New 'Clef

Let me start by saying I am a huge Wyclef Jean fan. I would put his album the Carnival in my top 10 favorite of all time and when it came out back when I was in high school it changed my musical world. I was perusing Youtube today and came across an interview/performance that Wyclef did on the Google campus to bring awareness to the issues in his native Haiti as well as perform music and promote his new album. Here is chapter 4 of what I think is 9 chapters



Anyway as a fan I was very excited to hear that Wyclef was releasing a new album (I'm still waiting on that Fugees reunion album that was supposed to come out a few years back now). Apparently some of the music has leaked, as often happens, even though the album doesn't come out until December 4th. Below is a track that perfectly demonstrates the brilliance of Wyclef, a song in which he collaborates with Paul Simon!



This is a musician who has collaborated with people as diverse as Whitney Houston and Kenny Rogers and has the social awareness of Bono and Bob Marley. And the best part of this new album is that it is titled Carnival 2!

Dear Ann Coulter

go away and don't ever come back.

(it's called speed blogging. write a few words and move on)

The Church You Know

First let me put an end to some nasty rumors...I am not dead. I just took a break from blogging because I didn't have anything interesting to share.

Until now...



Go to www.thechurchyouknow.com and watch all of the videos. If you are a church goer you will laugh a lot and then feel sad because everything they are saying is right.

See you again in another 5 months or so.

Tim

It is easy being green

I have to disagree with Kermit the Frog on this one.

In about 45 seconds I was able to remove my name from the credit reporting indutry lists (Equifaz, Experian, Innovis and Transunion). These are the people who are ultimately responsible for you getting credit card offers in the mail every other day. Whenever I get them I just rip them in half without opening them and toss them in the trash and I always think to myself "What a waste of paper." Well I finally figured out that if you go to optoutprescreen.com you can fill in your name and address (they ask you for your ssn and birthday too but I didn't give it to them) and click a button and you are removed from the list for 5 years! If you take the little bit of extra time to mail in a signed confirmation you can be removed for life. I opted to go for the 5 year plan becuase I am too lazy and cheap to mail in something, and it is no burden for me to take 45 seconds every 5 years to remove my name from the list. Also if you prefer you can call 1888 567 8688 and accomplish the same thing.

Next step...remove my name from the marketing lists that send the other junk mail (Penny Saver, random coupons etc.). This one requires a signed request to be removed along with your name and address sent to,

Mail Preference Service
c/o Direct Marketing Association
P.O. Box 643
Carmel NY 10512

It takes a little bit of extra effort to mail it off and shell out the dough for the stamp (aren't they like a buck and a quarter each now?) but I will do it if you will do it. Together we can rid this world of junk mail and maybe even save a few trees along the way.

We have a Wii

My bride got me a Wii for our 2 year anniversary, which was at the beginning of this month, but thanks to the incompetency of Game Stop and UPS it just arrived on Friday. It was worth the wait (and the incessant checking of the tracking process that I had been doing every 30 minutes or so for the last few weeks). The Wii has been out for awhile now but they are still very hard to get a hold of. Mariah looked for months and at every store she checked in they were sold out. Then she finally found a package deal online that came with some extra controllers and games and we ended up buying it.

We absolutely love it. It is so different than any other video game system because of it's unique motion-sensitive wireless controllers. Most of the games you have to play while standing up and moving around. With Xbox (the other video game system I own) I could just sit and waste away a few hours while unwinding after coming home from work but with the Wii it is really tiring to play. I am sore after playing it all weekend.

It comes with a disc called Wii Sports which has Golf, Baseball, Boxing, Tennis, and Bowling on it and I could play the Golf and Bowling games forever. They are both fairly realistic. My bowling score on the game matches my average in real life.

If you can find it I definitely recommend getting a Wii. We have already had a few people over this weekend to play including people that don't normally like video games, but it is a system designed to involve everyone. It's great for parties or when you have a few people over and it's relatively inexpensive when you compare it to the Xbox 360 ($400) and the Playstation 3 ($500+).

One word of caution...be careful once you get it. It can be dangerous.

Hip-Hop is...

