Spooky Fall Mix

We are officially in one of my favorite parts of my favorite season. (It's Halloween week - which is right before Birthday week. I know that makes me a bit of a kid. Whatever.)

I was in iTunes last week listening to my "spooky" mix - a bunch of classical music with dark/Halloween-like themes. I'd been a delinquint in my summer mix CD circle - so I decided to make a holiday mix. Not the "coolest" mix ever, but I've been enjoying it quite a bit as a driving mix. Goes well with the scenery.

Here it is - with commentary:

• Thriller - Marching Illini
  Marching band=fall. I'm not the biggest marching nerd ever (I was only in the MI one year in college) - but it is fun. And this is a really fun song. We did a Halloween show the year I marched; this song involved a "monster step."
• Prologue - Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone (John Williams)
  I'm bummed about the Harry Potter movie getting bumped til 2009. The books are awesome - but I do enjoy the movies (they were my first introduction to Harry).
• Double Trouble - Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban (John Williams)
  Josh's junior high choir is singing this right now... It also reminds me of my senior year of high school when we made a movie of this scene from MacBeth (it involved me trying to say the lines, "Double double toil and trouble" while trying to shoot pool). Good times.
• Great Pumpkin Waltz - Charlie Brown (Vince Guarldi Trio)
  I don't know this Charlie Brown holiday flick as well as the Christmas one - but good music.
• Dies Irae - Mozart Requiem
  Two years ago this November I got to sing the Mozart Requiem with a local symphony chorus and professional orchestra. The music - and the context (Mozart's last work before he died, a requiem) - is definitely spooky.
• Lacrymosa - Mozart Requiem
• Turn! Turn! Turn! - The Byrds
  Oldie
• I Put a Spell on You - Screamin' Jay Hawkins
  This one is just bizarre. But it works on the mix.
• Autumn Leaves - Eva Cassidy
  Eva Cassidy's voice has a really calming effect on me. She takes her time on every song - I love it.
• Shadowfeet - Brooke Fraser
  This one maybe isn't necessarily fall-ish and definitely isn't spooky. But it's one of my top songs of the year - and I still love love love it.
• Autumn in New York - Harry Connick Jr.
  I should go to New York in the fall sometime.
• Time Warp - Marching Illini
  A cover from the Rocky Horror Picture Shop (which I've only ever seen clips from) - more marching band.
• In the Hall of the Mountain King - Grieg
  This one has lots of sentimental value. I have memories of listening to this in my kindergarten music class. I tried to pass it on to future generations a while back, with humorous results. ("I saw Mike Myers - and he was CHASIN' me!")
• Defying Gravity - Wicked
  I love Wicked. And this is my favorite song. I may look weird singing at the top of my lungs in my car - but I don't care one bit.
• Imperial March - Marching Illini
• What is Hip? - Marching Illini
  This maybe takes me into gratuitous marching band territory. It's not spooky - it's just one of my favorites.
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Dukas - Philadelphia Orchestra
  This is the longest piece on the mix - it's probably familiar to most as the music from the Disney movie, "Fantasia." We played it in college - and it was so so so much fun.

It may be one of those mixes that has more personal attachments to me than to other people.

(Josh and I have been re-listening to the previous years' Christmas mixes - and I've already started on this year's. Very exciting, the mix CDs.)

Songs for Advent, Christmas, and Winter

Most of you who know me know I love Christmas music. You also probably know I love making the mix CDs. Last year I made a mix and gave it to a handful of friends, and I was pretty happy with it. Here is the track listing with some explanations (that I wrote when I made it last year):

Songs for Advent, Winter, and Christmas
The themes of waiting & watching for the light have been really present in my thoughts this Advent season so far. I grew up in a church background that doesn’t celebrate Advent – so I’ve been discovering this season of waiting/anticipation over the past few years. It’s a really mysterious thing – to live in this place in time that we both know that Christ has come but will come again once & for all.

“But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief.
For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night.
So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded.
Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk.
But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.
For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us.
Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever.
So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”
1 Thessalonians 5:4-11 (NLT)

• "O Come All Ye Faithful" – Rich Mullins
  Rich Mullins ranks as possibly my all time favorite songwriter. Ever. This song is from the album “Here in America” which is a bunch of tracks that were never officially released. I love the emotion of Rich’s piano playing here (usually I play air piano when I listen to it). And even though it’s just him & a piano – it sounds huge. Love it.
  
• "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" – Sufjan Stevens
  Yeah, he’s a little weird. But he creates music that sounds cool & organic. And I really like all of his Christmas stuff.
  
• "Prepare a Place" – Christine Dente’ w/ Michael W. Smith
  This is from a Rocketown collection from a few years back. It reminds me of a Taize’ style worship song – repetitive for a purpose.
  
• "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" – Steven Curtis Chapman
  I love this arrangement. It’s hard to write new music to such a familiar text, but I think one does a great job.
  
• "Anthem for Christmas" – Michael W. Smith
  The 1989 MWS Christmas album is my family’s all-time Christmas favorite. There’s lots of orchestra/boys choir – and very little MWS. This album is what the Christmas season sounds like to me.
  
