There are too many good albums out there to listen to bad music.

I could understand listening to uninspired pop stuff if there was nothing else on...but there are thousands of amazing musicians out there who are playing their souls out each weekend in tiny clubs and smokey bars...and many of them have put out CD's, some even hitting the big-time. I'm by no means a musical connoisseur...my CD collection could fit in a medium-sized suitcase and features such why-do-I-own-these favorites as Boyz II Men (the Christmas album), Extreme I, and some spooky Reba McEntire album that Stacy brought with her when we got married.

I'm not saying a person ought to agree with ME on what good music is...it's just a matter of how that music makes a person think or feel. If for you, listening to "Achy Breaky Heart" and "Bye Bye Bye" in succession makes you well up with powerful memories of your best high school friends, then it means two things: 1. To you, that is good music and certainly worth listening to... and, 2. You went to high school in bustling urb of Marmet, West Virginia.

I think that music was a very intentional gift from the Author, and I think it was intended to do a lot of the same things sex does, but without all the bother of relationships and commitment. (Come to think of it, sex seems to have evolved into something a lot like sex, but without all of the bother of relationships and commitment). Music stirs your emotions, moves your body, activates your sense of love, inpsires your soul to something bigger, changes the cadence of your pulse, and allows you to bond with someone (or a group of people) in a truly carnal and animalistic way that, for some reason, also seems to transcend your flesh to something ethereal.

For what it's worth, here are a few bands that I've been given as gifts from people much more tuned-in to good music than I am...I highly recommend checking them out. (Special thanks to Donna and Lee for the recommendations).

1. Lyle Lovett - I just got turned on to Lyle about six months ago, and he has been playing consistently on my iTunes ever since. He's a gifted songwriter, a decent singer, and has a classy country back-up band that will leave you wondering what a snare drum tastes like and where you can buy a bigger hat.

2. Alison Brown - A banjo prodigy, Alison Brown won the Canadian Banjo Tournament at age 12. Her band, the Alison Brown Quartet, is an amazing combo that toes the line (which I had no idea existed) between bluegrass and contemporary jazz with such clean and technically perfect style...it's the perfect blend of live switched-on creative energy and studio-style perfection. For starters, check out her "Replay" album. I listened to nothing else for the first two weeks after I got it.

3. Eminem - I won't ramble on about Eminem, because I've done so in this blog already. If you want to know why I love Em, check out my very first blog entry.

4. Squirrel Nut Zippers - Their song "Hell" did pretty well a few years back...but don't let the timing fool ya. This band was more than just a flash in America's Swing Phase pan. The recording techinques are more than a little reminiscent of the ancient swing albums I used to play at WMUB, but the sound is very new, and very strong. I can honestly say I've never heard anything like them.

5. Chris Isaac - I don't know where my head was when Chris topped the charts with "I Wanna Fall In Love With You," but I missed the whole Chris Isaac thing at the time. It's a shame...because he is fantastic. Chris Isaac oscillates between Elvis-y low warbling and sky-high falsettos, and pulls it off with class and a smart swagger that Elvis might even envy. Were he not dead, of course.

6. Southern Culture on the Skids - Man, all I can say is wow. Ripping tubey guitar-led melodies accompany clever and playful lyrics, and the overall sound blends GE Smith, Jimmy Buffett and Primus. I was given these guys and Los Lonely Boys around the same time, and they have taken turns motivating my caucasian butt to groove ever since.

7. Over the Rhine - Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler's 14-year relationship with the people of Cincinnati has produced some of the best music that I've ever heard come out of this fair city. Their style seems to shift a little between each album, from folky to adult contemporary to rock n' roll to even a bit country. Karin's voice is a musical gem, and I hope it will go down among thems that know as one of the most unique and powerful voices of our time.

I'll list more soon...I've got to get some work done.

Peace,
Justin

It's blog, it's blog...it's better than bad, it's good!

If you have tuned in to the radio on the drive home any time in the last couple of weeks...or if you have turned on your TV after dinner...or if you accidentally passed by a newstand on your way to Baskin Robbins...or if you have really really electromagnetically-receptive braces on your teeth...you have no doubt heard the controversy surrounding John Kerry and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

For those of you whose only media exposure happens when you sit down on that damp stack of National Geographics in your cellar, I'll fill ya in. Senator Kerry is mad because a group of former Vietnam vets who operated boats very much like the one the good Senator operated in 'Nam have released two commercials suggesting that Kerry's war record is suspicious, and his medals undeserved.

