Christian's new music

bothofus.jpg
Originally uploaded by ericblauer.

My 15 year old son Christian, has uploaded two of his songs on his band site:fair weather friendit is the first time that he has made public his singing talents. He did all the vocals, guitar, drums, mixing etc...all him.

Ralph Bakshi's LOTR orcs...

So we were watching this today with my son and his friend Andrew. If you have seen the old Ralph Bakshi's 78 movie version of part one and two of the Lord of the Rings; you know that the orcs talk in a rough, garbled like voice, nothing pretty, as it should be. But in the end of the Rotoscoped film (which I like) you have them all singing as they march towards battle (see video clip).

Andrew comments from the couch:

"One thing...orcs are good singers."

Silence...I bust up laughing.

Priceless.

Death of a loved one...

I officiated a funeral for the mother of a friend of mine Thursday. The elderly husband was there remembering 54 years of marriage to his wife. It was my first official funeral with all the formal stuff at the funeral home, following the hearse and graveside ceremony etc. I didn't know the woman, so I had to dig deep, read about her life and listen to the Spirit of put together a memorial service that had meaning. It's moments like these that crafting words is a gift that I enjoy. Weaving together scripture, poems, memories and prayers to gently lead people into the presence of God and to reflect on the joys and sorrows of living. I wrote this poem to capture the challenges of trying to share in a moment the beauty of a lifetime with someone. The apostle James said that all of us... “will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed.” (James 1:9-11) I based my words on this scripture.

Lost in a Field of Flowers.

I stumbled on a a hidden canvas,
a field that’s only audience was heaven’s gaze.
Each step through the wild artists glen,
was scented by a thousand open faced flowers.
Their only intent seemed...to fill the air with beautiful intoxication's.
Such elaborate waste it seemed...to paint the season for such a short time.
Who casts their pearls of delights onto the open ground for birds,
wandering deer and passing clouds?
I wondered in my delight.
I plucked a flower for my journey home...delicately holding its splendor in my hand,
in hopes to hold onto the moment and to share with another.
But each step away...was one step closer to a moment when it was not, as it had been.
We can not hold the flower forever...except in our hearts...in our minds...
But in moments of quietness,
when the warm summer’s breeze stops me by the nose,
I smell that day...that moment...and I am alive again,
lost in a field of flowers.

This music video captures some of what I saw and felt:When you're gone

Homeless teens...

This video is very moving to me. If you have ever worked with street kids in any town, you can instantly relate to the girl in this video.

Lil Mama and Avril...

I dig this video. I don't know it's just fun. It reminds me of "ye-ole-youth-pastoring days". One of the blessings of working with teens, especially teen girls, was the laughter. So many memories of laughing. This video captures the "spunk" of teen girls that I loved. Attitude, playfulness and oh so hip. I'm not a big rap fan but Lil' mama can rap, I've always liked Avril, so the remix of "girlfriend" with these two is jammin.
girlfriend remix

Seduction...a christian virtue?

If you dig to far into my family past, you might not like what you find. You see, my family has got stories...really sick, perverted stories. Some of them can make your skin crawl...but that’s my family. Depraved, possibly cursed but family still. See, way back my old grandma’s slept with their father. In fact, ended up getting pregnant by him...and wanted it to happen. Yep, we have issues in my family. Getting knocked up by dad...doesn’t sit well with most religious folks. Imagine being raised with that over your head...your granddad is your dad...that can mess with your mind.

But to be honest...I am not sure I fall too far from the tree. You see when you are raised in that kind of world, you pick up on all the tricks of the trade, the language, the vibe, the ways of seduction. You learn that your body is a tool to get what you want. You realize you got power baby. And I’m not afraid to use it, if I have too. Just like my grandmama’s before me...I am attracted to older men, especially if they are rich! I am not afraid to go after what I want...no matter what people might think.

I remember one time, I got a job working for this older guy who had a pretty financially prosperous business. I noticed that he noticed me. You know how it works...you show a little something, you catch their gaze...flirt a bit, you know. He hired me and soon was inviting me to lunch. I could read him...he thought I was hot. I was quite a bit younger but life had been tough and I needed a break. So I started moving in...playing the game. I could tell he was hooked and I started reeling him in.
I pulled out all the womanly charms...in fact one night I went for the kill. I put together an outfit that I knew would make a man’s heart melt and his knees get weak. Pulled out my best perfumes and hit the town.

I knew he was at a party in town...so I showed up late...after I knew he would have been slamming down the booze. Sure enough, he was getting drunker than a skunk and ended up passing out in a little room in the back of the house. I made my move and slipped in and slipped under the covers. it wasn’t until late that morning that he woke up...to say he was pleased, is an understatement. Even though he was a respected member of the community and probably was nervous about my under the covers meeting...he didn't want me to leave. I stayed in bed with him the rest of the night and slipped out in the morning...making sure a few people saw me...the hook was set.

Needless to say we got hooked up and now...I’m set for life. I’ve learned a few things from my family...sometimes a woman has got to do what a woman has got to do.

