Turmeric tea, Keller on work, birdhouse jazz

Happy January! Just one new piece to share since last issue: The Kids Aren't All Right, my new book review for Books and Culture. You'll have to be a subscriber to read the whole thing. But, hey! Guess what? I still haven't found a winner for my Books and Culture subscription contest, so this could be your day to pass the velvet online ropes and waltz behind the scenes like a real subscribing rockstar. Just write a sentence or two in the comments below, saying why you want a year's subscription! Be sure to provide an email address in the contact information.

:: events ::

Birdhouses constructed with found materials.

• Jazz party: Remember that North Berkeley birdhouse maker I told you about a few weeks back? Well, I happened to bike by his truck the other night and wound up buying three birdhouses. While there, I also got the scoop on his now-weekly jazz night, which runs 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Fridays, but not for long (he still plans to return to the Philippines soon). I'm curious to check out the scene (one recent act was visiting from New York, he said), but such an outing promises far too much adventure for me to keep it to myself. Anyone in? The house is across the street from the North Berkeley BART station on Sacramento.
• Cole Porter's musical Anything Goes (on which P.G. Wodehouse collaborated) starts a four-week run tonight. Any fellow musical/Porter fans out there? While I don't know CP's work exhaustively, some of the songs in the show are as good a testament as any to his lyrical prowess.
  
• Cody ChesnuTT plays the Independent Jan. 29. I really enjoyed the First Listen of his newest album -- especially "Under the Spell of the Handout." Anyone else want to hear him? $15/8 p.m. show.
  

:: tunes ::

• First listen: NPR's featuring another Charlie Peacock-produced album, this one the eponymous debut of The Lone Bellow.
• Video: Andrew Bird performs a song from his latest album, Hands of Glory. You can hear more from him at the upcoming Festival of Faith and Music in Grand Rapids, where he's one of the headlining musicians.
• 'How to be an aging rocker' - WSJ's Terry Teachout assesses the new(ish) album from former Steely Dan frontman Donald Fagan in this meditation on music that does and doesn't age well.
• New York's beloved, intimate LES music venue the Living Room needs help relocating. Score some cool stuff when you donate. I still can't quite believe I had such good fortune, but my most memorable show there was the undercover debut of the Little Willies, during which Norah Jones sat on a phone book on the piano bench, and they sang "Jackson" twice, since the first run-through was not quite to their satisfaction.
  

:: reading / food for thought ::

• Perhaps we're far enough into the year that you're done reflecting and resolving, but in case not, I thought this piece provided a nice framework for thinking about the year, in terms of God's gifts (desires, growth, pain)
• I share this partly for the storytelling, partly for the story: restorative justice in a Tallahassee murder case. It's long, but if you can only read one thing from this artRecs, make it this story.
• This novel/novelist has been getting some nice buzz: George Saunders' Tenth of December, a collection of short stories.
• On my to-read list: LA PR guy seeks more Christian patrons of the arts.

:: your stuff ::

• Josh has a nice interview with poet Christian Wiman in the latest issue of Christianity Today. 

:: Keller corner ::

• Not quite a review of Tim Keller's new book on work, but this piece situates it in the larger context of political strife (then again, I think Keller once said the NYT always includes people's politics inasmuch as they see how you vote as one of life's chief matters).
• And -- in an item that should probably be cross-listed under film -- the Kellers (briefly) review Les Miserables.

:: visual art & film  ::

• Paste's review is the first I've heard of this new film from Dustin Hoffman (yes, he directs!), but Quartet sounds great. Anyone want to go? It comes out Friday, and I suspect my movie-companion options are one or some of you or my 60something aunt -- a lovely woman, but not super close by. The New York Times has more on this and another film set in the world of classical music, the latter of which features Christopher Walken.
• National Geographic recently announced the winners of its annual photography contest.
• Politics aside, this slideshow of the White House photographer's favorite pictures from 2012 presents a more intimate portrait of the president and his family than you normally see — especially several fun interactions with children.
• A couple recommendations from The Grotto's J.D. Beltran:
• THE THIRD WAVE AT GARDEN GATE CREATIVITY CENTER, BERKELEY - Check out iPhone art at  "The Third Wave" show, through Jan. 30 at the Garden Gate Creativity Center, 2911 Claremont Ave. in Berkeley.
• "ABOUT FACE" AT PIER 24 - An exhibition of nearly 1,000 photographs drawn primarily from the Pilara Foundation's permanent collection. "About Face" encompasses wide-ranging approaches to portraiture from the mid-nineteenth century to present-day, from August Sander's "Face of Our Time" to Richard Avedon's "The Family," to Jim Goldberg's "Rich and Poor" and Larry Sultan's "SF Society." Through February. By advance appointment only.

