Vertical Impact Blogs

Psalm 94 and Remedy

2007-10-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

Verse 19 "When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy"
and 22 "But the Lord has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge."

David Crowder Band's new cd "Remedy" is out. Need I say more? Need I even go into the glorious details of it's contents? I need not. Go. Listen.

Love,
-Stonewall Acheson (new nickname up here...)

Where there is pain, let us bring grace. Where there is suffering, bring serenity. For those afraid, let us be brave. Where there is misery, let us bring them relief. And surely we can change, surely we can change, surely we can change something.

Think about it (continued)...

2007-09-19T10:13:00.000-07:00

"God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived."

"How does this sentence prove God's existence? Easily. If God is 'that than which nothing greater can be conceived,' then he must be the greatest possible being. And what must the greatest possible being be like? For starters, he must possess all of the best possible attributes - he must be the most powerful, most loving, most righteous, most just, most kind, and most beautiful being we could ever imagine. Any and all desirable qualities must be found in the greatest possible being - and to the fullest measure.
What About existence? Must our greatest possible being necessarily exist? Anselm thought this was obviously true, for a most powerful and most loving being who was only the product of our imagination would not yet be the greatest possible being, but would come in second to a being who was most powerful and most loving and who also did exist. Thus, to qualify as the greatest possible being, any candidate not only must possess the best possible attributes but must also exist."

and later...

"Anselm wondered what kind of person would utter the statement, 'God does not exist.' Unpacked, this statement negates itself, for it declares that God, which as the greatest possible being must exist, does not exist. What type of person contradicts himself in a single sentence? Someone who is not yet thinking clearly."

That's an excerpt from "Heaven is a Place on Earth" by Michael Wittmer. I'm reading it for my Christian Life and Thought class, and I figured I'd share a bit of thought-provoking literature with you all. Hope this has made you think a little bit more about God. Don't go telling people they have to believe in God because of this though... It isn't an infallible argument to many people; rather look at it as a helpful way to think about God in your own life.

With love,
-Ach

Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? -Psalm 139:7

Think about it...

2007-09-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

"God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived"

This was said by a French abbot by the name of Anselm. Think about it. Does it prove God's existence without a doubt? How, or why not? More to come later.

-Chris

"but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me."
Psalm 66: 19-20

Quick Update

2007-08-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update, I started classes today! It has officially begun! Things are going well so far. I'm meeting tons of new people and summarily forgetting all of their names. Good times are had by all. I'll be in Cinci on sunday to play at church at the 11:11 service, so be there!

Hope you guys are all doing well!

Love,
-Flach-of-the-college-persuasion

Then He told them what they could expect for themselves: "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat -- I am." - Luke 9:23 The Message

Day 1

2007-08-17T22:32:00.001-07:00

Day One of college! I'm all moved in, it's like 1:30 in the morning, but I've gotten pretty much everything done. Tomorrow I get to sleep in for probably the last time...ever. Sort of depressing, but I'm here! It's pretty cool so far. Everyone thinks I'm like 18, haha, and I haven't told anyone that I'm not. I will update sometime soon with pictures and crap, once I take some. I totally bought a Chad Johnson poster for my room. Hope the SL's are having fun on the SL retreat! Someone hump a buoy for me!

<3
-Collegiate Flach

You're telling me that there's no hope, I'm telling you you're wrong.

8 Days

2007-08-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

The title pretty much says it all. 8 Days. I leave for college in 8 days. Barely over a week. That completely blows my mind.

What else is there to say? 8 days.

Love,
-Chris

And suddenly, everything changed.

Jon Mclaughlin!

2007-07-22T20:21:00.000-07:00

I apologize, for this post has been long overdue. Firstly, all of the credit of this post goes to Phil Bowdle, as he is the one who first introduced me to Jon. Think of it as a pyramid scheme, in which there are many false apexes. Anyone who heard about Jon from me, or Coleman, or probably a dozen other people by now, really heard about him from Phil. So it often goes, unfortunately, with the original visionary going unnoticed, unheralded, and unsung. However, I willingly break from this sad tradition. In any case...

If you think you haven't heard Jon Mclaughlin, you haven't been to VI in the past month or so. For a while there, he was all Phil played before VI started. I just got home from his concert about an hour ago, and let me tell you, the man can Sing. He can Play. He can Perform. This piano driven pop rock is straight from the soul, and Jon's entire body language and intensity of vocals let you know that he is passionate about his work, and let me tell you, his work is good. You can check him out at his website.

Now I realize that my music-related blogs are generally about unknown artists that I'm trying to bring to light. Jon may not be the artist that no one knows about, but the level of quality of his music more that allows for me to blog about him guilt-free. I implore you, if you have not heard Jon Mclaughlin, go now. Listen.

-Ach

After all, we're only human.

Ichthus 2007

2007-06-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

Here I am, returned from Ichthus 2007 in one piece, un-sunburned, and only marginally disappointed at this point that we only went for one day. As Trey, Drew, and Lauren can tell you, that day was in fact a Thursday. Not to be confused with a weekend. While we may have missed bands such as Chris Tomlin, Thousand Foot Krutch, Barlow Girl, Relient K, Newsboys, Skillet, TobyMac, Switchfoot, etc... and speakers Louie Giglio and Efrem Smith (both quite good in my past experiences with them), we had a great time. We arrived, not quite as early as we perhaps would have liked, due to some hiatus traffic. We then proceeded to erect the two tents... A simple job, one might think. But one would be grievously incorrect. Finally we got our tickets/wristbands, and were on our way into the actual festival grounds!

First we saw Poor Man's Riches. I'll spare you the entire blog-length review, but let me just say I very much enjoyed them. Here the guys are; they rocked pretty hard. The vocals were really clean, which was a nice surprise, and the lead guitarist was really entertaining to watch, as you'll see in the next picture.

If you're sitting there asking yourself "Is that a $*^#*%* Sitar?", then the answer is a most resounding yes. This guy was not only a sweet lead guitar player, he also has sitar skills. Skills sure to eternally rank among, if not surpass, nun chuck skills and bow-hunting skills. I was waaay too excited about this, but it's fine because Troller was equally excited, making my own excitement not only acceptable, but necessary.

Next we went back to our campsite and I ate an amazing Lunchmeat Sandwich. If you don't know what a Lunchmeat Sandwich is, ask LFD, she is the best Lunchmeat Sandwich maker this side of Golgotha. Did I mention there were 12 grains in the bread? Oh yeah, there were. I totally should have taken pictures with my sandwich, but alas, I was rather preoccupied with eating said delicacy.

Then we went to the worship, pretty cool band called... Esa? Or something pronounced like that is spelled. Then the keynote, a mister Justin Lookadoo, honest to God that's his real name. He's the tallest thing to hit Ichthus since Rob Bell. He had an interesting talk. He was a freaking spazz. Finally, the long awaited time had come, David Crowder was up next!

D-Crowds!

D-Crowds with a Keytar! haha, Forever, and ever, andever, endeavor, endeavor!

D-Crowds with a...Guitar hero guitar? I know what you're thinking. One of the guys somehow rigged it to play along with one of their new songs. How crazy is that?

Anyway, then we saw Seventh Day Slumber, came back and played some music, I ate another Lunchmeat Sandwich, Trey wrote a song about Lunchmeat Sandwichii, we started a fire which was totally against the rules (LFD nearly had an aneurysm), and finally retired to get what sleep we could upon the unforgiving ground. Wonderful times were had by all. If you read this entire post, I congratulate you on a job well done, it is perhaps more reading than some people will do in their entire lives, which saddens me, as it does all who enjoy written word. Here's a pic of the group.

I love you all,
-your one and only Flach.

My mommy says I'm a very special boy.

Anaheim Ducks!

2007-06-13T20:32:00.000-07:00

Ok, time to break from the music thing because I just re-watched game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals, except from the Canadian Broadcast instead of stupid NBC. Dumb Americans don't want to have two hours of post-game awesomeness, so I had to get my fill from the good old CBC. If you don't know I'm talking about hockey yet, you might as well stop reading right now. Tune in for the next blog.

For those of you that don't know, I am a huge Anaheim Ducks (formerly Mighty Ducks of Anaheim) fan. I watched some of the guys play in the minors here in Cincinnati before that organization moved to Portland, and it was a thrill to watch them win the Stanley Cup!

I can't really even describe how amazing this was for me... I guess just imagine how Lee feels when the Lakers win the NBA finals. Or maybe how some of you would feel if the Bengals won the Super Bowl. I was tearing up watching some of those veterans lift that cup for the first time in as many as 15 years in the league. They earned it, they worked hard for it, they gave their time, efforts, lives, sweat, and blood to reach that goal, and even though it sounds odd, I am so proud of them all! Anyway, I'll try to keep this pretty short, but here are a few pictures. I love the one with Giguere (their goalie) holding his baby with all the confetti coming down.

Left to Right: Dustin Penner, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry
The PPG line! Also known as the "kid" line, they are a combined 656 pounds of young talent that is going to be dominant in the NHL for a long time.

Here it is, Jean-Sebastian Giguere holding his newborn baby, Maxim. Priceless

Baby in the cup! So cute.

Left to Right: Rob Niedermayer, Stanley Cup, Carol Niedermayer, Scott Niedermayer
The brothers finally win one together, Scott's 4th, Rob's 1st. When Scotty handed it to Rob, that was one of the most beautiful moments in sports I've ever seen. Here they are with mom.

Left to Right: Teemu Selanne and J.S. Giguere
Teemu waited a long 15 years to hoist Lord Stanley's Chalice, and he sure earned it. I was so happy to see him finally get to lift that cup high above his head.

Here's the team shot. Ah, what a run! What a season!

Alright, I'm finished. I hope at least one of my...two? Three? readers at least enjoys the fact that this made me very happy. Check back here in a few days, as I'll try to make a meaningful post about the impending Ichthus trip!

-Ach

Tears of joy fell like rain, as hearts were lifted high, and dreams were made reality.

Throwback

2007-04-12T13:35:00.000-07:00

Let's get back into the swing of things, shall we? The next band I'll enlighten you with is called Throwback. The following excerpt from their myspace site explains their sound far better than I ever could:

"The bands unique sound mixes roots rock, folk, jazz, and funk into a musical blend that has slowly incorporated jam-band virtuosity into its original harmony-based melodic blueprint."

And if that quote doesn't at least excite your curiosity, their influences range from The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, and Steely Dan to Trey Anastasio (Phish), Ben Harper, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, and Dispatch. That was certainly more than enough to pique my interest. So check out those sites, where you can hear a sampling of the eclectic melodic stylings of this Montreal-based band.

Unfortunately, if you do happen to like them, there will be a limited amount of music available as "Throwback announced in March of 2006 that the band would be separating indefintely." However, that's no reason not to listen to the music they did produce. It's definitely worth it! (Plus they have a chick bass player... for all you feminists.)

Enjoy!

-Ach

Sonorously I lead thee into the future.

Slight Break From The Music Thing

2007-03-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm taking a break from the music thing to say I'm going to college! I am likely going to be attending Cedarville university this fall to study Worship Arts (aka: church music). I'm pretty pumped about it; now I just have to find a way to pay for it. Go student loans go!

So that's my big news for the time being. As it turns out, it didn't take very long to write.

-College-bound Flach.

Music, Numbah TWO

2007-03-06T19:17:00.000-08:00

Welcome back kids, to The Unknowns. Today we'll be talking about a band called...

The Divorce.

Now, when most of us hear Divorce, we don't think of good it as a good thing. However, as spin.com puts it... "When a band can render the less-than-positive word "divorce" into something you really, really want, you know they've got to be good." Amen, spin. Amen.

The Divorce are an Indie-Rock group from Seattle. I know, you thought all they had was Starbucks and rain, but I'm here to tell you that's not the case! They can be found at http://www.myspace.com/thedivorce where you can hear a few of their songs. They currently have two CD's out, and while they pretty much only tour on the west coast, they really rock! I don't even know what to compare these guys to, but I'm usually pretty bad at that anyway, so someone listen to them and tell me who else you think they sound like. I personally love many of their lyrics, and I find that their overall sound fills a void in my musical repertoire. So, give them a listen, or your iTunes will never forgive you.

Let me know what you think!

-your friendly neighborhood Acheson.

Music!

2007-02-16T16:22:00.000-08:00

Ok, so this is an experiment I'm starting. It's tentative name is "The top musicians or bands that you don't know about yet, but need to hear". Any suggestions for a shorter name that says the same thing are welcome. So let's get started with the first installment of TTMOBTYDKAYBNTH.

Let me introduce you to Sanders Bohlke. A quick search (approximately 2 minutes), turned up nothing on this Southern, laid back folk artist. His website www.sandersbohlke.com doesn't have any sort of a history for him; however, it does have four free, full length downloads from his self-titled debut CD. I listened to these four for a while before deciding to buy the full album off the website. While the other songs are good, I really feel like the free downloads are four of the best on the whole album. Hailing from Mississippi, Sanders music reveals him as a very mellow, southern artist with strong Christian influences. If you like to take it slow, relax, and sit on the back porch with some good homemade lemonade while listening to soothing tunes, you're sure to love Sanders.

I'd compare him to...maybe a more relaxed James Blunt, or perhaps a male version of Norah Jones. By all means, check out Sanders Bohlke and let me know what you think!

Also, if any of you have heard a great non-mainstream artist lately that you want to tell the world about, let me know! Keep your eyes open for the next installment of, "The Unknowns!" (better than TTMOBTYDKAYBNTH...I thought).

-Ach out

Blog #2

2006-10-29T18:40:00.000-08:00

Hey VI'ers!

So, the Bengals just lost...again. It's been a rough year so far, and I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting pretty ticked. Anyway, I don't want to dwell on that too much.

In other news, I'm leading worship on Sunday, November 5th for the Contemporary service (11:11), so you should all come boo me off stage so they don't make me do it anymore! Ha ha, just kidding, but you should really come check it out. It should be a lot of fun, and I'd love to see you all out there going crazy in the pews! Somebody has to show those old people how to worship!

See you guys soon!

<3
-Flach

Blog #1

2006-10-22T18:40:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, Flacheson here. I just wanted to say that I bought a new guitar yesterday! It was one of those "God things", you know? I found this guitar that I fell in love with, but I didn't think I was going to be able to get it. I was really struggling with what I should do, and I just stepped back, took a couple days, and prayed about it. Everything just sort of fell into place, and I knew that God had given me His blessing. I bought the guitar and have been giddy for the past few days! Everyone should come see me play it on Sunday mornings in the Contemporary service (provided I'm not filling in on bass)!

Much love guys!
-Chris