No timely like the present

Hey thanks, Brant, for doing your Casting Crowns promo just as I am starting to try to do commercial radio production on my own. It's somehow simultaneously discouraging and inspiring--I can't quite explain it. And the same can be said for Shaun's early songwriting career revelations. How timely. How relevant.

Speaking of timely and relevant, I really want to update the blog with something substantial, but I just don't have time. Apparently, not being gainfully employed requires a TON of work. I can't wait until I land a few jobs so I can slow down.

It turns out

...I still know how to rock.

Remember my awesome new job?

Well, I don't have that anymore. : (

Sorry.

I'll talk more about that in future posts, but I thought I would go ahead and put it up here, because I know there will be people who come here before I get around to telling them.

It's all okay. And no, we don't really know what we're going to do about it. We'll do something, for sure.

I'm not sad I took it, and I'm not sad I had it. I'm not sad, particularly, about things that I am taking away from it. I am sad... horribly sad... as all of us here at the Cap house are, that I lost it.

But that's okay.

Seriously.

-j

Under the Covers: Secret Dangers of Rock & Roll

The danger in playing cover tunes is being made painfully aware just how substandard your own original compositions are.

Why the world hates Christians

...and why even other Christians find them pretty much annoying... is that Christianity, at large, is guilty of focusing on and preaching a message different than the one Jesus gave us in the first place.

Jesus said, as best I recall, that following him was about transformation. Both of our selves (into the likeness of Christ), and of the world.

"Gospel" means "good news." And didn't Jesus say something about preaching, "the good news of the kingdom"?

I'll post more about this soon. I've been having a little mental question & answer with myself for a while now about why evangelism annoys me--or at least why our compulsive, laser-like focus on evangelism annoys me--but I haven't yet taken the time to bust out the research materials to see how bad of a heretic I really am.

Not at all profound. Regardless of what you might think.

Blue Sky
and there you are
far above it all.
bright windows warm with blue sky
and prairie sun.

there's nothing more satisfying
than making your own way.
and no place better suited
than where you are today.

breaking all the boundaries
remaking all the rules
riding out the consequence of
what you did and didn't do

happy ever after in
a tower made
of woven wires and dreams
nothing more to bring

How I became the world's most productive copywriter

words of wisdom (quotable quotes)

I'm feeling the press to write. But I'm afraid I just can't at the moment. (This aptly demonstrated through the sin of omission that is the current state of my blog)

Too much stuff going on, punctuated only by short bursts during which i feel compelled to do nothing at all. So it's sort of two steps backward... the end.

In the meantime, here are some really great words that someone else wrote. Namely, Bill Mallonee. Mr Mallonee is one of my favorite lyricists of all time, and it's a crying shame that not more people know who he is. Maybe these lines will encourage you to get to know him. (whoever you might be)

PARTING SHOT

words of wisdom quotable quotes
reader's digest sayings for those losing hope
why do i feel so mocked by the hands of the clock
well anchor me down to the solid rock
i want to leave you with something but i almost forgot
was it a closing statement or a parting shot

well you lie on the flowers here in the wind
i've twisted it all with original sin
there's a knowledge i traded a long time ago
well i bartered it off for these rags i call clothes
i learned how to fake it and remake it on cue
but i swear i never stopped needing you

there's a question forming out here in the dark
in the heavy air all around my heart
now laden with consequence chain link fence
and shot through with all manner of lies
i've been trapped in and caught

and the world like a tempest in your ears doth roar
and the flesh wants to dress up and play your whore
and the devil wants to cast all manner of doubt
on the real lover with the key dying to let you out
from the bars that you fashioned with your stolen clout
well i may be confused but i'll play my hunch
did it feel like a kiss or a counter-punch

evening is closing and the kid drones on and on and on
well get out your car keys i hope this is his last song
wait it's bigger than life it is gracious and grand
something a child readily understands

hey you know i sure could use a new suit of clothes
see i'm gone all threadbare and my shoes are worn
now the flowers are growing right out of these bones
and i hear the trumpet sounding like louis armstrong
when the great divorce happens hide me in your song
though i don't deserve it and i don't belong
i want to leave you with something will you take it to heart
are you a closing statement or a parting shot