:: food ::This one's for the aspiring hippies ... or taste adventurers among you: try this turmeric tea recipe that was just shared in our office newsletter yesterday. I haven't tried it yet, but I hope to tonight. The most popular comment on the About version says that, with fresh ginger and a couple other tweaks, the drinker likes it almost as well as coffee! I'm certainly intrigued.

Colbert carol covers, new Malick trailer, win a subscription!

Well. What a month we've had so far. Before I jump into the meat of this possibly final 2012 artRecs, two brief things:

1. Sandy coverage has slowed, but there are still many needs. Hope for New York lists several ways to help with ongoing relief efforts.
2. My latest (and possibly) last piece of the year was a profile for my employer, a story I really enjoyed hearing and retelling: From goat-based pricing to eye injury radio dramas: how an ophthalmologist tackled improving eye health in Pakistan

Be sure to enter my Books and Culture contest! Enter by posting a sentence or two in the comments below, about why you should win. Haiku entries encouraged but not required. Be sure to include your contact info in the appropriate field.

:: reading/food for thought ::I discovered K'Naan by way of a catchy song iTunes gave away. The lyrics were probably more somber than I realized (the song's called "Bang Bang"), but I'm notoriously slow to hear the words shaping melody and rhythm. This recent piece in The New York Times, however, brought me back to the question, "Why create?"

The last two months have been a whirlwind of travel and writing -- a mix of sweat, celebration, joy and grief that ultimately leaves me grateful for this longing season of Advent, in which bitterness and hope comingle.

Diana Krall's Glad Rag Doll has been a cheerful companion for drives, but at home I've favored brooding piano concertos and Leonard Cohen's Old Ideas. Behind it all looms the specter of longer-form writing, not even tapping on the window -- just standing there, waiting to see if I will meet her eyes through the glass.

I want to believe the things I'm really supposed to do will seize hold of me with such force that I'll have to write until the muse relents. But excuses blossom as readily as the good ideas I've discussed, begun ... and discarded when real sweat was required.

Why create?

Dana Gioia said something at a reading earlier this year, about how stories give us models for life -- examples of how people handle surprises, reversals, betrayal, forestalled hopes finally satisfied. And I can attest, in small part: Tolkien gave me a portrait of courage, while Dostoevsky showed me the folly of social isolation.

This lovely little story on NPR foretells the longer story of a Paraguayan orchestra born in a dump, the young musicians playing instruments made from trash. (Watch the clip if you click no other link in this email.)

When I hear of creative tenacity like that, or play Cohen's "Going Home" another time, excuses wither. But I'm not sure I can forge on toward a completed first draft of any long story without accountability and community.

I'm not quite sure what that means, but wanted to throw it out to all of you as you work away in your various media. Would any of you be interested in some kind of monthly or bi-monthly get-together to share current works-in-progress and encourage each other to persist?

As you mull on that, join me in congratulating one of the better persisters among us, who got some very good news last week: Laura won the 2013 California Writers Exchange contest for fiction!

Lastly, don't forget to enter my Books and Culture subscription contest! Winner gets a print or online subscription (your choice) and a regular stream of book reviews and commentary from the likes of Andy Crouch, Lauren Winner, John McWhorter and lots of other folks you haven't heard of but would surely enjoy reading.

Merry Christmas!

