Doug Van Pelt

10 Million Creed Fans

That's my latest entry in the "list of great band names."

But what I want to talk about this morning is this:
Levi had to reboot his computer. Now, that may not be something to write home about, but get this: Levi has a Mac.

Doug's Political Rant

Fact #1: Lots and lots (not sure about the title "most") celebrities (artists, musicians, actors) lean towards the left politically.

Fact #2: Criticism of "propaganda" kinda goes out the window when it (art/music) lines up with said agenda. Take for instance the following press release:

BIG HEAD TODD & THE MONSTERS’ SONG PLAYED AS SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON TAKES STAGE AT DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

Members of BIG HEAD TODD & THE MONSTERS were on hand last night (8/26) when Sen. Hillary Clinton made her historic speech at the Democratic National Convention—and walked on (and off) stage to the group’s song “Blue Sky.” The group (songwriter/guitarist/singer TODD PARK MOHR, drummer BRIAN NEVIN, bassist ROB SQUIRES and keyboardist JEREMY LAWTON) was invited by Senator Clinton’s camp, who have used the song (from the platinum-selling group’s latest album All The Love You Need) throughout her campaign.

TODD PARK MOHR says, “It’s an honor just to be a part of it. I had no idea to what extent they were going to play the song. I thought it sounded great, but more importantly we’re proud of Hillary and thought her speech was truly historic. Her campaign was a big part of the Democrats’ success this year. More than anything, it really was an honor.”

Check out Sen. Clinton’s speech here: poo-poo.

“Blue Sky” lyrics are below:

BIG HEAD TODD & THE MONSTERS: “Blue Sky”
We’ve waited long for this day to come
For all the midnight lights we’ve burnt into the morning sun
I can’t wait to see your sweet mysteries
The moon, the stars, the sun, the universe, the galaxies

Oh yes, you can change the world
There is no other one
Believe and you will find blue sky
© PARK MOHR PUBLISHING COMPANY

So, here's a rock band fawning all over Hillary Clinton. This press release will get reprinted word for word in various places (I'll guess Rolling Stone will gladly run this, maybe mtv.com, Spin, and many more). See if a conservative artist will stick its head out and stand behind their music for the RNC...

Call me sensitive, but I feel the heat for "Christian rock" being labeled propaganda, as well as any artist that attaches themselves to a corporate entity or cause being seen as "suspect." I actually think it's great that Big Head Todd & the Monsters are standing behind their political effort. They're not pretending to be too cool for their art to be co-opted by another organization. They're "honored" to be associated with Hillary. Good for them. At least they're honest.

Your Choice

If you had the choice of:

-being the leading blog reader of your field

or

-having Mad Cow Disease,

which would you choose?

(Current HM intern) Levi's answer:
"I guess, being the leading blog viewer in my field."

"GOOD! I thought you were going to say, 'Mad Cow!'"

I may not be funny, but I do laugh a lot.

My wife was right.

She's been telling me for a couple weeks now: "I don't like that sound the Air Conditioner is making. Please check it out." At the end of a blowing cycle, where the air conditioner would shut off and rest (until the next time the themorstat told it to come back on), there would be this loud slurping and dripping sound.

I hate to admit it,
but I blew her off. I opened the door and looked around, not finding anything. I am not sure if I replaced a filter or not, but I must not have looked behind the filter into the space beneath the AC unit.

A couple days ago, we noticed some of our laminated wood floor pieces were slightly warped at the joints they come together. We initially thought maybe they buckled due to humidity and not enough room to expand with the heat. Upon later inspection, though, I found another reason. When I was in the guest bedroom, I felt a squish under my feet. Yep, the carpet was wet. When I looked behind there yesterday, I found water everywhere. It's been dripping right from the main cooling unit onto the floor in that space underneath the AC closet. The water has then found its way into my closet, the closet of our guest room and the entryway in and out of the guest room. It's a mess and, since those laminated pieces snap in like a giant puzzle, an expert would have to come in to replaced the ruined/soiled pieces (or else we re-do the entire house from that point Northward...yikes!). Not a fun prospect.

Maybe God knows we can handle all this mess.

I posted a scorecard on twitter.com last night:
DVP vs. Vacuum: DVP wins.
CVP vs. daughter's lice: CVP wins.
DVP vs. AC unit: Tie (AC repairman wins in second visit).
DVP vs. wet floor:???

I forgot to post:
Biscuit's diahrea on wood floor by door vs. KVP: Tie (It stank even several minutes later when I returned from Home Depot).
If I would have been home when it happened, it might've resulted in:
Diahrea defeats DVP, as tears and flying objects flow freely...

And now for a little shout-out to Job's friends: You guys suck! If you could offer just a little bit more than the lame, pessimistic advice you gave Job, you wouldn't have been given such a bad description in Scripture for your actions.

I'm famous (again)!!!
Another video put together by who knows whom of one of my old band's songs.
Wow.

The Great Exodus.35

This chapter in Exodus shows Moses gathering the entire community of Israel together and telling them what God told him. The Sabbath is the first thing talked about. "For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death." The death penalty part is rough, but the installment of rest is a cool thing. If it was just a fairy tale god or some faith in a made-up god, like the "sun god" and the "rain god" and the "god on the mountain that we sacrifice babies to," who would have thought to tell the people to rest? Most gods, it seemed, were selfish and punishing and wanted slaves to do their constant bidding. There would be no rest demanded from those gods -- just the opposite.

"Moses said to the whole Israelite community, "This is what the Lord has commanded: From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering of gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.'"

I think it's cool that it says: "Everyone who is willing..." This sacrificial giving is voluntary, not coerced. Have you ever asked friends to help you move or something and noticed the attitude of joy that some or all of them may have had? Sometimes friends are glad to be able to help. They enjoy hanging out and being able to help them. This attitude is so cool to be around. I imagine it's very similar to God and the joy He has when His people give to Him with joyful hearts.

There is a call later on for people will skills to make the stuff for the tabernacle. We're talking crossbeams, clasps, frames, posts, bases, all kinds of stuff. It must have been rewarding for some guy to build something and everytime he saw it in the temple he knew that he had a part in building that. Over an over it again it describes afterward about how those that were willing gave this or that. It's pretty cool.

"Then Moses said to the Israelites, 'See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts -- to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic craftsmanship. And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as craftsmen, designers, embroidereres in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers -- all of them master craftsmen and designers.'" How cool is it for that guy to be singled out and mentioned in Scripture, much less in front of all of Israel? And how cool is it that God seemingly honors the arts in this passage?

Some critic recently sent an email to Levi here at HM, who was reaching out to a lot of churches to see if they'd carry HM Magazine. Besides blowing him off like their discussion was so much less important than the "evangelism" that this guy's life was centered around, this critic said he had a problem with how HM glorified musicians that treated art for art's sake (as opposed to only using it for some form of evangelism, I presume). I think this Scripture kind of flies in the face of that attitude (the attitude that arts are not important, but somehow less than evangelism on the scale of important things). I think what's more important than all of our attitudes and opinions is how God is at the center of our worship and all things point to and honor Him, not just the things done under the guise of "ministry."

What do you think?

INTERNal VIRUS

If I had an INTERNal VIRUS, I'd name it LEVI.

Hey, speaking of...which one of these videos is better:

Will Farrell being Harry Carry
or
This other guy?
or this one?
or this freak?

Okay, since I can't find a link to the Will Farrell version, how about this prayer time from that movie...you know, the one! [NOTE: For adults only. Not inappropriate for Christian adults, but immature, adolescent pre-teens might find the reference to a woman's behind to be a bit, uh, distracting to the larger, more humorous point here.

This is the Saturday morning blog. Out.

