the unlikely orange

so i was thinking a little bit further about my post yesterday, and, more specifically, about the concept of a 'day off.' i decided that if it really is meant to be a day to spend with my family and be away from some of the pressures of my job and just refresh my spirit and mind and body, then it shouldn't be called a day off at all, but rather, a 'day on.' but as soon as i thought of that, i remembered this switchcover that i saw pictured over at jesusoftheweek.com, and had to show it to you. i mean, i'm sorry, but there is just no way to avoid smirking when you see this. who made this thing? are you kidding me? anyway, had a good 'day on' yesterday and am back in the swing of things today. the junior high in our church leave tonight for a weekend retreat on faith and sexuality. i am headed there tomorrow to help in the discussion. i will, at all costs, avoid showing them this picture of our savior, if for no other reason than i don't want ...

hello friends. took a little weblog day off yesterday, just to deal with the craziness of life. as we approach holy week, my schedule gets fuller and fuller. but today was my day off, and i made sure it was just that, a day (well, i didn't make it a day, God did) and off. after jack and i shared a breakfast of cinnamon toast crunch and bacon (breakfast of champions) we headed down to flemington to the big league barbers so we could both get our haircut. this is him when we returned home. actually, before we returned home we stopped by the dollar store and bought what most people would consider a lifetime supply of bubbles which, for us, will really turn into a supply that will last us most of 5 days or so, depending on the weather. let's just say that there's a great deal of soap on our driveway. which, by the way, makes playing basketball quite difficult. its more like basketball on ice. which is a fun thought. not to be too tangental here, but can you imagine ...

as i've been reading the texts for the next two sundays (palm sunday and easter) i have been struck by the stones that i have found there. this sunday, Jesus enters jerusalem on a colt, with the people waving branches and shouting. it is a revolution, of sorts, or at least a protest. but there are pharisees in the crowd, and they aren't pleased. they tell Jesus to make the people stop saying things like, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord." but Jesus replies, "if these people kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise." or, you may be more familiar with the translation, "these stones will cry out." a few verses later, jesus is weeping over jerusalem, apparantly troubled by what he understands to be the fate of the city, and he says some pretty harsh things, and one of them is that "your enemies will not leave a single stone in place (luke 19:44)." so what is the rightful place of stones? we wi...

we sat in our living room on sunday, with piles of stuff everywhere and the garbage cans full of paper and shannon and i looked at each other and agreed, "we are loved." saturday, the church threw a surprise baby shower for shannon, in which she was genuinely surprised (this is a major feet - she is almost never surprised). my mom and sisters came all the way from pittsburgh to attend. i knew about it for a long time, but once it was over, i just couldn't believe how much the church 'showered' us with gifts - a double stroller, books, gift certificates, clothes, toys, a pedicure for shannon, and stuff for jack, who will soon be a big brother (oddly enough, the father was the only member of the family completely left out of this ritual of gift-giving - what is that about?). in all honesty, shannon and i have been in a kind of shock since the shower on saturday. she was literally shocked ("i'm sweating buckets here," she allegedly said during the ...

it is an ireland sort of day here in western new jersey today. its grey. its drizzling. the temperature is moderate. the air seems textured and rich. there is a kind of greyness, a kind of dampness that misses nothing in its blanket-like covering. it reminds me of ireland. i spent 16 days in ireland a few years back doing some studies on the protestant/catholic relationship there, both in the republic and in northern ireland. got to see dublin, belfast, and, my personal favorite, galway. i took this photo of a sheep somewhere west of dublin. we were on our way to a monastary when i saw her, and so i asked the bus driver if he might not stop for a bit so i could take a photo. he obliged. i was the only one who got off the bus. i ran back several hundred feet and slowly approached the sheep. she just stood there, examining me as much as i examined her. she was probably forming (mostly true) opinions about americans while i stood there shooting her with pixels. but, she wa...