Senator Kerry asked President Bush to condemn the commercials because, as he claims, they are outright lies. President Bush responds by saying that he condemns all political advertising that has been paid for by independently-funded mini-corps with private no-limit sponsorships. In short, he dodges the question. Then Kerry gets mad, and goes on national TV for weeks demanding that the President condemns the adds. Then Bush gets mad and retorts that he, in fact, has been the victim of falsified advertising, so Senator Kerry isn't the only one. Then Senator Kerry takes President Bush's shiny red fire truck away from him. Then President Bush throws sand in Senator Kerry's hair, and un-invites him for life from his birthday parties. Then Senator Kerry cries and goes and tells on President Bush and they both get put down for a nap.

Here's the thing...

For the love of all that is good and right, shut up about all of this, guys.

We are a country in the middle of a war with a foreign militias who, by all accounts, still have control over a large part of their country and have killed a whole lot of young Americans. We may not know why we're there, and we may have even been tricked into going...Lord knows I don't have the answers there...but we're there. We're also running out of oil, punching a hole in the sky, firing teachers, breathing smog, running short on Social Security, laying off factory workers, and, if Jerry Springer is to be believed, kissing our siblings. There's a lot going on in this country, and very little of it has to do with whether John Kerry got shot ENOUGH to merit a purple heart.

Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. Maybe George Bush is a draft dodger and maybe he ain't. Maybe George Bush lied to get us into Iraq and maybe Teresa Heinz-Kerry is a man...but either way, I'm not very interested in voting for either of these two petulant, childish professional pontificators. I am ashamed of our candidates and I am embarrased to listen to the BBC reports at night and hear what the British people are hearing. The last thing we need is more bad press across the world...and hear we are...bickering over two 30-second commercials.

Sigh. Once again this year, I plan to cast my vote for one of the following tickets:
1. McCain / Cuomo
2. Uecker / Madden
3. Bartles / Jaymes
4. Lavigne / Spears

Peace,
Justin

I can't speak for the rest of humanity (not until they elect me emperor, anyway), but I think my attitude is marked by a drastic lack of perspective.

I listened to Tim Sanders, the Leadership Coach for Yahoo!, Inc. this week at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. Sanders talked about the concept of the "scarcity mentality," and, while he spoke specifically as it applied to business, I couldn't help but feel that a little futher from my back pocket and a little closer to my thorassic cavity. In a world where eight minutes of every half-hour show (that's 26% of your TV-time) are spent telling me what I should buy and why I'm not complete without it, I've come to believe that I'm operating in scarcity. Despite the full refrigerator, the chest of clothes and the two cars parked in the driveway, I wake up in the morning and wonder how I'm possibly going to make it. I put on my Levi's, shave with my Mach 3, down my Diet Coke, hop into my Toyota, turn down my Aiwa as I talk on my Nokia and sip on my Starbucks, and I wonder how the heck I am going to make it for another day.

And I present to you, ladies and gentlemen, what we call a drastic lack of perpective.

I have more in my life than 90% of people on this planet will ever know...as Tim Sanders said it, "when you are pondering your misery over lunch and you bite into your sandwich and there's meat in it...you've just entered the very small minority of fortunates." It's freeing to know to actively realize that I have never once not had food when I needed it...not once. The closest I came was when we went sledding in Jr. High and we were out there for several hours and I had forgotten to eat breakfast and my stomach began to hurt because I was hungry but there was no food around for miles and good god what are we going to do? Fortunately, I found a tin of string fries in the back of Neal Kennedy's station wagon on the way home. Crisis averted.

In Matthew 10, Jesus says, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny ? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." I needn't worry about dying of hunger...the odds are that an upper-middle class American guy with a college education is most likely not going to starve to death...and even if I were to face some extreme financial downfall, I have Biblical assurance that God is still looking out for me. So why all the worry? I dunno...perhaps our lives of luxury have left us without any REAL corporal challenges to face, so we're making them up. I doubt it, though...I think we're just convinced by every newspaper, billboard, nightly news program and commercial that we are constantly in jepoardy. And I think I'm starting to resent that...

Peace,
Justin

I met up with an old friend last night...

My buddy Andrew came in from Washington, DC to visit. He's a something-or-other for the State Department. I really have no idea what he does, but I know he does it in a tie and it usually involves lots of limousines and trips to Europe. I think he's pretty darn important out there, but it's hard to tell, because I work at a church and most people who wear ties look really important to me.

What really struck me last night, apart from how bizarrely compatible Warsteiner and Diet Coke can be when sipped in quick succession, is a story that Andrew told me about meeting the Pope. Now, I'll give you, most stories about your friends meeting the Pope are memorable. Especially when they're more Catholic than India is crowded. But this one struck me for more than just it's characters...

Andrew told me that the Pope was supposed to meet the President and about a dozen important Washington mucky-mucks, and that it was Andrew's job to help coordinate the thing. He said that all of the mucky-mucks went up to the Pope as a couple dozen Bush staffers and a whole bunch of media folk looked on, snapped pictures, etc. When everybody was through the line, they were supposed to close up shop...but the Pope said he would like to meet everybody else in the room. That meant that Andrew, all of his fellow Bush folk and State Dept. folk, and even the camera guys, boom operators and sound techs all got to go up and shake the hand of Pope John Paul II.

