Owner: This Guy Falls Down URL:http://marklee.typepad.com/ Join Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 00:07:30 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: Blog operated by Mark Lee, guitarist for Christian rock outfit Third Day. I talk about whatever comes to mind, but tend to focus on books, music, and culture, with an emphasis on conservation and environmental issues. Site statistics:Click here
Bobby Dodd on football and fans 2006-10-23 06:22:55 Following is a great quote from legendary Georgia Tech coach Bobby
Dodd which has been floating around the internet (via Georgia Tech Sports Blog):
Football is one of our great American games. It is the duty and responsibility of each of us to see that it is kept in its proper perspective, and that it is protected. We should see that it is used to attain the objectives that mean so much to our way of life.
We feel that the spectator can be most influential and instrumental in helping to achieve these objectives, if he will develop the right attitudes. May we suggest a few?
First, and foremost among these attitudes that must be developed, is the realization that in football there must be a winner and a loser (excepting the occasional tie). The fan who recognizes this principle gets a great deal more enjoyment from the game than one who becomes irritated, aggravated, and rambunctious when "his" team loses. We would never minimize the importance of winning, but it is very unfair to the
A Historic Day 2006-10-22 00:14:24 Today Randy is hosting a bonfire on the future site of his "Artist Development Center". Thus begins the journey of the vision into reality. I have known Randy for over five years now and have shared in this dream since he began talking about it years ago. In fact, I believe in the idea so much I'm going to be a member of the board of directors. Be sure to check out Ethos later this evening as he's officially launching the website...
1/2 Marathon Training Update 2006-10-22 00:07:21 Location: GULU Walk Houston
Distance: 2.77 miles
Time: 1:11
Pace: 28:48 min/mi
Temperature: HOT
Notes: This wasn't a usual "run", per se, but I thought it would be fun to mention. Today I participated in the Houston GULU Walk. This is a great cause to raise awareness for what's going on in Northern Uganda. Our walking was symbolic in that it represented the distance many "night commuters" have to walk every night to find a safe place to sleep. The hope is that awareness was raised and a message was sent that this is an issue close to our hearts. A fun day... Read more:Update
, Marathon
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Form vs. function 2006-10-20 19:30:27 OK, so reading back over this post, maybe I was being a little overcritical of myself. The creative process is a pendulum - sometimes it calls for careful discipline and sometimes it calls for wreckless abandon. Sometimes it comes naturally; sometimes it's like a trip to the proctologist (I've never been to a proctologist - I can only imagine.) I think there's a natural tendency to sit at one end of the pendulum and be hypercritical of statements that you've made when you were at a different place in your life.
One thing that I do want to hit on is the idea of "form vs. formula". Obviously, you have to have form. I can tell you all day about the mood and the vibe and the feeling of playing the guitar, but it will do you no good until I start telling you about how to play an A minor chord. So there's a form involved. With songwriting, if you don't know the difference between a verse and a chorus, or have no clue about rhyme schemes, it will be difficult to be much of a suc Read more:function
Evangelicals for Darfur 2006-10-18 05:30:37 NOTE: I didn't write this. This is a block email form they have on their site so you can email your friends. This is a very important and timely issue, and since I don't have your email addresses, here you go...
"And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'" - Matthew 25:40
Evangelical Christians are uniting in an urgent effort to bring an immediate end to the genocide in Darfur
.
In recent weeks, evangelical leaders have discovered profound unity on this crisis. Believing that God was calling them to act, a number of those leaders began talking about how evangelical Christians could respond together to this call. Those conversations led to the creation of Evangelicals
for Darfur, a campaign that brings together media, web, and grassroots advocacy to call for an end to the senseless suffering in Darfur.
A broad and diverse group of evangelical leaders were eager to participat
Songwriting hacks revisited 2006-10-18 05:20:01 Of everything I've ever talked about, the songwriting hacks
series has probably received the best response. But I quit doing them after completing only 11. Why? I think it comes down to the word "hack". I just don't think participating in the creative process is an area where you can find a clever workaround. The creative process is not one to be manipulated. I guess it works, if all you want to do is be a "hack". I know I might be getting into semantics here, but I think that's the whole point here. As Madeleine L'Engle so brilliantly pointed out in one of my favorite interviews of the current millenium, great works of art are those which work on several levels. And I just don't think that kind of work is going to come out of a hack mentality*.
