a few reasonable words from the internet this week

Happy weekend, all! We're headed into a fun weekend of wedding preparation festivities.  What are your plans?  

Here's some food for thought for the conversations you have this weekend over brunch, at the soccer field or on a little roadtrip (to the pumpkin patch?). And if you and I happen to bump into each other in the next couple of days, I'd love to hear what you think after these reads! (or, you could always leave me a comment below!)

• from the archives:  This weekend my grandparents celebrate their 69th wedding anniversary!  Here's a cute video of me interviewing them a couple years back (when they were still 67-year newlyweds), asking about falling in love all those years ago. 

• Speaking of conversation, I found this NY Times op-ed Stop Googling. Let's Talk. a reasonable (vs. luddite-idealized) critique of our tendency to allow technology to interrupt, even replace IRL connection.  In short:  we need significant amounts of time with no device in sight. 

• My friend Phaedra shared this post of 4 rituals that neuroscience recommends for happiness.  The thing is, a lot of it is common sense, Biblical even, but the human tendency to compartmentalize our physical, spiritual, and emotional selves makes us forget common sense, don't you think?  via Barking Up the Wrong Tree

• Becoming, new music from Giants & Pilgrims.  Husband musician + wife painter = gorgeous art.  Listening on repeat this weekend.

• Anyone else get the sinking feeling that David Brooks' description of the ungovernable GOP sounds a teensy bit like some of the churches you've attended?  It makes me wonder if there's a chicken & egg principle at work. via NY Times

• Oh my, this satirical conversation between parent and tot cracked me up. I'm not sure which scenario resonated more with my memories, the missing socks or the wanting of the things. Also if you've actually ever uttered the words post hoc ergo propter hoc in an argument with your preschooler, then you win at parenting.  via Slate

If you're looking for a Netflix suggestion for the weekend: we watched the documentary Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me this week, and recommend it. A sweet, sad insight into life with Alzheimer's  along with music from an outstanding musician. (disclaimer:  be prepared to have this song stuck in your head for the rest of the week).

Buy More Art [this Christmas]: Jason Harrod, Highliner & Christmas Hymns

December is the perfect time to re-introduce the Buy More Art blog series -- each post featuring an artist I know and love creating work worth your time, attention, and dollars.  For today's post, I'm inviting you to listen in on my conversation with Jason Harrod about his third full-length solo album, Highliner. 

.....

I've learned that Jason is a natural-born storyteller --  no matter the venue.  It was hard to cut out some of the clips so maybe I'll post a 'b roll' some other time.

In the meantime I felt pretty lucky to get a private concert in my living room. Brian and I are working out arrangements to get Jason to Austin for a couple of shows in early 2014.  I'll keep you posted!  

(p.s., don't miss the special bonus links for Jason's Christmas Hymns EP)

 - Click play to hear our conversation -

part 1: in which we learn how Max Fleischer inspired Highliner, Jason's first 

band break-up, an excerpt of "Trains", and why Jason quit smoking

part 2: in which we hear the themes in the album and an excerpt of "Moon Mission" (my favorite song on the album!) + me saying the word "yep" 32 times.

.....
Buy More Art [for Christmas]

Jason Harrod.com  

Buy Highliner here at Jason's site, on iTunes, on Amazon

Buy Christmas Hymns EP here at Jason's site, on iTunes, on  Amazon

Jason Harrod on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube

..... Bonus Features .....   

The High Line in NYC
Max Fleischer's Superman, "Billion Dollar Limited" episode.  

Jason Harrod: Singing Between Doubt and Belief for 20 years at  Christianity Today

..............................................................

What art are you buying this Christmas? 

This post is meant to be shared; love your neighbor artist and pass it on!  

If you'd like to receive This Sacramental Life in your email inbox, sign up here.

Buy More Art [this Christmas]: Paul D. Smith's YA novel "Jason and the Draconauts"

Oh, hello there, Buy More Art blog series.  It's been a while.  But this is the perfect time to bring back some of the artists I know and love creating work worth your time, attention, enjoyment and dollars.  Today, I introduce you to my friend Paul D. Smith who mixed a writing hobby + a love for childhood stories featuring dragons + encouragement and support and critique from his community + a great Kickstarter campaign + a dogged discipline and dash of courage together to equal an adventurous, imaginative novel, Jason and the Draconauts.

I'm lucky enough to be one of Paul's friends and to get to hear and read some of the chapters as they were being written.  I checked in on his blog for each new chapter, anxiously waiting not only for the next plot twist but also to see if Paul's eight-year-old book critic (his son Zachary) would give his two thumbs up!I'm really proud of Paul and his work.  I recommend Jason and the Draconauts wholeheartedly to you for your own bookshelf and for the homes of any of your story-loving, imagination-loving -- and, yes -- dragon-loving friends.

Paul and I got together on Google Hangout to talk about his process from blog chapters to published book.  It's a fun conversation -- don't miss the excerpt he read for me at the end of our conversation.  

