From PowerFM: The Third Day Weblog posted the following announcement recently: “Third Day and Brad Avery have made the very difficult decision to part ways. We appreciate Brad’s many contributions to the band’s career to date, including his work on our forthcoming album, but the time has come for us to follow our separate paths. He has been an important part of Third Day for the last 13 years as we’ve traveled the world together and performed over 1,000 concerts. We will miss him as a band member but he will always remain our brother and our friend. Brad is a wonderful person, gifted songwriter and talented musician. We trust that God has amazing plans fo r h is future.†More info on the band can be found at ThirdDay.com.
Category: News & Entertainment
Starbucks is closing!
From 5:30-8:30 this evening, there’s going to be trouble. Feet will tap, heads will ache and sweat will trickle down restless foreheads. Starbucks is closing.
6 weeks ago, Howard Schultz took over the reins (again) as CEO of Starbucks. Since then, he’s been on a mission to return the company to its previous form. Today, every store throughout the nation will close for three hours for “remedial espresso training.” Or in Schultz’ terms, “to teach, educate and share our love of coffee, and the art of espresso.”
Wow. What an undertaking! 5:30 – 8:30 on Tuesday nights is a very likely time we’ll be stopping by one of our local Starbucks to grab a hot drink before our community group – as do several others in our group. Might make for restless (or sleepy) meeting time tonight.
Since this news came from CMS – what if our churches closed for one weekend service to focus on staff/leadership etc? What about your place of work – think your boss would close the doors for 3 hours one week to improve your appreciation for your job?
In Memory: Larry Norman
Larry Norman, a legend in the Christian music business passed away yesterday. Norman, a native of Corpus Christi, Texas, was part of the “Jesus Movement” of the 60’s and wrote countless Christian hits, including “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.” The song was covered by dcTalk in the mid-90’s and our praise & worship band played that song several times for various events after that.
From Wikipedia:
Larry David Norman (April 8, 1947 – February 24, 2008) was an internationally recognized American musician, singer, songwriter and producer. Norman’s recordings are noted for their Christian and social subject matter and he is often described as the “father of Christian rock music”. Norman has also been described as having had a significant influence on many artists, secular and religious.
Norman has long been associated with what has been referred to as the Jesus People movement of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, although it has been reported that “he did not particularly identify himself with the youth–oriented ‘Jesus movement’ of the time”.
Norman began recording in 1966 and recorded numerous albums. Norman’s first album, I Love You , recorded when he was the lead singer for the group People!, was released in 1968. The bands cover version of The Zombies song of the same name reached number 7 on Billboard magazines top twenty list in June of that year as a single. Norman left People! prior to 1969 and has since performed as a solo artist, appearing both on mainstream and independent labels.
In 2001 Norman was inducted into the Gospel Music Association’s (GMA) Hall of Fame as a solo artist. In 2007 Norman was inducted into the San Jose Rocks Hall of Fame (San Jose, California), both as a member of People!, and as a solo artist. At that time Norman reunited for a concert with People!
Due to reasons of ill health, Norman performed on a very limited basis in recent years. A documentary outlining his career as a troubled troubadour will be out in 2008.
From the Monday Morning Insight:
Legendary Christian Rocker Larry Norman passed away over the weekend. A day before his death, Larry dictated one final letter. “I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God’s hand reaching down to pick me up,” Larry said. “I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home…”
Here’s a post from Larry’s brother, Charles:
Hello everybody.
Our friend and my wonderful brother Larry passed away at 2:45 Sunday morning. Kristin and I were with him, holding his hands and sitting in bed with him when his heart finally slowed to a stop. We spent this past week laughing, singing, and praying with him, and all the while he had us taking notes on new song ideas and instructions on how to continue his ministry and art …
Yesterday afternoon he knew he was going to go home to God very soon and he dictated the following message to you while his friend Allen Fleming typed these words into Larry’s computer:
I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God’s hand reaching down to pick me up. I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home.
My brother Charles is right, I wont be here much longer. I can’t do anything about it. My heart is too weak. I want to say goodbye to everyone. In the past you have generously supported me with prayer and finance and we will probably still need financial help.
My plan is to be buried in a simple pine box with some flowers inside. But still it will be costly because of funeral arrangement, transportation to the gravesite, entombment, coordination, legal papers etc. However money is not really what I need, I want to say I love you.
I’d like to push back the darkness with my bravest effort. There will be a funeral posted here on the website, in case some of you want to attend. We are not sure of the date when I will die. Goodbye, farewell, we will meet again.
Goodbye, farewell, we’ll meet again
Somewhere beyond the sky.
I pray that you will stay with God
Goodbye, my friends, goodbye.
Larry
Goodbye Farewell:
Sweet, Sweet Song of Salvation (Ontario – 1993)
U2 – In a Little While
Today’s Song of the Day….
In a little while
Surely you’ll be back
In a little while I’ll be there
In a little while
This hurt will hurt no more
I’ll be home, love
When the night takes a deep breath
And the daylight has no end
If I crawl, if I come crawling home
WiIl you be there
In a little while
I will blow by every breeze
Friday night running
To Sunday on my knees
That girl, that girl
She’s mine
And I’ve know her since
Since you were a little girl
With Spanish eyes
Oh, when I saw her
In a pram they pushed her by
My, how you’ve grown
Well it’s been
It’s been a little while
Slow down my bleeding heart
Man dreams one day to fly
A man takes a rocketship into the skys
He lives on starlets dying in the night
And follows in the trail
The scatter of light
Turn it on
Turn it on
You turn me on
Slow down my bleeding heart
Slowly, slowly love
Slow down my bleeding heart
Slowly, slowly love
Slow down my beating heart
Slowly, slowly love
Losing Idols
Wait – did Eric just post a new blog entry?
I assumed he was having too much fun in Alaska to keep up with his blog ;-).
Some good stuff. Posted today:
The Voxtrot song “Brother in Conflict†came on today. The last line of the song caught my attention. Ramesh Srivastava sings — screams, really, several times: “I had to lose my idols to find my voice/ lose my idols to find my voice/ lose my idols/ to find my voice.†Appropriate for someone who channeled Morrissey in early songs.
It reminded me of the Bob Dylan song/spoken word piece “Last Thoughts of Woody Guthrie.†Dylan performed this at New York Town Hall on April 12, 1963.
It’s a eulogy, but not for Guthrie, who was still alive at this point. Dylan obvious owed a great deal of his early work to Guthrie. This was Dylan saying goodbye to that influence and moving on to something new.
The death of Ernie Pyle
The AP recently uncovered a photograph of WWII journalist Ernie Pyle. Pyle covered WWII for many papers and wrote “The death of Capt. Waskow.”
The Belton Journal (my former employer) has run the piece from the World War II correspondent numerous times in the past about Belton’s own Capt. Henry T. Waskow.
The piece was originally run on the front pages of newspapers across the country and The Washington Daily News devoted its entire first page to the column — not even a headline, just solid text.
The paper was completely sold out that day.
Until today I overlooked the interesting connection between Waxahachie and Belton for Capt. Waskow.
Belton Journal Associate Editor Berneta Peeples writes:
There is another war now, and have been others since, and The Belton Journal continues to reprint the Waskow piece once in a while, as a tribute to Belton men and boys who have been killed in wars of this century, ranging from privates to generals.
Actually, Ernie Pyle wondered about this piece; he thought maybe he was “losing his touch.â€
Henry Waskow was a 1935 graduate of Belton High School, attended grade school at Hay Branch and Wiltonville.
He attended Trinity University in Waxhachie, paying his way with his “Guard Money.â€
He highwayed it back to Belton every Tuesday to make the guard drill.
Guardsmen were paid $3 for every drill they attended.
Waskow taught school two years before Co. I was mobilized in November 1940.
Belton’s Waskow High School bears his name as well as Henry T. Waskow V.F.W. #4008 Hall located at 2311 S. Pearl.
See the picture/cutline on Ernie Pyle or via Wikipedia
Read “The death of Capt. Waskow”
