my favorite albums of 2013

photo credit

Last night Jack and I drove to Chicago to see Andrew Bird's Gezelligheid concert. Gezelligheid is a Dutch word for cozy. Wikipedia says it can also connote "belonging, time spent with loved ones, the fact of seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness."

After Vietnamese food, we got cozy in the beautiful in 4th Presbyterian Church on Michigan, and I couldn't help but get nostalgic about the first time Jack and I were in Chicago together, eight and a half years ago. We saw Andrew Bird then, too, remarkably enough, at the first ever Pitchfork music festival (then called the Intonation music festival).

Jack and I both love music, but his love is far more informed. The guy listens to easily five times as much music as I do, and he listens methodically, like a few years ago when he made a spreadsheet of albums released in the year of his birth, and systematically listened to them all over twelve months. He's read extensively on music history, and he's also an amazing songwriter.

All this to say: I always feel a little silly talking about my favorite albums because I feel so unqualified to have favorite albums. Jack's very democratic about it all though, and says I shouldn't feel silly. And actually this year our top three albums are the same!

1. Modern Vampires of the City - Vampire Weekend
This album is amazing- full of catchy, poppy, songs that display a range of musical ability and influence yet make a cohesive whole. Thematically centered on religious faith, identity, and mortality, it's the most poignant wrestling with God through song that I've heard in a long time. (Full review here.)

2. Denison Witmer - Denison Witmer
Songs about what it means to grow up comprise this haunting, lyrical album. (Full review here.)

3. Southeastern - Jason Isbell
Serious and sad, this album by former Drive By Trucker Jason Isbell doesn't shy away from sexual abuse, suicide! and heartbreak. But it's beautiful and I love it.
Try this track: Relatively Easy

4. Desire Like Dynamite - Sandra McCracken
This album, largely inspired by Wendell Berry's writings on interdependence and sustainability, is lovely. (McCracken wrote about her visit with Berry for Art House America.)

5. Songs by the Nashville Cast
Just gotta be honest. Listening to some of these songs gives me the same pure pleasure that watching the soapy show itself does. And they've had some great songwriters write for them - Gillian Welch, John Paul White, and Elvis Costello, among others. The link above will take you to a playlist of my favorite songs from the show's first two seasons.

Honorable Mention: Elizabeth Mitchell's The Sounding Joy is a collection of folk carols drawn mainly from Ruth Crawford Seeger's classic songbook American Folk Songs for Christmas (1953). This joins Sufjan and Rosie on my list of Christmas albums I love to listen to.

Other albums I want to listen to more: The National's Trouble Will Find Me; Mark Kozalek & Desertshore; Mark Kozalek and Jimmy LaValle's Perils from the Sea; Arcade Fire's Reflektor; The Handsome Family's Wilderness


Previously: my favorite movies of 2013

the seven year mix

With absolutely none of the seven-year-itch. Here's our annual playlist, only two months late. If you want the bonus tracks (Rosie and Owen originals), you'll have to get a copy on CD.

a few things at the end of spring

Yesterday, I finished grading all the essays. The chickens are pecking at the remains of dandelions across the yard, and the grass needs to be mowed again every time I turn around.   Lilac branches spill out of a silver pitcher on the dining room table, and we cooked outside this week, sipping cold whiskey-gingers.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that summer is here.  The seniors graduated and we said goodbye to our Korean and Chinese friends - goodbye for the summer, to most of them, and goodbye indefinitely for a few favorites who are going back to finish university in Korea now.

Rosie and Owen dressed up for graduation, too.

 In just seventeen days we'll be moving into our new house. In the meantime, the chickens (whose story you can read at the Renew and Sustain blog) are free-ranging in the backyard, with a portion of the storage shed cordoned off as shelter for them.

We've been very into fairy princess ballerinas around here - but the kind who dig for worms, make mud pies, climb fences, and chase chickens. (I'm a sucker for old-fashioned fairies and bought this book for Rosie and me to share.)

