respect my authoritay!

as Cartman would say. Although I dont watch South Park any more but certain things just stick with you… anyways…

So as a musician, two equal and opposite thoughts occur to me as I listen to a great song. I think (1) that is such a great song, I want to play and/or sing it, and (2) that is such a great song, I don’t want to ruin it. There are certain groups/musicians I have so much respect for that I won’t even touch 99% of their songs out of fear of either turning it into something less than stellar or making it sound like elevator music. Which is way less than stellar.

Then there’s Chris Tomlin. Sure, I respect him as a songwriter and musician, and I could listen to him sing for hours on end. In fact, if he’d like to, he could come over and sing to me for hours on end. (Hey Tomlin, call me, man! haha) But one thing I love about things he writes, for the most part, is that they are so accessible for others to pick up. His songs are somewhat simple in their structures and repetitive, but so are most songs, and he does an awesome job with taking old hymns and integrating them. And they are so singable and catchy and pretty and anthemic. I think of him kinda like the Christian Bon Jovi. Except Tomlin has a smoother voice and he’s shorter. Shorter hair too.

Anyway, all this to say that I love Chris Tomlin and always look to his stuff for new music. I still haven’t seen him live though the big ampitheater worship thing doesn’t do much for me. I’d love to see him play in a small coffeehouse setting… you know like First Fridays Cafe! How sweet would that be My wheels are turning… (Well, we can’t afford him. He’s like $1000 an hour plus travel! But who knows – someday!)

So we’re trying a new Chris Tomlin song and I do hope to do it justice. The worship team at Grace is so awesome that I’m sure it will sound great – though not perfect. Then again, who wants perfect really?? That reminds me of a gift my brother Tim gave me once. It was a gingerbread cookie that read “the Perfect Man – he’s sweet, he’s cute, and if he gives you any grief you can bite his head off.”

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Unfinished… a theme emerges

When you say you’re a “Christian” a few things happen. Nonchristians tend to box you up into a neatly packed stereotype, dos-and-donts checklist in hand, and write you off as wacky and tacky. Meanwhile Christians tend to think of themselves as on a higher plane of existence and hold everyone else to that do-and-dont checklist they’ve made for themselves. Christians also tend to have this sense that by labelling themselves as such, they have “arrived” at some place in a static kind of way. like I’m in a plane, therefore I’m a passenger mentality. or more like a dog saying hey I’m a dog.

But what we can’t deny is there is more than one kind of dog and that not all dogs do the same thing.  There are general characteristics and certain definitions that we have applied to the “dog” label, but there are five bazillion subsets of information that are called into account if you cared to look further into it.

Here is where the title of this blog comes in. I am “unfinished.” I like that as a label. It’s connotes feelings of progress but not completion, a beginning but no ending, a hope and change but not static. I’m getting there, but I’m not there. There is a freedom in that and a call to action in that.

I was talking to the asst. pastor at church, Camper Mundy, about our art cafe ministry and my plans for our first anniversary. It coincides with the 25th Anniversary of the church which I didn’t plan, but that’s way cool. Anyway, I had been thinking of some kind of theme that wasn’t too Christianese and accessible to really anyone of any inclination. And as we talked, the theme of “Unfinished” emerged. (Camper is awesome to talk to about these things, by the way, because his mind is like this crazy playground of ideas. He’s awesome. Thanks man!!!)

I loved the theme the more I thought about it, especially from an artistic standpoint. So much of an artist’s dilemma is how to finish it – when is it finished – will it ever be finished? I have always loved when you get to see a work in progress and the choices the artist makes along the way. Sketchbooks by some of the big names, Da Vinci, Picasso, Matisse, Frida, are all fascinating to me, the exercises of vision to physical plane.

Likewise, as a writer, I love reading first and second and umpteenth drafts of what people write. There are so many things you say and things you choose not to say. You can recraft a sentence twenty times and still not quite convey what you want. Or you can sit and type out exactly what you’re trying to say on the first go.  the creative process is a wonder.

So the theme of “Unfinished” is a call to take a look at progress and regress, a blending of what is and what could be. I’m hopeful that we’ll get some good thought-provoking pieces and I’ll be spending the next few months beating the bushes and blowing the bugle so to speak to get some good stuff out there. Because you don’t want to leave it to my artistic ability – though a blank canvas would be quite fitting…

quick plug for a project…

So one of the many joys in my life is art. I can’t actually “do” art, but I think I have impeccable taste and I know good art when I see it. Of course that’s subjective, obviously.

Anyway, any chance I get to support and celebrate other people’s work I relish it greatly, and I am always trying to think of ways to encourage and inspire such work.  Many times people come out of the woodwork when properly enticed, and I am always so pleased when I find out new things about people especially when it comes to hidden talents. It’s also, incidentally, one of the reasons I like things like 25 things lists because it forces people to admit stuff and often you learn something you didn’t know before. But I am SO digressing…

First Fridays Cafe was an idea I had when I first moved to Williamsburg and thought, man I’m bored. What would I want to be doing if I were in a real city? Art and music always comes to mind. I’m still trying to think of other ways to cultivate the live music scene here, but FFC is a start.

The May Cafe will mark a year since the first Cafe, and I have to admit I’m excited about that. There were some bumps along the way, but all in all, I’m pleased with the first year and I’m prayerfully and humbly commited to the task of enabling the Cafe to grow and truly inspire others. There is nothing quite like an amazing piece of art to inspire and knock you off your feet.

So with that, we are creating an event to call out all the artists and aspiring artists to tackle a theme that I think resonates with most of us: “UNFINISHED.” The idea was borne out of a conversation with Camper, our Assistant Pastor. I’m going to write a bit more about it in the next post, but basically I fell in love with the theme and it really summarizes the feeling and direction I’ve had all along with the Cafe.  I’m totally stoked. Now I’m just hoping that the art comes together. If the whole event turns out badly, well, I guess I can just blame the theme…

Anyway, you can keep tabs on the Cafe and our 1st Annual Invitational Show here… www.firstfridayswilliamsburg.org