It feels like years since it's been here

Life is making a lot more sense now.

I'm happy, generally every single day.
I know why I'm going to Texas State, it all makes sense!
& I'm studying music journalism, which is ultimately a passion of mine.....so we'll just say these next 4 years can be my life's replica of Almost Famous, hopefully
Today is the 2 week anniversary of the best concert and coincidentally the best day of my life!! (more on that later, I'll eventually write something less scatterbrained about it, rather than just typing I TOUCHED BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN in all caps whenever I think about it)
There's so many relationships building me up
It isn't all sunshine and kittens 24/7 but I am learning from all of this
GRADUATING IN A MONTH!
And then there will be summer, long lazy days and freedom, in a sense
Carolyn is okay, and I'm praying for her to heal fast
God is so amazing lately.

I'm so grateful for music and conversation and real feelings and relief and warm hugs. These days really are living up to their reputation, you know.



edit: yeah, i'm listening to atlantic city right now and i swear i still get a lump in my throat hearing it. i no longer think it's a weird thing that music affects me so deeply, i know this is all for a reason, for a love of something that is worth all the love and focus i can give to it. it really is the best feeling when you can feel a song moving through you and becoming bigger than a few pitches playing through your headphones. oh, i can't even put it all down. seriously good goosebumps.

Hi, I'm Alexander Supertramp

I want to get out of my comfort zone, I really do. I want to give my life to something bigger and better. I know that it seems typical since I'm the suburban upper-class kid who just watched Into The Wild before writing this, but lately, I have this need to get out of my neighborhood. It's probably a culmination of wanting to graduate and get out there and actually see things, but I know it's also in some scary way a call to some sort of mission work. It's intimidating and daunting, but I think that it's also definitely in my future. I want to help other people that can't help themselves so much it hurts. I want to go to Africa eventually, I've said it before, but I don't just want it to serve as something for my own goals; in other words, this trip I hope to take in my future won't be about "discovering myself". I want to discover things that are completely not my own- different languages and cultures and different needs that other people in this world have that I can help. I don't want to go for myself, I want to go because I know I am capable of serving someone else. I'd like to say I'm ready to burn all my money and live in the middle of nowhere, but I'd prefer to take this a little slower. For now I'm just trying to focus that attention and affection for service into my everyday life.

And on a completely different but taking-over-my-life note, I can feel something good ahead. There's something building behind all these melodies. Behind every drumbeat I hear there's this drive and every word sung just seems to get me more excited. My parents just laugh when they catch me dancing and most every class seems to overhear my commotion about what will be happening in exactly one week's time. I think most of my peers think I've gone a little crazy overboard on how much music I can listen to in one day, but I'm finding it essential. I've said before that my dream job would be to get paid to go to concerts and it's sounding better every minute. I'm insatiable for more rhythm right now, I only want more saxophone, more crescendos, more call-and-response. Is this healthy? I'd say based on my walking-on-air-good-morning-world!-how-are-you? attitude, it just might be. I don't even care what the general public's opinion is. It's real to me, it matters to me, and I am literally waiting and counting the hours. It has to be wonderful, I just know it.

"We accept all races of cupcakes!" -O. Simons

(none of this is an april fool's joke, fyi.)

There's a lot of new thoughts and songs buzzing around in my head right now and it's distracting. I used to make a lot of sticky note lists of things to do, songs to download, movies to watch, and it only made me more stressed out when I couldn't cross those things off. I had to hold on to every list, making sure I remembered whatever seemed so important at the time. I sort of went back to that habit at the beginning last week, but instead of to-do lists, the lists were more or less thoughts I was pondering. Apparently I ponder a lot now? I guess so. Anyway, this will probably be really jumpy and random but I wanted to get a few down.

