Purpose, it's that little flame,
That lights a fire under your ass
Purpose, it keeps you going strong,
Like a car with a full tank of gas
Everyone else has a purpose,
so what's mine?
Oh look, here's a penny
It's from the year I was born
It's a sign!
-Avenue Q
So this was a pretty awesome weekend in many ways. Let's start with Saturday, eh?
Saturday morning I got up bright and early so that I could get on the bus and be in Hollywood in time for the 10:30 tour of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre. No one probably remembers, but seeing a movie at the Egyptian was part of my list of things I wanted to do in LA. Well, it turns out that one weekend every month they offer tours of the theatre and then show a movie called "Forever Hollywood," a documentary about the history and magic of Hollywood.
Saturday was just about the nicest day ever. I know its freezing and maybe even snowing in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, and I don't mean to shove the amazing weather in all of your faces, but it was about 85 here on Saturday. It was another beautiful and perfect Southern California Day.
Here's the courtyard of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, the first major Hollywood movie palace, where the red carpet and the idea of a huge Hollywood Premiere were all born.
The tour was very cool. There was a lot of amazing history in the Egyptian, unfortunately the interior is not quite as grand and amazing as it originally was. I believe it was in the 50s that someone bought the Theatre and saved it from falling into disrepair, but unfortunately that owner took out the amazing proscenium arch that once graced the stage. The theatre originally held about 2,000 people, but since the building was restored and turned into a more state-of-the-art theatre it now only holds about 600 people. Still, it was great to learn so much about such an important and beautiful part of Hollywood history.
The movie, "Forever Hollywood," was very cool, and captured the magic and grandeur of Hollywood in a way that very little of modern Hollywood actually does. Steven Spielberg, Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, and John Travolta were just a few of the A-List celebrities interviewed in the great documentary. Visiting and touring the Egyptian Theatre was very cool, and very cheap, too. Only ten bucks for the tour and the movie!
After going to the Egyptian, I grabbed some lunch at the Hollywood and Highland complex, then Jenn picked me up and we headed to the Los Angeles Zoo. The zoo is in this really huge, really cool park called Griffith Park. Seeing the beautiful huge grass fields were a welcome change from the urban sprawl of the city.
As for the zoo itself, it was fun and cool, but zoos just don't really do as much for me as they once did. It's just like, ohh there's another animal, not moving, sitting in an extremely unnatural cage. Still, there were highlights, like the Gorilla Exhibit was very cool, and I always love seeing the sea lions. They're just always swimming around having so much fun. If I was an animal, I would definitely be a marine mammal, like a sea lion or Dolphin. Probably a dolphin, though, because they can intimidate sharks.
The zoo was however, just about the most confusing place I've ever been. It was a crazy maze of pathways and bridges and I'm kind of amazed that we made it out. Still, it was a good time, and it made me think how cool it would hopefully be to go down to the San Diego Zoo.
After the zoo, I came home, and sent some more emails to people at Mosaic, asking about serving opportunities and small groups. Well, this morning I woke up to find replies from both of the people I had emailed! I was very excited. The small group guy told me he didn't actually run a small group but recommended people to contact. I had emailed this guy Adrian about serving with Mosaic, and he very enthusiastically replied to me. He told me we should meet and talk about it and asked me if I could come to Mosaic at 2:30 to help with set-up. I was stoked about the opportunity to serve at Mosaic so I of course told him I'd be there.
So around 1:30 I went and hopped on the bus downtown, realizing I should probably make sure I take a book or something when taking the bus all the way downtown. When I got downtown, I had some time to waste, so I walked around a bit, checking out some of the city's amazing older architecture. Then at 2:30 I came back to the downtown home of Mosaic , the Mayan Theatre. Here's a picture to show how seriously awesome the building I go to church in is.
It's seriously cool on the inside too, but I don't have any pictures of that at the moment.
Anyway, at 2:30 I met Adrian out front and we pretty much immediately starting helping with set-up for the 5 o'clock gathering.
For anyone who doesn't remember or didn't read it, Mosaic is a church in Southern California that does not own any buildings, but rents out spaces around town to hold their services in. Erwin McManus is the amazing head pastor of Mosaic, and I seriously recommend checking out his podcasts at mosaic.org. I believe Evan even quoted Erwin McManus or told one of his stories recently at Navs. The building where Mosaic meets downtown is an old theatre that is now a pretty popular dance club the rest of the week. Because it is a club, it's full of amazing lighting and stuff which can help enhance the mood and make for extremely powerful worship experiences. Needless to say, the place is awesome. I love it.
