Me Worship

This will be an extra special blessing to those of you who serve in your local church. Some updated arrangements of popular worship classics.



This is very, very funny to me.

h/t to my good buddy, Steve Mathews, who just started blogging, for bringing this to my attention.

Kay's Oriental Salad

What you are about to encounter is far and away the premier recipe utilizing that ubiquitous gem of l'haute cuisine, the packaged Ramen noodle.

This wonderful and versatile dish comes by way of my friend, Kay Koger, who is a superb cook and the very embodiment of the spiritual gift of hospitality. The basic recipe below is surely hers, although many of the variations are mine. There are several things that make this recipe great.

First, it is delicious and will please virtually everyone. Secondly, it is outrageously simple. Thirdly, it is an example of one of my favorite types of recipe, one in which there are infinite varieties of expression possible through the manipulation of and additions to it's core components. Cooking to me is like composing music, where one takes a basic idea and then freely experiments with the harmony, embellishes the melody, plays with the words, and reworks the groove to suit personal taste and whim. Here it is:

Mix together:
1 bag of prepackaged slaw mix
2 bunches green onions, chopped
Noodles from 2 pkg. Ramen Noodles, crumbled but not pulverized
Handful of chopped nuts (I usually use almonds)

Stir together well and add to above mixture right before serving:
1 cup oil (extra light olive oil or canola is good)
1/2 cup sugar (or Splenda, which is better for you!)
1/2 cup vinegar
Both seasoning packets from noodles

This makes a fairly good-sized batch, but it is so tasty you will be eating it before you are through making it. I’m not kidding.

Notes:
I NEVER use sugar, I ALWAYS use Splenda. Any flavor of Ramen noodles work, but if you are going to use one of the meat variations below, which taste GREAT, then try to match the Ramen flavor to the meat. Olive oil works great, but you will want to use a really light variety so as not to overpower the other flavors.

Variations:
Sautéed chunks of chicken, beef, or pork turn this into a really excellent meal dish. Also, you can add steamed or sautéed shrimp. Even frozen shrimp (thawed & cooked) work great. Canned Albacore tuna is good. Just mix these ingredients in before you add the oil dressing mix. Wine vinegar works very well, too, especially with the beef.

Other good additives include:
Left over (real) bacon bits
Chopped fresh tomatoes - drained
Roasted pine nuts
Walnuts or pecans (instead of almonds)
Chopped fresh spinach leaves, carrots, or celery
Red pepper flakes (if you want more attitude)

This keeps great in the fridge for several days and tastes great cold. If you try this, you will thank me later. Guaranteed.

I wish I hadn't said that...

Here's what I read this morning. Jesus, speaking about the coming end, says in Matthew 12: 35-37:

"The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him . But I tell you that men will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."

He is speaking directly to the Pharisees, but the context clearly asserts, with unswerving certainty, that everyone will be held accountable for the things we have said. I will be held accountable for all of the words I have uttered.

That is a very sobering prophecy, which is exactly what He intends for it to be.

"...with a pleasant lime odor."

I know it's early in the day, but this is my favorite thing I've seen on the Internet so far today. Be sure to click on the pix when you get there so that you can read the fine print...and it is fine indeed.

I'm just mildly surprised that it is intended to be applied to one's ears.

People Don't Stop Killers, People With Guns Do.

The inimitable Glenn Reynolds has a good essay on what is likely the only reasonable protection against random mass shootings on school campuses and other vulnerable public places.

Dave Kopel's Wall Street Journal op-ed says much the same, with somewhat more background and context, even.

It is almost certain, though, that the one safety measure that could work effectively will never be implemented. I do expect we will see a massive amount of discussion on things that won't work and that more impotent policy will probably be enacted. Sadly, there will probably be some good people scapegoated in Virginia before it's done, sent undeservedly into forced retirement or otherwise disgraced. Such gestures are merely symbolic, promoting an illusion of efficacy, but meaning nothing and doing nothing to make anybody any safer.

Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

I am certain that over the next couple of weeks there will be countless eulogies, remembrances, and salutatory obituaries as the world bids its final farewell to one of the greatest of American writers, Kurt Vonnegut, dead today at the age of 84.

I, like many others before and after me, discovered Kurt Vonnegut while in high school and his influence shaped my literary preferences for many years. The first novel of his that I read was "Slaughterhouse-Five", a copy loaned to me by my friend Lee Davis. Vonnegut was a relentless pessimist, irreverent, profane, and intractable. But his books sing with a voice like no one else's. His mix of humor, anger, compassion, and satire is unique and irresistible. I have not read every book he wrote, but I have enjoyed and been affected by each one that I have read. "Breakfast of Champions", "Cat's Cradle", "The Sirens of Titan"...all excellent.

My own beliefs are not nearly as cynical as Vonnegut's, nor do I admire all that the man has said and done. But he has had as indelible an effect on literature in my generation as Ernest Hemingway did on the previous, I think.

I have one personal, strange story about Kurt Vonnegut. In February of 2001, I flew in to Dallas for some business meetings at the corporate headquarters and to represent my company at an industry tradeshow. I lived for many years in the D/FW Metroplex and when I found I had some free time one evening, I just drove around to the old, familiar haunts. After dinner, I wandered into a Barnes & Noble nearby. Browsed for a while, of course, and then left with a copy of "Timequake", Vonnegut's self-proclaimed "last novel", published in 1997. I hadn't read a Vonnegut novel in more than ten years and I had been wanting to read this one for quite a while.

By the time I got back to the room, it was late and I was tired, so I didn't even crack the book. The next couple of days were chock full of business stuff so, when it finally came time to head to the airport for the trip home, I packed the book with my carry-on stuff so that I could read it on the way home. This was on Tuesday, February 13, 2001.

After I settled in, I got the book out and began to read. I had not even made it through the prologue when I noticed something peculiar...and I scrambled around for my ticket stub to confirm what I thought was true....and yes! The first big thing that happens in "Timequake" is a kind of cosmic hiccup that disrupts the space-time continuum, and it actually takes place in the book on February 13, 2001!

Basically, in the book, on that date, the universe gets yanked back to February 17, 1991 and everyone and everything is destined, or doomed (per KV's perspective) to relive that whole decade over again...without substantial alteration, really, just doing the same thing all over again. Never mind, it makes a kind of sense in the book, but the point is I was sitting there in my seat on the plane, about to take off, looking around nervously, grinning, and muttering under my breath. I wanted to tell somebody that I was reading a book whose narrative was supposed to be happening on the same day and time that I happened to be reading about it. Even though it had actually been written 4 or 5 years earlier.

But I didn't tell anyone. Instead I just nestled into my seat, and lost myself in the book. I half-wondered, as we landed in Dayton, would the world be the same? Or would it really be 1991 again when I got off the plane. I couldn't help it...it freaked me out, but I kind of half-hoped/half-expected something to be different. Vonnegut had once again completely suspended my disbelief. What are the odds that someone would actually be reading a book, a work of fiction, at the very same time that the events in that book were occurring?

It made for yet another singularly enjoyable, intensely moving, and absolutely unforgettable literary encounter with Kurt Vonnegut, one of the great writers of the 20th Century.

King Brain: FUNK IS THE FINAL FRONTIER

More great, obscure music that you've probably never heard of...

Today I stumbled across the website of a contemporary music producer based in Germany who goes by the peculiar moniker of "King Brain". I had never heard of him, but he's got it going on, especially in the terms of funk, groove, and dance production albums.

