Summer in Review

Our Flickr account now has several photographs reviewing the more significant parts of our summer. If I find the time, I'll write a few more reflections soon like I've been meaning to...

I knew I should have shaved.

I saw last year's fifth graders in the all-school chapel service today. I was really quite excited to see each of them all grown up after a full summer away, but all they did was point and laugh at my beard.

Besides that, the new school year is underway. So far, so good.

Two Man Band

So I've done a terrible job of posting the other pictures I've promised recently, but check out our Flickr site for three preview photos of what Kyle and I will be doing at Wired on the 30th.

Bytes of Culture

The Dark Knight, by the way, is worth the hype it has received. Besides Ledger's stunning display being every bit as good as everyone wants it to be, it's just nice to see a blockbustering action flick packing some depth into its story. That's the way it should be, isn't it? And seeing it done so successfully makes me wonder where and why we lost that. Seeing this forced me to pick up Batman Begins which I never took the time to watch, which is also just as good as everyone said it was a few summers ago.

On a very different side of the spectrum, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days was also just as good as the few people who were talking about it said it was, and probably even better. It's a Romanian film telling the story of a friend helping another friend perform a do-it-yourself abortion when such procedures were illegal under Communism. With a setup like that, it's obviously a tough watch in the truest sense, which makes me hesitant to recommend it, not because it's irresponsible with content or more trouble than it's worth, but simply because it's so heavy. One moment in particular brought me to tears in a way no other movie has, tears of pure sorrow and disturbance.

Why in the world, then, should you watch it? Well, besides being a close-to-flawless work of art (the interview with the director illuminates so many of his insightful decisions) and a masterfully-told story, it's a history lesson, a real-life suspense film, a tale of close friendship, a chance to truly and easily get into another person's shoes, and a powerful examination of issues surrounding the abortion debate. I hesitate to mention the abortion debate, because doing so might cause the viewer to look at the movie through only one lens, which would be quite unfortunate. On the other hand, nowhere else will you see a true and honest depiction of horrors of abortion, while also seeing the hard implications of making such procedures illegal. At any rate, the movie blew me away, and if it's technically from 2007, it would have been up in the top five, and if it's practically from 2008, you'll hear me talk about it again in January.

In music, I took Paste's advice and picked up some Bon Iver. While I would venture to guess his falsetto won't be for everyone, I really enjoy the music a lot. At the same time, though, something about his music reminds me of Jose Gonzalez--stripped down presentation, layered vocals, songs that sort of confuse themselves among each other--which makes me nervous that he'll grow old and forgettable rather quickly for me. Time will tell, but I'm enjoying him for now. Check him out on Daytrotter and Take Away Shows in two parts.

In literature, I just picked up some of Tagore's poetry, Gitanjali, upon Stan and Kyle's recommendations. I'm moved by the little bit that I've browsed, and anxious to do some more.

I'm not sure what I'd do without the Barnes and Noble giftcards I received from students last year. I'm finding ways to make them last all year long, which is becoming sort of like having a library where returning materials isn't required.

And finally, if you live in the area and aren't leaving for Labor Day Weekend, I'll be having what might be the most legitimate 'gig' of my adulthood so far. Dan has organized a night at Wired Gallery on Main Street in Bethlehem, where three artists will be painting murals on the walls throughout the evening. They need accompaniment, of course, so Kyle and I will be in a corner somewhere playing some really nerdy, improvish instrumental music using as many of my odd instruments as possible. We were tempted to round it out and make it a trio, but we decided to challenge ourselves with the creative constraint of keeping it a duet, realizing we each have four limbs to keep busy with something, which is pretty much exactly like having an eight-person band. There will be plenty of accordion, ukulele, and desk bells, among many other things. Two people surrounded by a flea-market of instruments; what could be better? Probably a lot of things. But you're invited, and I'm told the event goes from 5 to 9, with the main action happening from 7 to 9. Yes, I'm very nervous.

Hey--be sure to enjoy your final weeks of summer. I hope it's just as beautiful where you are as it is here.

Death of CCM?

