Gather Round The Mic » Jay Jenison http://www.gatherroundthemic.com A Collection of Blogs Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:26:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 If Best Picture Movie Posters Told The Truth http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/film/if-best-picture-movie-posters-told-the-truth/ http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/film/if-best-picture-movie-posters-told-the-truth/#comments Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:01:57 +0000 Jay Jenison http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/?p=2072 With the nominations out and GRTM’s top 10 films of 2010 release just on the horizon, I thought I’d share this.

Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mrbabyman/if-best-picture-movie-posters-told-the-truth-b7t

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]]> With the nominations out and GRTM’s top 10 films of 2010 release just on the horizon, I thought I’d share this.

Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mrbabyman/if-best-picture-movie-posters-told-the-truth-b7t

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]]> http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/film/if-best-picture-movie-posters-told-the-truth/feed/ 0 Music for Schmucks – Week 3 http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/music-for-schmucks-week-3/ http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/music-for-schmucks-week-3/#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:52:24 +0000 Jay Jenison http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/?p=1140

This past week I have been listening to the suggested Joanna Newsom’s album; The Milk-Eyed Mender.  I promised from the get-go to be honest with myself as well as all of you.  So, here it is.  I struggled with the album.  Hugely.  This is not what I would normally listen to on a day to day basis.  But then again, that is what this is all about.  Upon my first listen, I was quite re-palled by her voice.  The high-pitched squeaks and squeals throughout her lines made it an unavoidable nuisance to listen to.  As a friend so elegantly put it, “She sounds like Regina Spektor on crack.”, which I thought to be an accurate observation.   However, in the spirit of MFS and GRTM I decided to fight the urge to stash the CD under my seat and instead to give it another try.  What I came to find out is that not all her songs are exactly alike.  While I had a difficult time hearing a common or noticeable rhythm to most songs, I discovered a few songs (voice and all), such as Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie, wonderfully simple and beautiful.  I found myself cruising past an open farm field with my hand out the window feeling the breeze and being completely relaxed while focusing on the words she was singing to this particular song.  It is for these few songs that the album will hold a small but special place in my mind.  I came to appreciate the struggle I have had, and will continue to have with her music, knowing full well that the journey is probably far from being over.  I look forward to it.  Thanks so much for the suggestion, it has been an experience. ...Continue reading this entry

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This past week I have been listening to the suggested Joanna Newsom’s album; The Milk-Eyed Mender.  I promised from the get-go to be honest with myself as well as all of you.  So, here it is.  I struggled with the album.  Hugely.  This is not what I would normally listen to on a day to day basis.  But then again, that is what this is all about.  Upon my first listen, I was quite re-palled by her voice.  The high-pitched squeaks and squeals throughout her lines made it an unavoidable nuisance to listen to.  As a friend so elegantly put it, “She sounds like Regina Spektor on crack.”, which I thought to be an accurate observation.   However, in the spirit of MFS and GRTM I decided to fight the urge to stash the CD under my seat and instead to give it another try.  What I came to find out is that not all her songs are exactly alike.  While I had a difficult time hearing a common or noticeable rhythm to most songs, I discovered a few songs (voice and all), such as Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie, wonderfully simple and beautiful.  I found myself cruising past an open farm field with my hand out the window feeling the breeze and being completely relaxed while focusing on the words she was singing to this particular song.  It is for these few songs that the album will hold a small but special place in my mind.  I came to appreciate the struggle I have had, and will continue to have with her music, knowing full well that the journey is probably far from being over.  I look forward to it.  Thanks so much for the suggestion, it has been an experience.

The upcoming Week #4.  Throw it out there.  I would love to know what is playing in your car stereos on your iPods RIGHT NOW and have that be your suggestion for this week.  Otherwise, your classic favorite albums will do as well.  I would also like to encourage those of you who have not yet heard the suggested album for a certain week to download and listen along with me and post comments.  We would love to know your thoughts!

