what now, los angeles?

bri brought up a good question the other day:

now that aron's, tower records and the warehouse have gone out of business, where will people in la get their music now?

i mean, besides amoeba, itunes or teh intraweb... or did i just answer my own question?

a church grew in hollywood

it's pretty un-hip to be a christian. i should know, because i am one.

no matter how hard jay bakker, creed, or mosaic try to convince you otherwise, they always come off as looking like they're just trying too damn hard.

update: i'm not getting down on christians in general... it's just that telling most people you know Jesus makes a completely different impression than saying you know Steven Spielberg or the one-armed drummer from Def Leppard.

over the years, i've come to terms with my christianity, and at times i'll even admit it publicly. it wasn't acutally that hard, because i've pretty much been a square for most of my life anyways. i figure if you want to look at it from a logical perspective, the pros for being a christian far outweigh the cons (eternal paradise? come on, it's a no-brainer!). but for some people - particularly for people living in los angeles - being percieved as "uncool" is just about the worst thing that could happen.

i'm just glad I don't live in china, where people braver than me are hung from iron gates and tortured for their beliefs.

now that's totally uncool.

but i digress...

if you're looking for a place in hollywood where you can go and hang out with all the other un-cool people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, ecclesia hollywood has just moved into its new digs at the beautiful old pacific theatre on hollywood between cahuenga and wilcox (click here for map).

incidentally, ecclesia is celebrating its second year in hollywood this weekend (may 20th). there's going to be a roundtable discussion with all of the church officers, so anyone who's been curious about the church will probably find this sunday's service to be a good jumping-on point (kind of like those midseason "recap" episodes of lost).

there's really nothing i feel like i could say about ecclesia without making it sound like every other "hey we're young, urban christians and our praise band is gonna rock you out with some newsboys covers this sunday" kind of church (incidentally, our pastor has actually directed a few newsboys music videos - be sure to ask him about the dance from "love, liberty, disco" if you ever meet him).

in the end, i know that being a christian isn't about what i want (in this life) or about how comfortable i feel (around other people), and a church should be judged by what it teaches, not by its tattoo or celebrity count. what what i will say is that ecclesia is the first congregation i've ever been able to worship with where even though i don't feel any cooler or hipper, i'm able to take comfort in the fact that we're being un-cool and un-hip together.

and that's pretty cool, if you ask me.

i <3 blogging.la

now that a few more people are being directed to the CF, i wish i had more interesting things to say. remember how in my first post i mentioned that if i could keep this thing updated once a week, i'd be able to call it a success?

whoops.

its like every time i'm out riding my bike or driving my car - pretty much any time i'm nowhere near a computer - i get an idea and i say to myself, "i should write a blog about that."

of course, i never do. i get distracted by something shiny in the road (like a car door opening into the bike lane), or the hollywood hills ablaze three or four blocks up from my girlfriend's apartment.

i'm guessing that blogging is fairly easy, in the same way that a lot of things are - writing, talking, driving, making movies - it's just that doing it well is the difficult part.

speaking of good reads, check out the dancing panda, bri's dance music blog. why? it's fun, and the moving gif of a girl in a panda mask will blow your mind.