Sufjan Stevens Surely is a Genius

Before we left South Bend, I was pregnant and laying on the couch watching tv too late on a Friday night, and I had been watching something on PBS before I fell asleep. When I awoke, Austin City Limits was on, and for the second time, the artist playing changed my life (the first time was a few weeks before when I saw the Killers and went to Meijer!!! the next day to purchase the cd which Ava requested NONSTOP for like 4 months, seriously I don't know that we listened to anything else, not even Raffi!). I hit the info button on the remote, and saw that the artist was Sufjan Stevens. He had like fifty two and a hundred people on stage ( one girl wearing butterfly wings) playing instruments both common and obscure, but the music seemed to be a dream. I think I fell back asleep. Sufjan has lived in the back of my mind since then, coming out only last week when I happened upon his "Come On, Feel the Illinoise!" cd at the local branch of the library. Sweet and sad, humorous and haunting, it is a work of genius. Apparently there's another cd about Michigan, and when I can get my head around the one I have now, I may have to check it out. Anyone who can turn John Wayne Gacy Jr. into a human being and write a heartbreaking song about such a sick individual is gifted. Will Indiana be next? He says he's doing all 50 states. Here's hoping he does Indiana and Arizona in my lifetime. Sure to be informative, interesting, and simply beautiful.