Road Music

There are few things that say "summer" quite like a road trip (especially when one is driving a relatively guilt-free hybrid). The wide blue sky, endless ribbon of road - and most of all, the music. Every road trip has to have it's own soundtrack, and below is the track listing of the mix we listened to as we drove to Salt Lake City and back for the 2009 General Assembly of the UUA.

Some of these are nostalgic choices, some funny, some thoughtful, some beautiful - and some just plain rock. See if you can guess which are which.

A note: you will see more songs by Fountains of Wayne than by any other band on this list. This is not an accident. FoW has everything a good road trip sing requires: driving rhythms, great hooks, melodies and lyrics that are alternately (and sometimes simultaneously) clever, sincere, playful and thoughtful. They are one of my favorite bands ever, and if you haven't heard them yet - check them out immediately (I mean it)- along with other current favorites (some of whom do not appear on this list) like The Jayhawks, The National, New Pornographers, the Mountain Goats and Deathcab for Cutie. Of course I could list a bunch more, but these are the sounds coming out of my ipod this summer.

1. Teenage Riot - Sonic Youth
2. I Want an Alien for Christmas - Fountains of Wayne
3. News at Ten - The Vapors
4. Run - Snow Patrol
5. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - Arcade Fire
6. San Bernardino - The Mountain Goats
7. Nothing Compares to U - Sinead O'Connor
8. Inside Out - The Mightly Lemon Drops
9. Fake Empire - The National
10. Dog on Wheels - Belle and Sebastian
11. Open Your Eyes - Snow Patrol
12. Dissolve Girl - Massive Attack
13. I'll Be Your Shelter - The Beautiful South
14. I'm Falling - Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3
15. I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramones
16. Do You Realize? - The Flaming Lips
17. Jonathan David - Belle and Sebastian
18. Mexican Wine - Fountains of Wayne
19. My Favorite Angel - John Wesley Harding
20. Lucky Me - Drive
21. Myriad Harbour - The New Pornographers
22. Maureen - Fountains of Wayne
23. The National Anthem - Radiohead
24. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
25. Holland, 1945 - Neutral Milk Hotel
26. Someday You Will Be Loved - Deathcab for Cutie
27. Kiss Me, Miss Liberty - John Wesley Harding
28. She's an Angel - They Might Be Giants
29. The Crystal Lake - Grandaddy
30. Prize - Kitchens of Distinction
31. You're All I Have - Snow Patrol
32. No Sunlight - Deathcab for Cutie
33. Then She Appeared - XTC
34. Hey Julie - Fountains of Wayne
35. Raymond Chandler Evening - Robyn Hitchcock

More on the trip itself in my next post...

Day of Decision

Okay, the California State Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Proposition 8. I knew it would happen, but I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to be surprised for once.

But after closing my office door to kick my furniture and vent my spleen for a few minutes (until I stubbed my toe on my desk…boy they made ‘em hard in the old days…), I calmed down a bit and had a “once more into the breach” moment. Fortunately David Selberg, the Executive Director of Pacific Pride, called to invite me to a Day of Decision rally to protest the ruling.

We had already begun mobilizing within the congregation, so all I had to do was come up with something to say. In the end, about fifty folks from the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara and our sister congregation, Live Oak, marched down to the courthouse from our church, banners flying – with LOTS of cars honking their solidarity at us.
It was a great, heartening rally, and here is what I said:

Before Proposition 8 passed we marched, rallied and phone banked to defeat it, and we proudly hung that big blue banner over there outside our church doors to announce to the world that our church will always stand on the side of equality, love and justice.

The Sunday after Proposition 8 passed we lit our Candle of Commitment for the first time, symbolizing our commitment to the basic human right for two human beings to express their love for one another through the sacred rite of marriage. That candle has burned in our sanctuary every Sunday since, and we continue to burn until every Californian has the right to marry once more.


Now that the Supreme Court has upheld Proposition 8, enshrining exclusion and discrimination into our State Constitution, we, the families of the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, stand ready to carry that flame out of our sanctuary and into the halls of government, the public square and into the streets!
Love lies at the very heart of our faith, and so for us, this struggle is not a legal, but a religious struggle – and we pledge to stand by you, all of you, for as long as it takes, sisters and brothers in struggle, until justice is the law of our land and love is it’s language.

It has been rightly said that the arc of history must always bend toward justice – but only as long as we keep on bending it. So let’s bend it, my friends, let’s bend it.