Album Review: Moon Safari- Lover's End

I posted this review on www.progarchives.com but figured there may be some who don't go on that website and could still benefit from reading this review. Even though this is a progressive rock album, I recommend it to all people who love music. So, here is the review:

Every once and a while I get an album that completely captivates me. An album that I feel was made especially for me. An album that touches me deeply to my very soul. Lover's End by Moon Safari is that album. Since I received it, I have continued to play it constantly, and I am still playing it even now. Every thing about it is perfect to me. I haven't been this touched by music in a long time. Because of this reaction, it is hard for me to read some of the more negative reviews. I just find it hard to believe that people can't instantly hear the beauty of this album. In a way I feel sorry for them because they are missing out on something truly special.

Moon Safari is a band I have grown to love the past few years. I felt that there was something special on their debut album, "A Doorway To Summer," but that they still had a ways to go before perfecting their sound. The sound quality of that album was not great, and I felt the album missed a little bit of a bite. "Blomljud" was definitely a step in the right direction and was one of my favorite albums of that year. I did feel, however, that maybe "Blomljud" was just a little too long and could have benefited from some trimming.

But, in my opinion, with Lover's End, Moon Safari have perfected their sound. The sound quality is great and the album is the perfect length where every song is a highlight. Every moment of this album is beautiful. I tear up every time I listen to it because I can't believe the pure majestic beauty I am hearing. The instrumentation is wonderful. There is a wealth of great piano/keyboard melodies and solos. There is wonderful acoustic guitar moments and electric and slide guitar solos. The drums and bass provide a solid backbeat. But, what truly makes this music transcend is the impeccable vocal harmonies. In many ways, I feel that Moon Safari could be a fantastic a capella group because their singing is just perfect. The vocal arrangements are mind-blowing and leave me speechless. I have a soft-spot for these types of harmonies, so hearing them so perfectly executed brings the music to a whole new level for me.

Like I said before, every song is a highlight. The album begins with the wonderful "Lover's End Pt. 1" that really sets the stage nicely for the progressive feast that is about to come. "A Kid Called Panic" is one of the greatest prog songs of all time. It moves along seamlessly with a chorus that is to die for. After a fantastic instrumental powerhouse section, there is some beautiful piano playing with some of the best singing on the record. It is a glorious song. Then, we move to the pure beauty of "Southern Belle." It starts with an indescribably beautiful a capella section before the beautiful piano comes in and a beautiful melody is sung on top of it with more incredible harmonies.

"The World's Best Dreamers" is just more of the same beauty on display. Great vocal harmonies on top of a great symphonic prog instrumentation. The band has some fun with the brilliant "New York City Summergirl" which effectively evokes an American feel through some more great vocal arrangements and more of a pop prog arrangement. "Heartland" is pure symphonic prog at it's best with some great keyboard playing. "Crossing The Rubycon" is definitely a highlight of the album with some great acoustic guitars, more amazing harmonies, and some of the most majestic music I have ever heard. "Lover's End Pt. 2" is a great epilogue of sorts that wraps up the album with a great Beatles-esque vocal section.

My descriptions don't do it justice. This album is pure beauty. A fantastic blend of symphonic prog and impeccable vocal harmonies. This is a special band and they have created their first masterpiece. From start to finish I am captivated and have tears in my eyes. This is the music I was meant to listen to. I am so grateful to the band for this gift that they have given me. I will cherish this album for the rest of my life. I strongly recommend it to all music lovers.

Two New Experiences

I was able to finish chapter 6 of "Avaria book 2: The Aftermath" and I'm very excited about where things are headed. It is so fun to imagine something and see it come to life through the words you are writing. When I write, I generally have a very rough outline of the book (meaning I have an idea of what the ending will be and some of the details on the way to that ending). However, a lot of the plot gets made up along the way, and sometimes the things I come up with can drastically change what is going to come later. But, that is the fun of the process to me. The book evolves as it goes and becomes something even better than my initial vision. I am having a lot of fun with the characters in book two. In some ways I'm liking it even more than book one.

