The Average Brad 2.0

2010-04-07T23:36:00.001-05:00

UK Trip Photographs!

2009-05-11T23:03:00.001-05:00

UK Trip Photographs!

You wanted it, and you've got it! More pictures of England and Scotland than you can shake a crumpet at. Enjoy!

http://ukpics2009.blogspot.com/

Time on Earth

2008-02-23T01:27:00.010-06:00

Time on Earth

Moses writes in Psalm 90, “The years of our lives are seventy; or even by reason of strength eighty… they are soon gone, and we fly away.” We live in a time where everything is seemingly immortalized in film or on record. With ever improving and expanding media technology, moments of time are becoming easier to capture and reproduce over and over again.

Whether it was Michael Jordan at the slam dunk contest, the Moon Landing, or the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, the last 100 years or so have been captured on film, and are now readily available at any time for anyone with an internet connection to replay over and over again. The nearly universal fixation that some of these recorded events created amongst American and international audiences has given credit to the notion that their memory is both of extreme importance and lasting significance. Things of small importance often get placed along side or overshadow things of greater significance.

It’s no wonder that since the advent of television, our culture has increasingly embraced and placed a high value on youth and beauty, or, “cool” as one might say. If you want an audience and you need to sell advertising, get the best looking people you can find. I can’t help but think that all of this has made us a bit unwilling to cope with aging and mortality. There seems to be little popular value set on the wisdom of years. Furthermore, there seems to be little recognition of the fact that these things will pass away, and then what will become of them?

This all hits home with me when I look at many of the rock musicians which have meant so much to me. Rock music especially creates this illusion of endless youth. While I tend to prefer older, wiser, more refined artists to young upstarts, I can’t deny that I am often drawn to those older artists as they were in their younger years as much or more than the way they are now.

This weekend I saw U2’s concert film U23D with my wife and some friends. Beforehand there was a preview for a new movie/documentary about The Rolling Stones. No one can deny that age has cought up to the Stones. Yet this fact was made painfully obvious by the footage of a young Mic Jagger from the 60s telling an interviewer he never thought the band would last two years, much less become a popular success.

This prompted me to consider a question I’ve considered before: will the Stones ever die or will they just getting older and older, and when they do die, what effect will it have on the Baby Boomer generation who have embraced their seeming (in some strange way) agelessness? All of this put me in a somber mood for the actual film about U2.

The Stones may have a 20 year head start on U2, but as cool as U2 still looks now, before you know it, their faces will be saggy like Keith Richards’ is. Will they still continue to tour as old men, putting on an act which is more suited to those in their teens or early twenties? More importantly, what would my reaction as a fan be if, say tomorrow, The Edge dies in a car wreck or Adam Clayton is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Sure, maybe Bono lives to be old and grey and turn grunge songs into gospel tunes like Johnny Cash did in his older years. But eventually, Bono’s years are gone and he will soon fly away.

One of my new favorite bands is Crowded House. After not releasing an album since 1993, they released a new album last summer called Time on Earth. As if original drummer Paul Hester’s suicide in 2005 wasn’t enough to remind me of my inevitable end, I couldn’t help but notice that singer Neil Finn’s formerly pristine voice was a step lower and a bit more gravely than it was in 1993. I shook my head and thought to myself, “I hate it when that happens, but I guess everyone gets old eventually."

Another of my favorites, Genesis, have been touring again with Phil Collins for the first time in 15 years as well. For some reason, I had been debating in my mind today whether or not it would be a good idea for them to try to record a new album. There is something about the band that exists in the past - twenty or thirty years in the past - which seems like it could be ruined by a modern recording experiment.

As I watched Bono belt out classic U2 songs the other night, I was watching for the moments where his voice just didn’t hold up like it did in the days of Rattle and Hum. Ironically, Bono sang a near perfect rendition of the ode to his deceased father, Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own, nailing the song’s climactic high notes. However, his voice didn’t fare quite as well on the concert closer With or Without You. I realize it was the end of the show. But the album recording of With or Without You is one of those moments on record that was near perfect. That moment is gone, and one day, Bono’s voice will be also.

This isn’t to demean Bono or U2, or suggest that they should hang it up. The band is still great, and I look forward to what they will produce as they continue to age gracefully. It’s to remind others of the fact that the here and now is passing, in spite of the illusion of immortality that recorded media often presents to us. I also have to remind myself that many of these things I find so important are not that significant. Age is to be valued because with it comes wisdom. And rather than assuming that youth is superior to old age, we should look to those with life experience to guide us.

Moses tells us to look to One who is everlasting, and seek the wisdom that comes only through the knowledge of Him: “So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

And I must be wise somehow
Cause my heart’s been broken down
It’s so far to fall
And so hard to climb
Nothing sadder I know
Than the passing of time
You won’t forget me, you won’t forget me...
- Neil Finn

I'm Sure I'm Behind the Times

2007-10-04T12:33:00.000-05:00

I'm Sure I'm Behind the Times

Samorost

I'm not sure what's going on here. I think I'm exploring the universe. I may just be high. Trippy but cool if you've got a few hours to kill.

