rare.sunshine

WALK: origin

2011-05-19T13:49:00.001-07:00

"Origin" by Kathryn Beals, 2010

The front of our bulletin at Grace has quotes for reflection as we gather to worship. Frequently, I also like to feature a piece of art on the cover with a similar function, tied to the sermon series or to the current period of the Christian calendar.

This past month has featured an artwork by Kathryn Beals called "Origin." Her art has been featured in the past for our Advent season covers. This past fall, I asked a few visual artists at Grace to reflect upon one of the themes in our FOLLOW series in hopes that I could feature it on the cover of a sermon series this winter/spring. Kathryn chose the WALK sermon, and "Origin" is the result. Not only has the painting enriched our community, it also took on a unique significance in her life. In her own words:

Most of my surreal landscapes are based on dreams, and I had had a vivid dream just before the birth that my baby was at the top of a mountain on an island and I had to get him. The mountain in the dream reminded me of a difficult pass Travis and I climbed in the Sierras a few years ago, so I painted it in the distance. I started painting with the Walk theme in mind but it took on new meaning for me with Max's birth - the contractions started 12 hours after I finished painting it, and I ended up using it as a "focal point" during my 55 hour labor.

Kathryn also filmed the painting from start to finish, which she is editing into a speed painting video for her website. Here is a still from it.

UPDATE: Watch Kathryn's "Speed Painting" video of this work.

Easter 2011 | All Things New

2011-04-29T14:48:00.004-07:00

He is risen! The full congregation at Grace gathered with one voice this past Easter to celebrate the resurrection. It was a beautiful morning of prayer, hearing God's Word, and fellowship with the Body.

There was a 16-piece ensemble of voices and instrumentalists leading us in song. Here's a recording of "All Things New." Reflecting on the closing verses of the Bible in Revelation 22:20, the text is by Horatius Bonar, written in 19th century Scotland, with a new melody and chorus lyrics by Clint Wells of Red Mountain Music. I arranged the instrumental parts, initially inspired by Sufjan Stevens (and a little help from Howard Shore).

All Things New - Easter 2011 by rare sunshine

And here is a link to the bulletin used for the service.

He is risen indeed!

observing lent

2011-03-08T17:01:00.000-08:00

The Season of Lent starts this week on Ash Wednesday and lasts until the day before Easter. The duration of Lent is forty days, reflecting the periods of forty years that the Israelites spent in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land and forty days that Jesus fasted in the wilderness following his baptism. Originating in the fourth century as the time of preparation for baptism of new Christians, the season is traditionally observed chiefly through prayer, as well as penitence and self-denial, and focuses on the cross and union with Christ through baptism.

If you are considering how to observe Lent, here are a few things to check out:

Follow this plan for Bible reading and prayer provided by Covenant Presbyterian in Chicago (print versions will be available on Sundays at Grace)

Read an article by Craig Higgins on observing lent

Check out Cardiphonia for many resources on Lent, including more articles and music

harmony in worship

2011-02-08T16:12:00.000-08:00

the sermon this Sunday at Grace will be the first of three on unity in the church. this always seems to be a relevant topic, especially when we look around and see a lack of unity throughout the body played out in the existence of denominations, within churches, and around the dinner table.

in my small group last night, we studied the last part of John 17, where Jesus is praying that we would be one in the same way that he and the Father are one. part of our discussion centered on the fact that we fail to individually to pray for unity in the church.

I was reminded that worship is one of the major dividing lines that display our disunity: music, liturgy, prayer, and preaching all reflect how we might disagree with what someone else thinks we should be doing in worship. in fact, the Protestant Reformation was sparked largely due to reasons of worship.

big or small, disputes in the church seem inevitable. rather than getting discouraged about the state of disunity in worship, let's take a look at a few areas in our worship that draw us together with the Body of Christ:

hymns
you may not realize it, but the hymns that we sing reflect a wide diversity historically and theologically. open nearly any hymnal and you will find hymns written by Charles Wesley, Robert Lowry, and Horatius Bonar, or a Methodist, a Baptist, and Scottish Presbyterian, repectively. theologically, each of these devout Christians may find points of disagreement, but we can still sing their hymns in the same service of worship because they all share the same faith in Christ's death and resurrection for us. somehow the text of the hymns that we sing are able to transcend theological boundaries.

liturgy
the form of our liturgy at Grace has many elements in common with many western church traditions other than our own, including Lutherans, Anglicans, and Roman Catholics. the parts may not all be in the same order, but you will find Scripture readings, congregational prayers, preaching, and the Lord's Supper in many Christian worship services.

creeds
one specific area that is perhaps the most explicit call to unity in a worship service is the use of creeds and confessions. every time we recite the Apostles' Creed in worship, we profess the same Orthodox truths of the faith that have been held since the early church. the Nicene Creed was written as a result of the first ecumenical church council in AD 325 in response to heresies that were causing disunity in the church. in fact, any creed or confession that you come across was written for the purpose of declaring the unity of belief shared by a large group of Christians.

so as we gather this Sunday and every Sunday to come, let us be encouraged by the fact that we gather to sing, pray, and speak with One Voice on account of our redemption in Christ.

we all have stories - concert details

2011-01-25T15:10:00.001-08:00

On Feb. 11, Grace Pres is sponsoring a concert at The King's Academy Theater in Sunnyvale. Songwriters Sandra McCracken and Matthew Smith are part of the hymn renewal movement, and will be sharing their songs and the stories behind them. Purchase tickets and get more info here.

If you aren't familiar with Sandra and Matthew, you can stream and download their music in the players below.

For the last decade, Sandra and Matthew have been part of the hymn renewal movement that started on college campuses through ministries like RUF and has passed along to the greater church. Musicians take long-lost texts—from familiar writers (Watts, Newton, Wesley) and less-familiar writers (Steele, Medley)—and refresh the music, both through brand new melodies and keeping classic melodies, making them accessible to congregations where hymns have fallen out of practice (or have never been in practice!).

Matthew's version of "Come Ye Sinners" opens the first volume from Indelible Grace, the seminal album in the hymn movement, effectively taking what was going on in 90's RUF campus ministries and bringing it to the ears of congregations nationwide (and subsequently worldwide). Since then, he has played an integral part in developing the reach of IG's music, not only writing and singing on each of the group's albums, but also taking care of a lot of the day-to-day business of keeping the ministry alive. Matthew is also the "touring face" of Indelible Grace, regularly taking a band on the road to share the music and vision of IG. On his own, Matthew has also released many hymn records of his material, most recently "Watch The Rising Day" (streaming below). At Grace Pres, we have recently been singing his great version of "All Must Be Well" from the fifth Indelible Grace album.

Sandra has also been a part of Indelible Grace music since the start, singing on each album and contributing new material. Along the way, her version of "Thy Mercy My God" was recorded by Caedmon's Call, introducing retuned hymns to a wider audience. As a touring singer-songwriter, she has released many critically-acclaimed recordings, working with many of the great names in Americana and Folk music. She has also released two albums of her hymns. Her most recent album, "In Feast Or Fallow," is largely composed of fully-original material, filled not just with new music but with new lyrics as well.

The music Sandra and Matthew will be sharing on February 11 is also a large part of my story as a musician for the past decade. Not long after transferring to a college in Tennessee, I started attending a Sunday school class led by Kevin Twit, RUF pastor at Belmont. Just as I was being exposed to this new experience of singing hymns with a guitar, Kevin released the first Indelible Grace album. At the time I couldn't really explain what it was about those songs that moved me so deeply in worship, but it kept me going through those three years of school and played a large role in my development spiritually and as a worship leader.

Toward the end of my time in TN, the second IG album was being recorded, and I got to squeeze my accordion onto a few tracks. Later that year, IG received a grant to produce the RUF Hymnbook, and I was on the team of music transcriptionists who turned out sheet music for 143 hymns from the RUF movement. In addition to the printed edition, the grant provided for a website to be produced, giving all of that content away for free. One of the main hurdles for worship songwriters to gain a hearing in the church is providing printed music, as this is the necessary medium that many church musicians work with on a regular basis. RUF music was perceived as "college music" to the church at large, and thought impossible to translate to congregations, and the Hymnbook was one step along the way for this music to gain acceptance with music ministries nationwide. Almost 10 years later, Indelible Grace and other groups (notably Red Mountain Music, Bifrost Arts, and The Welcome Wagon) have made it possible for the profound expressions of worship and praise found in hymns to transcend generational, cultural, and musical barriers.

I hope that you are able to take part in this special evening, to be encouraged in your own story as you see the shared path of all our stories in worshipping Christ, our maker, defender, redeemer, and friend.

The Daily Practice of Reading

2011-01-11T14:26:00.000-08:00

During community group last night, we all shared the struggle to read the Bible with any amount of regularity. Different reasons cause this lack of consistency, and I was encouraged to know that I'm not alone in this problem. So what can we do to get back on track?

System
One system that I have been using recently is the daily readings from the Book Of Common Prayer (BCP). Developed in the sixteenth century, the BCP is still used today as the prayer book for Anglicans and Episcopalians worldwide. Among other things, BCP includes a set of daily readings that follow a two-year cycle through the entire Bible.

What's great is that you don't have to run out and buy a BCP study plan, or even print off a page of readings to follow! The online ESV offers the BCP as one of its devotionals. Each day, the BCP readings are posted in one long set. Even better, you can listen to the reading!

Where I struggle with many of the Bible reading programs available is that they ask you to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. This means you'll spend at least a week reading only the Book of Numbers, and even longer in Chronicles! Getting bogged down in the data and style of ancient literature can be taxing and discouraging.

Where a program like the BCP suceeds is that each day offers a variety of readings: Psalms, Old Testament, New Testament epistle, and Gospel. So you'll still get into Numbers and Chronicles, but it'll be given in manageable chunks along with other more familiar texts.

Habit
For me, the main difficulty in being consistent is getting Bible reading into my daily habit. With a child, I've learned that no two days–or nights–are ever the same. Even when I get to work, I rarely have the same flow to my day as the day before.

But there has to be something with which we're always consistent! For me, that moment happens when I open my web browser for the first time each morning. The first thing I do is open a folder of daily bookmarks that contain important things I want to check, including my to do list and what the latest deal is on Woot. Since this is my habit, I added the BCP link to this folder. Now, whenever I open up these pages, my readings for the day are waiting for me.

In the end, we each have to find what works best for our daily habits. Some days are going to be harder than others to find time to read, but the daily practice of reading the Bible is one that will encourage you to continue practicing your faith and grow deeper in your knowledge of the truth.

Discussion

What ways have you found that help you read the Bible daily?

Links

Daily BCP readings on ESV

Christmas Hope | Advent Devotional 2010

2010-11-19T13:18:00.000-08:00

Advent season—where we celebrate the first and second comings of Christ—is just around the corner, starting the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Over these four Sundays at Grace Pres, we will be exploring in the Gospel of Luke how Jesus invites us to unite to him with awe, humility, and grace.

One paradox of the holiday season is that despite the focus on joy and celebrating with family and friends, many of us are left feeling alone and miserable. To help draw our hearts away from the distractions of seasonal busy-ness, a devotional guide is provided to celebrate in community. The guide includes weekly Scripture readings, discussion questions, songs, and prayers, all geared toward group participation. Additionally, there are notes on the meaning and history of Advent and a daily reading guide in case you want to reflect further on the season through Scripture. This would be an excellent way to celebrate with your Community Group or your family (there are readings and prayers geared toward children).

Download the devotional here

Most of the material was originally created by Cardiphonia and Christ The King in Raleigh, NC, and is used by permission. See permissions at the end of this post. Make sure to check out the Cardiphonia blog for many more excellent Advent resources.

If you would like to accompany the singing on guitar or piano, here are links to sheet music for the songs in the devotional.

Week 1 – O Come O Come Emmanuel
Week 2 – Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent | mp3
Week 3 – Thou Who Wast Rich | mp3
Week 4 – Angels We Have Heard On High
Christmas Day – Joy To The World

To learn more about the Advent celebrations at Grace Pres, please visit gracepres.com. I hope that you can join us if you're in the area.

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For a web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Grace Presbyterian Church of Silicon Valley.

#WorshipSet

2010-11-18T15:30:00.000-08:00

do you take any steps in preparing to worship on Sundays? like a musician practices her parts before getting together with others to make music, how do you get ready for church?

recently I have started tweeting the weekly worship set at Grace Pres, thanks to a handy function of Planning Center Online that gives a bit.ly url that links to the full set, including the song listings. you can find my latest tweet-age here.

as a worshiper, I find it helpful for me to prepare my heart and mind for worship by knowing what songs and prayers will be incorporated into an upcoming service. if there's a song with which I'm not familiar, I might take the time to go look up the words or learn the melody (see that on the Planning Center link, there are Amazon MP3 links for many of the songs we'll be doing).

as a worship planner, I find it helpful to know what other congregations are singing. it helps to see the frequency that songs are used, how the songs fit together in an entire set, and what new/old material is being done by ears that I trust. one congregation I follow, Sojourn Community Church in Lexington, does a FULL blog post each week about their setlist, including prayers, scripture readings, and reflection on why each song was chosen. I'd love to something more informative like this, but it would require more time than I can offer. in the meantime, I'll keep tweeting away, and following the tweets of other churches.

the church's one foundation

2010-10-11T12:53:00.001-07:00

For yesterday's musical offertory at Grace, we sang "The Church's One Foundation" in response to Pastor Drew's sermon on Unity from Ephesians 4. The words were published by Samuel Stone in 1866, and melody was written by Brian Moss in 1996. If you are looking for a recording, you have two great options:

Indelible Grace (The Original)
Not What My Hands Have Done, Brian Moss (this is closer to the arrangement we used)

Recently I was introduced to the larger work from which the hymn text comes. Samuel Stone wrote this along with 11 other hymns that outlined the articles of The Apostles' Creed, "Foundation" being from "I believe in...the holy catholic church." You can read more about this, as well as find a link to the full hymnal, over on the Cardiphonia blog. (btw, Bruce's blog is a fantastic resource for all things worship and liturgy; if you want to know what I've been thinking about lately, I bet I read it on his blog first!)

flexibility in worship planning

2010-09-08T16:00:00.011-07:00

As a church gathers to worship, the service is bound to take a certain shape. This shape is called the liturgy, or “work of the people.” Intentionally or not, most liturgies maintain a consistent form over time for a particular congregation. This is a good thing. Regular forms allow for a degree of dependability for worshipers, allowing for open communication in worship without the distraction of an always changing service structure.

