reading:listening:watching

Reading
A Homemade Life, Molly Wizenberg
Frank Stitt's Bottega Favorita: A Southern Chef's Love Affair with Italian Food*
Frank Stitt's Southern Table: Recipes and Gracious Traditions from Highlands Bar and Grill
3191 Evenings, Maria Alexandar Vettese and Stephanie Congdon Barnes
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
Making Sense of Scripture: Big Questions About the Book of Faith, David J. Lose

Listening
David Rawlings Machine, A Friend of a Friend
Arcade Fire, Funeral
Johnny Cash, American IV: The Man Comes Around and American VI: Ain't No Grave
Willie Nelson, Country Music
Dewi Sant, May
Paste Sampler 62
Jonsi, Go

Watching
Glee episodes I missed
Police Women of Memphis

*In my opinion, Frank Stitt is the best chef in Birmingham, and Bottega is one of my favorite restaurants there.

music brought to you by countries beginning with the letter 'S'

Frightened Rabbit
We Were Promised Jetpacks
The Perishers

and two more bands from across the pond that begin with 'S'
The Swell Season
Sigur Ros

pentecost, bluegrass style

on rotation today

Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
Andrew Bird, Noble Beast
Sigur Ros, Hvarf Heim
Iron & Wine, The Shepherd's Dog

Orphan Girl 2009 - Take One

Heading back of Denver from Estes Park after a fabulous weekend in the mountains. Stop at Starbucks for some coffee for the drive. What's playing at Starbucks? Emmylou Harris' Orphan Girl. Yep. Why, oh why, can I not escape that song?

New Music I Loved in 2008

What follows is a totally random list of the six* new albums I most enjoyed in 2008. I seem to have discovered less new music this year, and that makes me kinda sad. Hopefully 2009 will bring on some new tunes.

In no particular order:
Sigur Ros, Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust
Lucinda Williams, Little Honey
Kate Campbell, Save the Day
Sugarland, Love on the Inside
Coldplay, Viva la Vida
Emmylou Harris, All I Intended to Be

Looking forward to:
Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
She & Him, Volume One
Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
Son Kil Moon, April
The Frames, The Cost

(*) edited to include Emmylou. Couldn't sleep tonight if I left her out.

Save the Day

Been enjoying Kate Campbell's latest album, Save the Day, this weekend. I have the lyrics from the title track rattling around in my head now. Kinda puts a lot of stuff into perspective. What would it take to save the day for you?

SAVE THE DAY

What’s it gonna take to save the day
What you gonna need to feel okay
If you close your eyes what would you pray
What’s it gonna take to save the day

I had a friend who spent his life
Trying to win the lottery
He just knew that a million bucks
Would put an end to his misery
Meanwhile the farmer living down the road
Only wanted a drop of rain

What’s it gonna take to save the day
What you gonna need to feel okay
If you close your eyes what would you pray
What’s it gonna take to save the day

For some people it’s a brand new car
For some it’s just a parking space
A little water in the desert sun
Or champagne by the case
A big mansion in the Hamptons
Or just a warm place to sleep tonight

What’s it gonna take to save the day
What you gonna need to feel okay
If you close your eyes what would you pray
What’s it gonna take to save the day

A Vanderbilt or an old Ford Van
A cup of soup or Superman

What’s it gonna take to save the day
What you gonna need to feel okay
If you close your eyes what would you pray
What’s it gonna take to save the day

What’s it gonna take to save the day
What you gonna need to feel okay
If you close your eyes what would you pray
What’s it gonna take to save the day

If I ask you now what would you say
What’s it gonna take to save the day

By Kate Campbell & Walt Aldridge
© 2007 Large River Music (BMI) / Sony ATV Music (ASCAP)

splendid

southern culture trivia quiz

Check out the southern culture trivia quiz over at Maud Newton's blog. I got more right than wrong, but am still disappointed that I didn't score higher. Let me know how you fare.

random weekend tidbits

Low-key weekend here. Farmer's Market yesterday. Bought and cooked fresh vegetables. Last night went to see Agents of Future at a house concert in Lafayette.

Today, got stung by a wasp. Took a two-hour nap as result of the Benadryl. And finished this reverse-applique journal cover for my Moleskine. The pattern is from the Aabama Stitch Book. I LOVE this book.

Still pondering some questions from a conversation that began with friends in Santa Fe a few weeks ago - does our creative side drive our spiritual side, or our spiritual side drive the creative? Can you have one without the other? Can anything be sacred/spiritual? What makes it so?

