Another Half a Foot

Rest easy, friends, I’m not growing some fractional appendage. But I am pretty much tired of winter. Whatever the steps are in dealing with issues, well, I’ve moved past frustration and anger on to acceptance. It’s just more snow. Half an inch of ice to start it off? Well sure, why not? We can use the variety. I am glad this year, though, for the snowblower.

Two weeks from now I will be jetting off for a week in Augusta, GA. I can hardly wait to feel the warmth. The highs for this upcoming week, per weather.com? 11°F, 14°F, 10°F, and 19°F. Windchills down below zero most of the week. Now, I know that this winter is likely a climatological statistical anomaly that has no bearing on the validity of “global warming”, but the cynical part of me would like to invite Al Gore to move to Iowa for a few winters like this one. Right about now I’d be happy to trade him and move down to Tennessee.

At least when it gets cold in Wisconsin they can call it “The Frozen Tundra”, and it sounds cool. Here in Iowa it’s just more snow and ice and cold. And in Wisconsin they specialize in cheese… which would go pretty well with this whine.

An equation of insanity

So back in my Caedmon’s concert post, Daniel commented that he found the length of that road trip to see a concert “insane”. Being the nerd that I am, I decided an “equation of insanity” would be appropriate. (Geof’s equation of motivation was an additional piece of inspiration.)

So, without further ado, the equation:

I = (d+t)/qL

Where

I = relative insanity of the trip d = distance traveled to the concert t = time that trip took q = quality of the artist you are going to see L = length of the concert.

Of course the tricky thing here is that the q value will vary between persons, so just because you think my trip is insane doesn’t mean that I will agree with you. Also, by including not only the distance of the trip but also its’ duration, trips like Geof’s planned flight to Philly aren’t as insane as if he were to, say, drive to Philly.

There’s also the issue of theoretical insanity versus actual insanity. For instance, my trip to see Andy O’s The Morning release show theoretically should be much more insane because of the distance to Nashville, but in actuality the concert was so awesome that the real insanity level was much lower.

Note to Becky, my Mom, etc: Yes, this really just means that I am a huge nerd. Not exactly a revelation. :-)

I'm it.

Having been tagged by Jeff for the latest interweb meme to filter around to these parts, I suppose I should play along.

The Rules: (1) Link to the person that tagged you. (2) Post the rules on your blog. (3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself. (4) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. (5) Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

So, the six non-important things/habits/quirks about me:

1) The Soundtrack in my Head Other people talk about having an internal dialog going all the time - I have an internal soundtrack. If I hear some word or phrase or phrasing that trips a memory in my brain, I’m likely to start singing the line from the song. (This drives my wife nuts.)

2) I have a propensity for spoofing song lyrics. Think Weird Al, just less talented, and without the accordion. The fun part is to try to do it on the fly in real time. Sometimes it works. Most of the time I just end up breaking out in hysterical laughter after about five lines.

3) I hate hate HATE asking people for things. Don’t know how this one got started, but I would rather put myself out than ask someone for something, even something that I know they’d gladly be willing to do/give. This maybe doesn’t belong on this list because it verges toward the important - this can be a real flaw at times that I need to work to correct.

4) I see chord structures. I don’t know of a better way to describe it. If I hear a song, I’m working through parsing the chord structure in my head. Usually I assume what key the song is in, and then work it out from there, but if I find out it’s actually in a different key, I can easily make the switch. I feel it in some combination of what the chord feels like when played on the piano and when played on the guitar. I will drive myself nuts sometimes if I don’t get a song figured out right away. I remember sitting in the parking lot at a Subway waiting for Becky to get a sandwich and trying to work out Simon & Garfunkel’s Mrs. Robinson. I was so proud when I finally got it.

5) I go to the same restaurants and order the same things every single time. I hate trying new places. Once I find a place and a dish that I like, I will order the same thing every time. This goes so far as to extend to business trips; last fall I traveled to Oklahoma City for two days and once I found a movie theater and restaurant nearby that I liked, I hit them both two nights in a row…. it’s just easier than having to try something new.

6) I have a huge memory for music and lyrics… but my repertoire is limited. Yeah, if I were on that Don’t Forget The Lyrics show I would fail miserably… unless they limited themselves to CCM from the 1990’s and indie-Christian-folk-rock from the 2000’s. I somehow missed all of the other stuff growing up and have been trying to fill in holes as I go along. You know, in some areas I didn’t miss much at all, but I wish I would’ve found U2 a lot earlier on. :-)

Now, then… who to tag?

Rae Whitlock Daniel D Bridget Roger TK Nate

Fun, fun.

