Record Stores

As time progresses in our digital age I am finding that more record stores are going out of business. Now I am not going to act as though I am surprised. I saw it coming a million miles ahead but just tried to ignore the inevitable. Why drive down to the local Borders Book Store to check out their CD collection when you can shop iTunes at home? Now I admit that I have helped aid this movement by purchasing digital music; however, I would much rather explore a real record store any day over sitting at home clicking away on iTunes.

There is just something magical about the record store. Especially real record stores, not Best Buy, or Target, but the local record store. Folks in the suburbs don't get real record stores but in the city occasionally you will see one. They still carry real records! Some new with limited edition color and not to mention hand numbered! And it has real art work, it is a physical object that you can carry and read and hold before you even get to listen to it. And sometimes these record stores even have the bands play shows inside of them and it is amazing!

I remember in high school every Tuesday we would drive to the Tacoma record store and see what was new and get insight from the employees as to what was the latest indie stuff that we had to listen to. We would hang out there for hours sometimes before we would decide and make our purchase. I would work every weekend to pay for 4 things: Gas, Food, Records, and Show Tickets....that is if I wasn't on the guest list or didn't find another creative way to get in without paying.

I know that recently there has been a creation of record store day. This is not enough, every day needs to be record store day. And I have found a solution for all to share as we decide how to retain our record stores while still having digital music. What has been the most and most sustaining form of music packaging that proclaims timeless art? The Record! Listen people, only release records from now on, they are collectables, and with every record insert a free download code. This is the solution. Spread the good news!

-Cheers!

Monday Update on Wednesday

Over this last weekend: Friday night was spent at home with my wife. We got to hang out and watch some of our favorite TV shows together. Saturday I drove up to Bellingham for a family funeral. Funerals are always hard but we knew this family member was in God's hands. Afterwords our families went out to a dinner for a late lunch/early dinner. Sunday was church as usual. Our Pastor preached on Ezekiel 38 and 39. He got into some prophesy stuff that made everyone think. After church I headed up to Seattle with my friend Charlie and we attended the Folklife festival. This event is free but parking is 15 dollars! We finished the night by eating at a small dinner that my friend saw on the food network called Beth's Cafe. They have some of the best omelets ever. You choose from 6 egg or 12 egg omelets and with an omelet you get toast and unlimited hash browns.

Todays Events: I will be getting ready for my small groups as well as a lunch meeting with a potential volunteer.

To-Do-List this week: Plan out my summer schedule for the youth group/Figure out my role in the student ministries department for next year.

Current Procrastination: Lots of things.

Books that I am currently reading: Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon and The Sacredness of Questioning Everything by David Dark.

Music that I have enjoyed this week: Bob Dylan and The Eels

How do I feel about this week: frustrated/confused

Monday Update

Over this last weekend: Friday was a very long day. Had a 16 hour day and took my small group guys to a Rainiers game. It was nice to see that in the midst of the Mariners doing horrible in the majors our triple A team rocks. I spent all of Saturday helping my good friend Charlie move from one apartment to a much nicer apartment. He was very excited because he has 2 or 3 times space for the same rent price in a beautiful community. Sunday was church followed by spending time with family for mothers day. I finished Sunday off with a fun game of ultimate frisbee, my team lost this week and are now 1 - 1.

Todays Events: Research Family Based Youth Ministry. Prepare for an event this Friday night.

To-Do-List this week: Plan out my summer schedule for the youth group.

Current Procrastination: Blogging

Books that I am currently reading: Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon and The Sacredness of Questioning Everything by David Dark.

Music that I have enjoyed this week: Whiskytown and Pete Yorn

How do I feel about this week: blah.

This video speaks so much truth!

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

late monday update on a Wednesday

Over this last weekend: Friday I stayed home while my wife was at school. Saturday I had band practice with one of the groups I play music in under the name of Robert Wade. Afterwords we went to lunch to a great local place called 'Cars' which was opened by some friends of mine that I went to high school with. Later that day my wife and I went to a BBQ at her sisters house where many of our friends joined us for a good evening. Sunday was church and I had to lead our worship band so it was a very long day but a good one. I finished the night by going to my Ultimate Frisbee League game. We won 15-13.

Todays Events: Research Family Based Youth Ministry. Prepare for an event this Friday night.

To-Do-List this week: Find a way to make more time for God, writing, music, and of course blogging.

Current Procrastination: Still Taxes/Blogging

Books that I am currently reading: Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon and The Sacredness of Questioning Everything by David Dark.

Music that I have enjoyed this week: Whiskytown

How do I feel about this week: content

Monday Update

Over this last weekend: Friday I was sick all day, however, I did get to finally watch Avatar aka FurnGully. I am still recovering from being sick. Saturday I went into town with my wife and we picked up my new glasses and then went to Borders so I could spend a gift card on some new albums. We spent the rest of the day cleaning the house and then getting caught up on Lost. Sunday was church followed by family time spent celebrating all of the April birthdays in our family and then on to a going away party for my good friends that just recently left their church to move on to a new ministry opportunity in Atlanta.

