When I was in high school here in Spokane, the radio station we all listened to was 105.7 the Peak. Ok, some of us may have switched over to ZZU on occasion if we needed a little Usher or Blackstreet in our lives. No diggity. No doubt.  But for the most part my alternative rock fix was met by The Peak.

Then- the dreaded format change. It became another cookie cutter classic rock station and I promptly switched all of my radio presets to NPR.  Other than The Peak- Spokane radio sucked.

BUT NOW THE PEAK IS BACK! And I couldn’t be happier. It’s only been back a week, but oh, what a week it’s been.  Here are some of the songs I’ve heard just today:  (yes, I wrote them down. I just couldn’t believe my lucky little ears!)

1. Pearl Jam – Crazy Mary
2. Better Than Ezra – Good
3. Harvey Danger – Flagpole Sitta
4. Frank Black – Los Angeles
5. Weezer – some new song- don’t know the name
6. Soul Coughing – Circles
7. Veruca Salt – Leave Me Laying Here
8. Seven Mary Three – Cumbersome
9. Sponge – Plowed
10. Silverchair!! – Tomorrow
11. Oasis – Live Forever
12. Screaming Trees – Nearly Lost You
13. Death Cab – I Will Possess Your Heart
14. Alice in Chains – Them Bones
15. Foo Fighters – Long Road to Ruin
16. Modest Mouse – Float On

So, I’m no different than most anyone else. I started a blog. I thought it would be fun. I felt I had stuff I wanted to say and/or share. Then I got busy. Real busy. I started checking my ’stats’ like they actually mattered. Blogging seemed like a waste of time. Honestly- it probably would have been.

But now, I decided I do still want to blog. I like writing. I like having somewhere to state my thoughts- even if I’m the only one who ever sees them.

And my one goal is this: to share my thoughts/views/ideas around youth ministry more often. I love youth ministry… I’m passionate about it, and my mind never stops thinking about ways to engage youth in the Kingdom and how to do that in the context of an old, modern, unabashedly denominational church.

So- there it is. I hope to be back soon.. and if it’s just me hanging out here- I’m ok with that. For realz.

Why do I hate the dentist?

#1  He tells me I have cavities. And frankly, I don’t believe him. He just wants my money.

#2  When I go to get my “cavity” filled, they stick a nasty rubber dam in my mouth and I feel like some sort of Star Wars reject freak.

#3  I can’t think of anything I enjoy less than making awkward small talk with hands, rubber, tools, etc in my mouth.

#4  My mouth is numb and I look stupid.  I hate the dentist.

Me:  Tonight- Mariners game- Felix pitching. 3 good buddies. Stadium food. Expensive beer.  Tomorrow:  Head up to Vancouver. Check out some old stomping grounds. Eddie Vedder solo concert in an intimate theater.

You:  None of those things. Suckers.

I’m a big fan of the Raconteurs. Their 2006 release, Broken Boy Soldiers, might be one of my all-time ‘pick up a cd on a whim and have it blow my mind’ finds. So it was with a whole bunch of little boy excitement that I picked up “Consolers of the Lonely.” So far, not a disappointment to be found.

Sometimes ’supergroups’ are awesome (see Mad Season, The Bens), and sometimes they waste my time (see Audioslave. Yep, I said it). I’m not sure many would consider The Raconteurs as a supergroup- but anytime you put Jack White and Brendan Benson together- I call that super. If you aren’t familiar w/ Brendan- go educate yourself now. Add the ridiculous rhythm section of Little Jack and Keeler… and what you have are some incredibly talents musicians making catchy, complex and crushing rock & roll. Seriously- no one other than this group of guys can pull of songs like these- blues standards, time signature bending romps, and straight forward distortion come together to blow your miiiinddds. Am I gushing?

This is some of the dirtiest, prettiest, most inspired & inspiring rock music out there today. Buy it. Now.

For those of you (Erin) who look at this blog… Here is what I would have written about over the last week had I had time.

- Our house almost burned down. For real, in a scary way. Not in a “oh, the stove flared up” way. More like a Holy Crap, Sarah call 911, go over and pound on the neighbor’s door and get them out, go turn on the water and hook up a hose and wait for the firetrucks to come. It was awesome.

