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As all who know me know, I am a mono-tasker. At best. Additionally, I'm fairly easily-distracted.

So when I'm studying, particularly in places where there are competing noises, I need some sort of music for "white noise," to cancel out everything else. It can't feature vocals, and it can't be soundtracks for movies I'll be tempted to visualize. It should be just engaging enough, but not distracting.

To meet that need, I have Phil Keaggy instrumentals, some Celtic music, some fusion jazz — and now Matt Stevens.

Since I've featured some instrumental guitar music, Matt Stevens contacted me directly to see if I'd be interested in reviewing his album, and I was glad to take the offer. It is available for download here.  Payment is "name your price."

Matt is a North Londoner, a guitarist who provides his own layers of sound for his own compositions. He's quite a prolific presence.

What did I think?

Funny thing about my musical tastes. Some of my long-term favorite music, I did not like at first listen. I didn't like Chicago at first — and now they've been my favorite band for nearly forty years. Some Chicago songs turned me off at first, then became favorites.

It was similar with this album. At first listen, my reaction was mixed. I didn't love it. It is all acoustic. I did not immediately warm to the thump-knock percussion (presumably off the body of the guitar), found myself longing for real drums. I found the direction of the leads odd. The rhythm backing was strange, not immediately easy to get a hold of.

Challenging, is the word.

Then, as I listened, every single track grew on me. Stevens is rather a daring guitarist. Either he's completely fooled me, or he deliberately takes his music into dissonant ranges, just to avoid the numbingly predictable.

The opening track ("Burning Bandstands") starts off with an insistent strum, then shifts into a melodic, semi-flamenco style, with more changes on the way, ranging in feel from mellow and relaxed, to urgent and probing. And that's just one song. Then "Airships" mixes a driving beat with mixed tempo, and a haunting recurrent melody. "Drama in the Coals" follows with a pell-mell journey feel, its signature-line weaving in and out, then providing the final notes of the song.

"Flies in the Basement" again brings in something of a more Spanish feel, combined with fast-paced percussion and harmonic accents. Then "Snow Part 3" brings it way down (perhaps too much), into a sloow, hazy jazzy feel. But don't get too relaxed; "Chasing the Sun" gets us back to a run, with a compelling beat and refrain.

Track 8 is "West Green," with a very Reggae feel, and some complex layering and changes. (At one point, the  one-man Reggae band evidently heads for outer space.) The final track ("Echo") is mellow and pleasant, featuring what I now see as Stevens' fondness for change-ups.

Ah, there it is. Now I see one reason I like him, why the songs stay with me. Early Chicago attracted me by the complexity and changes in its first albums. Though his music is nothing like Chicago, Stevens has that same sensibility: most of these songs go over various landscapes, involving several mid-course alterations.

I recommend it, and will be looking forward to his second album, due this summer.

I have often said that one of the most tantalizing things about ministering on the internet, including blogging, is that one literally never knows who is dropping by. I know I have maybe 800 visitors a day, up or down. Who are they? What are they going through? What is their life-situation? Are they atheists, pantheists, Mormons, Moslems, Roman Catholics, Hindus?

I get enough email feedback that stokes the curiosity and rewards the hope... such as the woman in a difficult marriage who was challenged and helped by the article addressed to wives, the pastor who needed a last-minute sermon aid when caught by surprise, the fellow finding his way back to Christ.

Only eternity will tell. That's the tantalizing element.

I got the tiniest (but sweetest) foretaste at the last Together for the Gospel, when again and again complete strangers stopped me, thanked me for the ministry of the blogs, had a kind or encouraging word... then went their way.

You pastors, who support missions: do you see the missionary potential of a blog. If you found that someone in your congregation regularly bore witness of Christ to people from all the continents except Antarctica would you want to be involved, at least make that ministry an item for prayer? Wellsir, that's this ministry, by the grace of God.

Look at the map of visits from 3/7/2009 - 3/7/2010:

There are dots from left to right, and from up to down.

I can't detail all the specifics; there are too many. But they include: Singapore (1460), Phillippines (1048), Soughh Africa (650), India (640), Indonesia (398), Hong Kong (365), Republic of Korea (337), Israel (150), and other countries such as Romania, Japan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Greece, China, Kuwait, Lebanon, and literally dozens of others. Places my feet will almost surely never go, but my fingertips have borne a witness there, praise God.

It is a fruit of a search I've been on for literally decades: the most fruitful way to give what the Lord's given me. I still look for other ways, particularly for a way to be able to do it fulltime. But what I've got, these blogs and the web site give me the opportunity to disseminate. And they in turn have birthed other opportunities such as conferences and guest preaching and books.

Now, this blog is far more eclectic in content than Pyro. I wish I could find the quotation from a commenter who absolutely nailed the designed difference between the two: Pyro is like listening to a pastor preach or teach, BibChr is like hanging around with a pastor, hearing about what interests him and what he thinks about things. Who knows who clicks on a movie review (we get many visits from IMDB's movie reviews), and ends up with a witness to Christ? Or who comes because of a silly article, but reads further, or checks out How Can I Know God? or Pyro?

