I present to you for your entertainment, Hand Dancing. And to those who are saying “Stop just posting videos and post real blog posts.” I’m working on it! But I’m throwing these up here so you don’t get bored in the meantime

OK GO, the band pretty much only known for making highly coordinated music videos (Most famously the treadmill dance), is back with their latest offering. “White Knuckles”.

This time they felt the need to involve more than just humans.

Here is a video that I made with my brother and some friends. It may give you the least little bit of insight into my mind. I came across this song quite randomly online, and the very second I heard it pretty much this entire video popped into my mind. What that says about me, I’m not sure. Take from it what you will. In the meantime, hopefully this video will make you smile at least a little bit as much as we did while making it.

Thanks to my Bro Daniel, and our awesome friend Mark who are the main dudes. And all the rest of the awesome peeps who made this video hilarious.

Here is the video in slightly higher quality than the version originally posted on Facebook.

Many of you will be familiar with author Rachel Starr Thomson and her Seventh World Trilogy. You will have read the first two books World’s Unseen and Burning Light.

Well in anticipation of the third and final book coming out this fall I got to do an interview with Rachel about the new book and ask her some questions about the first two. If you want to learn more about Rachel Starr Thomson and read her interesting blog you can find her here. http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com

Here is the interview in it’s entirety.

Joshua: So we have here the Author of the Seventh World Trilogy. Rachel Starr Thomson. Hello!

Rachel: Hello indeed.

Joshua: On a scale of one to super duper, how excited are you for this interview?

Rachel: I’d have to say super duperly. I’ve heard rumours of your mad interviewing skills.

Joshua: That was definitely the best possible answer! Now, people may not know this, but you are also a professional Editor. So we know you have excellent grammar. But as we all know, the best actors are the ones who can “act badly.” Please grammatically murder a sentence for us.

Rachel: Oh dear.

Joshua: That is only bad if you were trying to talk about “deer.”

Rachel: I never claimed to be an actor. Editors EDIT. Not ACT. Although sometimes they mumble dialogue they’re editing out loud.

Joshua: Well. Allow me to harrumph for a moment. Pauses….Harrumphs…clears throat. OK, different line of questioning.  The Seventh world Trilogy. Can you quickly sum it up for us?

Rachel: No. But I need to get better at that, so I’ll try. Six Gifted individuals fight to uncover the truth about their world before lies can destroy them all. (That’s really not very good.)

Joshua: You do realize that most people reading this already know what the Seventh World Trilogy is. Probably all the people who had no clue what it is stopped reading this interview right away. So you have nothing to worry about.

Rachel: Well, considering that I’ve spent the last two days introducing it to people, I suppose you’re right. But that doesn’t excuse me–I really DO have to get better at the elevator pitch. Once a guy at a show asked me what my books were about. It was terrible.

Joshua: Let’s pretend that I understand what an “elevator pitch” is, and keep going. Everyone who has read the first two books has their favorite characters, storylines, etc… But let’s talk about how YOU feel about them. This will be slightly offbeat. Hope you don’t mind. First question. If you were going to have a dinner party and invite 5 of your characters, who would they be?

Rachel: To a dinner party? Not Evelyn. And not any of the Earth Brethren. I suspect they’d make a mess.

Joshua: Just answer the question.

Rachel: I’d enjoy eating with the Pravikians: The Ploughman, Libuse, Huss, and maybe Jerome and Maggie. High class, intelligent, world-changing people.

Joshua: Mine would be Nicolas, Marja, Huss, Michael, and Miracle. You have many great characters. But I think I would get along with those ones best.

Rachel: Yeah, but I might worry about some of them at a dinner party. Chances of being invaded by an Order of the Spider hunting party or a big flock of birds would be too high.

Joshua: You have a wide variety of characters. Many many main characters. Is there any character that you really didn’t expect to play a prominent role who just kept on popping up in the story?

Rachel: Marja. And also Harutek.

Joshua: Hold the phone….Harutek hasn’t been very prominent in the first two books. Is this a small piece of insider info on the third book?!

Rachel: It might be .

Joshua: Swell. Following the same line of questioning: Is there a character who turned out differently than how you planned? Someone who refused to follow the “destiny” you had charted out for them?

Rachel: Well, my characters are generally pretty compliant–they don’t take over much. But most of the main characters took on life in ways I didn’t necessarily expect. The more mature Maggie of the third book is somewhat of a surprise to me, and Virginia has a scene near the end of Coming Day that surprised me.

Joshua: And therein lies a topic of discussion all its own. You just referenced Coming Day. But you’ve been discussing it as The Advent for the past year. I assume this is an official Title Change?

Rachel: It is, though I can’t promise it won’t go through another title change before the book comes out. That is unlikely, though–Coming Day is it unless some flash of absolute brilliance hits before November.

Joshua: So one more question about characters. Is there any character that you despise? As in one who became vital to the plot, but every time they arrive on the scene you think to yourself, “You….How I despise you. I wish I’d killed you off sooner.” I mean this on the character level, not in terms of how you think you’ve written them.

