I’m sitting in the airport terminal at Cedar Rapids as the plane that is supposed to take me to Chicago is unloading its prior passengers. From there it’s off to Seattle. If all goes well I should be there by 8 PM Seattle time. I’m making this whole trip in order to be in person to make a twenty-minute presentation for a customer. Such fun. But it will allow some time tomorrow afternoon for some sightseeing in Seattle before heading back home early Tuesday morning. I’m bringing the good camera; hopefully I’ll have some good pictures to share once I get back.
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Good essay. Goodness I love Spielberg’s movies.
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Ooh, a good article. Jesus didn’t tell us to transform the world. Why do we set off to do so? Why not do what he *did* tell us to do, namely, serve and love those around us? He can accomplish the transformation part.
One of the things that was high on my list of things to do while in New Orleans a few weeks ago was to find someplace with live music. New Orleans is all about jazz and blues, after all. It was pretty wild to walk through the French Quarter and think that guys who are jazz heroes of mine like Harry Connick, Jr. and the Marsalis family spent time playing in the clubs on those streets. So very cool.
I headed around the Quarter rather early in the evening, which unfortunately cut down my number of opportunities to hear the live music. Most of it started later – 8 or 9 PM. However, I did hear a very good older band at a little bar that I am thinking was called something about the Society for the Preservation of Jazz; I can’t find a link on a quick Google search to back me up. They played pretty good standard New Orleans jazz, but they were old-timers; nary a dark hair in the bunch – all grey.
As I headed back to my hotel, I ran into a group of about a dozen teenagers playing on the corner of Canal and Bourbon Streets. They were mostly brass instruments with a couple saxophones thrown in for good measure and a rockin’ percussion section. And they were smokin’ hot. My little video clip here really doesn’t do them justice, and I’m bummed that I didn’t think to start recording them until just near the end of their set.
It’s fun to think that one of these kids may be a jazz star of some upcoming year. While New Orleans took a massive hit from Hurricane Katrina, it sounded to me like she still couldn’t kill the music.
So most of the recent posts here have been just links to other stuff. Sorry about that. Have been doing lots of reading lately, not so much writing. Most of my writing posts here have been of merely the logistical bullet-list variety. Today I have a random assortment that isn’t entirely logistical, but is in a bullet-list; maybe there’s something you’ll want to comment on, though.
[Voice in my head: "you fool, you just fell victim to one of the classic blunders!..." which is blogging about blogging... desperate, I know. Humor me.]
So, in no particular order:
- I still owe everybody a post on music in New Orleans. If I ever remember to up a little video to YouTube, I’ll write the post.
- Have you ever choked yourself by having saliva “go down the wrong pipe”? It just happened to me. Weird.
- I have lately been listening to a series of lectures by Don Carson on the book of Revelation. (You can download them here.) The amillenial viewpoint has always been a mystery to me (being raised a good dispensationalist and all), but Carson, along with a few things I’ve heard from N. T. Wright, has given me the most reasonable case yet for that position. In a lot of ways it seems to make more sense. Anybody got a book recommendation that might help me think through it some more?
- I’ll be traveling to Seattle in a couple weeks for an industry committee meeting. Gonna meet up with my old college roommate while I’m there. Should be fun.
- Immediately after I get back from the committee meeting I’ll be preaching during our Sunday service at Noelridge. Still trying to decide on a text.
- Sorry, Geof, I already have a web project lined up for my trip to Seattle. It doesn’t have anything to do with any Square Pegs.
- Last but not least, congrats to my internet friend Dan who is getting married this weekend!
I told you it’d be random.
Update, one too good to pass up:
- I just watched my wife beat on a peppermint candy with her cell phone. Hilarious.
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Tim Challies hits the nail on the head with this one. Good thoughts on exhortation between husbands and wives.(tags: marriage)
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Beautiful thoughts from John Piper in the midst of a tragedy in Minnesota.
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“And the advocates and apologists of bigotry and censorship and suicide-assassination cannot be permitted to take shelter any longer under the umbrella of a pluralism that they openly seek to destroy.” Good stuff from Hitchens.