Andy Osenga is quickly becoming one of my favorite musicians. What I’m posting about here is one of the big reasons why.

A year or so ago Andy tried this experiment- he created a short album, completely for his fans and distributed it strictly through his website and iTunes. So, that’s not that ground breaking, right? well, there were two catches- first, he did it for FREE. you could donate if you wanted to, but not required. Secondly, it wasn’t just for the fans, it was in part, BY the fans. They contributed stories, letters, ideas for the songs. Andy in turn made it into poetry…but it didn’t stop there. On the last track he offered the online community the opportunity to be on the record. Just record yourself singing a simple melody and send it to him. He then spliced it all together into something wonderful. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to that album, but I know for sure that it was probably the most played of my entire collection for the past year.

Well… He did it again. Yesterday Andy released “Letters to the Editor Vol 2″. Just like the first one he invited ideas for the album and invited people to contribute vocals as well as their instruments. He provided some backing/click/sample tracks to keep you on track and the rest was up to you. And again Andy turned it into something beautiful. The icing on the cake, so to speak, was the subject of the last track- a song titled “Let Us Know You”. Andy writes, “This song was written in response to the overwhelming number of letters I received from people battling depression, numbness, and a general bleakness which barely conceals anger. I understand it, because I recognize it in myself.”

Wow.

After reading those words and hearing the song, I can’t help but be reminded of one of my favorite sites, Post Secret. Everyone is carrying around something, dealing with something, struggling with something. And for me, this song pulls all of that together in an experience that is breathtaking.

So, without further due, I urge you to hop over to Andy’s site, download the album, give a few bucks if you want, and just listen…

my friends have sent me letters
I’ve read them all and then
I tried to make sense of the stories
but I was overwhelmed

so much anger, so much pain
we’ve had to go numb to survive

[chorus]
so I am closing my eyes
and I’m praying for thos in my life
let us feel, let us love
let us be alive, let us know you

my friends have shared their secrets
and I have given mine
the anarchy of what we think
no one will ever find

in the daylight, to our surprise
our secrets are shades of the same

[chorus]

in the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with You
You parted the seas
held up the flame in the night to guide us through
You drew in the sand
dropped the stones from violent hands
heard the cry of the crow
and set Your eyes on a faithless friend

You are who You are, and You are and You were and will be

My boss/pastor asked me to send out a little survey to find out some information about leaders in our denomination. They were fairly simple questions like “What are the top 5 books you’ve read in the past 3 years”. I think it will be interesting to hear what comes back in the results.

That led me to a question of my own- What are the top 5 pieces of technology that make my job easier/better? Well, without further due, here they are:

5. Amazon Prime – I’ve mentioned this a time or two before, but I just love this service. Amazon as we all know has pretty much everything under the sun. Add to that the idea of getting it shipped to you in two days for free or overnight for just $4 and you have a winning combination. With gas prices and time being as tight as they are, this service just makes it easier for me to get what I need quickly and cheaply.

4. Scansnap Sheetfed Scanner – from the moment I plugged this thing in I was in awe. Scanning documents used to be a big pain in the neck, but the scansnap is…well…a snap! Drop in your document, hit the big green button, and within seconds it scans and drops everything into a PDF. No more flipping through file folders looking for certain documents…all it takes is a keyword search and I have the document on my screen.

3. Dropbox/Mozy – until I actually had a job I didn’t really see the value in online storage solutions, but within the first few weeks my eyes were opened. I used a flash drive to transfer files back and forth between home and work, but I would forget it or forget to save it on the drive and it quickly became a pain. So, dropbox allows me to sync files between home and work so I don’t have to worry about what is here or there. Mozy backs up my documents to an offsite location which is particularly handy when I’m using the scansnap to scan documents and I no longer have hard copies.

2. Adobe Illustrator – oh wow, what can I say about this program…I would be lost without it! Everything from brainstorming, to print graphics, to powerpoint presentations are worked out in illustrator. At first I didn’t get it and I still have trouble jumping from Illustrator to Photoshop, but Illustrator definitely makes sense to me and I can make it do just about whatever I want. My only complaint is that I wish Adobe would make something for presentations so I could avoid dealing with Powerpoint!

1. THE iPhone. – it’s no secret that I’m a fan of this little piece of genius. It’s one of those devices that you wonder how you did life before you had it! It’s essentially a computer in my pocket, constantly within reach of the web, my photos, my music, and of course the phone and texting isn’t bad either.

So that’s it. What would be on your list?