Message to Al Gore

I was listening to a great Tower of Power song the other day called "Only So Much Oil in the Ground". There's a prechorus in the song that says "We can't cut loose, without that juice." AWESOME! Hilarious. Their concern for the earth's over-consumption of petrolium is directly-proporsional to their ability to party.

Then I thought more about it and thought that this would be a genious campaign for Al Gore for all the hipster, downtown, young adult liberals out there who are pretty much all talk and no action. Who bought Save Darfur and the Live Earth cd because it was trendy but still use too much hair spray, drive too much and smoke too much. There won't be any cool downtown loft apartments any more, no facebook, no apple martinis or whatever cool people do. We won't be able to listen to music, check e-mail, makes phone calls, surf the internet, and take pictures on the same machine if the seas start to rise. No spring break in Key West if Key West is under water.
Think about it Al.

We can't cut loose, without that juice.
BB

The State of Rock and Roll

Last week my brother Andy pointed out an op-ed in the Star about the state of rock and roll music. If I were my brother, I would have links to this article and maybe even remember the name of the guy who wrote the article. I'm sure Andy will include his name in his comment to this post.

Alright, first the article. The piece was based on a recent idea and program from Steven Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen's rythym guitarist. It is a lament of the current state of rock music, the individualized and niche market nature of music today, and the general public's and musicians knowledge of American music history. He plans to produce for group who are making good rock music and start public educational programs to teach kids American music history.

Alright, first off, i'm pretty sure that this exact article was probably written about 50 years ago by the parents of these guys when rock and roll first started. It was too loud, too fast, too sexy, too protesting. And now Steven Van Zandt, probably the least important person in the Boss's 7-9 piece band, is that old, fat, bald guy who think music is too loud, too violent, too sexual, too influenced. This is the same old song and dance that we heard from preachers and politicians when Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Elvis started shaking their hips. The unfamiliar is always bad, wrong.

He makes an argument that the Rolling Stones wouldn't make it today if they were just starting out. Because of the niche markets that are out there today, they wouldn't get radio play and any PR guy at a record label wouldn't touch them and wouldn't know what to do with their sound. I agree. And I don't think the Rolling Stones would have any problem with that! In an interview last year, Ringo Starr said that what rock bands should be doing today is tearing down everything the Beatles ever did. That's what they did. They heard their parents music and hated it, and ripped it up and spit it out of their electric amps. That's what rock and roll is.

Next, the writer relates the story of Van Zant's discovery of the Beatles and how it changed his life. And that kids today don't have that experience. This is just another example of old guys not being in touch. Kids are still discovering the Beatles and it's still changing lives. I am a late Beatles convert and yes, it has changed my life. I went to a party over the holiday and met a guy my age who said he probably couldn't name and definately couldn't sing ONE Beatles song. I can't imagine a life without the music of the Fab Four. I know it's only rock and roll (but I like it) but there's so much life and joy and love in the Beatles. There's nothing wrong with the best rock music ever made-the beatles and led zeppelin-never being surpassed. No one will ever make better music than those guys. No matter what Steven Van Zant does.

Finally, I'd just like to say to the author of the letter (a nerdy looking guy with big glasses and the wrap-around-the-sides bald guy hair) and Steven Van Zant (an old, kinda fattening, good-not-great-guitar player who relys on Bruce Springsteen for a career) that rock music is just fine! Inspired by the article, I went to the iPod and created a rock only playlist. Looking across eras (one of the advantages of the ditigal age) with a "no metal" rule, I came up with one hell of a rockin' list. Here's some bands that rock, no niche market-just straight ahead rock and roll, Clutch, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Band of Horses, Wolfmother (who sound a lot like a little band called Black Sabbath), Black Crowes, Guns and Roses (really anything Slash plays), Kings of Leon, Louis XIV, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Arcade Fire, about half of Ben Harper's stuff, Cold War Kids, Eagles of Death Metal, Queens of the Stone Age and so many, many more.

Rock and Roll is meant for two things and sometimes a third: 1. piss off parents 2. get girls and (sometimes) 3. call for political change. Now, Steven Van Zant and the guy who's name I can't remember are the parents that are pissed off by the noise their kids are listening too.

Just because you're out of touch with rock and roll, doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it.

Long Live Rock 'n' Roll, B

No Love

Hey, ESPN! Start talking about Missouri. We're number 5 in the nation. What do we have to do to be taken seriously? Last night on Sportscenter it was, "when KU beats MU", not if but when. No respect. We beat the living snot out of the Huskers!

Mizzou-rah, Mizzou-rah, Mizzou-rah, TIGERS!!!

B

Here's some stuff I'm currently excited about:
NFL football week 9. It was almost as if since the Pats were playing the Colts, everybody raised their game. Disappointed that the Colts couldn't pull it out. I hate Tom Brady sooo much. Anyway, the most yards on the ground in NFL history, the longest touchdown play of all time, a 158 passer rating for Big Ben. Incredible football games. I don't even really mind that the Chiefs lost, it was such a good football game. The last team Brett Favre had to beat in the NFL. Great weekend.

