Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Banjo Jazz Band: The Weekly Hodgepodge


Join the fun! 
Come on over to 
for the Hodgepodge link-up!
April is National Jazz Appreciation Month. Are you a fan? If so what's a favorite you'd recommend to someone new to jazz listening?

As much as I love music, I've not acquired a taste for Jazz.  I hope to attend one of my church's monthly jazz and soul worship experience services.  Maybe I'll understand and appreciate the genre more.

My issue with jazz music is a theoretical one.  Yeah, I was a music major for a time, until I figured out I could become a brain surgeon faster than I could complete Jacksonville State University's VERY thorough Music Education program.  Anyway, I've had enough music theory for it to bother me when songs don't resolve.

In case I'm going too musical nerd, listen to the end of this song and you'll understand what I mean by "doesn't resolve."


Of course the big joke with the worship teams I've played for is most of the Hillsong praise and worship songs we play don't resolve either.  We usually rework them to make them resolve.  You can't do that with jazz; it is what it is.

So, maybe it isn't the lack of resolution that's the problem.  Maybe I just haven't heard any good jazz.  All the so-called jazz I've ever heard sounds like a train wreck that ran into a pack of cats. 

Mandolin, ukulele, harp, accordion or banjo...which would you be most interested in learning to play? Or do you already play one of the instruments listed?

If I were back home, I'd say the banjo.  However, there isn't much need for banjos in Colorado.  Hmmm...maybe the ukulele?  I'd be great at parties.

Do you judge a book by it's cover? Elaborate. You may answer in either/both the literal or figurative sense of the word.

The cover of an actual book?  No.  I try not to do that with people either.  Now, if someone is acting ugly...that's a whole different story.

According to a recent study the ten most nutritious foods are-almonds, cherimoya (supposed to taste like a cross between a pineapple/banana), ocean perch, flatfish (such as flounder and halibut), chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, swiss chard, pork fat (shocking! but I don't think they mean bacon), beet greens, and red snapper. Are any of these foods a regular part of your diet? Any you've never ever tasted? Which would you be most inclined to add to your diet?

OK, I've got to ask, if pork fat is nutritious, why doesn't bacon fall into the same category?  Plus, flax seeds are just as nutritious as chia seeds with more flavor, less fat (and less of them sticking in your teeth).  I think the wheel is rigged on this one.  Also, did you ever notice how the supposed "most nutritious" foods change like the March winds and are almost always obscure of ridiculously expensive?  Just sayin'.

The only item on the list I consume is almonds.

Besides a major holiday what is the most recent thing you've celebrated with your people? Tell us how.

Insert your own random thought here.


Thursday, April 5, 2018

Book Trek 2008 - 09

Book:  Let’s All Be Brave.  (Audio Book)

Author:  Annie F. Downs

Info:  Copyright 2016.  Old Saybrook, CT:  Tantor Audio

Rating (on a scale of 1-4 stars):  ✮✮✮

Where Acquired:  Library check out. 

Category:  Impulse Reads. A couple of my friends read and reviewed the book, so I added it to my reading list.

What it's about:  Downs, using stories from her own life and experiences, encourages the reader to embrace his own version of bravery.

What I liked:

The narrator of this audio book was great.

Many of the author's experiences with bravery mirrored my own.  She seemed to understand that bravery looks different for everyone.

What I didn’t like:

Downs' treatment of singleness really rubbed me the wrong way.  The book had four stars until I got to this section.  Using terms like “unwanted season,” and treating singleness like a disease of which to survive and be cured, rather than see the beauty of a life not hindered, made me want to barf.  Like me, Downs is also Southern.  Unfortunately, she has fallen victim to Southern church culture (and as I've seen, churches in other parts of the country as well) that teaches women to worship marriage instead of Jesus.  She laments of being 33 and not married.  I guess she’ll curl up and die if she not married when she’s my age.  Good grief, she admittedly put her life on hold for ten years for fear that she would miss a marriage opportunity, yet wasn't married during that time period anyway.

Please, can someone, anyone write that there is joy in singleness and that all Christian singles over the age of 18 aren't bitter spinsters surrounded by 99 cats.  As I’ve said before, I’m not against marriage; I’m against women being taught that marriage is all they can want.  I’m against women being ostracized for having godly desires outside of marriage and motherhood.  I’m against a woman’s sexual orientation being questioned if she's not married with six children by the time she's 25.
 
Takeaway:

The book had a great start, but fell flat as a founder by the end.

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Book Trek 2018 - 08

Book:  Blue Like Jazz.  (Audio Book)

Author:  Donald Miller

Info:  Copyright 2007.  Escondido, CA:  Hovel Audio

Rating (on a scale of 1-4 stars): 

Where Acquired:  Library check out. 

CategoryEveryone else is reading it.  Its popularity piqued my interest, but not enough to read it until eleven years after its publication.
 
What it's about:  Miller recounts his early life, his coming to Christ, and those he’s met who either helped or hindered his life’s progress.

Favorite Quotes:

I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil, but rather, have us wasting time.

I don’t think any church has been relative to culture—to the human struggle—unless it believed in Jesus and the power of His Gospel.

…to be in a relationship with God is to be loved purely and furiously, and a person who thinks himself unloveable cannot be in a relationship with God because he can’t accept who God is:  a being that is love.

What I liked:

I appreciated the author’s transparency about his faults and struggles.
 
What I didn’t like:

Yes, I know part of the book's title is “Non Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality,” however, I didn’t see much in Miller’s conclusions that were based on Scripture.  It’s very easy to give non religious thoughts when it seems that you have no spiritual foundation from which to glean knowledge.

I found it rather narrow-minded for the author to put all republicans, conservatives, fundamentalists, television preachers, and pretty much anyone else he’s decided to hate in one box.  While saying that we shouldn’t assume everyone not like us is alike, he’s assumed everyone not like him is alike.

I spent a lot of my time in this book thinking but you just said…  He criticizes others for things he’s gleefully doing.  For example, he encourages people to follow his suit and pick a church based on personal preference so they can “go to church without getting angry,” yet talks smack about people “not having to deal with real people who might hurt us or offend us.”  Well, which is it, Hoss?

The gentleman who narrated Miller’s book read in a very condescending tone…perfect to match the author’s pithy comments.  

Takeaway:

I honestly don’t know what to make of this book.  For me, this book is like jazz music to my ears; I don’t hate it, but I don’t like it either.  Blue Like Jazz is a strange dichotomy of open confession mixed with arrogance and sniveling. While I found some of Miller’s observations refreshingly honest, a majority of the book annoyed me. I’m not sorry I read it, but I am sorry that like jazz, I don’t really get the point.  Miller’s bitter attitude comes across as very angry and hateful.  It seems as though the author isn’t interested in the family of Christ growing together in love, but rather, to keep it fractured, ineffective, and scripturally illiterate.  If that’s his idea of the “progressive” church, I’ll stick with what I have, thank you.