It hasn't necessarily been overwhelmingly stressful, but it has been busy. I've been waking up disoriented and forgetting what day it is and what my schedule is for that day. I've taken to making everyday things "events" on my phone so that an alarm goes off at a certain time and tells me what's going on. Plus, scuba class is so much more exciting to attend when it is announced with the Samson & Son theme song playing out of my phone's speakers! But even with all these insignificant events, there has been a lot of time to do things I've been putting off. Lately I've been turning into a senior citizen. I have done nothing but nap and read lately and I've really enjoyed both activities. I'm conducting a shameless love affair with a turntable and Dean Martin records. Also, I'm baking at least every other day and I'm giving Betty Crocker a run for her money. Yesterday I bought knitting needles and I'm actually kinda excited about knitting things when I get the hang of it.

Let's please just all consider that last sentence. Seriously? Yeah.

I was reading old livejournal entries today (after napping and Oprah) and I think there was so much I missed. Thoughts I had, thoughts other people had-- I think I skimmed over a few or they didn't all make sense at the time. Some of it's intensely bittersweet to read, actually. Things I was so idealistic about suddenly don't seem all they were cracked up to be. There is so very much about life that I've now learned since my older ramblings, and I'm not even talking about looking back so far to the days of my 2004 posts (let's not even go there, actually). The most striking thing is that even now there's some fantastically worded sentences written years ago by other people or about other people that can still tear me up a little or give me butterflies in my stomach. It's weird, you'd think I'd be over these things, but it's like a movie you keep rewatching and cry and laugh every time. Words are powerful even after the hundredth time you say them.

There's one thought that's been in my head for far far too long and I swear if I don't get it down I'll explode. I think what really unnerved me one particular time in recent past was that someone told me indirectly that my affection for something seemed false. That my love for a particular object was not real or it was all a show. That all this energy I had exerted into absorbing this thing, these melodies that were permeating and seemingly stuck in my thoughts, was untrue. I didn't know what to say; I didn't know how to convince someone that I wasn't trying this music out like homework or a task I had to be forced to complete. I wasn't forcing myself to like it and I wasn't grasping onto it because I wanted any form of prize in the end. I remember laying down on my floor, trying to push expectations and preconceived notions out of my mind, and pressing play and really listening. Sometimes I think my musical methods are crazy to anyone else, really, but this is exactly how it happened. I remember laying there and feeling like dancing. I remember almost feeling nostalgic, thinking that I wished I had heard it sooner because each track seemed to feel well worn-in. I wished I could meet the people in the stories and I wanted to hear more of it even after the 47 minutes ended. It was a feeling I'd really only felt a few times before, and feeling that strongly over a few measures of notes always excites me. So, I latched onto those notes and tempos and measures. I found myself talking about the album and playing it for other people. I would hear something that reminded me of a line and instantly I'd be playing a guitar solo in my head. I would sing it and feel amazed that lyrics that seemed so personally written, like a story I'd somehow been dropped into, would suddenly mean something to me personally. I felt this impassioned about it, but then I heard that it appeared like I was just pretending. That maybe I was just halfway sidestepping around this album and really I was only listening to it to make myself seem more likable or desirable. That all this was superficially for someone else. I didn't know what to make of this or how to defend myself or the thing I now loved. Maybe I didn't have pages of history and I couldn't answer every question about it, nor had I even listened to the very tip of the iceberg of an extensive catalog, but I knew it meant a great deal to me. That never fully resolved, apparently, as I'm still talking about it now, but I've just made the decision to drop it. 7 songs in particular are important to me and that's enough.

There's a few future plans I have planned out and heard more on lately, but overall, I'm just trusting God and putting it all in his hands. I hardly know everything, but what do I know? I've got a book list to read and a set of records and box sets of LPs that Olivia is letting me borrow that I can't even believe I am actually hearing and amaze me. There's also a graduation date to look forward to. And larger than that, I've got an intense passion for music that overwhelms me sometimes, a family and group of friends that I run out fantastic adjectives for and a desire to serve in some way. I know that those will be there no matter where I'm living or what I'm doing years from now, and actually, yes, that's very reassuring.