AP CLINTON, NJ - reports are in of a toddler who discovered a cannister of spackling on the shelf in his home. at this point, details are still unknown, but it appears that the youngster managed to acquire the spackling, open the cannister, and begin spreading all over the floor, himself, etc. realizing that he had made a mess, the troublesome toddler apparantly decided to try and pull a chair to the kitchen sink (covering the chair in spackling) and wash his own hands. it was there at the sink that authorities finally caught him. "i just wanted to wash my hands of the whole thing," the diminutive dabbler quipped. authorities are not releasing the name of the spackling-spreading son, but have described him as unbearably cute and, while a pain in the butt at times, simply adorable. in a related story, this image has been sent to the associated press of the mischievous mess-maker. apparantly, the suspect has been photographed watching a recorded image of himself standing ...

today, march 21, is the first day of spring. a day for listening to sufjan stevens or the innocence mission. a day for getting free iced coffees at dunkin' donuts, or free italian ices at rita's. its a day for remembering that one thing that never ever changes is the fact that everything changes. a day for celebrating the coming warmth and life. a day for putting a picture of a tulip on your blog. a day for wearing something pastel. the first day of spring. i spent the morning in new york city, checking out some mission trip locales in brooklyn for our senior high mission trip this summer. it was cool to experience a little bit of a wednesday morning in brooklyn, to eat lunch at a dominican restaurant, and to get a free iced coffee. i love the city. i love the energy. i love the architecture. i love the smells. i love that there is garbage everywhere (you should know that i have a deep love of garbage. the other night jack looked up at one of my collages that we ha...

i don't want to be cool, i want to be in relationship. i don't want to be a billboard, i want to be in a conversation. i don't want to be attractive, i want to be authentic. i don't want to write a best-seller, i want some best friends. i don't want to be about my ego, i want to be about my family. i don't want to be about heaven (or hell), i want to be about the journey. i don't want to be righteous, i want to be relevant. i don't want to be right, i want to be ok with questions. i don't want justice, i want forgiveness. i don't want to want to be cool, i want to want the things that i've said here that i want.

last wednesday it was in the mid-70's here in hunterdon county in new jersey. a beautiful foretaste of spring divine. we took jack to the playground and ate lunch outside. but then came friday. and friday brought with it a sleet-storm. i don't call it a snow storm because we really didn't get much, if any, snow. we got sleet. all day. non-stop. falling like a heavy rain, only it was just little peices of ice. once it was said and done, we had several inches of piled ice peices. like a giant unflavored sno-cone covering everything. yum. our front yard on saturday morning meanwhile, during the day on friday, my sister Julie and her husband Seth were trying to fly from pittsburgh to atlanta for a fun weekend with friends. they had a layover in newark, nj. they arrived in newark around noon on friday, but only had about 15 minutes to get across the airport for their connecting flight. unfortunately, seth had lost his boarding pass. so they had to go print out a new one. and go...

i co-lead a small group of teenagers who are leaders of other small groups of their peers. i've only been doing it for a couple of months, but so far it has been a really great experience. these young people challenge me with their energy and their willingness to think that anything is possible. anyway, we had a great discussion at our last meeting (wednesday night) and i just wanted to share some of my spiritual/mental meanderings that have resulted from that conversation. we began by talking about anger, but ended up dealing with some pretty big issues. we dealt with God's anger and Christ's anger. we wandered aloud, "did God really kill people in the old testament period? is it ever ok for God to kill? is it ever ok for God to lie? did God cause Katrina or the tsunami? of couse not. but we so easily assume that God caused horrible disasters that killed thousands of people in another time in history. why? well, my thought on this is that we are often laz...

i'm thinking i should stand as still as possible, or more, so as not to do irreparable harm, cause a cacophony of crashing cascading out from me in concentric circles. there are atoms everyere, aren't there? i, for one, am wrapped up in and strung out on cells, through and through. and it seems its all connected, strands of life and matter tangled and tethered, weaving us all together: me, the bricks, the grey billows, all these candy wrappers and tombstones. and so when my every move results in ramifications, when every breath is affective, i am thinking i should not unwind. when every now has consequences confounding, i should stand as still as possible. i will try not to breathe. holding my death, grey and statuesque, i will cause nothing. greg.