And we ain't got no brains and we ain't got no hearts
It's just that wild old wind that tears us all apart
We're the scarecrow people, have we got lots in common with you
And if you don't start living well, you're all gonna wind up scarecrow people too
- XTC

Finally Got Something to Say

2007-09-18T14:07:00.000-05:00

Finally Got Something to Say

In this espn.com article about the Bill Belichick videotaping incident, the following statement is made:

Why is the situation worse than people think? Because the NFL is on the precipice of blowing its status as the country's favorite sport. The whole NFL enterprise is in jeopardy from that single word: cheating. It's the most distasteful word in sports. And now the Patriots have brought the word into the NFL.

The topic of credibility in sports (both professional and collegiate) is receiving a lot of attention these days. Between Barry Bonds' and other baseball players steroid and HGH usage, college boosters paying amateur athletes, basketball referees betting on games, and now the New England Patriots using video to possibly gain an illegal competitive advantage, it seems like now more than ever, the sports world is filled with individuals using dishonest means to succeed.

ESPN has run several articles on their website, and done specials about the topic on TV. Just read any public internet chats on the topic, and you'll see that the general public seems to despise cheaters in sports. It seems, that the concept of players, coaches, etc. breaking rules in sports is viewed by the public as one of the lowest things a person can do.

Now, whether or not there is any more cheating in sports today than there ever has been is debatable. It may not have always been steroids or video cameras, but one would have to be naive to think that cheating hasn't been going on since sports were invented. Or that even some of the "great" players and teams throughout history never cheated or bent the rules to gain a competitive advantage. The leg-whipping 49ers of the 80's is one example that immediately springs to mind.

The question I'm pondering is this: why, in our relativistic society, is cheating seen as such a terrible thing?

Think about it for a moment. America is growing less interested in absolute truth. People do not want a universal law telling them what is wrong and right. We even reinterpret our man-made laws in order to make them fit into our current cultural understanding of things. What is it about a game, who's rules are in one sense completely arbitrary, that makes people so upset when someone cheats?

Obviously, people invest themselves in sports in such a way (whether by fanaticism, gambling, or fantasy sports) , that they feel personally wronged if a player cheats. But the outcry against Barry Bonds, for instance, strikes much deeper than that. Bonds breaking a record doesn't really harm anyone but the record keepers. Why is everyone so morally outraged about supposed cheeting, if we don't really see things as ultimately right or wrong.

One thing I will admit, is that while philosophically a large portion of America is relativistic, practically the large percentage are probably not. Isn't it interesting though, that everyone still uses a moral standard. But the interesting thing about the world of sports, is that when one enters into it, they find several things that Christ intended for his church.

1. They find a concrete set of rules and a code of conduct which govern the sport, and an authority who upholds justice: a touchdown will always be worth 6 points, the home team always gets the last at bat, and it's never legal to tackle a player as he pulls up for a 3-pointer. The Bible gives us an ethic to live by that the unbelieving world does not have.

2. They find a community of fans who are united around a common goal. Some of them even dress up and go to worship together on Sunday afternoon. The church should be a family of believers united in their worship of their common savior.

3. They have a hope of "victory." This is deceptively fleeting and hollow, just ask how many Red Sox fans feel more complete now that their team has won the series in their lifetime. There is always next year (this from a lifelong Cubs fan). While they do not have the promise of victory that the Church has, I can't help but think that in some small way, sports fans believe they will overcome and transcend as their team attains victory.

Sports create a fantasy world of sorts which meets the innate needs of human beings for structure, purpose, balance, fairness, justice, and community. Cheating, ruins the illusion of fairness, justice, rule of law, and honesty which the arbitrary rules of Sports create.

Hey, I may just start updating this blog thing more often!

You can bend my ear
You can talk all day
Just make sure I'm around
When you've finally got something to say
- Toad the Wet Sprocket

For Those Not Previously Aware

2007-08-03T13:49:00.000-05:00

For Those Not Previously Aware

This is the token of my pledge to marry The Way-Above-Average Allison!

In case you're wondering, she said, "yes." :-)

She took my hand and said let's go together
You and me against the world
And so we stuck it out through still and stormy weather
And so we tumbled down the years...
- Marillion

Climb Aboard Human Folk!

2007-06-04T10:53:00.000-05:00

Climb Aboard Human Folk!

Occasionally people ask me what's going on, and occasionally I tell them. Actually updating my blog has become a whole other occasion, and a quite rare one at that. I am happy to report that my kitchen smells much better than it did the last time I posted. I have managed to happen upon some varied and exciting CDs in the last few weeks, so I thought I'd fill you all in on the wonderful details. Anything else you'd want to know about me can be found on Facebook. :-)

Marillion - Somewhere Else and Radiation

I've decided that if there is one album that you should buy this year, it should be Marillion's new release, Somewhere Else. It's an all around fantastic album that showcases all of the classic Marillion qualities and introduces some new chapters in the ever expanding Marillion catalog of sounds. Since receiving it in April, It's been in my CD player ever since.

