Tag: Los Angeles

Our ‘100th’ Post: 100 Things We Love

Recently, we realised that we were coming up on our 100th post here at Lost in the Cloud.  It’s only been a little less than a year (and we are actually cheating in bringing some of our posts over from our time at Criticism As Inspiration, which account for more than 1/3 of this total), but we felt like it was an occasion we wanted to mark.  Being that we are incredibly fond (or freakishly obsessed) of lists here at LITC, we decided to simply post a list of 100 Things We Love (split about evenly, though there are a number of items that would end up on both of our lists, which are marked with an asterisk [*]).  We have decided not to list out all of our family & dear friends, as well as our favourite films/bands/theologians/etc. which we have previously made space for elsewhere.  This is just a stream-of-consciousness exploration of our affections, listed out alphabetically.  We hope you enjoy & thank you for reading!

Among other things, Elijah loves…

  1. Amoeba Music, Hollywood*
  2. &s (ampersands)*
  3. Autumn-winter succession*
  4. Baseball – Detroit Tigers
  5. Being a member of God’s Church*
  6. Building/repairing electric guitars
  7. Burritos
  8. Deuchars IPA
  9. Disneyland (because in spite of the consumeristic lies it sells, it remains magical)*
  10. Dressing up (especially in a kilt)
  11. Dundee Contemporary Arts
  12. Ecclesiastical architecture
  13. Failblog.org
  14. Finding creative ways to higher ground while in the wilderness
  15. Football – Celtic FC
  16. ‘Friscalating dusk light’
  17. The City of Glasgow
  18. Griffith Park (and all that’s within, such as the Griffith Observatory, Bronson Caves, Los Angeles Zoo, William J Mulholland Memorial Fountain, the Autry, Travel Town, etc.)
  19. Tim Hawkinson’s artwork
  20. Hiking/camping
  21. The history of music in the recording era
  22. Incredibly arid climates
  23. Incredibly wet climates
  24. Innocent Smith’s Musical Circus/Parkside Upper Quads Philharmonic Orchestra
  25. Joshua Tree National Park
  26. The City of Los Angeles
  27. McSweeny’s
  28. Millionaire shortbread
  29. Moleskine journals
  30. Nice ‘N’ Sleazy
  31. The NRSV translation of the Bible*
  32. The number ‘44’
  33. The Parish Church of the Holy Trinity, St Andrews
  34. People (especially those who are humble, patient and tender)*
  35. Printed media (books/book covers, street literature, record sleeves, etc.)
  36. Road trips in California
  37. St Mary’s College
  38. Sequoia & King’s Canyon National Park
  39. Silence
  40. Single malt whisky*
  41. Space/aircraft
  42. Thoughtfulness*
  43. Typeface/setting
  44. Urban exploration
  45. Vegan Express, Los Angeles
  46. The wisdom of my elders
  47. Wormit Parish Church
  48. Writing music with Greg & Justin
  49. Writing utensils (STABILO point 88s; Dixon Ticonderoga Mediums; Staedtler Noris HB 2s; Pilot G-2 0.38s and 05s)
  50. Handwritten correspondence*

