Making Faces

Juliette is an expert at making faces. She could set your hair in ringlets with her smile and then turn it into a frizzy mess with her glare. For example...

Juliette, can you look happy?
Juliette, can you look mad?
Juliette, can you look like you're done with the camera for now?

Year End Update

Time for a year-end update - we were pretty ambitious in last year's resolutions. For instance, this was going to be the year in which Ben made a pie a month. That did not happen. He got behind in January and never caught up. I, on the other hand, made six pies, even though I did not have any pie-related resolutions. But I can't rib Ben too much; I was going to do a photo-a-week, and that petered out in March or so. Hmm. Elizabeth did a 365 +1 in 2008, and Marie is present finishing up her 2009 365. It would appear that it is my turn to take a photo a day, every day. Gulp. I don't do so well with resolutions, and 2010 is shaping up to be a humdinger of a year. I'm not making any promises.

On the book front - books I've read, not the book I'm writing - I did a final tally the other day. After reading almost 50 books in 2008, the loss of all those lovely nursing hours left me at 29 for 2009. Maybe I'll finish In the Midst of Chaos: Caring for Children as Spiritual Practice and make it an even 30 for the year. I do recommend it based on the 1/2 I've read so far.

There are 701 books on my GoodReads to-read list, but I'm only going to name ten I seriously intend to read in 2010 (I repeat: humdinger of a year).

1. I finally, finally want to finish Eugene Peterson's Christ Plays in 10,000 Places. It's such a rich book I can't seem to read more than a chapter a year.

2. Walking on Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution by Derrick Jensen

3. Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffennegger

4. This Odd and Wondrous Calling: The Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers, Lillian Daniel and Martin Copenhaver

5. The Help, Kathryn Stockett

6. Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor

7. Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America, Firoozeh Jazayeri Dumas

8. The Second Twilight Book, Whatever Her Name Is (did I mention 2010 is going to be a humdinger?)

9. The New Christians: Dispatches from The Emergent Frontier, Tony Jones

10. Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout

Here's to a happy 2010.

Christmas Recap

I'm home alone today, writing. Ben and Juliette are off exploring Hollywood with Grandpy and Monica. This has been a mostly-wonderful Christmas. I wish I were able to manage doing some of the basic holiday stuff, like sending Christmas cards. I also really wish I could get my act together and get gifts sent on time. I'm still knitting away on gifts that should have been under trees yesterday morning. The other item on the grinch report is that I took very few pictures, and none that were especially good.
Despite feeling lousy about my holiday shortcomings, it really was a mostly-wonderful Christmas. This was the first time we've ever hosted family members on a holiday, and we had a great time. I did just the right amount of cooking, and everything turned out delicious. Menu: pork roasted with garlic and sage, comprehensively stuffed squash, biscuits from the cold aisle at Trader Joes, and the biggest winners, pumpkin and strawberry rhubarb pies with homemade whipped cream. I'm telling you, that strawberry rhubarb pie was to die for. The strawberries and rhubarb came from the Santa Monica farmers market, and the pumpkin puree was frozen from the Thanksgiving pie leftovers. Yay for locally-grown yummy stuff.

Juliette did so well yesterday. We were a little worried that she would be overwhelmed, but she handled the hubbub beautifully. She received so many great gifts from friends and family. From us she got a helmet and a betta fish named Bluebeard. Blue for short.
My blog-friend, Mindi, with whom I would love to be neighbors in real life, made Ben's Christmas by giving me the heads up on a great deal on the Arrested Development series DVD set. We have many hours of guffawing ahead of us.

The Christmas services at church were made especially lovely and meaningful by the return of a church member who had been very ill for over a year. My heart sang when she walked through the doors.

Last night we heard the news that a baby was born! Juliette's best friend, Lila, has a brand new little brother. We can't wait to meet him.

This is our tree. Until a week ago, we didn't have a tree topper. But Juliette decorated this hand-drawn star at school, and I can't imagine ever replacing it. It's perfect.
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a very happy Boxing Day.

Winter in Southern California

We really do have seasons here in Southern California. We don't spend all winter lazing around in outdoor swimming pools, for instance.

Or maybe we do...

Paste: Best Books of the Decade

Paste Magazine has another list - top twenty books of the decade. My book percentage is much higher than my music percentage. The ones I've read are in bold, and they were all phenomenal books.

20. Chuck Klosterman: Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story [Scribner] (2005)

19. Malcolm Gladwell: The Tipping Point [Little Brown] (2000)

18. Donald Miller: Blue Like Jazz [Thomas Nelson] (2003)

17. Carl Wilson: Let’s Talk About Love (A Journey To The End Of Taste) [Continuum] (2007)

16. Joseph O’Neill: Netherland [Vintage] (2008)

15. Eric Schlosser: Fast Food Nation [Houghton Mifflin] (2001)

14. J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter [Bloomsbury] (1998-2007)

13. Ian McEwan: Atonement [Nan A. Talese] (2002)

12. Doug Blackmon: Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II [Doubleday] (2008)

11. David Sedaris: Me Talk Pretty One Day [Little, Brown and Company] (2000)

10. David Foster Wallace: Consider The Lobster And Other Essays [Little, Brown and Company] (2005)

9. Jonathan Safran Foer: Everything Is Illuminated [Harper Perennial] (2002)

8. Joan Didlon: The Year of Magical Thinking [Knopf] (2005)

7. Craig Thompson: Blankets [Top Shelf Productions] (2003)

6. Markus Zusak: The Book Thief [Knopf] (2005)

5. Jeffrey Eugenides: Middlesex [Picador] (2002)

4. Marilynne Robinson: Gilead [Farrar, Straus and Giroux] (2004)

3. Cormac McCarthy: The Road [Knopf] (2006)

2. Dave Eggers: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius [Simon & Schuster] (2000)

1. Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay [Random House] (2000)




9/20.

Music + Evangelism

Have you heard of Noisetrade?

Take a quick look at the sidebar on your right; as of this posting, it includes a Noisetrade widget for The Bewildering Light, a Christmas album by the Chicago band So Elated. The widget allows you to download the entire album by either paying what you want or emailing five friends. Artists can participate free of charge, and their fans can then access the widget codes and add them to their own sites - as I did with this one. It's a way for under the radar artists to gain listeners through viral communication. It was founded by Derek Webb; he had noted a substantial increase in merchandise and ticket sales after he shared Mockingbird in a similar manner a few years ago.

Let me break into this moderately boring description of a cool music website by gushing about how much I love The Bewildering Light. I can't stop listening to it. It's a perfect blend of traditional Christmas carols arranged in a sort of understated lo-fi indie style (think Iron & Wine), and then a handful of original songs that dig deeply into the stories of Advent. I am especially smitten with the song "Zechariah and the Least Expected Places," and took the time to transcribe the lyrics this morning because I'm pretty sure I'm going to quote them in my sermon on Sunday:

Jerusalem and the holy temple filled with smoke
Zechariah shuns the news from the angel of hope
Stuck behind an incense cloud of religion and disappointment

God keeps slipping out of underneath rocks
in alleys off the beaten path
Open both your eyes.

Prophets and kings and poets can contribute their work
just like eggs in a nest are alive with the promise of birds
But the Lord of Creation will not be subjected to expectation

God keeps slipping out of underneath rocks
in alleys off the beaten path
Open both your eyes.

Elizabeth, barren, her knees black and dirty like coal
her consistent prayers float to the sky and revive her soul
God we will wait though we don't understand your redemptive story

God keeps slipping out of underneath rocks
in alleys off the beaten path
Open both our eyes.

I love it. Love it. And I highly recommend that you trot off to Noisetrade or use the widget to add it to your own Christmas music collection. Pay what you want or pass the good news along to five friends.

Okay, were you paying attention to that little spiel? That was me being completely open about my passion for something I like, and encouraging you to check it out, too, just in case you might also like it too.

That was me being evangelical.

I've been evangelical about music ever since I started listening to it. When I was in elementary school I was even a little snide about it; I distinctly remember arguing that Tiffany was way better than Debbie Gibson. I've prided myself in the number of Over the Rhine converts I've created, by slipping impeccably chosen mixed CDs to the right person at the right time.

Back to Noisetrade. Derek Webb emerged from the evangelical Christian world. Nowadays he seems perhaps a bit post-evangelical; he certainly doesn't fit into the old school definitions of an evangelical. Many - though not all - of the artists on Noisetrade are also Christians, although very few are on "CCM" labels. I started to say that only some of their songs are overtly "Christian," but I realize that's misleading. There are a few traditional hymns and contemporary worship songs on Noisetrade, but there are also a lot of songs about love, loss, doubt, and justice. One download is a compilation by artists who did an Art Music Justice tour together.

It makes so much sense to me that evangelicals (or post-evangelicals, as the case may be) would extrapolate the very practice that defines them - a passion to share the good news - into the realm of music.

I know that I've learned a lot about evangelism from my willingness - no, my eagerness - to talk about the bands I love. Obviously there are cultural taboos and social niceties that make talking about Jesus at a dinner party slightly different than talking about Over the Rhine at a dinner party. But still... given how much I love Jesus, it's a wonder I haven't yet emailed five friends to gush about him lately.

After all, I have gushed about "Jesus in New Orleans," the Over the Rhine song.

I Wanna See

This video demonstrates why it is difficult to get good videos of Juliette. And also how cute she is. :)

A Decade of Great Music (some of which we own)

Paste released their top 50 albums of the decade. If you're not familiar with Paste, it's a magazine about music and more that so closely mirrors our taste that sometimes it's a little creepy. Our iPod perpetually sounds like a Paste mix (every issue comes with a CD).

Here's their fantastic list of the top 50 albums of the decade; the ones we own are in bold.

50 Björk - Vespertine (Elektra, 2001)
49 Libertines - Up The Bracket (Rough Trade, 2002)
48 Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose (Interscope, 2004)
47 Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (Domino, 2006)
46 Once - Music From The Motion Picture (Columbia, 2007)
45 Radiohead - In Rainbows (self-released, 2007)
44 The Jayhawks - Rainy Day Music (Lost Highway, 2003)
43 Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala (Secretly Canadian, 2007)
42 Jay-Z - The Blueprint (Roc-A-Fella, 2001)
41 LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (Capitol, 2007)
40 TV on the Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain (Interscope, 2006)
39 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (Merge, 2007)
38 Gentleman Jesse - Introducing Gentleman Jesse (Douchemaster, 2008)
37 Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days (Sub Pop, 2004)
36 Pedro The Lion - Control (Jade Tree, 2002)
35 Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino, 2009)
34 Various artists - O Brother Where Art Thou? (Mercury, 2001)
33 Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head (Capitol, 2002)
32 The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (Warner Bros., 2002)
31 Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism (Barsuk, 2003)
30 Damien Rice - O (Vector, 2003)
29 Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar, 2008)
28 Paul Westerberg - Folker (Vagrant, 2004)
27 Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day (New West, 2003)
26 Over the Rhine - Ohio (2004)
25 Sigur Rós - Med ud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust (XL, 2008)
24 The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow (Sub Pop, 2003)
23 Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker (Bloodshot, 2000)
22 The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (Capitol, 2006)
21 Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (XL, 2008)
20 The National - Boxer (Beggars Banquet, 2007)
19 Beck - Sea Change (Interscope, 2002)
18 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black (Universal Republic, 2007)
17 Kanye West - The College Dropout (Roc-A-Fella, 2004)
16 Rufus Wainwright - Want One (Dreamworks, 2003)
15 Patty Griffin - 1000 Kisses (ATO, 2002)
14 The Strokes - Is This It (RCA, 2001)
13 Josh Ritter - The Animal Years (V2, 2006)
12 Spoon - Kill the Moonlight (Merge, 2002)
11 The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America (Vagrant, 2006)
10 M.I.A. - Arular (Interscope, 2005)
09 The Avett Brothers - I And Love And You (Columbia/American, 2009)
08 OutKast - Stankonia (Arista/LaFace, 2000)
07 Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator) (Acony, 2001)
06 The White Stripes - Elephant (V2, 2003)
05 Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (Saddle Creek, 2005)
04 Radiohead - Kid A (Capitol, 2000)
03 Arcade Fire - Funeral (Merge, 2004)
02 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Nonesuch, 2002)
01 Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty, 2005)

So... 18 out of 50. We have a song or two off some of the other records, and other albums by some of the artists. I'm sure my sisters are reading this and saying things like, "How can you not have that Josh Ritter CD?", etc.

What are your favorite albums of the decade?

Ten on Tuesday

1. Juliette has been walking for one year. We celebrated by getting her a much-needed new pair of shoes.

2. Juliette: I WANNA EAT! I WANNA EAT! I WANNA EAT!
Mama: What do you want to eat?
Juliette: Um... um... EAT!
Repeat at least 18 times a day, plus many variations. Like:
Mama: Do you want some yogurt?
Juliette: YES!!
Mama gives Juliette yogurt
Juliette: NO! NO! NO!

3. I'm relatively sure Thanksgiving happened, but I missed the festivities. After a fall full of various and sundry colds, I came down with a nasty case of strep throat. I was very, very thankful for antibiotics. We did miss out on our annual trip to visit family in AZ, but hopefully we'll reschedule soon.

4. In the clearest example of what pregnancy brain can do to an otherwise normal human being, consider this shirt:
I bought it on clearance at Target for $3.74 while hugely pregnant with Juliette. Just in case the depth of my folly is unclear, let me describe it. It is not merely electric blue leopard print; it is shiny polyester electric blue leopard print. And it is huge. I cannot imagine what I was thinking. Note that the tag is still on it; apparently I came to my senses before I encased my baby bump in its gaudy glory. I had to take a picture of it before it for posterity before it went out with the donation bags.

5. My apologies if you liked that shirt. I did too, once. Enough to shell out nearly $4 for it.

6. My musician of the week is Sara Groves. After having gone a really long time without actively seeking out new music, I'm practically overloaded on wonderful new-to-me artists.

7. I love her profile. By which I mean the adorable turn of her nose, not anything to do with social networking.
8. I'm so excited for Advent and Christmas this year. As usual, we're keeping things pretty simple at church, and we have family coming and going all month long.

9. I do have a LOT of knitting to do between now and when gifts need to be shipped.

10. The kiddo is ready for bedtime. Nighty-night!