Chase The Kangaroo

Ping Pong Over the Abyss  ~The 77's | Then and Now Ping Pong  is The 77's debut effort, released in 1982.  The title is said to have come from  Allen Ginsberg 's poem " Howl ," section 3: " I'm with you in Rockland / where you scream in a straight jacket that you're losing the game of the actual ping pong of the abyss. " When this album was released in '82, The 77's were the new kids on the block to this thing that was being called, "Christian rock".  Not only were they new, they brought with them a new style and sound.  It wasn't a new to the kids they were writing and playing for, but it was very new to a very new "industry".  Because of that, I can't remember if it was greeted with a ton of acceptance. In fact, I'll go on a limb and say that it probably wasn't.  However, it was greeted with just enough optimism. Even if it was my own personal optimism, it was enough to keep me and others listeni...

~ Marc Pro  | Repost In nature, animals experience and deal with stress in a very different way than humans. The story of the lion hunting the antelope is a great example of this. When the lion attacks the antelope, both animals experience heightened senses and stress (sympathetic state). But, even if the antelope manages to get away, both animals return to a calm state shortly after (parasympathetic state). The main difference between animals and humans is that humans tend to hang on to stress and do not downregulate shortly after a stressful situation is over. This leaves them in a sympathetic state for longer than necessary. Parasympathetic vs. Sympathetic State The Parasympathetic Nervous System controls homeostasis and restores the body to a calm state. This nervous system activates the “rest and digest” response that decreases heart rate. During the parasympathetic state, the body is able to repair and relax. The Sympathetic Nervous System controls the body’s respons...

D.M.Z.  ~Resurrection Band | Then and Now I have fond memories of listening to  D.M.Z.   In my opinion, this was Resurrection Band's best.   Colours  and  Mommy Doesn't Love Daddy Anymore  easily stand on their own, but both efforts led up the musical moment of  D.M.Z. The album opens with the blistering, "Military Man", one of the band's most popular songs, even to this day.  If you were a fan of Van Halen, then you will love this record. Though they experimented with a little more keyboard and synthesizers on D.M.Z., it in no way takes away from how much this album rocks.  At the time, it fit right in. Lyrically, Resurrection Band stay true to bringing the Gospel down to the individual level, as they have always done.  The obvious theme to D.M.Z. was war and the threat of war, with "Military Man, "White Noise", "The Prisoner" and "Babylon". Take a listen and step back into 1982 and hear some of the best rock n' ...

"One man with God is always in the majority." ~Inscription on the Reformation Monument in Geneva

Laird Hamilton: Harness the Power of Breath By Laird Hamilton,  Men's Journal  | Repost What's the one fuel at your immediate disposal during a long or grueling workout? Oxygen. It's obvious; still, most of us think of breathing only when we're sucking wind. That's a mistake, because boosting your oxygen intake before, during, and after a workout gives your muscles the means to push harder and longer, and helps to make training actually feel a lot better. (Which is why I think people get a runner's high: The constant cardio forces them to breathe.) I recently began a breathing practice with one clear goal — to flood my lungs and blood with O² — and it's made sprints, strength training, and swimming seem more effortless. Here's how to work it into your training. Before: Prime Your Lungs During any physical activity, the demand for oxygen rises, leading you to breathe more heavily. But if you reverse that process — increasing your oxygen intak...

MUSIC REVIEW SERIES:   LOOKING BACK ON THE 80’S MUSIC  | 1981 THEN AND NOW Moving Pictures  ~Rush | Then and Now Moving Pictures  was Rush's 8th studio effort and continued to blaze the band into stardom. Three of my all time Rush songs are found on this record, "Limelight", "Red Barchetta" and "Tom Sawyer".  I've always felt that combining the hits from  Permanent Waves  and Moving Pictures would have made the ultimate album. Listening to  Moving Pictures  today, you can't get away from the dated aspect of the album, but you don't really care.  When you give this album a spin, you know are going back to hear some great songs.  Alex Lifeson's guitar solo on, "Limelight" alone is worth the travel back to 1981.  And speaking of, Lifeson claimed that solo was his favorite to play live.   Moving Pictures  ~Rush Released:  February 12, 1981 Genres:  Progressive rock, hard rock Producer:  Rush, ...

Seventy Sevens  ~The 77's | Then and Now "The 77's will take you on a journey through the past, present, and future of rock & roll" ~ Island Records radio advertisement, 1987 Unfortunately for the 77's, this album was released the same year and on the same label as  U2's,  The Joshua Tree .  This is unfortunate because Island Records had become completely absorbed with the release of  The Joshua Tree  and had little resources for anything else. Another harsh reality was that, as Larry Norman put it, the Christian music industry had no idea how to deal with the 77's. "The 77's - Too Christian for the radio and too radio for Christian music. " ~Larry Norman Though the album received favorable reviews from Rolling Stone and their single, "The Lust, The Flesh, The Eyes and The Pride of Life" became a commercial success, radio stations didn't know what to do with these "Christians".  And in the days where y...

