GLENN'S PODCASTS!

CHRISTMAS VACATION JOURNAL

"All Over The Place" writing here-
So I don't usually just write, blog as such. And I will rarely write as much as I'm about to here... so you have been warned! I figure if people really cared about things that matter, a lot of the following wouldn't- so why write and publish it? Then again, you may want to get to know me better so here's some journal entry rap for you. And, Happy New Year in the Lord Jesus to all reading here!

Wendi-
After 36 years of marriage you'd think I'd know my sweet Wendi digs Vivaldi... but I just found that out. Truth is we're playing it right now as she's knitting. Her sister Katherine is a fabulous knitter (as was my Mom) and though she's done it off and on, she's really at it now, creating a beautiful shawl. Amazing girl!

Room Work-
Got the mirror hung with help from the good Curt. Just a tad "off" but such happens when you tighten the screws. There's a sermon there... at least from one and occasional angle (get it... "angle"?). Anyhow...

Celtic Worship and More-
Really been loving the daily office over at northumbrian community online. I have used that or one of my several books regarding celitc worship off and on for a few years now. Had a nice chat with Jon today about worship, basically saying that I'm just very comfortable in most any worship tradition, and that I think there is more often than not an issue with the worship -style- with many people basic hugely on their sense of personal comfort.

What I mean is that the Bible is loaded (and not loaded in another sense) with writ that gives clarity or at least clues as to -how- the Christ followers worshiped. We have a lot of historical evidence and some great scholarship on varied Christian's approaches/styles of worship. At the same time, there seems little written in the Word about "do it like THIS" in terms of gathering in worship with one another. Private worship seems (from my studies of the Book) even more broad.

I think too many of us are so hard-wired into our personal sense of comfort with regard to worship
(and in other areas of life too) that it is the sense of we as individuals not being comfortable rather than Scripture or how Father, Son and Spirit think/feel about the particular style or mode that dictates what we accept or do not accept being done or displayed in a time of focused worship. It's our loss. But if you think about it, it's His loss as well.

I don't mean to say "Hey- get UNcomfortable as possible in the music, prayers and kneeling/dancing/whatever". I just think if we're gut-honest, we often focus on the form and not
substance. We like or dislike this or that tradition or style or delivery orliturgy or whatever... and THAT dictates whether we as individuals experience an authentic, biblical, Christ-focused time with God. How sad, and again, it's a loss on our part.

I first worshipped the Lord in a Lutheran, then Catholic, then independent, pentecostal, then charismatic, then Jesus People (?) "way".JPUSA (and REZ Band) did a lot of traveling and I still do. I've had full-on encounters with Father, Son and Spirit in what some would consider the most dead/dry assemblies of believers and also where even I questioned some of the practices going on during this or that meeting... but God was present and I learned, grew and took something of Him down the road with me as a result of being there among His people, no matter the form.

We must listen, pray, know the Word for ourselves and really discern without harsh or petty judgment, but we must also experience the living God among His Own where ever we may be. It's just a drag to realize we are prone to judge, accept or not accept this or that worship offering when He likely accepts such offerings with a lot more grace and sense of communion and community than we do... due to our personal sense of comfort or discomfort rather than clear teaching from the Bible!

LIVE MUSIC
I just haven't yet taken the time to get my cigarbox guitar (or one of them, I've built a few) up and running, haven't yet built up the fake kick/snare footpedal or stompboard (gotta make these, too cool and funky to not make 'em... I refuse to buy one...) but when I do I have a few new songs as well as ideas how to do a few older ones live with such gear.

I've been enjoying more YouTube as well, and always have loved live music far more than
recorded... that is, I also dig live music that IS recorded, if you get my meaning. So it's fun to hear a band or solo artist take chances, get raw and gritty and just stretch out. The mistakes, if not horribly over-the-top, make it human and honest. I can even forgive poor (or not my personal cup of tea) tone as long as the performance is passionate and real. But anyhow, beentubin ' more lately. Who knows what I may post at some point. Lord knows a lot of junk is up there, but some cool stuff too. I do like the Seaside Festival tunes someone put up on YouTube from an '07GKB set. As we recall, it was a fun set.

NEW GEAR
It's been ages since I put fresh photos up of all my gear, at least main guitars, amps and such. I would love to get at that at some point. I've been so blessed with good friends who are excellent luthiers and amp builders, etc.. Between that and Tom, Ed and Roy at Grrr Records/GKB buying stuff, whew, I have some excellent gear nowadays.

LINUXes
DSL is my go-to day to day Linux on an old laptop just about ready to die (what I'm typing this on right now) but I have been enjoying the latest versions of Tiny Me, Tiny Core andAustrumi all of which look and feel very cool. I'm not not enough of a geek to always get my Orinoco pcmcia
wireless network cards running in these but perhaps I'll eventually learn. But hey, this old Toshiba Satellite with all of 64 megs of ram... for it to last these many years is quite a miracle in itself!

GLENNKAISER.COM
The folks who have both created and admin'ed my homepage are geniuses- and I've been VERY blessed by 'em right through the years... but I'd be lying if I'd tell you I'm happy with several broken or too-difficult-for-me-to-fix-or-admin. things on the site.Arrggh . Typos are often but not always my own fault... but the rest... well, Lord help us! Eventually I may do something drastic to just get rid of the stuff that doesn't work, but at this point myFacebook site is so crammed full of folks writing it's just overwhelming to even begin to manage. I mean, it's great to hear and do live on-line chats there, but so many bells and whistles, and a lot to think about (at
least for me... I have a rather full life). So Lord only knows how I'll resolve my many online sites... or fix or completely changegk.com. So we'll see. Little-by-little :)

SPORTS
I figured my beloved Chicago Bears would fold- and they did... so much for the NFL season in that sense. Then again, I wouldn't mind seeing the Giants or Colts win the Super Bowl. I love my man Kurt Warner who truly loves Jesus... but doubt Arizona will go far.

Glad to see Winnipeg take the (gridiron) Grey Cup championship up in Canada!

The Cubs and Sox both blew it in the playoffs... ahhhh beautiful consistency :)

My fave team on earth- Chicago Fire- in my fave sport- Soccer, the TRUE football folded as one of the "final four" this year, beaten out by Columbus Crew who truly deserved the game and to win theMLS crown after that match... which they did- congrats to the Crew! Brian McBride and fellow striker Blanco were a treat this year and I look very forward to the '09 season. Brian crosses himself after every goal and my understanding is that he is a trulycommitted follower of Jesus. In all respects I'm proud of him and so glad he made his way to Chicago Fire after several brilliant seasons in theEPL at Fulham FC.

We have great friends in South Africa who recently asked if we'd come down to visit during the upcoming World Cup... I wish... but doubt all that can happen. They're serious football fans so of course we'd end up at a match or two if...

AFRICA
I've prayed for SA and of course Zimbabwe for years... what a mess Mugabe has made, what human tragedy! Argggh. God help that desperate country, the women, children and horrific conditions are in such need.

MIDDLE EAST
What can I say? I don't see an end to the violence, ever. Just don't think it's going to happen, as the thousands of years of hatred between Arab and Jew- and atrocitiescommitted by both sides (yes, BOTH sides) are apparent to any honest look at history be it ancient or contemporary. Ha mas lobs rockets into Israel, they expect and perhaps want the mighty military to hit them in Gaza, which of course, Israel does. On it goes... pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Yes. God help those who know Messiah to share Him. Death and destruction is so wired into the old nature of all human beings, it's just so obvious, isn't it?! God help us.

