A bit of an update, and some AWESOME news!

Wow, it has been some time since I blogged last! Been crazy busy at university as all my assignments/ tests start snowballing into one rather hectic schedule. Although with the rate I procrastinate I probably could have finished them all and written 3 blog posts! But oh well, we all know that's not going to happen anytime soon.

Anyway, seeing as it's been a while since I posted, I thought I'd give you a rundown on whats been going on. I'm going to have to break this into sections haha.

Study

What is this study you speak of? Apart from the fact that I'm still not very motivated about it, I'm quite enjoying university at the moment. I seem to be doing ok too - got my first lot of results back the other day. C+, B+ and an A-. How very alphabetical.

Probably the best thing about uni this year, other than getting to watch Bollywood films in Media studies (favourite paper!) and meeting some cool new people was my last academic writing assignment. We had to pick a journal article for it to write about, which in itself isn't terribly interesting. However my article was actually awesome cos it properly introduced me to the Kinks, who are now one of my favourite bands. It really is a shame these guys never aspired to the heights of the Beatles or the Rolling Stones because if you ask me the Kinks give them a run for their money, and at times even better them! Don't believe me? Go listen to "Misfits" and then try telling me that isn't one of the most well-crafted songs you've ever heard.

Life

I've become addicted to walnuts and milo and skating. Though Not all at the same time. 

Oh and I (finally) bought a new guitar! As seen above. It is one meeeeeeean axe, plays somewhat similar to my brothers Epiphone Les Paul Special but I got it for a fraction of the price. Well, half. Either way it was a sweet deal because this is such a nice guitar. Real grunty, and roars incredibly when you shove it through some overdrive. Just needs a set of new strings and I'm set to crank the metal! (Well, try). No but seriously though, I'm so excited about this. It's the first electric I've bought in years and has SO many differences to my other guitar. Looking forward to jamming this beast out a whole lot more in the near future!

 Faith

While this one's probably the hardest to define using concrete events, it's been going well. I guess? I still feel I could be so much closer to God than I am at the moment. Still, church & life group have been a big part of my life this year and it's all such an awesome space to be in. I feel really privileged and blessed to be part of it all.
Lately I've taken to reading the word when I wake up. Which is actually so good, because I can concentrate heaps better. At night I find I get distracted real easy.... It's just a good way to start the day I find. Also I've been finding so many verses which speak volumes to me about pretty much everything, so I've been underlining those! Got plenty of "Scribbles" to chose from when I write one next.

Music

As usual, I've been spending a LOT of time jamming the new tunes. Radiohead are still high on the playlist at the moment - I'm loving all the stuff from In Rainbows! Yeah I know I'm like 6 years behind the times.... but oh well.
I've weirdly been jamming a whole lot of music which isn't really my norm - funk, hiphop, metal. It's good though.
I've been getting SUPER excited about the new The National album "Trouble Will Find Me". I got addicted to these guys sound near the end of last year, when heavy into my ambient music phase (which is probably still going haha). Their song "Fake Empire" would probably rank somewhere in my Top 10 songs ever written if I ever was to compose such a list. Anyway, the new album is sounding absolutely STUNNING from the songs I've heard of it which have been pre- released on Youtube. "I Need My Girl" and "Rylan" are such good songs both lyrically and musically, and then "Don't Swallow the Cap" (which I'm listening to right now coincidentally), while taking a few more listens is actually a gem of a song. Especially the last twenty seconds. That guitar tone/effect is absolutely incredible. Can't wait till the 20th of May when they finally release it!

On a different topic, seeing as it's music month here in little New Zealand, where the whole country finally decides to pay attention to it's wealth of talented artists (or at least the mainstream ones....), I thought I'd join in the buzz. The above album cover, while being pretty hideous artistically, is for a sweet Kiwi band called Carb On Carb who are actually very good. Don't judge the cd by it's cover! Seriously though, I had the pleasure of seeing this epic 2-piece at a gig a few weeks ago and they were one of the highlights of a night which included some crazy dancing, talking to some guy who used to drive rickshaws for a living, my flatmate's band rocking the stage, and this other band who managed to pull off a decent cover of a Band of Horses song. So for these guys to make an impression during all that was pretty impressive. I was looking up some of their tunes online and stumbled across this lovely EP of theirs which can be downloaded from http://carboncarb.bandcamp.com/. It's really good, especially the last track! If you're into melodic punk, or female-fronted rock bands that don't sound like Paramore (unfortunately all to rare in todays world), go check them out!

