Think of 20 albums, CDs, LPs (if you’re over 40), that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life. Dug into your soul. Music that brought you to life when you heard it. Royally affected you, kicked you in the wazoo, literally socked you in the gut, is what I mean. Then when you finish, tag 15 others, including me, make a donation to Any Blogger Can, sit back and drink a brewski, watch your favorite DITL. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill.

Here are mine. Except I did 22 albums.

And I’ll warn you ahead of time that I seriously doubt the existence of any human being out there with even five of the same albums as me. Shoot, I bet there isn’t anybody with even THREE of these on their list. What can I say? I’m very weird awesome in my own way.

There are people who say they like this album, or were “changed” by it, and then there are the rest of us who really were. You know who you are – the kind of fan that lists an album because it’s cool to list an album. If you can’t sing every lyric, every studio-added sound effect or murmur and can’t sing out the rooster parts or actually played the end of the album in the infinite loop, you don’t count.

We start the eclectic. This is a double-album with only four (4) songs total. Yes, one song per album side. I told you I was weird awesome.

I could list several of the Fresh Aire series because I immersed myself in all of them at one point or another, but I’d have to say Fresh Aire II was my first and most potent.

There was this one song, Mere Image, that I played dozens of times per week. Yes, it was that fetching. I still do sometimes. I even dreamed up my own music video to the song and still want to make it come true. It has a wistful nostalgic energetic make-you-cry-after-dancing feel.

I made my own homemade version from the DVD because the many of the songs had versions on the actual published soundtrack that were different from the movie and that devastated me to no end. I hate it when movie soundtracks do that!

There’s a song on there that kind of feel like dueling electric guitars and I frequently would daydream about my brother and I performing this on stage. Alas, he is the guitar player and I’m the guitar hero.

So shoot me. Wait, I already shot myself for this one.

This is one of many tastes I picked up from my dad, who had this and the next album on vinyl. I would put it on and be amazed. When I discovered headphones it sent me to the next level. This is one of those albums that you put on, close your eyes, and let the sounds take you over. In fact, a lot of my picks are sensual albums – you don’t just put them on in the background or flick on the radio to listen. They are to be enjoyed specifically, not as the soundtrack to your daily life.

Om.

Tracks 7 through 12 are the ones to get lost in.

I had to put in the “Everything” compilation album because once I discovered the ‘Dan, I consumed every song they had and played this collection on repeat for about a year.

It was hard to choose between this and Ride the Lightning but I listed to Master of Puppets a tad bit more. Plus, it has Orion on it.

I had the double-album set. I can still list all the disciples because of this album.

My first CD, ever. I got it for my 15th birthday.

This is another one of those that will be unique to me, and guess what? Awaken? intense 15-minute long song.

This is another one where the released soundtrack differed from the video release (DVD) so I ended up ripping my own MP3′s off of the video so that it would match. I’m linking you to the DVD instead of the CD since it’s the one with the music I love. The CD actually took off a couple of tracks!

It’s hard to choose just one because of Grace Under Pressure and Signals and Power Windows and AFTK and 2112 and… and… and… But this is the one I sank into deeply and didn’t come up for air for weeks.

I don’t expect anyone to understand this one. But, man oh man. I love this album. It’s like the Lord of the Rings put to music but without J R R Tolkein.

Can’t list one of the TaW albums since I got the whole collection and put it on repeat. Definitely changed my view of self-published music in a very positive way. This guy is my hero.

Again, this is an artist that has so much to choose from, it’s hard to pick just one album. I choose it because my dad had it on vinyl and it was my first Zep album. I wore that puppy out once I heard What Is And What Should Never Be. This is the first time I actually made a tape that was just entirely one song repeated over and over from the album. I did this to save on battery life on my knock-off Sony Walkman because rewinding took up too much battery.

As a senior in high school, I’d sometimes put this CD in, lay back, close my eyes and simply float. Especially on track #2. I seriously think I floated a few times while wearing headphones. Too bad they weren’t wireless back then. I think it was the wire that stopped me from hitting the ceiling.

I remember freshman year in High School – as a band geek *and* a computer geek, I wasn’t all that popular, but that was fine with me. In fact, instead of being popular I was more of a target. But there was this one time when my walkman and collection of tapes was “confiscated” by The Current Cool Guy in the gym along with the “let’s see what Dork-Man is listening to, shall we?” verbal introduction to a humiliation assault. As he went through picking out The Ultimate Sin, Black Sabbath’s We Sold Our Souls for Rock and Roll, Van Halen’s 1984, Motley Crue’s Theatre Of Pain, Led Zeppelin and Rush, he said aloud “wow, for a nerd, you listen to some really cool music” and handed me back my stuff and went on to the next nerd. Later that week he borrowed The Ultimate Sin from me and I was left alone the rest of the year.

Let’s go crazy, Broadway style!

So.  Did anyone have even more than one that they shared with this list?

Yeah. Didn’t think so.

