manic mon #5: "the voice" w. shakira & usher out tonight! + free easter song dl

Tonight is the fourth season of NBC's The Voice, at 8 pm with new coaches Shakira and Usher (replacing Christina and Cee-lo).

I'm excited for how this will go (though I hope I'm not as disappointed as I was with Idol's hyped up team of Mariah Carey, Keith Urban and Nicki Minaj - great entertainers but the show itself not so entertaining)!

To be honest, the past few seasons of The Voice haven't been that great either. Well. Maybe they've been okay, but they just didn't capture me in the way that the first one did. Something about the potrayal of contestants or selection of music not being as compelling when it first started with its small summer run. (There has been SO much unecessary filler after that.) I think it'll be really interesting to see what sort of coaching and attitude the new coaches will provide, given that they're such experienced performers themselves.

Also, with Pascha weekend coming up, here is a free download of Hillsong's Easter single, "Man of Sorrows" (title from the Isaiah 53 passage). The song is co-written by Matt Crocker and Brooke Ligertwood, nee Fraser. The link above also contains very thoughtful links to lyrics, sheet music and translations.

Look out for Eastery things this week! This may very well be my favorite holiday, as I love the idea and smells of spring coupled with the promise of new life, and little things like the egg hunts (the unadulterated fun and play of looking for things!), even if we don't really get seasons in the L.A. area... Must've read The Secret Garden too many times as a child.