soupablog

SXSW Redux: six takeaways for youth media publishers, designers, game developers and marketers

six takeaways for youth media publishers,
designers, game developers and marketers:
click to see my original post at Toolbox Studios' blog:

 6. Teens [still] don't Tweet. While Twitter was hands down "the" tool at this year's SXSW Interactive (and one we recommend be part of any company's corporate communication plan... see more at #5), the 140-character micro-blog trend isn't being as eagerly adopted by teens. Anastasia Goodstein's YPulse teen panel again validated this hunch: You're just not going to reach a majority of 14-to-18 year olds with the über backchannel. Better to occupy the mobile space and MySpace. Facebook is there as well, but the "I wanna customize my space" fave MySpace is still top dog among this cohort. Should be interesting to see how this trend develops as Facebook and Twitter continue to dominate and grow the microblogging/lifestreaming space.

5."Not making plans is so totally Web 3.0." — this line from Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, framed a second, related truism—Twitter was clearly still the rockstar and darling of sxswi. As McCarthy pointed out, when lines to get into parties at the Austin confab got too long, flash-mob intelligence via Twitter created new meetups, new parties, on the fly.

With a multitude of third-party tools and add-ons, Twitter offers increased freedom and mobility to stay on top of news and events in whatever niche you're interested in following.

And to those following the youth crowd, just because they aren't all on Twitter (yet), that doesn't mean their socializing isn't happening on the net—teens are embracing MySpace and Facebook, but moreover, they're embracing the relationships emerging from those connections. As Harvard fellow and youth media scholar Dana Boyd points out, "We have this belief that kids are just addicted to social network sites. If anything, they’re addicted to their friends. This “addiction” to friends is precisely what makes social networks so important, especially for tweens, who are more limited in their socializing options (until they can drive). There’s school, extracurriculars and the movie theater on the weekends, but with social networking they can be sure not to miss a single OMG moment.”

4. Get out of the way and let your audience explore. Interestingly, this reminder came out of an interactive game development session, although it was emphasized in later Web 2.0 panels as well. As one gaming expert stated, "the complexity of our gaming interfaces should level up with our users as they proceed [with gameplay]." The key idea here seems completely intuitive, but it found new currency with me at the Playing On! Interface Lessons from Games session: when we design games, instead of front loading the game with tutorials or a discursive set of rules, we should allow the player to start gameplay and learn progressively.

In the 2.0 panels, this prioritization of the audience surfaced more in the context of public relations and customer management. With social media, we all know you can't exert control over everything online as you once could. You can't play by the same rules, either. You have to learn to listen to the conversation, insert yourself/your company genuinely, and be okay that you can't predict or dictate the outcome. You can only monitor and react to it.

3. Design is still king. Evidenced everywhere I turned. Good design creates context. Good branding creates curiosity, loyalty, buzz and desirability. Too many examples to name. Okay, maybe one: Alex Bogusky's B-cycle (bicycle sharing) initiative.

2. It's all about R&R. Not rest and relaxation, but rewards and reputation. A fascinating seminar borrowed from the language of game playing mechanics and found parallels to be brought to bear in all of our social media apps. Rewards will need to move beyond simple point-tallying and actually show bling for levels attained (exemplary games display which level a user has achieved, which in turn earns him/her instant street-cred). The best of these apps incorporate some kind of collecting mechanism as well—a metaphoric trophy case—to show off those accumulated points. Whether it's medals on an army officer's uniform, merit badges on a girl scout's sash, or a collection of karate level belts, humans collect visual indicators of our advancement. Finding creative ways to do this on the application level rewards your avids, and offers a clear path for noobs who want to engage with your brand.

1. A Social Vote for Change Probably the most memorable session I went to was a lunch at Stubb's BBQ, where the topic was "Social Media for Social Change" — a lot was said about the distinction between using social media for charity and using the same tools to effectuate actual social, systemic, societal, or institutional change. 700 people RSVPd for this lunch. I was lucky to arrive early, which means I got in the door, actually ate a great brisket lunch (ironically/awkwardly eating my BBQ sitting next to two new friends who work at PETA2), and settled in for the conversation. The panelists included pioneer Beth Kanter, David Armano, Scott Goodstein,  Stacey Monk, James Young and Randi Zuckerberg. For an engaging overview of the conversation, read Kanter's brilliant summary blogpost here.

Dr. Peter Rollins at St. Marks — This Sunday

stations of the cross

two of my stations of the cross from last year.
i miss that harmony guitar.
photographed by reallivepreacher

Station 10: Jesus is Crucified (detail on right)

Station 14: Jesus is Laid in the Tomb (detail on right)

i'm available by commission to finish the other twelve.