We are journeying into Narnia, too - Rosie and I have read the first three books, and are currently in the middle of Prince Caspian. She can't follow the stories too well, but doesn't care at all, and refuses to let me switch to Betsy-Tacy.

At Christ and Pop Culture I've been reflecting on books and television and music and theology - you can click through if you want to read -

"The Office" Ends, but Love Never Fails  (my take on the "The Office" - which had a really surprisingly great run of episodes at the end!)
Denison Witmer- Songs to Grow Up To (a new album from one of my favorite songwriters - this is on repeat at my house)
A New Wave of Complementarianism (a round-up of other people's posts)
Where'd You Go, Bernadette (a review of a really fun novel - especially for anyone who has ever lived in Seattle)
The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Lesson in Community (a review of conservative columnist Rod Dreher's memoir)

Incidentally, Christ and Pop Culture has launched a new magazine for the iPad and iPhone - you can get a free trial subscription and check it out.  It's a well-designed, curated collection of perspectives on pop culture.


For a few months now, this essay's been bouncing around in my head about buying our first house and reading Alain de Botton's Architecture of Happiness.  Maybe now that it's summer I'll finally get to writing it. Or maybe I'll just go make some popsicles.

just to be simple again

When I went to Chiang Mai in January 2005, I was ready to give Jack the cold shoulder.  We'd been friends for eighteen months, though you could count on your fingers the number of weeks we'd actually been in the same city. But I was angry with him. In the last six months, he'd gone from emailing me regularly and semi-flirtatiously to emailing me not at all, and as I had been secretly in love with him, this stung. I didn't want to mess with it any more.

On our second day in Chiang Mai - we were staying at the YMCA and taking intensive grad classes - we both ended up in Derek's room to play cards. "I brought you some cds," Jack said, and handed me two discs, plus track lists he had just printed at the internet cafe down the road. We played them on Derek's computer as the card game started.  Jack had followed Nick Hornby's rules, and kicked it off with a song that blew my mind ("Crab, Clam, Cockle, Cowrie" by Joanna Newsom). Then he cooled it down with Jason Molina's Songs: Ohia.



Needless to say, things thawed between us pretty quickly.

When I listen to this song, I'm always transported back to Southeast Asia, to bus rides to the coast and across the border, to long stretches of rice field, to riding in the open back of a truck because the bus never showed, to food poisoning from roadside cafes, to silent beaches and dinner caught fresh from the sea.  I'm always transported back to the heartache and doubt that followed me through that year, the loneliness that finally began to abate.

Jason Molina died Saturday, March 16 of organ failure due to alcohol consumption.  He was 39.  

I guess I just wanted to say that I'll always be thankful for his songs, for his willingness to fight against the darkness, for the way that one song spoke to me in my darkness. He was maybe the first person to make me consider the fact that my wanderlust was an attempt to solve the problem of loneliness.

You'll never hear me talk about one day getting out
Why put a new address on the same old loneliness?

He allowed me say to God what I was really thinking as I processed what had happened with my students the year before.

If Heaven's really coming back
I hope it has a heart attack
When they see how dangerous it is for guys like that

He reminded me, like Rich Mullins, that sin has complicated life, and that in this broken world, we're all mostly just trying 

to be simple again.

To be like children, to receive the kingdom.  I hope now he has.

sufjan plays christmas songs, but my church doesn't

By the time the three-hour Surfjohn Stevens Christmas Sing-A-Long: Seasonal Affective Disorder Yuletide Disaster Pageant on Ice finished last night, my desire for Christmas music had been more than sated. Sufjan, Rosie, and the band covered it all: holy hymns in hushed four-part harmony, spectacular costumed performances critiquing American culture and "christmas," and jolly sing-a-longs of tunes chosen by the "wheel! of! Christmas!" I wore my handmade "christmas unicorn" shirt and ate fish-n-chips beforehand and tried not to think about children being gunned down in kindgergarten classrooms, but when in encore Suf sang To Be Alone with You, and then John Wayne Gacy, Jr., what could I do?

