soupablog

"An Illustrated Life" officially released

Some GREAT early morning news from the book's F+W editor, Amy, via Danny Gregory:

"The book just hit our warehouse on 11/11, so it should be on bookstore shelves in about two weeks. But it has now been officially "released" and Amazon pre-orders should begin moving very soon."

• We had to add more books to the initial print run because of all the pre-orders
• Also, on Amazon, we are #1 in Graphic Design and #1 in  Drawing. (#1,308 in Books overall!)
• You can still hear the An Illustrated Life podcast interviews (including mine) here.
• Please consider pre-ordering your copy today at Amazon - you save $6.40 -- 32%!

Paul Soupiset Sketches in "An Illustrated Life"

"An Illustrated Life" is shipping advance copies. With any luck, mine will arrive downtown at my studio tomorrow. see how many of my sketchbook pages you can find in this promo video artfully compiled and narrated by Danny Gregory:

Tony Jones’ Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier

Thankfully someone's finally done it ... Tony Jones took the last year or so and gathered and codified many of the stories, theologies and artifacts from the first decade of the emerging church conversation. The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier (2008, Jossey-Bass) offers hope-filled, engaging views (at times wonderfully granular, other times, appropriately birds-eye) of many of the facets of the imperfect gem that is emergent. Part history scrapbook, part emergent church travelogue, part theological and epistemic treatment, this primer may well become the de-facto "on-ramp text" for the next decade.

An Illustrated Life: the podast

In conjunction with the upcoming book, An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration From The Private Sketchbooks Of Artists, Illustrators And Designers, Danny Gregory has launched  a new audio podcast to introduce you to the fifty artists who will appear in its pages.

"Each episode features a lengthy interview with a different contributor as well as examples of their work. Until the book itself appears on Amazon (October, '08), we will have to make do with these interesting conversations. Please listen to the first episode and subscribe via RSS  or iTunes."

When I'm in New York later this month, I hope to catch up with Danny over a shared meal and capture a podcast conversation in person. I'll keep you informed.

Pre-order "An Illustrated Life" today

Remember that "sketchbookbook" I told you about a few months ago? ¿No?

Last year I was asked to be a small part of a new book compiled by Everyday Matters author Danny Gregory. Honored, I gathered together some of my favorite 2007 Lentenblog sketches and a few other Moleskine goodies, and packaged them up and sent them off to NYC.

Over the next few months, as the sketches started pouring in from around the world, Danny gave contributors little sneak peeks, so we could catch a glimpse of the other artists' work. Trust me: this is going to be a cool book. One I'm honored to be part of. Anyway, it'll be 272 pages, full color, and chock-full of a wide array of illustrated journals, inky sketchbooks, watercolored Moleskines, with essays and interviews with the artists as well.

It's finished now, and being printed and readied for distribution in December:

An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration
From The Private Sketchbooks Of
Artists, Illustrators And Designers.

You can now pre-order it through Amazon and knock a third off the price!

I can't wait! Get the word out, bloggers, ye!

— paul

Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals + Ryan Sharp Snippet

It came in today! My advance copy of Jesus for President, the new Shane Claiborne + Chris Haw book for which I contributed 40 or so watercolor illustrations; designed by my friends Holly and Ryan over at SharpSeven. I'm really geeking out over how cool it turned out, thumbing through it like a little kid. It's cool to finally see the other contributors' work (several artists, photographers) and see how the whole thing comes together.

Please consider buying a copy.

It's four-color throughout, but somehow the price is less than $12 over at the big box place. I'm sure VivaBooks will sell it as well.

Here's an illustration I did, which you can see closer when you buy the book:

file under: filet'o'fish'o'war

Here's designer Ryan hard at work with his other love. This is fresh footage BTW:

emergent manifesto of hope book discussion

had a good get-together today at ruta. gordon, tim h, christopher, travis, ian and myself were there, talking a little about "Emergent Manifesto of Hope" and a LOT about mainline and other institutional denominations and their future (or lack thereof). The gathering photo was backlit, so it didn't do justice to the group. you can make out christopher's cool clerical collar. how's that for alliteration.

underground books sign

Underground Books is a new book co-operative established "to provide access to books—and everything they offer—to our communities in San Antonio. Specifically our target areas are the West, South and East Side communities that have lacked access to books for generations. Our goal is to provide a progressive alternative to the market-determined access of books.

"Underground Books will be the only community owned bookstore in San Antonio. We will belong to the community, not only through the usual co-op investment process, but also through events and activities that can bring the community together."

Here's the sign/logo I designed for the U/B co-op.

Crumble. Crackle. Burn.

An illustrator friend of mine, Von Glitschka, is coming out with a textures book, being published by F+W / How Books. If you're a texture junkie like me, here's the book you've been waiting for. 'Crumble. Crackle. Burn - 120 Stunning Textures for Design and Illustration'. His website even includes some free textures to download.

You can buy it on Amazon, OR, support a local business and order it from Viva Books.

Emergent Manifesto of Hope [Book Discussion]

Today in San Antonio five cohort learners gathered over Cuban sandwiches, grilled panini or tomato-basil soup, to discuss the first two major sections of Emergent Manifesto of Hope. We camped out for a while on Mark Scandrette's and Troy Bonsink's essays, chased some on-ramp rabbit trails, described the Gatherings to some folks who hadn't yet made the pilgrimage, some discussions on parenting, the missional movement, etc. I had to leave early, so I'm hoping Tim, Travis, Rudy or Michael can post about what happened in the second half. We'll continue the Manifesto conversation in June. Please come join us, it's not too late! (Location and Time TBD)

The Children of Húrin

my country of origin has no national epic.

what mythology do we bring to the table?

this weekend i read J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published "The Children of Húrin" — (son.editor Christopher Tolkien must be getting up in years himself) I had long ago read the version in the Silmarillion and the Narn i Chîn Húrin in the book Unfinished Tales. The whole endeavor makes me wonder - have any of you explored the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland (Tolkien was inspired by the lyrical poem when he wrote much of what was to become the Silmarillion)? after reading the "Húrin" book, I went back and re-read Tuor's approach to Gondolin found in Unfinished Tales this afternoon.
 

spiders and starfish

i've been thinking about leadership lately.
which is why this book recommendation from worship tricks blogger jonny baker caught my eye:

he says:

alan hirsch recommended the starfish and the spider: the unstoppable power of leaderless organisations to me. it is a wonderful book! if you cut off a spider's head it dies, if you cut off a starfish's leg it grows a new one and both parts then become starfish. traditional top down organisations are like spiders but particularly with the advent of the internet starfish organisations are all around. a classic example of a starfish would be AA alcoholics anonymous - driven by a simple ideology/vision of addicts helping one another and the 12 step programme, AA groups meet all over the world and yet there is very little centre, very little control other than the core vision. if you become a member you are a leader. anyone can start a group.

the introduction and the first chapter are on the web site.

Buechner, Ericson, Bluebonnets, Cellulitis and Logic Boards

I'm back from a blogging hiatus. The iMac was in the shop. (Yes, even Macs can have faults. My logic board needed replacing.)

Jordan's weekend camping trip with my father and me was called off due to cellulitis stemming from an insect or spider bite on my son's thigh. Enough to make one afraid. Bed rest. Two days. Meds. Time will tell. Please pray. Thank you. I'll try and update you in 24 hours or so.

Some eight to ten years ago I read Godric by Frederick Buechner. And I hung upon every word.

Then maybe two or even three years ago I was rummaging through a garage sale in Austin and ran across a 1958 Knopf First Edition printing of Buechner's third novel, The Return of Ansel Gibbs. Even though the dust jacket printing was sun-faded, the hardback book itself was in good condition. I think it could possibly sell for fifty or sixty bucks, but I picked it up for fifty cents.

I think at the time I wrote to my friend, musician Eric Peters — a huge Buechner fan, check out Eric's music too — that I was starting to read the book, but I only cracked the first several pages and moved on to something else.

Finally I took the time this last week to go back and read …Ansel Gibbs and again I found myself hanging on Mr. Buechner's words. No time for a review. But it was a good read. I'd like to re-read Godric over the Christmas break, godwilling.

I did realize, after the fact, that my reading Gibbs coincided with Robert Gates' confirmation hearings.
(Gibbs is about a presidential cabinet nominee's decision to/not to pursue the post)

Tonight Amy and I fashioned a Leif Ericson costume for Jordan who will 'become' this famous Icelandic explorer for a day tomorrow at school. Leif is thought by some to be he first European to sail to the New World, no offense, St. Brendan. Jordan's costume looks really good and was essentially free — it was cobbled together from a coarse cloth pirates' shirt, a brown faux-suede tunic we cut and wrapped with a leather belt, wash-in red hair dye, birkenstocks with added cloth strips criss-crossed up the calf to mimic a roman-influenced sandal, a silver cross on a necklace (Norway's King Olaf insisted he take on Christianity; Leif settled for polytheism, just in case) ... we're still looking for his old plastic sword.

Monday I had a lunch with a friend who is a pastor at a large church in town. He spoke some very healing words and I've come again and again to realize how much we need others in our lives speaking truth into our daily rhythms. I am sad to say I haven't had that for months. So it felt like living water.