Then, last week I aquired Marillions 1998 release Radiation. This album has been maligned for its sub-standard production values. I came in expecting it to be bad, but not this bad. It sounds like an un-mastered garage demo. But after a thorough examination, I've decided the songs on this CD make it as good as any other disc Marillion has written. This will go on my short list of "CDs that I'd pay good money for a quality remix version" along with Rush's Vapor Trails. It's also been described as Radiohead-esque by the kind of critics who don't actually listen to the CDs they review. There are a few parts that sound like Oasis and the Beatles, but I don't hear any Radiohead on here, with the exception of the purposely stripped down sound.

Speaking of Radiohead, Marillion did decide to cover The Tourist on Somewhere Else and rename it The Last Century for Man. Go buy this CD, but skip this hysteria tinged global warming doomsday track, and go straight on to the intriguing closer Faith. "Feel inside the atoms where the science breaks down/ If you don't believe in love, you'd have to make it up." This makes an interesting segue into:

Rush - Snakes & Arrows

Rush returns 5 years after the aforementioned Vapor Trails with this very strong release. Vapor Trails was mastered very badly, and many many people complained. Snakes & Aarows, by contrast is the best sounding Rush album since 1993's Counterparts. Musically, it's kind of a mix between Counterparts (my personal favorite Rush album) and 1989's Presto (an odd but cool Rush record). There is a lot of acoustic guitar here, a very solid groove from our favorite drummer Neil Peart, and the usual excellent bass playing of Geddy Lee. Alex Lifeson, on guitar, is busy being the unimpressive Alex Lifeson we've come to expect over the last decade. But that's OK, I've never listened to Rush because of Lifeson's guitar work.

But one reason I do listen to Rush is because of Peart's lyrics. I have nothing but respect for his gift as a lyricist. I've always been able to take his agnostic materialism with a grain of salt and appreciate his existential humanism. At least he always seems like a nice guy. He really drops the ball on Snakes & Arrows though. He's gone off the Richard Dawkins deep end I think. He goes so far as to equate the Christian right with Islamic Jihadists. Apparently evangelism is just as bad as suicide bombing in Peart's blindly egalitarian worldview. The real offense of Christianity is that it contradicts "my own moral compass" and threatens human progress because, according to Peart, it, "resists all science." Apparently, Peart is dissapointed that vestiges of this backwards thing called religion still inhabit the globe, "It's a far cry from the world we thought we'd inherit," and its, "like we're back in the Dark Ages."

All this to say, I understand Peart's beef with false religion, and especially those "Christians" who really do act as hypocrites. What is very interesting is Peart's statement in the song Faithless, that: "I don't have faith in faith, I don't believe in belief. You can call me faithless... But I believe in love and that's faith enough for me." Much like in the song Ghost of a Chance from Rush's Roll the Bones album ("I believe there's a ghost of a chance we can find a way to love"), Peart takes an existential leap of faith in this concept of "love" that can be a possible good. Certainly, Peart's worldview, with all its bravado about being rational and materialistic, is very much based on faith. So, much like Marillion in Faith, which admits that science breaks down at a point and is insufficient to answer all questions, here Peart is admitting that he has to make up love in order to make his life worth living. It's kind of sad, especially after the events Peart talks about in his book Ghost Rider.

XTC - Apple Venus Vol. 1 & Wasp Star: Apple Venus Vol. 2

I've been wanting to explore XTC's catalog outside of Nonsuch for some time now. My initial impression of these companion albums is that they proved a fear of mine to be true. It seemed like Nonsuch was so borderline saccharine in its near perfection that more of the same would simply be artificial and indulgent. Some of the quirky lyrics and overtly Beach Boys arrangements are worn a bit too thin between these two discs. They could have combined the two volumes and made one outstanding work. Volume 1 is largely orchestral, and exquisitely beautiful in some parts. Volume 2 contains more of the upbeat rock based sound that made Nonsuch so catchy. As it is, we have two discs lacking variety and containing a bit too much filler. Still, I have to say that this band is very creative and refreshing to listen to. It's a sign of a group's skill at writing and arranging when they can pull off an album of mostly orchestral arrangements that doesn't sound trite. So go ahead and climb aboard human folk, I'm really starting to like this little known band.

Hooray for Be-Bop Records and Tapes!

As if this couldn't get much longer, I wanted to close by stating how much I love used CD stores, and how much I regret the trend away from the hard CD format towards MP3 downloads. I picked up a couple of rarity CDs by the Gin Blossoms and Toad the Wet Sprocket. Sure, each only had about 5 songs on them. But it was fun to be able to collect songs I didn't own yet, and have an actual CD to keep in my collection. It would have been much easier to download Till I Hear it From You, a hit Gin Blossoms song that doesn't appear on any of their full length studio recordings. But it was more fun to find it as a B-side to the Follow You Down single, which included two other Gin Blossoms songs I didn't own.

