10 Reasons to Winter Jam {beautiful fun}

Since I know you're probably judging me right now, I just want to be clear that I was not imitating Taylor Swift circa-2011, but following along with what the band led the audience in doing.  So everyone was hand-hearting . . up until the second that this picture was taken, I guess.  

However, I happen to like hand-hearting, Taylor, and this picture (thanks to Allie!) a lot so we're moving on.  Hit play and then keep reading for things with the likes of giant balloons, what a dollar can get you, and new music obsessions. 

Winter Jam is the incredible 10-band concert that I've spent a February Saturday night at for the past two years. Traveling all over the country, the Jam Tour is something that I will definitely be hitting up again next year, and then the next year, and then all the way to when I'm that 80-year-old rocking out harder than the Beliebers at the Justin Bieber movie premiere.  Fortunately, I didn't experience that, but I've been told that you can still hear the fangirls' screams ringing in your ears.  

I'm not taking a math class this year, but I'm still confident that I'm not mistaken when it comes to the price of this event.  Ten dollars at the door for tickets divided by 10 bands means that you can see a live music performance for only a dollar. Cheap date night, anyone?  Seriously though.

Grainy iPhone concert pictures for the win. And yes, we were actually this close -- no zoom here!

Helloooo, the entire for KING & COUNTRY album! For real though, since Winter Jam in Detroit last Saturday I've been doing one of two things: 1) listening to their gorgeous Aussie voices or  2) hearing them replay in my head and trying not to burst out into song.  If you don't want to find some new songs that you will absolutely love, don't click that link.  

Honorable mention: About a Mile.  I had never heard of them heading in to Winter Jam and I left with a CD.  They were fantastic performers! 

 Last year, the University of Mobile was a Winter Jam sponsor and they gave me not only a $20,000 scholarship but A FREE T-SHIRT! How exciting is that?  You'll be even more elated to hear that besides being free, it's probably the softest, most comfy t-shirt that I own.  I mean, $20,000 was cool though, too.  This year I fought a scholarship-thirsty crowd of fellow high schoolers to receive some more free clothes.  I did get a t-shirt, but it's not the softest, most comfy like last year. 

This time of winter is such a dreary, gray time for Midwesterners and it was great to have a night where I could put the crappy weather and the fact that spring will probably never come out of my mind and have an amazing time praising God with 16,999 other people from many different denominations, stages, and walks of life.  Everyone is so uplifting and my mood increased like 320%.  

Look! I met for KING & COUNTRY *obviously* Well, I had the chance to meet them as I did nearly every artist there, but the lines were bazinga people long, and I don't really care for lines all that much. 

"Stop by and see us at our booth after & pick up a copy of our music for $5!" - 80% of the artists at Winter Jam.  And so I did. for KING & COUNTRY was in the minority that their CD cost $10, but the artists are so generous in practically giving away their albums.  I even got an About a Mile CD for less than what it's priced in the iTunes store. Oh, and $40 t-shirts? You won't find any of those here. 

Are words even needed?

That lady with the awesome hair? Yeah, that's Blanca who made up 10% of the show.  It's pretty cool to glance over and see someone who had just been killing it up on stage rocking out to the same bands that you are and getting so, so excited about it.  None of the performers took any of the glory for themselves, but gave it all up to God, which I thought was pretty neat.

Pens, backpacks, candy, and all of those fun shenanigans are at your beck and call if you take a stroll around the concourse and check out all of the sponsor booths that are just begging for you please, please, please, take home their merchandise. So naturally, I didn't want to let anyone down and allowed them to throw as many free things my way that their hearts desired. 

From the ticket prices, to the music, to the people, to the message, to the atmosphere, God is glorified! It's obvious that Winter Jam is not about the money or the gain - it's about spreading the Gospel through the gift of music.  

I will admit that I am not the biggest fan of all the Christian music on the radio; however, Winter Jam does a fantastic job of showing that praising God through music doesn't have to be in the form of "church songs" or hymns (even though I love them!).  Within the few hours that I was in jumping out of my seat, I heard rock&roll (that has toured with the likes of Nickelback), an Indie/pop mix, and so, so much more.  Last year's tour featured two rappers.  I don't even like rap, but you better believe I was pumping my arm like the best of them. Also, one band's act resembled something like a circus act and I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes (their music video had pretty much the same effect on me). The entire night features such amazing and talented performers that dedicate everything to God.

So, are you in? There are still a ton of dates left and Winter Jam just might be coming to your city! 

Have any questions about Winter Jam? I'm not an old seasoned pro, but I do know the ropes pretty well!

xx,

Allison

Five Hours + Five Songs

Please enjoy this breath-taking photo of my smudgy fingerprints.

Five hours is a pretty long time.  For example, I could hop on a plane in Detroit and be in L.A. five hours later.  Or I could get more sleep than I did in an average night of my junior year.  I could jam to TaySwift and Shake It Off 86 times, run 35 miles, or bake about 27 double batches of cookies (I think I'll stick with TSwizzle and cookies, thank you.)

