Off The Record :: Moondance

pho·no·graph \ˈfō-nə-ˌgraf\ n,: an instrument for reproducing sounds by means of the vibration of a stylus or needle following a spiral groove on a revolving disc or cylinder.

As far back as i can remember, i've found great aural stimulation from the snap crackle and pop of a record needle being slowly pulled through the groove of a dusty piece of vinyl. Not only would a plastic yellow turntable and a colorful stack of lp's and 45's provide a soundtrack for my formative years, but they could also inspire and provide tools of creativity. A record designed for 33 and a third rpms could become an entirely new listening experience when sped up to 45 rpms. Shift those gears into neutral and the turntable would become all loosey goosey allowing a record to move backward and forward as the hand felt so inclined. Hours were spent listening, singing, playing and discovering through the magic of the invention of phonograph.

I remember having a recent conversation about music with a work partner who claimed to be a fellow dylan admirer. However, when asked what his favorite dylan album was, he looked me over as if i had just asked him which hand he preferred to cut lines of coke on a hooker's chest with. When i pressed him further, he defended his lack of education in the album department on something to do with living in the digital itunes pick and choose playlist yakity smakity album question mark era. As a tear softly crawled from the corner of my wistful eye, he gave me a sympathetic squeeze on the shoulder and carried on with his tasks.

It was this not so pivotal moment which led me back to my stack of records. Half of them have been marred and scarred by the great basement flood of 2007. Many of the polychromatic paper sleeves had been destroyed altogether leaving their sonic partners in nothing but a sheer slip or else completely naked. Longing to preserve the majesty of these old friends in this age of digital file sharing, i have been compelled to jumpstart a new era of a rockey home companion (an aural supplement). Under the moniker OFF THE RECORD, we will be sharing our vinyl collection with you our guests. So without further ado we introduce...

It was sometime around my sophomore/second year of a six year tenure at a reputable school located in muncie, indiana that i happened upon today's selection. I recall some sort of vinyl record convention taking place in the student union and took it upon myself to peruse the offerings. Now, by this point i've been collecting records here and there for a few years. Goodwill stores, Half Price Books and independent record stores were my hunting grounds of choice. According to my own guesstimation, i had a fairly sizable collection to my name for a kid with my income (or lack thereof) and thrifty spending habits. I apparently had a particular fondness for records from the sixties and seventies. Dylan, lennon, mccartney, joel, elton, the who, simon, stevie, zeppelin, what have you; these are the names what made varied appearances and multiple rounds upon my turntable. However, I had absolutely no titles in my collection by the man generally known as van.

When i picked up van morrison's 1970 album moondance for a fistful of dollars at this previously mentioned record ordeal, i had absolutely no idea what an incredible listening experience this would be for years to come. Though unfamiliar with over half of the cuts on this record at the time, those pensive glances framed in a well-groomed beard and warm chromatic tones on the album's cover told me that this piece of vinyl would be a timeless addition to my collection.

Following on the heels of his previous melancholy masterpiece, astral weeks, moondance continues morrison's eclectic exploration of musical genres including jazz, r&b, folk, country... to incredibly satisfying ends. For me, the whole tone of the album evokes the feeling of being a child running through mountains of multicolored leaves on a crisp yet sunny autumn morning. It is festive and poetic. It is rebirth. Acoustic guitars, trilling pianos and flutes cradle and propel lyrics about childhood memories, gypsies and crazy love. The musical arrangements stand up perfectly on their own, but it is the soulful irish wail of mister morrison as he dances and plays with those arrangements which strokes my soul and demands that i flip the disc on it's back side to start all over again.

Dig it.

Side One

1. And It Stoned Me
2. Moondance
3. Crazy Love
4. Caravan
5. Into the Mystic

Side Two

1. Come Running
2. These Dreams of You
3. Brand New Day
4. Everyone
5. Glad Tidings

What goes on

Former youth ministry student and protege josh is all growed up and serving youth in cincinnati with his wife jennifer. Their youth ministry has officially joined hands with the mustard room as we cranked out a run of white ink on black recycled cotton tees for their winter retreat next weekend.

The book with the green pages is 'jesus wants to save christians' by rob bell and don golden.

Tell the kids.

Basghetti and pom

Olivia is officially twice her birth weight! She measured 25 inches while weighing in at 12 pounds, 10 ounces at her four month checkup yesterday...

Sadly, she also had another round of immunization shots after her checkup and was quite cranky and exhausted the rest of the day.

The changing weather has been wreaking havoc upon our home, but mostly upon ye olde nasal cavaties along with all accompanying plumbing. It is for this very reason and more that i am quite pleased to be home with the jane gals all week. There is much to be done in the realm of finishing some web sitery, tshirt silk screenery and record assemblage.

Magic elixir of pomegranates and berries of blue.

Greens and reds in a festive arrangement for eating.

Spending way too much time looking at hand drawn typography, watching arrested development and making a general mess of a house we almost had cleaned up.

Here we go (in no particular order):
-screen thirty five
-brew some grounds
-eat something
-drain the noggin
-love on the janes

There it is.

p.s. anybody wanna buy a desk?

The mustard room just lost some weight.

All the way home

After four months, we're realizing that it's a good idea to sometimes make a baby take a nap. The first few times, we would set a timer for the longest ten minutes ever as we painfully waited for her to cry herself to sleep.

Surprisingly, sleep would come.

Today, sleep is apparently the last thing our little girl is interested in. Although, after several attempts, she now sleeps as i type this.