Go check out his website here. The embedded mp3 player hooks you fast with a clip from a knockout tune by Leroy Emmanuel called "Funk Is The Final Frontier". Spend some time clicking around some of the other links and mp3's, too. There is a great YouTube video showing Emmanuel playing a couple of other tunes off his new album, "Color Me Funky", and then a really bizarre performance involving spoons. Emmanuel's music really reminds me of some classic Tower of Power, Parliament/Funkadelic, Earth Wind & Fire, kind of funk. This is the genuine article.

A big portion of the website is in German, but it is easy to navigate. There's a lot to see and some great music that you won't hear anywhere else.

MATTHEW 28

May the blessings of this Resurrection Day

fill your heart with longing,

your soul with joy,

and your mind with understanding.

Roll Over, Ben Franklin...

Here is Benjamin Franklin, the American renaissance man, performing on an ingenious musical instrument of his own design, the Glass Armonica. It is a series of tuned glass bowls of various sizes that are rotated on a horizontal spindle by a foot-powered treadle. One plays it with moistened fingertips, of course. Mozart reportedly composed two works specifically for this instrument, and there are people who still perform on them today.

This is one of the many wonderful and bizarre instruments from the gallery at Oddmusic.com.

Most of the instruments featured, including the Glass Armonica, have audio files to listen to as well.

1:47 A Documentary Film

"1:47" is the name of a fascinating documentary film now in production that tells the story of a horrific explosion in 1968 that devastated downtown Richmond, Indiana, the city near which I live. Richmond is an interesting, historic town, and this was a very significant event, still very much remembered today.

Here is the link to the website on which you will see a short film trailer featuring photographic and interview footage of the disaster.

Movie Review: 300

Last weekend my son and I went to the movies. We saw 300, the new Frank Miller-inspired movie adaptation of the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. in which soldiers from an alliance of independent Greek states staved off an invasion by a huge Persian army against overwhelming odds. It is a great piece of history on its own and its military tactics, as well as its cultural significance, is still studied today. The movie, of course, was a fictionalized account centering on the 300 Spartan warriors under King Leonidas.

The look and feel of the film was great. Some folks won’t like the violence, but we’ve all seen worse, I think, and it was pretty stylized, comic-book style. I really liked the musical score too, alternately dense and minimalistic, symphonic and powerfully expressive.

The parallels between the story and our own modern times were inescapable and, surprisingly, wholly politically incorrect by typical Hollywood standards.

King Leonidas was not authorized to go to war and defied the law of the land to do so. The Spartan Senate was decidedly against what seemed to them an improper and provocative preemptive measure, deeming the Persian threat distant and improbable. Yes, the Persian threat. Leonidas took his troops to war anyway, recognizing that the unappeasable Xerxes, the Man-God, sought nothing less than the complete conquest and subjugation of the then Western world. While the King was fighting off the totalitarian, religiously fanatical invaders, there was great turmoil and treachery in the government back home as unscrupulous politicians sought to undermine the war effort abroad in any way possible.

This story of the violent clash between two cultures is an unmistakable analogue to our present world state today. The story ends essentially faithful to the historical account and I’m not interested in quibbling over the details.

What I liked about this movie, beyond its marvelous cinematic qualities and engrossing story was it’s moral clarity. There are good guys bent on doing what is right who would gladly die before seeing it any other way. And there are bad guys with evil designs who need to be encouraged to either go away or, barring that, need to be ushered into the presence of their Maker with as much haste as possible and as much violence as required. It is, at least in part, a movie about the price of freedom.

It’s just not that complicated.

Who is Niki Haris?

For the last few weeks now there has been a commercial on TV that never fails to turn my head toward the tube. Visa, the credit card company, has a new campaign that features "Downtown", the old Petula Clark hit from the 60's. The video shows a winsome, though unremarkable actress/model being whisked through a rapid succession of cosmetic transformations into some kind of beauteous archetype of fashion and glamour, all because of the power of Visa credit, blah, blah, blah... Big deal.

