I hear it’s all the rage to redo your wedding photos (at least for those of us who were young when we initially had them taken and now realize how differently we would do things).
I don’t know about you, but if I were to go that route, the following sequence is what I’d want.
You can check out the photographer HERE.
There’s been a lot of hubbub about the new Star Wars Blu-rays and how Lucas can’t stop messing with his masterpieces.
At times like this, I think it’s helpful to try to remember what we loved about those films in the first place.
The excitement.
The passion.
The fear.
The sorrow.
The wonder.
And, of course, the shock.
[HT: Nerdist]
A few years ago, (maybe more than a few; I can’t remember; plus what number exactly constitutes a “few”?) while I was still employed at Student Life I wrote a spoken word piece. It was my job to write and create lot of things. That particular year this piece just happened to be one of them. I wrote it. Drew Francis directed it. Taylor Robinson shot it. Eric Chapman recorded the audio and mastered it. Jason Poole added some sweet graphics to it. And the incomparable Erin Moon performed it. The piece is entitled “Woman of No Distinction” but it’s much more commonly known as “The Woman at the Well” since that’s the story from the Bible upon which it’s based and nowhere in the video is the title of the piece indicated. You can see the original below. (If you can’t see the piece below, it’s because your reader or device isn’t displaying videos and you should click through directly to my blog.)
Woman of No Distinction from Chris Kinsley on Vimeo.
This video went viral, I guess. I mean, I don’t know what are the precise criteria that have to be met in order for that to be true, but this video started floating around a lot of places and being seen and shared by a lot of people. Well, it wasn’t long before people were simply transcribing the video and using the piece in other venues, even to make videos of their own. Below, I offer to you a selection of those videos.
As you can see, there’s a decent amount of diversity other than all of the performers being women, but that’s understandable. Some of these videos are well produced. Others are amateur shots of amateur performances. Some give credit to me as the author. Some credit myself and Drew, which is also understandable since the credits at the end of the original video are misleading. Some give no credit to authorship. One credits authorship to someone else entirely, namely Amena Brown, who is an extremely gifted spoken-word artist and sister in the faith (frankly, it’s a little flattering to have people think she wrote it). However, none of these people own the copyright for this work. I don’t even own it. Student Life does. As far as I know, none of them obtained permission from Student Life to perform the piece or to make a video of it.
Student Life could have gone after all of these people. They could have attempted to control and “protect” their content. But they didn’t and they haven’t. Whether intentionally or not, they’ve given it away. They’ve allowed it to spread as it would.
I think this is great. On some level I even think this is right. Student Life is a business, yes, but it’s also a ministry. The original piece served it’s purpose, and SL is able to continue to utilize it for ministry. However, by giving it away they have allowed it to become even more valuable. As it has struck a cord with people, those people have been able to freely share it so that it might minister to others, many if not most of whom Student Life would never have the opportunity to come in contact with.
This isn’t an easy thing for creatives to do. But I wonder if it’s an essential lesson for those creatives who are also Christian to learn. God has made us stewards of the creativity with which He has gifted us.
What kind of steward will you be?
What are you currently holding on to that you need to give away?
In the last post I let you (formally) know that we (Liza and I) are adopting. I also announced our adoption site, homeforhaven.com.
This is another adoption-related post. Though, I promise that this blog is not going to be all about adoption since that is what Home for Haven is for.
Also, this post is uncomfortable for me to write because… well, I don’t know exactly why. Because I’m proud, maybe. Because talking about money is weird and asking for money is even weirder.
Anyway, I’m just going to get right to it.
Some friends have been kind enough to host a benefit on our behalf.
But really, it’s not benefitting us. It’s all for Haven.
And, if nothing else, knowing the people throwing it, it’s going to be fun, and we’d love for you to be there.
A lot of people know this already. However, there is a vast population here on the interwebs, which means that many of you don’t.
So, I’d like to officially announce to you that we (Liza and I) are adopting.
We’re already about six months into it. But we’re moving pretty slowly. We’re hoping the pace picks up a little bit, at least on our end.
There’s a lot to say about this, and I will say a lot about it in the months and years to come. In fact, I’ve already started.
However, for now, I want to let you know that we’ve created a place where we can focus on telling the story of our adoption.
You can go there if you want to.
In fact, we’d love for you to go there and tell your friends to go there.
Here’s where “it” is: homeforhaven.com
Have you heard of Arc Light Stories? If you have then I’m sure that a smile just appeared on your face. If you haven’t, then, please, allow me a moment to introduce you to the one of the best, most unique night-out opportunities you can experience here in the Magic Steel Pittsburgh of the South (Birmingham, AL). I’ll start with “what”.
What is Arc Light Stories? Here’s what it says on the website.
Imagine sitting around the dinner table with your closest friends. You’ve just cleared the dishes, and you’re moving on to coffee, or possibly a glass of wine. Someone says: you’ll never believe what happened to me today. Listen to this…
That’s Arc Light Stories. Inspired by events like The Moth in NYC, Arc Light Stories features live storytelling. No notes, no outlines. Just great storytellers sharing great (true) stories. Sometimes funny, sometimes moving, and always engaging, Arc Light Stories brings people together as only good stories can.
My buddy, Sterling, is having surgery today. As you may recall, he’s had surgery before.
I’d like to ask you to join me in praying for him, his parents and family and his doctors.
In case you can’t read the picture above, here’s some things you can pray for:
1. No vision loss.
2. No loss of movement/weakness on left side.
3. Total removal of the tumor.
4. Seizures to cease.
5. Vital signs and total health.
Wow! 21 comments over just three days on a post that is almost five months old is definitely a record for us here at Enigmatic Meanderings. I don’t quite think it was the goal that my brother was shooting for. However, since dusting this thing off has been something I’ve wanted to do for awhile, I guess we’ll go ahead and call it a win.
So… Craig, Heather, Lori, Ronda, Kristi, Shane, Amy, Mom, Teofilo, DUDA, Dad, Ramsey, Kimberly, Tarik, Jane, Sarandipity, Taffy, and lk (is this really Lori with a different email address trying to up the number of comments?) this one’s for you.
I apologize up front for its lack of depth.
Today, I’m headed to Boston. That’s right. The home of the Red Sox, the Bruins, the Celtics, the Patriots, Harvard, M.I.T., an actual tea party that actually stood for something and evidently a law firm that used to employ William Shatner and James Spader until it got canceled.
Why am I going?
This is a pretty picture of pesto but not a picture of the actual pesto about which this post is written.
My friends Brandi and Shane are in the middle of adopting their daughters and bringing them home from Ukraine. Adoption in general is pretty expensive. International adoption in particular can really be a strain on a young family’s budget. So, some people decided it would be cool to host a benefit in their honor.
Liza was part of the team organizing everything. They had a meeting where, amongst various other topics, they discussed what food to serve as the dinner. It was decided that there would be a pasta bar with different sauces. Liza volunteered me (notice who volunteered who) to make a pesto sauce because, “Chris makes a really good pesto sauce.”
Now, I should clarify Liza’s ringing endorsement of my pesto-production-prowess. There was this one time that we were having people over, and I decided to make lamb chops and a mint-basil pesto with which to garnish them. That’s it. However, in the mind of my ever-affirming wife, that means that I make a really good pesto sauce.
