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After a number of months of pretty solid health, I guess it had to happen. I stopped and thought "hey, it's May and I haven't hardly been sick, at least not like years before."
I vaguely felt something coming yesterday, ate a lot of soup and tried to take care of myself... and woke up today with a wonderful cold and sore throat. Ugh...
At least I get to make Naruto cry. :)
There's a certain irony to a Chicagoan first seeing Smashing Pumpkins in concert in central america... in my defense, I didn't get into Smashing until after I'd moved away for school. By the time I was back in town they'd broken up and Billy Corgan was going through his Zwan phase.
Festival Imperial rocked as hard as it should, providing the kind of thrills a festival show should. Some folks were bummed by Smashing Pumpkins' long jam featuring "What's that Sound" and "The Star Spangled Banner," but it was a mighty fine show. (Okay... so I started heading toward the exit after 20m of jam... I had to get up early the next morning. I at least stayed close enough to hear them finish up with Cherub Rock.)
Incubus was also on order that night, they put in a fine performance, and one that better suited the general expectation of "they're going to play the songs we all love." A little jamming, but not much.
I'd have liked 10-15 minute jams from them both, but I'm one of those snotty "you can see a band's musicianship in their ability to jam without it sucking" kinds of people.
Good festival... and the best bus service I've ever had at a rock show. Wandered around for 45 minutes looking for the buses due to bad signage and still managed to beat home friends that had driven and got stuck in the post-concert traffic.
While I've seen different sources call Obama's speech this evening "falling short of his goal" or "improperly targeted", I think the criticisms miss one of Obama's central points (and gloss over the value of the direct things he said about race relations in the US).
La religión organizada puede ser algo difícil. Muchas veces dentro de las iglesias vemos a mucha gente que profesa y no cumple. Hoy tengo algo que profesar que espero cumplir...
Un problema común de congregación en congregación es que hay personas que dejan de asistir a las reuniones por un motivo u otro (se sienten ofendidos, culpables, vergonzosos, o temen los juicios ajenos).
- ¿Nos hacen falta los que dejaron de asistir?
- ¿Saben ellos que nos hacen falta?
- ¿Qué hacemos nosotros para que sepan que nos hacen falta?
Dondequiera que he servido, he visitado con miembros que dejaron de asistir a las reuniones de la iglesia y no se sintieron que se dio cuenta persona ninguna. Dicen "si ellos me aman tanto, ¿por qué no se dieron cuenta que no estoy?"
Muchas veces sí nos damos cuenta. Preguntamos a nuestra esposa o a nuestros amigos "¿Vio al hermano Fulano hoy?" A veces decidimos llamarle al hermano por telefono o pasar por la casa para ver como está. Después de decidir regresamos a la casa, nos distraen las cosas de la vida, y no hacemos la llamada o la visita. Nos hace falta el hermano el siguiente domingo y otra vez decidimos llamar y otra vez fallamos.
Santiago nos habla de esto en Santiago 2:15-16.
15 Y si un hermano o una hermana están desnudos, y tienen necesidad del mantenimiento de cada día,
16 Y alguno de vosotros les dice: Id en paz, calentaos y saciaos, pero no les dais las cosas que son necesarias para el cuerpo, ¿de qué aprovecha?
Al hablar con los miembros de la iglesia cristiana primitiva, Santiago ilustró las tonterías que aun cometemos en los tiempos modernos. Ante la gente que necesitan de alimentos o ropa, ¿les damos ropa o comida? No. Decimos palabras agradables, decimos "nos vemos el domingo," y oramos a Dios pidiendo que llueva sobre los pobres y necesitados las cosas que necesitan, sin hacer nada mas de nuestra parte.
Con los que se sienten aislados o desamparados, decimos "bienvenido hermano" o "para servirles" sin hacer nada mas que hablar. Hacemos lo que explicó Santiago. "Calentaos y saciaos." ¿De qué aprovecha? Si no actuamos, no se logra nada. El orar por los necesitados es bueno, pero a veces Dios nos pone en lugar para servir como respuesta a las oraciones al servir a los demás.
Ahora, unos dirán que a veces lo mas importante es que la gente sepa que estamos disponibles para ayudar, o que solamente saludar y ser amistosos es lo preciso. A veces es así, no lo niego. Pero no siempre es el caso. A veces se requiere algo mas. Un coro de "bienvenido" suena vacía si no haya nada mas. "Para servirle" o "digame si puedo hacer algo para servirles" pierde sentido si no mostramos nuestra disponibilidad de formar relaciones de confianza de tal forma que nuestros amigos se sienten cómodos en compartir con nosotros sus necesidades. Una vez que desarrollemos este grado de confianza, dejaremos de hablar en palabras de "Hallmark" y servir de verdad. En ese momento los que servimos guiarán nuestro servicio, tanto las personas como nuestro Padre celestial. En ese momento podremos servir sin temor de dar ofensa.
Jesús no nos enseño a ser amigables solamente, nos enseño a amar. Cuando amamos a la gente, escuchamos a ellos y al espíritu y actuamos.
No lo haremos perfectamente. Vamos a equivocarnos. Pero el Señor nos guiará al esforzarnos de servir bien. Nos ayudará a desarrollar relaciones de confianza con nuestros hermanos para que podamos bendecir sus vidas de verdad, porque a eso nos llamó.
- Do we miss those that have stopped attending?
- Do they know that we miss them?
- What are we doing to make sure they know that?
15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
For the past 2 years I've been using last.fm to collecting info about the music I listen to. Time to look at how things have changed over time...
- Matthew Sweet
- Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Gorillaz
- Dixie Chicks
- Cibo Matto
- The White Stripes
- Puffy
- Lynyrd Skynyrd
- The Darkness
菅野よう子
- They Might Be Giants
- Queen
- The Pinker Tones
- David Bowie
- Gnarls Barkley
- Juan Luis Guerra
- Malpais
- Aterciopelados
- Joaquin Sabina
- Ojos de Brujo
- Ruben Blades & Willie Colon
- Puffy
- Ricardo Arjona
- Matthew Sweet
- Evanescence
- Chambao
- Si*Se
- Jerry Rivera
- Queen
- Jesse & Joy
Some quick coverage...
Now without further ado, check out United Hollywood for more information on the strike (check out the intro vids on the right side). If you're feeling especially gracious, check out Pencils2MediaMoguls and send pencils to the big 6 media moguls as a symbol of your support for the writers getting fair compensation for the content they create.
Film & TV writers are on strike, which means everything except reality TV could halt production. Do you support the strike? Are any of your favorite shows in jeopardy?
You'd be surprised how many writers work on reality TV shows. In fact, a significant number of those striking are writers that work on reality shows and a significant part of the WGA's negotiations are tied to compensation for reality show writers.
It's been great to see the solidarity among show runners and writers. Jon Stewart took time on Thursday's Daily Show to announce they'd be off the air for the strike and is paying the salaries of Daily Show and Colbert Report writers for a couple weeks, the performers on The Office are refusing to cross picket lines, Julia Louise Dreyfuss walked off the set of "New Adventures of Old Christine" and joined the picket line, Tim Kring refused to do a weekend rewrite pre-strike that would put a season ending on the last script that's ready to go on Heroes and has supposedly been removed from the project.
It's quite possible that all of my favorite shows will be hit hard by the strike, but I'm less concerned about losing my current favorites than being sure that writers big and small are able to enjoy the financial fruits of their labors. Some say (meaning Fox News) that the writers are a bunch of whining rich people who want more money... they apparently don't know any of the thousands writers depend on residuals to put food on the table.
While I hope the strike is short, it's more important to me that writers start getting residuals on digital distribution and get a sane percentage for DVD residuals. Given the contribution they make, .002% in DVD residuals an 0% on digital is shameful.
It was my birthday Oct 3 and I decided to celebrate at my favorite club in San José. As luck would have it, a Nicaraguan singer songwriter came a playin', promoting her new album Para que no mueran las palabras.
The concert was great, the music enjoyable, and my terrible luck in celebrating my birthday continues. As almost always happens, plans made with the best celebratory hopes finished with me celebrating alone.
But the music was good, and my tablemates were interesting and nice enough people.
If you can chisel some out of your daily grind, make some time to give a listen to Elsa Basil and her sabor Nica.
Elsa Basil
Cumplí años el 3 de octubre y decidí celebrar en mi café favorito en San José. Por casualidad, una cantautora nicaraguense presentó como parte de la gira de su nuevo album Para que no mueran las palabras.
Estuvo chiba el concierto, muy buena música, y sigo saladísimo en cuanto a celebrar mi cumple con los amigos. Como siempre, los planes de encontrarme con los amigos para celebrar terminaron en celebrar yo a solas.
Pero vuelvo a repetir, estuvo buena la música, y los que compartieron la mesa eran gente interesante y genial. Si podés apartar un tiempito del diario vivir, da un tiempico a Elsa Basil y su sabor nica.