U.S. MILITARY
I pray and read and sometimes email friends, several who love Jesus who are serving abroad or otherwise. Like police and other services there are those who are genuine and truly love God or at least are ethical, and those who aren't in both or eithercategory . While I'm no pacifist
I'm neither a warmonger who votes YES for anything Israel or Republican- never have been and never will be. It's a matter of individual issues and so I pray more than anything for the government
of the U.S. who regardless of party leadership, deploys the troops, sometimes it seems to me, sanely and sometimes otherwise.

PRAYER
If it seems I'm now on a "prayer" theme, I've been on that for many years. I cannot simply think to myself or write (or of course journal) without talking to the Lord about the many concerns and cares of life, my own, my family and church/community, city, state, nation and other nations.
What does GOD think, how does Jesus feel about the matter? What can/should I do or not do about whatever "it" may be? Prayer is not the least, it is essential on so many levels. So I have found myself constantly talking with the Lord about nearly everything imaginable as the years roll on. Mind you, I'm not so foolish, stupid or arrogant to think I always KNOW what God thinks or what His will is for person(s) X, Y or Z, certainly not for our (or other) countries, but praying best I know from the heart to the best of my understanding what God says in His Word about the issues is what I try to do daily.

AND THAT'S THE NEWS FROM HERE
Well, this old laptop is trying to kick over on me... the video is about toasted... it has a couple shorts inside near or on the motherboard... and it's also time I get our laundry in the machines... so that's all (!) for now.

Love, Hugs and Best Wishes for a New Year full of Jesus and His will in your life!
-Glenn

POST CHRISTMAS / PRE NEW YEARS

HA... so we had deep and wonderful Christmas services here in Chicago, both with JPUSA and with our family/extended family. The grandkids were amazing, really fun to watch and I got loads of pics.

Wendi and I had and are having a great time both visiting, resting, and today I got a couple of her gifts hung up (created some wall-hangers for our tray tables). Tomorrow with a little help I think I'll get the mirror up :)

The snow was beautiful, the ice was rough but no accidents for us or those at JPUSA Praise God... and today it's raining outside (like, raining a LOT). Good ol' Chicago... if you don't like the weather stick around for a few minutes and it'll change! Like, 61 degrees F so... pretty strange for Dec. 27.

Just read a kind review by our friend Randy on Al Menconi's site (REZ Box Set) as well as noticed 3 songs of GKB's 2007 Seaside Festival set up on Youtube.

Mercy- I have so many things I'd like to get up online for you... perhaps I can finally get to 'em...

So BLESSINGS to all reading this, and thanks for stopping by. Wishing you a truly Jesus-filled and Spirit-led 2009!

-Glenn

MERRY CHRISTmas Everyone! Love in Jesus, -Glenn

DEC. 16 MISC. UPDATE

CCO Christmas Show Tonight-
It's snowing again in Chicago, a very pretty day. Tonight GKB does a short blues/rock set, then switches to Christmas songs with Ami Moss and Scott Knies joining us with other artists (Leper, Aracely & Hilde Bialach from JPUSA/Grrr Records) for a Christmas concert at our Cornerstone Community Outreach for homeless families and kids who are residents there. I'm looking forward to this a lot!

Online Interview-
Just did a rather in-depth interview with HM Mag online. I haven't checked but I expect it'll be posted soon if not already up. Doug Van Pelt is a good man and cares deeply about the character of Christians in the music scene. We also talked about politics, GKB's Octane cd and more.

GKB Live Footage-
GKB did a set at Seaside Festival in Norway about year ago. The mainstage multi-camera work and sound seemed quite good and the response on the day was really quite favourable... so we're working at getting the footage of that set, un-cut from the large screen feed. We'll let you know when that's available for either promo. or otherwise. We recall it as one of those occasional, memorable shows worth sharing. Stay tuned, it's taking some time to get it sent over.

