Our Friend Jenn

...is creating some great new pieces. My favorite is CONSERVING WASTEFULNESS, posted below.



More here.

Slammed

Wow, is it me or is summertime everyone's crunchtime? Geez.

We are slammed with meaningful work. A little crazy, but how can I complain about that?!?

A photo illustration I just finished for a book we're working on...

TCS working on Labor Day Weekend?

Yes.



More info here. And map here.

ANNOUNCEMENTS!

Can you hear me yell?

A few things...

1. Some friends are looking for some help with their non-profit website ( reimagine.org). If you or someone you know is familiar with creating Drupal templates please contact our friend Adam. We designed the look, but they need someone to mark it up.

2. The Cobalt Season is playing in Mtn. View, CA tonight @ 8pm. Come check it out.

3. We're also playing at Vintage Faith the Sunday night of Labor Day weekend.

4. Tomorrow is the Bernal Heights garage sale. Come one, come all. There will be like 100 garage sales on our hill. We'll be perusing all the goods in the afternoon.

Okay, that's enough info for now, yo.

New Music for the Sharps

Man, I feel like we've been given, stumbled upon, and discovered some great music lately. Truth is, we're not mavens when it comes to good music...not at all. We rely on friend's recommendations and suggestions. Turns out we know very little about what music is out there...

St. Vincent - Thanks to Bob Carlton for introducing us to this lovely lady and all her quirkiness. We actually saw her at Café du Nord a couple weeks ago. She was amazing.

Death Vessel - He opened for St. Vincent. I thought he was a roadie, dressed in all black, with strangly, long black hair. Amazing stuff...and yes, he is a dude...not a young girl. (Listen and you'll know what I mean.)

William Fitzsimmons - Thanks to Jasen for sending us Goodnight. F-king heartbreaking. Wow. I had to take a deep breath there.

Blonde Redhead & Great Lake Swimmers - Thanks Dan for sending us these fine specimens.

Feist - The latest album is her/their best. Really.

Oh Lord

You can now download our music as a ringtone. This must be what selling out (or arriving?) feels like. ;) So, dammit, get thee to thy cell phone and pimp our product, yo!

Appropriating our Spirituality

I think more and more that we tend to appropriate our spirituality (and the texts and traditions supporting it) in light our own pathology. We use it to both justify and therapize how we live...that is, we appropriate it to both validate our lives and to fix our lives.

To "let the text read us" might be only as possible as the robustness of our spiritual community. As I carry others perceptions and paradigms alongside mine, I get a broader perspective.

But that is not a fix...just a way to medicate our myopia.

Could There Be A Worse Time?

Perhaps. Perhaps not. Who am I to say?

HOLLY'S MACBOOK PRO JUST LOST ANOTHER HARD DRIVE AND WE'RE AWAITING A BOX FROM APPLE.

I am growing more and more convinced that we have no advocate in the Universe. Perhaps there is no Universe, but only our miserable existence.

PS - That is not Holly's computer in the photo. Her computer looks like a 4-month-old shiny MacBook Pro. It's the insides that are foul.

Catching Up

It's been a bit of time since I last really updated you on what's going on. It's been a busy, tiring, low season for me...for a while now. Those who know me won't find that a surprise. I've always tended to overextend myself, ending up in something of a funk. This is my cycle...now our cycle.

A few updates:

Pax is now near-walking (assisted by my hands) and has two top and two bottom teeth.

We're working on a new project with Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw. It's a project that we're really, really excited about.

Holly and I are in counseling. I could dismiss it and say it's nothing serious, but the truth is that on my worst days, my anger and depression is wreaking havoc on the family.

My sister has moved to SF and is staying with us and friends.

We'll be leaving for our fall pilgrimage / tour / trip in late September, covering 10k miles in our Prius (with carbon offsets helping us!).

SEVEN is mellow...nearly dark...for the remainder of the summer.

What else is there to say? Or really, what else could I convey on my blog?

Life is fast-paced. Often faster than I'd prefer...but it is what it is at the moment.

TCS Podcast

Yes, yes, I joined the podcast world. Video podcasting, that is. I'll keep it separate from the blog.

You can subscribe to it here via iTunes.

Six Feet Under (Over)

We just finished the Series Finale of Six Feet Under, probably my second favorite TV show ever. Second, that is, to Quantum Leap, if you remember that one.

The last 4 episodes had us bawling our eyes out. Such beautiful writing and such relateable characters. Thank you, Mr. Ball, for creating such stunning art.

If you dare, the last 6 minutes of the finale...



If you do Netflix, do yourself a favor and put all 5 seasons on your cue.

TCS @ The Mall

I should note a special thanks to Adam Klein and Holly Sharp for shooting the footage.

Pilgrimage Redux

That's right. We're at it again. This time with Pax in tow...