Todays Events: Trying to get better from my illness. I need to walk the dog, spend some time reading and then off to play cards with some friends.

To-Do-List this week: Write lyrics. Prep for Worship Band Practice since I am leading this Sunday.

Current Procrastination: Still Taxes/Blogging

Books that I am currently reading: Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon and The Sacredness of Questioning Everything by David Dark.

Music that I have enjoyed this week: Alexi Murdoch and Ryan Adams

How do I feel about this week: sick of being sick.

A Worthy Example

There are many times when Christianity takes a big hit in the media after a well known Pastor steps down from His or Her church. It usually is a result of some kind of scandal or sin issue that this person is dealing with and was either caught or breaks it out to the open. It is so exciting to hear from a well known Pastor who is stepping down for the right reasons.

This link has a short clip of Francis Chan explaining why he is leaving Cornerstone.

Now I know he doesn't have a for sure spelled out reason for why he is leaving but he knows God is tugging at his heart and he is moving where God is calling him. He is stepping out of the boat, he is putting full faith in God and not letting the fears get in the way. I would like to say I wish I could do this, but lately I feel like my calling is going to be shot down. So is it really a calling? Am I hearing wrong, or might others hear wrong? This is the difficult thing with God. I just hope that when I have it all figured out I will follow God wherever he sends me just like this worthy example set by Francis.

-cheers

Very Late Monday Update

Over this last weekend: Friday night I took it easy at home. Saturday I woke up to go have a birthday breakfast with my wife and parents. My birthday was on Thursday but this was a good time to celebrate with family. To my surprise I was given a very special gift. My parents went way out of the way to get me a new iPad. Very Cool! That evening my wife and I went out with some friends to a murder mystery dinner. The first and only one prior to this that I went to was horrible so I was a little nervous. It turned out to be a lot of fun and I am glad I went. Sunday was church and then the first week of my Ultimate Frisbee league. Overall a pretty fantastic weekend!

Todays Events: Since Im posting on a Wednesday, I am going to take the dog for a walk then work at the church all day getting ready for my youth group night.

To-Do-List this week: Write Lyrics to some music I already have written. And actually start blogging more.

Current Procrastination: Taxes/Blogging

Books that I am currently reading: Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon.

Music that I have enjoyed this week: Ryan Adams, Wilco, She & Him

How do I feel about this week: Calm

Monday Update

Over this last weekend: Friday I went on a backpacking trip with a couple of friends to the Olympics to Lake Lena. We were supposed to get back Sunday afternoon but we had to cut the trip short and only stay one night. The weekend before we read that the conditions were great. However, we had tons of rain midweek and it had snowed over all the camp sites. So we slept on snow/ice in 15 degree weather. Coldest night of my life. Sunday I was able to go to church and heard a great sermon on marriage. Then I had a BBQ with my wife and some friends. Overall good weekend.

Todays Events: Mondays are my day off. Today i will read, study, walk the dog and watch the Seattle Mariners home opener.

To-Do-List this week: Lots to do, lots of praying, thinking, reading, and getting everything done at the same time, and enjoying Thursday which is Tax Day and my Birthday. Oh yeah and I need to do my taxes.

Current Procrastination: Taxes

Books that I am currently reading: Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon.

Music that I have enjoyed this week: Ryan Adams, Wilco, The New Amsterdams

How do I feel about this week: unsure of the future

I failed March

Okay, so two posts ago I said that I would post 5 times a week in March. We are going to start that over again now that I am finally getting back into the swing of things. New goal is to post 5 times a week in April and we will see how that goes. I mentioned in a previous post that the reason I have been so out of my normal schedule was because I have been training my new puppy and she is a lot of work. Well here she is, I thought I would share a picture of her!

Meet Beesly!

Frustration

It is always frustrating when you find out the true heart of somebody and what they really care about in life, especially when you used to look up to that person. Sometimes in life you just have to realize that people are people and are never perfect. It's just too bad when they fail to live up to expectations.

More soon. I am out of words.

where have I been?

I was doing okay with my goals this year. One of them was to blog on a different category every day except Sunday. This has not been going good lately since I made a life change. This life change has caused a few goals to fly out the window, I have been having trouble finding balance.

My life change is a new puppy beagle named Beesly. I will post pictures soon, but she is a lot of work. We knew getting her at 8 weeks that she would be a lot of work but I didn't realize how life altering it would be. Our free time is planned around her now until she learns the basics of listening to us and growing out of her puppy stage.