:: upcoming concerts ::

• Dec. 29-30: Vienna Teng at Freight and Salvage
• Jan. 16: Adam Levy joins Todd Sickafoose et al at Cafe du Nord
  
• Jan. 29: Cody ChesnuTT at the Independent
• Feb. 15-16: Dirty Dozen Brass Band at the Independent
• Feb. 24: Morrissey at Davies Symphony Hall
  
• Feb. 28: B. B. King at the Fox (Oakland)
• March 6: Erin McKeown at Freight and Salvage
  
• March 20: Josh Ritter at the Fox (Oakland)
• March 29: Jamie Lidell at the Independent
• April 17: Sigur Ros at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
  

:: tunes ::

• Ravi Shankar has died. If, like me, you know more about his work than the work itself, NPR has compiled a short list of essential tracks, which you can stream on their site.
  
• Beck has a new album out, which is being released as a songbook for listeners to record and share themselves. He did a great Q&A with McSweeney's about the concept. Seriously, one of us has to buy this, and then a bunch of us should get together for a playing/listening party. :D I absolutely love that he's done a project like this, in case you can't tell.
  
• Stephen Colbert, Diana Krall and Elvis Costello perform "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (via Paste). This is actually just the latest in a series of Colbert-Costello Christmas duets, which includes: 2008's excellent "Much Worse Things to Believe In." Colbert's celebrating the holiday with several other duets, too:
• "Good King Wenceslas" with Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Mandy Patinkin, who once played that guy Inigo Montoya
  
• "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Audra McDonald
  
• Charlie Peacock performs "Go, Tell It on the Mountain" with Ruby Amanfu (vocalist on Blunderbuss)
• December's listicle free-for-all has begun, which means everyone and their neighbor has an end-of-year reflection to help you make up for all the stuff you could have done/read/heard instead of eating, working and checking your handheld device for new updates.
  
• NPR's jab of shame ("10 Artists You Should Have Known in 2012") comes with corresponding song downloads.
• They also did a mid-year assessment, with some good recommendations. Standout tracks (to my ears): Dr. John, Kelly Hogan.
• NPR listeners' top 25 songs had some overlap, but included tracks from Andrew Bird, Regina Spektor and of course Mumford.
• I don't watch much TV, generally, but I recently discovered some of the musical performances Jimmy Fallon's done with the Roots since assuming the helm of Late Night -- and I gotta say there's some pretty inventive stuff.
• A history of rap with Justin Timberlake, that showed me I knew more hits than I realized
• "My Body" with Christina Aguilera, using office supplies as instruments
• "All I Want for Christmas" with Mariah and kids' instruments

He's also done some very creative cover versions:

• In a barbership quartet rendition of Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me"
• As Jim Morrison and the Doors performing the Reading Rainbow theme
  

:: visual art, film & theater ::

• Terrence Malick fans don't have long to wait for his next film, To the Wonder. Watch the recently released trailer (via Paste)
  
• I'm not sure if I'd heard about this guy (though maybe I'd passed his truck of birdhouses along Sacramento?), but apparently he, his birdhouses and the jazz concerts he organized are heading East for good, soon.
• Christianity Today's "This is Our City" project highlights a Korean playwright working in Toronto. His story looked interesting, though it's on my "to-read" list.
• Steven Garber writes for the Art House Blog on not leaving our brains at the box office (or, a telling departure from the book in the Anna Karenina movie).
• As you might have heard, a video of Jay-Z identifying himself to an "adorable" older woman on the Subway went viral last week. The New York Times has the clip, plus a write-up on the gray-haired artist who became inadvertent star.
• Speaking of the subway, here's a look at train graffiti in the digital age.

:: food ::

• Despite intentions otherwise, I wasn't able to attend ReImagine's recent discussion on alcohol, but Dani Scoville provided a nice summary on her blog. Though I only attended the discussion on sex, which I was part of, I really appreciate the different topics they've taken on with this more or less monthly series. Keep them on your radar for 2013.
• I was talking with one of you recently about the Eric Felten mini-cocktail story I shared last time. Said conversation provided a chance to enlarge on my love for Felten's writing, so I thought I would share a few highlights here.
  
• Felten column that started it all: The rock 'n rye. See also his columns on the cherry bounce (which Martha Washington made and an arctic explorer hoarded) and the cocktails Robert -- not Rabbie -- Burns inspired. 
• He also created the drink menu for a new restaurant in DC (article includes two recipes!) 
• Felten on the detective novel (a nice reflection on the British school, led by Agatha Christie, vs. the more American style of novel).