Bike Pix

I was blessed to be able to purchase a new camera for my upcoming trip to Istanbul. Yesterday I tested it out shooting some biking stuff.

Art for/from/before the Church

Harold Best delivered a lecture at the 930 today entitled "Art for the Church, Art by the Church, and Art before the Church". The audio should be posted here in the next few days.

In his lecture, Best touched on a wide variety of topics, including the imago dei, evaluating secular art, and Christian traditionalism; but one comment in particular really resonated with me. Best discussed how in our culture we have exhausted the use of our superlatives. Every concert has a standing ovation, every film worth seeing is "awesome", just being "good" is no longer enough. Best went on to say that in his own life he is trying to recapture the meaning of the word "good". Appealing to Karl Barth, who referred to God as "the Good God", Best made the case that art for and from the church does not need to be the best art in culture, but it needs to be authentic. It needs to be good.

As a musician who is trying to serve God and his church with his gifts, this was really encouraging to hear. Best further augmented this theme when he stated that every artist serving the church should have a personal kenosis, an emptying of the self.

In a society that is obsessed with being the best, being content to be good can be a big relief.

Decisions

As I approach paying off my new bike, I have been looking into getting a messenger bag. Here are four of my favorites. Right now now I am leaning towards the olive with the red stripe. However, my bike is navy blue. Thoughts?

This Weekend

Harold Best is giving a lecture entitled "What Creative People can Learn from Creation" at the 930 on Saturday for the Cultivate Beauty Festival.

Best is the author of the book Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Arts and is the Dean Emeritus of the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music. I am very interested to hear what he has to say.

Jeremy Enigk follows.

Flat Tire

Yesterday day I got a flat tire. As my finances are incredibly tight right now, I foolishly only bought a new tube and tried to make do with the existing tire.

After several hours of much needed maintenance, I changed the tube (complicated by the fact my pump recently broke). However, after walking my bike to the local gas station and pumping up the tires to the recommended 60 psi, it became clear that a large piece of tube was exposed through a gash in the tire.

Seeing how the bike store was closed and that I didn't want 3 hours of my life and $7.00 to go out the window, I ended up patching the hole with super glue and a piece of rubber from the sole of my chucks.... I'm praying it holds up.

Facts:

I don't have bangs for the first time since.... forever. I like it, it was time for a change.

3 1/2 hours of sleep is not that much.

When school dictates your life, it's hard to find things to do when it's over.

Ugghh... I would get sick the week before finals. Sore throat, slight fever. That makes it hard to enjoy even a beautiful Spring day like this one.

Anyway, come Tuesday I am basically in the clear as far as finals go. However, since I am playing keys at Sojourn on Sunday, getting everything done that is due on Monday is going to be really tough.

hmmm... I am leaving for Istanbul in four weeks. That really hasn't sunk in yet.

Raising Sand

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss kick off their world tour this weekend in Louisville, which is big news for this often musically-overlooked city. More so, the band opening for them is rehearsing here at Mom's, which is pretty big news for us.

The down side is I get to stay here until 2 AM while they are rehearsing, as evidently professional musicians work late into the night.

Well I'm keeping my fingers crossed for free tickets.

Poor Old Sunny Day Firetheft Estate

I have a confession to make. Much to my pseudo-hipster embarrassment, I didn't know who Jeremy Enigk was until I heard people talking about his upcoming concert at the 930.

As I began to research his material, I was amazed by not only how much I enjoyed Enigk's music, but how much I had actually heard before.

Enigk is most famous for being the lead singer of Sunny Day Real Estate (1993-2000). Growing up an aspiring emo/scene kid, I had heard SDRE name-dropped often enough, but it wasn't until my sophomore year in college that I finally heard them when I bought Diaries. I purchased it without having listened to a single song, trusting solely the advice and music taste of Peter Sieg- and I'm glad I did.

Enigk also scored the soundtrack to The United States of Leland, a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed and that, in retrospect, had a great soundtrack.

Recently, Enigk has appeared on songs by the Almost, (Dirty And Left Out), and mewithoutYou, (The Dryness and the Rain; O, Porcupine).

Less known, but just as good, are the bands Poor Old Lu and The Fire Theft, both of which featured Enigk for a while.

Basically, I already love everything this guy has ever done. I just didn't know it.

Thoughts

Eric Bray is fast. Even once I get my fixie it will be a while before I can keep up with him.

I may be spending my spring break watching Battlestar Gallatica. I was a fan of the original and I only hear good things about the first. Drew was kind enough to loan Paul and I season one.

I always feel honored when I'm mentioned on Toto's blog, but I'm not sure if I know what a triumvirate even is.

Cumberland Brews is a fine culinary establishment. However, Darren, Eric, and I found that it is much harder to bike home after polishing off a Bison Burger w/ fries.

This board game is my latest addiction... somehow I'm not actually that good at it though.