Oh, There You Are.
A big, global thanks to all of you who took a minute to reply to our recent “Hey! Where You At?” post. After a record 290 replies as of 7:00AM on November 1, I thought I’d take moment to compile some results.
First, as best as I can tell, for around 125 of you, this was your first time to post a comment here. Welcome! Please feel free to chime in on anything any time you want. It’s a big room and you never need to dress up for us.
Second, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a special shout to all you long, tall Texans out there making Lyle Lovett proud. Though many of the regular Rabbit Room contributors live in the Nashville area, at the time of this writing, Texas had the same number of replies as Tennessee. To the rest of you non-Texans, let that serve as a reminder. You don’t mess with Texas. Hook ‘Em, Horns. And God Bless the TNG.
Third, I’m working on a theory as to why the following connected states– Utah, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota– were collectively silent. It is just a theory though. And I’m gonna keep it to myself. Still, the radio silence is curious.
Which brings me to Canada.
Oh, Canada. I know the Rabbit Room has some loose connections to Andrew Osenga and I know he has written and delighted in performing a song about you, but I can assure you the views expressed by certain independent, and I might add, generous songwriters are not necessarily those of the Rabbit Room. (It is a good song, though. Eh?)
Alberta (1), British Columbia (1), Ontario (3) and Manitoba (2), you’re represented by those who have replied.
But to New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon and the fine folks of Prince Edward Island and the Northwest Territory, here’s what we’re going to do to let the healing begin. I’m going to assign one Rabbit Room Ambassador specifically to each of your provinces, and we’re going to open the lines of communication.
From here on out, any comments you might wish to make, you can direct them to the following people and they will be happy to answer your questions, address your concerns and say good things publicly about your homeland.
- Prince Edward Island, address your comments to Evie Coates. She’d love to hear from you. And I think she’d like to visit sometime.
- New Brunswick, you get Randall Goodgame. He’s worked with Osenga quite a bit, so he could be very insightful about that song. I’m not sure Osenga mentions you. You may be wondering why.
- Newfoundland, Curt McLey has a special place in his heart for you. He remembers the original Foundland from back before you were established.
- Northwest Territories, Jason Gray is, I believe, our northern-most contributor, so you will find much in common with him. He is very familiar with, for example, snow.
- Nova Scotia, you get Matt Connor. I believe he’ll even come out and meet with you face to face if you cover his costs.
- Yukon, your name sounds like an adventure, and Eric Peters is all about adventures. Drop him a line. Like Matt, he’ll come to you.
- Quebec, you get Ron Block because if you say his name really fast, it sort of sounds like Quebec.
- And finally, Saskatchewan, I’m assigning Jonathan Rogers to you because he is a professional writer, and probably, of all of us, has the best shot at consistently spelling your name correctly without looking it up. You’ll like him. He has a nice family, and that says something.
Now, before we get to the USA, how about a summary from the rest of the globe? We’ve covered Canada. Here are the other international replies we got:
Germany (4)
Singapore (4)
United Kingdom (3)
South Africa (2)
Sweeden (2)
Mexico (2)
Brazil (1)
Belgium (1)
South Korea (1)
Jamaica (1)
Switzerland (1)
Morocco (1)
France (1)
Turkey (1)
Romania (1)
Ireland (1)
and Indonesia. (1)
Now, on to the United States of America. First, the silent states. If you are from one of the following states, you can still become the first to represent. Alaska, Hawaii, Deleware, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Again, I ask, where you at?
For those we did hear from, here are your results:
Tennessee (29)
Texas (29)
Nebraska (17)
Florida and North Carolina (12 each)
Missouri and Indiana (11 each)
Ohio (10)
Virginia, Georgia and Minnesota (9 each)
Colorado and Pennsylvania (8 each)
Michigan (7)
Alabama and California (6 each)
South Carolina and New York (5 each)
Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky and New Jersey (4 each)
New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Wisconsin (3 each)
Arkansas, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont and West Virginia (2 each– although after initially compiling this draft, SD Smith, who has access to unposted entries, saw this ranking and staged a late rally among his West Virginia constituents through his personal blog, raising that number from 2 to a whopping six. You leap-frogged Oklahoma, Wisconsin and New Hampshire and grabbed for yourselves Alabama kind of numbers. Well played, West Virginia. Well played.)
