I read this interview with John Davis, former lead singer for Superdrag, and was really moved by it. I love the way he documents his experience in becoming a believer in Christ.

Interview with John Davis

I am well and truly caught up in the collegiate swing of things again. 7 weeks into my classes, I’ve now done my first big tests, have turned in multiple projects, and it starts to feel like I’ve been in school for as long as I can remember.

Things are good, however; my classes are enjoyable, and my family is starting to feel like we’re getting a good routine down with all the recent changes involved in my leaving work and being back in the classroom.

Also, I just posted a big long blog entry at my label site, chromedecay, containing a chart of what I’ve been listening to , and also containing some updates about what I’ve been up to music-wise. You might be interested in checking that out: mid-October chromedecay chart + update.

One thing that’s been quite nice about being around my house more (due to being back in school) is the chance to feel more plugged into the community of Ypsilanti. Between bike rides around my neighborhood (with the kids in tow on my recently traded-for bike trialer), strolls through Depot Town (the small enclave of stores, restaraunts and parks near my house), and helping at my son’s preschool (Ypsilanti Cooperative Preschool), I feel like part of this town in a way that I hadn’t quite before. It’s a nice feeling.

One part of Depot Town that I want to mention specifically is Gordon’s Five and Dime. It’s a great little store run by friends of our family, and really a fun place to visit. They sell penny candy (literally! walk in with 1 cent and see what you can buy!), vintage toys, and other good stuff (I scored some great maple sugar candy last time I was there, and they have both maple and cherry syrup right now…should be perfect for late October pancakes).

I took some photos of their store the weekend it opened, and just got around to uploading a few to Flickr, so you can check those out: Gordon’s Five and Dime photos.

I wish my friends the best in the continued operation of their store!

Another nice Ypsilanti-related thing is the Ypsi~Dixit blog, the one Ypsi blog whose RSS feed I subscribe to, which means I read all the posts. There are a number of other Ypsi blogs, but I haven’t made the jump to tracking them via RSS yet…maybe someday.

I’ve been meaning to write this blog post for a long time, and tonight seems like a fine time to do it.

On Friday, August 26, I completed my last day at i33 communications, llc, where I’d worked (through its various incarnations as sigma6, appnet and commerce one) for the past 8 years. I am now enrolled as a full-time student at Eastern Michigan University. I’m pursuing a post-baccalaureate teaching certificate, which means that, if all goes according to my plans, I will be teaching in the public schools starting in the fall of 2007.

Working for the same company for 8 years, even through a number of corporate acquisitions and spinoffs, makes a person comfortable in their surroundings. Even though there was constant change (part of being a web development company), there was still a core group of people who I worked with that had been through it all with me, and I still treasure that experience. There’s nothing like being part of a team that’s really hitting on all cylinders (or at least a majority of the cylinders), and above all a team whose members generally like and respect one another.

Even though I had been planning this move for close to 6 months before my last day finally arrived, it was still hard to believe that it was finally upon me. Honestly, though, I can’t say that I’ve really missed it yet. I think that’s a good thing – I will always be glad for the experiences I had working, at various times, as a web developer, project manager, information architect/interaction designer, and software testing manager. But I am content with moving on, and I think that’s a good sign.

One great thing about my new situation (and one of the reasons for changing things in the first place) is that I get to spend way, way more time with my kids, at least for the next 2 years while I’m in school. My class schedule is such that I’m in school two full days a week, plus one other night class, which means I’m the stay-at-home dad to my two youngest children for 3 days a week. I’ve cooked more in the last few weeks than I’d done in months before, been grocery shopping a few times, had some really nice moments with the kids, and generally gotten a chance to catch my breath.

Classes started today, which is why it seemed like it was finally time to write this entry. I can’t thank my wife, Sarah, enough for taking on the additional responsibility at work that she’s assumed; it’s what makes this whole venture financially possible. She’s also the one who initially pushed me to start thinking about teaching as a career NOW, rather than the vague “I’ll teach when I retire from business” idea I’d been carrying around for years.

Thanks for all of you who have encouraged me thus far – now it’s starting to get really interesting! I’ll keep you posted.

