tagged like a bus in Brooklyn, part three

this is part three in a six part series about things you might not know about me.

do you still love rock and roll?

3) God used rocknroll to save my life.

“Another life was saved by RocknRoll.” The Velvet Underground, Rock and Roll

I grew up in the 80s & most of the 90′s out on a rice farm in rural Arkansas about 45minutes from Memphis. The music around me (with the exception of hymns) i mostly really disliked: country music, hair metal, synth music, and my mom’s music (Sandi Patti, and Southern Gospel).

When i was 10, i got a radio for Christmas and i dialed in the Memphis rap station. I think i loved it just because it was so different than anything else i had known. I esp. loved the brutality, the fake “gritty realism” of a life i knew nothing about at the time. It was exotic and en vogue and i hoped i would by extension,be too! But my listening habits were a secret…were i to be caught listening to rap music? the scandal!

When i was twelve years old (you know, darn near a man) and i was becoming conscientious, VERY interested in girls, and VERY much a sickly, dorky kid, i had a religious experience. I was riding to church one Sunday afternoon in a friend’s older sister’s car. The radio played this song and the music really stirred me: my skin became gooseflesh, my heartbeats quickened, and i felt very alive. The music wasn’t necessarily pretty, but it felt honest. The vocal was not pretty, but i trusted that the singer was telling the truth. I later saw a video of this band performing and it felt like i was watching someone a lot like me, not good looking, bad skin, poor posture, badly dressed, and passionately angry! That day i realized i wasn’t so dorky, that i wasn’t the only angry young man around, that i wasn’t the only one who was unhappy with the fallen world he had inherited. i wasn’t alone.

Nirvana’s appeal faded, punk rock was a fashion show. But, all was not lost because i got in touch with my passions and became more and more alive than i had been before. i wanted to live and live well and live right. i fell in love with truth and justice, and i began to seek God with a fervor unlike anything i have ever known. i was in love.

That was sixteen years ago. i’m a much better dresser, i have good relationships, and i’m not nearly as angry. But i still love to ROCK! And, i look back at that moment in time, where the life i have now began, with a little tear in my eye of wonder and amazement, feeling very loved, that God used rock and roll to save my life.

tagged like a bus in Brooklyn, part 2

this is part two of a six part series of things you may not know about me.

2) i cry pretty easily, but not so much about sad things. i cry at the sights and (mostly) sounds of beautiful or very moving things. i think i may have begun to cry more than my wife! This wasn’t always so. i would never describe myself as “dead inside,” or anything, but growing up, boys just didn’t cry so much.

the first time i remember crying out of joy (or maybe it was out of the pain that comes from the tension of living in a fallen world where the lovely seems to be seamless with the profane?) was when i listened to the Beach Boys “Pet Sounds” all the way through, in my bedroom floor, in the dark. i was probably 14 and felt very self-conscious after that. It was such beautiful music, but i was pained because i knew i would never create anything so beautiful, so moving, for so many people.

Music continues to be the primary thing that sets my eyes to flowing. It seems like with every record i buy i have this experience at least once, where the beauty or profundity of the music or lyrics is so great i have quite a reaction. Everything from Tumbleweed Connection, to OK Computer, to Sumday and Summerteeth, Dvorak’s Brave New World and Debussy’s Claire de Lune Suite, if you see me enjoying these…well, you’ll see what i mean.

Now, just a peek at my sleeping daughter in the middle of the night is enough to bring big tears to my eyes.

give-out

tagged like a bus in Brooklyn, part one

our home-made pizzas rock!

Ok, i wasn’t really tagged like a bus in Brooklyn.  But i was asked or “tagged” to tell 6 “random” (do contemporary people believe in randomness?) things about me.  How about i tell you six things about me you might not know?  And how’s about we spread them out over a few blogs?

1) when in need of comfort food and home-made isn’t an option, i default to Mexican food.

This is extremely so since we have moved away from Arkansas.  I grew up eating really spicy, hearty meals.  This is not to say this is my favorite kind of comfort food to eat out.  My very favorite is probably Thai food, esp. curry dishes so hot that they could revive the dead.  Alas, Thai food is expensive and not prolific in the town we live in.  So, Mexican it is.

So, you probably knew this about me, but i thought it was worth attaching to this blog, food and eating are incredibly important in my life, even on a religious and spiritual level.  I think of the Jewish blessings for  bread and wine:   Blessed are You, Lord our G0d, King of the Universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth.  Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the vine.

The food we eat is more than just the means to keep our bodies going.  God has brought it forth from the earth and created it.  It is a divine gift.

And cooking!  Oh!  Cooking is like magic.  we take disparate elements from the earth and bread is made?  its astonishing!

And meals with those we love!  small lunches, feasts, picnics–they all have the potential to be momentous times of fellowship and delight.  Just as God would have it.

So, that is the first thing about me you may not have known.  i’m going to go make breakfast

fried deer, hashbrowns, bicuit and deer gravy. die happy.

thinking of a change in location–

Friends, readers, countrymen,

I’m taking a break from my .me blog to try out a different tool.  i love the UI with .me, but it is very difficult to use away from my desktop. So, if you keep up with me, i’m hanging out here for a while, and if this isn’t a great experience, i’ll notify you and let you know i’m back on .me.

This has been a long time coming, as i want to blog about a lot of things, but am rarely in front of my desktop these days with any time to spare. So, those of you like Tyler, bro, this is in part so i never have to imagine your sad, puppy-dog face asking why i haven’t blogged in such a long time.

There really is a lot going on right now, my wife had a birthday (awesome), my daughter is waving at people and composing symphonies (mostly in the ouvre of “found sound,” “musique concrete“), we’ll all be fat and happy with our families soon, and i just bought tickets to see Andrew Bird in a nearby town.

So, yeah, all is well for at least a few moments and hopefully, after some tidying up the template and whatnot, this will become my blog’s new home.

i hope you come ’round now and again and drop me a line when you’re here. Be well.

w

i just got home