Putting on the miles

The lengths I will go to hear a concert? Well, this weekend the length was 300 miles, each way. Lincoln, Nebraska ends up being, with short stops, about a five-hour drive. Well worth it to see Caedmon’s Call in concert again. First I should extend thanks to my mom for coming down to watch the girls for a couple of days. They had lots and lots of fun with Grandma, and it was sure a blessing for Becky and I to be able to get away.

Three hundred miles to Lincoln on Friday morning was broken up with P. F. Chang’s for lunch in Des Moines. It ended up being a good thing we ate a big lunch, because we never did get supper eaten, unless you count the McDonalds cheeseburgers we picked up from the drive thru around 11 pm while on our way to see Andy Osenga’s post-show set. After checking into our motel (very decent for the price), we headed down to the church where they were playing to hang out, take pictures, and watch the sound check. Everything was running late enough that once sound check was over it was almost time for the doors to open… so we ended up just staying there the whole night. Between Derek Webb, Caedmon’s, and Andy Osenga, the concert went a full three hours. Lots of fun. I’ve written up a full review with pictures over on caedmonscall.net.

After the Caedmon’s show, we trekked over a couple miles to Grace Chapel (a little PCA church in a neat old church building) where Andy Osenga did another half-dozen solo songs. It was fully midnight by the time that was over, and then we were headed back to the other side of Lincoln to our hotel. What a day.

The drive back home was rather uneventful, unless you count seeing multiple cars sliding off the road (not already in the ditch, but actually actively sliding into the ditch) as eventful. Made it home in one piece. Took most of Sunday to catch up on rest. In the end we drove about 750 miles for the weekend. Now, I’ve driven further to see concerts, and have seen better concerts, but overall it was great to hear Caedmon’s again, to be able to take Becky along (her first Caedmon’s show!) and to have a weekend out.

Comparing Services

This past weekend I had the pleasure of leading music both at Imago Christi on Saturday night and at Noelridge on Sunday morning. It was the first time in a month that I’ve been to Noelridge, and with a month of Imago under our belts it was a good chance to draw some comparisons.

Look and Feel At Imago we’re meeting at night in a 100-year-old sanctuary with lots of stained glass and insufficient lighting. At Noelridge we’re meeting on Sunday morning in a smaller 50-year-old sanctuary. Noelridge has a smaller, intimate, friendly feel to it; Imago has a deeper, more awe-inspiring feel. I think I prefer the relative expanse of Imago. We do need to do something about the lighting, though. (Plans are in process.)

Music OK, the music was basically the same. At Imago I led on an electric keyboard with Dave playing guitar behind me. At Noelridge I led from a baby grand with another Dave playing bass and Tapuwa on the congas. I’m much more comfortable sitting down leading at the piano rather than standing up - partly I need a mic stand with a longer boom so I can situate the stand better; partly I’ve just mostly led while sitting down, and it’s a bit of an adjustment to stand up. Both congregations knew the songs pretty well. There was a bunch of sound generated by each congregation with the singing. I am struck, though, by how much more live the sanctuary at Imago is. Hardwood floors and a big high ceiling let the sound rattle around in a way that creates some presence. Noelridge with its low ceilings and carpet is dead by comparison.

Preaching Same pastor, same sermon, pretty much. I don’t have recordings of either of them, and I was semi-distracted during the Imago service during the sermon (trying to decide what song to sing for a closing meditation), so I’m going on middling memories here. The Imago version was more concise and seemed targeted a bit more toward unbelievers in the audience. At Noelridge it went kind of long (which seemed OK, though). Still, quality stuff from John 1 both times.

Attitude This is where there are two very distinct feelings between the two churches. At Imago, since we’re so new, everyone seems focused on finding the visitors/new people, greeting them, pulling them in. At Noelridge we have an established congregation, so it’s much more of a family feel - people have established relationships, and it shows. Noelridge is still very friendly to visitors, but it’s a slightly different feel. What I gather from this is that we at Imago really need to work on developing relationships among the core team and volunteers, getting us feeling more like a warm family and less like a band of volunteers.

Conclusions? There are good things going on both places. We both have work to do. We both have things we can learn. In both, the gospel is proclaimed, and so I rejoice.

