Don't know about your urban area, but here in Portland we have some really wonderful, old restored theaters that have unique experiences. Cinema is a huge part of the culture here. Have beer & pizza at the Bagdad or on the sofas at Kennedy School theater. Watch a film festival at the Fox, or an annual pilgrimage to Warren Miller at the Schnizer Theater (an opera house). Lots of unique options, none of which have the odious 3D.

@mike O: You're describing Cinetopia in Vancouver, WA. Amazing place for a date. Smaller, more intimate dining & first-class viewing. @Chris Oakes: profitably? Sure. Cheap? No. The economy of scale would be much lesser than traditional theaters (which are struggling as it is). You'd need all the expensive hardware (digital projection, Dolby sound, etc.), but for fewer seats. However, I do think there is a place for the "premium experience". It's certainly not about the films themselves, which look pretty much the same visually on Blu-ray or Netflix/Vudu/ITMS. Is it for me? Not likely. I like the sweaty, chattering crush of humanity. My wife would much prefer your vision of cinema, though.

Prezi - very interesting, haven't tried it yet but have listed it among the "web-based preso softwares" for those on the road. I heard they had an HTML5 version, too. Hoping Keynote -> MobileMe will be the ticket.

I never tire of watching parkour. Here's a short one for you: http://vimeo.com/15433780 And this one is very rough-and-tumble (ghettoes of Marseilles?), but just pure creativity: http://vimeo.com/6495648. An amazing fusion of gymnastics, hip-hop, wuxia, and urban boredom.

So sorry to hear about Cody! May his wee hand heal quickly.

That, right there, is one way social media can "prepare the soil" with people. I've found that to be true time and again. This post articulates that principle in a very memorable way.

It amazes me how great concepts often hinge on a really innocuous document, whiteboard, napkin, or sketch. It's the moment the lights really come on. The rest is just execution. I recall there's a good blog or two out there covering sketches & concepts. Worth looking for. Oh, you MUST see: http://artofthetitle.com. Title sequences in all their sketchy glory. Wonderful, wonderful creative insights.

Coders I know keep a "hate.txt" file when working with various frameworks or web tools. I wrote a big "hate" list when I started using ProPresenter 3 - those turned into constructive criticisms, filed bugs, and me learning how to work with those things. love.txt! =)

An excellent insight, Ben. Posts like these last two are why your blog is in my must-read feed folder. I wonder how an organization could take the idea of blessing new ideas, initiatives, and even spin-offs into its culture. What if people's entrepreneurial spirit was nurtured, instead of squashed? I've found the Portland, Oregon creative scene to be a small community of excellence that clumps together, works together, explodes apart again and then repeats. There seems to be an assumption of that cyclical nature and restlessness of creatives. Bridges are rarely burned and working groups reconfigure many times, with variety, over time (freelancers, staff, etc.). What if the Kingdom was like that? David, I love the visual of the relay runners.

Great post Garr, sharing this with some presenters I work with. Note: Some of the images in the post aren't wrapping the text around them, and are obscuring the words. The "float:right" style isn't working for some reason.

@ Jason Limato - what an awesome encouragement. Ben, make a poster out of that and look at it on days when your mission feels impossible. Jason, you are a modern Barnabas! Ben, you're a rolling stone that gathers no moss. It doesn't surprise me at all to see you shift your direction, refocus, or start something radically different! I'm personally heartened to see you focus on pouring yourself into creatives. The church at large is awakening to the arts again after a long sleep. The church at large needs leadership and inspiration - they haven't known what to do with artists in the church. Leaders need more "art" in their messages, in their stories. I think you're bringing exactly what the Kingdom needs right now (and without all the church unity messiness! =).

Thanks for posting these. I have to design lots of screens for many events - always nice to see what's going on out there. I like designing them in Keynote, which has decent tools, lets me use templates, and is great at kicking out a stack of images for use with projection software (I use ProPresenter). So funny how such a cheap tool can do the job, better, than say, Illustrator.

Excellent post. I find that when a subject or task is scary, and I'm drawn to it, just starting to play around with it is a great place to start. I've done this with basketball (I suck, but I love to play), guitar (still learning the ropes), worship leading (terror! Adrenaline!) and skateboarding (trying not to kill myself, and there's lots of 30+ skaters in Portland). I've tried to "travel boldly" abroad as well (meeting locals, eating what they eat, and not imagining terrorists at every corner). This has huge implications for how we teach our kids to persevere, and to not be intimidated by skills, people, or technology. Just jump in, tinker with it - and lose the fear of it.

Been hearing about this a lot, but I've seen nothing that explains what it actually is. Is there somewhere that explains it (both english and geek, preferably)? A lack of detail around a huge launch (or rather, a launch with huge names behind it) can, for some, smell like vaporware. Me? I smell potential. But I can't tell if this will affect my world yet. Sounds exciting! Your post on the future of blogging raised important questions.

Literally? This person said, "Who cares?" You know, when you get dissed like that, it makes me feel just a bit better for getting attacks for pushing the envelope. Being a pioneer can be really lonely.

I hate to say this, but I disagree with those commenters who say, "write excellent content [alone], and they will come, regardless of the 'other stuff'". "The medium is the message" - McLuhan's statement seems more true than ever here. If the writing isn't connected to the rapidly changing social media landscape, then it just won't get read. At least, not by as many people. That landscape is moving rapidly to twitter-length text bites and image-culture video clips: a medium not conducive to longer-form, thoughtful blog posts. I read Ben's blog because it is thought-provoking, honest, and excellent. I mostly read via RSS (why the haters?). But, I'm old-school that way. Books still have the power to change lives. Has a blog post ever really changed the way you look at something?

Great questions, Ben. I do see blogs dying, in its "traditional" form. I'm with you on the value of a strongly branded territory, a space that you still control. What I see happening is the "brand chunks" (elements, if you will) kind of exploding and scattering into all these various channels. Perhaps the content starts at the blog, but is reposted/linked and the conversation happens in all these other places (i.e. Facebook, youtube, etc.). Right now I'm really liking hosted comment services like Disqus and IntenseDebate for that part. They adapt more rapidly than any blog platform can, and they are good at capturing "social media reactions" (kind of like meta-comments, I guess - RTs and the like), and displaying that on the blog. A pleasant side effect is that I don't have to manage users & comments as much. Also, it lets me manage multiple blogs more easily. The medium itself is changing rapidly - not all for the better. Quality long-form reading online (say, a magazine article length - sad) is rapidly dying.

Re: kids with you in public: Our kids are our secret weapon in urban ministry. They demolish ethnic, language, and culture barriers to connecting. We live in urban NE Portland, Oregon, with a very ethnically diverse community. Taking our kids to the park or riding the bus or train opens the door to talking to other parents. We don't even have to speak the same language. Of course, we're not "misusing" our kids - we just socialize intentionally together with them to make friends and be ambassadors for Jesus. They're an integral part of ministry to whole families.

My memory of this event in scripture had melons (the "melons of egypt") in it. Typical of Israelies to make the story bigger with each telling... =)

Looking forward to the book. Few things are less interesting than pulled punches. Based on some of the above comments, Calvinism sounds a lot more... muscular than I previously thought! =)

I'm a third-generation artist and creative professional. One thing I bring up when I'm mentoring artists (who are in the professional world, or at least trying to do 'serious' work), is to think of themselves as craftspeople. Craftsmen are about beauty & aesthetics - but also usefulness and practicality. Craftsmen are about *getting it done*. A craftsman isn't afraid of criticism, and the constant demand of having to meet clients' needs keeps us humble. A biblical example that I cherish is of Bezalel, the artisan who was "filled with the Spirit": Then the Lord said to Moses, "Look, I have specifically chosen Bezalel son of Uri, grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts. He is a master craftsman, expert in working with gold, silver, and bronze. He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood. He is a master at every craft!" (Exodus 31:1-5, http://read.ly/Exod31.1.NLT) I love that! Here's a guy that God chose to fill with his Spirit and amplify his talent not only to do, but to teach. Artists can learn from the concept of the master craftsman as someone who is fully free to explore and create - the things that boundary-pushing artists love - but also to work for a higher purpose and provide practical value to their community.

Unfortunately Kent is right - as much as I don't enjoy FB, it's where the people are. Just read an article on how twitter isn't cool enough for Gen Y ("Gen Me!"); "FB is all I need! And look, phonecam vid of me dancing!". With Facebook Connect, perhaps its enduring value will be as an identity system for other applications. Which would make FB suck less. Right now, I mostly transmit to FB (via Ping.fm) from SMS or email, and it goes to FB from there. I check in a couple times a week and only approve friend requests from people I actually know. Just one of my chores... You may have seen it; "25 things I hate about Facebook:" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVA047JAQsk Nails it!

Been in cat. 3 (5 years freelancing), in category 2.5 now. Stability is an illusion: I could be laid off tomorrow. I'm being challenged a lot, and stretched, but being on staff anywhere means there's a little coasting, it's just the nature of organizations.

"I've dropped my iPhone AGAIN!!" "Dude, you won't see that until Spring."