At times, though, content demands an alternate form. A few weeks ago at Grace, Drew’s sermon looked at the narrative of the prophet Nathan confronting King David about his sin with Bathsheba. That Sunday, we expanded our time of confession of sin with a Litany of Penitence from the Book of Common Prayer.

Last Sunday, we extended the Lord’s Supper portion of the liturgy, taking time to reflect on the breadth of Christ’s work on our behalf on the cross. The form reflects what many other churches use on a weekly basis: Creed, Sursum Corda, Doxology, Eucharistic Prayer, Lord’s Prayer, Words of Institution. Two elements (Doxology and Lord’s Prayer) are normally placed earlier in the service at Grace, right after the call to worship. Why should these elements of content be placed elsewhere in the service?

Most elements of worship don’t have a solitary theme or emphasis. They are more nuanced than having a single application for the worshiper (think about how the words of a hymn are experienced differently when backed with a full band arrangement versus just an acoustic guitar). Placing the Dox/LP at the start of the service emphasizes God’s character (“hallowed by your name”). Placing them during the celebration of the Lord’s Supper emphasizes the response to God’s mercy and provision in Christ’s work on our behalf (e.g. asking God to provide “our daily bread” takes on a unique meaning when we are sitting at the Lord’s Table).

John Frame reflects on this:

“There is no passage or principle in Scripture that dictates one invariable order of events in worship.… Consider the doxology. Some writers are very confident that they know the place in worship where the doxology truly ‘belongs.’ But the doxology is an expression of praise to God that simultaneously calls all creatures in heaven and on earth to praise him. Surely there are many places in worship where the doxology is appropriate, not just one or two. Consider how the apostle Paul in his letters breaks off his arguments in the oddest places to insert doxologies–as in Romans 1:25 and 2 Corinthians 11:31.

A recovery of biblical flexibility here can bring a new freshness to our worship, and freshness increases intelligibility, the power of our communication of God’s word.”

John Frame, Worship in Spirit and Truth, 71-72

What other places do you think that the Doxology or Lord’s Prayer be can used in worship? What about other aspects of worship, can they be moved as well?

Daily Psalm Readings Guide

2010-08-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

I spent part of my summer planning for a 5-part series on the Book of Psalms that I will be teaching this fall at Grace Pres SV. In my studying, I came across a number of reading plans to go through the Psalms in a systematic way. The simplest I came across is available in the Book of Common Prayer, which divides all of the Psalms across a 30-day cycle.

For me, this is the easiest reading plan possible... "What's today? The Xth? Then read Y–Z." I'll admit that I'm not the most consistent with reading plans, so having a way to jump right in on whatever day is the best.

Below you'll find the reading list, with links to the texts in the ESV Online Study Bible (BTW an amazing free resource!). My hope is that as I cycle through the Psalms each month, that I will become more familiar with the rhythm of the Psalms as a whole, not just skipping to the good parts. Also, that my prayer language will increasingly reflect that found in the Psalms. Perhaps you'll join me on this journey...

Day | Psalms
1 | 1–8
2 | 9–14
3 | 15–18
4 | 19–23
5 | 24–29
6 | 30–34
7 | 35–37
8 | 38–43
9 | 44–49
10 | 50–55
11 | 56–61
12 | 62–67
13 | 68–70
14 | 71–74
15 | 75–78
16 | 79–85
17 | 86–89
18 | 90–95
19 | 96–101
20 | 102–104
21 | 105–106
22 | 107–109
23 | 110–115
24 | 116–119:1-32
25 | 119:33-104
26 | 119:105-179
27 | 120–131
28 | 132–138
29 | 139–143
30 | 144–150

Taken from “The Table for the Order of the Psalms to Be Said at Morning and Evening Prayer” The Book Of Common Prayer, 1559

2010-08-25T09:32:00.002-07:00

In light of last month's movie discussion on Atticus Finch and heroism, here is an article by someone thinking along similar lines. An excerpt:

Atticus teaches us that courage has nothing to do with winning. “I wanted you to see what real courage is,” he tells his children. “It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”

Such heroism is evidence of something divine running through the DNA of humanity. A God-given courage that recognizes our actions might impact eternity more significantly than they ever will in the here and now—that we may lose the argument, the day, even the trial—but we have still advanced the kingdom. This kind of courage isn’t about winning, but making the decision to do what is right—no matter the cost.

from "Why We Love Atticus Finch", by Matt Litton

"O Brother" and the Homeric Hero

2010-08-19T16:09:00.006-07:00

On Friday, August 27, I will be leading a discussion on "O Brother Where Art Thou?", the second installment in a series I'm calling Holding Out For A Hero, looking at different types of heroes in modern thought and how they point to our need for true heroes. (To come to the discussion, get the info here.)

"O Brother" is adapted from the epic poem "The Odyssey", portraying the homeward journey of one of the greatest heroes in all of literature, Odysseus (or Ulysses). George Clooney's character, Ulysses Everett McGill, presents the viewer with an interesting image of the modern (or post-modern) hero, even as he is based on Homer's original.

I thought a helpful way to start our discussion would be to consider the heroic qualities of Homer's two great heroes, Achilles and Odysseus. I have asked Rachel Knudsen, friend and Classics Scholar, to write the following character sketch of each hero:

The Greek epic hero is most famously embodied by not one character but two, Achilles and Odysseus. These two men are the respective protagonists of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and represent two sides of the coin of Greek epic heroism.

Achilles is the individualist: the greatest warrior of all the Greeks, he fights almost exclusively to pile up personal glory. He is obsessed with making his name and fame immortal through his superhuman feats on the battlefield. As such, he cares less about the actual cause for fighting (re-capturing Helen from the Trojans and thus avenging the honor of the Greek king Agamemnon), and more about the war as a vehicle for his own exploits. He also cares little about his fellow Greek warriors: he's willing to let them die to make the point that he is indispensable to the Greek cause after Agamemnon disrespects him. Individual glory and honor are everything to Achilles, and this ruthless mindset, along with his utter dominance at fighting, is the essence of his brand of heroism. It also leads him to the appropriate heroic destiny: an early death on the battlefield, having achieved the glory he desired more than anything else.

Odysseus demonstrates his heroism not through fighting prowess (he's an average warrior), but through cunning, understanding of people and situations, and skillful leadership. It is Odysseus' ingenuity in coming up with the Trojan Horse tactic that allows the Greeks to win the Trojan war after 10 years of fighting. Throughout the Odyssey, Odysseus uses clever speeches and sometimes even deception to get what he wants (and sometimes to escape from danger) during his long journey home from Troy. He comes up with an elaborate strategy to reinstate himself as ruler of his homeland, to reintegrate himself with his family, and to defeat the rivals to his throne who greatly outnumber him; as usual, Odysseus bases this strategy on cleverness and knowledge of human nature, rather than on brute force. He also shows great care and concern for the men he is in charge of during the voyage home: he protects them, takes responsibility for them, and sometimes even suffers because of their foolishness. As a result, he is a beloved and trusted leader of men. Ultimately, these qualities of leadership and community-mindedness allow Odysseus to achieve his heroic destiny: a long and peaceful life as ruler over his homeland, with his family at his side.

How do these heroes strike you? Are we looking for heroes in the 21st century who embody these qualities?

give reviving

2010-04-26T11:55:00.003-07:00

the current sermon series at Grace Pres. is on Spiritual Renewal and Revival. in response to yesterday's sermon called "What Renewal Is and Isn't", the music team sang "Give Reviving", which was a fitting meditation on Drew's guidance from Exodus 33, that we seek revival for ourselves and others through praying that God would "wake [his] slumbering children".

this is a hymn written originally by Albert Midlane (19th cent.), who wrote over 300 hymns for children (many great hymns were originally written for children, and were later picked up by the adults; cf. Horatius Bonar). Chelsey Scott updated the words and wrote music along with Aaron Sands. she recorded it for the 5th Indelible Grace album (embedded here), and Sandra McCracken recorded it for her latest hymn project In Feast Or Fallow (which releases 4/27 and I will post about shortly).

Give Reviving [Chelsey Scott] ...

RUF Hymnbook listing (with lead sheet and tips on playing the guitar part)
Indelible Grace V - IGraceMusic.com | iTunes
Sandra McCracken - New Old Hymns | iTunes

Give Reviving
1. Father for Thy, promised blessing,
Still we plead before Thy throne
For the times of, sweet refreshing,
Which can come from Thee alone
Blessed earnests, Thou hast given,
But in these we would not rest
Blessings still with, Thee are hidden,
Pour them forth and make us blest!

2. Prayer ascendeth to Thee ever,
Answer! Father, answer prayer
Bless oh bless each, weak endeavor,
Blood-bought pardon to declare
Wake Thy slumbering, children wake them,
Bid them to Thy harvest go
Blessings O our, Father make,
Round their steps let blessings flow

3. Let no people be forgotten,
Let Thy showers on all descend
That in one loud blessed anthem,
millions may in triumph blend
Give reviving, give refreshing,
Give the looked-for Jubilee
To Thyself may, crowds be pressing,
Bringing glory unto Thee

Words: Albert Midlane; Chelsey Scott, alt.
Music: Chelsey Scott; Aaron Sands
© 2007 Innocent Smith (admin by The Loving Company)/Petit Bateaux Music (ASCAP).

being human in a Sci-Fi world

2010-02-24T10:16:00.006-08:00

I came across a story in USA Today from earlier this week (via CTMovies) that looks at the recent success of Science-Fiction films and Oscar nominations for Best Picture going to Avatar and District 9. The closing quote in the article is the most profound, coming from Sigourney Weaver, as she reflects on whether either of these movies will actually win Oscars:

"With that label, 'sci-fi,' I think it'll be tough," she says. "But of course, to look at these movies with that label is to miss the points they are trying to make. These movies ask us to look at what it means to be human."

I find it interesting that a genre that might have been shunned in the past as "for the nerds" is now mainstream, but why the success now? I won't go as far as to say, "I called it", but I'm pleased that the Fall Movies @ Grace series was called "Being Human", exploring topics of humanness and authentic experience in Into the Wild, Wall-E, and The Soloist (though I had to cancel the last showing because Sarah was about to go into labor). The discussion about sci-fi after viewing Wall-E was a lot of fun, about the stark/bleak vision of the future at the start of the film and how robots demonstrated characteristics of human love and courage far more naturally than the blobular humans in the movie.

(Good/lasting) Sci-fi and Fantasy artworks typically deal with this theme, about what it means to be human. In recent years, these genres have increased in visibility and popularity. The remake of Battlestar Gallactica comes to mind as a great example. What other movies/shows/books come to mind for you? Why do you think that this has come about now, in first decade of the 21st Century?

on Lent

2010-02-16T15:05:00.003-08:00

Today is Fat Tuesday, which means that tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the season of Lent. Growing up, I can't say that I understood what I should do during Lent, and even more importantly, why I should be doing it. Since Lent isn't mentioned in the Bible, Christians aren't required to observe this season of fasting and self-reflection, but it is a custom handed down from the early church that we can take part in and benefit from today.

Here's a helpful essay by Craig Higgins on the why and how of Lent observance. From Higgins:

Even though a repentant spirit should mark all we do, it is still appropriate that certain times be set aside for a particular focus on repentance. The church has traditionally done this at the Lenten season...

Lent, therefore, is a time for focusing on the heart, a time for asking questions about our spiritual health:
What are my characteristic sins, and how can I work and pray for change?
What idols have captured my imagination so that my love for the living God has grown cold?
In what ways is my devotion to Christ and his church less than wholehearted?
The Lenten season is the spiritual equivalent of an annual physical exam; it’s a time to take stock of our lives, our hearts.

For daily Scripture readings, go here for the ful text of today's reading from the Daily Office Lectionary.

a cradle hymn

2009-12-07T11:59:00.004-08:00

on 12/6, the musical offering that we sang was "A Cradle Hymn", a lullaby written from the perspective of a father or mother, singing at the bedside of their crying infant. this is a fairly obscure hymn by Isaac Watts, and being in good Watts form, it is 13 verses in its fullest form (at least, in what I could find online). this particular hymn has personal resonance considering recent events in the Brodine family.

I came across this hymn on a recording by the group Ordinary Time to a great American melody from the Sacred Harp (see embedded player below to hear the recording). I would highly recommend getting the whole album as it is more of an "Advent Album" than just a "Christmas Album". it can be found on eMusic and CD Baby, among other places. they also recorded another one of my favorite hymns, "Thou Who Wast Rich".

A Cradle Hymn - Ordinary Time

Here are the lyrics for their version, just 9 verses long:

Hush, my dear! Lie still, and slumber!
Holy angels guard thy bed!
Heavenly blessings, without number,
Gently falling on thy head.
Sleep, my babe! thy food and raiment,
House and home, thy friends provide;
All without thy care or payment,
All thy wants are well supplied.
How much better thou’rt attended
Than the Son of God could be,
When from heaven he descended,
And became a child like thee!
Soft and easy is thy cradle:
Coarse and hard thy Saviour lay,
When his birthplace was a stable,
And his softest bed was hay.
Blessed Babe! what glorious features,—
Spotless fair, divinely bright!
Must he dwell with brutal creatures?
How could angels bear the sight?
Was there nothing but a manger
Cursed sinners could afford,
To receive the heavenly stranger?
Did they thus affront the Lord?
Soft, my child! I did not chide thee,
Though my song might sound too hard:
’Tis thy mother sits beside thee,
And her arm shall be thy guard.
Lo, he slumbers in a manger,
Where the horned oxen fed!—
Peace, my darling, here’s no danger:
There’s no ox a–near thy bed.
’Twas to save thee, child, from dying,
Save my dear from burning flame,
Bitter groans and endless crying,
That thy blest Redeemer came.
May’st thou live to know and fear him,
Trust and love him all thy days,
Then go dwell for ever near him:
See his face, and sing his praise!

wordy imagery

2009-11-03T21:49:00.005-08:00

having a little fun with Wordle (word clouds).

