music for memory lane; scrolling ourselves to death; and the app that's fixing my iPhoto chaos
Fantastic Friday
Happy Friday, dear friend. I hope that you’ve scooped up some fantastic moments here and there.
I’ve been sorting photos this week and skipping through memories, so here is a song I might have sang for Fantastic Friday back in the day:
“Tisbury Lane” by Mae
I always wondered if “Tisbury Lane” was written specifically for a friend going through a tough spot and what was going on. I still wonder who he pictures when he sings it because I know who I picture now when I sing it. I wonder if She and He got their miracle.
It’s interesting revisiting songs that I loved as a teenager but didn’t have much life context for. Back then, I connected to the shape and color of certain songs, letting them wash over me while I played them on repeat and studied the lyric jackets. It wasn’t until I returned to them as a more weathered adult that I could grasp the lyrics’ full texture and density. Music is a dynamic art in that way, providing hospitality when we need little stopovers along life’s rugged journey.
Memory Lane
My husband and I recently went to a concert for a band we got into in the last year or so. It got us talking about how much we went to concerts when we were younger (and didn’t know each other). We talked about our favorite shows and albums and immediately looked on bandsintown to plan our next date night. We quickly discovered that one band we listened back in the day to is on a twentieth anniversary tour for one of their most popular albums.
But, excuse me.
I was hanging their album art on my wall, like, three days ago.
This “Tisbury Lane” song you just listened to is over twenty years old. And in 2026, I will be twenty years out of high school.
t w e n t y ?
Millennial math makes this hard to comprehend.
Twenty years ago it was the 80s and only old uncool people (like parents in their mid-thirties) went to the reunion concerts from their era of blissful coolness. Only ten years ago it was the 90s and we were recording songs from the radio onto cassette tapes to listen to without having to wait on the caller request lines. And just yesterday, in the early aughts, we were asking for hall passes from study hall and writing “Never Change xoxo” in people’s yearbooks.
Time has flown by, as everyone we once ignored told us it would. We all changed, of course (for the most part). Many of us even have kids and now we’re the old people who they say offensive things to like, “I didn’t realize the bands you listened to are still alive.”
And like my dad blasting Journey and Garth Brooks for us kids to sing at the top of our lungs in the backseat of the car, I’m blasting my own “classic rock” music for my kids to remember twenty years later when they need a little dose of home. Because the hospitality of music never changes.
Speaking of a refreshed outlook on media…
Eagerly Anticipating: Scrolling Ourselves to Death
The college semester that I read Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985) for my Biblical Perspectives of Media Culture class, I also read Harry Blamires’s The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think? (1963) for Apologetics class.
I’ve never started a fire by rubbing two sticks together, but I imagine it works the way these two books came together in my mind to spark a flame that’s never died out. Ever since I’ve maintained an enduring interest in and passion for what we call cultural apologetics.
When The Gospel Coalition announced the upcoming release of Scrolling Ourselves to Death: Reclaiming Life in a Digital Age, I was practically giddy to see the collaboration and conversations this book is giving space to. I know it’s a weighty conversation, but I’m grateful that the church is pressing in and doing the work to think well and act faithfully.
Be excited with me! You can learn more and pre-order at The Gospel Coalition (not an affiliate-just excited)! In the meantime, read Postman’s book ASAP! It will be required reading for my children before they ever get free reign of media usage.
Speaking of media use that needs reigned in…
This app is fixing my iPhoto chaos
I admit to the horrendous mismanagement of my photo/screenshot collection. I’ve tried to make time to organize/sort/delete, but hardly make a dent in the digital clutter. Last week I learned about this app called GetSorted and I’m making so much progress that I gladly paid for the monthly subscription while I work through this.
If you hoard an insane amount of photo clutter in your iPhotos, give this app a try. Play your favorite music to take you down memory lane and enjoy the confetti bursts when you complete your sorting goals.
Have a memorable weekend, friends!
Notes:
» Read my original Fantastic Friday post: The Fantastic Hospitality of a Fantastic Teacher
» Here is the long, useful list of organization ideas that I randomly saw from a fashion blogger. Her section about digital organization was genius to my bouncy ball brain, so I thank her for the GetSorted recommendation!
Love this Alexis!! I can't wait to read that book too!
I love thinking of music as a form of hospitality for life's rugged journey - or for a trip down memory lane!