'wicked' cool

I've always liked Kristen Chenoweth. She's talented, pretty, smart, and...

...she's written a book.

Of course, she has, right? I mean, everybody writes a book these days. But I do think the title is cute and clever.



As long as her book is better than her attempts to sing Christian music. Wow. Her "inspirational" CDs--the ones where she does Broadway versions of Christian classics like Sandi Patty's "How Majestic is Your Name"--are awful.

She's got a great voice. But she should stick to singing Broadway tunes and jazz.

Just my opinion. Your used to me giving my opinion, right?

:)

delirious: history maker

In honor of the interview I'm doing today with Martin Smith of Delirious....

I like this song.

i want this devotional!

And if you look at the bottom of the book, the author wrote another one called "If God Loves Me, Why Can't I Get My Locker Open!"

For real, yo.

In high school, my locker door sucked. It was always getting stuck.

Today it's the trunk of my wife's car. That thing never opens properly. Yo, what's up, God?

Seriously.

So who wants to practice being awesome with me?

elias

This photo of Elias was taken by Josh Ulmer

and the 'unlikely' winners are...

Thank you so much for joining in the fun! I'll be doing another giveaway soon.

In no particular order, here are the winners!

1) Joshua D. Rollins @ March 26, 2009 7:48 AM

2) Ness @ March 26, 2009 9:26 AM

3) Taylor Ross @ March 27, 2009 10:18 AM

4) Greg @ March 26, 2009 6:15 PM

5) TheEstherProject @ March 26, 2009 8:28 AM

Please email your addresses to MatthewPaulTurner@gmail.com with "WINNER" in the subject line! Congrats to each of you!

FOR THE REST OF YOU... you can purchase the book below:

disney earth

This looks pretty cool. I love the "buy a ticket, plant a tree" marketing incentive.

Sure, it would be cool if Disney would just plant the darn trees. I mean, I'm pretty sure they could afford it. But still, it's cool.

Anyway, if you haven't seen Planet Earth, or want to see it on the big screen, this new edit of the popular DVD collection will be a cool way to do it. AND you'll plant a tree with every ticket purchase...


For more info about this, go here!

WIN A COPY OF 'UNLIKELY DISCIPLE'!

If you visit my blog, you know I've been excited about Kevin Roose's book The Unlikely Disciple... here's how I found out about it...

So just about a month ago, I was in the bathroom reading Details (the bathroom is where I do most of my magazine reading). My wife would rather I read magazines in the bathroom than take my laptop with me. She thinks that's "gross." (And no, I don't care what you think--seriously, I don't.) Anyway, I was reading the book section of Details and one of the books they covered was called The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose. After reading the book's premise, I knew that I pretty much hated the author already. Why did I hate him? Well, there's a list of reasons, but the big one is that the concept for his book is genius. Seriously, it's genius. If you don't believe me, check out its book trailer.



READ THE REVIEWS

You guys are going to love this book! But before you leave a comment to win one of the copies, read my interview with Kevin....

MATTHEW: OK, Kevin, what's the deal, man? You're 21 and you've already managed to write and publish a 300+ page book? Oh, and so far, the critics LOVE it. What's your secret man? Drugs? Jesus? Good genes?

KEVIN: Well, if it makes you feel better, the 300-page book is set in REALLY BIG FONT. No, I'm joking. Actually, I have no idea what happened. I've always wanted to be a writer, but I thought it was something people did in their thirties after they'd exhausted all other career options...

MATTHEW: Wait. Is that a dis toward me? I'm kidding.

KEVIN: (Laughs) Then this crazy opportunity presented itself, and I got an unexpected chance to tell an amazing story. I've been playing catch-up ever since.

MATTHEW: So the premise of Disciple is that you transferred to "God's college" Liberty University from one of "Satan's colleges" (he has many, you know...) Brown University, so tell me... what Liberty "law" were you most anxious about? You know, the one "rule" that you thought you'd have the most trouble following.

KEVIN: The hardest rule to follow, without a doubt, was Liberty's ban on cursing. I don't smoke or drink heavily or conduct occult rituals, but I do enjoy a good four-letter word now and again. And at Liberty, cursing can get you as many as 18 reprimands. (For perspective, 30 reprimands generally gets you kicked out.) So I had to retrain myself. I actually bought a self-help book, called "30 Days to Taming Your Tongue," that taught me how to replace my curses with words like "Glory!" and "Mercy me!" I sounded like Beaver Cleaver for a few days, but at least I didn't get expelled.

