The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 3

My older son loves this song by The Decemberists. It came on during the trip home from the dentist yesterday, and we listened to it for at least twenty minutes (not to mention that once we were home we couldn't get out of the truck until it had finished). Over and over again. Will sat staring out the window and sucking on his two fingers as he listened. And he sings:

hane my head yo.
hane my head, hane my head yo.
I wi' hane my head yo.

Daddy, why he hane he head?

The song is based on the beloved Japanese children's tale, "The Crane Wife."

The illustration is by Cheryl Kirk Noll.

Tonight We Drive

We're heading out to Michigan tonight. We'll be driving through the night and so we covet your prayers. In the meantime, I have much to do around the house. I figure schooling today will be light as we prepare for the trip, pack, clean, nap, etc.

Last night I received a special dispensation from my wife to travel up the road to the library by myself. I found three audio books for the trip: (1) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, (2) Whiteout by Ken Follett, and (3) Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns. All told it is nearly 28 hours of listening pleasure (I hope). Although, I will only need to fill up 24 of those hours. If you know anything of any of the stories, please let me know. I have good recommendations on Kite Runner and Lewis & Clark so the only one I'm nervous about is the Follett book. (Though if you've read Kite Runner and there's plenty of "new vocabulary" for the kids, let me know. They should be sleeping during the trip, but I don't want anything explicit on the speakers. Well, not too explicit.) Also, if you have any recommendations for driving music, I'd appreciate it. I just thought about the soundtrack to Rain Man this morning, which has some great driving music on it. But if you have anything else, or if you want to set up a nice driving mix for me on iTunes, just let me know before dark tonight.

Blessings to you and yours on this most excellent feast day approaching. Merry Christmas to all and to all a prayer-vigil-for-weary-travelers kind of night! Pray for us, St Christopher.

Christ is born!

Educating Me

OK. I need help.

I was reading on Zenit.org about Papa Benedict's thoughts on Beethoven's Ninth as follows:

At the end of the concert, the Holy Father recalled that Beethoven composed his final symphony in 1824, after a period of isolation and difficulty "which threatened to suffocate his artistic creativity."

Yet the composer "surprised the public with a composition that broke with the traditional structure of the symphony," rising at the end "in an extraordinary finale of optimism and joy," the Pontiff said.

Benedict XVI continued, "This overwhelming sentiment of joy is not something light and superficial; it is a sensation achieved through struggle" because "silent solitude [...] had taught Beethoven a new way of listening that went well beyond a simple capacity to experience in his imagination the sound of notes read or written."

.....

"God - sometimes through periods of interior emptiness and isolation - wishes to make us attentive and capable of 'feeling' his silent presence, not only 'over the canopy of stars' but also in the most intimate recesses of our soul," the Holy Father affirmed. "There burns the spark of divine love that can free us to be what we truly are."

... and it made me want to enjoy some truly good music, which I have so little of. But I need your help. I need a list of composers, compositions, and good interpretations of their compositions. Because I'm ignorant. Could you help? (I know some of you certainly can.) A list would do - your favorite classical music and the specific (if you have one) recording of it.

I would certainly appreciate it.

I listened to Beethoven's Ninth on the way to and from picking up Anna from school yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by it. Surprised by its beauty, but also surprised by its narrative. The beauty of so much of art was lost on me as a child. I was happy with boxed macaroni and cheese and hot dogs.

I intend to make up for lost time.

Remedies and Brilliant Kicks

A couple of notes about some recently purchased music:

For the If It Ain't Christian, It Ain't Cool crowd there is, newly released, Remedy by David Crowder* Band. My personal opinion is that in the world of CCM, no one is doing it better right now than David Crowder. And while I don't think that Remedy is as complete or as full an offering as A Collision, it's still a worthwhile purchase. The title track, "Remedy," is beautiful and the lyrics throughout achieve much.

