I know most of you probably don't follow soccer, but I do.

Toronto FC is the team representing Canada in the CONCACAF Champion's League this year. On Tuesday they played Arabe Unido from Panama. It was one of the most disgusting, laughable games I've seen... everything that people make fun of soccer for was present. Toronto lost 1-0 after having every single Panamanian player flop around on the ground until the ref called a foul. TFC had two players ejected for virtually nothing. And so, TFC's official website posted this clip to lighten the mood. Enjoy.

I'll try to have a real post up early next week.

How I Spent my Summer Vacation

So, we just got back from our holidays. I'll do my best to have more "normal" posts starting next week.

We spent some time at Last Mountain Lake:

And we went and visited my parents in the Calgary area. While we were there we went to the Calgary Zoo. Kaleb loved all the animals but was enthralled by the animatronic dinosaurs!

I also enjoyed watching TFC beat CD Motagua to qualify for the group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League:

A little break from Romans: Who was the short one?

Sing with me!

"Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he..."

Or was he?

Most of us are at least somewhat familiar with the beginning of Luke 19:

"[Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature" (vs. 1-3; ESV)

It's that last phrase "... he was small of stature" that is so interesting.

Because neither the wording nor the grammar of Luke give a clear indicator which "he" is being referred to. Is "he" Zacchaeus; or is "he" Jesus?

For all we know, maybe Zacchaeus was 6 ft tall and it was Jesus who was the short one! Maybe the of-average-height Zacchaeus couldn't see Jesus through the crowd because Jesus was short!

Of course, the traditional view is equally as plausible, we just don't know 100%.

So, next time you run across this story remember that it might (might, maybe, possibly, etc...) actually be more accurate to sing:

"Jesus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he!"

Marvelous Music - Day 5

Oh, and I used to listen to a lot of Prog-Rock:

With these guys it's all about pushing the limits of creativity and ability. The results might be questionable but you can't deny the talent!

Marvelous Music - Day 4

Well, I can't go and showcase all of this music without hitting up some of my favourite jazz artists.

Of course, there's no shortage of astounding jazz musicians. There are everyone's favourite Canadians, Michael Buble, Diana Krall and Oscar Peterson... but everybody knows about them.

So let's start by going way back to 1961 and the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Many of you will know about them but they deserve to be heard again simply because this song (and the whole album "Take Five") literally reshaped and redefined music for the 20th Century. I honestly don't think that's overstating it.

Now, there are about a zillion amazing jazz pianists but I happen to enjoy Jacky Terrasson and it's my blog, so here's Jacky Terrasson (check out his left hand work):

But one of my favourite jazz emsembles of all time is Bill Bruford's Earthworks. They are a mindblowing progressive jazz band. I really wanted to find a video of them performing "footloose and fancy free" (I know I've seen it before) but all I could find was this:

I suppose some of you will appreciate this video more than others :)

Anyway, I've posted videos of Medeski, Martin, and Wood here before but I can't leave them out. They're a little weird but I love their groove. Here's one with them performing with the incomparable John Scofield:

And like we did yesterday, let's end things off with a little Latin American vibe. Here's the legendary Poncho Sanchez (the actual song starts at about 1:55):

Enjoy!

UPDATE:

Woah! I almost forgot about one good Canadian girl that you all need to know about: Jane Bunnett. She's the white girl.

Marvelous Music - Day 3

Today is all about Canada and acoustic guitars.

I don't know if you know this, but Canada has produced some of the best guitar players, well... EVER.

You have probably heard of at least a few of these artists but whether you know about them or not, it's always worth while taking a few minutes and listening to some amazing acoustic guitar work:

Antoine Dufour:

Don Ross:

Bruce Cockburn:

And we'll end with a little flamenco with Jesse Cook:

Marvelous Music - Day 2

Have you guys seen this commercial yet?

So while the blatant capitalist agenda (ie. tropicana wants to make $ off of this) takes a bit of the poignancy away from this I have to admit that it is brilliant P.R. and just a really cool idea.