  - Click play to hear our conversation.
  Do me a favor and fast forward to 3 seconds in, will you?  Unless you'd like to hear my impression of a stuttering fan girl! -  

Jason and the Draconauts on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)

Jason and the Draconauts on Facebook, on Twitter

Independent review at Kirkus Reviews

Book Synopsis from Amazon:

Fifteen-year-old Jason Hewes is a fairly ordinary kid, with fairly ordinary problems. He’s more interested in dinosaurs and fantasy role-playing games than sports, making him a target for local bullies, and his dating successes are best described as sporadic. He’s just another kid struggling to get through life in a small rural town in Montana. Nothing exciting or exceptional ever happens to him. The impact of something heavy crashing into the ground of the Hewes’ family farmhouse shakes the house and Jason’s life. Whatever hits the ground scurries into the barn, followed by a frightened but curious Jason. Jason has just discovered a creature out of legend; a beast which all logic tells him should not—could not—exist. Some kids might run. Others might scream or faint. Instead, Jason befriends the ancient creature, and in doing so learns an entire mythic species is emerging from a centuries-long slumber. Jason isn’t the only one to notice large, leathery-winged beasts taking to the skies of modern Montana. A powerful and long-forgotten evil is watching his newly-revived enemies closely. He’ll do anything to destroy his bitter foes and their new-found allies—allies that now include Jason Hewes. Paul Smith’s debut novel, Jason and the Draconauts is a witty, funny adventure story where an ordinary teen finds himself in an extraordinary situation, and in doing so, finds himself capable of performing the impossible.

.....

What art are you buying this Christmas? 

This post is meant to be shared; love your neighbor artist and pass it on!  

If you'd like to receive This Sacramental Life in your email inbox, sign up here.

Buy More Art: bragging on a few creators and cultivators in my family tree!

Introducing Buy More Art, a subtly-titled weekly collection of art and art events I'm recommending to the world. A close runner up name for the new series:  Love your Artist Neighbor, Buy More Art! (borrowing language from Lauren Winner's advice for art patrons in this book)

After writing 101 Monday Mixtape posts, I'm throwing a farewell party and welcoming in the new guy. You'll notice the mixtape lives on in spirit.  We're just hanging up the jersey on the metaphor.

In case you're wondering, a couple of things I consider when I'm putting together my collection:

• Is this an emerging artist who could use a shout-out?
• Is this an emerging artist I've met, friend of a friend, reminds me of someone I know?
• Do I enjoy the painting/print/tunes/exhibit/piece/pages so much I want to own it for myself?
• Does this artist have a risk-taking story I'm cheering?
• Does this work feature the banjo? Move it straight to the top of the list.

{This post is meant to be shared; help a starving artist and pass it on! If you'd like to receive This Sacramental Life in your inbox, enter your email address here.}

This first week back to the regular series of Buy More Art I'm shamelessly plugging the amazing creators and cultivators in my family.  Truth is, there are many more -- musicians, carpenters, architects, best-party-throwers-in-the-world and closet-artists of all sorts, bakers-extraordinaire -- but not wanting to scare you away with my superpower of bragging-on-family I selected only those with a web presence.  Easier to share with the world that way.

Never one to miss a chance for self-promotion, here's a list linking you to all the other times I've bragged on my creative family here at This Sacramental Life.

Where's Ulysses, review of Wilderness by one proud mama
Couponing for Community
Dismantling the Family Enterprise
My Favorite Creators and Cultivators in 2008 
Photos, Family and Fairy Gardens
Monday Mixtape: [the-inspired-by-my-kids edition]
Monday Mixtape: [the family edition]
Confession

Enjoy!

-- 1 --

Grant and Deb Photographers (Virginia Beach, VA)

Unless you live in central or eastern Virginia you probably won't hire this dynamic photo duo (husband and wife team Grant and Deb) but I promise you'll love browsing their website anyway.  They're so good we drove from New York to Virginia -- not once but twice -- for our boys' senior photo shoots.  

Wedding photography is their superpower.  That's not just me saying so; so says every bride's standby resource The Knot. 

Way to go cousins!

only a few of our favorites from Grant and Deb Photographers

Grant and Deb on Facebook

Grant and Deb on Twitter

-- 2 --

studio:christensen (Philadelphia, PA)

Ten years ago on New Year's Eve our family room burst into flames.  Only the grace of God and the efficient response of our small town volunteer fire station kept us from losing our entire house.  During the sub-zero temperatures the rest of that winter and into the spring Brian and I tried to figure out how to make the best of the damage, to rebuild a new and better kitchen and family room.  

Thankfully we didn't have to figure it out alone.

Three talented cousins -- Jason the carpenter, John the architect and Jt the designer -- sat around our singed dining room scratching out ideas on graph paper.  We felt pretty lucky then but really had no idea how much.

Following those dining room table sessions Jt has pursued experience in fine arts, graphic design, and  photography culminating into his degree and professional career in interior design and architecture.  In 2009 he launched studio:christensen- a multifaceted design firm specializing in hospitality and residential design.  Now he's making his mark in center city Philadelphia.

studio:christensen is not only gallery and workspace, but offers home furnishings by brands
 such as Kartell, Moroso, Vitra, Paul Evans, Knoll, Herman Miller, Gio Ponti and Eames

studio:christensen on Facebook

-- 3 --

Glennon Interiors (Phoenixville, PA)

I may be a bit premature with this shout-out as my delightful cousin Megan only just this week launched the Facebook page for her Interior design business.  Still, make yourself a steaming cuppa and spend a happy half hour drooling over browsing her photos.  (while you're there make sure you click that good ol' LIKE button!)