Purple Door 2008 Concert Review

If I had an endless supply of energy and a high speed internet connection that followed me around, this might've been written and posted last weekend. But here's the best I could do now:





The annual Purple Door Festival is a nice way to cap off the summer. They stack a bunch of high-quality bands onto three stages in a short day-and-a-half festival that rocks without wearing your body down like a sun-soaked sponge.





The first set I caught was Friday night's Main Stage headlining performance by Skillet. They had an impressive light show that lit up the night sky with an almost strobe-like frequency. The smoke, of course, makes the colored lights "pop" more. While some of their songs lost some of the dynamic "oomph!" due to the open-air environment that sometimes swallows up high and mid-range frequencies, the energy and punch of tunes like "Better Than Drugs" and "Savior" still comes through, though slightly muffled. The lead-off track, "Rebirthing," probably sounded the best, with its gothic intro and trade-off vocals.





Bradley Hathaway put on a solid performance on the Main Stage, which involved little to no requests for spoken word poems. What a difference a scene makes, as this is highly unusual for him. The band Gwen Stacy took the HM Magazine stage by storm and proceeded to pummel it with enormous riffs and pounding drums and screaming for 40 minutes straight. Inhale Exhale came on after a long lunch break, applying the 90 mph energy boost that the hard music fans desperately wanted more of after a morning of intensity with the likes of heavyweights Neocracy, Oh, Sleeper and Gwen Stacy. Inhale Exhale delivered more of the same headbanging and breakdowns. It's amazing how much dust a stomping, moshing crowd will kick up.





The Showdown sported their current four-piece lineup with one guitarist, and the band sounded as tight and heavy as ever. While still acting playful between songs, there was less talk this set than previous shows by the band, as they let the ripping music do the talking (and shredding, and destruction). Haste The Day played lots of old songs, which they just killed. There were lots of wiggling fingers in the air at times -- egging on the guitar solos. The Gwen Stacy guys came on stage during one song and helped bring three extra gang vocals. It was cool to see them all over the place -- one behind the drumset, one at stage left and one at stage right. August Burns Red headlined the HM Magazine stage like the conquering local favorites that they were. Unassuming and almost nonchalant, they quietly set up and then unleashed their technical yet simple and brutal metal on a crowd that was eating it up.





The Gallery Stage always sports some great acoustic-driven talent, and this year didn't disappoint. It was a great joy to catch Denison Witmer and Derek Webb, who played a back-to-back set that was fabulous. Witmer's voice just floated above his guitar with a quiet melodic quality that was almost breathtaking. The guy is just a seriously great songwriter and singer. Both his voice and his songs build on each other for an unbeatable combination. He played one of his new ones, called "Carry The Weight," and it was almost arresting in its beauty. Derek Webb played his acoustic guitar with skill, telling an occasional tale and funny anecdote, like how the song "Name" was played on an episode of Grey's Anatomy, "a long scene featuring two doctors fornicating, which wasn't anywhere near what the song was written about." His devil-may-care attitude and his wavering invitation to "imagine, no, don't imagine ... the scene" was pretty fun to experience. He also said he couldn't resist playing "A Savior On Capitol Hill." His tunes from "Mockingbird" ("A New Law" and "A King & A Kingdom") were amazing. Amidst all the rocking and thrashing, sweet excellence like this makes it an even better fest.





We Shot The Moon brought is piano rock with gusto on the Main Stage. Disciple rocked it up really well once darkness had fallen on the outdoor night. Their new players all synced up well together, carrying the energy and punch you'd expect from the melodic metal/whatever-style-it-is-they-play band. The two guitarists blend some distinct styles together, both wailing away and bending notes at times and other times trading off between rhythms and leads. The band played the groove-heavy title track off their upcoming new album -- Southern Hospitality. Emery ended the night on a high note, but not before mixing it up visually by storming the stage clad in sequin-adorned Mexican wrestling masks. Wow.










