Odds and ends
- The air circulation system at my office is malfunctioning right now, so when the fan is on, we're taking in outside air. It just so happens that our next door neighbor is tarring his roof, which gets sucked straight into our vents, which then fumigates the entire engineering section to smell like asphalt. Since we're engineers, we don't have any windows or doors to the outside to help air things out. It was like they're paving a new road in here. Fortunately, we've been able to turn off the air. Better to have stale air than be breathing in all those air particles.
- Current CD: Who We Are Instead, Jars of Clay. My favorite band released their 5th studio album this past Tuesday. They're one of the few bands for whom I'll buy their album on the release date; I'm usually quite content waiting for it to come out on BMG or even Amazon-Used.
Why are they my favorite band? One reason is that their debut CD had a huge impact on my life, back in 1996. Essentially, they were the band that got me into music. The song "Worlds Apart" off their debut is still my favorite song of all time - the line "Did You really have to die for me?" still gets me every time.
They've remained my favorite band over the years because as I've grown, changed, and matured, they have as well. While many initial fans have fallen away because their sound has changed with just about every CD, I've grown to appreciate and adore their courage and willingness to stretch their musical and artistic boundaries instead of staying safely inside what they knew was popular. Perhaps I identify with that because the past 7 years since 1996 have also reflected the greatest change and stretching in my life, resulting in growth that would never have come had I remained safely inside what I knew. This gives me confidence to continue to take risks, and I hope that Jars continues to take risks as well.
Anyway, on to their CD. I sorta knew what to expect, but it was still a bit surprising - it appears that their friendship with former Caedmon's Call member Derek Webb has influenced their songwriting, and they were listening to a lot of Johnny Cash before producing this album. This is pretty much a folk album with blues, gospel and even a little country influence. It sounds completely different from the basic pop/rock of The Eleventh Hour, their most recent studio album. Frankly, I like this one more than that one already. Time will tell where it eventually ends up in my personal hierarchy of their albums. The overall theme of the album is the tension of living as Christians in a world that is not our home, that pales in comparison with that which is to come... a theme that has been near and dear to my heart over the past few years.
Lyric of the day: Can't find no rest for my soul / Can't find no rest on my own / Jesus told me so / Man, the trouble is / We don't know who we are instead
- Observation: in the Silicon Valley, there may be no more racially diverse place than Wal-Mart. It's one of the places where I don't mind waiting in line because it's fun to people-watch.
- Random pet peeve: professional writers (particularly sportswriters) who don't know the difference between "compliment" and "complement". It annoys the heck out of me to read an article saying "So-and-so complimented star player so-and-so by scoring 20 points of his own." You'd think that it's a distinction used in every team sport, people should get it right.
- The air circulation system at my office is malfunctioning right now, so when the fan is on, we're taking in outside air. It just so happens that our next door neighbor is tarring his roof, which gets sucked straight into our vents, which then fumigates the entire engineering section to smell like asphalt. Since we're engineers, we don't have any windows or doors to the outside to help air things out. It was like they're paving a new road in here. Fortunately, we've been able to turn off the air. Better to have stale air than be breathing in all those air particles.
- Current CD: Who We Are Instead, Jars of Clay. My favorite band released their 5th studio album this past Tuesday. They're one of the few bands for whom I'll buy their album on the release date; I'm usually quite content waiting for it to come out on BMG or even Amazon-Used.
Why are they my favorite band? One reason is that their debut CD had a huge impact on my life, back in 1996. Essentially, they were the band that got me into music. The song "Worlds Apart" off their debut is still my favorite song of all time - the line "Did You really have to die for me?" still gets me every time.
They've remained my favorite band over the years because as I've grown, changed, and matured, they have as well. While many initial fans have fallen away because their sound has changed with just about every CD, I've grown to appreciate and adore their courage and willingness to stretch their musical and artistic boundaries instead of staying safely inside what they knew was popular. Perhaps I identify with that because the past 7 years since 1996 have also reflected the greatest change and stretching in my life, resulting in growth that would never have come had I remained safely inside what I knew. This gives me confidence to continue to take risks, and I hope that Jars continues to take risks as well.
Anyway, on to their CD. I sorta knew what to expect, but it was still a bit surprising - it appears that their friendship with former Caedmon's Call member Derek Webb has influenced their songwriting, and they were listening to a lot of Johnny Cash before producing this album. This is pretty much a folk album with blues, gospel and even a little country influence. It sounds completely different from the basic pop/rock of The Eleventh Hour, their most recent studio album. Frankly, I like this one more than that one already. Time will tell where it eventually ends up in my personal hierarchy of their albums. The overall theme of the album is the tension of living as Christians in a world that is not our home, that pales in comparison with that which is to come... a theme that has been near and dear to my heart over the past few years.
Lyric of the day: Can't find no rest for my soul / Can't find no rest on my own / Jesus told me so / Man, the trouble is / We don't know who we are instead
- Observation: in the Silicon Valley, there may be no more racially diverse place than Wal-Mart. It's one of the places where I don't mind waiting in line because it's fun to people-watch.
- Random pet peeve: professional writers (particularly sportswriters) who don't know the difference between "compliment" and "complement". It annoys the heck out of me to read an article saying "So-and-so complimented star player so-and-so by scoring 20 points of his own." You'd think that it's a distinction used in every team sport, people should get it right.
posted by Bob at
11:47 AM
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