Next, if you live in the Philadelphia/Valley Forge area of Pennsylvania hire that girl quick.  I have a feeling she's going to be busy.

a collage of some of my favorite Glennon Interiors work;
 the office makeover at the top center is my sister's house

Glennon Interiors on Facebook

-- 4 --

Cha-Ching on a Shoestring (world wide web!)

OK, so it's a bit of a stretch to include my sister's work in a post titled Buy More Art.  Let's say that she excels in the art of living on less and if we follow her advice we'll find more money to Buy More Art.  See how beautifully that fits?!?

Truth is my Kaley has a passion for saving money and helping others do the same.  She's taken that passion and made culture as a super-thrifty creator and cultivator.  And I'm really proud of her work.

To prove I'm not too biased, check out Cha-Ching's press....

                   

Anderson Cooper segment:

You'll also love the regular contributions to the site from my very own mama -- aka, the Dollar Store Diva.  

                                                                  Source: chachingonashoestring.com via Tamara on Pinterest

Cha-Ching on a Shoestring on Facebook

Cha-Ching on a Shoestring on Twitter

Cha-Ching on a Shoestring on Pinterest

-- add your art --

Now it's your turn!  What art are you making, selling, buying?  Tell us about it in the  comments below.  If you've written your own post, share the link.

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"The God who impoverished himself is also the God of abundance, and somehow, perhaps at times nonsensically, Christians are called to live out of an ethic not of scarcity but of abundance—an abundance that extends both to the homeless neighbor and to the artist neighbor. . . "  -- Lauren Winner, from her chapter THE ART PATRON: Someone Who Can't Draw a Straight Line Tries to Defend her Art-Buying Habit  in For the Beauty of the Church

Buy More Art: Christmas Hymns from Jason Harrod, Christmas gifts from Laurel Rudd, Christmas cards from The Ambrosium

Introducing Buy More Art, a subtly-titled weekly collection of art and art events I'm recommending to the world. A close runner up name for the new series:  Love your Artist Neighbor, Buy More Art! (borrowing language from Lauren Winner's advice for art patrons in this book)

After writing 101 Monday Mixtape posts, I'm throwing a farewell party and welcoming in the new guy. You'll notice the mixtape lives on in spirit.  We're just hanging up the jersey on the metaphor.

In case you're wondering, a couple of things I consider when I'm putting together my collection:

• Is this an emerging artist who could use a shout-out?
• Is this an emerging artist I've met, friend of a friend, reminds me of someone I know?
• Do I enjoy the painting/print/tunes/exhibit/piece/pages so much I want to own it for myself?
• Does this artist have a risk-taking story I'm cheering?
• Does this work feature the banjo? Move it straight to the top of the list.

{ This post is meant to be shared; help a starving artist and pass it on! If you'd like to receive This Sacramental Life in your inbox, enter your email address here }

This first week of Advent, I'm sharing a mini-collection of artful resources for you to enjoy in this beautiful waiting time.  I'll keep sharing Buy More Art posts through December, but you'll forgive me for limiting my editorial comments, won't you?  Trying to quiet myself just a little bit.

Enjoy!

-- 1 --

Christmas Hymns from Jason Harrod

If you've visited with me here often enough, you know by now Jason's one of my favorites.  He recorded this intimate little Christmas album a few years ago but they're worth mentioning again -- just the right balance of quiet longing and joyful hopefulness.

p.s.,  It's a little known fact that Jason slept in our guest room back in New York one of the weekends he recorded this album.

-- 2 --
ellemar designs Christmas ornaments and gifts

                                                                Source: etsy via Tamara on Pinterest

My dear friend Laurel Rudd's added some fun Christmas-y items to her Etsy shop, ellemar designs.  Not only that, her hand-painted ceramics make perfect gifts for your Christmas shopping!  

-- 3 -- 

Christmas cards from The Ambrosium

                             Source: etsy.com via Tamara on Pinterest

I realize I'm now running the risk of talking your ear off about The Ambrosium.  In last week's Buy More Art collection I shared the Advent calendar and mentioned the lovely Christmas cards in the shop.  This week I wanted to show you a picture to prove their loveliness.

While you're there, browse The Ambrosium's entire collection for your people you're loving on this Christmas.

 -- add your art --

Now it's your turn!  What art are you making, selling, buying?  Tell us about it in the  comments below.  If you've written your own post, share the link.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"The God who impoverished himself is also the God of abundance, and somehow, perhaps at times nonsensically, Christians are called to live out of an ethic not of scarcity but of abundance—an abundance that extends both to the homeless neighbor and to the artist neighbor. . . "  -- Lauren Winner, from her chapter THE ART PATRON: Someone Who Can't Draw a Straight Line Tries to Defend her Art-Buying Habit  in For the Beauty of the Church