Countdown to the LOST Season 6 Premiere

This post is dedicated to my community group from All Souls, and to Chris Robinson from the R & R Review (which will hopefully be updated, one of these days).

If you like LOST as much as I do (which is a lot), you may be constantly wondering just how many hours there are until the first episode of the last season. For your sake, and mine, I have created a timer, on the right side of your screen, so that we can always know just how long we have until the beginning of the end. I can't wait.

**UPDATE**
Thanks do my buddy Dusty for pointing out that the timer wasn't working. I've replaced it with another one that, while visually much crappier, does actually countdown, which I guess is all that really matters in the end.

Mixology: Summer Beer

This past Wednesday night I attended a community group cookout from the church I've been going to this summer and it was there that I first tried this delicious beverage (hey, we're Presbyterian, what can I say?). Its maker, Ruthanne, was kind enough to provide me with the recipe so that I might provide it to you, dear reader, so be sure to get check out her blog. So, without future ado, from her email:

here's the recipe for the summer beer. this makes 2 quarts

48 oz (1.4 L) light beer (i've found corona or landshark type beers work best)
1.5 pints (750 ml) of vodka (no need to buy the pricey brands)
3 cans of frozen limeade concentrate (i get the store brand of this - cheaper and tastes exactly the same)

Combine in a pitcher and chill before serving. Can be served over ice. i've also served this from the freezer and it had a slushy consistancy which was quite good also.

I really can't get over how good this drink was. The limeade adds sweetness and tang, the beer adds some fizz and keeps the sweetness in check, and the vodka just adds trouble. I suggest whipping up a batch for your Labor Day activities this weekend and celebrating the end of summer with a toast.

Happy Reformation Day

Not only is today Halloween, more importantly it is also Reformation Day, which is basically the anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the church. I've always thought that it might be fun to print out the 95 Theses on 8.5X11, staple them together, and tape them to the door of the local Catholic church. Haven't gone through with it yet...maybe next year.

On a related note, a few weeks ago I rented Luther on DVD. It wasn't the best movie, but it's worth a rent if you're interested in the subject.

New Red Mountain Music Christmas CD

Red Mountain Music, who I have written about previously, will be releasing a Christmas CD, entitled "Silent Night", this fall. You can view the track listing and sample all of the songs here. It sounds fantastic, and it appears that all of my favorite Christmas hymns have finally made it all on one CD. I'm pretty excited about it.

It will be released Oct. 20, but can be pre-ordered now.

The Magic City: Eight Things I Miss

*Photo courtesy of Brian T. Murphy's flickr

Below is a list of eight things that I miss about Birmingham. I'm sure there are more, but these are eight that I came up with.

8. Old houses: Sure, lots of places have old houses, but Birmingham really has some great old neighborhoods (South Side, Highlands, Crestwood, to name a few) with houses built between the 1920s and 1940s. While I have not personally lived in one (though I did live in a 75+ year old apartment complex), I had a number of friends who lived in them and always relished in the comforting feeling of old hardwood floors and plaster walls.

7. "Mountains": While Birmingham's mountains are not every impressive by normal mountain standards, they did provide for a nice change in elevation, great background for the city, and beautiful vistas, which would include Pregnancy Point and Pregnancy Point II (these were names that I came up with, though I do not know if any babies were actually conceived at either place).

6. Mountain Brook: After I graduated from college, I was fortunate enough to live in an apartment complex in English Village, one of the three historic villages in Mountain Brook. While I am not sure if I will ever be able to afford an actual house in Mountain Brook, living in an apartment there was enough to give me a good appreciation. In spite of the "Brookies" who populate it, it is difficult not to enjoy the winding, tree-lined roads, beautiful old houses and mansions, and the walkable retail environments created in the different villages. Say what you will about it, I certainly wouldn't mind living there again.

