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I just learned this morning that one of my closest friends from my young adulthood has been absent from the body and present with the Lord for many years. I had tried tracking him down many times over the years. Last I saw him, he was preparing to move to South Africa (he had been born in Malawi, I believe, and was of half African and half Caucasian descent). Apparently he died in a car accident not too long after his arrival there.

Al John Losacco was probably mid-40s when I met him. Not even sure how we found each other when I started going to Falconridge Full Gospel in Calgary back in 1986. Perhaps someone introduced us. At any rate, we connected from the beginning, perhaps in part because we were both something of “outsiders” in different ways.

I was a newcomer to an established church (as well to Calgary). My dad was an independent itinerant Pentecostal preacher with a strong anti-institutional bias, so while growing up I was largely in house church and revivalist settings. Yet somehow when I moved to Calgary, I decided I should be in a local church. To be a light to all the poor hypocrites, I’m sure. God works in mysterious ways, because that was a significant turning point in my life.

Al John was simply different. He was the guy traversing the neighbourhood, going door to door with the gospel. Not just randomly (though that was likely the case when he began); he seemed particularly adept at establishing relationships among people of other religions. He would then go into their homes repeatedly with the gospel. I went around with him on one occasion and remember talking with some Hindus he had developed friendship with.

Al John was a gentle, thoughtful man who loved people and wanted nothing more than to serve the Lord faithfully. He sought his counsel from Scripture and didn’t keep it to himself.

Well done, good and faithful servant. We miss you here.

I’ve been sick for a week running, so not accomplishing much at the moment.

I am managing to get a little bit of reading in, though, so that’s nice. Here are the books I’m focusing on at present:

1. Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism. I’m about 2/3 of the way through this one. Novak is a bit of a softcore capitalist, in the sense that he doesn’t seem to bat an eye regarding trade unions and quite a bit of other stuff. At any rate, some of his most valuable contributions have to do with his discussions regarding the nature of “self-interest.” Socialists translate “self-interest” in capitalism as “greed,” but Novak notes that for most people (at least in a society with social and moral bearings), “self-interest” is generally far more communitarian: concern for welfare of one’s family, for starters, and on into broader concerns for other various community circles such as church. Worthwhile.
2. Greg Bahnsen, Homosexuality: A Biblical View. I’m about halfway through this one. Like (1), this is a book I’ve owned for quite a while, but have never read before. I haven’t shared Bahnsen’s theonomic presuppositions for pretty much a decade, and some factors in his presentation are slightly off-putting, but there’s no question that he was able to reason clearly, and his handling of the biblical texts is solid. As expected from someone trained in apologetics, the argumentation is top notch. Someday I plan on working through Robert Gagnon’s definitive/comprehensive stuff, but this is a good brief intro to the subject.
3. Thomas Woods, The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. This just arrived a couple days ago. Just started it last night and got about 1/3 of the way through – very engaging, well-written, and not difficult to read. Woods is a Catholic historian with a strong economics bent (or is it the other way around?); I’ve got a few other books on the way also written by him. This one is a fascinating plow-through of a number of events in American history that are widely misunderstood due to basic ignorance or misleadingly selective reportage of the past. A good debunker for those who don’t understand the nature of the American constitutional system, for those who think of Lincoln as a heroic president, and a whole lot more.

In the past week or so, I’ve also finally got to a couple of “classic” movies I’ve often seen raved about: Amadeus and The Phantom of the Opera.

I found the storytelling viewpoint of Amadeus to be intriguing, told as it is by one of Mozart’s rivals, but honestly the movie on the whole didn’t really feel all that “filling” for me. I really didn’t learn much about Mozart… I guess that wasn’t the point.

The Phantom… well, it is what it is. I enjoyed it well enough; the singing was superb, and the heroine isn’t hard to look at. It’s an odd story that can best be appreciated for things other than plot. I suppose that’s the nature of a musical.

All in all, I thought both movies were worth watching and I’ll likely view them again at some point, but neither come anywhere close to my favourites lists.

… I thought I’d throw a quickie render up as my new header here at timgallant.org. Of course, that forced a change in colour scheme, too, but the layout remains unchanged.

I may have to rethink that mauve-ish colour featured in the middle column, which is a holdover.

Someday, I’ll probably try to do a more believable 3D self-portrait, but this looks okay from a distance, I suppose.

My new adventure in business is up and running.

I’m quite excited about this concept. Now for the work of getting the word out.

When I first got my domain, timgallant.com wasn’t available, so I picked up timgallant.org. A few years ago, the .com domain came open, so I snapped it up, but it really hasn’t had much there. I knew for some time that I wanted to use it for my creative side, and was streaming early demos from Metanarrative there for quite a while.

Well, as of now, it’s a real site, although I still have a few things I want to do – a nice gear pics page and a contact form. Take a look and see what you think!

As noted in an earlier post, this will be the site which I will keep up info for over the coming weeks regarding my efforts in the Hockey Night in Canada anthem challenge.

As most Canadians know by now, CBC decided not to renew their rights to the traditional HNIC theme song. Instead, they are holding a contest to find a new Saturday night anthem.

And… I’ve entered! You can find my first entry, “Hit the Ice,” at the CBC site here.

I’m hoping to find time to get another entry or two in, but the deadline is August 31, so we’ll see.

I’ll try to keep this site updated, but further challenge info is at the sister site, timgallant.com, where I’m eventually planning on keying my music stuff.

If you’re a fellow Canadian, please listen and consider voting for me when the time comes!!

Congratulations to my friends John and Moriah Barach, to whom God granted a son yesterday! Like the two generations of men before him, his name is John Vance, but he will be called by his middle name.

Well, it looks like I’ve got this show on the road!

If you find anything that seems to be broken, please let me know by contacting me via my contact form.