Also thinking about what it means to live life authentically. Out of a more honest and real place than I feel like I currently am. To really be seen. Kinda freaked out lately that I have lost my edge and am just mellow and vanilla. Yikes.

action-packed weekend here

I've been running non-stop the last couple of days.
Friday
- water-skiing at Standley Lake
- a jillion errands, including the lovely DMV
- house concert last night with The Blackthorn Project
The water-skiing made my heart happy and my muscles sore. The Blackthorns were great.
Today
- bridal shower for a friend
- church
- trip to Meininger to get supplies for my upcoming Glen Workshop
Tomorrow
- make grits casserole
- host brunch at my house
- bake birthday cake
- attend birthday dinner for a friend
- plan my strategy to get through this next week with the least amount of stress possible.
I have more to do at work than seems humanly possible to get done in the next six days. Also need to work on my photography portfolio. You know, the one that I was going to have together several weeks ago. Granted, the busy weekend stuff has been fun, but my batteries are running low. Hopefully I can find some little pockets of time to re-charge in the next few days.

the pod

What I'm listening to these days:
- Coldplay, Viva la Vida (or Death and All His Friends)
- The Weepies, Hideaway
- Sigur Ros, Hvarf-Heim
- Emmylou Harris, All I Intended to Be
- The Juno Soundtrack

And you?

how much can one heart hold?

Just found the lyrics to the Kate Campbell song I referenced here back in February.

How Much Can One Heart Hold

Heard about a man from Birmingham
Went down to Selma to take a stand
How much can one heart hold
He sang some songs about peace and love
And took a beatin’ from a billy club
How much can one heart hold

How much can one heart hold
A pound of dirt or a pound of gold
We may never know the truth be told
How much can one heart hold

I met a woman who lost a son
On a chopper in South Saigon
How much can one heart hold
I couldn’t tell you all the tears she’s cried
I guess she’s gonna ‘til the day she dies
How much can one heart hold

If the heart is a bottomless pit
You gotta watch what you put in it
How much can one heart hold
Before you know it you’re carrying around
A ton of stuff that’ll weigh you down
How much can one heart hold

do you hear what I hear

I'm not the music junkie I used to be, but I was still happy to see some of my favorite albums of 2007 on Paste Music's Top 100 Album List.

In no particular order:
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Bruce Springsteen - Magic
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Patty Griffin - Children Running Through
Over The Rhine - The Trumpet Child
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha

potpourri

- Saw Into the Wild yesterday. Really enjoyed the book when I read it several years ago. But the movie was a bit disappointing. It does have some soul to it, and the music - which is by Eddie Vedder - was spot-on. Haunting, but it was a long 2:20.
- Still mired down in somewhat of a spiritual funk. Not sure what happened to get me here, or how to get out. I'm still "in", but things are awry. The words that jumped out at me in my lectio divina group this week say it best. Parched ground. Suck. What to do when you seem to have lost your passion and joy?
- Helped a friend facilitate a collage workshop today. Actually made a piece of my own, which I plan to finish this week.
- Looking forward to a bit of family time later this week, and a few days away from work. Not necessarily a restful time; but a nice change of pace.
- Hopefully I will get a chance to work on one of my favorite hobbies: sleep.
- Pulled out the Votivo Christmas Sage candle today. Because it makes me happy.
- Off to finish up a business review for work now.

technology

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

tunes and tomes

reading...
Articles of War, Nick Arvin (book club book, and the 2007 One Book, One Denver pick)
Everything Must Change, Brian McLaren

listening...
Bruce Springsteen, Magic
The Foo Fighters, Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace
The Restoration Project, Songs for a Revolution of Hope

drinking...
French Press Kaladi Brothers Tanzania AA coffee

watching...
rain on the patio

what's up

- just back from a belated birthday beach trip. yeah, i milked this one for all it was worth. squeezed two more birthday celebrations out of the big 4-0.
- got to catch up with my birmingham buddies.
- played a lot of boggle.
- ate a lot of firecracker shrimp (this involves the best remoulade sauce in the world).
- slept a lot.
- sat on the beach a lot.
- watched the sun set and the moon rise.
- had some great conversations.
- did a lot of nothing.
- read Bless Your Heart, Tramp. and random magazines. deep, deep reading, in case you can't tell.
- did read a bit of Breath for the Bones, by Luci Shaw, so all was not mindless.
- enjoying the new foo fighters album - echos, silence, patience & grace. isn't that a great title?
- found the perfect music for the treadmill - florida state's marching band doing the best of college football fight songs.
- drove up to the mountains today so i could catch the aspens in all of their fall glory.
- just spruced up my porch with a pumpkin/mum display to officially welcome fall.
- trying to plan my week now so that i can ease back into work and maybe even a daily routine that doesn't feel like chaos.
- have a huge need for great amounts of creative energy to come bursting forth in the next week or so.

kindred spirits

That's my girl! My niece shares my love of music and I recently turned her on to the iPod....Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band doing Old Dan Tucker. Peter, Paul, and Mary's Go Tell it on the Mountain, and Eva Cassidy's Over the Rainbow.

tunes and tomes

Listening:
Kate Hurley, Sleeping When You Woke Me
Over the Rhine, The Trumpet Child
Wilco, Sky Blue Sky

Reading:
What is the What, Dave Eggers
Paste Magazine
A friend's project for her dissertation
The new Pottery Barn catalog