As I was saying, I helped out with set-up, moving stuff around and changing the letters on the Marquee above the front door to say "MOSAIC AT 5 & 7" After that I walked to Starbucks with the rest of the "connection team" as they're called and hung out. How about that, I walked to Starbucks with people. I didn't get anything of course, because I have no idea how to order anything at Starbucks or what I like from it, and I'm very happy keeping things that way.
I was made pretty happy when at one point Adrian and I were talking to Laurie, who's basically the leader of the connections team, and Adrian said to her, "doesn't Alex just seem like such a nice guy?" She agreed and it was cool, because until that time I wasn't sure if they thought I was an ok guy or not.
After that it was about time for people to arrive for the Gathering, and I was put on Usher and Flavor of the Week duty. Basically for flavor of the week I was given a Mosaic nametag and a tray of dixie cups of Vanilla Chi. My task was to walk around and give free Chi to anyone who looked like they were alone or new. Well, I wasn't sure how i'd do, but it was a blast! I met J.J., who is in audio dubbing, originally from Indiana, came out here on an internship and couldn't stay away. I met Dani, a woman from Bulgaria, who moved here with her family 11 years ago. I met a few other cool people too, like Kevin from Kentucky, and some girls told me the Chi tasted like Christmas. I told everybody I offered drinks to after that that the chi tasted like Christmas, and everyone agreed.
During the service I listened to Erwin's awesome message on judgmental Christians, (download it) and then performed the usher duty of passing around an offering bucket.
At the end of the first service, I talked to Laurie and she told me that if i stayed for Flavor of the Week duty for the 7 o'clock service that they would find me a ride home. So again I rocked flavor of the week. Again I talked to some cool people, like Michael from Charlotte, and John, an aspiring actor from Chicago.
At the end of the first service, Adrian told me he had found me some graphic design work, and I basically didn't know what he was talking about, but I said great. A few minutes later I was by the bar and met a girl named Annie and she asked me what my last name was. I told her it and she immediately said "Ohh I need to talk to you!" I'm not used to people hearing my name and saying they need to talk to me out here, so that took me off guard. But she explained that she needed my help making a flyer to promote serving as part of "Big Sunday," a citywide community service day that apparently even the mayor gets involved in. As if the day hadn't opened me up to my purpose being here enough already, eh? So I'm stoked.
Right before I was leaving with Meg, who gave me a ride home, I went over to Adrian to let him know I had talked to Annie and to say bye. He told me he was so excited I was here and that he had never seen someone so willing to serve, and I told him how excited I was, too. He said he was watching me on flavor of the week duty and that I was a rock star at it. I don't know about all of that, but I cannot believe how amazing the afternoon was. I am serving and making new friends. Does life get any better?
Adrian made sure I'll be back at 2:30 next Sunday, and I most definitely will. This has really been the best weekend of the quarter so far, and I truly am seeing my purpose for coming out here. I just can't believe any of it.
Amazing!
. . . .
Some people like to include music they're listening to at the moment, and just last week I finally bought Lauren Kennedy's CD, songs of Jason Robert Brown. It's pretty amazing, especially the first track, "And I Will Follow." Although it's more about love than faith, it's doing a pretty good job of capturing how I'm feeling at the moment. You should probably get it, or if you're a fan of JRB, just get the whole thing.
Finally, Roy Scheider (Cheif Brody in Jaws) just passed away this weekend. I mention that because I've always been a fan of his. When I was little way before I ever saw Jaws, I vividly remember that Dad and I would sit in the basement and watch him on the tv show seaQuest DSV, and since then I've thought he was very cool. I remember that being a sweet show, and Jaws wouldn't be anything without his Chief Brody, especially in the dinner table scene with his sons.
Anyway, have a great week everybody. As you can probably tell, I'm so excited for the rest of my time here, and I'm really feeling like I hope I come back here in the summer and get to experience more of this amazing place and these awesome people.
much love,
That lights a fire under your ass
Purpose, it keeps you going strong,
Like a car with a full tank of gas
Everyone else has a purpose,
so what's mine?
Oh look, here's a penny
It's from the year I was born
It's a sign!
-Avenue Q
So this was a pretty awesome weekend in many ways. Let's start with Saturday, eh?
Saturday morning I got up bright and early so that I could get on the bus and be in Hollywood in time for the 10:30 tour of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre. No one probably remembers, but seeing a movie at the Egyptian was part of my list of things I wanted to do in LA. Well, it turns out that one weekend every month they offer tours of the theatre and then show a movie called "Forever Hollywood," a documentary about the history and magic of Hollywood.
Saturday was just about the nicest day ever. I know its freezing and maybe even snowing in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, and I don't mean to shove the amazing weather in all of your faces, but it was about 85 here on Saturday. It was another beautiful and perfect Southern California Day.
Here's the courtyard of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, the first major Hollywood movie palace, where the red carpet and the idea of a huge Hollywood Premiere were all born.
The tour was very cool. There was a lot of amazing history in the Egyptian, unfortunately the interior is not quite as grand and amazing as it originally was. I believe it was in the 50s that someone bought the Theatre and saved it from falling into disrepair, but unfortunately that owner took out the amazing proscenium arch that once graced the stage. The theatre originally held about 2,000 people, but since the building was restored and turned into a more state-of-the-art theatre it now only holds about 600 people. Still, it was great to learn so much about such an important and beautiful part of Hollywood history.
The movie, "Forever Hollywood," was very cool, and captured the magic and grandeur of Hollywood in a way that very little of modern Hollywood actually does. Steven Spielberg, Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, and John Travolta were just a few of the A-List celebrities interviewed in the great documentary. Visiting and touring the Egyptian Theatre was very cool, and very cheap, too. Only ten bucks for the tour and the movie!
After going to the Egyptian, I grabbed some lunch at the Hollywood and Highland complex, then Jenn picked me up and we headed to the Los Angeles Zoo. The zoo is in this really huge, really cool park called Griffith Park. Seeing the beautiful huge grass fields were a welcome change from the urban sprawl of the city.
As for the zoo itself, it was fun and cool, but zoos just don't really do as much for me as they once did. It's just like, ohh there's another animal, not moving, sitting in an extremely unnatural cage. Still, there were highlights, like the Gorilla Exhibit was very cool, and I always love seeing the sea lions. They're just always swimming around having so much fun. If I was an animal, I would definitely be a marine mammal, like a sea lion or Dolphin. Probably a dolphin, though, because they can intimidate sharks.
The zoo was however, just about the most confusing place I've ever been. It was a crazy maze of pathways and bridges and I'm kind of amazed that we made it out. Still, it was a good time, and it made me think how cool it would hopefully be to go down to the San Diego Zoo.
After the zoo, I came home, and sent some more emails to people at Mosaic, asking about serving opportunities and small groups. Well, this morning I woke up to find replies from both of the people I had emailed! I was very excited. The small group guy told me he didn't actually run a small group but recommended people to contact. I had emailed this guy Adrian about serving with Mosaic, and he very enthusiastically replied to me. He told me we should meet and talk about it and asked me if I could come to Mosaic at 2:30 to help with set-up. I was stoked about the opportunity to serve at Mosaic so I of course told him I'd be there.
So around 1:30 I went and hopped on the bus downtown, realizing I should probably make sure I take a book or something when taking the bus all the way downtown. When I got downtown, I had some time to waste, so I walked around a bit, checking out some of the city's amazing older architecture. Then at 2:30 I came back to the downtown home of Mosaic , the Mayan Theatre. Here's a picture to show how seriously awesome the building I go to church in is.
It's seriously cool on the inside too, but I don't have any pictures of that at the moment.
Anyway, at 2:30 I met Adrian out front and we pretty much immediately starting helping with set-up for the 5 o'clock gathering.
For anyone who doesn't remember or didn't read it, Mosaic is a church in Southern California that does not own any buildings, but rents out spaces around town to hold their services in. Erwin McManus is the amazing head pastor of Mosaic, and I seriously recommend checking out his podcasts at mosaic.org. I believe Evan even quoted Erwin McManus or told one of his stories recently at Navs. The building where Mosaic meets downtown is an old theatre that is now a pretty popular dance club the rest of the week. Because it is a club, it's full of amazing lighting and stuff which can help enhance the mood and make for extremely powerful worship experiences. Needless to say, the place is awesome. I love it.
As I was saying, I helped out with set-up, moving stuff around and changing the letters on the Marquee above the front door to say "MOSAIC AT 5 & 7" After that I walked to Starbucks with the rest of the "connection team" as they're called and hung out. How about that, I walked to Starbucks with people. I didn't get anything of course, because I have no idea how to order anything at Starbucks or what I like from it, and I'm very happy keeping things that way.
I was made pretty happy when at one point Adrian and I were talking to Laurie, who's basically the leader of the connections team, and Adrian said to her, "doesn't Alex just seem like such a nice guy?" She agreed and it was cool, because until that time I wasn't sure if they thought I was an ok guy or not.
After that it was about time for people to arrive for the Gathering, and I was put on Usher and Flavor of the Week duty. Basically for flavor of the week I was given a Mosaic nametag and a tray of dixie cups of Vanilla Chi. My task was to walk around and give free Chi to anyone who looked like they were alone or new. Well, I wasn't sure how i'd do, but it was a blast! I met J.J., who is in audio dubbing, originally from Indiana, came out here on an internship and couldn't stay away. I met Dani, a woman from Bulgaria, who moved here with her family 11 years ago. I met a few other cool people too, like Kevin from Kentucky, and some girls told me the Chi tasted like Christmas. I told everybody I offered drinks to after that that the chi tasted like Christmas, and everyone agreed.
During the service I listened to Erwin's awesome message on judgmental Christians, (download it) and then performed the usher duty of passing around an offering bucket.
At the end of the first service, I talked to Laurie and she told me that if i stayed for Flavor of the Week duty for the 7 o'clock service that they would find me a ride home. So again I rocked flavor of the week. Again I talked to some cool people, like Michael from Charlotte, and John, an aspiring actor from Chicago.
At the end of the first service, Adrian told me he had found me some graphic design work, and I basically didn't know what he was talking about, but I said great. A few minutes later I was by the bar and met a girl named Annie and she asked me what my last name was. I told her it and she immediately said "Ohh I need to talk to you!" I'm not used to people hearing my name and saying they need to talk to me out here, so that took me off guard. But she explained that she needed my help making a flyer to promote serving as part of "Big Sunday," a citywide community service day that apparently even the mayor gets involved in. As if the day hadn't opened me up to my purpose being here enough already, eh? So I'm stoked.
Right before I was leaving with Meg, who gave me a ride home, I went over to Adrian to let him know I had talked to Annie and to say bye. He told me he was so excited I was here and that he had never seen someone so willing to serve, and I told him how excited I was, too. He said he was watching me on flavor of the week duty and that I was a rock star at it. I don't know about all of that, but I cannot believe how amazing the afternoon was. I am serving and making new friends. Does life get any better?
Adrian made sure I'll be back at 2:30 next Sunday, and I most definitely will. This has really been the best weekend of the quarter so far, and I truly am seeing my purpose for coming out here. I just can't believe any of it.
Amazing!
. . . .
Some people like to include music they're listening to at the moment, and just last week I finally bought Lauren Kennedy's CD, songs of Jason Robert Brown. It's pretty amazing, especially the first track, "And I Will Follow." Although it's more about love than faith, it's doing a pretty good job of capturing how I'm feeling at the moment. You should probably get it, or if you're a fan of JRB, just get the whole thing.
Finally, Roy Scheider (Cheif Brody in Jaws) just passed away this weekend. I mention that because I've always been a fan of his. When I was little way before I ever saw Jaws, I vividly remember that Dad and I would sit in the basement and watch him on the tv show seaQuest DSV, and since then I've thought he was very cool. I remember that being a sweet show, and Jaws wouldn't be anything without his Chief Brody, especially in the dinner table scene with his sons.
Anyway, have a great week everybody. As you can probably tell, I'm so excited for the rest of my time here, and I'm really feeling like I hope I come back here in the summer and get to experience more of this amazing place and these awesome people.
much love,
Alex
2 comments:
Alex, my love, "chi" usually is spelled ... "chai" ... not ALWAYS - but usually. "Chi" sounds more like ... "CHEE" ... But if it makes you feel any better, I'm watching Bobby, Savannah, (I didn't see Colt), and the rest of the High School Musical stage tour cast LIVE on Dance War right now! YAYY!!
alex, your past two posts were great. LA sounds amazing right now. just thought i'd let you know. as always, i will be looking forward to reading your next post!
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