Did They Know He was the Son of God, Did They Know that He was Lord?

Palm Sunday got me thinking about how much faith the disciples must've had in the days when Jesus walked the earth. To put it in perspective, think about any crazy cult that's popped up in any of our lifetimes, & how people always dismiss them, for good reason. This must be the same thing people in Jesus' day thought about Him. He was laughed at, called crazy, & eventually killed for the things He said & did. Now, don't think I'm comparing Christianity to some fly by night cult, I'm just saying that the same stigma was probably attached to Christianity in those days. I think as Christians sometimes we have it a bit too easy. Being called a Christian is very much a norm in our society, so much so that often we take for granted our freedom to express our beliefs freely. I guess it's what we do with our beliefs that makes a difference. As I often tell my friend who isn't a Christian, it's very easy to scientifically discount the story of the resurrection. There's no scientific basis for someone rising from the dead. Isn't that what faith is all about, believing the unbelievable?

In other news, Christie, Kelly & I went to see Reign Over Me last night. It was pretty good, not great, entertaining if nothing else. Everybody talks about how much a difference it is for Adam Sandler to be playing a serious role, however, I almost think he plays a similar character to many others he's played in the past, except this time it's in a serious script.

I also think that he was made to look like another famous character.







































For all you Three Stooges fans out there, check this out. This is the funniest thing I've seen in ages.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Charm of the Radio-Kevin Davis

The Way-Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Masters & Everyone

Freedom Hangs Like Heaven-Iron & Wine, Woman King

Summer Days-Bob Dylan, Love & Theft

A Hit-Smog, Accumulation: None

Happy Sunday, friends!

andrew

Salute Her When Her Birthday Comes

Christie turns 23 on Saturday, & since I'm lucky enough to see her tomorrow & Saturday this is the last chance I'll get to embarrass her on the internet.

Whenever I talk about something that happened in the past with Christie, I always tend to refer to how old I was the year it happened & then I figure out the math of how old she was. For example, the year I got my driver's license was 1995. I was 16, Christie was 11. 1984 was the year the last year the Detroit Tigers won the World Series. I was five, Christie was...well Christie was alot younger than five.

None of that matters, of course, until you fast forward to 2006. I was 26 at the time, she was 22 & it was the last time we had a dart tournament. I don't remember who won the dart tournament, but I do remember that it was the first time I met Christie. She claims that I didn't talk to her too much that evening, which doesn't surprise me, I'm kind of shy about these things.

Almost a year later she still puts up with me even though I rarely let her listen to her country music in the car, & it's been one of the happiest years of my life.

For those of you unfortunate souls who don't know her, let me tell you a few things about her.

-She hates movies with sad endings.

-She loves ketchup, & will put it on just about anything.

-She loves country music, & once, when I came over to her house, she had the song "Stupid Boy" by Keith Urban on repeat for about an hour & still wasn't tired of it.

-She loves dogs, if she sees one walking by she says with a high pitched voice "0oooh!" & gets excited at the prospect of petting it.

-She loves the beach, the public one.

-She's been to three different continents, but has not yet fulfilled her dream to visit Fiji.

-She loves to clean & organize, & I, being the faithful boyfriend that I am, give her the opportunity to do so on every occasion (okay, maybe it doesn't work quite that way).

-She likes helping people, she once drove all the way back to Grand Rapids to give some lady she didn't know $40 for a place to stay & a bag of chips.

Everything else you'll have to find out for yourself. Happy Birthday, Christie, I love you! "You're so embarrassing!" Okay, I'm sorry.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Stupid Boy-Keith Urban

push it! push it!

Nobody's Fault But My Own-Beck, Mutations

We Live it Again-Beck, Mutations

With These Hands-Alejandro Escovedo, With These Hands

Simple Twist of Fate-Bob Dylan, Frankfurt Germany, 2003

Raise a glass of Diet Coke for Christie's birthday, friends!

andrew

Sing While You Slave

I've often said that I can enjoy doing just about anything as long as I have some good music to listen to. This theory is often either proved right or wrong when I have to stay late at work to get stuff done for the next day. There's just something fun about turning the stereo up extremely loud while doing work you do on a regular basis without having to worry about customers coming in. This was the case tonight. Grandpa used to tell me about this guy he used to work with (working on the railroad?) who always used to sing the song "You Are My Sunshine" to himself & the man always seemed happy. Pretty good advice, if you ask me.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Boom, Like That (Kroc-Style)-Mark Knopfler, Shangri-La

Yes, Indeed!-Frank Sinatra, Come Swing With Me!

