Review: Boomtown by Nowen N. Particular

BOOMTOWN by Nowen N. Particular

Quick synopsis:

A pastor and his family move to a new town and become acclimated with the community. Boomtown is filled with lots of diverse people who all seem to get along in spite of their differences - and they love fireworks. The pastor is pushed out of his comfort zone as he gets to know his new community.

Things I liked about this book:

- It had a really fun and engaging story line with lots of interesting characters and entertaining events

- It had a good emphasis on getting along with people who are not like you and learning to appreciate one another's differences

Things I didn't like about this book:

- The father was consistently a poor leader of his family. His children were disobedient and disrespectful throughout the entire book without consequence. He frequently "caved" into doing what his kids wanted to do and was portrayed as being very out of touch.

- While unity was a big theme, there was no genuine Christian unity displayed. What people thought about God seemed to be pretty irrelevant.

- The teaching about the church was really unclear at best. The church wasn't distinct at all - it functioned similarly to a school or a library, as just another institution to serve the community at large.

- There was a real lack of any sort of justice - or even pursuing worthy goals. If people did something wrong, or failed in some way, it was overlooked, and usually even celebrated.

My overall thoughts:

I would not recommend this book. While it's a fun story, you'd get more edifying teaching from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, in my opinion. I think that at best, this book shows that disobeying parents is okay. Even worse, it paints a false picture of Christian unity and confuses the importance of the church. In a town where it doesn't really matter what you think or do, there isn't a basis for truth, justice, forgiveness, or reconciliation - and hence, while it seeks to paint a beautiful picture of unity, it really leaves out the gospel.

Review: Tim McGraw's "My Little Girl"

Just an fyi. You may see some reviews of children's books on the old blog, because I signed up to do some book reviewing for Thomas Nelson books. I don't have time to read long books at the moment, but kid's books I can do!

So, that being said, this (My Little Girl) was a really very sweet book that draws out how to delight in the good days and the relationships God gives us. Most of the weight in this book is given to the relationship between a father and daughter. The father tells his little girl on the eve of a day they will spend together that, “Tomorrow they would have a spectacular day.” This sprang the little girl’s mind out of the blocks dreaming up what might be coming the next day. As she is all excited he comes to the foot of the stairs and says they will be doing, “nothing in particular.” This bummed Katie out. She soon learns that the day is a one full of time spent enjoying the relationship she has with her dad. It may be a bit optimistic in the fact that there are no temper tantrums throughout the day, but it is a really a cute little book that hopefully won’t give little girls a false hope that their daddies might give them this kind of attention. Hopefully as fathers read this with their little girls it will encourage them to take a day here and there to spend time with their little girls. One theological thing to note, the way this little girl loves her daddy is an example of how we too often love our God. He plans good things for those that love Him, despite their expectations. Too many times when things go differently than we plan or expect we are disappointed. We should trust that if we are in Christ (that is, if we repent of our sins and believe that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead for our justification and to vindicate His claims) God's plan to dwell with us now and for all eternity in the future is the source of true joy, even now. Even though the book is a bit utopian, if you are looking for a children’s book to give you the motivation to model God's fatherly love to your little girl, you may find this book to be a good encouragement.

Emerging Brilliance!!! Kurt Rosenwinkel

For my birthday last night over twenty of us went to Chuck E Cheeses'. Whenever people would ask me what I thought of it before we went I said, "I think it will be awkwardly fun." Well, it was a blast...in total we accumulated approximately 2,500 tickets!!! Wow.

Well, I'm not so much into the Emerging Church, but I am into the "Emerging Brilliance" of Kurt Rosenwinkel!

Today Linds and I are headed to NYC for a fun day there. Tonight we are going to go to the Village Vanguard to see Kurt Rosenwinkel play! Awesome!!

Here's a quick clip of him playing (in order for the soloing at the beginning to make sense you may want to watch it twice):


Then tomorrow morning we are going to Redeemer Presbyterian to hear the Word preached. Promises to be a great weekend!!

I'm still planning on posting something on unity...it's just been a busy couple of weeks.

Dissolution

Here’s an interesting poem I came across recently…it’s on the inside of Maria Schneider’s album Allegresse. I think it was written to describe the tune by the same name on the album.

