TGIWeekend! (7 Quick Takes)
What I've been up to lately: places, people, books, podcasts, music, links & more for your weekend downtime.
(1) movie I watched this week
Paterson, starring Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani (If you love understated films that include both art & quirk, you'll like this movie! Here's a good review at Larsen on Film.)
(2) things I wrote published this week (both are rather personal - yikes!)
All Who Enter Here at Art House America
Catastrophe's Refreshingly Ancient Take on Marriage at Think Christian
(3) books I'm reading
The Underground Railroad: A Novel by Colson Whitehead
God Is Love: Essays from Portland Magazine by Brian Doyle
A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997 by Wendell Berry (An Ordinary Time selection for our church's reading group.)
(4) television shows we're recording this summer
Turn: Washington's Spies on AMC (previous seasons on Amazon)
Broadchurch, season 3 at BBC America (previous seasons on Amazon)
So You Think You Can Dance, season 14 on Fox
The Great British Baking Show, season 4 on PBS (previous seasons on Amazon)
(5) recent photos from our church community
We're so grateful to live and serve among this beautiful community of people (and, yes, we're a bit biased about our kids!)
(6) blog posts from this week in the archives
2016 - Ireland! (A year ago on July 14th we returned from our month in Ireland. All the posts with all the photos.)
2015 - Monday morning thoughts: Dancing bear act, crash helmets, and a Doxology (a stream-of-consciousness meditation on the Anglican liturgy)
2012 - 5 pieces of art inspired by the great American road trip
2010 - "Sometimes we have to change jobs in order to maintain our vocation." - Eugene Peterson (If I'd known in 2010 we were on the brink of so much change, I probably wouldn't have believed it. A prophetic post...)
2008 - Transforming Culture Symposium #1: THE GOSPEL (Andy Crouch) (You could also title this series The Origins of Tamara's Mind Blown.)
2006 - The summer our town flooded - here, here, and here (another life-changing event, captured in the earliest days of this blog)
View from our week.
Have I mentioned we are moving? Just across town this time. See first link below. In case you're wondering, there's 5 steps to get in the door and 19 to get into the apartment. Lord, have mercy.
(7) Cities, Towns, & Neighborhoods links I love
Some links I've recently added to my Pinterest board about living and loving the communities where we live, worship, and work: Cities, Towns, and Neighborhoods
25 Things You Should Know About Bridgeport, Connecticut. Connecticut is a web of neighboring small towns with an occasional larger urban area thrown in. Our church is based in Fairfield, and is bordered on one side by Westport (the 22nd richest place in America) and on the other by Bridgeport, the largest city in Connecticut with one of the highest crime rates and lowest median incomes in the country. When we came to Church of the Apostles we drove between both, and felt strongly that we were called to love and serve both Westport and Bridgeport and everyone between. For now, we are also called to live in Bridgeport, and I'll write more about that soon. | via Mental Floss
Protective Hospitality. Jayme Reaves writes about creating safety amidst violent conflict, in two of the most infamous neighborhoods in Northern Ireland, reminding me of the Bogside murals in Derry/Londonderry and our bus tour through Belfast las summer. It's also an intriguing perspective on what walls can mean. | via The Porch Magazine
Why America Can't Make Up Its Mind About Housing. "We are, in conclusion, profoundly conflicted as a nation when it comes to housing: we want it to be affordable, but we also want its prices to rise fast enough to be valuable as a financial investment. That’s a contradiction we need to acknowledge if our housing policy debate—and, ultimately, our housing policy—is going to be coherent and constructive." | via Strong Towns
Small is Beautiful (Except When It Isn't). | via Comment Magazine
Stop Shoehorning Suburbia Into Walkable Places. "All we need is the common sense to improve these areas without destroying them." | via Strong Towns
Can City Design Help End Street Harassment? "One study shows that 87 percent of American women have experienced physical or sexual harassment in public by a male stranger ... there’s absolutely nothing we can do to stop it. Or is there?" | via Strong Towns
Robert Moses' Jones Beach. I have vague, but happy memories of playing on this beach when I was a little girl and our family visited family friends in Long Island. This article gives a brief description of the history of the architect's vision in all the complexity of its value to the area. | via Curbed
May your weekend include sunshine, beauty and a good laugh, friends. Peace...
p.s. This post contains affiliate links because I'm trying to be a good steward, and when you buy something through one of these links you don't pay more money, but in some magical twist of capitalism we get a little pocket change. Thanks!