What better way to spend a Friday night than searching for used cars under $1,000 on Craig's List? I found out too late that Rhys Chatham was upping his USA ante by unveiling Crimson Grail for 200 electric guitars tonight in NYC. Although, if I wander outside, I just might be able to hear them from here.

While on a break from browsing, in a strange series of events, I went here, to my complete surprise saw a friend's name mentioned here because of this, and then went on to find this, which lead to this.

So, perhaps it's old news, but I didn't hear it 'til now. CCM Magazine is no longer in print. And while most of the world would only respond with a puzzled look and a shrug of the shoulders, I'm taking great interest in it. Not only is it out of print, but Charlie Peacock thinks Christian music is on its deathbed.

As someone who, in his pre-pubescent innocence, looked forward to the arrival of every new CCM Magazine, I'd like to say this is good and welcome news. When I recently tried to get rid of a large collection of absolutely, totally, completely and utterly worthless CCM CDs, I realized just how strong of a grip the glossy ads in that magazine had on my young mind. It was like safe and acceptable porn for a good Christian boy. I'd see a fancy photo and I'd promptly tear it out, hang it on my wall, and run to my Christian bookstore to buy the overpriced mediocrity. (The hundreds of dollars spent there could have instead been put towards my college education, so I wouldn't have to be paying for the next 20 years. If only I'd have known!) On one hand, I was a sucker, plain and simple. On the other hand, the industry, in my humble opinion, was pretty corrupt. Did they intentionally encourage idolatry or is that just the nature of the beast? I don't know.

Who knows the future of this crazy monster called CCM we've created. But if it is in fact fading away--and CCM Mag going out of print is indeed one major step in that process--I'd say that's a huge step of progress for Christianity. At the same time, we Christians are just as good as anyone at holding on to things for far too long, desperately trying to keep them alive in our denial no matter how dead they already are.

I'm going to leave it at that, admitting that any irresponsible postmodern punk kid can post such bold statements on his blog with few repercussions. I'm not trying to take cheap shots, here. But at the risk of making it seem even moreso, I'll add that we're beyond the point of laboring through these discussions and arguments surrounding the ideas of this Christian subculture anyway. It's been done many times before and elsewhere (at the very least in the aforementioned links), and it's (well passed) time to move on. Maybe all I'm saying is this: I'm glad it looks like we might in fact finally be doing so.

Scrapyard

I just returned from retiring my (t)rusty car at the scrapyard.

Scrapyards are incredibly interesting cultural experiences. The environment reminded me quite a bit of WALL-E, except humans were doing the dirty work, and these humans weren't nearly as cute as that little robot. As I was pulling in, I saw a big crane literally throw a car some distance, and I have a feeling it was done purely for kicks.

Everyone seemed quite surprised that I was abandoning such a good little car. Say this in your best mumbly scrapyard voice: "You gettin' rid a that thing?!" and "How men' miles?" and "Frame's all rotted out, huh? Shame."

One man in a wife-beater was extremely talkative, I think because he had several Hondas like this one in the past, and he knew the pain of giving them up. He checked it out underneath and concurred there wasn't much left worth keeping because of the rotted frame.

Again, in your best mumbly scrapyard voice: "You'da been rear-ended and it woulda folded up like a cardboard box."

I'm pretty sure he said that three times.

I never quite had a connection with this Honda like I did Big Red, but it served me mostly faithfully for three straight years, and I did get a little sad driving it for the last time. It taught me how to drive stick, gave me somewhere around 10,000 miles, and even better, it made me a buck or two. I bought it for $450, got $700 after being rear-ended, fixed it for $250 which made me break even, then cashed it in for $310 today.

Despite all the ridicule I received from my former students, I'd say that's not bad at all. A decent investment indeed.

Carve 45 minutes out of your day to watch this...

...or if you're pressed for time, watch the first 15 minutes, let it load, and watch the last 5 minutes.
Just when I swear I'm not going to tell cyberspace about Sigur Ros anymore, I find another reason to make them known, this one being their recent concert at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

I recently made a mix CD for a kindred spirit that contained a Sigur Ros song for each fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It sounds like an odd project, and maybe it is, but in my mind there's no other band besides this one that would allow you to complete such a notion. At any rate, it was a good exercise if nothing else.

But listening and watching the first song of this video confirmed that I picked the right song for patience, and watching the last song definitely confirmed I got the right one for joy.

Troubleshooting

If anyone knows a good way to get week-old slug juice off the outside of a tent, please let me know.

Shorb Camping Tip #1: Mountain Pies Done Right

Maybe I should back up and, before delving into camping tips, explain why you should consider camping in the first place. But that's a hopeless battle with many of you, so we'll move on, hoping that you'll at least try out some of these camping tips in your backyard, especially if you have one of those fancy schmancy patio fire pit thingees.

So, this year's Shorb family camping trip was to Killington, Vermont for around five days or so. We stayed at Gifford Woods State Park, which offered some great, spread out sites and some enjoyable hiking along a piece of the Appalachian Trail, among other things. You'll hear more about the trip in the coming days, along with some accompanying photographs.

But I first want to communicate the grave importance of experiencing this thing called a mountain pie. Some of you may have never heard of such a thing, and so I will direct you here for a full explanation. Suffice it to say that it's the perfect camping treat cooked over the campfire. You use a pie iron, throw in two pieces of bread and something in between, toast, and there you have it.

In years past, Shorb mountain pies were a pretty limited experience. One would be a pizza mountain pie, using tomato sauce and mozzarella. Not bad at all, but not great. Another common treat was made using cherry pie filling in between the bread. Once again, not bad at all, because who doesn't love some good cherry pie filling? But not great. Well, two years ago we started getting creative, and this year things just kept getting better.

Recipe #1: The Chunky Monkey Pie--nutella (sounds good already, doesn't it?), sliced bananas, milk chocolate pieces, marshmallow, and crushed graham cracker.

Recipe #2: The Black Forest Pie--nutella, cherry pie filling, milk chocolate pieces, marshmallow, and crushed graham cracker

Recipe #3: The Crunchy Banana Split--nutella, cherry pie filling, sliced bananas, milk chocolate pieces, and granola

OK, so there's not a whole lot of difference between those recipes. You can kind of see our list of ingredients, and the recipes mostly consisted of what not to put it rather than what to include.

And now that I'm doing a little bit of research on the topic, I'm finding sites like this one, that give all sorts of exciting new things to try. I have a feeling these ideas will really enhance next summer's camping trip.

Anyway, go out and purchase a pie iron, give these a try, and life will never seem quite the same.

When it rains, it pours, or, Adding insult to injury

As if a car dying isn't bad enough, how does it work out that both our cordless phone and hair clippers die in the same week, too? What's next?!

So, if you see me walking around town, or you call our house repeatedly and only get our answering machine, or you notice my beard is looking a bit unkempt, now you know why. Desperate times in this household.

And on a somewhat different note, but in light of dying cars, here's a clip of the documentary Jamin and I made about the last car I had, Big Red, may he rest in peace. Jamin recently uploaded this to the world wide web, and more than anything, watching it makes me thankful for that stage in my life, not really because of a silly yet incredibly reliable car, but moreso because of some pretty great people.


Big Red Montage from jamin clutcher on Vimeo.

Back to life...

It has been a crazy two weeks or so for Erica and I, first with our aforementioned week at World Team and then with a week's vacation in Vermont and New Hampshire.

Now it's back to life, this week trying to find a car to buy (as my Honda didn't pass inspection) and preparing for a class I'm teaching at school next week. Summer is quickly coming to an end, as I will soon be putting more and more hours in at school to prepare for the year.

But there is plenty of blogging to do while getting back to life, particularly in order to tell you some vacation secrets, tips, destinations, and anecdotes from the Shorb family, complete with some pictures. Stay tuned.

I'm also hoping to finally get out to see The Dark Knight sometime this week, and I'll be sure to tell those of you who haven't seen it yet either whether or not it lives up to the hype.