Writings from the Dirt Road

The week had set up so well. We had just returned from visiting Adriene’s parents in Savannah and had a great Christmas with them. When we got home, I renewed one of my favorite post-Christmas traditions, the Atlanta Playstation Smackdown. I joined some of my Cornerstone friends to play Rock Band late into the night (pretty much the same as always, bass-hard, guitar-medium, vocals-medium, drums-easy. Holy cow, I stink at drums.) Once again I delivered my Micheal Stipe impersonation with “Orange Crush” and gave everyone nightmares with my version of “Epic” by Faith No More. After that, it was out to my parents’ house to drop the girls off with them for a couple of days so we could celebrate the Chick-fil-A Bowl in style.

The day itself even went so well. Even though it was cold and windy, Adriene and I enjoyed the parade with friends. We went to the FanFest and had a great time there. After a nice dinner, it was off to the Georgia Dome for the game. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, I guess it could go down like this.

When LSU drove the ball down the field on the first drive, I wasn’t too worried. Tech scored a field goal at the end of the first quarter and it looked like we were in for a good game. The second quarter ruined everything. At the start of the second quarter, LSU moved down the field again and scored another touchdown. LSU then caught Tech off guard with an onside kick and got the ball right back. Another touchdown made the score 21-3 and now it was time to get a little worried, but things really went downhill from here. I’ve been pretty pleased with Paul Johnson’s play-calling all season, but with the ball on their own 22 on 4th and 8, Johnson made an egregiously bad call to fake a punt. I guess that’s the gambler in Johnson, but he came up snake eyes here. I didn’t like the call at all and naturally it set up LSU with a short field which resulted in another touchdown. By the time LSU scored their fourth touchdown of a nightmare quarter, I was wishing this game was on my Nintendo so I could push the “reset” button. I was pretty much resigned at that point that we were going to lose and badly.

In the third quarter, I stood up and announced to everyone (perhaps with some profanity) that I had paid a lot of money for these tickets and I was going to have a good time no matter what. After all, Adriene and I only get something like one night a month away from the kids and I wasn’t going to let a football game ruin it. So for the rest of the night, we pretty much treated the whole event as a black comedy, taking particular humor in all the Tech fans that had given up on the game and developed more interest in throwing paper airplanes onto the field. That’s the last time the Chick-fil-A Bowl committee allows paper in their gift bags, I’ll bet. This is what happens when engineers get bored.

I didn’t even get mad in the second half until LSU’s Head Coach Les Miles decided that apparently a 35 point margin wasn’t enough and started to rub it in by keeping his starters in the game and continuing to throw the ball downfield. The fake punt that he called in the 4th quarter was bush league and embarrassing. I have no idea what he was trying to prove, but it sure torqued me.

Oh well, no matter. After all, there was New Year’s Eve to celebrate. Joined by some of my old friends, we closed out the year in a hotel downtown. It was good to see everyone as many of my friends I don’t get to see very much and we even got a surprise appearance from a friend overseas. Of course there was champagne and inevitably, board games. Even though I just watched my favorite football team get their pants pulled down on national television, I couldn’t complain too much when I was closing out the year with good friends. Here’s to 2009.

Pictures of all the fun on Flickr!

I’ve been busy and on the move over the last week, but not around the Internet a lot. So, I’ve got a lot to write about but before I cover all of that, I thought I’d take one last look at 2008 before cruising on into the new year. Every year, I do a review of the albums I bought in the previous year and name my favorites. They don’t necessarily have to have been released in 2008, just new to me in 2008. I got a couple things late in the year (like Copeland’s You Are My Sunshine) that I didn’t really have time to listen to so they aren’t on the list. I’m not much for ranking, so there’s not really an order to the list. With all that said, on to my favorites of 2008…

Matthew Perryman Jones - Swallow The Sea, Throwing Punches in the Dark
Swallow The Sea is probably my album of the year. I love it. MPJ kind of has a Pete Yorn sound with his slurring, relaxed vocals. The band behind him is top notch (I was totally unsurprised that one of my favorite guitarists, Paul Moak, was involved with the album) and he ranges from slow-dancing ballads like “Amelia” to a powerful anthemic drawn-out title song. It’s one of those albums that works no matter what kind of mood you’re in. I also really enjoyed his previous album, Throwing Punches in the Dark.