MATTHEW: You write in your book about witnessing a guy named Jersey Joe becoming famous for "naked skateboarding" in the men's dorm... please tell us more. And did you partake in the uh, "fun"?

KEVIN: Jersey Joey is quite a character. He was Liberty's version of a rebel – he didn't fornicate or smoke weed, but he was prone to pranking the innocent pastors' kids on the hall. He'd sneak into the bathroom while they were taking showers and steal their towels, so they'd have to run back to their rooms butt-naked while everyone cheered them on. I love the guy, but I never joined him on his escapades.

MATTHEW: As fate would have it, you ended up being the last person to sit down and interview Jerry Falwell. When I was a kid, I loved Jerry! As I got older, I became a pretty vocal critic of his seemingly hateful politically-and-socially limiting "sound bites." What did you think of him? And can you tell us something about him that might surprise us?

KEVIN: I was never a big fan of Jerry Falwell. Growing up, it was almost forbidden to speak his name in my house, like Voldemort or something. But during my Liberty semester, I got to see what his followers liked about him. He could be charming and folksy, almost grandfatherly. And when I got to interview him for Liberty's campus newspaper a few weeks before he died (it was the last print interview of his life, as it turned out) he told me that he loved practical jokes. They found three boxes of stinkbombs in his desk when he died. It doesn't excuse the "politically-and-socially limiting" things he did, but it might help explain his huge following.

MATTHEW: I don't want you give away the ending, but can you tell us one thing that you--the "flaming liberal from Satan's university"--learned while at Liberty?

KEVIN: Basically, I learned that the secular paranoia about a place like Liberty – that there are 10,000 undergraduates who do nothing all day but sit around sewing Hillary Clinton voodoo dolls and writing angry letters to the ACLU – has almost no basis in fact. The Liberty students I met were socially and politically conservative, but as college kids go, they were all fairly normal. They gossiped about girls, worried about jobs, complained about the amount of homework they had – all the things my friends at Brown do.

MATTHEW: Lastly, if somebody was thinking about venturing out on this kind of experience, you know, leaving the comfort of their "life" and engaging the culture/lifestyle/experience of another, what would be your advice to them?

KEVIN: Do it! In To Kill a Mockingbird (sorry, I'm an English major), Atticus Finch gives his daughter a piece of advice: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." I think we should all spend time with the people who seem to have nothing in common with us – it makes us more empathetic, and I think it helps break down barriers.

MATTHEW: Oh, one more question... Rob Bell LOVES your book. And I LOVE Rob Bell. How'd you end up scoring his endorsement?

KEVIN: I didn't expect to score it at all, actually. I sent a book to his office thinking that he might accidentally trip on the box and decide to open it. But he wrote back several days later telling me how much he loved the book. I was a huge fan of Rob's before that, but I'm borderline reverent now.

TO WIN ONE OF THE FIVE BOOKS, LEAVE A COMMENT! Winners will be announced FRIDAY afternoon!

caption this!

"Mommy, what is that?"

"Oh, Sweetie, that's a picture of how much God loves the world! He loved the world so much that he took a cross made of 4X4s and penetrated the vital organs of a sheep-looking creature just for you, Baby. Doesn't seeing it make you feel loved and hope-filled?"

"Mommy, is that the same sheep that Jesus left the other 99 to go find?"

"No, Baby, I'm sure that's a different sheep."

OK, so a friend sent me this picture. It's a "Church Banner." You know, a homemade "Christian" decoration that somebody thought would look great hanging up in the church vestibule to celebrate Easter time, or better yet I imagine the creator of this banner saying, "Pastor Bill, I made a little something to hang up above the baptistry pool!"

I have a few questions/comments about this banner...

-Is that a sheep that the cross is stabbing or a Labrador Retriever? Labrador of God doesn't have the same "ring" to it as Lamb of God does. And whatever it is, it appears that it's still alive. My gosh, close the poor thing's eyes. I feel like it's looking at me.

-And what pray tell is that red tornado-looking thing just beneath Lady the Labrador Retriever? Is the dog's blood being funneled to the North Pole? Did the banner's creator paint the dog too high and have to improvise?

-Please notice that the "world" is an actual globe that's been cut in half! Yes. The world is in 3D, people! So clever. But if you're a Christian, you have to feel sorry for the people living below the Equator. God's red saving paint doesn't cross over into the Southern Hemisphere too often according to this artist.

-I wonder if PETA has seen this.

no 'john 3:16' for you!

Yikes. You just don't mess with John 3:16.

