Dan Phelps- Organica:One

Dan Phelps, a friend and very gifted artist, has released his audio/visual compilation with artist Glenn Mitsui. Entitled Organica:One, it's a fascinating and beautiful blend of music and visuals.

Click here to order, listen to clips from the album, and learn more about this unique creation.

Click here to visit Dan's website and listen to some of his other music. "Ocean Shelf" is incredible!

Click here to visit Dan's Myspace page and hear some more of his songs.

Click here to visit Glenn Mitsui's site.

Bullets over Thursday

Taking my cue from Chris Hubbs, here are some bullet points for Thursday, January 31, the year of our Lord two thousand and eight:

• Alex Chediak scored a prepub copy of Tim Keller's The Reason for God and has some thoughts on it. This is only serves to get me more excited about this book. HT: McCoy
  
• Michael McKinley shares a statement that Mark Dever (of IX Marks Ministries, among other things) gave regarding the cooperation between Acts29 and IX Marks. This is an excellent and very encouraging read.
• Lost Season 4 starts tonight. I am a nerd and I can't wait to start watching this show again.
• Justin Taylor posted 10 YouTube links to author Dave Harvey's thoughts on his extremely helpful and beneficial book on marriage, When Sinners Say I Do. I heartily recommend you watch these clips and then read the book. An audiobook has also recently come out.
• Resurgence has a good interview with pastor/author/professor/linebacker Voddie Baucham.
• Mark Driscoll is preaching through "Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions." Good stuff.
• You should join Goodreads. It's a blast. Visit my page and see what I'm reading.
  
• My wife is beautiful, amazing, and a continual joy to my heart.
  

An apologetic for apologetics- Ravi Zacharias

The RZIM (Ravi Zacharias Internation Ministries) website shares the introduction to Ravi's newest book "Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend." The article/introduction is called "An Apologetic for Apologetics."

In the article, Ravi says:

"I am convinced, in the words of C. S. Lewis—who in my estimation is probably the greatest Christian apologist in recent memory—that the question of being an apologist is not so much whether you use an apologetic in answering someone’s question, but whether the apologetic you already use is a good one."

On a related note, Tim Keller's new book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (also an abridged audiobook) is coming out in the next few weeks and looks to be another helpful apologetics-in-love resource.

ravi zacharias apologetics

2007- The Year of Pro Life Cinema

Christianity Today has an interesting article about all the pro life movies that came out in 2007.

I found it interesting, because the favorite to win best picture this year is the film No Country for Old Men, an extremely violent movie that features the death of countless people, many of them innocent bystanders in a drug deal gone bad.

I happened to watch the movie Bella (mentioned in the article) and No Country... within a few days of each other and I was struck at the disparity between the two movies. While I think No Country is a better movie, Bella conjured up so many hopeful and life-affirming emotions that my eyes spilled over many times. It was a wonderful film, my favorite of the pro life batch mentioned in the article, including Juno.

While I recognize and appreciate films that accurately portray the reality of violence and evil, I am also thankful for movies that celebrate God-given life. Even when those films don't intentionally point to a Creator God, it is appropriate to remember and rejoice in the God who gives life and breath to all creatures.

Nada Surf- "Lucky" album stream

You can't buy Nada Surf's new album "Lucky" until early February, but starting Friday, January 25th fans, friends and frenemies (??) can stream the entire record on the band's myspace page.

Worchester=Wooster?

I've been listening to an audiobook of David McCullough's excellent biography of John Adams and the reader keeps pronouncing the city of Worchester" as "wooster." Can someone please explain this oddity to me?

Oh, and don't just come up with the lame "That's just how they say it in New England." That is not going to cut it.

Bonus points (that are good for what? No idea.) if you can come up with words that sound much differently than they are spelled.

And huge props to whoever remembers the Wooster character from the "New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh."

Interview with Tim Keller

Mr. Keller's got a new book coming out called "The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism"  and Justin Taylor has nice little interview with Keller about it. Check it out.

Also, at the end of the interview there is a link to an excellent sermon (that Keller is writing a book around) called "The Prodigal Sons." Highly recommended. 

If you are interested in hearing any more Keller sermons, Steve McCoy is your man. Here is his Keller resource page.

tim keller

Best music of 2007

I know it's 2008 now, but here's my best-of list for last years releases.

1- Radiohead, In Rainbows. Before this album I was a moderate fan of Radiohead's music. Thankfully, In Rainbows has opened my eyes to the artistic brilliance of Radiohead. This album is beautiful, inviting, familiar, and sonically gorgeous. Number one album of the year, hands down.

2- Iron and Wine, The Shepherd's Dog. I didn't even really like this the first time I heard it, but it grew on me rapidly after that. With lots of texture and groove, it's relaxing and edgy at the same time. Sam Beam has the rare ability to get better while improving production and expanding stylistically.

3- Arcade Fire, Neon Bible. My favorite album from the first half of the year. This album is full of confidence, which is something I love in a record. These guys are good and they know it, but it doesn't come off as arrogant. They just make good music. (Antichrist Television Blues) is like Springsteen set on fire. This record is as big and exhilarating as I wanted it to be.

4- Sigur Ros, Hvarf/Heim. Though this isn't a "new" album, these 3 new songs, 2 electric retoolings and 6 acoustic retellings are as good as anything they have done. As my friend Joel wrote, the song Í Gær "cracks open like a raging electrical storm" and it is indeed a wonderful moment. I will be listening to these songs for years to come.

5- Deerhoof, Friend Opportunity. Not something I would normally listen to, but I love this record. Full of quirky fun, speckled with poignant beauty and surrounded with chunky guitar riffs.

Also enjoyed: The White Stripes- Icky Thump, Of Montreal- Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, Chris Schlarb- Twilight & Ghost Stories, The National- Boxer, Wilco- Sky Blue Sky.

You can also take a look at Metacritic's compilation of top 10 lists from all sorts of places.

best music of 2007 radiohead iron & wine arcade fire sigur ros deerhoof

On being proactively romantic

Tonight I bought some roses for Dallass on the way home from work. While I was waiting in line one person asked me if I was going to get engaged tonight. I said "No, I just wanted to get my wife some nice looking flowers. At this point, the checker interjected with a knowing look "Ahh...someone must be in the dog house!"

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. It seems that romance gotten to the point in our culture that it fits into 2 categories: the new stage (where everything is exciting and both parties are actively pursuing each other with gifts and other romantic gestures) or the reactive stage (where people use the tools of romantic convention to clean up some mess they have made).

I suggest that romance is much sweeter when done proactively. I told the checker tonight that I have found that you don't have to buy flowers to get out of the dog house when you've already bought flowers.

So, all you lovers: buy something nice, write a note, sing a song, or whatever brings your sweetie joy. And then maybe those annoying checker people will stop assuming that I'm only buying flowers to appease my angry wife.