As far as posting goes I have curved my goals a little. Starting March 1st, I plan on posting 5 times a week. I will see if I can do this every week in March and then go from there. I will post about different categories but will not limit a day to a category. I found this to be to limiting.

until next time,

-cheers

Sports....teams I like

I thought for my sports post this week I would not talk about the Green Bay playoff game because I am still recovering from watching that game, but instead would just share with the world which sports teams and people I admire along with those I cannot stand.

The teams I like:

NFL: Green Bay Packers (for an AFC team I like to root for the Bills).

NBA: My interest in this league is not very high these days. They took away the Sonics. So I guess the Blazers.

MLB: Mariners and Brewers

NHL: Vancouver Canucks

MLS: Seattle Sounders FC

Premier League: Chelsea

College Football: Washington Huskies; Wisconsin Badgers; Nebraska

College Basketball: Washington Huskies; Wisconsin Badgers

WRC: Peter Solberg

Nascar: Denny Hamlin, Joey Lagano, Mark Martin

F1: Schumacher (Team Mercedes) and (Team US F1)

Teams I can't stand:

NFL: Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Seattle Seahawks.

NBA: Lakers

MLB: NY Yankees, Angels, Rangers, A's, Braves

NHL: Detroit Red Wings, Edmonton Oilers

MLS: Houston Dynamo

Nascar: Tony Stewart

Thats all for now.

-cheers

(Response to Local Issues or Global) Catching up for Tuesday

I just want to say that it is just horrible that one of the poorest countries in the world is having to deal with the horror and outcome of a terrible natural disaster. When I first heard what happened in Haiti the first thing I thought of was how our Compassion International child was doing. A youth group that I lead has sponsored a child from Haiti for a few years now. I received an email from the organization stating that they were currently trying to track down and take count of all of their people and that they would let us know how the child we sponsor was doing. This really is a sad tragedy and the pictures really paint a picture of how bad it really is. This event really makes me thankful for all I have but also makes me realize that this could happen to anybody at any time. The good that can come of this is event is that it will point the eyes to Haiti and educate the world not only about the needs they have now but the needs they have always had. I look forward to talking to the kids this Sunday a little bit about what is going on in Haiti and the importance giving to those in need all around the world. Social Justice should never be ignored.

-cheers

Late Monday Update on a Tuesday

Over this last weekend: Friday I relaxed a bit. Then later in the afternoon I volunteered at the YFC drop in center like i try to do every Friday. That night I went out with some family and friends to Puget Sound Pizza for dinner and Karaoke. Saturday I watched some football and spent time with my wife. Sunday after church we went to Bellingham to visit my wife's brother and his wife. We had a great time, I really love the city of Bellingham. We did not get back until late last night, which is why I am posting this now.

Todays Events: I am working from home because the City of Lakewood has me semi-trapped at my house while they poor the new roads in Tillicum. Only people with big trucks can get through without damaging their vehicle today. The city blames this on the contractor and the contractor blames it on the city. Nobody takes responsibility in my city (city of Lakewood) for anything.

To-Do-List this week: Clean the house after being gone for the weekend. Get on the scale and figure out how much weight I have to lose by July. Finish a couple of work projects. Read some books. And actually post daily (I failed last week).

Current Procrastination: Doing the dishes.

Books that I am currently reading: The new Don Miller Book, Prayer by Yancy, Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon.

Music that I have enjoyed this week: Cold War Kids, Wilco, The Beatles

How do I feel about this week: hopeful

Monday Update

Over this last weekend: Friday I spent the day working from home for a few hours. Then I decided to clean the house since my wife was still in Africa, I didn't want the house to get messy and have her come home tired to a messy house. Friday night I went out to a pub with some friends and we had a good time with great conversations. Saturday I spent the day at a good friends house for some football, and Sunday was followed with Church and then more football. Unfortunately my Green Bay Packers lost in a 45-51 score. Sunday night some friends came over and we played a board game and shared fun stories.

Todays Events: Today I spent the day getting ready to pick up my wife and the rest of her team that went to Africa. I spent some more time cleaning, then I went to the store to get her flowers and to buy myself lunch. So today went by very quickly.

To-Do-List this week: Hang out with my wife for a couple of days since she has been gone. Work on finishing a Winter Camp Packet for the youth group. Plan for small groups. Start my Diet and work out schedule.

Current Procrastination: Working out and eating right.

Books that I am currently reading: The new Don Miller Book, Prayer by Yancy, Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Chabon.

Music that I have enjoyed this week: Matisyahu's new album, M. Ward, Band of Horses, and some old Son House records.

How do I feel about this week: content.

film & music as art

So I just got done watching a movie about 10 minutes ago and I was thinking to myself, how much of an impact media and art have on our culture. Now this is nothing new under the sun, cultures have been captivated by art for centuries. But our 21st Century Western culture has really adopted film and music on a whole other level. Sometimes I find myself getting so excited for a new movie or a new album so much that it consumes my mind. For some movies I have counted down the days till the release and made sure I was at the very first showing of a film at midnight even though I was extremely tired (even after six shots of espresso).

