Mr. Kissyface

Loooove this guy. 

DISLIKE and detest these ads.

LowerMyBills.com: ruining people’s internet experience for nearly 15 years. Huh, you say? Here’s a Google Image Search to jog your memory.

Breaking bread.

Thursday night small group. The tin tray had macaroni and cheese muffins. I remember them fondly.

Partners in crime

Cool Fam members with a Y chromosome.

I see you.

It’s a pigeon.

Pouty.

Saturday lunch at our favorite pizza place. Cool Boy had his fair share of pizza, so I’m not sure what he was pouting about – maybe just duckfacing. Also, I’m getting my money’s worth for that shirt.

History. @footstoned

My friend/lead singer Robert made these badges way back when we were bright-eyed college grads leading worship for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at the University of Florida. 6dfs is shorthand for our band name, Six Days From Sunday.

Paint job

This abstract mixed media work is really just a 2-inch section of a subway station sign.

Ring spin with Nik and @molnark.

My friends Nik and Katy entertained Newbie at a community brunch after church.

Salud!

We passed this van yesterday after a run to Salvation Army. When you sign up, be sure to use the referral code COOLDADCLEANCOLON. Thanks!

Several years ago, Lauren’s husband Nate drowned during a trip to visit his family in Oregon. Their son Jack was only a couple of months old. She found healing and hope in God’s love expressed through the family and friends around her, and in writing these songs.

And God’s fingerprints have long been on her music. In this post on her old blog, she tells the story of “Lullabye,” the last track on Tree of Life. When she was 17, the song came to her in a dream, and she woke and wrote it in minutes. The song later led to a vivid vision of her singing it over her husband’s casket. It would be years before she would meet Nate.

In the post linked above, Lauren explained,

Nathan is a ripple effect. Thus comes the name of my blog here. Maybe, just maybe, Nate’s story, my story, Jack’s story, spreads life even farther. In its sadness. In its joy. In its pride. In its humility.

I only know Lauren through blogging, but the ripples of Nate’s life have rocked me. Listening to “Lullabye” moved me to tears last week, far beneath the city in a half-full subway car. God is at work in this music, and I feel led, gently and urgently, to do what I can to join. Now, that means sharing Lauren’s music.

We’re giving away 3 digital copies of Tree of Life by L.E. Taylor. You can enter through Facebook and Twitter, and by leaving a comment on this post.

And though I don’t normally encourage impatience, go ahead and buy the record on iTunes if you don’t feel like waiting for the giveaway to end.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lucius at Knitting Factory Brooklyn (photo: Eric Corpus)

Ever since seeing Lucius open for The Lone Bellow a few months back, I’ve been hooked on their ’60s-flavored indie pop. They have a self-titled EP out, with a full album coming hopefully later in the year. You can read more about the band in this feature I wrote for Brewing Culture.

“Don’t Just Sit There,” with its syrup sweet melody and harmonies, has gotten cozy in my head for the last 3 months.

This post has an affiliate link, coded with love.

This video was shot in 2007 and then posted in 2010, but it’s going viral just now. In it, two-year-old Penelope sings Pearl Jam’s “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.” I bought that CD, Vs., from Wal-Mart the day it came out in 1993, and I still don’t know the words!

Props to li’l Penelope for matching Eddie Vedder line by line. And +10 Cool Points to her family for playing good music in the car.

I recently talked to a friend whose band makes great music but got no interest from the Christian music industry. Their music was deemed “too artistic,” not radio friendly, and not something that moms would play for their kids. My take:

• “Too artistic” is subjective, so I won’t debate it. However, they’re not exactly Sigur Rós. The music is accessible and catchy. And what does ‘too artistic’ mean anyway? The words are too meaningful? The musicians too skilled?
• I remember the first time I heard my band on the radio. I admit it was thrilling to hear ourselves on the air, reaching anyone within 30 miles with an antenna tuned to that frequency. But today, or maybe even back then before my cynicism set in, it seems like the “not radio friendly” tag could be a compliment more than a curse. Chances are that if your songs stretch boundaries and provoke thought, they’re not radio friendly.