It's a good album. If you don't have any Crowder and are going to purchase only one album, however, go with A Collision, it's my personal favorite and what made me a Crowder head. B Collision has more of a bluegrass feel to it - and I love that - but loses the narrative that A Collision accomplishes.

For those of you who like to change things up and aren't afraid of murder ballads and an occasional f-bomb, I'd recommend Okkervil River. This band's sound is, perhaps, my favorite at the moment. Will Sheff's voice pours out of him. Their new release The Stage Names is brilliant. And brilliant following the darkness of Black Sheep Boy. Perhaps it is Black Sheep's darkness that makes this album seem all the more brilliant.

That being said, I need to interject a word of caution. While The Stage Names sheds the violence, the "Pan's Labyrinth-ness" of Black Sheep, it's still got some language. And it's still, thankfully, moody at times. But if you can't stomach buying the entire album, try buying one song.

"Unless It's Kicks" makes even a fat man want to crank it up and shimmy and shake all night long. It propels. Inspires. It makes my heart beat faster and threatens to throw out my back. There is no cussing in this song and no violence. But it kicks.

Spend $0.99 and shimmy and shake with a fat man, miles and miles away. (I know, it's tempting. Am I right?)

It'll make you happy to be alive ... at least for about five minutes.

"what gives this mess some grace
unless it’s kicks, man—unless it’s fictions,
unless it’s sweat or it’s songs? What hits
against this chest unless it’s a sick man’s
hand, from some midlevel band? He’s been
driving too long on a dark windless night,
with the stereo on, with the towns flying
by and the ground getting soft.

And a sound in the sky, coming down
from above, it surrounds you and sighs
and is whispering of what pulls your body
down, and that is quicksand. So climb out
quick, hand over hand, before your
mouth’s all filled up. What picks you up
from down unless it’s tricks, man? When
I’ve been fixed I am convinced that I will
not get so broke up again.

And on a seven day high, that heavenly
song punches right through my mind and
just hums through my blood. And I know
it’s a lie, but I’ll still give my love. Hey, my
heart’s on the line for your hands to pluck
off.

What gives this mess some grace unless
it’s fiction—unless it’s licks, man, unless
it’s lies or it’s love? What breaks this heart
the most is the ghost of some rock and roll
fan, floating up from the stands with her
heart opened up. And I want to tell her,
“your love isn’t lost,” and say “my heart is
still crossed!” I want to scream, “hey, you’re
so wonderful! What a dream in the dark—
about working so hard, about glowing, so
stoned, trying not to turn off, trying not to
believe in that lie all on your own.”

Baby, It's a New Day

Here are the lyrics of "New Day" by the Robbie Seay Band's soon-to-be-released Give Yourself Away. Pick this one up - it's excellent. The lyrics are rough: I copied them while listening and, since it was so late, didn't want to clean up the capitalization, punctuation and such. This is a great song. I love it.

i'm gonna sing this song
to let you know that you're not alone
and if you're like me you need hope and coffee, melody
so sit back down and let the world keep spinnin' round
yesterday's gone and today's waiting on you to show your face

and it might not be the prettiest thing that you'll ever see
but it's a new day, ah, baby, it's a new day
and it might not look like a beautiful sunrise
but it's a new day, ah, baby, it's a new day

i'm a pilgrim soul
i've traveled far and come back home
and this land is hard and cold for those who long to love
and i know it might seem that the world is crumbling
but it's me and you dancing in the kitchen at 2 am and we're still in love

and it might not be the prettiest thing that you'll ever see
but it's a new day, ah, baby, it's a new day
and it might not look like a beautiful sunrise
but it's a new day, ah, baby, it's a new day

it's a calm of the storm that comes blowing in
it's the springtime saying i'm back again
the clouds are rolled back, crossing moonlight
me and you live, everything's all right
standing in the rain with nowhere to go
laughing and we're spinning and i hope that you
remember this day for the rest of your life
me and you live everything's gonna be all right