Ever.

last day of spring break

trying to catch elias in the act!

spring break day 4

Just Elias on the video today. I can take a hint. :)

We were pretending to be partying in Cancun. Hence, the music.



Here's the Look, Look! book on Amazon

spring break day 3!

happy st. patrick's day!

spring break, day 2

I know that, for some of you, these videos of Elias and me are boring. And that's cool. You don't have to watch.

:)

spring break week (elias stays home with daddy!)

so one of the winners didn't get back to me...

so, the new winner is... ba ba ba baaaaa...

hapless roamantic

unlikely disciple

The following is the book trailer for my friend Kevin Roose (follow him on Twitter) first memoir The Unlikely Disciple.

And it just so happens I'll be giving a few copies away in a couple weeks. But until then, whet your literary appetite with this...

and the 'angry' winners are...

Thank you so much for participating in this book giveaway! The response was overwhelming--in a good way. Several publishers have sent me emails asking if I would give away some of their books. I told them sure--if I like the book.

So if you're one of the following people...

KMAYS: comment left on March 11, 2009 @ 12:32 PM
Ryan Guard: comment left on March 11, 2009 @ 12:30 PM
GitzenGirl: comment left on March 11, 2009 @ 1:03 PM
Kaira: comment left on March 11, 2009 @ 10:17 AM
Todd: comment left on March 11, 2009 @ 8:15 AM

... send your mailing address (remember, no P.O. boxes) to MatthewPaulTurner@gmail.com and I will forward your information on to the publisher!

IF YOU DIDN'T WIN... GO BUY THE BOOK @ AMAZON!!!

Click here to do that now.



It really is a great book, one that is funny and meaningful to each of us (though perhaps in different ways).

Again, thanks for participating. Come back and visit my blog. The next book give away will be soon!

mpt

GIVEAWAY: win a copy of 'angry conversations with god'

Today's post is all about my new friend Susan E. Isaac's book Angry Conversations With God: A Snarky But Authentic Spiritual Memoir. In addition to introducing you to a fantastic book and writer, I'm also lucky enough to be able to offer a FIVE lucky blog readers a free copy of Susan's book! MORE ON THAT IN JUST A SECOND.

I'm excited about Susan's book for many reasons: It's honest and funny--at times, hysterically funny! Unlike a lot of writers who publish books in the Christian market, Susan's voice and tone is distinct, lively, and passionate. I mean, anybody can learn to construct sentences in order to tell a story. But the writers whose work you long to read put "themselves" down on paper. That's not something easily learned. I have a feeling that Susan didn't really have to learn that, because it seems to be a part of who she is, to capture in words her engaging, broken, even ballsy persona.

The stories she tells in Angry Conversations are sometimes raw, and for some, they will perhaps be too raw. Honestly, I'm thankful that Susan doesn't retell her experiences in the gingerly I-don't-want-to-offend-any-Christians sort-of way that so many writers who have Christian publishing deals tend to do. Susan let's the ugliness of her story hangout, makes the reader a little uncomfortable, and then sometimes surprises us with a redemptive conclusion.

OK, I'll admit, and I believe Susan would want me to, once in a while there's a little over-spiritualized "cheese" in Angry Conversation. You know, the stuff that will make some people cry and others roll their eyes. But one thing is for sure: Angry Conversations is original. It's not perfect, but in my opinion, the best books aren't. Why? Because perfection isn't human, and let's face it, when we read a memoir we need that human element, that emotional connection that whispers to us as we read: I know exactly how she feels. That happens over and over again in this book.

This is the kind of book that you will read and feel compelled to tell 4 or 5 of your friends about. I highly recommend it.

So, if you don't want to wait to see if you will WIN one of the 5 copies from the publisher, BUY IT NOW BY CLICKING HERE. You are going to LOVE it. And if you don't, send me an email and complain! I love getting those kinds of emails.

INTERESTING LINKS ABOUT SUSAN E. ISAACS

Susan's website
Susan's blog
To hear/see Susan read Chapter 1 of "Angry Conversation"
Check out Susan's IMPRESSIVE Bio

AND COME ON, DONALD MILLER LOVES SUSAN'S BOOK!

Donald Miller said this about Angry Conversations: "If King David were a woman, and were funny, he'd be Susan Isaacs. And the thing about this book is: it surprises you. There are lines in it you won't see coming. You'll be handing this book to somebody else about a month from now, thinking 'maybe this will help them understand me.' You'll do that because it helped you understand yourself first."

