Steve’s Blog

This Sunday after church the high school group is going to be having lunch and watching Lars and the Real Girl.  It’s one of my favorite movies and an amazing story of compassion and the need for community.  Come join us from 12:30-3 in the downstairs lounge.  If you have any questions let me know, see you Sunday!

The movie “This is Spinal Tap” is one of my all time favorites.  Its quick witted sarcastic humor still gets me rolling and its poignant satire of the music industry captures the ridiculous side of a music industry that is changing (failing?) more each day.   So to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the film, England’s loudest band decided to re-unite for a brief acoustic tour and I was fortunate enough to be there last night at the Wiltern to revel in the glory of three comedic masters.

Harry Shearer, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest not only played through the “hits” of Spinal Tap but also played songs from the folk music satire “A Mighty Wind.”  The night was a hysterical tribute to the film that included jazz versions of heavy metal songs, interpretive dancers and even a didgeridoo solo (no joke).  I laughed till I cried on a couple occasions.  Now that I have seen Spinal Tap live, even though it was acoustic, I feel that I have added one of the biggest feathers to my music going cap!

p.s. thanks to everyone who helped out at Venice Beach today, it was a great time!

These are from an amazing art exhibit by tattoo artist Scott Campbell called “make it rain.”  What do you think? (click on the photo to see the larger picture)

Praise by R.S. Thomas

I praise you because 


you are artist and scientist 


in one. When I am somewhat

fearful of your power, 


your ability to work miracles 


with a set-square, I hear 


you murmuring to yourself 


in a notation Beethoven 


dreamed of but never achieved. 


You run off your scales of 


rain water and sea water, play 


the chords of the morning 


and evening light, sculpture 


with shadow, join together leaf 


by leaf, when spring 


comes, the stanzas of 


an immense poem. You speak 


all languages and none,

answering our most complex 


prayers with the simplicity 


of a flower, confronting 


us, when we would domesticate you 


to our uses, with the rioting 


viruses under our lens.

It’s amazing what people do for fun!

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?                                                                                                 Why are you so far from saving me,                                                                                                                       so far from the words of my groaning?                                                                                                                   O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer                                                                                       by night, and am not silent.                                                                                                                                     Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;                                                                                                            you are the praise of Israel.

- Psalm 22: 1-3

Reckoner
You can’t take it with you
Dancing for your pleasure
Reckoner, take me with you
Dedicated to all human beings

You are not to blame for
Bittersweet distractors
Dare not speak its name
Dedicated to all human beings

Because we separate
Like ripples on a blank shore
In rainbows
Because we separate
The ripples on a black shore

- Reckoner: Radiohead

Tonight we celebrate the Last Supper as we continue the march toward the cross.  It’s a somber service because we remember the final moments Jesus had with his disciples before he was betrayed by Judas.  The author Brendan Kennelly has writen an epic poem called “The Book of Judas” and this is an excerpt that I thought was appropriate as we remember who Christ is this night.

I have never seen him and I have never seen
Anyone but him. He is older than the world and he
Is always young. What he says is in every ear
And has never been heard before.
I have tried to kill him in me,
He is in me more than ever.
I saw his hands smashed by dum-dum bullets,
His hands holding the earth are whole and tender.
If I knew what love is I would call him a lover.
Break him like glass, every splinter is wonder.
I had not understood that annihilation
Makes him live with an intensity I cannot understand.
That I cannot understand is the bit of wisdom I have found.
He splits my mind like an axe a tree.
He makes my heart deeper and fuller than my heart will dare to be.
He would make me at home beyond the sky and the black ground,
He would craze me with the light on the brilliant sand,
He is the joy of the first word, the music of undiscovered human.
Undiscovered! Yet I live as if my music were known.
He is what I cannot lose and cannot find
He is nothing, nothing but body and soul and heart and mind.
So gentle is he the gentlest air
Is rough by comparison
So kind is he I cannot dream
A kinder man
So distant is he the farthest star
Sleeps at my breast
So near is he the thought of him
Puts me outside myself

So one with love is he
I know love is
Time and eternity
And all their images.
No image fits, no rod, no crown.

I brought him down.

Creepy or cute? You decide.

Hello everyone.  We are not going to have Middle School CHAOS this week because it is Spring Break!!!  Next week (April 15) we will shift our schedule around so that JK has time to work with the older students for the spring musical.  I have to work out the details at staff meeting today and will post them when I have it all set.  Have a good week!!!

(and the picture doesn’t mean anything, it’s just funny)