Immersion Worship

Music I Dig #3: The Last Goodnight

James — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:15:08 +0000

I Got Nothing

James — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:07:37 +0000

I came to blog, and my mind went blank. I got nothing. Sorry folks. I’ll try again in a few days.

James TV, Season 2

James — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:06:50 +0000

I was on TV again. This is becoming a habit…

What’s more worrying is that I just realized that I’ve worn the same pair of short in the July 4th parade for the last 3 years. I need more shorts, apparently.

30

James — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:16:27 +0000

That’s right, friends. Today I bid ‘fare thee well’ to my twenties and embrace the big three-oh.

It’s funny, really. When I was in my teens, I remember thinking how old 30 must feel. Now that I’m here, I can’t say I feel any different from when I was 20. Well, except that I cant run like I used to and I have knees that have a tendency to dislocate and I generally ache in places I didn’t ache in when I was 20.

The one thing I can say for sure, though, is that I’m wiser at 30, and for that I am thankful. My twenties were good to me, for the most part. They were when I did most of my growing up and when I learned who I really was.

There are universal truths that go along with turning 30 and getting older in general. I must admit to being somewhat philosophical at this season in life, as ‘age’ and the issues it brings has been more prevalent in my life more recently than before. Two months before her 68th birthday, my mum passed away after a courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Shortly after that, my dad suffered a stroke. He’ll be 72 this year. The fragility of life has never been more evident than the last couple of months.

And so while I await the day that I look in the mirror and realize that I have my dad’s hair, I’ll just remain thankful for each day that I get to have.

I leave you today with the timeless words of wisdom of Mary Schmich from the Chicago Tribune that were subsequently made famous by Baz Luhrmann. Peace out…

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Coldplay at The Forum, Los Angeles

James — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:45:41 +0000

As mentioned in my recent post about losing my knee somewhere between a seat and a step, on Monday of this week my friend Danny bestowed upon me one ticket to see Coldplay at The Forum in Los Angeles. And I was really quite excited about it since I’ve never seen Coldplay (and really wanted to, since Viva La Vida is such an awesome album) and I’ve never been to The Forum (despite it being host to some legendary artists and bands).

Sparing the details of my knee dislocation, the show was absolutely fantastic. Chris Martin is a showman; he knows how to engage the crowd and has a strong stage presence. As musicians, Coldplay are up there with some of the most talented rock musicians around.

The show opened with their 4 or 5 biggest hits to date, but every song they did was full of energy and sounded great. My only disappointment was the heavy use of samples and loops. I’m not a big fan of the “taking Pro Tools on tour” method; I’d much rather hear four musicians get creative with filling their sound out than relying on pre-recorded orchestral movements being played along with them. But then there was also plenty of new sounds and approaches to older hits to go along with that.

Towards the end of the show, Chris Martin announced that he was “bored of playing at this end of the room”. The band then hopped off the stage, in to the crowd, ran to our end of the arena, and played a two-song acoustic set in the middle of the crowd, 30 feet or so from where I was sitting. Will Champion even sang a number. And I can also confirm that Chris Martin’s hair really is that bad.

All in all, an excellent show by an excellent band. Thanks for ticket Danny, and for running for ice when I fell like a fool and yelled like a little girl.

Oops, I Did It Again

James — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:29:15 +0000

On Monday night my good friend Danny took me to see Coldplay at The Forum in LA (more on that to follow). The evening in general was fantastic - I really enjoyed the show - but not before injury was thrust cruelly and unwittingly upon me.

Remember how I dislocated my knee almost two years ago? On Monday, I was making my way back to my seat between support bands, and as I made my way along my row to my seat, somehow my foot got caught between the step and the seat in front of my, and my knee literally just came apart. The lower half of my leg went left. The upper half of my leg went right. There was bone-on-bone action. I yelled. I almost cried. Danny ran and got ice. I spent the rest of the gig in my seat with an ice pack held firmly against my knee.

Getting older sucks.

Leggy Blonde

James — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:40:03 +0000

Is this the funniest thing The Flight of The Conchords have done yet?

There’s a good chance.

Especially with the little surprise at 2:17…

NMFAPIMWLC: Week #10

James — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:35:23 +0000

Current Weight: 186.5 lbs
This Week’s Loss: 2.0 lbs
Total Loss So Far: 13.9 lbs

And the wagon starts rolling again…after changing up my workout routine and increasing my caloric intake to about 2200 calories per day, I’ve lost weight again, to the tune of 2 lbs. Result.

This week I need to get in an extra workout; I only worked out twice last week, and did just a few minutes of cardio in amongst that. Tomorrow morning I’m going to get me down to the gym and start burning off more pounds.

I’d also like to say this as well: as well as generally feeling healthier and sleeping better, I’m feeling better about myself from an esteem point of view. I didn’t like that certain shirts and t-shirts could/would draw attention to my beer belly and man-boobs. Now that those are both disappearing in to the void of weight loss, there are clothes that I am wearing again and feeling good about. That does wonders for confidence. And a great example came yesterday; I preached yesterday morning, and after my wife and I got home, she casually remarked “you looked thin up there today”. That made me feel good.

Brent, Kristen, Joe, Buddy, Dan, Rick, Brandy, Deborah, Joel, Theresa, Steven, Tawny, Kelly, Jen, Ron, Darla, Theresa, Heidi, Lynn, Natalie, and Love? How did all y’all do?

Music I Dig #2: The Spill Canvas

James — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:48:26 +0000

Two Words: Roof Clearance

James — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:24:13 +0000