The Toad CD was a live acoustic performance from 1994 at a radio station in Atlanta. I had no idea this existed, and it's very cool to have, especially since the band isn't together anymore. Another trend I sort of dislike is bands that release all of their live shows on CD. Another trend I sort of dislike is bands that release all of their concerts on CD, as Pearl Jam has done for some time now, and apparently Genesis will do on their upcoming tour. It just seems to water down the collection of "official" releases, and make it less interesting to try to collect those rare recordings of a band on some European radio broadcast or TV show.

My golly that was long! If you made it all the way to the end, you get a prize! (My deepest respect and admiration)

Are you joking?
No I'm just fine
You take Nanci
For me Loretta's fine
No, I've changed my mind
I'll take Nanci
For you Loretta's fine
- Toad the Wet Sprocket

That Hideous Stench

2007-05-11T08:30:00.000-05:00

That Hideous Stench

For a long, dark week did The Stench reign in terror over it's unwitting subjects. All the land was troubled and forlorn till one arose from his meager quietude to challenge The Stench's power. Armed only with valor, anti-bacterial chemicals, and an apple cinnamon air freshener, our hero set out to face what he knew could be his final end.

Under cover of night, our hero stole quietly into The Stench's lair. At first, he thought he would not be able to stand from the strength of it. It was so pungent and revolting, that even to this day, it's memory still burns in his mind, so much so that he fears he will never be free of it.

Long into the night the battle raged. Both sides traded terrible blows, for The Stench was no willing victim. It's fury was truly awesome to behold. Yet our hero's determination could not be assuaged. With all of his might, the hero leaped upon his enemy and hewed away at his hideous, armored flesh. Caring little for his own life, but only for the death of his foe, our hero reigned blow upon blow down upon The Stench.

Just as our hero felt he would not be able to sustain his fight, The Stench recoiled in great pain and agony. With a mighty howl, The Stench collapsed to its knees. Then suddenly, before our hero's astonished eyes, The Stench disintegrated and was seen no more. On that day did our hero swear to never allow such evil to rise again in power, and did set out on a quest throughout the known land to find and destroy all such stock from which The Stench did arise.

In season, out of season
What's the difference when you don't know the reason
In one hand bread, the other a stone
The hunter enters the forest
All are not huntsmen who blow the huntsman's horn
And from the look of this one
You've not got much to fear...
- Genesis

Sometimes Its Good to Appease Family Relations

2007-05-09T13:06:00.000-05:00

Sometimes Its Good to Appease Family Relations

I said I'd never do this on this blog, but my SIL "tagged" me, and I haven't posted in a while, so why not.

Seven Random Facts About Me

1. I was born in South Dakota

2. My profile pic is Phil Collins circa 1977

3. My house smells like sea food right now, and I don't know how to fix it. It's quite distressing.

4. There are 1,105 e-mails in my inbox at work. That constitutes less than a tenth of the e-mails stored in my Outlook.

5. I almost lost the tip of my right ring finger in a near-tragic bicycle chain incident when I was three.

6. I prefer Steve Hogarth to Fish. No contest.

7. I am unable to conclusively decide which of these pictures is funnier:

Caption on pic #1 reads, "Sense: This picture makes none." Of course, your vote, as always here at The Average Brad 2.0, is welcome on the subject. I tag Sara Jo, because she might possibly do it.

Ozone disappearing in the sky
Bud man asking us why ask why
If I could find my magazine this bug would die
I complain

China boy standing up to a tank
Southern boy living in the house of yanks
If I can't seem to get my motor bike to crank
I complain

Complain, so much easier...
- King's X

These Pretzels Are Making Me Messy

2007-04-18T12:41:00.000-05:00

These Pretzels Are Making Me Messy

Not much explanation necessary, pretzels can be quite crummy. Ergo, my shirt is full of crumbs at the moment. Did I use the word "ergo" correctly? I'm having an internal debate right now as to whether or not I should indent paragraphs on my blog. For some reason, it seems like if I'm going to separate each paragraph with a double space, than an indent in superfluous. Accent on the "super" SJ.

I got to see Nickel Creek play last night at the wonderful Mississippi College basketball arena. Uncomfortable benches and pour acoustics aside, they really did put on a great show. Nickel Creek is one of those bands that I like a lot, but have never gotten into since so many of my friends own their CDs (I'm weird like that). I was familiar with most of the set, which was fun. It was also interesting to hear music I didn't know so well, and really experience it as they presented it.

They are all fantastic players, and their vocal harmonies are incredible. I got goosebumps a few times. They also got to do a good amount of jamming which kept things lively and interesting. I'm not sure if it was better than the Alison Krauss concert I saw last year (courtesy of Trey). It would have been nice to see them play in a place like Thalia Mara Hall. So far, live Bluegrass definitely beats live Rock music in my experience.

There was a group who held up signs reading "Short People" the whole time. I thought it was just because they were short and wanted recognition (Sorry John!). Then the band came out for their encore and announced, "We never thought we would play this song again, but there are some people who have been holding up some signs all night..." It turned out that Short People is a Randy Newman song. It's a really funny song, although it's untrue that, "short people got no reason to live." At the least they keep us tall folks entertained.