and it just might be the prettiest thing that you'll ever see
well it's a new day, ah, baby, it's a new day
if you look outside to see a beautiful sunrise
it's a new day, ah, new day, it's a new day

oh and it just might be the prettiest thing that you'll ever see
well it's a new day, ah, baby, it's a new day
if you look outside to see a beautiful sunrise
ah, it's a new day, it's a new day, it's a new day

it's the calm of the storm that comes blowing in
it's the springtime saying i'm back again
the clouds are rolled back, crossing moonlight
me and you live, everything's all right
standing in the rain with nowhere to go
laughing and we're spinning and i hope that you
remember this day for the rest of your life
me and you live, everything's gonna be all right

i'm gonna sing this song to let you know that you're not alone
and if you're like me you need hope, coffee, melody.

I downloaded the album for free here, but I'm not sure if it's still available. Otherwise, it's released August 28.

Miscellany

Yesterday I headed out to Wal-Mart to buy some Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Back and there again is a 40-minute jaunt. For ice cream. Why? Well, they have a better selection and are about a dollar cheaper there (child labor, I suspect). But mostly, taking into account the price of gas, because they have a better variety. The favorite flavor, currently, is Pistachio Pistachio. What else needs to be said? It's pistachios.

I saw Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream and picked it up. It has bits of waffle cone covered in fudge with caramel swirl. And it has a picture of the man himself on it. Very good.

So on the way out to Wal-Mart, to get back to my story, Anna and I are listening to the *secular radio station* and "Bohemian Rhapsody" begins playing. I turn it up for Anna's sake, to educate her in the world of Rock-and-Roll music. As the song gets to the middle, bouncy, operatic section, Anna starts dying laughing. I swanny, if she hadn't been buckled up she would have rolled onto the floor. It was high-larious.

Her two questions about the song were (1) Why [do Queen] sound like girls? and (2) Why do they write silly songs like that?

I figured any thorough answer would involve a conversation about drugs, among other things, so I just said people liked to write silly music sometimes. A six year old, after all, is only a six year old.

And, finally, to wrap up my miscellany, I am expecting to receive the Harry Potter book today. I suppose it will be read by Monday, if not earlier. Mock away, mocking world. I'm a Potter-head - not an in-line-at-the-book-store-at-12:01-dressed-up-like-Hagrid whacko like some of you out there, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the series. I'm becoming quite excited to see what becomes of the Boy Who Lived.

The Yellow-Haired Child Sings (with a Cold)

O Susanda, do't you cwy fo me.
I have a bajo on my weg.

O Susanda, do't you cwy fo me.
I have a bajo on my weg.

I have a bajo on my weg.

I have a bajo on my weg.

(crescendo)
I have a bajo on my weg.

O Susanda, do't you cwy fo me.

O Susanda, do't you cwy fo me.

I have a bajo on my (forte) WEG!

SOOF-yan

I'm not much a fan of the indie scene, but Sufjan has caught my ear. Maybe it's the fact that much of his music is "faith-themed" without the didacticism. Perhaps it's that his home state is my home state and he's written an album about it. Possibly it's the sheer artistry. I don't know. But I love Sufjan Stevens. The complexity and audacity of his music - its melancholy, its joy, and its being all things in between - are entrapment.

To be honest, it took a few listens for me to first get into the music (It's that different). But three albums later and I haven't looked back. Curse iTunes for not having his Seven Swans album! Curse iTunes for making it so easy for me to spend the children's food and clothes money on music!

Sufjan is sheer artistry. So if you get a chance, give a listen. (Then again my dad has this illuminating simile concerning opinions and how everyone has one . . .)

. . . . .

Three of my favorite tracks from each of the two albums in his 50 States project:

Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lake State

• "The Upper Peninsula"
• "Romulus"
• "Vito's Ordination Song"

Illinois: Come On Feel the Illinoise

• "John Wayne Gacy, Jr."
• "Casimir Pulaski Day"
• "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us"

And there are so many others. Rock on, Sufjan! Indie on? Whatever.