"the smaller the footprint of the house, the greater the footprint of the land" more micro housing in NYT

i've posted before on my fascination with micro-housing.  it stands against excess. it's quaint and comforting. safe. it's cool. minimalist and distilled. womb-like. every small house presents a good design problem. it eschews the tendency to amass possessions. a prophetic voice against "bigger-is-better" consumerist bent in me and for that reason, it also interests me as a follower of Christ. as an artist, these lilliputian sheds interest me as potential statements of beauty. and the spiritual introvert in me loves daydreaming about the monastic possibilities. i've dreamed of an art space / cell for years that would be like this. possibly something like the art silos in downtown san antonio.

i hadn't noticed until now, but the new york times has been covering this beat with regularity: today they published a story by steven kurutz about a tiny house built on the back of a pickup truck. one year earlier they published this about "high-style sheds". And back in February, Bethany Lyttle wrote "Think Small" — funny, it's a small headline which stands juxtaposed against the NYT "GREAT HOMES" section header (see photo, left). Lyttle also narrated a wonderful companion slide show where she shows the rural getaway of one Mr. Adams, a lawyer in San Francisco. Her narration says something to the effect that, "being in a small space makes the land seem greater," and she continues with this small profundity: 

"the smaller the footprint of the house, the greater the footprint of the land"

these photos bear witness to that little truth. so maybe one day when my lovely overcrowded nest thins out a bit. in the meantime, i'll enjoy daydreaming.

all of these photos above are copyright the New York Times, taken by Peter DaSilva, Michael Falco, Heidi Schumann, Alchemy Architects, John Friedman, and Jay Shafer for Tumbleweed Tiny Homes.

 

RESOURCES FOR TINY HOME MOVEMENT / MICRO-HOUSING:

prefab homes
fabprefab — which has links for many micro houses including:
zenkaya
smallhouse
kitHAUS

Budynek mieszkalny :: Single Hauz

you may remember my post last year about the m-ch micro compact home, a 2.6 meter cube intended for one or two inhabitants (it's now on display at moma until mid-october). i've always been intrigued by well-designed, compact living spaces (my son and my mom both tell me they share the same facscination). equally interesting to me are are treehouses and  teardrop trailers, such as the one pictured on the left. homes and mobile homes like these are, in my mind, testaments to good space allocation, a (relatively) conservative use of resources, and a rather romantic way to bunk down for the night. i've enjoyed reading about building one's own teardrop trailer, and if i were more handy with tools i'd certainly have it on my list of things to do.

now front architects in poznań, poland (north of wrocław and west of warszawa) have designed the billboard-inspired single hauz:

"…a kind of manifest, proposal of a house/shelter for a Western Worlder. The "basic unit of society", as marriage is called, is no longer the only model of life. As a detached single occupant house unit, Single Hauz fills a kind of a void in the field of housing proposal for so called "singles"…"

in any case, it's a joy to look at and to ponder a month or even a week living inside. enjoy their mockups:

Year A :: Advent I

"Look, if someone wrote a play just to glorify
What's stronger than hate, would they not arrange the stage
To look as if the hero came too late / he's almost in defeat
It's looking like the evil side will win, so on the edge
Of every seat, from the moment that the whole thing begins...
Although it looks like we're alone
In this scene set in shadows
Like the night is here to stay
There is evil cast around us
But it's love that wrote the play..."
    —David Wilcox 

Advent Week I Lectionary Readings here.

this sketch is pretty much what church looked like today, except even if you squint, you can't see chris alvarez sitting up front playing cello. and the windows in the drawing aren't interleaved by the beautiful hanging banners of advents past. and you can't see me sitting there wondering if i'm going to have enough energy to explain the deutero-isaiah theory to anyone in my family today (i didn't have to). somewhere in the cross-hatchy composition you can also imagine my friend tj visiting today, sitting there over on the far side, next to liz and jason.

this morning my pastor and friend gordon reminded us all that in advent we trade 'ramping up' for 'slowing down' (i give lip-service to this all the time; today i'm really considering how to live this corporeally and not just let the idea make my head nod); we don't get louder, we search for silence, etc. (this one i can handle usually). also his message gave me pause — i had to be open to a new way of understanding proto-isaiah's prophecy here (as largely unfulfilled prophetic utterings rather than esentially fulfilled or not-yet eschatological hope). not sure i agreed with it fully, but i was certainly willing to travel alongside as this got unpacked. a really good sermon: i wish i could take you all to church with me, but that would quash the innocence of this little stone church hidden amidst the juniper trees.

but what really hit me this week wasn't the sermon or the worship or even the onset of advent. instead it was a few well-aimed words (lobbed in my direction) from some smart women in the mystics/cynics/pilgrims class — i had been talking about some longtime frustrations when [thanks to their insight] suddenly the whole situation unfurled like a starched sheet amidst cerulean sky in a well-directed laundry soap commercial, and i knew that in an instant everything had changed. a burden had been lifted.

from now on at least this one issue will be framed in the language of acceptance, forgiveness and possibly mourning, rather than the posture of my insistence for change or for [the individual in question] to opt-in to my point of view. it was a free therapy session which netted a hammered stake and a new fence vector.

veni, veni emmanuel

Austinchange and McLaren recap

Austinchange.org and Brian McLaren hosted a series of conversations in Austin yesterday revolving around his new book EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE. Some links from Bob Carlton… The Austin American Statesman had some great coverage:

Here
Here and
Here

Per Bob,  "These initial blog posts represent the breadth of POVs from some of the 600 people who came to one or more of these 4 events:"

Rick Diamond
Jacob Vanhorn
Clifton Stringer
Charles Whitmire

o the weekends

Friday i worked from home on client work until mid-afternoon, then started out on a trip up to austin where i met bob carlton for dinner prior to the Austin Emergence 2007 panel discussion thingy.

