Dave, Tim & the Dalai Lama...

We documented our trip down to Seattle yesterday, so here are some of the highlights.

I ate some Jack in the Box while I made my lovely wife pump gas. This is profound as it shows you how I provide sustenance for my out-of-shape body. It also shows you that I am not gender biased and I believe that women are also fully capable of pumping gas.

You also need to know that we pre-purchased a parking pass for this concert. This apparently saves you $3. And FYI, that $3 will buy you a pop inside the arena, so every dollar counts.

However, I assumed (mistake #1) that the parking garage being used for this concert would be the same one they used for the Eric Clapton concert held at the same location last year, so I didn't print off a map (mistake #2). I was wrong. So we drove around with no particular address trying to find a parking garage on Mercer street. We finally drove into one, explained our dilemma and the attendant told us "It's way past the freeway and you need to take a shuttle". Go figure. But alas he was kind enough to take our ticket and let us park in that garage anyway.

I wish I had taken a picture of the obligatory picket-wavers out front when we finally made our way to the KeyArena. Apparently we all needed to be aware of the fact that we were going to hell. I'm not sure why. I was more concerned with the concert than my spiritual status at that particular moment (hey, I'm just being honest). Come to think of it, maybe that's what settled my eternal destiny.

At 4:40pm the Dalai Lama took the stage with Dave Matthews and Ann Curry. They talked until around 5:30pm. I'll be honest and say that the whole thing lacked any depth. Ann Curry seemed like she was being so over-respectful that she didn't seem to ask a good question. And when she at one point asked about China and how do you show compassion to your enemies, the Dalai Lama seemed to sidestep the question. As for Dave, he later admitted to being nervous but his comments seemed to add some of the lighter moments.



But after listening to the conversation, this is what I am left with:

1. My goal in life is to be happy
2. True happiness and inner peace is only obtained through compassion
3. I think the Dalai Lama said the word "nipple", thus cementing the fact that everyone who giggled is still, in some ways, a middle school student at heart.
   

Ok, so I'm loosely paraphrasing much of this as I wasn't as absorbed in the whole dialog. But I was amazed at just how many people showed up to hear this exchange, especially when the concert wasn't slated to begin until 7:00pm.

At 6:30 we were treated to an acoustic performance by Seattle band Death Cab For Cutie. They weren't on the bill to begin with, but they played until 7:00pm.

I'll have to give them another listen to tell you what I really think. But the 30 minutes I heard was ok, and it was kind of funny to watch the lead singer fight with his mic stand for the entire 30 minutes.




Dave & Tim finally took the stage at 7:30pm, while we were trying to pay for our $3 pop and $3 pretzel. Apparently the guy at the counter was having a rough night with his till. But we extended him some compassion before making our way to our seats. Dave & Tim were only playing the intro to "Bartender" and the lights hadn't even come up, so we didn't miss a thing. So we settled in for the rest of the evening.




If you're a fan (or at least a little familiar with Dave's music), here's what was played.

Bartender
Old Dirt Hill
So Damn Lucky
Stay or Leave
Save Me
Cry Freedom
Gravedigger
You Are My Sanity (Tim Reynolds solo)
The Maker
Sister
Cornbread
Some Devil
Everyday
Where Are You Going
Eh Hee
Dancing Nancies
Encore:
Lie in Our Graves

It was a very enjoyable night of music. Dave had some funny stories. Tim Reynolds is a tiny man (I don't know why I mention that, except for the fact that I noticed he is much shorter than Dave) who makes unbelievable sounds come out of an acoustic guitar.

We ended the evening by wandering through Easy Street Records where I picked up some vinyl and a few used CD's before jumping in the car to head over to Azteca. In hindsight we should have opted for The Outback since it was close to 11pm and karaoke night in the lounge at the Azteca was definitely well below par.

We were home and in bed before 2am. And now I'm writing this down before I forget it all. If you made it through this entire post, please let me know as I'd like to reward you with a kind compassionate word.

Playoff picks...

I'm a little behind, but here were my picks going into the playoffs.

