I will begin my look at the year in books beginning tomorrow but first I want to take a look back at 2009. I’m glad it is over.
As I began this post I thought I would look back at all the highs and mostly lows of 2009. It was a difficult year to say the least.
But I don’t want to rehash that. In less than 3 hours 2009 will not be able to inflict any more damage on me and my family. Good riddance.
Number 11 was inexplicably omitted from yesterday’s posting. That should have been Elvis Costello with Secret, Profane and Sugarcane.
10. Pierce Pettis–That Kind of Love
Springsteen is the only artist on this list that I have been a fan of longer than Pierce Pettis. I first discovered a CD of his in a bargain bin back in the late 80s. I still look back with tremendous fondness for the number of times I was able to go see him at the historic Bluebird during my Nashville years. Although his voice has dropped to a level that is often too deep for me, his songwriting is still masterful.
9. Kelly Clarkson–All I Ever Wanted
Make fun of me all you want for having two AI offerings in my top 10 but Clarkson returned to the pop confection of her 2004 smash Breakaway with this offering. Girl has some pipes.
8. The Avett Brothers–I and Love and You
This album is one that must percolate. At first blush it is a disappointment. But the best artists always take you where you are not prepared to go. That is what happens here:
7. Alice Peacock–Love Remains
The voice of an angel searching for God. Peacock writes beautiful ballads rife with the spiritual longing and insight of a preacher’s kid. This album was my pleasant surprise of the year.
6. Spinal Tap–Back From the Dead
TAP! The most important metal recording since Smell The Glove. I don’t usually list best of material but this is a career spanning retrospective that should be on every true music lover’s shelf.
5. Bruce Springsteen–Working On a Dream
The Boss churns out another album chock full of gems. What makes this stand out was the inclusion of my favorite album track of his in 25+ years.
4. Brooke White–High Hopes and Heartbreak
As my dawg Randy Jackson would say, “she could sing the phone book and I would love it.” Her voice and style are such a picture perfect remembrance of vintage Carly Simon.
3. Neko Case–Middle Cyclone
Simply.Stunning
2. The Swell Season–Strict Joy
I wasn’t sure if they would be able to repeat the sheer beauty and transcendence of their self-titled debut and the music recorded for Once. In my opinion, however, they have surpassed that with this outing.
1. Michael McDermott–Hey La Hey
I know this comes as no surprise to anyone that I would place this number 1. I have been an indefatigable cheerleader and supporter of Michael’s for 18 years now. I have introduced him to a large number of people and consider him a friend and a hell of a guy.
However, when this first came out I was conflicted. The album was not what I expected. There was something missing. Or better said, there was something different: hope and optimism that is the true hallmark of maturity. With Hey La Hey we have the consummate tortured artist emerging on the other side, scarred and weary but intact. And finally and firmly acquainted with love.
“The Year It All Went Wrong” serves as a beautiful cap to those darkened years. It is after that year of everything going wrong that he is able to emerge singing “I’m falling in love.”
I would have been content to spend the rest of my days listening to the plaintive cries of Michael’s heart. However, I would have missed out on what comes next: a grown man who has experienced all that life has to offer only to rise up again and again and embrace the possibility of redemption, reconciliation and love.
20. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit–Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
19. M. Ward–Hold Time
18. Slaid Cleaves–Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away
17. Rickie Lee Jones–Balm in Gilead
16. Mountain Goats–The Life of the World to Come
15. Steve Earle–Townes
14. John Wesley Harding–Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead
13. U2–No Line On the Horizon
12. Indigo Girls–Poseidon and the Bitter Bug
In yeas past I have labored heavily over my year end music list. I plan to provide my top releases tomorrow night but it will probably be contained in one list rather than a multi-part series. To be honest, I am much more interested in my year end book lists coming up next week.
I think there were a couple of factors that contributed to a less than enthusiastic desire to share my musical picks of the year:
1) eMusic opted for big name back catalog rather than quality new releases. I am not a fan of the new eMusic. Sure it was great to be able to add back a few older recordings I had not converted to MP4. However, the change meant that there was less appeal to Tuesday new releases. There just were not as many. I canceled my subscription as of tonight.
