Music

And the Award for Dumbest Voters Goes to …

Vince2 Comments

I had a random stream of consciousness conversation on Twitter the other day that ended with me mentioning Grammy stupidities. My friend Ryan Brymer was curious what my top 5 were, and here we are. (Ryan has more knowledge about music in his thumbnail than I have in my whole body, so I’m expecting him to reciprocate when we’re done here.)

The Grammy’s have a long history of stupidity, but this list is limited to what I consider to be the most egregious in the timeframe that I have been paying attention to music, which goes back to around the invention of the treble clef.

Church

Not Not Letting Go

Vince4 Comments

My friend Ryan Brymer wrote a really good piece on Faith Village a week or so ago, and then he and I and another friend of ours had a lively Twitter discussion about it the next day. Since 140 characters isn’t conducive to a very good conversation, I decided to put my thoughts down here.

First, you should go read his piece. Actually, you should read all of his pieces (except the ones where he goes on and on about Charlotte Church, don’t read those, it just encourages him in his obsession for bad pop music). For now, though, read just the one.

Random

Ordinary Superheroes

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You can’t throw a piece of popcorn anymore and not hit a superhero movie. One or two of them are even good. Most of them are not (I’m looking at you, Amazing Superman, all volumes). Almost all of them involve a person or persons with one or more superhuman capabilities, who can consequently do extraordinary things.

I’m more interested in ordinary people who do extraordinary things.

The Invincibles

The husband of this couple went in for “simple” gall bladder surgery several years ago, developed pancreatitis and a host of other complications, and has spent the intervening years in and out of hospitals, with and without PICC lines, feeding tubes, and having at least one very near death experience.

Music

What If?

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What If?

What if church really was like family.
What if we pretended the “brother and sister, son and daughter,” stuff was real.
What if relationships were thought to be rare and valuable things.
What if it was just a bunch of people that loved each other and were simply trying their best to follow this Jesus we read of in scripture.
What if we pretended the “love your neighbor as yourself,” thing was a better way to live.
What if we got in the mud for each other at two in the morning.
What if the cow dies and it’s ok because we are there, in it together.

Family

Please Release Me

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That’s the title of of an old Engelbert Humperdink hit from the 60’s (my mother was the right age, I got it second hand). I’ve been thinking a lot about that song this week for a couple of reasons.

The first reason comes from small group. We’re studying Acts right now, and this week was Acts 13–14. At the beginning of chapter 13, the Holy Spirits tells the church, while they were fasting and praying, to set apart Barnabas and Saul “for the work to which I have called them.” The church fasted and prayed some more, and then “sent them off,” or so say most translations.

Music

The Best Rock and Roll Album You’ve (Probably) Never Heard Of

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Want a great way to start an argument that doesn’t involve politics or religion? Ask a group of music-lovers what they think was the greatest decade in rock and roll. (First, ascertain if they even know what rock and roll is. One of the answers I saw to this online was “The 80’s, because of Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Cyndi Lauper.” Bzzzzt, you’re disqualified. Also, we’re revoking your Spotify playlist privileges.) After the furor dies down, you’ll probably find that everyone settles on the decade they were in high school, because that’s the music they know.

Even then, you won’t find many that answer the 90’s.