Now I realize that many of you have gotten a lot out of the hacks series. And I don't necessarily disagree with anything I've written thus far. I just feel like the whole concept is flawed, and I was getting to the point that Read more:Songwriting
Tony Bennett on standing out from the chorus 2006-10-16 07:55:30 Tony Bennett
was recently on the Tavis Smiley Show, and this quote in particular has been floating around the internet as of late (I picked it up from my friend Mark):
"If you just sing like they do and imitate their voices, you're going to sound like one of the chorus
because everybody's doing that. To be an individual, listen to musicians and listen to what they're doing and imitate musicians rather than the singers"
I think this says a lot for looking at the context as a source of inspiration. This is why so many "singers" end up getting sent home from the American Idol audition in tears. They don't get that everybody and their brother can carry a tune. It's about more than talent - it's about the complete package. The key is finding something that sets you apart, and that's where context comes in. I think the idea of getting inspiration from the musicians is an interesting one. A singer knows melody. A musician knows songs. A singer uses the right brain o Read more:Tony Bennett
Tangled Up in Bob 2006-10-11 17:46:14 There have been scores of Bob Dylan documentaries. It's getting to the point where any new one which comes out has to have some kind of fresh angle to even get noticed. While I haven't really heard to much about this one, it has some great potential simply because it seems to be taking a fresh twist. Rather than rehash Bobby Z's life for the umpteenth time, this film by Mary Feldt features author Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones) traveling to Dylan's hometown. It appears the film may be as much about Hibbing, Minnesota as it is about Dylan. That, coupled with the Goldberg factor, could make for an interesting experience. Read more:Tangled
Rupert Murdoch goes green? 2006-10-10 00:53:55 Have you heard the latest to jump on the global warming bandwagon? No, it's not a singer or an actor or even a politician. It's none other than RupertMurdoch
, one of the faces of the "mainstream media" the blogosphere loves to complain about. Murdoch announced at Bill Clinton's Global Climate Initiative that News Corp. would become carbon neutral in an effort to curb global warming. Why the change of heart? Well, according to this article, it may have to do with his son James:
Signs suggest Murdoch's son James, presumable heir apparent since his brother Lachlan's resignation from News Corp. last year, may be influencing his father on this issue. This March, as CEO, of British satellite operator BSkyB, James spearheaded a carbon neutral policy for the company, setting a target to reduce corporate carbon dioxide emissions by 10% below 2002/2003 levels by 2010. Read more:Rupert Murdoch
Cool band alert - Ollabelle 2006-10-08 23:27:29 Go out and get you an Ollabelle CD right now. I'm serious - go ahead. I'll still be here when you get back.
Back yet? Great. Now listen to it (you can listen while you read if you like). Are you hearing the diversity? Are you picking up on the authenticity? Don't you agree that it sounds like nothing you've ever heard in your life? Are you rocked and inspired at the same time?
You owe it to yourself to tell everybody you know about it. I am. In fact we're playing "Get Back Temptation" before we take the stage. It's that good.
Actually, it's kind of a funny story. I was sitting at a barbecue restaurant in Springfield, MO with a few of my musical cohorts when "Get Back Temptation" came on. It's like time got frozen. Forks froze in midair. It was one of those moments of discovery you take with you. I think the last time that happened for me was hearing Travis for the first time about six years ago.
This is the album to beat for best of 2006.
Jeff Tweedy DVD releases today 2006-10-24 16:50:50 The wait is over. Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy released his first solo DVD today. Entitled Sunken Treasure, the film documents a recent tour of the Pacific Northwest. You can watch a trailer on the band's website, and if it's any indication, this is destined to be a classic.
