I mentioned in my first post my love of international music. While I am a hardcore member of Lee U.'s International Student Fellowship (ISF), I have noticed that not nearly enough of my friends like to sit back and enjoy music from other countries. It seems an introduction is in order.
Remember those three favorite international singers/groups I mentioned earlier? Prepare to meet them.
First up is HB. HB is a Christian power metal band from Finland. For those of you wondering what the heck power metal is, it is basically a genre of metal that has predominantly clean vocals (sometimes from a female vocalist), and rock instrumentation combined with a keyboard/synthesizer (compared with symphonic metal using an orchestra). Anyway, HB has a very good instrumentation. The guitar, synthesizer, and drums go together so well, and the lead girl carries the tunes well. HB's primary strength is its Scriptural soundness. Every song is jam-packed full of praises to God, and one of their songs (Way) is geared specifically toward leading a person to Jesus. No joke, people, this is rock you can worship to. When my 55-year-old father heard it, he asked to hear the entire CD played again! Also, the group's being from Finland is a major plus, especially since this is one of the world capitals of metal. Almost all of HB's releases are in their native Finnish tongue, but they currently have one English release: Frozen Inside. Be sure to check it out on iTunes; this is one good group.
The next is DAM, a Palestinian rap/hip-hop group. Many Westerners often bash Palestinians for being against Israel and for Hamas' radical methods in the Gaza Strip. This is not the case with DAM. This trio of skilled musicians put their frustrations with the "Holy Land" not into bombs and murder, but into word and music. They call for justice for their people and for peace in their songs. Their sticking to their stance and not raising a finger in violence is admirable in today's world, and especially in the context of that area. Not only that, but their combination of rap and Middle Eastern instrumentation in songs like "Mali Huriye (I Don't Have Freedom)" and "Ya Sayidati (My Lady)" is an absolute pleasure to hear. No, I don't know what they're saying (though I'm gonna learn some Arabic next year), but my Palestinian friend assures me that they're clean. Look up their album Dedication.
Finally is Ivete Sangalo. She is a pop/samba singer from Brazil, and she also has a very large following in Portugal. The most unique feature of her music is her voice; for a female singer such as her, he voice is really rather low and strong (contralto, not bass, lol). My description doesn't do her voice justice though. Just get onto YouTube and type her name. Her voice is amazing. Anyway, she has such a wide variety in her musical repertoire: samba, pop, slow, fast, dance, easy listening... you name it, she probably has it. I have listened to her live CD, Multishow Ao Vivo a Maracanã on multiple occasions on my iPod, and I never am disppointed. "Sorte Grande (Poeira)" was the song that got me into her music. After listening further, I have alighted upon a new potential fave: "Bota Pra Ferver." This unique combination of electric rock guitar, samba, and Ivete's vocals results in ear candy that can and must not be directed. Check out the album I mentioned earlier.
I hope you enjoyed this intro to a few international muscians. As my eyes are now trying to slam shut, I should sign off. Have a good one!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Welkermind: Origins
What do you know? My first real written blog.
I suppose I should christen this blog with an introduction of myself and this blog. My name is Daniel. *extends hand* Originally I'm from Kentucky, but I am currently finishing my sophomore year at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. So far, I'm loving college, and I can hardly believe I'm ALREADY less than two weeks from being halfway through. A chronicle of my college experience is not the purpose of this particular post, however, so I'll leave it for a later one.
I first started blogging in February of last year. It was a video blog titled "Welker Weekly," and it became relatively popular among some of my friends at college. Various topics were covered, ranging from trivial ones like the time when Greek club n00bs planted a (used) toilet under the clock tower on campus, to more serious ones like encouraging girls that they're beautiful as they are, or my refutation of racism. I started it on YouTube, but moved it to Veoh.com, the primary reason for which was that Veoh has a beautiful file size limit of ZERO! Before then, I could only do a max of ten minutes, but one of my final installments cleared seventeen on Veoh. Unfortunately, I wasn't the best at the "weekly" part. I'd keep the weekliness up over the course of a few months, but then schoolwork would take its toll and I'd have to postpone for anywhere from two weeks to a month. I heard a few humorous references to "Welker Every-Other-Weekly" early this semester; between (1) that sense that I was letting viewers down by not doing regular installments and (2) my insane school workload, I decided to take a sabbatical from the video blogs and focus on school.
