Thursday, April 5, 2007

Not-so-cool.

Hey, check out the webcam image of Commons Lawn:


That's right, you see snow. (It's 24 degrees outside!)
Gross. It's April 5. That's not normal.
Oh well. Welcome to Michigan.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Festival of Faith and Music!

The Festival of Faith and Music just happened last weekend at Calvin College. What an event!
As a cultural discerner (a.k.a. "c.d." - we are mentored by the directors of Student Activities), I got to work the festival, which meant meeting a lot of smart, great people. I learned so much and had so much fun!

Friday afternoon, I went to a workshop with the Psalters where they discussed and critiqued the differences between mainstream American worship music and worship music by oppressed peoples.

Then, that afternoon, I got to eat dinner with the staff and the presenters and performers, and I got to meet a new friend, John Ringhofer (Half-handed Cloud). He and I have been communicating through MySpace over the past seven months, so it was nice to finally make a face-to-face connection with him.

And of course, the Anathallo and Sufjan Stevens concert was Friday night! What a show! Anathallo had the Central Michigan University Brass Choir play with them, and Sufjan's show (which was filmed for his concert d.v.d.) involved lots of inflatable Supermen and Santa Clauses. Boy, does that man tell some hilarious stories! They're perfect. And, of course, both bands were mind-blowing, and face-melting.

Saturday I worked the registration table in the morning and had a veggie-burger lunch with John, followed by an interview which I will use for an article I'm writing about H-hC for Uncompressed, a magazine that the c.d.'s put out. That was lovely.

Afterward, I spoke with some of the guys from Anathallo, and found out that they knew my cousin David from high school (Matt, the lead singer, used to "build half-pipes" with him back in their skater days).

I also hosted Adam Smith, managing editor of Relevant Magazine, who was so pleasant. He had a lot of good things to say about what Relevant is doing, and even though they got some flack this weekend, there are some good things going on there.

Lenny Smith (patriarch of the Danielson Famile) gave a great lecture about living not as if the Kingdom of God will come, but as if the Kingdom of God is already here. My favorite quote from him: "All that dirt those rapture people want to leave behind? I'll own it!"

All in all, it was an amazing weekend. I am so appreciative to have been a part of this, and I feel like I could have spent the next month in ffm mode, meeting and talking with so many wise, funny, and kind people!