Romans 3 (NIV), the passage Drew is currently preaching through at Grace Pres.

Lyrics for the 143 hymns contained in the RUF Hymnbook

Wall-E discussion

2009-10-26T13:01:00.003-07:00

Last Friday, I led a discussion of Pixar's 2008 release, Wall-E. It was a great discussion, and I enjoyed getting even more out of the film through hearing other people's reactions and reflections.

In preparation for the discussion, I covered a lot of [internet] ground finding interviews and articles on the film in hopes of further enriching our discussion. Here is a handful of worthwhile reads. After you read them, what thoughts do you have about the film? Did reading the interviews with Andrew Stanton change your opinion of the film, whether positively or negatively?

UPDATE: Interested in films with similar themes to Wall-E? The LA Times has a photo essay on film characters that are almost human. Notice who comes in at #10!

John Newton hymning on Prayer

2009-08-26T12:36:00.002-07:00

this Sunday, Pastor Drew is preaching from Matthew 6 on the Lord's Prayer. if you didn't catch his post about how well you know the Lord's Prayer, check it out here.

one of the quotes from this week's reflection is taken from a hymn by John Newton. the first line is a beautiful invitation: "Come, my soul, thy suit prepare". the hymn provides us with wonderful guidance in the posture of prayer (see full text below).

I'm a firm believer that the second most important book in a Christian's library is a hymnal, and this text demonstrates this superbly. as with the Biblical Psalms, hymns give voice to the heart of the worshiper. not only that, they teach us the language of prayer. regularly supplementing your study of the Bible with reflection upon hymn texts is a prescription for a healthy devotional life.

Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare
available in Trinity Hymnal #628 (1990 edition)

Come, my soul, thy suit prepare;
Jesus loves to answer prayer;
He himself has bid thee pray,
Therefore will not say thee, Nay.

Thou art coming to a King:
Large petitions with thee bring;
For his grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much.

With my burden I begin:
Lord, remove this load of sin;
Let thy blood, for sinners spilt,
Set my conscience free from guilt.

Lord, I come to thee for rest;
Take possession of my breast;
There thy blood-bought right maintain,
And without a rival reign.

While I am a pilgrim here,
Let thy love my spirit cheer;
As my guide, my guard, my friend,
Lead me to my journey's end.

Show me what I have to do;
Every hour my strength renew;
Let me live a life of faith;
Let me die thy people's death.

links:
More information at Hymnary.org
Full text of Newton's "Olney Hymns"

eat this film

2009-08-12T10:06:00.007-07:00

this summer, we've been going through a series of film discussions I've called Eat This Film. we've watched and discussed films that might be termed as "Foodies". additionally, we've served a meal that is tied closely to the film. in June, we watched Mostly Martha, and enjoyed an authentic Italian meal with spaghetti as the main dish. in July, Eat Drink Man Woman, along with a Taiwanese/Chinese meal with (almost) no takeout. in August, we'll finish the series with Sideways, which will include a lesson in wine tasting.

it's been great to discuss a subject that our part of the country cherishes with such gusto. through my scouring of IMDB and my local library, I'm seeing a trend in recent decades of filmmaking toward more films that center on chefs and eating, typically with gorgeous scenes documenting the process of food preparation.

the most recent addition to the Foodie Canon is Julie & Julia. I have not seen it yet, but I've heard positive reviews from critics and friends. it's not official yet, but I'm planning on taking an extra credit Eat This Film field trip to go see this as a group. here are two recent posts about it from the NYTimes, one by Michael Pollan, the other by Kim Severson.

*UPDATED, 8/31 - Great article from The Curator on the Art of Marriage in Julie & Julia.

during the summer, I've been blogging in my head (I seem to do this a lot) about this series. I was thinking that this very post--the one that you're reading right now--would be a brilliant compilation and commentary of all that I've come across in my research and our discussions. but someone beat me to it, and someone who is a far better writer and a far more experienced film journalist than I ever will be. check out Jeffrey Overstreet's Tribute to Films about Feasting over at Filmwell. he touches on many films that we've already discussed, suggests a few more tantalizing options, and ties it all together wonderfully with the great film that started this whole Eat This Film exploration, Babette's Feast.

For more information on this and other film series at Grace, visit the Movies @ Grace page on our website.

For discussion:
What's your favorite Foodie movie and why?

Summer Reading 2009

2009-06-15T09:40:00.004-07:00

Now that summer is here, what are you planning on doing with your time? Is there a book that's been sitting on your shelf that needs the dust blown off? I certainly have more than a few books that I'd like to get through while enjoying a glass of sweet tea on the back patio.

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Theology: Truly the Community - Marva Dawn
Dawn has written many scholarly yet accessible works on the church as a worshiping community. This volume tackles Romans 12, systematically applying its principles to modern communities. I have already read the first few chapters and have found her insights to be both challenging and creative.

Non-Fiction (Science): Musicophilia - Don Sacks
Okay, so I'm already about 200 pages into this one, but I'll be finishing it in summer, so it counts, right? Sacks is the neurologist/psychologist who wrote the book Awakenings, which had a film based upon it. This time he writes about his studies of the brain and music. A fascinating read so far, his work is full of compassionate case studies into the lives of people who suffer from maladies that effect their ability to process sounds, specifically music.

Non-Fiction (Cultural): The Great-Good Place - Ray Oldenburg
I bought this in hopes of it being my summer 2008 reading, but I ended up doing other things. I figure that if I put it on this list for all to see, I'll have to read it. Oldenburg presents the case for Third Places, those places in a culture that are outside of the home and workplace where people go to find a sense of place and community. In Europe, it's street cafés and public houses. In America, we've separated ourselves so much from the world outside that we've lost our sense of third place, and Oldenburg argues for a reclamation of this important type of institution. A highly influential book, it has already inspired the establishment of coffee shops and book stores around the country (one of which is in Seattle, called Third Place Books).

Fiction: ??
I have a long list of books that I've been collecting on my shelf to read. I'm sure I'll get around to finishing a Dashiell Hammett mystery or two (The Thin Man, Red Harvest), some Cormac McCarthy (Sunset Limited, No Country For Old Men), and hopefully a classic (Brothers Karamazov has been staring at me for a while).

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So now it's your turn to join the conversation. What books are you planning on reading? Please post at least one book in the comment section below, and maybe even include a short description.

Happy Reading!!!

photo courtesy bookmonger on Flickr.

Give To The Winds

2009-06-09T10:19:00.006-07:00

Download Chart

Download Live Recording

I recently wrote a new melody for the Paul Gerhardt hymn, "Give To The Winds", which was originally written in German and later translated into English by John Wesley nearly a century later. JS Bach has set the German text. For my setting, I had to modify a few of the lines to help the melodic phrasing. Brian Wren in "Praying Twice" says that this is a no-no as it ruins the author's original voice to change that much (more than just the archaic language or other more subtle modifications). Oh well, can't please everyone!

The recording is from May 31, 2009 at Grace Presbyterian of Silicon Valley. I wrote the melody with The Weepies in mind, so I was pleased to have a fellow Weepies fan, Anne-Marie Strohman, taking the lead vocal. Hopefully the arrangement will expand a little bit when I get a chance to do a fuller demo.

Give To The Winds

Give to the winds your fears,
Hope and be not dismayed;
God hears your sighs and counts your tears;
God will lift up,
God will lift up,
God will lift up your head.

Leave to God’s sovereign guide
To choose and to command,
Wand'ring, as you own His way,
How wise, how strong,
How wise, how strong,
How wise, how strong His hand.

Through waves and clouds and storms,
He gently clears your way;
Wait now, since in His time, this night will
Soon end in joy,
Soon end in joy,
Soon end in joyous day.

Words: Paul Gerhardt, 1653; tr. John Wesley, 1739; alt. Music: Luke W. Brodine, 2009. © 2009 Rare Sunshine Music. UBP. ARR

twittering

2009-03-11T11:06:00.002-07:00

I am now on twitter.

http://twitter.com/raresunshine

a case of the Mondays, DST style

2009-03-09T15:21:00.003-07:00

so who out there is having the worst case of the Mondays that they've ever had? if so, here's a little video to remind you of how bad a day you could be having.

and no, this isn't going to last forever...

online movie discussion - Lars and the Real Girl

2009-02-25T17:44:00.003-08:00

Last week's film discussion was an awesome experience! We had a group of almost 30 people who discussed Lars and the Real Girl and enjoyed each other's fellowship. I realized afterward that there was far more to be discussed than we could have covered in an evening, so I decided to open up the discussion here. What's even better is that now others can join in the discussion who were unable to attend!

Below I've posted some of the questions that we discussed, along with a few that we somehow passed over. Enjoy!

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What is your first reaction to the film?
What tone is the film attempting to set? What cues helped set this tone? In what ways do you think that the filmmakers achieved the tone well? Poorly?
What effect does the type of doll that Bianca is have upon the film? Could she have been a mannequin? A crash-test dummy?
What role does the setting play in the film? Would it have been a different movie it had been set in another part of the US or during a different time of year?
What was your initial reaction to Bianca? Discuss the reactions of others in the film. (Which character are you most like in regards to his/her reaction? Why?)
What purpose does Bianca serve in Lars’ life? What sort of things do you use to replace real things?
What is Lars attempting to cope for with Bianca? What are your coping mechanisms? How do you deal with change?
Describe the role of Dagmar, both in Lars' life and in the town.
Did you catch what passage from the Bible was read later in the film? Is Lars the only one in the film that needs to hear this message? What “childish things” do you still cling to? How have you been able to put them away? How have others helped you do this?
Do you think that this is a realistic film? Is the film trying to be realistic? (parable) One review derisively calls it “silly and whimsical.” Do you agree with the sentiment, if not the tone, of this remark? Do you think the filmmakers intended this sort of reaction? What about the characterization of the small town and the members of the church? When is the unbelievable more true than the believable?
Why does the town react the way that it does? What does the movie have to say about community? Is this real community in your opinion? What do you think is done well? What could be done better?
I’m reminded of a refrain from Sir Paul McCartney: “All the lonely people, where do they all come from?” How does the film attempt to answer this question?

Also, here are a few helpful reviews that are available online:

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So have at it! Post your thoughts in the comments section for this post. Please include your name with your posts. I don't expect things to get out of hand, but please treat this discussion as if you were in the same room with the others who are joining in. I will moderate the discussion as needed.

movie discussion - Lars and the Real Girl

2009-02-17T11:31:00.003-08:00

This Friday, we'll be viewing and discussing Lars and the Real Girl. It will be the first discussion group in a series I'm calling How To Read A Film. here's the blurb from the bulletin:

We will ... discuss different ways to participate actively with movies and engage with the filmmmakers. Our purpose is to explore how the art and the science of filmmaking speaks to the lives and hearts of the viewer.

All are welcome! Bring a friend, too. There's nothing needed for you to prepare for the group, just come ready to discuss the film afterwards. Contact me (music [at] gracepres [dot] com) for more information.

View a trailer for the film below:

art of the month - albrecht dürer

2009-02-02T12:19:00.005-08:00

each month, I'm going to attempt (to remember) to highlight either an artist or a work of art.

this month's subject: Albrecht Dürer

Dürer was a German painter during the early 16th century, right at the start of the Reformation. He is both renowned for his painting and his woodcuts, but I believe that it is his work in the latter category that has made the greatest impact on his period and those that followed.

The subject above, "The Four Horsemen," is from his series on the Apocalypse of St. John. These woodcuts were accompanied by the text of the last book of the Bible upon which the series is based. I seem to remember hearing that it was a German translation of the text, which would have been unheard of at the turn of the 16th Century (17 years before Luther and Wittenberg), as all Scripture in the West was in Latin and was only to be handled by leaders of the church. To have created something that put the text into the hands of the people (even if I am mistaken, and it was accompanied by a Latin text) counts Dürer as a Pre-Reformer.

The vision that this single work of 15 woodcuts also influenced for years to come the understanding in the West of the book of Revelation and was a precursor to the Illustrated Bibles that grew in popularity in the 19th and 20th Centuries. (When you hear about door-to-door salesmen selling Bibles, it was multi-volume illustrated Bibles!) Also, the visual style of both this and Dürer's other woodcuts has turned up in the art of Comic Books and Graphic Novels.

I am highlighting Dürer this month as there is an exhibition at the Cantor Arts Center through February 15. The exhibition--"Dürer to Picasso"--is highlighting many of the important painters from the Renaissance through WWII. Though I am not sure how many works by Dürer will be on display, I'm sure it'll be a worthwhile exhibit to visit. I am planning on going to this in the next week, so I will try to report back with my thoughts.

hymn backgrounds - "Take Now Our Minds"

2009-01-27T15:57:00.004-08:00

Here's a little window into my process of finding and incorporating new music in our services:

In looking for a communion hymn for this Sunday, my goal was to find something that captured the concept of loving the Lord with all our hearts; I was interested in hymn texts that point to Scriptures like Matthew 22:37 and Romans 12:1-2. In my search, I was struck by a hymn that I came across in the Trinity Hymnal: "Take Thou Our Minds, Dear Lord" #593. Each stanza elaborates on offering what Jesus commands in the great commandment: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

The great difficulty was that much of the language was fairly archaic (which is surprising since it was written at the end of World War I). I don't mind a few uses of "thee" and "thou" in hymns--especially those that many people know by heart--but I am also of the mind and heart that it is helpful to gently nudge a text into modern vernacular to enable worshipers to enter into singing without the distraction of getting their tongues around Victorian language.