2) My available time to listen to music declined rapidly the second half of the year. I no longer sit before a computer in an office by myself all day. I also had less discriminatory funds to purchase music outside of eMusic.
That does not mean that I have no opinions. I do and will get to those in due course.
I can state right now the two biggest disappointments of the year:
Monsters of Folk–Rather than four times the greatness it was four times the suckitude.
That Derek Webb album–I will be the one to say it: his music stinks. I like the lyrics and appreciate a good controversy but I will pass. I can’t pretend to be a fan any longer.
From time to time, I will share a snippet of the current book I am reading that really grabs my attention. This one is from the National Book Award Winner Let the Great World Spin by Colum Mccann.
Corrigan told me once that Christ was quite easy to understand. He went where He was supposed to go. He stayed where He was needed. He took little or nothing along, a pair of sandals, a bit of a shirt, a few odds and ends to stave off the loneliness. He never rejected the world. If He had rejected it, He would have been rejecting mystery. He would have been rejecting faith.
What Corrigan wanted was a fully believable God, one you could find in the grime of the everyday. The comfort he got from the hard, cold truth–the filth, the war, the poverty–was that life could be capable of small beauties. He wasn’t interested in the glorious tales of the afterlife or the notions of a honey-soaked heaven. To him that was a dressing room for hell. Rather he consoled himself with the fact that, in the real world, when he looked closely into the darkness he might find the presence of a light, damaged and bruised, but a little light all the same. He wanted, quite simply, for the world to be a better place, and he was in the habit of hoping for it. Out of that came some sort of triumph that went beyond theological proof, a cause for optimism against all the evidence.
“Someday the meek might actually want it,” he said.
If there was any question that I was asked most often during my ministry career, that was it. It was hard to explain how study, preparation and the other day to day activities could consume so much time.
I didn’t realize that moving into the library field I would still be asked that question. Granted, if you had asked me two years ago what a librarian did during the work day I would have been hard pressed to fill out an 8 hours slate.
But now I know. There is a lot that comprises my week.
I spend 23 out of my 40 hours each week at The Help Desk. I am the guy that people go to for any questions that they might have. Most of the time those questions are computer related or regarding services that the library offers. However, there is more to it than that.
I am the answer man. At the help desk people come to me with all kinds of questions. I have helped people with research papers, find long lost relatives, find arcane pieces of trivia and other pieces of information that they might need. Over the last few months I have become very familiar with reliable databases that can help me find information that Google alone cannot reach.
My favorite part of the desk time, however, is my Readers Advisory role. If you are looking for a recommendation for a book I am your guy. I love being able to point people in the direction of a good read that meets their tastes and interests. Looking for a Nick Hornby readalike? Here you go. Want a good book about the end of the world? I can hook you up.
The rest of my week is spent “off desk.” During this time I am fulfilling my other responsibilities which include:
–I do all book ordering for 200s, 500s and Inspirational Fiction. 200s is religion and 500s is science. I have a passion for both of those so that has been somewhat easy to get up to speed on. Inspirational Fiction? Not so much. The genre is so series oriented that there is a lot of familiarization that I have to do.
–I am the tax guy. I am responsible for procuring, stocking and keeping readily available all the tax forms that we supply.
–I handle donations. Our library gets a ton of materials that people leave behind. I sift through all of that and determine what we want to add to our collection.
–I will be hosting a book club that begins meeting in January. The flier we used to promote that is above. I likely will be starting at least one more because the first group is full.
–I plan and pull off monthly adult programming. For example, in January we will be doing a Madden Tournament the weekend before the Super Bowl and in February we will be doing an Academy Award Film Series.
That is just a taste of what I do all day. I absolutely love it.
It has been so long since I blogged for a general audience that I scarcely know where to begin. So much has happened over the past year that I have yet to fully process it all. Some bullet points might be the way to go:
–I retired after 20 years of full-time active ministry
–I began work as a part-time circulation clerk for the Ponca City Public Library
–I got a part-time job as a campus minister for the Northern Oklahoma College Wesley House
–We moved into a new house in Ponca City
–I lost my oldest brother suddenly to a heart attack
–I got a job as a full time Reference Librarian at the Stillwater Oklahoma Public Library (of course I quit at the Ponca City library when that began)
–We moved to Stillwater
–During all of this I was taking 9 hours towards my Masters in Library and Information Sciences
Needless to say it has been a time of overwhelming stress and chaos. There were days I didn’t know if I was coming or going. Working two jobs that involved a commute and driving 1-2 times a week to Tulsa for class made September and October absolutely exhausting.
