benparsons.com

**this blog is f-ing hilarious, please check it out- stuff white people like

to my party people,Anna’s CD is done! (as far as i’m concerned) the other night i was confessing to her that i’m worried that it’s not good enough- that it doesn’t really capture her voice, and she reminded me that i have a tendency to be a perfectionist, and that it’s good enough. i think she’s right. it’s certainly not perfect, but it is done. you can contact her at her myspace if you want a copy.

in other news- if you are suffering from depression, and you’re taking meds that aren’t really working, my opinion is that caffeine may be just the thing for you.

caffeine, although clearly known to be “unhelpful” for depression, can be a real lifesaver for a short amount of time. i’ve been dosing myself with approximately 4 times my normal intake, and have found myself to be energetic, happy, and generally not an annoying downer of a bitch. i’m sure it will quit working in a day or so, but for now, hey- i’m feeling great.

(thanks to mike for the kona peaberry)

last night i burned a copy of the “first draft” of a CD that i’ve recorded, mixed and mastered. this album is music written and performed in the living room of the Pink House by Anna, one of my housemates. you can hear un-mastered mixes on her music myspace here-
ANNA

So after a few minor tweaks to the first draft, and some ID tag editing (anybody know how to do that?) Anna will be able to make copies for her fans. it will be great.

I’m pretty happy about approaching the final product on this project for a few reasons. For one thing, this is the first music that i’ve recorded that is not mine. i’ve done some remixes of other people’s stuff, like This Morning Call, for example (see “this orange remix” on myspace) and that’s been cool, but this is different. i got to be there to do the actual recording, right there in our living room. **side note** i just received the files from This Morning Call to do another remix for them- the track is called “deserted” and it’s really good. give a listen if you haven’t already.

Another reason is that i absolutely LOVE anna’s music. i can’t exactly say what it is about it, but there is some kind of deep soul-ish thing that happens when i hear it. it connects with me on a level that most music does not. i’m proud of you anna, and i hope you are able to keep writing music for a long time!

It’s easier for me to produce this music for her and believe that it’s really well done stuff- easier than it is for me to do that with my own music. it’s difficult to tell if something that i’ve made from scratch is really “good” or not. you know, i assume that my own perspective is going to be pretty skewed on a project that i’ve built from the ground up. but i don’t feel that way at all with anna’s CD. i’m really proud of both anna’s and my work on this album, and i hope that you all are able to get a copy of it.

it’s been a few months in the making, and i’m smiling.

I’d like to share a bit about my friend and housemate Anna Lenau.  She is a student at S.U. and a singer/songwriter of some seriously powerful material.  Here is a picture of her holding our older daughter, Jaya.  Anna and i recorded some of her songs in our living room about a week ago, and i’ve finished engineering a few of them, which can be heard hereI’m happy with how the first two tracks turned out, and should be finishing 4 more in the next few weeks. I don’t know about you, but i’ve been finding that engaging in creativity is VERY important to my well being.  it doesn’t seem to matter what the  ”content” is either.  in the past few weeks i have been able to do electronic music production (as well as the project i mentioned above), bicycle mechanics, graphic design/stencil printing, making a coat rack for our home (i call it the Space Cactus), a little “sculpture project” (untitled, but I LOVE IT!!  i’ll have to post a photo soon), and a bit of home decorating.  that sounds like a lot, but creating/building is SO energizing for me, i pretty much just fly right thru the stuff.  it gives me more energy just to participate in making/improving something.  even when it’s in the form of a conversation.  It might sound funny to make such a big deal out of this, but it really is huge for me.  This brings me to a thought i’d like your feedback on. If we are God-followers, most of us expect to represent this God’s characteristics in our lives. We believe that God’s qualities will show up in our lives (though not necessarily instantly), and that it is up to us to live out these characteristics. I can not say “i follow Jesus, but i don’t really care to act like him, or figure out what he’s like”.my point is- to me it’s completely obvious that a large part of God’s character is creativity. it seems like he likes to make stuff, and not just for pragmatic/functional reasons, but for beauty or mystery, story-telling and friendship, excitement or just pure enjoyment. if he does this, do we? do we see it as one of our “spiritual disciplines” to be creative? if my premise is correct, then to make something (be it useful or not, beautiful or not, etc.) is to act like this God.Here’s a more concrete example– many times when bringing people down to the Bread of Life Mission to volunteer there, people would remark that it felt natural, energizing or just “good” to serve. I’d usually explain that they felt that way because that’s one of the things God created us to do- to serve others. we don’t do it much, so when we actually DO serve, we notice those encouraging feelings.I think it’s the same with creating, but people often want to separate creativity as some type of gift that only a blessed few have. i disagree. would you say that about service? that only a few are “blessed” with being able to serve? you might see that some are particularly good at it, or enjoy it more than others, but you wouldn’t call it a gift, would you? why do we call creativity a gift? (of course, it is a gift, in the sense that everything we have is a gift from God) but my point is you are not exempt. if your God is creative, so are you. perhaps you have not discovered how to do this, or are not yet comfortable, but we didn’t let that stop us from learning to pray did we? (well… actually i don’t pray very much, so maybe that’s a bad example).what do you think? is creativity a spiritual discipline which God intends for all of us to participate in, in order to enjoy Him, and this life, fully?