In an attempt to broaden my musical horizons (something i really don’t like to do) i decided to check out something in the rap/r&b category. So, i settled on the only two albums that came to mind: “The Miseducation of Lauren Hill,” and “The Diary of Alicia Keys.” Both are very highly acclaimed. I haven’t had the chance to really dig into them at this point, but have given each a partial listen. It’s hard for me–the sound is so foreign that i have a hard time with it. Anyway, in the car last night on the way to Camp David we were playing Lauren Hill and everytime a new song started Verity started bouncing around in her seat like she was dancing to the music. It was pretty funny–in spite of my dissapointment that she’s already showing favoritism toward R&B.

My mom taught an honors class this semester at Heartland. She, along with the two students who took the class read the book “The Da Vinci Code,” as well as various other related material. On Thursday night the three of them went to see the movie and asked if i’d like to come along. I haven’t read the book, but i’ve been curious about it and decided to go.

The movie wasn’t impressive–it was much less than i expected from Tom Hanks and Ron Howard. My main though throughout the film, however, was “why did Christians make such a big deal out of this story. “The story wasn’t original. It was basically a hyped version of a treasure hunting story like “National Treasure,” “The Mummy,” or any of the Indiana Jones movies. There wasn’t much in the movie that should be seen as threatening to Christianity.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we (Christians) tend to jump on certain national band wagons–often (in my opinion) doing more harm than good by our activism. For instance, “The Da Vinci Code” has been discussed from the pulpit at the church we attend several times. It was written about in the church newsletter as well. I know for a fact that the same thing happend in many churches throughout the country.

I think that this is having the opposite effect that we intend. The book (which Elizabeth tells me isn’t even taken seriously in literary circles) isn’t worth the panic that it’s causing in Christian circles. It’s filled with bad theology, innacurate history, and poor conclusions. All of which are easily refuted. And yet, we make a big deal about it as a church and by doing so, call it to the attention of even more readers and movie-goers.

An outside observer shouldn’t have any trouble coming to the conclusion that (just as the Catholic Church conspired to conceal and discredit the truth of Jesus’ marriage to Mary Magdelene and they child they conceived together in the story, because it would ‘undermine the authority of the churches power on earth) the modern church is making such a unified effort to discredit Dan Brown and his book because we’re afraid that it might really undermine us. Are we afraid? If so, what are we afraid of?

My good friend Brandon encouraged Worldview Academy students to simply ignore the film. Not to pickett or protest it. Just to ignore it. Having now seen the film, i can back up his recomendation. Let’s stop talking about a stupid story that is no more threatening to Christianity than stories of Count Dracula. The more we talk, the more people will be curious. Let’s start talking about things that are actually worth our time.

I’m taking a break from my projects for a while and i figured it would be a good time to put up a short post. I’ve been working all afternoon on mixing a couple new songs so that i can those stupid live recordings off of my myspace page. I’m trying to get decent mixes of “My Town” and “When You’re Breathing,” both songs that i’ve been working on in the studio for quite some time. I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the fact that most of my album is going to have to be re-recorded…due to the fact that i’ve learned so much about the recording process in the past year. So, the songs that i have done i’m going to try and get wrapped up to keep as demos. Over the last couple of days i’ve discovered that i’m not much of a mix engineer. In fact–i really suck at it. I hope it’s something i can learn with time.

I’m sitting in the living room on our ‘new’ sofa. I finally got off of my butt on friday when i didn’t have any work to do and got it finished up. For those of you that haven’t heard the story, a customer called me to fix a sofa a few weeks ago and i declined the job-due to the extent of the damage. She was going to throw the sofa away so i offered to haul it off. A couple of favors from a friend, half a bottle of glue, some webbing, several conversations with ‘people in the know,’ and a few hours in my basement have finally produced a decent piece of furniture–well broken in and covered with battle scars–but comfortable at any rate.

Verity is at my parent’s house today, hopefully giving my mom a happy mothers day. Elizabeth and i have both been sick with colds and sinus infections for the past couple of days, and we couldn’t refuse when my parents asked to keep her.

Well…i should probably get back to mixing. Or at least something productive.

Here it is…the first ‘real’ post on the new blog. Thanks everyone for stopping by and commenting. Thanks to Kim for the sweet photos (this one, and the one on www.robosborn.com). Thanks to Elizabeth for cutting and editing them and for helping with the page design. And lastly, thanks to Kimmy for signing up for an account. I really like this new blog. The wordpress blog is quite a bit different than blogger, but i like all of the changes.

Yesterday i posted a link to “Psalm 23″ on the Andrew Peterson message board. A gentleman named Jeff sent me a message and said that he had added the song to the rotation of an online radio station. The station plays acoustic christian music. Much of it is indie music. I’ve listend for several hours and most of the playlist is excellent. Think Andrew Peterson, Jill Phillips, Andy Gullahorn, Jeremy Castilla, Derek Webb…that’s the caliber of stuff they’re playing. If you’re in the mood for quiet acoustic music, and you’ve the internet connection, it’s worth listening to. I haven’t heard “Psalm 23″ come up yet…but they say it’s on there. You can find the station at http://www.wordoftruthradio.com/. There are three stations on the site. Look for “acoustic praise cafe.”

There’s not a lot going on around here today. I’ve got a slow work day and so i need to get some things done around the house. I’ve also got music to write, podcasts to work on, bills to pay, paperwork to finish, phone calls to make, and a problematic wireless router to fix. I guess there is a lot going on. Have a good day everyone!