My retiring from ministry has been in the making for a while. However, my departure was hastened for a number of reasons. None of those reasons are really important right now. Suffice it to say I made the right decision at just the right time despite the difficult that ensued.
I look forward to blogging again. It won’t be a place of controversy or pushing the envelope like it might have been at one point. However, this will be a place to talk about the world of libraries, books and information.
I hope that you will consider being a part of this discussion.
I had the joy of seeing Bruce for the third time this past Tuesday night. I’ve been a fan for as long as I can remember, dating back to the first time I heard the Wall of Sound come rushing at me through the sonic boom of Born to Run.
And when I first saw the video for Atlantic City 27 years ago I was hooked. The music of Springsteen has always resonated with me, even when I didn’t fully grasp the depth of some of his lyrics.
The gospels have been the same way. I’ve always gravitated to the words and stories of Jesus, even when I didn’t fully grasp what He was trying to get across.
It was only when I saw the “other-ness” of Jesus’ words did it come into full relief for me. Jesus spoke in the midst of oppression on the borders of Empire. The only way the words of Christ fully make sense is to see them in the context of relationship: of how we treat the poor, the outcasts and the marginalized.
For years I saw the words of Jesus as a laundry list of things to do. I didn’t fully realize that His words pointed toward people to love for a long time. When I made the connection, finally, it made all the difference.
Listening to Springsteen Tuesday night I was struck by how much of his lyrics attest to that truth of the gospels. I was again amazed at how he seems to lend credence to a good news that is often missing in the church. There is no further proof of that then in a sampling of the songs he performed in Tulsa:
Badlands
Lyric: Badlands, you gotta live it everyday/Let the broken hearts stand/As the price you’ve gotta pay/We’ll keep pushin’ till it’s understood/and these badlands start treating us goodOutlaw Pete
Lyric: Father Jesus I’m an outlaw, killer and a thief/And I slow down only to sow my grief/I’m Outlaw Pete, I’m Outlaw Pete, can you hear me?Night
Lyric: And the world is busting at its seams/And you’re just a prisoner of your dreams/Holding on for your life/’cause you work all day/To blow ‘em away in the nightWorking on A Dream
Lyric: I’m working on a dream/Though sometimes it feels so far away/I’m working on a dream/And how it will be mine someday/Rain pourin’ down I swing my hammer/My hands are rough from working on a dream/I’m working on a dreamJohnny 99
Lyric: Now judge judge I had debts no honest man could pay/The bank was holdin’ my mortgage and they was takin’ my house awayThe Promised Land
Lyric: Gonna be a twister to blow everything down/That ain’t got the faith to stand its ground/Blow away the dreams that tear you apart/Blow away the dreams that break your heart/Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenheartedThe Wrestler
Lyric: Have you ever seen a one trick pony in the field so happy and free/If you’ve ever seen a one trick pony then you’ve seen me/Have you ever seen a one legged dog makin’ his way down the street/If you’ve ever seen a one legged dog then you’ve seen me/(Then you’ve seen me) I come and stand at every door/(Then you’ve seen me) I always leave with less than I had beforeThe Rising
Lyric: Spirits above and behind me/Faces gone, black eyes burnin’ bright/May their precious blood forever bind me/Lord as I stand before your fiery lightBorn To Run
Lyric: The highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive/Everybody’s out on the run tonight/but there’s no place left to hide/Together Wendy we’ll live with the sadness/I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul/Someday girl I don’t know when/we’re gonna get to that place/Where we really want to go/and we’ll walk in the sun/But till then tramps like us/baby we were born to runHard Times
Lyric: Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears/While we all sup sorrow with the poor/There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears/Oh Hard times come again no more/Tis the song, the sigh of the weary/Hard Times, hard times, come again no moreLand Of Hope And Dreams
Lyric: This train Carries saints and sinners/This train Carries losers and winners/This Train Carries whores and gamblers/This Train Carries lost souls/This Train Dreams will not be thwarted/This Train Faith will be rewarded/This Train Hear the steel wheels singin’/This Train Bells of freedom ringin’/This Train Carries broken-hearted/This Train Thieves and sweet souls departed/This Train Carries fools and kings/This Train All aboard
The characters in Springsteen are borne straight out of the gospels. They are the beat-up and the burned-out. They are the tramps and the thieves. The ones who have been forgotten and the ones who won’t forget their dreams. They are the ones who have lost and one. The whores and the gambles.