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]]> http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/music-for-schmucks-week-3/feed/ 13 Music For Schmucks – Week 2 http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/music-for-schmucks-week-2/ http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/music-for-schmucks-week-2/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:24:25 +0000 Jay Jenison http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/?p=1008 As a continuation from the first week I was thrown into the world of the Mumford & Sons’ album: Sign No More.  I must applaud those of you who recommended or agreed to have have me listen to this album for the past week.  I have had a wonderful time getting to know these songs of the upbeat folk rock sound from the Brits.  Wait, what? ...Continue reading this entry

]]> As a continuation from the first week I was thrown into the world of the Mumford & Sons’ album: Sign No More.  I must applaud those of you who recommended or agreed to have have me listen to this album for the past week.  I have had a wonderful time getting to know these songs of the upbeat folk rock sound from the Brits.  Wait, what? Brits?  Ya, I know.  I didn’t see it coming either.  It was only after speaking with my friend Nate about them did I realize that they were not in fact good ol’ boys from the south.  They sure fooled me, although after knowing this fact and listening some more, the distinguishing accents came through in their music much more noticeably.  All in all I thought the album proved extremely worthy.  Despite many of their songs sounding similar to one another, I actually found it to be quite satisfying.   It became a record that held the same sound throughout it’s entirety all the while parading distinguishing vocal melodies that make each song memorable.  This has become an album that will be a regular on my iPod and I thank all of you.

So with that said; ON TO WEEK TWO.  I need a new album for this week so let the suggestions start flowing.  What album has been ringing in your ears lately?

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]]> http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/music-for-schmucks-week-2/feed/ 8 Enhance… Enhance… Enhance. http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/blog/enhance-enhance-enhance/ http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/blog/enhance-enhance-enhance/#comments Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:56:44 +0000 Jay Jenison http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/?p=985 In a fictional world of CSI style technology where the rules of modern digital photography are broken on a regular basis; there then comes this.  360 degrees of 70 BILLION pixel goodness for your viewing pleasure.  It is the largest picture in the world. Go ahead, zoom in… anywhere, it just keeps going.  Very impressive.

http://70gigapixel.cloudapp.net/

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]]> In a fictional world of CSI style technology where the rules of modern digital photography are broken on a regular basis; there then comes this.  360 degrees of 70 BILLION pixel goodness for your viewing pleasure.  It is the largest picture in the world. Go ahead, zoom in… anywhere, it just keeps going.  Very impressive.

http://70gigapixel.cloudapp.net/

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]]> http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/blog/enhance-enhance-enhance/feed/ 1 A Huge Loss… for Steve Carell, That Is. http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/blog/such-a-loss-for-steve-carell-that-is/ http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/blog/such-a-loss-for-steve-carell-that-is/#comments Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:14:10 +0000 Jay Jenison http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/?p=969

It was a long time since I had looked forward to seeing a show on television every week.  The last time I felt this way was during the great Seinfeld era in the 90′s.   Don’t get me wrong, there have been many wonderful sitcoms since then but none that enticed me like The Office.  I would religiously plan out my evening or set my DVR as not to miss the newest episode for that week.  After this upcoming season, I fear that may change for me.  It has been public knowledge for some time now that Steve Carell was planning to leave the show after his seven-season contract was fulfilled with NBC.  I was hoping for more.  While The Office has had it’s ups and downs I feel it has been an extremely solid sitcom for the most part, bringing tons of entertainment and inside jokes for millions of people. ...Continue reading this entry

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It was a long time since I had looked forward to seeing a show on television every week.  The last time I felt this way was during the great Seinfeld era in the 90′s.   Don’t get me wrong, there have been many wonderful sitcoms since then but none that enticed me like The Office.  I would religiously plan out my evening or set my DVR as not to miss the newest episode for that week.  After this upcoming season, I fear that may change for me.  It has been public knowledge for some time now that Steve Carell was planning to leave the show after his seven-season contract was fulfilled with NBC.  I was hoping for more.  While The Office has had it’s ups and downs I feel it has been an extremely solid sitcom for the most part, bringing tons of entertainment and inside jokes for millions of people.

But, this post isn’t about what a great show The Office has been over the years.  It is more about how I believe Carell is making a huge mistake, one that may be damaging to his career.  Now, my hurt feelings aside, I do have some tangible thoughts to back this up on my behalf.  The first one being, when I think back about memorable roles in Carell’s film history I seem to be only able to pull a 2 of clubs instead of an ace of spades.  In fact, the movies I thought he was at his best in (Little Miss Sunshine, 2006 & Dan In Real Life, 2007) weren’t really comedies at all.  He seems to hold his own as a supporting character in many movies that we all know and love such as Anchorman and … oh wait… is that it?  Ok, I will give him The Forty Year Old Virgin for his major role as being a mildly entertaining funny movie, but come on… it wasn’t that funny, and if it was, it was more due to the likings of the supporting cast than Carell himself.  Carell gives no evidence of being able to single-handedly support a major movie role of any comedic worth as clearly demonstrated in Get Smart (2008), Date Night (2010), or the awful Evan Almighty (2007) which, was a huge failure at the box office.

