bloggedy blog: the personal weblog of a music lover and aging punk wannabe

:: Saturday, May 04, 2002 ::

The G-Force is with me. Yesterday I downloaded G-Force, a visualization plug-in for audio players. I'm using it with WinAmp and am trying to figure out how to use it as a type of presentation software -- a nonlinear PowerPoint, if you will. Thanks to TallSkinnyKiwi for the inspiration. Now I just need to figure out how to write the scripts in time for Search Party.

:: Andrew 09:18 + ::
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:: Thursday, May 02, 2002 ::

Martin Roth's list of Christian bloggers now stands at around 120, he reports. Interestingly, that was also the approximate number of Christ's followers hanging out in Jerusalem just before the Holy Spirit fell on the first Day of Pentecost after Jesus' ascension. Coincidence? I think not. Just as that fateful day ushered in a wildfire growth of believers, perhaps we've reached the same kind of critical mass of bloggers to trigger the same kind of exponential growth. So, get in your upper rooms, Christian bloggers, and blog away.

Of course, it didn't hurt Roth's cause that his list got a plug of sorts in Glenn Reynolds' InstaPundit. Even a bad mention there can mean a flood of hits for the everyblogger.

:: Andrew 20:24 + ::
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Update. Had to remove the cut picture of Peter Brady since something had gone awry with the linkage. But if you want to take the Brady quiz, be my guest.

Quiz time. Just what I needed to help me waste some precious moments today: the Yahoo! list of online personality quizzes. Thanks to Gael's Pop Culture Junk Mail for the link. (P.S. Some quizzes may contain offensive material. You have been warned.)

:: Andrew 11:32 + ::
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Prayer time. Today is the National Day of Prayer in the USA. Please take a minute today to say a prayer for your nation, wherever you may happen to live. One recent prayer, which may not pass muster with the NDP organizers, is U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich's prayer for America, which he read on February 17. Let us pray that our nation will remember that the unfolding of the promise of democracy in our nation paralleled the striving for civil rights. That is why we must challenge the rationale of the Patriot Act. It gets better. Read also this commentary by the Rev. Charles Henderson.

While we're on the subject of prayer, you might want to go to the Passion Prayer Network and download the prayer guide for Monday, May 6.

Party time. Last night, church turned into a party. Warning: touchy-feely charismatic babble ahead. We were going through the motions of our normal praise and worship service. I was on bass, Joe was playing guitar, Dyann was on keyboards, Curtis was on drums, and Helen was leading the singing. We'd finished the faster songs and had transitioned into the slower worship songs, and were playing along softly when I felt that God was giving me a word (there's your charismatic spiritual-babble). The word was this: party. The verb. As in, party down, people! And then I was reminded of Jesus' story of the prodigal son, and how the son's father threw him a party. So I shared these thoughts with the congregation, while Dyann continued to play melodiously on the keys, Joe backing her up with a quiet strumming of the guitar, and Curtis gently brushing the cymbals. It was all very subdued. Then Dyann turned to Curtis and said, "Curtis, I'm still waiting for you to let loose. Who cares if it shakes some people up. Some of us need to be shaken!" And with that, Curtis started hammering on the drums. I caught up with him on the bass, and Joe, who usually plays a bluegrassy style on his Gibson, started in on some power chords. The music crescendoed, and Helen started singing praises, louder and louder. Then a young woman named Cheryl stepped out of the congregation, grabbed a tambouring in one hand and a mic in the other, and shouted out to the congregation: Come on, people! Let's par-tay!.

We cut loose. People were dancing in the aisles. I was hopping around, playing the bass -- playing music like I hadn't played it since I tried to be in a punk band in college. The teens sort of looked around at their elders, scratching their heads, but then Cheryl got them into it more, and they started clapping and dancing too. We jammed like this for a good 15-20 minutes, then settled back and played an old gospel tune -- "Power in the Blood" -- with renewed vigor. A guy named Terry, who has a great voice but doesn't sing enough, in my opinion, got in on the act and led us in singing that song. We finished with a rousing rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching In." I felt as though we were "having church" in the AME or old-line pentecostal style. It was fun. Definitely undignified (RealAudio file), but fun. I believe God was having fun, too.