In case the fine print is too fine, here are the cites we'll be in... (and the italics mean that the date is still available)

Sep 28 - Fresno, California
Sep 29 - Flagstaff, Arizona
Oct 7 - Dallas, Texas
Oct 9 - Austin, Texas
Oct 10 - San Antonio, Texas
Oct 11 - Irving, Texas
Oct 13 - Omaha, Nebraska
Oct 14-17 - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Oct 18 - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Oct 19 - Indianapolis, Indiana
Oct 20 - Louisville, Kentucky
Oct 21 - Lexington, Kentucky
Oct 23 - Wilmington, Kentucky
Oct 24 - Cincinatti, Ohio
Oct 25 - Westland, Michigan
Oct 26 - Ann Arbor, Michigan
Oct 27 - Canton, Ohio
Oct 28 - New York City, New York
Nov 1 - Vienna, VA
Nov 2 - Washington, DC
Nov 3 - Baltimore, Maryland
Nov 4 - Durham, North Carolina
Nov 5 - Rustburg, Virginia
Nov 6 - Nashville, Tennessee
Nov 7-9 - Atlanta, Georgia
Nov 10 - Tampa, Florida
Nov 11 - Gainesville, Florida
Nov 15 - Houston, Texas
Nov 16 - Austin, Texas
Nov 18 - Dallas, Texas

More info at The Cobalt Season (.com) And please download this poster and help get the word out on your blog!

GPS Anyone?

I'm in the market for a GPS for our fall trip. If you have one you'd be interested in loaning/selling/renting us for Sept-Nov, please let me know. Or if you know where I can find one for a good price, that'd also be helpful. We're looking for one that pulls up bookstores, coffee shops, etc.

If you have any leads, please email me.

An Interview

Andrew Greenhalgh interviewed me last week about the new album. You can read it here.

We discuss collaboration, songwriting, life-quests, and blunders. Enjoy.

(Oh and also, they have an exclusive acoustic version of Unified Theory posted!)

WordCamp, yo

Yes, I'm here at NerdCamp WordCamp. Will be most of the day. Sweet.

Nuestro Jardin

I'm a bit rusty on mi español, but I think that means OUR GARDEN.

So, I know we posted a while back that we were starting a garden. It's been a nice project to have. Dan and Bethany helped us plant seeds months back. Some things took; some didn't. Our yellow squash and zucchini have done amazing. Producing like crazy! Our cucumber plant is just starting to grow fruit. Our tomatoes and peppers are slowly, but surely coming around...I think slowly due to the lack of sunshine.

But man, our plum tree is producing like mad...like mad. Last summer, I remember getting perhaps a couple dozen good plums from the tree. This year, so far, we've picked more than 4-5 dozen good sugar plums. Yum. And there are plenty more a comin'.

Anyways, some pics Holly took...

Awesome

Ha.

Some context.

Thanks Bryan for directing me here.

Terrible 2(0)s

Do you know our friends Nate and Andrea and Kayla and Chase Millheim? They're a wonderful bunch. They practically live down the street from us here in Bernal Heights (our neighborhood in San Francisco).

It's always nice to get to spend some time with them.

Their daughter (the older of the two children), Kayla, is in what they affectionately refer to as her "terrible twos". Wikipedia describes this stage...

The toddler's positive and negative feelings are focused on the same person and become visible (known as the 'terrible twos'). The child is in conflict: wishing both to be independent and to retain the complete devotion of the mother. In this stage, ambivalence is considered to be normal.

I tend to think that my twenties were a bit like that. I wanted to shed everything...while maintaining some sort of lifeline to whatever "mother" was at play...the church, my national identity, family heritage, etc.

The thing about toddlers in this stage (as perhaps Nate or Andrea–or other parents–can confirm) is that they test boundaries. And this is healthy. For how is a child to know what is good and healthy or bad and unhealthy if not to see for themselves? Certainly there is something to wisdom of parents, but a child has to experience for themselves the effects of pushing mommy too far...or seeing just how far he can run before daddy tells him to stop. You know what I mean? (Or am I off here?)

I think it's important to shed our youthful skin in our twenties, test the boundaries, push ourselves, challenge anything (and perhaps everything). But think of the havoc we (I) wreak on others during our terrible twenties. Just think.

I could apologize (and perhaps should), but I'll hold off on that as I think that it's an appropriate developmental phase that ought to be embraced, ought to be learned from, not apologized for...kinda like Kayla learning that when she interrupts her dad, he'll kindly say, "Kayla, I'm talking to Ryan right now."

And perhaps she serves as a reminder to us, calling us back to curiosity, asking "Why?" incessantly, pushing ourselves and those around us to really consider what life is made of.

WordCamp 2007

I just registered for WordCamp. Any other Bay Area folks interested? Register and then email me, yo.