My name is Ruth...you can find my name in the linage of Jesus, the Son of God and I am one of only two women in the bible that have awhole book named after them...in fact the other one, Esther...got to power about the same way as I did.

The tiger's claws come out...

How terrible it will be for those who make unfair laws, and those who write laws that make life hard for people. They are not fair to the poor, and they rob my people of their rights. They allow people to steal from widows and to take from orphans what really belongs to them. (Is 10:1-2 NCV)

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." -Martin Luther King, Jr

Pray for the people of Burma and the brave monks that are leading the protests. Pray that the blood of the people will awaken international action. That the sacrifice of the sons and daughters of Burma will not be in vain. And remember our Lord said: "No one has greater love than this, that one should lay down his life for his friends.- John 15:13

What you can do right now...

This buddist monk lifts a upside down rice bowl in definace of the Burmese dictatorship. He is standing in the face of a military tiger that eats its own...with no remorse.
His future is unclear...but his choice is not.

He is doing what he can do...now let's do what we can.
Here is one thing you can do right now.
I have just read and signed the online petition:
"UN must act ,Call for action on Myanmar Military Government ,Now !!!!"
hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition
service, at:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/kha8954b/

If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider adding your signature.

What I have set on my TV digital recorder

Bionic Woman: The pilot was a good first look at this promising retelling of a childhood fave. I look forward to seeing if this series holds up.
What is with all the new buff chicks wearing tight black matrixish body suits?

KID NATION: I didn't think I would like this, but I did. At first it seemed a bit cruel but then I realized that my reaction was a byproduct of our soft culture sensitivity forced-education seeping through. Buck up you sniveling knee-biters and get out there and see that you can survive without mommies cookies and tv. I dig it.

SURVIVORMAN: More tame than Man VS Wild but a little more realistic too. I watched a recent behind the scenes show and they showed some clips of a cobra in a nest that they almost got bitten by...it was intense. Real stuff, real dude, real good.

HEROES: Eh....well, I loved the first season, but the first show this season was...ok. Come on flying boy hovering outside teen girls window...every boys fantasy but not good tv. I hope it picks up.

PRISON BREAK: This show is getting tired but I liked the last season...but how much can you do with a show called Prison Break...before breaking out is boring. We will see.

Battlestar Galactica: This is the show I cant wait to see this season.

pray

At least four people including three Buddhist monks were killed Wednesday as Myanmar security forces used weapons and tear gas to crush protests that have erupted nationwide against the military junta.
Two of the monks were beaten to death while another was shot when he tried to wrestle a gun away from a soldier and the weapon discharged, two senior Myanmar officials told AFP.
They said the monks were killed near Yangon's Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's holiest site and a key rallying point for the clergy leading the protests now posing the biggest challenge to the junta in 20 years.

Free Burma

Like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela Aung, San Suu Kyi has become an iconic figure through her support for non-violent resistance against the military junta in Burma. In 1991 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize but has spent 10 of the last 17 years under house arrest in Burma. Pray for Burma now, there are major peace demonstrations erupting, led by students, monks, nuns and the common people of Burma. Pray that this uprising would lead to major shifts, changes and the peaceful removing of the military leaders from their oppressive power. This is the first major public demonstrations since 1988 when there was major retaliation, bloodshed and imprisonment. God willing, we will see the answers to thousands of prayers for the people of Burma in the days ahead.

Pray for the uprising in Burma

Burma: An Urgent Call for Prayer

There has been a request from inside Burma urging people of all faiths to join in a prayer vigil for for the next three days. Inside Burma they have asked that everyone pray in their doorways or just outside their houses for 15 minutes at 8 pm Burma time on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, as sign of solidarity and an appeal for the restoration of democracy in Burma.

For those in the United Sates who would like to join in this, 8pm Burma time is 6:30 am PST time and 9:30 am EST.

If you cannot pray at this exact time please try to pray at anytime that you can.

Thank you and God bless you and God Bless the couragous people of Burma.

-Christians concerned For Burma (CCB)

John Carter of Mars...make the movie, please...

My one request before I die...well, I have a few others, but for the sake of the post...would some really fantastic studio/director please put Edgar Rice Burroughs Martian Chronicles into a butt kicking film. If you want to read a great SCI-FI fantasy book, read the first book in the series: "A Princess of Mars".

provocative quote...

But at length, O God, wilt thou not cast Death and Hell into the lake of Fire—even into thine own consuming self? Death shall then die everlastingly, and Hell itself will pass away, and leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.

Then indeed wilt thou be all in all. For then our poor brothers and sisters, every one—O God, we trust in thee, the Consuming Fire—shall have been burnt clean and brought home. For if their moans, myriads of ages away, would turn heaven for us into hell—shall a man be more merciful than God? Shall, of all his glories, his mercy alone not be infinite? Shall a brother love a brother more than The Father loves a son?—more than The Brother Christ loves his brother? Would he not die yet again to save one brother more?

As for us, now will we come to thee, our Consuming Fire. And thou wilt not burn us more than we can bear. But thou wilt burn us. And although thou seem to slay us, yet will we trust in thee even for that which thou hast not spoken, if by any means at length we may attain unto the blessedness of those who have not seen and yet have believed.

-The Consuming Fire’ by George MacDonald

Our church is growing...

We will be meeting for the first time in our East side of Jacob's Well. We have been working for the last year to renovate the old space to become our service/sanctuary for Jacob's Well. We will be hosting a special service in the under-construction area this Sunday. Come join us as we watch a special video presentation that will cover where we have come from and where we are going. I will be sharing about "what God does with an idea" and how together we went from idea to reality...becoming what we prayed to become. Should be a great Sunday.

anti-beardites...

Every man has to grow some facial hair at sometime in his life. I could grow a full beard at 15...helped me buy beer and get older babes and hid a lot of zits. I have had various conglomerations of facial hair styles through the years, some from the chart above. But facial hair has an on again off again popularity. Most people are anti-beardites...especially women. But the time has come to allow what is left of the testosterone to bloom upon the naked boulder of my chin and sprout all its briar like glory...at least until LeeElla wont come near me anymore.

watch for the kitty...

IRONMAN...I'm all over this.

movie trailer

canoe trip part one: Bears are scarry...or at least the thought of them

Ok...I'm back from my canoe excursion on the Little Spokane River and Upper Priest lake, ID.
Important things learned...when in the woods, particularly the isolated, way up in the wild woods...you should carry a gun. Now as fond as I am of the above picture of the age old mountain man...I failed to notice the fear chasing, mind calming sedative in his arm...a big rifle. I now have a new goal...get a gun, a big gun, one big enough to stop a bear or cougar dead in its tracks if needed.
I should of listened to the Ranger when he said : "You know the berries are all gone and the bear are hungry"...or when the camp host who was still at the closed campsite, waiting for his grandson to come from "Missoreeeee" to hunt bear said he was talking to an hunter he called "the bear man" and he said there was a grizzly up on trapper Creek that enters upper Priest. Or how he had to chase 5 black bears out of camp that summer and how a grizzly was seen in Nordman, an area not to far from Beavercreek where I was talking to him. But none of that really sunk in until I was miles from civilization at a deserted little camp area on upper Priest lake. I didn't really think much about bears, cougars or the absence of people until it started growing dark and my outpost "camp gunna die" started getting darker. of course about this time the noises start getting louder...and now looking back, I was camped by a creek that poured into the lake...not sure if it was called Trapper's creek. The fire was comforting but my little buck knife just didn't seem that menacing in the face of a 500 bear or Bigfoot. I was frustrated. I had painstakingly hauled all my gear via canoe up t this lake via a 2.5 mile beautiful river to this pristine mountain lake to play Grizzly Adams and forgot about safety. But as I sat there, looking at the 'bear proof" metal containers for storing your food in, that every camp site has...I realized, I didn't have what it took to stay the night out there...alone.

So...I loaded up my gear and put out my fire and launched back out into the lake for a grueling, against the wind return. I ended up having to portage out my canoe and gear via a trail because I was too tired to tackle the lower lake back to my truck. So I hauled the giant two man canoe up a trail...i thought I was going to die from exhaustion.

Learning point number two...a buddy is essential in camping in the wild and for helping carry a canoe uphill.

I will return...with a gun and a buddy for sure.

Why I walk in the woods...

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.” -William Blake

There are moments in ones life when eternity engulfs your present moment like a dream. Time stands still and you hover momentarily in the arms of life eternal in the now. Yesterday was a holy epiphany for me. As I stood in the immense beauty of the canyon, with majestic, white bouldered hills jutting triumphantly into the azure blue sky...I hung in between eternity and time.

As I was dwarfed under the giant Ponderosa pines, like a child looks up to a parent...I felt small but in the safe sense. For me nature has a sooting way of awakening my hardening heart. My soul seems to grow old faster in the city...but in the woods, by the stream, under the canopy of limb and leaf...I am born anew.

Philosophy begins in wonder.-Plato

When I stand in creation...I stand before the Creator. It is revelatory...breathing out voice to my deafening ears.

I hear...here.

There is more to life than increasing its speed. -Gandhi

It slows me down...I can hear my heart again, beating in my chest. A little fear tinges the back of the neck in such uncontrollable wild. Being at the mercy of larger more hungry beasts, or the unknown path...is good for the mind. It reminds you that you are alive and that you are vulnerable but present. Each step is a new sight, a fresh scent, a familiar or forgotten sound. The corner ahead is anticipated vs the nagging trepidation found in normal day to day activities that push you instead of lure you. Here the next is juicy like a second bite of a late summer peach. You find yourself having to stop just to prolong the slightly orgasmic pleasure of each moment. Walking becomes an act of discipline to see...to taste...to drink it all in.

The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.
-Plato (427-347)

I also am doing the holy work of navigation. Creating a path for others, most importantly my children, to follow. Discovering holy temples to worship in. Unearthing natural anvils that will resound for years with the forging of memories. Each child reawakened when they step onto dirt or slide into water, with their shoes off. What is more rewarding than passing on a love for being free to roam, to explore, to discover? All without cost.

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.
-Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

I pray that what I find in these moments, in these places, will be as important to those who come after...as they have been to me. That is why I walk in the woods.