I Hear a Sweet Voice Calling-The Handsome Family, Down from the Mountain, 5 Years of Bloodshot Records

Going Home-The Roughnecks, Down from the Mountain, 5 Years of Bloodshot Records

The Least I Could Do-Supersuckers w/Amy Nelson, Down From the Mountain, 5 Years of Bloodshot Records

Happy Tuesday, friends...

andrew

Talkin' Front Porch Gibberish Blues

The recent warm weather reminds me of how much I love sitting out in front of the house. Granted, the front of my house only has honorary front porch status, but it has a couple of seats & a place to put your drink, so it's a front porch to me. One of my goals in life is to have one of those traditional concrete (or wood, depending on the style of the house) porches in a city neighborhood with a brick ledge, & a porch swing hanging from the ceiling. Either that or one of those wrap-around front porches in the country looking out over a corn field, also with a porch swing. But for now, I'll have to settle for my non-elevated concrete slab overlooking the various neighbors on the other side of the street with there various & assorted monstrous trucks, motorcycles, lawnmowers & boats in states of disrepair. I'm not complaining, though.

Some great front porch activities include waving at walkers passing by, reading, listening to tunes, having a chat with friends, drinking a cold beer, smoking a cigar, strumming on a guitar or gently blowing on a harmonica or any combinations of these.

Are you a front porch person or a back porch (or deck) person? Granted, there's probably no psychological basis of what types of people belong in which category, & I won't judge you for your decision, but which are you? I'm sure it depends more on your environs, & which has a better view, more space, etc., but I'm sure you can be objective. Me, I'm a front porch person. Guess where I'm heading?

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

I'm the Man Who Loves You-Wilco, Kicking Television

Is Wilco not the greatest rock & roll band playing today? The other day, I would've said The White Stripes, but they're on hiatus. Who knows who it'll be tomorrow?

Handshake Drugs-Wilco, Kicking Television

The Flower Lady-Phil Ochs, The Stable, East Lansing 1973

Sugar Magnolia-The Grateful Dead, American Beauty

Passenger Side-Wilco, AM

Happy Monday, friends...

andrew

Roll Around Heaven All Day

It's Sunday morning here in Grand Haven, quite possibly the best day to live in my little city. The churches are open, the breakfast joints are open & the book store. Other than that, there's not much. The best thing is that the paint store is definitely not open. Sunday is often my only day off, it's not the case this week, but I'm going to enjoy it like it is anyway. I think I'll go to church & out to breakfast. Other than that, I don't plan on doing much. What I love about Sunday is that it's socially acceptable not to do anything that requires too much effort.

It's got me thinking about that great ol' song called "That Lucky Ol' Sun". The song was originally a hit for Frankie Laine in 1949, & it has since been covered by all sorts of people like Ray Charles, the Sisters of Mercy, Johnny Cash, Louis Armstrong, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, but my favorite comes from the late great Jerry Garcia with his side band (I don't think the Grateful Dead ever covered this one).


That Lucky Old Sun

Lyrics: Haven Gillespie, Beasley Smith
Music: Haven Gillespie, Beasley Smith

Up in the mornin', out on the job
Work like the devil for my pay
But that lucky old sun has nothin' to do
But roll, roll around heaven all day

Fuss with my woman, toil with my kids
Sweat till I'm wrinkled and grey
While that lucky old sun got nothin' to do
But roll, roll around heaven all day

Lord above, can't you hear me pinin'?
Tears all in my eyes
Send down that cloud with a silver linin'
Lift me up to Paradise

Show me that river, take me across
Wash all my troubles away
Like that lucky old sun, give me nothin' to do
But roll, roll around heaven all day

Show me that river, take me across
Wash all my troubles away
Like that lucky old sun, give me nothin' to do
But roll around heaven
Let me roll around heaven
I just wanna roll around heaven
All day

In other news & notes, Christie & I rented a couple of movies last night. How it usually works is she picks out one & I pick out another as our tastes in movies are quite divergent. She picked out Stranger Than Fiction starring Will Farrell. Now, I'm usually quite hesitant about watching movies starring former Saturday Night Live cast members, but this was quite good. Good plot, good acting, it even had a happy ending (which saved the movie for Christie, otherwise she said she would've hated it :)). My pick was Running With Scissors, which we haven't watched that one yet. I'll let you know.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day (it's early, but I've already listened to five songs)

Yeah! Heavy & a Bottle of Bread!-Bob Dylan, Brixton 2003

Try a Little Tenderness-Jimmy Durante

That Lucky Ol' Sun-the Jerry Garcia Band

Bisbee Blue-Calexico, Garden Ruin

I Send My Love to You-Bonnie "Prince" Billy sings Greatest Palace Music

Happy Sunday morning, friends!

andrew

Coming, Going

(great picture, Heidi)

It's a thunderstorming, melancholy first day of spring. I remember when I was young being heartily disappointed that there was frost on the first day of spring. There was a nifty thunderstorm this evening, with bolts of lightning that appeared to divide this little town in two.

