265 - casual reading

Here are a couple of books that I got for Christmas that I have casually been reading over the last couple of months:

U2 By U2
This is a coffee table sized book. It covers the span of the bands career with personal autobiographical stories, interviews, and great photos. I love it. I am a fan of the band and learning one's backstory and creative process has alway intrigued me.

Rick Steves' Venice 2007
I have always enjoyed Rick Steve's outlook on travel and I am jealous that he has a great job. He loves life, people, and travel. Vernal and I learned some great tips through his other books on our previous travels through Europe. I thought I get a good handle on Venice and the region before I head out.

Sidenote: Rick Steves' has a travel podcast through iTunes that is really good. It captures his quirky personality and informs on great travel destinations around the globe.

264 - february book

To Own a Dragon by Don MillerMy wife picked up this book at the MOPS convention where Don Miller was a guest speaker. Later she got him to sign our copy where he expressed his love to the both of us.Basically, this book is about growing up without a father, the need for mentoring of fatherless boys, and really understanding the concept of Heavenly Father. To Don, having a father was something he read about or saw on TV. The idea of having a father was just as foreign as a story he once read about a boy who owned a dragon. As far as life experiences, he felt he never learned the things he was suppose to about being a man, being responsible. That was a special club and he wasn't invited.

Don writes in his usual humble, matter of fact memoir style filled with humor and personal stories.

I used to tease my friend Brian about wearing band t-shirts, but he said they are always great conversation starters. He is right, I wore one recently and immediately had someone identify that they liked the band.

I found the same thing true with books. When I read in public spaces there is always someone being nosy seeing what your reading and ready to comment if there is a commonality. This happened recently with my Don Miller book. I was at the gym and a man in his '60's told me that he is reading Don's books. He was really excited about his writing and thought that Don was doing good things for Christianity. I was surprised. I agree with him, but I never imagined Don's writing to connect with an older audience. Another person recently told me that she gets mad reading Blue Like Jazz, but realizes that she is mad at herself. She sees herself in the described situations and then the convictions sets in.

It is interesting to see author where people have such strong feelings and emotion. I look forward to read more from him.

263 - january music, part 3

This will end January music.
The Good, The Bad & The Queen

I have to admit, that I was interested in this project because it is as some people call - a supergroup - with members from different bands that I like (Blur, Gorillaz, the Verve, the Clash.) I do like this album and I have come to the conlusion that I like it for its great atmosphere and rich texture. It has great noise between the musical notes. It's that noise, or atmosphere, on the whole of the album that takes me on an interesting musical journey. In movie terms, this album sounds to me like a dream (or nightmare) of a futuristic, western showdown at a carnival late at night played out in slow-motion.

Listen at their myspace.



The Brothers Martin

Another supergroup - no one has called them that - but to many of their loyal fans this is great pairing. Two of my favorite brothers and bands (Ronnie=Joy Electric, Jason=Starflyer 59) joined forces to write songs that they love to write. It is an electronic rock album, as you would expect, much in the vein of New Order, yet sound distinctly like Ronnie and Jason. They both share music writing duties and switch off on the vocals. This album is like a singles album, because every song could be a hit. (in a perfect world, because not many people will hear this album.) Oh well. I love it.

Listen at their Myspace.

262 - january music, part 2

More January music continued...
Hooverphonic - No More Sweet Music

I have a couple of their earlier records and like them a lot. The band is from Belgium and they play an electronic/trip-hop/pop brand of music with female vocals. This was a total impulse buy for me because I had no idea they had any newer albums. This ablum was released in 2005. Anyway, I was just browsing at Border's when I discovered the lone album hidden within the "H's."

The interesting thing about this ablum is that it is a double disc with the same songs in the same order on both discs. One disc is call More Sweet Music and the other is No More Sweet Music. The second disc is not a remix of the original song, but rather re-recordings of the same songs. I don't think the band gave preference to which disc is more important. There is not a number 1 and 2 for the disc, so I don't know what was intended as the original. The band probably meant it that way. Think about it...when you write a song, usually it is done really basic on a piano or guitar. You get together with the band and record it during the studio. The recording can go in any number of different ways with different instruments, vocal takes, etc. But only one version appears on the record. This was kind of cool to see songs can take different shapes and yes, maybe one version is better than the other, but maybe not.

Listen at their myspace.


El Perro Del Mar

Oh My Gosh! I don't know how to begin to tell you how much I love this disc. Amazing. This band or rather girl is from Sweden and her music has been discribed as folk pop, but I don't think that accurately discribes her sound. Yes, she uses and acoustic guitar as the main instrument, but their is nothing folky about it. Her music has a shimmery cosmopolitan sound that might remind of the 60's girl pop bands. The music is simple, the percussion is simple (handclaps or a tamborine), and the voice is achingly beautiful. Can happy music sound so sad? The lyrics are simple - often two or three lines repeated over and over. The music and voice is amazing. The music will build and the voices are layered. Really the music is simple but all the vocal tracks make it feel big. Lots of ooohs and aaaahs, and sha-la-la's. There is not a dud track on the record; it's hard to pick a favorite, because they are all so good.

Listen at her myspace.
Watch the delightful video God Knows (you got to give to get) here.

261 - january music, part 1

I have had a great time this last month going to the stores and seeking out new music. These were all purchased with gift cards from Christmas.
Joanna Newsom - Ys

I may have a hard time describing this album.

There has been much talk about this album...people really love it or really hate...really beautiful or really grating. Ys ended up on many critics top 1o of 2006 list and I had to find out. This is the kind of risk I am willing to take with music.

What is the music like? I think some describe it as folk or classical or fantastical (otherworldly in a very organic way.) Some compare her voice to Bjork, but only in the sense that it is very unique. Joanna Newsom plays the harp and that is the main backbone to all the songs, which are then accompanied by standard classical instruments. The album consists of 5 songs ranging from 7 minutes to 17 minutes - not your standard pop fare. She sings throughout the bulk of the songs with no long instrumentals. The song structure is very story oriented without your typical verse, verse, chorus, verse format. It reminds me a bit of the long songs in the Lord of the Rings and the music does have a bit of the medieval, renaissance, middle earth feel.

This album rides the fine line of being completly nuts or completely genius and I haven't made up my mind yet, but I am leaning toward the genius side. I find myself coming back to it. I haven't figured it out yet; it's interesting - and that's a good thing.

Watch documentary here .
Listen here.

Juana Molina - Tres Cosas

Juana Molina has been one of my favorite finds of the year. I got here newest album last month and Tres Cosas is an earlier album from 2004. I love her style: minimal electronics and layering of vocals with acoustic instrumentations. The power of her music doesn't hit you with a quick sample or one stand alone song. You have to soak in the whole album to get the full essence of the music. It is very down tempo and chill out, so it makes a great background sountrack for painting, reading, eating, or conversation.

Listen here.

260 - january book

"Evil is beyond the reach of no man."
"But can a man remove himself beyond the reach of evil?"

This months book to read was Thr3e by Ted Dekker. What I like about Dekker's writing is the way he can take a spiritual concept and use the story to flesh it out in a way that allows me to ponder those concepts versus being hit over the head with a sermon.

This thriller is about a seminary student who is targeted by a serial killer who works in riddles. The killer wants the protagonist to solve a riddle and confess his sin in a certain time amount and if he fails something blows up. The killer works in sequences of threes - 30, 60, 90 minutes, etc. and has a thing for opposites. The killer believes he is really no different form the seminary student - that sins of murder are equal with sins of gossip.

The themes of this book are inspired by the age old dilemma stated by Paul in Romans:
"For what I do is no the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing."