Elijah David

Ever since I wrote up my ThrowBook Thursday post on Dear Wormwood , I've been somewhat obsessively listening to the entire oeuvre of The Oh Hellos (their Christmas album notwithstanding, because it's Lent/Easter season and I probably won't be back into Christmas/Advent music until at least June). Going through two full albums and three EPs has convinced me of two things. First, I have not given the Oh Hellos' first EP and album enough love in the past. Second, their body of work feels like an extended story that turns back in on itself with new insight. (Before I get any further, you should check out this handy examination of the Oh Hellos' work by Rachel at Let All Be Wick. She does a fine job summarizing the ideas of each album, and her belief that Boreas will be the next "4 Winds" EP matches mine, but with lyrical support.) The Oh Hellos EP The four songs in this collection serve as a sort of prelude to the full album that follows. "...

I want to mix things up a little. Instead of a book that's stuck with me, this month's TBT is about a musical album that I can't shake: The Oh Hellos' Dear Wormwood . I mentioned The Oh Hellos a  while back  when I discussed my favorite songs inspired by Narnia, but while I love their song "The Lament of Eustace Scrubb," I didn't truly fall in love with their music until Dear Wormwood . Dear Wormwood  takes its title from C.S. Lewis' satire The Screwtape Letters , which comprises a series of letters written from Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, an under-demon tasked with the temptation of an unnamed human. Despite the album's name, only one song explicitly deals with Screwtape , the eponymous track "Dear Wormwood". The album as a whole is concerned with similar themes, however, addressing temptation, lost love, death, and more with a musical tone that has evolved from The Oh Hellos' earlier acoustic style into something like...

When Advent comes upon us and everyone else finally starts listening to Christmas music (I never really stop; I just take breaks away from it), I usually pull out some favorite albums to carry me through the season. I used to have only a handful of albums that I'd list as favorites, but the last few years have introduced me to more and I actually have a top 10 now. Here they are, in roughly ascending order: Chris Tomlin: Glory in the Highest A very contemporary-sounding album, Tomlin's Glory in the Highest  combines old songs and new, and takes some cues from Biblical passages, as in the song below, "My Soul Magnifies the Lord." Loreena McKennitt: To Drive the Cold Winter Away With a Celtic album to add some variety, McKennitt's voice conjures up firelit halls and minstrel-led singing. Emmylou Harris: Light of the Stable For the country/bluegrass part of me, there's this album. The opening track (below) gets me excited for the season like fe...

For this month's Watercolor Wednesday, I decided to finally paint a picture I've been stewing over for months (since before Christmas, actually). Another Tow'rs-inspired piece, this picture takes its cues from their song "Swelling Sea". The main images I wanted to include from the song were the Moon, larger than life and pulling on the singer and the sea, and the swinging "pendulum clock". The rough sketch Both of these made it into the rough sketch (although I did have to move the Moon to the right because it wound up too close to the pendulum at first). As I added some waves for the swelling sea, an abutment of land introduced itself, along with a lighthouse. Since the opening line of the song mentions a keeper (who I'd always envisioned as a gatekeeper or door guard), I decided the lighthouse was a fitting addition. It ended up being one of my favorite elements. The finished product I'm very pleased with the way the Moon and...

Welcome to the first edition of Watercolor Wednesday at Inexhaustible Inspiration! I am excited to share my fumbling beginnings in this art form with you all. The first two paintings this month are actually postcards. Yes, you can buy watercolor postcards  to paint and send to your friends! Merry Christmas!  These were painted with  Artist's Loft watercolors  and I have to say I like the way these paints work. They have a very opaque look on the paper when painting wet on dry (that's wet paint on dry paper, as opposed to wet on wet when the paper has been dampened before the paint is applied). I'm happiest with the green I was able to mix up with the blue and yellow, though I was a bit dismayed to discover that the red I selected for some of the lights on the tree dried a pale pink. Oh well. I've warned you all about my love of puns, right? For this one, I was able to find a red that stayed red when it dried. I tried to be clever with th...

Currently Writing: Albion book 2                                NaNoWriMo prep Currently Reading: A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny                                 Blood Thirst: 100 Years of Vampire Fiction by Leonard Wolf                                 Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb                                 Monster by Mirriam Neal My friend Sky at Further Up and Further In does a blog link-up for writers called Beautiful People every so often that allows writers to delve into their characters and share those insights with each other on their blogs. This month, in anticipation of NaNoWriMo, she's changing it up and making it Beautiful Books...

Currently Writing:   Merlin Book 2 Currently Reading:   Dune  by Frank Herbert                                  The Silmarillion  by J.R.R. Tolkien (reread)                                  The Woodcutter  by Kate Danley (Kindle)                                 The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket (audio) For the purposes of this post, I'm not considering any instrumental tracks, but I will mention some of my favorites. "Heart of Courage" by Two Steps from Hell was the trailer music for the Walden version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe , and it still gets me excited for Narnia. There are various tracks from the LWW and PC soundtracks that evoke the longing for Narnia, such as "Narn...