Project 12-
Chris, Jon and staff are finishing up a newsletter that will be sent out as well as posted on the P12 site. We expect to do a few of these each year, emailing some, printing a few hard copies too. Once completed, it'll be up at: http://www.project12.us

New Linux Distro-
In occasional breaks from ministry work and also creating Christmas presents and shopping a bit, taking my wife and kids out etc., I've discovered a new flavour of Linux's OS in Tiny Core Linux. VERY minimal but very fast and interesting in that it allows quick and even on-the-fly installs of whatever programs you may wish to use as by default the entire OS loads into ram (TC is 10 megs., no joke...) and then via a wired connection allows you to load programs into your ram via the web. Pretty cool and like my other recent fave Tiny Me (totally different Linux flavour) is quite configurable.

And that's the news from Chicago :)

BLESSED Christmas all!
-Glenn

DEC. 14 UPDATE

So it seems the "Values, Values, Values" article is trashed somehow... I'll ask my webfolks to fix it! Thanks to Rod for alerting me. Argggh.

I've been considering -not- doing a new website due to the investment in time and admin'ing another site... and Facebook (which I'm on) sometimes allows me more time, the chat feature and such... I may just focus on that and this site mainly. Of course being so close to the Christmas holidays both myself and Wendi are so busy with our large and extended family, etc., then the New Year kicks in, Project 12, music tours and so forth, it may make sense to just keep it simple.

As to my hunting escapades- I passed up so many deer... too small, or does with young that wouldn't have survived without 'em, so for the first time in about 12 years we're pretty well gonna eat hamburger, Ha! But I was blessed to be in the woods and the cold for a time.

Had to apologize a few times to Wendi this week- it seems most years during the (rather large) set-up of decorating, trying to get things done before the Christmas holidays like getting and making presents affects our sleep (lack of...) and temperament, so it seems I get grouchy and have to ask forgiveness and really watch my tongue. I can get complaining and just feeling overwhelmed and so need to really take care that we get good sleep. Then again, I got just a bit ill for a couple days- and I'm rarely sick, so when I get sick I don't tend to realize it for a day or so, then find myself tense and grouchy in trying to get things accomplished while feeling pretty lousy. The emotions (and I mean negative) start to surface! So, I'm better and now that I feel better and also in that we've got most of the really major stuff done (both ministry work and decorations, etc.) things are much more peaceful! Apologies are good, and I can tell you I've gotten fairly good at apologizing to my good wife over the years, having to do so quite a bit!

Yes, Glenny needs prayer to walk in the Spirit too.

O.K., now to get some sleep as tomorrow after our worship gathering there's more decorating to do :)

Take time to read the Word and pray (talking to myself as well as you here) and take coffee breaks with your sweet spouse and/or friends- or you'll find you have to apologize a lot also!

With Love and Thanks for our Merciful Jesus and the Best Wife a guy could have,
-Glenn

DECEMBER 1 UPDATE

Had An Issue... with a website change here (at this here glennkaiser.com) where the Blogger connection wasn't changed also, thereby cancelling out my Thanksgiving greetings to all! But hey, here we are, all is working again.

Great shows (that is, we had a blast and a good many kind folks showed up) at Bloomington, Illinois and Festus, Missouri... and am having fun including Wendi doing a few REZ unplugged songs in the middle of my acoustic blues sets.

Hope Thanksgiving (for those in the U.S.) was as sweet a day for you and yours as for Wendi and I!

HERE'S THE NEWS:
So, working on many Project 12 items, will try to get with Roy and demo more tunes for the upcoming Fulton County Blues project, seems that REZ may well be doing a reunion tour in various -to be announced later- cities in Germany and Switzerland in Spring of 2009, GKB will do midwest and beyond touring in '09 as well, sorting through many requests now... I'll do more solo (and solo with Wendi) shows throughout this next year as well... Lord willing on all of this of course :)... beginning to work on some Christmas presents... and for those hunters out there, passed up a LOT of deer last week, too small or young... so hopefully this week I'll put one or two in the freezer for the winter. Today was the first snowfall for Chicago and it's quite pretty indeed.

Thanks for all the kind emails, prayers and great chats at shows!

With Love and Thanks, -Glenn