the space for coincidence

go to: www.myspace.com/jodimclaren and check out the songs i've been recording recently!


this week has been incredible, but reaaally, this YEAR has been incredible. Because a year ago rach and i took an adventure down to college perk and i performed, and we kinda decided to start taking advantage of every oppurtunity; to get out and do the things we wanna do simply because we could! so i've done that... this whole year, and it's been amazing. I know this sort of thing should be posted on new years or something, but hey why not celebrate on thanksgiving break? when we dont have school to worry about for a few days and we're going to eat more food than we thought humanly possible... yeah there's too much to give thanks for.

a man came into pepperjacks and we had christmas music playing on the radio and the man knew EVERY word to the songs that came on.. i'm talkin the chipmunks christmas song and some other 80's jam, man was singin like he was in the shower! I loved it.

if you're lookin for a thought-provoking movie, go see I Heart Huckabees. Seeing that yesterday by pure coincidence at the charles street movie theatre was perfect. It's all about the two sides of existentialism, and it cleared up a lot of things i never understood about existentialism... If i may start to take this post a little deeper, i felt like the existential mindsets aren't really that different from christianity, like we're all connected. In the movie they did these exercises where they were supposed to sit and clear their minds, to just relax and escape the crazy world; this is kind of like people praying to god to feel better, its an escape from the world.

Then theres two sides of existentialism.. one is everything is meaningless.. and the other one is everything is connected and maraculous. so like in the bible theres the book of ecclesiastes which says how meaningless everything is, and then all these miracles happening with jesus.

I'm not saying its the same thing... and maybe its "existential" to say, but i just feel like everything is CONNECTED, theres always some underlying similar theme or connection that can be found (along with a bunch of differences to separate people/ideas/religions), and depending on what you're looking for, you're bound to come across anything. it's all quite fascinating. if all that existential stuff freaks you out, atleast take from it what i did a year ago:

you're in control, make your life what you want it to be.




peace, and happy thanks giving, and be sure to listen to my music.

jo

yess great night

the RHHS coffee house was awesome tonight! so many great acts... soo happy i got to be a part of it. Things just went smoothly up there and i felt like my songs were just flowing and i could look up and take in the crowd without bein thrown off. I mean most of you know i mess up a lot when i play; even though they're my own songs.. but i didnt tonight! i think all this (shhh)... -recording- has helped me to be a little more consistent. if you all were to take a vote should i... save money and get in a real studio to record songs, orrr do my best with what i have at the barn and finish a cd by... lets say march because either way i want it to be beautiful. I'm talkin CD cover and everything man.

Hopefully ppl will be up for buying another CD, with interesting new songs you'll learn to love and sing along to in the future. Dude, and I gotta thank ppl who keep showing up every time i play; my true "fans" haha who are really just friends that i LOVE so much. you guys mean so freakin much to me, its incredible. you all make me smile when i'm behind that mic. i just had SUCH a great time tonight! now i'm ready to crash... i've had nooo sleeep (and its been worth it), good night everyone,


Jo

ahh

the relaxing kind of ahh... haha, the kind of ahh that comes when i turn on this wonderful andy davis CD. If you want to find a way to win me over, go listen to andy davis and love it as much as i do, and i'm pretty sure i'll just have to fall in love with you or something (fellas). lol its that kind of music. like matt wertz and stephen speaks with a little country remnants. mmmmm.

i'm kind of getting tired of all the stuff i "know", i'm ready to learn some crazy interesting things that will enlighten me. any good movies to see to help me out with that? lol, if you've got some cool things to say, give me a call, we'll go get coffee and become educated, in the beautiful way that happens outside of school. (i've been deprived of NF's for too long!).

this past weekend was pretty fulfilling, in ways not intended by the topics the church kind of assigned to the weekend. I mean... saturday night i could barely watch the dark path in front of me on the way to the campfire, cause i was too absorbed in those stars. had to be millions of them just swirled around in the darkness. and i just was blown away that so many stars are up there ALL the time.. and we barely would know it.

you know there seems to be a fine line between feeling unique and feeling completely alone. like no one else can see the world exactly how i see it. thats cool for the purposes of being special and having my own little place. but what about when i want to share my life with other ppl? sounds like an elementary question-- people already know me, right? well... yeah but ppl cant always agree on everything. life's not always that convenient. though i have had the advantage of rach and mike and kathleen, which really makes most of the other crap not really matter cause they just understandd. its pretty incredible actually.

just for the record, this is not a "productive night"... which is why this blog is so LONG, i just dont feel like doing homework cause my attention is being diverted to more important hypothetical things, like where i'll be next year, and whats going to happen to all these highschool days, and if there is some guy out there who's on my page just waiting to tell me everythings okay and to take me out to enjoy these dark empty nights. friends can do that too.. but why not shoot for the moon? lol, seems like thats all i ever do. i'm sure i'm boring some people, if anyone even reads this thing anymore! i'll head out, thanks for the space to breathe and express, oh infinite internet.


www.andydavisonline.com you'll fall in love with it (then i'll fall in love with you!) its got mp3s, just look at the bottom left corner. ahhh its great.


