So... The David Crowder Band is awesome. Looking forward to their new album in the fall. Until then, I think I'll just laugh genuine laughs at their 4 Rockumentaries. Here's #1
Fantastic! Here is #2 and #3. But I must show you #4... "Twitter will kill you"
Really truly funny. I love it when funny ideas that someone likely thought of on a lark (a "hey it would be funny if we" idea)... turn into a well produced gag.
Looking forward to their new album "Church Music" coming out in the fall. I totally dig the creativity, passion, and musical ingenuity of DCB.
1. My favorite blog right now is "slice of life" blog called... "Confessions of a Street Meat Vendor". Written anonymously... by a street meat vendor. It is what it says it is.
2. I don't twitter on my cell phone. I don't even have a cell phone. And I'm not really sure why I like twitter. There are friend-spam twitter things everywhere. It's tough to find your actual friend's twitter thing. There is very little actual dialogue on it... and I can't figure out a single way it's better than Facebook (and I still like FB better), but I find myself Twittering more. I'm a twit. Add me... DO IT!!! http://twitter.com/davecarrol
3. AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com is a great way to snicker your way through a boring afternoon. It features... Awkward Family Photos. Like this gem.
Truly unpleasant. Yes. It's a Hall of Famer. OK one more...
"Mellon... check. Handgun... check. It's time to head to Sears"
4. Rainn Wilson (Dwight from the Office) runs a creative and cool spiritual discussion website called "SoulPancake". He's personally from the baha'i faith and here's how he explains Soul Pancake
Real discussion about God? OK. Sold.
5. Grooveshark. It's an awesome social media interactive music site. I start my mornings off in the kitchen with my coffee, peanut butter and toast, and laptop listening to something on Grooveshark to set the tone for the day.
How do we sleep when our beds are burning? Midnight Oil
Dear North American Church:
Our delusional fantasy of a "Somewhere else" utopia is the wasted daydream of the discontent. Everywhere is valuable. Everywhere is the same. Pick. Then pick up a shovel.
Our lack of willingness to work at, sacrifice for, and serve strategic revolutionary efforts in our own neighborhoods... should be disconcerting to us.
Our lack of understanding that the health of the soul supersedes the health of the body... should be unsettling to us.
The way that we, armed with salt spreaders, gaze mindless into the sky; divorcing ourselves irresponsibly from those slipping on the ice in front of our eyes... should feel unpleasant to us.
The way we allow judgment to triumph over mercy to those with big pools, big homes, big TV's, big SUV's, big salaries, big responsibility, big influence... and big burdens, doubts, insecurities, and needs too... should seem unbecoming to us.
The way we dismiss spiritual warfare in our land, then are lulled by the very spirits we're ignoring into missing the Mammoth mission field outside our doors is a viscous, horrifically-scary fact that others see and we don't. It needs to stop.
'It can be tempting to try and do something significant - but we are not called to significance, we are called to obedience' ~ Matt Redman
The way the world communicates and thinks has changed. Business, Cities, Industry, Church, Media... you need to stop and hear this. Listen to this story about Dave Carroll. No... another Dave Carroll. He's been all over the news with this story today.
From his blog...
"In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise."
And here it is... "United Breaks Guitars"
So let me get this straight. Dave... do you LIKE or not like United Airlines? I'm laughing at loud at this. So great. Right down to naming the names of the people who were unreasonable to him. Poor Ms. Irlweg... kinda... but not really.
SO many things to take from this.
Companies simply cannot get away with poor customer service any longer.
Individuals now have a legitimate voice with the potential to influence many.
Creativity and innovation gets heard.
As an artist... being involved matters.
Injustice CAN be fought inexpensively.
Public perception MEANS something.
Everything can be viral... passion now has a vehicle for instant exponential contagiousness.
People will spend on someone/something they believe to be GOOD.
A couple of years ago... I had an experience with a certain telephone/Internet company in Canada that has blue things in their ads that (while it only cost this Dave Carrol 200 dollars instead of other Dave Carroll's 3500$) caused me to fight a corporate mistake tooth and nail. I fought and fought and all I received was the ignorant corporate runaround and eventually collection agency phone calls. I even threatened a similar online PR onslaught. Actually at one point I muttered something about doing unpleasant things to their spokesbeavers. It's maddening! So Dave Carroll's song would have me shouting "You go girl"... if Dave was a girl.
We've all been treated unfairly by corporations... and we've all seen people abuse the power of complaint as well. Once I did an "experiment" on a rainy day in a shop during my college summer job days. I found 20 products with customer access phone numbers on them. 10 companies I called and shredded up and down, telling motor oil companies that their product ruined my day and made my kids cry. 10 other companies I called and gushed about them. "This Diet Pepsi has brought light into my otherwise gloomy underworld existence".
I'm sure you can guess what happened. I received TONS of free product from the complaints and barely a thank-you letter from the products I liked! And I get why... and it's just going to increase. But surely... customer retention and genuine corporate ethics in the first place should be as important as putting out fires. United Airlines COULD sue Dave. Maybe.... but what would that say? United Airlines could give Dave free flights. Yep. OR... they could say I'm sorry and commit to improving customer relationships and righting a wrong.
Churches... what's the lesson to us? To me... it's another proof that there is power in a strongly believed message being communicated effectively. "To the ends of the earth" is a doable thing... The Message has always been "viral". Your community/customer relations have NEVER been more important... Kindness such a key! Ears and eyes are open... waiting to hear something true... and also quite willing to call BS on people who put themselves "out there" and are full it!
I'm a speaker, writer, church leader (Freedom House in Brantford Ontario), broadcaster and comedian... but mostly I'm a husband, father... and a worshipper of Jesus. Email me: bigearcreations@gmail.com
John Mayer's "Where the Light is" : I've always enjoyed John Mayer... but really listening to this live album has taken my appriciation of his ability to a woe notha level
On my Bookshelf
Holy Roller by Julie Lyons : Cool story of how a Black Penticostal Church in Dallas actually changed people's lives
Quote on my Mind
"One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu - the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality - Ubuntu - you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity. A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed." Bishop Desmond Tutu
Really truly funny. I love it when funny ideas that someone likely thought of on a lark (a "hey it would be funny if we" idea)... turn into a well produced gag.
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