I went on a complete detox for a month, and it changed my life so much that I decided to stick with it.   BY STEPHANIE VOZZA , Fast Company | Repost What Happened When I Gave Up Gluten, Sugar, Dairy, And Coffee PHOTO: JONATHAN KANTOR/GETTY IMAGES Like many people, when the new year started, I felt like it was time to turn over a new leaf and undo all of the damage from the gluttony of the holiday season. I was feeling sluggish and tired, and tasks that normally take me an hour or two suddenly consumed the entire day. When I got an email in January from my gym offering a two-week detox program, I reluctantly signed up. Maybe my body needed a reset? Off limits were dairy, eggs, peanuts, lunch meats, vegetable oils, soy, coffee, black tea, soda, alcohol, sugar, gluten, artificial sweeteners, and fruit juice. These items often have harmful additives or trigger common food sensitivities that impact your physical and mental health. On the menu were most veggies, fruit, organic c...

" We should be careful to get out of an experience all the wisdom that is in it. " ~Mark Twain

How C.S. Lewis Helped Encourage Tolkien’s ‘LORD OF THE RINGS’ By Alicia Kort,  Newsweek  | Repost In the 20th century, two British authors, J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, dominated the world’s imagination with their original works, which have been translated into more than 39 languages, printed in more than 300 million copies and were optioned into films earning more than $6.4 billion combined at the global box office. While the individual talent of these authors is undeniable to readers today, many may have no inkling that Tolkien and Lewis enjoyed an unshakable friendship—a relationship directly responsible for the creation of  The Lord of the Rings  and Lewis’s  Chronicles of Narnia . A year after Tolkien began teaching at Merton College at Oxford University, he met fellow professor Lewis at a faculty meeting in 1926. But it wasn’t necessarily friendship-at-first-sight. In his diary, Lewis describes Tolkien as “ a smooth, pale fluent little chap—no ha...

Jack White’s Infinite Imagination By Alec Wilkinson, The New Yorker Anything that captures Jack White’s imagination can occupy him. He reads scripts in the hope of directing a movie—he said he was disappointed at losing the opportunity to direct one about a Detroit drug dealer and F.B.I. informant called White Boy Rick. He contributes designs for baseball bats to a company in Texas called Warstic, in which he owns a share. At least eight players in the major leagues use Warstics. White also collects esoterica. He owns Leadbelly’s New York City arrest record, James Brown’s Georgia driver’s license from the nineteen-eighties, and Elvis Presley’s first record, a demo that he made in 1953, when he was eighteen. White bought it for three hundred thousand dollars at an auction, and loaned it to the Country Music Hall of Fame, where for a while it was on display. He had it transferred to acetate beforehand and Third Man Records released it in a limited edition. He collects old photo boot...

" As puppets are to men and dolls to children, so is man's workmanship to God's. " ~William Penn

Editor's Note: I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it.  The lyrics are unmistakably Mark Heard.  The catch is I heard the song for the first time, on a Mark Heard tribute album.  The album was primarily put together by the founding members of the band, The Choir.  Below the lyrics you'll their version of the song on Spotify. "Tip of My Tongue" |   Satellite Sky  ~Mark Heard There's an oasis in the heat of the day  There's a fire in the chill of night  A turnabout in circumstance makes each a hell in its own right I've been boxed-in in the lowlands, in the canyons that think  I've been pushed to the brink of the precipice and dared not to blink  I've been confounded in the whirlwind of what-ifs and dreams  I've been burned by the turning of the wind back upon my own flames Knock the scales from my eyes  Knock the words from my lungs  I want to cry out  It's on the tip of my tongue I've see...

Live Life at the Limits: How to Hack Your Flow  ~Art of Manliness  | Repost Editor's Note: I came across this article a few years ago, but thought it worthy of a post here on Chase The Kangaroo.  Full transparency, I still haven't read Kotler's, The Rise of Superman, yet as of the date of this post.  But I plan to read it soon. Art of Manliness Editor’s Note: This a guest post from Steven Kotler, author of The Rise of Superman. Researchers define flow as an “optimal state of consciousness,” a peak state where we feel our best and perform our best. Some of us know this state by other names—runner’s high or being in the zone or being unconscious—but whatever the lingo, the experience is unforgettable. If you’ve ever lost an afternoon to a great conversation or gotten so involved in a work project that all else was forgotten, then you’ve tasted this experience. In flow, we are so focused on the task at hand that everything else falls away. Action and awareness ...

The Effects of Breathing on Recovery with Brian Mackenzie  ~Marc Pro  | Repost EPOC (Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption) refers to the oxygen you need to consume after a workout in order to bring your body back to homeostasis. It’s how exercise scientists measure the intensity of a workout. While working out, oxygen is used to fuel activity and once the activity is over, oxygen stores need to be replenished. The level of training intensity is a direct correlation of the amount of oxygen that will be required to bring the body back to normal. The higher the intensity, the more oxygen required for the body to fully recover. The concept of EPOC shows the importance of breathing for  recovery . Our breathing techniques directly affect how much oxygen we consume with each breath. For example, people who are shallow breathers dump a lot of carbon dioxide but don’t bring much oxygen in. We want to make sure that we get the most oxygen in with each breath to allow our body to ...

gratitude Definition of the state of being grateful : thankfulness : expressed gratitude for their support " Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world. " ~John Milton " Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for. " ~Zig Ziglar grateful Definition of... a : appreciative of benefits received b : expressing gratitude grateful thanks a : affording pleasure or contentment : pleasing b : pleasing by reason of comfort supplied or discomfort alleviated " Gratitude is a mark of a noble soul and a refined character. We like to be around those who are grateful. " ~Joseph B. Wirthlin " Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is sel...