Dissolution
Laurie Frink, June 23, 1998

Flowing Pouring
Sailing Soaring
Searching Learning
Yearning Churning

Melodies Painful
Sounds of Tearing
Souls Tormented
Tortured Baring

Living Fearing
Searing Hearing
Creeping Leaping
Flying Dying

Rhythms Hoping
Harmonies Groping
Building—Built
Compared Despaired

Lives Entwined
Behind Combined
Clutching Touching
Grasping Rasping

Ever Moving
Forward Surging
Stalling Inward
Outward Purging

Shouting Screaming
Demon Dreaming
Wanting Needing
Doubting Conceding

Ginger Peeling
Gentle Healing
Hopeful Posing
Final Closing

Martino and Sco!

Check out this video of John Scofield (g) playing w/ Pat Martino (g), Joey DeFrancesco (o), and Byron Landham (d). Martino on the head actually sounds quite a bit like Wes Montgomery. Wow!

Duo Set List: 2/16/2007

Here's an old picture of Steve Gilbertson and I [not very high quality, but that's the best I could do with a glossy picture:)].


Well...the gig last night was great! We played from 6:00 to 8:00pm. It was at a jewelry/art store called M. C. Ginsberg [their philosophy is a bad theology alert:)].

Anyhow, Steve and I had a blast. He was on piano and I was on guitar. We just jammed on standard jazz tunes for a few hours. I love going to a gig with no particular set list in mind and just calling tunes and playing them! Here's the set list in case you're curious...

(1) The Days of Wine and Roses [Mancini] Medium Swing
(2) Blue in Green [Miles Davis] Ballad
(3) Alone Together [Dietz and Schultz] Medium Swing
(4) Stella By Starlight [Victor Young] as a Bossa Nova
(5) There Will Never Be Another You [Warren/Gordon] Medium Swing
(6) All the Things You Are [Hammerstein/Kern] Medium Swing
(7) Calypso [Kenny Baron] Medium/Up Latin Tune
(8) Sandu [Clifford Brown] Medium Swing Blues
(9) Alice in Wonderland [Fain/Hilliard] Jazz Waltz
(10) Summertime [George Gershwin] Bossa Nova
(11) Scrapple From the Apple [Charlie Parker] Medium Bop
(12) It Could Happen To You [Burke/Van Heusen] Medium Swing
(13) Don't Get Around Much Anymore [Duke Ellington] Medium Swing

It all came back pretty quickly. Also, we didn't take any breaks, because we were having so much fun.

If you're still reading...I'll tell you something funny that happened really quickly. We started to play Stella By Starlight [bear in mind that I'm a little rusty] and it sounded terrible. Our intonation was terrible. Steve looked at me like I was messing up and I was looking at him the same way. He lifted up his book and played the first few notes of the head...and I did too and we sounded fine. Then he set his book down again and we tried to start again. It sounded terrible again!

Well, it turned out that Steve had set his music on the "whammy" bar of his piano dropping the pitch by at least a half step. Man, we cracked up! Then we played it in the correct key.

It was a ton of fun...thanks Steve!

Jazz Duo Gig

Wow...it's been a while...but tomorrow I'm playing a gig with an old good friend. It'll be a blast as soon as I can get my fingers back:) Sorry folks...it's a private party.

I love jamming...playing jazz standards for two hours with good friends. The funny thing is that people actually pay us for this and they enjoy it. Who knew!?!? I'll let you know how it goes. As long as we can play "All the Things You Are" I will be happy.

"A Love Supreme" Sadly in Need of Clarification…

When I was a junior at Drake University [in DSM, IA] I started to get more serious about my relationship with Jesus Christ. As a jazz musician I tried to find any mentor I could in the Jazz world that was a Christian to justify my newfound seriousness about God. I realize now that justification for believing in the One Triune God needs no justification by men’s testimony [rather by God in His holy Word], but I was very immature in my faith.

The following is a “psalm” Coltrane wrote. It is a personal conversation between him and who he perceived to be God. It’s almost pantheistic or Baha'i in how general/universal it speaks of God. Somehow, this "psalm" and recording strengthened my resolve to seek Christ in college…I’m not sure why. I’d say that it was a was a gift of grace from the One True God [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...I'm feeling the need to be specific]. If Coltrane was a Christian I wish he wasn’t so vague about whom he believes this God, in his “psalm”, is. Do with it what you will...

I’m thankful for the grace God showed me through this, but in the future I would say that anything that doesn’t mention the Son of God is not necessarily a Christian “psalm”. Nevertheless, the recording of A Love Supreme is a great musical work and it still encourages me to serve and pursue God [I can't say the same for the words of the "psalm" he wrote]. Coltrane musically was a beast. Amazing imagination, sound, technique and more innovative and creative than anyone has been in music since [in my opinion]. Sadly, when it comes to writing, his words and thoughts are in desperate need of clarification. However, his vague expression of who God is in his "psalm" is a good summation of what a lot of folks actually do believe about God today. All the more reason to preach, teach, and pray, because God is a God of revelation of truth...not general realities. Not all paths lead to God [as Coltrane sadly suggests]. Here’s Coltrane’s “psalm”:

“I will do all I can to be worthy of Thee O Lord. It all has to do with it. Thank you God. Peace. There is none other. God is, It is so beautiful. Thank you God. God is all. Help us to resolve our fears and weaknesses. Thank you God. In You all things are possible. We know. God made us so. Keep your eye on God. God is. He always was. He always will be. No matter what…it is God. He is gracious and merciful. It is most important that I know Thee. Words, sounds, speech, men, memory, thoughts, fears and emotions – time – all related…all made from one…all made in one. Blessed be His name. Thought waves – heat waves – all vibrations – all paths lead to God. Thank you God. His way…it is so lovely…it is gracious. It is merciful – thank you God. His way…it is so lovely…it is gracious. It is merciful – thank you God. One thought can produce millions of vibrations and they all go back to God…everything does. Thank you God. Have no fear…believe…thank you God.

The universe has many wonders. God is all. His way…it is so wonderful. Thoughts – deeds – vibrations, etc. They all go back to God and He cleanses all. He is gracious and merciful…thank you God. Glory to God…God is so alive. God is. God loves. May I be acceptable in Thy sight. We are all one in His grace. The fact that we do exist is acknowledgement of Thee of Lord. Thank you God. God will wash away all our tears…He always has…He always will. Seek Him everyday. In all ways seek God everyday. Let us sing all songs to God To whom all praise is due…praise God. No road is an easy one, but they all go back to God. With all we share God. It is all with God. It is all with Thee. Obey the Lord. Blessed is He. We are from one thing…the will of God…thank you God.

I have seen God – I have seen ungodly – none can be greater – none can compare to God. Thank you God. He will remake us…He always has and He always will. It is true – blessed be His name – thank you God. God breathes through us so completely…so gently we hardly feel it…yet, it is our everything. Thank you God. ELATION – ELEGANCE – EXALTATION – All from God. Thank you God. Amen. [John Coltrane – December, 1964]” (I put questionable theology in bold/italics)

Cited from the liner notes of A Love Supreme John Coltrane Deluxe Edition. Copyright 2002. The Verve Music Group, USA (314 589 945-2).

Some of My Favorite Guitarists: Pat Metheny

This trio is one of my favorites! Metheny is great. Also, any guesses where the drummer is from??? You guessed it Des Moines, Iowa. Bill Stewart was a Roosevelt Grad. Check out this video of "Lone Jack".

Here's a video of him playing his "picasso guitar" made by Linda Manzer. I think this might be part of "Into a Dream".

Here's an awesome version of "Proof" directed by Jim McNeely at the North Sea Jazz Fest [I actually played at this festival with the Drake Jazz I]. Beware this recording starts and stops a lot...

Here's one of Metheny on a "Manzer" Baritone Guitar playing a variation Norah Jones' "Don't Know Why"

Enjoy

Some of My Favorite Guitarists: Bill Frisell

Bill Frisell... Rambler. I actually bought the lp of this when I was in college. Check it out. Frisell is a master!

"Some of My Favorite Jazz Musicians"

I was going through a bunch of pictures today and took some of these with the "digital macros" function of our camera.


Left: Charlie Haden, Bass Right: Larry Grenadier, Bass


Bill Frisell, Guitar



From Left to right: Tony Corson,Tuba [friend] Steve Gilberston, Piano [friend], Brad Meldau, Pianist, Me


Wynton Marsalis, Trumpet


Roy Hargrove, Trumpet


John Abercrombie, Guitar