee!!


Here are a few videos off my phone, not great quality unfortunately. You may pick up on the soothing tones of John and I doing BV's in the 2nd video....

A Striking Similarity

I'm back by popular demand....by popular I mean Scotty. It's always good to feel wanted Scotty!

When I set up this account I had all these ideas about sharing my thoughts and ideas; however, life is busy and it's not often I have time to sit down and blog. In fact, life is hectic. It's actually flying by. I was listening to the radio today and they were talking about school formals when it hit me that it's over 6 years since I was in school. I remember my last day like it was yesterday. I really need to do something worthwhile with my life. Any ideas?

So what's been happeneing in my life over the past few weeks? My wife has been sickly. I probably haven't been as patient with her as I should, something which I have felt a bit guilty about. This guilt was exacerbated (I can tell you are impressed with the use of that word) yesterday and today by her patience with her idiotic husband. Firstly yesterday I was stopped for not wearing a seatbelt, which wasn't the first time...to my shame (I just struggle to remember, I now have a sticker on the steering wheel saying seatbelt!). That was £60 down the drain and 3 penalty points. Then today I drove into the back of someone. My car is ok but the other parties is dmagaed and thats likely to be a couple of hundred. It's money we can't afford to be throwing around but instead of going mad Andrea never once shouted or give off, she is pretty cool!

Anyway, I'll get to what I wanted to post. It's stupid but something I found amusing when I saw it on T.V.



Tell me if I am missing something but surely this is the most absurd music video ever released? As soo as I saw it there was only one video that I could compare it to.....

Father Ted - My Lovely Horse
Uploaded by misslupin

Comedy gold.

By the way, if your wondering what the previous video was about - it was just a trial when scotty was showing me how to upload video.

Hope

I got the train to Belfast today to attend a meeting, it was the first time i've been on a train since I was at J'town and I have to say it made me pine for the freedom of being a student again....finishing at lunch time and jumping on the train to go blow your student loan! Anyway, when on the train I read this verse and found it very encouraging. I know there are a lot of people going through rough times at the minute so hopefully it will encourage another.

Lamentations 3 v 22-24:

The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him!”

The secret of a worthwhile life

Well, here I am joining in the blogging world. I am not usually one for following the lead of other people, in fact I usually tend to do the opposite of what the 'in thing' is. Andrea calls me stubborn; I like to think I am just strong willed.

I have to admit that sometimes you just can't help going with the flow, I always said I'd never get a mobile but after a year or 2 I realised that if I didn't I would actually be excluded from society. I also joined bebo, but that was to snoop on people I went to school with and leave abusive messages on peoples profiles!

I have enjoyed reading some of your blogs for a while now.....I have found some of the blogs amusing, thought provoking, challenging and inspiring. Some of them have also been a load of crap but I guess the opinions vary with the reader.

Anyway, I thought I'd be a sheep (hence the Baaaaaa) and follow in the footsteps of the growing number of bloggers out there. The reason being that I like the idea of it; I like the idea of being able to share your thoughts, and any other cool stuff you come across, with people online. This suits me down to the ground. I have difficulties talking & expressing the thoughts in my head, it usually results in me sounding a little bit simple. I like having the time to process things and put it down in words.

Tonight Andrea and I went to the cinema to see Ghost Town. We love the cinema, more for the popcorn and coke than the film but it's always good when the film is good. On that note, we saw 'Taken' a few weeks ago, it was class, I came out of the cinema and wanted to fight. Kinda like watching Top Gun and wanting to fly a fighter jet or like when Scotty watches Cocktail and wants to be a fruit.

So, back to Ghost Town, it was ok, I would say 7 out of 10. Ricky Gervais was quite funny. However, there was a quote in it that I thought was pretty cool. It was from Albert Einstein and it was "only a life lived for others is a life worth while".

With all due respect to Einstein (I know he was a pretty intelligent dude, E=MC2 (I can't figure out how to do the squared symbol) and all that) I would slightly change that to "only a life lived for God is a life worth while". The reason being that as a christian I obviously think that the most worth while thing in life is the decision to give your life over to God, which sets the tone for the rest of your life and most importantly where you will spend eternity. This dosen't really count as living your life for others, as it is a decision made between you and God, so therefore I'd disagree with him slightly.

On the other hand, once you chose to follow God the bible becomes a major guiding influence on your life and it tells us over and over again of the importance of showing love to and caring for others. No matter how you serve God this is a requirement that God puts upon the Church. Therefore, Einsteins quote has a lot of truth to it, and I guess a christian aspect to it as well.

However, the older I get the more I struggle with this. Since I have started working I have unfortunately become more cynical, impatient and self-obsessed (it's difficult not to get caught up in material things e.g. salary, houses, cars etc). Yet at the same time it has also made me realise these things do not bring satifaction, purpose or contentment. They cannot fill the God shaped hole inside us.

I guess the catechism sums it up quite well - 'Mans' chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever'.......if I manage that I guess life will have been pretty worthwhile.