Life Under the Vulcan Sun

I just made another Vulcan Mix for the Fall! Hope you enjoy and that it enraptures your heart with wondrous visions of goldenrod-orange leaves swirling down upon the Vulcan's mount... and me, Octoberfest in hand, thinking of you all.

And boom goes the dynamite.

Job Hunting

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that, now that I'm done with my internship with Campus Outreach, I'm looking for more writing/editing work to try to support myself through seminary at least for this semester. I'm competent at editing for spelling/grammar, style, language, argument and logic, and for formatting via Adobe InDesign or Word. I'm looking to charge rates around $15-20 per hour, but that would change depending on the nature of the project (and I could drop them down for friends, of course).

I know a few of you have had work like this in the past; I just wanted to put this out there as part of searching. If you hear of anyone who needs work like this, I'd really appreciate it if you could pass it on to me.

P.S., I love you guys (and gals). It was great to have so many people around last week for John and Jamie's wedding. Peace!

By Popular Demand...

It was great to see most of y'all this weekend at the Lambuth/Simpson festivities! What a fun celebration! Thanks, Jamie and John, for letting us be a part of the beginning of your marital bliss!

Several of you expressed interest in seeing this, starring Mimi and most of my family:) It was the highlight of our reception!

Let us know when y'all are headed to New Orleans!

Music for Posterity

Okay, so as I've contemplated succumbing to my deeply ingrained white-person impulse to buy a vinyl player, I've seen thinking about musical posterity. Let's face it: most of us find the vast majority of radio-play music awful. Simply awful. And the sad truth is that the "best" of that (of which there are a few okay songs, I guess) are going to be on the "oldies" station someday when our kids are starting to drive--unless everyone just has satellite radio, or mp3 jacks into their brains.

So I was thinking, what is the music from my time (90s on) that I would want to wave crotchetily at my kids and say, "THIS was around! This was the good stuff back in my day, even if it's not getting played on the radio!" And, while I would by no means consider this the final list, this is at least the product of one good thought-session on the matter. In no particular order:

Counting Crows- August and Everything After

MewithoutYou- Brother, Sister

Sufjan Stevens- Seven Swans

Josh Ritter- The Animal Years

Iron and Wine- Our Endless Numbered Days

And this list kinda hurts: I'd love to be able to squeeze more on here. But this is, in my opinion, the really good stuff, the albums I would want my kids to know existed. And so for you, dear friends:

What would your list for posterity be? What would be your top five albums (from the 90s forward; the good old stuff will still be around) that you want your kids to know about someday?

Update

Hey gang,

Well, the daylight is fading in Hendersonville, TN.  The closest thing to me right now is a dwindling bag of garden salsa flavored Sun Chips, I just bought a copy of Flannery O'Connor's Complete Stories and the last time I saw an ugly baby was.. NEVER! Because I just spent the day with my completely-opposite-of-ugly nephew, Emery!

In other news, I leave tomorrow for Freetown, Sierra Leone - spending the summer there doing an internship.  If anyone would like me to bring them home a diamond or two just say the word and I'll drill a hole or two in my teeth.  And if you all would pray for me while I'm there, that'd be great.  I don't have a lot of details on what the organization I'm interning with expects me to do, so it's gonna be a fly by the seat of your pants kind of situation, which gives me the slightest of nerves going in.  Anyway, just wanted to update y'all, and I'm going to do my best to sound as cool as this when I get back:

Also...

Okay, so this morning at work I found this band The Head and the Heart. They have a self-titled album out. And holy freakin' crap, it is incredible. They recall Blind Pilot, Wild Sweet Orange, and a few other bands like that a bit, but also have their own awesome sound and some really profoundly good lyrics. I had to recommend it--so good!

Contentment

Quick-and-dirty: Though the Bible promises that we can be content in all circumstances (Phil 4:11-13, written when Paul was in a craphole Roman jail again, uncertain of whether he would ever get out or not) contentment is a damnably tricky thing to hold and keep, especially when we have the promise of ever-more-perfect pleasures at our disposal via the internet and the shrinking of the world. Why do we, I, miss it so readily? I'm discovering the answer and the solution in The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs, and highly recommend the book to anyone who feels that they struggle with it too. May be a while before I finish it to lend it, though.

Peace!

Vulcan Mix: Spring 2011

Because music makes you lose control...

Follow this link to download & enjoy!

VULCAN- Spring 2011

1. Down By The Water The Decemberists

2. Barton Hollow The Civil Wars

3. Devil Knows You're Dead Delta Spirit

4. Helplessness Blues Fleet Foxes

5. Lord Help My Poor Soul Fionn Regan

6. Glad Man Singing Iron & Wine

7. The Ghost Who Walks Karen Elson

8. Suffering Season Woods

9. Alex Kona Strand Of Oaks

10. One Day Sharon Van Etten

11. Burning Stars Mimicking Birds

12. Tree By The River Iron & Wine

13. Killemall Menomena

14. Don't Carry It All The Decemberists

15. Solid Ground Maps & Atlases

16. Foot Shooter Frightened Rabbit

17. Cloudy Shoes Damien Jurado

18. My Heart Is Yours The Holy Ghost Tent Revival

19. Come Talk To Me Bon Iver

Special Moments

For those of you who may not know, I (Elaine) am living in boy land over here on 6th Ct South with Ryan inhabiting our house until his nuptials in May and Dwight, Eli, Paul (the person), and Andrew 3 houses down. It's pretty great, especially when I catch special "boy" moments on tape when they don't know their being filmed.

Exhibit A: First of all, how great it Paul the dog? Second, listen carefully to what Ryan says when he walks in to the kitchen towards the end.


Untitled from elaine on Vimeo.

Exhibit B: We were originally going to film Ryan playing the accordion, and Dwight randomly barged into our house. Notice his special way of greeting Paul (the dog). Bingo! Dinglehopper!


Untitled from elaine on Vimeo.

Saw this. Liked it. Wanted to share.

The Awful Rowing toward God
by anne sexton

i'm mooring my rowboat
at the dock of the island called God.
this dock is made in the shape of a fish
and there are many different boats moored
at many different docks. . .

"on with it!" he says and thus
we squat on the rocks by the sea
and play--can it be true--
a game of poker.
he calls me.
i win because i hold a royal straight flush.
he wins because he holds five aces.
a wild card had been announced
but i had not heard it
being in such a state of awe
when he took out the cards and dealt.
as he plunks down his five aces
and i sit grinning at my royal flush,
he starts to laugh,
the laughter rolling like a hoop out of his mouth
and into mine,
and such laughter that he doubles right over me
laughing a rejoice-chorus at our two triumphs.
then i laugh, the fishy dock laughs,
the sea laughs. the island laughs.
the absurd laughs.

dearest dealer,
i with my royal straight flush,
love you so for your wild card,
that untamable, eternal, gut-driven ha ha
and lucky love