A Trip to the Buck

This morning I was driving Cheryl downtown to the Kroger Headquarters and we stopped by Starbucks Coffee on our way to get a coupla cups as well as to stock up on a couple pounds of my favorite coffee, Sulawesi. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were actually brewing Sulawesi as the coffee of the day, which I pointed out was unusual. The fact that I engaged in conversation with a stranger is odd enough, I typically keep my mouth zipped. I guess I was so elated that Sulawesi was the coffee of the day, I couldn't help it. But the barista (that's the technical Starbucks term for what they call these cats with the green aprons) commented: "Yeah, I don't know why we don't brew it more often. It's way better than a lot of the crap we serve."

Now, I'm no business expert, but I did work at the "Buck" for a year right after college so I'm pretty sure to call the other coffee's "crap" regardless of how great Sulawesi is isn't the best idea. That being said, I agreed with him. Especially Sumatra. Crappity, crap, crap, crap. The clerk liked Sulawesi and Verona best, for the record. According to him, they are NOT In the crap category.

That was my trip to Starbucks this morning. Woohoo.

Now I know there are some Starbucks haters around. I know, they run the little guy out, they could be better at taking care of coffee farmers, they are like legal drug dealers, etc. But there are a few reasons I love Starbucks:

(1) They generally serve good coffee. I say generallybecause it is possible to get crumby coffee there. And I would say MORE likely since they have the fancy new automated espresso machines.
(2) They are ubiquitous. I mean...they're everywhere, if you've been to Chicago you know they occupy every corner and there are probably half a dozen on every block and anywhere I go I know I can get a decent cup.
(3) They provide health benefits and stock options for part-time employees. This was key for me as a post-college, part time church working kid. Full benefits with dental and vision for $15 a month? Stock options? Killer. When I have a tough day I daydream about going back to work at Starbucks.
(4) They have Sulawesi. I love it. And I haven't found another coffe that I love as much as Sulawesi. Love it, love it, love it.
(5) They have good customer service. If your drink sucks, tell them and they'll apologize, give you a new one and probably give you a coupon for a free one next time.

Enough is enough. Drink up.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

Alright, so I'm obviously late on the take, which is good because it means I don't have to wait as long but I just found out from the AP that the new Harry Potter book, the last one, drops July 21st. I'll be dressed up in costume and waiting at Barnes and Noble to get my copy at midnight. Actually...I'll probably just pre-order it from Amazon. Potter for President.

Anyway...I have a reason to live again.

Here is the American book cover & the two British covers:

Easter Ad

I made some Easter Ads for the church & threw this one in for fun. I wish we could actually use it:

And this one is just ridiculous. And maybe blasphemous? Nothing says Happy Easter like a little blasphemy.

Indexed

So there's a great blog over at www.indexed.blogspot.com here's a couple examples:

Lich my Heim

Alright...so the ferry's being dog-lovers, inherited from the venerable Robert Schueler, this brings a tear to my eye. Not really. But it is sickeningly inspiritational. I'm not sure which is more remarkable, Rich doing the Heimylich on Crockett or this.

5 bucks says mom cries.

Owner Says Dog Saved Her With 'Heimlich'

CALVERT, Md. (AP) -- Toby, a 2-year-old golden retriever, saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman's chest. The dog's owner believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life.

Debbie Parkhurst, 45, of Calvert told the Cecil Whig she was eating an apple at her home Friday when a piece lodged in her throat. She attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver on herself but it didn't work. After she began beating on her chest, she said Toby noticed and got involved.

"The next think I know, Toby's up on his hind feet and he's got his front paws on my shoulders," she recalled. "He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest."

That's when the apple dislodged and Toby started licking her face to keep her from passing out, she said.

"I literally have pawprint-shaped bruises on my chest. I'm still a little hoarse, but otherwise, I'm OK," Parkhurst said.

"The doctor said I probably wouldnt be here without Toby," said Parkhurst, a jewelry artist. "I keep looking at him and saying 'Youre amazing.'"

Dearly Beloved...