30 Days of Night. The best vampire movie since Interview. Truly sinister. Horror fans should all go check it out.

Across the Universe. A love story movie set in the time during which I KNOW I was supposed to be a young man, end of the 60s in to the 70s, set to the soundtrack of all Beatles sung in musical format. Think Moulan Rouge without the can-can. The lead guy is unbelieveable as is Evan Racheal Wood. Joe Cocker, Bono, Eddie Izzard. Great movie!

My current project to purchase a couple of Bob Dylan albums (on iTunes, mom for $10 a piece) per pay check. I've never really listened to a lot of Dylan but what i have now-The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and Highway 61 Revisited-is truly genius. I know what folks were always saying. If you haven't heard much, the time and the world situation call equally for more Rage Against the Machine and more Bob Dylan.

My Christmas present ideas for my Mom and my girlfriend, Lindsey. You girls are going to flip out!!

My idea for a proposal to General Conference for a 5 year minimum appointment and an equal salary for all elders of the United Methodist Church: $45,000. I guess I'll expand this later. Basically, preachers make too much money and our churches are being hurt because of it.

Lil Caldwell. You guys could've left that one of your voice mail message, I might've called you back!!

The new seasons of the Office, Family Guy and Heroes. Brilliant.

Degree Medical Strength Anti-persperant. Finally. I'm so sick of ruining shirts.

Here's some things I'm absolutely not excited about:

Fantasy Football. I have Big Ben, LT, Dallas Clark, Sebastian Janakowski and I can't win a game. Sebastian kicks the longest field goal in NFL history and gets me 5 points. We need to change the way points are tallyed. I guess I'm just a sore loser.

Giving my sermon in preaching class and listening to a semester's worth of other student sermons from here on out. I'm much more nervous about preaching in class than I ever am at church. I was recently called "dynamic" from the pulpit by my church members. Now I have to write out a sermon (which I never do) and present a sermon in a classroom (not a worship space) at 8:00am during class time (not a worship time). Not looking forward to it. I think it's gonna be called Incarnationality. (incarnation+nationality) It's our incarnationality, the fact that God became one of us, and not our nationality (patriotism, boarder fences, national secruity, etc.) that defines us. I don't know, something like that.

The UPS Whiteboard guy. Mustoe? Gets creepier everytime I see him.

Lindsey going out of town this weekend. Feel like I haven't seen her in weeks.

Not having an XBox or Nintendo Wii. I'm tired of Madden '06 and I need to see Halo 3 already. Guitar Hero 3. Tiger Woods golf on Wii. I gotta get one or the other someday soon. Oh well, far from the most important thing in the world.

Uh, oh yeah, the world. Um, are we dying? Is the world in grave danger? Is the earth going to fall into the sea or are we going to blow each other up first? I recently read a fatalist artical in Rolling Stone that said the population of the earth will be 500 million in 100 years. The Russians are going to go to war with China, when all those billions of people run out of space and try to move north. America is going to war with Iran and that guy's crazy. I mean actually insane, sociopathic, psychotic. Maybe they'll join in with North Korea (an equally crazy man). There's not enough water, oil, land, atmosphere, trees. There IS enough money, food, medicine, but the rich people are keeping it all. Andy, I'm trying not to be fatalist here, but shit. It's hard.

People who read my blog on a regular basis and never comment. Dru, my sister, Ron. Let me know who's out there.

Not having time to blog. I hate being busy. Who doesn't.

Alright, I know it's been awhile, but everything's going good. Just school and work. You know, life.

Take care of yourselves, B

Adulthood-for Mustoe and the Donutman

One of the sad facts of adulthood is that it scatters people.

I'm going to try and say this without sounding to pathetic. I miss my boys. This week, I opened up some of the old Halo maps, Blood Gultch, Hang 'Em High, and just ran around by myself. I played a multiplayer, person vs. person video game by myself.

I had an unbelievable college experience looking back and I miss it. Halo, frisbee, raquetball, Casey's, the Hut, the Zone, Breadeux Pizza/Pool Tables/Bedroom Furniture, and, most of all, the band. Making our "album" was one of the best weekends of my life.

Anyway, feeling nostalgic. I miss you guys. I'm seeing my high school boys this weekend. We need to get the college crew together soon. Hope all's well in Saint Louie and Kentucky.

Peace, B

Mizzou-RAH!

Ummm, what happened to Nebraska? Sorry, Lynz. 41-6 Tigers. Wow. I was actually bored.

M-I-Z!


Go Tigers, Brad

Movies for People Who Like Books

Hey everybody
This started out as a conversation between my brother Andy, Erin his wife, Lindsey and I Sunday night. Been on my mind, though it's not very important in the grand ol' scheme of things.

Can you even type movies into genres anymore? I think so.

There's the big three: Comedy, Drama, Action. Every movie made fits into these three in some sort of fashion. But it's harder and harder to come up with categories for movies.

Dramedy, SciFi, Fantasy, Action comedy, romantic comedy, horror, thriller, martial arts, fantasy action, fantasy romance, tragedy-drama, triumph-drama. And of course, High School Musical.

What's the difference between science fiction and fantasy? Andy says that true science fiction is feasable, it could happen or can be somehow explain by science. So, Star Wars is a SciFi movie and Lord of The Rings is fantasy. But come on. It can't be that simple. Jabba the Hut explained by science? The Force as a feasable medium for elite corps of soldiers?

Is Terminator 2 an action movie or a science fiction movie? Is The Princess Bride a romance, a comedy or a fantasy? What the heck is Moulan Rouge?

or Pocahantas for that matter? Stereotypically fictionalized musical comedy biopic with talking animals. Where's that section in the store Blockbuster?

Alright, enough about genres. Let's get down to business.

The top ten movies I've ever seen (trilogies counted as one movie):
1. Star Wars IV-VI
2. The Godfather Pt. 1
3. Braveheart (before The Patriot and Passion of the Christ)
4. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
5. LOTR
6. The Jerk
7. Goodfellas
8. Resevoir Dogs
9. Silence of the Lambs
10. Die Hard pt. 1
(11. the most badass, adreneline-fueled, testosterone-filled movie of all time: 300)

The top ten movie MOMENTS of all time:
1. "Luke, I am your father." "That's not true, that's impossible."
2. The baptism/assassination scene at the end of the Godfather.
3. Jim Stewart and friends leaving the house in The Birds.
4. The reveal of the true Kaiser Scosa in the Usual Suspects.
5. The last twenty minutes of Temple of Doom.
6. The reveal of the real dead person in Sixth Sense (be honest, you didn't see it coming!)
7. The first sight of Jaws jaws. "We're gonna need a bigger boat."
8. E. T. taking off with the bikes.
9. The first word of Dwane in Little Miss Sunshine.
10. The first utterance of the now infamous line, "Yippie-kay-yay, motherf***er." Die Hard

Some interesting points here: Stephen Spielberg is involved in three of these, Bruce Willis for two, and, who knew, Toni Collete (Sixth Sense, Little Miss) in two.

Some movie moments that should've never been made:
Ewoks!! I know my brother will probably have some theological point to say why the Ewoks were appropriate but, please!! The empire gets destroyed by a bunch of teddy bears.

Kathy Bates' nude scene in About Schmidt. Every Ashley Judd movie. Godfather Pt. 3. Ending All the Presidents Men with a bunch of headlines. The reveal of The Village (be honest, we ALL saw it coming). Any fake birth filmed and put in the movie: Knocked Up, Children of Men, Hills Have Eyes II. Pocahantas as a half-black, half-Chinese, half-Polynesian and NO-part Native American for the kids. Filming Hannibal without Jodie Foster as Clairece Starling. Starting every Rocky movie with 10 minutes of the last Rocky movie, come on Sly.

And, most of all, the BIGGEST mistake in movie history, a genius of my generation of movie stars, Leonardo DeCaprio, starring Titanic. I sympathize with my brother who is not a Leo fan but kinda stopped watching him after that dreadful, never-needed-to-be-made, three-hour-snoozefest. Let's add 'em up: Basketball Diaries, What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, The Beach, The Aviator (show me all the blueprints), Gangs of New York, The Departed, Romeo and Juliet, Blood Diamond and Catch Me if You Can. Annnnndd....Titanic. I think we can let that one slide. If you haven't seen Gangs, Aviator, Departed, or Blood Diamond, watch them this week. You can borrow Gangs and Departed from me if you want. But, people of the world who gave up on Leo after Titanic, Andy Bryan, it's time to give him another chance.

Alright folks, sorry to ramble, but I'm sitting in class and we're off on some tangent that is in no way important to anything I will ever be tested on or need in my life. I love movies almost as much as I love music. I encourage everybody to find your local independent movie theater, the Tivoli in KC and the Ragtag in Columbia. Don't really pay attention to the Oscars, but rather watch the festivals, Toronto, Tibeca, Cannes, Sundance, for what movies are causing a stir there and find them. See EVERYTHING that Stephen Spielberg, Martin Scorcese, Quinten Tarantino and Clint Eastwood (yes, Dirty Harry) direct. Watch cheesy horror movies and Mel Brooks comedies. Listen to directors commentaries. Listen to actors commentaries (the Anchorman commentary is so funny it's like a second movie). Go to movies on a couple of afternoons a month to beat the prices but see movies as they're intended to be seen. (i'm really just typing to stretch the time out longer)

So, I'm done. I'd be interested in additions, subtractions, and amendments to my lists. Take care everybody.

Peace, BB

ROFLMAO

I think that means, rolling on the floor laughing my ass off, but I'm not a 14 yr old girl so I don't know.

The Star Wars Family Guy...holy crap!

"I made a Darth Doodie."

Oh man. Anyway, thought I'd share my response.

BB

If it's too loud, you're too old!

Yesterday, my mother, a musician with very good and eclectic musical taste, wrote her children a "new music" e-mail. And, as I think was one of her secret goal, it opened the flood gates and wrote one of the longest e-mail responses I've ever written. So, I thought that today I'd bring my love and, modestly, more than a little knowledge about music to the blogosphere.

So, here we go, modern music 101 for the baby boomer generation.

First of all, if you were a teenager or young adult in the 60s and 70s, you shouldn't have ANY excuse for not having music to listen to. You lived through the greatest musical revolution the world has ever known. There's nothing wrong with what you're listening too. The Beatles, the Stones, Motown, Aretha, late 60s folk, Bob Dylan, are classics because they are the best there's ever been and noone will ever be better. That said, some of you, like my mom, think that the Beatles Number 1's album or a motown collection is sufficient. Not so, my friends. If you're running out of music or are too familiar with your collection, than go buy more of what you love. The Beatles are the best band that's ever been and the best at total album construction. Everyone in the world should own Let It Be and Abbey Road and proabably Revolver. It's listening to songs like Honey Pie or Octopus's Garden that makes Hey Jude true genius. So, the first step if you're feeling a little stale lately is go and buy something else in the catalog of your favorites. Carole King has made more albums than Tapestry, Simon and Garfunkel more than Bridge Over Trouble Waters. Greatest Hits albums are great for quick and easy access to the sing alongs. But studio albums are where we see the best artists at their artistic best.

The second step is realizing that not all your favorite artists are dead or in prison. Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, America, Carley Simon, Paul Simon, Van Morrison, Johnny Cash (somehow), have ALL put out albums in 2006-7. So, keep up with the artists you love. All of them have websites or just go to your local store and ask somebody to show you the most recent album. These artists are still around and still making music.

Alright, so now, what's happening today? Oh, honestly, not much. We are officially in the era of hip-hop. "Popular" music is rap, r & b, dance and combinations of all kinds. This is hard for some, again like my mom, who hate rapping and can't stand the sounds of computerized beats and turn-table scratches. It's also pretty hard these days if you can't listen to a distorted electric guitar. Although, there aren't really a lot of good rock bands these days, either. This should sum up the music scene right now-the greatest selling albums of this year are High School Musical, High School Musical 2, and Hannah Montana.

But there are some gems out there that I think you baby boomers out there will like. And I'll break now into list form to keep from rambling anymore.

Norah Jones-singer, piano player, very bluesy.
Corrine Bailey Rae-singer, bluesy, R&B
Joss Stone-singer, funk, Jazz, R&B (thanks, steph) Janis Joplin-esque
The Arcade Fire-9-person band, folk-rock-bluegrass-weird awesome fusion.
Bright Eyes-singer/songwriter with band, rock-folk stuff. Awesome!
The Frames-my most exciting find this year. The movie "Once" and this Scot band.
John Mayer-guitar player/singer-songwriter. One of the new Eric Clapton's
Ray LaMontagne-pure folk, just a guy and a guitar.
Jamie Cullum-great updates of Sinatra and jazz standard stuff.
Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, and Matt Costa-the most laid back, chilled out music ever.

That's all I can think of right now. There's a lot of great music out there. Listen to the radio (not just NPR), go to festivals and local concerts, go to record stores and spend an afternoon listening to music. Find what you love, find what speaks to you. And never be bored with your music, there's something out there for everybody.

For those about to rock, I salute you.
BB

For all those who are interested

Is a Christian church without a cross in the sanctuary actually a Christian church?

By the way, I would say no. The cruxifiction and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important thing for Christian worship and in my opinion the most important event in all of history and without a symbol of that event, I don't know. It's just not for me.

Talk amongst yourselves. Well, not really, actually comment and we'll talk. No big whoop.

BB

Open Letter to DVD Distributors

You know what really grinds my gears...
Why are the main title sequences included in all DVDs of TV series? You know what I mean, I don't have cable, so when I'm home preparing sermons or doing homework and need a little noise in the background, I'll put in some Seinfeld or Family Guy or Reno 911, or when I'm on the treadmill watching the Office on the iPod, I'll just hit the "Play All" button and let it run. And lo and behold, every 21 minutes, I have to sit through 30 seconds of the theme song on every single show. Come on people. We know who the stars are, we know who created the show, we all know that Stewie says "Laugh and cry" not "Eff-ing cry" in the Family Guy theme. We want content. Take the dingding theme songs off your DVDs.
And that, is what really grinds my gears,
BB

St. Petersblog: Post-Vacation Blues

Alright, alright, alright. So, it's been a week and a half since our last night and day in Florida and I haven't posted anything, yet. But, here it is...

We woke up early on Thursday to go down to the beach one more time before the check out time. The waves were much bigger than they had been all week. It's crazy to think that all the way across the Gulf, the winds from the Dean storm effected the waves at St Pete Beach. Anyway, we said our goodbye's to the beach and ocean, had another Cuban sandwich and hit the road.

On our way out of town, we returned to the shops on Corey Ave. (The place I said wasn't any better than the Plaza, and was actually pretty gaudy) Well, at Duet, that's right, not Duet's, Lindsey bought me a Ukelele for our 2 yr anniversary. It's pretty awesome, really easy to play and sounds great. Now, that's three guitars, a mandolin, a uke, a keyboard, a wood xylo, a rain stick, two djembe's, an Indian circle drum, an Indonesian gourd shaker, a Sri Lankan rattle, some hand-painted castanets, and a set of drums. (From Lynz-mandolin, uke, xylo, rs, and castanets)

Down the street at "The Shell Store" we went back to pick up a lovely little kresch for my brother for the ride to and from the airport (you're welcome!), and saw a display case of jewelry that we hadn't seen earlier in the week. And, so, I got Lynz three awesome necklaces and earrings. So, the point of all this, we'd like to redact our previous statement that shopping on corey ave isn't all it's cracked up to be. It turned out just fine!

