Author: Jonathan Blundell

I'm a husband, father of three, blogger, podcaster, author and media geek who is hoping to live a simple life and follow The Way.

Lord, Save Us From Your Followers

Very interesting movie coming out in March 2008: Lord, Save Us From Your Followers.

Though nine out of ten Americans claim a belief in God, public expression of faith is more contentious as ever. Even as discussion of religion floods the media like never before, the rhetoric is divisive and hyper as the 2008 elections loom on the horizon.

Lord, Save Us From Your Followers is the energetic, accessible documentary that explores the collision of faith and culture in America. Fed up with the angry, strident language filling the airwaves that has come to represent the Christian faith, director (and follower) Dan Merchant set out to discover why the Gospel of Love is dividing America.

Utilizing a broad array of expert interviews, man-on-the-street bits, hilarious animations and “I’ve never seen that before” stunts, Lord, Save Us From Your Followers brings everyone into the conversation that this country is aching to have.

In the tradition of “entertaining documentaries” like Super Size Me, Bowling For Columbine and What the Bleep Do We Know?, Lord, Save Us From Your Followers, employs the language of pop culture to create a provocative, funny and redemptive viewing experience that will leave the audience talking for hours.

See the movie and trailer online.

gift cards

Call it crazy, call it lazy, call it what you will, but this Christmas for the Blundell/Knotts/Oyler Family Christmas we’re doing our annual Chinese gift exchange (why it’s a Chinese one – who knows) again. Basically it’s similar to a White Elephant gift exchange but it’s hopefully gifts people want – rather than don’t want.

So because we have so many different interests now in our family we decided to go with gift cards as the theme. We also hope it will make things easier for my grandparents so they won’t have to do as much shopping.

I’m thinking it should be interesting to see what gift cards folks bring and which ones they walk home with. It will be interesting to see how many people take their own gift card home.

And yes, I know Christmas is about giving but for those of you who keep asking where I’d want a gift card too, here are some of my tops…

Amazon.com (see above)
Lowes
Home Depot
Target
Best Buy

There you go. I hope you and yours are enjoying the season and you are truly blessed with all God has done this year – I know I am.

Re: Google releases Streetview Dallas

Man to get hit by trolley
Looks like someone’s doing some work – on a ladder – in the middle of the street – with a trolley headed right towards him! Yikes. And yes, this is the same trolley system Laurie and I rode on our first date. (funny thing though – if you try to go SW the car disappears)
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Another trolley car nearby
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Hard Rock – Dallas
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Well used to be anyways

The house Laurie lived in
When we first met
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The Granada
Where I’ve spent many nights watching movies and eating way too much food
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Snuffers
Again – way too many nights, eating way too much food. MMMMmmmm cheddar fries
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The Red Jacket
The former spot of one of Jack Ruby’s old clubs
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Scoble working for John Edwards

Former Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble is about to leave PodTech.
He’s planning to announce his next position on Jan 15th.

Brian Bailey suggests that Scoble may be looking at going to work for the John Edwards campaign – depending on the results of the Iowa caucus. Edwards has been locked in 3rd place most of the election season. But he could still pull out a surprise in Iowa, knocking off Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Interesting. Very interesting.

Of course I still think Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee have the best online presences of the campaign – although Ron Paul’s camp isn’t doing most of theirs – it’s his supporters. The same for Mike Huckabee, except his campaign actually shares, posts and links to user created content, where as Paul almost seems to ignore the user created content.

Huckabee doesn’t seem like much of a dark horse anymore. Depending on the poll he’s clearly leading in Iowa and tied or leading the GOP race nationally. Paul on the other hand could still come out from behind and surprise everyone.

Should be interesting to see what happens on both the GOP and Dem side.

re: 18 Hours of Christmas Music

If you just need a quick Christmas music fix, head over to NPR for the 18th annual A Jazz Piano Christmas. An hour of amazing live jazz Christmas music.

Which speaking of Christmas jazz, I forgot to mention the Charlie Brown Christmas Soundtrack as one of my favorites.

The 18th annual A Jazz Piano Christmas, recorded live at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., features three great pianists who have each been shaping the sound of jazz for more than half a century. Dr. Billy Taylor, Hank Jones and Barry Harris spin their original solo takes on the holiday songbook.

Here’s the lineup:

* “The Little Drummer Boy” — Andrew Hill (from A Jazz Piano Christmas XIII)
* “Merry Christmas” — Billy Taylor
* “The Christmas Song” — Billy Taylor
* “Winter Wonderland” — Joey DeFrancesco
* “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” — Joey DeFrancesco
* “White Christmas” — Barry Harris
* “We Three Kings” — Hank Jones
* “Good King Wenceslas” – Hank Jones
* “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” — Hank Jones & Roberta Gambarini
* “Silent Night” — Hank Jones & Roberta Gambarini
* “Jingle Bells” — All Artists (Taylor, DeFrancesco, Harris, Jones, Gambarini)

Enjoy!