Very recently I started reading a great blog on Blogspot by my friend Matt in my dorm (Medlin FTW). Ever heard of "Wordsmitherd"? Go read it. It's awesome. Anyway, as I read on various topics, I felt reinspired to get back into the blogging. After wrestling with my thoughts for some time, I decided to do a blog on this site as well and cancel Welker Weekly. On here it's so much easier to put up thoughts and issues more informally. Don't have to keep a schedule, ya know; I can do it as frequently or as rarely as I want (let's hope for the former, eh?). I find the weekly thing to be less and less compatible with the iron wills of the college professors who consistently try to choke out what little life outside of class we have left (though some profs have their merits). Also, written blogs take up no hard drive space. I was averaging just under half a gigabyte per video on the old blog. Last night I started a membership on Blogspot and gave my creation the name "Welkermind," for it is from the mind of Welker.
Thus, from this moment on, Welker Weekly on Veoh is done. Welkermind on Blogspot is born.
Glory be to the Smitherd. LOL.
OK, on to me.
First and foremost, I'm a Christian. Jesus is my Lord, and I do my best to live up to His standards.
I love my friends and family. Much of the time you'll find me playing video games with the guys in my dorm, having lunch with some girls from Nigeria, watching war movies with Dad on breaks (but Mom always enters the room during the bloody parts... ha ha), and a whole array of other things. My parents have brought me up well, and my friends are my family away from home. Don't know where I'd be without them.
Being from Kentucky, I love sports. Around my area, college basketball and American football are king, and you hear two words the most: KENTUCKY and LOUISVILLE. This is one of the greatest NCAA Division 1 in-state rivalries in the country, exceeded only by North Carolina-Duke, Alabama-Auburn, and perhaps a couple more. I always love watching a good Kentucky game, and even a Louisville game if my Wildcats aren't playing (I'm weird like that). I also enjoy watching the real football, a.k.a. soccer. I have come to accept this as the real football because feet are actually involved more than 5% of the time, ha ha. I got into it during the 2006 World Cup, and yes, I DID see the legendary Zidane headbutt. After a drought of no games, I got hooked again during the 2008 Euro Cup. Now, if I see a game on, I'll often sit down with some friends in the student union and watch a few minutes of it. I don't really have a favorite team here, but I just like watching it. There's a reason it's called "the beautiful game," after all.
As far as playing sports goes, one word resounds with me: BOWLING!!! I mean, just look at my pic at the top of the page. My friend Josh got me into it back in sixth grade, and there was no going back from there. I was in the same youth league for seven years in Frankfort, KY, before graduating from high school with a 170 average and a 276 high game. I haven't had nearly as much time in college, but I take advantage of every intramural opportunity I get. I've been to the ACUI Regional Tournament for the past two years, and I'm looking forward to hopefully qualifying again next year. I also like playing basketball, baseball, and soccer. I played basketball a bit in middle school, and mainly pickup games in high school, but I still had fun. My school started its baseball team in 2004; as a freshman at the time, I was one of the founding members. In three years of playing, I had settled into the positions of starting right fielder and, occasionally, closeout pitcher. Fun times. Baseball is so much better when you actually play it. I played soccer at age six, but never played outside of PE in school until my second semester of freshman year at Lee. I played some intramural matches on the team from the International Student Fellowship that I'm in. Very fun; I want to play again sometime when I get the chance.
Another passion of mine is gaming. I never really got started on it until I went to my best friend's house in 4th grade and played Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64. While I still didn't get my own system, I played N64 and Playstation games on many occasions when I was chilling with my friends from school. On November 18, 2001, I was one of the 30-odd people in Shelbyville, KY, to get a Nintendo GameCube at launch. I'd done my research, saved up for it with my own money, and started playing Star Wars Rogue Squadron II (amazing game) on it that very day. This settled me into the vein of console gaming; I stayed true to this even after buying a Nintendo DS Lite after 11th grade.
Soon after starting college, I really got into PC gaming when I bought F.E.A.R. for my laptop. I got so into it that I played through the single player five times, twice on the extreme difficulty. I later got into the online multiplayer and eventually became one of the first new administrators on the MPDnorte Slow-Mo Team Deathmatch clan. While schoolwork has gotten in the way, I plan to get back into it on breaks. My favorite games would have to be the Super Smash Bros. trilogy, the Halo trilogy, F.E.A.R., Assassin's Creed, Mario Kart DS, and Phantasy Star Online: Episode I & II. I usually play one or more of these alone or with friends when I get the chance.