Rachel: No, not really. Some of the bad guys are really nasty, but they’re just so necessary to shape everyone else that I can’t wish them out of the series earlier. Which might be a profound commentary on the realities of life.

Joshua: That leads excellently to my next question. Some of your story is obviously allegorical. How much has been intentional and how much is people just reading into it?

Rachel: Really, the only directly allegorical element in the trilogy is the King — and even he isn’t an exact representation of Christ. But I believe that any really good story will point to all kinds of truth, and I hope the trilogy does that–gives readers lots they can “read in.”

Joshua: So let’s talk Origins. When did you get the idea for this whole story, and did you think of it as a continuing saga from the beginning?

Rachel: The story actually started coming together when I was reading about the first stirrings of the Reformation — in particular about Jan Hus and Jerome in Eastern Europe. Since I have a speculative brain, I transferred elements of that story into a fantasy/sci-fi world and started playing around with them. The original idea was actually much more futuristic. Then, at some point the characters of Maggie, Nicolas, and Virginia took shape, along with Michael and Miracle. Well, by the time I’d written a story for the first three, I realized Michael and Miracle needed a second book,
and that still didn’t really finish things, so the third one was also necessary.

Joshua: As any writer does, you obviously go through several drafts and revisions. Has any storyline turned out EXACTLY how you wanted it from start to finish?

Rachel: I’ve actually been pretty flexible with this series, so the storylines have developed as they’ve gone–there wasn’t really a master plan for any one storyline. But I’m happy with how everything has come together. It wasn’t easy with so many characters and storylines at once!

Joshua: Be as vague as you want, but what is something in this third book that you are most excited for your readers to see?

Rachel: The role of the Darkworlders. I knew when I introduced Rehtse into the story in Burning Light that she’d have to play a bigger role at some point, and she definitely does!

Joshua: Having gotten an advance look at it, I must say I agree with you there. She was my favorite new prominent character. Speaking of which, the Darkworlders were something of a big surprise to me reading Burning Light. I did not expect them to appear. Did you have them in your mind in the beginning or did they surprise you too?

Rachel: They weren’t there from the start–not from the Worlds Unseen start. But once the people of Pravik got underground and started going deeper, I realized something needed to be down there. What was down there was the Darkworld–a society that brings a whole new level of fascination and poignancy to the story.

Joshua: So here is a big question that I’m sure ALL your readers want to know: The Seventh World is vast, and you have MANY characters. They obviously all have stories that you never touch in these books. Is there any hope that you might revisit this world in your next 50 years of authoring?

Rachel: Well … yes. There is always hope . I can’t really see ever writing a sequel to the trilogy, but there’s a lot of backstory that could be explored.

Joshua: As a fan of your work myself, I say…”Splendid.” Thanks for doing this!

Rachel: Thank YOU.

Joshua: And I can’t wait for the official release of Coming Day. Unless you change the name again. Then I will “can’t wait” for that!

Well…Lets just say I don’t endorse all the content of this blog. The views expressed below represent only the writers and not this blogs. But a promise is a promise, and I promised.

So brought to you by Hannah, Jonathan and Tikvah. A blog post.

5 Facts you should know:

1. Josh Gilman uses old spice
2. Josh Gilman is his own matchmaker
3. Josh Gilman has some awesome dance moves
4. Josh Gilman enjoys horse radish
5. If everyone was like Josh Gilman the world would be a better place

10 Tips on how to be a better person:

1. If you kill someone you will be responsible for their death
2. When talking in your sleep, make sure it’s edifying
3. When swimming don’t drown
4. Poking your eyes out may lead to blindness
5. If you try to bite your forehead you will only end up frustrated
6. Being quiet is a waste of time
7. The best way to eat food is with your mouth
8. Money is useless, so don’t waste it, cause if you wast uselessness there will be less waste to use
9. Food for thought is not nutritious

To Josh Gilman, the inspiration for this madness.

Joshua Gilman is a jolly fellow

With hair of black and teeth of yellow

He never is wasteful

In fact he’s quite graceful

His clothing is very tasteful.

Joshua Gilman cries an awful lot

As he reads of noble Camelot

But when the face is furious

His vision grows blurious

His complexions ‘come most curious.

Joshua Gilman has never had grits

One can tell, he is not a ditz

He drinks two percent milk

For he is not one of “that” ilk

Who make their cake from silk.

Joshua Gilman does not like bookies

Instead he uses fortune cookies

He has typed very fast

While wearing a cast

In the near by past

Sorry this one gets a little rambly. It’s what happens when one isn’t blogging on a consistant basis.

So I’ve uh….been kinda gone. As in not blogging. I have a good reason though! I was kidnapped.

“Oh sure….” you say. “Everyone says they were ‘kidnapped’ when they’ve been just lying around being useless.”

NOT TRUE! I was not lying around being useless. I was kidnapped by a good idea and held hostage by a dream………….