And the sun came up on a sleepy day and never went down at night
And the crowd kept on singing Waste Away but it just didn't feel right
And the prince and the drummer and the fire girls couldn't get our guitars in tune
And I knew it was over when the sound man said, "I wish we were still in June..."
- Spock's Beard

Playing With Colors

2007-04-09T17:49:00.000-05:00

Playing With Colors

I'm still trying to decide on what color I want to accompany the new layout. I really like red, but feel its a bit polarizing (a word I'm using a lot of late it seems). Either people will like it or hate it. I had a khaki background over the weekend. I thought it was understated and neutral, but thought I might get bored with it. It also has a tendency to appear green sometimes. I don't want to do black or white, and every other color I've tried looks fruity. So right now it's a competition between "firebrick" (red) and "khaki 4". You're opinion is welcome, but is in no way guaranteed to affect the final decision.

Easter always encourages me to reconsider the significance of Christ's death and resurrection. The verse that kicked around in my head all day Sunday was Romans 4:25, which tells us that Christ was, "delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." If we are united to Christ, we are united to his risen and glorified person, and not simply to a dead and condemned savior. In other words, God does not just punish Christ in our place and than accept us as we are. Rather, he deals with our sin through Christ's death, and then unites us to a risen Savior - alive, glorified, and righteous.

I was prepared to say more about it here, but I almost feel burnt out on the subject from hearing about it at three services (including one Thursday night). What a sad thing to be burnt out on the Gospel! Really though, this weekend was a good time to remember, reflect on, and respond to what Christ has accomplished, once and for all, for his people. I wish we truly did celebrate Christ's death and resurrection every Sunday, and every day for that matter, as we did yesterday. The chief offender will now attempt to remove the log from his eye...

O cross that liftest up my head
I dare not ask to fly from thee
I lay in dust life's glory dead
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be

Around The Horn

2007-04-05T12:21:00.000-05:00

Around The Horn

Blue Cross Sponsors Walking Program for Mississippians

They are trying to encourage us to sign up for this program at work. After reading through the website, I’m still not sure what the program is, but I’m thinking about signing up for it just for the free pedometer. I actually happen to walk quite a lot. I realize Mississippi is one of the fattest states in America, and I realize why Blue Cross would want to encourage this (it’s all about the Benjamins), but really this just makes me laugh.

Blue Cross has offered to map out a walking route specifically for our firm around the downtown, and one in our building for rainy days. Analysis: American adults are way too pampered, need to be told by their employers and insurance company to exercise, and apparently can’t even plan out walking routes for themselves.

Reminds me of a line from the Jimmy Stewart classic Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation:

Mr. Martin Turner: You haven't done much walking have you Hobbs?
Roger Hobbs: Only since I was about four years old!
(Turner proceeds to demonstrate the correct way to walk)

Watch Out for Christian Homeschooling Terrorists

Whitewashing Jihad In The Schools

More than a little disturbing...

Take Me Out To The Ballgame!

The 2007 Major League Baseball is now in full swing (ducks tomatoes), and of course, so is Fantasy Baseball. So far, my favorite player on my team is Boof Bonser. This almost beats out Coco Crisp for best name in the Majors. If you got points in Fantasy Baseball for best player names, I would be in first place.

My beloved Cubs celebrated their 300 Million dollar payroll expansion with a pathetic opening day performance. Zambrano had better sign that contract extension quick before he blows another start like that. They seem to have played better yesterday. I say get the losses out of the way early. Now summoning the ghost of Harry Carey to go get busy dismantling that Billy Goat Curse...

Six million ants crawling on a plate
Six million ants crawling on a plate
None of them give back
As much as they take
That is a fact of life
- King Crimson

Living Forever

2007-03-12T07:36:00.000-05:00

Living Forever

Two songs from Genesis caught my attention last night. I was listening to We Can't Dance, the bands last real album, as Phil Collins left the band shortly after it was recorded. I chuckled as I realized that some of the topics were very adult. No, not in that sort of way. Adult in the sense that they were singing about problems and issues and topics that adults would care about, as opposed to the average youth.

In Living Forever Collins complains about how "they" tell us to do one thing to stay healthy and live longer one day, and then, based on new research, tell us the complete opposite another. It was really quite funny to think that the band was doing something very Rock & Rollish in writing an angsty (for adult contemporary) song complaining about people telling us how to be. Only this is middle age and not teenage angst. The album closes with a fitting tribute to the band's past, which seems to acknowledge that the band was coming to a close. Fading Lights remarks that "these are the times of our lives" and urges us to "remember."

