Broken Bells - "The High Road"

The High Road

Broken Bells | MySpace Music videos

30 Favorite Songs of 2009: #20-11

20.  Switchfoot - "Always"

Since high school, Switchfoot has always been a favorite of mine.  I mean, a BIG favorite.  I have to say however that I've been more disappointed with their previous two albums (Oh! Gravity and Nothing Is Sound)--although I still enjoyed them immensely.  I was really impressed with Hello Hurricane, their newest release, and picking a favorite was somewhat difficult.







19.  Built to Spill - "Things Fall Apart"

A sobering and somber song, but I felt it fit the band perfectly.  And I'm a sucker for those 6ish minute epics.  Built to Spill pulls it off perfectly.



18.  Grizzly Bear - "Two Weeks"

I just started listening to Grizzly Bear this year, and Veckatimest was the first album I picked up by then.  I thought it was great, and like most "top songs of '09," I felt that there was something incredible about this track.







17.  The Dead Weather - "Treat Me Like Your Mother"

I think I'm biased--I love anything Jack White touches.  This new super-group is no different.  Although it's not my favorite of his diverse side projects, they're still great.  And this song just perfectly encapsulates the band.  And the music video was crazy.





16.  Monsters of Folk - "The Sandman, the Brakeman, and Me"

Although their entire album is really great, I felt this song perfectly encapsulated all of the talents making up the band.






15.  David Bazan - "When We Fell"

"when you set the table
and when you chose the scale
did you write a riddle
that you knew they would fail"

"what am i afraid of
whom did i betray
in what medieval kingdom does justice work this way
if you knew what would happen and made us just the same
then you , my lord, can take the blame"

I have to admit.... this is stuff I struggle with as well.  Not only is this an incredible song, but his honesty challenges me.






14.  M. Ward - "Never Had Nobody Like You"

Another "our" song.






13.  Thao - "Body"

I love Thao.  Man.  This is a breakup song at it's finest.





12.  Cymbals Eat Guitars - "... And the Hazy Sea"








11.  fun. - "Take Your Time (Coming Home)"

I love the songs from bands showing growth and wisdom.  Some lyrical gems:

"How did I end up here?
How did I find love and conquer all my fears?
See, I made it out.
Out from under the sun.
And the truth is that I feel better because I've forgiven everyone."

"Now I'm not scared
of a song
or the states,
or the stages.
I'm not scared.
I got friends,
took my call,
came courageous.
Now I feel like I am home."

"But I too, I'm through with causing a scene."

Our Trip to Germany

It is very hard to put into our last two weeks into words.  I feel like anything I write or say about what we've experienced cannot even scratch the surface of actually telling you about it.

Fortunately Beth brought along her trusty camera, which will definitely come closer than anything I could formulate.

For the first week Beth and I attended a conference in Rehe, Germany.  We were able to reunite with many friends we had met almost a year ago exactly.  We were also able to dialogue with others who are serving overseas, as well as listen to those who have been in Europe for many years.

After the conference, Beth and I, along with three other couples, drove 3 hours south of Frankfurt to the Black Forest, where we had rented a cabin for the week.

We were close enough to both France and Switzerland to be able to make a day trip into a city in each country.  On Monday we drove to Strasbourg, France-- one of my new favorite cities!  We stopped at every bakery we saw, and ate pretty much everything in sight.

On Wednesday we were able to spend part of the day in Freiburg, Germany and Basel Switzerland:

For more pictures, check out the Picasa web album HERE.  It's kind of disorganized right now (and by kind of I mean extremely), but I'll try to have it cleaned up soon.

The View Outside Our Window

"Some people are so easily shuffled and dealt"

Their album Transference came out yesterday, and boy is it good.

30 Favorite Songs of 2009 - #30-21

One of the things I always love to do towards the end of the year is take a look back.  I love to go back through what I've watched/read/listened to over the past year.  One thing I enjoy doing in particular is looking at what music influenced me over the year and why.  What music hit me the hardest.

So this year I decided to figure out my 30 favorite songs of the year (the list keeps getting bigger).  These are by no means the best of the year (I could never claim anything like that), but are just songs that impacted me the most.


Here we go!


