Night Parade

Night Parade, originally uploaded by echobase_2000.

One of my last shots of the day may be one of my favorites. As happens at Cornerstone, it's not unusual to see a makeshift, ragtag parades through the grounds. But this time it was at 10:00 pm. My only hope was to silhouette them against the merch tent, and then I saw the mohawk kid. It worked.

Cornerstone registration

Cornerstone registration, originally uploaded by echobase_2000.

The festival gate is open, and cars are streaming in.

Shane Claiborne is Stalking Me (or Jesus for President)

Shane Claiborne, originally uploaded by echobase_2000.

So last weekend I'm wondering through Barnes and Noble looking at cookbooks, when my wife brings me a book.

"I think you'd like this," Sara said.

"What is it," I asked?

"It looks really interesting," came the answer.

It was a book by Shane Claiborne,a guy who I'd been interested in for a year. More than that, I'm interesting in what he has to say.

Turns out CNN is interested too.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/29/evangelical.campaign/index.html

Of course, had the story not lent itself to a title like "Young evangelicals not a lock for Republicans", I'm not sure CNN would care.

But read the story, and read Shane's book. And if you're at Cornerstone, check out what he has to say.

Shane calls himself "an ordinary radical" and not in the scary left-wing radical kind of way, the sell-everything-you-own rooted-in-the-Bible kind of radical.

Cornerstone: We're here!

There's my ginormous new tent. It already got rained on, for all of two minutes. And it held up!

Favorite Movies

Tag, I'm it! Courtesy Ben Reis, it's my turn to play one of these blog games.

The rules of the “game” are simple:
1. list your top ten favorite films (in no particular order).
2. if you’re tagged, you’ve got to post and tag 3-5 other people.
3. give a tag back (some link love) to the one who tagged you in your post
4. give a hat tip (HT) to Dan

So here we go… My Top Ten Favorite Films (in no particular order):

1. Star Wars trilogy

2. Indiana Jones triology

3. Lord of the Rings triology

4. Wallace & Grommit films

5. Spider-Man (I liked #2 best)

6. Chronicles of Narnia (mostly because I like the books)

7. The Final Sacrifice -- Rowsdower! (youtube link) OK, this isn't a *good* movie, but maybe my favorite MST3K movie. I've got to have at least one movie that's so bad it's good on this list, and this is it.

8. The Goonies. I had to pick an '80s movie. Sorry Ferris Bueller and Better Off Dead.

9. Planet of the Apes (the original, you manaics. you blew it up! damn you, damn you to hell!)

10. I'm going to cheat and put everything else I can think of: The Matrix, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Princess Bride, Army of Darkness, Blues Brothers, UHF (Weird Al!), Dances with Wolves, Equilibrium, 2001, Forbidden Planet, Andromeda Strain, Christopher Guest movies (Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, etc).

Now I'm tagging: Lisa, Jeff, and Colleen!

Rain, rain go away!

Three years ago it was flooding. Other years it's been hail.

This year it's been multiple tornadoes, multiple hail storms in one day, flooding, high winds, heat, humidity, and about every kind of spring and summer weather you could imagine.

Last Thursday an hour to the west in Kearney, NE they got hit by a tornado. It was the lead story on Good Morning America the next day. It ripped open an apartment and destroyed the expo building at the fairgrounds. That storm skipped over us (at least the bad stuff) and reformed tornadoes in Aurora, the next town to the east.

The damage in Aurora wasn't as widespread as in Kearney, but those who got it got it even worse. Here's my story on that. It's amazing. You have to watch it.

Then this week, when Grand Island has gone smoke free (w00t!) it's been overshadowed by day after day of rain. The worst came Wednesday night, and resulted in flooding several miles north of our home. Again, the video tells the story.



Anyway, we're ready for a dry spell. After years and years of drought, this isn't any better. A nice, normal spring would be nice. Not that I know what a normal spring is anymore.