But do you know what I just spent 5 hours doing?

What's that you say? Saving the world? Feeding the hungry? Curing cancer? Adopting puppies?

Nope. Attempting to create social media buttons for my blog.

And create them I did! Successfully line them up, I did not.  Despite my best efforts, my sidebar would look like this if I just gave up and didn't care which came this close to happening.

So instead of unsuccessfully continuing to try to get my "ducks" in a horizontal row rather than a vertical one, let's talk music, which is much less stressful! 

Thanks to a really exciting Spotify deal that allowed me to get 3 months of premium for only $0.99, I jumped on it immediately (only after, of course, setting no less than three alerts to remind me to cancel it before three months is up so I don't have to shell out $10 dolla) and have been fully sold on it since.  But not enough to pay $10 a month because do you know how many ice cream sandwiches that can buy?  Ten. That's right.  Also, $10 could probably get someone to fix my social media buttons for me, but since I'm a strong, independent woman who don't need no tech help, I'll pretend like I still have any optimism left in me for that project.

Anyways, all delicious $1 desserts aside, listening to Spotify pretty much non-stop for the past month has resulted in the discovery of some of my new favorite songs that I had zilcho idea existed before.  And I want you to know about them, too! So without any further talk of social media buttons, listen & love: 

Aviation High - Semi Precious Weapons

The music video got all kinds of weird pretty fast, so I'll just put the lyric video up for everyone's sake.

Waiting For That Call - Parachute

I've loved, loved Parachute since I found them on Spotify about two years ago. This is one of their lesser known ones if you know some of their more popular songs. 

First Time - Vance Joy

If you've heard any of these songs, I'm putting my money on it being this one. Vance Joy is fantastic, and therefore, so is his entire album.  This one happens to be a favorite though.

Vagabond - Misterwives

Due to my complete inability to sing high notes and not wanting to sound like some sort of screeching, dying animal, I usually refrain from singing along to Misterwives, but that doesn't stop me from still completely being obsessed with this song (or any of their others, for that matter). 

Touched by a Fire - People & Songs

Okay, for this one you're going to have to do a little work.  I'm sorry -- I know it's Monday and the prospect of extra effort sounds as about as appealing as the "healthy" black bean brownies that I made once that my sister equated to chipmunk poison.  #NeverAgain

What you'll have to do is follow this link and click the play button next to the very top song -- Touched by a Fire.  Even though that sounds really exhausting, I promise you that you will make it. 

I actually did not find this song on Spotify as it's not even available there. Or on YouTube.  Or on the first page of Google even after I searched the words for the entire chorus (and as everyone knows, if it's not on the first page of Google, it pretty much doesn't exist). Luckily my determination outlasted the Internet's ability to hide it from me and I eventually discovered it on the musicians' webpage.  We sang it at camp last week and it left everyone humming, whistling, and full-out belting it during the car ride home.  So basically, when it catches on big time, you can be a hipster by having discovered it before it was cool.  You're welcome. 

Honorable Mentions:
Come Together - Echosmith
Take My Love and Run - Bad Suns
Cheap Sunglasses  - RAC

Have you heard any of these songs before? What do you think of them?

// Allison 

"Help!" - My Running Playlist

My running playlist needs help.  Sometimes at night I can hear it screaming for an update through my headphones across the room.  It's a desperate situation.

I'm afraid that it's all my fault though.  I've neglected my most-used playlist for way too long while other lesser important playlists received my full attention.  In case you're thinking that your playlist is in pretty bad shape too, let me share a few gems that totally get me pumped to hit the pavement (sarcasm, much sarcasm).

Here, we have a great tune for the heat of a run.  You know, the moment when it's getting tough, but you're ready to take anything that is thrown at you.  So intense.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, gets my legs going like some good ol' Lizzie Mcguire. 

Okay, next! A great song for when you don't feel like going anymore.  Your legs burn, you're doubled over and chances are, you're moving at appx. 2 miles per hour. For this situation, there's no option better than having some Gretchen Wilson reverberating in your ears.   Redneck Woman, anyone? 

If you're not pumped up to the point where you want to lace up and head out the door right now, let me give you one more song from my playlist that is sure to do the trick. Ready or not, it's coming!

That's right, some classic Shania.  I don't know about you, but all that cheetah print that she's rocking DOES impress me much.  Oh, 90's fashion, how you humor me. 

All joking aside, you now know how rough my running playlist has been treated so I'm trying to repair the damages that my poor music selection (freshman year, I'm looking at you) have inflicted.

I want to know what YOUR favorite song(s) to workout/run to is/are.  Sure, I've googled "songs to run to," but I don't really love a lot of the suggestions that I've seen.  I'm turning to you guys to be my DJs because I'm nearly positive that you have better music taste than I did whenever I last updated this list. So let me know because I would love to get my playlist up and running (so punny!) again!