However, my biggest issue is with the presumption about parents. I think parents are more willing to play complex music for their kids than industry execs think they are. I like to surprise with the Cool Bros with Seeds Family Worship or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the car, but it’s a surprise because the Cool ‘Rents’ playlists are normally on heavy rotation.

As in all facets of life, I won’t discount the possibility that I’m just weird and out of touch. I’d love to hear what you think – about the music thing, not about the me being weird thing. (That’s another post.)

What kind of music do you play for your kids?

Pretty great bumper sticker on a minivan tonight: “I used to be cool.”

I don’t know the owner of said minivan, but I hope s/he’s not implying that simply owning a minivan robs one of Cool Points. My first car was a minivan, a brown Plymouth Voyager with vinyl woodgrain paneling on the sides that gave it a natural, Bear Grylls kind of sexiness. It pretty much looked like this:

And look at how cool I was! 

Now, in addition to not knowing the owner of the minivan Heather spotted, I also don’t know anything about the minivan itself. Maybe the minivan was styled in an uncool manner, like painted a puke green color or sporting bumper stickers that screamed the driver’s devotion to Team Edward. But the uncoolness doesn’t stem from the fact it’s a minivan.

In fact, minivans are can be cooler than you can ever imagine. Take a look at these sweet rides that possibly seat up to 8 and feature rear A/C control for everyone’s comfort.

Speed bumps going into a school zone need not rattle your transmission.

Speed bumps going into a school zone REALLY need not rattle your transmission.

A good way to keep from hitting pedestrians is to terrify them with the visage of a demon dog from hell.

Eliminate the need for rear A/C control or protection from stinging sleet or scorching sun. (autoblog.com)

Narrow parking spot? No problem. (lowridermagazine.com)

People will actually PAY YOU for rides to soccer practice or the airport.

Stand back.

When waiting for the subway, do not lean over to see when the train is coming. Don’t even stand on the yellow warning section. 

An Instagram of the Cool Fam looking at my Instagram. So meta. (With Noah doing his best Moses impression.)

Please tell me someone gets the Moses joke.

So I have a few tabs open

Part of my work involves reaching out to bloggers. That means opening a lot of tabs at once. It also means frustration when one of the blogs autoplays music, like my friend Jarrett referenced in the comments: “If one of those has an ad that starts playing sound, you’re in trouble!”

Here goes nothing.

On Mother’s Day, we had lunch in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with our friend. During dessert, Cool Newbie announced that he had to go poo-poo. With no available bathroom in the bakery we were in, I took on doodie duty. I marched Newbie to the car and set up the portable potty on the passenger side floorboard. He didn’t take advantage of the Subway ad as reading material. Maybe next time.

Five years and counting.

Cool Mum and Cool Boy looking quite handsome on our way to a party.

Um, right, these are for my kids…

I went to Fairway to get some snacks. They had new larger-sized bags of Pirate’s Booty on deep discount, so I picked up four. They ran out yesterday.

Whew. This saved me about $50.

Uniqlo is my weakness being that it’s the only store that carries clothes that fit me. I walked by the 53rd and 5th location, and I thought about stopping in even though I don’t need anything. That’s never stopped me from buying something before. Good thing it was closed.

I featured this on Brewing Culture. Never thought I’d see one in real life.

I went on a tour of the Museum of Modern Art, and I saw a Mine Kafon, a brilliant way to safely clear the hundreds of thousands of land mines hidden in Afghanistan. Read about it on Brewing Culture.

What about you — any cool summer plans in the works? Specifically, are any Cool Readers visiting New York City, whether for fun, mission trip or representing your nation state at a U.N. General Assembly?

