Albums From A Parallel Universe

This was something fun I did on Facebook...
make your own.....1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:RandomThe first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band. (You may ignore any parenthetical words if your random article title contains them, at your discretion.)
2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations"or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.
3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7daysThird picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.
5 - Post it to FB (in a note) with this text in the "caption" or "comment" and TAG the friends you want to join in.
6 - Join the group Albums From a Parallel Universe and upload your masterwork and "discography" blurb! http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52158212905&ref=mf

Dead Horse

My brother sent this to me. It's funny and full of wisdom.
The Dakota Indians of North America passed on this piece of wisdomfrom generation by word of mouth -
"If you are riding a dead horse the best thing to do is dismount".

However in the corporate world because of the heavy investment,some of the other things to be tried are the following:
* buy a stronger whip
* change riders
* threaten the horse with termination
* appoint a committee to study the horse
* arrange to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses
* lower the standards so dead horses can be included
* appoint an intervention team to reanimate the horse
* create a training session to increase the riders' load share
* reclassify the horse as 'living impaired'
* change the form so it reads "This horse is not dead"
* hire outside contractors to ride the dead horse* harness several dead horses together for increased speed and efficiency
* donate the dead horse to a recognised charity therefore deducting its full original cost
* provide additional funding to increase horse's performance
* do a time management study to see if lighter riders would improve productivity
* purchase an after market product that makes dead horses run faster
* declare the dead horse has lower overheads and is therefore more cost effective
* form a quality focus group to find profitable uses for dead horses* rewrite the performance requirements for horses
* and finally if all else fails.....promote the dead horse into a supervisory (management) position

Fifty People, One Question

I have to give Lindsay Wasik credit for displaying this on her blog first... Enjoy.

One More Observation From Psalm 119

The last section from Psalm 119 struck a chord with me. Three verses in particular stuck out to me:

"May my lips overflow with praise, for you teach me your decrees. May my tongue sing of your word, for all your commands are righteous... Let me live that I may praise you, and may your laws sustain me." (verses 171-172, 175)

Worship is important to me, not just because it's part of my job, but because I strive to make it a way of life. These verses tell me that the level of my worship (not just a song set, not just a service, but the worship that my life as a whole should be) is reflective of my understanding of and willingness to build my life around God's Word.

This isn't exactly a blinding revelation to me, but it really hit home to me at the end of this fast. I'm going to praise Him with more sincerity when I'm walking regularly with them than when I'm just hanging by a thread and grasping for him in desperation. I'm going to worship "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23) when I'm tied in to Him.

My prayer for myself is for these verses from Psalm 119 to apply to me without a doubt...

One Thing Passes The Test

As a culture of consumers, we like to know that the products we're buying have passed tests, that we're getting our money's worth, that we're getting a reliable product. There's evidence of this everywhere.

Consumer Reports has made a fortune from consumer advocacy, approving and recommending products to the tune of 4,000,000 subscribers a month. Good Housekeeping has been rigorously testing items for over a hundred years, and their seal is coveted by countless manufacturers. It's seems like any time you turn the TV on, one newsmagazine or another is runing crash tests on cars, and every local news outlet has its own muckracking busybody claiming, to varying degrees of success, to act in the best interest of consumers.

Let's face it; we like to know what we're purchasing is safe, dependable, and worth our hard-earned money.

In Psalm 119, the psalmist views God's Words as a particularly trustworthy item. Verse 140 says:

"Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them."

In this verse the author basically says, "Here's something that has been put to the test and has never failed." No magazine, no consumer advocate, no government agency can poke holes in the reliability of God's Word. No journalist can produce evidence disputing the consistency of it. It is truly the absolute unfailing certainty of God's Word that has stood the test of time.

I can attest to the unswerving nature of God's truth in my life, and I've seen it in the lives of countless others. Isn't it comforting to know there's one thing we can trust in completely?

My 33 1/3 Favorite Beatles Songs

Inspired by an article I posted on Facebook last week, I decided to compile a list of my favorite songs by the best rock band of all time. I realize that only people of a certain age will get the title...

The 1/3 of a song is "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" (Abbey Road) It's only a third of a song because it's part of the medley with "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam." I left it outside of the countdown to comply with the title, but if I had included it, it would certainly be Top Ten.

(Author's note: my point of reference for albums is Steve Turner's amazing book A Hard Day's Write.

33. Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)
32. Here Comes The Sun (Abbey Road)
31. Day Tripper (Rubber Soul)
30. Drive My Car (Rubber Soul)
29. Michelle (Rubber Soul)
28. Something (Abbey Road)
27. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (Help!)
26. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (Rubber Soul)
25. I Should've Known Better (A Hard Day's Night)
24. Because (Abbey Road)
23. Paperback Writer (Revolver)
22. In My Life (Rubber Soul)
21. I'll Follow The Sun (Beatles For Sale)
20. Let It Be (Let It Be)
19. Yesterday (Help!)
18. I Want To Hold Your Hand (With The Beatles)
17. Blackbird (The Beatles, aka the White Album)
16. Lady Madonna (The Beatles)

15. Eleanor Rigby (Revolver)
Paul McCartney's portrait of loneliness is harrowing even for those of us who haven't truly experienced that kind of life, and the stark, simple backing of a string quartet adds to the haunting loveliness of the track.

