If you are married, you know the importance of “Date Night”. It’s a night to get out and away from home to connect with your significant other. Last night I went to the Ultimate Date here in Whatcom County, Washington. Cynthia and I were “lucky” enough to get tickets to the Lynden Fair to watch the hottest ticket in town. Randy Travis? no. Chicago? no again. Though both of those shows are really going on this week here in our little section of the United States, the hottest ticket in town every year is the demolition derby. Yep. You read right!
So we had an evening filled with Fair Food and smashed up cars. Break out your John Deere Hats and “Git-R-Done” t-shirts, because here are some pics for you (Incidently, this first pic is the first pic of Daddy with his baby pai…it’s a family pic of sorts):
All in all it was a fun night. Cynthia and I had a great time. Cars were smashed. Fords and Chevy’s were rivaled. All was right in this neck of the woods.
To help me get to know people better at St. Arbucks I work at and for simple team building, I’ve started bringing in CD’s for them to borrow. What happens is that they let me know what they like and I get to listen to their music also. I brought in four CD’s to start it off:
Amos Lee – Amos Lee
Rocky Votolato – Makers
Glen Hansard – The Soundtrack to “Once”
and a Death Cab Mix that I put together.
Well, my new friend Diana (If you ever visit my Starbucks, she is the one with the faux-hawk) brought me a copy of Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever ago”. Holy Crap! This CD is great! You need to listen to this. Here is a taste below:
Here we sit under the reign of newly crowned American Idol, David Cook. Shocked? A little. How cool to have the Canadian Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams, playing? His face looked like a leather bag but his voice was still sweet as Maple Syrup.
This is the last post about the american idols that I’ll do. I simply wanted to show you the difference of the search references that led people to my blog today and yesterday. It is quite comical. As usual, I highlighted the ones that made me laugh the most.
All of you Archuleta fans have been so mean to me. You’ve all said how I’m jealous. You’ve told me that I’m a hater. You’ve even said that you were voting extra for David A. simply because of my posting. Because of you, this posting is the one that I’ve gotten the most hits on (even more than my own “about me” section). But here is the thing: As I lay trying to take a nap today, I watched “Ellen” as Simon Cowell said the exact same thing as I did in my original posting of David Archuleta Must Lose. He said that beyond the voice, David Archuleta doesn’t have any skills to be a pop star, even saying that “once you get beyond the ‘Golly, gee…” of the sentence, David has nothing”.
Now it comes down to tonight – the season finale for American Idol. I gloat in the fact that Simon and I are on track, but lament the fact that David Cook’s career may possibly turn for the worse if he defeats our friend David Archuleta. With that in mind, I leave all the fans of David Archuleta with these parting words: suck it.
My friend Chauncy is hilarious. I love when we get to hang out because he makes me laugh…a lot. Think of your funniest friend whose humor is way beyond their years. Now combine them with a Spanish Major who wants to get back to their roots and serve God somewhere in Latin America. Now picture him being giant. I mean GIANT – like 6′5″ – but he is a gentle giant. This is a description of Chauncy.
Chauncy had this interesting thought about worship that I wanted to share with you from his thoughts over at Team Chauncy:
Last thing before I take a nap before dinner. Sometimes people clap after praise music. Why do you do that? I don’t get it. Unless you’re clapping for Jesus, you’re confusing me. The people playing music may be good. Yes. I agree. But why are they playing music? Is it to put on a good show or is it to bring glory to God and bring people to a place of worship? I think the second one, or at least I would hope so. When we clap for them what are we saying? Perhaps we’re thanking them, but it feels less like that. It feels more like we’re getting done with praising God and then starting to praise people. Yes they have amazing talents and gifts. Tell them they played well after the service. It’s not about them, or me, or you. It’s about Jesus. Clap for Him if you’re gonna clap. I don’t like that either because He’s not putting on a show, but still it’s better than clapping for the people playing praise music. Clapping for them is like getting a present from your mom at Christmas that is handed to you by your uncle and then saying thank you to your uncle. It’s rude. Your uncle gave you the gift directly, but he didn’t buy it.
