The Return Of Burlap To Cashmere
When Kristin and I had just started dating we went to one of those amusement park Christian days in California. We skipped most of the bands, but I remember there was one band that we absolutely had to see no matter what we did the rest of the day. Here we are 11 years later and last night we said the same thing and made the same decision to go see Burlap To Cashmere no matter what we did the rest of the day.
Now I know that there’s going to be all this new buzz about them because they just sort of hopped onto the scene, but as a fan from way back, I can say, there was not much cooler than watching them absolutely kill it last night at 3rd & Lindsley. These guys are absolutely some of the best musicians I’ve seen and I couldn’t be happier that they are officially back to business.
And if that wasn’t cool enough, being able to check out the Jars Of Clay guys in their natural habitat was nothing short of special itself. It was easily one of the best times I have heard them. The song selection was perfect. The vocals were flawless. They killed it too.
These are the days I love living in Nashville.
Gettin Our Zoo On
Today we took the morning and went to the Nashville Zoo. I’ve been gone every weekend since January and I’m about to be gone for another pretty good stretch so we wanted to make sure that we took today and made it awesome.
The Zoo, Ice Cream and now a Kings game on TV. Talk about a decent Sunday. What’d you do today?
Behold The Lamb Of God
Last night, for the sixth consecutive year, Kristin and I had the opportunity to go see Andrew Peterson’s “Behold The Lamb Of God” show at the Ryman in Downtown Nashville. Obviously it’s become a yearly tradition for us and every year I am completely taken back by how amazing of a songwriter he is. I can honestly say I don’t think there are many better writers out there making music today. Anyway, I know I’ve blogged about it before, but I can’t say enough good things about this show. It’s one of the dates with Kristin I look most forward to every year.
There were a couple new faces this year involved in the tour, but for the most part it was the same folks that it is every year. I could give some eloquent ‘review’ of the show, but I don’t think it would do it justice. If the tour ever comes even remotely close to where you are, it’d be in your best interest to go. And continue to go year after year.
Here’s a song that Andrew played last night during the first half of the show that left every married couple in the room in a pile of mush.
Art Direction-ing
So, I’m art directing another record and today is the photo shoot. For the rest of the day this will be my view. We’ve found a rooftop in downtown Nashville that we’ll be doing most of the photos and I’m crazy excited to see how it turns out. I don’t have a lot of details yet, because, well, it’ hasn’t happened yet, but I’ll make sure to give you some updates after today. For now, I need to get some coffee and based on the weather today, it looks like a warmer jacket.
I could get used to this art direction thing. We’ll see how it goes.
Radnor Lake
We’ve decided that Sunday is our ‘Family Day’. It doesn’t need to be a vacation or anything, but we just wanted to start going and doing things that aren’t sitting at home waiting for another week to start. A couple weeks ago we went to Fall Creek Falls, and today we found Radnor Lake. The funny thing is, it’s literally about 20 minutes from our house and we’d never heard of it.
With a couple miles of trails and wildlife the trail winds it’s way through thick woods and creeks. In the three (or so) hours of hiking we did we saw three deer, dozens of frogs, amazing looking birds and 2 snakes. Now here’s the funny thing about the snakes. The first was a tiny thing that originally I mistook for a fast worm. It was black with a yellow stripe near it’s head. Kristin freaked out. The second was a little bigger. We were stopped looking at these tiny little frogs that were hopping all over the trail. I heard something behind me and about ten feet off the trail I saw a snake coming down a tree.
Now, I’m not one for exaggeration, so believe me when I say it had to have been between four and five feet long and maybe the thickness of our five year olds arm. I told Kristin to check it out, and almost instantly she was halfway down the trail. To say she freaked out would be a complete understatement. It was amazing. I wanted to go mess with it and see if I could get some pictures, but with Kristin hyperventilating and the boys wanting to touch it, I figured it was best to leave it alone.
Instead, we found this cool looking snail and took some pictures of him. And for the record, if anyone says that in the right conditions, the iPhone doesn’t have an amazing stock camera, they are crazy. That snail looks like it’s sitting in a studio with special lighting.
So anyway, we’re back home now, nap time then LOST. Welcome to Sunday.
The Clean Up Process
So, I’m not normally one for over dramatics. I’m not normally one charging the front lines of some hidden agenda, or internalizing a great tragedy because I feel somehow more personally affected by it than others. But over the last few days we’ve seen some pretty crazy destruction all around us and a lot of folks have been drastically affected and today I finally was able to get involved.
Yesterday I was riding in a car with a guy who lived in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina. He said that his house took in just over five feet of water and everything was ruined. He told me that it wasn’t the storm or the water that was the worst part, but when the water started to go down. When he was able to see the damage. Able to see just how bad it was. ”That’s the moment that really messes people up”, he said. ”That’s when people need help the most. That’s when they need to be cared for.”
Today I was in three different condos that had taken in about five feet of water themselves. Everything was ruined. TV’s, couches, books, photos. Everything. Today when I got home I looked around my house and imagined losing everything below a five foot line. This is what these people are going through.
And the sad part to me is that most of us would rather complain about the lack of national news coverage. We’d rather sit in our dry living room with our feet up watching CNN and saying, ‘They should be talking about the floods on here.’ Honestly I’ve seen more complaining about the news coverage than I’ve seen actual helping, and that’s sad to me. So goodie, Anderson Cooper was here today. He walked around, shook some hands and told people this place was a mess. Is that going to change tomorrow? Next week? Next month? Not if people don’t stop watching and complaining about CNN and go outside and do something for the folks who have lost everything below five feet.
