Clarifying Comments about Mr. Johnson, and I wish i was talking about former President Lyndon Johnson, but i'm not

Good evening Blog world. At the moment, I am waiting for my friend Matt (no not Matt Russell, though I am waiting for Matt Russell to come home) to show up at my house so that we can view the film “Ray”. I am assuming that I won’t finish this update before he gets here, so I will include a review of this Oscar winning film after I finish watching it, which will be before I finish writing this blog.

So tonight we had our monthly youth worship night in Vermilion, an event that we have called “Crave” because we want to crave more of God’s present, and we crave, we long to worship him, and in this way we do it through music and hearing the word. It is basically, Church for youth, but at night, and without adults, other then Kyle and or Myself usually. Attendance for Crave has been lacking the last couple months, it seems that many of our regular teens aren’t interested in coming out for an event like this, although some are, it’s just very sporadic. Anyway, tonight was no difference, we had about 12-15 kids, which is actually a lot for Crave, so that was encouraging, but of the six or so teens that Kyle and I hoped and prayed would come out, only one did. Anyway, we had a great time of worship (I did PowerPoint, which I hate, cause then I can’t enter into worship as much and because I don’t like doing PowerPoint, but anyway)

Ok, I just finished watching “Ray” now I will continue

We had a great time of worship and then Kyle spoke about being tied to our pet monster or sin, and how we try and be disciplined in removing the sin from our life and growing in our relationship with God, but we often miss the importance of dependence. So often we find ourselves trying to work for our salvation, or work for growth apart from dependence on Christ, and that just never gets us anywhere but frustrated. I was really touched by this word that Kyle shared with us. Anyway, after that we played a game called Pig in the youth room, it’s a really remarkable game, it has formed a real bond in our youth, and then we went for Ice Cream and Peach Juice at our local hang-out “Sammy’s” also know as “Samuels”. Following the Samuel’s experience, Matt and I decided to watch “Ray” which I rented from VHQ today, and when I got home I decided it would be funny to wait in my darkened automobile to scare Matt as he walked up, so I slunk down in my seat and waited. Well a beautiful and remarkable sight greeted me when I did, no it wasn’t a women, but it was the aurora borealis. For many nights now, as I have come home late at night from various youth events, and church functions, I have looked to the sky to see if “the northern lights” would be out. But they hadn’t for a long time, so I would just take in the beauty of the normal night sky. Clean, Crisp, Dark and Bright, I don’t know if I have said this before, but I feel like the night sky is the aspect of God’s creation that appeals to me most, it is breathtaking to me! Anyway, I slunk down in my seat and watched the lights dance, it was awesome, kinda makes me wish I hadn’t turned off the car so I could’ve had music playing, but then again, it was good to be silent, alone with my thoughts, my hopes and fears and just turn it off and bask in the natural beauty of this world. If you have never seen the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis as it is truly known, you are missing out, and I recommend you do everything in your power to see them. Anyway, after they danced out of sight, and Matt still wasn’t there, I went inside and began writing this blog. Then I watched “Ray”.

“Ray” was a good film, I enjoyed it. It was able to evoke emotions on all ends of the spectrum – love, hate, happiness, despair, joy, sadness and so on, which I believe is something important in a good film, well, maybe a good drama. I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending, it’s not a twist or anything, so if you haven’t seen the film, don’t get all bug eyed on me, I just felt like it could’ve kept going and I could’ve watched for two and a half more hours, I truly was captivated, and there is so much about the legendary Ray Charles I didn’t know. I felt like I wanted to buy one of his albums, but I felt like I would be jumping on a trendy band-wagon, but in the end, it’s good music, and that’s what I appreciate it for, so who knows maybe once I get to Calgary and have a job, maybe there will be some Ray Charles in my future. I recommend it as a film, and Matt (not Russell), who I was watching it with, asked me halfway through the film, if I thought Jamie Foxx was giving an Oscar Worthy performance and I said, “I don’t know, I haven’t seen the entire film” and then at the end we both agreed, it was an Oscar worthy performance. The next movie I am going to watch (tomorrow) is going to be “The Motorcycle Diaries” which I have heard nothing but good things about.

So in similar fashion to my last blog update, my in the car mix CD “Mike’s Dandy Deportation Mix” has provided me with the ammunition to regale you with a song of the day selection. Immeadiatly preceding that tragically hip song that I spoke of last blog is a classic song by an artist that not everyone enjoys, and if I was honest with myself, I would say that I don’t always enjoy this band anymore either, though at one point, I thought they were the greatest. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Dashboard Confessional, they will always have a special space in my heart, but I don’t love them or listen to them like I used to. Now you might be saying “Dashboard Confessional!? Mike are you depressed? Are you suicidal? Have you recently had your heart broken and squashed by some hussy we don’t know about? Are you gay?” The answer to all those questions and every other question you have is No. I am doing fine, my sermon is done and ready, I’m meeting Matt (Kinniburgh), Colin, and Jon on Wednesday, things are just dandy. Well if that’s the case, why am I endorsing some Dashboard? Because sometimes you just need to sing along and if you can’t do that with “The Best Deceptions” the truth is, you probably just can’t sing! As I drove around today, I listened to this song like four times, each time getting more and more into it, screaming louder, holding the notes longer, letting my wailing engulf the whole community of Vermilion, and it felt great. So great in fact that tomorrow morning, after I write the paper that was due yesterday(today..March 4th…happy birthday Ashley….did you know Elena, has the same birthday as you? Yeah me neither…weird huh?) I am going to go for a drive and listen to Dashboard and sing at the top of my lungs about broken relationships and heartbreak and drinking myself back to reality….cause afterall, it’s not like he (Chris Carraba) can write about anything else, I mean seriously, even back in FSF (Further Seems Forever, his pre-Dashboard Christian rock band on Tooth and Nail Records, now being fronted by that dink from Sensefield) he had a one track mind when it came to song writing, oh well, these things happen. Anyway, if you have the means and or the desire, I think you should listen to this song, and have a good time of sing along with Dashboard Confessional, even imagine me there with you if you want, if it will make you feel better, I know it would make me feel better.

Also, I was just looking at my forearms and I noticed, they are very hairy, I’m like Cousin It from the Addams Family or something, it’s like Jeremiah’s back before he gets it waxed by Holly, it’s really insane, but I am going to keep on believing that somewhere out there, is a women who knows that men are supposed to be hairy and that deep down, she finds it sexy….except for back hair, that’s not sexy in any way shape or form. Also I have been getting complaints about my treatment of poor Jack Johnson. In fact I had a person who shall remain anonymous…we’ll call her Monica H., no wait that’s to obvious, uh, M. House, she said that if Jack Johnson wasn’t married that she would move to Hawaii and try to persuade him to marry her….methinks it wouldn’t take much convincing, but other then that, other people have wondered why I attacked Jack Johnson in such a way, well the truth is, I don’t like his music to begin with, and as I was putting the finishing touches on that particular blog, I was listening to a Vancouver Radio Station known simply as “99.3 The Fox”, and they began to play the new Jack Johnson song (which I don’t even like) but back in the day, The Fox would never has played anything like Jack Johnson, leading me to believe that Jack Johnson loving Aliens have taken over my beloved radio station and are brainwashing listeners with subliminal messages in Jack Johnson’s music. So, yeah, they were playing the song, and basically I just didn’t like it.