Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Don't Scoff, Please
But I've started another blog with my good friend Jake. The plan is basically to keep posting my music and movie discoveries here, while posting most of the stuff on spirituality over there. Feel free to check it out and comment. Thanks!
Thursday, December 28, 2006
"The ETs" - Top 10 Albums of 2006
As is traditional, I've compiled my top 10 albums of the last year. These are my top ten discoveries, not necessarily albums which came out in 2006. After reviewing the list, I've concluded that this was the year of the 'the', as bands seem to have run out of normal names and are now resorting to obscure nouns and adjectives. Here goes:
10. The Long Blondes - Someone to Drive You Home
This album is ridiculously catchy, especially the first three songs. Great post-punk-pop (I love that label) that gets stuck in your head yet avoids merely being catchy drivel. I felt like they tried to hard to make every song on this album worthy of being a single, however, and at points ended up sounding rather forced and calculated.
9. The Knife - Silent Shout
I don't usually like electronic music, but this album left me wowed. Its simple, dissonant and surreal, and the vocals are amazing in their varied bizarre twists. Neverland is by far my favorite song from the album, and would be my favorite electronic song of the year, except that...
8. DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
While he's been around forever, I finally got introduced (perhaps 'endtroduced') to DJ Shadow. Wonderful electronic/hip-hop with brilliant sampling and fascinating experimentation. This should be old news to many of you, but 'Building Steam With a Grain of Salt...' may well be one of the hip-hop songs ever.
7. The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
In some ways, this CD struck me as silly. I rolled my eyes at the way they reveled in cliches and shamelessly ripped off the girl-band cliche. Yet it's really, really fun and I couldn't stop listening to it. While I hesitate to recommend it on artistic merit, this is one CD which is guaranteed to make me smile.
6. The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free
Another piece of old news I didn't discover until the beginning of this year was Mike Skinner. If the Pipettes made me smile, this British rap pioneer made me laugh out loud. There's something incredibly endearing about his stuttered rhythm and simple, blue collar lyrics.
5. The Mountain Goats - Tallahassee
John Darnielle and his songs were probably my greatest find of the summer, and I was completely obsessed for several months. While this year's Get Lonely was quality and All Hail West Texas and the Sunset Tree were great albums, Tallahassee, with its album-long yarn of marital disfunction and conflict was by far my favorite. Nobody that I've yet heard nails narrative songwriting as well as Johnny.
4. The Weepies - Say I Am You
If bands were girls, the Weepies would be the naive, soft-spoken, doe-eyed beauty that every guy secretly swoons over. "World Spins Madly On" and "Gotta Have You" are both great songs, and the whole album is solid. I nominate this one "rainy day album of the year."
3. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Proof that the Decemberists didn't sell out. This album is perhaps less monumental that Picaresque, but it still brought me hours of enjoyment and hopefully heralded more fruitful experimentation to come.
2. Danielson - Ships
Daniel Smith is crazy. And I love him. That's all I'm going to say.
aaaaand finally...
1. Josh Ritter - The Animal Years
Wow. This album just will not let me go. I know it got mixed reviews, but I have never in my life felt so impacted by a singer-songwriter. The songs are almost all really strong (with one too-long preachy exception near the end of the album), the music is really good, and as a whole the album just flows.
And that's all for this year.
10. The Long Blondes - Someone to Drive You Home
This album is ridiculously catchy, especially the first three songs. Great post-punk-pop (I love that label) that gets stuck in your head yet avoids merely being catchy drivel. I felt like they tried to hard to make every song on this album worthy of being a single, however, and at points ended up sounding rather forced and calculated.
9. The Knife - Silent Shout
I don't usually like electronic music, but this album left me wowed. Its simple, dissonant and surreal, and the vocals are amazing in their varied bizarre twists. Neverland is by far my favorite song from the album, and would be my favorite electronic song of the year, except that...
8. DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
While he's been around forever, I finally got introduced (perhaps 'endtroduced') to DJ Shadow. Wonderful electronic/hip-hop with brilliant sampling and fascinating experimentation. This should be old news to many of you, but 'Building Steam With a Grain of Salt...' may well be one of the hip-hop songs ever.