Maybe I’m just complaining about the complainers, but I just think that sometimes people in their comfy suburbs desperately seek out drama and over internalize things because they are bored. They are bored with their lives and need to be a victim of something. And if the flood didn’t get you, you’ve got to be a victim of the media. I say, throw on some boots, grab some gloves and go move some furniture, because where I was today, there’s a lot of that still needing to be done.
Rain, Rain On My Face
I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m a sucker for extreme weather. When we had that weird ice storm thing Blue and I were out most of the day walking around and then we took a drive sliding all over the place. This crazy rain, flooding thing is no exception either. After two days of hearing about the craziness I had to get out and see for myself just how bad it was. Turns out, the news and weather reports were right. Floods everywhere.
It took us about an hour to figure out a way to the store that wasn’t completely flooded. And we only had to go through one pretty serious deep part. I was waiting for the car to shut off, but it never did. At one point I went back and picked up Kristin and the boys so they could come with me and we could make it a ‘family adventure’. We actually ended up passing two or three other grocery stores to get to the one I wanted to go to. We win this one.
Seriously though. My heart goes out to the tons of people affected by this mess. We happen to be some of the fortunate ones that have a house on a slight hill. There are several houses that we even drove past today that aren’t as fortunate.
I’ve heard all sorts of “statistics” today, but I don’t know if any of them are true. Most rain in a hundred years, National Guard is posted, buildings are falling over, official ‘State of Emergency’, dusk to dawn curfew, ect. All pretty believable after taking a little drive around, but we don’t have local TV so we’re basically going off of Twitter and the interweb.
So what’s up Nashville, everyone okay?
MUSE
Kristin got me tickets for my birthday and last night it was awesome to get out on a date with her before I’m about to head out for a month. And dang. That show was insane. Now, this obviously isn’t the Nashville show we went to last night. This is however, the same intro to the night and it’s the best video I could find. Okay, first, how ridiculous is that stage? I was completely blown away the entire night.
I’ve been thinking of trying to describe the way they did things, but there’s really no way to explain all the different things they did with their production. There were camera guys hanging from the lights, pieces of the stage moving around, lasers, you name it, they were doing it. Seriously something you need to check out if possible.
‘A Million Miles In A Thousand Years’
I’ve seen Don Miller speak a few times here in Nashville. One time he came to my church, the other was at a Blood Water Mission dinner thing. I’ve read every one of his books except his new one, and follow him on Twitter. You know the normal “fan” but not obsessed, creepy weirdo stuff. In fact, I think he’s probably one of the only authors that I’ve read multiple books multiple times. I’m not sure if that makes me less literate than others, or whatever, but all this to say, “yep, I’m a fan”.
Now, I will say this. I’ve stayed away from his new book. Not because I’m not a fan for sure. More because of the hype. The hype of people blogging it, talking about it, shouting it from the rooftops, and my sneaking suspicion that Don himself has fallen into that “cool kid” crowd. And I tend to unintentionally shy away from that crowd. You know the one that I’m talking about don’t you? At least in the Christian ‘hipster’ Nashville scene. It’s the “Mat Kearney, Jeremy Cowart, Brandon Heath, and (sometimes) Jars Of Clay” scene. It’s not a bad scene. Just a “you will never be cool enough to find yourself in this scene” scene.
Now before I get a bunch of nasty comments saying that I think I’m cooler than the “cool Nashville scene”, allow me to clarify. I think all these folks are awesome. Much ‘cooler’ than me. They don’t look lame in fedora’s, shop at G-Star, wear mostly black and gray, and live in The Gulch. All that is really cool stuff. They even make cool music and show up to all the cool club Nashville shows looking like they belong there. I show up there, and feel like I’m wearing a shirt that says, “Shouldn’t Be Here” on it. Not a bad scene, just not my scene.
Anyway, back to Don Miller. I felt like Don sort of ended up in that scene. And this made me shy away from his new book. I liked the old Don. The Blue Like Jazz Don. The one that I felt like I could relate to. The one that was out of shape, questioning his faith, constantly doubting his ‘coolness’. You know, like me. The one that I felt like I could sit and have coffee with and actually relate to. Not this cool new, hipster Don. Even though I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a fedora.
So, Kristin, knowing that I’m a big fan of his books got me his new book, “A Million Miles In A Thousand Years”, for Christmas. She said she assumed I wanted it and just had never mentioned it. I explained my hesitation, but was excited to check it out. Later that night, when the kids were in bed, I cracked it open and read through the ‘Authors Note’. The next thing I knew, I was finishing out chapter ten. Funny thing was, it was the same Don that I remember from his previous books. The same insecure, honest, brilliant writer that manages to somehow say things I’ve always felt. I found myself reading portions of it out loud expecting Kristin to somehow understand the context in which I was reading it and at the same time understand how clever it was.
So it seems, at least for now, the Don Miller, I’ve read, seen speak a few times and gave a brief ‘hello’ to once in passing, was back. And this book proves it. Now, obviously, I don’t pretend to know Don Miller. I’m in no place to say what ‘scene’ he’s in or if his personality has changed from the time he wrote Blue Like Jazz or anything else, but what I will say is that this guy can write. He can somehow communicate things in a way that make you want to hang out with him and grab some coffee. Maybe that’s why the ‘cool crowd’ does. Maybe he is the guy that we read. Maybe he’s not. Maybe we aren’t to even know what type of guy he is.
Either way, there’s no reason you shouldn’t pick up “A Million Miles In A Thousand Years”. I’m only about half way through it, and there’s no doubt in my mind that it will be another book of his that I read several times. And Don, if you somehow end up reading this, let’s grab some coffee next time your in town. I promise to not wear my skinny jeans.