Review and photos by Doug Van Pelt


©2008 HM Magazine - All Rights Reserved

Sneaky Human Trick

I kicked a cow today. We hopped over the fence and walked towards the calf, who was separated a great distance from her over-protective mother. There was another black and white cow that stayed put. I couldn't force myself to fulfill my promise to Levi (to kick it), so I saddled up next to the cow and gave it one of those gentle, behind the back swats with my foot that you do to a friend as you're walking past. Now I can say I've kicked a cow. I feel so much better about myself as a human now.

I SUCK

I am bad at keeping up with my blog lately, it seems. It's probably all Levi's fault. Or maybe I can blame it on a woman nick-named "Tornado." She's a cat killer, you know.

Anyway,
I'm reviewing these cool new headphones right now. I popped 'em in (after spending literally five to ten minutes trying to determine which one was "left" and which was "right") and connected them to my iPod playlist of "hits." I guess the New Amsterdams ("From California") and Nirvana are good bands to test out a pair of headphones. The first thing I notice about these headphones is how LOUD they are. The fine devices are made by the folks at ultimate ears. They're called SUPER.FI "universal fit earphones." They rock. With a long body with a bend for a "natural" fit (natural, that is, once you figure out which ear to put the custom earphone into). It allows for some really good and deep low end to make its way into your ears. I'm not sure how they do it (it's probably the gold plated input connector or the frequency response of 20-16,000 Hz), but you need not get anywhere near your iPod's high volume settings to blast your ears into submission. The highs are super clean.

I can sense the beefy and full low end, but I need to test drive another song to really find out. Something ambient, something low. hmmmm.... I guess the bass intro to "Come As You Are" is sufficient. Wow! The snap and crispness of the snare in this song are so bright and loud it's almost painful. Wow -- even Muse ("Starlight") and Mute Math ("Typical," "Chaos" and "Noticed") are almost too bright, too "treble-y." What's going on? Let me try Type O Negative... There we go ("Summer Breeze"). Oh yeah...!

I retro-fitted the earphones with one of five sets of Ear Tips. The "Disposable Foam Ear Tips" offer a really rich and deep bass tone. The foam quality allows it to be molded to your ear canal, forming a perfect seal. At high volumes, the bass is, like, thundering. I'm impressed.

I am a rock star

In the realm of my Griffin ear buds headphones, I was just on stage with the Scorpions, rocking out with massive, wall-shaking reverberations that shook the massive arena we were "in."

Actually, what I was doing was test-driving the new iGTR from Waves. It's a hand-held guitar effects unit that clips on to your belt, etc. Called the "personal guitar processor," it's like a small practice device that sends a nice and loud signal into two sets of headphones (so you can share your guitar hero skills with another). The major effects processed ever so mightily by this iPod-sized unit are "ambience," "effects" and "amplification." Under ambience, you can adjust delay, chorus and reverb. The effects variations are "wah," "tremolo" and "phaser." Under amplification, you can adjust for "warmth," "normal" or "brightness." All of these options can be adjust from zero (bypass entirely) to full on. You're "tweaking" the ambience; adjusting "speed" for the effects, and "driving" the amplifier.

I'm a totaly guitar novice. I know about three chords, but can only really play two of them. But when I first hooked this unit up (which involved installing four "AAA" batteries and plugging in the guitar chord and headphones), I was very happy to discover that the effects were so rich and drenched in delay that strumming the open E string sounded full-on massive. The sustain held on forever, so just plucking around the six strings and covering various frets on the neck made it sound like I was a master at the distorted guitar. I was reminded of an old Scorpions song as I hit various notes of the dark and ominous side. The song is a mesmerizing piece called "Animal Magnetism," which would go great for some epic movie about the slaves in Egypt being dominated by powerful tyrants that ruled by intimidation. Imagine a "GWAH ... thud, thud, thud, BOOM!" It's just awesome. Very little singing and lots of sustained notes of destruction.