Southwestern Baptist Seminary Bans "Private Prayer Language" 2006-10-27 14:08:00 Check out this article and see how it hits you. Honestly, at first I was a little put out. I couldn't believe how narrow-minded these people must be to not allow speaking in tongues at their college. Then I thought about it - this is a seminary. This is where they're training people in the basics of Baptist
doctrine. And if speaking in tongues isn't considered a cornerstone of Baptist doctrine, they probably shouldn't promote it at the school.
But doesn't it seem just a little harsh to completely ban the practice? The original controversy stemmed from a sermon delivered by one of their trustees, and the original phrase he used was "private prayer language". Maybe they could've found a middle ground (like the U.S. military, for example) and had a don't ask don't tell policy. Let what goes on in private stay private.
I will say that I do have a lot of respect for SBTC in that they are attempting to do something that is becoming more and more foreign in Christian circ Read more:Prayer
, Southwestern
, Seminary
, Private
Kalein: Beauty is Calling 2006-10-26 14:56:00 Ka-who? Kalein is the brainchild of my friend and mentor Randy Elrod. It promises to be a place to nurture and inspire young talent by providing a place for them to get away and focus on their craft. Located in a valley nestled in the rolling hills of Middle Tennessee, Kelein should be the ideal breeding ground for a new generation of artists.
What does the name mean? From my understanding, it is a Greek term which means at once "beauty" and "calling". I read a book about a year ago called Beauty
: The Invisible Embace and subsequently raved about it here and elsewhere. In that book the author hit on the fact that appreciation of beauty is what sets us apart from other species. Whatever ails us as a culture can be traces back to a lack of beauty appreciation. Think about it.
Another book I've got to mention here is Bob Briner's Roaring Lambs. That concept of engaging the culture from a faith point of view has been close to my heart for well over a decade now. It has bee Read more:Calling
NaNoWriMo 2006-10-26 06:42:37 No, this isn't some warmed over Mork from Ork saying. This is one of the more ridiculous and interesting creative endeavors you could ever embark on. And when I say "ridiculous", I don't mean "bizarre" (although this is a bit out there). I mean you will invite the ridicule of your friends and close relations. And guess what? I'm seriously considering it.
What exactly is "it"? It's National Novel Writing Month, of course. And what is National Novel Writing Month, you ask? Well, you sign up at their website, then you write a 175 page (50,000 word) novel during the month of November. You have exactly that long to complete it. Besides an exercise in masochism (non-sexual, I can assure you!) of the extreme sort, this could be a good way to overcome writer's block and crank out that "crappy first draft" so many of those creativity experts go on and on about. I think in the case of my non-writing, internal editing, Gemini self, it could be the only way you would ever see me c Read more:NaNoWriMo
My Top 5 1/2 Halloween Movies 2006-11-01 04:32:41 Well, I listed out a few scary movies a few years back*, but I figured it would make a great Halloween
tradition to list these out again this year...
First of all, #1/2 goes to my favorite Halloween TV special, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. It contains the funniest party scene of any Charlie Brown cartoon, and of course the famous Linus-ism "Three things you should never talk about: politics, religion, and the Great Pumpkin."
The Others: This has become my favorite in the last couple of years. Nicole Kidman does a great job, and this is a classic example of a scary movie that doesn't cross over to the over the top gore place. The plot is bar none.
The Blair Witch Project: I kind of rolled my eyes in the theatre, then I had trouble sleeping for a week. What makes this one work is the fact that they never show the "witch". It's all in your head.
The Shining: Gotta give props to Mr. Nicholson for portraying the creepiest character in all of film. I think I'm just
I'm doing it 2006-11-01 04:16:24 To quote from Steven Curtis Chapman, I'm divin' in. Earlier this afternoon, I signed up for the National Novel Writing Month. I may fall flat on my face, but this may also the only way I will ever churn out 175 pages, good or bad.
As I've tried to assess how I spend my time and where I'm going to find an hour and a half every day to perform this crazy feat, it looks like the time I usually spend online will be the first to suffer. As a result, don't look for much in the way of regularity around here for the next four weeks. If you need to get your Mark Lee fix, be sure to check out the Third Day Weblog. I had thought about doing
scheduled posts (I think there might be two or three coming down the pike), but I haven't had time for that. If all goes well, I'll try to check in on how this writing thing is going. It could serve as an inspiration (or stern warning) for anyone who's thinking about doing it in the future.