- I love the new Nada Surf album

- I LOVE March Madness and I will neglect almost any responsibility that dares get in it’s way.

- Local mission trips w/ Middle School students

- Lost is still awesome. Seriously.

- It’s officially Spring… and we had an inch of snow this morning.

- I haven’t found a way to like Hillary again. In fact, everything her campaigns does seems to make me ill.

- Sarah and I watch Margot At the Wedding w/ high hopes. It blew.

First shot at a ‘Review You Probably Don’t Care About’ has been posted. Meet: Vampire Weekend. C’mon- all the cool kids are doing it!

So, Senator Clinton had a big night last night. What I hoped would happen, obviously, did not. I’m not going to talk about delegates, or spin, or anything. In fact, I’m going to try and fast a bit from this race- and here’s why:

I want to like whomever I’m going to vote for in November. I’m not going to vote for McCain- I’m just not. So, that leaves me with Clinton and Obama. 6 months ago I was pretty excited about both of them. Then, the more I learned about Obama- I threw my support behind him, and I felt great about it. Still do. However, the more this campaign has gone on, the more I’m having trouble liking Clinton. It’s the whole ‘fighter-win at any cost’ attitude that kept me and politics apart for so long.

I don’t want to hear her say “We have the momentum now!,” when a few weeks ago she said, “It’s not about momentum, it’s the numbers in the end that matter.” I’m sick of her accusing him of plagiarism- (then using a obviously scripted line to prove a point) and then basically stealing line for line from her husband in her closing remarks- DURING THE SAME DEBATE! I’m tired of her claiming she won Michigan- when Obama wasn’t on the ballot. I’m sick of her staff touting tons of foreign policy experience- then isn’t able to provide any examples themselves. And I’m sick of people pointing out to instances where the public couldn’t name any accomplishments of Obama- because 1) that just means they’re lazy and 2) they never follow up asking them to name any of her accomplishments.

So- I’m tired and this debate. Which is too bad- because this is the first time I’ve becoming involved in a real way. My wife said last night very astutely that she has lost interest. Not because she isn’t excited about Obama anymore, but because these are the very politics she (and I) avoided for so long, and they now seem unavoidable. My father is a huge conservative. The kind that listens to Limbaugh and watches Fox News 24/7. Which is fine. But it was exposure to that which caused me to steer clear of becoming involved. I didn’t want to carry around a walkman everywhere I went so I wouldn’t miss Bill O’Reilly’s next comment.

Obama made me feel like we could live in a happy, little political fantasy world. I was wrong. It isn’t all Hillary’s fault- everyone has dipped their toes into the waves of stupidity here. But I do feel she brought it there- and for that, I just don’t like her at all.

So- my plan is this: To stop paying so much attention to the campaign(s). To stop reading the headlines on msnbc and cnn. To stop turning the TV to the cable news networks when I get home at night. That way, maybe- just maybe, come November whoever is the Democratic candidate can look exciting and inviting to me. Maybe a 3-4 month political fast will be enough time to digest and dump the bad taste in my mouth right now. Maybe.

Ok- I’m no blogging guru. Or code geek. Or anything really.

My goal was to have a ‘page tab’ up at the top called “Currently Consuming” where I can write/talk about recent stuff I’ve been reading/watching/listening to.  It looks like that page basically functions as a place to house a single post. Am I understanding that correctly? I suppose I could just continue updating the post w/ new stuff- but that isn’t going to look great nor will it be very user-friendly.  Also, I don’t want to pepper my main page w/ a bunch of worthless and only interesting-to-me musings.

Basically- is there any other way to do this than just linking to a new blog? I’d rather not.

Thoughts? Help me!

I think I’m going to start writing reviews/thoughts more often about music, movies, food, books, whatever. Why? Because I think it would be fun.

I’m still new at all this stuff, but I think I can make another ‘tab’ thing up at the top and just post on that page. Is that true? We’ll find out.

If you care, get ready to see what Brad has to say about No Country for Old Men, “The River Why” by David James Duncan, Vampire Weekend, the new Nada Surf album, Lost, and whatever else I choose.