"I will be with you when you pass through the waters, and when you pass through them, they will not overwhelm you." Isaiah 43:2

they will not overwhelm you
they will not overwhelm you
they will not overwhelm you
they will not overwhelm you
they will not overwhelm you
they will not overwhelm you
they will not overwhelm you
they will not overwhelm you

Really gotta keep keeping that in mind.

Today's executive decision: Music is my boyfriend.

No, really.

Apply Some Pressure

Dear Mark Ronson,

I would just like to let you know that whenever your schedule is free, I'm here. We can remix a Phantom Planet album or we can maybe take an old Al Green song and give it a new kick. I am not opposed to adding the Dap-Kings in there somewhere, also. Please consider that a) I love you b) I think you're wonderful and c) I would probably do anything you asked of me. I know you've got a thing for Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse, so I can stock up on Nike hi-tops and black liquid eyeliner in a flash if that'll do it for ya. I have your album on repeat and I've had it playing for months now.....in other words, let's duet.

Sincerely,
Kelsey Manning

P.S. I am considering changing my name to Valerie, also. It would be more convenient, I know.

Cause Maybe

I heard it for the first time in forever today. I don't think I attached much to the original version of the song. There was a slower cover that I basked in for years and kept to myself and tried to explain to other people but saw they lost interest. It's almost frustrating because the lyrics don't come outright and tell you, and to be completely honest I still have no idea what the entire concept of being someone's wonderwall even means. I know that I want a wonderwall, though. I've heard it a lot, different versions and covers and mash-ups and they all resonate in different ways, but there was this one moment that really brought it all home.

It was last year, five days before I turned 17 and it was humid outside, even more so since we had lawn seats. I wasn't expecting too much other than the simple fact that I knew I'd be entertained. They weren't the greatest band, but they were upbeat and they kept the crowd happy. Jenny was ecstatically multi-tasking-- taking pictures and video while singing along to every word. Carolyn and Laura were crossing fingers that the best songs were played. They last song was 'Look After You' and it turned into one big sing-a-long. The weird part was that the first concert that mattered in my life? Same thing happened, same exact song, only a much smaller crowd and The Fray was the opening band at that time....but, I digress. They were playing 'Look After You' and you could tell that it was the song of the night. The song all the couples swoon to and the song that no one takes a picture during, so as not to break the atmosphere. Suddenly, out of nowhere, this disco ball drops down, the song changes and just when I think they can't make it even more cheesy, Issac shouts out, "Sing it like you're at your high school prom!" Those first few chords and Laura spills her drink and screams. It's the song that mattered to her, to everyone, in high school. We're all singing and you can tell half the place doesn't know the words because they all look twelve, but we're all in this moment because we know it's big. And lemme tell you, the face that Laura made on "Cause maybe you're gonna be the one that saves me" was spectacular. I'm pretty sure we were all off-key but it didn't matter, because it was something that we couldn't have predicted or known and it hit hard, but it felt good.

It always amazes me how a song can hold that much over your life, like it's a part of you. It can matter that much, can wreck you that much, so much so that when you hear it in the car, you have to pull over, because you go back to those memories, that one spot where that song was exactly what you needed. You want to cry and shout and laugh all at the same time for that place in your life that it brings back. You're pulled over and it's a few beats and voices and nothing means more than drowning in that mix of chords. It doesn't matter how popular it is or what it means or doesn't mean to someone else, it still can take control of you for those few minutes and your life is affected by four minutes of sound.

Cause after all, you're my wonderwall.

I don't know

It's frustrating living through something else, but it's common. It's as if your own memories aren't good enough, aren't shiny and edited well enough, so you cling on and hold tightly to something that you didn't create, but that resonates deeply within you.

Do people that write hit songs really know how big they are going to be? Does someone really wake up with a melody in their ear and write it down and then two weeks later that same melody is in the ears of millions?

It's easy to love an object- it requires nothing back. You can pour into it and it's not going to leave your side. You can be confident that the same few minutes of sound and picture will look and sound the same as it did the day before. That's why loving someone takes a whole lot more. Because that someone could change their mind, could leave or be forced away and you would end up giving all of this to someone that won't give you anything back. It's a scary thought.