Coldplay - Viva La Vida, Prospekt’s March
I’ve got to admit that my expectations for a new Coldplay album were pretty low. I wasn’t too big on X&Y and I kinda felt like Coldplay was a little, no pun intended, played out. This album totally surprised me and I think Brian Eno’s influence is a big reason why I like this CD so much. It’s not drastically different for Coldplay, but it’s different enough to push themselves forward from their previous work. The EP Prospekt’s March that they released a little later in the year is even better with awesome syncopation in “Glass of Water” and augmented versions of “Life in Technicolor” and “Lovers in Japan” that are even better than the originals.

The 77’s - Holy Ghost Building
Great job by Mike Roe, Bruce Spencer, and Mark Harmon to go back and revisit old gospel spirituals and give them new life. Mike Roe does his best Dylan imitation, his best Jagger imitation, and his best Jimmy Page imitation on different songs for a rollicking good time. This is the best 77’s release in a long, long time.

Mike Farris - Salvation in Lights
Speaking of old gospel spirituals, Mike Farris was a new artist for me this year. It’s a fresh take on old Negro spirituals done with white boy soul, ala Taylor Hicks. The band behind him is top notch, but I’ve heard it’s even better live. I’m hoping I get a chance to see him someday in concert.

We Shot the Moon - Fear and Love
Nice piano based work with lots of teenaged angst and wistfulness. They have great vocals and nice harmonies. I took a flyer on this album not really having heard much, but recommended by a friend, and I’m glad I did.

Paper Route - Are We All Forgotten?
It’s a short EP, but I really hope Paper Route is on a trajectory towards becoming a big-name band. Their “folktronica” sound blends techno beats with heart-wrenching ballads and ponderous stories. They bring so many instruments to the table with xylophones, harmonicas, guitars, keys, drums, bells and more that each song is so dense musically.

Common Children - Delicate Fade
New to me, at least. It sounds a little dated now, but this album lacks the pretense of a similar sounding band like Collective Soul. It cranks up the intensity and emotion and also gives hints of Marc Byrd’s meandering ambient sound that he mostly produces now. This is another in a long line of bands that I am sad that I found after they broke up.

Andrew Osenga - Letters to the Editor, Vol. 2.
Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken - Ampersand
These are just short EP’s, but each has their own charm. Andrew Osenga releases his second set of fan-driven songs with all of the tracks inspired by letters, photos, and suggestions from listeners. “Staring Out A Window (My Confession)” might be my favorite song of the year and in many ways sums up where I am in life right now. Derek and Sandra combined their fantastic lyric-writing skills to put together a short album of essentially love songs. It’s not nearly as sappy as say, Sonny and Cher, but it does have a certain sweet romantic quality when they write songs to and for each other.

It’s the shortest day of the year and so the Christmas lights came on early in the house. We’ve put the girls to bed and now its one of my favorite parts of the day when we wind down and drink some coffee and sit in the quiet room with the lights and tree. In many ways, metaphorically, this time of year feels like the end of the day. It’s a long exhale after a year of hard work. I don’t know if I’ve worked harder in a year, professionally or at home and I am weary. I am looking forward to a couple of weeks with friends, family, and even a little football at the end of the holiday break.

I’ve scaled back this year in a lot of ways. I pretty much had to drop all of my “projects” outside of work and home just to keep my head above water at work and at home. The result is that most years I can look back and see the things I’ve accomplished for the year, but this year I don’t really feel like I accomplished very much, even though I’m more exhausted at the end of this year than I can ever remember. I don’t think it was all in vain, though. I don’t know about professionally, it remains to be seen if I’ll reap any benefits (or at least, just not get laid off) next year, but at home I feel good that I spent a lot of time with my wife and the girls. I’m hoping that time will pay off in future years as we grow as a family. We took the girls out for a drive around the neighborhoods on Friday night to look at Christmas lights. They slept through the whole thing, which was fine with us, we played Behold The Lamb of God in the CD player and enjoyed the quiet as we drove around but I hope we’re at least instilling traditions for the girls and the family.