Finally, I absolutely love listening to music. Give me any genre and any song that is clean (minimal to no swearing, no defamation of women, no violent/sexual overtones), and I will probably listen to it and like it. However, I especially like three types of music. The first is Christian rock. Electric guitars and good drum beats are cooler, and adding Jesus just makes it that much more awesome. It is within this genre that my favorite bands are; Relient K, Brave Saint Saturn, Haste the Day, and HB make my top four. Christian rap is number two. I love a good beat, and groups/rappers like Lecrae, Cross Movement, T-Bone, and KJ-52 have some of the most amazing, beautiful lyrics in the music industry. Finally, I started getting into international music from, interestingly enough, a video game: FIFA Soccer 2005. I started listening to the songs I liked from the soundtrack online on MySpace. After a few months of this, I expanded to the other songs that they had, and now I have at least forty or fifty songs from other nations on my computer. My current favorites are HB (Finland), Ivete Sangalo (Brazil), and DAM (Palestine). Now you'll notice I mentioned HB before. This is a Finnish CHRISTIAN POWER METAL band!!! OMG w00tw00tw00t! :-D
More on bands in a later blog.
Well, it seems I have written enough. This first post alone could encompass a 5+ page paper easily, and it wouldn't be prudent to add any more overkill. I hope you like this, and you can look forward to other posts later in the future.
I now declare the blog Welkermind OPEN!!!
*cuts ribbon*
*chugs nonalcoholic champagne*
Ah. Things are looking up.
I suppose I should christen this blog with an introduction of myself and this blog. My name is Daniel. *extends hand* Originally I'm from Kentucky, but I am currently finishing my sophomore year at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. So far, I'm loving college, and I can hardly believe I'm ALREADY less than two weeks from being halfway through. A chronicle of my college experience is not the purpose of this particular post, however, so I'll leave it for a later one.
I first started blogging in February of last year. It was a video blog titled "Welker Weekly," and it became relatively popular among some of my friends at college. Various topics were covered, ranging from trivial ones like the time when Greek club n00bs planted a (used) toilet under the clock tower on campus, to more serious ones like encouraging girls that they're beautiful as they are, or my refutation of racism. I started it on YouTube, but moved it to Veoh.com, the primary reason for which was that Veoh has a beautiful file size limit of ZERO! Before then, I could only do a max of ten minutes, but one of my final installments cleared seventeen on Veoh. Unfortunately, I wasn't the best at the "weekly" part. I'd keep the weekliness up over the course of a few months, but then schoolwork would take its toll and I'd have to postpone for anywhere from two weeks to a month. I heard a few humorous references to "Welker Every-Other-Weekly" early this semester; between (1) that sense that I was letting viewers down by not doing regular installments and (2) my insane school workload, I decided to take a sabbatical from the video blogs and focus on school.
Very recently I started reading a great blog on Blogspot by my friend Matt in my dorm (Medlin FTW). Ever heard of "Wordsmitherd"? Go read it. It's awesome. Anyway, as I read on various topics, I felt reinspired to get back into the blogging. After wrestling with my thoughts for some time, I decided to do a blog on this site as well and cancel Welker Weekly. On here it's so much easier to put up thoughts and issues more informally. Don't have to keep a schedule, ya know; I can do it as frequently or as rarely as I want (let's hope for the former, eh?). I find the weekly thing to be less and less compatible with the iron wills of the college professors who consistently try to choke out what little life outside of class we have left (though some profs have their merits). Also, written blogs take up no hard drive space. I was averaging just under half a gigabyte per video on the old blog. Last night I started a membership on Blogspot and gave my creation the name "Welkermind," for it is from the mind of Welker.
Thus, from this moment on, Welker Weekly on Veoh is done. Welkermind on Blogspot is born.
Glory be to the Smitherd. LOL.
OK, on to me.
First and foremost, I'm a Christian. Jesus is my Lord, and I do my best to live up to His standards.
I love my friends and family. Much of the time you'll find me playing video games with the guys in my dorm, having lunch with some girls from Nigeria, watching war movies with Dad on breaks (but Mom always enters the room during the bloody parts... ha ha), and a whole array of other things. My parents have brought me up well, and my friends are my family away from home. Don't know where I'd be without them.