But, of course, what slapped me in the face when I first saw this was: "Hey, just wait a second... they're playing Patrick Watson!!!"

[the song is "The Great Escape"; apparently it was also used on the TV show "Grey's Anatomy"]

Patrick Watson is a good Canadian boy who I first heard on the 2007 Juno awards here in Saskatoon:

I was pumped when I saw this because here was someone who had the audacity (& artistic integrity?) to play a whacked out psychedelic anthem (and most of it is in 7/8 time!) at a "popular" awards show.

The fact is that Patrick is a true musician. He is a phenomenal, classically trained pianist who in true "post-rock" fashion (like Sigur Ros and fellow Canadians, Bell Orchestre) has blended classical music and rock music together and in doing so has helped inject some much needed creativity into our bland musical landscape.

In this one he plays 3 songs from his newest album:

1) Beijing; 2) Big Bird in a Small Cage (@ 3:45); 3) Wooden Arms (@ 7:56)

Don't you just love his worn out CBC t-shirt?

You can tell that Watson has been really influenced by the classical "minimalist" movement, in particular, Philip Glass. In fact, Patrick Watson toured with Philip Glass. For those of you who don't know, Philip Glass is a classical composer/film-score composer.

Compare the piano arrangements from the beginning of Watson's "Beijing" (1st song of the above video) and this song "Glassworks" (composed by Philip Glass and performed by Branca Parlic):

While, of course, the songs are completely different you can see the stylistic similarities and how Philip Glass has influenced Watson's playing.

This is a little bit more on the "fringe" than yesterday's Charlie Winston.

So, what do you think?

Marvelous Music - Day 1

Well, over the past few weeks we've had some great discussion. I've enjoyed it a lot and I hope you have too.

But let's take a bit of a break.

This week I am going to be posting every day and introducing you to some music that you may not have heard before!

Most of this won't be "popular" music. It's not that I dislike all pop music; there are a number of well known "popular" artists that I quite enjoy listening to (like Coldplay or the Dave Matthews Band). But if I'm going to introduce you to some new music then I'm going to have to reach out to the fringes... and that's where some of the best stuff is!

Anyway, this week I'd like to introduce you to Charlie Winston.

In Europe he doesn't really need any introducing... apparently he's huge in France. I just ran into him because they play his song "In your hands" on CBC Radio 2 quite a bit (Radio 2 is the only radio station I can handle listening to. I'd rather suck on the tail-pipe of a car than listen to C-95... but that's just me :)

Anyway, Charlie is a pretty straight up Folk-Rock singer-songwriter. But he's got a pretty cool vibe to him. Check out this first video for "In your hands." First of all I think it's just a really cool song, but it's also got some interesting lyrics and the video... well, the video speaks for itself.

This next song, "Like a hobo" isn't one of my favorite Charlie Winston songs but it's grown on me. Plus, you just have to check out the hat solo at about 2:30.

So, as we check out some of this music just leave your thoughts. Music is intensely personal, so I'm not expecting everyone (or maybe even anyone) to love it all. But I encourage everyone to leave a quick comment like:

"Cool, I kinda liked that first song."

...or...

"Hmmm. Not my cup of tea."

See you tomorrow!

Truly Canadian

I have the best wife ever!

As a bit of a Valentine's Day surprise she booked us the best baby-sitters around (thanks grandma & grandpa) and rented some snowshoes for the afternoon. The weather was beautiful. We had a great time!

Neither of us had gone snowshoeing before. I enjoyed it a lot... and Juanita did pretty sweet, especially considering she's 6 months pregnant :)

An added bonus for me was that I was able to put my Gransfors-Bruks to the test for the first time. That's what Family Day is all about.

Love lifted me!

... or at least my Jeep!

In case you didn't know, the "stapes" is the smallest bone in the human body. I don't think that I can say "I don't have a mechanical bone in my body"; it's just that if I do have a mechanical bone it would be my stapes.