Intuiting, perhaps, that i was born just miles from leon springs, texas, bob suggested we meet at Rudy's BBQ on 183. Over brisket and sausage and Rudy's now-famous BBQ "Sause" [sic], we shared in some good conversation and learned about the "hand-spa", then headed a couple miles away to this well-groomed, mall-like mega-church campus (ewww; i was half-expecting the perfect landscaping to have piped-in music from those injection-molded theme-park rocks. instead i quickly found the money-changers — err, sponsors — in the campus café).

so not a very likely setting for an emerging church confab; in fact, it had all the trappings of the contemporary-pop-culture-church-as-performance i've been running away from the last ten years: professional lighting rigging, three massive projection screens, tech geeks in back in a mixing board booth worthy of a concert hall, elevated-stage-instead-of-altar, auditorium, overstuffed chairs for the speakers, lapel mics, slick, auditorium seating for the rest of us and pre-produced video loops with schmutzy typefaces and royalty-free video loops. nothing to situate itself in time and place. OK: i'm not being very gracious. and i know this. and i will stop. now.

what came next is articulated well by bob here and here.

In the end I was impressed by most of the speakers and by the moderator, Scot McKnight, who I already had been tracking via books and weblog posts (and my bro-in-law syler's coffeeklatches with the prof) ...

The evening session (atonement theories!) finished. then comes the obligatory "we're in Austin, who's up for Magnolia Café or Kirbey Lane?"

My late-night dining partners were my buddies from Netzer Co-op. The entire current incarnation of the co-op was present, I believe: Lay-abbot Tim, Abbess/Painter Brianna, Contemplative Michael, Worship-Artist Ryan, and Novice Jonathan. I was honored to play the role of, as my friend Mark Menjivar would say, holy listener. They were/are at a turning point in their fledgling community all-too-similar to where Trinity House was at a year or so ago. Then I gave them some imperfect sage-green advice to go with Bri's green-green enchiladas. Usually-silent Michael suggested that after an evening of talking about theology, that they ditch the next morning's event and go buy sandwich fixings and spend the morning handing out food to the poor in Austin instead of listening to talking heads at the conference. Which is exactly what needed to be said. And done. I could've hugged him, the suggestion was so spontaneous and on-point. We stayed out too late and dragged ourselves to my gracious in-laws' where beds and sofas were awaiting my friends and me.

Next morning, thanks to Google Maps and the iPhone, we discovered Pacha, a cool little fair-trade coffee joint in Austin. Must return to soak in more. Planning to go to just the first session and then go with Netzer, I was drawn into the conversation in a deeper way than the day prior. I also got to meet Danielle Shroyer, the pastor of a fellowship in the DFW area that a few of my friends frequent. I like her: she's got a great perspective on many things.

And I love the theological underpinnings of Josh Carney's mind. Resolved: after his commendation (being the third or fourth this year, I will next read Jürgen Moltmann).

I felt pangs of guilt for Tim and I never joining up with the rest of Netzer on their outing. The praxis engagement and resultant reflection would've been better for me. I rationalized it away several times: I was Tim's ride so I needed to stay; I'm too old and just got in the way of their youthful missional expression; I knew I needed to get back on the road at about 2pm; I really wanted to talk to several of the folks afterwards, including Glenn and David (right). Kept thinking about the distribution of the food going on while I was wrapping up my stay at the conference. But I never went. Tim and I left and grabbed lunch and sat down to record a podcast interview for his blog at Jo's and then I hit the road for SA.

Came home, and prepped for this morning: I facilitated a discussion in our 'mystics/cynics/pilgrims' class at church (sort of the sunday school dropouts) about the way of the pilgrim, and led hymns, a taizé chant, worship songs, and an original composition in front of the congregation. the song that I wrote I dedicated today to my grandmother who turns 90 years old this week.

That's where I was this evening: at Lorraine Pearman's 90th birthday party.

Read a little Alan Roxburgh this evening, blogged this, and will be going to sleep.

Sorry not much critical reflection of the conference.

more later.
p

consumer ism

it's difficult to not be a consumerist
when le corbusier is on sale.