But this posed a dilemma: the first line of every stanza is "Take Thou..." Not only that, but other phrases struggled to come off my lips. It took me several readings to really get it. (Yes, I realize that this is the mark of good poetry, but it's also the mark of outdated modes of phrasing.)

Before I started altering the hymn, I realized I should have my melody picked out, since I may have to work at making the stanzas musically fit the phrasing. Since I was not familiar with the tune that it is paired with in the Trinity, I made a quick visit to the metrical index. This pointed me to the tune EVENTIDE, used with the widely known "Abide With Me." (I would classify any hymn as widely known if it gets sung by Elton John on the telley). This is a beautiful melody in my opinion, one which translates well into a variety of musical idioms. I found a folk rendition of the tune, sung by Tom Kimmel, with guitar, fiddle, and female harmony, and got the arrangement settled on the page before adding the words. (The nice thing about using strong, familiar melodies is that once I've written an arrangement, I can use it again for other texts. Case in point: this Sunday, we're singing the melody ODE TO JOY from Beethoven's 9th to the text "Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee," which we also use for "God All Nature Sings Thy Glory.")

The result is what I now title "Take Now Our Minds," which you'll find presented below. See what you think; I'll allow you to do the work of comparing the original text to the new text. As this is my first shot at really updating a hymn, I will likely find things to change in the future, but I hope that it'll hold up when we sing it this Sunday. Note that I didn't erase every use of "Thee": at the end of the first stanza, I'd have to change the rhyme scheme of the previous line in order to extricate it.

To include a little bit of history for the hymn, at least its writer: William Hiram Foulkes was the son of a Welsh minister in the Presbyterian Church. He grew up in New York State, trained at a seminary in Ohio, and ended up in Salina, KS as a Presbyterian minister. He later founded the Grand View Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, KS, which is a congregation that worship to this today. You can see a more complete biography here.

Take Now Our Minds

Take now our minds, O Father, as we pray,
Give us the mind of Christ each passing day;
Teach us to know the truth that sets us free;
Grant us in all our thoughts to honor Thee.

Take now our hearts, O Christ—they are Your own;
Come in our souls each day and claim Your throne;
Help us to spread abroad Your deathless love;
Use us to make the earth like heaven above.

Take now our wills, O Spirit hold full sway;
Have in our inmost souls Your perfect way;
Guard us each sacred hour from selfish ease;
Guide all our daily lives as You would please.

Take all our lives: our hearts, our minds, our wills;
Through our surrendered souls Your plans fulfill.
We yield ourselves: our time, our talents, all;
We hear, and choose to heed, Your gracious call.

Words: William H. Foulkes, 1918; alt. 2009. Music: EVENTIDE, William H. Monk, 1861. © 2009 Luke W. Brodine.

look! new links!!

2009-01-26T14:45:00.003-08:00

I updated the links to the right...... yeah, to the right of this page........ that way----------->

a minor commentary on the updates:

Bro Chateau - our house blog, where we document family life... trying to keep 'raresunshine' to arts and worship now
Drew Field - Grace Church's senior pastor... thoughts on ministry in Silicon Valley
Liturgy Fellowship - group of worship musicians being connectional... lots of great music to be found (at least where links are possible)

(note: if you're viewing on a blog reader, you won't see the links... they're over on the blog itself)

moved by music - Fleet Foxes

2009-01-19T12:37:00.004-08:00

I'm a little behind the curve, but I just picked up the Fleet Foxes LP. brilliant vocal harmonies, broad arrangements, tight performance, and all from a bunch of teenagers (or at least they're still pretty young). if you haven't heard them yet, here's one of their songs from last Saturday's episode of Saturday Night Live.

typically, SNL performances stink. I mean, really really stink. to begin with, a TV studio has to be a tough place to play. I give it to the bands that it is hard to pop into the middle of sketch comedy show and play cold to an audience that isn't there just to see them perform. on top of that, the sound mixing is horrendous: typically the lead vocalist, guitarist, and drummer are the only audible musicians. (when I was in college, they released a series of CDs of SNL live performances, and a professor quipped about who would want to listen to recordings that were so poor to begin with!) I can count on one hand the number of good performances that I've seen on SNL (and U2 holds all of those positions). if you want a good example of a good recording artist gone bad on SNL, just check out this recent one from Kanye West.

but I have to say, this performance by Fleet Foxes was great! I could wax on more about this, but I'll let this clip speak for itself.

hymn backgrounds - "How Great Thou Art"

2009-01-15T14:21:00.003-08:00

this Sunday, the song opening the worship at Grace Presbyterian will be "How Great Thou Art". I was already familiar with the recent history of this song: one of the most popular Gospel songs of the 20th century, popularized during the height of the Billy Graham Crusades. As I was scouring the internet to find the lyrics to place in Power Point, I found a little bit more about the background, which is quite fascinating.

Briefly, it was originally a poem by a Swedish minister, written during the late 19th century. It was later picked up by churches and sung to a traditional Swedish folk tune. In the 1920s, a missionary in Eastern Europe, Stuart Kine, heard the song and "translated" it into English. I put that in scare quotes because it is a rough rendering and rethinking of the original text. It was then picked up by Edwin Orr, a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, in the late 1940s. From there, it was passed along to Manna Music, Inc., who purchased the publishing rights from Stuart Kine.

The song covers a number of themes--of creation and redemption--and then returns to the refrain as a moment of reflection upon the truths just sung. What is most fascinating are two verses that have been translated into English, but have never appeared in a hymnal that I have come across. I find them interesting because these verses go off into different themes not covered in the other verses. I believe that if sung in its entirety--all 6 verses--there would be way too much to ponder. This lack of thematic directness differentiates "How Great Thou Art" from hymns, in the strictest sense, and drops it into the category of Gospel Song.

This Sunday we will sing just 2 verses of the 4 printed in the Trinity Hymnal. I picked these as they are in my opinion the most concise, keeping this song as to the point as possible. The arrangement is a version of Paul Baloche's recent recording of the tune; I have posted a video for it below, along with a few links to further information on the history of the song and the many men that it took to bring it to the present form we sing today.

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"How Great Thou Art" (includes all verses in English) – Wikipedia
Carl Boberg, Swedish author - Wikipedia
Manna Music's article

ESV Study Bible Online!

2009-01-12T10:23:00.002-08:00

I recently got a copy of the ESV Study Bible, which is a fantastic resource and a welcome addition to my "Library of Regular Requirement" as I've been using the NIV Study Bible for a number of years now. The text notes are fascinating, and there are gobs of articles to benefit any reading of the Bible, but I think that the greatest thing is that it is all accessible online! You do have to purchase a copy of the physical Study Bible to get the access code, but it's worth it. Now I can keep it at home and still acess it at work.

I find that as I prepare worship, a Study Bible really helps for quickly getting into the passage at hand, whether being used as a prayer or for the sermon, and it aids me as a launching point for picking songs and adding other elements to the liturgy. I still love the tactile satisfaction of turning the pages and the auditory joy of crinkling the paper, but being able to click, click, click and get where I'm going is a huge asset!

If you already have a copy but haven't gotten online with it, don't waste another second. Do it right now! No really, get going!!

Most listened albums in 2008

2008-12-30T08:29:00.002-08:00

Yesterday I posted a short list of my favorite albums that I listened to in 2008. In the name of scientific inquiry, I thought I'd post my 20 most played albums of 2008, by means of my Last.fm account, which tracks every play on my iTunes and iPod playlists. Though not completely accurate since it doesn't track listens outside of those sources (i.e. CD players), I found it quite interesting. After you peruse this list, check out Last.fm's Best of 2008 list, which tracks the most played albums/tracks/artists of 2008, purely by the numbers. Quite interesting. Happy Listening in 2009!

1	Andrew Peterson – Behold the Lamb of God	158
2	Sufjan Stevens – Illinois	155
3	Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days	149
4	The Weepies – Say I Am You	137
5	Nick Drake – Pink Moon	130
6	The Welcome Wagon – Welcome To The Welcome Wagon	109
7	Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago	103
8	Sandra McCracken – The Builder and the Architect	100
8	José González – In Our Nature	100
10	Death Cab for Cutie – Plans	99
11	Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs	97
12	Sun Kil Moon – Tiny Cities	90
13	Over the Rhine – The Darkest Night of the Year	88
13	John Fahey – The New Possibility: John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Album/Christmas With John…	88
13	Thao – We Brave Bee Stings And All	88
16	Josh Ritter – The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter	86
17	Cat Stevens – Gold	84
18	Hem – Rabbit Songs	79
19	Abigail Washburn – Song of the Traveling Daughter	78
19	Over the Rhine – Ohio	78

Favorite Albums in 2008

2008-12-29T17:19:00.003-08:00

without much pomp or explanation, here are the records I liked in '08. not everything was released this year; to make the list, the album had to have come into my collection in the last 12 months.

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - The Swell Season
Thao - We Brave Be Stings And All
The Dodos - Visiter
Sun Kil Moon - Tiny Cities
The Welcome Wagon - Welcome To...
Vampire Weekend
John Doyle & Liz Carroll - In Play
Sam Phillips - Fan Dance, A Boot and a Shoe
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss (& T-Bone Burnett) - Raising Sand
Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures
Hem - Rabbit Songs
The Avett Brothers - Gleam EPs 1 & 2
Ben Sollee - Learning To Bend
Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs

"this is where I'm from..."

2008-11-11T09:23:00.003-08:00

whenever we travel or move to a new place, I enjoy finding movies and TV shows that were filmed on location in the place to where we are headed. I'll peruse IMDB for an evening and try to find movies that I've already seen or ones that I can easily rent. I've even gone as far as holding a hometown movie night with some RUFers in Seattle (we watched Singles and Say Anything, for those of you keeping score).

as we moved to the Bay Area, it wasn't too difficult to find movies filmed in San Francisco. we've watched Harold & Maude, Escape To Witch Mountain, Vertigo, The Presidio, and Time After Time. new ones keep popping up all the time!

last night while Sarah was at Bible study, I watched a James Bond film that I don't remember seeing as a child (the sheer fact alone floored me since I thought I'd seen them all). A View To A Kill was the final 007 role for Roger Moore, and starred Christopher Walken as the villain along with a handful of forgetable Bond girls. About halfway through the film I'm wondering, "What on earth is this movie about? And what does the title have anything to do with the movie besides the horrible theme song performed by Duran Duran?" Within a few frames, Walken gave the answer: he was going to destroy Silicon Valley so that his microchip company could take over as the top producer in the expanding computer market of the mid-1980s! He ham-fistededly recites the title as his blimp hovers over the Golden Gate Bridge and he gazes at the San Francisco skyline.

as much of a flop as this film was, the second half redeemed itself based solely on its location. There were great shots of not only the city, but the lower half of the peninsula, which doesn't get as much air time usually. There was even a "diabolical scheme" map that demonstrated what would happen if there was a double earthquake and the entire area were flooded! Now that I've lived here nearly 6 months and have spent time in the city, it's really a lot of fun to catch glimpses of places I've been, perhaps catching a perspective I haven't seen or even pointing out a continuity issue ("how on earth did they get from Lombard Street to the East Bay in two turns?!?")

what are some movies that you've watched that included a place you were familiar with, either as a hometown or a place you've visited? what was it like to see the filmmaker's perspective of a place you know so well?

a happy halloween beat box moment

2008-10-23T10:33:00.004-07:00

Thanks to my DVR, yesterday I was able to witness for the first time the wonderful Yo Gabba Gabba. Rather than attempt to explain it's amazing goodness (which you can glean a little from here), I wish you a Happy Halloween by way of the one and only Biz Markie.

fernando ortega on pop and theology

2008-10-02T10:42:00.002-07:00

(I can't claim this post as my own... I read it over at The Rabbit Room, a blog community hosted by singer/songwriter Andrew Peterson. Typically, I would just stick this in my "Shared Items" in the toolbar to the right of this window, but this quote seemed way too good to simply stick in the corner)

The interviewer asked Fernando Ortega about what he thought of the commercialization of Christian music. Here’s what he said:

“Well, I think that most of today’s Christian music is based on a thin premise. When you take a pop song and weigh it down with the gospel it sort of cheapens both. The theology is too heavy for the song, and the song usually ends up being too light for the theology. Often I feel like you end up with some sort of fuzzy Christian propaganda that doesn’t do music or the gospel any justice. That’s why I like hymns so much. The early fathers wrote many of the texts to hymns that we sing today. I like that they attach us to our Christian history and remind us of what in our faith is worth preserving. Hymns were written by theologians, not pop stars, and that is why when they are sung, we so tangibly feel the weight of glory.”

And that’s why we love Fernando.

Here’s the link to the rest of the interview.

'new' psalm

2008-09-29T10:48:00.002-07:00

this is a new rendering of Psalm 139, one of my favorites. I really like this take on the Scripture, and it doesn't hurt that it's also an Irish melody!

moved by music

2008-09-25T10:06:00.005-07:00

Through my listening, I come across a broad variety of music, not just in style but also in quality of both performance and engineering. It might be possible to become really jaded listening to and analyzing a lot of music, but I find that listening in this way allows me to be more moved by truly sublime recordings and performances.

Here are my most recent interests:

José González - not a new listen, but I saw this Sweedish artist (born to Argentinian parents) perform last night in Oakland for the first time. partly because of the venue (Yoshi's, a high quality, intimate jazz club, with a top notch Sushi restaurant attached), partly because of the company (Sarah and I joined the Martins for sushi and music), this was a great night already. but there's something otherworldly about González's voice and guitar playing. the recordings do him complete justice as an artist, so I recommend getting those, but don't miss him live.