7. The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
In some ways, this CD struck me as silly. I rolled my eyes at the way they reveled in cliches and shamelessly ripped off the girl-band cliche. Yet it's really, really fun and I couldn't stop listening to it. While I hesitate to recommend it on artistic merit, this is one CD which is guaranteed to make me smile.
6. The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free
Another piece of old news I didn't discover until the beginning of this year was Mike Skinner. If the Pipettes made me smile, this British rap pioneer made me laugh out loud. There's something incredibly endearing about his stuttered rhythm and simple, blue collar lyrics.
5. The Mountain Goats - Tallahassee
John Darnielle and his songs were probably my greatest find of the summer, and I was completely obsessed for several months. While this year's Get Lonely was quality and All Hail West Texas and the Sunset Tree were great albums, Tallahassee, with its album-long yarn of marital disfunction and conflict was by far my favorite. Nobody that I've yet heard nails narrative songwriting as well as Johnny.
4. The Weepies - Say I Am You
If bands were girls, the Weepies would be the naive, soft-spoken, doe-eyed beauty that every guy secretly swoons over. "World Spins Madly On" and "Gotta Have You" are both great songs, and the whole album is solid. I nominate this one "rainy day album of the year."
3. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Proof that the Decemberists didn't sell out. This album is perhaps less monumental that Picaresque, but it still brought me hours of enjoyment and hopefully heralded more fruitful experimentation to come.
2. Danielson - Ships
Daniel Smith is crazy. And I love him. That's all I'm going to say.
aaaaand finally...
1. Josh Ritter - The Animal Years
Wow. This album just will not let me go. I know it got mixed reviews, but I have never in my life felt so impacted by a singer-songwriter. The songs are almost all really strong (with one too-long preachy exception near the end of the album), the music is really good, and as a whole the album just flows.
And that's all for this year.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
"Antichrist Needs Food... Badly"
This has to take a spot on my list of worst ideas ever: as if a good hundred books weren't enough, everyone's favorite premillenial dispensationalist pop culture icons have come out with a video game. That's right, now you can control all those poor souls who weren't fortunate enough to become Christians until after the "rapture". You can do the work of Christ by controlling Prayer Warriors and Battle Tanks - the real front-line soldiers for the kingdom of heaven. I could go on, but I won't. Suffice to say that I disagree with the message and the medium, and fail to see the way that encouraging young men to sit in their rooms wasting their lives while feeling really effective for doing nothing deserves to have the "Christian" monicker slapped on it. Ever.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Rock on, Nation!
Check this out: Decemberists lead guitar player Chris Funk goes toe to toe with Stephen Colbert in a guitar challenge!
Young, Impetuous, Reformed
"So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels."
It was pointed out to me a little while back that these verses from 2 Timothy are probably almost always misapplied. The command of Paul to "flee youthful passions" is usually read "don't have premarital sex." However, the following verse means that Paul probably has something else in mind. In my own life, and in the lives of many of the young and theologically inclined, there is a tendency to abandon faith, love and peace in favor of disputing points of doctrine. In people my age this is doubly dangerous. In the first place, it has led to all sorts of disputes that really aren't important, and while I might well be right, I've been more than happy to leave batter brothers and sisters lying in my wake as I've careened forward on the path to theological "enlightenment." What's more, youth are even more dangerous here because they do not have the perspective and humility that comes with age. I am often willing to jump on a doctrinal bandwagon simply because its novel, exciting or controversial. In my pride I think that I'm just being a student of scripture, but in truth its an ideas newness, rather than its soundness, which usually catches my eye.
Don't misunderstand, I'm not proposing that we shouldn't do theology, nor that there isn't a time for opposing unbiblical teaching. Indeed, Paul also tells Timothy to "watch his... doctrine closely." However, I am convinced in my own life, and probably in the lives of most young men like me, that the following correctives should be applied:
1. Do theology slowly. It took 2000 years to arrive at the conclusions and systems we have today. It is an admirable rather than a bad thing to wait to draw a conclusion on an issue for several months, if not years.