Bullet points for a Thursday Morning

  • Playing basketball three times a week is good for your game and your weight, but sure does make you sore.
  • Hard to believe it’s almost February already. Next weekend: trip to Lincoln, NE to see Caedmon’s Call and Andy O.
  • Five-hour road trip to see said musicians: seems relatively short. Oh, and Mom is coming down to watch the girls so Becky and I get a couple days out to ourselves!
  • Doing double-duty this weekend - leading at both Imago and Noelridge.
  • I’ve registered a domain name to hang out a shingle for web design services. Don’t know how much business I’ll manage to drum up, but after doing so many freebie websites for friends over the past several years, it’s fun to think that I could actually get paid for it instead.
  • Tweet140 mocks me even as I’m writing this post.
  • Haven’t traveled for work yet this year but that’s gonna change soon - there’s the threat of a last-minute trip to Seattle in mid-February, and a scheduled trip to Augusta, GA in early March.
  • I think I might actually only finish two books in January, which is a real low for me. It’s not that I haven’t been reading - it’s that I’ve been reading a long, thick book that has to be read slowly.

This excuse for a real post brought to you by the two Advil I took with breakfast this morning.

In belated praise of Once

It took me a while to get around to it, but last night Becky and I finally sat down to watch Once. I had a hard time finding it at the video store - I think they only stock maybe two copies on DVD. But it was worth the search.

Never heard of Once? It’s a rather obscure Irish film made back in 2006 for something less than $10,000. It’s a story about a guy who writes songs, who meets a girl on the street one day. She, too, is a musician, and over the course of a week they write and record several songs and along the way wrestle with ideas of love, commitment, family, and responsibility. It’s a musical of a sort; you get to hear seven or eight full-length songs sung during the movie, but they’re not in The Sound of Music-style musical narration - rather, they’re acoustic folk/rock songs (think Damien Rice for a comparison) that the pair is writing. And while the film started off obscure, don’t expect it to stay that way. It’s garnered quite an obsessive following due not in the least to the fantastic soundtrack. Oh, and that award from the Sundance film festival and that Oscar nomination won’t hurt it, either.

So why does this film work so well?

First, the actors aren’t experienced actors - the male lead (Glen Hansard of the Irish band The Frames) has only been in one picture before this, and this is the female lead (Marketa Irglova)’s first film. But they are musicians, and in my experience films about musicians that actually star musicians seem to do better. The fact that Hansard and Irglova teamed up to write all the original music for the movie amazes me even more.

Second, the story is real. We can all repeat the cliched chick-flick plot basically in our sleep, right? There’s the guy, and the girl, and her friend, and his friend. There’s the initial meeting, the I-think-I-love-you scene, the crisis where everything looks lost, and then the glowing finale. When you watch Once, forget the cliches. The guy writes songs which he sings on the streetcorner. He moved back in with his dad after his mom died and works at the family business fixing vacuum cleaners. She’s a Czech immigrant who cleans houses, and, without revealing too much, has family entanglements as well. They meet. They interact. They wrestle with their feelings. It feels right.

And the music is so good. The headline song (Falling Slowly) is nominated for an Oscar and certainly should be the favorite. The rest of the soundtrack is nearly equal in quality. The songs will stand by themselves even if you haven’t seen the movie… but watch the movie. It got an R-rating because of the Irish predilection of casually using the F-bomb as an adjective and interjection. Even that, though, is pretty much limited to a couple of scenes. The film as a whole, though, is a beautiful, beautiful work of art. You can have your Hollywood blockbusters. I’ll take this little Irish gem any day.

The importance of training others

“…and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Tim 2:2)

Paul’s wise counsel to Timothy is applicable on many levels, and has a multitude of benefits. A few that I will mention today:

It about the message, not the messenger. Paul was a good example of this, not being jealous of others who gained renown preaching the gospel, but rather simply rejoicing that the gospel was proclaimed. Pride will tempt us to want to be “the guy” - the teacher and leader that people remember and look to. But what is of primary importance isn’t us, but is the gospel that gets preached. When we practice entrusting to faithful men, we are shedding a few of the (multitudinous) opportunities for pride.

The message must carry on after us. Paul himself knew that his days on the earth were short. To have his most effective ministry, he needed not only to preach to unbelievers, but also to teach the teachers who would reach the following generation. I have heard it said that your effectiveness as a parent isn’t shown as much in how your children turn out as in how your grandchildren turn out. For Paul’s spiritual grandchildren to be vibrant and mature Christians, he needed to make sure his spiritual children were well-trained.

You can’t do it all on your own. This is the big temptation for me, and was the initial thought that prompted this post. Just because you (or I) have the skills to do the task yourself doesn’t mean you should be the one to always do it. There is far more work to do than any one of us can handle. Finding and training others who can both assist and replace you is essential in maintaining health, sanity, and the healthy operation of any ministry.