So, the next thing I did after tweaking various effects and seeing how easy it was to sound purposeful, was to hook up my trusty old iPod to the auxilery jack, which allowed me to mix and "play along with" the Scorpions as that song rocked. My memory served me fairly right about the ominous and delay-drenched tones. Wow! That was fun! If I could really play, this would allow me to see how close I could mimic my guitar heroes and master actual songs.

I dig this toy and would rate it high for the pleasure effect. I look almost as happy as that guy snarling on the packaging. The only thing I'd like to see them add on would be a tuner. At $79 it's not too out of range for even the curious.

Purple Door.1

I have set up the HM Magazine booth at the Purple Door Festival and am just waiting for things to start. I have met up with the folks from Stand True, Rock for Life, Girder Music, Spoken, Red, and the guys from The Showdown. It was fun showing them the new issue of HM, which has a big feature on the band, as well as the lead-off album review in this new issue. I think they liked it.

Apparently the photo we used of them standing in some water was not cropped the way they had hoped (it shows their jeans rolled up by their knees, instead of cropped mid-thigh.

The line-up at this 1.5 day festival looks great. Check this out:
Seabird
Reilly
Bob Lenz (speaker)
Red
Skillet
Calling Out Closer
Wavorly
John Reuben
Bryan Kemper (speaker)
Bradley Hathaway
We Shot The Moon
Kurt Weaver (speaker)
The Glorious Unseen
Sherwood
Disciple
Emery
Neocracy
Oh, Sleeper
Gwen Stacy
Inhale Exhale
The Showdown
Haste The Day
August Burns Red
Gulls
Kronicles
Spoken (acoustic, I'm guessing)
Hiram Ring
Farewell Flight
Timbre
The Mint
Foxhole
Denison Witmer
Derek Webb

How hot is that? All in one Friday evening and one all-day Saturday. I'm looking forward to it all starting.

S-ka-tology

I have a sneaking suspicion that a few of my friends that have bought into the Amillennial eschatology view (I probably got that label wrong) have really only rejected the pre-millennial pre-tribulation rapture theory that they believed earlier. Maybe they just heard a good argument against the pre-trib rapture theory (like its origins being less than 100 years old, as opposed to the other theories). I think they discredit the pre-trib rapture theory by not taking a second look at it, though. It's a pretty thorough biblical exegesis of the Old and New Testaments. I don't exactly prescribe to it, but I can see its validity as an argument.

The criticism I hear slams that theory and describes John the Revelator's writings as cryptic anti-Rome statements meant to encourage the persecuted church. I can see valid points in that theory, but reading the words of Jesus in Matthew seems to ruin that for me. I'm all over the map with my eschatology and; frankly, I don't care which theory is correct. I mean, I have some concern and passion for the different theories (I probably lean towards a post-trib rapture), but in the big picture, it's trivial to me. If my family gets tortured for Christ in front of me from some fascists police, it won't seem trivial then; but now it's about as important an argument as whether speaking in tongues is valid, necessary, or gone. When I read Daniel, I kinda think in terms of mid-trib... 1 Thessalonians, pre-trib; and Matthew, post.

There. That's what came to mind when installing some Ikea shelves. Go figure.

Free Poker

Okay, that's not a good title, but it's the most recent comment on my blog. Speaking of comments, did you know that 74% of all bloggers go into deep depression when no one comments on their posts? 33% of these 74% actually drink alcohol or indulge in other addictive behaviors. 17% of the 33% of the 74% have been caught on tape ransacking video stores, ranting about how "nobody cares" and other such nonsense. The other 26% realize that people are reading, but understand that posting a comment can sometimes seem like a daunting task.

Speaking of blogs, one of my fellow Compassion Bloggers, Anne Jackson, posted a cool update on some of the cool things that have happened as a result of our trip to Uganda last February -- over 500 children have been sponsored as a result of that trip!

