Jon Swerens

Jack Frost likely to make first visit to NE Indiana tonight

But today’s snow was by no means the earliest Fort Wayne has received snow.

A trace fell Sept. 25, 1942, according to the National Weather Service. The snowiest October was in 1989, when 8 inches fell.

link to News-Sentinel story

The verdict:

Two country miles beyond gross. Salt water with a delicate bouquet of Spic and Span.

original post

This is not a parody.

When was the last time your class saw how “HOT” God’s Word is? Open this authentic looking “bible” and begin to share the scripture for the day as real flames are seen coming from your “bible”. This full size book comes with a battery operated ignition system. All you supply are the batteries, lighter fluid and composure as your class gets excited. (special note: Fed-Ex shipping is available if you absolutely have to have the Fire Bible for this Sunday!)

Only $44.95!

“Wow, the preacher was on fire this mornin’!”

HT: Between Two Worlds via Blog and Mablog

Have you seen those ads for a Sony HD TV with “Lo-Def” sports? It featured what’s called “The Play,” the shocking, unbelievable ending of a football game between Stanford and University of California in 1982.

Here’s a seven-minute video of the ending of the game. If you like football at all, you’ll love this:

The cultural critic: Where my dad and I are way too alike!

Click to see a larger version:

UPDATE: I neglected to mention that this comic is called Arlo & Janis, and is a favorite of mine and my wife’s. The cartoonist, Jimmy Johnson, also has his own web site that he updates a few times a week with comics from his archives.

Organic food is better, bucolic and just the right thing to do, right?

BusinessWeek begs to differ in its story: Exposing the organic myth.

(Stonyfield’s) main facility is a state-of-the-art industrial plant just off the airport strip in Londonderry, N.H., where it handles milk from other farms. And consider this: Sometime soon a portion of the milk used to make that organic yogurt may be taken from a chemical-free cow in New Zealand, powdered, and then shipped to the U.S.

I feel somewhat sorry for the purveyors of organic food, because it seems they’re the victims of their own success, with too much business and not enough organic food:

For some companies, it means keeping thousands of organic cows on industrial-scale feedlots. For others, the scarcity of organic ingredients means looking as far afield as China, Sierra Leone, and Brazil — places where standards may be hard to enforce, workers’ wages and living conditions are a worry, and, say critics, increased farmland sometimes comes at a cost to the environment.

It seems the term “organic” is about to become even more slippery.

Since I’m home nursing a head cold — feels like an ice pick in my ear — it’s a good time to get all philosophical on y’all.

But first, if you haven’t done so yet, go over to my MySpace page and listen to the first song there, “River.” It should open in a new window and start playing the song automatically. Note that you can read the lyrics there, too.

Then come back here.

I’ll wait.

…

Now, what if I made such home recordings available for free downloads, with the request for a donation if you like the song? Would you give up a buck or five for the starving musician?

Or do you think more old-school? Do you need to have a CD in your hand for songs to have real worth?

Because, face it: I will likely never even be offered a record contract, nor would it be a sure thing that I’d accept one if offered. But technology has made a contract increasingly obsolete.

I can now record music, including vocals, on my little eMac computer, create cover art and such on the same computer, send the music files and art files through the Internet to a CD printing company, and get my CDs in the mail in a couple of weeks.

Then, I can set up a Web-based store though which I can sell my wares via credit card or PayPal.

Plus, I can send my songs to iTunes and other online music stores and sell them there. (Not that I’ve actually *sold* any songs on iTunes, but still.)

And then I can sell related merch for exorbitant prices.

I’m not trying to figure out how to make gobs of money with this hobby/calling of mine — although if anyone has a spare gob, ask for my mailing address. But I am trying to figure out how to make this perhaps pay for itself a little more. (The monitor speaker we just bought? $300.)

So anyway, don’t be surprised to see me try some stuff online in an attempt to raise awareness of my music and to raise some cash to support it. Let me know if you have any ideas or comments along the way.

Anyone who has paid attention to my list of “musicians who have influenced you” would see Michael Card at the top of the list. So when we found out Michael would be performing here in Fort Wayne, Mary and I knew we would be there.

I have ten of Michael’s albums on CD, plus another one on cassette somewhere. So I am not just a casual fan. But I haven’t kept up with some of his more recent CDs, like his album on the life of the apostle Peter, or on the book of Revelation, or on the book of Hebrews. His songs are intensely biblical and he brings an intense level of scholarship to them.

The concert was a celebration for local church Wallen Baptist‘s new sanctuary. So Michael brought his album of new music — full of songs of lament.

But although Mary and I were afraid the concert would be full of music we didn’t know, he put everyone at ease very early in the evening by performing perhaps his most well-known song, “El Shaddai.” The two-hour (!) concert was a pleasing mix of older and new material. He was even unashamed to play the first song he ever wrote.

Needless to say, we bought his newest CD, which considering the subject matter, has a more bluesy-jazzy flavor to it in parts. Michael natural melancholy now has a home — especially now that he’s not a major label telling him things like he has to follow up a dark song with a happy-snappy song, which happened on his “Poiema” album. Gah.

OK, I’ve rambled on a bit, but it was a sweet and funny and sad and moving concert. Well done and thank you, Michael.