EAST
Habs in 4 (8-0 over Boston all season; it will continue)
Penguins in 5 (Boo Ottawa...classless and arrogant; they need a butt kicking)
Captials in 6 (Ovechkin will be the impact player)
Devils in 6 (I don't really care, but if Brodeur can shine, this is his)

WEST
Red Wings in 5 (just for Todd)
Flames in 7 (Oh Canada...and I don't like teams from California winning)
Ducks in 6 (I'd actually prefer Dallas in this one, but I don't think they'll pull it off)
Avalanche in 6 (In my heart you will always be the Quebec Nordiques)

It's like Christmas...

Ok, not really...but it's still exciting. My wife and I will be taking off shortly for Seattle where we're going to see Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds in concert. I'm hoping we can find an Azteca on the way so we can grab some grub too. I'm a little giddy right now as this would rank up there as one of my "must see before I die" concerts. That sounds like a blog post in the making.

It's a nice way to start the weekend.

Best in the east...

Les Habitants.

First place in the east.

Thank-you Pittsburgh for losing to Philly!

Now it's the drive for 25.

Next obstacle: Boston Bruins.

Sure, we were 8-0 against them this season, but the off season is a whole new season.

Bring it on.

Looking for worship ideas...

One of the things that I feel I need to teach my students is that worship is not a "music only" thing.
My hope is that they won't fall into the trap of seeing music as the only (or even primary) means of worship.

So this Wednesday night we're taking a night off from our usual musical worship time and we're trying to incorporate some alternative worship avenues. No band. No worship team practice.

I've got a few ideas racing through my head but I'm looking for some more. What would you suggest?

$0.88 Reviews...

Most Thursdays I make my way into the video store only to find that most of the movies I want to see are not on the shelf. Apparently paying $0.88 for a rental is popular. Go figure.

But this week I hit pay dirt. 3 movies in one trip. That's unheard of. Anyway, here's 2 of the 3.

Dan in Real Life - Don't pay more than a dollar for this one. End of story. Some minor funny moments in a weak story with bad casting. And it's completely predictable.

No Country For Old Men - Wow. I spent the first hour and a bit totally engrossed in the film. The last hour and a bit wasn't as captivating, but definitely a well done movie. For me it is one of those films that will need to be seen again. Feel free to pay more than a dollar for this one, if you don't mind some shooting and killing.

I'm waiting for my wife to finish her homework now so we can watch I Am Legend. She's scared and I think she's trying to avoid it.

Thursday telemarketing...

I have a special place in my heart for telemarketers...I'm not sure why. My first instinct is not to hang up the phone when I hear that "click" on the other end once say "hello". My brain kicks into gear and I start thinking of what I can do to enjoy the next few minutes.

So this post by Craig Gross brought a few chuckles. He recorded a few calls that he received from various telemarketers. Apparently he attempts to get the person who called him to hang up the phone by asking a never ending series of questions.

I once kept a guy on the phone for almost 45 minutes while he tried to sell me magazine subscriptions. He went through their entire collection trying to find me three titles to subscribe to so I could receive a fourth one for free. We had lengthy discussions on everything from rock climbing and running to women's health and makeup.

Near the end of the call when he was needing the official information to sign me up, I told him I had to ask my wife if this was ok. I put him on hold for a few minutes while I finished a level on my Playstation game and then picked up the phone, expecting him to have hung up. He was still there!

I told him I wouldn't be able to sign up because my wife didn't want any of the magazines. His parting shot before hanging up was "Who wears the pants in your house?!?!"

I also had an exchange with a newspaper telemarketer in Regina.

Paper selling woman: "Would you like to subscribe to the paper for an introductory rate of...?"

Me: "It sounds like a great deal, but I can't read."

Paper selling woman: "Well then, would you be interested in a weekend subscription for only..."

Me: "Umm...if I can't read during the week, what makes you think I'll be able to read on th e weekend?"

Paper selling woman: "Uh...sorry." (click)

So, next time you hear that "click" on the other end of the line, see if you an get them to hang up before you do. Trust me, it'll be fun!

