favorite albums of 2009

music

At heart, I’m still a DJ, and what good DJ goes without making lists of favorite music? (examples: 2005, 2006, winter listening, some favorites from early 2009).

As such, I’ve come up with my top records of the year. Here’s this year’s list:

  • United Pursuit Band – EP / Radiance
    I listened to this record (the EP) more than almost any other this year. Amazing, stripped-down, passionate music.
  • Urban Rescue – Urban Rescue
    A phenomenal first release from a young band. Can’t wait to see what they do next!
  • David Crowder*Band – Church Music
    This year’s offering from DC*B was a return to the complex, thematic recordings I love of theirs. Much appreciated on many levels.
  • Christopher Willits – Live on Earth, Volume 1
    Gorgeous live ambient guitar and electronics
  • Jahaziel – Ready to Live
    A fresh UK hip-hop artist whose tracks saw a lot of play this year.
  • Sammy G – Plain an Simple
    Love the intersection of grime, dubstep, and UK hip-hop in one Gospel package.

late arrivals



These records arrived too late (Christmas presents, mostly) to be included, but have the potential for heavy play over the next few months:

an Ypsilanti day

personal, Ypsilanti

Today’s activities have all been strongly grounded in my hometown of Ypsilanti.

This afternoon, my wife and I saw the movie Whip It, much of which was filmed here in Ypsilanti. It was odd, and inspiring, to see familiar places on the big screen (the cul-de-sac around the corner from my house was the location for the main character’s house, the downtown Ypsilanti Library on Michigan Ave was clearly visible during at least one shot, and so on). During filming, the crews were parked just down the street from our house, and my wife even got to meet Drew Barrymore as she was out walking (she complimented our dog, and seemed genuinely nice, according to Sarah’s report).

Tonight, I find myself sitting in Bombadill’s Coffeeshop, which is right next door to the Ypsilanti Library on Michigan Ave. As I work on several articles for the ITEA professional journals (The Technology Teacher and Technology and Children), listening to deep Detroit and Berlin electronic music (Mike Huckaby’s S Y N T H remixes, Studio 1, Deepchord, etc), I can see and feel the city’s life pulsing around me. My view out to Michigan Ave provides a nice counterpoint to the whole thing.

It’s nice to have such a strong sense of place – I love Ypsilanti by night.

Summer wrap-up

personal, teaching

In a few short hours, a new school year will start. I just finished reading my last book of the summer, and so now it’s time for a bit of wrap-up about how I spent those 3 fantastic months called summer.

Here’s a quick look at what I did:

-taught a new workshop called Imagine, Design, Build workshop for Honey Creek’s summer camp.

-applied for and won a MACUL grant to get digital cameras into the hands of middle schoolers in Ann Arbor and South Africa.

-attended 2 meetings of GO-Tech, the Ann Arbor area DIY technology group, and presented about Processing at one of them

-did lots of curriculum planning, including starting to work through the Understanding by Design book

-went camping with the family twice and took ’em to Michigan’s Adventure, a great amusement park/water  park.

-played guitar at church a lot (almost every Wednesday) and helped with our Vacation Bible School.

-cleaned & reorganized my music studio

-took lots of photos, including starting to use off camera flash with the purchase of a Wein peanut slave

-worked on planning for updates to the chromedecay site, including wireframing and new WordPress install

-read lots of books:

Work Hard, Be Nice – Jay Mathews
Close Kin – Clare Dunkle
The Hollow Kingdom – Clare Dunkle
Wired for War – P.W. Singer
Here, There Be Dragons – James A. Owen
Churchill – Roy Jenkins
Eagle Day: The Battle of Britain – Richard Collie
DroidMaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution – Michael Rubin
The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940 – William Manchester
The Right Stuff – Tom Wolfe
Meet the Austins – Madeleine L’Engle
The Tales of Beedle the Bard – J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince – J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix – J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter & The Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling

Here’s to a fantastic school year, filled with learning, teaching, and inspiration!

current reading list

personal, reading

Here’s what I’m currently reading:

1. Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America, by Jay Mathews

This book charts the creation of the KIPP public charter schools. I picked this up to help get inspired for the new school year, as well as to crib some teaching tips from successful teachers, and so far it’s working.

2. Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, by P.W. Singer

A fascinating look at the use of robotics in warfare. It is, by turns, scary, mindblowing, inspiring, and thought-provoking. I’m really enjoying the writing style, too – P.W. Singer writes with a strong knowledge of popular culture and even a sense of humor.

3. A History of Modern Europe, Second Edition: From the Renaissance to the Present, by John Merriman

Much of this is fairly dry stuff, but I’ve realized, during some of my recent reading about World War I and World War II, that I wanted to have a better handle on the broader scope of European history. This certainly provides it, even if it’s somewhat slow going at times. With luck, I’ll get out of the 1600s before September!

