My Year of Music

So, I decided recently that 2010 will be my year of music. Live music that is, aka concerts. I realize that the year is already more than 25% gone, but don't worry, I am making good headway. These are the concerts I have attended so far:

18th February - Dashboard Confessional @Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR
22nd February - Bon Jovi w/Dashboard Confessional @HP Pavilion, San Jose, CA
25th March - I don't know if this would really be considered a concert (the music was recorded) but I saw 2 songs from Wicked performed by the understudies for Elphaba and Glinda @Sun Valley Mall, Concord, CA
6th April - Michael Bublé w/Naturally 7 @Oracle Arena, Oakland, CA
14th April - Muse w/Silversun Pickups @Oracle Arena, Oakland, CA

I'll be doing individual posts with pictures about each of these concerts and any others I might attend. Here is my wish list for upcoming concerts:

Paramore
Jamie Cullum
Jack Johnson
Imogen Heap
She & Him
Muse (again)
Sugarland
Rooney (tour dates forthcoming. keeping my fingers crossed that they will be in the area)

No concert is too big or small. The only requirement is that it be LIVE and IN PERSON.

Happy Birthday Christopher Ender Carrabba

If you know only 1 thing about me, I hope it is that I know the Church is true. I have a testimony of The Plan that is super important to me and affects every aspect of how I live my life.
But if you only know 2 things about me, the second would probably that I am pretty much obsessed (I hesitate to use this word because I don't think it's quite accurate but will have to do for now) with Dashboard Confessional. And today is lead singer Chris Carrabba's birthday. Here's a fun, short interview to celebrate.
http://cornershopstudios.com/archives/12037

And one of my favorite memories of Chris: Krystal and I have met him a few times, but most recently in December 2009. I got to ask him about his middle name, which is quite unusual. The only time I've ever heard Ender as a name is in one of my favorite books Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. So I asked him if he was named after the book and he said no because he was born before the book was published (I knew this but I also knew that there was a short serial version of Ender's Game that was published before the book so I thought there might be a slight possibility that he was named after Orson Scott Card's Ender). It turns out he is named after his grandmother's grandfather. Super cool, right? A family name. Then he said that he had read the books because of his name and that they were all good and that I should read them. And so I shall, Chris (the ones I haven't already read, anyway). I highly recommend Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow. Read them. But don't take my word for it . . . take Chris Carrabba's.