Beyond my writing, though, I wanted to talk about two things that really touched me yesterday. I experienced two things that really stuck with me and are two of my new favorite things. The first is the album "Lover's End" by Moon Safari. I love music, it is a great passion of mine. I received the latest Moon Safari album yesterday and immediately had my first listen. It was incredible! This is the music of my soul. The band manages to combine jaw-dropping vocal harmonies with extremely fun progressive rock. They are like if a world class acapella group suddenly decided to start a prog band. Acapella music is one of my favorite things, and to put it to a symphonic prog background just puts it on a whole new level. This album is practically perfect and is going to give Spock's Beard's X a run for it's money in the race for my favorite album of the year. I just couldn't believe the feelings of pure joy I had as I listened to the music. I haven't felt that way since Transatlantic's "The Whirlwind."

The other experience I had was going to the midnight showing of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." Me and my sisters went about two hours before midnight and managed to get great seats. Going to a midnight showing is fun because the crowd gets really into it and it makes the whole experience more exciting. I think the book "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is one of my favorite books. It astounds me how JK Rowling was able to end such an epic series with a perfect ending that wraps up everything in a satisfying way. I feel the movie really captured the feel of the book. These aren't kids having magical adventures in a fun grade school setting anymore. These are young adults who are figuring out their place in a very scary world. They are learning more about their relationships with each other and about themselves as they face impossible odds. The three main characters are all classic characters and it is a joy seeing them on screen, interacting with each other. I think the actors play them perfectly. I can't wait for part 2 in July! It is going to be epic!

And, I suppose that is it for now. I strongly recommend both "Lover's End" by Moon Safari and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1." They are both excellent.

A New Beginning

It has been a while since I have written in this blog, and I feel bad about it. My plan originally was to try to write on a weekly basis, updating everybody on the major events of my life. Well, as can clearly be seen, I haven't written since the beginning of August. So, I'm recommitting myself to write in this blog more regularly. And, not only that, but I'm going to change the method in which I write in this blog. Instead of weekly entries, I want to write a little bit more frequently. The entries may not be particularly lengthy, but I think it is important that I get my thoughts out in some way. One reason for this change is that I've decided I'd like to use this blog to track progress with my writing. I am trying hard to get into a good routine with my writing and I feel that tracking my progress through this blog will be a good motivator.

So, on the top right hand side of this page there will be progress bars with an approximation of the percentage of work I've accomplished on my current writing projects. At this time, I am working on two writing projects. The first project is a second draft of my first novel, tentatively called "Avaria Book One: The Sacrifice." The second project is the first draft of the sequel to that novel, which is tentatively called "Avaria Book Two: The Aftermath." As I complete work on these projects, I will update the progress bars accordingly. When I start up a new writing project, I will add a new progress bar. It should be a fun way to track my progress, and hopefully it'll motivate me since I won't want to keep the progress bars stalled at the same percentage for a long period of time.

Since there may be some who read this blog and aren't familiar with my writing, I thought I would briefly describe the plot of my first book (without giving too much away, of course). The novel takes place in a mystical land called Avaria located in an alternate universe. In Avaria, there were originally two races, the humans and the Ginerists. The Ginerists are supremely intelligent beings with the power of telepathy and mind control. Because of their mental superiority and strong inclination towards peace, the Ginerists were set up as the leaders of Avaria, with a supreme king in charge of all of Avaria. Throughout time, the humans have argued and fought to such a large degree that the Ginerists felt it would be wise to separate them into different sections of Avaria. The Ginerists also took away all technology and magical development since they were being used for destructive purposes by the humans. The humans developed in their own way in accordance with the environments they lived in, and formed into four seperate races, labeled as Men, Dwarves, Elves and Aquarians.

For the first time in the history of Avaria, the supreme king has been assassinated and his young son, Kydanis, must step up to this leadership position. As an idealist, this young Ginerist, now supreme ruler of an entire world, decides that the only way Avaria can exist in complete peace is if the separate races come together so that everybody can exist together in harmony. What he didn't expect, however, was that this act would be the impetus to a rebellion fueled by years of the people's freedoms being taken away at the hands of Ginerists.

This novel follows three people. It follows Kydanis, the newly appointed king of Avaria, as he attempts to bring the world together in peace, but is seemingly thwarted at his every attempt. It also follows Dak, a leader in the rebellion that is mounting, who believes that the Ginerists have unjustly taken away the people's freedoms. The novel also follows a young boy, named Goodwin, who somehow ends up in the middle of a war between the Ginerists and the rest of the inhabitants of Avaria.

This description really does not do the novel justice. It is hard for me to succinctly describe my novel in just a few paragraphs. It is definitely something I need to work on. But, hopefully it is somewhat intriguing based on this short description.