The Cobalt Season / House Concert at my House: Wednesday

Come to my house for a night of song and poetry and stories:

“Disgruntled with the American notions of materialism and Christianity, [The Cobalt Season] set forth on a pilgrimage, traveling from town to town relying upon the hospitality of old and new friends as well as the grace of God to see them through, searching for answers and insight into the questions they found themselves asking.” [Infuze]

We're suggesting $12 at the door to cover travel expenses; if you're not able to pay, please come anyway! If you're able to cover someone else, please bring extra dough. CDs will be on sale. I think they are $15 apiece and 2 for $25.  Please RSVP via Facebook

Brian McLaren - “I just got back from Africa and have been listening to In Search of a Unified Theory nonstop for a couple days. I’m totally blown away. I really liked But I Tell You, but this one just soars. The lyrics are powerful. The songs themselves are so strong, so well structured. The vocals are perfect. And the arrangements are completely amazing. I thought of several of my favorite bands - Innocence Mission, the Weepies, and Sigur Rós. This CD should win a bunch of awards. Thanks for making it, man!”

Directions to our house.

"You guys, be quiet. Daddy's talking to Bono."

Amy's side of the family has this strange ability to run into celebs.

My father-in-law once chummed it up with the lead singer of Judas Priest on a flight (this apart from his already being best buddies with The Closer actor G.W. Bailey affording him one degree of separation from Kevin Bacon and lots of star-studded charity dinners). Amy's cousin Traci (apart from acting on stage with High School Musical's Ashley Tisdale and earlier performing on Oprah Rosie ) has a photo taken with Nicolas Cage on her fridge door.

See what I mean? Very strange.

Her brother, Syler takes the cake. I'm not talking about when he scuba-dove with Ozzy Osbourne in Hawaii (true, dat). I'm talking about his talking to Bono on the cell phone recently.

iphone. check.

despite last night's activation nightmares, the soupablog iphone is up and running.

lentenblog moleskine 033107 Third Floor Con Prisa

yesterday's lentenblog post facto

m-ch Micro Compact Housing

via willzhead, via the moleskinerie, via m-ch:
"The micro compact home [m-ch] is a lightweight compact dwelling for one or two people. Its compact dimensions of 2.6m cube adapt it to a variety of sites and circumstances, and its functioning spaces of sleeping, working / dining, cooking and hygiene make it suitable for everyday use....

The m-ch has a timber frame structure with anodised aluminium external cladding, insulated with polyurethane and fitted with aluminium frame double glazed windows and front door with security double lock; graphics can be applied for sponsors, exhibition and business use.

The m-ch measures 266cm x 266cm x 266cm. The ceiling height is 198cm and the door width is 60cm.

Inside the m-ch features:

• two compact double beds, each measuring 198cm x 107cm, with covered cushions
• storage space for bedding and cleaning equipment
• a sliding table measuring 105cm x 65cm, for dining for up to five people
• flat screen television in the living/dining space
• a shower and toilet cubicle
• a kitchen area, which is fitted with electrical points and features a double hob, sink and extending tap, microwave, fridge and freezer units, three compartment waste unit, storage shelves, cutlery drawers with gentle return sprung slides and double level work surfaces
• thermostat controlled ducted warm air heating, air conditioning, water heating
• fire alarm and smoke detectors

hobbitat

this is cool. and environmentally friendly.
follow this link to see more of what this one guy built.

a nail in the coffin that is newspaper

Local Papers Brace For Federated Ad Drawdown
via Ad Age
Local newspapers are bracing for Sept. 9. That's when a pullback of as much as $425 million in spending by the medium's largest advertiser--Federated Department Stores--begins, reports Ad Age. It will also mark the end of a "symbiotic relationship between homegrown department-store brands and the newspapers they've advertised in for more than a century," the trade magazine notes. The company's stable of department-store brands will officially be reborn as Macy's, backed by a national branding campaign and a $1.2 billion media plan expected to favor national TV and magazines rather than spot TV and newspapers. While the $425 million figure is dire, even conservative estimates, such as one from a Deutsche Bank analyst, can run to $200 million. The company's annual newspaper spending currently totals $830 million. Federated declined to discuss specifics, but said national magazine buys will be part of the mix for the first time. "Newspapers will continue to be a very important medium," says a spokesman. "The fall launch is one point in time, and what happens longer term is something we are still working on. Our media selection will be driven by where our customers' eyeballs are going."

and this, by Brueggeman

"…On our own, we conclude:
that there is not enough to go around
we are going to run short

of money
of love
of grades
of publications
of sex
of beer
of members
of years
of life

we should seize the day…
seize the goods…
seize our neighbor’s goods
because there is not enough to go around
and in the midst of our perceived deficit;

You come
You come giving bread in the wilderness
You come giving children at the 11th hour
You come giving homes to the exiles
You come giving futures to the shut-down
You come giving Easter joy to the dead
You come … fleshed … in Jesus

And we watch while
the blind receive their sight
the lame walk
the lepers are cleansed
the deaf hear
the dead are raised
the poor dance and sing.

