February 2025 Top Ten

1.

My favorite band of all time, Mumford and Sons, released a new album titled Prizefighter a couple weeks ago. It’s so great. It has hints of the passion of their second album, Babel. It has incredible lyrics reminescent of their first album Sigh No More. And, overall, it feels like a continuation of the “new” sound that started with the release of Rushmere last year (their first release in 7 years). I’ve been spinning it non-stop.

2.

Right now, my favorite song on the new Mumford and Sons album is “Alleycat”.

3.

I read Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart by Russ Ramsey for the second time. I just love these books (this is his second one in this…series?). Really solid stuff. Part art history, part art reflection, part theology. I’d recommend reading the first one, Rembrandt is in the Wind first, and then this one, but I’ll be returning to them both often.

4.

I finally finished a book I started in January 2024….Confessions by Saint Augustine. It was really great (though a lot of it was too dense for me). Some great quotes though that I’ll carry with me for a long time. Here’s one:

“A man who knows that he owns a tree, and gives thanks to you for its fruit, even though he may not know how many cubits high it is or how wide it spreads, is better than one who measures it and counts all its branches, but does not own it and does not know or love its creator.”

5.

One of my other favorite bands, Me Like Bees, released an absolute banger called “Misery Machine” that I listened to 42 times the first week it came out. Check out this awesome song (and video).

6.

I’ve been trying to find a book to get my son hooked. He’s a good reader, he just hadn’t been “hooked” by a book yet. Well, I found a series that hooked him, and he’s read about 300 pages in the last week alone. It’s called Max and the Midknights by Lincoln Peirce. I read the first one before giving it to him to make sure it was appropriate, and ended up loving it myself. It’s a ton of fun.

7.

USA!

8.

We read Slow Theology by A.J. Swoboda and Nijay Gupta for book club. I did not enjoy it at all. Felt pretty scattered and unclear who they were writing it for. I’d recommend A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson a billion times before I would recommend Slow Theology.

9.

Showed my kids this video (that has 79 million views!) of my favorite Japanese chef/cat vlogger.

10.

This interview with Shia LaBeouf was super interesting. He definitely still needs help, but I definitely believe him when he says, “I’m a real catholic, bro. A real one.”

(explicit language warning)