In other words. I’ve simply been really busy. Busy doing what? None of your business!!! Kidding. It would merely bore you. So as a peace offering, here is something I was working on. It’s a parody of the song “Airplanes” by B.O.B featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore. Unfortunately I did not have a female vocalist so…ya….

This is a pretty awesome video that explains why country music is the best.

And just so you don’t start picking on me, the above video is funny and does NOT include ALL country music. Here is a more normal song that I like from my Favorite Country Artist Keith Urban.

Here are my thoughts on the show.

Opening Act Gloriana – I missed half their set but the last two songs seemed pretty good. They are pretty vocally tight.

Opening Act Kellie Picker – I was impressed with Kellie. She can REALLY sing. I was not expecting her to have a set of lungs like that but she nailed it.

The Crowd waiting for Taylor – Unbelievable. The crowd of probably 16,000 was about 95 percent female. This 95 percent (plus a few guys) pretty much screamed for the 10 minutes before Taylor even took the stage. I have never heard a crowd this loud in my life. Not on Canada day. Not at a hockey game. No where. My ears were ringing before the concert even began.

Taylor Swift – This girl has “IT”. Whatever “it” is. Every expression she makes is perfect. Every little cue. Every little handshake or anyone of the 300 hugs she gave members of the audience while walking through. Every little bit of showmanship (showwomenship?) was entirely bang on. And while she does not have the worlds greatest voice, she holds her own. Due to a few shaky award show performances she’s been getting a bit of a bad rap for her live singing but in my opinion she’s pretty good. Not superb, but good. I would listen to Martina McBride sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, because she’s just that good. But Taylor is plenty good enough for what she does. And she is definitely a musician. It helps her come across as legit. She’s really singing, and she’s really playing and often she is playing well. Her best quality though is her ability to simply have an absolute BLAST on stage. The entire 2 hours she was PERFORMING with no let up, no down moments, no points where she wasn’t fully engaging the crowd and holding them pretty much in the palm of her hand.

Things that surprised me – I was not expecting the dance troupe. I was not expecting them to at different points of the show to be holding a fully costumed Victorian Ball, put on a cheer-leading routine, or do ballet. But they did. It actually wasn’t all that corny. I was also surprised by how often Taylor talked to the crowd. I expected more of a song after song after song show, but the pace was not hurried or rushed at all. But the biggest surprise was probably the Waterfall that Taylor stood under while singing “Should have said No” as her final encore.

Prediction I got wrong – The number 7. As in how many costume changes I predicted she would do. I was off by 2. She did 9. Best by far was singing Love Story in Victorian Ball gown and half way through the song switching to a white wedding dress (looked more like a prom dress). But like everything else in the show, pulled it off flawlessly.

Best Moment – After singing her first ever radio hit “Tim McGraw” the crowd stood and screamed it’s head straight off for 5 full minutes. Taylor got all teary-eyed, the crowd kept screaming, Taylor got all grateful, the crowd screamed more. And then kept Screaming.

Only not so great moment – Teardrops on my guitar. I still think this might be Taylor’s best song, but she performed it in an uptempo funked up way that completely robbed it of all emotion and you could feel the crowd be a little out of it for the only time all concert.

Best moment to be a guy – The best part of being at a concert that is 95 percent girls is that you walk past the 2,000 girls lined up for the bathroom and just walk straight into the guys bathroom where you are greeted by the other 5 guys in there with “Hey! Look, there’s another dude here! Awesome!”

I was actually not expecting to enjoy this concert. When I got my ticket over 7 months ago, 3 minutes after they went on sale and 2 minutes before the show was completely sold out, I was mostly interested in seeing what the big deal was all about. Why was Taylor Swift selling out every show all over in the world in 5 minutes. But over the past half year as Taylor-mania has completed saturated the radio waves and internet waves and every other wave I was getting pretty sick of the whole thing. I was hearing way to much about Taylor Swift the celebrity to be thinking of her as a musical artist. So by the time the show day arrived I was expecting to walk into some sort of Disney packaged show. Instead there was an actually talented artist and performer on stage. A perfectly marketed, and flawlessly rehearsed artist. But still an artist nonetheless who comes across to all the fans like a genuine human, and unless Taylor Swift ends up in rehab or goes all Britney and shaves her head, every single fan who was at that show will never doubt her “legit”-ness.

I always think if a concert is really good when you listen to the artists music on the radio or your iPod, you will enjoy it more than you did before. As much as the concert-goers loved Taylor before, I think they all love her more now.

Was it a country show? No. All you needed to do was listen to the music that they were playing between acts to realize that Taylor is no longer Country. This crowd was into Katy Perry, Metro Station, and the Black Eyed Peas. They probably all like Justin Beiber to. But Taylor has retained the Country attitude and crowd interaction and all the intangibles that make Country shows different.

I would give Taylor Swift as a musical entity 4 out of 5 stars. But I would have to admit that as an entire show, they pretty much knock it straight out of the park. Instead of the “Fearless” Tour, they should really call it “Flawless”. And then give whoever runs the show a raise. They deserve it.

Taylor Swift on a little stage, singing to our end of the Arena