Being from Kentucky, I love sports. Around my area, college basketball and American football are king, and you hear two words the most: KENTUCKY and LOUISVILLE. This is one of the greatest NCAA Division 1 in-state rivalries in the country, exceeded only by North Carolina-Duke, Alabama-Auburn, and perhaps a couple more. I always love watching a good Kentucky game, and even a Louisville game if my Wildcats aren't playing (I'm weird like that). I also enjoy watching the real football, a.k.a. soccer. I have come to accept this as the real football because feet are actually involved more than 5% of the time, ha ha. I got into it during the 2006 World Cup, and yes, I DID see the legendary Zidane headbutt. After a drought of no games, I got hooked again during the 2008 Euro Cup. Now, if I see a game on, I'll often sit down with some friends in the student union and watch a few minutes of it. I don't really have a favorite team here, but I just like watching it. There's a reason it's called "the beautiful game," after all.
As far as playing sports goes, one word resounds with me: BOWLING!!! I mean, just look at my pic at the top of the page. My friend Josh got me into it back in sixth grade, and there was no going back from there. I was in the same youth league for seven years in Frankfort, KY, before graduating from high school with a 170 average and a 276 high game. I haven't had nearly as much time in college, but I take advantage of every intramural opportunity I get. I've been to the ACUI Regional Tournament for the past two years, and I'm looking forward to hopefully qualifying again next year. I also like playing basketball, baseball, and soccer. I played basketball a bit in middle school, and mainly pickup games in high school, but I still had fun. My school started its baseball team in 2004; as a freshman at the time, I was one of the founding members. In three years of playing, I had settled into the positions of starting right fielder and, occasionally, closeout pitcher. Fun times. Baseball is so much better when you actually play it. I played soccer at age six, but never played outside of PE in school until my second semester of freshman year at Lee. I played some intramural matches on the team from the International Student Fellowship that I'm in. Very fun; I want to play again sometime when I get the chance.
Another passion of mine is gaming. I never really got started on it until I went to my best friend's house in 4th grade and played Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64. While I still didn't get my own system, I played N64 and Playstation games on many occasions when I was chilling with my friends from school. On November 18, 2001, I was one of the 30-odd people in Shelbyville, KY, to get a Nintendo GameCube at launch. I'd done my research, saved up for it with my own money, and started playing Star Wars Rogue Squadron II (amazing game) on it that very day. This settled me into the vein of console gaming; I stayed true to this even after buying a Nintendo DS Lite after 11th grade.
Soon after starting college, I really got into PC gaming when I bought F.E.A.R. for my laptop. I got so into it that I played through the single player five times, twice on the extreme difficulty. I later got into the online multiplayer and eventually became one of the first new administrators on the MPDnorte Slow-Mo Team Deathmatch clan. While schoolwork has gotten in the way, I plan to get back into it on breaks. My favorite games would have to be the Super Smash Bros. trilogy, the Halo trilogy, F.E.A.R., Assassin's Creed, Mario Kart DS, and Phantasy Star Online: Episode I & II. I usually play one or more of these alone or with friends when I get the chance.
Finally, I absolutely love listening to music. Give me any genre and any song that is clean (minimal to no swearing, no defamation of women, no violent/sexual overtones), and I will probably listen to it and like it. However, I especially like three types of music. The first is Christian rock. Electric guitars and good drum beats are cooler, and adding Jesus just makes it that much more awesome. It is within this genre that my favorite bands are; Relient K, Brave Saint Saturn, Haste the Day, and HB make my top four. Christian rap is number two. I love a good beat, and groups/rappers like Lecrae, Cross Movement, T-Bone, and KJ-52 have some of the most amazing, beautiful lyrics in the music industry. Finally, I started getting into international music from, interestingly enough, a video game: FIFA Soccer 2005. I started listening to the songs I liked from the soundtrack online on MySpace. After a few months of this, I expanded to the other songs that they had, and now I have at least forty or fifty songs from other nations on my computer. My current favorites are HB (Finland), Ivete Sangalo (Brazil), and DAM (Palestine). Now you'll notice I mentioned HB before. This is a Finnish CHRISTIAN POWER METAL band!!! OMG w00tw00tw00t! :-D
More on bands in a later blog.
Well, it seems I have written enough. This first post alone could encompass a 5+ page paper easily, and it wouldn't be prudent to add any more overkill. I hope you like this, and you can look forward to other posts later in the future.
I now declare the blog Welkermind OPEN!!!
*cuts ribbon*
*chugs nonalcoholic champagne*
Ah. Things are looking up.
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