My Year in Preview, 2008

I've started the year with 2 short Malcolm Muggeridge books - the first called "A Fireside Chat with...", which is a transcript of a conversation between Malcolm and 2 other fellows who oddly come across as stodgy old dodgers complaining about the immorality of this current generation (the discussion took place in the early 80's) and what's wrong with the church since Vatican II. The second, which I'm in the middle of right now, is his famous book on Mother Teresa, "Something Beautiful for God". Muggeridge, a former BBC TV journalist, was the one who brought Mother Teresa to the awareness of the western world back in the late 60's with a televised interview first, and then the subsequent documentary filmed in Calcuta.

I was going to mention what books I was planning on reading this year, but I realized that would be utterly pointless, as I NEVER stick to such predictions. My literary appetite is too volatile for advanced planning...

The weather here in Detroit is headed towards 60 this week. All the snow we got whomped with on New Year's Day is melting and spring is giving us a preview. It's funny, I remember quite a few Januarys in years past with this same springlike warmth, to the point that I can almost count on a week like this in January...

In February I'll be seeing a couple old favorites in concert, the first of which I haven't paid attention to for well over a decade. Kim Hill is back at the rock thing with her last CD, Broken Things, and she's coming to the last place I saw her at nearly 15 years ago, at Ward Presbyterian. That was one show I regret not having a copy of. I'm looking forward to a little nostalgia trip down that deserted CCM road. My friend Andrew once worked at some camp with her a couple of lifetimes ago. She didn't remember him though when we saw her at the State Fair back in the day (just like Leigh from Sixpence didn't know me from a stalker when I saw her at Cstone last summer, even though at one time she used to come up to me and say hi by name...)(that little bitch)(no, I'm kidding!). Kim's been through a bad marriage and a divorce since then, and she was always one person you never would have thought would go through that sort of thing. But life rains down on all of us, and shit doth happen... Speaking of divorcees, the second February concert I'll be going to is by one of my all-time favorite songwriters, Bill Mallonee. As I've written here before, Vigilantes of Love was a key group for me in my spiritual growth out of the CCM confines, and Bill is still writing some of the best lyrics I've ever heard. He practically defines the term "starving artist", as most of his posessions these days fit in the SUV he tours in with his new wife. Before last year I hadn't seen him for a few years, and now within this 12-month period I will have seen him 3 times! good time to be a VoL fan in Detroit...

I'm still debating going to what is usually my favorite event, Calvin's Faith and Writing Festival, in April. I'll probably go, but so far the line-up isn't doing much to excite me (with the exception of Kathleen Norris, who wrote one of my favorite books, "The Cloister Walk").

Cornerstone, Cornerstone, Cornerstone... excuse the bad Pacino impersonation, but just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in! Before last year I hadn't been to a Cstone in 5 years (after attending for 11 years straight), but now this year they are having their 25th anniversary, and 2 of my all-time favorites will be there: Resurrection Band (who stopped playing altogether a long time ago), and the not-so-recently disbanded Sixpence None the Richer! not to mention Charlie Peacock, The 77's, and what will probably be the saddest (i.e. embarracing) of reunions yet - Degarmo & Key. The final line-up is far from complete, but just on this alone I think I will probably be there once again... (hey Andy, whaddaya say? make the trek? come on!) Being back there last year reminded me what an impact this place has had on me, Glenn Kaiser especially, and last year I was thinking that if Rez ever played here again then I would go. and there it is...

Led Zeppelin is threatening to do some kind of overpriced reunion tour, which would hands-down be the biggest reunion in rock history (easily eclipsing the latest Van Halen reunion with David Lee Roth), and I will have to go to one of those shows if it happens, even if it involves a long road-trip. New York is the most likely stop, with a rumoured 3-nights at Madison Square Garden. Now I just have to save up a couple thousand dollars for a ticket...

In August I will turn 38, which I will celebrate with much depression and cursing, along with another notch of panic added to my already-unhealthy fear of approaching death...

My family's yearly trip to New York to visit my brother is most likely going to be postponed until the early fall, which gives me some nice breathing room in-between major events...

and that's about all I can forsee into my future. One of these days I'm going to have to get a real job (a career even) to financially support all this, which might ironically mean I will have to cancel most of these plans. (How you working stiffs live with yourselves I'll never know)
and so it goes...