At this point, I was struck by the fact that life and times are passing. We watched a concert by geriatric rock legend Jerry Lee Lewis the other night. He is 71 and he looks it. It got me thinking about the age of some of my favorite musicians, many of whom are in their mid 50's. In the short span of Rock & Roll's history, the originators of the movement (those who survived into old age) are getting older and will soon be passing on, and now the second and third generation of rock musicians are in their 50's and 40's. Phil Collins is 55, Neil Peart is 54. Even Eddie Vedder, who's band Pearl Jam was spearheading the youth-driven Grunge movement as recently as the early 90's, is now 41 (having outlived several of his contemporaries in the Grunge scene).

In the long span of history, Rock & Roll is a fifty year old phenomenon. It remains to be seen if history will regard it's members as worth noting in say, two or three hundred years. Eventually, it's progenitors will be mere memories, and will only remain for those who "remember." Something that in my lifetime and over the last half century has seemed so important to so many people is very transient, and may well be a very temporary and perhaps inconsequential movement when history rolls on.

A friend of mine is fighting a life-threatening medical condition, and his quality of life may never be the same. I was reminded by my Mom yesterday to be thankful of things like the ability to take a walk on a pleasant day. In the past I've had a habit of marking when the seasons change by saying to myself, "enjoy this spring [summer, fall, etc.], you may never see another one like it." I realized yesterday that I have come to expect a certain constancy from life. I may think to myself that this might be the last spring I experience, but mentally I also note that it will come again, just like it did last year. Likewise, I get a certain feeling every time I take the exit for Fortification street, which leads to my neighborhood. Having lived in Belhaven for over six years now, there have been many times in the past where I've noted that exit sign and thought, "this might not be home forever," yet I've come to expect that it will be.

But it won't be. The Bible reminds us that this world is not our home, but that we seek a heavenly dwelling place. The things of this earth are passing. Psalm 90 reminds us, "The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away." Ephesians 5 says, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil."

I recently read an interview with Nick Mason from Pink Floyd. He was asked why he thought that Dark Side of The Moon was such an enduring recording. He answered, "I think Roger's [Waters] lyrics work incredibly well, they are still relevant today and, rather extraordinarily, they are particularly relevant to an older generation. They could have been written by a 40- or 50-year-old rather than by a 20-something-year-old. The thing about time passing and losing out and all the rest of it." It is interesting that, in an art-form that glorifies youth and creates a facade that tries to defy the passage of time, one of Rock's highest selling and most enduring statements is about the fleeting nature time.

The shortness of time is universally relevant, and something that everyone must deal with. The Psalmist reminds us that time is short and then comes judgment. Many hope to prolong their lives, but they are ignoring the inevitable; "Who considers the power of Your anger, and Your wrath according to the fear of You?" Judgment awaits those who do not fear God for His justice and trust in Christ for His mercies. The Psalmist's prayer is timeless and true when he says, "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom."

Sorry is the fool who trades his soul for a corvette
Thinks he'll get the girl, he'll only get the mechanic
What's missing?
He's living a day he'll soon forget

That's one more time around, the sun is going down
The moon is out, but he's drunk and shouting, putting people down
He's pissing,
He's living a day he'll soon forget...

That's one more time around, there is not a sound
He's lying dead clutching Benjamins
Never put the money down
He's stiffening
We're all whistling
A man we'll soon forget
- Pearl Jam

Replaying The Classics And Crying With The Crows

2007-02-26T12:42:00.000-06:00

Replaying The Classics And Crying With The Crows

I've had my new Dell laptop for two weeks now. I must be lucky, because unlike so many other folks, my battery has not exploded, my computer didn't arrive bogged down with "bloatware," I haven't been attacked by any malicious viruses, and the supposedly lousy Windows Vista hasn't given me any problems yet. I count my blessings every morning.

So, I've been busy ripping my considerable CD collection to my hard drive. This has made for hours of entertainment. It has been a lot of fun going through my collection and pulling out some CDs that I haven't listened to in some time. There are some really good CDs hiding in the forgotten regions of my collection.

Under the Table and Dreaming by Dave Matthews Band is one of the first CDs I bought. It hasn't really been forgotten so much as under-appreciated. When I got to college and found out that everyone liked Dave Matthews Band, I lost a lot of interest in them. This is the band at their best though, before they became superstars and Dave still performed in his pajamas.

I remember the day I got my hands on Chroma Key's first two CDs Dead Air for Radios and You Go Now. It was the Thanksgiving break of my first year at Belhaven. Dead Air for Radios became one of my all time favorite CDs, while You Go Now seemed half-hearted and got overshadowed. However, I forgot how much I listened to both of them at the time. As such, You Go Now replays with a lot of old memories. There is some angry, depressed stuff on there! Anyway, I think You Go Now could use some reconsideration on my part. It's unique but strong recording.

I go way back with Counting Crows also. Their live album Across a Wire is the band at its best. I'm usually distrustful of live albums. Often the sound quality suffers, or the music is a stale reproduction of the studio recording. The Crows rearranged a lot of these songs, half of which are acoustic, while the other half is electric. That's not terribly original, but the performances stand out above and beyond many of the studio recordings. Sullivan Street is a great example of this. I also really like the versions of Raining in Baltimore and Anna Begins better than the album versions. The other notable performances are the acoustic Have You Seen Me Lately and the reinterpreted Mr. Jones.