Blogroll time. I've added Martin Roth to the blogroll. Martin has written a good article about Christian bloggers, called Blogging for the Lord. Martin also has a fairly good list of Christian bloggers started.

Prime time? Ginkworld features yours truly in its latest 7q. Hope it won't go to my head.

:: Andrew 07:46 + ::
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:: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 ::

Why I blog, part two: After yesterday's introspective postings about the purpose of blogging, I was reminded of a great and famous quote from William Faulker, which says a lot about my motivations for writing -- and perhaps also explains why so many of us are blogging these days:

Really the writer doesn't want success. ... He knows he has a short span of life, that the day will come when he must pass through the wall of oblivion, and he wants to leave a scratch on that wall -- Kilroy was here -- that somebody a hundred, or a thousand years later will see.

Well put, Bill. Let that be the final word. For today, at least.

Blogrolling. I've done a bit of sprucing up of the old weblog this morning, and have added to the blogroll the following: Thinking Out Loud (a new blog; the author likes U2 and WOW Worship), Mark Byron (who apparently likes Abbott & Costello), Pam Kemp's newsblog, Web-Therapy (good stuff on prayer lately), amber Bach; deep::dirt; and cogito ergo blog.

Hail to the preach? President Bush drew plenty of amens and preach its during a speech Monday in South Central Los Angeles. . "Faith is a powerful motivator. ... I know first-hand what faith can mean in somebody's life, so I remind people I am just a humble sinner who saw redemption." Amen, Mr. President.

Doves revisited. In my recent post about the Dove Awards, I failed to mention another blogger who posted about the awards. Daypop apparently doesn't catch every reference. So, let the record now stand corrected. Thanks Mark for bringing this to my attention.

Livin' large. Recommended reading: the latest issue of Hippocampus Extensions. The theme: How to Live in a Rich Country.

:: Andrew 10:14 + ::
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:: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 ::

I've been a lazy blogger. I know that yesterday's sole link in the blog was a lame one, a link to a Daypop search of blogs and news sites about Rodney King. It was pretty tacky of me to perform a search engine data dump on these pages yesterday, thereby violating one of the supreme rules of blogging. With that sole hyperlink, I presented you with mounds of data, but no context, no framework for sorting through the information. My bad. I sowwy. As penance, I am now logged on to this site and waiting...waiting...waiting...

But seriously, lately it's occurred to me that I should ask myself the question this guy did: Why do I blog? It's a good question, and one to which I'm not certain I have an answer. Originally, the purpose was twofold: to explore the world of blogging for some articles I was writing, and to practice writing in a hyperlinked environment, since this is the direction journalism seems to be going. But my purposes for blogging seem to have morphed somewhat. Now, it seems to be more a work of performance art than anything else. Lately, as I prepare to blog, I find myself wondering: Do I feel the need to post something, even when I have nothing of worth to tell the world? Is it because I feel I have something to say, or felt I did at one time, and since I created a cyber-soapbox from which to utter forth my pronouncements, do I feel compelled to step atop it daily, even when I really don't have much to blog about? If a blog spews forth in an empty void of cyberspace, does it make a noise? Do I feel I have to include a hyperlink in every blogpost? What if I run out of cool sites to link to? Would I ever fall so far as to link to something like pop-up ads? (It's okay, you can click on that link. It won't take you to a pop-up ad -- honest! It won't!

Well, self-indulgent existential angst can only take a blogger so far in this world. (I knew I shouldn't have gone to that site.) What you really came here for was to find some cool links. So, here you go:

Slouching wider, hidden flagon. I'm more into Sara Lee than Bruce Lee, but who can resist the chance to make a movie? I know I can't. Thanks to I Know Where Bruce Lee LIves: the ultrainteractive KungFu remixer, even I can create a classic martial arts flick.