John Doyle & Liz Carroll, In Play - I first heard Doyle on Masters of the Irish Guitar, and he stood out to me, apart from the others on the CD, as having a very clear sense of style amidst the brilliant speed and technique with which he played. a few weeks ago I decided to see what he was like as an accompanist and not as a purely solo act. This recording is just fiddle and guitar, all the way through, but is fantastic. It hasn't gotten old yet. The engineering is flawless but doesn't get in the way of truly great performances. As the cover art suggests, the album sounds as if they were seated around a table, as many sessions tend to be, spent over a Guiness or Bass, but without the distracting sounds of breaking glass and drunken moans in the background.

Charlie Haden - I've probably heard Haden play more than I realize; he's one of the top jazz bassists playing today. Sarah brought to my attention an NPR Weekend Edition story on a new bluegrass album that he produced with family and friends called Rambling Boy. A fun mix of bluegrass and jazz, the album includes performances from Pat Methany, Elvis Costello, Bruce Hornsby, and Jack Black (Haden's son-in-law... yes, the Nacho Libre). A highlight so far is the beautifully mourning "Spiritual", written and performed by Haden's son Josh. (also check out renderings of this song done by Johnny Cash and Pat Methany)

I could write about many many more things, but I should leave you with that for now. Perhaps this coul become a regular column.

what we've been up to since moving to the west coast

2008-08-25T22:46:00.001-07:00

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here there and everywhere

2008-08-11T09:28:00.004-07:00

Sarah and I have been exploring the area lately. for our anniversary, we spent 2 nights in San Francisco, eating and walking and exploring and having a great time. we highly recommend picking up a copy of the SF Lonely Planet Guide if you're in the area; we failed to be disappointed by any of its recommendations. our one recommendation: bring your hiking shoes.

last night, we trekked over to North Oakland to visit friends who were in town for the weekend. the Bay Area is so vast and diverse, it's going to take a long time to really see it all. last night, we returned home by way of the Bay Bridge, which connects Oakland and San Francisco. we crossed at dusk, watching the sun die behind the fog enveloping Alcatraz Island, Golden Gate Bridge, and the Transamerica Building. iPod's shuffle feature finally did something proper and brought up Sufjan Steven's paean to the wonder of new life and the city, "Chicago". a beautiful exclamation point for a few chances to explore the area.

ps. I don't use 'exclamation point' lightly as I am reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves at the moment, but I'll post about that later.

"Farewell, My Lovely": a quick review

2008-07-25T16:15:00.001-07:00

Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
PI Philip Marlowe never better...

On my list of books to read and then see the movie.

The story has actually been made a film 3 times; the 2nd one seems to be the "original" film, and easiest to find to rent. Misguidingly titled "Murder, My Sweet", it took me a little work to find it, but it's sitting in my queue at the moment.

Prediction: book will be far and away better. It was made early in the era of Film Noir, a genre that was still trying to figure out its style. Though based on strong material, it's likely that the producers decided to lighten it up--in dialogue, in mystery, in sin--for the sake of reaching greater audiences.

View all my reviews.

take me out to the ballgame

2008-07-15T10:09:00.002-07:00

in honor of tonight's all-star game, here's a little sing-a-long from Chris Thile and friends, The Punch Brothers.

close call

2008-07-15T09:52:00.004-07:00

whew, good news. we're not losing any local Starbucks in Silicon Valley, at least in the first wave, which is a relief since I don't know whether or not I could survive if I had to walk a few more yards to another coffee shop, likely another Starbucks.

and a shout out to the SC... that is, the real SC. congrats on not losing any! :)

won't you be my neighbor?

2008-06-23T11:09:00.002-07:00

do you know your neighbors? should we institute "sleep overs" to get to know them?

read here

great article.

sarah's been bloggin'

2008-06-19T07:48:00.003-07:00

lots of things going on, and Sarah's been keeping the web up to date on all the news that's fit to print. go visit her photo update at sardineink.blogspot.com

14 days on the ground

2008-06-03T10:57:00.002-07:00

things have been coming together in the past few days here in partly sunny California.

our POD was delivered and unloaded on Friday, so we now have an apartment full of boxes. eating cereal out of a real bowl never tasted so wonderful!

on the same day, we purchased a car from a private party. I have to say that dealing with car dealers was an ordeal. we are now driving a silver 1996 Volvo 850 Turbo Wagon with 127k miles. it needs a little bit of work, but for the price we got it at, we can afford to do a few things to keep it running. once we get those things fixed, my hope is to drive to the coast to watch the sunset, or at least drive up and down it a few times.

we're getting to know our neighbors, for better and worse. it seems that the walls and ceilings are paper thin, so we're having to adjust to living with shared surfaces, a bit of an adjustment after 3 years in a free-standing home. one of our neighbors is a couple with a baby boy. the other day we were loading up the car and heard bluegrass music being pumped out their front door. then we heard a mandolin, which sounded like it was being played live. we popped our heads in and discovered that the husband was playing along, entertaining his son. hopefully we'll have a chance to jam before too long (though they're hitting the road for 5 weeks to head back east to visit family, so maybe it'll be in July when that happens).

last night we went to an Oakland Athletics game. we watched from a pretty incredible vantage point in dead center from a luxury box. they put the Detroit Tigers to bed in the bottom of the 9th. I honestly have a little bit of a struggle cheering for any team in Oakland having grown up a Kansas City Royals and Chiefs fan. I think as far as baseball, I won't have much trouble migrating my allegiance to the A's, though I'll probably still cheer for the Royals when they're in town (July 28-30 this year). but I don't know if I'll ever become a Raiders fan, with the longstanding rivalry they've had with the Chiefs. then again, being an NFL fan on the West Coast if pretty difficult if you go to church in the morning, missing the first game and barely making it home for the second one.

plenty more to write here, so I'll try to keep things updated. be sure to check out Sarah's blog because she's starting to post there, too: http://sardineink.blogspot.com

moving in

2008-05-25T09:08:00.003-07:00

there are many many things that I could write about our move this week to California, so here are a few nuggets:

we got the keys to our apartment. it's a 1 bedroom place in Menlo Park. we're 2 blocks from a Peet's Coffee, and there are 3 supermarkets in walking distance. we're also close to Stanford's campus and 3.4 miles from the Grace Pres. office.
unfortunately, our apartment is still quite empty. everything had gone smoothly with PODs for shipping our things out here, until I got the call last week that it would be May 30th when they could deliver it. yes, one week after I had originally scheduled it. rather than letting our spirits down, this gave us the opportunity to camp out in the apartment! we're borrowing an air mattress and are eating off of paper plates. fortunately, there's a WiFi signal here, otherwise I'd be freaking out!
we've been car shopping, test driving all sorts of "pre-owned" vehicles. most salesmen have not defied our expectations, and we've driven some really great cars, but also a few stinkers (literally). trying to narrow down "what we want" and "what we can afford" still.
we're off to church in less than an hour, and I'll start work on Tuesday. we've already had a couple of great nights of fellowship, and we've been invited to a Memorial Day BBQ. the weather is rather cool, which is really nice except in the morning when we can't bundle up enough since our "not summer" clothes are in the POD! hopefully tomorrow we'll have a chance to go for a hike or drive to the coast, getting out of the city for a little break.

I'll try to post photos soon. thank you all for your prayers in getting us out here safely!

t-minus 14 days and counting...

2008-05-07T05:05:00.002-07:00

many of you know that things are about to really change around the Brodine house. I've taken a position as the Music Director of Grace Presbyterian Church of the Silicon Valley, based in Palo Alto, CA. if you're unfamiliar with the left coast, Palo Alto is 30 miles (or is it minutes?) south of San Francisco, is the college town connected to Stanford University, and is the hub for one of the biggest technology centers in the world.

graduation is the 18th, and Sarah and I will be on a plane bound for Cali on the 21st. I begin my position on the 27th and lead music on June 1st.

if you're interested in learning a little bit about Grace Pres, you can visit their website:

http://www.gracepres.com

new photo gallery and editing site

2008-04-01T05:59:00.002-07:00

I just found out about this great new site from Adobe, the guys who brought you the powerful Photoshop application (among many other things).

Adobe Photoshop Express is a powerful yet intuitive site for uploading photos for editing and sharing with all. nowhere near the power of its full-fledged parent software, it holds one key advantage: it's free!

check out our new gallery: http://lukeandsarah.photoshop.com

am I back in high school?

2008-04-01T05:55:00.002-07:00

2 of my favorite bands during high school were R.E.M. and Counting Crows. over the years their greatness has waned, but now they're releasing albums receiving high acclaim. am I caught in some kind of time warp? 15 years ago these guys were big and now they're getting big again.

I guess the only difference is that now I don't have the expendable income to actually buy their albums. guess I'll have to enjoy what I can on the radio and XM.

2008-03-24T09:29:00.002-07:00

things have been crazy hectic lately. working in reverse:

Monday - right now I'm catching up on 2 weeks of email and work related items. currently listening to the new Sun Kil Moon record on their MySpace Page; brilliant stuff.
Saturday - I got back from skiing 3 days with my family, while Sarah stayed home and continued to recover (she's doing a lot better!).
Wednesday-Friday - got my ski legs back; finished reading Cool It!; filled out job paperwork; got call from Onyx that all the data on my computer can recovered for a mere $800; philosophical debate over question "are my MP3s, Seminary notes and papers, music charts, pictures from the last 6 months worth $800?"
Tuesday - before leaving Atlanta for Colorado, I dropped off my 8-month-old MacBook to get the hard drive worked on (only one week earlier, I had the battery replaced... could things get any worse?)
Monday (St. Pat's) - I played with Emerald Road twice: at lunch for the entire crowd of Clemson Elementary students and teachers; at early dinner at Fitzpatrick's Irish Pub in Greenville. great gigs both of them. will miss this.
Sunday - frantically tried to figure out life without access to my computer: can't print Tuesday's test; can't print e-Tickets; can't update my iPod with the podcasts I need to prepare to teach Sunday school the next week (later found that my iPod is also dead)
Saturday - take care of Sarah; trying to keep up with my workload, I sit down to do one more chart for Sandra McCracken before watching Half Nelson with Sarah; perhaps 10 minutes within finishing the chart, my computer crashes; I make feeble attempts to fix it; no luck; watch movie, go to bed, try not to think of impending doom of data loss
Friday - take Sarah to have her gall bladder removed; I play Scrabble in the waiting room with my mother-in-law; surgery is successful; run into Greg Thompson in the parking lot; Sarah sleeps most of the day, I work from home; starting research for Ethics paper on environmental ethics

sorry about that Memento-style post (or maybe more like the Seinfeld episode, "The Betrayal"). sometimes that's the best way to decompress. it's also an interesting way to study history, learning the effects first so the cause can be much better understood. when I took European History as a High School Sophomore, my teacher took this approach. I had trouble staying awake in Mr. Forbes' class, despite the arctic setting of his thermostat and his use of a yard stick to emphasize certain points on the board. I love history, but maybe on my own terms. anyways, what stuck with me from his class was that "history in reverse" mentality.

sometimes when we look at things way in the past, we have no context for how it has effected our present state. when I was a baby Christian, I didn't understand most of the Old Testament. I think many people are confused by it, even into later stages of their Christian maturity. things have come into much clearer focus in recent years, moreso every time I go through the OT. the Sunday School class I'm facilitating is on the subject of Biblical Theology. we've been making our way from Genesis all the way to Revelation, look at the themes of Kingdom, Covenant, and Mediator, seeing the unity in all of Scripture. right now we're in the Prophets. better understanding the Prophets and the rest of the Old Testament has really brought the New Testament into clearer focus. without it, the Resurrection, which we just celebrated yesterday on Easter, seems kind of out of place. why did Jesus have to live on earth? why did he die? why does he live again?

wow, how did I get that off track? stream of consciousness can be fun.

anyways, if you got this far, please hear my plea:

now that my hard drive has been replaced, I have no one's contact information... I repeat, "no one". please please please send me your email address, phone #, and street address. I probably don't have your new information as it is, so take this as an excuse to update Sarah and me on your life. our lives are about the drastically change, and we'll fill you in on those details as they become less hazy.
email me: luke [dot] brodine [at] gmail [dot] com

emerald road

2008-03-05T17:44:00.004-08:00

realizing that I haven't posted in, oh, over 3 months, I figure it's impossible to catch you all up on what I've been up to. let alone the thousand and one ideas to post that I've had to leave by the wayside.

but the major thing that I've been working on is a new album with my Irish/Celtic Folk Band, Emerald Road. We just got it back from the manufacturers last week and have already sold over 200 copies! it kind of helped that we had 3 concerts this weekend with the Anderson Symphony Orchestra.

we have a few places on the internet that you can visit to hear some of our music, find out about shows, and (soon) order a copy for yourself at the low price of $5 (+ shipping and handling).

pick your poison:
Official Website: www.emeraldroad.net
MySpace: www.myspace.com/emeraldroad
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Emerald-Road/21822600744

Thanksgiving in Pendleton

2007-11-23T15:25:00.001-08:00

we hosted a large Thanksgiving gathering this year at our home in Pendleton. below are a few photos from the day.

Table set

Cornhole out back
(Neal, Jeff, Andrew)

Michael and Will

Let's eat!

