I got back from a quick trip to New Jersey yesterday. It was a fun and eventful two-day festival. I saw a lot of great shows, as my tweets will attest [ <a title=”http://www.twitter.com/dooglar” href=”http://www.twitter.com/dooglar”>twitter.com/dooglar</a> ], and I really enjoyed making new friends and spending time with old ones.
One of the coolest experiences was spending time with two of HM Magazine’s columnists – Greg Tucker and Chris Wighaman. They flew in from the West Coast to work the HM booth at the festival. As you can imagine, from the wit and creativity of their columns, they’re very entertaining and fun to be around. Lots of humor sprinkled our conversations. And the guys were totally the right ones for the job. They understood that telling people about what HM was like was all it took to want to subscribe. It’s great to welcome a little over 75 new subscribers to the HM community as a result of this weekend.
I especially enjoyed a sort of “pow-wow” session, where the three of us (thanks to Jim Layton’s wife running the booth while we met in the picnic area) did some brainstorming on how to improve and grow the magazine. I’m kind of overwhelmed by their generosity and willingness to help. I really don’t deserve friends like that. HM is blessed to have them around, for sure.
During one of the Tent 7 interviews at Revelation Generation Festival, the drummer for August Burns Red commented about his frontman/singer liking to spit on stage a lot. It’s true. He does. He said that one time during a song the spit landed on his hand holding the drumstick. He didn’t say the word “loogie,” but he mentioned that it was a full-blown one of those…and it was dripped from his hand onto the stick. He was losing his grip on the stick during the song. “Next chance I had,” he said, “I spit back on him.”
On another semi-related note, I heard from one of the awesome fest workers (this guy with a heart as big as Manhattan, named Rich Gilcrest) that he and his church has been fed so much by his son, who has gotten a lot out of HM Magazine, which they kind of fight over when it arrives. Rich mentioned reading one of our columns about “the Christian and Art” and how it impacted him. He first wondered, ‘Who is this yahoo? It’s probably another crackpot that doesn’t understand…’ And then he read one of Kemper’s opening paragraphs, which he paraphrased as: “…one reason why Christians make bad art is they don’t read their Bible.” He said it practically changed his life. I later called Kemper to encourage him with that feedback. He shared with me how his medeival Christmas special on PBS had gotten some amazing Neilsen Ratings recently. I can’t remember the numbers, but I think they were over a hundred million viewers.
It’s funny, because I had brought his Down In Yon Forrest DVD of this special to watch on the plane. One of the bonus features on the DVD is an interview I did with him, that was shot and recorded well. I have been wanting to re-watch it, because I remember how rich it was with keen insight from this guy. The explanations and comments he makes between songs and in the bonus interview are amazing, in-depth and stirring of deep thought. Oh my gosh! I wish and hope that every living creature sees/hears this.
Here’s a quote from it I’ve been meaning to transcribe for y’all for awhile:
“Life is governed by a transcendent reality that gives meaning to everything, even suffering… In a fallen world, everybody suffers. For a Christian — suffering — God turns it to good. It’s a redemptive thing. In the last analysis, as bad as it is when you’re going through it … for someone who’s not a believer it’s just the lesser suffering that comes before the greater suffering and there is no ultimate meaning or redemptive aspect to that in that person’s experience. I mean, there is, even thought they don’t accept it…”
Both during and after doing this interview and seeing the performance, I still believe that this is definitely one of the most powerful things I’ve ever been involved with. Again, I’m truly a blessed man.
Thank You, God!
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