Huffington Post Interview – Extended and Unedited

The interview I did with Bert Montgomery earlier in the year ended up appearing in The Huffington Post, the Burnside Writers Collective, Faithlab, and on Bert’s own blog. He’s resourceful!  The version that appeared in all these publications was about half the length of the whole interview.  The unedited full version, done initially in two parts, appears below and includes a whole bunch of other important stuff on religion and faith, CCM, Undercover and even a bit on The Fugs!  Now what interview would be complete without that?

Improv Friday – 5/11/2012 – “Isla”

Improv Friday is an online musical event where composers of all stripes gather to write and improvise every Friday. These are not “songs” as many are used to hearing from me, but improvised works or as the website says, works “with strong improvisational elements,” for those who have ears to hear. It’s a way to stay busy, sketch, experiment, generate ideas, keep creativity flowing, hear others’ work, learn more about my software and hardware, explore.  

Improv Friday – 2/17/2012 – “Cove”

Improv Friday is an online musical event where composers of all stripes gather to write and improvise every Friday. These are not “songs” as many are used to hearing from me, but improvised works or as the website says, works “with strong improvisational elements,” for those who have ears to hear. It’s a way to stay busy, sketch, experiment, generate ideas, keep creativity flowing, hear others’ work, learn, explore.  

Undercover, Sky-Circles and Me

Sometimes, those we know and love throw us a curve ball so simple, innocent and innocuous on the face, but almost devastating in poignance. They can show up in the strangest of places, at the most unexpected times and perhaps they don’t even realize what they’ve done.  I got one yesterday from my friend,

Passing the Hitchens Meme To A New Generation

Those of us who have followed Christopher Hitchens for any length of time knew the time of his death was coming sooner than we would like.  “Followed” is not the right word.  We did not “follow” him.  Many of us hung on his words; his books, essays, lectures, debates, videos, television appearances, the many works he edited, everything.  A new anything by Christopher Hitchens was  like waking up on Christmas morning all over again.  He has had a profound impact on me and on my thinking.

Audio & Photos – Freedom From Religion Foundation Convention

Audio of my presentation at the Freedom From Religion Foundation Convention in Hartford, CT, on October 8 has been posted on their website here. Scroll down a bit and you will see a media player.  Scroll down within that player and you will see my name.  The talk is about 40 minutes long. There are more photos here, beginning with FFRF President Dan Barker’s introduction.

Student Evaluations In Perspective

I love reading student evaluations. Some are outrageous, most are helpful, some only leave room for one response – the facepalm. I’ve included two comments below that I particularly enjoyed.

Undercover and The Broken Christmas

Here’s a short video on bringing Undercover together in 1988 to record Oh Come All Ye Faithful for the Broken Christmas album.  It was tricky!  

I Am Your Father, II – Sea of Tranquility

I don’t like the idea of providing narrative on my songs, much as I used to do it as a young fool, but I am going to do it here in the service of love to my firstborn son Benjamin.  I would not want to leave this life without having been clear about this one. A number of planets lined up to make this important now, almost 20 years after the song was released.

Playing in Undercover and Beating Dragons

“Joe – I was wondering if you have regrets in making this type of music considering your current doubts about God?”

This is a common question I get about my ongoing relationship with Undercover, although it’s one of the more civil and thoughtful versions (sent to me by a lifelong friend).  A somewhat more aggressive version usually asks how I can get up on stage and perform those songs when I don’t believe the message behind the songs anymore.