...we've gathered here to say our goodbyes to the album.
In memory of our dearly departed, The Album, here are my current top five albums, based strictly on playing time on my stereo:

Village Green Preservation Society by The Kinks
Born Again in the USA by Loose Fur
New Magnetic Wonder by the Apples In Stereo
Dreamt For Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain by Sparklehorse
Boys and Girls in America by The Hold Steady

I'm sure that if there were more album covers like Zip Zap Rap this never would have happened.

1975 Ball Buster Game Commercial

Dog Diary vs. Cat Diary

Alright, so we all get bajillions of cheesy emails that waste our time. However...occasionally one comes that's quite amusing. Ergo, this:

Excerpts from a Dog's Moleskine:

8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!

9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!

9:40 am - A walk! My favorite thing!

10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!

12:00 pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!

1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!

3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!

5:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing!

7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!

8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!

11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!



Excerpts from a Cat's Moleskine:

Day 983 of my captivity. My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.

They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape.

In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet. Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am. Bastards! They don't understand my power!

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the
duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my
confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his
feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe... for now...

The Wisdom of Children

This is from the New Yorker via Marko's blog. Pretty good stuff.

By the way...way to go after the Librarian career. I considered that possibility until I realized you had to have at least 4 Masters degrees or whatever to be one. And I didn't want anyone calling me Marion. Which, you realize will be your new nickname, right?

Anyway...from the New Yorker...

I. A Conversation at the Grownup Table, as Imagined at the Kids’ Table

MOM: Pass the wine, please. I want to become crazy.

DAD: O.K.

GRANDMOTHER: Did you see the politics? It made me angry.

DAD: Me, too. When it was over, I had sex.

UNCLE: I’m having sex right now.

DAD: We all are.

MOM: Let’s talk about which kid I like the best.

DAD: (laughing) You know, but you won’t tell.

MOM: If they ask me again, I might tell.

FRIEND FROM WORK: Hey, guess what! My voice is pretty loud!

DAD: (laughing) There are actual monsters in the world, but when my kids ask I pretend like there aren’t.

MOM: I’m angry! I’m angry all of a sudden!

DAD: I’m angry, too! We’re angry at each other!

MOM: Now everything is fine.

DAD: We just saw the PG-13 movie. It was so good.

MOM: There was a big sex.

FRIEND FROM WORK: I am the loudest! I am the loudest!

(Everybody laughs.)

MOM: I had a lot of wine, and now I’m crazy!

GRANDFATHER: Hey, do you guys know what God looks like?

ALL: Yes.

GRANDFATHER: Don’t tell the kids.

Turns out...

...that there aren't any teaching jobs in Michigan...anywhere. So, check this, I'm going to get another master's and become a certified librarian. I honestly didn't know you could still that--better still, I can make almost twice as much in a school media center than I can in a classroom. Been kicking around this idea for awhile, so may as well go for it now. Why, then, did I get an education degree you ask? Because (1) I can still teach in the future and (2) the best jobs in "library sciences" in schools are held by certified teachers.

okay. if you guys have any trust in me and my taste you will go out and buy some ginger altoids immediately.

scott, i swear to you, this is the only ginger fix i have ever had that compares to stoney tangawizi. yeah, it is basically stoney tangawizi in candy form. burns so good. make haste - go!

trapper john continues to be cooler than you.

he has four lucky rabbit's feet.

he only wears fur coats.

he has already mastered the arts of civilized excretion, eating carrots, and advanced calculus.

he drives the ladies crazy.

make no mistake, trapper john is cooler than you.

skinny elvis

howdy northbounder and southbounder.
her handle is skinny elvis.
she is an arrant rapscallion and she has taken over the streets of nashville.
watchouw!

White American Jesus

CLICK HERE

i'm blogging

So yeah...the ferry blog may be renamed the BRIAN ferry blog since the other two bros are seriously slacking. Get blogging, yo.

Peep Ads

Here's a series of ads I made that will be running in the Forest Hills Journal. Our small group came up with the ideas.

Donkey Basketball > Bible Study

So feeling like a failure is sort of amusing especially when things get ridiculous. I mean, having zero students show up for a service project is pretty funny & disheartening but this one is still cracking me up.

On Wednesdays we have a Bible Study called the Deep End designed to go a little deeper into Scripture as well as into questions and all that.

