Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust

Never has a band so quickly become a favorite of mine than when I got Sigur Ros's album Takk... from a friend last year. The Icelandic quartet is a brilliant blend of atmosphere, pop, ambient, rock, and classical. Actually, scratch that. Placing a genre on Sigur Ros is like calling Babe Ruth a baseball player; you've covered a little bit but left so much unexplained.

Whenever I refer Sigur Ros to a friend, I always insist they listen to a song the whole way through. A 30 second clip from iTunes just won't cut it. Why? Because the magic of Sigur Ros is in the gradual dynamics of their songs. They have mastered the (extremely) long crescendo. You might be able to "get" some bands after hearing few 30 second clips, but if you take a musical phrase from a Sigur Ros song out of context, it just doesn't make full sense.

Sigur Ros's newest album, Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust, just released this past week. [The title roughly translates: with a buzz in our ears, we play endlessly....about on par with some of their other strange album titles which translate "a pretty good start", "thanks...", and "haven-home". And then there's the one simply titled ( ).] Med Sud is a bit of a departure from traditional Sigur Ros sound. A little less etherial and much more real. Sigur Ros announces this departure with the two opening tracks, "Gobbledigook" (don't laugh) and "Inni mer syngur vitleysingur". These are both much more upbeat and happy than anything they have ever recorded. This scared me at first, but now I embrace the Sigur Ros head-bob. With the exception of "Vid spilum endalaust", the album slows down a good bit....an a tempo if you will. The jewel of the record, IMHO, comes in track 7, "Ara batur". This slow ballad spends 7 minutes lulling you to sleep before rousing you to tears in the final 2 minutes with lush orchistration, crashing symbols, and the London Oratory Boys Choir. To say this song has a big finish is an understatement. Ara batur belongs in a dramatic movie ending and I don't doubt it will find its way into one someday. The album finishes with "All Alright", the band's first song sung in english....although the words are as hard to understand as ( )'s hopelandic.

Med Sud is Sigur Ros's first album recorded outside of Iceland. Perhaps this was done to symbolize their departure from the old sound. Bands can only get by with a certain sound for so long (save U2) before getting criticized. While the homeland is missed, this new ground is just as beautiful and breath taking.

State College: Not Such A Bad Place

It's starting to sink in that I'm leaving here soon. I have spent a large part of the past two years making fun of State College, yankees, and the north in general. But, I have to admit there are some things I'll truly miss here. I'll miss the serene winter nights when the moonlight is both soaked up and amplified by the snow covered earth. I'll miss the ridge of mountains that explode into view driving only a mile east of downtown. I'll miss the flashing yellow streetlights at 2am.

I'll miss E-Free. Especially all the great people I made music with there. I have never felt so appreciated as I have at this church.

I'll miss my best friends here: Chris, Jeremy, Scott, Tim, and Pete (among others).

I'll miss the E-Free softball team. As terrible as we are, we had fun losing together.

Places around town I'll miss: Otto's Pub, The State Theater (though I didn't go there as much as I would have liked), Herwig's, Faccia Luna, Pete's house, Jeremy, Chris, JJ, and Alex's apartment (specifically the den with the XBOX 360 and Halo 3).

God has been good to me here. Big suprise.

A Good Way to Live

Just wanted to share a great passage from Psalm 19 that I just read:

"The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the Lord are sure
and altogether righteous.
They are more precious than gold,
then much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the comb.
By them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward."
[Psalm 19:6-11]

I can't recall ever reading or hearing verses 7 and 8. They observe the goodness of the laws of God from a few different angles. "Reviving the soul" points out that following God's laws can bring you out of a numbed rut....something I have experienced a bit of lately. "Making wise the simple"--A simple man can obtain wisdom by simply following some outlines laid out by God. "Giving joy to the heart"--Here, the Psalmist moves from practicality to hedonism. God's laws are not just practical--they are life-giving and enjoyable. "Giving light to the eyes"--Following God's ways reveals things.

I'm having a tougher time interpreting "The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever." Anyone have any insights?

So much of Christianity today is based around feelings. So much of everything today is based around feelings. Feelings are great, and not to be ignored, but in the words of my wise friend Dave Bachman, "feelings make poor leaders". If we just "follow our heart", we have a deceitful leader.* If we decide to follow God's ways, we have the greatest leader imaginable.


*Jer 17:9

Pictures of Sydney

Well, a couple months ago I promised pictures of Sydney Kate. Here they are at last! These are four recent photos (just taken a few days ago). Enjoy the overload of cuteness!

No Such Thing

Well, it's official, I'm about to enter the "real world".

This past Friday I got my first job offer, and I have decided to take it! The offer is from a company that I respect very much and am excited to work for. Their name is Bruel & Kjaer and they are a Danish company that specializes in sound and vibration solutions. I used some of their products for my research here and was highly impressed.

More info on the company can be found here.