That's so cool. I sat down with an old friend last night, which was really cool, because it involved reconciliation over a damaged relationship six years ago. One of my former managing editors left on less than good terms way back then, and it was cool to re-affirm our forgiveness towards one another. That kinda stuff is always rad. Anyway, during this discussion I shared a little bit our trip to Uganda and about my wholesale support and belief in the effectiveness of the work Compassion International does. It's so awesome to know that people are making a difference in other's lives - in practical and meaningful ways.

Paris Hilton and I are no longer on speaking terms.

(Do you mean to say that you were once on speaking terms, Doug?)
Well, no, not actually.

When I was young, I was convinced my mom was a witch. My imagination was working overtime. The show Dark Shadows was on primetime and I used to watch the vampires and other dark figures in the doomy show. My mom had this cool dark grey cape with black trim that was real thick like a blanket. I put two and two together and wondered at some point if she practiced witchcraft. Oh, and in our family closet shelf was a Ouiji board, along with other board games like Monopoly, etc. I think my wonderful mom played bridge with some friends during this time, but otherwise was always around the house. I guess there was never really any time to devote to witchcraft. It's funny what a young mind might fixate on.

I'm looking forward to hanging out with Jason Dodd (former Managing Editor here) tonight in Austin. It's been a long time.

My parents have been mad at work on a new shed here at the HM Ranch. Levi and I occasionally go out and help lift heavier items. We stocked up on shingles for the roof last night. Those packages are real heavy. Our little kittens are really having fun outside, because the cloud cover makes it a lot cooler than it's been lately (in the 100 degree range). I've been listening to the new Extreme album. Looks like I'm going to Houston next week to check them out with King's X. Levi is supposed to go see The Smoking Popes tonight in Austin. That should be a good show. I hope it's packed. I watched 10,000 BC last night. The folks at my house didn't get interested, but I liked it. Maybe it's the warrior spirit inside me.
:?)

I love my mom and am glad she wasn't really in a coven back in the late 60s and early 70s. My dad remembers how enthusiastic the whole family was to turn him on to the Jesus Christ Superstar album when he returned from Vietnam. It wasn't more than a year later that he and most of our family gave our hearts to Christ.

Dear Ole Dad

I've spent most of last week building a shed with my dad out here at the HM Ranch. Last spring he came out here for a week or two and built a fence, planted some trees, and laid a foundation for a shed. He dug some deep holes for the posts and had several cross beams put in between each post. this week we've built the floor with other beams and put some thick plywood on. The shed comes ready to put together and it delivered on Friday. It's been hot, with blazing 101 degree temperatures and lots of humidity. I've felt like trash each day, but sitting still didn't make me feel any better, so I went out and sweated like a madman, hoping against hope that it would somehow "burn through" my fever/sore throat/whatever...

I made the remark on my twitter account (you should really check that new social networking thing out -- it's cute, fun, and quick, especially with a mobile device) that: "Working out here on this shed with my dad is cool -- just like a Chevy commercial ... without the mountains."

It's true. There's something relaxing and cool about working on a project with someone. Family members that love each other are the best!

So, I was thinking the other day about something my dad mentioned a long time ago. He shared with me after my high school graduation, when we'd all moved away from California to Florida, how he had wanted to build / rebuild a '65 Mustang with me in my teen years. It would have been a cool bonding father-and-son project. But he realized it would not be a good idea due to the type of friends I chose.