30.  Mos Def - "Life In Marvelous Times"

Although this is a great song, is it possible to say that I liked the album overall more than I did any one song?

29.  White Rabbits - "Percussion Gun"

Although the title is already a pretty good description, the song is full of striking percussion-- but also striking piano and guitar riffs as well.  I like it.







28.  The xx - "Crystalised"

Pitchfork actually described it well: a "dare after dare to risk more with less."






27.  Fanfarlo - "Harold T Wilkins, or How to Wait For a Very Long Time"

The band sounds an awful lot like Beirut, maybe almost too much so at times.  But I still enjoyed the album a great deal.







26. Death Cab For Cutie - "Little Bribes"

My favorite line:  "Every slot machine is a robot amputee waving hello."  And check out this incredible fan-made video that the band decided to make official for the song




Death Cab for Cutie - Little Bribes from Ross Ching on Vimeo.




25.  K'naan - "Wavin' Flag"

Songs from artists like these make you laugh about what other hip-hop artists in America here brag about.  K'naan is a Somalian refugee, who REALLY has something to boast about.  It really puts things into perspective, and definitely humbled me in my own personal life.  What do I have in my life to complain about, really?







24.  Welcome Wagon - "Up On a Mountain"

You may think to yourself, "this group sounds a lot like Sufjan Stevens."  That's because he had a big hand in the production of this album.  But the real players here are Reverend Thomas Vito Aiuto and his wife Monique.  The rest of the album is similar to this beautiful song.  Simple gospel music.



23.  The Swell Season - "In These Arms"


Each year there's at least one of those songs Beth and all call (as many couples do) "ours."  This was definitely one of them.







22.  Frightened Rabbit - "Swim Until You Can't See Land"

One of my favorite lines of the year:  ”Are you a man or are you a bag of sand?”  I'm really excited about this upcoming album.








21.  Bat For Lashes - "Glass"

This artist has been an unexpected surprise.

The Very Best - "Warm Heart of Africa"

Definitly on my forthcoming top 30 songs of 09 list.

Moderated Comments (Alternative to #1)

There are many areas that can be commented on, but I'll just say that several of the professors you've tagged (Shelton, Fliger, etc.) and others that you haven't (Dr. E., Wanner, White, so on and so forth) prove it is in fact possible.  I'm kind of surprised you would ask this in this manner (I might be insulted if I were one of these profs).  I was fortunate enough to have some of these kids as friends growing up through middle and high school who helped me significantly in my spiritual and mental growth.  Surely something right was happening at home.  And God definitely used them--I don't think I'd be were I am if it weren't for some of the best friendships I have.

i would talk to these profs and get as much wisdom and advice that you can in this area.  If this is a serious question for you though, then not having kids is definitely the best option at this time.  But if you ask me, just being able to look at the people who do have kids and still exercise the "life of the mind" show that it's a false dichotomy.  Maybe a little bit more difficult, but entirely possible.

I know that when Beth raise our kid, not only will I not stop trying to learn all that I can, but I'll also be learning just through raising a child.  And that's the scary kind of learning.  Where it matters.

Petrozavodsk: Day 5 and 6

Well we've reached our last day in the capital of Karelia.  The time has flown by, but we're definitely worn out from all the activity.

Yesterday much of the day was spent getting necessary footage.  We were able to walk around town, see parts of the city one last time and try to capture those really great moments:  kids sledding, people ice skating, parents walking through the snow with their children, and so on.  We especially wanted to get shots of people in the normal day-to-day routine.  We stopped by a well near our hotel where people get clean water (for a great post on that, check out Marc's blog post) for the daily necessities.  Despite being a sizable city, many people still do not have running water in their homes.

This morning we went to the church we were able to find back on Thursday.  A sign on the front door posted a service was supposed to be held at 10:30.  We got there a little early, but 10:30 came around and still the church remained locked and empty.   It was pretty disappointing.

Right now we're in our hotel room, finishing things up and getting ready to pack up for our train scheduled to leave at 7 tonight.  We're going to get in to Moscow around 9 tomorrow and rush to the airport to catch a 1:30 flight to Sochi.  Our adventure is not over yet!

"with just half of a sunburn"

Thanks to Meredith for this one!