This little video may seem like a gimmick for a fickle love affair people are having for Angry Birds. Sure, I played the game for a while, liked it alright, uninstalled it from my phone, done. I moved on while it seems thousands if not millions of others have not. But in watching this video I realized something about passion. Behind this (and many other AB videos) there is a passion for a brand, and this passion has lead to thousands and thousands of hours to create, recreate, construct, shoot, and edit Angry Bird videos. And all this for a little gimmicky finger game. So how do we learn from this? I’m not suggesting the Church comes up with an Angry Birds counterfeit called, Joyful Words, where one can catapult little Bibles. But in observing how people rally behind brands, how do we communicate our causes into get similar of participation?

Here are some more Angry Bird lovin’:

If you where to try ti find a non-NKJV way of saying “there’s nothing new under the sun”, I guess you’d end up with “Everything’s a Remix”.
As an artist, I crave originality in my work, to push the limit, investigate the unexplored, reach new heights, …and of course get famous for doing it. But the truth is, everything has been done before. Even some of the artistic works we’ve praised for its originality and success have merely been a remixes. Watch this.

Everything is a Remix Part 2 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

And that’s not to say remixes are wrong, everything we create comes from an experiences we’ve experienced! And yet I know myself and a lot of other artists can place originality as the god-head of art, which seems pretty backwards. Over and over I’ve heard, “Well, that’s been done before.” or I’ve had artists with complete lackluster over a project that was merely “an assignment” that wasn’t their idea. When we put aside originality and focus on knowing ourselves as artists, what we’re good at, bad at, impassioned by, then our authenticity can speak loudest, and the originality with come from within rather than from outside.

Remember the first time you listened to Arcade Fire’s Funeral?  How the instrumentation jumped out of the speakers and pricked your skin sending goosebumps up your spine?  And in that moment we knew music as we listened to it was about to change.  Well, I got a new skin-pricker for you, Margolnick.  An as-of-yet unsigned individual from Charlotte, NC, Michael Drake released his debute album December 21st, last year.  

Musicality
I hate to draw too much comparison, but imagine Arcade Fire’s Win Butler releasing a solo album.  What I love about Margolnick is that he has such a …gosh, I don’t know how to put it, simpleness.  But that’s not it either, there’s nothing plain about it.  Amazingly versatile, he hasn’t polluted the tracks with too much noise, too much orchestration, but rather lace each song inline with the intended emotion.  So rather than just trying to produce full sound-driven songs pumping emotion into the moment, Margolnick has seemingly approached each song emotionally first.  Take “*Intermission”, the song is scored almost exclusively with voices and some percussion. It’s as if they where to say, our instruments also took the intermission.

Lyrically
I’ll let the lyrics speak for themselves, here’s just some samples:

The Order (link)
// up from the bottom, down through the block
// you feel your hands swing, you feel your knees your knock
// the anticipation of what you can’t ignore
// you throw your hands up, you throw your head back
// you feel you heart beat it’s a love attack // oh girl you make me feel the way I’ve never felt before.

The Roost
// The chief demands you kiss his ring, when all awhile he is no king
// shot your shot you throw another one
// the final days of the summer’s sun, have just begun
// you told me you will look inside, you’re too afraid of what you’ll find
// the truth is true no matter where you hide
// you better learn it quick or get left behind
// I’m in love with king’s daughter, I’m in love with the king’s daughter
// she’s in love with a diamond ring, she’ll sell her heart for anything

The Yard
// we forged our path through waste lands
// we won our tug-of-war
// we sought and pioneered those places, where other man dare not go
// we fought and killed the vicious demons, we tracked them to the fiery cove
// In spite that we are concurring heroes, I could not mend this heart too broke (?)

I love it, and I’m willing to bet you’ll love it too!  And for a $5 donation, how can you say no? It’ll change you’re life!

Album
margolnick.bandcamp.com/

Contact
facebook.com/margolnick
facebook.com/michaelwdrake
twitter: @drakemargolnick

So a couple days ago, I got a real breath of fresh air …well, it was fresh air and it was a slap in the face.  I can’t figure out how that works in my head, but anyway!  Vimeo Film Festival, call me skeptical (all my friends do), but I haven’t really dug into it or investigated what’s come out of it.  Part of me put my film festival days behind me, and even though I’ve made it a regular habit to stroll through Vimeo every week (see my likes), I never really looked into the film festival they host in honor of their users.

All that changed when Vince showed me this year’s Vimeo Award winner for Best Picture, Last Minutes with ODEN by Phos Pictures.  I don’t have a clean word in my vocabulary to describe the power, beauty and emotion of that film.  But a good stories need good storytellers, and Eliot Rausch and Lukas Korvor are a bar above.  The founders of Phos Pictures, they have done amazing things with the Canon 7D (their primary tool), but their main success comes from their obvious passion to tell untold stories.  They’re films center on characters like the junkie, the HIV-positive, the harlot, the heartless, the lost, the abandoned, and they go right after the humanity in that story or individual.  They’re like clergy armed with cameras, pointing mirrors back at ourselves for self-examination.  These films have challenged me on how I treat my neighbor, how I give those who got nothing, how well I love the loveless, to how I receive God’s love.

In a day when filmmakers can only stand out  with their cunning use of AfterEffects or Cina4D, or by hand cutting a billion paper cutouts for a billion frames of film in a stop-motion project (better them than me). It’s such a relief to see just raw, talented, challenging storytelling.

Thank you Phos Pictures for your art, I hope to meet you some day, maybe grab some espresso.

Heres 3 films you HAVE to see:
(you also at some point need to take in Penny’s Heart, but just a warning, it WILL wreck you …in a good way)

Craig G. is a pastor up in Oklahoma (the latest state to repeal their ban on tattooing). Below he takes a look at one of my favorite topics, tattoos! Enjoy!

 
[via churchcreate]
I love how Craig breaks down the context of what scripture says about tattoos.  Having 8 tattoos myself and planning on getting more, I’m definitely pro-tattoo, but I have actually talked more people out of it, than into.

Someone’s very first tattoo is the most important decision they’ll make about tattoos. Because aside from “What do I want?” Or “What would look cool?” Or even telling part of one’s story, the biggest question is “Will I or won’t I?” Because once you’ve made that decision, there’s no going back. You’ve crossed the threshold of I will and you can’t take that back, now you just have to hop you make the right choice when trying to decide,

• Will a mickey mouse tattoo look a little effeminate in 10 years?” Happened to a friend. Or..
• Will a pink unicorn on my hip be something I want to have to explain when I enter ministry? (another friend of mine …a dude)

When my kids are grown up, I’m going to require they show me the design they want, and then a year later, if they want that design, then they’ll have my backing.
Always have to laugh when people bring up the “when you’re old” argument. I can’t think of a single 62 year old who actually cares what their skin looks like …maybe Joan Rivers.

Please tell me this is for real!! ZOMG!!!

I have heard the cry go out. Especially among my own generation, X-ers & Y-ers have grown up in a world witnessing and understanding the power of art.  We have seen art change a man into a symbol of change,  art has changed the way we experience and value simple cartoons, art has changed our perception of what music is in just the last 20 years!

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