Sep. 16, 2009

I was on Sting’s website (http://www.sting.com) the other day and watched a preview video for his upcoming CD “If On A Winter’s Night…”.  Sting said that “it was a suggestion to do a Christmas record and I said ‘no, no, let’s do something wider than that.  Let’s do a winter record’”.  Christmas is widely celebrated by Christians and even many who do not profess faith in Jesus throughout the world.  I think the idea of “doing something wider than that” may at first seem strange, if not offensive, to some Christians.  What can be wider than Christmas?  Sting says that “Winter is the season of imagination”.  I agree.  It is amazing how snow changes everything.  It can be so beautiful and inspiring.  But, it can also be very bleak.  He goes on to say “that magic extends into everything

Aug. 25, 2009

I saw this on my friends blog today - jmanafo.blogspot.com.  This shows how intuitive music is to people (in particular the pentatonic scale in this example). 

Aug. 17, 2009

I hope this tune makes your day like it did

Jul. 27, 2009

Jul. 17, 2009

Bobby hangs out at the Starbucks that I frequent the most.  He’s an interesting character to be sure.  When I saw him today on the porch outside he put his hand in the air to give me “five”.  A “low five”.  I should have known better than to engage in high-fiving antics with him but, I went for it.  I got my hand slapped silly as usual.  One time we were inside the store when it was busy and Bobby held out his hand for me to give him five, I did but it obviously wasn’t enough because he said in a voice that was almost a yell “HARDER”.  I hit him again a bit harder.  “HARDER”.  By this point quite a few people were looking at us and I was feeling a little strange about the whole situation so I hesitated.  “HARDER, HARDER, HARDER”.  I hit his hand one more time a

Jul. 16, 2009

Back in December I wrote about “music and seasons” basically talking about how different seasons of the year tend to cause me to listen to different artists or songs.  Here is what I wrote about one of my favorite artists - Sting:

During winter, my stereo is of course playing Christmas music, but Sting also seems to make several appearances.  Not just because of the obvious lyrical connection, but because of the general mood “Hounds of Winter” just seems right.

Since I am a super fan I decided to visit his website to see if he had any plans for a new project.  Here is what I read:

This fall, Sting will release a new album dedicated to his favorite season - Winter - a season which has inspired countless songwriters over the centuries and produced a wealth of music exploring

Jul. 15, 2009

I have wanted to see “The Soloist” for a long time.  If you have kids you know that getting out to a theatre is not as easy at it used to be so Marisa and I see most of our movies on our Apple TV now.  July 4th marked my 6th anniversary to the most unbelievable women in the world.  Jess and Dave, who I mentioned yesterday (http://www.myliberty.ca), took the kids for us so we could get away for our anniversary (thanks guys!).  While we were away we were able to watch “The Soloist” in our room for the low, low price of $14.99.  This film deeply impacted me.  The film is about a gifted musician who had been studying at Juilliard but ended up living on the streets.  When reporter Steve Lopez meets the mentally ill musician -Nathaniel Ayers - he wants to write column about him.  The

Jul. 14, 2009

My Sister-in-law and brother-in-law are the Pastor’s at a great inner-city church in Toronto called Liberty International (http://www.myliberty.ca).  We were talking last week and they told me a story about a church in which some of the congregants began getting a heart (God’s heart) for the poor.  They began to minister to the poor and as their ministry grew the church decided to open a church for the poor whom they were attracting.  The church they opened was next door to their own.  They told me that as they heard the story told to them they could sense that God was breathing his life in the people who were ministering to the poor.  The only question that they were asking was – “why a new church next door”?  Why couldn’t they integrate the poor into the existing church? 

Jun. 9, 2009

Gray Boxes

Last week I finished reading “The Book of Buechner” by Dale Brown.  This was my introduction to Frederick Buechner’s life and work.  It was also where I learned I was butchering the pronunciation of his name.  There were several times I wanted to blog about this quote or that passage, but for whatever reason, I didn’t.  A few days ago, however, I read a passage that moved me and compelled me to reflect on my own life.