I've already worked out, & I'm going to put off cleaning until tomorrow, so I figured I'd delve into a little Larkin. Philip Larkin is not a poet you want to read if you want to be uplifted, but if he throws in the smallest bit of happiness it speaks volumes.

I heard a rumor this weekend that Grams found some poetry of Gramps lying around. I sure hope it's true, I had no idea. Anyway, 'til then...

Coming

On longer evenings,
Light, chill & yellow,
Bathes the serene
Foreheads of houses.
A thrush sings,
Laurel-surrounded
In the deep bare garden,
Its fresh-peeled voice
Astonishing the brickwork.
It will be spring soon,
It will be spring soon -
And I, whose childhood
Is a forgotten boredom,
Feel like a child
Who comes on a scene
Of adult reconciling,
And can understand nothing
But the unusual laughter,
And starts to be happy.

Philip Larkin, the Less Deceived, 1955

Going

There is an evening coming in
Across the fields, one never seen before,
That lights no lamps.

Silken it seems at a distance, yet
When it is drawn up over the knees and breast
It brings no comfort.

Where has the tree gone, that locked
Earth to the sky? What is under my hands,
That I cannot feel?

What loads my hands down?

The Less Deceived, 1955

Spring

Green shadowed people sit, or walk in rings,
Their children finger the awakened grass,
Calmly a cloud stands, calmly a bird sings,
And, flashing like a dangled looking-glass,
Sun lights the balls that bounce, the dogs that bark,
The branch-arrested mist of leaf, and me,
Threading my pursed-up way across the park,
An indigestible sterility.

Spring, of all seasons most gratuitous,
Is fold of untaught flower, is race of water,
Is earth's most multiple, excited daughter;

And those she has least use for see her best,
Their paths grown craven and circuitous,
Their visions mountain-clear, their needs immodest.

The Less Deceived

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

The Sky is Crying-Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Sky is Crying

Lillian, Egypt-Josh Ritter, The Animal Years

I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine-Vic Chesnutt, Drunk

Folded Hands-Kevin Davis & Jason Lamb, Jazz Box, Volume 1

Trials & Troubles-Old Crow Medicine Show

Happy Wednesday, friends...

andrew

There's some people that you don't forget, even though you only seen 'em one time or two...

I had a meeting in Grand Rapids this morning, & although I'm quite happy to live only a couple of minutes from work, I forgot how much fun the morning drive into work could be. The drive to & from work was always the best music listening time, since there's nothing else to do except drive & listen to tunes. Christie always makes fun of me for grabbing a stack of cd's for the shortest of car rides. This dates back to driving back & forth 45 minutes to get to good ol' Lutheran High Westland, & has continued through driving back & forth to Lansing from Grand Rapids & to Grand Haven from Grand Rapids to work. You kind of plan things out, for the first half hour you listen to something that is good, but there's not as much pressure on the first half hour. The last ten minutes, however, you plan it out so that you can hear a great song in it's entirety ending just as you get to work.

I also was reminded today of how rude people can be on the road. It must be easier to be mean to people on the road when you don't really have to deal with anybody face to face. Bumper stickers, for example, are the biggest example of passive aggressive rudeness. By putting a bumper sticker on your car, you can insult somebody (or at least try) from a 3" by 6" sticker. I saw one today that said "take that hippy! four more years!" & it had a picture of George Bush on it. Does this mean that everyone who didn't vote for George Bush is a hippy? Does it imply that everyone who didn't vote for George Bush are going to "get theirs" as a result of their decision? Gloria, who knows my strange sense of humor, bought me a t-shirt that mirrored a popular bumper sticker: "Vegetarian: Indian for Bad Hunter". I wear it proudly.

It doesn't end there, however. I've never quite understood the act of giving somebody the finger. If you were to see somebody in person, without the security of your car, & you gave them the finger, or said something of similar effect, there's a good chance you'd get punched in the nose. Mike & I were driving to dinner this evening, & we drove past somebody coming the opposite direction on his street. He was driving a big ol' Lincoln, & as I drove past him he gave me the finger. Why? I don't know. I asked Mike if I did anything wrong. He told me that it was because I was driving a new car. Go figure.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Cold Blooded Old Times-Smog, Accumulation: None

Mama, Won't You Keep Them Castles in the Air & Burning?-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Some Loud Thunder

Ain't Talkin'-Bob Dylan, New York City, 2006

Hard to Tell-Old Crow Medicine Show

Peaceable Kingdom-Patti Smith, Trampin'

Happy Tuesday, friends! Say hello to strangers & neighbors alike!

andrew