Anyway...this past week was our last one for the school year and there were students who were skipping to go watch a Donkey basketball game @ Anderson where teachers ride donkeys and play basketball.

Not only were kids skipping Bible study to go to this there were students IN the room recruiting other students to skip and go watch donkeys play basketball!

Now, in all honesty, at that point I wanted to go to the donkey basketball game in hopes of seeing a donkey have explosive diarrhea all over the the students who skipped but alas...I had to stay at the Deep End. I mean, seriously, how in the world is Bible Study supposed to compete with Donkey Basketball?

The only way this would have been better is if we'd been studying the triumphal entry where Jesus rode the donkey but we were studying Acts 1 & 2, the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost and Peter's first sermon.

Anyway...who's the ass here?

Revolver

Scotch + Rum + Coca Cola

Man, Revolver is a great album.

Yo No Fui...'twas my unicorn.

Man Tells Cops Unicorn Caused Crash

Man Tells Cops Unicorn Caused Crash
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- A man told police not to blame him for crashing his truck into a light post - it was that unicorn behind the wheel. Prosecutor Ingrid Rosenquist said Phillip C. Holliday Jr. initially denied driving the truck involved in the March 7 crash in Billings. He told officers at the scene that a unicorn was driving, she said.

Holliday, 42, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony charges of criminal endangerment and drunken driving.

A pickup truck drove through a red light and nearly struck another truck in the intersection, according to court documents. The driver then made an erratic U-turn through a gas station, crossed the street and crashed into a light pole. Nobody was injured.

Holliday has five drunken-driving convictions. District Judge Gregory Todd kept his bail at $100,000 despite his lawyer arguing that Holliday's last such conviction was 14 years ago.

Red bellied...

Alright...so we've got at least a couple of these guys living in/around our backyard. There were two of them in the oak tree and they were playing piggyback or something.

Beautiful little buggers with their red heads and their rat-a-tat-tats except when the rat-a-tat-tat comes at 6:30am on the side of our house. Which happens at least once a week. He's a woodpecker not a "vinyl-siding-pecker" so I'm not sure what's going on.

Cheers to baby Red Bellied Woodpeckers as long as they're not my alarm clock!

Chiu-chiu

Indeed we are...

...tragic nostalgics and, even more so, brothers.

Alright, mine is below. But keep in mind that I had to stay as close as I could to the template, so as to offer an easily accessible example to my students.



Where I’m From

I’m from wheat pennies.
From Big K and hand-built homes.
I’m from wood-panelings,
(dark glue composites,
and the still-beating hearts of trees).
I am from weeping willows.
From two wide rivers,
slowly sifting the silt
of my season-pasts.

I’m from I see the tower first and frigid water;
from Williams and Roberts.
I’m from never going to Disney World
and having to wash my hair.

I am from warm pink or yellow;
shy smiles and sweaty hands;
from shedding layer by layer,
as though sloughing off the weight of the world,
and sliding on Sundays in my slippery silky socks.

I’m from Michigan—
Shaffers, Schuelers, and Ferrys.
From sweet corn and blueberry pancakes.
From cracked red bats and broken lightning bugs,
the guilt of watching them writhe, and their salvations in jars.
I am from four heavy tomes and cardboard boxes;
8mm film, and catching a rare glimpse
into a soundless grandfather’s mind.
From hours spent listening to the same stories
told a hundred times before,
and laughing as though they were new.

I am from endless family-discovery
stolen during illicit Holiday midnights,
and new insights with the freshly fallen snow.

I'm From...

I am from antiques, from 99.4 percent pure, floating Ivory soap, creamed chicken and meatloaf.

I am from the cattails in a ceramic crock, ticking clocks and eventually a VCR and a microwave, from a plaid threadbare, carpeted, panel board basement, from Halloweens and Christmases and first days of school.

I am from the willow tree, the climbing tree, the crabapples at Mr. Perry’s.

I am from dogs and redhair, from William Bruce, from Scheulers and Schaffers.

I am from the boisterous and the sunburned.

From scoop and go.

I am from the guts of fish. Runaway, discarded, bartered for respite, vomited after hermitage, covered in the dust of the rabboni.

