News for March 2007

also had to work on…

i love klosterman right? but i totally skipped fargo rock city.  so i read it.  that was more work than i expected.  i’ve had to downshift the relationship to ‘just friends’ it’s not me, it’s just that he’s real complicated right now.  or he was when he wrote that.  or maybe not complicated enough.  plus i hate 80’s metal and i have no connection to the 80’s as americans know them.  this is where i play my ‘grew up in africa’ card.

oh – and my dad just visited medina, liberia (where i grew up) for the first time since we flew the coop due to coup in 90.  it hasn’t really sunk in yet how profoundly cool that is and what it might mean to me to visit my old home.  maybe that’s my job for my 30’s.  or maybe i should go back to school. again. and still not have a degree.  the world is full of possibility.

i bet chuck loves the shins.

Posted: March 29th, 2007
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tomorrow i'm in the 30's

this is it.  my last day as a 29 year old. tommorrow’s my golden birthday.  30 on 30.  I thought turning 30 would be more monumental or thought provoking or introspective.  I’m guessing once I’m in my 30’s it’ll hit me – i’ll keep you posted.  I think I should be entering my first mid life crisis, but since i can’t make heads or tails (although I can make tales) of my vocation I have nothing to be in crisis about.  Which is crisis in itself. 

Here’s what I’m looking forward to on my birthday: I’m going to have bacon and buttermilk pancakes for breakfast.  I’ll pick up high school youth in the afternoon and drive to the cities to the NW MN Synod youth gathering in St. Paul.  We’ll have supper at pizza luce on selby at around 5:30 (you’re all invited) I’ll see if they’ll give me something free or maybe all the tattoed pierced punks will sing a cool luce style birthday song to me and the cooks will bang on pans and stuff.  We’ll gather with youth in st. paul and sing the same singalongs that i sang when i was a youth and i’ll feel just as dumb doing the hand motions as I did then, but now I can do them with gusto and embarass the high school boys that are standing next to me which is a bonus.  I may even lift my hands to the ceiling/God when we sing the quiet songs.  Then we’ll stay up till past my birthday watching the food channel or VH1.  That’s my birthday.  Maybe I should be a little more bummed about spending my 30th with high school kids but really I love youth gatherings (as long as I’m a chaperone and not a performer) so even though a part of me thinks its a bit ‘kick a guy when he’s down’ I’m for the most part happy to spend my day in the company of people that laugh when I fart.

Plus I’m making up for it by partying hard tonight.  Me, the 3 year old, and the pregnant lady are livin’ la vida loca.  Taco’s for supper, the kid got to drink root beer, and we all had newman-o’s for dessert.  Then I took the party on the road for a little BS (that’s bible study to you youngins out there) at church.  Now I’m back and shorties going to sleep, prego’s folding laundry and I’m blogging my little fingers out.  Par-tay!  Oh – and once shorties fast asleep, we’re watching lost so don’t go thinking this parties even close to stopping anytime soon.  And the best part – I kicked off the party earlier by putting on the Lemonheads ‘It’s a shame about ray’ and when ‘rockin’ stroll’ came on the 3 year old ran into the kitchen where I was browning the taco meat and started pogo-ing.  It was the highlight of my day.  She love’s Julianna era Lemonheads and it shows! 

And tomorrow when the hormone filled ballroom starts singing yes lord yes lord yes lord etc… I can show off my mad pogo skills I picked up from my daughter and the high school kids will know that you can be 30 and still be cool.  And if there’s still any doubt in their desperately wanting to fit in brains, I’ll let one rip.  That’s what I call confirmation.

and remember kids, ‘gluek it, or ticket’

 

Posted: March 29th, 2007
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Perhaps the lack of update alludes to my schedule – or maybe you think i’m lazy.  And that’s fine, but you’re wrong.

I normally have to work to like christian artists, but when Justin was up here he gave me a Derek Webb cd called mockingbird that I’ve really been enjoying.  If there was anything to not like about it, I’d start with the overuse of the 12 string, and that little bit of whine that he’s had since his caedmon’s call days.  But it’s pretty easy to look past that and enjoy his songs and their arrangements.  It’s a lot of the liberal left jesus stuff that is refreshing though ominously pendulumic.  But at least he doesn’t make up words.  I liked it on the first listen and I haven’t stopped listening and that makes me happy.

