oo pretty design

Just found these cool posters by C. S. Neal on Mint:

Fleet Foxes! Love them!

Eat Local and Grow Food. Amen!

New York Times Book Review

new school of seven bells! yay!!

There's a new album out by School of Seven Bells, called Disconnect From Desire, and there are a couple songs that are being showcased online that are very excellent! Both songs that I've heard "Babylonia" and "Windstorm" echo similar sounds from their debut album Alpinisms. "Babylonia" is driving guitars, tambourine, laser-esque electronic sounds and melodic female voices. "Windstorm" is a little more mellow (strangely starting out with this odd humming/alarm sound), with a very simple and repetitive melody. I love the part where the two females have 2 different singing parts and they weave in-and-out of eachother. Very pretty! And here is the best part: they are coming to Tallahassee, to Club Downunder, October 12th! Woohoooooo! Here is "Babylonia" for your listening pleasure.

this life

This life, therefore, is not righteousness
but growth in righteousness,
not health but healing,
not being but becoming,
not rest but exercise.
We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it;
the process is not yet finished but it is going on.
This is not the end but it is the road;
all does not yet gleam in glory,
but all is being glorified.

--Martin Luther

brothertiger

i couldn't get enough of this song today! as the music blogger said that shared this mp3, "Chilled out dance seems to be the ‘in thing’ at the moment...", and he's totally right. upon looking at other blogs, it appears that the correct genre for describing this music is dream wave. i'm getting into other groups with a similar sound, like Washed Out and Delorean, and this is someone else that is on the radar now! check out "Feel", courtesy of The Line of Best Fit.

summer reading book review

I just finished reading two books: I'm a Stranger Here Myself and Dead Women Walking. I thoroughly enjoyed them both.

Bill Bryson's book I'm a Stranger Here Myself is a collection of writings (that he submitted to the newspaper he was working for at the time) about coming back to the United States after having lived abroad in Great Britain for 20 years, and the subsequent wonder (and frustration!) at all that had changed in that time. His stories are hilarious as always! It gives you an understanding about culture differences between British and Americans, gives you reasons to love our country, and of course, reasons to wish it was more like Great Britain. He talks of things from his childhood, like quaint little diners and drive-in theaters that have all but vanished. Another aspect of growing up were skeezy motels that were all part of the adventure of road trips, that have nowadays improved greatly to have more than 3 rings holding up the shower curtain. I loved his family stories, his nostalgic reveries, and his hilariously descriptive language. 4.5 out of 5 stars!

Dead Women Walking was about 3 working-class Taiwanese women, that each struggle with difficulties in life: emotional, physical, marital, and especially spiritual. We see their stories interwoven throughout, with similarities of drunken husbands and abuse affecting all three. One woman was even possessed by evil spirits--I had to stop reading it right before bed because I got creeped out! Three-quarters of the way through we meet Elisabeth Weinmann, a German missionary, who is called by the Lord to be a missionary in Taiwan. Having learned that most evangelism is usually only done among middle and higher classes, she started reaching out to working-class women by distributing magazines in their shops. Elisabeth is introverted, and felt uneasy among strangers, but the Lord strengthened her to reach out to these lost women. In the book, we learn about Taiwanese culture, and what maladies affect the working-class. This book delves into what Taiwanese women have to struggle with, and demonstrates that their only salvation from their struggles is Jesus. 3 out of 5 stars.

Learning to Drive by Meredith McDonough

While dropping cheerios
that multiplied on contact with the car floor,
and accidentally memorizing the lyrics
of all of Whitney Houston's radio hits
as you traveled from schools, grocery stores, homes, hotels
and all the innumerable destinations
of your slow childhood
you unwittingly became expert
in the sensation of coming to a stop
in a vehicle weighing several thousand pounds
that feels like an extension of your own small body.

You are astonished when you attempt to teach your girlfriend
who has mastered the theories of Industrial Engineering
and who grew up running the labyrinthine streets of Shanghai
has not learned the undulation of slowing.

Hurtling forward in a metal cage,
much like a yolk in an unbroken egg,
you feel the same fear
as the day you decided you would not learn to swim
floating in the ocean, sipping air
moving your limbs without coordination
achieving neither forward nor backward
trapped in a machine you didn't understand.