the unlikely orange

for today's saturday song, i bring you a track from david crowder's most recent (and final [insert sad face here]) project entitled: Give Us Rest (or A Requiem Mass in C [The Happiest of All Keys]).  seriously.  that's the title.  it is a hefty 2-disc project full of all the quirkiness that makes crowder the crazy-haired christian music prophet that he is.  on this track he gets in touch with his bluegrass sensibilities, but mixes it with a rousing anthemic chorus that is sure to get your foot tapping and your soul lifted up.  enjoy, and have a great weekend. 

"lent 5 - 2012: the broken get fixed" mixed media collage on stretched box canvas (acylic paint, found papers, vintage papers, glue, marker) march, 2012 gregory a. milinovich  last sunday was the fifth sunday of lent, and our theme in worship as we continued our series called "upside down and inside out: the paradox of the gospel," was that "the broken get fixed."  this has always been one of my favorite lenses through which to view the gospel, because, as i look around at this world (and especially in the mirrors of this world) i see so much brokenness.  and i hate it.  seriously: i hate brokenness.  everywhere i see it, it breaks (pun intended) my heart, whether it's in reading about arson in the local paper, or in something as trivial as the neighbor's ornamental geese.  you see, she dresses them up all the time, to match the holidays and the seasons.  she obviously loves those stupid things, and puts a great deal of care in...

-why do i feel like mike tyson ate a can of spinach and pounded me about the face and torso?  oh, yeah, up with a crying baby (ear infection) in the middle of the night.  now i know what shannon's been going through for months.  i don't know how she does it because i literally feel like zombies chased me across the county during the night, finally caught me behind some old abandoned barn, and performed such heinous zombie acts upon me that they cannot be mentioned, leaving me in a worthless pile of zombie-flesh.  that's precisely how i feel.  so, shannon, if you're reading:  i'm sorry for ever thinking you should just be able to be up and cheery after being up half the night with a crying baby.  or a terrifying zombie.  whichever.  -yesterday i finished a book i have been reading by former new york yankees catcher jorge posada and his wife laura called "the beauty of love" which is the personal story of their journey from children to adu...

"lent 4 - 2012: the dead are alive!" mixed media collage on stretched box canvas (glue, acrylic paint, found papers, printed papers, sticker label) march, 2012 gregory a. milinovich for the fourth sunday in lent, i made a collage that dealt with our continued theme of the paradoxes of the Gospel.  for that sunday we were looking at the paradox of how the dead are alive (those who lose their lives will find them).  of course, the whole easter story points to this, with the normal cycle of life leading to death being turned upside-down and inside-out as Jesus shows that he is starting something new in which life leads to death leads to life.  maybe this is the ultimate paradox: that death in its cold, merciless finality is rendered powerless in the face of God's love.  i thought i would illustrate this point with something colorful and bold, playing on the famous "love" logo and using the word "death" repeated over and over to form the ...

a new feature here at agent orange records: mondays with max.  given that our dog is older than betty white, we've decided to show our appreciation of this lazy life by sharing a max picture each monday.  basically, it will be a series of pictures of him sleeping, since that's mostly what he does.  but hey, maybe we should just let sleeping dogs lie, right?  and be featured on my blog.  here he is hugging bert, who looks terrified, if you ask me. but i guess you would be too, if you were a diminutive muppet with OCD and a paperclip collection and you were being strangled by a admittedly cute but full-sized bulldog with titanicly bad breath.  still, so cute, right?

happy saturday.  today i share a song from one of my favorite musicians.  he goes by the moniker sleeping at last .  i love his emotive falsetto voice.  this song happens to be from one of the twilight movie soundtracks.  it calls to mind the tremendous love between edward and bella.  beautiful song.  have a great day. 

in case you wanted something fun to stare at today.... forked from: [BetweenAS3]uzumaki - wonderfl build flash online

i can't tell you how glad i was to see that hines ward decided to hang up the ol' helmet and call it a career, rather than trying to make one more run at a super bowl run with some other team.  he made this decision public earlier this week with a press conference from pittsburgh, in which he cited that one major reason for his decision was the fact that he had played 14 seasons with one of the greatest franchises ever, and it just wouldn't feel right to put on the uniform of another team.  i'm not sure if that's really true, or if it was just a way to cement a legacy with a team who's fans are very passionate about his career.  either way, it doesn't really matter for this fan.  all i needed was to hear him say those words.  the tears rolling down his cheeks were simply icing on the cake.  the dude is a steeler.  for life.  when you think of hines ward, you'll think of black and gold.  and that sparkling smile.  and vicious hits....

