It's Sunday @ 8am and I'm heading off to work church. Before I get there however, I will have stopped at St. Arbucks for my favorite drink. A Grande Quad Vanilla Latte.

Throughout the week I drink regular coffee...good quality coffee as I've posted here, but regular coffee nonetheless. For some reason though, I've dubbed Sunday as my fancy coffee day.

I feel like a better human with a good cup of coffee in my hand. I act like a better human too.

The drive will also include something moody and raw:



I do this every Sunday and If I can't for some reason I feel all jacked up.

What does your ritual look like?

I've determined that I never want to own a car without a sunroof again.

It's just not worth it to me. If I had to choose between a 2005 Ford Mustang and a 1998 Honda Accord with a sunroof...I'm taking the Honda.

Yesterday I took a drive. It was 70 degrees outside and I just wanted to drive back roads. The sunroof and windows were down, and music was propelling me to get lost. There is simply nothing better.

Here's what I was listening to:



Coldplay: Viva La Vida or Death and all his friends

This CD is phenomenal. It brings you through a mood that is positive and for some reason draws emotion out of me. It starts and ends in the same way, so you never really know when it ends or begins...I'll listen to it all the way through and not even notice that I'm back on track 3 all of the sudden. You should buy it.

&

Sigur Ros: ( )

Sigur Ros is an Icelandic band that rocks my face. I went to sleep last night with it playing in my ear and it caused me to have interestingly amazing dreams. You should buy it.

So what do you drive to?

What's some music that you can lose yourself in?

TIME'S UP PEOPLE!!

It's time for a contest folks! This one is simple...I want to know what you're listening to. I've posted before about some of my music tastes, but I'm interested in finding out what you like.

So here are the rules:

Post your top three bands, albums or songs in the comments section...that's it! Just make sure that you don't post anonymously.

I'll randomly pick one poster's comment and you'll win! Since we're talking music here, I'll be giving away a $30 iTunes gift certificate. It's nothing huge...but it's enough for at least 30 new songs or 3 full albums! There are more than 6 million songs to choose from.

Contest drawing will take place tomorrow morning @ 10am!



So what are you in to lately?

Here are a couple of my favorite "covers" for today:

Driving around in the snow, in search of a port of passage, I fumbled upon a radio station. This station is one of my favorites as it plays things from all varieties. Erratic is my style you know.

Mesmerized by the marvelous White Death, my mind drifted into a state of anesthesia...you know, the kind where you just don't care how bad the traffic is? The music was adding to my immobilized thought processes and for a brief moment I was completely satisfied with who I was, what I was doing, and the size of my bank account. But then, an interruption.

This wasn't a bad interruption though. No, this memory that was butting in was actually quite welcome. I hadn't remembered it in some time now. Perhaps it was repressed, but why put down something so shiny and clean? No matter, it's here and I'll enjoy it I thought to myself.

It was 1987 and I was 5 years old. My kindergarten class was having a show and tell day and I was going to be one of the show-ers and tellers that afternoon. I walked in with my favorite album in hand knowing that Mrs. SoAndSo had a record player for special occasions such as this. She gladly popped my parent's copy of Scarecrow onto the turntable and cued up my song to share with the class. My song, of course, was Small Town by John Cougar Mellencamp.

I remember being nervous as it started to play thinking, wait a second...no one ever brings music in to show and tell. That didn't stop Mrs. SoAndSo from getting things started though. After the song played for thirty seconds or so my teacher got everyone in the class to clap along with the beat. The entire class was clapping in unison (which is a miracle in itself for kindergartners) and she turned it up even louder. I can see an image of my 5 year old self grinning from ear to ear as that song played. When the song came to a finish everyone cheered and asked if we could play it again, and we did later that day. On that day, I felt like I was the champion of the world.

The day of show and tell playing my favorite song was one of the greatest single days of my life. What was one of your days of victory like?

Oh yeah...have a listen:

Allayna Teddie Winkler is my sister-in-law. My wife's youngest sister to be exact. She is fifteen and she writes songs and plays music. She's played at Kidd Coffee before and recently had a chance to play at Zen and Now Coffeehouse. I'm not sure if she knows it, but I love her very much and I'm proud of her.

My wife Allison took these photos: