interesting book review

here's an interesting look at british author terry eagleton's new book, "Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate". The reviewer gives an interesting overview of the book which covers some ground that strikes me as particularly poignant. mainly, that the "new athiests" - richard dawkins, sam harris, chirstopher hitchens - have put on blinders in terms of what roles are played out by religion, belief, science and myth, and how they address different issues.

religion and myth are really about the search for meaning and purpose, which of course can be distorted in any number of ways by interpretation, whereas science is more concerned with absolute answers and definitions to replicable, observable things. neither treads the same ground, and while they can inform one another, their base purposes are different.

happy earth day!

today is earth day. i'm hoping that we'll be able to take a little time as a family and talk about how we can take some further steps to reduce our carbon footprint. i did a small post for the youth specialties blog today that talks about it a bit. i'm inspired by the challenge to take small steps to cut 10% of our usage in a year - a totally achievable goal, yet one that takes some intentionality.

i remember my college band, suedehead and the pop tops, playing at the valparaiso university earth day festival in 1991, the spring after i'd graduated. at the time earth day seemed like an obscure thing that was fairly parochial, limited to big cities and college campuses. it's amazing to see how prominent earth day celebrations are today, and aside from the good it does in reducing waste, it's a fantastic opportunity to think about and plan for steps that help us lead more intentional lives, thinking about others and how our actions affect each other.

happy earth day everyone!

interviews

yesterday i discovered a series of video interviews on faith posted on the washington post's site. it's an interesting mix of people, from elie weisel to td jakes, gene robinson and joel osteen, jim wallis and christiane amanpour, and this interesting clip of lorne michaels, creator of saturday night live.

plenty to go through and a fun mix of people.

record store day! support indie record stores!

tomorrow is record store day, a celebration of independent music stores around the country. there are artist appearances, free stuff galore and great deals on music from the kinds of stores that have been the heart and soul of breaking new bands for years. i'll likely be hitting lou's recordsin encinitas, and there are hundreds of other great shops around the country that deserve your support.

I totally understand the changing face of music retail, and online destinations like amiestreet, noisetrade, pitchfork, filter, pandora and of course itunes have all made music easier to find and purchase. but i still love the feel of a place that allows for true community to form and people to recognize other like-minded music maniacs. i remember heading to uncle albert's records in my hometown of arlington heights, il to buy a copy of wls djs larry lujack and tommy edwards' (uncle 'lar and little tommy) animal stories records, or when i was on the dj committee at my junior high and buying 45s of j. geils band "freeze frame" and "centerfold" and csn's "southern cross", barely realizing that i was also immersed in the nw suburbs' prime a head shop and meeting place for incense afficionados.

in nashville, grimey's new & pre-loved music is the place to go not just for great music but for a great hang and a room where music lovers are celebrated. there's also a great little venue downstairs, appropriately called the basement, where you're likely to hear great music most nights, and certainly some surprises through the years.

so go to the record store day site and find your local record store and be sure to spend a little scratch with them not just on saturday, but throughout the year, and know that you're contributing to the lifeblood of great new music. amen.

tv weatherman - failblog

thanks to rob mitchell for this one

what am i interested in?

about 6 months ago i was evaluated by a group of co-workers (anonymously, so the info was straightforward ad very helpful). one of the items had people rate me on the statement, “has hobbies or interests outside of work.” i scored high. when that came back i shared with the leadership team at ys that i felt that i did have those in nashville, but in the midst of a cross country move, settling into a new neighborhood, getting kids in school, traveling 7 out of 10 weeks during one fall stretch and having michele’s parents move in with us, i didn’t feel i had those so far in san diego, though i must have duped the raters convincingly.

i told michele a few days ago that i was feeling a big gap in that area, particularly with the amount of hours i’ve been putting in at work and trying to be more intentional about time with the kids, which is another topic entirely. she asked what hobbies i thought i had in nashville, and i wasn’t sure what to say. so many of them were social hobbies as much as anything: browsing the bins at grimey’s record shop or talking about anything at all at the 12 south taproom was another, and i worked out quite regularly, which i haven’t done at all in san diego. i have myriad interests, though i haven’t spent focused time on anything in the last year, and i’m seeing the result of that in several ways. my intellectual curiosity is still there, but not acted out in any social way. in nashville we were blessed to have an amazingly large network of friends, and i could count on fairly regular social interaction with people i knew and who knew me, not to mention new friendships that popped up regularly.