So, much like I enjoy the time each evening to wind down from a long day, I’m going enjoy these next couple of weeks to wind down from a long year. December has been a busy month with work so I don’t really feel like I’ve had much time to reflect on the Christmas season. Over these next couple of days I’m planning to take some time to engage in some of my own personal traditions to prepare for the Advent and celebrate the arrival of the Christ child for another year later this week.

I don’t think I’ve ever done a comprehensive post about my favorite Christmas music before. I have to confess that I’m a big sucker for Christmas music. Maybe its because I grew up listening to records that mom and dad would start playing weeks before Christmas and it became a ingrained in me. Whatever the case, I love both the cheesy, tacky songs and the serious, solemn songs. I love it all.

However, there’s some Christmas music that’s a little bit throwaway and some that is really deep, really good stuff to listen to. Here’s an attempt on my part to describe some of my absolute favorites, albums that are not only Christmas music, but also just good music in general to listen to. If you know me well, none of these will likely be surprises, but if you’ve never heard them before, I’d enourage you to check them out.

I’ve had this CD now for about 10 years and it still ranks in my Top 5. I listen to it multiple times every winter season. The arrangements are sparse, many songs with just Karin Bergquist’s voice accompanied only by Linford Detweiler’s piano and Chris Dahlgren’s upright bass. Perhaps its because the band was disintegrating at the time they were creating the album that it has such a sound of joy tinged with sadness. It really is heartbroken and beautiful.

I didn’t think any CD would displace The Darkest Night of The Year as my favorite Christmas CD, but this one may have done it. Andrew Peterson teams up with a calvacade of talented artists to tell the “true tall tale of Christmas” reaching all the way back to the laws of Moses through the prophets to the birth of Christ. The arrangements are beautiful and Jill Phillip’s delivery of “Labor of Love” is worth the price alone.

Steve and Derri, both members of The Choir, created a successful set of CD’s called City On A Hill and one of the albums in the series was a Christmas CD and while it’s pretty good, it’s actually based on an earlier album that they did called Noel. I prefer Noel because of its organic sound and off-kilter percussion by Hindalong. Tastefully understated, but still lush in sound. It might be hard to find, but worth it if you can find it.

Sufjan Stevens started out creating Christmas EP’s meant mostly for his friends, but continued to create them even after becoming every hipster’s favorite musician. The boxed set is crammed full of liner notes, stickers, comics, and five CDs that chronicle his growth from simple, sometimes off-key arrangements on his early works to full-blown orchestral pieces on the later CD’s. With over 40 songs, there’s bound to be something for everyone.

If you’re like me, the Charlie Brown Christmas special was a pretty big part of your Christmas childhood. The Vince Guaraldi Trio gives traditional Christmas songs a jazzy feel with nimble fingered piano work. And who can listen to Linus and Lucy without breaking into a smile.

So, those are my favorite Christmas CD’s. What are some of your favorites?

I’m always looking for new ideas and techniques to try with my camera, especially if they are cheap or free. I saw this on Flickr’s blog and I couldn’t resist. Bokeh is a Japanese term for the area that is out of focus in a picture. Lenses that have a open aperture produce a shallow depth-of-field and can keep some objects in focus while throwing other objects out of focus. The 50mm f/1.8 lens is perfect for these kinds of shots (or even the 50mm f/1.4 if you’ve got the money.) Points of light give a nice circular bokeh shape from the blades inside the lens, but if you put a filter on the front of the lens, you can control the shape of the objects by giving the lens a custom aperture.

It’s not hard to create the filter. I took a piece of cardboard and cut a star shape out of it. Then I built a little collar around the filter to make it easy to mount onto the lens. I used some electrical tape to put it together so that light wouldn’t leak into the connections where I taped the cardboard together. Admittedly, I’m not really an arts and crafts type of person, so it’s not perfect, but it’s not bad for a first try.

Here’s the filter mounted onto my lens.

The result is some pretty cool pictures, especially with Christmas trees and Christmas lights….

I’m looking forward to trying this out on some other Christmas lights around the house and perfecting it, but it’s a lot of fun for not a lot of money.

We also have pictures of our girls for Christmas for your perusal, but you’ll have to go here to see them