I have been so stinkin' busy with school and with trying to find a new job that I have not posted on here in quite some time. Well since I have a post that is school related I thought I could make the time.

I started a project for a class I am in at Fuller called Theology and Hip-Hop Culture and I want to ask you to participate. The project is called "Hip-Hop is..." and I am inviting people to finish the sentence.

How would you finish that sentence? What does hip-hop mean to you? What do you see as both the positive and negative of hip-hop culture?

You can put your answer here as a reply but really what I would like you to do for the project is to make a video of your answer and post it to YouTube. I made a little video explaining the project and then finishing the sentence myself. You can watch it here or below. Also be sure to check out intheremix.com which is a group blog designed to engage hip-hop culture that Jason created (same classmate that made Letters From Leavers).

Thanks for your help.

The video

My Obsession

Where in the World is Caesarea Philippi?

Bible Map is a website that I stumbled upon the other day that has all of the geographic locations mentioned in the Bible hyperlinked to the google earth satellite technology so that if you click on "Ephesus" or "Jerusalem" you will get a satellite image of what that area looked like during Biblical times. Okay so the images are from modern times but it is still a cool idea.

We've been lied to

I know it is kind of trendy, or maybe too easy is the right phrase, to pick on the president, but I was reminded while listening to the radio that today is the four year anniversary of the President's speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, a speech which started off with the words, "My fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended."

Since major combat operations have "ended" there have been 3,213 American Military casualties in Iraq, which doesn't factor in casualties of Iraqis or other countries who have armed forces in Iraq.

In related news...to nobody's surprise, Bush vetoed the Congressional troop withdrawal bill. I guess that's one way to celebrate the 4 year anniversary of the end of combat operations in Iraq.

Fix You Cover

This blog post could very well be the saddest thing I have ever seen and yet it is one of the most beautiful musical expressions I have ever seen as well. Read the story and then watch the video.

Favorite/Least favorite commercials of the moment

Favorite



The guy who plays the old man is hilarious. Plus I grew up on a street named after Millard Fillmore so in a weird way it brings me home.

Least Favorite

The stupid chevy commercials with the John Cougar Mellencamp song "This is our Country" that plays over and over. It won't go away. Yesterday in church we were talking about subversion and asking "What is subverting our country?" We wanted to recognize the conversation in the media and in culture about America's ideals and what we view as an enemy to those ideals. My neighbor was bold and wise enough to mention "immigrants" as something that Americans think are subverting our country. For whatever reason at that very moment this stupid song popped into my head. Talk about subliminal! I even mentioned it during the service, that this song, probably not intentionally, but it is saying it nonetheless, "This is our country! Not yours! Get out and don't ever come back!"

Have you seen any immigrants in a chevy commercial lately? Me either. Just a bunch of white cowboys.

Here is a better version of the commercial. If this aired it would be my favorite.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

No not Christmas time; to me that is the second most wonderful time of year. For a sports fan, this has to be the most wonderful time of year. The Final Four took place this weekend, with the champion of college basketball being crowned tomorrow night. The NBA playoffs are just around the corner, which in my opinion is the only worth while part of the NBA season. The Masters is also coming up this weekend and should be compelling as always. But most importantly, today is Opening Day for Major League Baseball.



Terrence Mann is right. Baseball is the one constant. It means so much to the history of the United States, and increasingly to the world. I was lucky enough to go to a couple of the World Baseball Classic games last year and was amazed at the scope and reach of such a simple game as baseball. This time of year reminds me of so much of my childhood, and makes me feel like I am 10 years old again, spending every Saturday at the baseball field, staying for hours after my game was over just to watch the other games my friends were playing in. This time of year makes me excited to be a father so I can teach my children about the "National Pastime."

If I were comissioner of Baseball, I would pick two games to be played on opening day every year, one national league and one american league, and rotate who hosts these games every year. I would have the games air on network TV back to back with a 30-40 minute break in between the two to have a pseudo "half time show" in which a highlight reel of the previous season was played as well as the clip above from Field of Dreams, just to get everyone excited about the season. Opening Day really should be something special; a celebration "of all that once was good, and that could be again."