But back to what I wanted to say, about Christmas music.  Did I tell you that last year, we didn't sing a single Christmas song at my church?  I didn't understand it, because for my whole church life, the first Sunday of Advent has been the first Sunday for Christmas carols, and sure, maybe we'd just start with "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," but each Sunday we'd add a few more, until Christmas Day and then All Christmas Music All the Time.

You probably already know this, but I didn't: that in Catholic and Episcopal church traditions, at least, there is a distinct difference between the music of Advent and the music of Christmas.  My episcopal church didn't play any Christmas music last year because it was playing the songs of Advent - I had just never heard them before, and didn't recognize them.

And, actually, recognizing this difference in music has helped me understand better how to celebrate the season of Advent.  I told you that in the past, I've always felt like observance of Advent meant achieving some deep meditative state contemplating the image of baby Jesus, and that it never worked for me.  Writing through this season of Advent, and listening to Advent music, is helping me understand that the joyful focus on baby Jesus is for Christmas, and that the focus of Advent is wholly different.

I like it, now, that my church doesn't play Christmas songs until Christmas day. I've long been infatuated with the idea of following the church calendar, but I think my infatuation is maturing into a deeper appreciation of its value, maybe especially as a way to disconnect our holy day from the materialistic, commercialized holiday season that reigns in America throughout December.  

Maybe next year I'll remember that the day after Thanksgiving isn't the day for "Joy to the World," just yet. Maybe I'll put up Advent decorations that weekend, but not Christmas decorations.  Maybe we'll celebrate St Nicholas and St Lucia, and wait to play Sufjan's Silver and Gold album until Christmas Day, and the twelve days of Christmas following. (There's a nice post along these lines at The Other Journal, if you want to click over and read it.)

Sufjan seemed utterly exhausted last night, really even before the show began. He admitted at one point that he hates Christmas.  Being the Christmas unicorn is exhausting, after all - chasing that mythical Christmas of your personal nostalgia, wearing a credit card on your wrist, attempting to be this thing which is pagan and magical and American and hysterical and Christian, all at once.  Maybe the long wait of Advent is part of the answer.

{PS: I have a little work-in-progress spotify list of Advent songs, calm and quiet for your Sunday rest. (If you're in a Reader/email, click through to see it.)}

Christmas Again

So, we did it again - made a Christmas album for your, our own dear friends and family; and this time, it's even better, because it's got a number of original compositions by one Rosemary Peterson, and the cute factor is through the roof.

We create - songs, children, homemade marshmallows, snow sculptures, computer code, what have you - not because we're awesome at it, but because it's in our blood. We're made in the image of a Creator.  Jesus, too, son of a carpenter, son of a Creator, used his hands to make things; and we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.

Here are a few notes on the songs:
#1 - believe it or not, my daughter does not believe in santa claus, and in fact has already tried to disabuse her preschool classmates of their faulty beliefs
#2 - a classic reworked
#3 - my only contribution to this album. my brother david played banjo with me.
#4 - going sledding with you is my favorite thing to do, in snow time
#5 - what happened when I told Jack, "this album should have a romantic Christmas song on it."  he recorded it while giving the kids a bath, hence the background noises
#6 - let's just call him rudolph the reindeer, not rudolph the red-nosed.  c'mon people.
#7 - just some classic country-style mournful christmas singin', here. my brother john played djembe, and david played banjo
#8 - yoko ono wrote this song. seriously.
#9 -mash up of angels and santa
#10 - a kind of counterpoint to "Christmas Day" on our first album
#11 - i sincerely love this psalty this singing songbook classic.

Here are the lyrics to my one contribution.  I wrote it thinking about types of Christ in the Old Testament, particularly the passover lamb and Isaac.

there was blood on the door frame
a ram in the thicket
there's the promise she laughed at
of hope for the wicked

you are
every good gift
from the father of lights
through the shadows that shift
are all things coming right

mothers are crying
fathers will strike
brothers are lying
it's for blessing we fight

the tree that we cut down
the ham that we carve
the babies we're nursing
the songs in our hearts

you are every good gift
the ram in the thicket
you are every good gift
all things coming right



So, which of Rosie's songs is your favorite?

christmas (vol. 1)

Somehow, four years ago, Jack and I decided to record a Christmas album.

