RIGHTEOUS WORLD

Svend & Angela’s wedding just got published in The...

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:07:00 -0700

Svend & Angela’s wedding just got published in The Fall 2012 issue of Santa Barbara Magazine. Check out http://www.nathanwinston.net/blog/ for additional scenes from the weekend with @katyperry @thedaylights @elektrikpeople and more! (Taken with Instagram)

Melissa Woodbury - Hollywood, CA

Fri, 18 May 2012 19:19:48 -0700

Melissa Woodbury - Hollywood, CA

FINALLY got to some @thedaylights & @andydavis tour film...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:11:38 -0700

FINALLY got to some @thedaylights & @andydavis tour film & polaroid images. Here’s a quick shot of Andy and our buddy Noah living large at the Imperial Mansion outside Marfa, TX. Check out more analog recapping of the Daylights’ No Reverse Tour with Andy Davis here.

Also be sure to visit the guys’ Kickstarter campaign currently going down in support of their upcoming album!

Bear Reinhart of NEEDTOBREATHE - Burbank,...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:54:00 -0700

Bear Reinhart of NEEDTOBREATHE - Burbank, CA

http://www.nathanwinston.net

Funny because it’s true… and awesome.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:14:05 -0700

Funny because it’s true… and awesome.

Watch this if you’re able to.

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:06:21 -0700

Watch this if you’re able to.

Whoa...

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:11:30 -0800

Came across and read this a few moments ago. True or not, the writing is profoundly raw, personal, and moving.

“When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I’ve got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.

Suddenly I didn’t know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly. She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?

I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn’t talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn’t love her anymore. I just pitied her!

With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company. She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.

The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn’t have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane. When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.

In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn’t want anything from me, but needed a month’s notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month’s time and she didn’t want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.

This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day. She requested that every day for the month’s duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.

I told Jane about my wife’s divorce conditions. . She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.

My wife and I hadn’t had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mommy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don’t tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.

On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn’t looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.

On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me. On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn’t tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.

She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.

Suddenly it hit me… she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.

Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it’s time to carry mom out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.

But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn’t noticed that our life lacked intimacy. I drove to office…. jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind…I walked upstairs. Jane opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Jane, I do not want the divorce anymore.

She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Jane, I said, I won’t divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn’t value the details of our lives, not because we didn’t love each other anymore. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart. Jane seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away. At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, I’ll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.

That evening I arrived home, flowers in my hands, a smile on my face, I run up stairs, only to find my wife in the bed -dead. My wife had been fighting CANCER for months and I was so busy with Jane to even notice. She knew that she would die soon and she wanted to save me from the whatever negative reaction from our son, in case we push through with the divorce.— At least, in the eyes of our son—- I’m a loving husband….

The small details of your lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves.

So find time to be your spouse’s friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!

If you don’t share this, nothing will happen to you.

If you do, you just might save a marriage. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Melissa Woodbury - Hollywood, CA

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:16:32 -0800

Melissa Woodbury - Hollywood, CA

Let’s go exploring.

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:51:07 -0800

Let’s go exploring.

Just like yesterday and just like tomorrow.

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:26:34 -0800

Just like yesterday and just like tomorrow.

terrifiedstudios: Happy 2012 everybody! jx

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:47:04 -0800

terrifiedstudios:

Happy 2012 everybody! jx

Choreography of my life. We all have to learn somewhere.

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:57:42 -0800

Choreography of my life. We all have to learn somewhere.

Natalie Logan (@nklogan) - Studio City, CA

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:22:38 -0800

Natalie Logan (@nklogan) - Studio City, CA

I’m assuming he’s done this once or twice before.

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:50:41 -0800

I’m assuming he’s done this once or twice before.

From a (relatively) recent shoot w/ Melissa Woodbury -...

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:07:15 -0800

From a (relatively) recent shoot w/ Melissa Woodbury - Hollywood, CA

Sometimes I really miss Calvin and Hobbes. Thanks again Mr....

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:24:08 -0800

Sometimes I really miss Calvin and Hobbes. Thanks again Mr. Watterson.

Finally got through some images from a special event Kanye West...

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 23:28:00 -0800

Finally got through some images from a special event Kanye West show back in September. Loved the vibe and feel of the stage colors and elements, but the mood of this solo dancer stole the show for me. Here’s the full image set: Kanye West - MW3

From a recent shoot with the lovely Natalie Logan (@nklogan)

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:35:24 -0800

From a recent shoot with the lovely Natalie Logan (@nklogan)

Ever get hold of that last bastion of reserve energy your body...