Hello to all of you coming in from the link at VanillaMist, the site run by Patricia. She created the WordPress template ‘connnections‘, upon which this site’s design is based. Thanks again for putting together such a great theme!

I thought, in light of the current tragedy in the American South, that I’d mention some informtion I put up on chromedecay, which is the small, personal projects music label that I run. Derek Sivers, president of CDBaby, has created an easy way for you to both donate to the Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, and get great new music at the same time. A number of artists, myself included, are donating all profits from their records sold through CDBaby to the Red Cross.

So, just purchase live at leopold bros through CDBaby and the profit from your purchase will go to the Red Cross. My friend Jon is also doing this for his record; check out Yochannan’s Worshipmusic (inna DJ Shadow kind of style – great instrumental hip-hop).

I pray that those affected by this hurricane can keep their head together, and that God would keep them in His care during this trying time.

Thanks to the kind generosity of the parents of my friend and long-time music partner Josh Schnable, my family has a piano. They gave it to us for the price of having it moved, and so for the last few months I’ve been able to sit down and play, as I’m able to make time.

Now, I am not trained at all as a pianist. I’m in the process of self-teaching and learning, though. One thing I’ve been working through for the last week or so is the piano parts to Sufjan Steven’s Flint (For The Unemployed And Underpaid), thanks to the helpful people at the All Good Naysayers! forum.

What a gorgeous song – so sparse, it almost makes you listen while holding your breath. I’m really looking forward to seeing Sufjan on September 11 at the Majestic, even though all reports indicate he’s almost exclusively playing songs from the recent “Illinois”. Perhaps the Michigan audience can convince him to play some Michigan songs.

In other news, Sarah and I got to take an evening away from the kids (thanks to my parents and my aunt and uncle) and see Sara Groves in concert on Saturday. She was truly marvelous – alternating between hilarious, touching, prophetic anectodes and lovely, humourous, and ultimately worshipful songs. She was accompanied by her husband on percussion and their bass player for most of the show, but also played a short set of songs by herself, just voice and piano. I’m excited to hear her new record, coming out in October.

Is it just me, or is the drum part from Tortoise’s “Seneca” one of the absolute best drum tracks ever? So raw, so funky, so noisy and restrained and over-the-top, all at once. The rest of “Standards” is kinda so-so, and their last record, “It’s all around you” kind of left me cold, but that’s OK, I still have the drum part from “Seneca”…

And “DJed” off “Millions now living…” still sounds pretty great after all this time, too!

Thanks to my friend Josue at shameless, I got turned on to a new artist who has quickly become a new favorite: Josh Garrels.

Thanks to his generosity, you can download 7 of his songs from his site:

Josh Garrels mp3s

I’m particularly enjoying “mercy triumph”. Josh’s sound is acoustic guitar backed by sampler and loops – not too experimental, but a nice, warm, organic sound. Good stuff.

Half-handed cloud, the artist on the extremely eclectic label Sounds Familyre, makes me smile big-time. I’ve heard it described as “Goofy childrens-church ecclecticism“, and that’s all at once apt, and missing the point. I’m happy to settle for liking it and being edified by the creativity that all the while points to the fact that God is love (as one of the lyrics mentions).

Check out some MP3s at the Sounds Familyre site if you’re interested.

I’ve decided to split my Internet presence into two halves: “business” (chromedecay.org) and “personal” (billvanloo.com).

To that end, I’ve set up this new domain, billvanloo.com, to host all my personal stuff – info about me, my personal blog, and family photos. This site is very much a work-in-progress at the moment, but will be added to in the upcoming days and months.

So, why the split? I just switched web hosting providers (to DreamHost, who I heartily recommend), and they offered a free domain regisration. Since I’d thought about having “billvanloo.com” for a while, I decided this would be a good time to acquire it, so I did. The thought of then splitting things up seemed like a natural one.

I’ll be using this blog to post more personal thoughts and reflections, often touching on my Christian faith. That’s something I started out writing about on the blog when it was hosted at chromedecay.org, but I slipped away from it as I began using the blog there more for music-related stuff. There will inevitably be some crossover on both blogs and sites, but that’s OK.

For now, enjoy the links to my family photo site on flickr, or my personal profile on audioscrobbler.