At the time, we were living in and managing a house for international students in Seattle, and I was very pregnant with Rosemary.  We had one upstairs bedroom to ourselves. So imagine, if you will, us in the grunge capital of the world, bedroom door locked, or sometimes hidden away in the basement, scratching words on paper and picking hushed guitar.  It's unpolished, it's unprofessional, it's full of cringeworthy moments, but this album is something I absolutely love (and my husband is a really, really good lyricist).  Working on this with him was the best kind of advent meditation 

Would you like to listen?  My favorites are track 3 (my protest song), track 5 (Jack's meditation on incarnation), and track 9 ( about the tradition of driving across country to get home for Christmas).

A few things in October

1. This boy, 18 months old, curly tendrils round his ears, sweet tooth from his mama, talking all the time: this, sister, go out, cheese, shoes, cheers, and aha! there it is! He's obsessed with clothes and children's' vitamins and still loves to be held.

2. This girl, "drawing" letters everywhere she goes (most recently on the bathroom floor in colored pencil), newly interested in the game of Memory, Duplo creations, and complicated jigsaw puzzles. She says, " Let's watch a show on Parmesan," and means the Amazon Prime app, because

3. No TV. We canceled our tv service! Lest you think we've actually given up shows, never fear: Hulu, amazon, netflix and PBS.com supply all our "needs".

And actually, Martin Clunes has been meeting most of those needs as Kipper (best, least annoying kids' show ever.) and as Doc Martin (new season on Netflix now- highly recommend).

4. Christmas music. When the first grey frost strikes- and it has- I find the hot cocoa and the holiday tunes hard to resist. So I'm still mostly abstaining, except for a quick Rosie Thomas binge. But there is this: remember four years ago, when Jack and I wrote and recorded a Christmas album? No, you don't remember? (Well, only blood relatives were allowed to listen, I believe.) Get excited: volume two is underway. That's all I have to say, for now.

Except. The Surfjohn [sic] Stevens Christmas Sing-A-Long: Seasonal Affective Disorder Yuletide Pageant On Ice is coming to Indianapolis, so my Christmas season will be complete.

5. Call the Midwife. A new PBS drama about London's East End in the 1950s. Really, need I say more?

6. Third parties. . Would you ever consider voting for a third party candidate for President? You know I don't like to get political (except when I do, and I'll leave you to go sifting through the four year old archives for that). I never feel educated enough to really debate things well, but I'm thinking about voting for a third party candidate this year. I don't trust Romney, and I'm disheartened by the way Obama has continued Bush's moves to expand the power of the office of the president - not to mention his drone wars....frankly, I'm leaning Green. How about you?

(P.S. - Relevant magazine did a good series on Christians who vote different ways.

And, is your church participating in Election Day Communion?)

a few things in September

Ballet. This picture is so cute it is driving me crazy. Maybe I didn't actually ask the other moms if I could put their children's picture on the internets. My apologies (tell me if you want it removed). It's just too much.

Damages. On the other extreme, I've been enjoying the disturbing show Damages. For most of the show's run, I've had a personal policy of no-damages-before-bedtime, because believe me, you do not want damages-dreams. In this, it's fifth and final season, though, it's got less violence but just as much drama. The performances by Glenn Close and Rose Byrne, as two damaged and power-hungry attorneys, are extraordinary. Are they the only women on tv who are allowed to be as complex and ambitious, as intriguing and abhorrent, as men? (Well, besides the female Prime Minister on Borgen-- yes.) The series finale airs Wednesday on Direct TV.

The Year Six Playlist. I wrote a couple of weeks ago about why we make anniversary mix CDs. Here's a link to listen to Year Six on spotify. My current favorite song is track 2, by The Walkmen. I need what it says about not striving for perfection, but being open to mistakes and failure and correction, a life of wholeness.

