presentsense

PSA - Yearlight savings time

Just a gentle reminder to set your calendars back one day today. March starts tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Brenda Williams (I think)!

Obamessiah

Patting my own back...

I was right. Props to Javier Bardem, Daniel Day-Lewis, Joel and Ethan Coen (although I thought PT Anderson deserved it more). No Country... didn't wrap things up as well as ...Blood did, but then, that might be what the academy liked better. Still, I like both movies. I have seen There Will Be Blood three times so far in the theater.

Oh yeah, and here's where I predicted the actor categories again....

Friday is for fun

New photo gallery

Stephanie took the time to create a new photo gallery of me and the kids. Funny, she didn't make it into the pictures...

She's talented...so why am I pissed?

Alright, so Amy Winehouse cleaned up at the Grammys last night (she won 5 - including record and song of the year). Thankfully, her winning power relented in the Album of the Year category. That one went to a deserving Herbie Hancock.

I watch the Grammys every year - I am a music nut, what can I say? - but last night I switched it off after Wine-hound won the record of the year award. I just figured she was on one of those rolls and would end up with the night's top prize, and I didn't want to stay up to watch that, you know? But why am I upset at this, anyway? She's a talented singer. She's a better than average performer. She sold lots of records. Why?

I don't know. All in all, I think if I am really honest, I didn't want her to win because she's so screwed up "in real life." After all, her hit song is all about refusing to enter rehab for drugs and alcohol, which she clearly needs to do. Seriously, she's already shown how suicidal and self destructive she can be - just google her a little bit if you don't take my word for it. She's heading the way of Janis Joplin. She won't be a problem for long if she doesn't clean up. But, I gotta put the microscope on me here. I think I am being self-righteous in thinking that she doesn't deserve these artistic awards because of her private demons.

Enough confessions, here's what I really want to say to the people jumping and screaming around Amy last night in London. MAKE HER GET HELP, or you're all gravy-training on her inevitable self-destruction. Her blood will be on your hands. The "Rehab" run was cute and funny for a while, but now it's just getting sick and sad. How would we feel now listening to Karen Carpenter singing,

"They tried to make me eat a sandwich, I said 'No, No, No!'"

Pat Metheney on Kenny G.

I know I am late to the party on this, but I only heard about it yesterday, when Metheney was interviewed on Bob Edwards Weekend.  Thanks to the staying power of the internet, and the fact that you just can't "un-say" anything anymore, I was able to google for this fairly easily. Enjoy, my fellow musicians!

Pat Metheney on Kenny G.

I couldn't have said it better myself, or I would have...

Not Idol-worthy

I watch American Idol, and I enjoy it. All my kids and my wife watch it with me, and that in itself is a good enough reason, so I won't apologize to anyone for watching it. If you are not a fan of Idol though, this post won't matter to you.

Here's my question: What currently SUCCESSFUL pop recording artists would fail an American Idol audition today? Here's my first stab at a list. Please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments.

Successful recording artists who would FAIL an American Idol audition:

• Madonna
• Mick Jagger
• Bono
• John Lennon (yes I know he's dead)
• Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
• Tori Amos
• Thom Yorke (Radiohead)
• Celine Dion (funny how so many girls use her songs to audition with)
• Barry effin Gibb (and he was a celebrity judge last year)
• Anyone from the Disney Channel who has put out an album in the last 5 years

I could go on, but I'll let you add your list in the comments. BTW, I left out country singers, because it's rare that a country singer ever makes it far in AI, presumably for demographic reasons.

Wrapping up the EMC Charlotte event

Well, it's over in Charlotte. The last of the equipment was packed and loaded at about 11:30 PM last night, and we all headed home to reflect and sleep. While things are still fresh in my mind, I thought I would give you the highlights of the weekend.

All in all, it was a wonderful thing, well attended (at least relative to what we thought would happen). The crowd was well engaged with the programs and talks. Some off-the-cuff jottings...

• It was no secret that Brian McLaren is a likeable guy, but what strikes me is how humble and accessible he is. I've been to plenty of conferences where the "star speaker" is well handled and whisked from place to place, insulated from anyone who would like to have a candid dialog. Not so this weekend with Brian. As you can see from one of my pictures below, he even sat down on the ground to eat lunch with the participants of the conference. He was to my perspective always available throughout the course of the gathering.
• Having the hybrid venue that we did here in Charlotte, between Area 15 and Duncan Memorial UMC actually breathed additional life into the event. It kinda made it feel more collegiate than churchy. Having nice weather yesterday made the walk between the two buildings invigorating.
• The conference officially ended on Saturday at 4:30, but there were a couple additional events tacked on to the end with varying results....
• The interfaith "Trialogue" went well, and was well received. Brian participated as a Protestant Christian representative. Dennis R.M. Teall-Fleming was moderator and represented our Catholic brothers. Unfortunately, I arrived too late to make note of the names of the  Jewish and Muslim representatives, but they were well spoken, and all in all, the pentalogue (sorry guys, there were five of you there) was a holy moment of honesty and candid discussion among men who (historically speaking) might be presumed to hate each other's guts.
• The "worship party"/concert - not sure who came up with that label - was OK, but perhaps mis-planned. Many of the attendees of the conference came considerable distances to attend, and clearly most of them left right after the conference officially ended. By the time Tracy Howe's turn came to sing, I didn't see one person left from the conference, aside from those of us who were there in some volunteer capacity or another. Note to other cities on the tour...If you are going to do a concert as part of the event, do it during the event, not after the event has officially ended. When people are told they can leave after something this intense, they do.
• After everything was over, and after everything had been powered down and unplugged, someone ran their car into a power pole a block from the church, and all the power went out to the building, so our cleanup was delayed up to an hour while we waited for the lights to come back on. Good times making shadow puppets on the sanctuary wall with flashlights.

If you have the opportunity to attend this event when it comes near you, please make an effort to go, and bring someone with you who is sitting on the fence about Brian's ideas or emergent concepts. There is no substitute for in-person dialog with someone like Brian to put certain unfounded fears to rest.

In the dirt

Here's Brian at lunch. Good times.