October’s Tunes

I used to think October was my favorite month.  This is the month when pumpkin abounds, cooler weather starts to settle and my father’s birthday.  These things are all great but I’ve realized November is closer to my favorite month than October.

This has nothing to do with my monthly music post but I often don’t have anything bloggish on my blog so I decided to indulge.

The Avett Brothers, I and Love and You

In late September the Avett’s released their new album I And Love And You to much fanfare in my car.  So much it was only until last week that I remembered I had other music to enjoy.  This album is full of more of the same in regards to their excellent song writing.  One thing that is different is their reliance on the piano instead guitars and banjos.  It makes for a different experience, but not in the different means bad sort of way.

Thad Cockrell, To Be Loved

This is my first Thad Cockrell album after much prodding through friends and some indirect prodding my favorite band.  Some friends back in Nashville, mostly the Radfords, have encouraged me to check Cockrell out and I’ve read several stories about Cockrell and Roman Candle.  Last week I finally bought one of his albums, To Be Loved.

I did not realize that this album could be mistaken for a gospel album and honestly I was not that perturbed.  Cockrell was studying to be a Southern Baptist minister before he decided to make music full-time.

Songs like Pride Won’t Get Us Where We’re Going and Rosalyn are quite good and along with the complete album have put Thad Cockrell on my list of musicians to look for when I’m lollygagging through a used cd store.

Griffin House, 42 and a Half Minutes With Griffin House

Several years ago my old friend Jon was playing drums with Bill Mallonee and one evening when the band was close by my friends and I decided to make the trek to Nashville to catch the show.  Before they came on stage one man came on stage with one guitar, by no means an unusual sight, and performed.  My roommate Chris thought this man would be the next Bono.  I wasn’t sure about that.  Chris bought his album and as we listened to it regularly in the house I also became a fan of Griffin House.

A few Friday’s ago Griffin House was back in Charlotte and I was able to catch him with my friend Ashley.  Here I picked up his most recent album 42 and a Half Minutes With Griffin House.  This is an album full of some of House’s B-sides along with commentary on the songs.

When listening to Griffin House there is always one or two songs per album that draw me in before I’m drawn into the full album.  This time is no different with me becoming engrossed in the songs Murder in the First Degree and Parliament Lights.

SuperFreakonomics

A few years ago I began to be intrigued by economics.  This, like most things that pique my interest, came about through reading.  One day one summer a few years back I stopped at Border’s and picked up three books off the “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” table (which is arguably one of my top ten favorite things) and one of these was The Undercover Economist by Tim Hartford.  Reading this on the couch that summer in my old apartment sparked an interest in a topic that I would have previously only yawned through; this subject being economics.

With this new interest piqued I began to read other authors and I eventually came across Freakonomics by Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner.  When I read it I was amazed at their application of economic theory to realms outside of the typical interests of academic economics.  Yesterday their follow-up, Superfreakonmics, was released and due to my cold that has me at home I was able to read it today.  A few thoughts…

I was not as surprised with the book as much as I was with the first installment.  I do not think this is because the authors have produced a lesser work.  Instead I believe I’m much more knowledgeable about statistics and economics which has led me to begin seeing the world a little differently.  This new view is similar to what they are presenting so it stands to reason that I would not be surprised since I would start to see, however dimly, what they are illuminating.

Secondly, I was very eager to read the final chapter in the book about Global Warming as it has recently been disparaged across the blogosphere due to its content.  This book is not a book about Global Warming so I was not expecting there to be any cutting edge scientific research about what is causing the changes in the environment so I was not hurt that they did not talk about these changes.

Instead they focused on what I perceive as one of their themes for Superfreakonomics, that being many of the solutions to severe problems historically have been very simple.  Since this has been the case historically it stands to reason that the solution to our present environmental crisis could be solved in a simple manner.

All in all I rather enjoyed reading this book.  It was a great way to spend a sick day.

A Beautiful Day atop the Appalachian’s

Last Saturday several (and by several I mean ten) friends and I walked from the Black Mountain Campground to the summit of Mt. Mitchell, the tallest peak in North Carolina and the Appalachian Mountains.  I’ve made this climb before but this is the first time I’ve been able to climb to the actual summit due to the construction of a new lookout tower.

This time I also carried my copy of Hiking North Carolina’s Lookout Towers by Peter Barr so I could participate in sharing pictures of hikers with the book at the lookout towers.  Here’s a link to his site.