My title will be Senior Support Engineer, which is a fancy name for tech support. But this isn't your run-of-the-mill tech support job where the guy sits around on the phone all day telling soccer moms what Alt+Ctrl+Del means. I will have to take phone calls, but that only accounts for about 25% of my time. The rest of the time is problem solving. That is, customers (namely scientists, though not exclusively) will encounter problems using the equipment we sold them and I will have to figure out why their particular setup isn't working and tell them how to get their desired results. Some of these solutions will take time to obtain, so that's why I won't be on the phone all the time.

Ok, how about a few pictures of some B&K products?
1/4" condenser microphone
Miniature Piezoelectric Charge Acceleromter (for measuring vibrations on a surface)
Sound Level Meter
PULSE Analyzer Hardware

PULSE is actually the name a software program that B&K developed. Its applications are numerous but all revolve around data analysis. This is the product that I will "specialize" in.

Oh, and best of all, my new job is in Atlanta! Starting in July, I'll be moving back to the promised land. A land flowing with Coke and Braves baseball. Not to mention family and friends. It's a little weird going back to Atlanta (I've already done it once) because I realize things won't be like they used to be there. People are growing up and changing. Atlanta has changed a LOT since my days in high school.

But I believe this is where God wants me and I couldn't be more excited. I've had to "replant" myself a few times now, and it's not fun having to start over. It's going to be nice to move somewhere where I already have a group of friends (not to mention family).

BUT, I still have a LOT to do before I go.

From Death to Life

Apologies for not updating recently...it's been a busy past few weeks. And the fury will not cease for at least 6 or 7 more weeks. As most of you know, I'm in the midst of pounding out a thesis. It is progressing slowly due to a nice shock wave of end-of-the-semester class assignments. But amidst all this business I had an opportunity to slip down to Atlanta for a few days to meet my new niece, Sydney Kate Burkhalter! She was brought into this world on April 16th by the brave Erin Burkhalter (with the help of David and some doctors).

Now, when I tell you she's an adorable baby, it's not just my biased uncle opinion coming out. She's a bonafide cutie. I have the pictures to prove it too, and they will be posted soon.

Many thoughts passed through my head as I held her tiny body (under 6 lb) in my arms. I thought about how she would soon grow up and show forth her own unique personality. How she would get pimples, start to like boys, and even have kids of own one day. She will be filled with all sorts of knowledge and wisdom, love and experience, and then in a few short decades, return to dust. That sort of thinking makes it a little strange to hold her.

The great theologian Jonathan Edwards believed that God has the ability to see the world through two lenses: a wide angle lens and a narrow lens. I agree with this. One one hand, God created time and is outside of time. Through a wide angle lens He sees eternity past and eternity ahead. But it is also true that He dawns the narrow lens and enters into time (hence, Jesus). Jesus weeps for Lazarus though He knows breathe will return to Lazarus's lungs in a few short moments.

Sydney will grow up and become many things. But RIGHT NOW she is an adorable little baby, completely dependant on mom and dad. Right now I can enjoying giving her her first tastes of love and affection. And it's great!

Edwards also said, "There is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Jesus Christ." I love this quote and I love this nature of my God! He sees all of time and yet enters in. He is fully God and fully man. He is the lion and the lamb.

Words will always fail, so I'll just leave you with this:

God...what an amazing dude!

Recently listening to: Jon Foreman Spring, Phil Wickham Cannons, DeVotchKa How it Ends, Coldplay Rush of Blood to the Head.

Mustang Burkhalter

My cat Mustang was put to sleep two weeks ago today. He wasn't our family's first cat, but he was the first that was "mine". At 14 years old, he lived a nice long kitty life. Most days were spent lounging around, eating, and in the later years, playing with his sister-cat Lucy (aka Queen Kong, named for her black fur and 20 pound frame). Not exactly a life full of purpose and meaning, but sufficient for a cat I suppose.

Mustang was not an especially affectionate cat. He didn't do any tricks. He ran away from me a lot. But I loved him, simply because he was mine. I didn't realize these feelings until these past two weeks. It has given me an insight--albeit on a MUCH smaller scale--of how God feels towards the Sons of Abraham. Though we aren't especially affectionate towards God (except on occasion), though we don't do as many deeds as we should, though we run away from Him constantly, He loves us simply because we are His. Because we were bought with a price.*

I have also been thinking about the finite nature of animals. Some say it is hard to grip the concept of a human's semi-infinite soul (having a beginning but no end). However, I'm having a harder time dealing with an animals finite soul. Or do they even have souls? They certainly have personality and breath in their lungs. How can a soul just cease to exist? The Bible offers little insight here.

And finally, I thought a lot about the fact that we, in essence, were killing him. At first, it didn't sit well with me. Shouldn't we be trusting God with life and death? How is this different than pulling the plug on a vegetable or abortion? God has not given us the authority to do such things. Then I remembered that God said to Adam, "Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Although we do not have the authority to take the life of another human, we do have authority over animals. So, we decided it was best to relieve Mustang of his pain (he had a large tumor in his spleen which was giving him jaundice).

I will miss seeing him when I come home. I'll miss him jumping into bed with me in the middle of the night. I'll miss him playfully biting my hand.

I'll still love him though, simply because he was mine.

*1 Cor. 6:20