Personally I've been jamming music a lot lately. Found out I lived next door to a drummer the other day, and we've been having a few informal practices together which is cool cos he's pretty much at the same skill level as me. So cool just to jam random tunes again!
Also I got invited to join a band at Crossroads which is going to be playing for their youth service next week! Pretty exciting stuff, but also slightly nerve-wracking because I haven't played in a band for so long and I'm actually pretty rusty.... 

And now for the exciting news...

 

Yeah. This happened.

FINALLY, after a good year and a half of living in P-town, I joined/started a band!
Considering how long I spent on the lookout wondering about it, the whole thing happened surprisingly fast. The majority of us all met each other last year during the Ucol music course, and the two months we spent playing together was truly awesome, as we gelled so much musically as well as personally. Seeing as we were all still in Palmy, we decided it'd be a good idea to get together and jam out, and Caleb invited one of his mates to come jam some bass with us. And the rest is history (or hopefully will be!).
Seriously probably the most exciting things to happen EVER! We're all super serious about our music, and the range of styles we can play is eclectic in every sense of the word. Looking forward to the future with these guys!
Go check us out at http://www.facebook.com/PreetiAndTheGentlemen?ref=ts&fref=ts and give us a like or two! Hopefully we'll have some stuff up soon!


Well, that was probably the most exciting post I've done all year! But it's getting late and I'm mega tired after a long day of uni and playing music, so I better hit the hay.

Catch you on the flipside guys! And go give my bandpage a like - you know you want to! 

Sunday Devotional: Scribbles Part 1

Lately I've been thinking about the Bible.


I find it pretty sad how a lot of Christians, particularly in the first world, don't take time to read it. Maybe it's because they disagree with parts of it. Or parts of it are boring. Or they just simply "don't have the time."

I can relate to all of those excuses. There was a time when I stopped reading my bible for those reasons. It was the beginning of 2012, and I thought I knew all there was to know about my faith. Or at least enough to get by. I'd read the bible my whole life, and had just completed reading it cover to cover. Admittedly it was only a chapter a day, and it did take me 2-3 years. But I figured by that achievement alone I was doing a lot better than most people.
So I stopped.

For about three or four months I didn't really read my bible that much. Yeah sure there was the occasional time I picked it up, and I'd read the scripture references at church. That was good enough wasn't it?

If by now you're expecting some massive tale of how I went off the rails, ended up in jail and then decided to pick up the Holy Book again, you're going to be a bit disappointed by the next part of the story. After those three or four average months where pretty much nothing happened, I just decided to take reading the bible again. I'm not really quite sure why. Maybe it was because I was going to a Life Group at this time and thought it was a good idea. Or something like that.

Interestingly enough, I found out really quickly that I had missed a lot. And with bible-reading I had kind of been missing the point. Previously I did it because I thought as a Christian it was something you were "supposed" to do. That it made you look super-holy or something like that. Now that I was actually reading it because I wanted to, I found I was taking it in from a completely different angle.

I began finding all these verses which related to me. Which sought out the dark corners of my heart and shed some light on them. These weren't just words on paper, they actually meant something. I began to see why the Bible was called the living word. When you read it like this, it really does come alive and speak to you.

I found after a while that I was sort of addicted. Night after night, I'd take my bible out and then have to go scrambling in the dark for a pen to underline a particular verse. I'm sure I've never scribbled in another book more than I have my bible...


About a month ago I got this strange idea.
It was to flip through my bible, find an underlined verse, and then write a blog post about it.

My first thought was "That's a great idea!". Then my second was "Hang on, that's a bit weird..."
So I left it for a bit. Got busy with uni and life. But the idea kept sticking in my brain. You should really write about that! It'd be cool! At the same time I had my doubts. Even though the subtitle for my blog is "Life. Faith. Music. Writing" I've figured out I don't actually talk about my faith all that much. What a misleading title.

I have no idea how this is going to work, or even if it'll be a regular thing. Knowing my work ethic it's highly unlikely. But I do truly think it's worth doing.

So with that in mind, I invite you to join me. Open your bible if you have one, and if you don't you should really seriously think about getting one. Or you can try out this hand website I found: https://www.bible.com/ . See, even if you don't believe in Jesus, I honestly still think there's stuff in there which relates to you wherever you are in your spiritual journey.
And you never know, you might just find salvation hidden in it's pages.

Enjoy the journey!

Devotional - Exodus 4:11-12 on Confidence.

"And the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? or who makes the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing or the blind? have not I the Lord?
Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what to say."
 - Exodus 4: 11-12

This is the first verse underlined in my bible. In context it's about a man called Moses who had to undertake a super hard task. He was told to go and set an entire nation free from slavery. Sounds like Mission Impossible right? That's what Moses seemed to think and he told God so plainly. To which he got this reply.

