She & Him: Volume Two
Posted by Troy | Filed under Music
Listening to Volume Two by She & Him.
It pretty much feels like I’m listening to Volume One….
and I don’t care.
Now excuse me while my worries melt away.
Please give a round of applause to Kate Quinby for some freakin awesome cover art.
Shout Out Louds: It’s Hard Work to be Loved
Posted by Troy | Filed under Music
Even though Our Ill Wills is one of my favorite albums of the last couple years, I still have trouble remembering the name Shout Out Louds.
I have no idea why… it is just one of those things… I can never remember the name of the band.
Luckily I live with my wife…
Tags: conflict, Music, relationships, shout out louds
March Madness for Realz
Posted by Troy | Filed under Traverse City
March Madness has a whole different meaning where I come from…
When everyone else around the country has a skip in their collective steps celebrating the new season… grass sprouting and dogwoods blooming…
We’re typically knee-deep in crusty, dirty snow that’s been frozen for the past two months.
It can make you go a little bit nuts.
This year however, we’re joining in the heel-clicking… thanks to some unexpected sunshine.
It makes me a little nervous to think that winter might return in April… with a sneer no less…
Well I say, bring it on…
Tags: depression
Spikehorn Meyer
Posted by Troy | Filed under Travel, Traverse City
I discovered Spikehorn Meyer this week in an old travel-film clip my grandma sent me
It’s really cool to see mid-century footage of my home here in Traverse City and the Sleeping Bear Dunes, but Ol’ Spikehorn steals the show.
He seems like a guy I’d want to know… or maybe even a guy I might have become…
Spikehorn said that the company of bears was much preferable to that of other people… he might be right, but I guess I’m lucky that I haven’t yet become so cynical about people that I’ve taken to avoiding them altogether…
I was hoping to check out the biography from my local library, but I haven’t had time… each nugget of information I scrounged up online just made Spikehorn more and more interesting though…
like when he made national news in 1945 after sending wires to Truman, Atlee and Stalin announcing a personal offer of $50K for the capture of Adolph Hitler.
I like him…
Photo from Don Harrison’s Up North Memories Flickr collection. I thought some color might give it a little life.
Tags: Travel, Traverse City
Rogue Wave: Permalight (or How the Future isn’t What it Used to Be)
Posted by Troy | Filed under Music
When my wife and I first planned to get married we had big plans to take off across the country with just the clothes on our backs.
Hit the Cali coast and live in our van… only leaving the beach to bake cookies for the homeless or something…
Of course… three kids and two testicles later… I’ve yet to see the Pacific.
Tags: Music, rogue wave
Giving Pigs the Bird
Posted by Troy | Filed under Humor, Other, politics
I heard a funny story on NPR’s On the Media this week…
Apparently a guy named Robert Ekas is suing his local police department, claiming his multiple moving violations are bogus and only issued because he is (apparently) committed to giving the police the finger.
Brooke Gladstone’s conversation with Ira Robbins about free speech, public obscenities and flag burning was funny and interesting.
A case that seems kind of silly is actually kind of a big deal…
What do you think? do we have a right to “salute” the police in whichever way we feel appropriate? (whether they deserve it or not?)
If so, do you believe it an important way to excercise your first amendment rights?
Listen for yourself, or read the transcript here.
Disclaimer: I’m thankful for Traverse City police and I’d never call them pigs… it just makes the illustration funnier.
Tags: npr, original illustration
Books: Mudhouse Sabbath
Posted by Troy | Filed under Books
I became mildly obsessed with Lauren Winner after hearing her lecture at Calvin College a couple years ago.
Then I became rather obsessed with her after reading Real Sex and hearing her various lectures/podcasts on that book that were floating around the interweb.
I finally finished reading Mudhouse Sabbath, and though it took a little more concentrated effort on my part than Real Sex or Girl Meets God, it was still incredibly insightful and offered more of Lauren’s unique perspective on how Christians have either lost touch with our Jewish heritage or in some cases adapted certain traditions.
While Girl Meets God unveiled the connectedness between the Judaism of Lauren’s youth and her new-found Christian faith by way of comparing the holidays over her years of conversion, Mudhouse Sabbath compares eleven Jewish customs and how they have found a place—in one way or another—in her life as a Christian.
Her chapter on prayer was (like its Girl Meets God counterpart) was especially challenging to me, and the section on food was great…
To consider how food connects us to God… where our food comes from, what God might think of our food, etc.
Really each chapter was perfectly concise and had just enough oomph to make you stop and consider.
While many of those Old Testament traditions have found a place in some way in western Christianity, it was her chapter on mourning that seemed to stand out as something in particular that we as Christian-ized westerners seem to have no construct.
We may succeed sometimes as a community supporting those widowed within the few week following their losses…
but then what?
Tags: arcade fire, Books, death, Faith, Lauren Winner
The Prodigal’s Brother
Posted by Troy | Filed under Bible Study, Books
The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in [the celebration]. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, “look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!”
His father said, “Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!” —Luke 15:28-32 —The Message
Tags: Faith, Parable, Tim Keller
The Office Baby Breaks New Ground
Posted by Troy | Filed under Strong Odors, TV
The scene:
A woman, late in her pregnancy freezes mid-stride to announce to her partner that her water has just broken
(possibly a wisecrack about peeing her pants or another character slipping and falling in the fluid).
The couple race to the hospital barely making it in time to start pushing.
Somehow in the midst of the mother’s bloodcurdling screams and insults at her doofus husband, the doctor has the presence and expertise to recognize… the baby is breech!!
Tags: original illustration, strong odors, the office, tv
Southwest Veggie Enchiladas with Homemade Ancho Sauce
Posted by Troy | Filed under Last Night's Dinner
At this very moment I am trying to decide if 10:45 a.m. is too early to bust out leftovers…
This meal is both simple and beautiful, and is guaranteed to knock your socks off.
I’d recommend it to vegetarians when hosting your carnivorous father-in-law… just don’t tell him it’s meatless…
He’ll be so busy stuffing his face, wiping sweat from his barren cranium and breathing loudly through his nose that he’ll never notice.
Tags: enchiladas, Food, southwest