So in an act of true brotherly love my brother Darrell helped me (told me what to do and did at least half of the work himself) put a small lift on the my Jeep. It's just a small 2 1/2 inch body lift but I'm very happy with it.

For those of you who might care here is how it went:

In the front we swapped out my old "stock" coils...

... for some of Darrell's "used" but much sweeter coils. This gained us just under 3 inches.

In the back we inserted some 2 1/2 inch blocks just under the leaf springs:

Before

After

And here are the final before and after pics: (watch Kaleb's pom-pom to get an idea of the hight difference).

Thanks, Deebs. You're the best!

A glimpse into the life of Tim

So, in lieu of a real post this week I BEG YOU to go and read Michael F. Bird's post over at the Euangelion blog (here). You may remember that I featured Michael Bird a few weeks ago (here). The reason why his post struck such a chord with me is because I also suffer from the INTJ personality type! His post applies to me in many ways!!

Anyway, enjoy some of the following INTJ humour!

A little fun...

So I'm going to be having a really busy week and won't have time to do a proper post. This will have to suffice.

For those of you who don't know, Michael Bird is an Australian NT scholar (and regularly posts on the Euangelion Blog) who teaches at a theological college in Scotland. He's a brilliant scholar and all-around good guy.

Anyway, Zondervan has been going around interviewing various prominent authors/scholars and asking them which authors/books have been influential in their lives. For example, here is the video of my favorite Greek scholar, Bill Mounce.

Mr. Bird decided to have some fun with his interview:

This has kept me laughing for a long time... My favorite is Joel Olsteen and Joyce Meyer as "sentinals" of the faith... hehehehehe.

You can see his real interview here.

Anyway, I'm off to have a bubble bath and read some Barth!

A little more Crowder

Hey everyone. As most of you know, me and my little family were on holidays this past week. We had a great time hanging out with family in the Radium, BC area.

I have no wonderful insights for you this week, although I hope to wrap up our ekklesia discussion very soon. But in the meantime I want to give you all a little more Crowder.

The David Crowder* Band recently released a new album, "Church Music." As usual, they have put together one of the most progressive "worship" albums out there. These guys are awesome.

They also happen to be very funny! To promo their album they posted a series of "Rockumentaries" on YouTube. Please enjoy the following responsibly:

[Sorry that the video doesn't fit properly on this blog template. Double click on the video to watch it properly on YouTube.]

MMW

Hey! Like the new look? I think it's great. Thanks to my lovely wife for doing it all for me:)

I apologize for the lack of post-age this week. It's been a really busy one. And next week I'll be in a class at Bethany for a week-long module, so I'm guessing there won't be a post next week either... but don't worry, I promise to come back. I won't ditch you like last time, I promise!

In the meantime I leave you with a clip from one of my favorite bands: Medeski, Martin, and Wood (or MMW). They are a sweet, crazy, experimental jazz trio. This clip is a trailer for their upcoming DVD.

It's a little weird and eclectic but even if you're not into this kind of stuff make sure to check out the organ solo at 2:10, and the piano vs. screwdriver at 4:40.

Please excuse (or avoid... you've been warned) the very unfortunate expletive at 5:10 :(

Music

Unfortunately I've been kind of busy and uncreative lately and that has resulted in my lack blogging.

What I've got for you today is some of my musical inspirations.  Most days, as I work in my office, I have soundtrack music playing.  I love movie scores.  It works for me as I work because they are instrumental (I always get distracted by lyrical music... I end up singing along) and evocative.

So here are just a few of my favourite composers:

Joe Hisaishi performing one of his songs from the movie "Spirited Away."

Here's Hans Zimmer performing music from "Pirates of the Caribbean."  

It's not my favourite of his compositions, but it's sweet to see Hans rocking out on the guitar!

And, of course, since I'm a big LOTR fan here's a clip of Howard Shore's score:

I hope that you enjoyed these.