We left St. Pete Beach and stopped at the actual St. Petersburg on our way to Orlando. We stopped for two reasons. To get a second look at a couple of stores on Bay Walk; stopping in one to get Lindsey's birthday present (let's talk about our anniversary being 10 days before her birthday sometime...) a square black glass clock with charcoal gray Eiffel tower embossed on it, and another to see the price on AWESOME shirts with 80's NFL logos. Mustoe, Andy and Caldwell, you guys would've loved these. The best were the old school Buccaneer with the knife in his mouth in bright orange and the old Patriot in the three point stance. Alas, these short-sleeve, faded-looking t-shirts were 50 bucks a piece.

Alright, real business in St. Petersburg was the Salvador Dali Museum. Awesome! Dali was one messed up dude, and his paintings are pretty messed up too.

They had the originals of Dali's 15 foot tall, 10 foot wide masterpieces and the one with the blocks and naked lady up close and then at 20 meters becomes Abe Lincoln. Crazy stuff.

Alright, we left the coast line and went inland to Orlando (ridin' high and smooth, by the way) That night we went to the Orlando outlet mall, which was a bust neither of us really in the mood. We had a great dinner at a steak place across from out hotel. Oh yeah, our hotel was the Wyndam Resort. Pretty sweet.

Our morning before the flight, we went to Orlando's best attraction....Gatorland!!!! 17oo gators and 10 crocs. I think I prefer to let the Gatorland pictures speak for themselves.

Well, folks, there you have it. Our first big trip together and shared with all of you. Thanks for stopping by and listening to our stories. Now, it's back to real life.

Keep on keeping on, BnV

St. Petersblog Day 3

Alright folks, we are currently experiencing the "third day of vacation effect", which means that we're exhausted. So, not much today. But here's a couple of things.

After blogging last night, Vee and I returned to the beach and through the light-up frisbee around. I believe the Adam's can attest to this: throwing around a light-up frisbee on the beach at 12:00am, is just about one of the coolest things ever.

OK, this morning we got up and drove down to the St. Pete Beach shopping block which, while called Corey Ave. that is awesome, isn't much greater than the Plaza or downtown Columbia. In fact, we're probably fine saying that Downtown Columbia is much better than shopping on Corey Ave, last name or no.

Dad, this, nicely framed behind the fountain, is Lindsey's favorite tree...

At noon, Lindsey's good friend Joe came down from Ocala, Fl. We spent most of the day running around with Jose and great fun was had by all.

OK, lunch: third best sandwich of my life. 1) Shrimp Po'boy in Kenner, LA with my boys, 2) Philly Cheese in Philly and 3) a Cuban from St. Pete, FL with my girl. Unbelievable!

At the beach in the afternoon, we discovered that the sharks really were dolphins (thanks for telling me to swim TOWARDS sharks, Mustoeman) because we saw 6 or 7 more and they were, no hyperbole here, like two feet from us. OK, like 25ft. But, really freakin' close and it was amazing. Joe, having lived in FL since 2001, has never had that happen.

Also, maybe from Hurricane Dean, the waves were much bigger today. I had a good time body surfing and Karate Kidding some big ones while Joe and Linds had a bottle of wine. They joined me in the waves, Joe and I taking it easy like pros, Lindsey struggling with each wave like God was breaking his promise to Noah. One did eventually get the better of her, lifting her off her feet and tumbling around, hitting bottom. She's got a nice scraped up knee to prove it. "The sea was angry that day my friends"

Florida Orange Groves and Winery was great fun. We sampled 11 wines made of every fruit you could imagine except grapes. Fruit wine is a lot better than grape wine, but I really still prefer good ol' hops and malts.

So, as you can see, big day. I'm going to sleep. But here's something for you all to enjoy.

B n V

ps. Mom, "booyakasha" is an exclamation used under sudden or surprising awesomeness; i.e. a slam dunk or a surprise pimp-pose from your baby boy.

Peace to all...

St. Petersblog: Day Two

Good evening all of my friends stuck somewhere that isn't Florida!

Day two of our Floridian vacation was one of the best days of my life. We did nothing. Woke up late-went to the beach-went to the grocery store-went to the beach-went to Crabby Bill's for dinner-blogging-going back to the beach. Here's some highlights:

We have seen some wildlife off of St. Pete's Beach. This morning, as we opened the door to head down to the water, a baby lizard fell from it and into our room. In Missouri, we have mice and mosquitoes; FL, lizards. There are tons of pelicans, like this one, flying around. Now, I hate birds that aren't birds of prey. But, this little fishkiller is awesome. We watched 'em fly across

looking down and around and then WWWWWWOOOSSSHHH, straight down into the water for a mouthful of grouper.

Oh yeah, and we saw TWO FREAKIN' SHARKS. I'm absolutely, positively, like 60% sure. Just about 200 yards offshore we saw a fin comin' up out of the water. It wasn't just us. A lot of people saw it and we all got out of the water. No joke. An Englishman (I think) and I watched the water for a while but never saw it again. Crazy.

Lindsey and I both would like to thank our families for teaching us the vacation lunch. Fruits, cheese and crackers, a little sausage. Lindsey has discovered her love of fried plantains, which Brad hates, and pluots(seen here), which Brad also hates.

We've seen too many speedos but no thongs, thank God.