Beatles Song of The Moment

When I first started this Beatles thing I was planning on doing it weekly. Well my regular readers, both of them, know that I have failed in that endeavor which has left me wondering what to name these Beatles posts now, because they are not weekly. Beatles Song of the Moment was the best I could come up with.

Anyway the Beatles song for this moment is I Feel Fine.

Sing it if you know it...

Baby's good to me, you know,
She's happy as can be, you know,
She said so.
I'm in love with her and i feel fine.
Baby says she's mine, you know,
She tells me all the time, you know,
She said so.
I'm in love with her and i feel fine.
I'm so glad that she's my little girl.
She's so glad, she's telling all the world
That her baby buys her things, you know.
He buys her diamond rings, you know,
She said so.
She's in love with me and i feel fine, mmm.
Baby says she's mine, you know,
She tells me all the time, you know,
She said so.
I'm in love with her and i feel fine.
I'm so glad that she's my little girl.
She's so glad, she's telling all the world
That her baby buys her things, you know.
He buys her diamond rings, you know,
She said so.
She's in love with me and i feel fine, mmm, mmm.

Such a great rock n roll song with a driving drum beat that doesn't stop for anything but a quick memorable guitar lick.

LFL in Norway?

As far as I can tell, this blog post is about leaving church and it links to Letters From Leavers. Is it Norwegian? Can someone translate for me?

World Water Day

Today (and every March 22nd) is World Water Day. Four of every ten people in the world do not have access to even a simple pit latrine and nearly two in ten have no source of safe drinking-water. So far today I have already drank one bottle of water, used a toilet with running water a few times (I know...too much information), washed my hands, taken a shower, and gone to a fast food place for lunch that has 2 soda machines with water piped into them. This is a privilege that we can't take for granted.

To learn more or to help out go to water.org or water.cc.

10 reasons I won't watch 24 season 2

So I bought 24 season 1 at Target about a week ago because they had it on sale for 17.99. Not bad! This show came on the air during a time in which I wasn't watching much TV at all so I had only seen 2 or 3 episodes but I had heard a lot of great things about it, and Mariah and I have been watching some more TV as of late so I figured, why not give it a whirl? I bought LOST season 1 for Mariah for Valentine's Day last year without ever having seen one episode, completely on a whim, and it has been the best 40 something bucks I have ever spent, and I mean that in all seriousness. We devoured the entire season in a weekend and then proceeded to buy the 14 episodes that had already aired in season 2 from iTunes and watched them in another 48 hours so we could catch up with the show.

In those few frantic days of watching LOST my hope for TV was restored.

I figured it was worth it to take another shot with 24.

I want my 18 bucks back.

It was good, really good for the first 12 or so episodes but things started to go south really fast. We have been watching it over the last few days and my frustrations are still swimming around in my head so I thought it might be helpful to make a list of the top 10 reasons why I won't be watching season 2 (or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6) of 24, starting with 10 and working our way up. Yes, it probably would be more clever to do 24 reasons why I won't be watching season 2 of 24, and God knows I wouldn't have any trouble filling out the list, but I have already wasted enough time with this show. Ten is enough.

10. The whole "events in real time" thing is cool but make sure that you factor in the time you are gone for commercials. If you are doing an activity that takes 45 seconds, you shouldn't still be doing that activity when the show comes back from a commercial 3 1/2 minutes later. One example comes to mind...Ricky is in the water tower, after having been shot in the arm, Jack asks him if he has any loose clothing so he can tie up Ricky's arm to stop the bleeding, Jacks starts to tie up the arm...tick tock tick tock...commercial...return from commercial....tick tock tick tock...Jack still tying up the arm. Jack doesn't seem to be the type with that generous a bedside manner.

9. Speaking of time...time of day seems to be an issue that needs some work. 6 am to 7 am episode, filmed in broad, middle of the day, high noon daylight, with some fuzzy crappy light filter on it to make it look like it was dawn...end of 6 pm to 7pm episode finishes in broad, middle of the day, high noon daylight, 7 pm to 8 pm starts off black as midnight. The sun went down in an instant? Wow!

8. The show is set in LA and I have yet to see anyone caught in traffic. I have lived here my whole life. You may be able to pull this kind of crap with your viewers in the midwest, but I demand accuracy. (On a side note related to accuracy, even though this one probably deserves it's own spot in the countdown...I am a cell phone owner and I know that if you use it that much the battery will run out and there will be several spots in which you don't get service and underground in a top-secret prison is one of them.)

7. The whole "kill Sen. Palmer and Jack Bauer and his family" plot is so freaking complicated and intricate, no wonder "the Drazens" can't pull it off. I have no training whatsoever in being a bad guy but I am sure I could come up with a simpler way of killing someone than a plot that involves recruiting two teen age boys to kidnap two girls, having someone pretend to be the father of one of those girls, doing plastic surgery on another guy to make him look like a photographer, breaking some other dude (more on him later) out of a non-existent prison in Saugus of all places, seducing a staffer for the senator, bribing someone who works for the electric company, paying off turncoat employees at CTU, setting up surveillance cameras to watch Jack Bauer's every move, and countless other things that I can't remember because I just don't care to. The board game Mouse Trap thinks this is too complicated.

6. The Sen. Palmer storyline got old after about 5 episodes and yet it just wouldn't go away. The writers just forced things into that storyline to keep it going ("accidental fires" that kill the sons Psychologist). This family is a train wreck and yet I am suppossed to accept that America is dumb enough to vote for him for Presid...wait a minute. Moving on.

5. The only reason Jack Bauer seems so great is because everyone, and I mean EVERYONE else on the show is a complete moron. He is surrounded by jerks, buffoons, and all around unlikeable characters. Seriously, name another character besides Jack that is likeable. After 17 episodes I want them all to die, every single one of them. And there is no way I can accept a hero who has frosted tips. Nobody in CTU gives him crap about that?

4. The two worst characters? The awful wives, Sherry Palmer and Terry Bauer. Every second that they are on the screen I want to claw my eyes out.

3. The worst plot device? Terry Bauer's amnesia. I was literally yelling at the TV I was so mad. TV audiences deserve better than this.

2. Dennis Hopper? Nice Accent. I have heard better Eastern European accents on Rocky and Bullwinkle. How do you produce a TV show in which this awful performance gets through to the air? Did you at least have him audition and do a reading or did you hire him on the spot based on his resume? "Wow! You played King Koopa in Super Mario Bros. the movie! You're hired!" Now I know why this guy can't get any work outside of Ameriprise Commercials. I have 3 episodes to watch in season one and I don't want to go on because his accent makes me sick to my stomach...physically ill.

And the number one reason I won't watch anymore 24 is...drumroll...tick tock tick tock....

1. Jack Bauer spells his last name wrong. It's B-O-W-E-R dummy.

Stavesacre- A Tribute

Do I see God in all of this? maybe all along
It's just that we're so small, and simply not as strong
Strong like wings of silver, and feathers made of gold
To carry heavy hearts, to cover all our helpless souls

To cover all of us

Under wings of Gold and Silver sometimes we have to hide
For shelter from this bitter winter at least tonight

These are part of the lyrics to a song called Gold and Silver which is one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands, Stavesacre.

Stavesacre just recently announced that after eleven years they are calling it quits. I am glad to say that I have been a fan of Stavesacre for about 7 or 8 of those years, having heard of them shortly after the release of their third album Speakeasy which was their final album with Tooth and Nail Records (if you don't count the pseudo greatest hits album Collective which was released to fulfill their contractual agreement with Tooth and Nail but featured very little newly recorded material).

Since leaving Tooth and Nail they have had a somewhat rocky road, releasing what I consider to be their worst record, the self-titled Stavesacre on Nitro Records. They left Nitro and after awhile eventually landed with Abacus Recordings. During their post-Tooth and Nail days I often wondered how long the band would continue on but shortly before they signed with Abacus they released the Bull Takes Fighter EP which essentially was a musical way to say "Don't count us out yet." After they signed with Abacus news of a new album called How To Live With a Curse got out. I remember going to see them live somewhere in LA during this time and thinking to myself "Stavesacre is back!"

