Jonathan Manafo

It seems my blogs have recently been reduced to updates on my life and happenings. Hope that it doesn’t bore you, but life somtimes gets too busy to blog so it’s easier or more efficient to pack it into one.

Here goes…

My life is still pretty hectic these days…with work, school (2 graduate classes) and my family (plus an extra gig in here and there), there’s not much time for anything else…ok…I always seem to squeeze a little golf in.

My family and I had a week of vacation (which as you can see, I need)…I took a brake from all the things above (except my family of course) and spent a great week together. We went to the always exciting, ‘Niagra Falls’ for a few days, where my kids thoroughly enjoyed an indoor water park and the Marvel Adventure Centre…actually, I kind of enjoyed those too.

On Thursday, Janet and I (along with 2 great friends in Rob and Nicole) went to see The Police in concert…great show. Amazing to see these 3 guys having a blast on stage with no worries at all. Sting always impresses (not as much as he does with his other band), Andy Summers looked the oldest by far and Stewart Copeland was all 80’s (i.e. white pants and and classic nike’s)

The rest of the week was spent lounging around the house.

My vacation ended by playing bass with (old friend) Phil Aud. We put on a concert to raise money for his (first) upcoming cd. He writes great tunes…seriously…they’re musical, meaningful and very profound…unlike some of the crap that’s out there. I had the pleasure of playing with a great Toronto Jazz pianist who sat in on keys with our band. His name is Roby Botos and he’s a pretty amazing musician (considered Toronto’s best Jazz Pianist). I have a few gigs (on bass) coming up in the next few weeks which I’m looking forward to…better keep my chops up. Phil did great as usual and so did the band…the great Sean Meredith-Jones on guitar and Matt Smith on Drums.

If I sound like I’m rambling then I probably am. Life is sometimes like that…going from event to event and then looking back to see what heck you actually did.

Peace

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I just posted an NTW quote, but before that I haven’t written since the beginning of the month. So what has gone on…if you’re interested, keep reading.

- September came in like a storm. Like most churches, we ramp up in September. My friend ‘Dom Ruso’ wrote something on seasons in the church that we really should pay attention to, while anything else is simply an adaptation to culture.

- Our lobby cafe started again last Saturday. We had a pretty good showing, with 6 people showing up for the first time. I’m excited to see how the Cafe develops this season, hoping it serves its purpose (networking Christian Young Adults & providing a safe place to invite friends to church).

- My son started his second year of school - SK! Glad to see him learning to connect letters and turning them into words. My daughter also started school - nursery school. She wanted to go to school so badly that we decided to sacrifice a little and enroll her. It costs us money, but we feel it’s worth it.

- I got my vintage bass worked on recently. I sent it to a place in Montreal called, ‘La Luthier MF’, by far the best and coolest custom shop in Ontario and Quebec. I had them put fret marking lines on my 77 Fender Jazz Bass. It was always a beautiful bass, now it’s just a little easier to play in tune.

- Mark, my lead pastor will be in Africa for 2 weeks co-teaching at a pastor’s conference. While he’s gone I’ll be doing some teaching at CLC. I get to end our vision series, ‘discovering life together’ and start our next series, ‘ordinary heroes’. I’m looking forward to it.

- Last thing, I’m back in school this semester. I’m continuing my Graduate degree at Wycliffe College, UofT. I was only going to take one course, History, but I was able to squeeze in another one. It’s a course with Brian Walsh (Colossians Remixed), Postmodernity and a Biblical Worldview. I really hope to be done by the end of next year. It’s been a long process, but very worthwhile.

I think that’s it for now.

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Bono was ‘knighted’ the other day. I guess this isn’t that cool considering Elton John and Conrad Black are also ‘Knights’. But let’s face it, anything Bono does is cool.

Read more hear!

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I don’t think I’ve ever really driven through Buffalo. I know people go in there to shop, but the downtown core at 5pm on this Tuesday was pretty dead and vacant. You know there had to be a good reason to be found in this ‘armpit’ of America.

I was part of a class trip to see Bruce Cockburn in concert. That’s right…class trip. I haven’t been on one of these in over 10 years. However, when you take a course called, ‘Music, Prophecy & Culture’ with professor Brian Walsh (colossians remixed), things like this are bound to happen. For about 10 weeks we’ve been looking at the theoligical themes found in the music of Cockburn and U2. Well, U2 is a little hard to reach, so we took a trip to see the Canadian Singer/Songwriter performing in…Buffalo.

The trip involed some driving, some walking, dinner at a pup (with great company I might add) and the finale…Bruce Cockburn. The venue was not bad…the sound was great…the music was extraodinary…and the artist, well, very humble. He sang some old tunes and new tunes. One called Bagdad (which got the crowd riled up); a beautiful blues called ‘King Kong goes to Talahasse’ and a wonderful instrumental piece titled ‘The end of all rivers’; along with a number of other great tunes. After the concert we got a chance to meet the star (thanks to Brian Walsh…a long time fan & groupie), and he did not disapoint. Bruce came across as a quiet, humble and quite articulate man. He thanked us for making the trip, but especially for participating intently with our listening ears. He shared a few stories (i.e. about a person in one of his tunes & a George Bush Advisor that’s a big fan of his, …), shook all our hands and then signed a few papers and cd’s.

To be honest, I didn’t know that much about Bruce until this class. But after lots of listening and reading, I’ve really come to appreciate this musical and poetic legend. His voice, both through this hands and mouth, is one that has much to say about life, love & faith.

On a side note…hanging out with Brian Walsh (& Rob Vagacs) for 12 hours was quite the treat as well.

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I was so happy that I actually tuned into the Grammy Awards on time last night.  I new the Police was going to be playing, but I didn’t realize they would start the show.  You can read more about the performance on Sting’s website.  I also enjoyed seeing some other artists perform (i.e Johan Mayer), but for the most part the show isn’t that exciting.  To see the Police reunite again was amazing - the simplicity of 3 guys on stage, tight, rocking, great music.

I hope they come to Toronto during their summer tour…and I hope I can afford it.

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