That map will change shortly. They archive it and start over after a year, so it doesn't turn into a big red smear. But Lord willing, the flow of visits will continue.

Pray for them, and me.

And thank you for being part of the flow.

And now to you I say, don't underestimate the impact of your labors! You will never know who might stumble across your blog, or your comments here; and your words will be just what the Holy Spirit uses to do a good work in their hearts!


Sow well, sow generously, pray, trust the harvest to God.

Because all the cool kids are doing it.

(Now to figure out how it's done....)

Ahhh, Friday. Not a day too soon. I have finished the first major run-through of my Proverbs manuscript. Now I go back, tightening and polishing and inserting. Particularly, going to tauten up a bunch of Hebrew and its documentation next, Lord willing. Wish I was about five people. Maybe ten. Which segues nicely into...

• Hunh. Did you know that it's "Multiple-personality Day"? Yep. A "chance to get in touch with your selves."

• I went to school with a girl named Melody Ball, who had a sister... named Crystal.  Wellsir, a British web site searched for and found what they feel are "unfortunate" baby names. Actually, I think most of them are pretty cute. My favorites include: Barb Dwyer, Terry Bull, Mary Christmas, Doug Hole, and Dr. Sumey. And there are more.
• Here are 31 pretty amazing Lego structures.
• Australia. Does it get any stranger than Australia? I think not.
• And now a first Europe Is Going to Gehenna, and Lawyers are Taking It There alert. Reader CR notes that Switzerland is about to vote about appointing lawyers for animals.

• The second such alert: there is some fear that new legislation in Britain will mean that clergy who refuse to "marry" "gays" can be sued. Oh, England.
• ...and from "Oh, England" to O Canada. For nearly 100 years, our friends to the north have sung in their national anthem, "True patriot love in all thy sons' command." A discussion is now starting as to whether to gender-neuter the lyrics. To this non-Canadian, it appears it could be a perfect storm. The solution proposed seems very conservative in form, though nuts in motivation: return to the original poet's wording, "True patriot love thou dost in us command."
• Have trouble remembering the rhyme about the number of days in months? If so, reader Chris Harwood has a solution.
• Global Warming Kills. Well, not global warming, because that's a hoax. Belief in global warming kills. Here's the tragic proof. 
• President Obama et al continue in grim (death-wish?) determination to ram healthare socialism/fascism, no matter what stupid American citizens or elected representatives say. Some Dems say they will not vote unless abortion subsidies are off the table. To me, this is interesting. It would be the easiest thing in the world for the principals to say "You got it!", make a cosmetic change or two, and get their votes — knowing they'll just throw it back in once the monstrosity passes. Would the balkers be so easily-bought? They're Democrats! Yet the principals, so far, won't do it. Why? Can it simply be that they are so in the hip-pocket of the multimillion dollar abortion industry that even a cynical, tactical feint is out of the question?
• Meanwhile, President Obama works hard to coax the lemmings off the cliff, promising them a "brisk swim on a sunny day" as a reward. He can't imagine why they won't sacrifice their careers in the interests of saving face for The One and his agenda.

 

• My BSIL reads about the new Ole Miss mascot and asks... is it a trap?
• Hm; don't much like the sound of this.

• The Fun Title of the Week comes from the Telegraph, and it is: Oldest example of written English discovered in church. How is that "fun"? Well, my mind instantly wandered in the direction of what the text would be. "Merciful God, must I sing that same verse again?" You may come up with your own.
• Here is an actual shot of feeding time at the Phillips home.

• Okay, not really. But it's close.
•  In vampire-related news: the big surprise is not that a self-described vampire is running for governor of Florida. No, the surprise is that he's running as a Republican. Yeah, that should work. Elsewhere: Tim Burton is set to produce Abraham Lincoln, vampire slayer. I don't think Joss Whedon will be writing. (There's even a trailer.) The last item is neither funny nor whimsical: a 44-year-old "vampire" with problematic legal history links up with a 16-year-old runaway "vampire" girl. What's up with all this? Lack of the Gospel in some twisted, needy lives.
• Tone-change alert in three... two... one....
• Om nom nom. I feel deprived.

• If any part of your mind doubts that Hollywood has issues coming up with fresh ideas, read this. Can "Pong: the Motion Picture" be far behind? 
• As if to underscore my point... Gilligan's Island: the Motion Picture.  (My BSIL had mentioned this to me, before I saw the article.) So, I'm thinking: Jim Carrey as Gilligan? Jack Black as The Skipper? And who would be Thurston Howell, III?  Johnny Depp? Michael Richards (Kramer) as The Professor?
• Would you like to see a nice little demo of how seamlessly green screen figures in to some of what we see? Here y'go.
• Well, this is a real time-saver. Good to know up-front, going in.

• Last week, we saw a frustrated cat. This week — success!

• Not so good in the frog world, though. Oopsie.

• A common spiteful meme about John Wayne is that he was a draft-dodger. Here is an article that sets the record straighter, and indicates he actually sought active service.
• Bringing me to this: