What I'm Into Lately, December edition

our  family
Christmas Eve service, 2013

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From the book pile

to see the book pile from 2011, click here / from 2012, click here

42  Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey (Random House, LLC, 2013. 304 pages) 

Enlightening, fun, scannable read.  Brian and I took turn reading to each other the daily rituals of various artists who caught our attention.

Here's an excerpt from a fun review by Oliver Burkeman at The Guardian:  

"This was all in an effort to adopt the rituals of some great artists and thinkers: the rising-at-dawn bit came from Ernest Hemingway, who was up at around 5.30am, even if he'd been drinking the night before; the strong coffee was borrowed from Beethoven, who personally counted out the 60 beans his morning cup required. Benjamin Franklin swore by "air baths", which was his term for sitting around naked in the morning, whatever the weather. And the midday cocktail was a favourite of VS Pritchett (among many others). I couldn't try every trick I discovered in a new book, Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration And Get To Work; oddly, my girlfriend was unwilling to play the role ofFreud's wife, who put toothpaste on his toothbrush each day to save him time. Still, I learned a lot. For example: did you know that lunchtime martinis aren't conducive to productivity?"

43 The True Saint Nicholas: Why He Matters to Christmas by William J. Bennett (Simon & Schuster, 2009. 128 pages) 

For a few years now I've been reading up on this saint each December.  His story is beautiful.  If even a few of the accounts of his ministry are true, he is a model for all of us to follow.  I'm especially touched by the account of him using gold coins from the inheritance his parents left him when they died young (leaving him an orphan) to rescue 3 unmarried daughters of a poor man.  Their father could not give them a dowry and, in that day and custom, this meant no man would marry them, forcing them to look for work that would keep them alive.  Oftentimes, this sort of work meant harsh conditions -- even prostitution.  Secretly, over time, Nicholas dropped coins through their open window during the dark of night.  Three different nights for each daughter.  Legend tells us the coins fell into socks or stockings being hung to dry.  The women were able to marry and care for their father and families.  This, of course, explains the custom of hanging stockings -- only with a much more profound outcome than warm-hearted Christmas traditions.

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Movies & TV 

Call the Midwife Holiday Special

It'd take a pretty amazing episode to better -- match, even -- last year's Christmas episode of this wonderful series.  Still, it was good to visit again with the nuns and nurses of Nonnatus house and the burgeoning families of Poplar in 1950's London's East End.

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In my ears 

The Sounding Joy: Christmas Songs In & Out of the Ruth Crawford Seeger songbook

I couldn't stop listening to this album all during Advent.

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In the kitchen

mulled cider on the grill

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Random thing making me happy 

Being home for a white Christmas in New York this year.

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On the Blog (Get This Sacramental Life delivered by email.) 

Top 5 posts in December

5.  7 quick takes: San Antonio Riverwalk, Buy More Art, winter solstice in Austin and more!

4. 12 Ways to Savor the 12 Days of Christmas

3.  Buy More Art [this Christmas]: Paul D. Smith's YA Novel "Jason & the Draconauts"

2.  Advent daybook, 1: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

--- December's top post ---

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

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So, what about you? What's in your book pile? 

What art, film, song has captured your imagination? 

What are you pinning or cooking or planning? 

Share in the comments, won't you?

For more “What I’m Into” posts, head over to Leigh’s blog

What I'm Into Lately, November edition

an everyday vignette: Kendra's crochet project & Brian's Hebrew flashcards

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From the book pile

to see the book pile from 2011, click here / from 2012, click here

40 My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme (Alfred A. Knopf, New York; 2006. 302 pages, including 79 photographs) 

A delightful read.  I mean, really.  Julia Child is equal parts innocent and savvy dame.  Her relentless work to bring cooking confidence to the American masses while maintaining a sharp wit and romantic view of the world makes for enjoyable reading.

At times, my heart hurt for this woman who speaks plainly about her complicated relationship with her dad, the U.S. government and close friends alike.  Her memory of the world centers on two sturdy legs:  her husband Paul and delicious food.  Thus paragraphs that weave the sorrow of her husband's illness with the menu from one of the last parties they gave.  It was oeufs en gelee', roast leg of lamb, haricots panaches', and cheeses, in case you were wondering.

41 Wide Sargasso Sea: A Novel by Jean Rhys (W.W. Norton & Company, re-issue 1992. 192 pages) 

Our book club selected this title for November.  My only hesitation was that the story is a prequel, written more than 100 years after it's sequel, one of my all-time favorite stories, Jane Eyre. While I wouldn't put Rhys's imagined backstory for the Jamaican madwoman locked in the attic of Mr. Rochester's British manor house.  As you might expect for any backstory for a madwoman, the story is sad.  It's also really well-written.  Through her choice of language, setting and dialogue the author pulls us into a sort of dream world from the very first word to the last.  Well, sometimes dream and sometimes nightmare.  And, yet, somehow still worth the read.

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Movies & TV 

Much Ado About Nothing

"Have you seen this yet?" My sister asked on my Facebook wall.  Not only had I not seen it, I hadn't even heard about it.  I'm a Joss Whedon fan in theory, but haven't actually watched many of his projects.  "Watch the special features first.  You'll love the movie for sure, after you hear how it was made."  My sister knows me well.  Even better, she flew to Austin to spend a week with me and we got to watch it together.  Half way through trying to watch the black-and-white film with a house full of people, keeping the volume low so as not to wake the baby, we hit pause.  I didn't love it yet.  Then we watched special features and I was in all the way.  I won't spoil it for you.  Watch for yourself.

p.s., I can't stop listening to this song Whedon co-wrote for the film.  

Stories We Tell

This film I'd heard about, but forgotten until our friend Peter reminded us.  Brian and I watched it on a Friday night when we're often too tired to stay engaged.  We both sat up straight through the entire thing and couldn't stop talking about it afterwards.  You don't even have to be a documentary fan to enjoy this (although, both of us are).  Sarah Polley manages to pull in the best of both worlds -- documentary and fictional filmmaking -- to captivate viewers.  Granted, her family cooperates with the storytelling on a heartwarming level -- much to their own discomfort, at times.  The story is dramatic, yes.  The family full of actors, writers and filmmakers, so that helps.  But if you engage with the story, you'll find yourself thinking about your own family story.  How your family and friends would tell it.  Why that would even matter.  

Jeffrey Overstreet writes a brief, but great review here.  (Coincidentally, the same post contains his review for Much Ado About Nothing)

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In my ears 

I'm a fan of this group, Ordinary Time.  I think they make good music around strong lyrics from times past.  Their new album, Joy Brand New is no exception.  I love their harmonies, their emotional range and unique instrumentation.  I've been playing on repeat all month.

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In the kitchen

Kale and Quinoa Soup via 
Vegetable broth from scraps via 

Gingersnap crust pumpkin pie via 

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Random thing making me happy 

this vintage-y recliner we found on Craigslist

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On the Blog (Get This Sacramental Life delivered by email.) 

Top 5 posts in November

5.  7 quick takes: serendipity, a Susanna Childress poem, celebration kickoff and more!

4. What I've Been Into Lately, October 

3.  7 quick takes: All Saints Day and Saint Trey + happy things that happened before we were sad

2.  7 quick takes: much joy during times of much sorrow

--- November's top post ---

1.  Parenting Unrehearsed (8): Why we send our kids to a [broken] public school

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So, what about you? What's in your book pile? 

What art, film, song has captured your imagination? 

What are you pinning or cooking or planning? 

Share in the comments, won't you?

For more “What I’m Into” posts, head over to Leigh’s blog

What I've Been Into Lately, October edition

The entire family celebrating Kendra's senior Cabaret performance,
October 2013

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From the book pile

to see the book pile from 2011, click here / from 2012, click here

35  The River Why by David James Duncan (Sierra Club Books; 2002. 304 pages) 

Christ Church's book club selected this title for the September reading.  I barely finished it in time for the discussion, and only then because I skipped large portions in the middle.  

What I enjoyed about the acclaimed story was Gus Orviston's relentless pursuit for a beautiful, fulfilling life.  His drive to live the "perfect schedule" (which meant nearly 27/7 fishing the Oregon mountain waters) resonated with my wish-dream of reading and writing all day long every day forever and ever amen.  Gus gets to attempt that life and his discovery that it ends up unfulfilling shouted loud and clear to me the need we all have for providential irritations and interruptions.  That limitations -- whether in our daily schedule or in our complex family relationships -- form us in profound and, even, beautiful ways.

36  The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton (1935. 192 pages) 

Oh, how disappointed I am with myself for finally reading this book and for barely digging into it.  It was a hard month to read...I was working full time hours plus and my reading was more a way to fall asleep at night.  So, the story was imaginative (no surprises there) but other than a vague notion of liking the cunning main character that's all I can remember.  I need to read this again.  When I'm not so sleepy.

