My Brain On Music.

So I started journaling again a little bit today. It has been quite a while. If you don't know, journaling is like blogging only you use paper and a writing utensil and no one else reads it. It really is great to get some of my personal thoughts out...other than on here.
I've been reading a book called "This is Your Brain on Music." It is an explanation of the science behind music and how your brain responds to, stores, and processes sound. It is pretty fascinating although it reads a bit like a music theory textbook in the first chapter. It reads like a neural biology textbook in the second chapter. We'll see in the next few chapters if it lightens up any. It is really interesting though how our brains process music. All kinds of neurons firing and such. Really the only things I don't like about it are that it reads like a technical manual and the author takes an evolutionary viewpoint in explaining the processes. Whatever; I can be mature enough to read an author I disagree with on a couple things. I'll let you know how the rest turns out. Unless my brain explodes before I finish it.

Interview With Satan: Part 1

Check out our welcome video. The interview with Satan starts at 5:58.

T.G.I.F.S!!!

I have been working on some scripts for some videos we are doing for an upcoming series. The video guy and I have been writing, creating, editing, sharing and brainstorming for what seems like a month. They are getting pretty close to being done and we are just about ready to start shooting the teasers. That being said; my brain hurts. I feel pretty spent creatively. I need to turn my mind off for a while. Thank God it's football season!

Girl With a Pearl Earring

I watched a movie last night called "Girl With a Pearl Earring". The story is about a girl who becomes a servant in the house of a Dutch painter in the mid 1600s. the movie, I felt, gave some insight into artists and how the creative process is fostered. If not for that fact, I probably could not have endured more than 20 minutes of it.

The interesting thing to me was that the story revolves around an actual painting. The painting inspired a novel and the novel was made into a movie. I thought that was the coolest thing. I would love to be able to see art inspire art more often. To write a song about a painting or a picture or paint a picture inspired by a short story. To see creativity cross-pollinate. That would be cool.

Unagi: More Than A State Of Mind.

I just got finished with a creative meeting regarding Christmas. It was fun and sort of a continuation of a meeting I was in yesterday. With zero notice, I was involved in a getaway meeting to discuss the teaching calendar for 2009. We left at noon and went to lunch at a secret place which ended up being a cool sushi restaurant. I'll be honest; I'm not a sushi fan. But it wasn't that bad and didn't taste as fishy as it has in the past. Bad pun, sorry. We grabbed some coffee and headed to our meeting location in downtown Renton. We spent the next 4 or 5 hours brainstorming. Thoughts and creative ideas were flying like hymnals at a revival...um...never mind. Hunger began to creep in again but we were able to shove it away like it was Andy Dick trying to get into a club before he was famous. When we finally did break for dinner, we ate at a little deli across the street. Then we came back and did a quick review, packed up and headed back to the church.

It is always fun to be around other creative people and feed off each other. To see an idea start like a mountain stream, small and indefinite, and as it is added to, it gains depth, definition, color and speed and becomes a river.

It hit me last night as I was brushing my teeth: What an awesome responsibility it is to be involved in shaping and leading this church. It is truly humbling.

Meetings!

I think I might be strange. I really enjoy meetings, especially when there is the possibility of being creative. I actually feel energized after a good meeting. Strange, I know.

Last night we had a creative meeting about a sermon series we have coming up in a couple months. It was so much fun that when I got home I wouldn't shut up about it. My wife said "I'm glad you had fun at work today. Why don't you fold some laundry?" Geez, some people have no appreciation for the beauty of creativity.