Always...

If you are of the same generation as I am, the Harry Potter stories and movies have been a factor of your life (whether you like it or not!).  I won't elaborate on the virtues of the Harry Potter series, because it would make one long blog post, but I will say that they have emotionally affected me (and many others I know) more than any other book series.  Heck, we even had a 50-60 member Happy Potter club (Dumbledore's Army) on my college campus... yes, I was a proud member, have the shirt and everything.  ;)

Are they Pulitzer prize winning fiction?  Nope, but they are encouraging, touching, insightful books with rich characters you as the reader truly end up caring about. Yes, they have magic in them.  No, I do not have a problem with that as a Christian. Good ultimately triumphs evil. Nuff said.

Seeing the books come alive in movie form, while not always executed as well as we HP fans would have liked, was magical because we simply loved the characters so much.  I stumbled across this compilation film on Pinterest today and it was so poignant - it really just emphasizes the attachment so many of us have to these stories.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

 

To sum it all up, a quote from the actor who brought to life my favorite misunderstood character, Severus Snape:

High Fidelity - Owl City

I love Owl City's sound.  Lead singer, Adam Young's voice and style of vocals reminds me of Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 (if they did electro pop!) and the upbeat sounds tend to simply make me happy.  I also love the fact that he simply started making music in his basement and is just another newer artist who got his break via myspace music. 

Fireflies

Alligator Sky

Good Time

Shooting Star

Dementia - ft. Mark Hoppus (from Blink-182!)

While I enjoy the above songs, it was stumbling across this that made me decide to do an Owl City post.  Turns out Adam is a Christian and recorded this simple, heartfelt version of "In Christ Alone (I Stand)" which I love. 

Adam Young - Owl City

Blessings

Family.

My sister, Mom, me and Dad.  Could we be more 80's? ;)

When asked what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday, they are the first thing that comes to mind.  But my gratitude and love for them isn't any stronger on the third Thursday in November (or the 25th of December!) than it is any other day of the year.  

I love them every day. 

Me and my sissy

  

I think that Thanksgiving is a gift.  It helps us look beyond the day to day humdrum and take the time to reflect on what blessings we have in our lives.  

I've been lucky enough to have a large family on both the maternal and paternal sides. 

Me, Grammy and Laura on the famous couch

Me and my sister with Uncle Cy and Aunt Marlys (essentially our third set of grandparents - lucky kids!)

Ritchie family Thanksgivings tend to be very full.  Full of good food, full of laughter, full of lots of family (usually 20+) and always full of love.

The Ritchie cousins

I'm thankful, so very thankful and very, very blessed.

Equality?

There are some excellent points here.  

While I realize there will always be some who cannot and will not ever accept the LGBT community as complete equals (cause if you deny them marriage you deny them equality, plain and simple) there will also be those of us who will always, no matter how much you quote the very few words from the Bible about the subject to state your case, support equal (or in this case, gay) rights.  

I do not feel that my personal relationship with Christ is threatened by someone loving another of  the same sex.  Nor do I feel that the future of the "traditional family" is at risk because we allow two men or two women to enter a committed relationship with each other, protected by the same laws that protect straight couples.  

I can support the idea of changing the legal term of "marriage" into "civil union" for all people, straight and gay alike - the civil union term would refer to their law bound rights and, if they are a believer in the religious sacrament of marriage, then a "marriage certificate" would be issued by their religious organization of choice.  It would be a choice of the religious institution to offer the option of marriage certificates to just heterosexual couples or, if they are accepting of the gay community, they can choose to extend this to homosexual couples as well.  

This would not take away from the sanctity of marriage, in fact it would increase it because the term would only be used by those who believe in the religious aspect of the commitment versus being used as a blanket term to essentially mean a civil union.


Well, these are my thoughts on the matter - you are free to disagree (or agree!) as you choose.  If you choose to comment, my only request is that you are thoughtful in your reply and that you be polite. :)

High Fidelity - Carrie Underwood

I have always wished that I would have been blessed with a really fantastic singing voice.  There is a feeling of freedom when I really allow myself to let go and sing out, a peace in that moment.  While I can carry a tune, I know that I just was not physically gifted with one of 'those' voices, even if I had extensive training. 

Carrie Underwood is one of those people blessed with a natural talent.  While I know she had a lot of training to get as good as she is now, there was an innate gift that she had which allowed her to be able to mold her voice into the powerhouse she is today.  What a rush it must be to know your voice is bringing such joy to others.


Carrie's newest album, "Blown Away" is by far her best yet in my opinion.  The songs range from fun "One Way Ticket" which sounds like a Kenny Chesney tribute, to heartbreaking on "Forever Changed", and powerful and poignant in "Blown Away" and "Two Black Cadillacs."   

"Blown Away" reminds me so much of Martina McBride's "Independence Day" in the fact that it is a crazy powerful ballad about a young woman who feels like she has no options in life due to domestic issues and the decision she makes to change that.  While I could never condone the actions that these women take in these songs, my heart hurts for the real women in situations like these everyday.  Domestic and child abuse is a sickness in our society and I have always felt a real calling to help women in these types of situations.  It was one of the reasons I originally went back to school for my psych degree and even if I do not end up in that specific field it will always be one that is close to my heart.

"Two Black Cadillacs" is along the same vein as "Blown Away" (for someone who appears to be as happily married as Carrie is, she sure has a lot of songs about guys being jerks... i.e. "Before He Cheats" - Lol).  I just think is a musically haunting and beautiful song, a more serious version of the Dixie Chick's "Good-bye Earl."  I love the visuals created by lyrics, I hope Carrie releases this one because I would love to see this video!

The final one I will share here (although I highly suggest checking out the entire album!) will be "Forever Changed."  This one is a heart-breaker, have some tissues ready.  As someone who has a loved one they are slowly losing to Alzheimer's (my paternal Grandma) and who has already lost another person who was like a Grandpa to dementia, this one hits home.

Life is a journey and the experiences we have inevitably change us, for good or bad...

Carrie Underwood

High Fidelity - Imagine Dragons

I love this new band, I started listening to their EP on Spotify a few months ago before the song "It's Time" started getting more airplay.  Their full length album called Night Visions was just released September 4th and it is excellent!  Imagine Dragons is a Nevada based alternative rock band that came together in 2008.  They will be touring with Awolnation this fall and are on the line up at many alt rock festivals including SXSW.

It's Time

Radioactive

Imagine Dragons

High Fidelity - Atlas Genius, Walk the Moon & M83

I love new artists, while I am saving one of my very favorite new bands (literally brand new, their first full length album dropped this week!) for tomorrow's High Fidelity, I thought it would be fun to share three new(ish) artists who are playing quite frequently on my headphones at work.  

The first is a new Indie rock group from South Australia called Atlas Genius, this group has only released an EP - they are brand new and I think they have the potential to be really big.  

The second group is another Indie rock band called Walk the Moon, I just love their happy sound.  Walk the Moon's self titled debut album was released in 2012.  

The third selection is playing all over the radio right now, it is French electronic music band M83's song "Midnight City."  While the band has been together, in some form, since 2001, they have just recently really started making a name for themselves on the US charts.  They have toured over the past few years with some amazing bands including the Kings of Leon, The Killers and Depeche Mode.   On a side note, I love how the "Midnight City" video starts a story line... their follow-up single, "Reunion"continues the story.  I'll be curious to see if future singles do the same.  Very cool idea!