I chose the type of friends that were in abundance in SoCal back in those days: pot smoking buddies. At first I was a young freshman student and scared of drugs. I wanted to fit in, but was too wary of drugs at the time. After about a year I gave in and realized how much commradery I had after I crossed the threshold from a "straight" or potentially "narc" kind of kid to "party-er." Once I got used to smoking pot and knew the lingo and how to load and smoke a bowl in a pipe or bong, it was almost like getting street cred with my peers. What blew me away and excited me a great deal in my junior and senior years was seeing how I could blend in anywhere when travelling due to the common interest of weed. It was very much a community. If you partied, you were cool. If you did not, well, you might not be cool. I found different types of people in the different places I visited. In SoCal, there weren't as many cliques. It seemed that the majority of us partied and we freely moved from groups that were not segregated -- like scholar, athlete, skater, music-head, etc. Other parts of the country had "preppies" and "stoners" and the two never spent much time together.

All that to say, my dad was probably dead-on right about his decision. (Thanks, dad, for not supplying me with a car when I was in high school!) I did have occasional use of the family car once I had my license, but if I would have owned my own car, I bet I would have taken risks and gotten in trouble.

I'll never forget a game my friend Pat Z and I used to play. We'd stop our cars at an interesection that has a narrow concrete path across the street that would drain small amounts of water with its gentle slope. We'd stop with our back wheels in the water, gun our engines in neutral and then slam it into drive. We'd spin our wheels and take off in a skid. One time both of us were doing that and a citizen (a rather concerned and "Type A" one at that) came walking towards my car in the middle of one of these spin-outs, yelling at me as I smiled and tore off. I have to admit, I still kinda side with me and my friend on that one -- even though I'm probably the same age now (or even older, gasp!) as that Doug Nedermeyer type parent/adult guy.

I'm grateful for my dad's wisdom in watching out for me. He was a teenage boy and he had his own wild times as a youth. The drug for that generation was alcohol and ours were a combination of alcohol and weed. I did choose to hang with a "wild" crowd, I guess you could say, and my tendencies and attitudes in those days probably would have gotten me in trouble. Thank the Lord that my friends and I survived those years. Many students experience the loss of someone they know during their teenage years, and we were lucky. There were a few guys that died during my four years in high school. One drowned on a senior skip day at some SoCal beach. Another died in a trial run on a friend's "crotch-rocket" motorcycle. This guy was an alumni when it happened. He lost control coming around a giant "U" of a street, went up a curb, scooped up trashcans in his way and hit a large tree head on. It probably killed him instantly, crushing his body. I heard the helmet flew off and rolled down the street. My friend Pat Z's mom drove back home to see paramedics administering CPR to someone with a Desert High letterman's jacket on and a crumpled motorcycle. Poor lady. For a few seconds, she thought it was her son. Later that night some of the friends of that guy chopped that tree down in a drunken fit of venting their intense emotions.

I apologize for going down some gruesome bunny trails in my blog today. It's hard not to share a story when they come to mind so vividly all these years later.

David Crowder Band

Remedy Tour Live CD/DVD

Wow, this live DVD starts off with an emotional spark (at least for me). It looks like the show starts with the lights going out and a digital playback of an older song, while the cameras are edited between the audience getting excited and the band heading through the backstage corridors. They then gather their instruments and start playing into the song. At least that's how it looks when watching the edited DVD. If that's how it happened, it's pretty cool for a band to "play into" a song that's playing over the house system. Then they go right into the gentle strums that begin "The Glory Of It All."

Oh my. This song and I have something special going on. This song has somehow gained permission to grab my emotions like a sponge and squeeze moisture out of it in gentle but building waves of good feelings.

I've played the live CD. I saw the tour (in Austin, TX) and I know the album that the tour revolves around (Remedy), but the DVD is exciting for me. I'm bummed out to pause it after two songs so that my family can watch the finals of So You Think You Can Dance.

The Chapman Family Rocks!

I threw away probably over $100 worth of food. I was already sick to start off my day today, but this act made my heart feel sick. It's such a shame when something like that happens (fuse breaker thing went off in garage at power outlet, making lots of food thaw out over a two-day period or so before discovery).

Had a tough day, working hard in the Texas heat. But it was also rewarding and fun. Got so much done. Tomorrow looks to be busy, too. Tomorrow a Fed Ex truck should pull up with a couple copies of the new issue hot off the press. That'll be exciting.