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:40:40 -0800

Ever get hold of that last bastion of reserve energy your body has somehow been hiding away despite almost 3 days of little to no sleep and it feels like you’re cruising around in some kind of harness being held up just enough so that your feet still touch the ground?

That’s me right about now. Rocking out in the van to Temper Trap while barely being able to keep my eyes open. If the above depiction didn’t make any sense, that’s probably because you’re rested with a brain that’s actually functioning normally.

Currently in between India-no-place and Chicago en route to Packer country, Ran is at the wheel again cutting Blanche through a mix of cow pastures and post-harvest winterized corn fields.

Ah the sweet aroma of the Midwest..

Last night’s show in Columbus was surprisingly upbeat and fun despite the COLD COLD bite from the weather outside. We thankfully had had a quick little two hour window for a nap at the hotel beforehand though following the 11 hour drive out of NYC.

Every second was needed too

This having been only my second excursion through (and first real visit in) the Big Apple, I’ve learned one thing for sure: existing and moving through that town is taxing.

From the train to the subway to the cabs to walking 3 full miles with my luggage, I feel pretty confident in saying that I’ve done the New York thing at least for a hot second. More power to the people that love it, but I’ll take Texas, the Dixie Chicks and their wide open spaces thank you very much (or at least just Texas and the wide open spaces).

I had flown to Corpus during the weekend for some time with the family while the fellas took off from Nashville to West Virginia and on to Philly. In the span of about 10 hours, my world went from little coast community to concrete jungle of noise.

The Mercury Lounge show was quite the surprise with a great crowd and stellar stage vibe. The guys had gone to see a couple of their buddies in the Foo Fighters play the night before and it seemed like everyone was in the mood for another all out rock show. They got it too.

Then things got really real with one of the most insane load outs I’ve experienced yet being on the road. It’s probably not something you’d think about much, but if you can imagine CARRYING a trailer full of gear half a city block to an illegally parked van while dodging hundreds of people and cranky bouncers at 1am in the heart of New York City, you’ll get a rough idea.

I’m still stressed out just thinking about it.

With seven people now in our tour party, we had pieces of the group scattered all over Manhattan and the lower east side that night as well.

Ricky and I crashed at a friend of a friend’s place, spent three hours parking and re-parking the van, and slept until 2pm the next afternoon. I probably could’ve stayed in bed until next week but we had places to go and people to see.

Thankfully the band had the night off with our only obligation being a meet up with the Katy Perry crew for their show at Madison Square Garden and their “almost end of tour” after party.

Lost would too strong of a word, but Ricky and I definitely took our sweet time navigating the subway system en route to meet up with some friends for a couple drinks before heading to MSG.

One thing I can really appreciate about NYC is the sheer volume of variety in people we passed moving around town. Millions of faces swerving left, cutting right, and weaving through each other en route to their individual destinations.

I love to observe and people watch. Every person has their own story, concerns, loves, struggles, and joys. Some people stare at the ground when they walk, some hold their face up. Some smile, some frown, some stare blankly off into space.

Few actually seem to make eye contact or treat you as much more than an impediment to be navigated around and the funny thing is I totally understand it. In a place like New York, there are just too many foreign stimulants encountered in a given excursion for the brain to process all of them with concern and consideration.

Thousands of little decisions to step left around this person, take the 6 train, grab this seat, hold this pole, get off the 6 transfer to the L, remember your wallet in the cab, listen to the cello player in the underground walkway, step on to the crosswalk, nope - step back on to the sidewalk to avoid getting run over by another overly aggressive cab driver, let the old woman go through the door first, act like you can’t hear the homeless guy yelling at everyone that they’re all now under arrest, hold your breath while passing the trash bags on the curb in front of the Thai restaurant, and on and on.

Everything becomes part of one big obstacle course. If you watch closely, you can actually see people concentrating on their next move. I think folks in NYC are less friendly than other places almost out of necessity if that makes any sense.

That alone is one of the biggest reasons why I enjoy the South. Living life is flat out EASIER which makes it more accessible to having the option of consideration for others and being a little less stressed with the everyday. You just don’t have to deal with so much of the overload.

Alas, all this to say that we finally made it to the KP show to jump around an arena like a bunch of idiots with thousands of teenie bopping 15 year olds decked out in blue wigs and glow light necklaces. It never ceases to amaze me.