So, from now on I'm going to try to post more often. When I first started blogging, I tried to create several different blogs, each of which discussed a different side of my interests. In order to write more frequently, I've decided to use this blog to write about all of my interests. So, one day you might read an entry about a particular event in my life, then another day I might talk about an album that has been particularly moving to me, and then, I might talk about the latest progress on my writing. In this way, I hope that this blog will stay varied and interesting, and beyond that, regularly updated. The common thread for this blog is simply me and my life. Anything of particular interest to me is fair game to be discussed here.

I hope from this point forward there will be many more entries and that they will be interesting for others to read. I thank anyone who regularly (or even just occasionally) reads my blog! There will be more to come shortly!

25 Years of Life: A Reflection

Last year on my birthday I wrote a blog post reflecting on 24 years of life. I enjoyed writing it so much, that I figured it would be a good tradition each year to use my birthday as an opportunity to reflect on my life. I'll most likely keep this entry much shorter than the one I did last year.

in my mind, life is a culmination of successes and failures. The successes are moments where, perhaps against odds, perhaps despite the temptation to do otherwise, a person does the right thing and accomplishes something worthwhile. There can be different measures of success, some successes might be as simple as doing a homework assignment for a class when you are feeling lazy. Other successes could be huge, like winning a gold medal at the Olympics. My life has contained several successes. I'm going to outline a few of these now.

Completing my mission was a huge success. There were moments on my mission of absolute despair where I felt like giving up. I felt like I was not up to the task and that I was not qualified to do the work I was doing. Mostly, I realized that my shyness really hindered me, and I worried that it placed an unnecessary burden on my companions who inevitably had to pick up my slack. However, I stuck with it. Not only did I simply manage to last two years, but I accomplished much good and learned several valuable lessons. Sometimes I don't realize how much of an accomplishment this truly was.

Another success involves my experience at college. It was a victory just to get accepted to BYU, which required me to perform well in High School. However, I was able to graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology just a few months ago. This achievement required a great measure of sacrifice as I took a lot of time to study and write papers to make sure I understood the material and could pass my classes. I survived a difficult stretch of time where I abandoned my first major and searched desperately for a new one. But, once I chose Psychology, I knew there was no more time to waver from that choice and I needed to stick with it until the end. I am proud that I did, and I need to make sure to use this success as a foundation for future success.

It was also a success to get the job I had at Independent Study. I am the first to admit that I struggle when it comes to getting a job. My shyness tends to make it difficult for me to be able to ask for applications or to do well in an interview. But, I felt that I pushed through my discomfort and did all I could to make sure I would get that job. And I performed well within the job so that I could keep it for the duration of my time at BYU.

There are more successes in my life, but these are the ones that particularly stick out. However, life is made up of failures too, and I've had my fair share of them. When it comes to failures, the important thing is to be able to learn from them and not dwell on them and let them consume you. This is my great challenge in life. I have a tendency to look at all my past failures often and feel that they define me more than my successes do. For some reason I highlight my failures and come to the unfair conclusion that I am a bad person.

Some notable failures include when it took me five tries to pass my drivers test. This may seem trivial now, but I still cringe at the thought of the minor mistake I made on each test that led to me getting rejecting. It was tough to deal with at the time, and there was a point where I thought I would never drive. Another failure is specific points on my mission where I was unable to get over my fears of talking to people. I would have my companion talk to people when I couldn't. I felt uncomfortable when I was taken out of my comfort zone and had to go on exchanges. There were moments where I felt that if I didn't have a companion at all times who was extremely skilled and spiritual, I would have nothing to show for my two years of service.

I feel I failed at dating. I put my heart out there and was rejected, and I still don't really understand why. All I can conclude is that I was just too inexperienced and shy to be able to fulfill her needs. I feel like a failure especially this summer as I have been unsuccessful in my job search. I have applied to several places, but fear once again keeps me from doing all that I could be doing. I also fear that I have made the wrong choice of a major and that I now don't have the necessary skill to have a good career.

But, even though my failures are many, I need to not let them define who I am. I need to learn from these mistakes, and remember that there have also been numerous successes as well. And, if I have been able to succeed in the past, there is certainly hope for success in the future. My life has been full of ups and downs, moments of perfect happiness and what felt like endless despair. But, it is important that when I look back, I emphasize the high points and remember that I am a good person who has true potential. Yes, I have failed, but so has everyone. The true test is how I deal with these failures. If I feel that my life is defined by my failures, I am doomed to re-live them. But, if instead of dwelling on them, I can learn from them, I can turn them into successes and have a much happier and fulfilling life.