Saw an adorable little Latina girl whose name was, we're pretty sure, Malaria and a little Caucaisan boy who sounded exactly like a seagull.

Lindsey, along with various fruits, has discovered a calling to become a sand artist.

If that doesn't work, we can always buy shells from a wholesaler, glue all sorts of names on them and sell them for 5 dollars a piece.

We've found two sandollars and three full conch shells.

Lindsey was the furthest swimmer from shore for a short period today, a fact of which she's very proud.

Mom and Dad, remember me at the beach sitting in the sand and just looking for shells for hours? Well, turns out I still like that.

We have been doing some pondering out on the gulf as well. And we've come up with this philosophical gem: we (human beings) have NO IDEA what "big" really means. Looking out into the water, we really have no clue how big this world is or how small we are in it.

It was a great day. At one point, Lindsey asked what I was thinking and I said, with confidence, "nothing". Couldn't ask for more in a vacation...

More to follow. Hasta Manana. B n V

Oh yeah, and here's this...booyakasha!

St. Petersblog: Day One

Well, Lindsey and I arrived safely and without much incident in Orlando, Fl late this afternoon. We then rented our car (which gave us our first vacation story not 30 mintues on the ground) and drove about two hours to St. Petersburg on the coast of the gulf of Mexico.

As I said, not 30 minutes on the ground in Jeb Bush's stomping ground, we experienced our first vacation story. We found a car at a great rate online through a company called Payless Car Park and Rental. Probably the last time we'll buy anything but shoes at a place named Payless. After waiting in line for really too long, we come to counter and are greated by a very friendly man with a very heavy Western European accent. He says we have your reservation for a two-door Hyundai Sonata. Which is exactly what we wanted since it was 15 bucks a day. Our friend with the heavy accent then procedes to tell us that for very little money we could get something a little bigger, a little nicer, the same schpeal he gives everyone. Then, observant fellow that he is, he notices by our ID's that today is Lindsey's birthday (to find out which one, you'll have to ask her). After seeing this, he offers us "much more less than 50% off" on either a Dodge Charger or a Ford Mustang, for just 40 dollars more of the total cost. That offer, while generous, put us over the hundred dollar mark for car rental which we wanted to avoid. So, we politely declined saying we appreciated the gesture but we really originally wanted a compact and we're fine with that. He says ok and goes to get the keys. He comes back with a set I am familiar with, since it is in the Dodge family (see earlier post on the new wheels). So, thinking that he's either giving us the Charger-which would, frankly, kickass-or upgrading us to the sporty new Caliber, we hear him say, almost under his breath in a heavier accent than he had before, "We have your Caravan all ready, just round corner". A little shell-shocked, we turn the corner and lo and behold, there sat our vehicle for the week, a light blue '06 Dodge Caravan, complete with stow and go seating and automatic doors. So, as is natural, I get a little upset. I say some things I shouldn't, I snap at Lindsey a little bit, I get in an all around foul mood. And then, ten minutes down the road we discover that I can control the radio with buttons on the backside of the steering wheel. Twenty minutes down the road, we find the power seat controls for the driver's side and dual-climate controls (which lynz promptly turned way up on her side). Thirty minutes later we're commenting on how roomy and spacious it is and I've got the cruise control working, I'm switching stations left and right and, as fast as a dance remix of a song that's already a dance song can cheer up two dudes after driving brush around for four hours, I love the Dodge Caravan.


That's the story for today, more to come all week, so keep checking in. Below you'll find pics of our digs for the week, our first view of the ocean together, and a few of us. I failed to get a picture of the wheels before the sun went down, but rest assured, you'll see it tomorrow.

Peace,
Brad and Lindsey

Aren't we cute!!

Pandora's Blog

You asked for it, you got it.

So, I'm flipping through the channel's the other night and I stop on the O'Reily Factor, you know, for material. Turns out, Ol' Pompous Ass himself and I have something in common. There's a clip from the movie Jesus Camp circulating the airwaves this week for the release of Harry Potter. This angry, bitter lady screaming at a large group of pre-teens saying "If this was Old Testament Times, Harry Potter would be burned for witchcraft!!!" She actually used the term "warlock" as if referring to a real thing. Come on people. What about God's gifts of creativity and imagination? What about inspiring millions of kids to love reading? How many millions of kids has Numbers inspired lately? As both Bob and John Stewart pointed out on the same night, this is just rediculous. This kind of fanatacism really isn't worth a comment. But what happens when anyone goes to a public stage, says "I'm a Christian", and then procedes to say something hateful, or homophobic, or mysoginistic, or insane like "Harry Potter's evil", people start thinking that ALL Christians are like that. I just wish someone would get to level of public address and say once and for all, Yes, I'm a Christian and I happen to be just as lost, confused, scared, happy, joyous, doubtful, right, wrong, peaceful, angry, MESSED up as the rest of humanity. In other words, I'm a Christian and I'm a completely normal human being.

So, I'm flipping through the channels the other night and come across a story on Christian products. This is perfect because I also saw Michael Moore on The Report talking about his movie Sicko. It's perfect because the points are the same. There are two things that definately should ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH PROFIT: medicine and faith. The message of Jesus Christ is not for sale. If you have t-shirts, hats, mugs, stickers, posters, computer games, mouse pads, action figures, little magnetic plastic fish or anything else with a "trademark" or a "copyright" behind the name or message of Jesus...please go to your nearest Goodwill store and drop everything you've got on the back steps.