Then today I had lunch with a friend who I'm just getting to know, it seems. And we spoke some very simple words to each other that again brought healing to me. Plus, we ate at Radicke's Bluebonnet Café, a place I suggested that I hadn't been to in six or seven years. Good roadhouse comfort food. Chicken Fried Steak. That sort of fare.

This afternoon I got to use my Spanish to speak to Claudia, who speaks about as much English as I do Spanish. I classify myself as "Functional enough to get out of danger" — but it reminded my that I love Spanish and languages in general. Weird, huh. I love semiotics and contexts and puns and cognates and inferences and plays-upon-words.

Like Ansel Gibbs, I'm less a man of action than a man of words. Then again I'm 37 and a father of four and no one's given me permission to call myself a man. What happened to bildungs román? Rite of Passage? Calling out into manhood? Gauntlets?

I have a lot of work to do these next few weeks, so I shouldn't have even blogged this long. I need to be a man of action. MIssional, even. Yes, Bishop Newbigin, there is a Stanta Claus.

Thanks Mark. Thanks Joseph. Thanks Frederick.

nanowrimo

at least two of my friends are participating in nanowrimo. someone please remind me next year in october, so i can start on november 1.

becoming who i am

'becoming who you are' by james martin was commended to me by cliff knighten, a friend, mentor, and until very recently, the pastor of our little community we've been calling trinity house. i read the book in one sitting (okay, i was supine) tonight. the first book i've read in three or four months. the read reminded me of my own  hopes to expose to light my true self, reminded me of all i do that props up my false self, and succinctly offered 'elevator-length' definintions for both. anyway, a good, quick read.

i'll post more about our community soon, and will try to hyperlink to any of cliff's future posts about his continuing journey of faith — becoming who he is.

it's 1:18 am, so pamela down in nicaragua has lived through her first election day; we're anxious to hear how that went. ("Early election results in Nicaragua suggest former Marxist revolutionary Daniel Ortega could return to power as president after 16 years.")

quick austin roadtrip

my lovetime life affair with Moleskines

i was happy to see friends Erik and Betsy, quoted in a recent Washington Post article.
i was even happier to note the article was giving props to Moleskine® notebooks, the "legendary notebook of Van Gogh, Chatwin, Hemingway, Matisse and Céline." ..

which led me to discover: http://www.moleskineart.com/

and to then mike rohde's moleskine sketches,
http://www.rohdesign.com/weblog/archives/cat_sketches.html

(that's one of his.)

which has now inspired me to actually start scanning and posting some of those moleskine sketches I have that'll never be shared otherwise.

my first journal of the sort was a gift from the galbreaths. i've been hooked ever since. my friend mark uses one too, i've noticed. paper and ink. ink and paper. mmmmmmmm. if i lived in a monastery, i'd request to be a scribe. but i wouldn't lick my fingers [thanks, umberto]. bets, email me an outtake shot.

time to go pick up jordan and abigail.

BodyPrayer

Not too long ago I witnessed author and pastor Doug Pagitt leading a large group — several hundred conference attendees — in a series of “prayer postures.” The position of our hands and arms (outstretched? folded across our chest?), our heads (uplifted? downcast?) echoed and even amplified the prayers of our hearts. I was reminded that when we attempt to communicate with God discursively, we quickly reach a wall, but as western distinctions of “body,” “mind,” and “soul” recede, we begin to more-fully experience our own prayers with our whole being.

To this end, Pagitt and Kathryn Prill have released a simple compendium called BodyPrayer: The Posture of Intimacy with God. Chapter by chapter the authors outline prayer-types (e.g.: prayer for healing) with accompanying postures (e.g.: praying with one’s palms out, facing up). Simple figure-drawings clarify and embellish the chapters.

Although the book’s list may be used prêt-à-pratiquer—these are great for corporate gatherings—the book also encourages individuals and communities to work out their own body prayers. Those comfortable with yoga and other physical meditative practices should be instantly at home with the offerings Pagitt offers; those of us less-comfortable with our own bodies might need some time to warm up to the idea of using these in a congregational context. But as the Church ponders both ancient and new ecclesial practices, this insight has wonderful implications for both personal and corporate prayer.

BodyPrayer : The Posture of Intimacy with God
by Doug Pagitt, Kathryn Prill
Hardcover, 160 pages, $15.99 retail
WaterBrook Press
Language: English
ISBN: 1400071488
7.4 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches; 8.0 ounces

Available through Viva Books.

Listen: Brian McLaren in SA (MP3) 11.28.05

   
    Podcast: Listen to the Nov 28 2005 Brian McLaren talk in San Antonio here .