What is completely arresting about this commercial is the great arrangement of this song and an outstanding singing performance by the stylish black woman who we see at the beginning and end of the spot. In less than 30 seconds, her soaring and soulful vocal on this commercial grabs you and doesn't let go until it's done.

So, after wondering for several days, I finally went to Google and typed in:

"visa commercial downtown"

Lo and behold, it seems I am far from being the only person impressed by this commercial. What pops up immediately in this search are several referential hits reflecting a real interest in this talented singer. It turns out her name is Niki Haris, she's got a website (of course!) and has successfully developed a genre-hopping, multi-faceted singing, acting, and dancing career. Among many other credits, she is a long-time backup singer for Madonna, has toured with legendary funk band Rufus (in the shoes of Chaka Khan), sung at the Newport Jazz Festival, choreographed major dance performances, written and performed music for television and movies, and released numerous gospel, dance, pop, and jazz albums. Pretty amazing. Most artists don't get to enjoy much success in so many disparate fields.

If you've gotten this far and don't have any idea what I'm talking about, YouTube has the video clip:



I am again amazed at how cool it is to have so much information so immediately available with today's technology. There are many things about computers and the internet that I don't like but, as recently as a couple of years ago, it would have been very hard to find ANY of this information, but now, it is right at our fingertips, complete with video. Amazing.

Untitled and mercifully short post in which the author whines about having to work too much. He should shut up and count his blessings.

Alas, this is my life's theme this week. I am burning the candle at both ends and working like a dog. Not a heroic Space Dog, but a regular working stiff of a dog that is compelled to work at too many jobs all at one time such that he has no time to sniff the breeze or run free in the fields or gaze at (or lick) his navel or other things that dogs like to lick.

You'd be surprised at how many images there are on the internet of a candle burning at both ends. Most of them are copyrighted. I guess it's something folks can relate to.

Dogs in Space

This is excerpted from the Space Today Online website:

"Korabl-Sputnik-2 (Spaceship Satellite-2), also known as Sputnik 5, was launched on August 19, 1960. On board were the dogs Belka ( Squirrel) and Strelka (Little Arrow). Also on board were 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants.

After a day in orbit, the spacecraft's retrorocket was fired and the landing capsule and the dogs were safely recovered. They were the first living animals to survive orbital flight. Strelka later gave birth to six puppies, one of which was given to Caroline Kennedy, daughter of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, by Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.

Today, the bodies of Strelka and Belka remain preserved at the Memorial Museum of Astronautics in Moscow. Belka sits in a glass case in the museum while Strelka is part of a traveling exhibit that has visited the U.S., China, Australia, Israel and other countries."

The photograph is from a Library of Congress photograph collection. Stumbling over one of the cutest dog pictures I've ever seen inspired me to do a little research on it's subjects.

Blessings #1

This entry is, hopefully, the first of a kind. I have just passed the 100-post mark and it occurred to me only this morning, sorry to say, that I really need a category entitled "Blessings".

I am writing this post on a laptop, a Mac iBook G3, given to me a couple of days ago by a very dear friend. As her family upgraded their own computers, she graciously bestowed this one on me. Refusing my attempts to pay her, this is by no means an uncharacteristic kindness of my friend. She routinely demonstrates the spiritual gift of generosity to all who know her. It's who she is and it's what she does because it's the way God made her. And she knows full well that what she has done for me is not merely given me a gift, but she has enabled me. She has invested in my life in a singularly meaningful way. I am humbled and awed by this, and I can't express enough gratitude. I will spend the next few weeks trying, though.

My intention is to optimize my new iBook for the writing and production of original music. A bright happy day has dawned around here in the land of Pike Speak. Dreams deferred have been resurrected and have taken on fresh, new vibrant colors.

I am richly blessed in friends, that is for sure.

Blue Man Group: How To Be A Megastar Tour

Last Sunday night we went to see the Blue Man Group in Dayton and it was a fabulous show. I have always been intrigued by how wildly creative they are and especially fascinated with their unusual musical instruments.