so i’m re-examining those things. i must work out again or i’ll get back to my maximum density years of my late 20s. and while this is sure to counter balance those efforts, i’ve been thinking regularly about doing some more home brewing, which is fun to do solo and in a small group. i’m sure michele is thrilled by the memory of the scent of a brew kit in action, but the windows will be open, and i’ll look forward to unveiling something. i’ve mentioned it to a couple friends and it looks like we might have our own little club here in la mesa. stay tuned for the brew of the month.

great easter song (in my twisted mind)

i've been delving into the back catalog of one of my favorite bands of the past 4-5 years,the hold steady
the end of their fantastic record, separation sunday, closes with the track, how a resurrection really feels
this song caught me off guard a couple weeks ago, and i'll post the lyrics, which you can also find here
i'd also recommend you listen to the song that serves as a sort of prequel, which is called
crucifixion cruise
this isn't your standard triumphant hymn by any means, but the first half of the song in particular gets to me. it's a great scene to picture in my mind. hope you enjoy - here are the lyrics:

how a resurrection really feels - the hold steady
her parents named her halleluiah, the kids all called her holly.
if she scared you then she's sorry. she's been stranded at these parties.
these parties they start lovely but they get druggy and they get ugly and they get bloody.

the priest just kinda laughed. the deacon caught a draft.
she crashed into the easter mass with her hair done up in broken glass.
she was limping left on broken heels.
when she said father can i tell yr congregation how a resurrection really feels?

holly was a hoodrat. now you finally know that.
she's been disappeared for years. today she finally came back.

she said: st. louis had enslaved me. i guess santa ana saved me.
st. peter had me on the queue. the st. paul saints they waved me thru.
i was all wrapped up in some video booth. when i heard her say i love you too.

she said i've laid beneath my lovers but i've never gotten laid.
some nites she felt protected. some nites she felt afraid.
she spent half last winter justa trying to get paid.
from some guy she'd originally thought to be her saviour.

they wrote her name in magic marks. on stopsigns and subway cars.
they got a mural up on e.13th. that said halleluiah rest in peace.

halleluiah was a hoodrat. and now you finally know that.
she's been disappeared for years. today she finally came back.

walk on back. walk on back. she said don't turn me on again. i'd probably just go and get myself all gone again.
holly was a sexy mess. she looked strung out but experienced. so we all got kind of curious.

fantastic new book

i'll do a larger post on david dark's fantastic new book, "the sacredness of questioning everything" soon, but as i finished the post on the sd reader story i recalled a favorite thing that david writes about. it's that he and his wife talk with their kids about going to "church building" as an intentional way to reinforce that people are the church, and buildings are where some of those people meet some of the time.

i've tried to start that with syd and max and it's an interesting conversation.

why do people go to church?

today i picked up the latest issue of the san diego reader, an alternative weekly paper, and read this really interesting story. the headline is provocative enough, and i expected something different than what the story held, but it was a great read nonetheless. i had expected more word on the street kinds of things, interviews with people abut why they did or didn't go to church, and it really turned into more of a piece on an orthodox priest who had travelled to that place from beginnings in a presbyterian church and a lot of time with campus crusade for christ.

it's interesting in that i've become aware of a decent number of people who have found themselves drawn to eastern orthodoxy (be that greek, russian, serbian, etc.) in the past few years, as well as many more who have gone from conventional evangelicalism to anglican, catholic and other more liturgical traditions as they have delved deeper into the roots of their faith.

growing up in the chicago area i was fully aware of catholicism, and my mom, though she was raised to believe that catholic=bad, never conveyed that thought to me, for which i am thankful. i don't think she believes that either, by the way - something she overcame from her youth.

anyway, it's a fascinating read and i need to go revisit karen armstrong's a history of god,particularly for its passages on the divide between the easter church and what has become catholicism.

