Larry.org

I’m a big fan of Local Arizona. I find local retail to be very important to my community and support locally owned and operated retailers whenever I can.

I just got an email from Kimber Lanning, the Executive Director of Local Arizona, promoting a coupon I, or anyone can use to get 20% off at participating local retailers from June 30th through July 6th 2008.

It’s called the Golden Ticket which I enjoy because I really loved Charlie and the Chocolate factory as a child.

So get out there and support your local businesses!

So I’m in a choir. The Choir Director and a few of our singers are in a group called The Phoenix Bach Choir.

They’ve just been nominated for 4 Grammy Awards.

So I figure, well that’s probably a pretty good record, and I can get it autographed too. So I’ll go to Border’s and pick it up.

Bear in mind Border’s is considered one of the last good places to shop for Classical Music. Turns out they have to special order it.  So I’m going to see if Stinkweeds can get it for me. I’ll let you know which get’s here first.

I find this kind of amazing, and a little depressing. A lot of people are concerned that classical music as an industry may be dying.

This is kind of interesting for Phoenix because, as such a modern city, we have very limited social norms based on a local classical music cultural heritage. Nothing like this has ever happened to Phoenix. Classical Music, or any other form of music can’t really “die”, it just becomes less interesting to the point that it goes dormant.

Seeing an international debate about the genre’s struggles and viability while watching a local community figure out how to build on the phenomenal success of the Phoenix Bach Choir gives me whiplash. It’s kind of fun.

I’m hoping to speak at church today, but I’m not sure that I’ll get the chance. I’m posting this here so I can share it with my pastors and my friends.

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It’s been an honor to work with a group of volunteers at (my) Church of the Beatitudes assisting a group of Refugees that are settling in Phoenix AZ. We were told we were given a family that they were sure would need some extra care becuase our church has such a great reputation for generosity, attitude and responsibility.

As Christmas approaches we’re seeing the family

• struggling and persevering in their to transition into financial independence
• working with us, their network of help, and the local community at large to create a sense of personal identity within a big strange city, and alien culture

I’ve been doing all I can to help, but with my hectic schedule and time commitments it never feels like enough. Still even the littlest effort has been rewarded a hundred fold.

The needs the family has now are many. In some ways fewer than they were when they first arrived. In other ways greater. I know that many of you have been wondering how it’s been going, and I’d love to expand on my very brief overview above, but in the interests of time I’ll refrain. it’s such an interesting story to tell that I urge you to seek out members of the committee to hear it.

Especially: Names

I’d like to finish by asking you all to consider helping out, because I know you’ll get as much reward for your effort as I have. The most interesting thing I can tell you we’ve identified as a need is a job coach that can help an ambitious and energetic 18 year old man, put together a game plan to get a GED, and a scholorship for a College Education basically on his own. What a wonderful difference can be made by someone. Is it that someone we know in our congregation? Outside of it?

We are also working on a special Christmas donation so that the family can enjoy giving each other presents. This is outside of our duties, but something special we want to do anyway. If you would like to help us financially, in addition to your normal stewardship of course, then please mark your contribution as “Refugee Family”, and either:

• place it in the collection plate marked
• mail it to the church office (the address is on your order of worship)
• or drop it off at the reception desk

Thanks very much for your time today and have a blessed holiday season.

Seriously, you must do this in your lifetime.

I've seem him 4 times and he keeps getting better.

If you like Blues, Stunning Acoustic Guitar, Even More Stunning Lyrics.. well what the heck, just take my word for it ok?

Stunning Acoustic Guitar

Buy an album by him and listen to it. Or you could take one of his songwriting classes at McCabe's Guitar Shop.

Stunning Lyrics

one of my favorites is

though I've loved you for a long time, it can't be denied, someone sees the dreams we hide, the dreams we hide

From the song Hidden Love

what the heck

What else you going to do? Watch American Idol? Go see a show! Go see this guy specifically.. but really, shouldn't you be going to shows more anyway?

Yesterday, Laura was having kind of an allergy headache and needed to lay down for a while after I got back from church.

It was about 11:00 and it occurred to me that 1) David and I had no idea what to do 2) the Red Sox were in town.

There was no way that we were going to make the game though because it started at 1:40 and David goes down for his nap at 1:30 (ish).

So then I think to myself.. if we bring water, pack up a lunch and buy the worst tickets in the ballpark, we can have a nice time in the air conditioned ballpark.

So off we go and got a Brandon Webb action figure as a promotional item.

Here's a photo of me and David at the ballpark.

Good article link from Laura.

This form of commuting - solo drivers picking up strangers so they can all cruise to work legally in high-occupancy-vehicle lanes - is called "slugging."

To Commute to Washington, the Early Bird Gets 'Slugs' - April 29, 2003 By PETER T. KILBORN NY Times (registartion required).



It was great to be able to Slug in Washington. I did it quite a lot when I lived in Norther Virginia. I would dress up nice, act polite, wait my turn and off I went knocking my in transit time in half. On demand transportation without the hassle of riding the bus. It was kind of inspiring and community building too. I felt like I was closer to my fellow commuter when I slugged.



I would commute with folks all over the economic strata, make some small talk if they started a conversation (you never start talking to your driver but you could start talking to a fellow slug) and leave a little closer to my community in both the suburbs and the city. The best part was how it would reinforce within me the idea that the guy in the expensive ride is likely just as practical and friendly as the guy in the effeciency commuter type vehicle, and the guy in the commuter was just as likely to be gruff, vane or otherwise self absorbed stress monkey as the guy in the sweet ride that put his annual income way over yours.



The fellow slugs were even harder to guess right on in terms of personality. I learned alot about the human beings inside the military, the federal government, political lobbies and all manner of other vocations that have completely biased archetypes. It was easy to start a conversation becuase we all hated to waste the time you spent doing something as simple as driving 10~20 miles, so once you got on the move everyone was in a pretty good mood.



I can't imagine this working in Phoenix. I'm not saying there's anything we can or should do to become more slug-friendly. We barely have enough freeways and we certainly don't have enough HOV lanes. It is a shame thought that it couldn't work becuase Phoenix is a friendly town but it's hard to get to know people from different walks of life if you're not thrust into a situation like you are when slugging. Why wouldn't it work in Phoenix? Glad you asked.

No central nightmare of congestion. Lots of general congestion couple choke points that may or may not be congested. (Not that we don't bitch about traffic here :). We certainly have traffic problems, that's pretty constant from city to city I've noticed.)

No mass transit system. This is a key to making it work. When I was slugging in Washington DC the 'common destinations' that are referred to in this article where all good hubs for lots of public transit options.

Distributed start and end points. This is one key to the lower risk that occurs in DC with this system. Most slugging is from suburbs to the central city. We don't really have a central city, which is why we don't have the nightmare congestion that Washington has. It's also why folks would never be able to Slug in Phoenix. The end points to everyon's commute are very diverse becuase the city is so spread out.

Slugging would be more dangerous in Phoenix. In Washington you have more Military and well dressed (suits) professional commuters. In Virginia you can add a very strict vehicle inspection regime adding to the feeling of general safety. We also very liberal gun control regulations, a much higher percentage of Phoenix drivers have a gun in the car. A few of them have even been known to use them while commuting though that's very rare percentage wise.

I was talking to someone the other day about what I like about Arizona, especially Phoenix. I like it here a lot but it's mostly because of the life Laura and I have built here. I already knew this but describing 'my' Arizona, and my affection for it I'm always reminded how little the specific city had to do with my present state of general happiness.


There are things I love about Arizona, things I couldn't enjoy in other parts of the world. Other places have their own desirable attributes. What I always seems to come back to is that this place, this piece of the world was where it happened for us. This was the place that conspired to allow this life to come to be. So the location is important, it is a fundamental part of our lives almost completely because of what we've done to make it so. It has very little to do with what the area offered to us.


Yet I am still left with a feeling of my life here having found me. I know that a series of specific decisions, some luck and a certain amount of compatibility with the locals combined to allow us to call this place home. I also know that had you asked me 15 years ago where I would be living, Phoenix Arizona would not have even entered my mind.


To me choosing a place to live was like getting in wonderful collision. An accident of preferences and opportunities. Will that happen to you here? I can't say. If my experience is any guide, you'll know pretty quick if you've found the right place to stand, and you'll likely be surprised at where you are when it does.


Will my friend move to Arizona? Should he? Will he be happy? Well "it worked for me" isn't really going to get the boxes in the back of the u-haul.


I have met a few folks in my life that visualize their lives and then set about to make this vision a reality. Very few folks have the ability, the luck and the patience to do that. Many who fail miss a large part of their life in the undertaking. I'm reminded of that great quote:

"Life is what happens when you are making other plans." - John Lennon

All I can say is, if you have my life you would enjoy living in Arizona as much as I do. You don't have my life though, and so all I can say with certainty is, it sure beats the hell out of living in Baghdad though I could be wrong. Baghdad looks like it was a pretty cool place to be this week.