After much hype in the days leading up to the release of the new album, it finally came out last April and it was absolutely amazing. It rivals Speakeasy as their best album and a year later continues to amaze me. I went to the album release party for How To Live With a Curse and even talked with Mark Salomon, the band's lead singer and author of Simplicity, for a bit after the show. However excited I was about the release of the new album, I got the sense that night that something was just off. Mark and the rest of the band kind of seemed like a new mother after she had just given birth; excited about what had just come from them but to exhausted and overwhelmed to enjoy it.

Now I may be way off because I don't know the band personally so this is just my hunch but it seemed that night that it was just a matter of time before Stavsacre called it quits. My hunches were confirmed shortly after as the band only played one more show that I know of after that, which is odd behavior for a band trying to promote and sell a new album. Stavesacre just went underground and weren't heard from at all until these past few weeks when the news I had been expecting to hear finally came out...They were wrapping it up.

Now the good news...They are still going to be playing a few more shows with their first guitar player back in the fold! You can bet I will be at as many of those shows as I can. They are also going to be releasing a career spanning DVD which I will buy in an instant. Hopefully they will also release one final record for their fans to remember them by.

Finally I thought it would be fun to try and make my own Best of Stavesacre tracklist as my way to share my favorite songs of theirs.

Below are the tracks with the album they can be found on in parenthesis.

1. Minuteman (Speakeasy)
2. Shiv (Absolutes)
3. Threshold (Friction)
4. Zzyzx Scarecrow (Absolutes)
5. Reason to Believe (How to Live With a Curse)
6. Sad Parade (Collective)
7. Bull Takes Fighter (Bull Takes Fighter EP)
8. Future History of the Broken Hearted (How to Live With a Curse)
9. You Know How It Is (Speakeasy)
10. Witch Trial (Stavesacre)
11. The Trouble With Being Born (How to Live With a Curse)
12. Keep Waiting (Speakeasy)
13. Gold and Silver (Speakeasy)
14. Sean (How to Live With a Curse)
15. At the Moment (Friction)
16. Kill My Darlings (How To Live With a Curse)
17. Freefall (From Hand to Hand) (Speakeasy)

Now that's good music.

Someone get Maury Povich on the phone

Is it just me or is the Anna Nicole Smith paternity situation just begging to be an episode of Maury Povich? No high priced lawyers or overhyped media coverage needed, just bring the circus on the set of Maury and he will straighten the whole thing out.

"You ARE the father!"

We have a prophet among us

A voice of one calling

RIP Stavesacre

One of my favorite bands of all time is about to be buried .

As silly as this may sound, I am very very saddened by this news, even though I saw it coming.

I think I will do a tribute post to one of the greatest bands you never heard of after the gloomy cloud lifts as a way to send Stavesacre off.

More to come...

Hey Kobe. Didn't your mom ever tell you...

that it's not ok to hit people?

This is twice this season that Kobe has been suspended for doing the same thing.

No, you are not bigger than the rules of the game Kobe. No, you can't get away with smacking people in the face to try and draw a foul just because your shot isn't going to go in. Just stop.

Favorite/Least favorite commercials of the moment- 2/28/07

Favorite



Absolutely hilarious! I could watch this over and over.


Least Favorite



Wasn't President's day like two weeks ago? Then why the crap do I still see this commercial 50 times a day?

And there are certain songs that you don't try to make "hip-hop", and Hail to the Chief is certainly one of them. I would also put The Star Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful in that category. And while we are at it, we better add every song written prior to the 20th century. Somehow they just don't translate that well.

Creative Apathy Awards

So here are my three favorite films from last year.

Stranger Than Fiction, Children of Men, and Thank You for Smoking.

And the award goes to...(drumroll)...Children of Men.

Seeing how none of my 3 favorite movies were nominated for best picture, I decided not to watch the Academy Awards last night. In fact ever since Titanic won best picture in '97 over Good Will Hunting, L.A. Confidential, As Good As It Gets, and The Full Monty, I sort of wrote off the Oscars as a waste of time. You mean to tell me that Titanic is the best of those five movies? It's the worst.