March Madness...

I don't watch basketball. I don't know who the final four are. But March was madness for me.

I'm back at work this week after taking some much needed time off last week to go to my kid's swimming lessons, read, watch movies, play guitar and just generally be around the house.

I honestly don't think it was enough time, but it will have to do for now.

I am now officially bored at 9:00pm and too lazy to do anything else. I think I'll go play Nintendo or something. Wouldn't that be productive?

In the meantime, here are a few $0.88 reviews for your reading pleasure:

Gone Baby Gone - Don't rent it if you don't like intense movies. The predicament that the main character finds himself in led to a fascinating discussion in our house that was well worth the rental price.

Martian Child - Decent, family movie. Somewhat funny and cute.

Death Sentence - How could I pass this up at $0.88? I am partly ashamed of myself, but mostly ashamed of Kevin Bacon for being in it.

August Rush - Ummm...the lead female character is named Lyla. Every time her name was said I would break out into a rendition of Eric Clapton's "Layla" with "Lyyyyyyllllaaaaaa...I'm begging darling please Lyla." Erin was not as amused as I was, but my humor stretches beyond many mere mortals. The movie? Not so much. The soundtrack? Excellent. In the same vein as an Erik Mongrain.

Of hockey and guitar...

The Habs are currently beating Ottawa 5-1. Pittsburgh is currently losing. I don't boast, but it does make me fell a little giddy. First place in the East is within reach. As long as we don't "pull a Detroit" and get beat out in the first round of the playoffs.

In other news I was able to finish off the Clapton autobiography today. I absolutely loved this book. The rise to fame, the fall into drugs and alcohol, the people he played with, the story behind the songs and the albums, and how he was able to escape the grips of addiction, it was riveting. But then again, I'm a fan of his.

I remember buying his MTV Unplugged album when it came out while I was in high school, and I was hooked. A few of his albums ended up in my collection over the years and I've always been impressed with his guitar skills. But last March when I had the chance to see him live, I was blown away.

Anyway, this just means I'm going to be listening to Clapton for the next couple of weeks. Sorry Erin.

No profound thoughts...

It's Good Friday, but I don't have anything spiritually significant that I want to post on.

It is,however, my first full day off in 2 weeks (and I'm not patting myself on the back for that one...I'm an idiot). I stayed up late watching an $0.88 movie (to be honest I slept through most of it). The kids are playing the Wii. My wife is out for coffee. I spent most of the morning at Improv Everywhere (some very funny stuff).

Funniest quote of the day will go to Matthew Good who was describing one of his teenage jobs at a fine dining establishement:

First, there was Bonanza, an interesting establishment that tried to cross fast-food with grilled steak, the result of which probably kept the local hospital busy with food poisoning cases.

Why does this strike me as funny? I loved Bonanza. I remember visiting Regina in years gone by where I would team-up with Brad to try and get our wives to join us for a meal at Bonanza. I believe somebody got sick one year from eating there, but I'm fuzzy on the details. Then again, it seems that most people who have ever eaten at Bonanza have gotten sick. Except for me.

Other random observations of the day:

• Bryan Adams is still making music
• GI Joe will be a movie. And this is Snake Eyes. Cool.
  
• This video cracked me up more than most.
• Yay for bubblewrap.
• I'm currently reading Clapton: The Autobiography
• I am now losing the reading contest...but my wife doesn't play by the rules.

Youth leaders...

I have a youth leader meeting tonight, but found out a few of them won't be able to make it. So I sent out an email asking for their input on four questions. And so far I've got three entirely different types of responses.

This is a healthy reminder to me that while we may all be working in student ministry, there is no way that we will all be clones of each other. We are all wired differently. We won't always see things the same way as someone else. We won't always be passionate about the same things. We will sometimes miss things that others won't. We will sometimes have ideas no one else will think of.

But that is why we need to do this as a team.

So, how's your team?

Talking to myself...

Sometimes it feels like I'm just talking to myself.

3 more down...

