I can't get to their link right now - can you still see it?

Sufjan Stevens is some icelandic musician all the kids like these days.

No, he's from Michigan, duh.

Michigan / Iceland...

ToMAYto / ToMAHto

No, actually when Sufjan and Djohariah (and, iirc, their older brother Marzuki) were born, their parents were into Sufism--hence the names; they do, obviously, have some Middle Eastern blood in them (Djohariah looks more so than Sufjan does), which might have been some of the attraction for them, but by the time Sufjan and Djohariah were at Hope with us, the family had come back to Christianity.

I didn't, btw, know Sufjan very well--just from around the English department (we were both majors, as was Sara); it's a fairly close-knit department, so for instance we served together on a student interview group when they were hiring new faculty, but we didn't hang out together otherwise. As for Djohariah, I knew her by sight, but that's all.

Oops--just caught an editing error there. I didn't intend to assert as fact that Sufjan and his siblings are part-Arab--I scrambled myself quite nicely there. They may or may not have that in their heritage, but I know a lot of people thought they did; and, as noted, that may have been part of the attraction for his parents.

Wish I'd caught that in time to edit my comment . . .

I kind of like Sufjan's music - although I'm quite the amateur. Jennifer bought his Christmas album last year for about $10 on ITunes and it had about 40 tracks on it. There are some really good pieces in that collection.

Also, Snow Patrol mentions him in one of their songs (I think it's called "Hands Open") and I like them, too. So, he's all good in my book for the mention, if nothing else.

Fyi, I knew who Sujfan was. Was just joking around.
But I don't know his music.

Has someone ever said that Gatorade is not green?

Looks green to me.

So, the Boozehounds are still in business? I thought the department of health condemned that place . . .

The gater in the bottle the yellow dot that needs a shave is holding is green. The yellowgree stuff is mostly yellow.

Word!

And I had hoped for some collective wisdom. (sigh) I should have known. :-)

We've decided that Sufjan is the most divisive topic we've encountered in going on 7 years.

And I had hoped for some collective wisdom. (sigh) I should have known. :-)

One of Sufjan's buddies (who has also sung backup on a few of his records) also planted a church in New York under the tutelage of Tim Keller, if that makes any difference. But no, his music is quirky-wonderful. Lots of bells and whistles (literally).