I've heard a lot of negative things about Adam Duritz' stage presentation, but that certainly isn't the case on Across a Wire. He manages to sing many of his lines better than on some of the studio recordings. He's an earnest human voice behind some bleeding heart lyrics. His honesty keeps it from getting too sentimental. I've talked about his lyrics before, but how can you not shed a tear with the guy when he sings things like, "When everybody loves me, I hope I never get lonely." and, "It's good for everybody to hurt somebody once in a while. The things I do to people I love shouldn't be allowed." Duritz and I shared a few moments this weekend. Across a Wire is one of a handful of live albums that have made that kind of an impact on me.

I even dusted off my best of Bon Jovi CD after I heard one of the songs on the radio. That guy used to have a really good voice. Age has not treated it well though. Momma, don't let your boys grow up to be cowboys. Particularly not the kind that rides on a steel horse with a six string on his back. He'll only go down in a blaze of glory.

It was me and my sidekick
He was drunk and I was sick
We were caught up in a barroom fight
Till an Indian shot out the light

I'm so tired of being tired
Sure as night will follow day
Most things I worry about
Never happen anyway...
- Tom Petty

Happy Groundhog Day!

2007-02-02T08:22:00.000-06:00

Happy Groundhog Day!!

And what a happy day it is! Punxsutawney Phil warbled out of his warm, cozy hole with all the confidence and gusto necessary to face the new day. And afraid of his shadow, he was not! This means, my friends, that spring is most certainly on its way to an early arrival. This is only the 14th time since 1886 that Phil has predicted an early spring - a rare event which may not happen again in our lifetimes!

Of course, this news could not come at a better time. This cold is starting to hammer me down. I don't think I can take six more weeks. Here's to spring, and here's to our hero Punxsutawney Phil! Hip, hip, hooray!!

Routine was the theme...
He'd wake up, wash and pour himself
Into uniform
Something he hadn't imagined being...

As the merging traffic passed
He found himself staring
Down... at his own hands
Not remembering the change, not recalling the plan
Was it...?

He was okay
But wondering about wandering
Was it age?... By consequence?... or was he moved by
Sleight of hand?
- Pearl Jam

As the Streets of This City Tear Themselves Apart

2007-01-29T08:17:00.000-06:00

As the Streets of This City Tear Themselves Apart

Every day entropy seems to greet me with a new pothole, as if to say, "don't you forget about me." 80s movies that everyone should have to see once before they die... The Breakfast Club is up on that list somewhere. You thought this post was gonna be about urban violence didn't you? Entropy is a little bit harder at work in Mississippi than in some other parts of the world. We like to call it Yazoo Clay.

XTC's Nonsuch kept me thoroughly entertained on Saturday night. Oh the boundless joys of clever and silly lyrics! Nonsuch is a satisfying blend of social satire, psychedelic flower celebration, and quirky love songs, set to Brian Wilson styled harmony and told with nursery rhyme charm. There are a few unfortunate instances of that distinctly British sexual innuendo throughout though. Nick Davis works his production genius to create a marvelous sounding album. I find a new favorite line every time I listen.

Everytime I look at my watch
I'm reminded we are poor in hours per day
Every second spent with her's a
Bulging wallet overstuffed with angels pay

This time last year I was conducting "Overhype the Super Bowl Week" on my old Xanga blog. While I once again have little to no interest in the Super Bowl, I did read this interesting article on ESPN.com about the evolution of the halftime show and the glamor surrounding the event.

Who knew that Up With People did four halftime shows in the late 70s and early 80s? Also of note, halftime performers go on for free. When you broadcast to 160 countries, I guess you have that bargaining power. There are a bunch of stories about prima donna performers who refused to be held to some contract or network policy. I expect that kind of thing from Janet Jackson, but Garth Brooks? Did you know that CBS accidentally broadcast footage of the Tienanmen Square massacre into China in 2004? This continues to hamper relations between the NFL and the Chinese government, go figure!

I'm picking it anyway. Colts 58, Bears 26. Yep, you heard it here first folks, there's gonna have to be a safety or something in there somewhere! The best Super Bowl halftime show ever is still, hands down, The Mighty Bomb Jack Show.