They are the ones that forever search for grace and hope against hope that one day that train will come to lead them to the Promised Land. Out of the Badlands. Into the Land of Hope and Dreams.
I often reside at the nexus of faith and doubt. From the lyrics of Springsteen it is obvious that he is intimately acquainted with that place as well. And it was in the midst of that show Tuesday night that I saw Jesus clearly. The champion of the one legged pony. The one who showed tramps like us how to live.
Sunday is the big night. As an Oscar enthusiast I anxiously await this night all year long. Unfortunately, I feel that there have been several major missteps this year in putting together the ceremony so my enthusiasm has been dampened a bit. Hugh Jackman? Seriously?
But it is always about the movies first and foremost. And there are some stellar films and performances vying for recognition this year.
Due to time constraints I can’t do a full breakdown this year but I will post a bit of analysis. One thing is true: whenever you start hearing someone say that a film is a lock is when you really need to start wondering how true that is.
Best Picture
Will Win–Slumdog Millionaire: This is the biggest lock to win Best Picture since Brokeback Mountain. The only problem is that Brokeback did not win. The main difference here is that Slumdog peaked at just the right time whereas Brokeback had been the frontrunner for months and peaked way too early leading to the ubiquitous Oscar backlash.
Could Upset–Anything but Frost/Nixon. The Reader is a captivating tale and has the Weinstein PR machine behind it. My gut is that it peaked too late, however. Benjamin Button could move in here but overall the reception was somewhat reserved. Milk is a fabulous film and would not be just a perceived makeup for Brokeback but could win on its own merits.
Should Win–Slumdog Millionaire. As much as I like each of the other nominees, this is the best picture of the year.
Best Actor
Will Win–This could go either way between Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke. I’m going to go with Penn for bringing Harvey Milk to life.
Could Upset–I guess there is a scenario where Brad Pitt could sneak in if Penn and Rourke split votes but I don’t see that happening. A better choice would be Frank Langella for actually making Richard Nixon a sympathetic character. That is the perfomance that will be remembered in retrospect.
Should Win–Penn has won before and his role is more about the character than the performance. Rourke should be honored for such a stunning comeback.
Best Actress
Will Win–I’ve heard talk that Meryl Streep is making a tremendous surge to taking home another trophy after a long hiatus. However, this statue must belong to Kate Winslet for her indelible performance of a woman who is complex, layered and mysterious. It is her turn.
Could Upset–If Streep wins it is a huge upset in my book.
Should Win–Winslet
Best Supporting Actor
Will Win–Heath Ledger, although this could be the upset of the night. This statue was practically handed to him over a year ago when he died. The raw emotion of that passing has now subsided and Oscar voters hate being told who to vote for. With that said, he deserves the trophy based upon the merits of his performance. A win here after a huge snub for The Dark Knight is important.
Could Upset–Robert Downey, Jr. turned in an impeccable performance.
Should Win–Ledger
Best Supporting Actress
Will Win–I view this as the most wide open contest of the night. In theory the two Doubt performances should cancel each other out. However, who would not love to see an Amy Adams victory? My heart says Tomei wins and removes all doubt about her legitimacy as an Oscar winner but I am afraid that Penelope Cruz wins for her performance in the insipid Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Ugh.
Best Director–Danny Boyle
Best Original Screenplay–Dustin Lance Black
Best Adapted Screenplay–Simon Beaufoy
Best Song–Bruce Springsteen’s omission makes this category absolutely worthless.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: eMusic is an absolutely essential part of my life. I’ve been able to discover scores of artists I never would have been able to enjoy otherwise.
A great example is Hugh Moffatt. He is a tremendous singer-songwriter. He has one live album on eMusic and I loved it so much I purchased an additional one and find myself listening to them often. Check him out:
