you never give me your money

I love antique shops. There are 3 here in Naperville but only one of them is that good. I just love walking through aisles and aisles of history and nostalgia. Recently I’ve been finding piles upon piles of old records. Because of my love of history and good music, I naturally appreciate a good record. I only own two so far; The Beatles’ Abbey Road and Billy Joel’s The Stranger, but I plan on getting a lot more in the future.
I realized that back when records were the only form of music, you couldn’t just throw your entire music library on shuffle like you can nowadays with iPods and CD changers. They required listening to the whole record straight through, so music back then was made to make this possible. Consequentially, albums made sense. They weren’t just random songs put together to make some money–they were fluid and coherent. So recently I’ve been making myself pick an album to listen to and listen to it straight through. It makes the experience so much more fruitful and enjoyable. You can get the overall feeling of the record and then decide if you like it or not. Just try it a few times. I will suggest starting with Abbey Road because it is the greatest album ever made.

P.S. Don’t forget to send me your guesses for the Academy Award nominations which are immediately under this post.

it’s the most wonderful time of the year

Oscar Time! Historically, I’ve been pretty bad at guessing the winners, but I still do it. Here are the nominees. If you want to enter the guessing pool with me, comment back with your projected winner in each category and I’ll put you on my master list.

Ex: Best Costume Design – The Queen

If you have no idea as to who the winner will be in a certain category, not guessing at all will increase your overall percentage. So have at it and I’ll see you on Oscar Night!

Best Picture
Babel
The Queen
The Departed
Little Miss Sunshine
Letters From Iwo Jima

Best Director
Martin Scorsese for “The Departed”
Alejandro González Iñárritu for “Babel”
Stephen Frears for “The Queen”
Clint Eastwood for “Letters from Iwo Jima”
Paul Greengrass for “United 93″

Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio for “Blood Diamond”
Ryan Gosling for “Half Nelson”
Peter O’Toole for “Venus”
Will Smith for “The Pursuit of Happyness”
Forest Whitacker for “The Last King of Scotland”

Best Actress
Penelope Cruz in “Volver”
Helen Mirren in “The Queen”
Kate Winslet in “Little Children”
Judi Dench in “Notes on a Scandal”
Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada”

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Alan Arkin in “Little Miss Sunshine”
Jackie Earle Haley in “Little Children”
Djimon Hounsou in “Blood Diamond”
Eddie Murphy in “Dreamgirls”
Mark Wahlberg in “The Departed”

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Cate Blanchett in “Notes on a Scandal”
Adriana Barraza in “Babel”
Abigail Breslin in “Little Miss Sunshine”
Jennifer Hudson in “Dreamgirls”
Rinko Kikuchi in “Babel”

Best Animated Feature
Cars
Monster House
Happy Feet

Achievement in Cinematography
The Black Dahlia
The Prestige
The Illusionist
Children of Men
Pan’s Labyrinth

Achievement in Art Direction
Dreamgirls
The Good Shepard
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Prestige

Achievement in Costume Design
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette
The Queen

Best Documentary Feature
Deliver Us from Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq in Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country

Achievement in Film Editing
Babel
Blood Diamond
Children of Men
The Departed
United 93

Best Foreign Language Film
After the Wedding (Denmark)
Days of Glory (Algeria)
The Lives of Others (Germany)
Pan’s Labyrinth (Mexico)
Water (Canada)

Achievement in Makeup
Apocalypto
Click
Pan’s Labyrinth

Best Original Score
Babel (Gustavo Santaolalla)
The Good German (Thomas Newman)
Notes on a Scandal (Philip Glass)
Pan’s Labyrinth (Javier Navarrete)
The Queen (Alexandre Desplat)

Best Original Song
“I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth
“Listen” from Dreamgirls
“Love You I Do” from Dreamgirls
“Our Town” from Cars
“Patience” from Dreamgirls

Achievement in Sound Editing
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Flags of Our Fathers
Letters from Iwo Jima
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Achievement in Sound Mixing
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Dreamgirls
Flags of Our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Achievement in Visual Effects
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Poseidon
Superman Returns

Adapted Screenplay
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Children of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal

Original Screenplay
Babel
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Queen

Good luck!

my soundtrack

No, this isn’t that stupid random listing of songs that supposedly follows your life. These are some songs that have changed me, made me think, made me cry, and want me to become a better person. Enjoy.

