Today we end our month long Sufjan Stevens Silver and Gold Christmas album. I hope you enjoyed the songs this month!
Two songs again today. The first has been significant in our culture for nearly two hundred years. I first heard this album the day before we left for globetrotting adventures. Perhaps you can imagine how this first song felt significant to me as we stepped into the unknown. We felt hopeful and excited for dreams come true and adventures and yet we felt nervous to leave our comfortable life and we grieved at losing the presence of friends and family. The reality of leaving our friends and family dawned on us quickly. I suppose choices we make in life hold these realities; we seem to be always in motion.
This is Auld Lang Syne which can be translated to mean "days gone by".
The second song today I put in as a time to reflect on the year gone by and the time to come. There is an element of comfort as watching the sunrise on a snowy morning and an element of mystery. I always think of walking in a grove of cedar trees when listening to this song: is that weird?
This is Sacred Harp (Morning)
Until next time lets all take a cup of kindness.
EO
Monday, December 30, 2013
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Music Monday
Happy Christmas!
Today's music monday features two songs by Sufjan that examine life in general and life through the lens of the Christmas event. Sufjan seems to love fifteen minute songs or so but if you can handle it, do so. I can also note that the second song (the child with the star on his head) changes from lyrical to ambient at about the 5 minute mark.
Until next time Happy Christmas.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Music Monday
Hi. Welcome to Music Mon Thursday!
As always in December Sufjan Stevens is the key note Mondain. Last week I tried to give two songs that exemplify 1. Sufjan's take on traditional christmas songs and 2. The use of pop Christmas songs in the album. Sufjan's Christmas albums are fun and spunky and weird and loud and quiet.
The next two songs I hope to show Suf's original Christmas music creations. A more contemplative music Monday.
The first song is called Christmas Woman.
Next is called Barcarola (You must be a Christmas tree).
These are two of my favourite songs on the album. I hope you enjoy them too.
Until next time keep your Barcarola's folky.
EO
As always in December Sufjan Stevens is the key note Mondain. Last week I tried to give two songs that exemplify 1. Sufjan's take on traditional christmas songs and 2. The use of pop Christmas songs in the album. Sufjan's Christmas albums are fun and spunky and weird and loud and quiet.
The next two songs I hope to show Suf's original Christmas music creations. A more contemplative music Monday.
The first song is called Christmas Woman.
Next is called Barcarola (You must be a Christmas tree).
These are two of my favourite songs on the album. I hope you enjoy them too.
Until next time keep your Barcarola's folky.
EO
Thursday, December 12, 2013
December days
December has come quickly and seems to be holding the same speed and busyness. This is the first time in over three months that I have had a moment to spare and I unfortunately feel like I should be doing something more productive.
School ended in November for me which was a welcome relief. Over 9 weeks I read roughly 2,700 pages and wrote over 30,000 words. How am I ever supposed to retain anything at that rate? I have one text book for next quarter that I have started reading but I am finding it hard to maintain the resolve to make it through the chapters. I found the courses entirely interesting and I am very excited about my next two courses as well.
This past quarter we focused on very foundational elements to counselling including basic skills and components of counselling, the makings of a collaborative therapeutic relationship, multicultural considerations and worldview assessment, and important elements of why counselling works. I am happy to have had time to examine these as I think they can sometimes be overlooked. Though it was an extremely busy quarter of learning and I felt like I had to be at top speed to keep up I strangely felt that I had the opportunity to slow down and examine my own foundational assumptions of counselling. I also recognize the importance of continually checking in and adjusting throughout life.
As winter comes I have dropped my expectations of jogging three days per week and adopted my winter regime of ice skating and hiking (it would be snowshoeing except we just had our first snow fall yesterday… and I don't own snowshoes). I have been skating close to twice per week and I as always enjoy learning a new skill and tiring myself out. This year I am working on transitioning to skating backwards, skating backwards, and stopping on my left edge. I have a goal to skate well enough to start learning to play hockey. I think I have a long way to go.