still to come this weekend, a new favorite song that fits right in to easter, albeit in an unconventional and sloppy, salty way.

you mean the pc "laptop hunter" commercial is a fraud?

being a mac fan i was of course skeptical of the new pc commercials, but here's one of my favorite cranks, bob lefsetz, to debunk the commercials. For the uninitiated, bob lefsetz is a music business thinker, gadfly and blogger. while he can be gruff and given to an abundance of hyperbole i find a lot of truth in what he writes, though i still can't figure out his love for modern country music. don't hold that against him. his posts on the music he loves are as passionate and indulgent as they come. here's a short burst on lying to customers:

_______
Stop lying.

The Web has a zillion sleuths just waiting to be activated, like that worm on your computer delineated on "60 Minutes" last night (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/27/60minutes/main4897053.shtml), (PC-only, in fact), in order to verify the veracity of your statements.

Latest example?

Microsoft's new "Laptop Hunters" TV campaign, in which an uber-attractive girl professes she's not cool enough to buy an Apple laptop and goes for a cheaper Windows machine.

Within moments, it was revealed that "Lauren" was not an average person, but a member of SAG (Screen Actor's Guild) recruited from Craigslist (http://www.tuaw.com/2009/03/30/some-thoughts-on-the-new-microsoft-ads/)

Then, it was revealed that the computer she purchased was an old model (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2344017,00.asp) with bad reviews: http://blogs.computerworld.com/microsoft_apple_pc_wars_advertisement_crispen_porter_get_a_mac_ads_ballme

Then a Mac user offered to GIVE HER his own Apple PowerBook so she could see what she was missing: http://i.gizmodo.com/5187031/lauren-we-have-someone-whod-like-to-talk-to-you

In other words, if you think you can pull the wool over the public's eyes, with your lame excuse denying the truth, you're wrong. The twenty first century is about transparency. Reveal the facts, admit the truth and move on. People today know life is complicated, mistakes and failures are part of the game: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29wwln-lede-t.html?ref=magazine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIS6G-HvnkU
_______

my favorite new music site

i may have posted on this before, but i don't care. i love amiestreet.com. it's a fantastic way to discover new music and purchase at a price that rewards experimentation, as songs start at a lower price which increases as popularity and recommendations increase. it also serves as a great means of going deeper into bands' catalogs when they were on indies.

i discovered the hold steady a few years back with "boys & girls in america", and their two previous records, "separation sunday" and "almost killed me" are at amiestreet for about $5-$6 each. want pre-"friend opportunity" music from deerhoof? amiestreet is the place. what's more - there are scores of free tracks and albums to browse and sample.

amazon is a minority investor in this site, which was started by three friends from brown university. nobody knows where online music is going, but for the time being i loves me some amiestreet. enjoy.

a coffee shop without wi-fi? really?

if i were to open a coffee shop, i have to think that one of the basics, aside from say, coffee and a source for lots of clean, hot water, would be a wi-fi setup for customers. i mean, i'd probably need it for business anyway, but for the $50/month it would cost i have to believe that it would be a sensible investment to find some local customers who would set up shop and more than pay for the investment.

so surprise when, early this morning when i needed to find a space for an hour or so, the new shop that opened 3 blocks from my house has no wi-fi at all. and this isn't some neo-luddite, principled stance, they just had not even thought of it, and i think they looked at me like i was an alien when i asked.

shame, because it's a nice little spot, super-convenient and i don't need change to fee a meter, but for now they have ceded the space for my business to other, less convenient places.

it was good to jar me into asking what basic expectations i have of sites, businesses, etc. and whether or not my role in them (ys, specifically) is helping to exceed those expectations. well, at least that's what i was thinking of as i drove away.

pillow fight!

i just read about the nashville group, "optimist manifesto", and the public pillow fight they staged last week in centennial park. unfortunately this grass roots gathering to have public fun in the midst of such ongoing bad news was shut down mid-stream, as the group had apparently not secured the proper permits. with all due respect to public officials, this seems like the kind of thing that should have been allowed to go on for the sheer good will of it all. here's a fun and nicely edited video piece of the goings-on: