. : trinisonic : .

For the Nerd in your Life

2010-03-09T22:33:00.001-08:00

Jimmy Maks

2010-03-03T17:56:00.000-08:00

Three nights a week Portland Jazz club Jimmy Maks plays host to phenomenal jazz drummer, Mel Brown. Brown drummed on staff at Motown, and played records and the road with the likes of the Temptations, the Supremes, and Smokey Robinson. He leads a septet on Tuesdays, a quartet on Wednesdays, and a quintet on Thursdays. It is to this last group that I should like to draw your attention.

Last fall I was introduced to Jimmy Maks and the Mel Brown Hammond B-3 Organ Group by Steve Delarmarter, a professor of Old Testament and a personal hero. Dr. Delamarter led the worship band I fronted for a couple years in seminary. He is fiercely curious about music in many of the ways I am, and I trust his instincts as it pertains to tuneful things.

What makes Thursday night so interesting to me is the instrument line up: guitar, saxophone, drummer, auxiliary percussionist, and organist. You may not notice that there is no bass instrument listed there, and if you were to hear a recording of their performance you would very likely never think of it. This is because Louis Pain, resident J.M. organist pulls double duty on the mighty Hammond B-3, playing smooth, timely bass with the left, and making both rhythmic and solo magic with the right. Listen, all the players on the stage are as good as you will hear on their instrument. Louis Pain’s left hand is the best kept secret Portland has to offer on Thursday nights.

I sat organ-side my first night at Jimmy Maks and was blown away by the collection of skills displayed by the group. I’ve been back many Thursdays since (with many of my friends in tow), and have easily recaptured the same astonished delight. It is a spiritual experience for me.

If we’re friends in some other place in the world-wide thing, you may have caught a glimpse of this: a dark phone photo mostly of blur, backed by a red velvet curtain. This is Thursday night church at Jimmy Maks. It is really a sound worth hearing.

Pictures

2010-01-19T16:37:00.000-08:00

As both of you know, I have been growing my hair out for the last couple of years to donate to Locks of Love. This afternoon, I mentioned on Facebook that Shearing Day had finally come, and a few people were interested in pictures of the results. Mental that I am, I'm actually flattered by your call for photographs of the carnage. You probably slow down to look at traffic accidents too, don't you? Here are some images worth your time.

I was first inspired to grow my hair when Jessica Bolt (a member of our church) asked some of the ladies to donate their hair to a wig for her sister Mary. Mary had been diagnosed with cancer. Jessica, remarkable young woman that she is, gave up a year of her life (and a full-ride, Summit scholarship) to move to Seattle, and walk with her sister through a long journey of intense treatment. I realized in conversation with Jessica that for all of the things I couldn't do in the cause of fighting cancer, growing hair was one thing I could do. Lord knows I wasn't using the hair at the time, so why shouldn't someone else? Two years later and very soon from now, someone else will, thanks to Jessica.

In October of the same year, our church was shocked by the news that the VDK's youngest daughter Caitlin had leukemia. The first days were filled with tests and prayer, and wonder at Caitlin's courage. Over the last 18 months, the VDK's have adjusted to medical regimens and regular hospital visits. Caitlin continues to show about the best reaction to the treatment that anyone can hope for, and we are all grateful for God's answer to our constant prayers. Caitlin herself is the genuine miracle. Taking all of this invasive therapy (and all of the not-so-thrilling side effects) in stride, nothing seems to deter her much from just being her own-kid self; she is a pretty inspiring young lady.

Friends, these are the pictures for which you are looking: pictures of people who refuse to allow the worst of circumstances get the best of them. I'm sure you have some of your own as well. Thank God for them, and let them inspire you to action!

Grade School Homiletics

2009-10-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

I spend half a day at the school every week volunteering in a couple of classrooms and playing with the kids during lunch. This year, I have the pleasure of serving in Isaiah's classroom with Ms. Scottel, and on my first day she asked me if I would make a presentation on sermon writing.

I was a little surprised.

This is a public school. A fourth grade class. And it is today. And you want me to make a presentation on sermon preparation? I could tell by the look on her face that she was serious, so after grading a number of the students' math quizzes, I grabbed marker, and got everyone's attention. And then it hit me.

What I do every week is write and present a book report.

Every week, I focus on some section, aspect, or theme of the Bible, and I report on it. Book reports are things that fourth graders know all about. In fact, it didn't take long before we were in it up to our elbows. I decided (for the purposes of honoring the First Amendment) that we would write a sermon on the book Green Eggs & Ham. We discussed the premise and main point of the book; we developed major supporting points, and we drew examples from personal experience. When we were finished, we had a well-rounded persuasive sermon on the importance of trying things that are potentially good. When we were done, any one of those kids could have had you coming up the aisle for breakfast.

It amazes me what God is up to sometimes.

Our House

2009-10-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

1619 NE Holman Street

In December of 1999, when Kaelea and I moved into the Woodlawn neighborhood, we rented this small house on Holman Street. We brought Isaiah home from the hospital to this house in June. After 8th months on the corner of 17th and Holman, we moved into our own first house.

6837 NE Claremont Avenue

Our first house was not a house per se, but a condominium in Woodlawn Park. We heard a lot of gun shots in this house. We brought Malachi and Michal home from the hospital and hosted a lot of life groups in this house. Isaiah started kindergarten in this house. We Learned a little about loving our neighbors, and a lot about money management in this house. When we came home from our Africa sabbatical in January of 2006, we decided to sell our condo in order to live simply and learn to be more generous givers.

6322 NE 8th Avenue

After selling our condo, we moved into this apartment across the yard from the PUMP house. The girls started school in this house. We learned how to maximize space and think globally in this house. We learned that hospitality has nothing to do with where you live, and everything to do with who you are in this house. We learned to be more generous with what we had in this house. We learned how better to manage and give our money in this house.

7032 NE 10th Ave

We are moving again. I wonder what will happen in this house?

Luke 16 - A Podcasting Test

2009-09-21T11:18:00.001-07:00

Revival

2009-09-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

Hello to both of you who read this blog! It's been nearly a year since I left this blog in order to write on PUMPTrek. Little did I know what this year would hold. I thought by this time PUMPTrek would have been a memory, and I would have been long settled back into this corner of the web.

Is est quis is est.

I'm back. I've only got a few days of remembering left on PUMP Trek, and I've really missed reflecting in this place. As I'm sure is the case with you, lots of life has happened this year so let's get on with it, shall we?

This summer Isaiah and I read all of the Harry Potter books. It turns out Sai is book monster, he eats them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. No joke, they tremble on the shelf as he walks by. So we raced our way through the series (watching the movies as we finished each book), and then went to see The Half-Blood Prince in the theater this summer. It was a lot of fun. I must say that I think J.K. Rowling has done a fine job writing an excellent moral tale that was as engaging for me as it was for my son. For those with the reservation about having your children read about magic, I would encourage you to consider reading the first book as a pilot test. What I found was that the magic was not presented in any sort of seductive way, that the problems in the book are solved with good character, not with incantations to evil spirits. The School of Magic that Harry Potter attends takes Christmas and Easter break for heaven's sake. Anyway, it's certainly not my normal genre but it was a great experience to share with Sai, and it made my summer better, for what it's worth.

Sorry about the delay, I post-dated this post to show up at midnight on the first, but apparently choosing the date doesn't do that. My bad.

2009-08-18T18:49:00.001-07:00

Unexpected Absence

2009-04-21T16:21:00.001-07:00

Well...I was not expecting to be away from my blog quite this long. The week after I finished PUMPTrek, our little church was hit several pretty tough pieces of bad news. These things carried our attention and energy straight through the new year, which has brought continued transition.

I'm surrending the hope that things will return to normal. I've jump started PUMP Trek, and as soon I've finished the story there, I'll be back here.

Temporary Interruption

2008-10-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

This blog is being temporarily interrupted. I'm currently away on a trip that is being chronicled at www.pumptrek.org. So if you want to check in on what's going on with me, that is where you will find the latest information over the next two weeks.

You will be returned to your regularly scheduled programming on October 26 or so.

Technology Failure

2008-10-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

This was a hard weekend for me. On Saturday right around midnight I got the blue screen of death on my laptop, and couldn't get it to restart. I ended up having to rebuild my powerpoint presentation and getting Adam Wolfgang to bring his laptop for worship (thanks dude.)