peace

color me maroon

whats happenin ppls? I am happy to say that my pepperdine application is SENT. my part is done, i wrote a kick ass essay and will be sending them a demo to give me a lil extra pizazz. haa man yesterday i was about ready to kill someone though just thinking about all the crap left to do. I love how no seniors sleep at all. I've been trying to learn how to play piano... this song totally inspired me by andy davis, I just ordered his cd from www.andydavisonline.com cause he's that cool. Guess i havent written here in a while, but this past weekend i had the privelege of having Kendall Payne sleep at my house!

woman is an amaaazing singer and song writer. we had a little "pass the guitar" jam session in my living room, i was blown away. definitely check her out at www.kendallpayne.com.

yeah so i've been learning how to record and having a blast in a tiny little office singing my heart out. some select few have had the chance to listen to the freshly recorded messy versions of my songs, just for the sake of feedback. I can't wait to get all of the little problems fixed up so everyone can hear what i've been working on for the past few weeks.

right now i kind of dont care about much, i mean in a good way, like i finished a lot of the important stuff i needed to finish (pepperdine application) and i'm going on a retreat tomorrow night til sunday. Aside from intense games of paintball, i'll have some time to relax and maybe unwind from the hectic few weeks this has been. ideally all of my thoughts will unravel into a nice piece of music to add the CD. Get me around january for this cd, still working on all the details of a CD title/cover/track list. You will definitely see the following songs: what you'd say, so ready for you, here i am, believe me (africa song), spectacular, and a little more blind. i might re-record some of the oldies for the sake of my pride, cuz i know a few of them are kinda rough!

when in doubt, listen to tupac-keep ya head up.

oh dude before i leave (and to add yet another random sentence that seems to not be connected to anything, like the one above...) ---- i just read this awesome ZINE, a short magazine? by Jen Lemen and her soul-sister friend, and its soooo great. if you are an NF (and you know it) or just some person who enjoys good writing, you must check this out, its amaazing. and i'll give you the website to go to once i find out what it is.


Jodizz

what next...

so yeah, news is in, kerry's out, we're still in war and over 100,000 iraqis have been killed... and americans are arguing bitterly while so much is really going on in a world beyond us. I've heard enough of both sides frankly. I mean damnit.. people get so focused on trying to defend one person they end up agreeing with the most terrible things. We all need to think for ourselves at the end of the day. As sad as i am about this election, the fact that 50 million other people are sad, that 50 million people want change, that 50 million people would love to have some peace-- that's hope right there. for all you passionate people out there who cried at some point today, I respect you, because you care. And the world isn't going to end, and our lives don't HAVE to be majorly effected by this election, but the fact that people are involved and that even though not all of us are even voting age but we still become educated about shit, like thats really cool.

At one point after a long back-and-forth-getting-no-where conversation in youth group basically bashing both sides... i finally just spoke up with an honest concern. I care about our country and the world, and poor people, and education... I dont know if Kerry could've fixed it all, and Bush can't fix it all either, but it scares me sometimes and just seeing how divided everyone is kind of scares me. All the arguing just goes in circles really, what I hope it comes down to is people realizing both sides and that there are problems in the world. Once you see that, it's kind of overwhelming cause theres a shitload of problems. It's enough to weigh on a person. Once you care you can't really go back to not caring either cause its so real, but caring aint no crime! I'm glad people do. I don't want to think the way I do because it's "democrat" cause even within that theres problems.

Break the barriers down and really see things for what they are, as often as you can. And let me know if there's any war protests happening, I got a heart man, and it can listen, but it will never be silenced.


Jodi

my vote don't count

Its election day, and I'm 17.... VOTE FOR KERRY. I got in a few arguments over politics in school yesterday, i get so pissed off too. So really what's a girl to do? I don't reallly know. I was pretty convinced I was going to go door to door today telling people to vote or something, but then my focus completely changed to something much more hopeful. any guesses?


picked up my guitar and went to the barn. nuc set up a little station in his office with a G5 Mac (really really fast computer) and an Mbox. And I recorded-- ALL AFTERNOON. From 2-7. I worked a long time on Without Knowing, and then kind of got tired of hearing and recording the same thing, and decided to do scratch tracks of a bunch of songs; which basically means i recorded the song one time through with vocals and guitar. I recorded 5 songs yesterday! The quality isn't so bad either.. i need to mess with volumes a little bit and fix a few things that drive me crazy every time i hear it! But i really get happy when i record, it's like i do all this work and i perform all the time.. and then once its recorded I can sit back and evaluate.

After staying in that room by myself singing my heart out until it was dark and the room was lit by the computer screen (the lightswitches were outside of the room, and i was busy), nuc came back with his band (Forget Reason) for their rehersal. Kevin (member of Forget Reason) said I should go see them play this friday, and then just like that he says "hey you should open for us!" So the place already has an opening act lined up.. but i'm gonna go up and play 2 songs before Forget Reason anyway! I'll post some more information but it seems like around 8 o clock in college park at some church off route 193, come if you can! Maybe we'll have a little celebration afterwards at someones house, cause I feel like I'm getting somewhere in the music world. and if thats just a facade then damnit i'll be fooled cause you gotta live each day in each day. The future has got its place.


Today, you're living in election day, if you're 18, I hope you're voting! (Hoping for a miracle with Kerry)




Jodi