the unlikely orange

oh man. reality is a slap in the face. you go away for a week. by the middle of the week you've finally calmed down enough to take a look around and realize how nice this is. and before you know it its all over and the alarm clock is ringing again. that said, we had an AWESOME vacation in cape may. here are a few of the pics, and to see many more you can go here .

yep, this is me. sometime in the early '90s i think. in florida, most likely. i thought i was so cool. not much has changed.... ps. today is shannon and my 9th wedding anniversary. we're celebrating with a day at the beach and a nice dinner out with just the two of us!

its a wednesday morning. the twenty-fifth day of june, to be exact, although, from where i sit, it doesn't seem to matter. from where i sit i can see no calendars with all their restrictive straight lines. from where i sit i see no record of days and their demands. i'm just sitting here soaking in the salty air and staring off at how the curvy sand slides down slowly to the edge of water. i'm just sitting here. occasionally, i take a sip of my third mug of coffee. i'm not particularly worried about where i am on any map or calendar. i'm much more interested in those flirty dolphins out there in that cold cold water, playing their wet game of hide and seek with the sun. i'm much more interested in the sound of dancing waves, punctuated by gulls and other quick little birds, singing their tiny little hearts out. i'm much more interested in the way the blue-lavendar of all this hydrangea stands out against the backdrop of wheat colored sand. -- yes, ...

"seductive" mixed media collage on book board gregory a. milinovich here is a collage i made a couple of weeks ago. for whatever reason, this one has really captured my imagination, and i am really into it, more than i usually am for my own collages. anyway, i thought i would share it with you today. things are great here on vacay. i just rode here on my bike along the atlantic coast. now i'm drinking some kind of coconut coffee listening to patty griffin. it doesn't get much better, really...

hello friends. its monday morning here in cape may, new jersey. i woke up early before the kids and got out without waking them up (which is a major miracle, considering that all four of us are sleeping in the same room!), and rode my bike over to an internet cafe. i have no wireless access at the house, which means i won't be uploading any pics from our trip until after we return next week some time. however, i will try and stop in from time to time this week just to let you know how we are doing. we got here yesterday around 4 and settled in. the house is awesome and it is seriously 1/2 block from the atlantic ocean. we took a little walk with the boys down to the water last night, and i haven't seen jack so excited since we were in times square. he was jumping and running and smiling the whole time. he's had a ton of expectations about seeing "the ocean and sharks and eels and octupusses," so i was concerned that he would be pretty disappointed. but so...

so you may not hear from me as much this week, just as a warning. i'll be in cape may on a little holiday down the shore. when i have the chance, i may check in just to say hi, but i shouldn't expect to update the blog everyday.

here are my pics from the yankee game the other night.

okay. so here's the scene i mentioned. it is 6 minutes long. and it probably won't make much sense outside of the context of the movie. but it doesn't really matter. to me, it is beautiful. it occurs quite early in the film, and it brought me to tears. i don't know - maybe its just me or something, but this has (quite literally) overnight become one of my favorite scenes in a movie. i'm not even sure i can explain it. sometimes you just know you love something. it just rings true down in your gut, and makes you feel like you are finally home in a way in which you never even knew you were homeless. as i watch this scene, that is what happens. it makes me feel like i can fly, like i can sing myself a world of joy, like i can take my own sinking boat and point it home. it makes me feel like i can make it. sigh.

saw this movie last night. once. it's like a postmodern musical, an unusual love story, laden with music. minimalistic. the main characters don't even get names. but it doesn't matter. you feel their broken hearts, and the tension they feel; tension between the past and the present/future, tension between commitment and communion, between despair and hope. what i love about this film, besides the fact that one scene, early in the movie, is now one of my favorite scenes in cinema, is that it doesn't do what you would expect. i could tell you more, but that would spoil it, wouldn't it? i can say this, though: this film, for me, is about redemption in ways we don't expect it.