Am watching Larry King Live tonight, with special guest Steven Curtis Chapman and his family. Wow, what they've been through (with the 17-year-old son accidently backing up over their five-year-old daughter, Maria Sue). Wow. Heart-breaking, touching, sobering, powerful. While not an ounce of arrogance or "look-at-me-ism," this family is profoundly being a witness to the Lord -- with all their shaking and honest vulnerability being shared to all.

Am glad to be "family" members (in a global, body of Christ sense) with these folks.

Chris Tomlin CD Stuck In Car Stereo - Film at 11

For the past few days I've had the new Chris Tomlin CD stuck in my car stereo. This sort of thing doesn't happen to me often. It's not rockin' or hard in any way that we'd cover in the pages of HM Magazine. The songs are good and engaging at the beginning, middle and the end of the CD. And when it finishes and goes back to track one, those songs sounds so good that I don't want to take it out. I haven't been a fan of most of the generic cCm worship music that's been coming out of the Christian music industry, as it sounds formulaic, plastic, shallow, and wanting musically. But this album's songs are wooing me.

There's an added dimension to worship that is hard to explain. It's almost charismatic, but it's not an exclusive emotion monopolized by a single stream of the body of Christ. The tunes are almost washing over me and lifting my attitude. They make it easy to praise God. I bet this album is going to be popular amongst his fans.

It's been hard to blog lately, partly because I've been feeling like dirt. Maybe I picked up a bug on the airplane flight last Saturday. Who knows? Hopefully, like my African neighbors might say: "Tomorrow will hopefully be a better day."

I'm a spoiler

My oldest daughter called me up today.
I knew it was her, because I heard the "Free" (by Stryper) ringtone start to play. I knew it was either her or Michael Sweet, and Mr. Sweet rarely calls.
So anyway, she goes, "Daddy! Guess what?"

And I had been thinking about calling my wife to alert her about the impending delivery just moments before, so I guessed: "People from Monster Energy Drink dropped off a case at the house?"

She was quiet, like, "How'd you know?"

But I'm bummed about about a little thing like that, because in a subtle way I stole her joy. Dang.

The moral of the story is: Don't be careless in how you respond to random interaction with those around you. Little ways you respond can be encouraging, affirming, and life-giving -- even in miniscule ways.

The other detail is massively cool -- and that is that HM is now sponsored by Monster. Oh yeah!

Flash Point

Watching Flash Point. A sister is about to shoot her brother-in-law. Exciting show. Lots of cops catching bad guys using special ops. It's nice to relax. This week begins with a new intern named Levi starting/arriving tomorrow. We will start planning the Nov/Dec issue right away. We start trying to gather information on who / which bands are coming out with albums, like: Disciple, Family Force 5, Cool Hand Luke, Mute Math, and others...

Back in Austin.1

Boarded a Viva Aerobus flight to Austin at 5:45 this morning. One of my daughters was, unfortunately, throwing up. Poor thing got something funky in her stomach. The flight was quick and short with a nice, safe landing. After some naps, I went to pick up dinner to go at our local Chili's. We enjoyed some ribs and a delicious chocolate chip paradise pie. Yum. Our daughter was able to eat some french fries, so things are improving in her stomach. They're relaxing with an episode of Dr. Who at the moment...

Our dog and cats are happy to see us. It's good to be back home after a week-long trip. When I picked up the order at Chili's, I heard the girl working there speaking Spanish, so I offered to pay for the meal with pesos and we chatted a bit. Turns out her parents live 10 minutes away from Saltillo, Mexico.

It's a small world after all.

Lazy day in Saltillo

We had a relaxed morning here. No busy schedule is planned. We might go to the airport early early in the morning (like middle of the night stuff) for the trip from Saltillo to Monterrey, where the airport we flew out is.