astradele

You may have heard of 411-Song: you call them with your cell phone, hold up the cell phone to music you’re listening to, and several seconds later, it texts you the name of that song.  Pretty useful, considering how many times all of us have struggled to remember the name of a song.

While there appears to be software (Tunatic) that does something similar from your computer, I thought it would be more interesting if there was something to take an existing music file, figure out the Artist, Album, etc., and rename the file.  Something to make it easy to organize and reorganize your music.

As it turns out, it exists and it’s really quite good: MusicBrainz.  The software’s free, and they have versions that work on Windows, Mac, and Linux.  They maintain an online database of all the music that the community has identified, and the software contacts that database to match your music file to the information they have.  An additional surprise: it works for at least some classical and anime/j-pop music!

So I finally roused myself to do some church hunting again.  It seems some years my attendance is good, and then there are the other years…  I could go back to my church of a few months in 2006, but I must confess: I’m embarrassed by my 18 month hiatus and the appearance of being a “fair weather friend”.  I doubt anyone would judge me – to my face at least – but it would sit in the back of my mind, never mind wondering if I really am.

With “fresh start” and “explore” in mind, I suddenly remembered a church I had meant to look into the last time I was looking around.  I couldn’t remember the name, but I remembered its unique feature: Sunday service held in a movie theatre.

The Meeting House has multiple locations, most (all?) held in movie theatres before they’re open for Sunday business.  The announcements and singing are performed locally, then they switch over to a satellite feed on the big screen for the sermon.  The pastor presents locally at one of the locations.

I had heard about this church years ago, and it’s apparent it’s been popular.  There were 6-7 “satellite branches” listed and I would estimate that the downtown location filled to 400+ people.

Prior to the start of sermon, there were “pre-roll” slides, similar what one might watch when arriving for a movie early.  The quotes were all related to the sermon’s topic, and I was impressed they had even selected an energetic background music to match.

The sermon itself had excellent videography, and was punctuated with video clips to drive home the point visually.  The pastor encouraged anyone with a question to send a text message, which were later addressed in the Q&A period near the end.

The message itself took a refreshing direction.  Although the series was about David (of David and Goliath fame), the day’s “moral” was about having humility.  In particular, some advice was given on dealing with antagonism, e.g. “Don’t villify the other person, instead relate to the best version of them”.

I’m intrigued so far, and it’s pleasant to attend Sunday service again.  Time will tell, of course, but for now those cushy movie theatre seats have quite a lot of appeal over wooden pews.