Arizona, Connecticut, Idaho, Louisanna, Mississippi, New Mexico and Washington (1 each)
Still, as we tell our kids at the dinner table, “Its not a contest.”
A.S. Peterson has crafted a work of compelling historical fiction which begs the question, “Can this really be a debut novel?” With dogged fidelity, Peterson captures the spirit, manners, and social conditions present during the American Revolutionary War. We meet colorful, credible characters who navigate the high seas of life and love, dependence and independence, war and peace, truth and consequence, and despite forays into dark places, The Fiddler’s Gun is beautiful, lyrical, and redemptive.
Walt Wangerin, Jr. strikes again.
Janner Igiby lives in Glipwood, a nothing little village in the land of Skree, on the edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. Manhood is on the horizon, but Janner finds it hard to feel much hope for the future. Skree is ruled by foreign oppressors, snake men called the Fangs of Dang, servants of a shadowy emperor named Gnag the Nameless. The Skreeans are weak and weaponless. They’re even tool-less. Any Skreean who needs to use a hoe has to borrow one from the Fangs (and fill out the requisite paperwork). And from time to time, the Black Carriage arrives in Glipwood to carry young Skreeans toward an unknown fate across the Dark Sea.
I am not a fan of Civil War literature; in fact, I have always thought of it as one of those weird sub-genres for obsessive types. They’re almost like Trekkies with their re-enactments and maniacal devotion to detail. It’s just not my thing (although I’m secretly jealous that they get to dress up and shoot cannons).
A Randall Goodgame song is like a great independent movie. Characters deliver lines like they were lifted from a break room, a truck stop, or a downtown diner. Seemingly incongruent scenes are juxtaposed and plot isn’t obvious; in fact, narrative–a good story–is often more evident than linear plot lines. An indie movie, like a Randall Goodgame song, seems to tell itself. Rather than being rudely yanked by a chain through a sequence of contrived events, with a Randall Goodgame song, I have the sense that I’m being allowed a willing, but vicarious sneak peak into the real lives of his real characters.
Sara Groves irritates me just a little bit. With each album she makes, she moves from strength to strength and is always raising the bar with the quality, depth, and lyrical ambition of her work. And as a fellow artist, that’s just a little irritating since it means the rest of us are going to have to work harder if we hope to keep up.
I am outside on my front porch. The yellowed leaves are methodically falling from the black walnut in the yard, my breath is chalky visible in the recent cold snap, and lately I have been exploring the unpleasant nuances of the dark night of a soul - my own, to be exact. It is a strange passion we live out on this over-glorified orb of rock hurtling through space at some rate that I’m sure would astound me were I to know what it was. It is an odd series of days, I am realizing, when you question your own faith more than you question your own doubt. And, indeed, it is these nagging questions which have prompted me to share my thoughts on Andrew Peterson’s 2003 album, Love and Thunder.
11-year old Reuben Land, a character in the 2001 book Peace Like a River, provides narration that is clear-eyed and insightful, yet retains the magic, wonder, and innocence of youth. I found it easy to entrust my imagination to the author’s clever method of telling the story through the sensibilities of a pre-teen boy. An author with lesser skill would have either made the boy too smart-alecky for his own good or impossibly cute.
I just finished a book that upon closing it, I felt like it finished me in a sense. A quiet meditative book that reached down and stirred the deep waters in me. It’s Marilynne Robinson’s 2005 Pulitzer prize winner Gilead, given to me by my friend Andrew Peterson.
Eric Peters’s body of work addresses a diverse range of topics, but hope is a recurring theme that gently percolates in the midst of it all. And yet, somewhere between the 2001 masterpiece Land of the Living, and Scarce, the flavor of hope that Peters’s work emits has evolved closer to a tone that is more resolute than what came before. And though the complexion of hope has a broad range, the lyrics from Scarce–while intermittently contrite and timorous as in previous efforts, are now strengthened and bolstered by roots that have grown deeper, radiating an underlying grit and security.
Having read The Great Divorce many times over the years, I’ve found this classic from the great C.S. Lewis to be full of startling clarity and depth on the differences between Heaven and Hell. The only thing both have in common is that both begin in the human will; we can either let Heaven enter us and rule in us to blossom into love and goodness, or allow Hell to infect and reign in our hearts by the daily refusal to submit to Heaven.
Even if you haven’t heard Room to Breathe, its still likely you’ve heard Andy Gullahorn. He’s what I’d call a heavy lifter by trade. He writes lyrics, plays guitar, arranges vocals and adds production help to the work of artists like Jill Phillips and Andrew Peterson.
Allow me to preface this by telling you that I am a great despiser of gushing reviews. I’d much rather write (or read) a scathing dismemberment of the latest Brett Ratner film or Terry Goodkind book than suffer through four hundred words of overblown hyperbole about even the best of things. But when asked to write some thoughts on Frederick Buechner’s Godric, no amount of distaste for high praise was able to intervene. I hope you’ll take what I say with the understanding that I do not say it readily or lightly.
Russ, I agree. It’s not a contest. However, I would be interested to see a chart that plotted what I would call “Tour Love vs. Geographic Fan Location.” My theory is that there are some states that get a disproportionate amount of tour love per fan when compared with other very large Rabbit Room fan rich states. We might even be able to explain the silent states. They could be like your quiet, confident friends who don’t have to talk constantly or always try to be funny in their comments to feel important. They know they’re loved. Because Andrew Peterson told them. In person. At a concert.
I would like to second the “Tour Love” idea. Ohio needs more love
Okay, too tempting - seeing as I just moved from AL to SD, I guess I get to be the first South Dakotan to respond. For the record, there are more cows than people up here, and the bovine-variety are less than rabbit-friendly.
Hello, Saskatchewan! I want you to know that I take my role as RR Ambassador to SK very seriously.
I know what you’re thinking: “Where is JR going to come down on the Moose Jaw/Regina rivalry?” That’s an easy one: I’m not going to come down on that question. (What kind of diplomat would that make me?) They’re both great cities. I wish they could both be capital.
I can’t be the only Southern California RR reader!
Shawn, those wouldn’t happen to be toothy cows would they? If so, not very rabbit friendly at all huh (not very anything friendly for that matter!)
Wow. No Marylanders? Or perhaps better said: Merlyners? I don’t really count because I am not a particularly faithful reader, but I must put us on the map!
I’m pollinating the RR all across the People’s Republic of China. Maybe the Great Firewall blocked folks.
Add Denmark to international readers! (although I am orginally from Washington State) God evidently has a different plan for me in a different country so since I am officially a “resident” and sit daily in denmark reading in the RR, put me down as Denmark.
Sweet! Nebraska got 3rd place in this contest!
West Virginia has to be competetive at something. Obviously football’s not an option.
For my second RR comment, I’ll note that the District of Columbia is missing from this list. We moved from DC to the Virginia suburbs almost two years ago, but I still hold a special place in my heart for our nation’s capital.
Wondering who my fellow Maineiac is.
I’ll see what work I can do spreading the word here in Mississippi.
NH definitely needs some tour love.
Booyowwww (or, as we say in WV, Boy y’all). Whatever it is we’re competing for, Sam, I’m glad to have you on my team.
Are we really the only WVns? Ironic that we live within 10 minutes of one another. (Not that I’m stalking you or even know where your house is in more than a generally speaking kinda way.)
Stacy
Not a contest? whatever WE WON!
Josh
Houston, TX
Nebraska is third–GO HUSKERS! Hey, we’re just glad to have something to cheer about.
No, Robert, you’re not the only so. Cal representative here. I believe that brings us to 7! Contest, schmontest! The gauntlet has been thrown.
I hear you becky. Pulling 3rd behind the blog’s home state and one with a population of 24,326,974 compared to our 1,783,432. Respectable.
I know a lot of Rabbit Room readers (including one in Austria) and none of them posted so the results here are probably a small percentage of the readers. Eric - amen brother. Nebraska rocks. I just feel some kind of obligation to demonstrate the prideful Texas ego when around people from other places.
-Andy — it’s no problem here in southwestern China. maybe the Great Firewall Watchers just haven’t noticed us yet
Russ, as a South Dakotan by birth and a Utahn by choice, I want to hear your above mentioned theory. Please?
*ahem* Russ, I believe you meant “Gig ‘em”.
Echo Karisa’s desire to hear the theory. Is it because the mountains are too busy yelling “Glory, Hallelujah”?