parking: $15.00 PATH train ride for two across hudson river and back: $7.00 subway ride for two from 34th street to yankee stadium and back: $8.00 two hot dogs outside the gates: $4.00 incredibly large sprite and cracker jacks inside the gates: $11.75 bag of peanuts: $5.00 babysitter: $65 sitting at yankee stadium through an hour and a twenty minute rain delay before the game even begins: priceless. that being said, we had a great time at the stadium last night. we had a smooth trip into the city, got to the park just as the game should have begun, waited out the rain delay (we had wisely packed an umbrella), and then settled in as the game began. one of my favorite things about the bleacher section of yankee stadium is the roll call that the bleacher creatures lead in the top of the first inning, chanting the name of each position player on the yanks until they individually acknowledge the chants. it was fun to be a part of that last night, especially seeing johnny damon's ent...

oh yeah. this is where i will be this evening. it will likely be my last time in the hallowed ground of yankee stadium. shannon and i have a night out alone, and we are headed for the right-field bleachers of the house that ruth built. i'll tell you about it tomorrow.

and the winner is..... --- number 19! --- crafty p! --- she blogs here . --- she is an old friend of mine from college, and the (un) lucky winner of this collage . hope you enjoy it, crafty p! --- thanks, everyone, for participating. maybe we'll do it again somewhere down the line. until then, keep checking in to see what's going on in the world of agent orange records. --- grace and peace, greg.

you only have one more day to enter into the collage giveaway! leave a comment here before noon on wednesday to enter the drawing. good luck!

i preached this week on matthew 9:36. it says this: when (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion for them... i watch crowds all the time. i love to people watch. i see so many interesting people that way, and there's a little voyeur in me that loves the brief window into peoples' lives. and when i really look, when i really people watch, i see more than just mohawks and muffintops, i also see pain and desperation and lonliness and grief. if i take the time to really look, i find that there is compassion in me. i just need to look. matthew tells us that jesus looked at the crowd. maybe he was in between speaking engagements or something, but he just kind of had a chance to stretch his legs for a moment and watch the busy people, moving here and there, at the marketplace or towards the synagogue or chasing kids around, or doing whatever it is that people do, and he had compassion on them. actually, the literal translation is something a bit more powerful than that. literally, t...

here are a couple of my most recent collages (although i just finished a new one that i am happy about. i'll be sharing it soon). these were really an experiment in a new technique using vaseline, of all things. thay are mixed media collages with acrylic pain, assorted papers, and black and white photographs. don't forget to sign up to win a free collage: just scroll down to the post " i'm giving away the swamp ," and leave a comment there before wednesday at noon. if you do that, you'll automatically be entered to win. "streaked no. 1" mixed media collage on bookboard panel gregory a. milinovich "streaked no. 2" mixed media collage on bookboard panel gregory a. milinovich

happy father's day to all you fathers out there - especially to my father, who is a great dad. i, for one, am an incredibly lucky dad, blessed with two incredible sons who bless me everyday. as one of my gifts, shannon put them in my clothes and ties, and had a little photo shoot, then surprised me today with these photos. the last one, the black and white one on the bottom, she had framed and it is such an awesome picture. sigh. i am so blessed.

yes, this was my actual driver's license. i got it in 1994. yes, those are my real glasses. yes, that is my real hair. yes, i was a dork. this complimentary lol was brought to you by the following sponsors: lenscrafters bozo's clown school keystone license design: we design the ugliest possible driver's licenses! the high forehead club triangle hats, inc: for those whose hair is shaped like a triangle

so this is a collage called swamp. i made it in february of last year. it is currently framed in a homemade, hand-painted frame. it is paper collage on a book binding panel. it is 7" x 10". and i am giving it away. i've been wanting to have a blog giveaway for some time, and the time has finally arrived. here's how it works. all you need to do is leave a comment on this post. by leaving a comment you are automatically entered into the contest (as long as your comment offers a way for me to get in touch with you, or you know that i know you). the contest will be open until next wednesday at noon, eastern standard time. at that time the contest will officially be closed and i will pick a random number. the person whose comment matches that number wins! for example, if i happen to pick the number 33, the thirty-third comment will win. oh, and one more rule: you can only post ONCE. if you win, i will send you the collage, signed by me, the artist, free of c...