Once the show was done, we shipped off to the after party to hang for a bit, dance for a bit, and stay up way too late for no good reason. At around 5 in the morning, Svend managed to pull the van out from the other side of the island and get everyone packed back in the box on wheels to high tail it out of the city.

With an aggregate of MAYBE eight hours official sleep time over the past three nights, my brain is really a bit on hiatus. Not to be deterred though, I’m stoked to power through these last two or three shows.

Tomorrow is our last day off before heading home for Thanksgiving. Going to recharge and try to come up with a solid end of tour prank to pull in Chicago. Any ideas are welcomed…

I really adore autumn. In the South. With friends. More than...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:21:00 -0800

I really adore autumn.

In the South.

With friends.

More than any other time of year, fall seems to bring a feeling of change for me.

Obvious indications like leaves falling, weather getting colder, and my sinuses going ballistic are apparent but there’s also typically an underlying notion hiding somewhere in my psyche screaming “Don’t get used to this, Sport. The roller coaster of life is about to take another swerve.”

Sometimes change is easy, sometimes tough. Either way, it happens, becomes the new reality and you move forward embracing it or fighting it tooth and nail.

We left Houston yesterday after a great Sunday evening show in the Woodlands supporting the 20 year anniversary at a church of a long time friend of the fellas. Dinner in Baton Rouge with Andy’s dad and we jumped back on the road to Meridian to crash out for a few hours.

Currently en route to Atlanta and then finally to Nashville which I have been yearning for for weeks.

A couple minutes after I got out of the shower this morning, my phone rang. My stepmother’s name showed up on the caller ID and I stared at it for a couple moments knowing what I was about to be told.

My father passed away this morning.

It’s a moment that I had been envisioning for a long time, but you never can quite get a grip on just what it will look and feel like.

Here I am, standing in some random motel room, not even sure what state I’m in, hearing the words, “He’s in heaven, honey.”

Knowing that the man who brought me up from birth, helped mold me into the man I am, taught me to hunt and fish, showed me the value of a hard day’s labor, and was strong enough to lift me up with the love and support he wasn’t always blessed with, has finally been provided with the peace and reprieve from pain that was so needed after years of struggling with something he, for once, had so little control over.

You might be wondering, as I would, why I would choose to share such personal moments in such a (relatively) public arena such as this.

Part of it is therapy to just sit and release thoughts from my own mind, but more so because it’s such a universal experience that we all will encounter in some form or another. Circumstances are different for every situation, but the hurt is the same.

I toiled for a while with understanding the Why question. He had hurt for so long hoping for a medical remedy and a new lease on life after sickness only to come up short, as it were, and have endured all the bitter pain and struggle seemingly for naught.

A little over a week ago, I was sitting in the front of the van with Ricky and Svend trolling through 1 Peter and came upon the following:

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

By the end of his life on earth, my father had become a different man. Being faced head on with your own mortality over a period of time helps put the grand scheme of things into perspective quite a bit more clearly.

If all of the trials he has endured over these past few years were for God to have the chance to break him to his core only to be remade in faith as a renewed child of the Utmost with a faith more valuable than anything to be attained in this mortal life, then I find the whole ordeal to have been worth the price in the end. Granted I wasn’t the one enduring day in and day out through all the unending struggles, but it’s the best understanding I can cling to in the midst of the chaos.

A couple of specific things I remember him saying to me during our talks.

“I’ve been angry for a long time about a lot of things, son. I don’t want to be angry anymore. At anyone.”

“That guy you see on the side of the road talking to himself, well, you never know. Maybe he’s just able to see someone or somethings that we can’t. Who am I to be the judge and say he’s just crazy.”

In discussing life with a friend who was also in some tough health circumstances:

“You’re going to look back on your life and realize that most of the stuff you worried about like work and money didn’t matter. You’re going to wish you’d spent more time with your kids.”

The Christian faith hangs on an inexpressible joy in a hope of a Creator that would lay down His own life to save the wretchedness of humanity. Consistent happiness and comfort were never an inherent part of the equation. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still see the stars through an eye full of tears.

Friends and family are the nails in my spiritual and emotional house of which Jesus is the foundation. They help keep my walls together with a roof of wisdom that protects from the storm. I am forever grateful.

With the wind at our backs going 70 miles per hour down the highway, Ran is leading our tour van into the heart of Atlanta. Another day, another show, another breath.

Songs will ring loudly tonight.