Putting my talents to some profit

Pretty much ever since my brother Andrew and his fiancee Heather set a date for the wedding this summer Becky has been in full-on planning mode for the trip. It’ll be a bit of an adventure and all, taking the girls on their first airplane ride and going cross-country to Washington for a week. We’re going to make a week-long vacation out of it; we’ll have a few days with the family for the wedding, but we want to get out to see the ocean, too, and will try to take a day to see Seattle and hopefully Matt (my old college roommate) and his wife Abbie.

So when I say full-on planning mode, well, that doesn’t capture the half of it. Becky is a ridiculous crazy good planner. She first scoped out the airfares and after a few days settled on the best option of price, schedule, and dates. With that in place, she sketched out an itinerary for the 8 days of the trip - fly in, go to the ocean, then head up towards the wedding, then hit Seattle for a couple days on the way out. With that planned, she started researching places to stay near the ocean. If she could find true Oceanfront, she’d be thrilled. [There is a point to this story, just be patient.]

She found a place called the Oceanfront Lighthouse Resort that has some pretty nice “oceanfront” condos, at least as far as we could tell from the website. The website is pretty scary - obviously someone’s side project, just enough to make do. Then inspiration struck - why, I asked Becky, don’t I contact the resort and see if they’d like to trade a website overhaul for a couple nights’ stay? A few emails later I had agreed to create a prototype so that they could make a decision. Half-a-dozen hours of weekend webdesign later I had a prototype complete and emailed off. (And Geof: thanks for allowing shell access. Makes it a ton easier to edit stuff live.)

Last night I talked on the phone with the manager of the resort for a while. The end result: we now have reservations for a complimentary two-night stay in an oceanfront condo. And I have probably another 5 or 6 hours of work to complete and setup the new website. Sure, if I were a professional designer I’d get a better hourly rate, but for a couple afternoons of design work, well, I’ll do the trade.

If I design too many more websites I need to think about setting up a design homepage to see if I can attract a little more business. After doing so many (worthy) freebies, these paying gigs are kinda fun!

Rich Mullins' A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band

If there was ever a “perfect” album to come out of the (largely mediocre) world of CCM, Rich Mullins’ A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band was it. (Are the ‘A’s supposed to be capitalized? It looks funny either way.) This album is fifteen (fifteen!) years old this year, and yet still sounds as fresh and vital as when it was released. If you’re not familiar with the album, let me give you an overview. (If you are familiar with the album, you won’t mind the refresher at all.)

Split into two halves, the first half is the splendid Liturgy. Here In America is the Introit, or entrance. It is followed by the stunning text of (Isaiah) 52:10, the hymn of praise recognizing the beauty of creation called The Color Green, the supplicant’s prayer Hold Me Jesus, the bold restatement of the (Apostle’s) Creed, and Peace, helpfully subtitled A Communion Blessing from St. Joseph’s Square. Each song in itself is excellent, and as a set they reach the level of masterpiece. When, in Peace, Rich starts the first two verses with this juxtaposition

Though we’re strangers, still I love you
I love you more than your mask
And you know you have to trust this to be true
And I know that’s much to ask…
…

And though I love you, still we’re strangers
Prisoners in these lonely hearts
And though our blindness separates us
Still a light shines in the dark…

We understand immediately the tension of the Christian fellowship - bound by the love of Christ, and yet so frustratingly driven apart by our sinful humanity. It’s beautiful stuff from beginning to end.

The second half is the Legacy: a reflection on life. It starts with the upbeat instrumental 78 Eatonwood Green, then moves into the challenge of being like Jesus (Hard), the challenge of living life away from family (I’ll Carry On), a child’s wonder at Christmas (You Gotta Get Up), the challenge and frustration of the world we live in (Mark Heard’s How To Grow Up Big and Strong), and finally the most beautiful picture you’ll ever hear painted of the tension of living in a country you love while simultaneously looking forward to the heavenly home (Land of my Sojurn).

Nobody tells you when you get born here
How much you’re going to love it and how you’ll never belong here
So I’ll call you my country, but I’ll be longing for my home
And I wish that I could take you there with me…

And the Ragamuffin Band? Well, they sound fantastic. From Rich’s clear piano and the cymbals mirroring the ocean’s crashing in Here In America, to the mellow electric guitar and fantastic drum fills in Peace, to the dulcimer driving Land of my Sojurn, the album has an organic acoustic sound that rightfully has become the inspiration for a younger generation of musicians. My first inclination is to say that it is lightning in a bottle, that it’ll never be captured that way again. But then I listen to the guitars of Andrew Peterson and Andy Osenga, the piano of Ben Shive, and the percussion of Todd Bragg and Garrett Buell, and I will instead be thankful that the musical and songwriting heritage of Rich Mullins has indeed carried on.

If for some reason you don’t already own this album, you can buy it at Amazon.