38  Opened Ground: Selected Poems, by Seamus Heaney,  (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1999. 464 pages) 

I wrote about this book AND one of my favorite poems here: Tea, Tangerines and Seamus Heaney on a Saturday Morning

39  An Origin Like Water: Collected Poems 1967-1987, by Eavan Boland, (W.W. Norton & Company, New York and London, 1996. 200 pages)

Another Irish poet.  Merely a coincidence. I'd never heard of Eavan Boland before my friend Shannon shared a link on the day Garrison Keillor featured -- "The Necessity for Irony" -- a gorgeous poem by Ms. Boland on The Writer's Almanac podcast.  
The book includes five books from Boland's earliest work and covers a range of subjects -- from what it means to be Irish to what it means to be a woman, mother, and poet.  Beautiful, all.

One of my favorite poems in this collection: 

 "Nocturne"

After a friend has gone I like the feel of it:
The house at night. Everyone asleep.
The way it draws in like atmosphere or evening.

One-o-clock. A floral teapot and a raisin scone.
A tray waits to be taken down.
The landing light is off. The clock strikes. The cat

comes into his own, mysterious on the stairs,
a black ambivalence around the legs of button-back
chairs, an insinuation to be set beside

the red spoon and the salt-glazed cup,
the saucer with the thick spill of tea
which scalds off easily under the tap. Time

is a tick, a purr, a drop. The spider
on the dining-room window has fallen asleep
among complexities as I will once

the doors are bolted and the keys tested
and the switch turned up of the kitchen light
which made outside in the back garden

an electric room -- a domestication
of closed daisies, an architecture
instant and improbable.

In October I enjoyed browsing through the following books:

• Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (for our book club, but I didn't get too far in and ran out of time)

• Between Noon and Three: Romance, Law and the Outrage of Grace by Robert Farrar Capon: got half way through and decided I didn't want to ruin my love for this author and my favorite title of his so I re-read...

• The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection by Robert Farrar Capon

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Movies & TV 

Parkland

We'd have wanted to watch this movie anyway.  It's Playtone (Tom Hanks), it's Paul Giamatti and Marcia Gay Hardin.  It's history and JFK and Dallas and Jackie Kennedy.  But the reason we watched this movie on it's opening night with our friends Bernie and Jodi was because of two seconds in the middle of the movie.  Two seconds captured also in the trailer above: 1:06-1:08.  That lovely blue dress running down the hospital corridor in the mayhem of the President's arrival to a trauma room is our beloved Rebekah Cummins -- Bernie and Jodi's daughter and Alex's girlfriend.  Much of the movie was filmed in Austin and Bekah auditioned as an extra.  She spent an entire day running up a hallway in a blue dress and too-large shoes, running again and again into Billy Bob Thornton.  We'd hoped a bit more of her would show up in the final cut, but that didn't stop her mom from whooping real loud in the theatre when we saw the blue dress running down the hall on the big screen.

By the way, it's a good movie.  It's not the movie to see if you're hoping to rehearse the conspiracy theories.  It's the story of the human-ness of all the supporting characters in such a sad, sad day in our nation's history.  The young resident called on to try to save the President's life.  Lee Harvey Oswald's good brother.  The guy who ended up taking the world's most famous home video (before home video had a way of being famous). The President's secret service men who would not leave his side even after he was in a coffin.  The priest called in to the hospital room to give last rites.  (Unexpectedly, Brian and I both started crying at that scene.)

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In my ears 

Arcade Fire full album preview: Set to the 1959 film Black Orpheus, Arcade Fire has released their entire upcoming album Reflektor, available October 28th, for your listening pleasure.

Also, here's a nice review of the new album from John J. Thompson at Think Christian: Arcade Fire's Reflektor: reinvention on the dance floor

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Art I'm Loving (Follow me on Pinterest here.)

Hannah Price: City of Brotherly Love Photography Exhibition

This series of portraits by a young Yale School of Art student fascinates me -- and challenges me deeply.  I wrote about it at Think Christian this month:  Hannah Price and responding to catcalls with grace

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In the kitchen

This banana bread recipe for all the old bananas in my freezer.  My daughter shared it with a friend at school who said, "This is my happy."

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Random thing making me happy 

This sequence of events to surprise Kendra the night of her Cabaret performance.

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On the Blog (Get This Sacramental Life delivered by email.) 

Top 5 posts in October

5.  A poem for my brother Todd on his birthday

4. 7 quick takes: scooter surprise, my takes on a priest's authority, tiny stories outtakes and more!

3.  7 quick takes: grandparent outtakes, Kendra's Cabaret surprise, delicious apples from Georgia and more!

2.  when did you first notice the one you love? [tiny stories #5 with my grandparents on the day of their 67th wedding anniversary]

--- October's top post ---

1.  the meaning of your name [tiny stories #4]

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So, what about you? What's in your book pile? 

What art, film, song has captured your imagination? 

What are you pinning or cooking or planning? 

Share in the comments, won't you?

For more “What I’m Into” posts, head over to Leigh’s blog