I didn't play at church last Sunday morning...usually on Saturdays and Sundays you can catch me playing at the church that has become my church home FBCI in Arvada Colo....This past Sunday was different. I was up at my Brothers house wanting to get out for awhile at night like I usually do (musician standard time) So I look for Wifi Coffee shops or maybe a movie.
I had just seen "Secretariat" which is a great film by the way and was going to see it again when I turned right and happened to see a church just starting it's service.
It was called "Journey" I believe, and so I pulled in not knowing anybody and walked into the foyer asking a young man, "where is the service being held?" He very cordially pointed me around a corner and I heard it.
On the video screen was the pastor talking about "a million miles in a thousand years" By Donald Miller. This book is significant to me because my former band mate, Steve Taylor, is one of the characters in the book and I actually met Donald Miller last summer at a fund raiser I was running a Vid. Cam for S.T. at in Denver, and the two of them spend a lot of the first part of the book talking about his relationship with Steve and Ben Pearson writing the screenplay for "Blue Like Jazz."
I call them God moments, when I know without a doubt that God is talking to me....call me crazy. But I did NOT invent the internet.
Steve and I go all the way back to high school where we played in Jazz Band together in, uh...1976. It's just kinda weird how our relationship has weaved in and out, wait, did I say In-n-out? How 'bout a double double with cheese and those fresh cut Fries...never mind. Where was I? Oh yeah, The pastor is talking about the book and weaving it into Esther from the Bible. You see Esther had a lot of conflict to deal with. She was the Queen to Xerxes and back then if you ticked off the King you could be in a lot of trouble, as in, losing your head kind of trouble....enough about feminism....
So Esther figures out that This guy Haman is a bad dude, a Jew hater, kinda like Hitler only older, and he was also one of the Kings close advisers. That's bad for Esther because she's Jewish, and Haman convinces the King to annihilate all the Jews because he's like Hitler, only older.
So you may ask what does this have to do with Donald Miller and my Former Band mate? Well, In "A million Miles in a thousand Years" Donald and Steve keep talking about "Conflict" a lot.
In fact, as they're writing the screen play, a Teacher of screenwriting tells them that you have to put your Characters through Conflict, and Severe Testing. Because nobody wants to see a movie that has all nice people that are always nice to all other nice people all the nice time. Instead, great stories are about conflict and what happens to resolve that conflict. Sort of like Esther, who has to inform the King (her husband) that this guy Haman is deceiving his highness and is one slippery Jew hating slime ball.
Now just telling the king and approaching him in the wrong way can get her killed so she uses her charm and gets the King to agree to a few dinner parties where She exposes this troglodyte Haman and the Jewish people get saved....you can guess what happens to Haman and it's not good...
So all this just to point out that if you miss Church one Sunday (Something I don't recommend BTW), go check out some place you've never checked out before and see if God talks to you too.
You May be surprised!
Remember, I'm just the Sax Player...:) Copyright, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
A "Tune poem" for Blue Like Jazz
Holy "Meltdown!" "Clone" man! "Blue Like Jazz" the Movie was "On the Fritz" and we were thinking "It's Harder to believe than not to" but "I predict" the movie will not fail due to fans saying "Over my dead body" and "You Don't owe me nothing" but it's a "Written Guarantee" they will get cool freebies anyway.
The Director and friends were getting a "Bad Rap" and I'm sure he was thinking "Am I in Sync?" as the months and years went by. We were warming up to sing "Since I gave up hope I feel a lot Better" and wondering if "Jesus is for Losers", but thanks to the many fans of "Blue Like Jazz the Movie" has been given a "Second Chance" and the "Finish Line" is in sight!
However "I just wanna know" "If it all comes true" and there's a "Cash Cow" in hand that we don't get "Smug" just yet, 'cause the last thing we want is to be "Guilty by Association" to a mediocre movie or we'll be comitting "Murder in the Big House" in a rage of "Violent Blue" and spinning records at "This Disco" instead of playing "Blue Like Jazz the Sequel", a "Million Miles in a Thousand Years". But I'm confident this will not be our fate, and I'll even swear on "Jim Morrison's Grave" that this will be an amazing life changing film because everyone involved is a "Principled Man" and "It's a personal thing" to all of us!
Remember...I'm just the Sax Player. Copyright, 2010
The Director and friends were getting a "Bad Rap" and I'm sure he was thinking "Am I in Sync?" as the months and years went by. We were warming up to sing "Since I gave up hope I feel a lot Better" and wondering if "Jesus is for Losers", but thanks to the many fans of "Blue Like Jazz the Movie" has been given a "Second Chance" and the "Finish Line" is in sight!
However "I just wanna know" "If it all comes true" and there's a "Cash Cow" in hand that we don't get "Smug" just yet, 'cause the last thing we want is to be "Guilty by Association" to a mediocre movie or we'll be comitting "Murder in the Big House" in a rage of "Violent Blue" and spinning records at "This Disco" instead of playing "Blue Like Jazz the Sequel", a "Million Miles in a Thousand Years". But I'm confident this will not be our fate, and I'll even swear on "Jim Morrison's Grave" that this will be an amazing life changing film because everyone involved is a "Principled Man" and "It's a personal thing" to all of us!
