Earlier this month was the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. As part of a History Channel program on the life of MLK, the performer John Legend created a pared down rendition of U2’s anthematic “Pride (In the Name of Love” which has com to be their tribute to the civil rights leader. The gentle, piano-based version of the song proves an interesting contrast to the usual performance of the song. View the new version here.

Here’s a recent rendition by U2 themselves for comparison sake:

Regular followers of this site may remember my logs of homebrewed adventure from last summer. Those logs took me up to batch T-8. Then…nothing. No posts to the site.

That doesn’t mean that I’ve been idle. It just means that for any number of various reasons (laziness, lack of energy, forgetfullness, disappointment) I haven’t posted the batches since then. Which is kind of a shame. I’ve learned alot in the past six months or so. So, here’s the deal. The brewery at the corner of Walker and Circular is still hopping, so the posts will go from dim to bright. Expect to see reports on the following creations:

• T-9 Inklings Ale
• T-10 Pumpkin Ale
• T-11 Oatmeal Stout
• T-12 Simcoe Pale Ale 2
• T-13 Brown Fox
• T-14 Albino Amber Ale
• T-15 Inklings Ale, second attempt (ooh! foreshadowing!)

Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed:
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song!
—”The Church’s One Foundation”, Samuel J. Stone/Samuel S. Wesley

This past week has been one that has brought back to me a lament we’ve had too often before: when, oh when, will I be able to be part of an organization—sacred or secular—that I can actually be proud of? Even allowing for the reality that every group, organization, company has its problems, how is it that we seem to continually find ourselves attached to real stinkers?
So, as I entered church this morning feeling sorry for myself, distressed, maybe even a bit despondent, I discovered that the service was organized around messages of hope, perhaps, for people such as I.

The First Reading was Acts 17:1-15, the story of Paul and Silas in Thessalonica and Beroea. The reading presents two distinct congregations and their response to Paul’s message. Paul’s opening argument is more about what the Christ will have to do rather than who might or might not be him. He spends **three weeks** “explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead.” Once that point is made, he then, of course, makes the claim that always seems to get folks in trouble: “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” Well, there you’ve gone and done it. There is a small portion who believe, but another portion “were jealous, and taking some wicked fellows of the rabble, they gathered a crowd, set the city in an uproar, and attacked.” They then go to the city officials—”they” being the folks who gathered the rabble and rioted—and blame Jason, Paul, and company with causing trouble. The gall. (more…)

Saturday was the 2nd Rock Creek Shootout here in Tiffin, OH. Once again, Clare and his team put together a top-notch event that ran smoothly. As much as I mistrust Subway, they came through with good quality sandwhiches donated for lunch, and Ballreich’s donated potato chips that reportedly arrived still warm from thier Tiffin plant. Can’t get much fresher than that.

There were about ten fewer participants than last year, but I think we can chalk that up to the horrendous weather: temps around 38, 15-20mph wind, occasional rain/snow. Just the ticket for a miserable day. Despite that, we still had participants from Oklahoma, North Carolina, Michigan, West Virginia, and, of course, Ohio. I thought I saw a Kentucky car, but I’m not sure.
I started off the day shooting a personal best +3 in the first round. I didn’t do anything flashy, but I also didn’t have any horrific breakdowns either. The worst was hole 14 where I yanked my DX Eagle into the swollen Rock Creek. On the upside, I had a beauty of an uphill, into the wind birdie put on 14 that was entirely a result of my windblown putting session earlier in the week. At any rate, I was quite happy with my first round, and sat around during the lunch break antsy to get started.

For perhaps the first time, I found myself starting the second round on the lead card of my division. The leader was 4 strokes ahead while the other three of us were all within one. I quickly created separation between myself and the others…in the wrong direction. In the first nine holes, I shot two fives and a six. One of the fives and the six I might be able to blame on the wind and wet, but there was one five that was all on me. So, I ended up +14 on the day, dropping me from 2 to a sixth-place tie. That was enough to cash: DX Destroyer, folding stool, and a keychain. And I’m thankful.

I was also thankful to get out of that bonechilling weather and home to a hot shower! Overall it was a solid start to a new year of disc golf. Can’t wait for some better weather to toss some plastic.

Good friend Ken Morefield recently had an interesting essay on mentors and judging posted at The Matthew’s Project. Apart from his main point, he makes wonderful sense of a shared teaching experience we had.

In other news, while I don’t really think that I can be called a mentor, a former student of mine–Michial Farmer–has recently started living one of my early dreams by starting a PhD program at UGA (Georgia, for them’s that doesn’t know). You can read his interesting blog here. He has excellent taste in music, and he’s still energetic and idealistic enough to try getting freshmen to read and use T.S. Eliot. Rave on, Michial, rave on!

So, friend and author Sara Zarr, in response to being tagged herself writes, “Consider yourself tagged if you want to play and/or are looking for work avoidance.” I am and I will (And same to all y’all who read this mess.)

• Four Jobs I’ve Had: evening/night DJ for WHLO in Akron (included one or two stints dressing up as the “Love Bear”), concrete block factory worker, instructor of First Year writing courses, manager of customer service team for online coupon site.
• Four TV shows I’m watching: Battlestar Galactica (on DVD), Criminal Minds, Numb3rs, M*A*S*H (on DVD)
• Four Places I’ve been: Alaska, front row in a small Chicago dinner club listening to Sam Phillips, infamous “bug game” of the 2007 Cleveland/New York ALDS, Graceland
• Four Musical artists I’m listening to: Over the Rhine, Patty Griffin, Wilco, Ella Fitzgerald

For the past couple years, we’ve been members of LibraryThing, a great online tool for cataloging your books. (In case you’re curious, we claim to have 1952 books in our library.) A recent feature added to the site is the opportunity to be a Library Thing Early Reviewer: you get the opportunity to acquire new books before they’re published in return for posting a review of the book on the site. You select which books of the available list in which you have interest, and if you are selected from the pool of interested folks, you get the book.

I jumped at the chance, and last week received my first Early Reviewer book, Salman Rushdie’s upcoming The Enchantress of Florence. I have to admit, there’s this fanboy part of me that thinks it’s just a bit cool that I’m getting to read new fiction before it’s available to the public. I then realize that having that feeling and expressing that feeling negate any coolness that might have accrued. And then I’m sad.

Of course, I’m also waiting for Jorgy: the life of Native Alaskan bush pilot and airline captain Holger Jorgensen, and that might also put a dent in my street cred.

At any rate, be on the lookout in the next couple of weeks for my thoughts on the new Rushdie.

Well, the weather and my schedule have finally combined to produce my first opportunity since winter started to toss a disc. Ok, I suppose I should admit my lack of taste for winter golf this year. At any rate, today I sloshed through the course and had a decent rusty round. Here’s the skinny:

• Putting: I’ve some work to do to get my putting back UP to not being the strong part of my game.
• Driving: I was getting very good spin on the disc. I need to work on solidifying my release point. I never got myself in trouble, but neither did I ever really get the disc where I wanted it to go.
• Mid-range: Probably the best part of my day. Need to stay focused and not float shots.
• Overall: I shot an average +4 or 5. I’m certainly not going to complain considering I haven’t thrown in a few months. Some solid things to build on.