By this point, you should be well aware of my affinity for a certain prolific musician from the south side of Jersey. And if you’ve been around for any length of time, you know that I’m not alone. Springsteen is also is apparently a musician’s musician, and on his website right now he’s showcasing some artists being interviewed about The Boss’ influence on music as well as covering some of his jams… one of which, in some sort of path-crossing-universal-crashing-enigma is none other than the Avett Brothers… it’s like when your friends from high school run into your friends from college at your birthday party. Amazing…
Here’s a few of the other highlights as well…
Some of my other favorites, Pete Yorn, Josh Ritter and Tegan & Sara, will also be featured soon on his site, so color me excited.
- Tommy Barnett looks freakishly like Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
- Pastor Steven brought the house down with his message on honor and restoring it to the church and the men of God called to lead them.
- Christine Caine is a tiny little Australian firecracker with a great message who looks like she is 15, not 42.
- Pastor Craig Groeschell still sounds like a sideline football reporter, but killed it with his message on what ‘It’ is and how we get it back.
- T.D. Jakes’ knowledge of the Bible and the way he makes it all connect is like some sort of ‘Beautiful Mind’ moment is amazing… I can never write fast enough to keep up with what he profoundly pulls from scripture.
- Afterwards, I got hit on by some girls during their sweet 16 birthday dinner. I have the napkin note to prove it.
- I spent some time walking in a fountain due to a lost bet between myself and Joybatka.
- We caught up on LOST on a television that had the reception of an old basement TV with rabbit ears.
- Wade unfortunately taught me what a ‘Bell Ringer’ was.
- Wade also ate a whole bag of fun size candy bars while he was in his bed and wallowed around on the wrappers. Gross.
- On the way home, Larry and I convinced a pilot that we were doing a community college video project and to let me wear her pilot hat.
So that’s it. Great trip. Great teaching. A proud moment to get to share in ministry with Pastor Steven. Great food. Great friends. And some hotel roommates that made it feel somewhere between the last night of summer camp and the first year of college. Fantastic.
A few of the highlights from day 1:
- Today was Pastor Steven’s birthday. We all went up to his room to sing him happy birthday outside his door. Like Christmas carolers.
- We’re staying in a hotel that has a small city inside of it. With real trees. And a river. And a Kinko’s.
- We all got a free pair of TOMS shoes at the conference. I got plain white ones because of my boyish good looks. And I asked nicely.
- Ed Young did an Axl Rose impression and also said he’d pay top dollar for John Maxwell’s teeth because they can bite a man’s arm off.
- Bil with one L Cornielius spoke great words about the importance of praying for the work we do, rather than just merely doing the work we do.
- Ben Young used words that I haven’t heard since Mr. Angstadt’s Philosophy & Ethics class.
- Jentzen Franklin is part TV evangelist, part conference speaker and all Georgia. Fantastic.
- Joybatka and I committed crimes of the heart in a photobooth.
- I ate at my first Brazilian steakhouse. I piled my plate high with beef, pork and chicken shaved right off a skewer. I was not disappointed.
- I saw Chunks without a shirt on. Again.
- Meredith and I represented CS4 well in Balderdash: Pastor Steven edition.
- I’m sleeping on a rollaway twin bed at the foot of Wade’s queen bed. I feel like an indentured servant.
Last year, if you remember, the whole staff made the trek out to Dallas for the Creative Church Conference at Fellowship Church. Well this year, only the lead staff was scheduled to go – along with a few lucky other staff members slash contest winners. And because of my sharp mind and mathmatical prowess, I was able to catch a free ride to Texas after winning the staff-wide Sudoku-off. I knew all that wasted time in the bathroom would pay off – mom, just look at me now. Pastor Steven will be speaking on Friday, which is gonna be great – I really love watching him speak into church leaders and get them fired up about the calling God has placed on their lives. Plus I’ll be getting into all sorts of shenanigans with this guy and this guy. Maybe even a little triple-spoon-action. Or maybe not. Either way, I’ll be dropping some hot pics throughout the trip, so check back in on that mischief.
I have a lot of t-shirts. More than any one person should ever have or need. I have a chest of drawers with five drawers – the top one has socks and unmentionables in it. The next four are filled with t-shirts. Then there is the 3 drawer storage bin beside that… all three drawers filled with t-shirts. Then of course, there’s are the two stacks in my closet of t-shirts. I collect t-shirts like some people collect baseball cards. I’ve got new shirts and vintage shirts, band shirts and sports shirts, Young Life shirts and Elevation shirts… enough shirts to cloth a small impoverished community. I know, it’s sick. So a few weeks ago I decided to do a little experiment, asking myself this question – if I wore a different shirt every day, without any repeats, how long could I make it before I ran out? And while I’m at it, why not take a picture every day and document the whole event. Sounds like a great way to pass the time. This could take a while. So here it is… T-Shirt Bonanza ’09: The first 15 days.
There was no convincing needed for me to began eagerly waiting for these hot cakes to drop.
1. GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra
2. Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
I’ll group these two together for no other reason than that they are my childhood dreams manifested on the big screen. The first Transformers was big and loud and shiny and I loved it unapologetically. The last GI Joe movie I saw was in 1987. I was four. Its about freakin’ time.
3. U2 – No Line On The Horizon
Do I even need to explain this one? Go listen to the sexy boots song and get as psyched as you’ve ever been for dudes in their 50′s.
4. Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything to Nothing
Saw these guys back in ’05 and knew then they were something special. Fast forward to late-night show appearances, TV soundtracks and critical acclaim… and if their new single “I’ve Got Friends” is any sign of things to come… holy bologna, this is gonna be amazing.
5. Ryan Adams at the Township Auditorium
The alt-country troubadour train wreck makes a pit stop in my hometown. Mr. Brown and I will be there to watch it all unfold – or all fall apart.
I got away with it last year. So why not this year? Now that the Super Bowl dust has officially settled and everyone has moved on, I figure what better time than three days later to write about it. Its like going to work late and missing all the traffic – nice, but lonely. Moving on.
Without a dog in the fight this year (thanks to a very Gamecock-like thrashing the Panthers took at the hands of the Cardinals a few weeks back), I got a chance to sit back, enjoy some buffalo chicken mini sandwiches (I refuse to call them slammers… whoever whipped that one up should be slapped, along with the guy who came up with Ice DreamTM…) and hang out with the hot lady and 3/4 of the Sunday night trivia team. I was with the Cardinals the whole way because I’m a sucker for a good underdog (maybe explaining the Gamecock thing) and Kurt Warner is man to be admired – he’s 37, doing things that 24 year olds should be doing. Guys who are 37 and played in the NFL shouldn’t be in the Super Bowl, they should be doing Just For Men hair color commercials with Keith Hernandez. Also, he seems like a pretty stand-up guy and is unapologetic about his faith. But it wasn’t meant to be – despite the thrilling comeback late in the game, the Steelers, behind the hands of drug-dealer-turned-Super-Bowl-MVP Santonio Holmes came up with slow-motion-montage worthy endzone catch to seal the deal. We won’t talk about the bad calls that ended the game and the Cardinals last chance drive – by that point, they were already cuing up the Steelers Championship video/t-shirt/hat commercial. But hey, thanks for making it worth the watch.
And then of course there was the half-time show. If you know me at all, you know how I feel about The Boss. So you could say I was a little excited with the 12 minutes of musical wonder that was Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band. Packing “10th Avenue Freeze-Out” (unexpected), “Born to Run”(a given – even I though freakin called it “Thunder Road” earlier and McKenzie called me out), “Working On A Dream”(the new song – so a given), & “Glory Days”(a classic) into a tight set, complete with stadium-shaking fireworks, some cheesy football references, and a soon-to-be legendary crotch first slide into a cameraman, was exactly what a Super Bowl half-time show should be. Consider me content and satisfied.
Then of course there were the commercials – and being that it’s apparently a down year for the economy (I hadn’t heard…) – I’m not gonna give you the play-by-play breakdown like last year. I’ll just throw my picks out for Best In Show:
Best Music/Feel Good: Pepsi Refresh
Best Looking: Coke Heist
Best Repetitive Beating of Small Animal: Careerbuilder.com
Best SNL Reference: Pepsuber
Best Use of Cheap Pain Humor: Pepsi Max
Best Use of 1 Second Ever: High Life
And That’s it. See you this time next year – roughly three days after the fact.