So, I'm flipping through the channels the other night and catch a rerun of the Daily Show and I finally hear put to words what made me feel so weird about the Annual Conference's new insurance policy. John Stewart said, referring to the Catholic Church's most recent tangle, "I want you all to really hear me, they had child abuse insurance!" My friends, you don't get insurance for something that you never expect to happen. You hope it won't happen, but you guess it probably will someday. The United Methodist Church has sexual and child abuse insurance. Fabulous.

I heard my two favorite lines in rock n roll history today from one of my favorite bands, Clutch:
"Condolezza Rice is nice but I prefer A' Roni"
"I've got your number, I steal your thunder, I got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm"
Thought I'd share.

Be careful what you wish for, BB

Summer, Summer, Summer-time!

Hey folks! As I told my brother after the first three times he told me to "freakin' blog already", I try very hard to not let any important or intelligent thoughts to enter my head during the summer months. However, since I've been told by at least six people now to "freakin' blog already" I thought I'd appease the masses.

Here's a few things I've been thinking about recently.

THINGS I'M EXCITED ABOUT:
My new car: a 2007 Dodge Caliber, silver, with avg. 25mpg, auxillary hookup for the iPod, plenty of space for people and cargo and 17,000 miles-it's by leaps and bounds the nicest car I've ever had.

My happy, peaceful, crawling-all-over-the-place nephew, who's a month ahead of development schedule, who reaches for you when you walk in, who laughs when you tickle him, who hauls himself up with just your fingers for help and who just loves life so much.

The Simpsons movie: the most anticipated movie ever!! After twenty years, it's finally here.

Feeling like a lazy slob when I don't work out three days a week. I'm the last person anyone would have expected to EVER feel this way, but here we are.

Dad's new hair; it's about time you stopped parting those four hairs up there.

My current project to listen to every Beatles album. Not the greatest hits or the anthologies, but each album front to back how they were meant to be heard. Mustoe, I seem to remember at some point questioning your devotion to the Fab Four. Now, I must apologize and thank you for opening my eyes to true genius. Now, if you could just stop being a wuss and put some metal in your rotation, we'll be even.

THINGS I'M NOT SO EXCITED ABOUT:
Two things concerning the United Methodist Church-1. This Holsinger or Holstetter or something who's up for surgeon general I think, which has brought into light a paper he wrote in 1991 about the detremental and unnatural physical and psychological effects of homosexuality. This paper includes descriptions of the damage done to the "anus" and "rectum" and an explanation of the unnatural nature of homosexual using the image of male and female pipe couplings in plumbing to shed light into the complex and mysterious world of human relationships. And who was the benefactor and recipiant of this scientifically sound paper? Why the United Methodist Church, of course! This has put us right in the middle of the conservative bigotry and homophobia after being relatively seen as an open church for years. Distinguished delegates to General Conference (which in this readership is pretty much Dad) the time is now! It is time to stand up and say as a church that we will be loving, welcoming, embracing of all God's children!
2. The conference new young adult ministry, MC2, of which I recently tried to become a part. As I learned, there's really no room for me to help because this will mainly be a student-led ministry focused on campus ministry alone. Apparently, the only young adults the conference is failing to reach are college students, and there's no room for ACTUAL young adults, working as pastors, who are willing to help out and be an active voice in reaching and ministering to young adults.

The Catholic Church: For the second time in my life, I went to a Catholic mass and sat through a communion service of which I could take NO PART and listened to the congregation sing One Bread, One Body. One of the great old hymns about how communion brings us all together sung in the context of the "one true church". At the end of the service a young adult (imagine that) from a national group that organizes Pro-life walk-a-thons came to the lecturn and urged us all to go and protest the KC Planned Parenthood building for all the EVIL that goes on inside. We then sang the closing song...They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love. "We will walk with each other, we will walk hand-in-hand"-unless you're not Catholic. "They will know we are Christians by our love"-unless you have to go through the heart-wrenching and impossible decision to get an abortion, then you'll know we are Christians by our picket signs!

Well, there you go. Those are the summertime innerworkings of the brain of Brad.

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make...
Peace, B

The Genius of Pearl Jam

I've been listening to a lot of Pearl Jam for the past couple of days. Now, I know that most of my readers are friends and family and some of them have no interest in my ramblings concerning rock and roll, but I can't contain myself.

Pearl Jam is genius. If you have even a cursory interest in modern rock, in modern music, you need to go out and buy Ten, VS., and Vitology, three of the best albums of the 90s and Ten is one of the best albums ever. If you consider youself a musician, you need to go to iTunes, click see all albums, and buy them all! As far as guitar tandoms go, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready are right up there with Lennon and McCartney, Richards and Wood, James Hetfield and Kurt Hammet, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford and all the other great songwriting duos. If you think you're a guitar player and don't know Yellow Ledbetter, you are NOT a guitar player. And if you fancy yourself a lyricist, or a rock melody writer, there's no one better right now than Eddie Vedder. His words, his melodies, his phrasing...pure rock and roll gold. And, when Matt Cameron joined on drums, they became an unstoppable post-punk, post-metal, post-new wave, rock tour de force.