Lit. Currently loving this memoir by poet Mary Karr.

Certified Copy. We actually watched this film a few months ago, but somebody reminded me of it this week. It's a French film by an Iranian director and set in Italy. (Actually, parts were filmed in Cortona, just a few miles from where I spent a semester (Mollie, Anna, watch it!)). It's a beautiful and thought-provoking look at relationships, gender, and how we create our stories.

Walks. I usually walk Rosie to preschool, a little over a mile each way, and right now the weather is just achingly perfect, the kind that fills you with nostalgia. Go for a walk.

Google hang outs! Yesterday I used google plus for the first time, to have a video chat with my brothers (in Denver and Tulsa) and our parents (in Arkansas). It was super fun and would have been perfect if Sister Kate could have been there too.

our sixth anniversary, and divorce

Just after our one year anniversary, Jack and I flew from Hanoi, where we had spent a month leading an English language camp, to Seattle, where we had decided to make our new home.

My memories of that first jet-lagged week in Seattle are both clear and cloudy. We stayed at Jack's sister's place, in the spare room, and took dim evening walks around Greenlake. Everything was grey, cool, clean, and silent, compared to the sensory overload of Hanoi; we lay in the double bed on top of a white down comforter and watched The Office on DVD, long hours of the night when we couldn't sleep. In the mid-morning we ate yogurt and granola at a sun-dappled table and wondered precisely what kind of new land we had discovered.

Jack's sister and her husband shared their house with Anna and Luke, all of them Taylor grads who had married just after graduation and found their ways to Seattle. The four of them welcomed us into their little community in the seconds before it began disintegrating.

I always think of Anna and Luke around my wedding anniversary, because that week they were making a mix cd to celebrate their third year of marriage. They had compiled a playlist of their favorite songs from the year, and were burning it to CDs, hand decorating covers, to share with all their friends.

They had made something lovely together that otherwise would never have existed.

We adopted that idea, and every year around our anniversary I post our song list, Jack draws some cover art, and we pass CDs out. Every year I think about how I don't listen to as much music as I used to, and every year I think about the first mix cd Jack made for me, that softened my angry heart in Chiangmai, and every year I think about Anna and Luke.

Anna and Luke divorced two years ago. I don't think they ever got to a year six playlist. I never knew them as well as I wanted to, and I can't really say if life is better for them each now, apart, than it was then, together, but whenever I think of them (which is whenever I think of my own anniversary) I'm sad; because whenever there is love, and then there isn't love anymore, something beautiful is lost, broken. It sounds cliched, but: they were so young for it to end.

I wish we could go back to that cool late summer in Seattle, before so many things were broken (though some are stronger now), and just share a house again, and watch tv late into the night, and eat breakfast across the table from each other. A little more openhearted this time, a little more wise, we'd listen together to the music they made.

a few things in June

Here are some TV shows, albums, books, and blogs I've been enjoying this month.

Borgen.  Look.  There's no Josh Lyman (yeah, I loved Josh - who didn't?), and the dialogue isn't quite as fast and funny as Aaron Sorkin-style writing, but if you liked The West Wing, you will have to like Borgen, a Danish drama about the first female Prime Minister in Denmark - her cabinet, her family, and the government's relationship to the media. I don't want to give anything away, but if you were interested in Anne-Marie Slaughter's article at Atlantic Monthly this week questioning what it means for women to "have it all," you will love watching Borgen's answer as Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg wrestles with her work/family balance.  And, as a student of intercultural studies, I also have to say that it's fascinating to observe this small, wealthy, post-Christian European country through its own eyes.

Rain for Roots. We've been listening to these folk songs for little ones quite a bit over the last month.  With lyrics by Sally Lloyd Jones and music by Sandra McCracken, Ellie Holcomb, Flo Paris, and Katy Bowser, they satisfy me both in terms of musical quality and content -- and Rosie LOVES them.  My favorite thing about them is that each song points to God.  A lot of Christian resources for kids tend to be moralistic, focusing on encouraging good behaviors - be patient, share, don't complain, obey. 