• "A Great Light" – Kendall Payne
  This uses 2 texts from Isaiah that I love (chapters 9 & 60 I think). The song is new to me this year – but I really really dig it. It’s from a collection by Don Chaffer from Waterdeep (Songs from the Voice).
  
• "The Glorious Impossible" – Carl Cartee
  We used this in our Christmas services at church last year. It’s a fun one to sing congregationally – and I think it’s important to tell the whole story of Jesus at Christmas. This song does a good job of that.
  
• "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" – Jim Brickman
  Simple, piano – can’t go wrong.
  
• "No Eye Had Seen" – Amy Grant/Michael W. Smith
  This track with the next one are my favorites from the 1989 MWS album
  
• "All is Well" – Michael W. Smith
  
• "Jesus Born on this Day" – Mariah Carey
  I love the kids choir in this song – so real! And believe it or not, she wrote this. Something about Christmas brings out the class in everyone…
  
• "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" – Charlie Brown Christmas
  Simply nostalgia
  
• "Joy to the World" – Whitney Houston
  This may be one of my most favorite re-makes of a Christmas song – ever. It’s from The Preacher’s Wife soundtrack. I love the gospel choir, the brass, and the energy. I usually bounce up and down – with soul – while listening. (Sometimes I listen to it when it’s not Christmas.)
  
• "I Saw Three Ships" – Sufjan Stevens
  A Christmas song you don’t hear all the time, performed by a wide variety of instruments.
  
• "Stille Nacht" – The King’s Singers
  I think it’s really pretty in German. I’m sorry if the volume is at different levels for the choral tracks – but I couldn’t resist them…
  
• "Christmas Hymn" – Amy Grant
  When I was a little girl I wanted to grow up to be Amy Grant. (Though I’m not crazy about her voice here, I really like the song itself.) This is another song that tells the whole Story.
  
• "Here With Us" – Joy Williams
  This is one we’re using this Christmas Eve at church. I first heard it a year ago at the Willow Creek Christmas service. At the Hallelujahs, there were dancers – and it was one of those moments when the truth & beauty of the whole thing just “got me.” I was a bawling mess.
  
• "Noel" – Millikin University
  Millikin is a small college near where I live. They have incredible choirs & every year they have a Vespers service in early December. Most of the evening is really reverent, but this is a guys piece they did the first year I went. It’s much cooler live – but still pretty fun.
  
• "We Three Kings" – Jose Luis Madueno y Ricardo Silvas
  An arrangement I found this year while I was looking for world Christmas music
  
• "Main Title from Home Alone" – John Williams
  I am not the biggest John Williams fan – but his score totally makes this movie.
  
• "Song for a Winter’s Night" – Sarah McLachlan
  I love Sarah McLachlan – I got this on a compilation CD a few years back. It’s very wintery and romantic I think….
  
• "Winter Wonderland" – Harry Connick, Jr.
  From the When Harry Met Sally soundtrack – it’s fun

I am working diligently on a new mix for this year - it's coming along. (If you haven't received this Christmas mix, let me know...I may be able to work something out.) I promise to update on the 07 version very soon.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

The 6 Love Languages

I spent a short amount of my Friday evening with the fam. We watched an episode of 5 Takes: Pacific Rim (I love that show - I want to do 5 Takes: Europe. They already did it, I know...but still) where they go to Taipei, Taiwan. My brother was loving it since he went there last year - he was disappointed they didn't eat stinky tofu.

Then we went to Buffet King (which I MUCH prefer to Buffet City) - all 6 of us. I think it served as our Father's Day celebration since we'll be various places on Sunday. It was good food & the fam tolerated me as I lip sync'd (unashamedly) to the Celine Dion greatest hits that was playing for the entire meal.

As I was about to go to my car, Bekah handed me a mix CD. Now you may have heard of the 5 Love Languages. I say there are 6 - gifts, quality time, physical touch, acts of service, words of affirmation, and mix CDs. Don't try to tell me that mix CDs could fit into one of the other 5 categories. Let me explain myself. I'm not talking about making/getting a mix of music just to share things you like (although I enjoy that as well). I'm talking about when someone makes a mix for someone specific for a specific reason. This CD was one of those - and I didn't even ask for it!

Here it is: "Just a Ride" - June '06

1. Just a Ride - Jem
2. Lucky Denver Mint - Jimmy Eat World
3. Long Ride Home - Patty Griffin
4. Thinking About You - Ivy
5. Hard Times - Eastmountainsouth
6. This Time Around - Helen Stellar
7. Same in Any Language - I Nine
8. Galileo - Indigo Girls
9. Santa Maria de Feira - Devendra Banhart
10. Finally Woken - Jem
11. 1000 Miles - Vanessa Carlton
12. Walking Downtown - Copeland
13. Time Will Do the Talking - Patty Griffin
14. Lead Me On - Bethany Dillon
15. Black Horse and the Cherry Tree - KT Tunstall
16. The World You Love - Jimmy Eat World
17. Let Him Fly - Patty Griffin

Some of it I had heard - some of it I had wanted to hear - and it's just a great CD for me right now. Favorites right now - Jem, Eastmountainsouth, Patty (of course), and the Indigo Girls song. Rock. (And thanks, Bekah)