It's time for a reading contest update. I finished three more books out of my personal goal of 26 for the year.

(pause)

Yes, I just paused to pat myself on the back. Yes, I'm still ahead of my wife in this ocntest. Yes, this lead will soon disappear.

But here's what I've finished lately (please note no Dr Seuss):

The Testament by John Grisham
I hadn't read any of his stuff since high school and it was the only book I could find lying around the house that looked unread and mildly interesting. I thought the book started good, but I wasn't too thrilled with the ending.

Deep Ministry in a Shallow World by Chap Clark and Kara Powell
Good book. This ones going on the "read-it-again-and-spend-more-time-processing-it" list. It contains some great challenges and raises some great questions about the current status of any student ministry. I'm currently debating making this one a must-read for our leadership team next year.

The Midnight Club by James Patterson
I just plain like the way this guys writes. It could have something to do with the really short chapters that makes it possible to pick up at any time and read a few pages, but this was another good one.

Working with students...

Why is it that almost every book about student ministry seems to want to tell me that the way I am currently doing things in ministry is wrong and that I should strongly consider switching to their superior model of working with students?

The FA Cup...

I'm choked that United lost to Portsmouth this weekend which leaves them out of the FA Cup. But some relief comes from watching Chelsea (I refuse to link to them) get beat by Barnsley. For those of you who don't watch football, Chelsea is in 3rd place the Premier League and spends piles of money on their squad. Barnsley is in 19th place in the Championship and doesn't even have piles of money.

Their chairman Gordon Shepherd summed it up here with this little gem:

"It's wonderful, beating a squad worth £230million, while ours is worth under £2million."

A 24 prequel...

Stumbled on this today. Apparently a 24 prequel movie is in the works for this fall. Oh, please tell me it's true.

How I escaped the pudding shower...

s of Wednesday at 6:00pm I was worth approximately $206,000. Ryan was worth $226,000. That meant I needed one more person to buy me in order to tie Ryan. Two buyers and I would be the leader and winner.

The catch was that only one student appeared to have enough cash to buy either one of us. My only hope was that this particular student would walk in the door at youth and that she would be willing to pull a fast one on Ryan.

Well, she showed up and it just so happened that Ryan was on the other side of the building with the middle schoolers. So this student went along with the plan, found my computer and jumped online. My wife videotaped the whole Facebook transaction, while the rest of our evening unfolded. This high school girl called one of her friends and they quickly started buying me back and forth.

The middle schoolers came back to join us in the Youth Centre. We had our worship time and then got ready for the pudding dump. I got up to admit defeat and as I was about to speak my wife jumped in to state that there was a new development. And it was all on film.

So, we plugged in the camera and watched the madness unfold. I think Ryan may have yelled.

My worth? $629,289.

Ryan's worth? $142, 329.

Ah yes, I dodged a bullet. Unlike another time in my ministry career which Tammy was so kind to bring up.

Update: Here's the video for your viewing pleasure.

More tomorrow...

I'll give you the details tomorrow, but all you need to know is that it's not me in the picture.

And now it's 12:30am and I should probably not be on the computer.

Night of the pudding...

The challenge was put forth. The results are final as of tonight. I'm currently losing and will likely have pudding dumped on my head at youth tonight. I'm not sure how this will affect the flow of the evening. I'll admit that it would be easier (and funner) if Ryan lost. But I find that unlikely. He was able to rally the troops.

Apparently everyone wants to see me covered in pudding.

Remind me why I agreed to this?

Another weekend complete...

I traveled close to 800kms last weekend. I slept for about 11 hours. I ate a giant burrito. I drank an XL French Vanilla. No, that was not all the food that I could find, but it was the only food that was worthy of mentioning.

I prayed over one of my students as he prepared to hurl chunks in the bathroom. I heard students scream at 120db. I had my rental vehicle TP'd. I lost a game of Settlers. And everyone arrived home with all limbs attached.

It was a good weekend.

Don't ask me about the spiritual stuff. That will take longer to analyze and report on.

Relationally? The weekend was worth every penny.

But I'm glad to be home.