I would go with L.A. Confidential.

Beatles Song of the Weekend

In honor of the Beatles famous first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show which happened on February 9th, 1964 the Beatles song of the weekend will be I Want to Hold Your Hand, one of the five songs that they played that night.

I Want to Hold Your Hand is also one of two Beatles songs that I know of that the Beatles recorded in German (Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand). The other song the Beatles recorded in German was She Loves you (Sie Leibt Dich). Both of those recordings can be found on this album.

Church after Christendom

Stuart Murray's book Church After Christendom, which I have been reading for my Theology and Culture course at Fuller has been a very insightful read.

The idea of the Church operating from the margins in a subversive, prophetic manner intrigues me.

Murray on acknowledging that the Church is now marginalized in the West:

Acknowledging this is a matter of honesty, not defeatism. Responding to the challenge of post-Christendom without accepting this marginality is counter-productive. We are not starting at the right point, so our assumptions will be skewed and our expectations unrealistic. Furthermore, our self-image, attitudes, tone of voice and ways of relating will further damage the already tarnished reputation of an institution associated with a fading culture characterised by oppression, moralism and hypocrisy.

Murray then addresses "need-oriented evangelism" which became pervasive during Christendom saying:

When the church becomes a powerful institution, a particular way of telling the story solidifies and attains normative status, marginalising alternatives. It can also function as a control mechanism, enhancing the church's status.

One more challenging quote that requires some reflection and gives a glimpse of hope:

Marginal post-Christendom churches may rediscover a radical gospel that subverts condescending 'need-oriented evangelism' (that leaves unchallenged an unjust status quo) and reconnects evangelism with social justice. If the gospel is truly good news to the poor, we have not been preaching the gospel, for the rich and the powerful have not found it disturbing and the poor have not found it liberating.

That last sentence will stick with me for awhile.

Britney has it bad

I was planning on shaving my head tonight but I thought twice about it because apparently it is earth shattering news if someone shaves their head these days. So I changed my mind because I don't need the hassle of seeing myself on The Insider, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, Extra and all of the other amazing TV shows and media outlets that will inevitably pick up the story if I shave my head.

Note to self- avoid fame at all costs

Favorite/Least favorite commercials of the moment-2/18/07

Favorite-
Not sure what the commercial is for but it uses this video of a kid, who doesn't even look old enough to talk, recognizing and naming the US presidents.



Great video!

Least Favorite-I will keep this post positive so no least favorite for now.

Letters From Leavers

A classmate of mine and I have started a website for a project for our Theology and Culture course called Letters from Leavers. It is place for people who have left the Church to write a letter to the Church about why they left. The site has been up for less than 48 hours and we already are receiving letters, and they are so fascinating to read.

I am also pretty excited because I know that the site is causing a buzz among some emerging church leaders. Andrew Jones of tallskinnykiwi fame even linked to us!

Anyway check out the site and write a letter if you feel so compelled. If you don't have anything to write you can just read through the posted letters. A very interesting read.

I'm a chocolate candy!

So if you haven't checked out this site where you can become an M & M, you gotta do it. It is very well done and the results are kind of creepy yet very fun. As you can see, I decided to put my candy-coated self in the middle of a parade just like Ferris Bueller. Everyone would be yelling from the parade route "Holy cow, it is a walking M & M! And he's wearing glasses!" Now that is what I call a parade.

Beatles song of the week (who knows what number I am on)

Here it is


Next time I am in Chicago I am finding the nearest parade float and I am jumping up on it and singing this song to see if I get a similar reaction as Ferris did. Chicago is my kind of town if they can collectively rock out to the Beatles like this.

Random fact regarding Twist and Shout: The Beatles recorded the album Please Please Me in one day (at least 10 of the 14 tracks were recorded in one 15 hour session) and Twist and Shout was recorded at the end of a very long day. That is why John Lennon's voice sounds so raspy. His voice was completely shot after the long day of singing.

Which LOST character are you?

Beliefnet.com has a quiz that supposedly determines which character from LOST that you are most like. Considering tonight marks the return of the best show on TV I thought I would link to the quiz which can be taken here.