Among other things, Greg loves…

  1. Amazon(.com/.co.uk)*
  2. American Romanticism
  3. Archives Bookshop (In Christ is a close second!)*
  4. Backyard time with an 18 yr. old bottle of Glenfiddich & thoughtful conversation with authentic men (whether in La Mirada, Long Beach, or Marina Del Rey)*
  5. Banksy’s wit*
  6. BBC adaptations of classic works of literature, particularly of Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell & Charles Dickens
  7. Bic black “round stic Grip pens”, fine point
  8. Biola Residence Life & Hope North RAs
  9. The BioLogos Forum
  10. British spelling and punctuation
  11. Cambria, CA (especially Supper Club vacations)
  12. Close reading of the Bible, literature & pop culture*
  13. Craig Thompson’s artwork, most notably in his graphic novel, Blankets
  14. Deep bass notes and thick kick drum sounds
  15. Delicious Library
  16. Domenico’s Pizza
  17. Drawings by and notes from my kids
  18. Elijah Wade & PUQ performing at Punk N’ Pie (which I believe is the same as Elijah’s #24)…twas a most epic performance (x 2)
  19. Extraordinary moments (car crashes, explosions, injury to the groin shots) caught on video, displayed on YouTube/Failblog.com/Spike TV
  20. Footnotes (digressive comments or noteworthy book references)
  21. Fuller Theological Seminary
  22. God’s covenants (though not necessarily in a Reformed “Covenantalism” sense)*
  23. Grace Brethren Church facilities crew, mid-90’s (including “crass Fridays” with Mark & Bill)
  24. Indie music, in most of its hybridisations*
  25. The iPhone (particularly playing Skee Ball with my kids and Words With Friends with Mark, David & Matt B.; and occasionally, Tim)
  26. Libraries*
  27. Magazine subscriptions (currently down to four since Paste went belly up – The Week, Entertainment Weekly, The Atlantic, Christianity Today – but once as high as fourteen)
  28. Making mix CDs*
  29. Mint.com
  30. Mixing cereals (current favorite = Crispex & Honey Smacks)
  31. Moby Books Illustrated Classics
  32. The Muckenthaler Mansion (where I married the most wonderful girl)
  33. Multiple-view books on theological topics
  34. The number ‘22‘
  35. The paintings of Patty Wickman & Mark Tansey
  36. People who ask good questions in conversation
  37. The Perry Bible Fellowship*
  38. Postconservative evangelical theology
  39. Powell’s Books (and Portland, OR in general)
  40. Questioning things*
  41. The Radical Reformation
  42. Redeemer Church
  43. Short story, novel, screenplay, lyric, or poem concepts & bits
  44. Thinking about impossible endeavours (e.g. making a film of the whole Bible)
  45. Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Caramels
  46. Weather in the high 60’s-low 70’s & overcast/cloudy
  47. A wide selection of beverages in the fridge (including Coke, Cherry Coke, Coke Zero, Peach Snapple, Arizona Green Tea & Henry Weinhard’s* root beer)
  48. Wind rustling through tree branches
  49. Writing on Lost in the Cloud*
  50. Zappos.com (Michele hates that I love this…like 2 pair of shoes for $250 hates it)
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Do you know what I am?

Suddenly everyone is a Los Angeles fan.  I’m talking baseball, of course.

The Los Angeles Angels took the American League West division and faced-off against the wild card Boston Red Sox.

The wild card, for those who don’t know, is an opportunity for the number two teams in both the American and National Leagues to enter the playoffs.  This is supposedly justified by the fact that there are teams in competitive divisions (like the AL East featuring the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, the Baltimore Orioles, the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Toronto Blue Jays – though the Yankees and the Red Sox are the only two “competitive” teams in the AL East as if evident from the six wild card slots that the Red Sox have garnered since its introduction into MLB in 1994) that will not get 1st place, but will end the regular season with better records than other division clinchers in the same league (see my previous baseball post).

Well, in a very non-Boston Red Sox playoff appearance, the Red Sox were swept by the Angels.  Historically, Boston has consistently dominated the Angels in the playoffs.  Last season the Angels went to the playoffs as the winningest team in baseball and were defeated in the first round (in four games) by the AL East champion Red Sox (the Red Sox went on to lose the ALCS against the Rays).  But this season the Angels accomplished a clean sweep and will face the New York Yankees, the best team in baseball history and the winningest team of the 2009 season (103 wins) for the American League Championship Series – the most coveted pennant.  From the looks of it the Angels will not pull through, but I’ll be rooting for them over the Yanks.

Now onto the National League…

Out of the four division championship series three have been divided by a sweep (four division championship series = eight teams: AL East, Central, West, wild card; NL East Central West, wild card).  The Yankees swept the Twins (as I predicted: “the Twins…move on to an immediate elimination during the first round of the playoffs…have no chance…going up against the Yanks in the first round…“), the Angels swept the Red Sox, and the Los Angeles Dodgers swept the St Louis Cardinals.  Currently the Philadelphia Phillies are leading 2-1 in the NLDS against the Colorado Rockies.  The winner of that game will go on to play the Dodgers for the NLCS.  [UPDATE: Phillies win NLDS and move on to face the Dodgers for the NLCS.]

The Dodgers spent a significant portion of this season with more wins than any other team.  But in standard Dodger fashion they lost momentum after the All-Star break.  By the end of the season their record was 3rd in the MLB (1st: NYY, 2nd LAA).  Still, they took their division and will most likely take the NLCS.

If the Angels can win the ALCS (unlikely, but you never know when it’s Angels vs Yankees…) and the Dodgers can win the ALCS, the World Series will pit the Los Angeles Angels against the Los Angeles Dodgers, a first for Los Angeles.  How exciting it is to have that as a possibility this late in the season!  Deep down inside every Angeleno wants to see the two teams play one another in the World Series.  Sure, they play interleague “Freeway Series” during the season, but that feud pales in comparison to the rivalry that would develop during a World Series.  And with this possibility I find that many of my once-indifferent friends (there are many people that are indifferent toward baseball…) are suddenly the biggest Dodgers/Angels fans.  I don’t necessarily blame them, but do you know what I am?  I’m a Detroit Tigers fan.

PS. If by some odd chance there was an Angels/Dodgers World Series, my allegiance would be with the Dodgers 100%.