We watch … and we take
    
food we did not grow and
life we did not invent and
future that is gift and gift and gift and
families and neighbors who sustain us
when we do not deserve it.

It dawns on us, late rather than soon, that
You give food in due season
you open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

By your giving,
break our cycles of imagined scarcity
override our presumed deficits
quiet our anxieties of lack
transform our perceptual field to see
the abundance...mercy upon mercy
blessing upon blessing.

Sink your generosity deep into our lives

that your much-ness may expose our false lack
that endlessly receiving, we may endlessly give,

so that the world may be made Easter new,
without greedy lack, but only wonder
without coercive need, but only love
without destructive greed, but only praise
without aggression and evasiveness...
all things Easter new...

all around us, toward us and by us
all things Easter new.

Finish your creation...
in wonder, love and praise. Amen.

Eat Here and Diet Home.

Earl Abel's is closing tomorrow. So while Amy was at work tonight, I took the 4 kids in for one last supper (saw quite a few people I knew as well). Confession: I temporarily broke my Lenten fast for the occasion. [Cheese enchiladas, rice and beans.]

A San Antonio landmark since 1933, the drive-in-turned-24-hour-diner-and-fried-chicken-joint is being razed to make room for high-rise condos overlooking Brackenridge Park. The Express-News:

Theater organist Earl Abel opened his first namesake eatery on North Main Avenue after the Great Depression put him out of work. He later opened a handful of other locations, including the Broadway restaurant — the chain's sole survivor. Earl Abel's fried chicken, mashed potatoes and homemade pies have sustained generations of customers from thrifty downtown workers to Alamo Heights bluebloods.

Seemingly trapped in a time warp, the wood-paneled and red-wallpapered dining room has been the site of countless business lunches and family breakfasts. It gained further notoriety in 1986 as the place where U.S. Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez slugged a fellow diner for calling him a communist.

It was a place with history. Ensconced history (like the Earl Abel's / Colonel Sanders story).

Who can forget the routed, lacquered plaques over the service counter, to which I will quickly pay tribute: hand painted gilt signs that read, variously: "Eat Here and Diet Home;" "Eating Food Keeps You Able; Eating Here Keeps Earl Abel;" "It was a brave man who ate the first oyster;" "It's tough to pay $1.25 for a steak but 50¢ steaks are tougher;" "Wanted! Customers; Experience unnecessary;" and my favorite, "Seville, Dair Dago; Tousin Busses Inaro; Nojo Demstrux; Summit Cows in Summit Dux."

Why did I make the pilgrimage, such a corn-ball thing to do? The food was always mediocre, the coffee too weak; yet I'm nostalgic. Cliff and I were talking about this last week; he says his generation (we're only 10 years apart) doesn't go in for the nostalgia thing the way my younger generation does. I can only speak for myself. Part of it for me was making my peace and saying farewell to the kitsch  neon signs and '50s typography and '60s Art Deco exterior. Part of it for me was in some weird way to honor my grandmothers — one living and one deceased — who liked the restaurant and all it embodied. Part of it was expressing solidarity with the folks who worked there, the lumbering waitresses with nicotine fingers and the nervous Latino bus boys and the octogenarian cash register ladies with their tethered bifocals. They will perhaps retire or perhaps be jobless for a season, while time and the American Empire roll ever forward and development company Koontz McCombs tears down an institution to make way for … high rise condos. God save us.

photo sources [1] [2] [3]

Communiqué Journal - Advent 2005

Announcing .... the rebirth of Communiqué: An Online Literary & Arts Journal. In ancient Rome, the adventus was a celebration honoring an anniversary: the date of the emperor’s rise to power. The Church later adopted the term Advent to mark the arrival of a different kind of Emperor – the Son of God in human form. It’s a season for honoring the past and sharing hope for the future. We could think of no time more appropriate to announce the rebirth of Communiqué Journal

When we published our first issue in 1998, Communiqué was one of the first of its kind. Eight years later, sites devoted to the intersection of faith, culture, and the arts permeate the web. The fact that there has been a proliferation of like-minded publications is a blessing. Beginning in the spring, Communiqué will be back with new offerings, published three times annually.

We celebrate the past.
For this, our Advent issue, we have searched our archives and identified eight of most compelling pieces we’ve featured in the past, including poetry by Luci Shaw, a short story by Greg Garrett, and the Byzantine iconography of John Snogren.

We live in the present.
We are pleased to feature a new essay by Troy Bronsink. "The Advent Community and the Emergence of God's Dreams for Creation" looks at four lectionary texts through an emergent theological perspective. We also stumbled across the poem "I Ache For That Long Lost Light" quite by accident. The verses were penned by Communiqué friend Louis Hemmings — a Dubliner who deals in rare and used theological books. His verses, nested in the signature file of a recent email, caught our eye. He granted us permission to share the poem with our readers this season.