New Blog: At The End Of The Day

I have created a new blog called "At The End Of The Day". The link can be found on the right side of the screen, or you can click on the following link: At The End The Day . I created two blogs in the past called "Leviathan" and "So Many Shows" which I have never been able to regularly keep up for some reason. So, I have combined the ideas behind those two blogs and created the new blog "At The End Of The Day". My hope with this new blog is to add a new entry every day about something that made me happy or excited that particular day. This could be new music I've discovered, a new show or movie I'm excited about, or just some experience I had that day. The entries will most likely vary in length, and may end up being very short. But, I'm hoping I will be consistent in posting there each day. So, please visit that blog if you are interested!

Fun At Disneyworld Part 2

After our fun day at Epcot, we decided we needed some rest, so we took things easy the next day at Animal Kingdom, which I was grateful for. We first went on the ride Dinosaur, which was one of my favorites in all of Disneyworld. It basically has the same track as the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, but instead of Indiana Jones, you travel in a time machine back to the time of Dinosaurs and try to find a specific Dinosaur before the impending meteor. It was a lot of fun! After that, I rested while Kevin went on his favorite ride in all of Disneyworld, Expedition Everest. We then had lunch at a nice restaurant and headed to the Kilimanjaro Safaris, where you take a ride in a truck and see many real animals in their natural habitat with the driver as your guide. It was really a nice safari and cool to see the different animals such as giraffes, elephants, and lions.

After that ride, Kevin went on Expedition Everest one more time while I shopped for souvenirs. We left that night and went back to our hotel room and had hamburgers for dinner which Kevin went and bought at a bar. The next two days we went to Hollywood Studios, which I thought was a lot of fun. We went on the Great Movie Ride, which is where you travel through different movie scenes such as Wizard of Oz, Alien, and Indiana Jones. At one point, while you are in the scene of a gangster movie, one of the gangsters actually comes out of the scene and hijacks the car that you are riding and becomes the new tour guide, only to be killed later so the original tour guide could return. It was a lot of fun. Also fun was the American Idol experience where you become the American Idol audience and people who auditioned that day compete for an audience vote. It was fun hearing the different talent and getting to vote for my favorite. What was also cool was that the winner of each show during the day participated in a finale show and the winner of the finale show would receive a golden ticket that allowed them to go to the front of the line for any American Idol audition throughout the country. I enjoyed the American Idol Experience so much that I went a second time without Kevin.

We also went on Star Tours, which was identical to the Disneyland version. We attended the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, which was incredible and featured live stunt men reenacting scenes from the movie. After that, we went on the Studio Backlot Tour, which featured a tram tour through the Backlot, and some demonstrations of different stunts. We went into a place that had props from the movie Prince Caspian and then to an exhibit that showed the history of Walt Disney and how his dreams became a reality, which was really cool to see. That day we also went on Toy Story Mania, which is where you go through and use a kind of gun to shoot at things and try to earn points. The line was incredibly long, I believe the wait was up to over two hours at one point. Luckily Kevin and I had fastpasses, so the wait wasn't as long for us. That night we attended the Fantasmic show, which takes place in a theater specifically built for the show. I thought it was really cool, although Kevin was disappointed that instead of the part with Peter Pan that they have at Disneyland, they had a scene from Pocahontas. Also, the dragon that is supposed to come out at the end didn't quite work right, so that was a little disappointing. But, besides that it was a great show.

After that day, we switched hotels and stayed at All Star Movies, which was not as nice as the first hotel we stayed at, but fun in its own way. We spent the last 3 days of our trip going back to the parks and re-doing the rides we liked the best. We had lunch with Erin at Hollywood Studios on one of the days. After that, Kevin and her went on the Aerosmith Roller Coaster while I stayed behind and went to the 3D Muppetvision show. After that, Erin left, and Kevin and I went to a stunt show that involved cars driving backwards and lots of explosions. It was really awesome! On our next day we went to Epcot and attempted to eat around the world, meaning have some kind of food from each of the different countries. We got to America, and then were too full to eat anymore, so we were only able to eat halfway around the world. On our final day we returned once again to The Magic Kingdom and had fun repeating all of our favorite rides from there. It was great!