And, sure, kids need to be taught these things.  But in training our children, it's all too easy to subtly teach them to rely on her own ability to be good and acceptable to God, rather than to rely on God himself.

 Sometimes kids just need to be pointed to God. So instead of hearing, "Daniel was brave and obeyed God - you should be brave and obey, too!"  I like that Rosie gets to hear

Who heard Daniel when he prayed?
Who helped him not be afraid?
Who stayed beside him in that den?
Who brought him safely out again?

It’s God who kept him in his care.
He’ll keep you, too--no matter where!

Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices
This latest album from The Welcome Wagon is beautiful.  My sister sent it to me for my birthday, and she reviewed it here.


A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny
Amy Julia Becker, a graduate of Princeton and Princeton Seminary, writes in this book about becoming a mother to her first child, Penny, who has Down Syndrome.  I am almost finished with the book, and I appreciate her candor and care in sharing her story.  (The kindle version of the book is only $2.99 for the month of June!)


Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion
I'm about a third of the way through this book, which details the history of the garment-making industry in America and shows how "cheap fashion" has changed the way Americans dress and turned clothing into a disposable good.  So far it's dry at some points and fascinating at others, and I've got a lot of thoughts developing about how to think Christianly - redemptively - about the fashion industry. I'm sure I'll write more about this soon.  (For now, how about this example of redeeming disposable clothing?) (Full disclosure: I received this book free from the publisher.)

On the blog front, this month I've become a huge fan of D.L. Mayfield's writing, and I love the stories Jessica Goudeau shares at Love Is What You Do. Both of these women work with refugees, and some (though not all) of their writing relates to that.  Incidentally, this month I've been volunteer-teaching a group of Burmese refugees at a sewing factory in Gas City.  It's worlds different than what I usually do, teaching wealthy Korean college students, and it's a challenge.  I am stunned by the histories of these Burmese people, and by their resilience and work ethic and hope.

And, frankly, I can't wait to see Brave.

music and liturgy

The first music I loved was on tape. It was Rich Mullins, "Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth," and I was probably about twelve years old. I graduated to CD soon enough, and my little collection consisted mostly of the free discs dad brought home from the radio station - Amy Grant's "Heart in Motion" (and my signed picture), Steven Curtis Chapman's great adventure.

Then in high school I regressed back to tapes, because tapes were what played in my '88 camry. The Hootie and the Blowfish tape I made of the cd I found when I was babysitting at the Whitlock's house. The recordings Caedmon's Call made before they were signed to a label.

Technology changed again. We had napster, and I was sampling new things, mp3 files burned to disc: Rosie Thomas, Dar Williams, Ani Difranco, Toad the Wet Sprocket.

But through all those changes, my listening was always limited to the collection that I owned, and as I result I really treasured albums, and I listened to almost all of them until I knew all the words by heart. The music was important to me.

Then in my twenties there was isohunt, and peer to peer sharing, and then pandora, and then rdio and spotify, and now I can listen to (or even "own") almost anything I want, at any time, and in practically any place.

The abundant availability of music made it harder to value, enjoy, and be moved by. It wasn't worth as much. So it didn't mean as much. It was digital, taking up no space in my life at all. It was overconsumption of something that was as light as air.

This is why, three or four years ago, Jack and I decided to quit peer to peer sharing. We deleted all (ok, not all, but most) of our illegally gained mp3 files. It's also why we bought a record player and started actually purchasing music again, this time on vinyl.

Now, when we get new music, it means something. It's an investment, and it takes up space in our house, so we also invest our time listening to it and letting it grow space in our hearts.

Recently I've felt that listening to music on a record player is something like the liturgy and eucharist at our Episcopal church. Listening to a record is a very physical process. I don't type a name in a search box; I kneel and flip through record sleeves. I stand, and lift the lid, and place the needle just right. The music requires attention, and after a few songs, I move to turn the record over. The records, and the player, take up physical space in my life, a rooted kind of space. They require a physical response. They require attention. They are repeated. Place, roots, physical response, attention, repetition: these not only signal that what I'm doing means something, but they create meaning as well.

halloween

Upland is a strange place. It just is. The town of Upland decreed that we should all celebrate Halloween on October 29, and that trick-or--treating was permissible from 6-8 pm. So for us, Halloween is now over.