Game Time

remodeling update

2007-11-23T15:14:00.000-08:00

just in time for Thanksgiving, our new bathroom is all finished! all that's left are the finishing artistic touches.

and just in time for a cold snap, our new front door is installed. next step is to pick out paint colors.

music updates

2007-11-12T06:14:00.001-08:00

my music production has been minimal as of late, mainly working on little things here and there at the church. here is a short list of things that are out there on the web that I haven't posted on here yet (I think):

Luke Morton, No More To Fear - Luke and I worked together for RUF in Seattle, and we produced Rare Sunshine together. Toward the end of my time there, he began work on a solo project of his hymn rewrites, and I had the pleasure of adding a few piano tracks. One of those cuts is available on his MySpace page; the track is called "Sins Underfoot". http://www.myspace.com/lukemortonmusic
Red Mountain Music, This Breaks My Heart of Stone - Red Mountain out of Birmingham, AL is one of the leading groups doing hymn rewrites at the moment; I think that their amount of output is second to none. I've gotten to know them through a few sources, let alone the fact that they've employed the talents of friends of mine from days gone by (Irwin, you know I'm talkin' bout ya!). For their latest album, I engineered a vocal track for them with Matthew Terrell singing. Matt has sung on their albums before, but was unable to meet up with them, so I stepped in with microphone in hand to save the day. This past August (?) Matt came over and sang in my closet. You can hear the results on their page; the song is #7 "God of My Life, To Thee I Call". http://www.redmountainchurch.org/rmm/alb/tbmhos.html
Indelible Grace, Wake Thy Slumbering Children - In the past, I've played accordion for a few Indelible Grace tracks. I've kept up with Kevin and the group by transcribing the new songs for songbooks and the RUF Hymnbook website. The new album is about ready to drop, and I'm working at the moment on getting the lead sheets ready. http://www.igracemusic.com

new bathroom

2007-11-10T12:42:00.001-08:00

we've started adding a bathroom... at least, we've hired a contractor who is doing it for us. we're turning a closet into a 2nd bathroom, closing up the old door and knocking out a new one so we can enter it from the kitchen/sun room. here's pictures of the progress thus far:

the first step: removing the door and cabinets

next step: cutting the new door and framing the new wall

next step: removing the window and placing insulation

latest progress: tiled floors, painted walls

october day... finally

2007-10-22T11:42:00.000-07:00

it's a good day for listening to R.E.M., the quintessential autumnal soundtrack. the rain has come, making it finally the right weather for a fleece vest. coffee drinking is a must.

we saw Over the Rhine with Rosie Thomas in Greenville at the Handlebar on Friday night. quality acts; check them out. looking forward to Nov. 10 at the Handlebar - Derek & Sandra as early show; Nickel Creek as late show. unbelievable.

Saturday I DJed a 30th birthday party for a friend of ours. had a blast recalling the hits of the 70s and 80s... well, most of them at least. it's been a long time since I did that sort of thing; makes me wish I could do it more often. broke out the DJ mixer and the tapes; things made a lot easier with iTunes and a wireless connection, making any request possible!

let it fall

2007-09-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

used as a metaphor, RAIN is typically used by songwriters to express

tears
sadness
loneliness

why isn't rain ever used to express joy?

we speak of water as being refreshing.

how about the amazing fact that refreshment falls from the sky?

we speak of water as being cleansing.

what about cleansing floods from gray skies?

we speak of water as being nourishing.

what about the renewal of the earth that doesn't rely on man's caretaking?

that's my deep thought for the day while sitting at Jittery Joe's, watching the rain coming down through large plate glass windows, the first sign that fall is arriving (today's high = 93; tomorrow's high = 80), and the first substantial rain we've had in a long time (drought conditions are everywhere we look - brown grass, yellowing leaves, clay dusty everything)

flannery o'connor on belief and fiction

2007-09-05T13:08:00.000-07:00

Over at desiringgod.org, Abraham Piper posted a great article dealing with the Evangelical approach to art, which he deems typically pragmatic. This sentiment states, "If I can't figure out it's meaning or if the meaning is something I don't agree with, then it is bad art." This approach fills nearly every shelf of your local Christian bookstore (there are some exceptions, Logos Bookstore in Nashville and Harvest Logos in Seattle (no connection between them, I checked)).

The guiding premise for Piper's article is the work of Flannery O'Connor, the Roman Catholic author who composed her novels and short stories because of her faith. Her writing gives readers a new perspective on faith; not a wrong/different one from Orthodox Christianity, but one that could not be achieved by the propositional approaches that fill our bookstores.

As a musician, I struggle with this balance of writing what I see in the world. Does it have to be only about Christian subjects? Or can I write about the world with my understanding of it being illuminated by the Light of the World? Here's O'Connor:

Now none of this is to say that when you write a story, you are supposed to forget or give up on any moral position that you hold. Your beliefs will be the light by which you see, but they will not be what you see and they will not be a substitute for seeing.

That's a good statement to close on.

singing the blues in church

2007-08-20T06:01:00.000-07:00

Visiting a church a few weeks ago, the service was called together with a statement that I have let slip from lips at times in the past, but now I struggle with its validity. "As we come to worship this morning, leave your burdens at the door. This is the time that we've come to worship God." I believe the sentiment is "leave your distractions at the door," which I'm sure some parents would love to do by leaving their kids out there, or at least the people sitting behind them wish that they would leave their distractions at the door. But to leave your burdens out of worship? Why on earth would you tell someone to do that? I guess you won't be able to use Isaiah 55 as a call to worship or sing Come, Ye Sinners in your service. There's no reason to deal with your sin in worship, I guess.

I am now of the belief that worship encompasses all of life, and our Sunday morning time of gathering as a congregation should have a taste of all of life: joy, tears, dancing, confessing, struggles, triumphs. All of this must be tempered by the grace and mercy of the God who has called us to his doorstep in the first place.

Do our worship services encompass all of life? The Psalms certainly do. The rest of the Scriptures certainly do. The result of our worship should be joy and comfort, but that doesn't mean that we should avoid dealing with the rougher edges of life. Worship leaders should be teaching their congregations how to sing the Hallelujah Chorus alongside the Blues. I came across this article by Scoti Old on CCLI's website recently, "Singing the Blues In Church".

Singing the blues in church is a matter of honesty. So many of us come to church with a big load of troubles. We want to lay them down in God's presence, spread them out in God's sight and know that He takes them up and sometimes does away with them. We need to be open about our sins, open to God, at least, and we need to hear a word of forgiveness about those sins.

America's Next Top Pastor

2007-08-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

paper finished

2007-08-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

I was able to resurrect my laptop long enough to drag the important files off yesterday. I finished the paper last night before 10, and was able to make on last proofread before sending it in this morning.

guess this means I'll be in the market for a new laptop sooner than I expected. oh well...

dead laptop

2007-07-30T19:56:00.001-07:00

so I'm up late, and my laptop has died. this normally wouldn't be a problem except for the following:

I'm trying to finish a term paper to turn in by Wednesday
It's the longest paper I've ever had to write, and it's almost finished
I drank 2 cups of Earl Grey Tea, enough to keep me awake till at least midnight to keep working
The laptop died at 10:30 pm

All of this adds up to being wide awake with words on the mind and only a hunk of plastic and wires to show for it, while slowly hearing the seconds tick away on the nearby clock. I can likely remedy the problem, but I'm not in the mood for a headache. . . at least not a bigger headache.

If all else fails, I providentially copied my file to a thumb drive before I broke for dinner. I can recover with that, and only lose about 2 hours of edits. At least, I hope that it hasn't died as well.

28

2007-07-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

28 facts about the number 28:

1. Roman Numeral = XXVIII
2. Number of days in the shortest month, February
3. Years normally follow a 28 year cycle; the year 28 years ago should have the same calendar as this year (but this is broken by 2000)
4. Number of letters in the Danish, Swedish, Arabic, and Esperanto Alphabets
5. Part of several movie titles: 28 Days, 28 Days Later, and 28 Weeks Later
6. Number of Dominoes in a standard set
7. Number of Human Teeth (not including wisdom teeth)
8. Postal Code for Madrid, Spain
9. Number of Chapters in the Book of Acts
10. Length of time in years that a copyright would last in the early part of the 20th Century (pre-1964); could be renewed for another 28 years before a work would become public domain
11. Jersey Number worn by Seattle Mariner Raul Ibanez (formerly a player for the Kansas City Royals)
12. President: Woodrow Wilson
13. Vice President: Thomas R. Marshall
14. State to join the Union: Texas (1845)
15. Street in NYC has 3 local subway stations
16. Number of the next amendment to the US Constitution (none pending)
17. The number itself is a Perfect Number, where all of its divisors added together equal the number itself (1+2+4+7+14=28)
18. Atomic number of Nickel (Ni)
19. Number of years it approximately takes for the planet Saturn to revolve around the earth
20. Opus for Fredric Chopin's 24 Preludes
21. Name of a band located in Cape Cod, Mass.
22. Rank of Billy Joel's "My Life" on the Billboard Top 100 in 1979 (my birth year)
23. Rank of Otis Redding's song "(Sittin On) The Dock of the Bay" on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Songs List
24. Rank of The Who's album "Who's Next" on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums List
25. Rank of Britney Spears' album "...Baby One More Time" on the Best-selling Albums in the US List (14 times platinum)
26. Rank of the film "Apocalypse Now" on the AFI 100 Greatest American Movies List
27. Rank of the film "The Empire Strikes Back" on the All Time Top US Grossing Films List
28. Episode Number of The Office show titled "Casino Night", the second season finale

And one to grow on... Number of candles on my cake last week

$600/pound coffee?

2007-07-16T09:44:00.000-07:00

I don't recommend serving this at your next party, unless it's a party of your enemies.

Indonesia's kopi luwak is a rare delicacy of peculiar provenance -- beans plucked from the droppings of wild civets.
Read more here.

umm, what can I say

2007-07-12T09:35:00.000-07:00

I was on iTunes today, looking to see how popular the Clemson Presbyterian Podcast was. turns out that it's the first choice that comes up if you search "clemson" in the iTunes store.

but that's not the crazy part.

just looking to see who else we were competing with in the search, I found TIGEROAR, a men's a Capella group at Clemson University. they were on some "best of college a Capella" compilation the past few years doing vocal-only takes on modern pop songs. (side note: I can't say that I am fan of this style, but it is a fun tradition around these parts)

I was interested in seeing what songs constitute a "best of" in this category. turns out, amongst covers of Maroon 5, Sarah McLachlan, and Matchbox 20, was a cover of none other than the Christian folk all-star himself ... Derek Webb!

I can't tell you how it made me feel to hear "Somewhere North of Here" as performed by the Dartmouth Aires. why not go listen to it for yourself?

not much in the way of commentary on my part, but I will say that I never thought I'd hear a Derek Webb song receive this sort of arrangement.

"no, Derek, tell us how you really feel..."

massive youtube upload

2007-07-05T13:46:00.000-07:00

in June, I spent a few weeks in Flat Rock, NC, as program manager for some youth conferences. among my duties, I made videos... a lot of videos... that were supposed to make sleepy middle schoolers laugh out loud at 9:00 in the morning... still unable to figure out how to do that, we came up with a series of spoofs of MTV Reality Shows, so at least the leaders could laugh at their childhood... here are links if you want to see them all, including a Chuck Norris training video, but here is our take on The Real World.

2007-06-28T07:07:00.000-07:00

June has been crazy hectic. I have some things brewing that I'm going to post here, but in the meantime, I'll post what someone else has already said better.

Part of my recent work has been for our Worship Team Sunday School class; quick teaching bits with a good bit of discussion. Recently I've been talking about how idolatry can sneak into our worship. This week we're talking about Worship Styles, so please pray for me as I prepare to touch this extremely sensitive wound in the Church today; pray that I might lend ointment to our discussion and not lemon juice.
I've been reading Bob Kauflin's blog a lot recently; his posts have gotten me started on a number of Sunday School lessons already. This past week he talked about that great debate about using the dreaded "personal pronoun" in our worship. In response he talks about the objective, subjective, and reflective aspects of our worship. You can read the whole post yourself, but here's a pithy remark to end my post:

A lot of times I see churches react to a perceived imbalance and end up being unbalanced themselves - either all emotion or all theology. God wants us to enjoy both. Our songs should reflect the passionate God-centeredness of the Psalms, filled with emotion, struggle, and personal language, but leaving no doubt as to the Creator-Redeemer around whom everything revolves. Praise God, there are an increasing number of songs, both old and new, that help us the balance in tension.

summer plans

2007-05-31T14:54:00.000-07:00

back from memorial day weekend, I'm getting started on my summer schedule. through August I will be consumed with an online course on Christian Education, improving my internship at Clemson Presbyterian, and teaching myself Latin so I can teach it to a group of home schoolers beginning in the fall. in between, I will be interrupted by regular yard work (but not much if the drought continues), a 2-week stint at Bon Clarken for youth conferences (ARP retreat center in Flat Rock, NC), and hopefully a trip or two to the beach, Atlanta, Greenville, and the library.

so what are you up to this summer?

soof on a roof

2007-05-31T14:48:00.000-07:00

Seems like Sufjan continues to be magically prolific... this time on a roof, covering one of his (and my) favorite songs, the innocence mission's "Lakes of Canada". (click below to play; if the audio doesn't work, click the volume bar)

Dailymotion blogged video
#50.2 - Sufjan Stevens (MusicNow) - The lakes of Canada
Video sent by lablogotheque

hitchens vs. wilson @ christianitytoday.com

2007-05-09T07:25:00.000-07:00

Christopher Hitchens is the author of the recent publication, "God is not Great", an atheist author trashing all organized religion, especially Christianity. In my mind, there is no need to give credence to this sort of writing, as it is uniformed and just goes to show the validity of Romans 1:18-ff. But then again, dialog of opposing viewpoints can serve some good, if to at least foster the faith of the believers. Christianity Today's website is now publishing a series of letters written between Hitchens and Douglas Wilson, an author and pastor from Moscow, Idaho. This is fascinating, and I recommend that you read the whole thing (so far only one letter and its response has been published). Go here to read.

For the chronologically- or attention-impaired, here's a quote from each:

Hitchens

I cannot, of course, prove that there is no supervising deity who invigilates my every moment and who will pursue me even after I am dead. (I can only be happy that there is no evidence for such a ghastly idea, which would resemble a celestial North Korea in which liberty was not just impossible but inconceivable.) But nor has any theologian ever demonstrated the contrary. This would perhaps make the believer and the doubter equal—except that the believer claims to know, not just that God exists, but that his most detailed wishes are not merely knowable but actually known. Since religion drew its first breath when the species lived in utter ignorance and considerable fear, I hope I may be forgiven for declining to believe that another human being can tell me what to do, in the most intimate details of my life and mind, and to further dictate these terms as if acting as proxy for a supernatural entity. This tyrannical idea is very much older than Christianity, of course, but I do sometimes think that Christians have less excuse for believing, let alone wishing, that such a horrible thing could be true. Perhaps your response will make me reconsider?