“Candy Shop” – Andrew Bird – Oh! the Grandeur
So nostalgic. The groove makes you want to do the Charleston.

“Martha My Dear” – The Beatles – The White Album
There are so many Beatles song I could have chosen but this one is so catchy and my current favorite. Do yourself a favor and listen to this whole double album.

“Vienna” – Billy Joel – The Stranger
I recommend this entire album. I wish I could make music like Billy Joel.

“Love Affair” – Copeland – Eat, Sleep, Repeat
Ridiculously good song off of a ridiculously good album. Their musicianship and composition skills inspire me so much.

“Changes” – David Bowie – Hunky Dory
One of the catchiest songs you’ll ever hear.

“Time Bomb” – The Format – Dog Problems
This band is going to be huge. Such a great blend of acoustic pop, rock, and brilliance.

“Backyard” – Guster – Keep It Together
I just love the grooves they create. The chord progressions are so emotionally charged.

“The Mixed Tape” – Jack’s Mannequin – Everything In Transit
I didn’t know anything about this band before listening to this disc. So glad I did. The first time I heard this track it felt like music was completely new and uninhibited.

“At the Mercy” – Paul McCartney – Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
I never listened to any Wings stuff, so that’s probably why I love this. Paul’s still got it.

“Bicycle Race” – Queen – Greatest Hits I
At a weird yet awesome song. You will not be able to forget it.

“Short People” – Randy Newman – Little Criminals
Most people probably know Randy Newman from the Toy Story soundtrack but his other stuff is piano pop at its best.

“Samson” – Regina Spektor – Begin to Hope
Brass + strings + inspiration = musical bliss. Such a heart throbbing song.

“I So Hate Consequences” – Relient K – mmHmm
Lyrically, this band is the greatest I’ve ever seen. Everyone can relate to these songs, and this is just a taste of the spiritual and emotional maturity that Matthew Thiessen brings.

“The Only Song” – Sherwood – Summer EP
Pop rock glory.

“The World” – The Starting Line – Based on a True Story
An solid, anthemic pop punk rock song.

“Come On! Feel the Illinoise!” – Sufjan Stevens – Come On Feel the Illinoise!
This man is truly gifted. Where he gets his inspiration/ideas is beyond me.

“Amateur Lovers” – Switchfoot – Oh! Gravity.
This album is so much better than Nothing Is Sound. Had to pick one song but listen to the whole album.

“View From Heaven” – Yellowcard – Ocean Avenue
Such an emotional song from an unlikely source. A great summer record.

So there are just a few of the songs that fill my day. What are yours?

I fought you for so long…

Imagine: Darkness, accompanied by golden light from surrounding “Narnia” lamp posts. The snow slowly permeates everything in sight, including your face. The path you’re on shines like diamonds and swivels oh so gracefully alongside a sparkling river. Soft piano music dances into your ear, choreographed perfectly with the falling flakes. Now, tell me that God is not with you at that very moment.

Snow is commonly thought of as a metaphor for a sense of renewal or rebirth, but I see it as being able to see our worth. God drops this stuff down on us to show us that we can sparkle like diamonds and are so clean and new if we choose to be. Go outside the next time it is snowing at night and see what happens.

P.S. If you want to experience a living and breathing God, listen to Relient K’s album mmHmm. He is all over those lyrics.

Brightest

Walking back to my dorm from chapel last night, I saw the coolest image I’ve seen in a long time. A full moon against a dark sky with the slightest shade of the darkest blue you could imagine. Clouds shaped like cotton ball clusters slid by the moon so gracefully. Coincidentally, a Copeland song called “Brightest” was playing on my iPod as I looked up at the sky. The clean, crisp night air refreshed my senses and the whole experience broke through to my soul. The moon shone so brightly that all the beautiful buildings I passed were ever so tinted with a faint light, making the moment seem all the more surreal.

It’s moments like these that prove God’s existence. He is in the colors and the sounds and the smells that invigorate us everyday. These images are always out there waiting for someone to take the time to sit back and look at them. You don’t have to go to Hawaii or the Rocky Mountains to see something spectacular. Just open your eyes a little wider than they’ve been recently and wait to see what happens.