artist spotlight: boyce avenue

Song covers often seem to go two ways: really good, or really bad.  With the advent of youtube, one can find almost endless covers of popular songs.  A lot of them really aren't that good.  (Drum covers especially suffer from this!)

Once in awhile though, you find an artist whose actually doing it really well.  I had first heard Boyce Avenue’s cover of Coldplay’s “Fix You” some months ago, but rediscovered it Saturday morning as we were getting ready to head to Winnipeg for Josh’s baptism.  He also does an Adele cover—which is something many seem to be doing lately with her skyrocketed popularity (American Idol being a good example of how to not sing Adele songs).  For me it’s the acoustic simplicity that I appreciate in the "Fix You" cover especially.

Happy listening.  More to come.

Coldplay - Fix You:

Adele - Set Fire to the Rain:

what I learned from Johnny Reid

I’ve found that if I ever need to be prompted to write or respond or reflect on some topic or issue I really only need to turn on the radio for an hour or so.  Perhaps somewhat old-hat—yet I found myself tuning in quite often last summer as I’d walk our greenhouses to check on the crops.  A bit of music can help the day go by.

This isn’t a song, but an interview I heard yesterday on “Q” on CBC Radio.  I do like this show; I find the host, Jian Ghomeshi, very easy to listen to and the range of personalities and ideas from authors, actors, musicians, philosophers and more make for an interesting variety.  Yesterday however, I was really encouraged by this simple, heart-felt interview with Canadian “country/soul crooner” Johnny Reid.

I was particularly struck by how Reid talks about the impact his wife and children have on how he goes about living day to day.  As Jian says in the interview, Reid brings this “perspective”, this “outlook”: and I think in the context of this blog, can help us to ponder the intersection of faith and life quite well.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.  Have a great weekend!

Johnny Reid on Q with Jian Ghomeshi:

Essay: “On Myth & Life”, Paper 1 for Tolkien & Lewis Class

As promised, I’ve been able to upload one of my recent essays to the blog—a little later than I’d hoped, but better than never!

Click here to read “On Myth & Life”. 

The following is my first essay for “Lewis & Tolkien: The Making of Myth”, my spring class I’m currently taking with the Mythgard Institute.  Our assignment was to note what we believed to be the most important or significant point of comparison or contrast between C.S. Lewis’ and J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary theories: that is, how they understood the nature of fantasy literature.
  
This is a bit of a workout for a three page paper.  The idea was not so much to come to a definitive conclusion, but to wrestle with the issues, paying close, careful attention to the text and walking alongside the reader to discover together that which you desired to teach through the essay.  The emphasis here is on an inductive reading of the texts.

I chose to focus on the ways myths or fairy-stories orient us to perceive truth, reality, or life in new ways.  In a sense, it’s my bachelor thesis condensed to three pages!  The introduction starts off a bit slow, and I purposefully rerouted some of the best statements from each of the paragraphs to serve better in the conclusion.

So happy reading!  And as always you are more than welcome to leave any questions or comments you might have.

testing, testing

I’m trying out a new design and layout for the blog… feel like it needs a change.  So bear with me as I work out some details.

Have you heard Brushes, yet?

Well you should!  If you haven’t noticed I’m a bit of a crazy person for pretty much anything my friend, Koko, does when it comes to music.  He’s just released another EP, adding brand new songs and redoing some from his previous Rough Cuts EP.

The new style really demonstrates Koko’s continual growth and detail as an artist.  If you have a chance, check out his new music under the moniker, Brushes.  Oh, and did I mention you can download five songs for absolutely nothing.  Yep, they’re free.

Click to listen; follow the link for more!

afresh again

So here’s the plan.  I need more of a schedule for blogging.  If I don’t set aside a time it will, like many things, never really get done.  So I’m thinking Saturdays…my current day off (for now) will be a good day to set aside the time to think and write.

I’m thinking of posting my Mythgard papers if anyone is interested in reading them.

Also, I saw this at work today!  Star-gazing!

Will post more soon.

n.