Black Cab Sessions

Thanks to Smart People I Know for the link to the Black Cab Sessions -- a series of indie artists/bands singing and playing from the back seat of a classic London black cab while riding around London, New York, SXSW, and other locales. There are scores of videos, most of them of groups/artists I've never heard of. But check it out -- you'll find Fleet Foxes (one of the few I knew) and perhaps others of your favorites.

Here's Brian Wilson and his band (okay, not exactly an indie artist -- yes, the Brian Wilson) doing "Lucky Old Sun" and "California Girls:"

Brian Wilson from Black Cab Sessions on Vimeo.

I also liked the videos of Mumford and Sons (akin to the Avett Brothers) and the legendary British guitarist, singer, and songwriter Richard Thompson and friends -- (his official site here and career retrospective boxed-set here -- the best of his 40 [!] albums) but "these artists haven't given permission to embed [their] videos on this domain" -- (que the Bronx Cheer) -- c'mon guys -- what happened to the indie music spirit? (Thompson is legendary in England -- his first song has some powerful spiritual lyrics; the second he seems to make up on the spot (not sure about that -- oops! just discovered this tune, "My Very Good Friend the Milkman" is on Clapton's latest album -- is this a traditional English tune?) -- a pleasure to watch his deft guitar handling -- after a lifetime of playing, the guitar seems to be an extension of his two hands.)

New Twist on Oatmeal

The oatmeal I eat almost daily is a mix of steel cut oats and 7-grain rolled cereal from Wheat Montana. Traditional oatmeal is rolled in presses to flatten out the groats (oat seeds) and therefore they cook more quickly. Steel-cut oats are the the groats cut in 2-3 pieces with sharp knives, which take a bit longer to cook. Oats are such a healthful food that I mix about two-thirds of oats with one-third of the 7-grain rolled cereal when I cook oatmeal. In this picture you can see the difference between the rolled (flattened) pieces of cereal grain and the cut oat groats:

The Happy Healthy Librarian posted a recipe for oatmeal that is a different twist on the traditional. It consists of oatmeal, nutritional yeast, turmeric, mushrooms (shitake, crimini, whatever), spinach (kale, chard, whatever greens), and sun-dried (dehydrated) tomatoes. It is one of the heartiest breakfasts I've ever eaten. The only thing I add is a small dollop of maple syrup in the middle of the bowl to cut the "savory" flavor of the other ingredients. (Get her full article and recipe here.)

In the pot:

And in the bowl (missing the maple syrple):

Plans for Saturday?

There is a Christian group that, for months now, has been spreading the word that the Rapture will occur and Judgment Day will begin this coming Saturday, May 21, 2011, at 6:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. because a gigantic earthquake will begin at 6:00 p.m. on the international date line and work its way westward through the time zones, an hour at a time. So it will hit the eastern time zone in America at 6:00 p.m. this Saturday night.)

I'm not planning on it for two reasons: The gentleman making this prediction made a similar prediction a number of years ago and he was wrong then. But more importantly, Jesus said He didn't even know when the end would come:

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels

in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Mark 13:32)

I'm not a scoffer—I definitely believe Jesus is going to return to earth. I just don't think it's going to be this Saturday. If it does happen, and you see a post on this blog from me on Sunday, then we're both in a bunch of trouble.

(You can read a CNN article and watch a video report here.)

Thought for the Day 6.0

From Chuck Swindoll in an interview article in Leadership Journal:

We're tempted to think of the church as a business with a cross stuck on top (if it has a cross at all). "We really shouldnt look like a church." I've heard that so much I want to vomit. "Why?" I ask. Do you want your bank to look like a bank? Do you want your doctor's office to look like a doctor's office, or would you prefer your doctor to dress like a clown? Would you be comfortable if your attorney dressed like a surfer and showed movies in his office? Then why do you want your churchs worship center to look like a talk show set?

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, "When the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen to her message, though it may hate it at first."

Some time ago a group of church leaders decided that they didn't want to be hated. They focused just on attracting more and more people.

But if we're here to offer something the world can't provide, why would I want to copy the world? There is plenty of television. There are plenty of talk shows. There are plenty of comedians. But there is not plenty of worship of the true and living God.