    (thizzzanks to M Dizzle for the pizzost)

viva book reviews is live

viva book reviews is live on real live preacher.com:

http://viva.reallivepreacher.com/   

paul from mckinney, tx

weekend update

i need to go to bed because i'm waking  up early for a client meeting so maybe if i do one long run-on sentence it'll go down quicker paul thought and wrote like caddy compson's benjy moments in long streams, long streams to catch you up starting with  friday perhaps yes friday night where my parents kept the kids and amy and i had a much-needed date night and had a great time and made a pilgrimage to the apple store in san antonio's latest temple to consumerism: the shops at la cantera and then was saturday when hurricane rita came and we moved furniture most of the day and soccer games were canceled and sunday came and our missional community went to san pedro manor and spoke and learned and loved and remembered and grew and welcomed mark and rachel with open arms and jordan made me proud and devin made us all proud and my six-and-a-half-month-old baby stole the show and the beautiful and wise and weathered nursing home residences drank in emma's soft, round baby skin cheeks and fair smile and i watched and met betty who came from new orleans and hadn't found her hurricane-scattered children and she had been in the superdome and had heard the worst and then mark amazed me the way he could embrace strangers so easily y se puede hablar en espanol con las abuelitas y yo sitting there in contrast, forgetting mis palabras y no puedo recuerdo mucho and grace, and love, and later selfless susan serving spaghetti, starbucks, and birthday cliff and birthday ginger and casey started his blog and hannah and kate had laughing moments and amy made that chocolate cake and love and lethargy mixed and kids played pool just like river-city, and mike was there and i was there and we were late for soccer practice and i waited with jordan instead of going to mosaic roadtrip but that was okay, and i got to talk to george and that was good and then mark came by for some furniture and i made grilled cheese for jordan and i had a really good talk about our missional community and church and how important he is and watched grey's anatomy on abc tv and read two blog posts from cliff and they got my mind wheels rotating and a typed in a long comment and asked myself some questions and isn't it warm for september and my wasn't our electric bill high and isn't the wild goose fluid and good and beautiful and isn't she worth following?

Mr. Tumnus

I started reading C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe to the three oldest kids this week. We cover one, two, or three chapters a night in lieu of my usual off-the-cuff bedtime story. It's more talking than my usual stories, and I don't get the creative outlet of making up new characters every evening, BUT when you're a little tired, it's nice to be able to have a 'fixed liturgy' of a good ole' familiar story to read. I spared the kids the fake British accents, which is how I started reading The Magician's Nephew to Jordan a few years ago. Whew.

I'm off to bed.

Shalom.

Beyond Foundationalism a'comin

Virusdoc wanted a layman's synopsis of Beyond Foundationalism. --Erik, you said you had "long been committed to the defunct-ness of foundationalist epistemologies," but couldn't determine "what to put in their place that allows any semblance of civil discourse between competing worldviews." I'm gonna try and formulate some thoughts over the next coupla days....

Upon finishing "Beyond Foundationalism"

1. it took a month of sporadic reading, but i finally finished "Beyond Foundationalism".
2. my brain is full, and i need time to process.
3. generally: a really, really good treatment, good collaboration.
4. i commend this book to you.
5. i'm already thinking of the implications in my own sphere.

thanks, stan & john.

our daily blog

a few random thoughts for monday.

+ my friend danny in Kansas owns this cool painting to the left. His drawing instructor, josh cross, did the piece. note to self: buy more cool art. i have a great waddy armstrong painting on my living room wall, but it belongs to a friend's collection. it's on loan.

+ i think i'm going to buy a penny whistle.

+ an old college friend emailed me today. She's living in Tegucigalpa (which, of course, is fun to say). She's getting ready to move to Madrid (not as much fun to say, but easier). Jenn, thanks for writing. And yes, your son is right: you should blog :)

+ both of the above mentioned people are reading Blue Like Jazz currently. It's on my list of books to complete. I love the opening. need to make time to read it now that:

+ I'm getting ready to start a book discussion group on Guder's Missional Church.

+ My friend Waldemar gave me Repenting of Religion. (Boyd?) Anyone read it? I think it's from Baker. I'm going to go thru it. He deals with some Bonhoeffer themes.

+ today was Random Music Day for me. in some ways, every day is, but this seemed especially random. been listening to dixie chicks, thompson twins, energy orchard, astrud gilberto and then a whole bunch of shuffled songs on iTunes.

my dear adso,

I finally had a few evenings to finish The Name of The Rose.

don't know why i didn't read it sooner. excellent fiction backed by excellent research; good, dimensional characters, mystery, faith, loss of faith, redemption, ambivalence, in wonderfully haunting setting.

oh, and newbiggin was right.

on another note, i purchased the Daily Office Book (2 volumes, inclusive) today. a pretty penny, but God-willing it will last me a lifetime.