Archive for the 'life' CategoryPage 2 of 57

Everyone’s a Winner

Published
by
Sharolyn
on 14 April 2008
in asides, laugh! and life
. 7 Comments

Do you know what I love about Oprah’s Big Give? Everyone did a great job this week, so no one got kicked off.

A Little Bedtime Theology

Published
by
michael lee
on 13 April 2008
in faith and theology and life
. 16 Comments

An actual bedtime story that I told my daughter tonight:

A long time ago, a young man named David was chosen by God to be King of Israel. In those days, the people in the north part of Israel didn’t trust the people in the south part of Israel, and the people in the south didn’t trust the people in the north.

Now David was from the south, but he knew that God wanted him to be the king of ALL of Israel, not just the south. He had to choose a city to live in, and it couldn’t be in the south, and it couldn’t be in the north. If it was in the south, none of the people living in the north would trust him as king. If he chose to live in a city in the north of Israel, all of his friends in the south would think that David had abandoned them.

So, David did a very wise thing; he chose to live in a city right in the middle, the city of Jerusalem. It wasn’t in the north, and it wasn’t in the south, so the people in Israel knew that David wanted to be king of all Israel. His decision was so wise that all of the elders of all of the tribes of Israel come together in Jerusalem, and they crowned David as King.

Yes, that’s right. I sent my daughter off to bed with the mesmerizing tale of the geopolitical tensions surrounding David’s ascension to the throne of Israel. At what age, do you think, will she realize that her father is a Class A dork?

Taxing Time

Published
by
michael lee
on 7 April 2008
in laugh!, life and politics
. 26 Comments

Once a year, the government decides that, instead of being a competent musician and decent professor, I should spend several hours pretending to be an accountant. It’s Gretchen’s favorite time of year, because she sits huddled up in the corner of the couch glancing over with frightened puppy-dog eyes as I make bellowing grunts of frustration every 10 seconds. The only way I get through it is by drinking several beers, and getting progressively more and more hammered as the night goes on. By the time I’m finished, I’m making such staggeringly brilliant connections as:

  1. Childcare costs incurred while Gretchen is working as a florist are deductible, and
  2. I frequently watch the kids while she is doing a wedding, and
  3. I pretty much always take them to the LA Zoo on those days, which means
  4. We should be able to deduct the cost of our Annual Pass to the zoo as a childcare related expense!

By the time the evening is over, I’m pretty much too sloshed to legally sign my name to anything, so I leave everything scattered on the table, stagger off to bed, and wonder why there is a special deduction category for payments received as part of a settlement agreement pertaining to the Ottoman Empire.

By the way, if anyone asks, I went ahead and listed all 198 of you as dependents. If you could just email me your social security numbers, that would be great.

Happy Birthday, Baby

Published
by
michael lee
on 5 April 2008
in current events and life
. 11 Comments

Today is Gretchen’s birthday! Send her some joy, people.

Music, Meauzik, Myucic, etc….

Published
by
Zack
on 4 April 2008
in art and culture, audio and life
. 0 Comments

Craig Cardiff - “Goodnight (Go Home)”

Sara and I are engaged, and busy planning our wedding. This effectively means two things: I have done absolutely nothing to prepare and/or plan for the event, and Sara has started watching wedding-themed reality programming on such acclaimed networks as Lifetime, and WE. (When they’re not showing the latest “My-Uncle-Touched-Me-Inappropriately” programming, starring Meredith Baxter-Birney) On a recent episode of “Rich Bride, Poor Bride”, the happy couple hired one of their favorite singer-songwriters to perform at their wedding. Sara called me in from the office, to witness the carnage. Typically, this show features the tackiest, most un-cool weddings in the history of love itself. I was expecting the worst. I was hoping for the worst, actually. (Thanks, American Idol!) Their favorite singer-songwriter?  Craig Cardiff.

I couldn’t have been more impressed.  Craig Cardiff is so damn good.  Simple, brilliant song-writing, and an elegant, yet gritty delivery, reminiscent of Damien Rice. If you like Joe Purdy, you’ll definitely dig on this.  I emailed Craig to tell him about how I “discovered” him, and we started a great dialogue about promoting shows, TV ideas, and the meaning of some of his lyrics. As a huge Ben Folds fan, I was very moved to hear him reference him in the song, “Revival Day”, about his mother’s battle with cancer. I emailed him to clarify that it was, in fact, a Ben Folds reference, and he told me all about the moment this happened in his life - he was driving his mother to a faith healer, as a last-ditch effort to fight off her cancer, and “Whatever and Ever, Amen” had just been released:

In a borrowed car, we sang “Evaporated”
It’s beautiful when you go low, and I go high
I watch you dear, and oh, we’ll beat this
If I believe enough, the Lord will provide

Craig Cardiff has released a bunch of records. I’ve only listened to “Goodnight (Go Home)”, but the rest of his catalog is on my to-do list.  Listen to: “Revival Day”, “Dig In”, and “Maybe You Should Drive”

Craig Cardiff is my new favorite singer-songwriter.  End of story…


Counting Crows - “Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings”

Those who know anything about me, know that I’m a huge Counting Crows fan.  However, in my opinion, they’ve been getting progressively less interesting. The past 2 records sound like they were phoned-in. Except for a few key tracks off “Hard Candy” and “This Desert Life”, most of the last two records have been full of unrelenting and unfounded whining by Mr. Adam Duritz.  I was ready to call them quits.  I heard some advance releases off of “Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings”, and I was less than impressed.  But when I finally got a chance to listen to the whole record, I was thrilled.  Finally, they’re back to the quality of song-writing debuted with “August and Everything After”.  The record is essentially divided into two parts - the former being a little more rock and roll than the latter.  Listen to: “Hanging Tree”, “Los Angeles”, and “Cowboys”.


Peter Bradley Adams - “Gather Up”

As one-half of “Eastmountainsouth”, Peter Bradley Adams first caught your attention with “Hard Times”, from the Elizabethtown soundtrack. (Good god, what a horrible film that was.)  I’m not 100% convinced of his recent solo release, entitled, “Gather Up”.  Honestly, I’ve gone back and forth on it.  Some days, it’s brilliantly recorded, and filled with subtlety that you have to really look for.  Other days, I say, “That’s uninspired crap, turn it off.”  Sometimes I’m not the most consistent judge of quality music. Anyway….just about every track on this record is listed as a duet, with performances shared by Sara Bareilles and Alexi Murdoch, among others.  (I’m sure the Sara Bareilles reference just sold some of you on the record, and that’s OK with me.  She’s really good.  “Little Voice” in one of my standout album picks from last year)  So go listen to this record, and tell me what you think.  Convince me that it’s good, or bad, or somewhere in between.  Because I’m sort of stuck on the middle.