Can you IMAGINE how busy the Pope is? I struggle to get my videos back to Blockbuster on time because "I'm just too busy." I struggle to mow the lawn on time because "I've just got so much going on." This is the freaking POPE, and he stopped to let anyone who was interested come up and meet him. Have you ever thought YOU were too important to stand around talking to somebody? I know I have, and I'm ashamed of it. Every week after church Dave Workman stands on stage and listens to and prays for anybody who wants to talk to him. After every show the good folks of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones sit at the edge of the stage for as long as it takes for every interested fan to come up and talk to them for as long as he or she pleases. And now, I learn that the Pope has time to sit and meet the American camera guys and State Dept members who will forever remember this once-in-a-lifetime encounter.

At the Vineyard, part of the mission statement is that we run a place where "everybody gets to play." Sometimes I get frustrated because I get "interrupted" by people who want to hear more, learn more, stand around and talk. Dave once said that people are NEVER an interruption...that we are in the business of people, and that changed lives are our only dividend.

It's yet another thing to add to the list of things that the Pope knows and that I have yet to really learn.

Peace,
Justin

You know what's better than working?

Vacation.

OK, so it wasn't much of a riddle...but it's true. Vacation is, in fact, better than working. At least for about five days.

Stacy and I spent the last five days driving all over Ohio looking at trees and cows and Rock-and-Roll-Hall-of-Fames. May I share my observations with you?
1a. If you ever find yourself in the middle of butt-nowhere Ohio because you can't seem to find the major interstate that you were on only fifteen minutes previously, by all means, have lunch at Miller's Eats in Findlay. They have a great open-faced roast-beef platter, the wallpaper makes you feel like you're in Pleasantville, and, just as you might expect, the apple pie tastes great and the waitress calls you "honey." Stand-aside, Johnny Rockets, this is the real thing.
1b. It just occured to me, that the "real thing" that we're looking for when we want to sit in an authentic country lunch counter is actually nothing at all like MY real life. That's what makes it so appealing. Nobody wants to have real life all the time, we want to experience somebody else's authentic life for a little while...that's what quaint is. Stacy could tell you the other side of the story of small-town Ohio, but that's a topic for another post.
2. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is worth seeing once. Just once. Give yourself about three-and-a-half hours...you won't need much more than that...and that's only if you REALLY like looking at Jimi Hendrix's guitars and sketchings on hotel napkins. Otherwise, make it three hours even. There was some cool stuff in there (Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean" costume was probably my favorite item), and Over the Rhine even got a mention, which was cool. The staff was kind of surly for some reason (I suppose hearing the first fifteen seconds of "Purple Haze" 590 times a day will do that to ya), but there was enough interesting stuff in there to keep you occupied for a couple of hours.
3. Sitting and reading next to your wife, who is also sitting and reading, really does constitute quality time in my book. We would annoy each other every couple of minutes by reading a clever line or a poetic phrase out of our respective books, but that made it all the more togethery. I read "Stiff" by Mary Roach (a brief look at the history of how humanity has treated our dead, coupled with a lot of very funny anecdotes about the 'curious lives of cadavers' now) and "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" by Stephen King (I always read Stephen King on vacation...it gives my brain a break). Stacy read "Running With Scissors," by Augusten Burroughs, a hilarious and yet deeply disturbing memoir about Burroughs' adolesence, spent with his neurotic narcisist of a mother and her bat-turd crazy psychologist. We shared our laughs together, and it was really very cool to learn more about her by what in the book she bothered to comment about. I like learning her this way, and I hope to do more of it soon...first, someone mail me a gift certificate to Borders, please.
4. Driving can be really very relaxing if you let it. Driving sucks when you have to get to the dentist by 1:00, or when you are trying to hit Starbucks before your morning meeting. But it's actually really fun when your only goal for the day is to get to Cleveland, and you've got nine hours to figure out how. Breathe in the cow-air, breathe out the your email inbox. Breathe in the air-conditioner vapor, breathe out the end-of-the-day-with-a-headache haze. Then, drive like you've got nowhere to be.
5. Hot-tubs, while microbiologically speaking can be a very busy place, make me feel like I'm very wealthy and have very little to do. I think I love them.

I look forward to writing more soon...for now, I'm running off to help a friend paint the garage...something I don't know how excited I would be to do, had I not experienced such rampant kindness when Stacy and I moved in to our house...all of a sudden "Pay It Forward" makes more sense. Though, unfortunately, that doesn't make it any better of a film.

Peace,
Justin