When I read over this verse, it really speaks to me, because I feel like Moses so many times. Like nothing I say is good enough or is going to matter to anyone. Self-confidence can be hard to muster at times, especially after a bad day, or just when stuffs getting you down. Sometimes it just seems best not to say anything at all, right?

This verse gives me confidence that it doesn't always have to be like that. Who has made man's mouth? It wasn't me, so why should I feel like I have to control it, or be so afraid of speaking up? When there's something that needs to be said, it is best to just say it and trust God will give you the words. There's been so many times when this has happened to me and I'm actually almost shocked with what has came out of my mouth. Did I really just say that? I think God uses us to speak his words when we open our hearts to him, and let him teach us what to say. Exodus 4:11-12 reminds me of those times, and to not be so self-conscious about everything, but rather to put my trust in the God who created it all and knows words infinitely better than I ever will.


I guess this post is one of these times....

Names

Rachel.
John.
Hannah.
Matt.
Beka.
Jesus.
Stephen.
Sarah.
Clive.
David.
Bono.

Eleven names. Eleven people. Eleven different viewpoints on life. Some of them I have met. Some of them I know intimately. Others not so well. Some have sadly left this earth. Others are just beginning their journey. Yet this list of people - my friends, my influences, my inspirations, and right there in the middle, my all - could very well mean absolutely nothing to you.

Chances are you're reading this after you just clicked a link which lead you to this page. The first thing you saw (after the rather large title & photograph) was a picture of a signature and then a list of names. All of which (saving the all-important middle one and the well-known end one) you probably didn't recognize. They were just names.
Just names.

But...

To me, these names have faces. They have writings, songs, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, ideals and dreams much more than any odd combination of letters would have. A name is something we give or we receive. And like it or not, it marks us for life. It defines us in a sense, so that people can say our name and then list our achievements. Or possibly our shortcomings. It is the sole title given to any work that we alone produce. We own that. And our name owns us.
So then a name is a lot more than just "a name".

I've been thinking about names a lot lately. Mostly because I'm terrible with them. Yeah sure, I can spout off a list of them like the above one as quick as a wink (although I did have to Google CS Lewis' first name). But those are people I know: either who's writings and work I've followed or someone who I've held a decent conversation with. Or in the case of Jesus far more than all that. But when it comes to remembering names of people I don't routinely talk to or read of, I'm pretty hopeless. In a tutorial I had at Massey in the last week we had to introduce ourselves to the rest of our classmates, however I found that within the space of about five minutes I'd forgotten everyone's name. Then there was the even more embarrassing situation when I was talking to a girl from Lifegroup at church and had to refer to as "this girl" because her name had completely slipped my mind. I don't know what it was, but for some reason names seemed to stick in my memory a lot less than faces and situations.


This week I have been challenged to take people a lot more seriously than I do.
A lot of the time for me it's just small talk and recognition and then I consider I "know" a person. And yet sometimes I can't even remember a simple thing such as their name! Have things really got that bad that I consider a friend to be just someone I know, when really it ought to be far more than just that?

Thanks to various people speaking into my life in different ways I realize that if I ever want to be fully real with people and with myself, I need to be intentional about things. I need to be intentional about my writings, my music, my everyday conversations. Sometimes we just say things for the sake of saying things. I've experienced enough of that lifestyle to know that in the end it is about as meaningless and empty as your going to get.

In a world full of different people with different stories, different hopes, dreams and fears there is so much that could be said. And it seems like such a awful waste to have all this time on the planet, all these words at our disposal and to not be doing anything with them! You never know what a person is going through and what something you might say could mean to them. Words are a lot more powerful than we give them credit, and music is almost more so (kind of what I was hinting at when I wrote the line "Why can't the songs tell our stories...?"). So what are we doing with them?

I know what I want to be doing.
Letting people know that they mean much more to me than I sometimes let on. Whether that's in a blog list, or in some other way I want to take time to say thanks.
Then I want to do make an effort to be intentional about things. About my relationships with people and with God. It's not going to be the easiest thing to do - there are going to be times when I slip up and find myself back in the uncaring stage. But I mean this when I say I firmly believe it is something worth doing.
To start conversations which go a lot further than small talk. To really pray from my heart rather than just my head. Maybe tell friends things I haven't before. Maybe open up a bit and leave space for people to do the same. To start stepping up to the mark in life and in faith instead of letting myself slip behind.

Or even to just remember a name...

