Missing the "Summer Beard" already.

I grew a "Summer Beard*" over these past few months. A few days ago I shaved it off, and started growing what I'm hoping will become my "Fall Beard."

The real trick will be convincing my wife to let me keep the "Spring Mustache."

*For the record, a Summer Beard does not make your face hotter. In fact, on those most humid of days, if you throw a little bit of water in your Summer Beard it actually keeps your face cooler. And now you know.

Oddisee remixes Shad

Nice to hear Shad given the Odissee remix treatment; there's nothing like taking a hard beat and smoothing it out without losing any of the original's energy.
You can download the track here.

Gone Fishin'

I've got some great ideas for some posts bubbling away on the backburner, but summer is fading and I'm headed north to soak in as much of the great outdoors as I can before September arrives. Until then...

SoCal morning

I've been on a bit of a SoCal punk kick this morning with the likes of Social Distortion and this classic from Lifesavers' "Huntington Beach" - which, I suppose I should've posted yesterday...

Summer Metabolism

Currently Ingesting:
Arcade Fire's Funeral
I fully realize I'm about 6 years behind on this one, but the album just didn't resonate for me back then nearly as much as it has been these past few weeks. I'm guessing it was tuning in for the finalé of their recent YouTube broadcast that hit the light switch for me...that and the fact that  I can't seem to get "Wake Up" out of my head.

And yes, I've got their newest (The Suburbs) just waiting for a devoted "first listen."

The Brothers Karamazov
I was probably 200 pages in before I realized that what I presumed to be half of novel's main characters were actually just nicknames for the other half I was trying to keep straight. Hopefully the rest of the story will be a bit easier to follow now that I've got that under control.

Steam Whistle Pilsner
In a can. A 'tallboy' can to be exact. It is summer, after all...

Mad Men: Season 3
Depressing and fascinating all at the same time; like watching a train wreck in slow motion – except the train is very sharply dressed and trying to pretend the tracks it's on don't exist.

Currently Digesting:
Good: The Neighborhoods Issue
Good is easily one of my favorite magazines and I devoured this issue easily in one or two sittings while camping and couldn't wait to get back into town to start loving my neighbour(hood) with renewed gusto. I've now got my eyes peeled for a suitable park bench to grace our front lawn.

SBC Surf: Summer 2010
My surfing experience is relegated to a very failed attempt on the shores of Lake Huron two summers ago, but I'm still amazed at how much I enjoy each issue of this magazine. Canada's surf community is a hardy, earthy bunch with their feet firmly planted on the ground - regardless of how much time they spend in the sea. This summer's issue was yet another winner...


Ontario Peaches
They're in season right now and they're absolutely brilliant. We peel the skin off and serve 'em up with cream and maple sugar.


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On Rice and "Quitting" Christianity

Aside from a few tweets, I've tried to stay away from commenting on Anne Rice's recent announcement that she was "quitting Christianity" - mainly because I haven't had the time to sit down and make a succinct statement myself, but also because I wanted to spend a bit more time on the semantics of the statement (rather than on Anne's person).

Regarding the former, Brian McLaren has come along in the meantime and sums my sentiment up succinctly when he shares his following reasons for not "quitting" Christianity:

"I hang in there for several reasons. First, if I want to be affiliated with any group of human beings, sooner or later I will be associated with bigotry, intolerance, violence, stupidity, and pride. In fact, even if I stand alone, distancing myself from every other group, I know that within me there are the seeds of all these things."

I couldn't have said it any better myself and am quite thankful Brian shoots straight to the heart on this one.

Regarding the whole semantic side of the conversation...

Is it just me or does "quitting" Christianity while maintaining adherence to the Man/God it was named after seem to ignore Christ's own admonitions to work toward peace with each other as both sibling and friend?

You don't "quit" a family so much as you "leave" one, and to my mind you're walking a very self-righteous line to say you can pick your parents on the one hand and reject your siblings' parentage on the other.

I don't mean to call Anne out on this point in particular as I realize that placing so much weight on the written word ignores the person writing those words, but I do feel there's some good mirror-looking to be done by those of us left kicking about trying to keep this family from devouring itself.


Related:
-  Bill Shakespeare's take on the matter
-  Paul on "biting and devouring" one another
-  Read the rest of McLaren's response here (c/o @NathanPederson)

Jazz Camping

So there we were, sitting around the campfire on the shores of Georgian Bay when the sweet soul of a lone saxophone arose from a few campsites down,floated out over the water and bounced off the bluffs right back into our midst.

I tell ya, after years of camping beside whackos who can't seem to relax without blaring the worst of yesterday's hard rock, it was nothing short of heaven to be serenaded as such.

Who knew live jazz could mix so well with roasted marshmallows...

Related:

Church as Building...

Whether you think your church's building is a blessing meant to be shared with the community around you, or a utilities-sucking burden which keeps you from truly investing in your neighbour(hood), there's a lot of good discussion out there when it comes to the bricks and mortar we surround ourselves with at least one day a week.

While I'm a fan of making the most of whichever direction your church moves (and I'd love to hear more stories of those of use going the building-less route) I wanted to pass along these two challenges for those who've decided to keep hold of their buildings...



and Relevant Magazine's The Biggest Waste of Space in America.

Facing Violence

"Once the face of the other is seen, once they become a person, threats of physical violence are far harder."
~ Kester Brewin 

Related:
Richard Dew on "Us" vs. "Them"
Seth Godin on "the Monster's" Shadow

Turn the Distraction Off

"Focus is concerned with input, not output. It is not about turning one particular thing “on” but about turning other distractions off."
~ James Shelley from Focus: Controlling the Inputs of Social Media

For those of you/us looking for a little help "turning it off" here's two simple apps you can use to render your computer useless (save for the actual program you're wanting to concentrate on).

1. Steve Lambert's Self Control allows you to create a "blacklist" of programs etc and will lock them down for a pre-determined amount of time.

2. Similarly, Workabit doesn't let you pick and choose which programs to shut down, but instead locks everything but the program you're currently working in.

Bonus:
Of course, there's also this thing called the "power button" which works wonders in driving one toward a pen and paper.