We look hopefully to the future.
With this announcement, we joyfully await fresh submissions for next year’s issues. We continue to seek original stories, poems, essays, reviews, and art that explore, question, re-imagine, examine and celebrate aspects of culture and Christian conviction. The deadline for submissions for the spring issue is February 15.

Paul Soupiset, co-managing editor

http://communiquejournal.org

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)

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?

Polyphonic Beer Spree?

Link: This is like the Polyphonic Spree meets Lord of the Rings. A great Ad..

(via)

+

nano nano

the iPod nano. makes my iPod seems as clunky as my old Newton.

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....

global rich list

How rich are you? >> I'm loaded. It's official. I'm the 44,982,565 richest person on earth!

thanks to duaneco for the link. and the eye-opener.

prince of peace, iPod, doodle

+ in the experimental worship leading i've been doing at my old church, i led a song that they were all familiar with, but i didn't let them proceed with the usual rendering of the lyrics, which to me always smacked of self-congratulations and a sort of worship metonymy wherein the professed zeal of the lyric-writer is sung corporately and then assumed to be true among the singers. So instead of the lyric "I will" (as in "I will praise you" or "I will bow down before you" or "I will give my life for you" or "I will love you all of my days") I substituted "Will I ?" and reframed the lyric as a question, with the intention of provoking soul-searching. Of course I warned them to be expecting this before starting the song. As my friend Travis said, we do a lot of singing that sounds like "God is holy and I'm right up there with him". So: reframing and subtly shifting existing lyrics may be a great way to address Brian McLaren's Open Letter to Songwriters and the astute John Mortensen Unauthorized Postscript to Songwriters.  (in which John penned this memorable line: "can we agree to a ten-year ban on rhyming “adore you” with “before you”? ")

+ i was charging my son's iPod shuffle this morning when I happened to look over at the Playcount column in iTunes. It was a window into my son's listening habits. Before I thought twice about privacy, etc., I saw that his most-played songs -- the tunes he's hit 'repeat' for and not shuffled past -- mirrored my own tastes. Which made me initially happy -- although his playlist is esentially culled from my larger playlist anyway, the types of tunes he lingers over are they same ones I do: The Jayhawks, Coldplay, Josh Rouse, Something Like Silas, Moby, Innocence Mission, Tim Booth, Dar Williams, etc. Then it got me wondering: is this just a parroting or is this cultivated? Is this similar to a child echoing his parents' taste in music faith, for example? Will he venture out and find his own aural turf?

+ friday nite i art directed a :30 TV commercial for a local restaurant. my first broadcast attempt beyond directing and filming a music video for the fabled and now-extinct band love coma in the mid 1990s. i'll stick with print and web for now.

+ picked up the kids from camp on saturday. they had a good time; man i missed them.

+ my friend, illustrator Von Glitschka, has a new site you should visit if you doodle often: http:doodlearchive.com -- request a doodle card and get those doodles published!

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.

spacewarp 5000

Oh yeah. This is all I want for my birthday. Astute friends and relatives who read soupablog should band together on this one! With a name like Spacewarp5000™ you know it's gotta be kewel. if you're a Lego geek like myself, you might remember in the late 80s BanDai came out with this build-it-yourself marble run 'roller coaster.' ... Circa 1990, I was hooked. I majorly geeked over this thing, had one set up in my dorm room, and left it 'on' 24/7; it provided a little white noise in the background while I sweated over my senior design portfolio.

Anyway, it went off the market until recently. Now it's re-released in Japan. Arrrgh. So close.

Born to Buy

From (Born to Buy : The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture, by Juliet Shor) on the commercialized child and new commercial culture.

From a study by the Center for a New American Dream ... Among children ages 9-14

63% express concern that there is too much advertising that tries to get kids to buy things
74% say it’s too bad you have to buy certain things to be cool
81% believe that lots of kids place way too much importance on buying things
57% agree that they sometimes feel they spend too much time trying to get their parents to buy them things rather than doing fun things with them.

From James McNeal, expert on children and money ... Purchases of children ages 4-12

1989: $6.1 billion
2002: $30 billion
Increase of over 400%
Direct influence on adult purchases: $330 billion (2004)

From Nickelodeon:

·The average 10 year old has memorized 300-400 brands. (2001 Nickelodeon study)
·Testing obsession: Nickelodeon holds 250-270 focus groups annually; talks to 5,000-10,000 children each year; probably has 20 kid market studies in process at any given time. Each episode of “Blues Clues” is tested at 4 different stages in the production process to gauge kid reaction.

unusual. and good.

unusual. and good.

that was the theme of last night.

i was enjoying a rare night out, courtesy of the best wife in the world. i started the evening with a really good ice cream (bluebell vanilla bean) and some of david galbreath's homemade chocolate sauce from orderup. nothing unusual there. then i drove over to swain's studio and helped art-direct a champagne-pour photo shoot for a grocery chain's Christmas adverts. then it was off the Broadway 50-50, a historic pub in downtown alamo heights reopened by arthur, my friend from the cypress street grill, the former establishment being a bar/restaurant/club that i hadn't been to in years.