so, i have a meeting all day today, but, before i hit the road, i thought i'd post a few recent pictures of our awesome little man. i realized i haven't put up any pics of him recently. he is doing really well. he is talking so much - seems to learn a new word every day. here are a few bits of ridiculous cuteness that he brings to our lives: -he often greets us in the morning when he wakes up or at other random times by zealously, "hey, buddy!" -to say goodbye he sometimes says, "goodbye, see ya later, peace out." -he likes to walk around the house with shoes on his hands (as pictured above). -even more than he likes to walk around with shoes on his hands, he likes to walk around the house with a blanket over his head so that he can't really see where he is going. this is the best. he looks like a little drunk ghost who runs to all the walls. it is hilarious. he pretty much does it after every meal. -he loves praying before meals and at be...

"return of the prodigal son" rembrandt i've been spending some time thinking about my sermon this coming sunday. the text is the famous story of the return of the prodigal son from luke 15. we all know this story as an almost unbelievable story of the grace and mercy of God. i mean, that the father in this story would run to his returning son and throw his arms around him is extravagant. it is non-sensical really, when you look at it from a human point of view. and so we are used to looking at it as this incredible story of God's amazing grace. but there is another angle to the story. its a tragedy, too. while we may identify with the younger brother because, we, too, have run off and pursued our own desires and pleasures and felt the embrace of God welcoming us home, we might also look to see if we don't see ourselves in the older brother. do you remember the older brother? that's him there on the right of rembrandt's famous painting. actually,...

"as blind men" paper collage and acrylic on cardboard panel gregory a. milinovich this is the other collage i made this weekend utilizing some of the new techniques i've been learning. this one involves a paper ripping technique, as well as a process involving packing tape to create the effect along the left-hand side where you can see music over all the rest of the image. i also used a couple types of acrylic paint. here is what i've been listening to lately: tobymac - portable sounds switchfoot - oh! gravity willie nelson - songbird denison witmer - are you a dreamer? that's all for today. as jack is saying now: peace out. greg.

i finally finished a book i've been reading for a long time. its called "how to read a poem and fall in love with poetry" by edward hirsch. i really enjoyed it. it stretched me in many ways as a reader and as an artist, but one thing i really wanted to share with you was a poem by garrett hongo, a hawaiian poet. if you don't like the poem, that's fine, but skip to the end and read what hongo wrote about his poem. it is breathtaking (at least it is to me). stay with me at six o'clock most people already sitting down to dinner and the Evening News, Gloria's still on the bus, crying in a back seat, her face bathed in soft blue light from the flourescent lamps. She leans her head down close to her knees, tugs at the cowl of her raincoat so it covers her eyes, tries to mask her face and stifle the sobbing so the young black in the seat across the aisle won't notice her above the disco music pouring from his radio and filling the bus. He does anyway, ...

"the distance" paper collage and acrylic on cardboard panel gregory a. milinovich here is a collage i made yesterday. i am learning some new techniques with acrylic paint as well some other things. so, this was my first real adventure into using paint and paper in a collage. i had fun with it. just thought i'd post that this morning. i have to go preach now... greg.

we've been throwing the word "shallow" around quite a bit lately, so i thought i would reveal my own shallowness in a way i have not yet: as i have grown up i have come to realize more and more that i am a product of this consumer culture, and that part of that means i have learned a behaviour that involves the quest for ever more possessions. as i have matured in my faith, i have also come to a place where i want to be free from this 'stuff' addiction. BUT, having said that, i want to post today about my favorite material possession: my ipod. last year for my 30th birthday some of the youth in my former youth group got together and organized a collection so that they could buy me a 30th birthday present. i had been talking for a long time about how i would love an ipod, but couldn't afford one. i never, EVER, thought that my youth group would buy me one. but buy me one they did. they surprised me with it, and it was an awesome surprise. it is a 30gig ip...