What do you listen to?

Why?

And because I'm temporarily out of compelling ideas:

What should I blog about next?
Any ideas?

Leggo My Eggo

While we're just having fun and sticking to the completely nonsensical take a look at this:

"All things are better in Koine, it's what the scriptures really say"

For those of you who don't know, Koine (Κοινὴ) is the Greek dialect that was spoken as the common language of the western world for approximately 600-700 years (from Alexander to Constantine). Within Christian circles it is often simply referred to as "Biblical Greek" as it is in this dialect that the New Testament was written. The Septuagint (LXX) is the Koine Greek translation of the Old Testament.

I suppose the whole "Leggo my eggo" section (I almost died laughing) might require a bit of an explanation: In Koine, lego is the verb meaning "I say" or "I speak." Legomai (pronounced "leggo my") is the middle/passive indicative "voice" for this verb.

As for "eggo," what they are really saying is ego which is the first person singular pronoun, "I." Thus the Koine phrase legomai ego (or "leggo my eggo") means something like, "I say to myself." For all of you nerds (like me) who think that this is totally hilarious, you can even buy legomai ego T-Shirts.

They also refer to Daniel Wallace and Bill Mounce who are authors of the most common Koine Greek grammars out there. I'm personally a Mounce guy myself.

Anyway, next week I'll be back and ready to think.

PS - for those of you who want to continue mulling over the "soul issue," check out Jared's blog. He's included quotes from Murphy's book.

Peter vs. Paul: Biblical Ultimate Fighting Championship

So, things have been pretty heavy and in-depth for the last few weeks. Let's take a break.

You know how giant nerds always get caught up in their weird little hypothetical battles:
"Captain Kirk could totally kick Captain Picard's butt..."
or
"Who do you think would win in a battle between Gandalf and Yoda?"
... assuming anybody would care.

So, acknowledging that this is both nerdy and completely irrelevant to anything... well, ever:
Who would win in our first round of BIBLICAL ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP: Peter vs. Paul?

We know that they've had their differences (Gal 2:11 ff). This one is a grudge match!
In one corner we have Peter: fisherman, chief disciple, head of the church.
In the other corner we have Paul: former Pharisee, tent-maker, consumate missionary.

Place your bets!

Who will win? and why?

At the very least I hope you laughed... MERRY CHRISTMAS.

I'd rather be Hunting

Unfortunately I don't have any amazing insights for you this week. I'm out at Bethany taking a modular class, "Science and Faith." After spending all day in the same class I have no more brains left to share with you so instead you get this:

Last Saturday morning a few friends and I went out goose hunting in the Glenbush area about two hours north-west of Saskatoon. It was our first time out and we had a great time!
For newbies we did pretty good; I've got a freezer full of goose breast to prove it! So if you have any good recipes for goose or duck let me know:)

Get Ready for Prince Caspian!

Here's the newest PC trailer for you all.

And then there's always Indy...


Which one are you looking forward to more?

Hiir our Plii

This wiik wii discovered that wii niid a Nintendo Wii.

Well, riily it's just... uh, Kaleb... yeah, Kaleb... that wants... I miin, niids a Wii.

Here's where you come in. For the low, low, price of $20 iich you can contribute to this... uh, necessarii... um, ministrii. Yes! A Wii Ministrii.

Also, if you contribute to my... I mean Kaleb's ... new Wii Ministrii, I will stop spelling all of my 'ee' sounds as 'ii'. Until then I am holding 'ee' hostage.

Pliise send all cheques and monii orders directlii to mii. Pliise make them out to mii (Kaleb doesn't have a bank account yet). I will make sure that the moniis are spent properlii. You can count on mii!

Moms, Dads. Hiir's what you would look like as Wii 'miis':

Grandma and Grandpa B:

Grandma and Grandpa S:

You too can criiate your own 'mii'

Forgive mii if this post wasn't verii diip.