New Nooma

#18. It's called Name.

You can watch it here for the next couple of days; after that, you will have to pay for it. Or you can watch it the next couple of days and pay for it, because it's worth it. I mean, all the Nooma videos are worth it, but this one is really good.

If you don't like Nooma, you can always go watch Numa Numa again.

Radiohead's Risky Venture

I like Radiohead. Mostly. I have an affinity for The Bends and OK Computer, and I tolerate the later stuff, but it's not my favorite.

Because Radiohead is not on a record label at this time, they decided to release their new CD "In Rainbows" to the general public on their own. For whatever price you want to pay for it.

That's right. You can pay whatever price you want to. It's a risky gamble, but it's pretty cool, in my opinion. It's a way of telling off "The Man", in this case, corporate record labels who normally bleed bands dry. It's risky, because you can pay nothing for it. In fact, over a third of the downloads of In Rainbows have been done with no price. I paid for mine, admittedly less than full price, but more than I would have purchased Kid A or Insomniac (which I did pay full price for). The great thing is that all of the money goes to the band, whereas usually they get pennies on the dollar for each record label release. I'm listening to In Rainbows for the first time right now, and it's pretty good.

If you go to their website, you can purchase it as well. I would encourage you to at least pay something for it. After all, these are musicians who are taking a risk. Let's reward them for taking a risk.

Sweep!

The Rockies have won 21 out of 22 games, including seven straight in the playoffs (only matched by the Big Red Machine in 1976). I am very jealous of my friend Darrin, who got to go to last night's game. The last game he and I went together was the first regular season game at Coors Field, and I'm sure that this one beat that incredible night. (Although it couldn't beat the cold that night - it was 42 degrees at game time)

Go Rockies! The last time a team won this many games at this time of the year was the 1935 Chicago Cubs. Amazing.

Here's a great article about how improbable the Rockies' run has been.

It's That Time Of The Year Again!

That's right, it's hockey time.

I know I'm part of a decreasing handful of people who actually care about hockey, but I just love watching it. My favorite teams, the Colorado Avalanche, and the University of Denver Pioneers, are both looking like they'll pretty good this year. It's finally starting to turn a little colder, so now I can get into the mood.

I'm also doing a fantasy league for the first time ever, and I've of course chosen fantasy hockey. I'm in first place - woo hoo! (okay, it's only the second week of the league, but everyone else in the league has done this before.)

I'm excited - and to get you excited, here's a video clip of the greatest minute and a half of sports history, let alone hockey history.

David Crowder Band - Remedy

I was a little late in getting this CD, since it came out when I was on vacation. I purchased it last week, and I've been listening to it non-stop. Even though it's a lot shorter than the last Crowder full-length album, I think it's definitely more congregational singing friendly. I can see us using several of the songs. Let me go through each one and give my rating for each.

1. The Glory Of It All (10 out of 10 goatees): Right now this is my favorite song on the CD. They had this on the Passion '07 iTunes bundles that you could buy, but I never purchased the bundles. The first time I heard this song was at the Willow Creek Conference, and I liked it, but for some reason it didn't click until I bought the CD. Musically, it's impressive. I love songs that start out sounding "minor-ish" chord-wise and then in the chorus goes to major chords. It's like it resolves or something. I'm not sure that makes sense, but oh well. The lyrics are great:

At the start, He was there, He was there
At the end, He'll be there, He'll be there
After all our hands have wrought, He forgives

Oh the glory of it all is He came here
For the rescue of us all that we may live
For the glory of it all, oh the glory of it all

2. Can You Feel It? (6 out of 10 goatees): I think that on this CD, the slower songs are better than the faster ones, in my opinion.
This song is pretty good. Definitely not my favorite, but I like the theme of the song.

3. Everything Glorious (8 out of 10 goatees): We've been doing this song for some time now, thanks to Jeff. When I first heard it off of the '06 Passion CD, I wasn't really that impressed, but I really like it now. It goes right along with the theme of this CD (that God takes whatever is happening in our lives and uses it for his glory, and he's commissioned us to help be the remedy for the brokenness in people's lives), it's catchy, and it's a fun song to play.

4. Neverending (7 out of 10 goatees): This song reminds me a lot of Foreverandever, etc. off of A Collision. It's fast, catchy, and my favorite of the fast songs on Remedy. Plus the background synth reminds me of playing my Nintendo GameBoy back in the day. This song also continues the Crowder tradition of having at least one song on each CD with a "la la la" part on it.