2. Do theology in community. This means two things. First, seek out adults who read and think. Talk to them about the things you're processing, and give their responses at least as much weight as you give your own opinions. I'm afraid that, since many adults have never engaged their minds very much in the study of the word, that I've developed a tendency to be heedless of adult opinions in my theology.
Secondly, always do theology in the community of history. There are hundreds of men who are far smarter, holier and wiser than me. If they are generally in agreement, I ought to only cautiously and with much prayerful study be willing to tender disagreement with them. If they generally disagree, I ought to always hold both sides in tension and not decide that one view is full of morons and heretics, when it may well be mine.
3. Discuss theology carefully. Always pause and consider whether the discussion you are or are about to be engaged in is truly for the edification and building up of the body. If this is not your motive, do not do it.
4. Discuss theology worshipfully. If, at any point in the conversation, you are not able to immediately see something in the topic under consideration which displays the glory of Jesus Christ, cease it immediately. To talk about Him in any other way is at best foolish chatter and at worst blasphemy.
Anyway, these are just my thoughts. I'm neither claiming that I succeed in these areas nor condemning others for failure; I've simply been thinking in my own life what a humble orthodoxy should look like, and these are a few of my ponderings as to the form it should take.
It was pointed out to me a little while back that these verses from 2 Timothy are probably almost always misapplied. The command of Paul to "flee youthful passions" is usually read "don't have premarital sex." However, the following verse means that Paul probably has something else in mind. In my own life, and in the lives of many of the young and theologically inclined, there is a tendency to abandon faith, love and peace in favor of disputing points of doctrine. In people my age this is doubly dangerous. In the first place, it has led to all sorts of disputes that really aren't important, and while I might well be right, I've been more than happy to leave batter brothers and sisters lying in my wake as I've careened forward on the path to theological "enlightenment." What's more, youth are even more dangerous here because they do not have the perspective and humility that comes with age. I am often willing to jump on a doctrinal bandwagon simply because its novel, exciting or controversial. In my pride I think that I'm just being a student of scripture, but in truth its an ideas newness, rather than its soundness, which usually catches my eye.
Don't misunderstand, I'm not proposing that we shouldn't do theology, nor that there isn't a time for opposing unbiblical teaching. Indeed, Paul also tells Timothy to "watch his... doctrine closely." However, I am convinced in my own life, and probably in the lives of most young men like me, that the following correctives should be applied:
1. Do theology slowly. It took 2000 years to arrive at the conclusions and systems we have today. It is an admirable rather than a bad thing to wait to draw a conclusion on an issue for several months, if not years.
2. Do theology in community. This means two things. First, seek out adults who read and think. Talk to them about the things you're processing, and give their responses at least as much weight as you give your own opinions. I'm afraid that, since many adults have never engaged their minds very much in the study of the word, that I've developed a tendency to be heedless of adult opinions in my theology.
Secondly, always do theology in the community of history. There are hundreds of men who are far smarter, holier and wiser than me. If they are generally in agreement, I ought to only cautiously and with much prayerful study be willing to tender disagreement with them. If they generally disagree, I ought to always hold both sides in tension and not decide that one view is full of morons and heretics, when it may well be mine.
3. Discuss theology carefully. Always pause and consider whether the discussion you are or are about to be engaged in is truly for the edification and building up of the body. If this is not your motive, do not do it.
4. Discuss theology worshipfully. If, at any point in the conversation, you are not able to immediately see something in the topic under consideration which displays the glory of Jesus Christ, cease it immediately. To talk about Him in any other way is at best foolish chatter and at worst blasphemy.
