Doppleganger

I like to consider myself a person who is up to date on my vocabulary words.  But one day last week as I was speaking with Claudio ( www.jackdogg.com ) a word came up that I had never heard before... "Doppleganger".  Claudio used it so casually that I almost let it go... but I realized that I had to stop him and say... "Dopple...wha wha what?".  Claudio proceeded to give me a text book description of the term, stating that it was of German origin.  Wiki Definition Here.  I realized that I have clearly missed out on this word for 30 years.  With this new insight I vowed to learn more.  It turns out doppleganger is being used in pop culture all the time... and with that I present another SNL masterpeice by Andy Samberg. (thank you to Steve Bramlett for the link)

Mitchell, Remy and the Tennis Ball

Mitchell really enjoys playing, "ball" with Remy.

SoulFest RePost: Fictional Family

This story first appeared at: http://thesoulfestblog.blogspot.com/

This past Wednesday I became part of a fictional family along with 200 others gathered at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston. Fiction Family, featuring Jon Foreman of Switchfoot and Sean Watkins of Nickle Creek played to this intimate crowd anxious to hear the new side project from the two artists.

When I read the story on how these two established singer/songwriters came together, my original thought was that this project is the first "Web 2.0" album. Read the entire story here. The basic concept is that Jon and Sean were rarely able to be in the same place at the same time, so they traded musical ideas and tracks online, adding new elements until they had a song that worked. They colaborated over a period of three years while maintaining a busy schedule with their respective bands.

This concert was an extremely refreshing experience for me. It is rare to be so familiar with a musician (Jon) but not be familiar with most of the music being performed. Fiction Family's self titled debut had only been released to the stores one day before the show, so the only song that I was familiar was their lead single, "When She's Near". Some of the most memorable songs on Wednesday night showcased Jon's reflective and inspiring lyrics ("Mostly Prove Me Wrong") and Sean's incredible "blue grass" guitar skills ("War In My Blood").

Both artists come from different musical pedigrees which makes their colaboration truly unique. And even though a part of me was hoping to hear a couple of Switchfoot tracks mixed into the show, I really came to appreciate their dedication to the music of this project, as they performed almost every track on the album. I wasn't able to meet all the 200 or so members of my new fictional family on Wednesday night, but we all walked away a fresh take on the rock/folk genre.

The Future

I've been thinking a lot about the purpose of this blog.  As you may have noticed, I bought a domain... www.destratis.com  I've left the subtitle, "Jason Found This Interesting".  For a while now I've been feeling like that is far too broad for this blog.  But before I continue with the future of this blog, I'd like to take a quick look back at last year.

I learned a lot about blogging in 2008 - most of it from my friend Marty Holman.  Marty really pushed me to consider blogging and twitter.  Marty also had very kind words for me today at his site.

My most successful blog was:  My Vote For President

I enjoy politics.  I enjoy debate.  This post worked, but I'm not sure that I'm a political blogger.  And I guess that's my point.  I need to stick to my niche.

So the question is:  Should I narrow the focus of destratis.com to "Strategy for Churches in the Northeast" and leave some room for personal stuff of our growing family?  Or should I create a new blog for Strategy and leave destratis.com for family updates only?  I'm leaning toward the first option, but Erin reminded me that my faithful readers may not be interested in the Strategy content.  So let me know what you think.