by turns

My Promised Song of the Year. And Another One.

I've been blessed with receiving a lot of really excellent music this year from various friends and sources. One that has really stood out for me is this Icelandic band called Sigur Ros. I've known about them for a while but I never really got their music. Until this year. I stumbled across this one song called Seaglopur from the album Takk... (the singer sings in Icelandic, English and often in a made up language called Hopelandic). If all of creation has a song, if everything is harmonizing with everything else in order to create a hymn in honor of the Creator, to sing of His beauty and the beauty of all life, I honestly think, to my ears, this is what it would sound like. The way the instruments and his voice and perhaps most of all the percussion build, crescendo and release, is just perfect and has carried me through some of the biggest changes in my life this year. I don't think it'll sound like this to everyone, but I did want to share it. Just in case it does the same thing for someone else! And after that song is another song by them I've been really enjoying. 

06 Sæglópur

This song is called Gobbledigook from the album með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (10 automatic points for anyone that can say that correctly. I seriously think Icelandic is the language of the elven folk.) Parts of it sound exactly like the Andean folk music I grew up listening to. And Bjork plays the crap out of that snare drum, with this joy and abandon that's just beautiful. Also, hair feathers.

I Was There!

Last weekend I was working at the Baha'i National Convention, held in Wilmette. NPR was there and I didn't even know it! The story, about Baha'i elections, is one of the best synopses of both the Baha'i election process and Baha'i belief that I've ever heard!

You can listen to it here.

Fortunately you can't hear me singing in the background.

The Spot

The other day Suzanne, Amia and I were in Wheaton, which is pretty much where I grew up. There is one place there that is standing like this sweet, tasty beacon of independence and goodness. It's called the Popcorn Store. I've been going there SINCE I WAS 8. Yeah. 24 years. They even used to have my picture on the wall. The Popcorn Store is basically an alley with a roof on it. The address ends in 1/4. Inside the walls are all brick and on one side is a row of candy of all kinds. You walk in, get yourself a little white paper sack, and go to town. You can choose from all kinds of gummy candy (worms, root beer bottles, feet),  Charleston Chews (big and little), Junior Mints, red hots, M&Ms, Blow Pops, candy necklaces...okay, I think I have a cavity. They also have popcorn but I know of no self-respecting child that ever went in there to get popcorn. That was for adults. So you fill up your sack and take it to the counter where the candy is all counted by hand and priced in the minds of the employees with a little chart for tax. No registers or anything. Then you squeeze out the door past all the other kids in line and walk slowly through town getting a sugar buzz, ensuring that the dentist gets a new car, and comparing candy, sometimes trading. In a word, a visit to the Popcorn Store was/is bliss.

Amia and I went there the other day to get some candies and I snapped a picture (it's the one with the red door).

Up until recently I actually had my picture up on the wall although you couldn't see my face. Two of my friends and I walked there in sub-zero temperatures in January when I was about 9. We were the only ones in the store and there was a newspaper photographer taking pictures. One of the funny things about the picture was that you could see me stretching to reach the top row of candy jars which is now about head level for me. As I went there today I was thinking that now with the house I grew up in torn down and laying underneath a behemoth McMansion this is my strongest geographical link to my childhood, and how sweet would that be to be able to take my grandkids there some day. And give them cavities.

New Musics

Not that I've become obsessed or anything, but I have been scouring the internet for news and music related to Ida and Elizabeth Mitchell (one half of Ida). Thanks to a song (Little Liza Jane) that Katie B. dedicated to Liza F. we found this new song. WE LOVE IT. Amia in particular wants to listen to it like 20 times a day. So I wanted to share two of our current favorite/inspiring/heartwarming songs, both by Elizabeth Mitchell and from the same album, purportedly for kids but we all love these songs. The first is Little Liza Jane and the second is Peace Like a River. Enjoy.

I Would Be So Cool If...

I was ever in a position to say utter one of these two phrases:

Phrase #1 - (While looking at a large map) We need snipers here, here, here, here and here.

Phrase #2 - (Sharp exhale of breath followed by head shaking) Call the Americans.

Any phrases you wish you could be in a position to say?

Kicks and Giggles

Maybe it's the weather, but all I've wanted to post is stuff that's made me laugh. So here now is a things-that-make-me-laugh extravaganza.

