Multimedia Wednesday

The most fun I’ve had in the past couple of days is listening to a new CD and reading a new book.  Yes, I know I live a sheltered life. So, I thought I’d share the things I’ve been enjoying.

Music
The CD is the new one, “Waking Up,” by OneRepublic.  OneRepublic is one of my favorite bands.  It’s not my favorite – that would be Matchbox Twenty – but it’s up there on the list.  In fact, I was lucky enough to see them in concert a couple of years ago.  It was an incredible concert that not only let me hear live one of my favorite bands, but also introduced me to Eric Hutchinson.  LOVE his music!  One of my faves of his is “Back to Where I Was”:

A couple of others that I really like are “Rock and Roll,” “Ok, It’s Alright With Me,” and “Oh.” Click on the links to hear them on YouTube.

And here’re pics of OneRepublic and Eric from the concert I was at (in Jan. 2008) – unfortunately, I was stuck with only my crappy cell phone:

Anyway – I guess I got a bit sidetracked.  The new OneRepublic CD!  Their new album came out last week, but I am on their e-mail list and they sent out a message saying they had deluxe sets available.  It contained the new CD, a laminate, a poster, and an autographed lyric sheet for their first single from the album, All the Right Moves.  Really, I just wanted the CD and the lyric sheet, but the other stuff is cool, too.  The poster in the tube is a larger version of the image on the laminate:

I was surprised to see that the lyric sheet was numbered and came in a frame! I haven’t had too much of a chance to listen to all of the songs in depth yet, but I like the CD.  Not quite as much as their first album, but there are several good songs on it.  Here is their first single from the album:

Some of the others that have quickly become favorites are “Secrets,” “Everybody Loves Me,” and “Marching On.” In looking up the link for Marching On, I actually came across this really great cover by a woman named Jocelyn Scofield.

And I had no idea until yesterday that not only has Ryan Tedder (lead singer) written most (all?) of OneRepublic’s songs, he also wrote this song that I love for Leona Lewis (among others for other artists):

Book
The book I’m reading (seen at the top right in the image above) is the new one in P.C. and Kristin Cast’s House of Night series, and it’s called “Tempted.”  I’m literally flying through it.  I so didn’t want to go to bed last night without finishing it, but had to.  Yes, it’s a teen vampire series.  Yes, there’s only so many teen vampire “academy” series that should be allowed, but this one is actually quite good – or at least I think so.  Forget Twilight.  The thing that I find so interesting about it is that not only does it have the vampire storyline, but it also interweaves it with Native American legend and other spiritual ideas.  I mean, seriously, how can you not like a series of books in which a convent of nuns willingly gives shelter to a group of vampires?

Movie
I’m a recently new member of Netflix and can I just say that I LOVE IT! I wish I had joined years ago. It would have saved me so much money. I tend to like seeing obscure independent films that can only be found on Amazon or some other site online (definitely not Blockbuster or the Redbox) where I have to buy them. But Netflix has almost everything I’ve looked for! I know that it has already saved me hundreds of dollars. Now I can get the DVD through Netflix (or sometimes even just watch it online through Netflix) and I only buy the ones that I really fall in love with! Their feature for watching movies online is fantastic. I think for every movie I’ve actually received in the mail, I’ve watched ten online (or so….perhaps an exaggeration).

One of the ones recently that I really enjoyed was called “Outsourced“. It is about a man whose call center is outsourced to India. He, of course, is sent over there to train his replacement. Hilarity and heartwarming moments ensue. I was actually a bit “eh” about the ending, but was enthralled throughout the majority of the movie. If you’ve got Netflix, check it out and let me know what you think!

So what are you guys listening to/watching/reading? Any recommendations?