4. Understanding by Design, Expanded 2nd Edition, by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe

I have to confess, I had hoped to complete this book early in the summer and use it as a springboard for creating fantastic new unit plans for the upcoming school year…but that didn’t happen. I love the idea that “understanding” is a multifaceted phenomenon (an idea that happens to come up in “Wired for War”, too, in the context of artificial intelligence). The book’s central premise is that it makes sense to know what kinds of understanding(s) you want students to have at the end of a unit of instruction, and then work backwards from there to figure out what and how you’re going to teach in order to get them to that point. I just haven’t managed to get very far yet. Two weeks left until school starts; I’m hoping I can make a pretty good dent by then and finish shortly after that.

gearing up for ITEA

teaching

I’m in the process right now of gearing up for the ITEA national conference next week, which takes place in Louisville, KY. I’ll be co-presenting along with Tom Pachera and Rachel Pokrandt of Beyond Benign, at a pre-conference workshop entitled “Teaching Sustainable Manufacturing in a STEM Lab”. The workshop is Wednesday, March 25.

After that, I get to experience the conference and participate in some great workshops. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing Nate Ball of the PBS show Design Squad give his keynote on Friday morning, as well as the chance to catch up with fellow Technology & Design Education professionals. Look for pictures and write-ups starting mid-week next week!

Some recent listening

music

Being a DJ at heart, I tend to clump music together in terms of like-mindedness, and I’m forever putting together playlists in iTunes. Here are a few sets of music I’ve been listening to lately.

First off, some London bizness. I got turned on to Jahaziel last year via the Sphere of Hip-Hop forums, and then that led me to a few other related UK MCs (especially Sammy G, who’s spitting over dubstep and grime rhythms).

LONDON TINGS
Sammy G – Plain an Simple
Silas Zephanias and Jahaziel – YouTube freestyles
Jahaziel – Ready To Live
re:flex the architect
Burial – Untrue

That morphed into digging (virtually) for some old UK jungle to satisfy that mid-90s kick…reading Burial talk about “rollage” in an interview brought back all those moments where you got a rush from hearing breaks chopped up just right. Here are a few things I found (the Photek is especially precious; I have it on 12″ but having no turntables anymore means I haven’t heard that tune in a looooong time).

JUNGLIZM
Doc Scott – Far Way (Fourteen Flavors Of Funk)
Photek – Consciousness
Foul Play – Being With You

I’ve also been listening to a few worship-related records lately, especially these. The United Pursuit Band EP is particularly strong, especially “Running in Circles” and “Story of Grace”.

WORSHIPMUSIC
United Pursuit Band – EP
Jars of Clay – Closer EP
David Crowder*Band – Remedy Live

Finally, I have to give the kids some love…here’s what they’ve been requesting in the car. I’m loving that all 3 kids are consistently requesting “Pocket Calculator” by Kraftwerk…

KIDS MUSIC
Ali Dee and The Deekompressors – Go Speed Racer Go (Film Version)
Kraftwerk – Pocket Calculator
Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force – Planet Rock
Michael Jackson – Thriller
The Beatles – Yellow Submarine

“All you have to do to cook is want to do it. The kitchen is never the problem.”

personal

I was reading an article about tiny kitchens in the New York Times today, and the following quote really struck me:

““All you have to do to cook is want to do it. The kitchen is never the problem.”

In the midst of all the materialism that unfortunately surrounds this season, that’s nice to remember. It’s never really about the tools (though the right tools can certainly help in the right hands) – it’s about the desire and creativity of the person engaging in the process of creating something.

current faves: Phil Wickham and Francis Chan

Christianity, personal

Two plugs for things that have been impacting me spiritually lately:

Thanks to one of the fine fellows on Bwack’s Forum, I found out that Phil Wickham released a free acoustic album entitled "singalong". I’m really enjoying it.

phil wickham - singalong
above: my intricately hand lettered CD-R for listening to in the car and kitchen.

Also, thanks to a different fellow Bwack’s Forum member, Chris Sayburn, I came across this video by Francis Chan:

http://www.worshipcentral.org/video/francis-chan-12jul08

Francis is a delight to watch, and his message really challenged and motivated me. It pushed me out of my comfort zone, and brought me back to the time when I first started to follow Jesus. It reminded me of what it is to follow Him, to really live your life and give things up, make hard decisions, trust God’s goodness.

raising designers/engineers

personal

This is what life is like when you’re raising three brilliant designers/engineers (ages 8, 6, and 3): Legos scattered everywhere, K’Nex pieces burying themselves in the carpeting, Mindstorms pieces being strung together to form impromptu necklaces. I’m loving every minute of it (well, except for stepping on stray pieces).

raising designers/engineers (1)

raising designers/engineers (2)