5. Never Let Go (10 out of 10 goatees): My second favorite song. It's piano-based, which makes me want to learn how to play the piano just for this song. This is my daughter's favorite song on the CD (she's four years old), and yesterday on our way to Chipotle, she wanted me to keep playing this song so she could sing along with the chorus, which simply states "You never let go..." This song reminds me of a lot of the Psalms, where the Psalmist would pour out his heart to God, stating all the problems in their lives, but then in the despair, would begin singing of God's redemption and faithfulness.

6. O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing (7 out of 10 goatees): This song also continues the Crowder tradition of redoing an old hymn. It's a little too fast to sing, but I like the new chorus that they added. And the music makes me want to break into an Irish jig, or perhaps a couple of the Lord of the Dance moves (although I can't do that anymore, because I did that for my daughter one time and ended up in the emergency room, no joke).

7. Rain Down (7 out of 10 goatees): This song was originally on Crowder's first release, called "All I Can Say", so it's a sentimental favorite. I think I understand why it was included on this CD (it ties into the theme), but I still wish there were a couple more new songs added onto this CD. This song is another good example of the minor/major chord progression.

8. We Won't Be Quiet (5 out of 10 goatees): This is my least favorite song on the CD. I think it's cool that they got Ted Nugent to play guitar on this track, but they should have turned him up. The song is way too short, and to me it's in the vein of possibly my least favorite worship song on the planet - that would be "Party" by Chris Tomlin.

9. Remedy (9 out of 10 goatees): I really like this song, and I like the message of it. I like how they proclaim Jesus as the remedy, but then ask God for us to be the remedy as well. It reminds me of the Hillsong United song "Solution", and the song "Mission's Flame" by Matt Redman. The idea that worship should fuel us to be God's hands and feet is a theme that needs to be explored more in our worship.

He is the one who has saved us
He is the one who embraced us
He is the one who has come and is coming again
He's the remedy

Let us be the remedy
Let us bring the remedy

10. Surely We Can Change (10 out of 10 goatees): This song musically reminds me of one of my favorite Crowder songs - Stars, off of Illuminate. It's a great way to close this CD. I really like the subtle changes with the chorus from the first time he sings it to the last time. It goes from:

Where there is pain let there be grace
Where there is suffering bring serenity
For those afraid help them be brave
Where there is misery bring expectancy
And surely we can change, surely we can change something

to

Where there is pain let us bring grace
Where there is suffering bring serenity
For those afraid let us be brave
Where there is misery let us bring them relief
And surely we can change oh surely we can change something


As I've been considering this CD, I really think it's my favorite Crowder CD. I like them all for different reasons, but this one is the most consistent, most accessible, and most hopeful. It is also a healing balm for me where I'm at in my life right now as well.

The Crazy World of College Football

Holy cow. USC just lost to lowly Stanford. LSU is losing to Florida, who lost to Auburn last week, who lost to Alabama, who lost to Georgia, who got beat badly by Tennessee, who lost to Cal the first game of the season, who is supposed to not be as good as USC. Who just lost.

Weird.

A Feel Good Baseball Story

I have to admit, I'm pretty much a fair weather fan when it comes to the Colorado Rockies.

When I lived in Colorado, I followed them quite a bit. I had the privilege of being at the first regular season game in Coors Field history, which was awesome. I still have a pennant from their first playoff appearance (and their last before this season) in 1995, and probably ten Rockies baseballs. But since I've left Colorado in 2000, I haven't paid too much attention to them. They have pretty much stunk since then, so it hasn't been hard to forget them.

But I've been following them this year, especially at the end as they made their run to the wild card. And now they're up 2-0 in their series against Philadelphia, which is great.

But another reason for everyone else to root for the Rockies this year, is the decision they made this week: to give a share of their playoff player revenue to the widow of a minor league coach for the Rockies who was killed during a minor league game by a ball hit to his head. He died leaving two boys, ages 3 and 5, as well as a pregnant wife.

I think it's pretty cool to have the players on the team decide this. The deceased man's name is Mike Coolbaugh, and his two sons are throwing out the opening pitch on Saturday.

Way to go, Rockies.