(Bonus topic: I spent more than an hour on this post.  It meant a lot to me.  However, I anticipate a very low comment turnout.  I’m finding that the more important (ie, personal) a blog post is to me, the less other people will care about it.  Sometimes the stupidest shortest post generates the most interest.  There seems to be a direct inversely proportional relationship between the amount of effort I put into a post and how interesting it is.  However, I will post it anyway because I’m one of those “this blog is about ME” people.  At least for now I am.)

As mentioned yesterday, her blog is NSFW (Not Safe For Wayne).  So if your pretty little eyes and ears are easily offended, or if you’re not prepared to see me in a slightly different light, I wouldn’t click the link.  Just check back here tomorrow for your regularly scheduled Wayne Goodness.

In other news, I’m hella excited about seeing Celtic Woman tonight here in Austin at the Frank Erwin Center.  It’s going to be a great show!

XMAS Tree, round 2

Last week I posted a picture of our almost-done XMAS tree, and now it’s finished.  Here it is with a complete bottom AND top:

and this picture has 100% more Jaden for your viewing enjoyment.

Live Free and Die Hard ROCKED

Sure, it took me three sittings to actually watch the whole thing because I kept getting interrupted left and right, but I really really liked this movie.

It was funny at the right parts, had PLENTY of action, was superbly acted and it was somewhat believable (the “fire sale” part and many technical plot devices).  You can say Bruce Willis has this character down pat.  I liked most of the technical stuff in the background and paid attention to most of it, looking for mistakes.

Of course, it didn’t hurt to have the “PC vs Mac” guy turn from a gutless wonder to someone who actually could do what he needed to do to save the day.  His comedic contribution to the movie was priceless.

Celtic Woman XMAS Special

Tonight I received a call letting me know that Celtic Woman was on TV again but this time it was a Christmas Special

WOW! I started my DVR recording late, so now I’ll have to go find where to buy it because I love Christmas music over almost any other kind of music, and I love Celtic Woman almost as much, so when they’re combined it just blows me away.

And I saw across the top of the screen that they’re coming to Austin!  I saw them in San Antonio earlier in the year and it’s easily one of my all-time favorite concerts ever.  Well, except for Schoolhouse Rock of course.

You can check me out on twitter on that night and you’ll be sure to get some full-on appreciate for Celtic Woman.

But something I haven’t blogged about yet but is pretty important to me is the Celtic Woman series.

I love these DVD’s!

The gist is - five beautiful and talented women (6 in the second DVD) get together with a supporting choir and a full orchestra and perform some amazing songs.  One of them is a fiery fiddler and the rest are powerful vocalists.  Some of the songs just send chills through you with how good they are and the punch they deliver to your soul.

There are two shows that they’ve performed, and both have been featured on PBS.  You may have caught them once or twice during their pledge drives.

Celtic Woman actually has a touring show, and I was fortunate enough to catch them in San Antonio in the past year, and boy, what a show.  By that time, I had only known about and seen the first DVD, so the event pleasantly surprised me with some new songs, some of which showed up on the second DVD.

It looks like YouTube has several postings online (and I’m unsure of their legality, given that this would presumably be copyrighted material).  My favorite singer is Lisa, and she’s featured in this piece here called “The Voice”.

Lisa also has her own website (UPDATE: seems someone snagged her domain name and made it a parked site; oh well.  Try her profile at Celticwoman.com or her Wiki entry) and I have one of her solo CD’s.  So beautiful, so talented, with a voice to curl up in.

Other favorites of mine:

• Lisa singing Caledonia
• Lisa singing May It Be from Lord Of The Rings
• The whole group singing “Beyond the Sea” – wonderful rendition of this classic song!
• Máiréad playing The Butterfly – violin solo.  Starts off slow and then simply rocks the house.
• Hayley (new addition for second DVD) singing Scarborough Fair.  Hayley kinda looks like Jenna Fisher to me.  This version of this song is haunting and her voice is so incredible.
• Si Do Mhaimeo I (Wealthy Widow) by Meav.  I’ve never heard gibberish sound so good.

And what is probably my favoritest song at the moment: Dulaman from the second DVD.

I wish I could get the English translation of the words, tho.  The flute solos are awe-inspiring.

Around the house, we frequently pop the DVD in, turn off the TV and just turn up the sound.  Since our DVD player auto-plays the default track on the DVD (movie, whatever), it works out well.

Question for you:

I own these DVD’s and I love the music.  I also own the CD soundtrack from the first DVD.  However, the music on the soundtrack CD is slightly different than the DVD, and it’s in a different order.  So I rip the music OFF of the DVD onto my mp3 player and to make my own CD.  I’ve done the same with Xanadu – the soundtrack music is so different than the music *in the movie*, and I want to listen to the movie.

Is that wrong or illegal?

And if you “know” one way or the other, is it just something you feel should be right, or do you actually know the law?  Could I technically get busted for making my own copies of my own DVD’s, even though it’s in a different format?