the birth and death of the day

So my ticket has just arrived in the post! Explosions in the sky, Sept 6. Don’t ask me why I bought a ticket for something in September when I have no idea where I’ll be by then. Part of me doesn’t like the idea of not knowing and so maybe having a date in the diary makes the next few months less daunting.

Anyway, I’m excited already.... Wahey! I blogged about them 2 years ago, but it’s taken them a while to make it to Belfast. Mousemutiny (who says they’re amazing live) says she might even come from texas for it... (prettyplease?)...

If you haven’t heard of them, go listen on spotify. What’s not to love?

2 song titles seem appropriate today....
The long spring and With tired eyes, tired minds, tired souls we slept.

But my two favourites at present:
The Birth and Death of the Day & Your Hand in Mine

in dark and empty skies

The Van Morrison refrain at the end of Foy’s gig was “oh no, never let the spirit die” ... it made me think of a lyrics my pastor quoted in a sermon a couple of weeks ago... can’t even remember what point he was making, although I think it was in relation to the hope / resurrection, but all I wrote down were these words from this Dylan song...

“Oh, the tree of life is growing
Where the spirit never dies
And the bright light of salvation shines
In dark and empty skies”

so be there in the moment

Great gig last night. Good company (including chatting to nelly and a few others I haven't seen in ages... seriously though, I wonder if Foy knows he's got so many christian groupies?!) and of course, great music. Lowly Knights songs are growers... so definitely liked them even more last night. My favourite line for some reason is 'you can tell a man by the way he lifts his hands...'

Foy was fabulous as always... so good live; his cd doesn’t do justice to the one-man-wonder's sound (singing into his guitar for the reverberation being a highlight!). Introducing two shades of hope, he said that the greatest legacy his dad gave him was hope. And from two of his newer songs, these lines stood out for me...

“And when you run, far from my eyes, then I will come, in dead of night
But I wont speak, till morning light, I’ll be the song, just be the song”

and

“But I showed you that every mark you made, painted hearts and bleeding scars, is something that you needed to create, so be there in the moment...
Blood gets on the canvas, stains you cannot hide, are the truest indication of what’s going on inside, so be there in the moment”

And then ending with a bit of belfast slagging (as only someone who truly loves the place can) and the chorus of Van Morrison's Spirit... classic. All round great night.

One another note, I’m having slight withdrawal symptoms from not running a leg of the Belfast marathon today (first time in about 5 years I haven’t!). Although standing and then running in the cold / rain with 27,000 others maybe doesn’t sound that appealing... but then anything would be more appealing than revision...

gaze of love

2 songs stuck in my head at the start of this easter week...

Oh gaze of love so melt my pride
That I may in Your house but kneel
And in my brokenness to cry
Spring worship unto Thee
(from jars of clay's Hymn... especially that first line...)
--
What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Saviour! ’Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.
(from O sacred head, now wounded)
--
Both of these songs hold memories for me. One is of a friend and I bashing out this song in high school on a rickety old piano... and being fascinated by the words 'bludgeoned' and 'pirouette'. And the second, I can still visualise my brother, sister and I trying to sing 3 part harmony to this hymn on a random lazy sunday afternoon at home when I was about 12 or 13 (again on a rickety piano... they seem to be a feature...)

naija music

A friend sent me a link for this artist... this is the kind of music that makes me feel a little homesick... in a good way... I'm loving it :) Her latest song is Jailer... but this is Asa with So Beautiful (no video, just wanted the music!). Seemingly she wrote this song below for her mother:

coffee spoons and TS Eliot

On Monday, Foy Vance was singing a cover about measuring life with coffee spoons and TS Eliot... So coffee in hand, here's a quote from the man himself... (from Choruses from the Rock, 1934)

What life have you, if you have not life together?
There is not life that is not in community...
---
When the Stranger says: "What is the meaning of this city?
Do you huddle close together because you love each other?"
What will you answer? "We all dwell together
To make money from each other"? or "This is a community"?

Maybe how this community reacts in the coming days... facing difficult political and economic hurdles... might say something about the meaning of this place.

i'll remember

I was at an amazing gig last night in the ulster hall of 'ALL northern ireland's music greats' as one guy at the end kept saying... although I think there might be a few missing! Because I didn't grow up in Belfast, it was a valuable part of my education catch up!! Despite what the picture below suggests, I actually had a good time! It must have been taken in between the long breaks when they were get organised for the radio broadcast... and I blinked... not sleeping... promise :)
For me, Foy Vance's second song was the best of the night... he's just so good live and I love his facial expressions when he sings too :) Looking forward to his next album already!

I wonder if anyone else noticed the lack of female musicians represented last night, despite the token few in the lovely Lowly Knights...

Overall, a mixture of the random and the amazing, the old and the new, the bold and the beautiful... definitely a night to remember!

the bigger you dream...

I had a mid-revision ‘clearing the head’ walk yesterday and was listening to the lovely Gemma. But I’ve still got a line of a song stuck in my head.... Maybe it stuck because I’ve spent a lot of the last week dreaming or looking out the window at my street (instead of revising).

“You say the bigger you dream, the smaller your street looks in the rain...”

I’m trying to decide if I think that’s a depressing thought. I guess it depends on what you dream. Or if you dwell on the big dreams or on the small street. Or maybe streets only look smaller in the rain. Who knows, maybe this small street should be in my big dreams. Or are dreams always of some other place?

So much for clearing the head.

Good thing it’s from a song called Out of our hands.

tell me the story

I want to echo the words of this song over the next few days.

