andrew dodson

More and more, we’re being bombarded with the idea of “going green.”  Eco-friendly products are becoming more and more available.  The process of making products is becoming more and more eco-friendly, as well.  With all of the fuss about going green, I wonder where God comes into play?

First, I must admit, I’m not an environmentalist.  But, I’m also not an anti-environmentalist.  I sit on the fence.  I don’t litter, and to my knowledge, my vehicle is the only not-so-environmentally-friendly product I use.  I don’t recycle, personally, but we do recycle cans at CLS (for a person we know - not an employee - that uses them to help pay her bills).  I’m supportive of our city’s recycling program (which I don’t participate in, only because I don’t own a home).  My guess is, if I researched my lifestyle in relation to environmentalism, I’m not doing all that I could to help the environment.

The story of Genesis tells of how God created the earth.  We also see in Scripture that God reveals himself through creation.  Scripture also tells of God’s sovereignty over the earth.

Part of me hears all of this fuss over going green and thinks it’s a futile human attempt to prolong the life of the earth.  Since God is sovereign, it’s up to Him, not us.  Another part of me thinks that since God did create the earth, we need to be good stewards of it, just like we are to be good stewards of our money.  All good things come from Him.  Another part of me is excited about the growing use of organic products to create things we use every day.  It’s like we’ve finally realized that what God created is sufficient for our every day needs.

Where do you sit?  Is Earth Day like Christmas for you?  Or, do you not care?

I’m happy to recommend a new blog by a somewhat new friend - John Martin (not to be confused with Josh, and no relation).  John and I go back to February of 2006 when I was considering buying an electronic drum set.  My boss recommended I speak with a guy who used to rent a house from him.  So, I called and met up with John at Memorial Baptist Church and he sold me on the Yamaha DTXpress III Special.  Since then, I’ve had occasional contact with him through CLS and church activities.  Recently, he joined us (some guys from The Point and me) on a trip to Seattle, so I’ve gotten to know him better in the last few months.  I learned about his blog earlier this week, but I’m just getting around to linking to it.

John is a great guy in this order - He loves the Lord, he loves his family, is a great husband and father, he faithfully serves his church as a pastor, and he is a great drummer & musician.  Go read his blog.

I normally like to get the bad news first, but in this case, I’ll give you the good news.  Here’s a wrap up of the latest from the Josh Martin Band.

Good News

Josh and Christy Martin are going to have a baby!  Josh had told me a few months ago that they were trying, and it has finally happened.  So, congrats to them.  Keep them in your prayers that Christy’s pregnancy will go well, and that they’ll be blessed with a healthy, happy baby.  She is due in December, which is also the month of Josh’s birthday.  And my mom.  And Jesus.  So, some pretty cool people were born in December.

The JMB is also working on new material.  Still no plans to record anytime soon, as we’re still working on making the songs sound like songs.  So far, we’ve just sort of hammered through chord progressions on a few new songs.  The next step is coming up with interesting parts to make them sound unique.  It’s a cool process, because it’s the first time we’ve actually written the music to the songs as a band.  They definitely have a different feel than our previous songs.

Bad News

We have, like, zero gigs lined up for this year.  If anyone out there would like us to come and play, let us know!

The really bad news is that we’re losing a member.  Bert Lace has decided to leave the band.  We’re going to miss him!  His family has decided to adopt from a foreign country, and that is one of the reasons for him leaving the band.  He also stays very busy with Cedarmore and Crossings.  Considering his reasons for leaving the band are to glorify God through his family and occupation, I can only be happy for him and wish him the best

Rick has preached on the importance of the Lord’s Supper and a little bit on baptism the past couple of weeks.  The Point has decided to start doing the Lord’s Supper more often - almost on a weekly basis.  Although Scripture isn’t specific on the frequency of the Lord’s Supper, it does say the disciples broke bread and drank wine whenever they gathered.  Some believe, based on Acts 2 that it could have been on a daily basis.  If you have ever wondered about this, and have some extra time, I would encourage you to listen to the sermons from the past two weeks.

[WARNING: Last week's sermon was the longest sermon Rick has preached at TPCC.  It was an hour and fifteen minutes long!  To me, it's fine, but I'm sure some people think that's too long.  These people couldn't handle sitting through Driscoll or Piper sermons each week!  They're regularly that length.  Anyhow, there is a lot of good information in the sermon, so it's worth the extra time]

The Lord’s Supper

Ordinances of the Church

Yes, it has been a while. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve slacked pretty hard on my blog schedule. I have plans to do better this week! But, I wanted to get some input. What’s everyone think? Do you like the new blog schedule? It really does help me blog on a near daily basis, but there were some days that I struggled to come up with something. So, I was thinking of tossing the schedule, and just trying to make an effort to blog each day. I struggled with, for example, not having anything music related to post on some Tuesdays, or not really having much “random blogging” on my mind for Wednesdays. So, we’ll see what happens.

What have I been up to? Well, as mentioned previously, CLS has hit our busy time of the year. We’ll pretty much stay this way until sometime in June. It usually slows down over the summer.

My buddy Jeremy and I have been jogging around downtown a few times this past week. I’ve been wanting to get back into a regular exercise schedule, and so has he. In fact, he’s on a pretty big health kick right now. Seriously, congrats to him. Sounds like he’s making good progress in keeping a good diet, sleep schedule and some exercise. We’re actually pleased with our jogging progress after only a few runs. I’m looking forward to keeping it up. Also, my gym has gone to being open for 24 hours. I picked up my security card this past week (to let me in “after hours”), and I plan on using it. I don’t mind working out late, before bed, so it’s good for me that I can go work out later in the evening now, or in the evening on weekends

Outside of a busy CLS work schedule, I actually have a week of “freedom” this week. That means, I don’t have any projects to work on. I’ve done my taxes, I don’t have any recording projects on my plate, and just a few minor website issues - updates and such. It will all change next weekend, when I have a recording project lined up, with another concert to record the following week.

I’ve joined the Guitar Hero revolution. I caved. After playing it at a friend’s a few times, and finding out it was available for PS2 (I’m a little behind the times), I picked up a wireless controller and a used copy of the game. I’ve beaten the “easy” level, so now I’m on to “medium.” It really is a fun game.

There you have it.  I think we’re caught up now.  Now, back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

Not really a music specific post today, but more of a gear post.

Over the last few years, I’ve used several audio interfaces with my computer.  When at home, I mainly need a good, solid interface that will let me mix anywhere from two to thirty-two channels without any hassle.  To be specific, an interface that worked well with my Mac mini and Tracktion.  I don’t do a lot of recording at home, so having multiple inputs (XLR, MIDI, etc.) isn’t an issue.

I’ve settled on a Behringer FCA202 FireWire interface.  Yes, a Behringer product.  A lot of people bash them, but when it comes to bang-for-your-buck, there’s no better.  I’ve owned several of their products and never had any real complaints.  The FCA202 is a very simple firewire device - two 1/4″ inputs, two 1/4″ outputs, a headphone jack and two firewire ports.  That’s it.  A negative of this interface is no XLR or MIDI inputs.  But, if you want to upgrade your computer’s sound card (using a factory sound card for pro audio applications is not recommended) for a cheap price ($80), I highly recommend this card.  It’s also extremely compact, making it a great, portable unit.  I often throw this in my laptop bag to work on audio projects on the go.

The main issue I ran into using other units dealt with audio dropouts, pops, clicks, and more noises.  For some reason, a couple of units would only briefly work with my setup before the audio would drop out.  But, I would expect more from $200-600 units, so this was disappointing.  The FCA202 performs much better with my setup.  The units that didn’t perform as well included an Edirol FA-101, Alesis MultiMix 8 FireWire, and a PreSonus Inspire.  They all resulted in glitches while I tried mixing a project.

I can’t verify if this product would work well with a PC, or another Mac setup that differs from mine.  It does work great with my iBook G4, though.  If you have a 6-pin FireWire port on your computer, the device can be bus-powered (no power adapter needed).  Looking through reviews on Musician’s Friend shows there are issues if you try to use it with Vista (but, what else is new?  The surprise would be if it WORKED with Vista!).

If you’re in the market for a great little (affordable) audio interface, and if you don’t need XLR or MIDI inputs, I highly recommend this unit.  Combine this with GarageBand on a Mac and you’ve spent $80 to start recording your ideas and more.

(These types of posts always worry me a little bit.  I never know what the reaction will be - it could go either way.  I could be seen in a negative light, or plenty of people might agree.  But, I’m interested in your opinion.  Feel free to post a comment!)

I was driving on the interstate a couple of days ago.  I looked over to the side of the road and saw three small crosses planted in the grass - a memorial to crash victims, no doubt.  As I continued my drive, I started thinking about the idea of putting a cross where someone has died to honor their memory and the place of their death.  Sometimes, people just use a stake.  Others, a ribbon around a tree.  I’m sure there are more ideas that have been used.

Should we use a cross as a symbolic memorial of someone’s death?  I’m not trying to sound insensitive with this post, I promise.  I’m just not sure we should use a cross.

Here’s my reasoning:  This past Easter revealed to me how much Jesus’ death on the cross has come to mean to me.  I don’t take it lightly anymore.  The cross is huge to Christianity.  It has become the universal symbol of Christianity.  Even though a person’s death may be tragic, no one’s life or death accomplished what Jesus accomplished through the cross.

Part of me says, if I were to die, I would like to be remembered with a cross.  I would want people to know I was a Christian.  But, another part of me says I haven’t endured what Jesus endured - I wouldn’t deserve a cross as a memorial.  In fact, I’ve done plenty to deserve the cross as a punishment.  If it were up to me, I wouldn’t feel worthy to be remembered with a cross.

What do you think?

It’s that time of week… time to randomly blog:

• CLS has picked up steam over the last couple of weeks.  I’m going to try my best to keep up with blogging, but I am prepared to be working some overtime over the next several weeks.  Along with other projects, the blog might get forgotten about some days!
• NCAA Final Four this weekend - my pick in North Carolina, as much as I don’t like that.  I just think they’re too powerful.  With the way they’ve beaten people in the tourney so far, they remind me a lot of another extremely talented team that won it all by pounding teams in the tournament - the 1996 Kentucky Wildcats.
• Baseball season is now in full swing.  UK got off to an amazing start, but they’re now into SEC play, and have lost a handful of games over the last couple of weeks.  The Reds kicked off their season yesterday with a 4-2 loss to the Diamondbacks.  The staff gave up three homers, and the Reds only mustered three hits.  Fortunately, they have 161 games left to turn things around.
• Seriously - the Drop Trio is good.  Check them out.  The Leap album is a completely improvised album, which I’d normally love, but judging from some 30-second sound clips, it’s not as groove oriented as their other two releases.
• I’m enjoying Wordpress 2.5 so far.  If you haven’t upgraded yet, you should!

Sorry for the lack of a theology related post yesterday!  To be honest, I had writer’s block.  I didn’t have a subject in mind.  I’ll try to do better next week!

For a music related post today, I wanted to get the word out about another jazz group I’ve discovered.  The Drop Trio is way cool.  You can read about them on Magnatune here (and stream their albums!).  Their official website is here.  If you have an eMusic subscription, they’re available for download there.  You can also find them on iTunes, as usual.  Go check them out!