The error(s) I get seem to indicate that the RAM has failed. I could swap the RAM out myself, but it is still covered under warranty, so I will send it in to have it repaired. The deeper question is, if both sticks of RAM failed (which I think they have) then was it my power supply that fried them; in which case I have a bad power supply which could fry future good RAM as well. You know I like just about anything fried, but RAM...well, not so much.

This also means that I will not have my laptop on the motorcycle adventure. We have another laptop that I can take, but the USB ports don't work on that box but it does have an SD slot...

This morning I woke up and my phone didn't work; I mean it. was. dead. I opened up the back to check the battery, and the inside of the phone was wet. There was no liquid on the outside of the phone, just the inside. I ask you, WHAT IS THAT? My next free T-Mobile phone doesn't come until February, so I ended up picking up the cheapest "pay as you go" model I could find. I inserted my SIM card and sure enough, it started ringing off the hook just like my phone does. My old phone didn't save phone numbers to the SIM card, so I have to reenter all of the numbers I had. I have that information backed up on my computer, so I can just...nevermind.

The truth is I rely on technology a lot, it remembers things for me, and adds a lot of fun to my life. It always dies eventually, sooner for me I think because I don't treat it as nicely as I could, and it's never a convenient time, but when is? And at the end of the day, I have to say, I'll gladly endure the cons for the pros. No question.

Obedience School

2008-10-05T19:32:00.000-07:00

For a while now, I've been obsessing about Jesus' "great commission" definition of discipleship - to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to learn to obey everything Jesus commanded. I have started a blog having to do with how we learn to obey what Jesus commanded. Each post will begin by quoting a teaching of Jesus, and then include some person's comment on what that teaching means to him/her, and how s/he is applying it to life.

This is not a blog by me, it is a blog by us. Everyone is invited, so if you would like to contribute just pick a teaching of Jesus, reflect on it, experiment with it, write a post and send it to me, and I will add you as a contributor to the blog. (I am initially retaining editorial privileges, but I don't expect to need to use them.)

Ready. Set. Go.

Free Geek

2008-10-04T20:22:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, the kids starting making a fake computer out of some cardboard boxes we had lying around in our apartment. They have been interested in having a computer in their room for a while, and I've thought about putting one in their for playing music, watching movies during quiet time, having an extra internet connection in the house, etc. So forget the cardboard computer we decided to adopt a real computer through the volunteer program at Free Geek.

[From Free Geek's Website]
FREE GEEK is a 501(c)(3) not for profit community organization that recycles used technology to provide computers, education, internet access and job skills training to those in need in exchange for community service.

Free Geek was founded in February 2000 (and incorporated as a 501(c)(3) in April 2000) to recycle computer technology and provide low and no-cost computing to individuals and not-for-profit and social change organizations in the community and throughout the world.

In the eight years since its formation, Free Geek has recycled over 1,500 tons of electronic scrap and refurbished over 15,000 computer systems that are now in use by individuals and organizations in the community.

Free Geek does most of this work with volunteers (at any given time, about 500 are active). The volunteers disassemble the donated equipment and test the components, which are either recycled as electronic scrap or recycled into refurbished systems. These refurbished computers are then loaded with Open Source Software, such as GNU/Linux, Open Office, and other Free Software.

Our first volunteer job was tearing apart floppy disks for recycling. It was a simple job, and we enjoyed doing it for about three hour straight! The kids did great, and we only have about 9 hours of volunteer work left before we can adopt our computer!

An American Idol

2008-08-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

This is a show about which I've just never gotten excited. I can understand the "survivor-like" quality added to the musical aspect that gets my friends excited. I think I can understand that the show offers a variety of entertainments throughout the season. I can't explain my hesitation, and I have to admit I've never given it a full episode's opportunity; I guess I'm just not interested. I watch plenty of television already.

One aspect of the show that rubs me wrong is the premise that the critics can actually find an American Idol. When I think of an American musician that deserves the title "idol" (for those that just can't get over the theological implications of this term, I ask you to just keep trying), I think of Elvis. Marvin Gaye. Paul Simon. Stevie Wonder. Yes; I think of Michael Jackson. It's easy to see that David Cook and Jordin Sparks are talented. Will one of them be the next Elvis? Nothing personal, but I'm not holding my breath.

I might like to suggest John Mayer as someone that has great potential to be an American Idol. At age 31, with four Grammy Awards already under his belt, and a wicked sense for how write, sing and play the guitar, Mayer seems to me to be a legitimate candidate for that short list of musicians who have defined American music. I've spent some time listening to his latest live album, Where the Light Is, and I have to tell you, it's as fresh as his early work, if fresh is how you would describe any of it. John Mayer is making music today, but in the best sense of what we admire about musicians of earlier years. My opinion: he's worth your time.

Photobooth Mayhem

2008-08-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

2008 Summer Slam

2008-08-03T23:30:00.000-07:00

The summer has played host to stuff and stuff and STUFF. This is me describing some of it to you.

The kids are all old enough this year for the first time to all be in PUMP summer Program, and the girls took to it like fish to water. We are all training-wheel free now which is pretty sweet. The family recently invested in a Nintendo Wii, and our opinion is that all of the hype is true. We're mostly into bowling and tennis.

PUMP has hired Heath Cloutier to join the staff as an Executive Director for the PUMP Summer Program. The Cloutiers are just back from teaching English in Japan, and Heath, Pam and their new son Zion were at church this morning for the first time. It was sweet. Heath is a very creative and energetic guy, and I feel lucky to be working with him.

I got a motorcycle a couple of months ago, and I thoroughly enjoy it. It's a Honda CB750, which was the first motorcycle ever called a "superbike." I'm planning to take a long trip on it in October, and if you want to you can read more about here.

I'm way behind on my book reviews. The reading regimen has not been as heavy this summer as the past, the lists on the right are still pretty out of date. I'll see if I can't attend to that sometime soon. FaithQuest is coming up which always gets me thinking about special music. The FQ worship team is ridiculouly talented and always comes ready to attempt the impossible without a safety net.

Hope you all are having a great summer. I obviously have no complaints.

A Theremin Introduction

2008-05-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure that it was Jared Ranum who taught me that the strange futuristic-sounding instrument in the Beach Boy's song "Good Vibrations" was a theremin. "Invented by Leon Theremin in 1920. It was very difficult to play and the appeal of the theremin faded quickly. It is described as an oscillator which generates a single tone controlled by the movement of the operator's hand to an antennae that protrudes from it."(1) Below you will find a lady named Pamela Kurstin playing the fire out of one, and explaining how it works. If this kind of thing is not the reason you read this blog, then I have no idea why you would.

A Brief Musical Update

2008-03-29T16:23:00.000-07:00

The Strat-O-Cast
I've been having a lot of fun playing the guitar lately. My friend, Sam Middlebrook, gave me a very cool guitar instruction book with cd-rom lessons for the computer. He also sent me home with a tube amp which is a lot of fun to play through, although I'm pretty sure our neighbor doesn't appreciate the tone as much as I do. I'm still waiting on some of the custom pieces to come to the local shop; once it gets here, I'm going to give the thing a face-lift and try my hand at setting up the action.

The Songs from a Hat
Abby Simmons has started a weekly YouTube Show called Songs from a Hat. Here are the rules:

An original song must be uploaded by every Sunday 11:59 pm PST
3 out of every 4 weeks the song must be titled after and relate to the designated song title picked from the hat the Sunday prior
Every 4th week Abby may perform a song of her choosing
Said songs must be at least 90 seconds in length
All components of every song must be original
Project will begin December 9th 2007 and end December 9th 2008
If any of the aforementioned rules or guidelines are broken, Abby will be given a punishment to be decided by any and all Songs From a Hat viewers.
Power of veto concerning the punishments is given to Abby's sister (aka The Loch Ness Monster

Here's an example (funny but may be not so appropriate for little ears):

Harmony Sweepstakes
I've been doing some arranging for the very talented and unusually patient group Legacy. Legacy recently took the Rocky Mountain Regionals by storm, and are now headed to national competition. In Denver, they were recognized as best group, for best soloist, best vocal percussionist, and I was recognized for best original arrangement. Nice work, gentlemen, thanks for making me sound good.

Phono-Synthesis
I'm sure both of the people reading my blog are familiar with a musical project that I've been tinkering with which finally has been named "Phono-Synthesis." This is a project in which I blend worship songs with songs from the radio, particularly from the 70's and 80's. With a little help from my friends, I have found almost an album's worth of tunes. I recently presented this material for the first time at Cascade College and I have another opportunity to present it in a few weeks in New Mexico. To that end, I've acquired a computer interface that will allow the user to mix sound files on a computer much like a DJ mixes with two turntables. My hope is that the culmination of this project will be not only some submissions to iTunes, but also a worship dance with a DJ and worship team. More information to follow.

It's happened again.

2008-02-21T22:12:00.000-08:00

It just happens with me. I find something I really like, then I get kind of crazy about it. Then it's just about that thing and really something that is not that thing just isn't and there's no talking to me about it. For instance,

and of course,

Well, it's happened to me again.

The Fender Stratocaster: standard axe of greats including but not limited to Clapton, Hendrix, and Vaughn. Mine has been ordered, the loaner I have looks like this. I'm planning to do some custom body work, when it's done I'll post pics.

Page 123

2008-02-08T13:39:00.000-08:00

I was tagged by Mike Lewis, so here is my contribution to the experiment.

[Directions]

Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more.
Find Page 123. Find the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences (in other words start posting at sentence #6).
Tag 5 people.

"And this shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls, and not do any work whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you shall be clean from all your sins before the LORD.
It is to be a sabbath of solemn rest foryou, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute.
So the priest who is anointed and ordained to serve as priest in his father's place shall make atonement: he shall thus put on the linen garments, the holy garments, and make atonement for the holy sanctuary; and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar."

Adam W, BD, Em, Moon, Sarah W

The Bible Experience

2008-01-07T13:08:00.000-08:00

Could somebody please get on Google Maps and tell me where I've been?

Girl meets God by Lauren F. Winner

2007-12-16T22:11:00.000-08:00

RATING: a honest to God III.

Ryan Gibbons bought me a copy of Girl Meets God from Powell's on Hawthorne just before dinner at the Bagdad theater some July night this summer. Anyway, The book is recounting of Ms. Winner's decision to move out of a life of Judaism and to choose Jesus. Ms. Winner's writing style is forthcoming; she dances from whimsical to sincere with almost no effort at all. I really enjoyed her book.

Sex God by Rob Bell

2007-12-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

RATING: A sexy III.

Sex God by Rob Bell came highly recommended by the summer interns at PUMP. Bell suggests as do many spiritual authors (from Augustine to Eugene Peterson) that our spirituality and our sexuality are intimately connected because they are integral to God's formation in us; and goes on to draw lots of helpful connections and implications. This is the second of Rob Bell's books that I've read, and I really like his writing style. Bell also does these cool videos for small group discussion as well. Thanks to Matt Tibbles for introducing me to those.

Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: a Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin by Lawrence Weschler

2007-12-13T21:48:00.000-08:00

RATING: an enlightening III

I think I've mentioned before that I sometimes tour the Portland Art Museum with fine artist Michael Brummett. If you are going to go to an art museum this is the way to do it: walking around with a guy that knows stuff about a lot of the people whose works are hanging on the walls.

Anyway, Michael had made mention of this book a few times as a book that had had noteable influence on his thinking. I hadn't ever read a book about an artist before, but I was pretty much interested from page one. One of things that I admire about Robert Irwin is that the art that he created was the result of the pursuit of answers to all kinds of questions. Irwin never really let the art dealers dictate what he made. By the time a certain kind of artwork started to get popular, Irwin had answered that question and was moving on. It is a very engaging book. I recommend it.

The Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Ethics by Immanuel Kant

2007-12-13T10:20:00.000-08:00

RATING: A Fundamentally Tedious II

Last summer I read David Hume's Dialogue Concerning Natural Religion. Based solely on my reading of these two books I think these guys would have related to each other in our age in the following way:

Hume: Hello, I'm a Mac.

Kant: ...and I'm a PC.

I get the idea that the few people I hang out with who have read and therefore may understand Hume well enough to evaluate his work, see him as a kook. But this review isn't really about him, it's about Kant's work. Kant's self-evident need to be brutally thorough in the application of the scientific method to a moral metaphysic is probably necessary and surely helpful in the end, but dizzying. I felt like I needed to stop and ask for directions about every three pages. Unfortunately, Google Maps is no help in this case. Anyway, I have great respect for the motive, methodology and subject, but this is far from popular reading. You better really want it if you are going to pick it up.