on friday night shannon and i, who were visiting my family in the pittsburgh area, had the opportunity to get out one night on a date. woo-hoo! my sister and her husband had invited us to go see over the rhine with them on the south side, and, loving over the rhine as we do, we took advantage of the opportunity. mom and dad watched the boys, and we headed up to the southside for a night out. we enjoyed appetizers at some restaurant that had clearly once been a gas station. after this we went to the venue - called diesel - for the otr show. the venue was awful as it is clearly a dance club that they try to convert into a concert venue earlier in the evening. it didn't really work. so the venue was definately disappointing, but the music itself was still over the rhine, so basically awesome. after the show i jumped up on stage and grabbed the setlist, which you can see there to the right. they didn't do anything crazy here (although they really rocked out on BPD), but e...

yesterday was my cousin's wedding in south western pennsylvania. here are some pictures from the event. it was a good time...

we had a great boys night out at pnc park last night. dad got tickets for him and i and seth (my brother-in-law) and jack. pnc is such a beautiful ballpark and we had a great time there. here is jack enjoying a hot dog the right way (after trying to eat it like corn on the cob). paul maholm was the starting pitcher, and he didn't start off too well, giving up 3 runs over the first two innings. here is jack and seth with a pirate mascot. our seats were in the front row of a section, so the mascots were regularly walking right in front of us, so jack had a great deal of interaction with this guy, the pirate parrot, and the pierogies. jason michaels hit a big three run home run in the first inning and i happened to be taking a picture of him swinging on the very pitch he hit his homerun . i was pretty happy with this picture, and the resulting runs. here is a picture in which you can see jack's pirates tattoo and the 'p' i painted on his face. we did all this hopi...

my mom gave me this comic in my ordination card, and i thought i had to share it with all of you, since it is just so very appropriate for me.

yes, this is a picture of me. from college. i showed it to jack today and asked him who he thought it was. he said, "tell me." i said, "it's me. it's your daddy." he replied: "how you get shaggy hair?" possibly a better question would be: what the heck was going through my head? college was an...um...interesting time.

my feet are finally starting to touch the ground. i've been in an elated state for several days now, just running on the adrenaline and joy of my ordination. i thought i would share a little bit about it. it started on friday afternoon, at the service of commissioning (commissioning is part of the ordination process - i was commissioned in 2005). part of that service is something called the passing of the mantle in which one representative of the class of retiring clergy passes "the mantle," which is a stole, to a representative from the ordinands. i was chosen to be that representative from the ordinands, and it was a huge honor for me. as rev. dismus placed the stole on me, i felt the responsibility of the moment in a way i had not before. my place in all of this is only one link in a long and beautiful chain of people who have gone before and will come after. for now, at least, i stand in the gap, and answer God's call in the present moment. i have no idea ...

so you might know that i hate needles, hospitals, blood, gauze, and anything with big medical words on it. this disdain keeps me away from certain places and activities. one of these places and activites is blood drives. i gave blood once. i was 16. i passed out. it was an awful experience. i never did it again. one of the laypersons in this church, though, works for the red cross and has been encouraging me to give blood. she keeps sponsoring blood drives at our church, and offering free mets tickets to those who donate. up to now, i have resisted these efforts, promising that if they were yankee tickets instead of met tickets, i would surrender my longstanding blood drive boycott. so far, she has yet to deliver. however, last week one of the youth in our church told me that her school was doing a blood drive and every donor got one yankees ticket. she told me she would give me her ticket and then i could go and get another. and so i went. first of all, it was in a high school. does a...

hello, old friends. i've been basking in the glow of my newly ordained status the last few days, and haven't even been able to process everything enough to write about it. and, to be honest, i'm still not sure i'm completely able to do that. but, i have compiled the pictures that shannon and my mom took and put them into this slideshow for you to watch. i know many of you got to watch it on the live stream, and i'm glad that you were able to do that. thanks for taking the time to check it out. i'll be posting more about my ordination experience soon, (maybe tomorrow). until then, check out the pics. grace and peace, greg.