14. Across The Universe (Let It Be)
John Lennon said that this song is about the process of songwriting, which gives the potentially weirdo-mystical lyrics some true resonance. A beautiful song.

13. Hello Goodbye (Magical Mystery Tour)
Paul McCartney said this song was simply a word game, and some critics have tried to read some sort of "cosmic" meaning into the lyrics, but I've always seen it as a song about a guy and girl who can't agree on anything. No matter what way you slice it, it's simply a great song.

12. Getting Better (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)
This track about a guy who is turning his life around, despite the attempts of his darker nature to come back to the forefront ("it couldn't get much worse...") is a song full of good natured humor and a look at the less savory side of one man's world. The fact that another one of my favorite bands (Gomez) covered it endears the song to me even more.

11. She Loves You (With The Beatles)
One of my favorite songs from the early, "Beatlemania" days, "She Loves You" is a terrific example of tight harmonies, clever lyrics, and all-around great songcraft.

10. The Night Before (Help!)
I can't really explain just why I like this song; I guess it's catchy to me. I love the melody, and I've always thought the lines "When I held you near/You were so sincere" were a clever rhyme.

9. You Never Give Me Your Money (Abbey Road)
Leave it to Paul McCartney to turn a lament about the Beatles' financial and management problems into a joyous celebration of the fun of having nothing to do and no money to spend. One of the most enjoyable and varied songs in the Beatles catalog.

8. The Long And Winding Road (Let It Be)
The Beatles' poignant swan song...their last "official" single, and a truly beautiful song about the comfort of true friendship. I much prefer George Martin's organic, stripped-down production (which was released in 2003 on Let It Be..Naked) to Phil Spector's overdone production, but it's beautiful nonetheless.

7. All You Need Is Love (Yellow Submarine)
Probably a quintessential "hippie message" song, but if I'm going to have to hear a message, why not from the Beatles?

6. All My Loving (With The Beatles)
This is the first Beatles song I fell in love because of my mom's influence and because of my tape of The Chipmunks Sing The Beatles. What can I say? It has an irresistible melody, and it's a great song about devotion.

5. We Can Work It Out (Yesterday...And Today)
I've always loved this one. I like the enthusiasm of the notion of working problems out despite differences. Plus it's catchy.

4. Your Mother Should Know (Magical Mystery Tour)
Paul's obsession with Vaudeville-era music can easily be dismissed as "cute," but when it produces a song like this one, it becomes something more interesting. There's not much to the song lyrically, but it's a nice piece of nostalgia.

3. Hey Jude
This is one of the Beatles best known, best loved songs, and it was certainly their biggest hit. Once again, Paul writes an amazing melody, combining it with incredible lyrics to produce one of the greatest songs of all time.

2. A Day In The Life (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)
I recently read a critic who said that the true genius of Sgt. Pepper's lies in the beauty of the songs about mundane life. This statement is no more true than in this song. The combination of John's observations about things he has read with Paul's description of an early morning routine are added to the band's top-notch performances and George Martin's impeccable orchestration to turn a song about everyday life into an epic. The long final chord at the end of the song gives me chills.

1. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End (Abbey Road)
This medley, the final one in the series of medleys on Side 2 of Abbey Road, deals with Paul's struggles with the troubles that would lead to the breakup of the band, before evolving into a joyous jam with one of the best , truest lines in the Fab Four's canon ("And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make"). Again, Paul's songwriting, the band's performance, and George Martin's near-perfect arrangement and orchestration converge to create a piece of true, varied beauty.

The amazing thing to me about the Beatles' music is that there's never a dull moment, and in just a few short years, they produced an enduring catalog of music that is timeless and never sounds dated.

From Yesterday's Reading In Psalm 119...

Yesterday, as I was reading Psalm 119, one particular verse stood out to me:

"Your decrees are the theme of my song wherever I lodge." (verse 54, NIV)

The New Living Translation reads: "Your principles have been the music of my life throughout the years of my pilgrimage."

As someone who loves music (and for whom music is somewhat part of my job), it's easy to see why this verse stuck out above the others in the passage. I pretty much go all day with some song in my head, whether it be something from my iTunes or iPod, a song from Sunday's worship set, or just a random song that entered my head from who-knows-where. I can usually think of a song to go with any conversation. Music is just important to me.

Why can't I allow God's Word to be in my head like a song? The question may well be why don't I allow God's Word to be in my head like a song? Music has always been a huge part of my life, and it's time that I make God's Word an even greater part of my everyday being than music.

My goal for this week is to make God's Word "the music of my life" and "the theme of my song."