The excitement starts tonight with a special about the show with the producers at 9pm and the first of 16 brand new episodes in a row at 10pm on ABC.

My score was 20 which makes me a Sun, by the way. Pretty interesting assessment.

David Sedaris

I found this video and it reminded me how much I love David Sedaris. If you haven't done so yet, pick up a copy of one of his books like Me Talk Pretty One Day, or Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and enjoy this great storyteller and humorist.

Favorite/Least favorite commercials of the moment- Super Bowl edition

Favorite



Simply brilliant. Dave is hilarious.

Honorable mention



Least Favorite

Anything affiliated with Budweiser. Their commercials were awful this year and their beer still tastes like urine.

Beatles Song of the Week- resurrected

It's been awhile but this week definitely needs a Beatles song to go with it.

So I nominate and therefore declare the winner of Beatles Song of the Week (since I am the only one who votes for this thing) the song Hey Bulldog which is on the album Yellow Submarine.

I remember weird things about people. For example I know that Bob Saget's favorite Beatles song is Fixing a Hole. There was a TV special on a few years ago about the impact of the Beatles music and they interviewed all these musicians and celebrities regarding their thoughts on the Beatles and I remember Bob Saget said his favorite Beatles song was Fixing a Hole and that stuck with me because I thought it was an interesting choice for favorite Beatles song. You could tell he was a real fan because only a real fan would pick that song as their favorite. Casual fans would pick Help! or Yesterday or She Loves You or some other single that reached #1 on the charts as their favorite Beatles song but only a real fan would pick Fixing a Hole. (a note of clarification: If your fave Beatles song is one that you can hear all the time on an oldies radio station that doesn't necessarily disqualify you as a real fan. But picking an obscure song as your fave definitely means that you are a true fan, at least in my book.)

Well anyway in my former life I used to work at Borders and I worked with this one guy who was a huge music geek and I remembered talking with him about the Beatles. I don't remember his name or really anything else about him but I remember him saying to me, "You know what Beatles song I really like? Hey Bulldog." He was a real fan.

Less than a week away!

I get the chills just thinking about it. No not the Super Bowl, or the Super Bowl commercials (which will undoubtedly be better than the game as they are every year).

I am excited about the return of LOST. The best show on TV is back on February 7th and I can't wait!!!



What will Juliet do in response to Jack's bold move in the surgery room? Will Ben Linus aka Henry Gale die? Will Kate and Sawyer leave Jack? Will the rest of the Losties, now led by Locke, reunite with Kate, Sawyer and Jack? What is going on with Desmond? Who will be the next to die?

Many people have begun bashing this show lately because they feel that they never answer any of the questions or mysteries that the shows story creates. These complainers typify the negative effects of our "instant gratification" society. TV writers can't even craft a well developed show in which there are deeply interesting characters with intersecting back-stories and well developed mythologies because viewers don't have the patience to follow the story. I for one don't care if they answer any questions because the mystery for me is enough.

LOST returns Wednesday February 7th at 10pm. If you need to catch up I believe there will be a special that airs at 9pm that will recap the first 6 episodes of this season.

My dreams have come true! (maybe)

So whenever I watch Back to the Future 2 I am always struck by the movies portrayal of the future. I just watched it like a week or two ago and realized that when Marty goes to the future he visits 2015 which is only 8 years away now. I'm sure in 1989 when the movie came out 2015 seemed like a long way into the future but now it's not too far off. The portrayal of the future in the movie has been brought that much closer for me after reading this article. I always wondered when we would get around to flying cars. Well now it looks like they might be a real possibility.

I can't tell you how many times I have been sitting in traffic on one of LA's many freeways and began to day dream about Back to the Future 2 and owning my own flying car. Well it looks like my dreams might come true some day soon.

Cold War Kids

There is a lot to like about this band. They are going to have a big year in 07.

First of all their band name is awesome. I can't get the song "Hang Me Up To Dry" out of my head. The music video is brilliant. They are somehow connected to my friend Dave Beeman who I worked with at New Life a few summers back and who also used to be the drummer for this band called John Wilkes Kissing Booth (another great band name) because I have seen pictures of him hanging out with the band on their website. Also a friend of mine, Jeff Bartsch, edited one of their music videos.