I'm from near the base of the thumb of our left hands, from fresh baked, made from scratch cinnamon rolls and hamburgers on the Weber.

From the Mothers’ Day Frisch’s, the breaking of balls and ridiculous short shorts with those stripes up the side.

I am from negatives, yellowing photographs, the fireproof box under mom and dad’s bed and that pocket change collector that sits on the dresser.

where i am from? i lost me map, mate and have had all this rum.

where i am from?

the womb of our mother. scott did you like the graffitti i left for you?

do you thin kthe cesaereans screwed up our ju-ju? pergatory horoscopes?

okay, scott. i have finished your assignment. i only had a few minutes after work and we have to lock up the center now so i think i may have lost some consistency and screwed up the format but you'll get the bag.

i figure i will post my poem as a comment to this blog so that you guys don't have to read it until you both do the same thing and then we can all see them here as comments. yeah? yeah.

bottoms up.

This is AWESOME! For Coke, that is...

Refrigerator Will Toss You Can of Beer

By ESTES THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- When John Cornwell graduated from Duke University last year, he landed a job as software engineer in Atlanta but soon found himself longing for his college lifestyle. So the engineering graduate built himself a reminder of life on campus: a refrigerator that can toss a can of beer to his couch with the click of a remote control.

"I conceived it right after I got out," said Cornwell, a May 2006 graduate from Huntington, N.Y. "I missed the college scene. It embodies the college spirit that I didn't want to let go of."

It took the 22-year-old Cornwell about 150 hours and $400 in parts to modify a mini-fridge common to many college dorm rooms into the beer-tossing contraption, which can launch 10 cans of beer from its magazine before needing a reload.

With a click of the remote, fashioned from a car's keyless entry device, a small elevator inside the refrigerator lifts a beer can through a hole and loads it into the fridge's catapult arm. A second click fires the device, tossing the beer up to 20 feet - "far enough to get to the couch," he said.

Is there a foam explosion when the can is opened? Not if the recipient uses "soft hands" to cradle the can when caught, Cornwell said.

In developing his beer catapult, Cornwell said he dented a few walls and came close to accidentally throwing a can through his television. He's since fine-tuned the machine to land a beer where he usually sits at home, on what he called "a right-angle couch system."

For now, the machine throws only cans, although Cornwell has thought about making a version that can throw a bottle. The most beer he has run through the machine was at a party, when he launched a couple of 24-can cases.

"I did launch a lot watching the Super Bowl," he said. "My friends are the reason I built it. I told them about the idea and hyped it so much and I had to go through with it."

A video featuring the device is a hit on the Internet, where more than 600,000 people have watched it at metacafe.com, earning Cornwell more than $3,000 from the Web site.

Cornwell said he has talked to a brewing company about the machine, but right now only one exists. Asked if he might start building some for sale, he said: "I'm keeping that option open, depending on interest."

When Cornwell was a student at Duke - an elite, private university in Durham - he participated in the engineering school's robotic basketball contests, said mechanical engineering Professor Bob Kielb. He said students tried to build a robot that could retrieve a pingpong ball and toss it into a small hoop.

"He always did well in it," Kielb said. "He came up with completely unique ideas."

Where I'm From

I just started this as a lesson with my students and it's rather fun and interesting. It's a form poem, so it requires considerably less thought than most poems. Plus, it is by nature highly individualized and family-oriented. Thus I am officially assigning you homework. Complete it (I want to see how yours compares to mine) and we can post them and become all nostalgic and weepy and try to pretend that we're not.

Sounds fun, no?

Where I'm From form...

Where I'm From example...

Leaked Wilco Cuts from Sky Blue Sky

I'm not commenting. I want to hear the whole record. But here are some cuts that are out there.

What Light

Either Way [mp3]

You are My Face [mp3]

Sunday Morning

Sunday Morning by K-os

So they played this song before sessions at the Winter Retreat this weekend & it's pretty freakin' catchy. I think I'm going through a bit of a hip hop stage. I've been listening to Pigeon John quite a bit too.

Word up.

For those who teach or preach or talk to anyone at all

This is from Seth Godin's blog. Good stuff. Provocative.
_________________________________________________

Listen to this...