It can get so out of hand that I started to wonder if we can separate some film and music from art. Now I know that it is all a matter of perspective that is dictated by ones taste in film and movie styles and genres, but at what point is it art and at what point is it based around advertising, mass consumption and money? Perhaps this is why over the years I have been drawn to films and music that are done on a more independent level. This is not to say that there isn't good art that is mass produced (I mean I love the Lord of the Rings movies) but sometimes I sense that there is more art in some of the more independently produced material.

I have had more time this week to watch films and listen to music because my wife is currently in Africa and has been for over a week now. And it just now hit me that I spent so much of my free time reading books, watching blu-rays, and listening to itunes that I never really spent much time making art myself. I think that is the danger of how much our culture produces and consumes music/film. Where I like to go to these areas for inspiration, there is so much available and so much advertising that the desire to keep watching and listening can sometimes drain us out from using any of our time to sit down and write words or music or stories...

Perhaps this week I should have turned everything off and wrote like 50 songs.

When is art just art and when is art a product?

-cheers

p.s. Don't watch District 9.....it is a big disappointment.

For Friday

I was supposed to have something "fun" up for Friday but could not think of anything. Guess I am not as fun this Friday as I hope to be every Friday.

-cheers

Joshua and Jesus

So recently I have been going through the Bible on my own study program. I read the Bible daily while reading at least one chapter from the old testament and new testament along with a chapter from the poetic genre. I am currently working through Joshua, Galatians, and Proverbs. One of the struggles that I have had with the scriptures over the years tends to start with books like Joshua when I compare them to the gospels or the epistles.

I often read about what seems to be two completely personalities of God when I begin in Joshua with the wars and the battle commands coming straight from God then going to the gospels and the epistles where God seems to be much more on the forgiving and peaceful side. Now I know there is a difference between the two and it has to do with the cross. But I still feel like there should be something else. I also know you can sometimes have similar themes that seem like they are from the OT when indeed they are in the NT. Such as people getting struck to death by lightning in the book of Acts for doing something wrong. It just seems that there is a huge shift from the God of the OT to the God of the NT. And while I have answers to that and reason to support my answers it still makes me very uncomfortable.

Today I was reading an article from the current edition (Jan_Feb 2010) of Relevant Magazine, and the article was called Fact or Fiction. This article asks the question: What do we do when Scripture contradicts itself? Now that is almost an entire new topic for another day but there was a brief mention of the book of Joshua that really stuck out to me. The article brings up third-century Christian by the name of Origen, who was a great biblical interpreter of the early Church. The magazine quotes him denying the book of Joshua by saying "Why would God command His people to commit genocide?" The magazine then says that he resolved his problem by concluding that the stories in Joshua are allegories for how we fight temptations that we face in our lives. For me that explanation is not good enough because I believe that these things really did happen.

And the thought of God commanding His people to commit genocide because he promised them land does not seem good enough either. So I am still searching for the right answer. I study the work of Jesus and see that he always chooses love, peace, anything but war and know that He is part of the trinity that He is God, that he was a part of the Old Testament. Yet somehow the wrathful God of the old does not always seem to mesh well with the loving, graceful, and peaceful God of the new testament.

Perhaps this is a burden that I will never fully understand but one great thing is that it does cause me to seek God for the answer. And I am comfortable not having an answer for everything. Perhaps someday I will research this more and write a good book about it, and at the end of the book I will still have to tell people that I have no answer and that they may have just wasted fifteen dollars on a book if they wanted an answer.

I hope at some point even if it is when I go to be with my maker that I will have a final answer.

-cheers

Sports

So today I am supposed to write about sports. I woke up today and realized that this would be the most difficult thing to type on a weekly basis. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy sports, it just seems that whenever people write or talk about sports on TV they get really intense and talk about sports as if it is the most important thing in the world.

I don't think I can talk like that and convince anybody that I am being authentic. Sometimes I live my life like the Green Bay Packers are the most important thing in the world. But I shouldn't, even though they are the best team in the NFL.

I was also thinking about how weird it is that people get so worked up over sports. We have to root for someone or a group of people in our off time and then hope they don't fail us in trying to win a game. And then the best part is we fight with our friends about which group of people playing the game is better than the other group of people playing the game. Then we throw it in our friends face that "we won", when in fact all we did was destroy our bodies with hot wings and beer while staring at a bright TV for eight hours.

With all of this said I still enjoy participating in this event, its just weird to type about it. I guess it is something that people have done for years. It even goes back to the Roman empire. After all, we have to do something with our free time. And if your going to participate you might as well root for the best franchise in all of sports history........The Green Bay Packers.

-Cheers