Oh Rebacca Black how can we not thank you for this wonderful score of music mastery. I know how, by watching your “music video” (I use those words very loosely) over 47 million times.

I think you will realize that we have another Beiber on our hands.

Here is the crazy thing to me, this girl was born in 1997. That blows my mind.

*kyle

I love going to conferences, if I could do that for a living I would. But the more I think about the structure, the model, and the pricing of conferences I start to wonder if they are relavant for 20 somethings (and even teenagers)?

Here is my premise that brings conferences into question:

Everything is Changing

The way we have done things in the past are not the way we do things today.

Entertainment is changing
Education is changing
Music is changing
Publishing is changing
Food is changing

It seems that everything has a shelf life and the only way to last is to see the shift that is happening around you.

Looking through the lens of the 21st century conference scene, not much has changed. Sure the technology, clothing, and speakers have changed, but the structure is mostly the same. Thousands attend and millions are spent all in the name of (insert Church Conference 2011 here) being a life changing event. But what is the lasting effect that is being had on Generation iY as Tim Elmore likes to call 20 somethings. I love going to conferences but it is not the conferences that are shaping me.

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Hopefully you have come to trust my judgement in music over these past 4 or 5 months. Well, today I got another treat for you. Elbow, a band from the UK, was a great find for me and glad that my buddy Jeremy Stanley told me about them. I have been digging their stuff for the past 2 weeks and I think you will as well.

They have a very soothing sound, that combines some very interesting vocals. Honestly, I do not know why this band is not bigger. They have been playing music since 1990 and are big favorites of bands like Radiohead, Coldplay, Blur, R.E.M. and U2. Well today we get to get in on the fun and be cool like all the hipsters with their indie music that no one has ever heard of. I mean think about that conversation that you can have with your local coffee shop barista: “Oh I hear you are playing some Arcade Fire today, that is cool. Ya I have been listening to this band Elbow, they are pretty legit.”

The album below from Elbow is entitled: The Seldom Seen Kids” which kind of summarizes their career. But i think you will be listening to a lot more of their music in the future.

You are welcome

Google reader eh? Come here to listen

What do you think?
*kyle

Buy this album here
Check out more music from Elbow here

Sunday provides us a day to relax, reflect, and refuel. On Sunday’s I like to sit back and ask a couple of questions. Maybe it sounds a little like those awkward games you play with people you do not know so that you can get to know each other better.

Lets just call it Question(s) for You.

1) Who did you pick for the Nation Champion in the NCAA Tourney this year?

2) What makes you click a link in twitter or facebook? The title, person tweeting it or other?

3) Favorite brand of shoe?

Answer them all or just one….these are Questions for You.

*Kyle

Gary Vee is my boy. I do not know him (but will someday), but I feel like he is a mentor to me. I love everything he says, does, and tweets. Well I say everything, except for one little minor detail. I do not understand his love for search.twitter.com.

Check out this video of what he has to say about it all:

I get it, we need to be engaging and listening to what people have to say. But if you take a quick jump over to search.twitter.com you will find more spam, pointless crap, and languages you cannot read then a 54 year old grandmas email inbox. There is so much clutter going on it is impossible to listen, react, and then respond.

I think Gary is on to something, we definitely need to be engaging in conversation, but “businesses” (I use that term loosly, more like spammers) are starting to catch on to this as well. Understanding that people are looking for conversation on blogging, twitter, and social media the amount of link bait and resources are more about getting click throughs for money instead of helping others grow their brand and platform. Search.twitter.com is broken, we need another way to engage in conversation.

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Simply put, Yes.

See this whole “Rob Bell Love Wins” controversy is way bigger then a book, a tweet, or even a man. In fact, it goes all the way back to 2007 when Bell preached a sermon entitled Love Wins. The message was simple and yet provided a whole new way to look at the world. The message in all of this sermon was that Love Wins.The reason Love Wins is because Christ overcame the world.

Love won that day because Jesus had a choice in how he would respond to the evil that was done to Him. To all the mockers, to his friends leaving him, to the guards that beat Him, and even to the ones that put Him on the cross. We all can understand a response of fight, of revolt, of getting even, but in all of this He always responded with love. He never responded with hate, evil, or for that matter stooping to the level of those around him.

The message of hate is one that is old. It is a message of the way the universe use to be. That was until the death of Christ on the cross. The way we use to operate was that we sought out ways to pay others back, to get even, and even to bring pain. If someone hurt you with their words you figured out a way to one up them with a quick comeback that stung just a bit more. We are use to a world that is all about overcoming each other rather then the ways of the world. We are use to getting ahead, doing whatever it takes to get to the top. But Jesus says “I have overcome this world” and in that very act of love and overcoming, the world has changed.

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