Here and Now

I went to CMS* again this year. It was, again, a really good conference. Since it was my second year, some of the new-car smell had worn off and I knew more what to expect. I decided this year to catch a couple of the songwriter sessions, in addition to the sessions I went to "for work"**. The songwriter session that I was most stoked about was led by Ian Eskelin . Now, most people at CMS (I assume) had no idea who Ian was...until the Friday night concert when they did a "songwriter in the round" session with like five or six songwriters*** when he introduced himself and said he wrote "This Is The Stuff" with Francesca Battistelli . But I was pretty hyped up before I got to the conference. I had a video Eskelin did called Supersonic Dream Day  - videos of the album of the same name - from when he was just starting out in the industry - here's a sample . Then, a few years later, I caught his band All Star United opening for Third Day with anothe...

I saw this, without comment, on another blog: Think about the truth of this image. Success is a crazy trajectory, with tons of moments where it looks like failure is immanent. I haven't read Steve Jobs' bio yet, but my good friend Ray has been giving me summaries as he's been reading through it and I'm struck by how close amazing breakthroughs are to complete failure and collapse - if not for that "one thing" that "one moment." But that "thing" or "moment" almost always comes out of hundreds - maybe thousands - of hours of blood, sweat and tears and it's probably the really the momentum of the labor, not so much the serendipitous "moment" that pushes an idea, project, technology, whatever into the realm of "success." Then you have to define success ...

The next several - pictures of words...* As always... Maybe not Mr. Lincoln, but pretty good anyway... *So what is a picture of words worth? Huh? How many words is THAT worth? Huh?    Yeah...I went there...

It's a T-shirt Saturday... Yeah...all from the same show...* *Which is crude, rude and totally inappropriate... but these are my people...  I can be SUCH a nerd...

found online I saw this video a while ago, turned on to me by a guy who was all about how we have to "defend the Truth of the Gospel,"* which may or may not be a post for another time. Anyway, Penn Jillette is a one half of the famous comedy duo Penn and Teller who do (does? done did?) shows in Vegas. Penn is apparently well known for being an outspoken athiest** and also well known for doing these kind of video blog posts*** where he rants about...well, whatever. But one day after a show, a guy gave him a Bible. Check this out. The rant isn't what you think it's going to be: Yeah, it's not comfortable looking up his nostrils the whole time, I know... But did you catch the rant? 3:00 in. (Yeah, he doesn't foam at the mouth rant, don't worry, it's safe to click the link, I promise) "And I've always said, you know, that I don't respect people who don't proselytize. I don't respect that at all. If you believe that ther...

My good friend Steve raves about The Walking Dead , AMC's Zombie-fest that's always at the top of the ratings. And he says, "You have to watch it. It's not the zombie stuff. It's the characters that will hook you in and keep you watching."* And I mock him.  'Cause that's what friends do. Zombies? Really? found here But the point is taken. The number one show. Or is it number one on cable? Does that matter? I see that sometimes.  "Cable's number one drama. Or comedy. Or cable's number one show with two guys wearing suits. Or whatever..." I dunno. Anyway, the season finale a couple weeks ago got 12+ million viewers .** That seems like a pretty solid number one on TV kind of slot to me.*** So I haven't watched the show. I can't get past the zombie bit. To each his own.****  So, um, not the point. It occurred to me, however, that being the number one show, while being a pretty big deal, isn't enough to be culturally...

I don't teach anymore...  But if I did... ...this second one would probably get me in a lot of trouble...

It's just the mood I'm in today: Quadruple Star Wars Goodness. ENJOY!

Sermon site  updated with yesterday's message. Hopefully, our volunteer will get the audio sermons page  caught up soon...

Morguefile The other day Seth Godin posted a marketing post about " You Can't Change Everybody " The point being you can't reach everybody with marketing anymore - maybe you never could, but in the days of three networks and PBS, you could reach a LOT of people with a 30 second TV commercial, in the days of Time and Newsweek, you could reach a TON of people with a full page ad. But, he likes to say, we live in an age of a billion channels (and it's true), so you can't reach everybody. Why try? You have to be VERY selective now. So...who you gonna reach. And since marketing is about change, whose mind are you going to try to change?  He then lists a bunch of questions to figure out once you can answer the who - the very specific who - and, face it, if you can't answer the who, don't bother going on. So, what follows applies to church too, I think. Generally. We're not trying to sell, so much, as reach. But it's still about connecting a...

from history.com The History Channel finally started their 10 hour miniseries, The Bible , last Sunday night. The first episode, Beginnings, pretty well done. Sure, people are going to quibble about details, what was left out, what was added. That's fine. Quibble away. I found it well done for what it's intended to be: a dramatic presentation of the Biblical story . Story. Tell the tale, get the point right. Will it be embellished? Will some details be dropped?** Yep. So I really liked having Noah re-telling the creation story to his family on the ark as the opening scene. CGI in the scene was better than average*** and the acting was good enough to draw me in (important, I think, when opening your series) though Noah with a strong Scottish accent was an interesting choice... So, this isn't intended to be a review so much as a reflection, I guess. I liked the focus on Abraham - hit the highlights - the theme of "trust in God" was prevalent. It's int...

This remains true at the Beatty household... But the day is fast coming when it'll just be a box... I'm not looking forward to that day...

From Morguefile The other night, Lori and I watched Flight , the newest Denzel Washington flick to hit DVD. I had been warned that it was...not to be taken lightly. I knew it was rated "R" so we shooed the girls out of the room for the duration of the film. I checked IMDB to see why it received the rating , so I was prepared for what was to come. So, it wasn't quite the story I thought it would be. I expected it to be the story of a pilot who heroically saves the day when the plane crashes (a la Sully in the famous Hudson River ditching) but he's got a checkered past and, well, I thought it would be about him being framed for the crash and him trying to clear his name. It wasn't. It was, instead, a story of redemption. A fall from grace, the crash (both literal and metaphysical) and the aftermath, and the denouement of his life after a life-changing decision. Yeah, I don't want to give too much away, I guess. Here's the thing. I had been...