i received these in the mail today from my sister julie and her husband seth. i thought it was nice of them to send me something in honor of my birthday (last week). however, while i am clear on the whole idea that its the thought that counts, i'm not sure what to do with such a gift. i mean, if my name were GP.EG i think i would really appreciate these and put them on my birthday cake (next year). i know, i know, its the thought that counts. i get that. i really do. so, thank you julie and seth. very thoughtful. i also appreciated that i owe the united states postal service 13 cents in order to pay for the delivery of these capital beauties (complete with lead-free wicks). so, if any of my readers are named GP.EG, please let me know and i will send these over to you. GR.EG ps. i am just joking here and thought the candles were quite funny, even if a bit dismembered. too bad i can't make a "J" out of the first "G" and then i could have a sweet bir...

that's it. just 8 weeks (maybe even a little less) until a new milinovich gets squeezed into this world. we've been preparing: i finished painting the nursery this weekend. we've whittled the name list down from about 25 names to 10. we are going to the hospital this weekend to get everything squared away there. we have been trying to teach jack about 'baby brother' and we will be giving him a babydoll soon, so he can learn what it is to take care of a baby. we have been freezing meals, so shannon doesn't have to cook once the baby is born (and she also doesn't have to eat cup-a-soup every day, since that is all i know how to cook). anyway, the pages on the calendar keep turning, and the months have been dwindling down to weeks. read the belly: the baby is coming soon! ps. i might be in big trouble because i absolutely did not ask shannon's permission to include pictures of her bare belly on my blog. oops...

in an effort to make this blog a bit more shallow, i though i might post today about a conversation i was having with someone last night about play-doh. we were commenting on how much we love the scent, and i mentioned that i had always thought someone should turn it into a cologne, eau d' play-doh. so i was going to write about that and include a picture of play-doh on the post. so i did an image search on google for play-doh and look what turned up: a bottle of play-doh cologne spray. are you kidding me? this is awesome! you can actually spray yourself with the incredible aroma of a freshly opened can of children's clay. this has got to be a sign of the end times or something. when humanity is doing this, well...we have issues. anyway, here's the link to read more about it: http://www.toymania.com/news/messages/8137.shtml . mmm...play-doh. greg.

"day 7" paper and found objects collage on cardboard panel gregory a. milinovich and so the series comes to an end. 7 days. 7 collages. not a mirror of the genesis 1 creation account so much as one guy's story of what has happened to that creation. these works, which i did several years ago, were my way of dealing with and saying something about the garbage that swirls around our feet all the time. but, this week, they have facilitated some interesting discussion about the nature of art and what it means to be an artist. thank you to all of you who have added your voice to the conversation. that is why i do this. to those of you who are lurking, who tell me that this is too 'deep' for you to comment, i urge you to reconsider. this blog, much like my art, is a way to connect, a way to touch. but this kind of touch, this kind of connection is two-way. i need to know if you are there, if you agree or disagree, if you are laughing or are bored or whatever. i want to ...

"day 6" paper and found object collage on cardboard panel gregory a. milinovich ***warning*** the following post contains blatantly elementary theology and unabashed love of parent to child. either proceed with caution or stop reading this post immediately. -editor so, its day 6 in my trash series. i am thankful for some interesting debate so far, even though many of my readers feel that these types of discussions are a bit too 'deep' for them to contribute to meaningfully. baloney! (bologna?!) you all have valuable input that i want to hear! you can use small words if you need to; that would actually work out better for me. but, by all means, please contribute to the conversation. i am hosting this conversation on the internet in front of all of you for that very reason . i NEED you to contribute and offer your voice. its like you are all sitting around the dinner table, but only a few of you are talking. that's pretty awkward if you think about it....

i just wanted to write today about how excited i am that spring training exhibition games start today for the yankees. i have had enough of this excruciating period between football and baseball, and i am ready for spring. and so my spirit feels the excitement of growing grass and cracking bats and soft leather today, as the grapefruit league season starts up. i love baseball.

"day 5" paper and found objects collage on cardboard gregory a. milinovich blah blah blah...art...blah blah blah...garbage...blah blah blah...cigarettes...blah blah blah...environment...blah blah blah...intertwined...blah blah blah...gummy candy from sweden...blah blah blah...art.