Dave Swanson’s Neighborhood

And you can find my new blog here.

Tim Smith, the worship pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle has put together a site to help people dig into the Psalms.  You can find it here.  

Derek Webb is not only one of my favorite songwriters, he is also a brilliant, brilliant man.  Around a year ago, he announced Noisetrade:

Jeff Tweedy - Sunken Treasure: Live in the Pacific Northwest

Whiskeytown - Strangers Almanac

Alejandro Escovedo - Real Animal

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

and still...

Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death & All His Friends

Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

As some of you may know, I am an intern this summer at the Willow Creek Association.  Today my boss and I were interviewed by a guy from Gospel Communications (the people who do biblegateway.com) for an upcoming podcast about internet ministries.  It was pretty awkward because I was just sitting in and wasn't expecting to be interviewed, but all of a sudden he turned and asked for my opinion.  Needless to say my first answer wasn't the best and I kind of rambled, but from there on out it went well.  I'll put up the link once it comes out.

If you don't already know about TIm Challies, you probably live in a hobbit hole.  He is, like, one of THE dudes in the evangelical blogosphere (I hate that word and I will reprimand myself later for using it).  He also has a book out called The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment.  I just started reading it last week and I'm digging it a lot.  I just finished chapter 8 which is called "The Dangers of Discernment" and it alone was worth the price of the book.  I would highly recommend it.  

Peace out homedawgs.

I am removing the links to the online version of Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology.  Here's why.

Good stuff.

So far I'm liking it a lot.  I wasn't sure what to expect going in and they have exceeded my expectations.  Coldplay is one of those bands that impacted my musical tastes a lot in high school, but for the past few years I haven't really payed attention to - that will change with this album.  Lately it's really cool to rip on Coldplay, but I will be the first to say that this is a great album.  "Lost!" gets the vote for most likely to be sampled by Kanye West. 

Although I've had the record for a while, last week I just started to pay attention to Lucinda Williams' Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.  It's a great album and everyone should go listen to it.  I can already tell that it's turning into my "summer album".  Every summer it seems that there is an album that stands above the rest.  Last year's was Sky Blue Sky by Wilco.

The new Coldplay album comes out tomorrow.

The new Amos Lee album comes out next Tuesday.

The new Ray LaMontagne album comes out in September.

Ryan Adams is working on his new album.

Not to seem like I'm copying Steve McCoy at Reformissionary, but Tim Keller posted his summer reading list.  I would second his reccommendations of In My Place, Condemned He Stood by J.I. Packer & Mark Dever and The Cross of Christ by John Stott.  Both have been deeply formative in my own theology and are essential reads.