This particular tour features a large live rock and roll band and a lot of music, inclusive of both classic rock and some fine original music. Their version of The Who's "Teenage Wasteland" is especially great.

There are two primary themes to the show. The most visceral is the unfolding parody of the cult of celebrity, specifically in the music biz, which they launch off of the concept of the three blue men sending off for and receiving a mailorder manual and video with instructions on how to become a megastar. Very, very funny stuff.


The secondary theme, more subtle and thoughtful, unfolds in the original music and video segments, exploring the postmodern idea of feeling alienated and dehumanized by mounting contemporary societal pressures and the pace of technological advancements. These themes include the emotional and spiritual aspects of being overwhelmed by the amount of information, feeling alone in crowds, searching for love, the fear of reaching out to others in meaningful ways, and the pressure to suppress individuality for the sake of conforming to social conventions.

Artistically, some of these ideas succeed better than others, but the juxtaposition of these ideas with outrageous humor and bold artistic gestures and images was loads of fun.

It is a smallish venue, the Nutter Center in Dayton, and we had excellent seats some 32 rows from the stage, next to the sound board The show was mixed on a Yamaha PM1D with minimal outboard gear employed. Audio Analysts, one of the best companies in the industry, provided all of the tour support on the audio side. The volume was completely adequate but even at its most exuberant never approached the sound pressure levels usually heard at a live rock show. And the mix was quite good, very listenable, especially for a show in an athletic arena. Sorry to say, I'm not sure who the lighting company was, but the lighting design work was great.

Other show highlights included great performances by the band and extensive utilization of some of their unique self-designed musical instruments such as the tubulum and the drumbone made from PVC and the airpoles, which are made of various sizes of steel whip antennae. Very cool. Also, I especially enjoyed the boisterous use of the suspended concert bass drum and the open grand piano soundboard, both of which were pummelled mercilessly with giant sized mallets. Great video and animation, as well. There also had confetti cannons, TV headgear, and some crazy live video shennigans with microcameras inserted into various objects and orifices. Wild fun. It was a very enjoyable evening.

I found this pick underneath one of the seats in the row behind us as we were leaving.

4:00 AM and wide awake

“So what did you write about?” she asked as we walked to the car.

It was 10:00 PM and we were on the way home from Sacred Grounds, Richmond’s premier coffee shop. We had been there since 7:00, kind of an impromptu date night, with the intent of a light supper and the relaxing cup of warm joe.

She is working on fleshing out the bones of a great book idea on her laptop. I had a little BSF homework left to do, passage analysis on Romans 12:3-8, and then the freedom to read or to write as I pleased.

“Hmm.” I cleared my throat. I had anticipated this question, and had already weighed my response. I had considered the parry, perhaps the distraction or the oblique, but opted for transparency. I wanted to be honest, but I didn’t want to cast a pall on the whole evening. “Disappointment, mostly…but it was good.”

She was quiet for a moment. Not the answer she had hoped for, but she was not surprised either. She knew that I wasn’t talking about her, or about us, but about me.

“Was it something from that book?,” she inquired, very slightly peeved, wanting to know if this was just me being gratuitously morose again or if there had actually been a spark of something meaningful in my answer. She had given me a wonderful little volume several days before entitled “The Pocket Muse-Ideas and Inspirations for Writing,” by Monica Wood which I had been reading with enjoyment.

“Sort of…well, yeah, definitely,” I replied unconvincingly. But as I considered the naked inadequacy of that answer in the quiet time after that, I realized that it really had been partly a result of something I had read.

“Cleverness is not wisdom” was the quote by Euripides that had stuck with me. Wood’s intent with that quotation was to expose the fallacy of prosaic artifice that does not serve the writer’s subject or intent, but instead attempts to impress the reader with the author’s intellect or deft technical skill. But the bigger difference between cleverness and wisdom is not in technique, but in ethical depth and veracity. Wisdom is informed by truthfulness, whereas in cleverness truth is optional and sometimes an encumbrance.