my friend chris taylor was playing a set there with his band the notorious sinners. i had some music equipment to return to him, and i thought i'd stick around and catch his gig. it was chris' birthday as well, so it made sense. The 50-50 is a great bar. I had a Guinness draft (in honor of virusdoc's dog), settled in, and within a half hour tons of the old gang showed up. greg, justin, michele, ruben v., as well as marjorie mcinnis, who i hadn't seen since she moved across the pond. others showed up as well, it was truly a fun get-together.

so marjorie is back in the states and apparently connected with alpha, which is cool; sounds like she's also friends with sally morgenthaler which is also cool. always good to know about other emergent types here in san antonio.

so boston plows over the cardinals. unexpected. unusual. and good.

so we saw the lunar eclipse last night. expected. unusual. and good.

so sharon decides to let arafat have safe passage to a hospital. unusual and good.

i'm supposed to write a concert review of the gig for chris' website, but i'm too tired. maybe tomorrow.

my brother, mark is in town from seattle. along with my niece, whom i'm going to try and get to know better this weekend.

great lunch with cliff today. growth on both our parts. that sounds self-congratulatory probably to some. but it's just neat to see growth, that's all.

GO VOTE.

norah and caedmon's call

this was a good week for opening acts.

most of you know i'm a huge lover of live music. much time, money, effort and automotive wear-and-tear was spent during my 20s chasing down favorite bands when they'd swing through various parts of texas. genre didn't matter: rock, folk, classical, celtic, pop, alt country, gospel, jazz, ska, rockabilly, bluegrass, punk, roots/americana, opera, big-band, acoustic/unplugged, etc.... some of my best memories are of a small cadre crammed into my car, driving up IH-35 to Austin's live music district -- usually to La Zona Rosa, The Mercury, Armadillo World HQ, or the defunct Liberty Lunch...

so here's a good live music story. i'll try and retell it faithfully and not embellish, because the truth of the story is interesting in and of itself. six months or so ago my good friend ted (he's been mentioned several times in the blog) expressed a desire to get our spouses together and see norah jones who was coming to austin and san antonio around october.

i decided to call a favor into my concert promoter friend greg (i frequently help him design his website and promotion materials, usually in exchange for an occasional warm lunch and all the free CCM tickets my wife wants; it's been years since we've paid to go to a CCM show; anyway). he assured me his ticket connections could come through and get us decent seats (possibly better than we'd be able to get waiting in line, since the ticket promoters skim the good seats).

every month or so i'd call greg and he'd say, "don't worry, my connection says to wait a couple more weeks and then I'll know something." I'd wait a few weeks, call again, and he'd say, "don't worry, my connection says to wait a couple more weeks and then I'll know something." this goes on the whole summer ("wait until after summer and then I'll know more").

Finally last week, a few days before the show, my friendship with ted and heather in the balance, i call one last time, and i get this instruction:

"paul: go the the Exxon at IH-10 and Callaghan Road...."

"okay..."

"get there at 1pm sharp."

"alllll riiiight..."(i'm not making this up)

"a black excursion will drive up and a guy will hop out and hand you the tickets."

"greg, are you serious?!"

so, bottom line, jordan and i follow greg's instrux, we get the tickets (i thought they were going to be 15th row, turns out we landed 10th row Orchestra pit seats [!] which allowed us to rush the stage and catch the last few songs plus the encore about 8 feet from Ms. Jones.) so obviously we enjoy the show. But, whew.... waiting for tix is tough.

No, it's not.

Going without a meal is tough. Cancer is tough. Separating from a husband or wife is tough.

One more: Last week i saw caedmon's call on the third (fourth?) date of their 'share the well' tour, a musical outing the opening act called 'missional.' both the band and the opener were great, but what was better was the missional thrust of the tour. Freedom for the east Indian Dalit caste (subcaste?) was the topic of the evening, the theme of caedmon's album, and the musical and lyrical inspiration for their new songs; they brought along two indian musicians (emmanuel, who i met before the show played the tablas and was amazing). Andrew Osenga of the Normals is now Derek's replacement.

wow.great show.

one might not even notice derek webb was gone. but then i love derek webb too.

norah's opening act was Amos Lee. Watch out for Amos Lee. He's going places.

caedmon's upening act was Jeremy Casella. Watch out for Jeremy Casella. He's going places.

photoshoot at wong's

np: dylan's version of tambourine man

working on work, but thought i'd blog real quick:

i just wrapped a mini-photoshoot as a favor for a local san antonio recording artist. i was kind of proud of the panorama i took with my canon powershot g2.

