February’s Mix February 29, 2008

Like I said before, I’m making a mix per month this year. It’s kind of funny, because looking at February’s list. I can’t even remember why I added certain songs. “The Boys of Summer”?? In February?? I vaguely remember having a conversation with someone about it, but who knows. There’s lots of newly discovered stuff on this month’s list, too–Lisa Germano, Matt Costa, The Everybodyfields and Headlights–but some older stuff too. And almost a song-per-day, with 27 total. On my original list, I accidently put “God of This City” on there twice. I guess that shows you how much I LOVE that song. If you haven’t heard it yet, you should get on that. It has a pretty awesome story behind it too.

February:

• “That Thing You Do” The Wonders
• “Bring It To Me” She and Him
• “Overboard” Ingrid Michaelson
• “Marvelous Light” Charlie Hall (the “Live from Passion07-Part 3” version)
• “More Time” Needtobreathe
• “If I Ever Leave This World Alive” Flogging Molly
• “All You Need Is Love” The Beatles
• “Blackbird” The Beatles
• “Don’t Make Me a Target” Spoon
• “The Underdog” Spoon
• “Leave” Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
• “Too Much Space” Lisa Germano
• “The Boys of Summer” Don McClean
• “Hosanna” Hillsong United
• “Far More” The Honorary Title
• “Mr. Pitiful” Matt Costa
• “Cold December” Matt Costa
• “God of This City” Chris Tomlin
• “Love Song for a Savior” Jars of Clay
• “Say” John Mayer
• “Feel It All” Feist (the remix by Britt Daniel of Spoon)
• “Lonely Anywhere” The Everybodyfields
• “Dig” Jars of Clay
• “Falling Slowly” Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
• “Lift My Eyes” Bebo Norman
• “Get Your Head Around It” Headlights

Something to think about. February 18, 2008

I’m mostly concerned with the second half of this video. I don’t have time this morning to really talk about it, but it bothered me a lot. I don’t think Christians need to back down from issues or from politics. I think the opposite. We should stand up for what we believe in just like anyone else should. But I also think we would be so much better off if Christians, as a whole, stopped and considered HOW they say what they say, and consider the way Jesus lived and acted and impacted people, as opposed to the way most people go about it today. Jesus talked a lot about boldness, but he also talked a lot about gentleness. I think a little more gentleness and a little more understanding would go a long way towards preventing opinions like the one Charles Barkley apparently holds.

Sestina February 5, 2008

I’m taking a poetry course this semester that I’m really enjoying right now. It’s kind of a lot of work (more than I was expecting), but that work includes reading hundreds of pages of poetry, and so I don’t really mind. As I’m doing that, I’ve stumbled across some really wonderful poems, and I think I’ll post some of them now and then. So from now on, if I post a poem, assume that’s where it came from. Here’s one for today.

Sestina

by Elizabeth Bishop

September rain falls on the house.
In the failing light, the old grandmother
sits in the kitchen with the child
beside the Little Marvel Stove,
reading the jokes from the almanac,
laughing and talking to hide her tears.

She thinks that her equinoctial tears
and the rain that beats on the roof of the house
were both foretold by the almanac,
but only known to a grandmother.
The iron kettle sings on the stove.
She cuts some bread and says to the child,

It’s time for tea now; but the child
is watching the teakettle’s small hard tears
dance like mad on the hot black stove,
the way the rain must dance on the house.
Tidying up, the old grandmother
hangs up the clever almanac

on its string. Birdlike, the almanac
hovers half open above the child,
hovers above the old grandmother
and her teacup full of dark brown tears.
She shivers and says she thinks the house
feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.

It was to be, says the Marvel Stove.
I know what I know, says the alamanac.
With crayons the child draws a rigid house
and a winding pathway. Then the child
puts in a man with buttons like tears
and shows it proudly to the grandmothers.

But secretly, while the grandmother
busies herself about the stove,
the little moons fall down like tears
from between the pages of the almanac
into the flower bed the child
has carefully placed in the front of the house.

Time to plant tears, says the alamanc.
The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house.

Music Monday: She and Him’s “Bring It To Me” February 4, 2008

I have been anxiously awaiting posting this song for Music Monday ever since I heard it yesterday. Technically it’s not Monday for another 11 minutes, but I’m sure you can all excuse the technicality. I found it via Pitchfork and Who Killed the Mixtape?, who provides the audio.

She and Him is a collaboration between Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. I LOVE M. Ward and his beautiful raspy voice. I didn’t know Deschanel sang (then again I don’t think I’ve even seen any of her movies), but her blues-y, jazzy voice is perfect for this song.

The song is beautiful and nostalgic and, I think, will satisfy lovers of a million genres. I hope you like it!

This week’s pick: She and Him’s cover of Sam Cooke’s “Bring It To Me”.

31 days down, 334 to go February 1, 2008

I am totally blown away by the fact that it is February already. I can tell you one thing–God has been really faithful to get my through January not only in one piece, but feeling really good about the coming months. February 1 officially marks one month since The Biggest Change of My Life, but it feels much longer than that. Some days are rough, but God’s being really faithful to me lately and teaching how to trust Him with every detail of my life. I’m going on a missions trip to the University of the West Indies over spring break, which I am very excited (and very nervous) about. Today I take my first exam of the semester and turn in my first paper, but that’s kinda crazy because I can’t even remember this semester’s class schedule on a day-to-day basis.

At any rate. I decided that this year, I’m going to make a playlist for each month. For a long time now, I’ve been waking up every morning with a different song stuck in my head. I don’t know if I dream about them or what, but they’re not even always things I’ve been listening to recently. That has since died down quite a bit and probably only happens once or twice a week. At one point I had decided it would be fun to keep track of which song was stuck in my head for every day of the month and make a mix of them all at the end. I never got around to doing that, but I decided that this year I’ll make monthly mixes. They’ll be composed of songs stuck in my head, songs that are resonating with me for one reason or another, songs that are applicable, songs I hear randomly, etc. etc. For January, I have 22 songs. Some days had more than one, others none, but 22 total.

January:

• “My Rights Versus Yours” The New Pornographers
• “Breakable” Ingrid Michaelson
• “Birds” Kate Nash (December, really, but important and there wasn’t a December list. so it can go on this one)
• “No One’s Gonna Love You” Band of Horses
• “Love Song” Sara Bareillas
• “Still Hurting” The Last Five Years
• “Sundrenched World” Joshua Radin
• “Three Cheers for Five Years” (Acoustic) Mayday Parade
• “Brick” Ben Folds Five
• “Either Way” Wilco
• “Mystery” Phil Wickham
• “Secret Crowds” Angels and Airwaves
• “Boy with a Coin” Iron & Wine (especially the awesome version in an NPR session I listened to)
• “Carousel” Iron & Wine
• “Gravity” Sara Bareillas
• “Imitosis” Andrew Bird
• “Impossible Germany” Wilco
• “The Boys Are Back In Town” by whoever sings that, in honor of Heath Ledger and the cinematic masterpiece that is A Knight’s Tale
  
• “The Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore” James Morrison
• “For All Who Are to Come” Hillsong United (yay for the book of Hebrews)
  
• “Chemicals Collide” Cloud Cult
• “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” The Beatles