I begin with one of the funniest sweetest movies I've seen in a long time:

And of course some LOLCATS:

And finally, a kinda gross thing but HIHLARIOUS:

Speaking Truth to Power

The other day Amia went up to her teacher and said, "I'm a funny girl!".

Sometimes you just gotta keep it real.

New Issue!

Check out the new issue of FUNDamentals, the ezine I get to help out with at work! I'm pretty excited about this issue. We started out with the idea that many people want to spend their lives serving humanity and working to make the world a better place. Knowing that money is needed to achieve service (whether its for food, transportation, or establishing a social and economic development project) we wrote and commissioned articles that talk about how to develop material resources that last a lifetime to fulfill one's spiritual goals. So we tackled things like socially responsible investing, common myths about investing, how to find a financial planner, and ways to begin saving for retirement.

Also, there's something special in this issue for me. It's a film that took over a year to make. I worked with an amazing group of filmmakers and artists to explore the spiritual and material issues that young people are facing, and generally how virtues like generosity, sacrifice, and spiritual mindedness, and specifically participation in the Baha'i Funds, can help us achieve a balance between our spiritual and material worlds. It was a really interesting film to make and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I also got to ride my scooter on camera, so double bonus.

I hope you like this issue!

10 Things I Like About Myself

Suzanne tagged me to say 10 things I like about myself and I've kind of been putting it off, but she called me out just now so I'd better knuckle down. Here's my top tens:

1. I like to make people laugh. And you may not know this about me but I also like to laugh. In this book I just read, an autobiography of an Iranian woman, she said her uncle once told her, "Making others laugh is a gift from God." Amen.
2. I'm really curious about the world.
3. I'll eat almost anything. It just has to be dead (no live squid for me), and can't be a bug.
4. I'm becoming increasingly sensitive to beauty and holiness.
5. I think I'm a good teacher. Some of my best teaching experiences: 1) I actually cried in the middle of teaching one of my more...um...difficult students something. He finally got what the class was talking about and he felt proud of himself. I can probably count on one hand the number of times he'd felt proud of himself or that someone felt proud of him. That was beautiful. 2) All of my semesters as a TA were amazing, but one in particular stands out. All the elements came together and for that one semester I and the entire class saw what education could be. It was challenging, sincere, authentic, exciting, and self-directed. The class even met when I wasn't there because they were so excited to learn and talk! At the beginning of the semester I set out to bring everyone in that class to a crisis, where they had to rethink everything they thought about education. That's pretty much what happened. I think most people have a handful of teachers that made a huge impact on their lives, and that semester I was honored to have several students tell me I was one of those teachers for them.
6. I think I can be a really good writer.
7. I listen to my heart a lot.
8. I'm usually a good dad and if I'm not then I'm trying to be.
9. I like to connect people with things/people I think they'll like--music, ideas, people, services, software, computers, books, and poems.
10. I took good care of my mom.

Now I'm tagging- Anya, Kim, Katie B., Nathan B., Nathan D., and Bahiyyih!

Oh, and Pre-school Week 2 update coming up!

A Song and a New Theme

Now that I've figured out how to share music I want to share more! Although I'll space them out so that the page doesn't take too long to load. My favorite new artist of the past 5 years has to be Sufjan Stevens, and this is probably my favorite song of his. It's from the Illnoise album and is called Come on Feel the Illinoise. There's so much going on, both lyrically and musically. You can find the lyrics online pretty easily, but I will say they speak to something I've been thinking about a lot lately. But overall his albums, and particularly Illinoise which I love, deal with spirituality, history, stories, relationships, authenticity, loss, gain, and fun. I think it's best with the volume turned up to 11.

And while listing to this fine tune, you may have noticed that we here at by turns have changed the theme up on ya. I wanted something new and knew that this butterfly theme is where it's at. Let me explain. For a while after my mother's passing I had an interesting relationship with butterflies (I can't remember if I've posted about this before and I don't feel like checking. I just found that I have almost 400 pages on this blog!). As we were carrying out the casket from the funeral home after the memorial service, a butterfly came out of nowhere and flew around me then the casket. I looked around and don't think anyone else saw it. That's when I first noticed it. But then I would see butterflies at the weirdest times. Like once when I was flying and I had a really bad feeling about the flight, actually wondering if I should get off since we were still in the terminal and they had just shut the door. Right then I looked out the window and saw a butterfly fly over the wing. I've never seen a butterfly on a runway before or since. Not sure what it all means, just maybe I wasn't alone at those times (if we really are ever alone).