What’s the point of talking to a group?

I’m serious. We spend a lot of time in presentations, or at the United Nations, or sending our kids to school. We have orientation sessions and keynote speeches and long-winded oratory on the floor the Senate. Why?

One reason: to incite. To share emotion. To sell. And that’s never going to go out of fashion, as far as I can tell.

But most of the speeches I’m talking about don’t incite. I heard an excerpt on the radio the other day... someone at the EU going on at length about admitting Romania and Bulgaria to the EU. There was even a mention of food safety issues. Thousands of people listening to one person drone on about food safety. This wasn’t an emotional speech designed to sell us on an idea. Instead, it was designed to teach us.

To teach us the way a schoolteacher I heard recently teaches: by reading a text. She stands up at the front of the room, and along with a few web images, reads a text to the class.

Here’s my point: In our scan and skip world, in a world where technology makes it obvious that we can treat different people differently, how can we possibly justify teaching via a speech?

Speech is both linear and unpaceable. You can’t skip around and you can’t speed it up. When the speaker covers something you know, you are bored. When he quickly covers something you don’t understand, you are lost.

If marketing is the art of spreading ideas, then teaching is a kind of marketing. And teaching to groups verbally is broken, perhaps beyond repair. Consumers of information won’t stand for it. We’re learning less every time we are confronted with this technique, because we’ve been spoiled by the remote control and the web.

If you teach--teach anything--I think you need to start by acknowledging that there’s a need to sell your ideas emotionally. So you need to use whatever tools are available to you--an evocative powerpoint image, say, or a truly impassioned speech.

Then, and this is the hard part, if you’re teaching to a group of more than three people, you need to find a way to engage that is non-linear. Q&A doesn’t work for a large group, because only the questioner is engaged at any given moment (if you’re lucky, the questioner represents more than a few, but she rarely represents all).

If it’s worth teaching, it’s worth teaching well. If it’s worth investing the time of 30 or 230 or 3330 people, then it’s worth investing the effort to actually figure out how to get the message across. School is broken. Legislative politics are broken. Linear is broken. YouTube and Bloglines, on the other hand, are new platforms, platforms that enable the education of millions of people every day, quickly and for free.

Posted by Seth Godin on October 01, 2006 | Permalink

alright, i can get down with the top 5 songs to bring in spring, only, my slight variation is- top 5 favorite daytime-windows-down-in-the-car-songs.

here are mine:

*born to run - the boss
(this may be the greatest windows-down song/rock n' roll song of all times. as long as you don't wear it out, a couple times a year there is nothing better. springsteen may also be the king of windows-down songs)*

*highway 61 - bob dylan.
(a whoopee whistle can't truly be appreciated with the windows up. let's have it all out on highway 61)

*drifter's wife - j.j. cale.
(i mean, this song is too good. would definitely make my all-time best list)

*wendy - beach boys
(so damn sweet. did you guys ever notice the cough in this song during the organ solo?)

*big darkness/sweet marie - crooked fingers
(hell yeah. i need to take a drive)

alright. dig.

The Category is...

Alright, so I agree that it is imperative to have a category. Without a category there are just too darn many. The category I went with was "5 favorite songs off the top of my head" which necessarily leaves out most, if not all, of my true favorites. And the number 5 though arbitrary makes it significantly more difficult. Well done! This could be a fun ongoing bit. One of us throws down a category for top 5 & we all respond.

I agree that "The Weight" may very well be the best song ever. After listening to the drums on it one day and reading the liner notes I immediately went and tuned my toms the same way Levon did. By the way, is that Elton John song about Levon Helm? Does he have a son named Jesus and want Tony Danza to hold him closer?

My Future Hometown

So, here's a picture of a street in my soon-to-be new hometown. Come August, I will again be a Michigander. It's been a long time coming...
I fully expect visitors now that there will no longer be the unavoidable fear of being Ned Beattied.

And on an unrelated note, it turns out that The Kinks created one of the best American albums I've heard--and they're British. Took a cue from The Band on that one, I guess. It's called Muswell Hillbillies and it's simply awesome. And yes, The Kinks really are that good, so get over it.