'Sit with me and tell me once again
Of the story that's been told us
Of the power that will hold us
Of the beauty, of the beauty
Why it matters...'

(sara groves)

belfast city

I'm feeling hopeful tonight...



My church has a new pastor and he wanted this song played for his induction service tonight. My God is the God of this city that I've come to love... this song just resonated with new beginnings as a church and also with advent - to be able to look forward with expectation...

3 highlights

3 highlights from the last few days...
1. Watching a film called 'Black' - amazing. You definitely should try to see if you get the chance.
2. Foy Vance live: all I can say is wow. Such a good night - loads of banter mixed in with the soulful depth in his lyrics/voice. Old and new stuff. Brilliant. The best way to start a week i'd say - definitely good for my soul.
3. Blue skies and sunshine ALL DAY today... wahey!

love has come

This is a song by Sandra McCracken. I remember hearing her during my first year in belfast - she was singing at a wee halls gig with her husband, Derek Webb. But i haven't really listened to any of her music since. Came across this song today and i just like some of the words... especially verse 3...

how long you have travelled in darkness weeping
no rest in language, no words to speak
but there in the wreakage beneath bricks and bindings
love has come, love has come for you

against the night sky of your waiting
your face is like starlight when he walks in
everything worth keeping comes through dying
love has come, love has come for you

so lift up your heart now, to this unfolding
all that has been broken will be restored
here runs deep waters for all who are thirsty
love has come, love has come for you...

Here's a link to her myspace if you want to hear it - it's called ten thousand angels.

glimpses of grace

Today I had an “indiscriminate act of kindness” moment. I had decided to go for a bike ride while there was a wee bit of rare sunshine at lunchtime. The first half was perfect, gliding along the shores of Belfast lough, feeling slightly sentimental about this city for some reason. On the way home again, it all went a bit pear-shaped when I hit the curb trying to get out of the way of a big lorry... and my tire jammed. I thought I had bent the rim of my tire or something so thought I’d just lug it home and figure out what was wrong then. After about ten minutes of getting a bit fed up with this ‘lugging’ idea, a random guy (who looked about 80 and was definitely someone’s wee granda) pulled over in his ancient red fiesta and fixed my bike (in about 2 minutes which made me feel like such a girl...) and sent me on my way! How nice is that? I have to say, people surprise me sometimes.... maybe wee glimpses of grace.

summerlight

I love this song - Summerlight by Steve Jones that he just released this week. Makes me think about how my brother might feel about his wee son. It’s the first song on his album Sayonara Deadweight – listen to it here... if you have a minute.

little dreamer

So based on stocki's review and youtube/myspace listening... Little Dreamer is my lastest purchase before I leave sunny Belfast on Friday. I'm in search of new summer music before I go. Anyone any other suggestions??
Check out Beth Rowley... I find it amusing that she started her life an mk :)

tracing rainbows

A heart at peace brings life to the body... Prov. 14:30
I’m starting on the next chapter of my year and am so excited about what the next few months hold :) I feel like somehow a sense of peace is trickling back into my life after what has been a strange and at times, stressful few months. My piano has been a major stress reliever over the last month especially and I’ve somehow been drawn to playing old hymns I think maybe because the words seemed to resonate and captured what I was thinking... and pointed me to promises:
"O joy that seekest me thru pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee;
I trace the rainbow thru the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be."
-George Matheson, 1882

break

It has been one of those days where I have been perfecting the act of procrastination... it's a familiar, yet unpleasant feeling where I know the inevitability of my exams will actually happen next week whether I'm ready or not (not being the consensus today).... which is exactly why I should be off the internet and back at the books. Alas, I'm still here.

Just found a new song! It's called 'Break' It seems to reflect the mood I'm in...(and not in the sense of being on a study break). I think I need to explore Son Lux's other music a bit more... but after this week is over!! :) enjoy...


Ok, back to respiratory physiotherapy...

sara tavares

just found a musician i like. i think her search for reclaiming her identity through her music resonates with me. An interview in the guardian gives a bit of inside into her background and music. She says that her songs come to her like prayers.... "just me and my guitar, God and my imagination". anyway... here is sara tavares

hope

Over the last few months I've had a bit of the winter blues echoing the first few lines of this song Moving Pictures, Silent Film...

Oh wake me please when this is over
Oh when the ice is melted away
And the hunger returns...

I have to say that today, I feel awake and a hunger has returned. The ice is melting (even if I’m dreaming of the African sunshine). A new chapter-- I know it sounds cliché for the new year and all that, but somehow life seems more hopeful that it has in a while. I know I’m probably just swayed by feelings and tomorrow I may return to winter lethargy. But today I stand up and stretch, ready for all that is ahead. I can hear clearly the songbird of hope that Emily Dickinson talks about:

"Hope" is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops, at all

And sweetest, in the Gale, is heard
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest Sea
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb of Me.

And I know hope does not disappoint. So, here’s to 2008 and HOPEfully a new start to this blog’s ramblings…

i need something

I feel a bit like I'm jumping on the bandwagon with this song/music... but I like this guy (and his dreadlocks!). Don't really know exactly what he's talking about, but feel as if people/society often identity with this idea of longing for 'something to believe in.../someone to put (their) trust in'. check out newton faulkner's 'i need something':


it's got me thinking about music and its influence on my life. I tend to listen to music/go in search of new music that fits with how I'm feeling or what I'm thinking about. But maybe as the guy below suggests, maybe songs like this are trying to get at the core of who we are but are only telling one side of the story without any hope...
or maybe it's just music... or maybe I'm just procrastinating doing my back pain essay thinking about it.