Lovely

Ray Caesar

Walking in Memphis

I'm going to Memphis in two days to see Arcade Fire and to visit the Mississippi River, the Heartland Hill, and places of musical significance. I am excited in that quiet smile-to-yourself way. Memphis is always familiar and new.
Memphis is a strange thing; it is as double-minded as any human.

Me and Memphis: A history in pictures . . .

Me and the Court House in 2004. I was there with my parents looking at colleges.



In 2005-two days before I started my studies at Cumberland.



In 2007 with Tanya.




In 2010 with my brothers Gabe and Luke, Luke's fiance Chelsey, her sister Lyndsay, and Tanya and Caitlin. An amazing one-day Spring break trip in a 15 passenger bus filled with Starbuck's cups.





(I am a mermaid of the Mississippi)

A year ago . . .

My career took a leap from barista to illustrator, both great jobs, with great people. Only the barista job had the benefit of endless coffee and conversations . . .. So here's to my time making people's minds more alert; I miss you coffee shop.

" . . . all the way from Sintra, Portugal . . ."

I took this photo in Sintra back in 2006, which seems so long ago it might as well be 1806. Speaking of the 1800's, this garden was across the street from the house where Lord Byron stayed when he was there.

Mercy/Merci

My best friend is getting married tomorrow.

My Uncle Bill

My Uncle Bill (that's him when he was little), a man I remember always, always laughing, passed away this morning. He always called me Meisky Misky Mosky. It's just so sad.

A revelation stumbled upon after getting sick of listening to the radio. . .

My favorite music is the music that I can fall back on when all the new music gets old. It is eternally surprising. It is simultaneously SO familiar and consistently startling. It stirs up my soul and soothes my spirit. Sounds like love.

Have I mentioned lately . . .

. . . that I am so thankful for my job? Because I am. SO very thankful. I get to draw and design and have insurance. It's a miracle - a functioning artist with health insurance.

O Swallow, Swallow

I was fortunate enough to be in a really great girls' choir in college. This is one of the pieces we sang, and being delighted by Tennyson, I was so excited. It is from The Princess.

'O Swallow, Swallow'
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

O Swallow, Swallow, flying, flying South,
Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves,
And tell her, tell her what I tell to thee.

O tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each,
That bright and fierce and fickle is the South,
And dark and true and tender,
Dark and true and tender is the North.

O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and light
Upon her lattice, I would pipe and trill,
Would pipe and trill and chirp and twitter twenty million loves.

O were I thou that she might take me in,
And lay me on her bosom, and her heart
Would rock the snowy cradle till I died.
Why ling'reth she to clothe her heart with love,
Delaying as the tender ash delays
To clothe herself, when all the woods are green?

O tell her Swallow, that thy brood is flown:
O say to her, I do but wanton in the South,
But wanton in the South,
But in the North, in the North long since my nest was made.

O tell her, brief is life but love is long,
Brief is life but love is long,
And brief the sun of summer in the North,
And brief the moon of beauty in the South.

O Swallow, flying from the golden woods,
Fly to her, and pipe and woo, and make her mine,
And tell her, tell her, that I follow thee.

Tell her, tell her that I follow thee;
Fly to her and pipe and woo her,
Pipe and woo her and make her mine.
And tell her, tell her that I follow, follow thee!

Mmm. Lovely Nashville-bred Art here.

I'm thankful for:

The community at Belmont. And for Belmont bringing in awesome speakers like Mako Fujimura, Brian Mclaren, Margaret Atwood, Jeremy Begbie, and tonight's speaker, Rob Bell. I am so glad to be able to hear these people, whether I agree 100% with them or not, in all their human-ness, speak about their thoughts on art and life and God.

An Arcade Fire song in memorium of all the power lines within a 5 mile radius of my house . . .

I woke up with the power out,
not really something to shout about.
Ice has covered up my parents hands
don't have any dreams don't have any plans.

I went out into the night,
I went out to find some light.
Kids are swingin' from the power lines,
nobody's home, so nobody minds.

I woke up on the darkest night,
neighbors all were shoutin' that they found the light.
(We found the light)
Shadows jumpin' all over the walls
some of them big, some of them small.

I went out into the night.
I went out to pick a fight with anyone.
Light a candle for the kids,
Jesus Christ don't keep it hid!

Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo!

Ice has covered up my parents hands
don't have any dreams, don't have any plans.
Growin' up in some strange storm,
nobody's cold, nobody's warm.

I went out into the night,
I went out to find some light.
Kids are dyin' out in the snow,
look at them go, look at them go!

Woohoo! WOO! Woohoo!

And the power's out in the heart of man,
take it from your heart put in your hand.(hand)

What's the plan? What's the plan?

Is it a dream? Is it a lie?
I think I'll let you decide.
Just light a candle for the kids,
Jesus Christ don't keep it hid!

Cause nothin's hid, from us kids!
You ain't foolin' nobody with the lights out!

Woohoo!

And the power's out in the heart of man,
take it from your heart put in your hand.
And there's something wrong in the heart of man,
Take it from your heart and put it in your hand!
(hand!)(the lights out!)(hand!)(right now!)(hand!)

Arcade Fire (who I'll be seeing in a couple of weeks) Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

130.

These are the days when birds come back,
A very few, a bird or two,
To take a backward look.

These are the days when skies put on
The old, old sophistries of June,--
A blue and gold mistake.

Oh, fraud that cannot cheat the bee,
Almost thy plausibility
Induces my belief,

Till ranks of seeds their witness bear,
And softly through the altered air
Hurries a timid leaf!

Oh, sacrament of summer days,
Oh, last communion in the haze,
Permit a child to join,

Thy sacred emblems to partake,
Thy consecrated bread to break,
Taste thine immortal wine!


~Emily Dickinson

Early morning, April four

Shot rings out in the Memphis sky.

Free at last, they took your life

They could not take your pride.

-U2, Pride (In the Name of Love)

Nashville: 1864

So beautiful. Amazing how that same shining truthfulness still resides here.





Watching the Battle of Nashville from Capital Hill




Trains during the Civil War (capital building in the background)

What a man

Joshua James is such a great artist, and I don't just mean "oh he's a great musician," but he seems to live, really, really live, and that is the whole point of art. Read his latest post on his website here, and while you're there, for the love of all that is good, buy some music, it is soaked in realness, and is shining with the beauty and truth and tragedy and freedom that comes along with being real.

Here is his blog, too.