Evenflow, Alive, Jeremy, Black, Daughter, Betterman, Nothingman, Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town, Yellow Ledbetter, Alone...simply some of the best songs ever written. So, if you want anything to do with post-80s music, do yourself a favor and listen to Pearl Jam. You won't regret it.

I will hold the candle, 'til it burns up my arm...I'll scream my lungs out, 'til it fills this room...
Peace, BB

More Reflections and Call to Action

OK, so I got a little heated in light of the VT tragedy. I didn't mean to be insensitive or callous. I'm simply trying to make sense of how this could happen like everyone else. I grabbed on to the gun control issue as a way of coping, of grieving. We have 20,000 laws dealing with guns in our country, so I don't know if one more will make any difference. My entire point, which you can see if you look past the wild ranting of an angry man, is that it's too easy. I don't think hunters and self-defense gun owners would argue that or should they have any trouble with federally mandated waiting periods and more extensive background checks. 90% of global homicide victims die in the United States. (alcohol, tobacco, and firearms website) 9 of 10! It's too easy, that's all I'm saying.

But, I'm not going to talk about this today. No gun control debate this time. Here's an idea: I'm responsible. Through my brother's blog http://www.entertherainbow.blogspot.com I've been reading some discussion as others try and deal with this in their own ways. Some private, personal reflections and some professional editorials. And here's the thought that stuck: I'm responsible. We all are. I asked Lindsey what she thought about the national day of mourning and she said a very wise thing: it's because we all felt this, we all know what sitting in french class is like, the innocense, and we all felt this. We all need to feel this, we need to feel the pain of the victims, their families, AND the survivors. Imagine going back into that classroom this week. There's a girl who was a freshman at Columbine High School when shooters massacred her classmates and now she's a student at Virginia Tech. We need to feel this. We need to feel the darkness in this young man's soul; we need to feel the anger, confusion, maybe illness, in his head that drove him to take so many human lives including his own.

But here's the kicker: We need to feel this not only when it's good, hard-working American college students; not only when it's 32 people and our talking-heads are foaming at the mouth to get some new angle on the story. Everytime one of our human brothers and sisters is killed by, or even affected by, violence, we should feel it. Whether it's a bunch of innocent college French students, a young man on 12 st. gunned down in the streets, a soldier who knew the risks she was taking joining an all-volunteer military, or a native citizen of Sudan executed by their own government's hired-gun...we should feel them all. Deep inside, we should feel them. But, so often, I glance over the headlines of human lives lost, I get impatient with the stories on the news because I wish they would get to the weather already. Two lines come to my head: Jack Johnson "Why don't the newscasters cry when they read about people who die? Least they could be descent enough to put just a tear in their eye..." Our newscasters are paid and trained to deliver the facts without emotion, we want them to, that's their role. It's not our role! We should feel it. Second: Obi Wan Kanobi "I sense a great disturbance in the force." Ben felt the life force created by every living being disturbed whenever evil grew in power and strength. Every time one of our human family is victimized by violence, evil grows in power and strength. We should all be so connected, so filled with the love that God has for creation, that we feel a disturbance in the ties that bind us together every time one of our beloved falls. Every time.

And now, speaking of our human connection, I need to make a commercial. This Friday evening, starting at 5 or 5:30 there is a rally for peace in the Darfur region of Sudan in Mill Creek Park, near the plaza. If you've been glancing over these headlines like I have been, I've done a little research. Darfur is a region in the African country of Sudan. Now, there's been civil war and infighting in Darfur for years, but there's never been anything on the scale of what's going on now. The Sudanese military, alongside the government-funded mercenary militias called Janjaweed, have marched through Darfur, killing over 400,000 people and displacing over a million. I looked up the difference between displaced and refugee. Refugees are people who have crossed a border into another country and the UN has declared them refugees, meaning they were forced out of their own country AND meaning that they have certain rights within the new country. Displaced means that they haven't left the country, usually because the army that displaced them has closed the borders. These are people whose homes are gone, destroyed, and whose ONLY source of survivals needs comes from the very little humanitarian aid that other nations can get in to them. If anyone has seen Hotel Rwanda or The Last King of Scotland (both excellent movies, must sees), This is happening right now in Sudan. We, the US/the UN, didn't do anything in Rwanda and hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered. We didn't do anything to stop Edi Amin, and hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered. If we don't do anything now, millions of people are going to die. But, dadgummit, we had to stop Saddam Hussien and his unbelievable access to weapons of mass destruction!
So, if you're in the KC area this Friday evening, please come down to the park next to the plaza, to help show support of those brothers and sisters who have lost their lives and lost their homes.

Alright, folks. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad, mad world. I didn't even talk about our Attorney General saying "I don't remember" 71 times under oath and our president saying "If anything, I'm more confident in him" afterwards. Idiots.

Peace, my friends, B

Random Notes

Yesterday was Earth Day, so suck it, Neptune!!

But seriously, I know I'm known to take some lengthy breaks from the blogosphere, but I thought that last one was pretty good! I am a needy, attention-starved, approval-seeking baby child. I need your comments to give my online rantings some kind of validation!

Where are all you people??

BB