Remember...I'm just the Sax Player. Copyright, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
"Blue Like Jazz the Movie" Rises from the dead! (and other miracles)
I have a personal interest in the "Saving" of "Blue Like Jazz" the Movie....I was in a grocery store in Denver in 2007 and the title caught my interest. I'm a musician, specifically a professional Sax player so when I saw the book "Blue Like Jazz" in the table by the sodas and chips I grabbed it. It didn't hurt that it was also on sale...
And like millions of others that read the book, it captivated me. The whole story of Don and his christian college cohorts plotting how they were going to "reach out" to their peers at a very liberal college was intriguing.
Just the audacity of putting a "Confession Booth" in the middle of a pagan festival at their college was brilliant, but then reading on that they (the christians) would be doing the confessing was fascinating. I was caught up.
About a year later I was chatting with my longtime friend Steve Taylor who lives in Nashville and whom I used to travel around the country playing christian rock and roll with, and he was talking about writing a screen play for a book called "Blue Like Jazz". I was floored... My ex classmate from Northglenn High School, whom I used to ditch theory class with was going to direct and write the screenplay for a book I and millions of other people loved!
So, about every few months Steve would call me just to see how things were going because I was going through some serious life changes and "stuff", and I would usually ask..."Uh, how's the "Blue like Jazz" Movie coming along? and for months, which turned into years, Steve would say, "we're still raising the money", to which I would say, "how much do you need to raise?" and He would say..."about 1.5 million". "Oh, O.K. I'll pray about it" would be my reply, and then we wouldn't talk for another few weeks.
In the summer of '09 (No, not a remake) Steve called me and asked if I wanted to run a video camera for a cool fund raising event in Denver for some well to do really nice people that loved the book too, and I said "Ya, that sounds fun!" so I set up my little vid cam and shot video of some Denver Bronco type people, the ex Governor of Colorado, and Don Miller whom I got to meet! Wow! how cool was that! I got to meet the author of BLJ and film him, Steve, the lead Actor guy that would play Don in the movie! and some pool tables....
Fast forward to Sept. 2010 and I chatted with Steve and asked my usual "So how's the movie funding going?" and Steve said "Well, we're going to use this thing called Kick Starter to raise funds, and as usual I asked"How much?". "$125,000 in about 25 days" said He, To which I replied, "Where are the t-shirts?, I would have bought a t-shirt a year ago" I said in exasperation.
Now, on October 5th, 2010, Fans of "Blue Like Jazz the Movie", (including myself) have donated over $100,000 in about 9 days...
I, along with millions of generous BLJ fans are "Jazzed". Sorry, couldn't resist.
Remember, I'm just the Sax Player
And like millions of others that read the book, it captivated me. The whole story of Don and his christian college cohorts plotting how they were going to "reach out" to their peers at a very liberal college was intriguing.
Just the audacity of putting a "Confession Booth" in the middle of a pagan festival at their college was brilliant, but then reading on that they (the christians) would be doing the confessing was fascinating. I was caught up.
About a year later I was chatting with my longtime friend Steve Taylor who lives in Nashville and whom I used to travel around the country playing christian rock and roll with, and he was talking about writing a screen play for a book called "Blue Like Jazz". I was floored... My ex classmate from Northglenn High School, whom I used to ditch theory class with was going to direct and write the screenplay for a book I and millions of other people loved!
So, about every few months Steve would call me just to see how things were going because I was going through some serious life changes and "stuff", and I would usually ask..."Uh, how's the "Blue like Jazz" Movie coming along? and for months, which turned into years, Steve would say, "we're still raising the money", to which I would say, "how much do you need to raise?" and He would say..."about 1.5 million". "Oh, O.K. I'll pray about it" would be my reply, and then we wouldn't talk for another few weeks.
In the summer of '09 (No, not a remake) Steve called me and asked if I wanted to run a video camera for a cool fund raising event in Denver for some well to do really nice people that loved the book too, and I said "Ya, that sounds fun!" so I set up my little vid cam and shot video of some Denver Bronco type people, the ex Governor of Colorado, and Don Miller whom I got to meet! Wow! how cool was that! I got to meet the author of BLJ and film him, Steve, the lead Actor guy that would play Don in the movie! and some pool tables....
Fast forward to Sept. 2010 and I chatted with Steve and asked my usual "So how's the movie funding going?" and Steve said "Well, we're going to use this thing called Kick Starter to raise funds, and as usual I asked"How much?". "$125,000 in about 25 days" said He, To which I replied, "Where are the t-shirts?, I would have bought a t-shirt a year ago" I said in exasperation.
Now, on October 5th, 2010, Fans of "Blue Like Jazz the Movie", (including myself) have donated over $100,000 in about 9 days...
I, along with millions of generous BLJ fans are "Jazzed". Sorry, couldn't resist.
Remember, I'm just the Sax Player
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)