5. Hipsters and their parties: Through various avenues I became somewhat acquainted with a good-sized part of the hipster population in Birmingham. While I mentioned this in my last post, and while the verdict may still be out on whether or not hipsters are actually a useful part of our society, I will say that they did add a nice bohemian flare to the city that I sorely miss in Clemson, South Carolina. They did create, or were at least involved heavily in, the art and music scene, and to see them driving around on their Vespas did add a nice cosmopolitan touch to the city. Most of all, as mentioned, I love their parties and Kids Got the Disco, a monthly hipster techno dance party, really seems to be getting pretty huge.

4. Magic City Lacrosse Club: I first played lacrosse in the 5th grade when I lived in NOVA, and then started playing again in middle school once my family moved back to Atlanta. I have basically been playing ever since. When I got to college at Samford, it was not surprising to learn that they didn't have a lacrosse team. However, I was able to find the local men's club team and played with them from my freshman year until I moved away last summer. I had a great time with those guys just getting out once a week and throwing the ball around and scrimmaging. It kept me (relatively) in shape and let me make some good friends. I really miss those guys and I really miss being able to play every week. If I do end up moving back to Birmingham, I will be at practice the first week back.

3. Red Mountain Church: I mentioned Red Mountain a few posts ago, but that church has meant a lot to me. Along with the things that I learned from great preaching, it has shown me how a church really is a family more than a building. It is about relationships and loving those around you as Christ did, in spite of what their past or present situations may be. I'm not sure if there is another church anywhere that is quite like Red Mountain, and I consider myself fortunate to have been able to attend there for as many years as I did.

2. Restaurants: I think that Birmingham is one of the best kept culinary secrets in the South. I would even say that the New York Times would agree with me. While I miss the nicer restaurants like Hot & Hot Fish Club and Chez Fonfon (I never actually made it to Highland Bar & Grill, so I will not include it, though I would still really like to go sometime), it is some of the smaller and cheaper restaurants that I probably miss more. Rojo, for one, is still hard to beat for a relatively cheap meal and a fantastic atmosphere. The line of Surin restaurants is some of the best Thai food I have eaten, and Taj India really opened my eyes to Indian food. Perhaps Birmingham's greatest boon, however, is its Greek restaurants. From the 24 hour gyro/hamburger places like Purple Onion and Al's, to the mid-level places like Taziki's, and the nicer places like Nabeel's and Fish Market, if you have a craving for some Mediterranean food, the Magic City is the place for you. Other favorites include Zoe's, Tip Top Grill, and too many bars to name.

1. Friends: Of course, I could not talk about Birmingham without mentioning the many friends I made there, many of whom still live there. I will not get specific for fear of leaving someone out, or singling someone out, but I will say that I really enjoyed having friends from so many walks of life, whether it be college or work or church or lacrosse or some combination of those. I really feel like I felt a great network of close relationships that would overlap and interweave, and I could really see what it was like to live in a community. I miss them, and hope that I might live in Birmingham again to try to pick up the loose ends of those relationships and continue on.

Red Mountain Music

When I lived in Birmingham I went to a church called Red Mountain Church. It belongs to the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) denomination and is probably most notable for its significant hipster and married-hipsters-with-kids population. I love that church, and love the people in it, and it is, in and of itself, a major reason why I would consider moving back to Birmingham when I finish grad school (though I do have a list of other reasons I would want to move back).

One thing that does set Red Mountain apart from many other churches is the quality of its music. The church has been blessed to have an abundance of incredibly talented musicians and singers. These musicians are also probably some of the most humble church musicians that I have seen and never take the spotlight for themselves; in fact, one could go to the church for months and never know the names of any of the musicians (believe me, I still don't know the names of most of them, and I was a member for over two years).

However, perhaps the best part about the music at Red Mountain is that the church has fully embraced hymns as the only type of music that is played during worship. In a day when so many churches seem to be flocking to the latest and most "awesome" worship songs, those at Red Mountain have instead looked to the great hymns of the past. These songs often contain a richness of poetry that is pretty much completely absent from any church music written after, oh, 1950. While they often keep many of the original arrangements, several members have been writing and recording new music for a number of old hymns. They have released five CDs to date, which can be found here. If you have a love of hymns like I do, I highly recommend checking them out. Below is their arrangement of "My Jesus I Love Thee" from their first CD.