New Job & Seasons Greetings

For those of you who may not know, I have left the Big Bullseye (aka Target) in favor of government. I work for the State of Florida for the Department of Health in the Safe Drinking Water program. Living in Tampa, I help regulate the public water systems for Hillsborough County. I work with five other individuals and together with our team of engineers, we inspect/monitor all 800+ water systems in the county (this does not include private residential wells). We are number two in the state for the most systems. The weather down here is great in the winter time and I really don't miss the snow and cold. Summers can be quite hot but that's the price you pay.

Hope everyone is well and have a great holiday season!

Bengtson

Nooma: Burrito

This is a Rob Bell parody that we put together for youth group.

Stars and Iron and Wine and AMAZING

Hey guys... I just got home from a STARS concert. They inspired me to write this post. I hope this post inspires you to check out their new album- In Our Bedroom After the War. It's very good. Their show was amazing!...check them out if they come to your town.

Also ... a plug for Iron and Win's newest release-- The Shepherd's Dog. Sometimes their songs bleed into one another for me... aka they all sound the same. Not the case for this album. Each song has its particular feel. It's an instant classic.

Flight of the Conchords

In case you haven't heard, Flight of the Conchords is the funniest show on TV other than the Office. It's on HBO, and features two guys from New Zealand in a digi-folk band struggling to make it in NYC. They break into song frequently. The first season is on sale on Amazon right now for $20. I highly recommend it. Sorry if the adult situations offended anyones sensibilities, I figured we're all adults here. It's Business Time.

just war post clarification

Thanks to Mary for clarifying the lack of Blackwater connection to Calvin in terms of direct giving.

I've taken off the second paragraph of the original post given this new information.

Blackwater and Calvin

Daniel, my old ministry colleague over at the Old First blog has posted some good insights about Blackwater and its connection to Calvin College.

Worth reading and reflecting upon.

Check it out.

Back during my days as a Calvin student I wrestled with the questions of Just War and the right to protest as Student Senate tried to send a letter of protest to President Bush. The student body voted to rescind the protest, but that experience taught me a lot about the community and our struggle to live our theology and convictions.

Perhaps the post will spark some interesting dialogue on this fair blog.

Indie Rock Showdown

Who needs Kanye vs. 50?

October 9th may mark the biggest indie rock release date showdown of the year.

Band of Horses' Cease to Begin vs. Beirut's The Flying Cup Club vs. Sunset Rubdown's Random Spirit Lover

No one has made any claims of retirement based on sales numbers, but go ahead and state your picks. All three had stellar debut's last year, but who will fall victim to the sophomore slump? I'm not sure about sales figures, but I'm putting my money on Sunset Rubdown for the best of the three. What I've heard of the new Band of Horses has not impressed me. Beirut's first album blew me away and it's hard to imagine that happening more than once. Sunset Rubdown has increasingly found itself on my ipod playlist (overtaking fellow bands, Wolf Parade, Swan Lake, and Frog Eyes) and the two new tracks I've heard were nothing short of exciting. I will probably only allow myself to buy or maybe two of these albums so if you give them a listen, let me know.

But what's this...A latecomer just entered the competition.

I'm sure others of you may have seen this, but Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows, will be officially "leaked" for free on Oct 10. Pitchfork has a summary of all the news (including where it will be available for download) that was was kept under wraps so well. Those crafty boys...shaking up the record industry once again.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/46028-radiohead-album-coming-out-as-regular-cd-too

Also in life changing music news, a few short weeks ago I had the opportunity to witness what I've almost conclusively ranked as the second best concert experience of my life (behind seeing Radiohead at Red Rocks)...Arcade Fire at Red Rocks!
Sitting just five measly rows from Win and Co., it was an incredible display of musicianship, energy, and presentation set in the picturesque Red Rocks. LCD Soundsystem blew me away live after enjoying, but not being too impressed by their recordings. For the sake of time and quality, I'll let this article from the local free paper speak to the experience, instead of trying to write it myself.
http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2007/09/last_night_arcade_fire_red_roc.php
Also, if you want to get a glimpse of what it was like, check out this youtube video that I found. It took a minute or two to figure out the two bouncing heads at the bottom of the frame were friends who I attended the concert with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho8xAM1o1LE