Anyway I thought I would share the music video for the song "Hang Me Up To Dry" by the Cold War Kids

Try not to laugh. Just try.

If you have about 10 minutes, watch this video. You may want to pause it and let it load all the way before playing.



Two thoughts.

#1 This is better than anything on American TV.
#2 I think we found a way to get young people interested in going to the library.

Thanks to my buddy Ryan for the recommendation on the video. Hilarious.

Super Poll

One of my most frequented web stops is espn.com. I am a huge sports fan and their website gives me everything I need to stay up to speed on all my favorite teams.

On their main page they have poll questions that change every couple days. Currently the question is "Should Super Bowl Sunday be a national holiday?" If you vote, then a color-coded map of the nation pops up showing you the poll-results state by state. I voted "no" and thought for sure that I would be in the majority. I was wrong.

At the time of this post, 23,652 people had submitted their response and 59% of the people who responded thought that Super Bowl Sunday should be a national holiday. Are you kidding me?

Arkansas was the only "red" state, having 52% of their 104 responses saying that it shouldn't be a national holiday. Minnesotas 624 respondents were split 50-50 making it a gray state (although doesn't blue and red make purple?).

This baffles me. I think the Super Bowl is one of the most overrated events in pop culture. It is bloated and vacuous and overhyped, just like Prince. Hey, maybe Prince should play halfti...wait...nevermind.

Let's Hear it for the B's

Well I got my grades back from my first quarter of Seminary and I got a B+ in both classes (Hebrew Prophets and Christian Ethics). I was most surprised by my grade in Prophets because the last few weeks of that class were a blur and I absolutely tanked the final, even writing a somewhat pathetic apology/explanation for my poor effort in the blue book before turning it in. So I guess I must have done well on the paper I wrote for that class (an exegetical paper on "The Song of the Vineyard" in Isaiah 5:1-6) which helped bring my grade back up above the respectable line.

8 units down 88 to go.

Next up:
A 5 week intensive course called Theology and Culture taught by a visiting professor named John Drane who coincidentally happens to be from Scotland (see post below).

Scotland?!

The Bride and I are looking into possibly serving God in Glasgow Scotland next year with an organization called NieuCommunities. Check out the link if you are curious about what we are looking into but if you are a person who prays at all please be praying for us as we seek to figure out the next few years of our lives and how to best bring glory to God with what he has given us.

Favorite/Least favorite commercials of the moment-1/18/07

Since the Beatles Song of the week has kind of fizzled out perhaps we can replace it with another semi regular contribution...Favorite/Least Favorite commercials of the moment.

Favorite


Least Favorite

And my least favorite I am having trouble finding online (probably because it is so bad) but it is another cell phone commercial (for verizon I think) where two guys download "Rock the Casbah" to their phone and then listen to it together wondering what the singer is saying. The title of the song is "Rock the Casbah", that is what he is saying. If you download a song and it the title is on the display of your phone, how do you not know what the singer is saying when he says "Rock the Casbah"? I can't even watch it anymore.

Guess who's back?

Happy 2007!

What do you mean 2007 is already almost 3 weeks old? You mean I missed the ball dropping? I missed Ryan Seacrest and Carson Daly vying for the title of "Most Irrelevant Person Ever"? Man I need to blog more often...or not.

Anyway I think I should dedicate my first blog entry of 07 to the return of a great radio personality to the air waves of southern california. That's right, after a few months of taking some time off from radio, Petros Papadakis is back and better than ever. The self proclaimed "man of the people of the city: of the ciudad" Petros has been focusing on his TV career as a football analyst with Fox Sports and host of Spike TV's "Pro's vs. Joes" ever since leaving KMPC 1540 the Ticket a few months back. Well now Petros joins Matt "Money" Smith at KLAC 570 for the afternoon drive time show called PMS: The Petros and Money Show.

If you are a fan of pop-culture, sports, or you just like to have a laugh from time to time then check out PMS, which can be downloaded here.