the photo was taken at wong's art bar grocery. which brings me to a question. does anyone know about the church or bible study or (?) group that meets down at wong's? i'll need to google to see if i can find out more. intrigued. * ..... okay I just googled. apparently the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America?) has a congregation for twentysomethings there at the old Wong's Grocery building. note to self. gotta attend sometime.

np: blue monk - miles davis & thelonius monk

--paul

brueggemann, weimaraners and other big germanic words

any of you soupablog readers are going to attend emergent's atlanta theological conversation with brueggemann ? cliff is driving that way as we speak. if any of you emergent types run across cliff knighten there, tell him hi.

did i mention we are keeping my mother-in-law's weimaraner for two weeks? 24 hours and our house already smells like dog, we've had one throw-up on our nice new area rug, water-bowl slobbers all over the kitchen, and scratch-marks on the dining room door than opens to the back yard. at least rumors of Gracie's incontinence seem to have been greatly exaggerated, but remains to be seen.

Vicodin continues. I'm thinking about visiting my dentist this week. I've been avoiding him for 3 years ever since the TOOTH NAZI went to work for him. Nothing like guilt-laden dentistry to make you feel worse about yourself. I'm 35. Don't try to teach me how to floss. But TMJ plus a possible cracked tooth are enough to move me off the fence and into a dentists' chair.

interesting. while most of the churches we are conversing with are moving beyond their contemporary model (which may have served them well for the past ten to twenty years) and into a post-modern paradigm, my church in san antonio has finally (starting today) incorporated a contemporary service. which might seem traditional to some. Thus bringing my church firmly into the 1980s. And not a moment too soon. In the arlier service (now dubbed the 'Traditional/Blended' service) Jordan (8) sang in his very first choir performance. I noted that the choir robes looked very high-church for an EV-Free congregation... He did fine.

Today our church also had an old-fashioned Church Picnic at the Eisenhower Park pavilion in north San Antonio. I picnic of the old-school Texas variety: 400 pounds of beef brisket that Britt Jenkins and the boys had started barbecuing about 18 hours earlier, potato salad (this was mayo-based, not mustard-based), mild cole slaw, white bread (if you have to ask you're not from the South), barbeque sauce (optional so as not to offend the barbecue purists), pinto beans, ice tea, lemonade, and three picnic tables overflowing with ever kind of hand-baked and store-bought dessert you could imagine. I had one member in particular buttonhole me into a thirty minute discussion of politics. Of the Bush v. Kerry variety. Didn't want to go there. We have different Weltanschauung, y'know? It makes for an uncomfortable conversation when someone assumes you have the same political views as (she) does.
I finally ended the talk by noticing my daughter and calling after her.

We went to visit my Mom tonight after the picnic. She's recovering nicely. Showed her digital pics from the weekend. Then I came home an walked the dog for what seemed like an hour. Ich bin ein Wanderer Weimaraner

Tomlin CD

(Nashville, TN) August 3, 2004 - One of the premier songwriters today, Chris Tomlin, known for such worldwide-sung anthems as “Forever,” “Be Glorified,” “We Fall Down,” “Famous One” and more, releases his highly-anticipated sixsteps/Sparrow Records recording, Arriving, Sept. 21.

Africa, Coffee and the morning news

I drove in early this morning (6 instead of 8:30) to the studio to help a friend by designing a poster for the australian shakuhachi festival (PDF). En route, I stopped into Starbucks. Then back in the ol' car for my 11 minute commute down to the riverwalk. NPR was talking to a Kansas senator (or rep.) who had visited the recent genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. The implication was clear: USAmericans have lost enough credibility playing in the global sandbox that we had better not send any unilateral forces in. I agree, but only assuming someone (NATO, UN, ad-hoc multi-national forces) goes in and speaks truth to this power. These Sudanese families living in refugee camps stood in contrast with my comfortable existence here in Texas (now thought of as the home to cowboy presidents). I continue to drive. In transit, the contents of my quad venti six-pump sugar-free vanilla heavy whipping cream latte were upended and splashed all over my car seat (actual empty cup featured, top left) . I managed not to get burned only because it spilled during a right-hand turn instead of a lefty. So there I was, a perfect caricature of American urban culture, me and my coffee-splattered black messenger bag in my coffee-splattered black car wearing my coffee-splattered specs and rifling through the coffee-splattered magazines and papers to see if anything was ruined. Meanwhile women in Darfur are being systematically raped by these armies. The disconnect there is real. I get into the studio and the whole server room is powered down, and I remember enough from last time that I cannot simply flip a breaker or hit a re-set button, I’ve gotta wait for our network guy to come in. And I realize how captive I feel to the net; I’m composing this on an empty Entourage page, which I’ll no doubt cut-and-paste later, after the servers get back on. Is there a real danger in the emerging church being completely hinged upon the availability of digital networks? Go ahead; Knock that straw man over.

thanks jonny baker, steve collins, sijohnston

ran across both these links on on jonnybaker while waiting.
http://www.smallfire.org/
and
Bono gave the following speech at Penn's 248th Commencement