rototomfills

Most everybody lives their lives

2009-06-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

By way of David Dark, I give you: Most Everybody Lives Their Lives

Read and be interested.

Let's not be afraid to wrestle with the hard questions. I think this statement sums up my thoughts of the past 3-4 days.

Resurrected

2009-06-29T18:01:00.001-07:00

After another long blog hiatus, I feel compelled to journal a little bit on some of my reflections and shifts occurring within in me, post Monterrey. The theme of the week was SHELTER.

PART 1 - actually a reflection from the last day...

"Lord, what do you want me to understand about your shelter today?"

It is new every morning. I will provide it in new, and in a myriad of ways, all yet to be revealed to you. It is not static, it is in constant motion and changing. Don't let the difficult things you saw dissuade you; rather, wrestle patiently with the difficulties of this world, be honest with your emotions. When confronted with despair and depravity, do NOT look away, or over-spiritualize an easy explanation. Call on my name, cry out in your distress on behalf of the least of these, and I will answer you. I will provide shelter.

Do not be afraid to have your heart broken. In your brokenness, I will be able to work in and through you, accomplishing "good" which is moving in a direction only I can see.

PART 2 - journaling on the plane back home

(Paraphrased from Rodo) Orphans are taught that they have a father in heaven who loves them, who cares for them, who adores them. In simply loving these children, providing them with shelter, with shoes, birthday presents, hugs, affection, a tussling of their hair, we reinforce the Father's love for them, we truly embody it for them. We reinforce that God provides for all of their spiritual needs, their shelter.

There are experiences which cannot be summed up or "sorted out" easily. These questions that come forth need time to bounce around the room a little bit. God sometime takes aim at the box we have put Him in, shooting it with a slow-moving bullet that takes dead aim at our misconceptions and the way in which we have limited his character. Our understanding and belief in Him grows when we struggle with questions and have our box destroyed. It damages our cheap, easily formed theological concepts that spring forth from easy suburban American living. From the damage, may their emerge a deeper understanding of just how loving and compassionate our Lord is, how much he adores us (as he adores the children).

Let the slow moving bullet take dead aim at the ideas I've formed with judgment, ideas that I've idolized above a God who is real, a God who is not restricted by my ideas of who He is.

PART 3 - The orphans ministry to Americans

How is it that children in Monterrey can have an effective outreach ministry to change the lives of successful Americans? I come to them numb, materialistic, stressed and with a heightened sense of my own importance. The children give me the gift of my own heart back. In their joy and love, they embody Christ to me as much as I to them, rescuing me from myself, instead of the other way around. If this is not the ultimate dichotomy, the paradigm being truly turned upside down, I am not sure what is.

Lord, ingrain these images and lessons, and continue to bring your redemptive work into my life.

Phoenix - if I ever feel better

2008-11-08T17:55:00.000-08:00

Found this gem at the end of an Entourage episode this season, and this is another one I can't get out of my head, in a, you know, good way...

Well, youtube disabled embedding of this video, but you can still view it at:

Youtube

We're From Barcelona

2008-11-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

Once you hear it, you won't be able to get it out of your head:

sigur rós: tallinn

2008-10-27T09:16:00.001-07:00

sigur rós: tallinn, originally uploaded by sigur-ros.co.uk.

All behold the glory that is one Orri Pall...looking resplendent with full crown and drum regalia...

The National - How did I just discover this?

2008-04-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

The National...who knew? So I am little slow on the uptake on this one. Paste named it the record of the year last year, and I missed that... It turns out this band is from Cincinnati originally, via Brooklyn, NY, and the guitarist curates the Music Now festival here every year, where I saw Andrew Bird a couple of weeks ago.

On to the record. The melodies and textures of this record have been reverberating in my mind since I bought it last night. I am listening to it now, and the lead singer's voice reminds me most of Mark Knopfler in some ways (which is a good thing). Every now and again, I discover a band that I am an instant major fan of. Read: Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros. I think I can add The National to the list. Give 'em a listen, next time they are through town, I will put out a big "hey, looky here!"

Here they are on Letterman:

The future of synthesis?

2007-08-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

Is THIS the future of synthesis? This Wired article shows a new, not yet commercially available, tabletop synthesizer that creates sounds based on the user placing the elements of the synthesizer as blocks on the table. Bjork borrowed one from the creators to take out on her current tour. I find this fascinating, and truly grounbreaking, combining the promise of multi-touch and tabletop computing with a pre-existing technology, the synthesizer. Check it out...

