I'm Living In Tampa

Last weekend Kelli and I packed up my stuff (which all fit in a Nissan Xterra) in my tiny New York apartment and drove down to Tampa which took 22 hours due to awful traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike and in South Carolina. The drive was forever but it is nice to be down here. Kelli and I have just been finishing some stuff up for our wedding next Saturday. We saw Wedding Crashers last week and really enjoyed it. The special appearance by Will Ferrell was awesome. It's awesome that those guys are always in each other's movies making special appearances.

For the first three days last week Kelli and I did a detox by eating nothing but fruits and vegetables and I was pretty sure on day two i was going to die. I was freaking exhausted. Not eatin gtakes a lot out of you. I definitely dropped a lot of "toxins" over the three days but that's about it. I was happy to eat again. We celebrated by eating a huge steak!

Still not sure what were going to do after we get back from our honeymoon in St. Lucia! I'm thankful that Forefront will be paying me through August. That will be a huge blessing and will allow us some time once we get back to continue to eat and pay bills while looking for jobs. Just wanted to give an update because I know I rarely write anything about what is going on, it's usually stupid stuff but this is what we're up to. I'm living in Tampa and it's hotter than hell here. In 7 days I will be married!

Sufjan Stevens

I have been listening to Sufjan Stevens new record, "Come On Feel the Illinoise" this week and I have to say that this could be one of the best records of the year. This is an amazing listen. He must play like 153 instruments in this or something. Very different sound, very different instruments, quite a production overall. He even uses a chorus in some parts which is awesome. I'm really quite amazed at this record. I'm not smart enough to review this one. All I can say is WOW. 2 states down in his 50 states project. I look forward to hearing more.

5.0 on the 5.0 Dusty Scale

Are You A Dreamer?

I have to admit that I had great expectations for this album so my review of it might be a little tainted. High expectations from an artist you love are barely ever fulfilled. After the River Bends release my anticipation grew even more. After I heard him live in Brooklyn my expectations soared. I was able to get a prerelease of the album on ebay so i got to hear it a little early. After listening to it, i was pretty disappointed. I think there are a few really good songs on the album but nothing else stuck out to me. This is not the Denison Witmer of "Of Joy and Sorrow." It would be more appropriately titled, "Are You A Sleeper?" Because this album can be a snooze at times. If you need a CD to help you get to sleep at night, pick this one up. I'm hoping for something a little more enthusiastic from his next release.

Little Flowers *****
Everything But Sleep *
Ringing of the Bell Tower ***
Are You A Dreamer? ****
East From West **
California Brown and Blue ***
Castle and Cathedral **
Worry All The Time ****
Grandma Mary *
Finding Your Feet Again **

2.7 on the 5.0 Dustin Scale

Mid-20's Crisis

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/article.php?sid=6797

Make sure you check out my new article on Relevant.

Prayer Thought From Da Man

Prayer is not a machine. It is not magic. It is not advice offered to God. It would be even worse to think of those who get what they pray for as a sort of court favorites, people who have influence with the throne. The refused prayer of Christ in Gethsemane is answer enough to that. And I dare not leave out the hard saying which I once heard from an experienced Christian: “I have seen many striking answers to prayer and more than one that I thought miraculous. But they usually come at the beginning: before conversion, or soon after it. As the Christian life proceeds, they tend to be rarer. The refusals, too, are not only more frequent; they become more unmistakable, more emphatic.”

Does God then forsake just those who serve Him best? Well, He who served Him best of all said, near His tortured death, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” When God becomes man, that Man, of all others, is least comforted by God, at His greatest need. There is a mystery here which even if I had the power, I might not have the courage to explore. Meanwhile, little people like you and me, if our prayers are sometimes granted, beyond all hope and probability, had better not draw hasty conclusions to our own advantage. If we were stronger, we might be less tenderly treated. If we were braver, we might be sent, with far less help, to defend far more desperate posts in the great battle.”

The Efficacy of Prayer – CS Lewis (from essay book titled The World’s Last Night and Other Essays.)

The Divine Comedy

I just polished off the third book of Dante's Divine Comedy yesterday on the airplane. I read the books for two reasons. because they prefaced all of Mclaren's chapters in "The Last Word" and because they have always intrigued me. I was fascinated by the Inferno. That is definitely the best one. There is something about these books that just feel inspired by God. Obviously these descriptions are probably not that accurate of what heaven and hell is really like but they are definitely inspired and it was apparent through the whole series. Dante like many people, loved God, but was vastly disappointed by the actions of the church and made that apparent by the people he visited in hell. I'm sure the Pope would have been surprised to have found himself in hell when he read through these which i'm sure was one of the major reasons he got booted from Florence. If you haven't read these books, i would encourage you to. I'm not sure what the best translation is but if you don't like the King James don't read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's translation. That was brutal. I switched to Mark Musa after the Inferno.

"By means of grace that wells up from a spring so deep that no man’s eye has ever plumbed the bottom of its source." Canto XX 118-120