Anyway, these are just my thoughts. I'm neither claiming that I succeed in these areas nor condemning others for failure; I've simply been thinking in my own life what a humble orthodoxy should look like, and these are a few of my ponderings as to the form it should take.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Jesus Camp
Last night I watched the documentary "Jesus Camp." As I process it, I find myself very angry. The problem is, I don't know what I'm angry about. On the one hand, I felt very much attacked by the filmmakers. The movie had a clear agenda against the Evangelical right. While it cleverly steered clear of any over-the-top sensationalism (a la Michael Moore), this just made it all the more effective as scenes of children babbling in tongues and dancing in grease paint flashed across the screen, clearly aimed at leaving political liberals terrified in their seats.
However, at the same time, I cannot defend the brand of "Christianity" being peddled at the camp which was at the heart of the film. I think the leaders may very well be genuine Christians, but nonetheless what they were peddling was loveless, Christless moralism. A few scenes stick out to me. A little girl handing out Chick tracts to teenagers at a bowling alley and then running back to her father for approval. Another girl, ten years old, already explaining how "Christian" music was the only thing people should listen to. A boy insisting on his prophetic preaching gift as he echoed grown-up religious catchphrases into a microphone. The flagrant violations of Paul's proscriptions for the uses of spiritual gifts. The equally constant refrain that "God needs your generation. You will do great things for Him. Don't be like your parents, get on fire for Jesus." A ten-year-old explaining that there are spiritually dead churches that "sit the whole time, sing three hymns and listen to someone talk for an hour" and that "Jesus doesn't visit these churches. He like churches where people jump up and down and clap and yell." A week-long camp where the gospel is never once mentioned except as the "thing you tell your friends," where children pray before a cardboard cutout of George Bush, where they're taught to speak in tongues, where scripture is at best paraphrased occasionally and at worst completely absent, and where Jesus gets mentioned less that abortion.
Wow, that's more of a list than I thought it would be. Needless to say, I'm a little sore. In many ways, what's hard for me in reflecting on the film is in recognizing that the authors are never in dialogue with the actual message of Christianity. Instead they're taking aim at a variety of things I can hardly condone myself, even though I'm certainly a theological conservative and, theologically, even a charismatic (meaning only that I don't believe things like tongues and prophecy have ceased). Perhaps someday I'll cull more thoughts about what it is, precisely, that drives what I'm reacting so viscerally to. Regardless, however, the movie at least got me thinking and gave me a good taste of the Christendom most of the world is in conversation with.
However, at the same time, I cannot defend the brand of "Christianity" being peddled at the camp which was at the heart of the film. I think the leaders may very well be genuine Christians, but nonetheless what they were peddling was loveless, Christless moralism. A few scenes stick out to me. A little girl handing out Chick tracts to teenagers at a bowling alley and then running back to her father for approval. Another girl, ten years old, already explaining how "Christian" music was the only thing people should listen to. A boy insisting on his prophetic preaching gift as he echoed grown-up religious catchphrases into a microphone. The flagrant violations of Paul's proscriptions for the uses of spiritual gifts. The equally constant refrain that "God needs your generation. You will do great things for Him. Don't be like your parents, get on fire for Jesus." A ten-year-old explaining that there are spiritually dead churches that "sit the whole time, sing three hymns and listen to someone talk for an hour" and that "Jesus doesn't visit these churches. He like churches where people jump up and down and clap and yell." A week-long camp where the gospel is never once mentioned except as the "thing you tell your friends," where children pray before a cardboard cutout of George Bush, where they're taught to speak in tongues, where scripture is at best paraphrased occasionally and at worst completely absent, and where Jesus gets mentioned less that abortion.
Wow, that's more of a list than I thought it would be. Needless to say, I'm a little sore. In many ways, what's hard for me in reflecting on the film is in recognizing that the authors are never in dialogue with the actual message of Christianity. Instead they're taking aim at a variety of things I can hardly condone myself, even though I'm certainly a theological conservative and, theologically, even a charismatic (meaning only that I don't believe things like tongues and prophecy have ceased). Perhaps someday I'll cull more thoughts about what it is, precisely, that drives what I'm reacting so viscerally to. Regardless, however, the movie at least got me thinking and gave me a good taste of the Christendom most of the world is in conversation with.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Many, Many Questions
My thoughts have been awhirl the last few weeks, as it seems like somehow my ability to contemplate one idea at a time has been completely robbed, and instead a dozen different issues are all bouncing around at once. Here recorded are some ponderings or questions, any of which I'd welcome dialogue on.