One of the reasons I found this book difficult was due to the fact that every chapter was a summary of one of the novels Buechner has written.  Just when I started remembering which character was which, Brown would be on to the next novel.  However, he told the story of Buechner’s life throughout the book as well.  You could see how Buechner’s painful

May. 28, 2009

Here is the video of “Preach To Me” from 100 Huntley.  I do a version of this with Tony playing Mando-guitar which is a lot of fun.  I’ll see if I can rope him into recording a video or something before I leave.  Oh yeah, there’s an interview at the end of this.  I don’t remember much of it, but as I recall I didn’t say anything profound.
Much love.

May. 27, 2009

Marisa, the band (Jordan Elgie - Drums; Tony Lind - Guitar; Josh Horvath - Bass) and I went to the Maritimes this past weekend to lead worship for MYC 09’.  Jordan and myself were quite nostalgic as both of us grew up in Halifax.  We were thinking about visiting our former houses, schools, favorite pizza joints, etc.  While Jordan and I shared some nostalgia, the only thing we shared with the rest of the band was a single vehicle so we decided to forgo our stops.  We did, however, visit McKelvies and Murphy’s for a good feed of seafood and stopped at Cow’s for ice cream.  We had a great time at MYC 09’ although Marisa was really sick.  I didn’t get sick until we got home.  Anyhow, Before we left we decided to hit Halifax again to grab some food since it had been an hour or two since we

May. 23, 2009

It’s been a whirlwind of a week.  Most of you know that we’re moving to South Atlanta this summer.  We sold our house the beginning of May and are moving out this coming Monday.  We’ve been packing all month and are looking forward to being out of the house so we can spend our last month in Toronto hanging with friends and family.  This past Wednesday we sang on 100 Huntley St.  You can check out Marisa and I singing “The Garden” in the clip above (or here).

On Thursday morning we flew out to Halifax with the band.  We’re leading worship for MYC 09’ (Maritime Youth Convention).  We started our trip off right by grabbing some seafood at McKelvies in downtown Halifax.  Josh and Jordan (Bass and Drums) took in some lobster.  Marisa and I have been feeling a bit left out so we might grab

Apr. 6, 2009

Probably my favorite DVD is Sting’s “All This Time”.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched it…suffice it to say that I can quote most of the lines in the documentary.  If you don’t know anything about this recording, it’s basically a small concert on Stings property in Tuscany.  He re-arranged and performed many of his well-loved songs.  In the documentary section he talked about when it was just an idea and how somebody took the ball and started to run with it.  Before he knew it he had a construction crew, band members, video crew, etc. at his house.  He said that he felt like saying “Stop, it was only a whim…”.  (Hopefully I’m not misquoting since I just said I could quote most of it).  In my opinion, this was an incredible “whim” and one of my

Mar. 3, 2009

I have two 3 hour classes that I’m suppose to teach soon at Master’s College and Seminary and I knew that I should spend Saturday night studying in preparation.  I also bought new glasses that day which made me feel slightly more distinguished than the day before so the thought of studying seemed fitting.  You need these feelings when you only have a Bth and are suppose to teach at a College, even if only for two days.  But, I chose to watch a movie with Marisa instead.  I was up early that morning to lead worship for a conference, and went to help clean the church for the rest of the morning (we are in the midst of construction, so this a temporary weekly need).  The afternoon was spent running errands...anyway, by the time the kids went to bed I was pretty tired and movie watching

Feb. 27, 2009

Today I was a part of Toronto Mass Choir’s (http://www.tmc.ca) “Power Up 2009” conference.  I was one of the song writing clinicians for the songwriting derby.  The basic idea was that people would bring a demo or perform one of there songs live.  The clinicians would talk about what they liked and what they thought could be improved upon.  It was a really great session.  What was a highlight for me was meeting the other clinicians.  James Linderman (http://www.theharmonyhouse.ca) who is a songwriter, guitarist, and music educator.  Stephen Lewis a great songwriter, and also a keyboardist and producer.  He has worked with some great name’s in gospel music, but it also working on some pop projects currently.  Finally, a guy who I’ve had a number people tell me that I should meet, Jacob