music check.

Longer post to come in the morning, but since we haven’t done one in a while, here we go. You know the rules.

1. Robbie Seay Band - O Come Emmanuel
2. Stevie Wonder - Superstition
3. Waterdeep - Scared
4. 42nd Street Revival Cast - Dames
5. Andrew Osenga - wanted
6. Shane Barnard - Hosea
7. 100 Portraits and Waterdeep - You Are So Good to Me
8. Default - It Only Hurts
9. Jim Sturgess - Something
10. Iron & Wine - Boy With a Coin (*hand claps*)
11. The Katinas - One More Time (…yes. really.)
12. Max Lucado - Ancient of Days (…yes. really.)
13. Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir - We Come Rejoicing (thank you, shuffle, for breaking out all my old Christian music)
14. Andrew Osenga - Vegas (better)
15. Bruce Springsteen - The Rising (also better)
16. Wayne Watson - Don’t You Remember (…fail.)
17. Andrew Osenga - you leave no shadow
18. One Nation Crew - Free
19. Shane Barnard - Psalm 145
20. Mandy Moore - All Good Things (surprisingly good)

mix tape monday

This week: Break-up songs.

1. 13th Floor Elevators - You’re Gonna Miss Me
2. Kate Nash - Foundations
3. Nickel Creek - Somebody More Like You
4. Johnny Cash - Flushed From the Bathroom of Your Heart
5. Blink-182 - I Miss You
6. U2 - Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
7. Counting Crows - You Can’t Count On Me
8. Derek Webb - Reputation
9. Zwan - Of a Broken Heart
10. Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek
11. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - Lies
12. Plumb - Stranded
13. Caedmon’s Call - Love Is Different
14. The Normals - Heaven Heals
15. Foy Vance - First of July

run time: 57:34

i can’t even believe i’m doing this…

…but you can buy my poems here. $1.00 from your purchase will help build wells in Africa. (If this smacks too much of the (RED) campaign to you, and not in a good way, feel free to skip my doggerel and donate directly.)

t13 (like wednesday, but better)

This week: 13 crazy ideas you’ve had, have never tried, but would like to try. (And then watch “Scratch and Dent Dreams” in the post below this.)

1. Giant Monopoly–take out a city block, chalk the properties on the sidewalk, make big tokens with wheels, play for actual money.
2. Giant popsicle–clean trash can, several gallons of Kool-Aid, 2×4, industrial freezer, give pieces away for free.
3. Give out water by a running trail.
4. A coffee shop where every barista is also a trained counselor.
5. A Protestant monastery (not a cloistered one).
6. A writer’s retreat center in the middle of Houston.
7. Try out for a touring company of a Broadway show.
8. Memorize a whole book of the Bible and do it as a monologue (like your friend Chip, Hannah).
9. Knit an afghan for every member of my family.
10. Marry someone of a different race than me, and then adopt a kid who’s a different race from either one of us–and confuse the heck out of everyone.
11. Have four sons and name them George, David, Andrew, and Patrick–i.e., the four patron saints of the British Isles, haha.
12. Make a documentary about modern evangelicals, introducing us to people that don’t really know us.
13. Go do mission work in the Middle East.

a little poetry for your wednesday evening

Eric Darby, “Scratch and Dent Dreams”

Taylor Mali, “The Miracle Workers”

Saul Williams, “Indigo On”

mix tape monday

This week: Songs that help you go to sleep. (Hear mine here.)

1. Adam Weaver and the Ghosts - Sleep Tight
2. Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir - My Help (…shut up, it’s a good song)
3. Judy Garland - Over the Rainbow
4. Bebo Norman - Deeper Still
5. Marketa Irglova - The Hill
6. Sufjan Stevens - To Be Alone With You
7. Across the Universe - Because
8. Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings
9. Jars of Clay - Jealous Kind
10. Wilco - Radio Cure
11. David Shook - Hush
12. Bruce Springsteen - Devil’s Arcade

run time: 52:58

random thoughts

*Which is worse: To be loved but not known, or to be wholly anonymous?
*I’ve realized lately that I don’t have one thing that I’m an expert in. I have lots of things I’m relatively competent at, but nothing that I know inside and out. Jack of all trades, master of none, I guess.
*Actually, that’s a lie–I’m awesome at surfing the Internet. *headdesk*
*I have a poem about Martin Luther King that’s been floating around in my head a while. Wonder if it’ll be any good.
*Speaking of poems, that random series on biblical trees I started? I need to finish that. That’d be good. Maybe I’ll do one a week for the rest of the summer…
*Also, a couple of thoughts brewing on eating and eating together, and Communion. (By the way, and this is a completely random question, but what does your church do with Communion leftovers after the service?)
*Twitter: Yes or no?
*It’s amazingly hard to trust in the work of Christ when you’ve been trusting in the work of you for 20+ years. The rare moments when I do are grace upon grace.

the last, best hope on earth

1. I haven’t decided who I’m going to vote for yet (and I think it’ll help when the Democrats finally get their crap together), but I have decided to abstain from any political news until…the presidential and vice presidential debates. That seems like a good deciding factor for me, when they finally get down to the nitty-gritty–the vice presidential debates, especially. The last go-around I had much more respect for Edwards and Cheney than I did for Bush and Kerry, for sure, and I think I’m more likely to vote for the vice president than the president. I’m not real sure why that is.

2. Just got the new Counting Crows album, and I totally dig it. It’s not, say, This Desert Life, but it rocks. Roll down your windows whilst driving on a June afternoon music. Very nice. Also in the middle of way too many books, but that’s all right. Anyone have any media recommendations I can plug into?

3. I’ve been working on projects, trying things out in my leisure time. Nothing documentable (yet), so no blog material for you yet. Maybe I’ll do something soon.

t13

This week: 13 things you’d like to get done before the summer’s out.

1. Um, find an apartment…
2. Buy a car. Yep.
3. Finish all these books I’m in the middle of (The Cider House Rules, Oliver Twist, The Canterbury Tales, White Teeth by Zadie Smith).
4. Finish the second draft of my Script Frenzy project.
5. Fill up the rest of my current Moleskine.
6. Get through a good-sized portion of my yarn stash.
7. Spend more time outside.
8. Practice guitar more.
9. Memorize chapter 4 of Ephesians.
10. Write a few poems.
11. Finish listening to my iTunes library all the way through. (Almost there.)
12. Road trip up to Waco before I start class.
13. Write letters to people.

mix tape monday

This week: Music for road trips.

1. U2 - Where the Streets Have No Name
2. Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
3. Cake - Stickshifts and Safety Belts
4. O.C. Supertones - Supertones Strike Back
5. Radiohead - Airbag
6. The Frames - Fitzcarraldo
7. Phantom Planet - California
8. Johnny Cash - Get Rhythm
9. Coldplay - Don’t Panic
10. Sufjan Stevens - Chicago
11. Langhorne Slim - Rebel Side of Heaven
12. Andrew Bird - Fake Palindromes
13. Feist - Mushaboom
14. The Beatles - Hello, Goodbye
15. The Rolling Stones - You Can’t Always Get What You Want
16. Bruce Springsteen - Radio Nowhere
17. Ethan Durelle - From the Heart of Blythe County

run time: 1:02:53