Category: Old Stuff

Links to all the old categories from GBOAT days long past

Real Talk

Beautiful Disasters

For every cheesy pop song ever written that half-hazardly utilizes the word “love”, I’m sure there are three more songs that genuinely come from the heart. Not the heart of culture, where we’re on a constant quest for satisfaction in this form of “love” we’ve created. It comes from the actual heart of the artist, where there is genuine emotion that isn’t always lovely.

Those are the beautiful songs. Not the songs about seeing somebody you’ve never met before and handing them your phone number, but the songs that ask the questions about life that we need to ask. There is beauty in the songs that are sad, because they connect with the parts of our hearts that are sad. Sometimes, it’s the songs that connect to the parts of our hearts that are angry that mean the most to us.

Good songs reflect life. It’s why we have continued to make music over the years. Continue reading “Beautiful Disasters”

Misplaced Mississippian, Real Talk

Green Ribbon Ending

Everyone spends their vacation taking care of a bunch of 5 year olds, right? That’s totally normal. And it’s especially normal to spend the last week of your summer trip helping out at a Vacation Bible School, correct?

That’s what I ended up doing, and while it doesn’t sound ideal in writing, it was honestly a blast. There’s something about purposefully pointing little kids to Jesus that stirs up your own soul. There’s also something about being the 6 foot 3 guy from Mississippi looking after a bunch of 5 year olds that makes you just want to try and blend in as best you can.

Sadly, there were forces set in play to make sure I couldn’t. Continue reading “Green Ribbon Ending”

Craven On....

The War Of 1812

While I enjoy the final week of my Canadian summer vacation (The novelty of my American accent has rubbed off, so I’m require to leave), The GBOAT will feature Canadian themed posts. Maybe you’ll learn something but let’s be honest: you’re only skimming.

Do you remember The War of 1812? It happened 200 years ago this year, which is interesting because no American cares to talk much about the War of 1812. There are no bicentennial celebrations going on. The casual American citizen remembers that the White House was destroyed and really doesn’t recall anything else. In fact, that’s even giving casual citizens a lot of credit.

The War of 1812 probably

Continue reading “The War Of 1812”

Real Talk

On My Best Behavior

“He’d kill then thousand people
With a sleight of his hand
Running far, running fast….”

I don’t really remember much about Luke Woodham. He was 16 years old when I was just 9. He lived just some twenty minutes away from me, in Pearl, Mississippi, but we never would have crossed paths for any reason. As far as I know, we had no mutual friends. I can’t think of a single connection between he and I, yet I will never forget Luke Woodham for the one thing he will be remembered for.

On October 1, 1997, Luke murdered his mother, then went to his high school and opened fire on his ex-girlfriend. He killed two students, injured seven others, but more importantly, sparked a chain of school shootings that the world had never seen. In the ten years following the Pearl High School shooting, events such as the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings grabbed all of our attention like never before.

I’ll never forget Luke Woodham. He reminds me of what I can be capable of.

Continue reading “On My Best Behavior”