A Nice Long Weekend

I just finished a nice long weekend. Monday was a bank holiday here in the UK so I had an extra day off.

Friday night, I watched Liverpool win the "Super Cup" (for those of you who care, the "Super Cup" is a one off match between the winners of the UEFA Cup and the winners of the UEFA Champions League). Heather was most generous to let me watch it, and after the match, we watched "The Thomas Crown Affair" on television (not the greatest movie in the world).

Heather worked on Saturday, so it was my chance to catch up on all of the anti-social things I like to do (like shutting myself in my studio and playing guitar until my fingers bleed). Being the good husband that I am, I also cleaned the house and prepared dinner. I made burritos (with faux chicken for Heather and real chicken for me). I really miss Mexican food; I can't seem to get the spices right when I make it. I would pay $20 for a Barbacoa burrito! Saturday evening was an extra special event, the annual Bewdley Beer Festival. At this glorious event, they have hundreds of different beers and ciders that you can sample by the pint or half pint. My favorite this year was a sweet and strong barley-wine. Everything else was really good too, with one exception. I tried a dry cider that was barely drinkable.

On Sunday, we went to church where I met the coach of our church football team who looks just like Frank Lampard (a midfielder who plays for Chelsea Football Club). I arranged to come to one of the "training sessions". It seems that the church football team is a very serious organization and they regularly rank among the top teams in the local church league. So I am really intimidated about this, but hopefully my practice with the "Brewer's Blues" back in SLC will pay off. In the afternoon, we took the dogs for a walk to a pub that is right on the canal at one of the locks. They have outdoor seating where we can sit with the dogs and watch the narrowboats go through the lock. It was a beautiful afternoon, and I enjoyed a good pint of traditional English bitter. In the evening we watched Mission Impossible which was on TV (as opposed to on the radio).

Monday morning I slept in (until nine). I woke up to a bright warm sun (very rare here). I brewed up some coffee and sat out on our rear patio half naked to soak up the sun while I drank my coffee and browsed an Istanbul travel guide (we are going there in a couple of weeks). In the afternoon, we did some shopping. I picked up a pair of Copa Mundial football boots, just like the ones I used to wear in high school. They are made in Germany of kangaroo leather, which is extremely soft and flexible. They mold to your foot, giving you outstanding touch and feel of the ball (unfortunately, I can't really take advantage of this touch and feel because I am too clumsy). I was going to get a pair of cheaper Nike's that were on sale, but Heather forced me to get the ones I wanted, saying that I would only be whining and longing for the Copas if I did't get them (she was right). I am hoping that the new boots give me a little bit more credibility when I show up for training next Monday. After shopping we went to the Wyre Forest and took the dogs for a nice long walk. Later that evening, I went out to the field with the new boots to give them a quick test drive. For the first few minutes, I felt like Thierry Henry (a very skilled striker who plays for Arsenal), juggling, spinning and dodging invisible defenders. Then I felt pain because I had not stretched properly and I have not played for over a year. Monday night Mission Impossible 2 was on, which I also like, but not as much as the first one.

So I am back at work today with two hellish weeks ahead of me culminating in a big trade show. Then we are taking off for a week in Turkey.

JE

Potter

I just finished reading the latest Harry Potter book. I can't believe this is actually a kid's story. This is by far the darkest book of the series (and I thought the last one was really dark). I did enjoy it though. It is a fascinating story and I can't wait to find out how it all ends.

JE

Ethan Johns: My Favorite Producer

Heather and I have really been enjoying a new album by a guy named Ray LaMontagne. It is typical of my favorite kind of music these days. Powerful, moody lyrics coupled with simple rhythmic acoustic guitar, sparse drums and the occasional electric guitar highlight. We stumbled across this album as it was being played in the background of Borders Books in Birmingham. I asked the clerk who was playing and he showed me the album cover. Being the nerd that I am, I pulled out my Palm Pilot and recorded the artist and album title (I keep lists of music, movies, and books that I am interested in). Of course I am way to cheap to actually buy the album from Borders, and I probably still would not have it if it were not for Heather ordering from Amazon.co.uk.

So I was listening to the songs and going through the liner notes. I came across the name of the producer, Ethan Johns. "That sounds familiar", I thought to myself. I have to make a confession here. I do not know the producers of most of my favorite music. I really have no excuse for this. If someone were to ask me what my ideal job would be, I would answer "music producer". And yet, I don't even know which producers I like. Very, very sad...

So I did a little research into who exactly this Ethan Johns guy is and it turns out that he has worked with some of my favorite most artists of the past few years. Here is a rundown of artists whose albums I own and love that he has worked on (in semi chronological order):

Wallflowers
Counting Crows
Ryan Adams
Jayhawks
Kings of Leon (perhaps I don't love these guys, but I like them and I own one of their albums)
and now Ray LaMontagne

Ethan Johns is represented more than any other producer in a list of my favorite albums, and yet I had no idea who he was until last week. Now that I know who he is, I just have to figure out how to get him to produce my next album.

