Aren't these cool? Go to www.simpsonsmovie.com to make your own "Simpsons" avatars. (Sorry, Amy, yours looks a bit ... stoned?...stiff? There are only so many options with these things.)
Anyway, "The Hardens" are headed for vacation July 2-9th. I'll probably still be cruising ya'lls blogs throughout the week, but I probably won't be posting much.
We're headed back to the lowcountry - smack dab between Savannah, GA and Hilton Head, SC - for a little R&R with Amy's mom and stepdad.
1.) Well, it's all over the internets this week, but just in case you've missed it, here is
..."the best five second clip on the internet" - Dramatic Chipmunk (though it's really a Prairie Dog). By the way, the key to the humor here is watching it multiple times in a row:
2.) On a side note, remember when I posted Will Ferrell's clip THE LANDLORD, featuring the potty-mouthed little girl? Well, she's back for one final performance (the language, by the way, is NSFW) :
The perception that God is there to do things for us is perhaps the strongest barrier to divine presence.
This reminded me that sometimes in our church worship I feel like all we're doing in prayer and in song is bossing God around. "Hey, do this, make me clean, open my heart, give me strength, hear me, love me, hear us, love us, do this for someone else" - as if we would ever say that to "God" if "God" were actually standing in front of us (so to speak).
This is just an observation, really. I'm not sure what my point is in all this, except to say that the image of God as the Cosmic Vending Machine is still very prominent in church corporate worship. This, of course, is a fine and acceptable first-stage approach to the Divine and yet my hope would be that Christian spiritual communities would continue to provide opportunities for growth and surrender into deeper experiences and understandings of "God."
Jon concludes, "It works for a while, but dropping the demands of our neediness is essential to experience the divine later on in the journey as the soul matures." But don't pay too much mind to this regurgitated post... swing over and read Jon's original post HERE.
About 4 years ago, the drummer I was playing with at the time slipped me 2 CDs by the band MUSE - "Origin of Symmetry" and "Showbiz." After giving them a few spins, I found myself mesmerized.
Fast forward to today, with a few more excellent albums under their belts - as well as a couple of friends (Jay, cough, cough) who are as into them as I am (and maybe moreso) - I would argue that this is the best rock band in the world right now.
Take hard rock, add a slight funk groove, an amazing voice, and (this is important) "classical" music inspired melodies and lead lines. Watch all 6 minutes of this first video and tell me this isn't mind-blowingly amazing rock music (my goodness, I love that chorus at 3:16).
Muse - NEW BORN (Live)
Muse - MUSCLE MUSEUM (this is actually the song that first made me a fan)
"YOU are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house." {Jesus}
How can you give your light now/today so that the world becomes brighter instead of darker?
As I've mentioned before, the band I'm in, Waltz for Venus, is in the middle of a national radio campaign. I went to one of the radio station's website and saw their "Top 20" chart and check this out (below). Needless to say I was surprised to see us charted alongside the likes of The White Stripes, Switchfoot and The Killers.
1. Brianstorm ~ Arctic Monkeys 2. Rich Girls Poor Girls ~ Everybody Else 3. Staplegunned (Remix) ~ The Spill Canvis 4. Burn out Bright ~ Switchfoot 5. Dismantle Repair ~ Anberlin 6. Falling Star ~ Jet 7. I Need You ~ Relient K 8. Icky Thump ~ The White Stripes 9. Move Away ~ The Killers 10. We've got a big mess on our hands ~ The Academy Is 11. Breathe In ~ Firescape 12. Life Like Movies ~ Driver Side Impact 13. Missed the Boat ~ Modest Mouse 14. Suspicion Will Destroy Us ~ Waltz for Venus 15. The Bird and the Worm ~ The Used 16. This Better Be Good ~ Fountains of Wayne 17. Everything is Average Nowadays ~ Kaiser Chiefs 18. Stay Awake ~ Low Vs. Diamond 19. My Blue Heaven ~ Taking Back Sunday 20. Youre Not Alone ~ Saosin
Pink Noise, the Pink Floyd tribute band that I'm in, had a great show last Friday night. The place was packed, people were singing along and really into it. We even had, in the words of our drummer doing his best Dr. Evil impression, "frickin' laser beams." What a blast.
Last night I began my first venture into home beer brewing. My first attempt is the warm and malty SCOTCH ALE - in other words: LOTS of malt and grain, very little hops (as seen below).
The wort is a-brewin'...
And of course you can't MAKE beer without enjoying some at the same time. I had a couple of my beer buddies over and we knocked out some leftover growlers from the Lafayette Brewing Company (The 85, Prophet's Rock Pale Ale, and the Phoenix Strong Ale).
And since there wasn't much in the growlers to begin with and they emptied very quickly, we had to go with SOMETHING else, so we figured what the hell, let's just open up one of the stored Dark Lord Stouts.
You sit down to meditate. Within a few minutes, your stomach starts rumbling and grumbling for some food. A moment later the alarm on your cellular phone starts going off in the other room. There is a few moments of calm and then the dogs start barking at a rabbit in the back yard. A police siren screams down the street.
The natural, habitual reaction to all this is to label these things distractions to the peace and focus of your meditation. I believe the first step, however, toward really making meditation meaningful is the simple observation that the dance of life is happening. Meditation is nothing more than resting in consciousness. It is identifying with with formless, still base-point, or ground, upon which all of life springs forth. But what is consciousness without light/form/life, and vice versa?
There is the Ground and there is the Dance. There is the Masculine and there is the Feminine. There is the Source and there is the Expression.
These things that come up while we are identifying with consciousness are not distractions; they are the very life that consciousness witnesses. They are that which dances while we remain still. It is only because the light and life dances we know any stillness at all.
1.) Friday, June 8th - Pink Noise, the Pink Floyd tribute band that I'm part of - has a big show in Lafayette, IN tonight. Sounds like the place is going to be packed out (if everyone shows up that said they would). Should be a blast.
2.) Saturday, June 9th - Amy and I celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary. It's pretty awesome being married to such an amazing woman. We had to celebrate on Wednesday, though, because Saturday, June 9th is also...
3.) My 10-year class reunion.
This weekend is panning out to be lots of fun, but I imagine I'll be pretty pooped come Sunday - good thing I took the weekend off work.
Lord, the air smells good today, straight from the mysteries within the inner courts of God. A grace like new clothes thrown across the garden, free medecine for everybody. The trees in their prayer, the birds in praise, the first blue violets kneeling. Whatever came from Being is caught up in being, drunkenly forgetting the way back. (by Rumi)
Here is Ben Folds performing his song Army at an intimate concert setting. This is certainly the way to get your fans involved... Mouth Trumpet! Fun stuff. (Plus, how can you beat a song that references Chick-Fil-A)
Well I thought about the Army, Dad said, "Son, you're fuckin' high." And I thought, yeah there's a first for everything, so I took my old man's advice. Three sad semesters, it was only fifteen grand Spent in bed I thought about the army, I dropped out and joined a band instead.
Grew a mustache and a mullet, Got a job at Chick-Fil-A Citing artistic differences the band broke up in May, and in June reformed without me, and they got a different name. I nuked another grandma's apple pie and hung my head in shame.
Been thinking a lot today. Been thinking a lot today.
Ohhhh, I think I'll write a screenplay. Ohhhh, I think I'll take it to LA. Ohhhh, I think I'll get it done yesterday.
In this time of introspection. On the eve of my election, I say to my reflection God, please spare me more rejection. Cause my peers they criticize me, and my ex-wives all despise me. Try to put it all behind me, but my redneck past is nipping at my heels
I've been thinking a lot today. I've been thinking a lot today. I've been thinking a lot today. I thought about the army...
Every once in a while a blog virus spreads. Consider me the vaccination, baby. I'll post my Crazy 8 alright, but I will not spread this infectious disease to any more innocent and unsuspecting bloggers. May those of you who have already been infected (like you, you, and you) find peace in your horrible affliction.
And now, without further ado, here are my 8 random facts:
1.) I've mentioned this before, but I have a precise and exact pattern for toweling my entire body off every day after the shower. The only time this fails is when I think about it and try to remember the order, in which instance the whole sequence crumbles.
2.) Very little irks me more than the 10 minutes of lights-down, have-to-watch commercials - before the movie trailers - before theater movies.
3.) One of the main things from parenthood that I've always wanted to do (and now have done many times) is carry a sleeping kid in from the car.
4.) Besides short flights to San Diego, Oakland and Seattle, I've never been to (or driven through) any of the other many states west of Missouri.
5.) I once had a job in the outdoor/landscaping area of a department store and had to answer the phone: "Pet and Garden this is Trevor Harden" - which rhymed and made me feel like an ass.
6.) In high school, my friends and I shot hundreds of hours of "home videos" (as we always called them) featuring tape after tape of short skits and filmed shenanigans and was always our first choice for recreational activity.
7.) Coffee, beer and chocolate: in each category, the darker the better.
8.) As I was pulling into the bank yesterday (which is a mere block from my home), a cop told me the bank was closed and to move along. Here's why.
"The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another." [Thomas Merton]
"The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God's eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love." [Meister Eckhart]
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