Full disclosure…I’m a sucker for a kickin’ rock guitarist. I was weaned on the front edge of the Brit Invasion with Pete Townsend, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. So when Davis Guggenheim, the director of An Inconvenient Truth, convinced Page, The Edge and Jack White into shooting a six string rockumentary, needless to say I eagerly waited with tuner, medium picks and Ernie Ball lights in hand.

The movie is well worth watching. Each of these guys knows how to really bring it. And all three are from pretty tough working class towns. But the highlight is watching the older rockers slowly break thru Jack White’s rock persona. No question, Jack is coming from a different time and place than the other two. And he tries as hard as he can to keep his game face on. But when Jimmy steps up and starts playing the intro to Whole Lotta Love… Jack can’t quite hold it together. His eyes get big and the corners of his mouth start to curl. He’s the kid, Jimmy’s the master and it’s clear that he’s soaking up the moment. And it is a classic.

Check it out. Not the greatest rock doc…but for fans of great tone, pedals and reverb, it really works.

There is no doubt. These are difficult times; lost jobs, empty homes, shattered retirements and worse. It often feels as though we’re weighed down by the sheer size of the problems around us.

But last night I saw something that up until just a few months ago no one had ever seen and it lifted me. It was something that Galileo, Copernicus, Newton and Einstein never saw. And I suspect they would have traded their wealth, prestige and maybe even their lives for just a peek. It is a view into the distance, beyond the reach of our imaginations.

It’s Hubble. And it’s bringing us a breathtaking, mind-numbing view of the heavens. With all due respect to the Apollo moonshot, this must be the most amazing scientific achievement of our time. And that’s coming from someone so unfamiliar with science and the cosmos, it’s embarrassing to even lodge an opinion. And yet, when I took just a few moments to look at these remarkable images of massive heavenly bodies literally billions of miles from earth, I felt a sense of privilege, calm and wonder. The colors are amazing. The sheer breadth of the images is hard to understand. And the deep love that God must have for us by letting us in on his work is a testament to His grace.

For more: http://hubblesite.org/gallery/

The country is amazing. The work is profoundly important. But most of all, the people of East Africa are remarkable. To find out more about the vision and work that Floresta is doing in the developing world, click below.

www.floresta.org

Unfortunately, male pattern baldness does not run in my family. That means, well into my middle years, I still have enough sprouting up there to occasionally read what’s going down in DC, grab two handfuls, scream at the top of my lungs and pull with all my might.

Here’s a zinger I stumbled on today while reading Bloomberg news. For those of you with hair, I suggest you put on a tight fitting hat before reading.

During the course of crafting the new stimulus bill in Congress, lawmakers yesterday approved an amendment to fix the troubled HOPE for Homeowners program. Sounds like a good idea. And you gotta love the handle for the initiative, HOPE for Homeowners. I guess a couple of copywriters leaked out of Madison Ave and made their way to the Capitol. The program was part of the TARP legislation created last year to let homeowners struggling with subprime loans refinance into fixed-rate loans backed by the government. It was designed, targeted and budgeted to help 400,000 mortgage borrowers.

Here is where you might want to grab the bill of your cap and give it a firm tug. Care to guess how many people have actually qualified for the program since October? Exactly 24. TWENTY-FOUR! Are you kidding me? Out of a goal of 400,000? That is 0.006% of the original target. And there is no shortage in of homeowners in this country looking for HOPE.

I had a basketball coach who once turned to one of our star forwards in the locker room during half time of a big game and announced that he had ZERO rebounds for the first half. He reminded the player he was “tied with a dead guy for first half boards.” 24 loans against a target of 400,000 is the equivalent of “tied with a dead guy”.

And to make matters worse, we can only assume that serious bureaucrats, subcommittee members, congressional aides, and expert witnesses from the mortgage banking industry all weighed in on this plan before it was incorporated into TARP. They could have brought in the night janitorial crew at the Capitol and done no worse.

And now in a fresh moment of clarity  lawmakers believe the program is under performing because the terms to enroll were too tough. Ya think?

I’m genuinely enthusiastic about the future of our country. There is a crisp new generation taking the reins; optimism and transparancy are in the air. Things are going to work out in the long run. But for the short haul, I just hope the old players we still have on the court have enough gas in the tank to get the job done. Or at least grab one rebound in the second half.

A rare re-post from our company blog. A great group of people doing amazing work…

“With 85% of all global disease directly attributed to bad water, the stakes and opportunity for improving lives in the developing world have never been higher. Our friends at Water for Life approached us to completely redesign their identity and take it to the web with a deep and wide treatment. The result is a new logo and www.waterforlife.org.  The site features project pages profiling the current work in Kosovo, Rwanda, Indonesia and Brazil. Check out the new site, consider attending a water seminar or send them some money to support a project. They need our help.

We’re humbled and pleased to have the opportunity to present this gift to the WFL gang. Keep up the work guys. You’re out there doing good stuff. We’re praying for you.”

"I sang backup for Janis in '68"

America has a personnel management problem. The personnel in question; the ever present boomer generation, the 7 million of us born between 1946 and 1964. And the management problem is just what to do with us as we ease into our twilight years. As with everything else related to this generation, the numbers are big. And the solution is popping up all around the country in ever growing numbers, Boomer Barns. They’re being built in every suburb, city and small town in the country. And before you can say Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, they’ll be chocked full of boomers. Right now, they’re testing the plumbing with today’s seniors. But trust me, the big prize in the retirement center game is the boomers. And they’re coming in droves.

The Woodstock generation is poised to trade in their VW buses for Power Scooters and gently cruise into that final Be In. And you can bet your original vinyl of Highway 61 Revisited, Whispering Pines will be retooled to welcome these wrinkled flower children.

Whispering Pines will be renamed The Farm. Gone will be knitting and needlepoint circles, replaced by macrame and tie dye classes. The dining room once filled with the aroma of pot roast and potatoes will be replaced with vegan dishes made from organic veggies grown in the People’s Garden. And physical therapy will no doubt be replaced by group therapy for those who still can’t sort out their place in the universe. Movie nights, once jammed with gray hairs marveling at Fred and Ginger’s dance steps, will feature Easy Rider, The Graduate and 2001 A Space Odyssey. The later follows a late night dessert of oregano brownies, perfect for improved digestion.

Brothers and sisters at The Farm will gather in small groups to complain about the cost of healthcare, compare surgery scars and lie about being in the front row at Monterey Pops when Jimi torched his Strat. And oh yes, much like previous generations, they’ll wonder why the kids don’t come to visit more often. Maybe the kids will be tired of hearing how cool it was back in the day. Because, maybe it just wasn’t that cool.

I took a couple of hours this weekend to watch Into Great Silence, a documentary film directed by Philip Gröning that was first released in 2005. It’s the remarkable story of the everyday lives of Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse, high in a remote corner of the French Alps (Chartreuse Mountains). The film was made 16 years after the director first requested permission to make it. Then he lived at the monastery for six months, and filmed all alone, behind the walls no ‘outsider’ had ever been allowed to enter before. The film is prayerful, enchanting and successfully taps into the basic human need for solitude.

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