I forget where I saw this video first, but I can’t stop watching it whenever I need a laugh.

Apparently, Hitler is a HUGE Buffalo Bills fan, and He’s none to happy about their lastest signing.

Recently I began a trek through almost 70gb of music located on my iPod.  The purpose of this was to re-discover some of those old hidden gems, and songs I love that I’ve forgotten about, and to maybe uncover some new unheard stuff from deeper cuts on albums I bought for only 2 or 3 songs.  So far I’m only at the letter “C”.  But not to long ago, I came across a song that I haven’t heard in so long, and it’s lyrics have been stuck in my mind ever since.

The song is off of the album 3 years, 5 months, and 2 days in the life of… by Arrested Development.  An album originally released in 1992.  This album is full of powerful lyrics, and the subject matter in the songs is provocative and important.  I have always thought that Speech was an amazing lyricist, but to re-listen to some of his words, and the deepness of their meaning has been pretty incredible.  Something I didn’t really understand as a 16 year old in 1992.

Anyway, back to the subject… The song Fishin’ 4 Religion came up on my iPod a while ago and it really stood out to me.  Not only some of the phrases, but just the overall tone and message of the song.  It seems to me that Speech isn’t happy with the message and passivity of most churches (Baptist in particular).  Instead of being change, or making change occur in this world, they just talk about it, as if taking or shouting will change things.  Here are the lyrics so you can see for yourself (Emphasis is mine on some of my favorite lines)…

Grab the hook, grab the line
Grab the bait, grab the box and wait
Tackle and shackle the topic the faculty has chosen
Chosen by many, chosen by plenty, chosen by any
man or woman who can’t understand
the topic that’s known and
[Go by the dock] flock and clock the topic
as I drop my hook and get a bite
The reason I’m fishin’ 4 a new religion
is my church makes me fall asleep
They’re praising a God that watches you weep
and doesn’t want you to do a damn thing about it
When they want change the preacher says “shout it”
Does shoutin bring about change ? I doubt it
All shoutin does is make you lose your voice
So on the dock I sit in silence
staring at a sea that’s full of violence
Scared to put my line in that water
coz it seems like there’s no religion in there
Naively so I give it another go
Sitting in church hearing legitimate woes
Pastor tells the lady it’ll be alright
Just pray so you can see the pearly gates so white
The lady prays and prays and prays and prays
and prays and prays and prays and prays…it’s everlasting
There’s nothing wrong with praying, it’s what she’s asking
She’s asking the Lord to let her cope
so one day she can see the golden ropes
What you pray for God will give
to be able to cope in this world we live
The word “cope” and the word “change”
is directly opposite, not the same
She should have been praying to change her woes
but pastor said “Pray to cope with those”
The government is happy with most baptist churches
coz they don’t do a damn thing to try to nurture
brothers and sisters on a revolution
Baptist teaches dying is the only solution
Passiveness causes others to pass us by
I throw my line until I’ve made my decision
until then, I’m still fishin’ 4 religion

Anyway, Do yourself a favor and download this song, hear it to the music and check out how good Speech is.  In fact I’d encourage you to download the entire album and check out some of the other gems on there, such as; Mr. Wendal, Give a man a fish, and Tennessee.  Take a trip back to 1992 and check out just how deep some of this album goes!

Over the past 10 years, the Superbowl halftime show has begun to shift from halftime celebration/tribute to the halftime Rock N’ Roll concert.  And I like it!  The past ten years have brought some of the greatest performances of all time.

I’m not to sure what to think of “The Boss(es)” performance last night… I’m not sure what I think about “The Boss” still.  I mean, I like a lot of his music, but I just don’t get the whole vibe… probably cause I’m not from Jersey.  How do you NOT play “Born in the USA” at the Super Bowl?  And the whole sliding into the camera thing… I understand he was having fun, putting on a show, amped up.  But I am still trying to figure out what was more offensive, Janet Jacksons bare breast in 2004 or the extreme closeup of “The Boss’s” crotch.  But I digress, back to the topic at hand.

You can find a list of all the past Super Bowl Halftime Shows here.

But for my money, the top three are;

3.) Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – 2008

This one was last year here in the AZ.  I loved the song selection, the stage, the performance.  Tom (on the classic Flying V guitar) and his band tore it up and the presentation was incredible.  For an older stoned guy, Tom can still rock.  And I love the licks in songs like “American Girl” “Free Falling” and especially “Running Down a Dream”.  Solid performance all around at #3.