JE

Edinburgh

Over the weekend we drove up to Edinburgh for a quick visit. Our friends Jon and Sarah Hays live there as Jon is going to school (studying theology). Jon was a regular attender of the original Wednesday Morning Coffee (WMC) back in SLC. As an added bonus, more friends from Salt Lake have just moved to Scotland. Paul and Amber Warhurst are staying with Jon and Sarah while looking for a place to live (Amber will be working on a PHD at St. Andrews University). Paul is one of my musical friends from SLC, although we never could convince him to get up for WMC. So the scene was set for a great weekend of exploring a new city with old friends.

note: Unfortunately, we forgot to take our digital camera with us, so I do not have pictures to post. Paul, Amber, Jon, and Sarah took pictures with their digital cameras, but they are slackers, and have not emailed the pictures to me yet. :)

Edinburgh is another stunning European city (unlike our local European city, Birmingham, which is just plain ugly). It is filled with history, and at the same time feels thoroughly modern. It is also a very artistic city, hosting the largest arts festival in Europe. Next week the Edinburgh book festival begins, and Heather almost wants to go back up to see several authors that she likes.

So we got to wander the streets of the city, see the sights and eat the food, which was all really good, but the best part was getting to spend some time with old friends. There is something special about gathering with people that you have a history with. You get to talk about old times, current times, and the future, and it is all somehow more meaningful because you know where the others are coming from.

And we all had something extra in common this time around. We were all foreigners in a strange country. You maybe thinking to yourselves, "what could be so strange about the UK." Trust me, it is amazing how different it can be (and I grew up here). It is not necessarily different in a bad way, but it does make you appreciate the good things about your home. So we all got to talk about our own struggles in this strange and wonderful land and it was nice to know that we were not alone. From Jon and Sarah having difficulty making friends with the locals, to Paul and Amber having difficulty opening a bank account (you won't believe what a nightmare that process is), we could relate.

I am going to take it a step further, and perhaps this is a bit cliche, and perhaps it is a bit obvious, but the bond I experienced with old friends in Scotland, is just like the bond I experience when I spend time with other believers. We are all strangers in a strange land. We experience the same struggles, and we take pleasure from the same triumphs. And although the journey can be fun and exciting, I really look forward to a time when we can all sit down together and know that we are home.

JE

Quotes from "Orthodoxy"

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I have recently finised reading "Orthodoxy" by G. K. Chesterton. The book is filled with interesting quotes and clever remarks. Here are a few of my favorites:

"One of the strongest arguments in favor of Christianity is the failure of Christians, who thereby prove what the Bible teaches about the Fall and original sin."

"Oddities do not strike odd people."

"The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits."

"Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity. The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic. He has permitted the twilight. He has always had one foot in earth and the other in fairyland. He has always left himself free to doubt his gods; but (unlike the agnostic of today) free also to believe in them. . . The whole secret of mysticism is this: that man can understand everything by the help of what he does not understand."

"A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not assert - himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt - the Divine Reason."

"If evolution simply means that a positive thing called an ape turned very slowly into a positive thing called a man, then it is stingless for the most orthodox; for a personal God might just as well do things slowly as quickly, especially if, like the Christian God, he were outside time."

"Anarchism adjures us to be bold creative artists, and not care for laws or limits. But it is impossible to be an artist and not care for laws and limits. Art is limitation; the essence of every picture is the frame. . . The artist loves his limitations: they constitute the thing he is doing. The painter is glad the canvas is flat. The sculptor is glad the clay is colourless."

"But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. . . It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."

"According to most philosophers, God in making the world enslaved it. According to Christianity, in making it, He set it free. God had written, not so much a poem, but rather a play; a play he had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been left to human actors and stage-managers, who had since made a great mess of it."

"To the orthodox there must always be a case for revolution; for in the hearts of men God has been put under the feet of Satan. In the upper world hell once rebelled against heaven. But in this world heaven is rebelling against hell."

"The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate.

"To the modern man the heavens are actually below the earth. The explanation is simple; he is standing on his head; which is a very weak pedestal to stand on. But when he has found his feet again he knows it. Christianity satisfies suddenly and perfectly man's ancestral instinct for being the right way up; satisfies it supremely in this; that by its creed joy becomes something gigantic and sadness something special and small."

These quotes stand up really well on their own, but when you take them all in the context of the book, the overall message is very powerful.

JE

Paris

Well, we just got back from Paris. This was our third visit, and I think I enjoy it more each time. It really is an amazing city, filled with great things to do and see. The best thing about Paris is all of the art. Everywhere you turn there is an amazing museum, or a musician, or a painter, not to mention all of the writers. Something about the city seems to inspire art; the city itself is a work of art. I would even venture to say that there is no city that is a beautiful as Paris, especially when you consider the scale of it.

Note: I go into an in-depth account of our trip now. If you don't care to read it, you can see the pictures here.

This was a fairly typical Elliot trip, which involves cheap accomodation, lots of walking, and most importantly, lots of eating. We booked our hotel in advance, the same one that we stayed in the last two times that we visited. It is a nice little hotel on one of the main streets in the center of the city. We splurged this time and got a room with a shower in it, but we still had to share the toilet with the rest of the floor (about three other rooms). The best thing about this hotel is it's location. It is close to the metro and about a five minutes walk from Notre Dame.

