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January 09, 2005

Two Degrees of Sufjan

Turns out I'm two degrees of separation from ol' Sufjan, or is it three? Here's how it works:

Josiah -> Isaac Wardell -> Vito Aiuto -> Sufjan Stevens

Pastor Vito (yes, he's an ordained PCA minister) is Sufjan's best friend, both having grown up in Tecumseh, Michigan and Vito playing w/ Sufjan on all of his albums. You might remember "Vito's Ordination Song" off of "Greetings from Michigan...". Ya, it's that Vito. He's also the pastor of a PCA church in Brooklyn.

Important note, BTW: the Sufjan Stevens Christmas Albums that have gotten so much traffic to this blog actually feature Vito and his wife more than they do Vito. Vito and his wife do most of the vocals, and Sufjan accompanies them.

Onwards, Isaac has been visiting NYC a good bit these past couple of years and has been doin' ye olde worship at Vito's church.

Not sure why this connection has me so interested. Just something about Pitchfork being one step away from the PCA.

Rumor also has it that Sufjan has finished his "Vermont" album, in the 50 States Project, of which Michigan was the first.

wrapup: I really need to organize my music collection autobiographically. I'll probably start on a big ol' post with the singles, since some, like Billy Bragg n' Wilco's "California Stars" is forever married with the memory of me and Andy standing outside my old truck at the bottom of Death Valley at 1 in the morning smoking American Spirits and looking at what we were to discover was the lights of Vegas some three hours away (damn you Luxor!).

So that's the sortof crap you'll have to look forward to in the next few weeks. Alot of my songs are tied up with memories of people, and I'll do my best to get some interesting ones up here. I do want them chronicled though, on the off chance this completely history-ancestor obessesed great-grandson of mine wants a soundtrack to go with this "Blog o' G-Grandpa".

Ah...narcissism...

Is it narcissistic to hope that one day your grandson will want to know about you? or just that other folks will want to partake in the offerings to said grandson? And what about grand-daughters?