Wilson

In your concluding paragraph you make a great deal out of your individualism and your right to be left alone with the "most intimate details of [your] life and mind." Given your atheism, what account are you able to give that would require us to respect the individual? How does this individualism of yours flow from the premises of atheism? Why should anyone in the outside world respect the details of your thought life any more than they respect the internal churnings of any other given chemical reaction? That's all our thoughts are, isn't that right? Or, if there is a distinction, could you show how the premises of your atheism might produce such a distinction?

2 New Videos I've Made

2007-03-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

As Sarah and I are nearing completion of the first stages of redoing the kitchen and bathroom, we're putting together a sequel to "Painting a Room in 1.5 Minutes", but this time we have a larger cast, bigger budgets, and more angles to shoot!

But in the meantime, I've put together 2 videos in the past few weeks of other things, and I thought you might enjoy them:

1. CPSki 2007 - I went in February with our High School Youth Group to ski in North Carolina.

2. Erskine Seminary Coffee Machine Video - This is an instructional video I put together for our long-awaited new coffee machine (I can feel your enthusiasm)

So what'd you think?

new album from Patty Griffin

2007-03-08T12:05:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday, Sarah and I spent the afternoon in Ashville, NC. We really enjoyed shopping and enjoying coffee and dinner. I've been trying to track down the latest from Patty Griffin, "Children Running Through," for a few weeks, unsuccessfully slogging through the shops of South Carolina. We left town that night viewing the lunar eclipse over the mountain tops, listening to another masterpiece from Patty.

This is her 5th studio release. With each successive release, she has improved her sound and fine-tuned her voice and songwriting craft. I first got into her music after her first two albums were already out, and I was floored by both of them. The passion in her voice and words cannot be ignored. When her 3rd album, "1,000 Kisses," came out, I was moved. I was at a major point of transition in my life, graduating from college and taking my first professional job. That album became the background of a major change in my lifestyle and perspective. Her next album, "Impossible Dream," was released during my first year in Seattle, a few months before Sarah and I were married. Once again, a major point of transition was wallpapered by the longing vocalizations of Patty, the backup singer to my thoughts and struggles.

So now, she's released another album. After a few listens, I can say that it is at least as good as every one of her previous releases; actually, it seems that she has successfully married the sound and feel of all 4 of her works, creating something wholly new and truly unique. (Who is making music like this out there today? Why aren't more people listening?) It is going to continue to have heavy rotation for at least the next year, maybe more. What I'm left wondering is what major changes will be coming that Patty will likely be accompanying?

Tech Support

2007-02-16T06:51:00.000-08:00

I feel like I've had this conversation before. It's practically like deja vú all over again. Update: Fixed link!.... Urgh, double fixed!!

I apologize for all those who have tried to view this and have shaken your fist at me because it didn't work. The first link went down after a few days (thanks Brendan for pointing this out). The second link that I posted lacked the English subtitles. Hopefully the current link will stay live for the rest of you to enjoy!

How to paint a room in 1.5 minutes

2007-01-04T07:20:00.000-08:00

Sarah and I recently completed our first house project: painting the bedroom. We documented the process, and I whipped up a nice little video to show everyone. Enjoy!

goodbye 2006

2007-01-02T17:42:00.000-08:00

I'd love to post my opinions about the 10 best albums, 10 best films, 10 best books, 10 best hamburgers, etc. of 2006, but I don't have the time and/or money to come up with even 1 worthwhile Top 10 list. in light of this fact, I am going to ramble off a haphazardly numbered list of what I remember liking about 2006:

The New World – was it the best film of 2006? or 2005? depends on who you ask, but most intelligent folks that I follow would say this is the best film of 2006. I haven't seen a film like this in a while, or ever. Comes close to Wings of Desire if you've seen that.
Sufjan Stevens in concert – I'm still at a loss for words on this one. Unbelievable night of songs, strings, and beauty. My Brightest Diamond (the opening act) is one not to miss.
New York City – My first visit to the Big Apple is one that I don't plan on forgetting, getting to see major landmarks, visiting numerous art galleries, and eating great. Can't wait to go back.
Washington DC – Not as much time as I spent in NYC, but Sarah and I had a great day trip into the District. Got to see some amazing Rembrandts and El Grecos.
Andrew Peterson Christmas Concert – A free show in December outside of Greenville. Wasn't sure what to expect, though Joel has been raving about this show for years. Needless to say, Sarah and I were both floored and plan to never miss another tour again.
The Office (BBC & NBC) – I can't get enough of this kind of uncomfortable comedy. It drives Sarah up the wall. I got NBC Season 1 for Christmas and already have Season 2 on order from Amazon.
Rembrandt – currently my favorite artist. I read 2 interesting biographies on his life and work.
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere – This is crazy pop music at its best.
Josh Ritter - The Animal Years
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife – Just got this for Christmas but it's already getting heavy rotation
Sufjan Stevens - Music For Christmas – I already had vol. 1-3, and 4 & 5 are a great addition. *honorable shout-out goes to The Avalanche, Sufjan's collection of outtakes from his incredible Illinois album. good stuff, but worth just getting the good stuff from iTunes.
Alexi Murdoch - Time Without Consequence
Theolonius Monk with John Coltrane - Live at Carnegie Hall – I got this in early 2006, though it was released in mid-2005. Gosh, what a brilliant find! Can you imagine being the guy at the National Archives who dusted this thing off and played it back for the first time?!?
Junebug – don't miss the performance of Amy Adams (nominated for an Oscar last year)
Movies about words – We rented and liked from best to worst: Wordplay, Spellbound, Akeelah and the Bee, Word Wars
TV on DVD – We've watched a lot of Monk, Scrubs, and House M.D.
Netflix – without this, we probably would have watched reruns of That 70s show the whole year

so here's to 2006! (see Sarah's blog to get more about our lives this year)

hello 2007!

an irish merry christmas: #2

2006-12-22T19:35:00.000-08:00

So if you saw the below video, you probably saw that I alluded to recordings that were made of all four songs. Well, I got them mixed this afternoon and posted them for your listening merriment! Enjoy!

1. Masters In This Hall
2. Good Christan Men Rejoice
3. Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella
4. O Come All Ye Faithful

an irish merry christmas

2006-12-20T05:12:00.000-08:00

On 12/17/06, we did a set of 4 Irish songs merged with Christmas Tunes at the Clemson Presbyterian Evening Service. The above video (taken by Sarah) is from "O Come All Ye Faithful", though you won't hear the melody since we're in the Irish tune the whole time.

We recorded the music that night, so I hope to be posting the mixes pretty soon for everyone's holiday enjoyment as you're trying to pick out those last minute gifts and prepare for late night Christmas Eve services!

If you're trying to figure out who is in the video, here's the band members from left to right:

Fiddle - Kristin Miesbauer
Penny Whistle, Guitar - David Conley
Bodhran, Percussion, Cello - Robyn Davis
Mandolin, Percussion - Jimmy Agan
Accordion, Guitar - Luke Brodine
Guitar - Chris Topping

what a view

2006-11-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

foliage
Originally uploaded by Luke and Sarah.

I can't take credit for this photo... neither can I take credit for this blog...

p.s. please take a moment to welcome Sarah to the blogosphere by visiting her blog and leaving a comment!

sufjan - austin city limits

2006-11-05T19:07:00.000-08:00

I apologize that I didn't announce this since I knew about it way ahead of time, but Sufjan Stevens was on Austin City Limits last night, followed by Calexico. It was past my bedtime, so I had to tape it. He did only four songs, mainly because his arrangements are so expansive that there isn't enough time to rush through a 7-song set. I was hoping for "Predatory Wasp" or "The Transfiguration", which were the best at the Atlanta show I went to (see this post).

If you missed it, they posted "Casimir Pulaski Day" on the ACL site here, and then a fairly lengthy interview clip here. I'm sure it'll end up on YouTube at some point, so I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Already hoping that this might be in my stocking this year!

Update: Here's a (shaky) video of the song "Predatory Wasp", which I wish would have been on ACL!

will i ever have a study break?

2006-10-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

probably not... at least not at my current pace...

I'm trying to champion the art of procrastination.
I'm trying to find a way to put off what should have been done yesterday.
I'm trying to learn how to make more hours in the day.

I had a paper due this Wednesday for Systematic Theology. It is on the Doctrine of God. Light subject, I know. My professor is pretty lenient on turning things in. If I turn it in, I get a grade for it. Plain and simple. So this paper that was due Wednesday, I'm about 5 minutes away from starting it. I should have started it a month ago when I had the assignment, but that would have been too easy. And I would have not gotten other things done that were more important at the time. But now I have to work on a paper that's already past due, while I should be writing my first sermon that I have to give next Thursday, reading my next book for New Testament, memorizing my Greek vocabulary, oh yeah, and start writing my next paper for Systematic on the Doctrine of Humanity.

It's a vicious cycle, but some has to be stupid enough to get themselves into it.

In the mean time, while you're putting off doing something else more important, check out the new Clemson Presbyterian Church website. It went live last week and it has a lot of cool features, like podcasting. I hope I'll have time to put samples up from the new CD we just started selling. It's what I sweat over for the past year, and I think it turned out alright.

must come up for air... must think to breathe... must keep treading water...

Donald Miller @ Erskine

2006-10-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

Needless to say, I was a bit surprised to see a flier for "Donald Miller, This Thursday at 11 am" when I was on the Erskine campus. First off, why wasn't it posted at the seminary? And second, how on earth did they get him to come?

To the first question, I'd say that the average Erskine Seminarian would have a tough time listening to Don Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz. If your first contact with him was a lecture, you'd probably never want to hear him again if you were above the age of 39. But I think they all should be interested in what he's saying because the upcoming generations are reading his books, or at least they think in a lot of the same ways that he does.

To the second question, he was in Atlanta and someone from the board of trustees was able to get him to come up.

So what did I think? Well, when I first read Blue Like Jazz, I would have lumped him into the emergent church movement. His postmodern/mosaic take on everything would fit quite well with them. His follow up book, Searching for God Knows What, shed a different light on his thinking, specifically that he cares about doctrine. In his lecture, he dissed on every mainstream church movement, including the emerging church, so he finally took that nametag off himself that I had placed squarely on his chest (to the right, not the left, because then you can read the nametag when you're shaking his hand).

He talked about church architecture. He cussed, but at the right times. He told great stories about soap commercials and two-year-old temper tantrums. He understood how to communicate with college students better than the previous two big-time guest speakers I've heard there. More than just making them laugh, he gets how they perceive the world because he isn't as far removed chronologically from their generation as the other speakers, who are at least old enough to be their parents.

I appreciate what Don Miller is saying. He's saying things, mostly close to what I believe, but is saying them in ways that others aren't. He and Derek Webb have a podcast together. It's worth a listen. And his books are worth a read. At least your college friends tend to think so.

No, not that Donald Miller!

the sounds of october

2006-10-03T18:18:00.000-07:00

I've decided that October is my favorite month, and probably that it has been most of my life. originally it was due to my sweet tooth and getting to dress up as my current favorite movie character (most memorable costumes - Jack Nicholson's Joker from Batman, and Val Kilmer's Mad Martigan from Willow).

nowadays I love October for the music and the feeling of falling leaves. I don't know why I like it. is it the clothing? is it the smells? is it the chai latte? it's probably because of the memories I associate with these things. for me, being a college student is walking across campus with leaves covering the ground. finally seeing your breath in the morning. the golden sunsets. hay rides.

now as a seminary student, I get to relive these aesthetic enjoyments. at least when I'm able to slow down and notice them. I need to make a point of studying out of doors. and wearing corduroy pants and wool sweaters... but then again, I'm in South Carolina and it's still getting into the 80s. so much for wishful thinking. at least November will arrive before I know it!

so what does fall sound like? slowly driving acoustic guitars, mandolin riffs, the occasional plodding drum machine, and a good bit of reverb to blur the edges of any voice

music that may help you take notice of leaves yellowing:
"Please Forgive Me" by David Gray
"Walk on the Ocean" by Toad the Wet Sprocket
"White Daisy Passing" by Rocky Votolato
"Gotta Have You" by The Weepies
Any song by R.E.M. (but if you made me pick one, "You Are Everything"... which is covered beautifully by Redbird... listen here to both here)

side note
I am in the process of producing a video for the admissions office here at Erskine. I'm trying to capture that college student feeling that I alluded to above. so what things make you think of the idealized college student life? post a comment... please! please! please!

is style so elemental?

2006-09-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

Style is an increment in writing. When we speak of Fitzgerald's style, we don't mean his command of the relative pronoun, we mean the sound his words make on paper. All writers, by the way they use the language, reveal something of their spirits, their habits, their capacities, and their biases. This is inevitable as well as enjoyable. All writing is communication; creative writing is communication through revelation–it is the Self escaping into the open. No writer long remains incognito.
Elements of Style (Illustrated Edition), p. 98

my first test in my Worship & Preaching 1 Course is over The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. does anyone remember having to read this in High School Composition? with the age of the interweb, I'm sure most of us have thrown out so many of Strunk and White's rules that we deserve failing grades for our writing habits. I have to admit that I split infinitives, place punctuation improperly, and use words like "very," "mostly," and "really" too many times.

but does this mean that I don't have my own sense of style in writing? I believe that things like email and blogging have actually allowed me to develop my own voice out of the shear volume of writing that I have to do. I mean, how do you really show a tone of voice in an email? or express sarcasm?

as I get to the point that I have things to say that are more than mere regurgitation for papers and exams, I feel that the way that I write is just as important in regards to what I write. writing however you feel is no excuse for poor grammar, especially if you want more people than just your friends to read what you write.

having to read this again was a fun yet frightening trip down memory lane. does anyone cringe the way that I still do at the substitution of "their" for "they're" or possibly "there"?

