Monkey Monday #1

I am Nate! I’m currently a student at Carroll University in Waukesha WI, studying Music Therapy, working to get a Bachelor’s degree in Music, so that I may become a board certified Music Therapist in the future!

I’m a family man, a father of one black lab named Diana, an uncle to an English shepherd named Atlas, and devoted boyfriend to a gremlin named Hailey. 

I’m also a Bible believing Christian, saved by grace through faith in Christ, which is the most important thing in my life, and keeps me going every day!

Now you know me, happy Monkey Monday!

-Nate

Every week I will be recommending an album that I think is AWESOME SAUCE. Go listen please. It will make me happy. Expand your horizons! you don’t have to like it, but everything I recommend is by nature, amazing, because I have perfect taste.

This week is Tapestry by Carole King. One of mine, and my Mom’s favorite albums! The opening track, I Feel the Earth Move comes in HOT with the keys, going ‘bum bum BUM, bum bum BUM!” I have many memories driving in the car with my mom, singing “Tumbling down, tumbling down!”.

The whole album top to bottom is just spectacular, and it reminds me of my mom which is a huge bonus. Plus I really like the cover.

Go listen!

-Nate

Instead of recommending personal classics, this section will be about reviewing music (or other things) that’s new to me.

This week I listened to Happy Sad by Tim Buckley. Many may be familiar with the album Grace by Jeff Buckley, which is a classic in it’s own right, but I bet far fewer know of his father, Tim Buckley.

It’s a pretty interesting story. Apparently (from my little bit of research), Tim was a loser of a dad, and left Jeff and his mother before Jeff was born. So Jeff, despite being an incredibly talented and hard working singer/songwriter like his father, and constantly being compared to his father, Tim was non-existent in his son's life.

Anyways, this album is really good! It’s got that 60s-70s folk/rock singer/songwriter vibe, that I’ve been obsessed with the past couple months.

The first three tracks are the strongest in my opinion, before it really slows down emotionally in the fourth track Dream Letter, which is a beautiful song in it’s own right. The fifth track brings the speed right back up with the 12 minute Gypsy Woman

It’s a very short album, only 6 songs, but I think it’s compactness is to it’s benefit, leaving less room for error. I very much enjoyed this one!

Favorite Song(s): Strange Feelin’, Sing a Song for You

-Nate

As many who know me know, I have very strange dreams, and I remember a lot of them.

Monday night, I had a very strange one, that seems very fitting for this first issue of Monkey Monday.

I was at my grandparents house, which we call the “cabin”, as that’s basically what it is. I looked out the door (the one that the dogs get let out at), and sitting on the porch railing, were two monkeys, each the size of a 4 year old. I got super excited, because if you somehow have not yet figured out, I like monkeys! I opened the door, and tried to go pet them. Next thing you know , they turn on me, and in my dream I went full fight or flight mode. I ran back in the cabin, but they followed me! Not only was it these two scary monkeys that were after me, but behind them came their friend, a gorilla! (Except in the dream the gorilla was just a small grizzly bear, but in my dream thats obviously what a gorilla looks like.)

So there I was, running for my life, climbing up the cabinets to escape from the monkeys and their gorilla friend, (which for some reason I could do, and somehow they could not). They were trying to get up to me, but I was safe for the moment. That’s when I learned a critical piece of information: The zoologist informed me that the reason the monkeys were so feral, was because they were on crack! (I’m not sure what the guidelines on this website are, but I’ll risk it.) And not only where the monkeys on crack, but their gorilla/grizzly hybrid friend was on fentanyl! Now, the zoologist informed me that the gorilla was to be pitied, as he didn’t choose to be on fentanyl, and was actually a very nice gorilla. But the monkeys were the real villians!

So with the newfound knowledge of my opposition, I came down from my cabinet, and struck the monkeys in the head with pots and pans, and was locked in a fierce battle with the crack monkeys, trying to finally land the critical blow! Then I woke up

-Nate

Our next column is from none other than Ashley from stone creek!

Every Monday at 8am, the latest issue of Monkey Monday will be published! Subscribe to the email listing to get the issues sent directly to your email, so you don’t miss a thing! Also, we will keep working on the design of everything as we go, so don’t be surprised to see some sort of changes in the future.

Thanks friends, love you all!

-Nate