She will surely be well rested for another few rounds with curious george.

daddy/daughter

momma/daughter

roller kitty

Some of my favorites from 2008. (bottom right corner is not a real cover, but you should contact scott hensley and ask him how to get ahold of his collection of songs, 'dusk and the noonday devil.')

Finally, spend some time staring at the album cover for animal collective's new album, 'merriweather post pavilion.'

Write a novel about the experience.

good day.

Feelin' fine in two thousand nine

Sauced on the juice.

Find yourself a sonic seasonal greeting here.

Ah, horsefeathers

Watch the entire film featuring groucho, chico, harpo and zeppo on hulu.com

Scrabbled eggs

At long last, scrabble has found a home with the rockeys.

Bird is the word.

As in, "these guys are the..."

Cast of characters.

Elephantes blancos.

Finally, this is where my songs will hang their hats on the interweb

Get some rest.

Elevator music

Mere puppetry.

Casiotone def.

Blue jane baby.

Nostril extension.

KA BOOM

Remember Rock-Afire Explosion? They've been away far too long and it appears they've regrouped for a face-melting comeback.

Unless you're prepared to be swept away on a cloud of magical bliss, do not watch this video. Otherwise:



Apparently we have a documentary to look forward to.

Laugh, baby, laugh

He was a man...

Find this movie. Rent it, buy it, send it to me as a gift.

Take me to The Fish

The following is a photo montage inspired narrative by Rachel M.

She had known it would be a dangerous mission. An unprecedented one. And now, it came to it.

Olivia took a deep breath as she prepared to address the crew through the new hi-tech orange intercom mic. The “mom” tattoo was still fresh on her chest as she suppressed her uneasiness.

“Today”, she firmly announced, “will go down in the annals of history. Today, there is no gender, no race, and, indeed, no country. Today, we are all humans, reaching out into the great beyond. Today, mankind is one... one against the striped subterranean sea that has plagued us and ruled us these last 142 years. Today, you stand for freedom for mankind, and I am proud to stand with you.”

“Captain, NO!” Her first mate burst forth in a craze, grabbing her by the legs and screaming. “It's too risky! We'll live with their tyranny, just don't do it!”

“Damn it man! Don't try to stop me! It's got to be done... in the name of justice.” Olivia and a few others pried him off. He ran to his quarters and wept.

Olivia steadied herself and prepared to meet the enemy head on. As the doors of her submarine chamber opened to the cursed sea, she stared, determined, into the unknown.

She stepped out from all that was familiar into the weightlessness of the striped water. No one knew much about the ones who held them captive from 50 miles beneath the earth's crust, but they did know that the Red-Striped Fish was their leader.

A greenback seahorse and aqua-bird were the first to meet her.

“Take me to The Fish.”

They guided her directly and silently to the one on the throne, an hour's swim away. Upon arriving, the pair hovered menacingly on either side of her.

Olivia cleared her mind and began the speech others had crafted, the one she had repeated countless times for the last two months.

“I have come as representative for the human race,” she started. “I come to--”

“Did you bring any Mentos?”

“Beg pardon?”

“Did you bring any Mentos with you?” the Fish asked again.

Olivia, taken aback and not quite sure what to think, answered,“Well, I, uh, I have a few Lifesavers... but they've been in my wet suit pocket for a while. At least a couple hours.”

“That'll do.”

She handed them to the seahorse, who delivered them to The Striped One.

“Mmm...oh, that's like heaven. Watermelon?”

“I believe so.”

Olivia collected herself and threw the memorized speech aside. “So, will you return the earth to its previous state and allow us autonomy once again?”

The Fish looked puzzled. “Oh... are things not going well up there?”

“Um, no... we'd like to live our own lives again.”

“Wow, I had no idea,” replied the Fish. “Consider it done. No problem.”

“Wow, uh, okay, great. Well, great to meet you, and good luck and everything.”

The swim back to the sub didn't seem to take half as long as on the way there. Back home, Olivia wrapped up warm and snug in her favorite duckie robe.

Mother was not pleased about the tattoo.

Congratulations Rachel! Your story has earned you a collection of six vintage cabbage patch kids 3-D holographic stickers (aka solar glowers)!

Why yes, that IS a unicorn. Enjoy.

Oh well, okay

Working hard while hardly working. So to speak. Several projects have been underway with the mustard room under quasi-renovation. Illustrations for the SOLD project, tees and hoodies for the strange brew and logos for amigo josh lemons' youth ministry, etc, etc, etc have been keeping me busy at home, while working only a handful of hours at the coffee house of other employment.

Leaving home for a few hours three days a week to make drinks for occasionally impatient patrons has been a tad painful after three short months of spending all day long with miranda and our beautiful baby girl. However, the benefits and free pound of coffee every week keep the complaints to a minimum.

One Horrell of a thanksgiving.

Promises to be an interesting first christmas for little olivia. For those wondering about gift ideas, ask us about her college fund.

Way back in november, we along with three other couples honoured the birth of our new babies and those babies who we've had to say goodbye to during a service at st. francis hospital's chapel. It was a beautiful ceremony thanks to the reading of a letter written to olivia by our amazing friend JJ.

The photo on the bottom right is my darling grandmother, JJ and her husband erik having an intense conversation about the drama surrounding one of their most beloved television programs, dancing with the stars. The exchange got pretty heated and they almost came to blows over differing opinions of who rightfully deserved to win the previous weeks competition. We're currently working on a reconciliation strategy between the two parties.

In other news...

Olivia has just recently discovered balloons and all their majesty. Behold.



Sorry to be away so long.

Let's never fight again