I didn't grow up celebrating Halloween, but I have grown to think it can be a fun day for celebrating imagination as well as a rare chance to interact with my neighbors and community. In that spirit, we headed to the party put on by the medic response team and the chamber of commerce at the fire station (which is about a mile from our house).

And I tried to be neighborly, I really did, but the party was just depressing. Everyone looked bedraggled, we were crowded into a windowless garage, some families had come from surrounding towns (just to get more candy?), and a few kids wore scary masks that Rosie did not want to see. So we emerged back out into the crisply cold autumn day and walked home. We played in the leaves, and we answered our door for trick-or-treaters.





After the kids went to bed, Jack and I went to Taylor to see Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond perform. After sitting through the most depressing opening performance I have ever seen, I was so relieved to see Shara come out with balloons. It was a wonderful show. Shara is a talented musician, playing as many instruments and machines as Andrew Bird, dramatic like Sufjan Stevens, and with a touch of humor, and a powerfulvoice from a tinybody, like Rosie Thomas. You should check her out.

the Matthews Covered Bridge Festival

Today we drove about ten minutes south to the small town of Matthews to take part in their annual Covered Bridge Festival. I couldn't find my camera before we left, but I took some instagram shots of the festivities.



We heard the local high school marching band play, but we were too early for the tractor pull. Rosie got to jump in one of the inflatable bounce houses, and Jack found a Neil Young record at one of the booths. While Rosie was jumping, I asked the attendant, a teenage Miley Cyrus look-alike, if she knew what an "elephant ear" was. "Yeah," she said, smiling as if she found it a little charming that I didn't. "Well," she corrected, "I don't actually know what it is. It's like, breaded, with cinnamon."

We sampled one later - it's a long thin piece of fried bread topped with cinnamon sugar. We didn't have any breaded pork tenderloins, which looked like the biggest selling item at the fair.


We bought a butterfly net, too -- something Rosie has been talking about for weeks now. Then we did a lot of running around.


And finally Rosie got to have a horseback ride. She wasn't scared a bit.

the wooden anniversary

Songs we loved in our fifth year of marriage. Coming soon to a discman (what, you prefer a boombox?) near you.

1. John the Rabbit - Rosemary Peterson
2. Walking Far From Home - Iron and Wine
3. Too Much - Sufjan Stevens
4. Lovesong - Adele
5. Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes
6. Runaway - The National
7. If the Sun Stops Shining - Damien Jurado and Richard Swift
8. Oh Yeah By the Way - Over the Rhine
9. I Want the World to Stop - Belle and Sebastian
10. God is Love - The Innocence Mission
11. Swimming - Breathe Owl Breathe
12. Love is All - The Tallest Man on Earth
13. While I Shovel the Snow - The Walkmen
14. The Way It Goes - Gillian Welch
15. Poor in Love - Destroyer
16. Beacon Hill - Damien Jurado
17. Hosanna in the Forest - Danielson

sufjan

Last night we drove to Indianapolis to see Sufjan Stevens. It was the first time for either of us to see him perform live, and he met and exceeded our expectations with a fantastic show.

I didn't take any pictures or video, but here's a video my brother blogged after he saw the show.

We arrived at the theater around 8:45, and had to wait in the will call line for about half an hour, missing DM Stith's opening act. After we got seated, our friends from Upland came in and were seated behind us, which was a pleasant surprise. We had nice seats, and we loved the venue (where the Indy Symphony performs).

Sufjan started playing around 9:45. (And the baby started dancing in my womb! No, seriously. The baby was moving like crazy with all that noise.) To be honest, at 10:30 I started having a hard time keeping my eyes open (getting old?), which is kind of ridiculous considering how loud the show was and how the stage lights kept shining in my eyes, not to mention how awesome the show was. But it's true, during "Impossible Soul" (the 25 minute song) I couldn't last and took a little three minutes catnap on Jack's shoulder. After that I was much better.