So what I had written in my journal was truthful. Painful, confessional, self-accusatory, lacking in cleverness, and with no pretense at wisdom, but definitely truthful.

And truth can set a man free.

Gandhi Schmandhi, thats what I always say...

Fred Thompson's got it goin' on. Commenting on some of the anti-war left's exaltation of Mahatma Gandi as a symbol of peace, he notes:

"During World War II, Gandhi penned an open letter to the British people, urging them to surrender to the Nazis. Later, when the extent of the holocaust was known, he criticized Jews who had tried to escape or fight for their lives as they did in Warsaw and Treblinka. The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife, he said. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs. Collective suicide, he told his biographer, would have been heroism."

Fred and I agree, Gandhi was a knucklehead. Although I mean that in a nice way.

Refractions: Being a Child of the Creative Age

I read the transcript of an inspiring speech by artist Mako Fujimura to the recent International Arts Movement (IAM) conference, an organization I had never heard of until yesterday.

"If you asked a room full of kindergarteners "Raise your hand if you are an artist!" Almost every child would raise his hand. But if you ask a room full of adults, almost every adult would not."

Quoting Bronte's Jane Eyre, and holding it up as a model, Fujimura calls on artists to “create the world that ought to be.” It is a stirring and fascinating piece.

Please go read it.

And I need to go find a copy of Jane Eyre. I know, don't say it...

Current Events

JP is out of school for spring break. Its great to have him home.

My grandma turned 91 this past Friday and we celebrated on Sunday at my folks house. She is such a gem. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. She got her driver's license renewed last Friday, too. But she only drives to church, the bank, and the grocery...less than 5 miles round trip, so don't worry. She's smart and she knows her limitations.

I don't exactly know what to call what it is I did at church on Sunday. Basically, during the offering time, I orated/performed a poem (co-written by my friend, John Waltz) accompanied by a simple hip-hoppish/electronica-style musical underscore that I composed. Is there a name for that? I was a little nervous at first, but after I got into it, it seemed to go well from my perspective. So far, all the feedback I received was positive. It was definitely different than anything we had done before. It was my wife's concept. She's a smart one. If I get a video clip, I'll try to figure out how to post it.

We did several cool things at church this weekend, including playing as a postlude the old R&B hit "I'll Take You There" by the Staple Singers, redone ala BeBe & CeCe Winans. Jesus likes the funky music and so do I. Go check out this fabulous YouTube clip of this tune on Soul Train. You know this song - you love this song. It is big fun.

Next weekend, I get to play my lapsteel guitar at church. I need to practice and get my chops together. Scary, because I'm really not very good, yet.

The snow is nearly gone, having had a couple of days where the temps were in the upper 50's. It was unnerving how quickly the birds and bugs appeared, though, at the first hint of warm weather. Somehow a wasp got in the house, in our bedroom, and in our bed on Saturday morning. Not long after I left for a BSF meeting, Nancy woke up to find that she had been stung on the palm and looked over to see a wasp sauntering across my pillow. She was not pleased, to say the least. And we've already had flies and ladybugs (actually, it is that stinky little asian beetle that looks like a lady bug - you know the one). Yeesh. This old house needs an exterminator.

I'm quitting my part-time job at the USPS. As much as we need the extra income, I really have felt since the first of the year that the Lord was nudging me to let it go. It will be a couple of months, probably, before they find my replacement and I am committed to stay on until they do, but it is in the works. This will help me in several areas, simplifying some things and enabling me to do a better job in my function as lay worship leader and artist at my church. It will also require me to trust God in an area where I always seem to have issues...financial security. I'm cool with that although I don't expect it will be easy. The Lord and I have a long history with this particular topic, and I'm probably due another lesson. He will provide, just like He always has.

k...bye.