I feel a necessary comparison would be if Jerry Seinfeld left the show Seinfeld before it was complete.  As great of a show as it was, it was nothing without the supporting cast, and the supporting cast would have been nothing without Jerry himself.  The show was written around him, like The Office has been mainly written around Michael Scott.  In fact, many viewers didn’t care much for Jerry on the show, often being seen as the least favorable character.  Likewise, there were a few season of The Office where Carell’s character did nothing for me.  I seem to know a handful of people that love the show but have never liked Michael Scott.  While maybe being true, this doesn’t change that fact that he is the nucleus of the show in which everything else revolves around him.  If Carell does in fact go, the show will go soon after.  It simply cannot exist without a nucleus.

Carell has made a wonderful name for himself leading the crazy pack at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and it is for this reason only that he continues to keep scoring these semi-major roles in movies.  It seems as though actors feel the need to have this progressive forward-thinking attitude about their careers, even if they do not deserve to move up and on to greater heights.  I think a much more positive move for his career would be to continue with The Office for a couple more seasons while he gets a few more major movie roles under his belt.  Who knows, maybe he just needs time to find his niche but I do not think he has found it yet. The old saying “Don’t fix what isn’t broken” does not seem to ring true in the ears of Hollywood residents.  Why is this?  It is possible that Carell is a high-ranking television actor and that’s all?  I think so, and he is great at that.  Just accept it and stick to it.

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]]> http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/blog/such-a-loss-for-steve-carell-that-is/feed/ 2 Music for Schmucks – Week 1 http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/music-for-schmucks-week-1/ http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/music-for-schmucks-week-1/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:35:08 +0000 Jay Jenison http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/?p=954 It’s true.  I have become a music schmuck.  I often hear friends talk about bands and have no idea who they are talking about.  It was not always this way.  I used to be fairly educated in underground, up and coming, and local music.  Back in my hay-day of playing music with fellow musicians I felt on top of my music knowledge game.  It was exciting, motivating and even a little highbrow to hear an album and to “have been listening to that band” far before the masses.  I loved it, I really did.  But after playing in various bands for a while I decided to make major life changes.  I didn’t see much of a future in music (career wise) and decided to get married and begin to have a family and work towards different goals. ...Continue reading this entry

]]> It’s true.  I have become a music schmuck.  I often hear friends talk about bands and have no idea who they are talking about.  It was not always this way.  I used to be fairly educated in underground, up and coming, and local music.  Back in my hay-day of playing music with fellow musicians I felt on top of my music knowledge game.  It was exciting, motivating and even a little highbrow to hear an album and to “have been listening to that band” far before the masses.  I loved it, I really did.  But after playing in various bands for a while I decided to make major life changes.  I didn’t see much of a future in music (career wise) and decided to get married and begin to have a family and work towards different goals. While I still love to play music from time to time I have become somewhat distant to the ever changing world that is the music scene.  I do not at all regret my life choices, however I do miss the excitement I would feel when hearing a new band’s album for the first time and being unable to take it out of my CD player for weeks.

So this is where all of you come in.  I need your help.  I am starting a weekly blog post here on GRTM and would love your group participation.  What I need are album suggestions.  At the moment I am not interested in listening to a band with one or two great songs, I want great full albums that I can listen to all the way through.  The way I see this happening is someone will post an album suggestion.  Following people can either disagree and post another album option or simply give a “(album name) & +1″ if you agree with a previous suggested album.  I realize that I may already be listening to some of the suggested albums so I will try to keep up on commenting on whether or not I am already familiar.  The album that gets the most “+1′s” will be the album I choose for that week.  I will then proceed to download that album and listen to it for one week straight with the promise of an open mind.  The following week I will post my opinion and experiences with the suggested album and we will begin the process all over again for the next week.

