Bart Blair

Our Canadian Chronicles - Episode 5

We've finally made it! Landed in Alberta a few weeks ago and getting settled into the new house. Here's a little video update on the latest and greatest...

Ground Zero

I don't intend to be flippant about the use of "Ground Zero" as a descriptor for the state of our house. But long before it was synonymous for the 9/11 WTC tragedy, it was simply understood to be the term used for a location on the earth's surface where an explosion occurred. If you walked into our house right now, that's exactly what you might believe had happened.

We recently announced our family plans to relocate to Medicine Hat, Alberta to assist in planting a new church. And with that plan has come the process of preparing our house for sale. Built in 1977, 6324 Atherly Crescent, has been our home for nearly 9 years.  In that time, we have done quite a bit to upgrade and beautify, but as we take steps toward putting it on the real estate market, we realize that there are some critical things that need to be taken care of in order to get the highest possible price for it.

It's no secret to those who know me that I am not necessarily a "handy guy" around the house. God's blessed me with some great gifts and talents, but I excel much more with amplifiers and drum heads than I do power tools and torque wrenches. This lack of gifting obviously makes the long list of to-do's rather intimidating (and expensive).

Fortunately, for the last week or so, we have been blessed by a small - but dedicated - group of guys from Grace who have pitched in to help us knock out some of our list. So far, we've retiled two bathroom floors, removed and rebuilt 80% of a front porch balcony (including that of our neighbors attached), replaced a few light fixtures and repainted a couple of rooms. There has been quite a bit of dust flying for the last 5 days.

We are so grateful to those who have helped us. It's amazing when God's children use their time and talents to bless others.

So, the plan, as of today, is to spend the next two weeks preparing the house for market. We have another volunteer work day happening this Saturday, October 2. Hopefully we will have the house listed by October 15.  We will aim to sell and close in either mid-December or early January.  Once the house is sold we will make our way westward.

More to come soon!

Rob and Peter from Grace working on the balcony with my neighbor, Sorin. 

'Horns No.1

The Longhorns (basketball team) earned their first No. 1 ranking by The Associated Press this week. At 15-0, Texas is off to its best start since the 1932-33 season as the rugged Big 12 schedule begins.

And leave it to the basketball team to give the school a much-needed shot in the arm after the football team lost the BCS championship game to Alabama last week. Asked if Texas is a “basketball school,” senior forward Dexter Pittman referred to the Longhorns’ quarterback: “No. This is Colt McCoy’s school. He’s just letting us borrow it.”         AUSTIN, Texas (AP)

Pat Robertson is a __________________

I'll let you complete that sentence any way you like.  Some of the names I've seen on the web are enough to make Gordon Ramsay blush.

I just HATE the fact that I get lumped into the same "Christian" category as him.  We're not the same.  We don't see God the same way.  We don NOT think alike.  Yet, we both claim to be followers of Jesus.  It's so confusing to me.  I'm sure it's confusing to those who know me, know I follow Jesus and are trying to reconcile the whole God/Jesus/faith thing.

It makes me want swear!  But I won't, because Pat might accuse me of selling my soul to the devil.

{Take a deep breath, Bart]

Donald Miller has responded to Pat's comments.  I like what he has to say:

Back in the day, the comment Pat Robertson made today would have infuriated me. Robertson essentially blamed the devastation that took place in Haiti on the idea that, generations ago, people in Haiti sold their souls to the Devil and are now paying for it. I’m reminded of a similar comment made in a debate on CNN, in which yet another religious figure blamed the devastation in New Orleans following Katrina... [read more]

Gen-X Heroes That Died in '09: Not Including Michael Jackson

The world lost a number of iconic stars in 2009.  Here are a few and what I will remember most about each:

David Carradine: 1936-2009

"Kwai Chang, what will you do now?"

"Wait.  Wander.  Rest when I can."

I never got to watch Kung Fu as a kid (I was only 6 when the series ended), but I remember this verbal exchange from the commercials.  Truth is, I may not even have the quote correct.  But that's how I remember it!

Ricardo Montalban: 1920-2009

"Smiles.  Smiles, everyone.  Welcome to Fantasy Island."

As a kid, my parents were pretty good about filtering my television viewing.  But for some reason they never stopped us from watching Fantasy Island on Saturday nights - at the Galbraiths on hamburger night!  Of course, we were watching this show right after we'd watched Love Boat.  Hmmmm.

Ricardo will also be carved in my memory as Khan (1982).  Who can forget that?!

Ed McMahon: 1923-2009

It was my generation's American Idol; Star Search was our chance to see the future of American talent!  With categories like "Male Spokesmodel" and "Teen Dancer," it was a thrill!  The voice of Ed bellowing, "Three and a half stars!" is as fresh in my memory as if it happened yesterday.

A few notable celebs who made competitive appearances on Star Search (during the McMahon era):
- Rosie O'Donnell, 1984 (Comedian)
- Sinbad, 1985 (Comedian)
- Sharon Stone, 1984 (Spokesmodel)
- Alanis Morissette, 1988 (Singer)
- Christina Aguilera, 1990 (Singer)
- Britney Spears, 1992 (Singer)

John Hughes: 1950-2009

Although most of us probably had no clue who he was, nearly every teen in America between 1984 and 1989 would have been influenced by his persepctive on the world.

Personally, I would have to say Breakfast Club was probably the most important film he made, but I was a Weird Science kind-guy myself.