Finally, Missi and I saw Over the Rhine last Saturday. Again an amazing show (no it's not in my top 5). They played for almost two hours. A lot of tracks came from their new album but they played a mix of other songs. If you haven't heard me repent before, I am ashamed of my lambasting of Over the Rhine in the past. In my immature elitism I overlooked the fact that I should listen to a band before I mock it with such clever names as "Over their Prime". The only other band for which my stubbornness has cost me was Modest Mouse whom I based my early hatred on the song "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" instead of listening to a better representative of their catalog. Fortunately, I've grown wiser and more thoughtful so I'm sure such a arrogant mistake will never happen again.

Rockin' the Home Church

Hello all...

Since we're on a somewhat of a video kick, I thought I'd share a little performance a co-worker/friend/bandmate and I did at the Milford United Methodist Church. Mike and I did this as a little warm up for the annual Pamoja talent show that Stevo so graciously invited us to. Which was grreat fun, by the way (it was this past weekend). We did this song, a few instrumentals of our own, and "Remember the Mountain Bed" from the Mermaid Avenue (Billy Bragg/Wilco/Woody Guthrie) sessions.

I was also excited to see several other unique and enjoyable performances there, including a rendition of "Hey Jude" done in the voice of a chipmunk, three beautiful classical guitar pieces, a little jig on the violin, a short piece on the guitar which sonically represented a "fly hitting a barn", and three carefully crafted songs by a folky/fingerpicker songwriter named Dean (wow). It was so refreshing to be in that kind of atmosphere again. Don't get me wrong, I love the guys in the factory, but yea.

Anywho...I found out about this traditional (spiritual) song through the Uncle Tupelo album "March 16-20, 1992". I love that album. The song is interesting to me, through the lens of how I've listened to Tweedy grapple with religious stuff, and how he's evolved as a songwriter. It's also interesting historically, and the attitude it conveys. Tweedy has said that he hears a lot of fear in it. So, this is the stuff I think about a lot and get obsessed with.

From the dusty Archives.

I know the quality of this kind of sucks, but all I had was an old vhs copy. Please enjoy Let's Get these Bullets.

AIDS in Africa

I picked up a Vanity Fair in a doctors office and read an interesting story on AIDS in Africa. The scope of the problem is overwhelming, but it appears that there is some good news. The author, Alex Shoumatoff, explores the efforts to raise money and the impact of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) on the AIDs epidemic. In 2002, only 1% of the 5 million in Africa with AIDS were being treated with life saving ARVs. Only five years later, 28% are getting ARV treatment and the number is rapidly increasing. Shoumatoff gives little credit to the pharmaceutical companies supplying the medicine for a fraction of their average cost ($125 for a year's supply that would cost $10,000 here) or the companies selling "Red" products (4o% of the profits from "Red" Apple, GAP, Nike, etc. products go to fighting AIDs) and the extra $15 billion President Bush has authorized barely gets a mention. Instead, most of the praise is reserved for Bono. Certainly we can do better at helping the poor around the world, not just those with AIDs, but the greater numbers who are starving to death , but what is often missing from the discussion is how to help Africa become self-sufficient. Jennifer Brea argues in The American that aid often has the unfortunate effect of stifling entrepreneurship and incentivizes laziness in African government. Maybe some of the aid money would be better spent on investment or infrastructure. Given the opportunity, who can doubt the potential of Africans? Check out the homemade windmill. I think World Vision strikes a good balance between meeting basic needs and promoting self-sufficiency by addressing the causes and results of poverty (in the interests of full disclosure, my uncle works for World Vision). Give here, if you're interested.