I’m not an exclusive psalmody type (what is exclusive psalmody?). But I had to put together a little Ron Swanson inspiration for all Christians after reading a friend’s tweet:
This evening I ate like Ron Swanson and sang Psalms like a warrior.
#manlyevening
Psalms are warrior-like. Psalms are manly. I imagine that Ron prefers to sing psalms. Next someone will have to ask him his opinion of the regulative principle.
When I read your poetry, I shake my head at your unfortunate phrasing. I was glad when you recognized that to speak on universals, you needed to find strange and new ways of expression. But I winced when you went over the top. Your Vortex on a String poem was particularly difficult to stomach.
You have to be really careful about using such brutal and aggressive words. “A cavalcade of anger and fear”? “Five years in Sweden dying for you”? “My days are like a burning fuselage”? Too much; too heavy-handed.
Alas, I cannot help that I am cynical and overly critical. I am too weak to be better than that.
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Boys and girls, be beautiful. And be unashamed. Be better than me; be like John Darnielle of Mountain Goats. If I had found a lyric like “a cavalcade of anger and fear” in my old journals, I would have cringed, and perhaps even scratched it out. But that is because I am too weak and impure, too lacking in beautiful sincerity to pull it off. When Darnielle sings lines like that, you can see and hear how invested he is in them; he makes you believe that it truly was a cavalcade of anger and fear. What does it matter if haters don’t like the expression? He’s telling you how it was.
Earnestness is a beautiful quality. Mean what you say. Sell out to it. Live to what you’ve attained.
It is common for children to be beaten by their fathers. It is common for men to be left utterly alone. It is common for men to despair. Speak to those common things in a way that acknowledges how huge and terrible they are. They might happen to every man, but that makes them no less immense. And the salvation that comes to men is no less immense. Offer it sincerely, and earnestly. Find and express the beauty in it, caring nothing for the fact that millions before you have voiced the same thing.
Don’t be cool. Be beautiful. Be true. Be good.
Listen, these are not drunken as you suppose.
It’s the grand dame of country music’s 65th birthday today. The Giant salutes her as the perfect example of how to age gracefully. That silver fox hair has been her hallmark for a couple of decades now.
I discovered her album Wrecking Ball in ’96 at a dingy old record store behind the Baptist Student Union in Gainesville, Florida. Rumor was that the record store had once been the home of Tom Petty when he was a young man. It turned out not to be so, and the record store is gone now, turned into a hip hiking outfitter’s place last I remember. Wrecking Ball turned me on not only to the rich, melancholy voice of the woman herself, but to the post-Blood on the Tracks Bob Dylan, for which I’ll always be grateful to the Grand Dame.
A beautiful old woman can make you feel like her presence is a grace, as the interviewer below says. But that only happens if she ages with grace. Which Emmylou has done, between her wonderful hair, her demure look, her sure elegance, and her confident way of speech. And if you ever start to think plastic surgery, which sometimes I do, simply check out those biceps above. This is a happy, healthy woman. Long live.
I would not have expected Sinead O’Connor to write one of the sexiest songs in the universe, but it seems she has. For over ten years now she has been very, how to put it, spiritually active in some fringe groups of the Roman Catholic church, but I haven’t really kept track of her. I would guess that she’s a big fan of the mystics, and if she is, she seems to have taken the “all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well” lesson to heart.
If there’s one thing that permeates this tune besides sexiness it’s contentment. And that’s how I like my sexiness, thank you very much. A definitive love song about romance, domesticity, and fruitfulness. With just a touch of sexual innuendo. I’m going to have to get home quick so I can give wifey a buggy ride of her own.
(There’s more to this post below the video.)
The song is 4th and Vine from the 2012 album How About I Be Me (And You Be You)? It is interesting to note, as an aside, that a Catholic church on 4th and Vine in Philadelphia was burnt down by rioters in the 1840s.
Why do I like this song so much? Because it’s perfectly feminine, in praise and in love with the perfectly masculine.
This from the woman who ten years ago declared herself a lesbian, then married a man less than a year later. The contentment part doesn’t seem to have quite settled in with the artist (she’s been married three times since she was ordained as a priestess in a break-away Roman Catholic group). So I’m not saying she’s a model, but the song certainly is.
She makes herself pretty, she knows it will “look real nice” for her man, who is sweet, gentle, kind, and “no wuss”. They’re going to live happily ever after, so they go down to the church and get married. They’re going to have six kids, who will sing all the time because “their mama and their pa a-love them so right”. And it makes her warm inside when he takes her for a buggy ride.
Aw yeah.
I know I just posted against Irish nationalism, but this song really is beautiful. The Easter Rising of 1916 was one of only two times in the 20th century the republicans went to open war, which is no dishonorable thing (the second was the even more tragic Irish Civil War). There are two lines in this tune I love. The rhythm of “…while Britannia’s sons with their long range guns…” I’ve always loved. And the tragedy of “…’t'was better to die ‘neath an Irish sky than at Suvla or Sud el Bar” is beautiful. That line is a reference to the idea that Irish men should resist going off to fight Britain’s wars.
Cesária Évora, the queen of lusophone African music, and one of the queens of “world music” (whatever that category might mean) has died. She was seventy years old and had been ailing for a while. She was known as the “Barefoot Diva”, since she always sang with her feet bare. Her stage presence always seems so meek and humble, yet she was magnetic because of the dignity of her carriage and the melancholy sweetness of her voice.
Perhaps her most famous song was “Sodade”, a consummate example of the morna, Cape Verde’s national music. Mornas sound exactly like a fado met with African sensibility. Sad and melancholy but full of life nonetheless. Sodade or saudade means something like “sad longing”. It’s the word Portuguese speakers use to say “I’ll miss you”, but it means much more than “to miss”.
Vamos sentir saudade de ti, senhora Évora.
According to Paste Magazine, this is the best music video of the year. That’s as may be, but without question you’ll find this to be an interesting look at what your cat is up to when it wanders out the door. It’s no wonder our three cats are always desperate to get in when they come back in the morning.
Andy Zipf is giving away his latest album, Jealous Hands, for free, my brother. You want to take advantage of that. This guy has played some epic shows throughout the southeast, and everyone I’ve talked to has been blown away by his energy and investment in the music and his audience. Give it a listen.
If you don’t know anything at all about him, check out this video filmed at my book store back in the day.
http://cdn.topspin.net/api/v2/store/details/85399