A More Thorough Attempt

I need to give this more space, I think. I realized as soon as I hit "publish" that I misrepresented the question and my answers. Like ReTodd, I need a category. Mine will be "Five Favorite Songs to Bust Out as Spring Rolls In" as Spring is now upon us in the South (fifth straight day of 65+ degree weather).

"The Weight"--The Band (also in the running for favorite song of all time)
"Buckets of Rain"--Bob Dylan
"Sing Me Spanish Techno"--The New Pornographers
"High Times"--Grateful Dead
"Left of the Dial"--The Replacements

Alright, so that's that.
I would never feel satisfied with a favorite of all-times list, so this will have to do.
And yes, that's an accurate representation of Sandy Creek Park today.

i can't. i refuse. it is too much to handle.

5 favorite songs? that is like asking which friends i would keep if you were going to kill all but 5. ...in case this ever happens, scrote is number 6.

i need a category or it is just too damn much.
5 favorite songs: to hear when i am moving, about rain, sung by a chick, about drinking, while driving, by bob dylan, after a break-up, on vacation, that mention the word "footloose", that has been covered by a shitty '90's group, that i wish i'd written, etc. these i might be able to handle.

i choose for the moment to write my 5 favorite songs to end a mix tape...i should warn you, my formula is to end 'em big and slow and leave you simoultaneously satisfied and totally empty:

*Madame George - Van Morrison (Really, just about any from astral weeks)
*Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands - Bob Dylan (He thought this was a good close too)
*Juliette - Crooked Fingers
*Bird on the Wire - Leonard Cohen
*God - John Lennon

alright, those are my 5 favorite mix tape closers (today). in the spirit of full disclosure, i should tell you i have actually only ended mix tapes with 2 of these but i am certain the others are nearly perfect for any mix tape with songs i'd be prone to put on there.

predictable, yes. but i dare you to argue with them.

down the hatch!

Baby Socks

Alright...so baby's feet must be made of teflon because socks do not stay on their feet unless they are held on by shoes, which in themselves, are not particularly the most stay-on-able dealios around. There are at LEAST half a dozen baby socks around the family room. Ridiculous...

And Meka keeps stepping up on the bongos, reaching over the arm of my chair and pulling her 22 pound self up on my arm hair. Ouch. If my right arm looks spatchier than my left, that's why.

Anyway...off the top of my head, no consulting my records or iTunes library or anything, these are 5 of my favorite songs w/ a brief description. I encourage anyone reading to do this & blog it. 5 favorite songs, the first 5 that come to mind at the moment & no consulting libraries. DISCLAIMER: when doing this there are bound to be a TON of misses, songs you wish you would have picked, blah, blah, blah...but that's okay. First 5 to come to mind.

Here we go...

Rain by Patty Griffin
This song is remarkably powerful every single time I hear it. The power is exacerbated by the fact that it IS raining currently. Powerful voice, great dynamics & instrumentation. Fantastic.

God Only Knows by the Beach Boys
It was sort of a toss up between God Only Knows & Good Vibrations but where GV might wail on GOK in a fight, GOK would turn the other cheek & be taken up by God in some sort of Enochian event. Can we all just agree that Brian Wilson was some sort of cosmic channel of the language of God?

Latter Days by Over the Rhine
Maybe this one & Rain entered into my consciousness because of the mass amount of non-frozen precipitation that has fallen today but this song is awfully powerful. From slow the fade in of the piano to the aching lyrics, this song makes my soul hurt every time. "Quiet music should be played loud." -Linford Detweiler

We're From Barcelona by I'm From Barcelona
Thank you Scotty for this ridiculous, precious gem. These guys have a tune that is INFECTIOUS. Click this link with the warning that if you do, you will never, ever get this song out of your skull.

Sovay by Andrew Bird
I'm not sure what it is about this song or Andrew Bird, it's just beautiful. He said the line from an old poem captured his imagination and wouldn't let go. This song does the same for me. If we have another daughter I want to name her Sovay.

Huh?

A jazz musician was injured Friday after jumping from a burning motor home driven by a one-time roller skating stripper from Lodi. . . . There was no sign of alcohol involvement, Iniguez said, and the Coors Light beer can on the motorhome's dashboard appeared to be a decoration.