Thought for the Day 5.0

From Kathy Freston's Veganist:

A few years ago, the environmental journalist Paul Hawken challenged students from the University of Portland with a thought experiment:

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.

Re: Freston's book -- I was amused by the cover blurb provided by U2's Bono:

Kathy Freston writes so beautifully and convincingly that even this most carnivorous of rock stars finds himself staring at his bleeding protein with new eyes.

Thought for the Day 4.0

Let the words of my mouth and

the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight,

O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.

(Psalm 19:14, NASB)

These are the words in my mouth;

these are what I chew on and pray.

Accept them when I place them

on the morning altar,

O God, my Altar-Rock,

God, Priest-of-My-Altar.

(Psalm 19:14, The Message)

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Three "service calls" in the last 24 hours, both of which were exemplary -- so hats off to . . .

AMAZON

Ordered a coffee/seed grinder recently -- stopped working on the second use. Amazon's return system is so easy. Printed out a mailing label last night, boxed it up, ready to leave for the mailman on Monday. Within a few minutes of setting up the return on their web site received a personal email from an agent explaining everything that would happen. This morning, before the mailman picked up the return package, I got an Amazon email saying my replacement item had been shipped. If Amazon can do this so efficiently, why can't everyone? Amazing. I remain an Amazon fan.

TIME WARNER CABLE

That's right -- Time Warner. It's rare that anyone has anything good to say about their cable company, including me. But my TV signal has been off-and-on fuzzy the last couple of weeks so I set up a service call. The TW technician arrived on time this morning, replaced a bunch of outdated wiring outside, fixed the problem inside, explained a bunch of stuff to me about my Internet service that was very helpful, checked my modem, download speeds, replaced an older cable connector going to my modem, was cheerful, polite, fast (but not rushed), considerate (shoe covers in the house) -- the whole deal. Time Warner got this one right. And "Billy," the technician deserves a promotion and a raise. There's still not much worth watching on TV, but at least the junk is nice and clear now.

WNCW Radio

WNCW is an NPR affiliate radio station on the campus of Isothermal Community College in Spindale, NC, that plays terrific rotations of mountain, indie, and roots music with live, knowledgeable DJs all day, with breaks for NPR news updates. A great radio station! They have a re-transmitter in north Charlotte but the signal is too weak for me to pick up in south Charlotte -- so I listen on the Internet. But their streaming Internet feed was missing Saturday so I sent an email asking "Whassup?" This morning got a nice email reply from Dave Kester, Director of Programming and Operations, explaining the outage over the weekend. Sure enough the signal is back on loud and clear this morning. Nice to get personal emails from folks in charge who have good answers. [FLASH: I just heard from Dave Kester again with news that WNCW has a new transmitter in Charlotte at 99.1 which I can pick up using an FM antenna I strung in my attic a few years ago. Woo-hoo! Thanks Dave!)

Spring Has Sprung

Signs of spring are everywhere in the yard.

Brussels sprouts budding:

New avocado tree leaves:

Baby blueberries:

Buckwheat flowers:

A friendly wasp:

Giving me the stink-eye:

New leaves warming in the sun:

Pretty holly:

Going-to-seed Swiss chard flowers trying to bloom:

Invasion of the Caterpillars

I've been on the watch for the white butterflies (moths?) that appear every summer to lay single white eggs on the underside (usually) of Brassica food plants (broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, etc.). Wikipedia calls them "Small White" butterflies -- though this picture isn't as bright white as the females I see here in North Carolina: (both the following pics from Wikimedia Commons)

This is the caterpillar that hatches from the egg -- up to an inch long. They can shred a plant:

Since I've been seeing the butterflies circling around my Brussels sprouts (and found the single white egg left where I saw one perched on the underside of a leaf), I've been watching for the caterpillars. This was the first one I found two days later:

So I immediately fired up the BioMister and soaked the six plants with BT (bacillus thuringiensis), an organic bacterium that the worms ingest from eating the plants. The bacterium shuts down their appetite (basically) and they expire in a couple days. BT is harmless to humans, animal life, and the environment.