So check back. Usually I would say check back ofte
Jeff Tweedy's essential live albums 2006-11-01 14:25:00 Last December, around the time of Wilco's acclaimed live album Kicking Television, singer Jeff Tweedy contributed this article, in which he named some of his favorite live albums
. He has a knack for verbalizing vague musical aesthetic vagueries. Instead of saying "Yeah man. That rocks", Tweedy will explain what it is about the album that has historical significance, or what specifically about the album does it for him. So even if you're not a Wilco fan this could be a good reference point for some great live albums from the obvious (Dylan's Albert Hall bootleg) to the surprising (Pink Floyd's Ummagumma) to the downright obscure (Albert Ayler?). Interesting list, to say the least. And for the die hard Tweedy-ites out there, this should be a good compliment to his new live DVD. You do already own that, right?
NaNoWriMo Update 2006-11-06 21:58:31 Where I am: 5801 words
Where I should be (by midnight tonight): 10000 words
Wow, what a crazy week it's been. But I can already see why people do this. If there's a 10K in town, people come out in droves, even though 99.9% of them know that they will not be competing for first place. In many races I've been involved in, the winner has already finished the race before many have even crossed the starting line. With absolutely no chance of winning, why do people still participate? To reach a personal goal, to brag to their friends that they did it, and for the unexpected rewards you get from being a part of something bigger than yourself.
While this all makes perfect sense in the world of athletics, it has not translated to the arts. I think most everyone deep down has a desire to paint or sew or write. But for whatever reason, we feel like it's something best left to the "pros", whoever that is. And when those of us who are blessed (or stubborn!) enough follow through and Read more:Update
, NaNoWriMo
Kayaking on the Ogeechee 2006-11-10 06:56:49 OK, so I officially have the kayak bug again. The last couple of days I've been hanging out in South Georgia with the coastal Georgia Lees. My cousin Jason took me on a little kayak excursion on the Ogeechee River and Green's Creek. The weather was a little brisk, but the water was crystal clear. Most of the time you could see all the way to the bottom of the river. Now I've done the whitewater thing, and it's not exactly my thing. Don't get me wrong - I love the mountains and I love being on the water. But I like to look around at the scenery, and don't want to have to dedicate most of my time and energy to keeping the boat afloat. I've also done the lake thing and the Piedmont river thing. What's particularly cool about the coastal river thing is that you can time the tides right and it feels like you're going with the current both ways. And the scenery was literally out of this world: the cypress trees and the general swamp vibe looked like we were on another pla Read more:Kayaking
Disney Half Marathon - Training Update 2006-11-15 20:48:47 Location: Silver Comet Trail, Powder Springs, GA
Distance: 8.04 miles
Time: 1:53
Pace: 14:03 min/mile
Temperature: low 50's
Notes: This was a pretty fun run. We both felt pretty good the whole way, and even picked up the pace towards the end, earning us a coveted "negative split". The only mistake was that we started running at around 4:15. It gets dark around these parts at about 5:45 this time of year. So do the math: we ran the last mile or so in the dark. That was the only downer, but it also made us run faster. Hence the negative split. Read more:Disney
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NaNoWriMo Update 2006-11-15 20:38:45 I'm stuck on about 6500 words. I'm supposed to be at around 25000 tonight. Needless to say I'm behind. I'm down, but not out. As they say in sports, it's still mathematically possible. But it doesn't look good... Read more:Update
, NaNoWriMo
Funny story 2006-11-15 20:29:48 OK, so while I was in Florida last week, I had the rare opportunity to fill my Tahoe with E85 fuel. It ran great, cost less, and best of all, it was environmentally friendly. Feeling the general goodwill that moment created, I wanted more. I got online and found other E85 locations in Florida. One in Lake City called First Coast Biofuels seemed to make sense with my travel plans, so I had it in the back of my mind. Sunday night and I'm on the way home from Ft. Myers. I go through Lake City at around midnight. Surely this place would be closed, right? But if it's anything like the one in Tallahassee, it's just a drive up pump with a credit card swipe. I can't drive within two miles of this place and not at least check it out.
So I go. Based on the address, I go to where the place should be and find a lawnmower repair place. I'm about to buzz by it and turn around, when a homemade sign catches my eye that reads "First Coast Biofuels". I slam on the brakes and then whip Read more:Funny
, story
Unknown Hinson 2006-11-18 22:20:24 My cousin Jason recently turned me on to Unknown
Hinson, an enigmatic country singer and killer guitarist. He is very opinionated, and it's entertaining just to hear him talk about various topics. So today I'm beginning an ongoing series featuring some of his better clips I've found on YouTube.
To start, here's a clip of Unknown doing his thing at a club in Nashville. Just to let you know the guy can really play...
Poor little critter in the road 2006-11-20 16:48:16 As I'm sitting here nursing my wounds in the NaNoWriMo medic tent, I can't help but wonder what went wrong. The obvious answer is that I had too much on my plate in November this year. I was on tour and traveling and all that, but I'm always on tour or in the studio or out of town or something crazy like that. And I'm coming to realize that if I sit here and justify things, it would be easy to do absolutely nothing. But I know that I would not be OK with that. So it's sort of a gut check time for Mr. Lee right now. I know the idea of the NaNoWriMo thing is to write a novel in a month, but there's a bigger goal lurking in the background. Writing a novel.
So for anyone else who, like I, fell off the wagon this month, I urge you to pick yourself up and join me in creating. Finish your novel. Or start TODAY the symphony you've always talked about starting tomorrow.
HOY! HOY! HOY! HOY! (Espanol for TODAY. I think that might be my new personal slogan...) Read more:little
Gobble Jog 2006-11-23 19:20:31 This will end up being an odd Thanksgiving for me this year, as I'm not doing the traditional family thing and instead doing a show...
My wife and I got up this morning and ran in the Gobble Jog. This is a fun race held each year on the historic square in Marietta, Georgia. The proceeds go to MUST Ministries, a local shelter and soup kitchen. They have a 1K, a 5K, and a 10K. This year we opted for the 5K. It ended up being a fun way to kick off the holiday.
Later, I head down to Lenox Square to perform as part of the 59th Lighting of the Great Tree at Macy's. Check out the Third Day Weblog for an update in the next couple of days...
My new favorite guitarist 2006-11-25 05:55:55 We had the chance to meet Pete Huttlinger at last night's Lighting of the Great Tree at Macy's. I scored one of Pete's CD's entititled The Santa Rita Connection and it is amazing. He is a world class acoustic guitarist, and a nice guy to boot. They've got a couple of his albums on iTunes, and if you love great guitar music, it would behoove you to check it out...
Disney Half Marathon - Training Update 2006-11-22 02:07:00 Location: Silver Comet Trail, Powder Springs/Hiram, GA
Distance: 10.04 miles
Time: 2:23
Pace: 14:14 min/mile
Temperature: 30's
Notes: It was COLD running today, so we had to bundle up. We hit that psychological "wall" at about mile 9. That's why you do these longer runs - so you can be better prepared for what you'll go through during the "real" race. The section of trail we ran today was beautiful. Less crowded and less road crossings than other sections we've tried. Also, despite the cold, it was a nice fall day in Georgia. Read more:Training
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Disney Half Marathon - Training Update 2006-11-27 23:13:48 Location: Mountain to River Trail / Downtown Marietta, GA
Distance: 5.18 miles
Time: 1:13:27
Pace: 14:10 min/mile
Temperature: 50's
Notes: My wife discovered something really cool today about doing these long runs: you're in a pretty good place when you view a 5 mile run as a break. Especially when a few weeks ago 5 miles was your "long" run. It was a pretty day to run, and we both felt great. And downtown Marietta is a great place to run. Read more:Update
, Training
, Disney
, Marathon
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