Daniel Lanois' drummer of choice

2007-06-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

Brian Blade (with Joshua Redman and Sam Yahel). Diane and I caught these guys at the 20th Century Theater a few years ago. It is a trio. Joshua Redman on sax, Brian Blade on the drums, and Sam Yahel on organ (playing leads and covering the bass parts too). Transcendent...

And with Christian McBride, Brad Mehldau. His solo (using brushes) starts at about the 2:10 mark:

The Day Brings...

2007-06-01T10:08:00.001-07:00

Location: Charlotte, NC Airport

So it seems sometime back, Stone Gossard formed a side project from Pearl Jam called Brad. The lead singer, Shawn Smith, has a wonderful voice. Pearl Jam, they are not. I am by no means a huge, longterm fan of this Brad, but I stumbled across a song called The Day Brings. I was listening to it sitting here in the airport, and I think you might think it is beautiful too. Check it out at the link above.

Lefsetz on iTunes plus

2007-05-31T18:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Bob Lefsetz for publicizing the fact that the just-released iTunes Plus embeds your iTunes username and email information INSIDE the DRM-free file. The rub here being that if you share your DRM-free file via P2P, the RIAA can track you down.

I write this blog on a MacBook, and am pretty loyal to Apple, but I gotta side with Lefsetz on this one...shouldn't this type of thing be disclosed, rather than left to investigative people to discover? I have to think Apple should guess that this would be discovered, so the mere fact that they did not disclose this up front gives the appearance of impropriety. EMI bares some of the blame.

I also still don't see why a 128 Kbps MP3 should cost $0.99, and a 256 Kbps MP3 should cost $1.29. Why the increase? The audio quality difference is negligible. Additionally, remember there are no physical distribution costs here, or costs of manufacturing. The public is smart, and knows $0.99 for a track is STILL too much.

Asheville, NC

2007-05-31T17:53:00.000-07:00

A work trip this week takes me through Asheville, NC. This town seems like it has much to offer, including the Biltmore Estate, which is the largest privately owned home in the country, The Orange Peel, a live music venue that has played host to Bob Dylan, Blondie, and all sorts of acts in between. The reunited Smashing Pumpkins have chosen to do a 9-night artist in residency here in a few weeks.

Asheville is known as a fairly progressive town, fostering a diverse culture in the Blue Ridge mountains. It would be a fun town to come back to with Diane and poke around the shops and nearby scenery.

In my ongoing effort to seek out local culture and avoid chain stores, last night I found a local burrito chain called The Urban Burrito. They have a spicy chipotle chicken burrito that was amazing, and a fresh salsa bar (Chipotle, are you listening?). I tried to find a good local independent record store and came up empty, but did find a good independent book store called Malaprops, where an author from Brooklyn named Josh Dorfman, The Lazy Environmentalist was doing a reading and Q&A from his book. Apparently, he hosts a show on Sirius.

I also picked up Seth Godin's newest book, called The Dip. A very short, but excellent read.

La Blogotheque

2007-05-19T14:34:00.000-07:00

Much thanks to Andy for pointing me to an awesome video blog, called La Blogotheque - Takeaway Shows. They seem to be produced in France, and feature the likes Andrew Bird and Arcade Fire performing while walking around, or in an elevator.

Here is Arcade Fire performing Neon Bible and then Wake Up, from the blog.

Thou Shalt Always Kill

2007-05-17T20:09:00.001-07:00

Life is more than dollar bills...

2007-05-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

So this is the inaugural edition of my new blog. I have been dreaming this one up for awhile. Michael Wilson said it best when he said "what I really love is music." Well, I do. So, here I will mainly reflect on what has been an ongoing passion and hobby for most of my life.

I was raised in a home by parents who loved music. My first concert was a John Denver/Barry Manilow double billing. And thankfully my concert-going experiences have traversed an uphill path since then.

I am not quite sure exactly how I will structure this, but certainly other passions and reflections will be intertwined with my reflections and musings on music.

I am always on the lookout for new music, new inspirations and revelations in the music world. I am hopeful about the state of the music industry, although I also believe it is in a period of great transition right now. I believe that the most original music being made today is most likely not to be found on major labels. It is bands like Arcade Fire and Andrew Bird; Modest Mouse and MuteMath; Karsh Kale and Kraftwerk. I believe the best is yet to come.

I found something on YouTube the other day, at the recommendation of The Lefsetz Letter. It is a video called "Thou Shalt Always Kill. Go to YouTube and check it out, I think you will enjoy it.