MY SNARKY BUT AUTHENTIC INTERVIEW WITH SUSAN

Matthew: Hi Susan! Thank you for taking the time to chat with me. As you know I've been writing on my blog about how good I think your book is. And gosh, I'm in good company. I mean, you know a book is good when somebody like DONALD MILLER dubs you the female version of King David! Wow. That's pretty cool. So, do you have a friend named Bathsheba?

Susan: Well if I had stayed single any longer, I may have ended up with a cat named Bathsheba. I was seriously considering naming my cat "Cheryl." Don was kind to say that about me; but maybe he was referring to all the bone-headed mistakes King David made in his life. Cuz I did that.

Matthew: Speaking of your book, the premise of Angry Conversations is that you take God to "couple's counseling"? But can I ask you this: uh, how does that work if you're a dude?

Susan: I've always wondered how you guys deal with being the "Bride of Christ?" Or for that matter, how does a guy sing girlie worship songs to Jesus every Sunday and still keep his cojones? Whatever that takes, you'd have to bring that resolve into the counseling room. Use lots of "Man, I love you man!"

Matthew: See, I'm inclined to think that, if I'd written your book, it would have been called Passive Aggressive Conversations With God, mostly because I'm weak like that, Susan--so, I want to know how you mustered up the courage to get really mad at God?

Susan: Haaa. Passive Aggressive conversations. LMAO (that's "arse"). Well I grew up with a rageaholic father, so Dad kinda broke the ice, when it came to anger. And if you hit forty and your life bottoms out, the proverbial kid gloves come off. Trust me. Actually they came off at 35. Just warning you.

Matthew: Great to hear! I'm 35 now. At least, I'll have something to write about. OK--moving on--so I'm pretty sure my blog readers will be interested to hear that you starred in an episode of Seinfeld. So, I'm assuming that means you met Jerry? (I actually sat really close to him at a hip diner in NYC one time. But I couldn't get him to look at me.) Anyway, that must have been pretty cool. So when you met Jerry, did you have an angry conversation with him, too?

Susan: I was on the show in its seventh season; they were monstrously successful by then and had their walls up. Jerry gave me his cursory "hey." Julia gave me her friendly 'Hey!" and Michael Richards didn't look at me -- he's a foot and a half taller than the rest of the world, he doesn't make eye contact he's so tall. Jason Alexander was such a Broadway vet; he sat around a picnic table with most of the guest cast and talked about New York theater. Now if Jerry had made conversation with me, I probably would have clammed up. I never thought he was a brilliant actor, but when I watched him and Larry David work out the jokes each day I was kind of floored. They really knew what made something work.

Matthew: One last question, Susan. Can you offer my blog readers some advice on how to be funny? I mean, your book is pretty dang hilarious at times.

Susan: Tell the truth, don't hold back. Be willing to be vulnerable and wrong and stupid! 2) Things are funny when you make yourself look silly. 3) Be be specific. Specifics always ground any story (comedic or not) in things you can see and touch and taste. For instance, what's funnier? Saying, "I love cheese." OR saying, "I love a good gherkin on a cracker." And yeah, words with P and K are funny. DUH. It's because they're percussive. They startle the listener.

Matthew: P and K, huh? I do like a good P-word. I also think L-words are funny. But probably for different reasons. Anyway, hey Susan, can I ask you one more question. Uh, are you mad at me?

Susan: You MoFo, you STOLE my book cover idea! The whole "boy putting on his clip-on tie," that was MY CHILDHOOD! YOU little piece of... Oh, no. That must have been a dream. No I'm not mad at you. May the Lord bless you richly.

Matthew: You're awesome. I totally see why Don calls you Queen David.

TO WIN A COPY OF SUSAN E. ISAACS'S ANGRY CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, LEAVE A COMMENT!

The five (5) winners will be chosen at random and announced TOMORROW, Thursday, March 12 at 3 p.m. CENTRAL time. In order to be entered to win, comments must be left by 2 p.m. CENTRAL time. All comments left after 2 p.m. CENTRAL time will be disqualified. Winners will need to provide to me by email (MatthewPaulTurner@gmail.com) a mailing address (sorry no P.O. boxes) in order to receive their copy of Angry Conversations With God. If winners fail to send me an email with their mailing addresses, a new winner will be selected to take their place. The books will be sent to you by the publisher Faith Words.

So, leave a comment--any sort of comment--but include your name, and then, TELL A FRIEND ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY!

video mosaic?

The following video was alerted to me by a Twitter friend @edubtv