2vidz

hi.


here are videos for a couple of great songs. they're really artistically done, each simultaneously endearing and disturbing. check them out:

- 'a wolf at the door' by radiohead

- 'teardrop' - massive attack (this is the real video, i think. i had not known the original when i first heard josé gonzález's version.)

not that i'm biased or anything...

hi.

ladies and gentlemen, i think it's gonna happen again this year.

exhibit a.

(is it me or do i post more during baseball season...?)

t

hi. cool moment yesterday.

so i'm sitting at a table in my lunch location of choice with a friend, facing the windows. then i see him - the best college basketball player in the country - about to walk in and have lunch. i mean, this guy was the most dominant player on the most dominant team in the first four rounds of the tournament, and he's about to stroll into this place the very next weekday where everyone's a fan.

he walked in the door, unobtrusive. he was with another person. a single clapper broke through the lunchtime din. patrons glanced up at the sound, then switched their gaze on the doorway. slowly the applause grew, and soon the entire place was alive with whoops, cheers, and ovations of appreciation. tyler just humbly nodded and politely waved, his innocent midwestern face belying his on-the-court tenacity. the applause lasted for maybe twelve seconds - which isn't that long, but seemed long enough - and people returned to their meals and conversations.

it was a special event, because it's exactly what should have happened. not a word was said. there wasn't Beatle-like over-adulation or excessive gawking; similarly, to not acknowledge him would not seem to have been right either. it was simply a local hero (who happened to possess the national spotlight) being thanked by the local populace. beautiful.

i'm glad i was there. sorry, branson.

...and they're off!

hi. enjoy this now, d-ray fans - all three of you.

kx

hi.

new king's x record, called "XV" (figger it out), will be released 20th may. (ready...) i am so X-cited!

all because of you

hi. i just listened to this song again for the first time in a while. it is just plain awesome.

i'll write more later. maybe after easter. i'm gonna be pretty busy for the next two weeks. (so what then was my excuse for the last six weeks?? i'm not sure.) pray for me if you think of it.

prayer and fasting for kenya

hi.

this is an email i got from bill today. you may have received it yourself, but i thought i'd post it here today:


I just chatted with Ken Oloo, a friend in Kenya. Like many Kenyans he is feeling hopeless today, as another MP has been murdered and things do not look to be improving. He is obviously wondering where his hope will come from.

I told him that Kenya has good friends around the world (particularly in North Carolina :-) ) and that this is not a repeat of Rwanda where nobody noticed until it was too late. We don't know exactly what to do, but we are very aware of what is happening. They are not abandoned.

I was surprised that he found that small expression of concern to be so encouraging.

Kenyan churches are calling for days of fasting and prayer, and Ken and I wondered, as a larger expression of concern, friendship, and intercession, if we here would join them on Monday. I told him I would do my best to spread the word at CHBC, Emmaus Way, and Chatham, and he would do the same at Mavuno, MDT, Nairobi Chapel, etc.

So please spread the word wherever you are, in NC, Georgia, Wisconsin, California, Long Island, DC; join with Kenya in a day of fasting and prayer on Monday.

Please put this on your church's prayer chains, announce it to your congregations, talk about it wherever you are, make Facebook pages, etc.

Perhaps like many of you, I am not always certain of the purpose of prayer. I don't know what God does with them, if anything at all. It's hard to say how it works or even if our criteria for success is the same as His. Fasting is even more of a mystery. But I can see that Kenya needs a miracle and I am not too proud to ask for one... or at least I'll put my pride aside for one day.

landmarks, pt. 2

hi.

let's go back even further. here are a couple three-composition sequences that loom large in the landscape of western music:

ludwig van beethoven:
missa solemnis (1822)/the "diabelli" variations (1823)/symphony no. 9 (1824)

gustav mahler:
symphony no. 8 (1907)/das lied von der erde (1908-09)/symphony no. 9 (1909)

dang, those guys could write.

landmarks

hi.

i submit that the two greatest three-release sequences in the history of recorded music are:

the beatles:
rubber soul (1965)/revolver (1966)/sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band (1967)

radiohead:
the bends (1995)/ok computer (1997)/kid a (2000)

this submission is no real stretch, of course, but i welcome your comments/additions!

who needs rain

hi.

i am so excited that it's raining. we've needed it. i mean -- we have really neeeeeded it: they haven't let me water my lawn for months! now maybe i can!! YAY, GOD!!!!




[never mind the millions of people who are dying because they have not a clean drop to drink...]

"deep thoughts" by nat handey

hi.

you know how many pastors would look at most televangelists and think they're lame, inauthentic, money-hungry, and not all that good at preaching in the first place? do you think "real" chefs and cooks at five-star new york restaurants think the same thing about rachael ray or emeril lagasse?

just a thought (deep or not).

god bless yohe, ahrens, and dorough

hi.

a question for those born between 1967 and 1975*: why, when the boys and i watched their (our) newly-acquired schoolhouse rock DVD today, did tears come to my eyes? it was weird, but something i couldn't help.

*specifically, perhaps, if you were born in 1970 on either 10 march or 21 april.