This Guy Falls Down

Crazy Busy

I found this book completely by chance at a bookstore last week. I'm not normally a browse and buy type when it comes to books, but it's quite unlike anything I've ever read. Nothing of an extremely earthshattering nature, but still worth checking out, at least the first few chapters have been. It's written by one of the leading experts on attention deficit disorder and takes a look at how our whole society has pretty much gone ADD as of late and how to function in it. If you're like me, it hits pretty close to home and is therefore worth the price of admission. As an added bonus you get to learn a bunch of nifty new words like "screensuck".

A complete review will follow whenever I finish it...

Don't forget about me - I'm still here

It's funny how you turn around and it's been a long time since you've posted anything. I'm actually on vacation right now, getting some rest, etc. in before hitting the studio in May (details to come on thirdday.com soon.). At any rate, here are a couple of things on my mind that I'll talk about at some point (or maybe I won't, who knows): I recently picked up a book called The War of Art which has been pretty enlightening. The idea of this book is really what I had in mind when I first wrote the lyrics to "Wire" - it sort of tuned into the whole "in the world, not of the world" thing after the fact. And that's cool too. I also picked up that Bob Dylan documentary I recently posted about. Haven't watched it yet, but when I do, I'm sure I'll talk about it.

Until next time...

Twyla Tharp on getting started

"You can't just dance or paint or write or sculpt. Those are just verbs. You need a tangible idea to get you going. The idea, however miniscule, is what turns the verb into a noun - paint into painting, sculpt into sculpture, write into writing, dance into a dance.

"Even though I look desparate, I don't feel desparate because I have a habitual routine to keep me going.

"I call it scratching. You know how you scratch away at a lottery ticket to see if you've won? That's what I'm doing when I begin a piece. I'm digging through everything to find something. It's like clawing at the side of a mountain to get a toehold, a grip, some sort of traction to keep moving upward and onward."

- From "Chapter 6: Scratching", of Twyla Tharp's excellent The Creative Habit.

"a metal version of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan"

That's how Neil Young describes his latest recording on his website. According to this article and pretty much all of the buzz I've heard, it's going to be a full-on protest of the war in Iraq and, more specifically, the current presidential administration. No details yet on the release date, but look for a swirl of controversy to surround it. Neil probably wouldn't have it any other way.

On a slightly related note, I recently saw his Heart of Gold documentary and loved it. I've been meaning to review it here for sometime. Maybe I'll get around to it at some point...

New Dylan documentary

Just when you thought the life of Bob Dylan has been thoroughly and completely analyzed on film, there's another documentary out there. This one's called Rolling Thunder and the Gospel Years, and it focuses on one of his most criticized periods: his so-called "Christian" phase of the late '70's and early '80's. While the subject has me sufficiently intrigued, I'm terrified by the fact that it's "unauthorized" (read: no Dylan songs).

But part of the existence of this blog is so I can check out this kind of thing and get back to you on it. That said, I'll check it out and get back to you...

BTW - if anybody's seen it, give me the scoop, and preferably quickly before I spend my $38.50 or however much it costs...

April Book Club selection

It's interesting sometimes doing a Third Day show, and I'm standing around talking to 4 or 5 people and I realize that I'm talking to about 20% of the Book of the Month Club constituency. It's the closest thing to a meeting of the minds we'll see in online book club circles. So this happened this afternoon in a parking lot in Greensboro, North Carolina, and we came to a decision for this month's selection. And the selection is Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller. I have two disclaimers here. One, I've never read this book, so I'm right there with you in this one, with it being April 15th and we're just getting it together. And second, I was really hoping for a L'Engle selection. But that's OK. Like someone said today, we've got a benevelent dictatorship working here.

Get to reading and we'll get to discussing. BTW - at some point in the near future, the discussions will be happening on the Third Day message boards. I'll keep you posted.

Another bold move from Apple

Apple made a surprising announcement this week that users will be able to run Windows on its computers through a technology called Boot Camp. It's already being praised as a bold marketing move to further entice Windows users over to the Mac platform. I have one question though. Isn't a huge part of Mac's appeal its solid operating system? If you take that away, aren't you just stuck with a very expensive PC, complete with all of its drawbacks?

Believe me, I do see the logic here. I personally know several people who would love to own a Mac but have to use Windows for work and don't want to have to own two computers. I would even be interested to try out some music applications (read: Acid) which are made exclusively for Windows. And I'm seeing the possibiilities of having mobile devices running Windows Mobile and having it sync to a Mac. But all these positives are going to be hard to be replace the beauty of the either/or world we've been in for the last decade or so.

I don't blame 'em for doing it. In fact, I'm surprised they've held out this long. Now, the real surprise will come when they let you run Mac OSX on a PC.

Changes are in the air

So, therefore, sparks are starting everywhere (arrgh!)... I've had a few milestones in my blogging career. Starting this blog, starting the Third Day weblog. And then there's the moments where events caused my focus to change. Not that the aforementioned moments didn't change my focus. But I'm thinking more of May '04 when the Gomers discovered this place. Or February '05 when Hugh Hewitt spoke in Nashville and everyone I know (it seemed) started a blog. I don't really know exactly what it is, but right now feels like one of those moments.

Not that everything's changing. The only thing that's changing is that the Book Club discussion is moving to the Third Day Message boards. I've had the chance to talk with a few of you in the last week or so, and it seems the issue with the Book Club isn't the books. It's just that with only a couple dozen people involved, there's a strong chance that we'll run into seasons where everybody's busy and the conversation is hard to get going, or it's hard to get everyone reading at the same time. By sliding over there, we will hopefully have a bigger pool of readers to draw from.

Two more notes (wait, make that three) and I'll let you get back to whatever it is you do. First, I will continue (as long as it makes sense) to post Books of the Month on the right sidebar for those of you who do not frequent Message Board circles. Second, I realize that by moving operations over there that we will have to skew a little towards the center (think Yancey, Don Miller, etc.) and not quite as "out there". If nothing else, we can talk about more "out there" stuff here (think Doug Coupland, Chuck Palahniuk).

Thirdly, I need your help. Who's been your favorite author so far? L'Engle, Miller, Lamott? Let me know. I plan for April's selection to be another title by somebody we've read so far. And you get to pick who that's going to be. So let me know.

And thanks, as always, for bearing with me...