"lent 3 - 2012: the foolishness of God" mixed media collage on stretched box canvas (acrylic paint, found papers, playing cards, glue) march, 2012 gregory a. milinovich this was my collage for the third sunday in lent, in which we were dealing with the idea that even God's foolishness is wiser than the sum of human wisdom, and that God's truth exposes our own wisdom for what it really is: folly.  while Christ may seem like a fool by the world's standards (born in the wrong place, growing up in the wrong place, picking the wrong disciples, hanging out with the wrong people, and ultimately dying as a criminal), he is truly God's own fool, and turns the world upside down with a logic of love that quite frankly blows our hearts and minds.  we would all do well to be so smart as to begin to understand the foolishness of God. 

happy st. patrick's day!  top of the morning to ya!  for our saturday song, i give you - who else? - the cheiftians with "give the fiddler a dram" from their awesome album "down the old plank road."  it is really long.  so put on your dancing shoes, grab a guinness, and have a great day! 

i just discovered this meme this morning, and i haven't been able to stop laughing.  if you serach, you can find all sorts of these, but here are 10 of my favorites. 

you've really got to watch what you say around my son cade.  he doesn't miss a thing, and he locks it down in his steel trap of a brain.  the other day he told me, and i quote:  "i like coldplay.  chris martin is a good singer.  he wears a yellow watch, and he has the same birthday as you, daddy.  para-para-para-dise."  i'm not making that up. i don't even remember telling him about the birthday thing, so either he's reading my blog, or he heard us mention it at some point, and then clung to it as part of the data that he uses to understand the world.  we all receive all these messages all day, and as adults we get pretty good at filtering things out that we don't need to know or don't want to think about.  but kids, or at least caedmon, don't have that ability.  he just tries to remember everything he hears. he goes around the house singing the 1-800-LEMON-LAW jingle that is on everyday while i'm watching the news in the morning...

"Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love!" -Sitting Bull (these photos are from our front yard)

"lent 2 - 2012: the way of the cross" mixed media collage on stretched box canvas (acrylic paint, found papers, vintage papers, glue) gregory a. milinovich march 2012  so here is part 2 of my lenten collage series, done on small canvases that involve working on the front and the four sides of the canvas.  in our lenten journey at catawissa avenue umc this year we are looking at the paradoxes of our faith, and for tthe second week of lent we looked at the symbol of the cross.  even though it is a symbol that we see mostly in gold and silver, worn around necks and used to decorate ornate altars, this is ultimately a symbol of execution.  if we allow it to, it calls to mind images of death and brokenness, suffering and pain.  it is a harsh and potent symbol.  and yet, as awful a symbol as it is, Jesus calls us to take up our cross.  so the cross isn't just some ugly blot in our rearview mirror, but a very critical part of our present ...

aren't they cute?  those boys of mine?  so cute and full of squeezable cuteness and cute squeeziness?  i just want to squeeze them.  in a good way. but that's not what i was thinking on saturday night.  saturday nights are sort of important nights for me.  i mean, for sleeping.  see, i get up in front of my congregation each sunday morning and read the word of God and make an attempt to interpret that word for the community, to try and proclaim God's good news for our world, for our community, and for the individuals of our church while also trying to challenge each listener to renewed hope and dedication to discipleship.  it is a monumental task, at least to me, and one i don't take lightly.  which means that on saturday night, i like to prepare by sleeping.  there is one night a year that makes this endeavor particularly challenging.  springing forward.  i love springing forward, to be hon...

saturday song time.  you know, people often say, when asked about what kinds of music they like, "oh, i like everything."  sometimes, if they're honest, they'll admit, "well, everything except country."  or sometimes its opera.  or rap. especially rap.  it seems that people either love or hate rap.  put me in the "love" category.  i mean, the genre as a whole.  there is a great deal of rap that i simply can't stand, because of what it glorifies or pretends to be.  but from a musical perspective, i love the concept of folk poetry being recited and encanted over rhythms and bits of sampled culture.  it pleases my ear, and, at its best, engages both my will to dance and my need to think deeply.  so, today, here's a song that i've been hitting "repeat" on my ipod alot for recently.  it's called "background" by lecrae and is about the need to get our ego and self-importance out of the way, if we are really going...

my sis got me some steelers headphones for my birthday, and i put them on quin, who apparently loves them.  it made for a nice photo op, and this little neon green gem below.  that's my boy.  he's so phat.  with a ph. 

wow, i don't know about you, but that was a super tuesday for me.  i mean, i had a good hair day, notched my belt on the second hole instead of the first (always a good sign), led a productive administrative council meeting at church and listened to the new bruce springsteen album (SO GOOD!!!!).  totally super.  oh, wait.  hold on a second, i'm getting some information here.  uh-huh.  oh.  i see.  okay, sorry about that.  apparently, super tuesday refers to a political day in which states vote for who will be the challenger to the incumbent president of the united states.  so, yesterday, people went to public places and did their best to finish the great "lesser of evils" multiple choice question: who will try to wrest the presidency away from barack obama: (a)mitt romney (b) rick santorum (c) newt gingrich or (d) ron paul.  oh yay!  so, yeah, super.  a super day for this great union.  well, it was at leas...

we did it friends.  we hit the big 1-0.  0.  0.  0.  0.  that's right, at the end of last week we went over the 100,000 mark on my little traffic counter here on the blog.  so that means that my mom has stopped by 99, 975 times, and a couple other of you stopped by once or twice. i started this blog in october of 2006, so i've been writing pretty regularly for nearly 5 1/2 years now.  i started writing as a way to express myself and to dare to believe that something i might have to say would be worth reading, worth speaking into the wide sea of words already written, that i might be more fully myself, and that you might help shape me with your response.  my life as a monologue didn't feel complete.  and so i began writing.  i began to tell the truth about myself and how the world looks through my eyes.  i began to ask questions that previously had only bounced around in my ...