In her blog, Lauren told her story of being widowed with a 3-month-old son. We were struck by her honesty and amazed by the grace and humor with she approached life after tragedy. She’s a great writer.

Over the year, she moved cities and stopped writing the blog. Then a couple of weeks ago, I saw on Facebook that Lauren was releasing her debut EP, Tree of Life, under the name L.E. Taylor.

I checked it out and was floored. First, the songs are good – beautifully performed and expertly produced folk/traditional tunes. But knowing their story gave them the weight of a boulder and the ability to cut so deep emotionally, it’s surgical. Listen to “Light on the River.” (Lyrics on her Bandcamp page.)

I reconnected with Lauren and featured her on Brewing Culture, a culture blog I edit. Read the interview, where she talks about how tragedy led her to make this music and what it means now in terms of healing.

Naturally, I urge you: Buy Tree of Life by L.E. Taylor. It’s only $6 for songs that are a reminder of how faithful God is. Making them brought Lauren hope and healing. Hearing them may do the same for you.

To keep up with Lauren, visit her website and Like her Facebook page.

I was sitting in the rear garden of Chop Shop, an Asian spot in Chelsea, with accomplished figures in the art world: an owner of a gallery in China, an art historian and critic, a Hollywood film producer. Meanwhile, my main artistic accomplishment involves jumping and playing guitar at the same time while 1,500 middle schoolers proclaim their agreement with the will of God. “Yes Lord, Yes Lord, Yes Yes Lord, Amen!”

I’ll confess: I actually do know what I was doing there.We were all guests of celebrated artist Makoto Fujimura. Mako, as he’s known by people who know him (I don’t), was premiering his new documentary Golden Sea that night, and I helped promote the event on a blog I edit called Brewing Culture.

Though I was rightfully there, I still felt out of place. I walked in afraid that I would show my ignorance when the conversation turned to such topics as chiarascuro and Neo-Impressionism. And I pictured myself knocking a dish of curry panang chicken into someone’s lap.

The closest thing I have to a Neo Impression.

Neither ultra-artsy talk nor curry-stained suit pants resulted. I had fun, and I was inspired by breaking bread (or pork buns) with so many creators. I reminded myself that the only thing stopping me from creating the works I dream of is fear. It’s a critical lesson that I really needed to be reminded of. Maybe that’s what I was doing there.

All of these jobs had some degree of fulfillment, and for that I’m extremely grateful. But none of them were my dream job. Music comes close, but the travel would be too much, unless the rest of the Cool Fam could come with me. 

A couple of years ago, I figured out what my dream job was. My friend Ben, who was on his own search for a calling, asked me, and I had to think about it for a minute. What would I love to do everyday, for years and years? What do I find so fun and rewarding that I’d even do it for free? The answer crystallized and I mentally kicked myself for not realizing it off the bat. This. What I’m doing now: writing this blog.

I’ve written about 700 posts over the past six years for free. Well, there was that one sponsored post, and then the $5/month we earn from advertising. I’ve made about $200 over the life of this blog. I’ll conservatively estimate that I’ve spent 800 hours on those 700 posts (some videos took 4–6 hours to shoot and edit), so my trusty arithmetical calculator button pressing skills tell me that

$200/800 hours = $0.25/hour

A quarter an hour. According to my forecasts for the remainder of Q2 FY13, I recommend that our business model is in need of a paradigm shift out the wazoo. My main two options for action are:

1. Drastically decrease post production time to raise my effective hourly income. A good model to follow would be this Tumblr.
2. Mine my everyday experiences to consistently write quality content with entertaining stories and rich media, which will attract regular readers and thus increase ad revenue.

Yikes, Option 2 sounds hard. Same Picture of Cool Dad Every Day it is!

Okay, I don’t think I can handle seeing that picture everyday, but I need to work toward my dream job. Okay, Option 2, let’s dance.

Have you figured out your dream job? What are you doing to get it?