Sincerely (for once),

Jordan Andrew Gowan.
Jaguar Falls.
Jord, Jaws, J-dog.

And in everything, Christ's. 

2012: The Year In Review

January

In January I got real excited about the music of 2011, which was kind of a start to the album reviews I would do later in the year. I also went and checked out Parachute which was pretty fantastic. It was also the month where I had to break by far the most meaningful and difficult news to the 29 or so followers: The impending breakup of my former band (which was also what this blog used to be about). As well as leaving me feeling more than a little lost musically, I had to also wonder: just what was I going to do with this blog? What was there to write about anymore? Should I even keep at it?

February

February was an interesting month - it was all about endings and beginnings for me. As I ended my 3-month stint working and prepared for the changes of university I got a little bit retrospective with this post. On top of that I moved into the hostel, and had a deep and meaningful revelation about giving.

March

This was a sweet month I spent meeting everyone in the Hostel and making plans for the year. I also finally reached 30 followers! Ok for everyone out there with blog followers in their hundreds, that's not too much of an achievement, but I was pretty stoked about it! I also got a bit of attention with a sweet post about justice, which was unfortunately linked with the Kony craze going on at the moment. But despite being slightly misinformed on that fact, I don't regret anything I said. I also wrote my first song of the year "I Can't Say".

April

Chilled out in the holidays, tried to learn blues, bought a new guitar, blogged about Saturdays and about my favorite guitar models. That was pretty much April for me...

 May 

In May I blogged some more about guitar models and went to watch The Avengers (such a good movie!!!). Unfortunately I got a little bit gutted about life & my musical direction - which was kind of ironic seeing as May was when I also got my second song for the year - "Breathe". This song out of any I've written highlighted my desire to want to make something new and "blaze a new trail", as well as musically telling of my experimentation and growing fascination with ambient music.

June

In June I finally took the first steps in re-creating my musical direction with a change of blog address and launching my Youtube channel (which unfortunately has been shamefully neglected of late). On top of that I was in the thick of it at Ucol spending long days practicing for our rock gig (Cream & Tool are not the easiest bands to cover!!!) and recording/mixing music. This was an important month for me too, as I discovered a band which now rank up in my top 5 artists - Imagine Dragons. I also went a bit nuts reviewing their incredible EP.  

July

We had our mid-year performance at the Globe in July, which was were I took this photo. Somehow, despite being spectacularly busy, I managed to blog the most this month, with a grand total of 14 posts. Some of my the best from July were my musings about My Favorite Guitarists, Life being awesome and my review of Sigur Ros' Valtari. 

August

I didn't post much in August (probably because I was worn out from July!) but it was still a pretty good month. I went up to Mt Ruhapahu with some friends and pretty much had the best day ever. I also was hugely surprised when the reggae song I'd written,"We Are Still One", won the best song award at our gig and we got to record it the next day. 

Oh and I got a year older...

September

In September I blogged about two topics which have had a large impact on me: Love and Insomnia.  I also got a physical copy of Night Visions by Imagine Dragons and went on a bit of a rave in my review.

October

October found me rekindling my love with lists in this post. I also found out that writing about 31 things takes up a whole lot of time! I also wrote another list, this one on things you can get up to in the holidays, and had a bit of fun at Ucol jamming everyone's favorite style of music - country. 

November

November was a good month. I wrote one of the coolest songs of my life with "Prodigal" and had fun performing it at Murpheys Brewery, despite tuning problems (a guitarist's worst nightmare!). Despite having problems with writers block, I managed to blog a bit. I somehow managed to create a post that was retrospective, tinged with sadness and yet hopeful for the future with "I spent all November saying goodbyes". We also had our final performance for the year at the Regent, which despite epically failing this one intro, was the best night of my life and some of the finest stage work/musicianship I've been privileged to be a part of.

December

Well the last month of the year is well and truly upon us - in fact in one day it will be over! It hasn't been without it's share of adventures though, what with moving into a flat, working long days, surviving the end of the world and Christmas. I also managed to find the time to start my current feature "19 Things I Like About..." with this post.

There's so much I could say about it, but it's late and I'm mega tired so everything from now on will probably be a blur as I zone out and my fingers keep typing random words.... hgahghahg9aiidz;dkakznvoanga 0jgoaerkzg[a p[jga[jga gja-

Ok that was a joke but seriously I've always wanted to do that on my blog. Haha.

What I shall briefly say before we part ways is thank you so much for following/ reading my adventures through 2012. Your support really means a lot, and I hope you've enjoyed reading my posts as much as I have writing them!

Catch you on the flipside,

Jordan