Another Day, Another Chance to Get it Right; Must I Still be Learning?

Wednesday. Another insanely boring day. Seriously, I am experiencing some major ennui over here. And you know what? I'm bored of ennui. I need some serious excitement around here, and not the type that slapping into a Slim Jim can provide. The highlight of my day was my account review with the Big Boss Lady. It could have gone better, I suppose. The combination of me being out for a week and a half on top of our customer converting to a brand new computer system less than a month ago has not had optimal effects on my account base. Luckily I had some irons in the fire already going that should shake some things loose, or this could have been much more ugly. So, needless to say I have to get crackin' on some collections in the next few weeks.

My sister and her family are in town and are planning to drop by the house tonight. They are currently on some kind of freewheelin' free spirit cross-country odyssey right now. They had no real plans; they just hopped in the van and went driving out west. They had only the barest agenda and are camping wherever they find camp. They are on the second week of their trip now, and I think we are the last stop before they head back home. I haven't seen my sister in over a year and a half, so it should be a pretty good time. I just feel bad for them because I know they wanted to go to Rocky Mountain National Park today and it just started to rain out. Hopefully they got out in time this morning to enjoy it before the rain started. It's funny because it doesn't really rain much in Colorado. We usually have clear blue sky from horizon to horizon all year long. It just seems to rain whenever we have guests in town visiting. It really is beautiful here, trust me...

Ok, so I finally got my iPod/iTunes/new Ben Harper issue all figured out. I converted the music files to the correct format last night, and now they play on my iPod just fine (though some would argue that the files lost quality during the shift). So, I am now finally able to give the first part of my two part discussion on Ben Harper's latest release Both Sides of the Gun.

For those out there unfamiliar with Ben Harper, it is pertinent that you familiarize yourself immediately. This guy is good. His style varies from time to time, but I think he is most often put into the "guy with an acoustic guitar" category. However, I don't think he would be in the "sensitive guy with an acoustic guitar" category. I would put him in the "guy with underlying anger with an acoustical guitar" category. That is, until I heard the first part of this album. You see, Both Sides of the Gun has been split into two parts: an acoustical part and a more rockin' part. Mr. Harper insists, though, that this is not a double album (even though it comes on two discs). He says to consider it as "side A" and "side B" of a record, although he says on his website that he often changes his mind on which side is which.

I started with the acoustical stuff since that is what was listed first on my playlist. While these tracks were very enjoyable (did I mention that Ben Harper is awesome?), gone were the angry, confrontational lyrics of his past. These seemed to be more intimate, like he was letting his guard down. Perhaps this is a softer side of Ben Harper. Maybe once I can contrast this half with the other, the whole will make more sense. I'm counting on you, Mr. Harper, to confront the injustices of the world on the second half of this album. I guess we'll see tomorrow...