A Brief History of Rock N' Roll ... in 100 Riffs

Any favorites?

Som Sabadell Flashmob

Around the Horn

Juan Cole lists his own Top 10 Green Energy Good News Stories.

James K. A. Smith offers a minor push-back against studies on why young people are leaving the church.

Bob Hyatt offers a middle-ground on the same-sex marriage debate (via Tony Jones).

I really like this picture of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Andrew Jones is grumpy towards contemporary worship songs.

Jon Arbuckle is fascinated with his hand.

Two videos - WILL (a short, animated film) & N.T. Wright sings Bob Dylan

Not sure how I feel about this one. What do you think?



I know exactly how I feel about this one!  :)

NEW MUSIC - Rain for Roots: Big Stories for Little Ones

Totally excited about this upcoming album!

Rain for Roots is Sandra McCracken, Ellie Holcomb, Flo Paris, Katy Bower, and Sally Lloyd-Jones (lyrics). They have collaborated to create a collection of ten folk songs for young children. Sandra McCracken (married to Derek Webb) is one of my favorite "Christian" artists, very talented and authentic, so naturally I am eager to hear it.

Thankfully, NoiseTrade released four songs to whet our appetite. The full album is set to release May 15.

Go check it out and then tell your friends, your children's pastor(s) in particular.

Holy Saturday

Around the Horn

Wow, I thought I was developing a good rhythm for blogging, but apparently this week (with the additional mental bandwidth required for writing a sermon) has knocked me off my game. I hope to get back on track next week. Nevertheless here are merely a few things that been happening around the horn:

Have an extra 12,000 pieces pf paper to spare? Consider making this. Josh Ritter, Love's Making Its Way Back Home.

Some scattered thoughts by Rachel Held Evans on "Christian Industry."

Here's a series I just caught wind of. A guy named Jake Bouma is hosting a Cancer and Theology series on his blog. He's already got a few of them up.

A good post from Katie. Have I told you she has a book coming out in November?

Rowan Williams is stepping down as the Archbishop of Canterbury. This brought to mind one of my favorite Rowan Williams moments ever (read here).

*above image from

My Music Patterns

Since my last post on music, I started to became aware of a pattern in the way I listen to music that I thought I'd share in hopes that maybe some of you would share your own patterns because what, when, where, and how we listen to music these days is just fascinating.

Just yesterday I was remembering back when I was in Junior High and how we had to sit in front of the radio, waiting for our song to come on so that we could his the record button on the cassette tape! We were making these mix tapes of our favorite songs, which included all the DJ intros and outros for each song. Do you remember that!? Did you ever do that? So, you never actually heard the whole song because there was always some voice at the beginning and the end. It was a mess but it's all we had. The invention of the single download option was revolutionary indeed!

I find these days that if I listen to music at certain times of the day that I am prone to certain tendencies as to what I listen to. It seems that the time of the day governs what I listen to, or don't listen to, for that matter.

In the early morning I want silence. Always. No exceptions. Well, okay, maybe a few exceptions. I get up before everyone else, which tends to make this possible, although not always because of our little gremlin children, but I try.

In the mid morning, if I listen to music, I listen to "Olafur Arnalds" radio on Pandora. It's kind of a contemplative, simplistic, wordless sound governed mostly by the cello and violin. From this starting point, Pandora finds me a good blend of other similar artists. I'm typically in my office at the church when I listen to this.

In the mid afternoon, if I listen to music, I listen to "Probe" radio. My wife makes fun of me for this, but because of the steady, rhythmic electronic beats of this mix, I find a new kind of head space that helps me stay focused because let's be honest, it's tough sometimes to work after lunch and I'm not too contemplative in the afternoons. I'm either in my office or at a coffee shop when I listen to this. The social atmosphere works well for me in the afternoon.

In the evenings, if I listen to music, I listen to "Abdullah Ibrahim" radio. His piano playing is soft, crisp, and deeply simple, and it leads into the world of John Coltrane and company. I'm not typically working at this point of the day, which makes this music great to have on as you slip from evening into night, with dishes to sort and kids to play with. Any worry about your work for the day subsides, finding its proper place in the cosmos.

What about you? How do you listen to music? What do you listen to? When do you listen to it? Where do you listen to it? How does Spotify change all of this?  :)

Also, feel free to respond to my previous post on music where I put my iPod/iTunes on shuffle and recorded the first ten songs that came up.

*And by the way, the art featured above is called "Transition" by Suzanne Cheryl Gardner

That's one ambitious egg, I tell ya

Got this one from Gregg's site, again. The Tiny Book of Stories. This one's great! I'm going to have to check out more.

Garfield, Deconstructed

My friend Gregg posted about this a while back so I thought I would share it here (Gregg posts a lot of good stuff on art!). It's called Garfield minus Garfield. Basically, they drop the last frame of the comic strip.

You can check the website out here, but here's the blurb anyways:

"Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb." 

Below is the most recent one on the site. This made me laugh as soon as I saw it!

Enjoy!