update: a new obsession

I just totally got schooled by Josh in ping-pong… Arghudljasdhd!!!

That was tremendously disapointing. Ah, but now I have a new mission in life!! I’m coming for you Josh….

a new obsession

Ping-Pong. Wow, what a marvelous game! My company made the poor and unwise decision to invest in a ping-pong table for our third floor “commons” area. It is certainly where I have been spending all of my free time lately.


Now, I grew up with a ping-pong table at my house… and I played a fair bit, but generally against my grandparents, so no true advancement in skill was made in my early years. Over the years I’ve played from time to time, and I’ve gotten quite a bit better. Now, I am certainly nowhere near the skill level of ping-pong extraordinaire Timmy P (and he truly is quite good). Timmy was in Ping-Pong Scouts – had a uniform that he would wear to school all the time. He had these cute little patches that he would sew to the back of his shirt every time he won a tournament. Then in our junior year he decided he wanted to do both Bowling Club and Ping-Pong Scouts, so his ping-pong game started to suffer a bit….. but I digress….


Anyways, so yeah, I’ve been playing a lot of ping-pong lately. I’m mastering my different service styles. I’ve pretty much got my spin under control, and am able to return most spins as well. I need to work on my smash, because that usually goes totally out of control. I’ve been taking on a variety of different people in the building, and am holding my own pretty well. I’m happy to say I’ve been teaching Jon the art of the ping-pong and he is coming along quite nicely… though he needs to learn discretion as to when not to return the ball. 🙂


I want to get an EMI Ping-Pong Tournament going… that’s my goal for the fall.

billboard

I hate doing this, but this is a once in a lifetime experience, so please bear with me as I brag just a little bit. My CEO at EMI was kind enough about four weeks ago to nominate me for a feature being run in Billboard Magazine for their annual “30 Under 30” feature, and believe it or not I was chosen! Yeah, that Billboard Magazine – crazy… way crazy. The article features, as they say “30 young rising executives in the music industry from all aspects of the business….” I don’t know if I’m really “rising executive” material, but it was cool to be placed in this bunch. The feature ran in this week’s edition of Billboard (8/24).

So it features everyone from the CEO of Imeem to one of Live Nation’s head talent agents, to the creator of Facebook. I was chosen specifically because I am the account manager for iTunes while representing the largest Christian music company in the industry, and we’ve done a significant amount of work, specifically at iTunes, getting Christian music to a place where it is quite successful in the digital space. Here’s where I need to throw out the qualifier that this stuff is a team effort and I’m given the chance to take credit for a lot of things I had a lot of help on. But it has been fun being around through the beginning of this whole thing… I was working iTunes over three years ago when hardly anyone knew what an iPod was and it was a struggle every week just to make sure our albums went live.

So, there you go. I really never thought I would be quoted in a national magazine. I got to be a quasi-celebrity for a week. Back to normal tomorrow.

yayson bourne identity

You need to check this out… seriously…..

bourne again

On Sunday afternoon I finally got to experience the epic conclusion to the Bourne series, The Bourne Ultimatum, an event that has been five years in the making for me. I’ll get in trouble if I call “Bourne” the greatest movies of all time, but they are personal favorites for me… in a Top 6 list, the three movies in the series place within it.

The Bourne movies have been wonderfully constructed, portraying a secret agent in a way that hasn’t been done before – heroic within reason, clever beyond imagination, and tortured by his own capabilities. They are paced ever so well with the perfect balance of storyline, suspense, and action – not too much or too little in any respect.

I was so happy with the way Bourne Ultimatum tied things together: First, the overlay of time / events between Supremacy and Ultimatum was clever, and I hadn’t expected that… I figured it would pick up right where Supremacy left off, but it actually went back in time and filled in events for six weeks prior. The Bourne movies have become known for their car chase scenes – the first movie pushed an old Mini Cooper to it’s limit, and the second absolutely destroyed a Moscow taxi-cab. I like how they did the chases in the third one though – a lot of “foot” chases, with Bourne using clever tactics to elude those who were pursuing him by using his seeminly inborn agent abilities. And towards the end of the movie, seeing him tear up New York City in a cop car was fantastic.

I loved the ending – it was perfect, and I couldn’t have hoped for anything better. It filled in just enough gaps to leave you satisfied, yet at the same time kept you wondering a bit… what’s next? There’s lots of talk about whether or not there will be a 4th movie, and I personally hope there isn’t (from an artistic perspective). It ended dramatically answering the big question of whether or not Bourne was alive or dead, and immediatly went to credits with Moby’s song “Extreme Ways”… but unlike the other movies, Moby did a remix of the song for this movie that seemed to say “this is the end… Bourne is finished now”. Plus the end credits were artistically dramatically different which I felt also indicated a definitive end to the series.