Speaking of angst... I think Aaron was getting a bit down on himself when he posted this. But the Scriptures he posted are great.

At least we aren't alone, Aaron. Now that Monday is behind us, I can bear to read these words about the first day of the week.

Dove Awards, Schmuv Awards. Last week, I posted about the Dove Awards. According to Daypop, only one other blogger cared enough to post about the awards. And they say Contemporary Christian music is overhyped. Not in blogdom, it ain't. Dove winner Michael W. Smith is mentioned in only one blog (according to Daypop), while Ozzy Osbourne, who has never won a Dove Award but has allegedly bitten the heads off of some doves, gets 10 hits. Go figure. Must be Ozzy's new MTV show.

:: Andrew 10:14 + ::
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:: Monday, April 29, 2002 ::

Reflecting on the L.A. riots. It's been 10 years since the L.A. riots sparked by the verdict of the Rodney King trial. The Web contains plenty of retrospective reporting about the riots and their aftermath, but I dug through a desk drawer this morning and discovered one of my journals from 1992. Here's what I wrote on April 30 of that year:

There is violence in the streets of our nation tonight. It began yesterday in Los Angeles, after the all-white jury chosen to determine whether four white L.A. police officers were guilty of using excessive force against a black man named Rodney King decided the police hadn't. Despite the evidence of a videotape, shown time and again on American TV network news and the images of it now etched in the mind of every American viewer, a videotape that showed the cops pounding King with nightsticks and kicking his ribs and head, the jury found the police not guilty on all but one count, that count ending up dismissed as a result of a mistrial. And now violence begets violence. The violence sown a year ago by four white police officers is being meted out a hundredfold on the streets of our cities tonight.

Last night, it was only L.A. riots. Looting. White man pulled from car and beaten mercilessly, till blood was drawn and more blood, videocameras capturing it all. As of noon, at least nine were dead, hundreds injured, and the City of Angels was a City of Mayem. Cars and buildings burned as blacks sought vengeance for the injustice done to their race. Today, the violence is in Washington, D.C., Detroit, and probably some other cities by now. Despite please by L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley and President George Bush, the violence rages. And I am reminded of a scripture from the prophet Isaiah: "Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off."

:: Andrew 13:27 + ::
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Weakened blogger. I'm such a slacker when it comes to blogging on the weekends. There's just too much to do. I spent a good portion of Saturday writing in the more traditional manner -- i.e., sans hyperlinks -- and then Sunday was a full day. Between church services we had:

1. a birthday barbecue for my mom-in-law, at the church. We had scrumptuous grilled burgers and kielbasa; skillet-fried potatoes, with and without onions; some of Jana's exquisite barbecued ribs; the pastor's baked beans; all kinds of salads and desserts. I'm telling you, these ex-Southern Baptists know how to fix a meal! *Yummy*

2. The final day of a three-day "kids crusade," the first of the season. Tim, who can preach up a storm with kids and teens, holds these crusades every summer. Last year, our church purchased a tent for him. Now he's expanded and has developed a little mini-carnival, complete with one of those moonwalk tents. A lot of the teens in our church are involved in these crusades -- doing face-painting, helping to lead the singing, testifying in the grand old tradition of American pentecostalism, and just providing a supportive atmosphere for the kids. I spent most of the afternoon there, and the party was still going when I had to leave by 4:15 to attend...

3. A wedding shower for a couple in our church. The shower was held in our church fellowship hall.

So now I must needs recuperate. But, being as how it is Monday, the world of work isn't being very cooperative.

I realize this isn't the usual snappy, hyperlinked prose you've come to expect from bloggedyblog. But I'll try to get back on track later today, or tomorrow. I've found a bunch of nice sites to add to the blogroll, plus other blogworthy tidbits. Stay tuned!

:: Andrew 09:48 + ::
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