I have also been exploring our backyard. There is housing development called Wilden which surrounds a couple large ponds up the hill from us. It is a strange place. It motto is "Nature inspired living" which means that they use expensive beams for finishing the houses and that the proximity to a wooded area is close but the houses are gigantic and crammed onto tiny lots. Yards are small but pools are huge. It has a perfect walking trail that takes about 45 minutes to complete which I enjoy but I have been exploring the hills beyond.
I have been on a couple 3-4 hour hikes behind the woods and have discovered some interesting things. The first is a system of ponds that I believe were made to collect water to develop agriculture in this area. I recently read a newspaper article about the systems that were made in the early 20th century. This area used to be called "the valley of death" because of how dry it was. Now it is home to orchards and gardens… and the dump. I also discovered that we are only a few kilometres from the lake; maybe 3.2 or 4.8k (2 or 3 miles). So exciting…
School ended in November for me which was a welcome relief. Over 9 weeks I read roughly 2,700 pages and wrote over 30,000 words. How am I ever supposed to retain anything at that rate? I have one text book for next quarter that I have started reading but I am finding it hard to maintain the resolve to make it through the chapters. I found the courses entirely interesting and I am very excited about my next two courses as well.
This past quarter we focused on very foundational elements to counselling including basic skills and components of counselling, the makings of a collaborative therapeutic relationship, multicultural considerations and worldview assessment, and important elements of why counselling works. I am happy to have had time to examine these as I think they can sometimes be overlooked. Though it was an extremely busy quarter of learning and I felt like I had to be at top speed to keep up I strangely felt that I had the opportunity to slow down and examine my own foundational assumptions of counselling. I also recognize the importance of continually checking in and adjusting throughout life.
As winter comes I have dropped my expectations of jogging three days per week and adopted my winter regime of ice skating and hiking (it would be snowshoeing except we just had our first snow fall yesterday… and I don't own snowshoes). I have been skating close to twice per week and I as always enjoy learning a new skill and tiring myself out. This year I am working on transitioning to skating backwards, skating backwards, and stopping on my left edge. I have a goal to skate well enough to start learning to play hockey. I think I have a long way to go.
I have also been exploring our backyard. There is housing development called Wilden which surrounds a couple large ponds up the hill from us. It is a strange place. It motto is "Nature inspired living" which means that they use expensive beams for finishing the houses and that the proximity to a wooded area is close but the houses are gigantic and crammed onto tiny lots. Yards are small but pools are huge. It has a perfect walking trail that takes about 45 minutes to complete which I enjoy but I have been exploring the hills beyond.
I have been on a couple 3-4 hour hikes behind the woods and have discovered some interesting things. The first is a system of ponds that I believe were made to collect water to develop agriculture in this area. I recently read a newspaper article about the systems that were made in the early 20th century. This area used to be called "the valley of death" because of how dry it was. Now it is home to orchards and gardens… and the dump. I also discovered that we are only a few kilometres from the lake; maybe 3.2 or 4.8k (2 or 3 miles). So exciting…
Monday, December 9, 2013
Double Music Monday
Hi. I missed last week which means I will be posting two songs this week!
As you know I greatly enjoy Sufjan Stevens music. You also may know that he enjoys making Christmas Albums. Last year he released a second 50+ song Christmas Album called Silver and Gold. Like his previous album he explores culture and spiritual themes surrounding Christmas. Unlike his previous folky album he incorporates an eclectic style using a lot of synthesized sounds. Its a little louder, a little bigger, a little messier than the last album but still good.
Enjoy.
Until next time keep haulin' out the holly!
As you know I greatly enjoy Sufjan Stevens music. You also may know that he enjoys making Christmas Albums. Last year he released a second 50+ song Christmas Album called Silver and Gold. Like his previous album he explores culture and spiritual themes surrounding Christmas. Unlike his previous folky album he incorporates an eclectic style using a lot of synthesized sounds. Its a little louder, a little bigger, a little messier than the last album but still good.
Enjoy.
Until next time keep haulin' out the holly!
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