I wished Suf would have played "I Want to be Well," and Jack was kind of hoping that "The Owl and the Tanager" was going to show up in the encore. But we really can't complain. For the encore, about six of the band members came to the front of the stage and stood in a semicircle, doing simple acoustic versions of songs from Illinois and Seven Swans. They played our favorites.

In the car on the way home, we talked about the set design and props and dancers, the kitschyness of some aspects, and what it all meant. We compared the show to other shows we've seen. Andrew Bird? Danielson? Iron and Wine with Calexico? Watching Joanna Newsom perform Ys is really the only show that comes close in creativity, but as creative as those songs are, her performance of them wasn't nearly as creative as Sufjan's performance was.

Then we also talked about that time at the Hollywood Bowl when I took a little nap during the Shins and Belle and Sebastian concert. I wasn't "getting old" (it was right around my 25th birthday), or pregnant then. But I had had two glasses of wine. And have you ever been to the Hollywood Bowl? It's perfect, the perfect California evening, getting dark, and soft music...
Jack suggested that maybe I should make a goal of taking a nap in as many great shows as possible. Sounds perfect to me.

growing young

I woke up this morning with a heavy feeling. I can't remember the dream I was having, only that at the very end one of my college friends showed up, and I said sadly, "I feel old."

"Me too," my friend said.

When I woke up, a Rich Mullins song was in my head.

...We are children no more, we have sinned and grown old
And our Father still waits and He watches down the road
To see the crying boys come running back to His arms
Growing young...

Our Fourth Anniversary Mix

Every year around our anniversary we make a mix cd of some of our favorite songs of the past year.

Granted, in our fourth year of marriage we didn't have quite as much time for listening to music. Rosie kept me busy, and kept me listening to Elizabeth Mitchell, and Jack was a little busy finishing his MA. We didn't get to see too much live music, either: Jack saw The Mountain Goats in November 2009. We both saw Rosie Thomas's Christmas show in December 2009, and then in Little Rock we had the pleasure of seeing Both/And. I also saw Midlake play in Little Rock in January 2010. And we saw Rosie Thomas again in April 2010 at SPU.

But without further ado, here it is. I'll send some copies out shortly.

some recent favorites

my next mix cd

My most eclectic to date, I think.

I've realized that these days I'm more interested in songs that move me and that speak sincerely than in songs that are especially creative or innovative or even musically interesting. These are some of the songs I've liked recently:

1. From this one place - Sara Groves (Every Sara Groves album is an example of how to be sincere without being shallow. Beautiful melodies.)

2. Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife - The Drive By Truckers

3. Heaven is my Home - Nathan Partain (former music leader at my church)

4. How Do You Feel? - Both/And (James Lepine & band)

5. Ash Wednesday - Elvis Perkins

6. These Rocks - We;Camera

7. Faint We Were - Greenlake Pres

8. Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me - Laura Gibson (This is from the compilation "Come O Spirit," which I like. I also recommend Laura Gibson's own album.)

9. January Wedding - The Avett Brothers

10. Better Than a Hallelujah - Amy Grant (I can't say I like the album, but I do like this new song from Amy Grant)

11. Chasing Pavements - Adele

12. Hands - The Dutchess and the Duke

13. You and I - Wilco

14. Three Little Birds - Elizabeth Mitchell (H/T to Micaiah for introducing us to the album "You Are My Little Bird" - folksy kids songs that Rosie loves)

15. To Be Young - Dave Rawlings Machine (This album is wonderful)

16. Year in the Kingdom - J. Tillman (this album is wonderful)

17. Rulers, Ruling All Things - Midlake (and this album is wonderful)

18. Heaven is the Face - Steven Curtis Chapman (And every other song on this album makes me cry)

19. Hard Times - various artists, Come O Spirit compilation


Comment if you would like me to mail you a CD. Or I can hand-deliver to the Seattle area :-)