2.) Prince – 2007

Seriously.  I have liked Prince for a while now.  Not so much for the vocals, or the songs themselves, or their content… But the man is a PHENOMENAL guitar player.  Most of the people I know laughed and scoffed when I mentioned this, and thought me slightly funny for liking Prince.  But when he shredded that symbol guitar of his, with the rain coming down, and the silhouette on that sheet… Incredible.  Most agreed with my thoughts on Prince after that performance.  One such man, strong enough to admit it is my friend Nick.  Thanks for being big enough to be honest man…

1.) U2 – 2002

After the 9/11 attacks of 2001, talk of cancelling the Super Bowl because of terrorist threats… A great game was dwarfed, by what many consider (myself included) one of the most important, incredible, and impressive performances of all time.  Bono kicking off with Psalm 51:15.  Man, I still get chills watching this, especially the 2nd half!

So what was your favorite performance?  Do you agree with mine or do you differ?  Sound off!

Here are some outtakes from one of my favorite commercials of all time – the E*Trade Baby.

You won’t be seeing this on Sunday, but I hope he makes a reappearance!

I hope you laugh as much as I did.

I couldn’t agree more…

View the thoughts here.

Wasting no time at all, newly inaugurated President of the United States, Barack Obama proclaimed his first official act as President.  What was it?  Serve each other.  Cool.

You can read the official proclaimation here.

By the way, the new White House web site looks great!

I’ve never been a big resolutions guy, they always just seem like benchmarks for failure even at just a few weeks out.  So instead of making resolutions, or changes, I’m hoping to make 2009 a year of investments.  Ones that will hopefully yield a strong return.  That’s what you want out of an investment right?  A return?  At least that’s what you hope for.  So I’ll be investing in some things that are important to me, and that I would like more of in my life.

1.)  I’m investing in my relationships.

• With God, I’m hoping to be more honest.  Truly open.  Sometime I feel like to often I come to Him trying to impress Him or being something that I am not.  Or when I come to Him, I feel like I can’t truly express how I feel, I don’t allow myself tell Him when I’m Angry, scared, sorrowful, confused.  Only when I need something, or I’m particularly thankful for something. I need to be more open before Him, and more open to Him.  I also want to spend more time just being before Him.  More silence, solitude, more of just being still.
• With Family, more time.  More focused concentrated time. I want to be more intentional with activities, words, and time. I want to be with Robin and Caleb in meaningful ways, not just “around”.
• With Friends.  I think in the past I’ve worried about trying to have a lot of friends, rather than having quality friends.  I’m gonna try and flip that around.  It’s not bad to have a lot of friends; people you chat with, twitter with, go out for a bite to eat with… But I really want to spend time investing in friends who want to invest in me.  I’m going to up my communication and time spent with them.  I want to share more of my life, struggles, joys, etc… And I want to develop those relationships with friends who want to do the same with me.

2.)  I’m investing in my health.

• I wanna feel better, sleep better, and have more energy.  I want to be around longer.  That means eating better, exercising, and being more disciplined.  I need to have a better rhythm to my life and I need to guard that.

3.)  I’m investing in my ministry.

• I want to be more focused, more deliberate, and more relational in the ministry that God puts me in.
• I will be hiring a good chunk of new “teammates” this year.  I will be very specific and picky about the people I hire, and those I bring to work alongside me and for me.
• I want to be more inventive and creative in the things we do.
• I want to always be raising the level of excellence, I want us to do everything as if we are doing if for God.  Because really, we are.

4.)  I’m investing in my wisdom and knowledge.

• More reading, more studying, more note taking.
• More Bible study.
• More listening to people I learn from (Rob Bell, Francis Chan, Matt Hammett, etc…)

Those are some of my planned investments for 2009.  Hopefully in 3-4 months I can look back and see how I have invested and hopefully notice some favorable returns.

What are you investing in this coming year, and what are some of the returns you hope to see?

Sorry for the blog layoff, time has been at a minimum as of late.  Looking forward to a new look and new consistency of blogging in 2009.  So you should see more posts coming in the following days.

Also, to all on my Blogroll… I apologize for the lack of links.  Apparently WP is having some trouble with their widgets and when you change the theme, it won’t load the blogroll widget.  I emailed WP and they say they are working on it, and as soon as it’s fixed, you’ll all be back up there.

Here’s to a new year!
Grace and Peace.

Kerry

I came across this video over the weekend and it has been stuck in my mind for the better part of the last 2 days.  It’s Radiohead’s “All I Need” showing the very real dichotomies between products that end up in most of the western world, and third world child labor/slavery.  Check it out and tell me what you think…