1. The New Perspective on Paul. Depending on the day, I feel like I'm somewhere between buying it without hesitation and burning Tom Wright at the stake. Okay, that's an exagerration, but I've realized that, at the least, I need to figure out my theology of imputation, deal with the fact that Wright is correct, at least to some extent, in how much Paul's letters are concerned with ethnic exclusivism rather than legalism, and decide what importance a "general gospel" of Christ coming as the Davidic messiah and building a kingdom and a "specific gospel" of justification by faith have in Christendom.
2. The Church and Church Discipline. Why do we allow gossip, divisiveness and other more internal sins in the body when Paul says to have "nothing to do with them"? What are the grounds for church discipline, really? Is the PCA practice of "barring people at the table, not the door" a good and biblical way to allow sinners to still hear the gospel or a dangerous underestimation of the effects sin and false doctrine can have on the corporate body? How much doctrinal truth, and in what areas, do people really have to have to avoid being a false teacher?
3. Spiritual Gifts. I've come to realize I can't buy cessationism, at all. If I'm right, what is a good model for the exercise of spiritual gifts like tongues, prophecy and miracles? What do these things even mean?
4. Biblical vs. Systematic Theology. Is the distinction really valid? How do we approach them with balance, with systematics teaching us how to interpret scripture while still keeping scripture as a whole body in authority over systematics?
5. Evangelism. What the heck is it? Why don't I do it? Do I do it, and just don't feel like I do because I have too narrow a definition and am still in the thrall of the fundamentalist-revivalist-parachurch reductionist gospel (my phrase)? For that matter, what is the gospel? What truths have to be communicated? Is it about justification, or the person of Christ, or what?
6. Other random questions. How do believers truly obtain assurance? What does it look like to have a humble and gentle insistence on orthodoxy? What exactly happens in the sacraments? How valid is a Christological interpretation of the Old Testament, and how does this work?
Any thoughts any of you have would be welcome.
1. The New Perspective on Paul. Depending on the day, I feel like I'm somewhere between buying it without hesitation and burning Tom Wright at the stake. Okay, that's an exagerration, but I've realized that, at the least, I need to figure out my theology of imputation, deal with the fact that Wright is correct, at least to some extent, in how much Paul's letters are concerned with ethnic exclusivism rather than legalism, and decide what importance a "general gospel" of Christ coming as the Davidic messiah and building a kingdom and a "specific gospel" of justification by faith have in Christendom.
2. The Church and Church Discipline. Why do we allow gossip, divisiveness and other more internal sins in the body when Paul says to have "nothing to do with them"? What are the grounds for church discipline, really? Is the PCA practice of "barring people at the table, not the door" a good and biblical way to allow sinners to still hear the gospel or a dangerous underestimation of the effects sin and false doctrine can have on the corporate body? How much doctrinal truth, and in what areas, do people really have to have to avoid being a false teacher?
3. Spiritual Gifts. I've come to realize I can't buy cessationism, at all. If I'm right, what is a good model for the exercise of spiritual gifts like tongues, prophecy and miracles? What do these things even mean?
4. Biblical vs. Systematic Theology. Is the distinction really valid? How do we approach them with balance, with systematics teaching us how to interpret scripture while still keeping scripture as a whole body in authority over systematics?
5. Evangelism. What the heck is it? Why don't I do it? Do I do it, and just don't feel like I do because I have too narrow a definition and am still in the thrall of the fundamentalist-revivalist-parachurch reductionist gospel (my phrase)? For that matter, what is the gospel? What truths have to be communicated? Is it about justification, or the person of Christ, or what?
6. Other random questions. How do believers truly obtain assurance? What does it look like to have a humble and gentle insistence on orthodoxy? What exactly happens in the sacraments? How valid is a Christological interpretation of the Old Testament, and how does this work?