On the other hand I picked up the most recent Shins album and it’s been work.  I’m still not totally convinced I like them, but I really want to.  I want to like them because my friends like them and also to convince myself that I don’t automatically dislike bands just because they’re popular.  If I can like the Shins I will reduce my curmudgeon factor by at least 2 points which is more than oatmeal can do for me.  So I’ve been investing myself and sadly it hasn’t really paid off.  I instantly disliked them for their cd insert.  It’s a pain to read the lyrics, but they made it very easy to see who played what and just how many whats they played.  Either make it all impossible or all explicit, but this mumbo jumbo middle ground of making the art mysterious and the artist obvious is only waxing ego’s.  dumb.  At their best I’d say they remind me of how much I like Morrissey.  So if I listen to them and think, ‘hey these guys like Morrissey just like me!’ than I can enjoy them a bit, and so that’s what I do.  And slowly my curmudgeoness self fades away.

Speaking of melancholy, I’m going crazy.  I think I’m moving the family south; MN winters are killing me.  One more dreary sub-spring day and the next blog will be about my time under the bridge with a brown bag.  It’s hard to get worked up about global warming when you live in MN.

I’m going to go pretend that our TV works and stare at fuzz for awhile.  Maybe listen to the Shins

 

 

 

Posted: March 28th, 2007
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bizay

recording with Justin went well – great songs – i especially love his chord choices – graham’s a great drummer – all very fun

after wrapping things up on friday i got in the car and headed to st. john’s abbey where i spent the weekend with monks and marvelous folks from the cities.  mercy seat put it all together and it was a great retreat – but exhausting – up each night in conversation till 1 am and heading off to morning prayer at 7 am. 

also in attendance was our very own Jason Deboer-Moran.  After lunch he came back up with me and his lovely wife Erin met us up here for another great 36 hours.  Again we stayed up super late and then Lydia made sure we were ready to sieze the day promptly in the morning (and once at 3 am)

Monday night I started making up for the lack of sleep and then last night I fell asleep at 8:30 while putting Lydia to bed.  I woke up at 2 a.m., made my way to the right bed and slept soundly till 6:30 when my alarm went off.  The monks said it was a good idea to get up early so i’m trying to get back in the habit.  Of course they also pointed out that doing lectio devina mid-afternoon oftens leads to the allusive naptio devina, so maybe they should consider moving morning prayer back a bit. 

So now I’ve met my blogging requirement for the week, which is good, cause tomorrow i back up guitars and junk and head to Micah Taylor’s studio to start on a welaware recording.  We’ll set up tomorrow night, recording with Justin on friday and then i turn around and drive the 3 hours back here again.  I’ve been spending a ton of time in the car lately and i’m a little annoyed with myself.  I’ve gotta come up with a better plan.  And figure out what to do with my life… durn you vocation!

Posted: March 21st, 2007
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EP Squared (away)

Well folks the recording went great!  In fact we had time to make not one, but two, that’s right, two, e.p.’s.  With written consent J. Rimbo authorized me to go ahead and post one of the e.p.’s.  As luck would have it we both had our melodica’s handy for the recording session so between grueling drum takes we relaxed a bit and played some sweet duets.  Unbeknownst to us, Rev. Graham was secretly recording everything we did!  Oh how embarrassing. And oddly fortuitous.  So here it is eager listener’s, Justin & Nate’s duet debut.  We call it,

Inspiring Melodica Duets in the Key of C and other Keys Too.

Head Over Heals / Can’t Touch This / Silver Bells

Posted: March 16th, 2007
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bring it on love

getting ready to record Justin Rimbo, listening to his demos, really enjoying it all, also getting me excited to record with welaware next week, so here’s a demo of a song that i recorded for welaware’s consideration that i think is a bit lacking of something i’m not sure what but it’s got potential, but maybe not enough, so i doubt it’ll show up on the album so i’m not giving anything away, except i’m totally giving this away, and if does show up on the cd, it’ll be really different so that makes it tantalizing – are you you tantalized?

bring it on love

Bring it on love, all to your credit
I love you out loud, there it is, now I said it
Christ bore thorns and mary bore a child,
It€™s a pain to be in love, but your love drives me wild (echo)