So, all in all, the trip was tons of fun and I'm really glad I went! Disneyworld doesn't have quite the same magic as Disneyland, but there is so much to do and it is so much fun!

Note: Sorry it has taken me so long to write this entry! I'll probably write another one soon where I go through what else has happened this summer (which unfortunately isn't much).

Fun At Disneyworld Part 1

This past week, I went to Disneyworld with Kevin to celebrate our graduation from BYU. We had been planning this trip for quite some time, so it was exciting to see it actually become a reality. We left early (early for me at least) to go to the Salt Lake Airport. I always get nervous in airports, but everything went really smoothly, and I enjoyed the flight to Orlando because I got to play trivia with other people on the plane, including Kevin, and I even ended up with the highest score of the whole plane ride. I was also able to listen to a lot of great music on my ipod while doing this. It was really a blast! That first day we basically just made sure we got into our hotel and were settled in. We did go to Downtown Disney that night for a little bit, which was when I first realized that this was going to be a very hot week, the weather was really humid and hot which was uncomfortable until I got used to it a little more throughout the week.

The next day, we started our Disneyworld adventures at the Magic Kingdom. This is basically the part of the park that most closely matches Disneyland. I went to Disneyworld about 15 years ago when I was 10, but I didn't really remember the Magic Kingdom at all. So, it was all basically a new experience for me. Kevin and I spent the morning in Fantasyland going on Peter Pan, It's A Small World (both are not quite as good as the Disneyland version in my opinion) and Snow White and Winnie the Pooh (which are both superior to the Disneyland version in my opinion). Then, we met up with Erin for lunch at a hot dog place that she is a huge fan of. We then went on all the other Magic Kingdom rides, included my personal favorite, Mickey's Philharmagic. This was a 3D movie in which Donald Duck goes through several other Disney movies. It is really creative, fun, and most importantly for me, not too intense. We also went on The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Carribean, The Jungle Cruise, Country Bear Jamboree, Tiki Room, Stitch's Great Escape, Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor, and the Carousel of Progress. Of course, Kevin and Erin also went on Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain while I waited, since I'm not a fan of big drops or fast, roller coaster rides. It was a really fun day, and we were able to see The Main Street Electrical Parade and the big fireworks show at night.

The next day we spent at Epcot, which is probably my favorite of the four Disneyworld parks. I remembered a little bit more of this park from my childhood. Before we got to Epcot though, we met up with Erin at a restaurant to eat breakfast with Disney characters. I wasn't sure what to do when the Disney characters came to our table, but it ended up being a lot of fun, and I got several cool pictures with the different characters (Donald, Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy). After that we took the monorail to Epcot. There are basically two parts to Epcot, the Future World and the World Showcase. We started in the Future World and went on several rides. My favorite was Soarin', which takes you on a hang glider through various parts of California. I also went on Spaceship Earth, which is inside the big golf ball and takes you through a perspective of Earth's history. I also went on a ride called Living with the Land, which is a slow moving boat ride that takes you through all the agricultural advancements that Disney is working on.

After spending time in the Future World part, we began our journey through the World Showcase, which is basically where they have representations of 11 different countries. We started in Canada, where we watched a really cool movie about Canada. At this point my legs got really sore and it became difficult to walk, which was unfortunate since we had a lot of walking in store this day. But, I kept on through England and then on to France where we watched another movie, this time of course about France. I was so exhausted that I took the opportunity to take a nap while the movie played (don't worry though, we went back another day and this time I actually stayed awake for the movie!). Also, at this point I was getting really hungry, which I think contributed to my fatigue since I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and it was now approaching dinner time. We made reservations to eat in China, so we made our way over to the restaurant which was about 5 countries away. After eating, though, I felt better, and we went to Mexico and went on the little boat cruise through Mexico with the Three Cabelleros, which was entertaining. We then went on a ride in Norway called Maelstrom that takes you through some viking lands and then has you go down a short waterfall. It was a lot of fun. After this we headed to Japan, mainly to get a spot to wait for the fireworks show, illuminations. I needed to sit down since my legs were really sore at this point, so I waited alone while Kevin ran around Epcot getting candy bars and Erin spent time shopping around Japan (her favorite country). They stood in a different spot for the fireworks show for a better view while I stayed sitting. After illuminations, we left Epcot and got much needed rest for our next day....

...and I'm starting to realize that this is going to be a really long entry, so I'm going to end part 1 here and continue on in a later post. Stay tuned for our time in the Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios...