hi from ky

Well, Betsy and I are gone all week on a Wolf family vacation at Kentucky Lake. Luckily we found a Backyard Burger with free wi-fi (and Diet Mountain Dew on tap) that I am sure I will frequent more than once this week.

The nieces and nephews are bigger; the parents are smaller (thanks to Weight Watchers, I believe); and the cabin is packed full of junk food and games. It should be a great week.

Stay tuned, though. I do have a video of me torturing a Ken doll that I know you are all going to love.

nypd

If you know anything about me, you know that the cops are always on my tail.

I suppose that is to be expected from the hard-living of a middle-class, minister in the Bible-belt whose life long list of offenses includes things like: a couple speeding tickets, ...and uh...well I guess that's it.

Anyway, apparently my reputation preceded me on my trip to New York City a couple weeks ago. Because the po-po's were ready for me. I hadn't been there for more than a few hours by the time the NYPD had me cuffed and thrown in the back of their car.

Here are the pics (taken on Mark's phone):






Note how happy that cop in the first picture is to have finally apprehended me. I guess that is what I get for hanging out in the parking lot of Shea Stadium at 1:00am.

a conversation with blake...

This is a recount of my favorite conversation from this past week. It took place between me and my good friend, Blake, as we wrapped cords after service on Sunday...

ME: (head down...wrapping cords)

BLAKE: So I got online this week and looked up ways to grow facial hair...

ME: (shaking my head and chuckling)

BLAKE: I'm serious.

ME: (...still chuckling)

BLAKE: I wanted to see if there are any remedies out there.

ME: (...still chuckling)

BLAKE: Seriously. I'm 25 and I'm tired of looking like a 12 year old. I know GIRLS that can grow more facial hair than me.

ME: (chuckling a little harder)

BLAKE: (somewhat confused at why I'm laughing, mutters under his breath) ...I found some oils and stuff.

i've been found out...

Well, I will hopefully fill you in soon on all the details from my birthday and trip to New York City last week (I know you are all dying to know). But I don't have to time today to write very much at all.

So, I will simply post this image that my friend Greg sent me. It is an actual still from the credits of a 1989 episode of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.


How he found this is beyond me. But either way, its all out in the open now.

Back in my early elementary school days, I used to find work supervising the direction of my favorite cartoons. It was a pretty out of control period of my life and I thought I had put it all behind me. But apparently you can only run from the skeletons in your closet for so long.

Let that be a lesson to us all.

john and dave

Today is my birthday.

And I am leaving in a few hours to fly to New York for the week.

But why would I write about any of that when I can embed a moronic and fruitless video of myself from YouTube?

There is nothing I can say about this video that will make it less embarrassing...or more heterosexual. Taylor and I wrote this song in an inspired moment of stupidity and sang it for a bunch of our friends last weekend right before the wedding.

In case you can't make them out, here are the lyrics:

We play our guitars and write our songs loud
We know it pleases the Lord somehow
Our laughter is our praise
Our friendship all our days
is going to bring a smile to His sweet, sweet face

We're present day
John and Daves
singing praise to the Lord

I'm Dave...and I'm John
Singing praise...all night long
We're not gay...but our hearts are one

We're present day
John and Daves
singing praise to the Lord

Enjoy.

seriously?

I’m not sure if you have heard this yet or not, but apparently there will soon be…

Blue Like Jazz: the Movie

Seriously.

Donald Miller posted about it recently on his website. Can anyone explain to me how this is anything more than simply capitalizing on the popularity of Blue Like Jazz? Am I being overly cynical here, or is it not just people squeezing a few more dollars out the book before the buzz completely wears off?

I guess I understand. The christian movie industry is just that: an industry, a business. And their job is to make money. So in that respect, it makes sense.

But this cannot be a good idea, can it?

…unless, of course, they cast Kirk Cameron in the leading role as "Don". Then this would quite possibly be the best idea in the history of American film-making.

In case you still think I’m joking…here is an excerpt from Miller’s site:

“Steve Taylor and Ben Pearson have been in Portland for the past week and we’ve pretty much completed the screenplay for Blue Like Jazz the movie. We’ve been working on the script for about a year, either with me flying to Nashville for a week at a time to sit around a table and hash out the story, or with Steve and Ben coming to Portland to stay at my house. When studios became more excited about the screenplay, we felt the need to wrap it up, and in the last few days we’ve pretty much done so.”

“To say we’ve given the book a Hollywood treatment is an understatement. The book itself would be, of course, difficult to turn into a movie, and so we took creative liberties. But in my opinion, the movie will be infinitely better than the book. Essentially we’ve taken the major, real life characters from the book, and gave them a story all their own. The end result is provocative and humorous and in my opinion quite moving. I can’t wait for people to see the film.”

“We think production will be able to start next year, and the film will be shot on location in Portland.”

my wife, the poet

Apparently, my wife is also a poet.

And honestly, I did not know it.

Betsy and I were in Virgina at a wedding last weekend. Our friends Tim and Courtney are now officially married. It was a good weekend spent with many good friends. We went deep sea fishing (I caught 12 fish!), played poker (I won but, of course, gave the money to the groom) and ate...alot.

At the rehearsal dinner the tables were decorated with candy, flowers and colorful debris of all kinds. Part of the decorations were chocolates that had Tim and Courtney's names and wedding date printed on the front. On the back was a poem.

Someone sitting at our table read the poem and said, "This is good. Did Tim or Courtney write this?" We all looked at it and shrugged, not knowing. Betsy however did know. She read it and said, "No. I wrote it." It took her awhile to convince us that she was serious. In part, because it was so good. But mostly because she rarely is serious.

But, low and behold, she had written it on her blog back in November. In case you didn't just follow that link, here it is:

what do you say, we give it a chance?
and watch how this tree grows
through hard dirt we'll push our roots
and reap what this love sows

That's dang good, huh?

Who knew? She never ceases to surprise me. Next I'm going to find out that she is fluent in Swahili...or is a black belt in Jujitsu...or was born a cartoon...or something.