Free Music Friday - The first of hopefully many

Ciao Ragazzi
I realized I never truly gave you all a Christmas Gift. I mean, I realize photo's of me are enough for most, but some of you want something truly special, like free music. And being the generous guy I try to be, I will oblige. Actually, it isn't my generosity, but these talented musicians. So without further ado, I give you... (click on names of musicians to take you to the websites to download the free music)

Andrew Osenga - This musician is one of my favorites. Click on the link to learn about how he created "Letters to the Editor - Volume One", which was actually a pretty cool concept. He is also the guy who wrote the song on the last post. Also, when you download this album, you will see a couple of my pictures on the digital album artwork.
Green River Ordinance - I found these guys on a link from some other random musician, downloaded their album and really enjoyed it. Warning, I dont think it works for some reason on mac computers, but it is solid album. Cool, almost Counting Crows or Snow Patrol or some band like thats sound. Let me know what you think.
The Autumn Film - You need to download this album (your email reference friend will thank you for telling them about it). This band is terrific, both live and on CD; Tifah (the lead singer) has a sweet and the violinist used looped her violin when I saw her live... sweet. Check em out, they are unique and you wont regret it.
Cavashawn - Click on this link, scroll down until you see "free music" and download two of their songs. They are friends of mine from Miami University, got a pretty cool rock sound with other influences worked in. I am excited to hear where they go from here. Great guys, check em out.

All these guys make music to try to put bread on the table, so if you like em, find their music on iTunes or something and buy it.
Second (you didn't think I would do this without a catch or a story, right?), I wanted to let you know of a cool opportunity to give to something tangible. I know some of you may think, "Chris, I dont want to help pay for your Italian "vacation" for a year so what are you talking about?" There is a conference in England in three weeks and PRAISE GOD that seven Italian students from Rome are going! The conference will be to help them grow in their faith and to learn how to share that faith with others. We are only charging a certain amount of money for them to go and so we need to cover the rest of that out of our pockets or yours! So, are you willing to think about giving to this? I wont love you more or less if you give or dont give (heck, I dont even know who reads this thing), but if you are interested, shoot me an email at christopher.rule@gmail.com . Thanks, much love.

And lastly, a story. I played soccer with a bunch of Italians, guys from Madascar and the Philippines, and a couple Americans. And I dont play soccer well. I am sure I looked like a 5 year old running around, chasing the ball and yelling words that are meaningless in any language. Until that fateful moment, when I became the portiere! Whic means goalkeeper. What you dont know is that I am hopelessly ignorant at rules. So at first I didn't know when I could use my hands on our makeshift field, kick the ball out of my hands or when I had to set it on the ground to kick it. After a few miscues, a game of charades with my defenders to figure out some rules (my vocab doesnt include much soccer terminology in English, much less Italian), I had it down pat. I think I was doing pretty good, stopping a couple goals but failing to satisfy one of my attackers, who kept yelling for me to pass it to him (3/4 of the way down the field). Yet we still won the first game 1-0 and I knew I had something right when, after an impressive (yet lucky) save, the guy who kept yelling for told me, "Bravo, portiere, bravo." They carried me off the field on their shoulders, victorious yet again, 1-0. Ok so I made up that last part but it was pretty sweet. And we did win both games 1-0.