Basically, a lot of people visited my blog over the weekend based on my entry on the Death Cab show and my mention of my friend Kelly Huckaby. It made the Death Cab for Cutie forum! Go over and visit them and join in the conversation here. I didn’t realize that Kelly was such a rockstar. I went and apologized to him for “outing” him, but he said it happens to him all of the time.
So far, David Archuleta and Death Cab for Cutie have led a lot of people to the brown kid. Pretty Cool, and I hope that a lot of them stick around and join in on some conversations. I guess my wonder of you out in the blogging world is this: What have you written that got you a lot of different people showing up to your end of the world? Has this ever happened to you? Let me know…
So the Death Cab show was all that could be expected. It was my first show, and it was great. I met Ben Gibbard, Nick Harmon, and Chris Walla and a bunch of Kellys other scenster friends. Kelly played a bit of the new CD for Matt and I on the way down (it’s great but a lot different than “Plans”), and they opened with a new song. They also played a bunch of songs that I love including, Why You’d Want to Live Here, Crooked Teeth, New Year, and quickly becoming more of a favorite of mine, Soul Meets Body. My favorite Death Cab song, “I Will Follow You into The Dark”, was the first song of the encore last night. As they played, I realized how much I love this song simply for the hook:
If heaven and hell decide,
That they both are satisfied,
Illuminate the no’s on their vacancy signs:
If there’s no one beside you,
When your soul embarks;
Then I’ll follow you into the dark.
These lyrics made me think about an orthodox prayer I had heard while at TWU. “…may we one day find the caverns of Hell to be empty.” Something that I think has happened to the artists in the church is that they have been discouraged to think. What I mean is sometimes we are told to speak only truth and never ask questions. Lyrics like these could be viewed as theologically incorrect. Personally, I believe they are, but sometimes I wonder what would happen if there is no heaven? What if there is no hell? What does this look like?
What is happening is that as artists and christians, people are being told not to question but to only give truth. But what if these questions lead to answers? What if these questions lead us closer to God?
Tonight I am going to the Death Cab show with my friends Matt Martinson and Kelly Huckaby. If you are a Death Cab fan, then yes, this is the Kelly Huckaby that they wrote the song, Song for Kelly Huckaby, for. Anyways, I am excited to go, because I get to hang out with two of the smartest, funniest and coolest guys I know.
Matt and I have known each other since we both became Christ followers. We are survivors of youth ministry, mega churchdom (both working at and going to), and all around great ULT (Unappreciated Leadership Team) meetings that were had during staff meetings that we were never asked to attend…even though we were technically on staff. Matt is a genius. He hides it well under his Canada Sweatshirt and his love for The Beatles. We’ve had many discussions around church, AC/DC and lots of different books. It is his birthday today, and so we celebrate with a concert.
Kelly and I know each other also from working in Youth Group. Kelly is what you would call a “hipster”. He wont call himself that, but let me run down what makes him fit that label. Kelly looks good in a fedora hat, is always on the cutting edge of music, manages a diner in downtown Bellingham which is only open until 2:00 in the afternoon, and is a history buff who likes discussions on history/philosophy/religion and the like. Throw in a cigarette and you have a hipster. If you have a friend that you know is cool, then this is Kelly. Kelly oozes cool.
So we head off to Bremerton tonight to the Death Cab for Cutie show. I am really excited. It supposed to snow in Washington today/tonight. Yes, you heard me correct, snow in April. Late April. This winter/spring is killing me. So we will drive safe. If you’ve never heard or listened to Death Cab, here is my favorite song below for you to listen to. It’s called, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”. See you later.
This is a choir of people who are Senior Citizens called Young at Heart. They do a bunch of covers including The Ramones, Sonic Youth, and The Talking Heads. I think there may be a documentary on them…I’m not sure. Anyways, this is a very moving rendition of Coldplay’s “Fix You”. It was supposed to be a duet, but one of the guys passed away days before the show. With that back story to this performance, it makes the song that much more moving. enjoy!
