January 2009
20 posts
A GOLDEN KIND OF DAY
Today is my golden birthday. It is the 29th of January and I am now 29 years old. According to Wikipedia, this day is also know as my Grand Day or Star Day. Those all sound like very fancy kinds of days, so of course I’m looking forward to what today will bring.
It is amazing how much a little old birthday can stir up and quite a lot has happened over the last year, so here are just a few...
“O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: Be ever present with...”
– A Prayer for Church Musicans and Artists from the Book of Common Prayer, p. 819
WatchSTEVE AND BARRETT
A story I produced about two unlikely friends.
WHY KNOWING YOUR OWN STORY KEEPS YOU FROM RIPPING...
Last week a lovely suprise came in the mail. It was the latest issue of Collide magazine, which included an article Jarrod and I had been working on. It made it to the cover and we were very happy with its content. Let it be said that co-writing, however difficult, is a very worthwhile task.
In the article titled, Why knowing your own story keeps you from ripping off everyone else’s, we...
WHAT MARKETERS ACTUALLY SELL
Seth Godin on hope:
WHAT MARKETERS ACTUALLY SELL…
Not powder or chemicals or rubber or steel or silicon or talk or installations or even sugary water.
What marketers sell is hope.
The reason is simple: people need more. We run out. We need it replenished. Hope is almost always in short supply.
The magical thing about selling hope is that it makes everything else work better, every...
WELCOME TO THE NEW WHITE HOUSE →
Just. Beautiful. I have stars in my eyes. I. know.
O. The President
Via Coptix
I NEED A BOX LIKE TWYLA'S
I have spoken a number of times in the past about my love of Twyla Tharp. While she can often come across as curt and rude, she refuses to let anything get in the way of her creative act. She is one disciplined lady and you have to respect that. I do, especially given my lack of it. This isn’t to say I’m completely undisciplined, and yet I know I haven’t found a system that...
THE 135
For the last two years I lived at 135 29th Avenue East in Seattle, Washington. I never imagined I would live in Seattle nor did I ever imagine I would end up in seminary. However, both happened and I am forever changed because of them.
My good friend and ex-roommate,Mr. Joshua Longbrake, just posted a series a photos from The 135, as we so lovingly called it (he still lives there). Please...
3 SEE
3 SEE is a wonderful new project from 3 wonderful women. Here is a little about the project:
Every day in 2009, we will stop a moment and take a photo. Each day, from the east coast, midwest and west coast, We will post our three photos side by side For us to see and you to see. We have no weekly plans nor assignments. Our only intent is to capture beauty hidden in our everyday ordinary...
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
The SAG Awards are almost upon us and I’ve been getting some very fun stuff in the mail. I believe you call the below a “perk.”
“Find the door of your heart, you will discover it is the door to the Kingdom of...”
– Saint John Chrysostom
WatchGLEANERS
This is a video I produced a couple of weeks ago for our year-end service highlighting the various things Willow Creek supported in 2008. The Gleaners are an amazing group of people and the Food Pantry is an amazing place.
In fact, a years ago, I had a chance to experience their amazing-ness first hand. When I moved downtown Chicago in 2004, I didn’t have enough money for food...
WHY DON'T YOU TELL US WHY YOU BLOG
The other day I updated my Facebook status as: Blaine Hogan is sitting in starbucks thinking about reasons someone blogs. Below is the conversation that followed.
So, why do YOU blog, tweet, monitor your facebook, (or myspace still)?
STICKY SCREEN VIA JACK CHENG
The other day, Merlin Mann turned me onto Jack Cheng, another in a long line of GTD evangelists. His new mini-site, Sticky Screen is meant to live as your homepage encouraging you to actually do some stuff. While I’m not sure how helpful it could be, I thought it’d be interesting to share.
WatchA few years ago, M and I were hosts at an event in Knoxville, TN called CHIC 2006. CHIC is a big youth gathering that the Covenant Church does every few years. No You Didn’t was a video spot we did for one of the sessions. A take off of Punk’d, No You Didn’t had me playing a dodge-ball ref who makes up his own rules during the championship game and threatens to send both teams...
When the new thing doesn't work. →
Seth Godin has some sobering thoughts for those of us in the middle of a downturn and are realizing that our “new thing” didn’t work as well as we had hoped.
I take these words to heart and hope you will also.
HITTING A ROCK WITH A STICK
I know that I have talked about the Sigur Ros film,Heima a few times before, but I was watching it again the other day in a meeting here and was really struck by one of the scenes. If you haven’t seen it (I highly recommend it, by the way), there is this scene where we watch a musician walking around a huge pile of volcanic rocks. Every few steps he picks up a rock and hits it with a...