Blue Like Fieldy

"Eagle-eye" Thomas. That's what they used to call me. You know - because I could see stuff. Okay, okay.... nobody ever called me that. BUT THEY SHOULD! This weekend, I guess there was some kind of Miami Ink marathon on, and I got sucked into it. I'm not embarrassed, it's a good show. You should check it out. On one of the episodes, the guys joined the band Korn on the Family Values Tour. A couple of the band members and security guys wanted tattoos, so they took the show on the road. One of the tattoo-ees was Fieldy, bass player for Korn. When the Miami Ink tattoo artist walked onto Fieldy's trailer, there was, conveniently, already a cameraman in there. Fieldy was sitting on the couch reading a book. What book? - you might ask yourself. What sort of book would the bass player for Korn be reading in his trailer. Well, having asked myself the same question, I paid close attention, trying to catch a glimpse.

Blue Like Jazz.

Fieldy was reading Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller's magnum opus (so far).

(Sidebar here, to mention that if you haven't read Blue Like Jazz yourself - you should really be feeling very badly right about now. Fieldy from Korn is way ahead of you in this game.)

Here's the episode on YouTube, which I will not embed because the Department of Justice has put the fear of God in me.

Here's a screencap of the scene where you can see the back cover of the book he's holding.
And here's a scan of the back cover of my (autographed! Thanks Shelly!) copy of Blue Like Jazz.

I meant to post this months ago...

J.T. - Don. Don - J.T. He said he wished he could grow a beard.
We all do, Don. We all do.

Heartbeats

Have you seen this video by Sigur Ros? Amazing. I saw it just about a week ago, and was blown away.

I don't watch a ton of videos, but I'm working on developing a 4 or 5 week teaching series for the youth using videos like this one. So far I'm also considering UNKLE's Rabbit in Your Headlights, and maybe REM's Everybody Hurts (old school). I'm still looking for a couple more videos if anybody's got any ideas. Bill gave me a couple of great ones, and Abby.... well, she thinks it's a pretty dumb idea. They need to be kind of like short films, something striking to the eye, or with a big payoff at the end. I'm not concerned that they be squeaky clean, but I'd prefer if they didn't have nudity or any language that you can't hear on daytime television.

Click here to check out one of my favorites, so far, that Bill suggested. You may recognize it.

Are you there, Margaret? It's me, God...

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Margaret from church left a bag for me at the Guest Services desk. I looked inside, and lo and behold, it contained all the West Wing DVD's a guy could ask for. To keep! For FREE!! She had bought them on eBay, and then somebody gave them to her as a gift, so she gave them all to me. Actually, it was seasons 1-5, and since I have 6 and 7 on my hard-drive, I can now watch any episode of TWW any time I want. I am now hip-deep in Season 2, and loving it. Margaret was such a blessing to me that I wanted to sing her praises here in this public forum. Madge - God used you to bless me - and I thank you!

ENVY ME!

Fat Tuesday!

Happy Mardi Gras! Or, if you prefer - Martes Gordo! I hope you are doing well on this festive occasion, and filling yourselves to the brim with all sorts of delicious and sinful things that you will hereby abstain from for the next 40-some-odd days known as Lent. By the way, did you know that "carnival", as Mardi Gras is sometimes called, is a Latin word, that actually translates - "farewell to the flesh"? Today is the day we overdo it, to make up for the next several weeks of tragically(yet nobly, and very spiritually) under-doing it. I brought a beautiful King Cake to the office today, complete with plastic baby nestled within. I will most likely return home with 7/8ths of said cake. Baby included. Yeah- Texas sucks, whaddyagonnado?

I've already given up soft drinks of every kind for the entire year 2007 (yes, it's going very well, actually - thank you for asking), but for the lenten season, I have decided to add coffee to my fast. The wife said that sounds too easy, but I give it 4 or 5 days without coffee before she starts to sing a different tune. She, on the other hand, is giving up granulated sugar, and has informed me that for the next 40something days I'm to make my sweet tea with Splenda(tm). To which I, quite naturally, and as you would expect replied...... "um... yes, dear" ...and then mumbled something under my breath about that not really being sweet tea, and communism, or somesuch whateverness.

Are you giving anything up? And don't say, "Lent" or "Catholicism", because I'm the only one that makes stupid jokes like that around here, got it?


So, I bet you're wondering what would bring me out of hiding, after a more than 2-month-long hiatus. Well, here it is:
Sex God. The new book by Rob Bell (referred to by my wife as "your boyfriend"). The long-anticipated (by me) follow-up to 2005's Velvet Elvis. If you haven't read either of these books, then your life will never be considered complete. I hate to be the one who has to tell you that.

I have an insider at the Grapevine bookstore, who sent me a message as soon as it went on sale. I picked it up yesterday, and it took me about 2 1/2 hours last night to finish it. What a great feeling. To actually finish a book, instead of taking 3 months, and reading a chapter every time I go to the bathroom. Speaking of that....
I finally finished this book today, too. What can I say, I was on a roll. If you're interested in a fresh, uncomplicated take on an often misunderstood set of teachings, and something that's a little different from your typical Christian Living section fare - I recommend Matthew Paul Turner's Beatitude. MPT is the former editor of CCM Magazine, but don't let that scare you away. He was fired from that job, anyway - and probably for a good reason.


Lastly - I realize that there have been very few..... okay ZERO mentions of my recent nuptials on this blog. In fact, if you think about it, you might notice that I very rarely speak about the ladies at all on here unless they are of the celebrity variety. And everybody knows that celebrities aren't real anyways. But, I will confirm that I did get married on December 23rd, 2006, and that yes - she is hopelessly out of my league, and that all future posts will probably feature sickeningly frequent mentions of her, and no small amount of gushing. Those of you who are into that kind of thing can check out pictures of the wedding event HERE.

In the past 2 months I've also bought a car, and leased a house, and taken a 7 day cruise to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Most significantly - I've grown the beard back. Yes, it looks great, thank you.