Don€™t be cross, not here to crucify
Rhythm in the temple, let the drum testify
You€™re inspired or maybe just manic
Edgy artsy party got the preacher in a panic (echo)

Who cares much in this day and age,
We€™re all fighting to deny the front page,
Politics pray on the prayin€™ politician,
Empty out the white house and fill a soup kitchen (echo)

Posted: March 14th, 2007
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soldering god redeems recording to be

i did it.  I fixed a mic chord and a headphone extension thingy with the help of radio shack and by my own raw and unrestrained magical skills.  Now when justin and graham come up tomorrow there’s nothing to hinder the ep of the century.  That’s right Justin Rimbo is making a solo debut e.p.. i’m sorry did you just pee your pants? can’t say i’m suprised. can’t say i’m suprised.

Posted: March 13th, 2007
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The sermon on terror and children's war

I’m breaking away from my normal stance of no religion and/or politics and introducing a new segment I call: Know Religion and/or Politics.
I think it’s safe to say there’s no end to Children’s Sermons or the idiot’s War on Terror anytime soon, so let’s take a look at how both can be done with the utmost of efficiency and success in six simple steps.

#1 Know how to get in.  Have an introduction that clearly states your purpose, objectives, and reasons for gathering the kids/troops. 
#2 Have ample supplies.  Perhaps you normally have 4 kids/troops gathered. Prepare for at least 8.
#3 Be Flexible.  Without deviating from the end objective realize that it’s okay to take a different route or restate your said intentions.  This rewording may be called flip-flopping, but everybody knows that flip-flopping is a made up word with no merit.
#4 Empower.  You’re not really giving the message as much as you are facilitating the message.  No one remembers the talking head nearly as much as they remember the response invoked.  This response tells the message.
#5 Make it everlasting.  Once the kids/troops/nationals get a sense of what the Gospel lesson/foreign policy is about help them bridge between the abstract and concrete so that they can see the everlasting in their day to day.  Love your neighbor is a bit abstract.  Helping someone get up when they fall off their bike is concrete.  A war on terror is abstract.  Bombing the shit out of Iraq is concrete.
#6 Know how to get out. Having based my outline on the linear unfolding of a sermon/war this step is #6, but when preparing your own children’s sermon/war on terror, make it #1.  The first thing you must come up with is your closing.  Be able to some it up succinctly so that everything you do leads to conveying God’s love/democracy. This is also nice for when all hell breaks loose and you need to get out fast.

For those on the front lines, I salute you.  For those on the steps by the altar, I salute you.  For those about to Rock, I salute you.  God Bless You, and God Bless America.
 

Posted: March 12th, 2007
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Three of Us Come True

Here’s an old song (2 years?) that I recorded a while ago (2 years?).  It’ll have to do for this weeks song, and I need to post it before Baby X shows up and feels left out.  It’s forty degrees out and Lydia and I are contemplating a trip out to her great grandpa’s in CA this July for his 100th birthday.  This song seems to fit my thoughts.

Three of Us Come True 

Can’t seem to find the lyrics.  Guess you’ll have to trust your ears on this one.

Posted: March 9th, 2007
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Lost in Conversation

Nate in the car with two 3 year olds on a one hour drive to Alexandria.

Conversation 1:
Kid 1:  My blood pressure is the same as Jessica’s.
Kid 2:  Guess what animal is in the blood pressure in my leg.
Kid 1:  A tiger?
Kid 2:  No.  It’s long and scary and yellow.
Kid 1:  A lion?
Kid 2:  Nnn-YES! A lion!
(Joyous laughter abounds.  Five minutes later we learn that Kid 2 has a bear in the blood pressure in his head.)

Conversation 2:
Kid 1:  I’m big L and you’re little C.
Kid 2:  No I’m big C and you’re little L!
Kid 1:  NO!! I’M BIG L AND YOU’RE LITTLE C!
Kid 2:  NOOO!!!! I’M BIG C AND YOU’RE LITTLE L!!!!
Barely Sane Adult:  Hey guys, how about you’re both big?
(Pandemonium ensues as Kids 1 & 2 simultaneously shoot down B.S.A.’s attempt to mediate.  B.S.A. last seen leaping/being thrown from the driver side window of a black 98 Honda Civic east bound on I-94 near mile marker 83.)

Posted: March 9th, 2007
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