Any thoughts any of you have would be welcome.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
An Overdue Update
So yes, I know its been a long time since I've update, and I know that I had intended to be more regular than this. Still, the best-laid plans of mice and men...
I thought I'd give a brief, random update. First, I have to say that winter is finally here. I realized it yesterday when, in the five minutes it took me to walk back from parking may car, I ended up shivering uncontrollably and wasn't able to feel my ears. Now I just wish there was some snow on the ground, to make the bitter cold worth it.
I've been reading a couple of books:
Christ, the Lord's Supper, and Baptism by Leonard J. Vander Zee - An interesting read; Vander Zee is basically making a case first for the importance of Protestants regaining a high view of sacramentalism, and then discusses how both sacraments could or should be implemented. I'm only 60-odd pages in, so I don't have a final analysis, but I like it this far.
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy - A good novel, very grim and depressing, but enjoyably so.
As far as new musical discoveries:
Danielson - Ships - This album is brilliant. I'm completely in love with it right now. Daniel Smith, one of the progenitors of the most modern incarnation of the alt-folk movement, is actually best-known for producing Sufjan Stephens and for his bizarre blend off eccentricity, Christianity and art music. This CD is a little hard to get into, thanks to both the musical complexity and the quirkiness of most of the songs. However, giving it a couple dedicated listens is well worth it. High points include "Bloodbook on the Halfshell," "Did I Step On Your Trumpet," and "Two Sitting Ducks."
The Long Blondes - Someone to Drive You Home - Pop music at its greatest. Sure, this album feels like a bunch of singles strung together. Sure, the lyrics are often shallow and overused. But its just so fun! While the album slows down a little bit as it progresses, it's all pretty good, and I'd recommend at least buying the first three songs off iTunes.
Ray LaMontagne - Last week I went to hear this guy live at the Rococco with a couple friends. I had all of two songs by him on my computer which I downloaded just to listen to him. However, at the concert I fell in love, and so Ray has, for the time being at least, become my relax-after-a-hard-day favorite. His best album is probably Trouble, if anyone's interested.
And with that, I need to get ready to head to class. Bon voyage!
I thought I'd give a brief, random update. First, I have to say that winter is finally here. I realized it yesterday when, in the five minutes it took me to walk back from parking may car, I ended up shivering uncontrollably and wasn't able to feel my ears. Now I just wish there was some snow on the ground, to make the bitter cold worth it.
I've been reading a couple of books:
Christ, the Lord's Supper, and Baptism by Leonard J. Vander Zee - An interesting read; Vander Zee is basically making a case first for the importance of Protestants regaining a high view of sacramentalism, and then discusses how both sacraments could or should be implemented. I'm only 60-odd pages in, so I don't have a final analysis, but I like it this far.
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy - A good novel, very grim and depressing, but enjoyably so.
As far as new musical discoveries:
Danielson - Ships - This album is brilliant. I'm completely in love with it right now. Daniel Smith, one of the progenitors of the most modern incarnation of the alt-folk movement, is actually best-known for producing Sufjan Stephens and for his bizarre blend off eccentricity, Christianity and art music. This CD is a little hard to get into, thanks to both the musical complexity and the quirkiness of most of the songs. However, giving it a couple dedicated listens is well worth it. High points include "Bloodbook on the Halfshell," "Did I Step On Your Trumpet," and "Two Sitting Ducks."
The Long Blondes - Someone to Drive You Home - Pop music at its greatest. Sure, this album feels like a bunch of singles strung together. Sure, the lyrics are often shallow and overused. But its just so fun! While the album slows down a little bit as it progresses, it's all pretty good, and I'd recommend at least buying the first three songs off iTunes.
Ray LaMontagne - Last week I went to hear this guy live at the Rococco with a couple friends. I had all of two songs by him on my computer which I downloaded just to listen to him. However, at the concert I fell in love, and so Ray has, for the time being at least, become my relax-after-a-hard-day favorite. His best album is probably Trouble, if anyone's interested.
And with that, I need to get ready to head to class. Bon voyage!
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