(the above image may seem strange. it is an illustration from the Elements of Style's rule #20. which is better? "He noticed a large stain in the rug that was right in the center" or "He noticed a large stain right in the center of the rug.")

one more day

2006-09-22T06:53:00.000-07:00

fall gets down to business.

corduroy rubs the right way.

wait for leaves to turn.

concert recovery

2006-09-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

Butterfly
Originally uploaded by saltnlight333.

winged strummer pauses mid-song.

voices and bells echo to the firmament.

ears wish return. eyes require rest.

sufjan (soof-yon) stevens (stee-vens)

2006-09-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

it's amazing to find that in an entire year of being mesmerized by someone's music, I have failed to even bring up his name once. so here goes:

sufjan stevens

(check title for pronunciation).

last year about this time, I got his (at the time) most recent album, Come on Feel the Illinoise, and everything changed. perhaps that's why I haven't blogged about it. I haven't really been able to settle my thoughts about this music. many times art is that way. you see or hear something, and you can't describe it because you realize that your own words are inadequate to point at something more profound than you can express.

perhaps I got a little gun-shy once the album started ending up on everyone's "Best of 2005" lists, not wanting to jump on bandwagons.

you're saying to yourself: "why then do you feel the need to write about him now? why has the proverbial cat released your tongue... er, fingers?"

good question.

I am here to say that I am going to see him live this Wednesday in Atlanta at the Fox Theater! hopefully I will be able to post a review of the show. I'll try to expedite the writing of my post so that I am able to remember it clearly. and perhaps my words won't get in the way.

so shocked am I that I haven't mentioned his music yet, I'm going to even post a picture.though this is a rather silly picture.

photo update

2006-09-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

sorry about not updating this thing for over a month! but this isn't really an update either...

I just posted a bunch of photos from the last month on our flickr page. go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukeandsarah to see more.

there you will find photos from: Kristie Perkins' wedding; our road trip to NY, PA, & DC; our house improvements; and our Nashville trip over Labor Day.

enjoy for now, and I hope to write something of note in the next week.

New House! (well, not exactly)

2006-07-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon, we signed the papers and we're now homeowners! Best thing is, we don't even have to move! We purchased from our landlord the house we have been renting for the last 11 months. So our address stays the same, as does everything else in the house. This is the first summer since I graduated high school (1997) that I haven't had to move out! We look forward to having you all come over soon to see the house before we start demolishing it... I mean, remodeling it!

whose right is it?

2006-07-26T05:44:00.000-07:00

a recent thread on a mailing list discussion that I am a part of raised the question of changing the lyrics to songs that have current copyrights (any song that has been published in the last 70 years or so falls in this category). many times, there are songs that are quite useful in worship but have a word or phrase that doesn't agree with that group's theological convictions. the question was posed as to what etiquette and legal obligations were involved in doing this.

I have to admit that I have done this myself in planning worship. there are a few songs that are very popular that have just one line that I cannot comfortably sing in worship (and by very popular, I'm not judging them on their "Top 25 CCLI" ranking; rather by their popularity in the specific community that is using the song, e.g. Sunday morning worship or RUF large group). these lines tend to fall on the Arminian/Calvinist fault line that divides much of the American church today.

this is something that happens quite frequently in hymnals. prolific writers like Charles Wesley don't always write hymns that line up with every theological framework. one such example is from his great hymn "And Can It Be." in verse two, the second line is as follows:

"He left His Father's throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace!
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam's helpless race."

One hymnal alters it this way:

"He left His Father's throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace
Humbled himself (so great his love!),
And bled for all his chosen race.

I have asked a few people that I look up to concerning this subject and I have had a few responses that I tend to gravitate towards. The first is that this is Wesley's poetic way of saying something in simple terms that is rather complex to grasp when you get down to it. The second is that Wesley likely was writing from what he was reading in the Bible, and just because his understanding is not as developed at this point does not mean that it is an unbiblical statement.

jumping back to the issue of changing copyrighted material: the problem is that the original songwriter did not intend their song to have the opposite meaning. it'd be great if we all agreed about many of the basic tennents of the faith, but many times it is impossible to agree on anything, except that Jesus Christ is Lord (which even in some circles is up for grabs).

is it right to do this? if not, then what do we do? do we break the law every Sunday we sing the altered lyric? do we sing the original lyric and trust that God will correct this error in our hearts? do we scrap the song from our songbook? am I too worried that by singing the wrong theology in my worship that my worship will be unpleasing to God?

I think that when I come to worship, I need to repent of my theological thick-headedness. That need goes beyond the songs I sing.

happy 400th, ol' remmy!

2006-07-15T03:38:00.000-07:00

The Met (Day 4) - 6
Originally uploaded by Luke and Sarah.

Rembrandt's 400th birthday would be today, July 15th, were he still kicking around the streets of Leyden. A great deal of the course I took on Christian art dealt with Rembrandt, especially his self-portraits. I can honestly say that I have not seen an artist paint himself with so much... well... honesty.

NPR did a story on this today: here's the page.

"Pirates of the Caribbean" | Ask A Ninja

2006-07-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

Sarah and I saw "Pirates" last Saturday for my birthday outing. I really enjoyed it! And I enjoyed being a part of history (biggest opening weekend ever, at leats until "Pirates 3" opens). I get the sense that some people liked it, some didn't. What did anyone else think?

For some reason, this Ninja didn't like it, but I don't think Ninjas tend to like anything... except Ninjas. "Pirates of the Caribbean" | Ask A Ninja

Tenth of July

2006-07-10T10:56:00.000-07:00

Birthday!
Originally uploaded by Luke and Sarah.

"so it's my birthday, and I'll blog if I want to!"

okay, so I'm not usually known for poor pun usage on this blog... gimme a break! it's what first came to mind...

so yes, it's my birthday, good ole #27. I have finally reached that point. which point, is not for certain.

yesterday, I got to blow out my candles with the Conley family (minus Wilson; Lauren in photo), and Michael Parks (minus Amy). we had a great time, and I burned the BBQ chicken. oh, and Sarah was there, of course!

Dave and Michelle were kind enough to give me what I really wanted for my birthday: a piano! what kind of piano, you'll just have to come to Pendleton to find out for yourself.

so here's to another 27 more! except that'll make me 54... whoa, I'm good at math... and rhyming...

Fourth of July

2006-07-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

Fourth of July Fling
Originally uploaded by Luke and Sarah.

so you're saying, "the 4th was 6 days ago. c'mon Luke, get with the program!" well, here's what I have to say to you. "haha! and again, haha!"

don't miss the look on Sarah's face as she considers the next 1.6 seconds...

100 Awesome Music Videos (Pitchfork)

2006-06-29T07:05:00.000-07:00

Pitchfork Feature: 100 Awesome Music Videos

Being one who loves both good music and good film, I really love good films of good music (i.e. great music videos). Now, thanks to the inovation of sites like youtube.com, I can view all of the illegally posted music videos I ever wanted, and then some!

Pitchfork Media has gone through and posted their choices for the top 100 videos, and I must say that many of these are very awesome, most of which I have never ever seen because MTV doesn't show "awesome videos", they show 90210 rip offs and reality dating shows.

Besides all of the obvious genius in videos from the 80s and rap videos from the 90s, here are some of the highlights from Pitchfork (all of which are linked to from their page, so I don't feel the need to link them from here):

Björk: "Triumph of a Heart" - she so crazy, but this one takes the cat, I mean, cake!

Cee-Lo: "Closet Freak" - if you wondered why Gnarls Barkley was so off the wall, now you have the answer

Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew: "Super Bowl Shuffle" - this is rather painful, but so full of fond memories (I used to be into this kind of rap in elementary school, probably because this rap could have been written by a 4th grader)

David Brent: "If You Don't Know Me By Now" - if you're a fan of the BBC version of the Office, you'll love this one

David Hasselhoff: "Hooked on a Feeling" - if you're a German, you'll probably love this one... I can't believe he's doing this with a straight face, but it shouldn't be surprising since he did Baywatch with a straight face... oh, Davey, you should have driven off with Kit and never tried to have a career after that!

The Postal Service: "We Will Become Silhouettes" - indie rocker meets indie film maker... this video is "friggin sweet!"

Pulp: "Bad Cover Version" - this is the first time I ever saw this video... it's genius

Radiohead: "Just" - best video ever by best band ever

Sigur Rós: "Untitled #1" - they have this thing for slow motion kids in their videos, but somehow it fits the music so perfectly

The White Stripes: "My Doorbell" - this song and this video are just so catchy... can a video be catchy? I think so! (and here's that video for your viewing pleasure!)

Paste Podcast on 100 greatest living songwriters

2006-06-26T13:59:00.000-07:00

Paste Culture Club - Episode 19

holy jeepers, if you didn't take my previous advice about listening to the Paste Culture Club Podcast, then you have to listen to me spout of about how great it is... again!

the most recent Paste Magazine has Bob Dylan on the cover and is their attempt at naming the 100 Best Living Songwriters of All-Time. when it came out, I held off from blogging about it because I realize that ever 100 Best List is pretty subjective and there's no reason to get my panties in a wad about someone else's opinion. the blogosphere (silly name, I didn't come up with it) was all aflutter about who they left out... if you don't believe me, just check this google of 174,000 results (the best part is that a ton of people didn't catch the whole "living songwriters" thing and started complaing about Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon and Johnny Cash and many others being left off)

after listening to the podcast, I have to say the guys (and girls) at Paste have THE "job that I most envy" (I'll have to make a list of these at some point, but then why would you want to read my subjective opinion about jobs I don't have!). on the podcast, they play 3 of the interviews that they used to publish the magazine: Paul McCartney, Peter Buck (R.E.M.), and Andy Partridge (X.T.C.). how freakin' cool is that?!?

well, beyond my vocational covetousness, you should just listen to the podcast because it's good stuff. case closed. you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes, or you can simply download this episode.

pc(usa) general assembly decision

2006-06-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

I don't know whether to be sad or furious. the PC(USA) GA has decided that you don't have to operate like a Presbyterian to be in a Presbyterian Denomination. Simply put, they passed a measure that makes each Presbytery autonomous when it comes to ordination procedures. this does solve issues on the surface, but it is only a symptom of the progressive decay of absolute truth of Scripture in this once great (in size) denomination. Not that the PCA has it right and all figured out, but at least we all can agree on certain things, like the Bible tells us who can be an elder.

I found this quote submitted by a minority report supporter rather stimulating:

"Saying that people are 'looking for churches where people are gracious but have clear boundaries,' the Rev. Michael Carey of Central Florida Presbytery said approval of the measure would 'open the floodgates of controversy.'"

PC(USA) - 217th General Assembly (2006) - Controversial 'authoritative interpretation' garners 57% support

soundtracks to our lives, v. 1.0

2006-06-19T05:54:00.000-07:00

Before I go on any trip, I try to think through the soundtrack for my travels. Typically, I try to capture the mood of the city or region that I'm going to and then find a new release that has caught my fancy. Sometimes this works out, others it isn't so good, and even others there is an organic culmination of people and music that seems to make the music and locale inseprably committed to each other.

One recent example of this was a trip up the Puget Sound that Sarah and I took with Andrew Mathias and Kelley Kirker. I had just purchased the Garden State soundtrack, as had Andrew, and as we drove along Whidbey Island, we got fixated with Frou Frou's "Let Go". We listened to that song over and over, and then a few more times. It has been ingrained in my mind forever that this song is for driving two-lane highways along coastal waterways in the Pacific Northwest, much like its intended use in a film like Garden State (which by the way, is the song that seals the love story between Zach Braff and Natalie Portman).

So what did I listen to when I was in New York? Well, here's what has now been permanently associated with flying into LaGuardia Airport, riding public transportation, and navigating the many city streets and glamorous Manhattan shops:

Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
I don't typically by hip-hop/rap albums, but this one seemed too good to pass up. Definitely a throw back to Marvin Gaye flavored soul. I read one review that described it as what would have happened if Marvin Gaye had made What's Goin On? with today's modern technology. I couldn't agree more! Actually, I would add that Marvin Gaye would also have had to use today's post-modern approach to production, with crazy shifts between styles and start/stop timing. Standout tracks: "Go-go Gadget Gospel", "Crazy", "Just A Thought", "Transformer" (just can't get that one out of my head!)

If you haven't had a chance to see them on television, don't miss the below video from the MTV Movie Awards!

Josh Ritter, The Animal Years
If you've read Paste Magazine for any period of time, you start to pick out the staff's favorite artists. One of these is clearly Josh Ritter. Even though this is the only CD I have purchased of his, I feel like I know his career track fairly well just from reading about him. This album is all at once raw and elegantly crafted. I think it attests to Ritter's ability as a songwriter more than it does to quality production and stand-out performers. The band knows how to back him up and give just the right canvas for his songs to take flight. There is an intimacy here. The characters that he sings about he has clearly inhabited. Being from Moscow, Idaho (the home of Douglas Wilson and New St. Andrew's College), I wonder what sort of religious climate Ritter grew up with. Nonetheless, the opening track "Girl In The War" is an interesting conversation between the Apostles Peter and Paul, dealing with each of their writing styles. An overall strong album, I have a feeling I will continue to follow Ritter's career. Stand out tracks: "Girl In The War", "Wolves", "Lillian, Egypt", "Thin Blue Flame"

Simon and Garfunkel, "The Only Living Boy In New York"
This is not a CD that I purchased for my NYC trip. Rather, it is one that has shown up on a few of my CDs, most recently the aforementioned Garden State soundtrack. Not to be outdone by Mr. Zach Braff, this has now become a part of my own soundtrack. I think I listened to this 10 times on repeat during my train rides into the city. Beyond the fact these guys are one of the groups that seem to embody New York to me (another being Billy Joel), this song seems to soar above the skyscrappers with its vocal flourishes and organ swells. I loved this song before my trip, but I think that it is now a part of my traveling vocabulary.

So with all of this discussion of music fueling the memories of my life, what songs or albums have become connected with your life? Please post your comments. I plan on making this a fairly regular thread, and I will be encouraged to discuss this more if I see people getting in on the fun with me!