I will do my best to listen to ALL suggested albums over time, however I can only promise the 1 album per week as of right now.  Remember that this will hopefully be an on-going weekly thing so let’s try to not cram all of our favorite albums into the first week.  No suggestion is off the table!  So starting NOW let’s see…err… I mean hear, what you guys got.  I can’t wait to have my eyes and ears opened again.

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]]> http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/music-for-schmucks-week-1/feed/ 8 Unconditional http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/openmic/unconditional/ http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/openmic/unconditional/#comments Sun, 07 Sep 2008 01:19:04 +0000 Jay Jenison http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/?p=152 Unconditional

Recorded & Produced August-September 2008 by Nate Gass
Written by Jay Jenison

Performers:
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Shakers: Jay Jenison
French Horn: Andrea Gass
Tambourine: Jason Alm
Additional Instruments: Nate Gass

Notes: This was another song we used to play for worship at Cana. I always loved the joy this song evoked and I wanted to convey that in every element of the song. ...Continue reading this entry

]]> Unconditional

Recorded & Produced August-September 2008 by Nate Gass
Written by Jay Jenison

Performers:
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Shakers: Jay Jenison
French Horn: Andrea Gass
Tambourine: Jason Alm
Additional Instruments: Nate Gass

Notes: This was another song we used to play for worship at Cana. I always loved the joy this song evoked and I wanted to convey that in every element of the song. I thought Phil Specter’s Wall of Sound technique would be the perfect fit, so this is my attempt at imitating that in my apartment. I’ve always thought this was just such a wonderful song, a great piece of songwriting on Jay’s part.

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]]> http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/openmic/unconditional/feed/ 2 Something http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/openmic/something/ http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/openmic/something/#comments Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:54:47 +0000 Jay Jenison http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/?p=102 Something

Recorded 2007 by Jay Jenison
Written by Jay Jenison

Performers:
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Harmonica- Jay Jenison
Bass Guitar, Misc. Production- Nate Gass
Drums- Andrew Gore

Notes: We recorded this song a while back. The drums, bass, guitar, harmonica, and first layer of vocals were all done live with one room mic. A fun little diddy. ...Continue reading this entry

]]> Something

Recorded 2007 by Jay Jenison
Written by Jay Jenison

Performers:
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Harmonica- Jay Jenison
Bass Guitar, Misc. Production- Nate Gass
Drums- Andrew Gore

Notes: We recorded this song a while back. The drums, bass, guitar, harmonica, and first layer of vocals were all done live with one room mic. A fun little diddy. Great song Jay!

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]]> http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/openmic/something/feed/ 2 Being With You http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/openmic/being-with-you/ http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/openmic/being-with-you/#comments Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:51:57 +0000 Jay Jenison http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/?p=52 Being With You

Recorded February 2008 by Jay Jenison
Written by Jay Jenison

Performers:
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar-Jay Jenison

Notes:  A song I recorded at 2 in the morning for my wife.

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]]> Being With You

Recorded February 2008 by Jay Jenison
Written by Jay Jenison

Performers:
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar-Jay Jenison

Notes:  A song I recorded at 2 in the morning for my wife.

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]]> http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/openmic/being-with-you/feed/ 3 Sweet Horizon http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/openmic/sweet-horizon/ http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/music/openmic/sweet-horizon/#comments Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:06:45 +0000 Jay Jenison http://www.gatherroundthemic.com/?p=33 Sweet Horizon

Recorded March 28th 2008 by Jay Jenison
Written by Jay Jenison

Performers:
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Harmonica-Jay Jenison
Mandolin-Nate Gass
Electric Guitar-Titus Hattan
Bass- Andrew Wulf
Drums-Andrew Gore
Group Vocals & Random Stuff-Everyone + Phil Vickers

Notes: We recorded this song in one take. We actually thought it was kind of a practice run but ended up being one of my favorite recorded songs. ...Continue reading this entry

]]> Sweet Horizon

Recorded March 28th 2008 by Jay Jenison
Written by Jay Jenison

Performers:
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Harmonica-Jay Jenison
Mandolin-Nate Gass
Electric Guitar-Titus Hattan
Bass- Andrew Wulf
Drums-Andrew Gore
Group Vocals & Random Stuff-Everyone + Phil Vickers

Notes: We recorded this song in one take. We actually thought it was kind of a practice run but ended up being one of my favorite recorded songs. Big thanks to Steve Colletti for lending us gear and support and to the Gores for lending their basement to record in. Thanks guys.

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