Here's that guy again . . .

Listen.

. . . is thankful.

It's funny how facebook effects how I want to title everything. I have the urge to make a third person statement about what I'm thinking/writing just like when I'm writing out a facebook status. While many people consider this practice to lead to serious narcissism, I think it helps me realize who I am in space and in relation to those around me.

On thanksgiving day I wrote this:


And thankful I am. I am loved. I have the ability to love. I have experienced and continue to experience grace every moment. I have an ever expanding family (which will include my new sister in law in June)that returns my love. I am able to see. And not just to see the 'beautiful', but that which is real and that which makes the beautiful valuable. I can hear the voices of my friends and loved ones. I can hear and delight in music. I breathe in air every moment and keep breathing. I have an income while so many do not (an even more exceptional fact when one notes that I am getting paid to illustrate). I have a somewhat reliable green vehicle. I have space to paint in. I have a community of friends in a city that I love. I have moonlight and stars. I have early mornings on the way to work watching the birds move South through the freshly colored sky. I have been given laughter. And tears. And delight that cannot be contained by a human body. I have abundant life.

Plea to the Snow Gods:

Please, please, let there fall a massive amount of snow on Sunday night to postpone my return to work. Please.

I spent an afternoon here

Castle St. Jorge in Lisbon

This is where I ate several lunches in Lisbon, Portugal

Hotel Borges Residence Chiado Lisbon Exterior View 4 in Lisbon

Right there, where the yellow umbrellas are. They make a mean tostas queso (grilled cheese).


Brasileira Cafe in Lisbon

Whirling

It must be nice to whirl that much.

Seven Swans

My friend recorded this on his iphone, which obviously worked better than my camera.

I saw Sufjan Stevens last Saturday. My friend and I drove down through the colorful hills of Tennessee to Atlanta to see him. We wondered around the city until time for the show and made our way across town to the Tabernacle, a GIGANTIC old church converted into a music venue (much like our Ryman, except more humongous). You can read about the venue here.

We finally got inside after being confused by where to park, one way streets, and having a 'profession camera' in my purse that had to be returned to the car. The walls are painted in wonderful designs and patterns in the entrance of the theatre and in the actual concert hall as well.




We listened to DM Stith open the show and then anxiously waited for the winged man himself. If you anything about my musical tastes, you know that I love Seven Swans (both the song and the album). And as the musicians (and the dancers) came out onto the stage, we saw Sufjan wearing white wings and we heard the beginning of Seven Swans and our excitement became infinitely more great. He pulled off the loud and dance worthy along with the melodic, soft and intimate songs, all with equal energy (and costume changes). He even played the half-hour long 'Impossible Soul' which was delightful. The show was amazing. Beautiful music playing in front of interesting and fantastical graphics on the large screen made for a lovely sense-ational experience.


'Seven Swans'


'I Walked'


'Enchanting Ghost'



'Vesuvius'


'Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois'

Here is the setlist:

Seven Swans
Age of Adz
Too Much
Heirloom
I Walked
Futile Devices
Vesuvius
Now That I'm Older
Get Real Get Right
Enchanting Ghost
Impossible Soul
Chicago

Encore:
Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
Casimir Pulaski Day
Jacksonville

Here is a video I took of Casimir Pulaski Day. It is wiggly and recorded on a very old camera and can't even quite focus on anything, and you can hear me singing way too much, but all in all it is a good video of the experience.

"Heirloom" -Sufjan Stevens from All Delighted People EP

When your heirloom’s wilted brown
When the devil’s pushing down
When your mourning has a sound
And you hesitate to laugh
How quickly will your joy pass
How quickly will your joy pass

And when you walk inside I feel the door
I’ll never let it push your arms no more
And when your legs give out just lie right down
And I will kiss you till your breath is found
And when you walk inside I feel the door
I’ll never let it push your arms no more

So do you think I came to fight?
And do I always think I’m right?
Oh no I never meant to be a pest to anyone this time
Oh no I only meant to be a friend to everyone this time

You can listen to it here:
http://sufjanstevens.bandcamp.com/track/heirloom

And thus commences my favorite couple of months . . .

. . . November and December (October is a close 3rd and January is 4th and April 5th). Everything about these months makes me so happy. What's not to love about (paid) time off work with family and friends? It's like all year we've been crafting a lovely bottle of happiness; adding in little memories here and there and saving ideas and stories for the times when we are all together. It has been ripening all year long and now's the time when we open it up, share it with everyone around us, and become quite drunk with it. And that's a very good thing.

This is also when we'll see the South at its finest: food and singing everywhere. There will be late morning breakfasts and even later midnight coffee runs in the dancing snow. Our 2nd annual Christmas Ball/Advent Adventure is coming up, which is the ultimate in the "food and singing (and dancing) in the South" department, in my opinion. We'll be meeting up to work out the invitations, menu, etc., for said Ball in the next couple of weeks which thrills me. This year will be extra sweet because I have embraced the land I live in and it has forgiven me seeing only the bad in it for so many years. It has not only forgiven me, but it has loved me back. It is strange, and it is deep-fried, but it has a wild magic about it that shines through at just the right moments, like last night.

Last night a group of rather silly, and rather wonderful, girls got together in the middle of nowhere (Hartsville) to celebrate Halloween and Reformation Day all at once (being Presbyterian makes at least noting Reformation Day a must). We had delicious German food and wore our Halloween costumes (I was Elizabeth I). I love these ladies. And the stars out there were perfect. I've never seen so many at once and I thought my brain might explode from trying to take it all in. I had to shut my sunroof on my car, Penelope, on the way home so that I'd look at the road, that's how distracted I was!

Anyways, I'll be hauling all four thousand boxes of holiday decorations down from the attic in the next couple weeks. I would do it this weekend, but I am going to Atlanta on Saturday to see the city and to see Sufjan Stevens with my dear friend, Josh-u-wa-wa (he bought tickets for my birthday back in August). What a way to start off my favorite time of year! And next week is my dearest B's 26th birthday which will be amazing! We are going to a corn maze (one of those things I've always wanted to do). Sometimes life is so rich that you have to step back from it to take a breath before you dive back into it.

And, when my favorite time of year is over, I'll be so busy looking forward to my best friend's wedding in April and my brother's wedding in June that I won't even notice the holidays are over because these holidays will be even better.

Starner Endeavors

My brother and I, we make things. You can find them here (and sometimes for sale) at:

http://starnerendeavors.blogspot.com/