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Three new videos are in the works. Soon the Morning Comes (screen shot above), Last Prayer and Million.  I expect to have two finished by the end of next month, and the third sometime in January. I’ll post more screen caps as they are available.

Take the test

another

and another
Of course these tests oversimplify the problems and are indicators at best. Nevertheless, useful indicators.

http://flickr.com/photos/imagemd/494192198/

http://www.seeqpod.com/music/?plid=2b6ea88029

It got me thinking about a few other old friends I haven’t talked to in some time, one being Dan Zimmerman. Humble, God fearing Dan Zimmerman. I was executive producer of a compilation album of his called Northwest Years. Dan is one of those guys who’s too busy “making it big in life” to ever make it big in music. I hear he continues to pelt it out in coffee houses in the New York area. He occasionally works with Danielson, speaking of which Daniel Smith produced two of the songs on the album. Check out Turn the World. Stunning.

I recalled the linear notes he put together for Northwest Years. Honest to the point of being frightening. Here they are:

Conversation with a Hidden Man

Could you help me with something? I wonder if you could stop for a moment… long enough to let me interrupt your thought process… just long enough to insert something into your heart.

Can you lay aside all that mental baggage and be still? Allow yourself to directly perceive whats going on here. I desire to get something across to you and “I see no way of communicating my thought except by inviting you to share my intuition”. (1)

Why is it so hard to be intimate with you? Are you ever open to anything you can’t immediately seize with your reason? Some things are impossible to comprehend… and that’s O.K. “Never question the truth of what you fail to understand”. (2)

Wait! Please don’t go! May I have just a little more of your time? I have a poem which I would like to read, but… I’m not sure you’d be able to hear it. Why?… Do you remember when I said “that in order to experience the beauty of a poem, one must consent to its obscurity”? (3) Well, so far you haven’t demonstrated to me much tolerance for any kind of obscurity.

Besides… I’m afraid you would turn around and ask me for an explanation. “Why must I always explain”?(4) I knew a godly man once who has always been an example to me: “He lived that which he was unable to explain”.(5)

It seems to me that explaining requires a certain ability to stay on track. I really lack in that area. But I don’t feel overly bad about it. More and more I am “finding the courage to be inconsistent”.(6)

I have learned that many people are “apt to think and speak about a thing rather than bear witness to the thing itself”. (7) I can’t live that way. I want to be a living demonstration… to bear witness to Jesus Christ himself and not to feel an inordinate compulsion to think and speak about him. I like what St. Francis said when he enjoined us to “preach the gospel all the time and if necessary use words”. (8)

I appreciate your taking the time to listen to what I had to say. I think for myself, and I hope for you also, the important thing is to find what we are destined for, “to perceive what the Lord wants me to do, to find the idea for which I am ready to live and die”.(9)

- Dan Zimmerman

1. Nicolas Berdyaev
2. L. Frank Baum
3. Jacques Maritain
4. Van Morrison
5. George MacDonald
6. N. Berdyaev
7. N. Berdyaev
8. St. Francis of Assisi
9. Soren Kierkegaard

50% of manic depressives will attempt suicide sometime in their life. 90% end up divorced.

staggering…

photo by YnR

Unlike music sites where chart position is based on voting (which can be heavily skewed by friend voting) Soundclick chart positions are based solely on unique song plays. Thanks to all who listened to the song that day!

The runaway favorite was Soon the Morning Comes listed at the top by almost everyone, followed closely by Photograph. Then it gets interesting…

Half gave the song Strong Tower intensly positive feedback including: “Stunning” “Marvelous” “Best work to date“, or it wasn’t mentioned at all.

Likewise More Than This was listed as top pick by about half, usually with double or triple exclamation marks, and again, not mentioned at all by the other half.

Every song but one was on someones top pick list. Thing about that one song is it’s one of my favorites. Funny how it goes. And I’m not gonna say which one here. You’ll have to email and ask. lol

So… I posted the four songs listed above as MP3s on my site for free download. ENJOY!

btw – I don’t make them available on myspace for download cause the audio quality is terrible. Get the 192K version from my web site. Way way better.

Then like a flock of geese, a chorus of voices, or the waves of the ocean, they start.

One, two, ten, hundreds.

All resonating together. In unison. And it is beautiful.

VERY much appreciated and kinda cool. Thanks CD Baby!

You can see Strong Tower on CDBaby here