Links

Despite the fact that my Mother said that Julie Andrews lived like an alley cat, here are a few of my favorite things. Click here and sing along with Dwight and the Vamned Trapps.

SLACKTIVIST
This first one is a killer, if only because it to one of my favorite people in all of the world--I man who just happens to be among the smartest I know as well. Fred Clark worked with/for me at PRISM, and nobody is better at making the difficult make sense.

His blog, Slacktivist (http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/), can be found here,

One day Fred will give me some kind of credit for how the name of his blog came to be, but in the meantime, he remains among the very best of all blogsphere.

Graham and Treena Kerr
Here's the website of the most unfathomably kind man in all the world--as well as one of the inventors of the whole TV/Celebrity Chef thing (without Graham and the delicious self-mockery invented in part by his fabulous and equal kind producer wife Treena, there is no Emeril or any of the more flamboyant, cooking as entertainment types that now are sweeping the nation).

The Kerr's can be found here, a website that is as unassuming and gracious as both he and his wife Treena can be. (One day someone will tell Treena's story, one of a woman who, as among the very first female TV producer/directors, paved the way for women in TV.

Rick Elias
Everyone knows that I love and adore this man. As an artist and a friend.
Check out the site:
www.rickelias.com
Rick is the real deal, for good or ill. He deserves and needs your support and commerce.

Dick Staub
Dick Staub spent years as a radio man, and many of them as the only non-reactionary, completely off his rocker "Christian" talk show host in America. Back when it was my job to get moderate and left-of-center religious "gatekeeper" types on the radio to promote a book, program, convention or idea, I could always depend on Dick to be fair and genuinely gracious. He was eventually driven to resignation when his syndication rights were purchased by a so-called "Christian" media conglomerate famous for their distorted, GOP-written news department (and the trail of dead single women in the 17th Century).

Since then Dick left Chicago to write a fine book called Too Christian, Too Pagan (fine enough to quote me at length a couple of times!) and then began DickStaubdotcom a thoughtful little website for Christians committed to engaging culture in creative, redemptive ways.

The site's tag line sums up his agenda nicely--"where belief meets real life"--and each day his site features commentary on current events, showcases Staub's gift for exceptional interviews, and catelogues a bunch of the day's most interesting quotes--from everyone from Britney Spears to Pope John Paul II.

John Fischer
OK, I'm not that big a fan of Rick Warren's "Purpose-Driven Church" thing, but my good friend JOHN FISCHER is now doing their daily devotionals here. Better John than some of the other potential choices.

Brian Healy & Dead Artist Syndrome
If you're into Goth, check out the site of the father of "Christian Goth" Brian Healy and his band, and his band Dead Artist Syndrome.

Brian, once a gentle giant but now positively svelt, remains a growing, passionate, and occasionally prophetic voice among kids who are largely ignored by this culture--except for when there's something like a Columbine, when everyone points at their non-conformous conformity and just assumes. Once in a while Brian and DAS's music smacks of "period piece," but it doesn't matter--his lyrics are a gem, probing deep into the depths of America Katie Couric-like (if you know what I mean), and yes, he does end up revealing a lot of shit hiding a whole lot more ugliness under the guise of "Chrstian America."

Also, check out:

Janice Chaffee
Janice Chaffee is a good friend and author worth celebrating. Her book, If The Prodigal Were a Daughter, in a lovely bit of imaginative eisegesis puts women into the leading roles of some of the more "popular" Parables, allowing many to look past the accepted and expected notions and roles and limits of "a woman's place" in the home, culture and church and end up asking some of the best questions a believer can ask both about female spirituality and Christian feminism (gasp!--her publisher just had a good old-fashioned "caniption fit"). Her other books--Sisters and One Silent Night--also help pose these deep questions about gender and faith, the latter by helping some relatively famous women in the Evangelical subculture/CBA world tell stories, good and downright excruciating, about their Christmases-past.

Unfortunately, just after Christmas '03 Janice and Jim called us and told Sheri and I that Janice had MULTIPLE MYELOMA. YEP. The same m*$#%@f*$#%ng disease I have.
Like me, she is chronicling her journey.
Unlike me, she does it with much more grace and far less profanity.
Please pray for Janice.

Check out JaniceChaffeedotcom here.

(By the way, Janices husband, Jim Chaffee, is among the "goodest" of the good guys in the music industry in Nashville.)

Patsy Moore
I first met Patsy in the mid-90s, when she was a way-too-smart-for-ccm CCM artist, putting out these cool neo-soul-meets-joni Mitchell discs for Warner Alliance, Time-Warner's now defunct "Christian" imprint. Patsy's inability to keep her mouth shut about her thoughtful and left-leaning views on politics, economics and pop music left her marginalized in CCM. As you might imagine, we became friends.

Patsy eventually moved to L.A., where she got a job as Musical Supervisor (working with uber-writer & studio master Greg Phillinganes who was Musical Director) for Quincy Jones' short-lived VIBE talk show) and has, to name just one more, played with Joni Mitchell's ex husband producer Larry Klein (who also plays on Patsy's knew, upcoming disc) and made a name for herself among the cream of the crop in Hollywood's pretty cool (and very good, I might add to all you Nashvegas snobs) singer-songwriter scene. Check out patsymooredotcom here.

While the chat side of this site might make progressives crazy--Braveheart in particular has become the metaphor of choice for a narrow cross-section of load 'em up shoot 'em down militarists--Randy can be counted on to hold all sides to fairness and intellectual honesty, as well as a passionate commitment to justice and truth-telling. He's the best example I can give of someone with whom I frequently disagree but for whom and with whom the process of disagreement makes the friendship stronger and deeper.

He's also a fantastic guy, a great friend, over-archingly funny, obviously a great story-teller, and, to be honest, once took me to play the Bel Air Country Club, easily the most intimidating 18 I've every played.

Best of all, however, it was Randy's commitment and drive that ensured the creation of "Hollywood for Habitat"--one of the better ideas the Habitat scene has had, even if it was, like too many other good ideas, only partially realized.

Here are some basics:

Buddy and Julie Miller
Perhaps our favorite musicians in the whole world, and among the very best people we know too.
www.buddyandjulie.com

Phil Madeira
http://philmadeira.com'

Dr. Tony Shore
http://obvious.typepad.com

Patty Griffin
www.pattygriffin.com

Bill Mallonee
www.billmallonee.net

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Revised: 5/3/2009 7:21:34 AM