Puppy's First Hike

Yesterday was a special first day for our young puppy, because we took her out on her first ever hike! For the first one my mother decided the best place to go would be back to Mount Falcon Park in Conifer, Colorado. I have to admit that the park trails are fairly flat and to get to the end of the first trail is maybe a ten minute walk (or twenty, hard to tell when one is hiking).

The Puppy sitting on a Rock

My father decided to make the trip a little bit more difficult by forgetting to bring the dog cover for his car's backseat. I ended up carrying the puppy on my lap the whole trip, it was a wreckage waiting to happen. She wanted to look out one window, then look out another window, then look out the front window, then get comfortable, and then repeat; but all of those were unattainable because she could not move from my lap. I struggled with her the entire ride up and I have to say I was not a happy camper.

When we arrived, we got her out of the car, I brushed off the mountain of dog fur that had accumulated from her fighting to stay on my lap the whole way up, and then the four of us started hiking down the trail (literally down, because we were at the top). The puppy was as happy as could be, running this way and that, sniffing at this and that, and trying to run up to every single person that we passed. Yet for the people the hike was slightly less enjoyable. We spent most of our time trying to control her and stopping her from eating things she should not be putting in her mouth. Still, all of us managed to have a great time out on the trail. 

When we got to the castle ruins (the Walker family house ruins, but everyone calls it the castle ruins), I took several pictures of our pup sitting on rocks and in the sunset. She seemed less happy to pose than to walk down the dirt path, but I did not care. I wanted a photograph to commemorate and remember this first of many adventures she is going to take! Afterwards we all started back, and she was just as happy as before. 

Back at the car we put down her water bowel and filled it, she drank up, and then it was another horrific car ride of her on my lap all the way back to the house...

Listen to This: I'll Bite You

Okay, I lied. Instead of going off to write a whole review on a movie I watched like two days ago I decided to write a review about a song that I have fallen in love with. But before I get to that, let me start off by first telling everyone a little bit about Lydia and my relationship with this band. About a year ago a friend over the internet, as in one I had never met in real life, told me that I should try listening to this band because they do a lot of amazing pieces. They are a small-time indie band, a lot of people have never heard of them before, but I am so happy I got pointed towards them. From their first album and second album there are songs that I still listen to all the time because they are so beautifully done; take for instance Smile, You've Won or Hospital which are both classics.

But this review is not about them. Instead, it is about a band that I thought was breaking-up and done making music. See, after writing one more album (their third if I remember correctly) and doing one final tour, they were going to all disband and go their separate ways. However, Paint it Golden is actually the bands fourth album and actually a wonderful return. After a small hiatus, the band came back and produced this piece, which I instantly fell in love with for its softer tunes that still focused highly on well-writen lyrics.

I'll Bite You by Lydia

I think the reason I can easily separate this song from the other ones on the album is that the song starts with a different sound than the one present in the chorus. The first time I listened to it, that tossed me through a loop, but still I kept coming back because there was something about it. The soft, rhythmic start that is suddenly disturbed by the perfectly offset chorus just really brought me back and touched my heart I guess.

But that was the first few times I listened to it, the main attractant that got me to hear the song. Now I have dived much deeper into the surface of this masterpiece, learned the lyrics that grabbed me and really brought me to enjoy what it has to offer. Like I said before, one of the best parts about Lydia is their key focus to the well-written lyrics in any one of their given songs. If I had to say the one that has been keeping me, the golden lyrics to this song, it would definitely be, "I wanna hear it from your pearly teeth." There is just something about the detail in that one line that gets me thinking and has kept me listening to this one over and over again. Anyway, give it a listen!

The Spotted Canvas uses the Lydia promotional media but is not endorsed or certified by themselves. All of the Lydia logos and trademarks displayed on this website are the property of themselves.

Listen to This: Turn Up the Music

If someone would have told me to listen to a song by Chris Brown, I probably would have asked why. That is not to say that I think he is a bad person, but more because up until now I just have not found anything that I like by him. No offense, I just did not care for any of his previous stuff and there is a lot of stuff in his modern music that I could not give a care for either. But still, that is not to say that a single does not pop out of the blue and catch me by surprise. So, feeling open to listening to this song, I found that I loved it. Granted, the first time I heard it I thought to myself that it was okay. About two weeks later, I had it stuck in my head even though I had not heard it once since then. Sometimes that is just how things work for me. And now I am in love with this song, dancing along to it like the most amateur dancer that I am (and I do not plan to take my excellent skills professional any time soon, though that might be saving the world from those problems).

Anyway, after that short period of time I just needed to hear this song again. So I loaded up the youtube page and started listening to it again, and again, and again. This did not satisfy my craving though, and as I was in my car driving to target or the liquor store or somewhere (I can't remember exactly, but it was in that general direction from my house), I loaded up the music video again on my smartphone and had another play. To say the least, within a day I had this downloaded and was playing it on repeat.

Music Video for Turn Up the Music by Chris Brown

Now what I like about this song is almost everything. I love the back beat, which is that rhythmic dance beat that just gets my hands and feet moving. And if the last music video I picked is to describe how much I love songs about the love of music, then that should tell you why I like the lyrics. But even beyond that, Chris Brown does a wonderful job of taking his song emotionally to the next level. Listen, by which I do not mean closely, and you will hear him screaming as he tries to convey how much turning up the music means to him. It is this emotional involvement, which we have not seen as in-depth in modern music, that I really like. Anyway, I say give it a listen!

The Spotted Canvas uses the Turn Up the Music music video but is not endorsed or certified by Sony Music Entertainment. All of the Turn Up the Music promotional material and trademarks displayed on this website are the property of Sony Music Entertainment.

Watch this Music Video: I'm Not a Vampire

A few weeks ago my brother handed me a album by a band I had never heard of. About a day after that, I was listening to several songs over and over again. And a few days after that, I got curious if there was a music video to my favorite songs and went to  on my hunt. What I found was rather surprising, but never-the-less a classic video that I honestly think everyone should watch at least once!

So the reasons I like this music video are always mounting, but the most important reason is that I love the song. It's comical, intelligent, and relatable on several levels! But even beyond that, I love charismatic way that the lead singer (Ronnie Radke) moves about and sings songs relating to his personal experiences and life. That's what I love to see in singers, an enthusiasm that shows more than tells their lives. At any rate, if you haven't seen this music video, take a look!

The Spotted Canvas uses the YouTube^® application programming interface but is not endorsed or certified by YouTube, LLC. All of the YouTube^® videos  and trademarks displayed on this website are the property of their creators, including but not limited to YouTube, LLC and Epitaph Records.