All in all, I am so satisfied and relieved that the directors / producers took such care in executing an artisically brilliant action movie, something that in and of itself rarely happens. The movie I highly recommend (as a theater must-see), and if you’re behind on the series as a whole, now is the time to get up to speed!

Today you should listen to:
Moby “Extreme Ways (Bourne’s Ultimatum)

Christian Music Part 3: It’s Really All About The Lyrics

I was remiss in getting Part 3 of the Christian music series up quickly on my site… would love for you to check out the entire post!

“We want to look at two different songs, similar in style and intent – one from what we would call a “typical” Christian artist, the other from an artist we feel conveys the message of Christianity in a more compelling way… These two songs (one by Audio Adrenaline the other by The Normals) both tell the story of life, grace, and forgiveness through a song, but they do it in different ways. Stated briefly, Audio Adrenaline’s song tells it’s story abstractly while The Normals’ song uses concrete imagery.”

Check out more here….

words i wish i never had to hear again in the context of work

Leverage
Drive
Strategy
Crossover Potential
Engage
Tactical
Objective
Check-in
5000 Pound Elephant
Incentivize
Value Add
Handoff
Repurpose
Drill Down
Core Competencies

What annoys me even more is that I find myself using these ridiculous phrases in conversations during meetings…. WHY OH WHY?!? I disappoint myself.

some things i just don’t understand

The thing to drink down here in the South during a hot summer-time meal is “sweet tea”. For the Yankees, this would be known as iced tea with sugar. It is truly one of the most fantastic elements brought by Southerners to the world of cuisine. It’s addicting, and I could probably drink a gallon of it at a time if left to my own devices. The difference between sweet tea and iced tea with sugar is that the sugar is added to sweet tea immediately after brewing before it is served. For sweetened iced tea, the sugar is added by the drinker after it has been served – this is not sweet tea – this is a waste of time.

In my opinion sweet tea is the one and only way to drink cold tea (with the exception of an iced chai, which is something completely different). Of course the option is always available to you at a Southern restaurant to get unsweetend ice tea, but I believe this to be the most god-forsaken beverage known to man. It does not taste good. There is no redeeming quality to the unsweetend iced tea, and the Southerns know this.

Were you to walk into a restaurant and you wanted good old-fashioned sweet tea, you would simply say, “I’d like some sweet tea”, and they would know exactly what you mean, done deal, and your beverage is on the way.

But were you to walk in and say, “I’d like some iced tea”, they would immediately know they are dealing with a moron. Next they are forced to ask the question, “Would you like that sweetened or unsweetend?” Each day they set aside a few gallons of their brewed tea and leave it unsweetened for idiots. So you order your “unsweetened iced tea”, and what happens next – as soon as it’s brought to the table, you start dumping packet after packet of sugar into it. That’s just an excercise in foolishness if you ask me. And as for the unsweetend iced tea (left unsweetened)… why in the world would you take a wonderful meal and finish it off with a nice tall glass of crap? Why don’t you just blend up some chalk and drink that?

Sweet tea goes particularly well with certain types of food: Burgers, fried chicken, BBQ, catfish, etc…. you know, Southern food. Unsweetend iced tea is good for, oh, I don’t know… pouring down the sewer, dumping on your cat… water balloons. Some things I just don’t understand, and unsweetend iced tea is one of them.

Christian Music Part 2: What Can We Do Better?

I mentioned last time I’m partnering with Tim to write a series about the Christian music industry. Here’s a bit from our latest post…

“While musically a Christian album is often tolerable, if one were to actually dissect the lyrical content of your average Christian song you’d be left with a pile of feel-good anecdotes, spiritual cliches, interspersed with a healthy dose of “Hallelujahs” and other standard worship words… Reading a Christian song is almost like watching a Brady Bunch episode: Catchy intro, problematic situation, tension, feel-good resolution. These songs are easy to write. It’s the same plot line with the characters switched around, and ultimately it cheapens the Gospel.”

Check out more here….

Christian Music Part 1: What Makes Good Music?

My friend Tim and I are co-writing a blog series together about the woes of the Christian music industry… me from the perspective of someone in the industry, he from the perspective of a consumer and fellow musician. I invite you to check out the rant, give us your thoughts, and share hateful comments. Here’s an excerpt from the first post…

“… We need to remember that it’s ultimately God who leads people to Him, and it’s with the interaction and relationships of people that He generally uses to bring people towards Him. Music is a tool and a gift for us to use in aiding this process, but it it dangerous to view it as the means. God is the means, and we are often His method – the things we have influence over are merely devices at our disposal… There are undoubtedly people that have become Christians via songs like “Blindman” or “Humble Thyself” or even “Days of Elijah”… but that in itself doesn’t deem those good songs. One thing we’re tiring of is Christian artists being given an excuse not to write innovative or pioneering songs….”

Check out more here….