Patrick Swayze: 1952-2009

While I'm sure the marjority of Swayze's fans (currently 40-something women) will point to Dirty Dancing and Ghost as his greatest flicks, any red-blooded boy of the 80's would have to give shout-outs to The Outsiders and Red Dawn.  Once we got to college, we jumped to the Point Break bandwagon.  It was all pretty macho stuff. 

What more would one expect from a Texas-bred ballet dancer!?

The rest of the list:

Bea Arthur, Dom Deluise, Farrah Fawcett, Les Paul, Lou Albano, Steve McNair...RIP

Closing the Loop

I've recently realized that there are a number of postings that I have failed to thoroughly follow-up on.  So I take today's post as an opportunity to provide some brief updates.

My Final Four Predictions
I was wrong.  Dead wrong!  All four of my picks are out.  Bummer.

Goodbye to The Dave
My friend David Norris-Elye passed away on March 8.  His memorial was this past Saturday (March 24).  It was a fitting tribute and celebration of David's life, music and the many lives he somehow seemed to have an impact upon.  Some of the GTAs best venerable music artists came to pay tribute to "The Dave."  It was a great time of reflecting on both David's accomplishments as an artist, but also the role that God played in his life.  Please visit the tribute page for David on MySpace:  myspace.com/davidnorriselye  There is a complete recount of his funeral service on the blog there.

The Tunnel
I had the privilege of speaking at Grace Community Church on March 11.  We are doing a teaching series on suffering.  You can CLICK HERE to download the MP3 of my message.  Visit the Grace website to download the entire series.

My Broken Van
On the evening of March 5 - what might have been one of Mississauga's coldest nights - my beloved '93 Chevy Astro came to a grinding halt while I was driving to a meeting.  Turns out that the upper ball joint on the driver's side broke and punctured the tire.  It was a bit messy.  $600 and she's back on the road again, doing her part to further damage the ozone layer.

NYC Comes to GTA
Back in February I went to New York City to visit my pal Jeff Haley.  Jeff and I have known each other since day one of our college experience at U.T.  Jeff's coming up to Toronto to spend Easter weekend with us.  10 more sleeps 'til El Jeffe arrives!

Haydn
In November and December I was posting about a little boy on our street, Haydn, who had been diagnosed with a disease called LCH.  His physician(s) had started treatment for a tumor on his C6 vertebra.  Things had been going really well until this past weekend when Haydn apparently had a serious downturn in his health due to an infection.  He is back at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.  We'll keep praying for a complete and speedy recovery. 

Christmas Priorities

While flipping through a home decorating magazine that my wife receives, I saw this ad, taken out by the United Church of Canada.  Personally, I think it's quite amusing. 

Last Sunday morning our church attendance was spotty due to the fact that a number of families were attending the Toronto "Santa Claus Parade."  Not to pass judgment on any of those people - I love them, I do - but to me there's something amiss when Jesus' followers are skipping church to see Santa.

I'm sure if Santa were alive today, even he would say we've gotten some of our priorities askew.

I'm Seeing (RED)

I just did something that I never do.  I NEVER do.  I watched Oprah.  May I repeat - I NEVER, EVER watch Oprah.  But today, I did it.

Today's edition of Oprah was a hyped-up, highly anticipated episode wherein, Ms. Winfrey and a gentleman named Paul Hewson (AKA Bono) marched around downtown Chicago revealing the new (RED) line of products which have been designed to both heighten awareness and raise funds for AIDS relief in Africa.

During the first half hour of the show I was actually moved to tears a couple of times by the widespread support of this cause, championed by Bono.  I've recently read two books about Bono, most recently Bono: In Conversation..., and I have come to really understand his heart and passion for the people of Africa.  I applaud his efforts.  God bless him!

But as the show wandered on, I began to have this real twinge of guilt and disgust inside of me.  When you buy a $79 Motorola phone (in (RED), of course) $17 of that goes to AIDS relief.  "That's a lot, " said Oprah, when the host at the Motorola store gave her the figures.  The Motorola guy did mention in passing that the price of the phone was based on a 2-year contract.  So trust me, Motorola's not really making much of a sacrifice here.  By the way, according to Yahoo! Finance, Edward J. Zander, the CEO of Motorola earned a salary last year of $4,500,000.  That's over $12,000 a day.  So how impressed should I be that every 10 red phones Motorola sells provides ARV drugs for an African for a year?  One day of pay for Mr. Zander would buy the ARV drugs for over 70 people for a year.

Don't get me wrong.  I don't mean to pick on Motorola or Mr. Zander.  The salary he earns is what the Motorola people thinks he deserves.  More power to him if he can get it!  My point is simply to say, "Don't be fooled by corporations who would make you believe that they are joining in the fight against AIDS - that they're being sacrificial."  They're making money.  No doubt about it.

Where the sickness inside really hit me was when Oprah and Bono went into the Armani store and began a shopping spree of all the cool Armani stuff (including rockin' Bono sunglasses).  My awareness came to its peak when I realized that this whole venture of getting people to buy (RED) is a ridiculous, self-centred way of getting people to indulge themselves - feed their materialism - while at the same time allowing them to have warm fuzzies because they're saving a life in Africa.

Hurry!  Race out and buy the new (RED) iPod Nano.  You can then look cooler than all your friends and some poor kid in Africa might actually get to live a few more months without his HIV blooming to AIDS.

What does this really say about who we are?