There’s a blues singer I like named Keb Mo. Way back in 1998 he released a record named Slow Down - and the title track of that record is one of my favorite blues tunes. The song was originally written by Kevin Moore and John Lewis Parker.

How many times have I listened to this song. Why do I always forget just how important it is to really slow down? Some of the sweetest memories I have are from the two summers I spent working at Camp Barakel in ‘99 and ‘00. Probably because for those two summers I really did slow down. Granted, some parts of camp flew by with dizzying speed… but the memories I savor the most are memories like those TAWG’s we had every Monday morning; just 4-5 hours of “time alone with God” to reflect, pray, sing, or just thank him for the amazing beauty we were surrounded with. Usually I trekked out into Huron National Forest. I could spend hours - even days - out there. It was fuel for my soul.

And I think it still is, even though I forget so much. I’ve been reminded recently by friends planning camping trips. I’ve been reminded recently on the lakefront trail since I started jogging again. I’m reminded again right now, sitting in Naperville by the river trail. I don’t think nature is “more spiritual” than the city or anything. It’s just that often it makes me catch my breath. Beauty offers a glimpse of the divine whether it’s observed in a sunset or a symphony. It feels so refreshing to just stop, sit down by the river and just not think about anything. And to know the one who made it; who painted this beautiful picture we’re living in. It’s a deep breath of fresh air. I need that every once in awhile.

And it continues.

8. Suffocated after being sealed in a plastic bag for two weeks then thrown out the window of a truck while speeding down the interstate. The truck was westbound on the Eisenhower (I-290) and the peep was hurled from the window at the exact moment the truck passed under the Sacramento Blvd bridge. The truck was in the left-most lane and the peep was tossed from the driver-side (left) window - over the top of the truck to the right, into oncoming traffic. The peep was observed in the rear-view mirror exploding as it hit the ground between two lanes. The driver of the car behind the truck seemed to wonder what had just happened.

Other posts:
Peep Jousting
Peep Jousting Results
Peep #6
Peep #7

Actually this was almost two weeks ago; on Friday May 4. A friend of mine, Laurie Cook, was one of the contributers to this book - Mimic The Devil. The launch was a blast; it was at a new coffee shop in Wicker Park called Blend and they had great music and all the authors read short excerpts from the book. Laurie is an amazing writer and there was some really cool stuff in the book!

Meant to post this two weeks ago but I forgot that I had the pic until just now. :)

This seems worth reposting. My friend Dan Price pointed to this from his blog. Like Dan I’m not a Brian McLaren clone or anything but I do like what he says in this short video about worship.

There’s a beautiful honesty about art. When you’re honest about the ugliness of life, that’s a beautiful thing. It’s strange; it’s paradoxical. But when you try to make everything pretty, it ends up seeming really cheap. — Brian McLaren

› Read more

Transcript from a GTalk IM conversation with Aris just now:

Aristomenis: so you know what’ll be especially cool? I’m going to get either a wireless or bluetooth card for my desktop. we’ll have air tunes streaming to the router, and I’ll be able to control itunes from my cell phone. :-D
Jeremy: three words
abuse of technology
Aristomenis: oh come on, you can DJ our parties from my phone. how is that not the coolest thing ever?
Jeremy: it’s like having a ssh session controlling a telnet session controlling another telnet session controlling a different ssh session that’s forwarding a vnc connection where you’re running xclock
when you’re wearing a watch
Aristomenis: which you’re doing right now, aren’t you?
Jeremy: i will never tell

Update:
Aris just point out this link - http://www.thebettertons.com/itunesspeakerthing.htm

Normally I unleash my ninja skills on the baldwin mini-grand but this week the arsenal was expanded as pictured. Holy smokes what an awesome set Sunday. (Well at least from where I was sitting… to be honest I’m skeptical that the guys at the board really mix it very well so I’m not sure anyone else heard the sax.) Anyway that is a genuine Hammond organ which I just figured out how to work a week ago Saturday and the stool on the right was so cool looking it made me feel more creative just being in the same room as it. I sat on it to play sax. We were an unstoppable force.

Overheard this on facebook. It’s too great to ignore.

Hot Hot Heat
A graphical dissertation on the number one song in America
by Rob Harvilla
March 13th, 2007 1:12 PM

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0711,harvilla,76021,22.html

It would appear that fly and hot are interchangable. If you are one, you are both; if you aren’t at least one, you are neither.

If you find completely overlapping Venn diagrams visually unhelpful, consider this tautology:

…

If that’s a bit pretentious, then maybe a blunt flowchart works best:

Saturday night we checked out an art gallery down in Pilson then went to this awesome new coffee/cake place that’s open crazy late. I snapped a few pics with the cameraphone.

The intellect of man is forced to choose
perfection of the life, or of the work,
And if it take the second must refuse
A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark.
When all that story’s finished, what’s the news?
In luck or out the toil has left its mark:
That old perplexity an empty purse,
Or the day’s vanity, the night’s remorse.

-Yeats

(I’m over at the DePaul library right now trying to finish up a very long technical paper about a specific aspect of Oracle databases called services… and I read that poem during a five minute break. It struck me. And the more I reflect on it, the more profound it seems. Especially in the light of some of the frustrations I’ve personally been struggling with lately.)

The next peep has passed on to the netherworld.

7. Got mixed up with the wrong crowd.

Moral: be carefuly who you hang with.