We arrived in Paris late on Thursday night, checked into our hotel, and went to bed. Friday morning we were up around 9AM for coffee, croissants, and pain au chocolat. We then wandered past Notre Dame to Heather's favorite bookshop in Paris, Shakespeare and Company. It is an English language bookshop which "sponsors" writers by giving the free accomodation for helping out with the bookshop. She bought another copy Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast", a memoir about living in Paris (one of her favorites). Lunch was takeaway from a little fallafel place (really good, quick and cheap). Then we went to the Centre George Pompidou to see an exhibit of modern African art. I really liked some of the peices of art that used scraps of junk; it really reminded me of time that I have spent in third world countries. You always see people doing the best with what they can find. It is always cool seeing the toys that kids have made from old tin cans and bits of wire, they are often running around having a great time with their creations. After the museum, we took a long walk down to the Place du Concorde, and of course by this time, we were ready for food again. We had a great meal at a Greek / Italian restaurant. It included a tomato salad, pizza, and a grilled chicken sandwich. Next we made a big loop all the way up the Champs d'Elysee, then down to the river Seine (just in time for the sun set), and back to our hotel. Heather felt sick that night, and we went to bed early (exhausted).


Saturday morning was beautiful and Heather's upset stomach was better. We took a long metro ride to an antiqes flea market. We grabbed crepes for breakfast on the way. There was all kinds of cool stuff (most of it quite expensive). Amazingly, Heather managed not to buy anything. Part of the reason that no purchases took place was because it started pouring with rain before we were finished. We were prepared (we had umbrellas), but things shut down pretty quickly. We made our way to a local cafe where we had coffee and waited for the rain to stop. Then we hopped on the metro again and went to the Pere Lachaise cemetary. Before actually entering the cemetary, we had panninis from a little sandwich shop for lunch. This cemetary could be one of the most beautiful places in Paris. It is lined with beautiful old trees and filled with magnificent tomb stones and monuments. Many famous people are buried here: Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde, and of course Jim Morrison. Here is Heather visiting Gertrude Stein's grave:

From there we took the metro to Montmarte, the neighborhood famous for all of the artists that live there. It has become very touristy these days, and not quite as bohemian as it used to be. It is still a great place to go if for no other reason but to see the Sacre Coeur and the great views of the city. It is also home to one of our favorite restaurants in Paris (more on that in a minute). We purchased a pack of Gauloise cigarettes that we attempted to smoke on the steps of the Sacre Coeur. We were pathetic of course and couldn't really inhale, and we made asses of ourselves, but it was fun. According to Heather, Gauloise cigarettes are quite famous, and all the writers used to smoke them.

Now on to dinner. We ate at Refuge du Fondue, which is a very unique place. There are only two long tables in the small restaurant. The person who sits on the wall side of the table has to climb over the table to sit on the bench. You have two choices on the menu, meat or cheese, and since Heather is vegetarian, we got the cheese option. The meal comes with a small glass of sweet wine and a large baby bottle filled with either white or red wine. You suckle the wine right out of the nipple on the baby bottle, very weird, but quite fun. Completely bloated with cheese fondue, we drug ourselves back to our hotel.

Sunday morning brought more coffee and croissants. We could hear the church bells of Notre Dame ringing on our walk to breakfast (I imagined a little Quasimodo ringing them). We started off the day by wandering down the Rue Moufftarde. This road has lots of bookshops and cafes on it and it is near Hemingway's first apartment in Paris. At the bottom of the road there was a little festival where people were dancing to music played by old guys with accordians. They were dancing right by a beautiful old fountain and it was all very festive. We had sandwiches for lunch. In the afternoon we walked through Montparnasse to the Jardin du Luxembourg.

Parisians have been spending Sunday afternoons in this beautiful park for years. It was kind of weird to see people doing yoga there. From the park we went to the Eiffel Tower where we did the touristy thing and set up our tripod so that we could have our picture taken with it. Heather thinks the picture from the digital camera is so bad that she won't let me post it, perhaps the regular camera turned out better. We had dinner near our hotel in the Marais district. Being a Jewish district it is a great place to get fallafels and other middle eastern food. We went to our favorite place there, Las du Fallafel. Apparently, Lenny Kravitz eats there when he is in Paris. As usual, the food was amazing and we ate way too much. Following dinner, we capped off our trip with a boat ride down the river (amazingly, neither of us lost our fallafels). The boat goes past many major Paris sites which are all lit up at night. We were lucky enough to be going past the Eiffel Tower right at ten o'clock when it sparkles with a light show. I went to take a picture of it (which I'm sure will not come out), and when I got back to our seats on the boat, Heather was crying because she thought it was so beautiful.

Monday morning started at 5:30Am (4:30 UK time). We took the train back to the airport, and our plane arrived in England around 9AM. After the two hour car ride, we were back at our home for lunch (funny, I can't remember what I ate). I went back to work for the afternoon, but didn't accomplish much. That's about it. We didn't get to watch any jazz because we were always too tired to go out at night, and we didn't get to see the Musee de l'Orangerie because it is still being renovated. Guess we will have to go back.