And the delta sun burns bright and violent

Mississippi and the cotton wool heat
Sixty-Six the highway speaks
Of deserts dry, of cool green valleys
Gold and silver veins, shining cities

In this heartland...
- U2

I've Got All This Space and Nobody to Decorate It

2007-01-16T07:51:00.000-06:00

Notable Recently Heard Song Lyrics

Some world-views are spacious, and some are merely spaced
- Rush

I've got all this space and no money to decorate it...
...I wanna reach down and pick the crowd up
- Temple of the Dog

Fist on my plate, swallowed it down
- Pearl Jam

Press my face up to the window to see how warm it is inside
See the things that I've been missing, missing all this time
- Beck

Come my joy, come my love, come also my heart
Such a joy as none can move could probably move me
Such a love as none can part, such a heart as joys in love
I can feel it beginning to move me
Ooh, ooh, Good Lord! Ooh it's really beginning to move now
Ooh, ooh, very quickly now I'd say
In fact I think probably I'm going to have to go now...
OOH, OOH, OOOOHHH!!!
- Robert Fripp (with ridiculous Cockney accent)(MP3)

More Adventures in Mississippi

As we turned onto the gravel road it became apparent that we were getting closer. At a house in the woods, outside of Vicksburg, near a town called Bovina, we were going to participate in an authentic Mississippi hog roast! A pig on a large grill and a few scraps of goat in a smaller one for good measure were only the beginnings of the potluck feast before us. The real feast though, was not carnal in nature, but rather musical. A dozen musicians or more armed with banjos, guitars, fiddles, dulcimers, and one washboard gathered on the back deck to carry on an old Southern tradition.

This was the Mississippi Old Time Music Society, and we were their audience. We wandered the grounds with the strains of banjo floating in the air behind us. A walk around the wooded property revealed a pen of chickens, four-wheeler tracks, and a fishing pond. (We were informed that the "chickens" were actually something called a "Moa." However, it should be noted that this researcher can find no evidence of a chicken like bird called the Moa. Rather, the Moa was apparently a large flightless bird native to New Zealand which is now extinct.) Unseasonable 70 degree weather ensured our enjoyment of the afternoon.

We returned in time to partake of the country cooked feast, which we ate as we listened to the the screechings and scratchings of blue-grass and gospel. All the while we pondered the nature of life. Was man meant to live off the land with elbow room to spare, or in the close quarters of the city with the society of other humans? One thing was for sure, man was meant to partake of good food, express himself through good music, and fellowship with fine friends.

Back down the dirt road, onto the pavement, and then to the highway, we made our return to the more familiar scenery of Jackson and Belhaven. Whether your home is in the rural haunts of the countryside, the bustle of urbanity, or the quietude of suburbia, it is the opinion of this writer that one should be content to be able to enjoy the best all worlds whenever he can.

He came from an island
And then he died from the street
And he hurt so bad like a soul breaking
But he never said nothing to me
Say hello to heaven...
- Temple of the Dog

Here Comes the Flood

2006-12-18T12:27:00.000-06:00

Here Comes the Flood

If I had to pick a quintessential Peter Gabriel song, it would probably be Here Comes the Flood. While Wallflower is my personal favorite, there is a depth to the lyrics of Flood that allows it to take on various meanings, lending itself to reinterpretation through different performances. That helps to explain why I own four different recordings of the song.

Originally recorded in 1977, Gabriel was reportedly unsatisfied with the bombastic nature of the full band performance on the track. He favored a simpler piano accompaniment. I first became familiar with the version Gabriel recorded in 1990 for his first greatest hits compilation, Shaking the Tree (it also appears on his 2003 compilation Hit). It is a stunning departure from the original, just Gabriel's voice and his piano. While I usually give credence to original versions, I had always viewed the 1990 version as the definitive recording of this song.

However, the completist in me couldn't resist checking out the other available version of the song. Gabriel had developed a close working relationship with King Crimson's Robert Fripp over the recording of his first two solo albums. This yielded a collaboration between the two on Fripp's 1979 solo album Exposure. Gabriel got to re-record Here Comes the Flood with the simple piano accompaniment he wanted, while Fripp added an intro and outro (Water Music I and II) and some frippertronics to the track, and Brian Eno stitched a few sparse keyboards into the whole thing. To me, it contains the perfect balance between the full band version and the simplified ‘90 recording.

It gets better though. After a mess of record company obstructions and objections altered the 1979 release, Fripp ended up remixing and re-releasing Exposure in 1983. This resulted in yet another version of Here Comes the Flood. Basically the same track, the vocals were brought more to the forefront and the whole thing was given a much warmer, fuller sound. Some of Fripp's guitar on the first chorus was removed, and another keyboard section was added over both choruses.

I loved how the extra guitar tracks from the earlier version build up through the first chorus. If I ran the world, I would have kept the instrumentation as it is on the '79 version and given it the polishing it received on the '83 version. But I don't, so for now I'll have to live with competing versions of the song until one day when I do run the world (In fact, I think the '90 version has the best overall vocal performance, so I would slap that on the '79 version too if I could). The whole Exposure album has been beautifully remastered and contains both versions of the song.

I've never been able to put my finger on what exactly the song is about. I first heard it during my senior year of college while I was studying philosophy. At the time every song seemed to deal with the existential crisis of modern man lost in a cruel universe without God, values, or hope. I do think there is an element of that in the song. Stranded starfish waiting for the "swollen Easter tide" seems like a reference to modern life without religious hope. What the flood itself is, is harder to pinpoint, but I think it has to do with the ever-changing world in which we live. Existence is not static being, but rather, fluid becoming.

The song also has important associations with the end of the year for me. It actually sounds a little bit like Auld Lang Syne. The lyrics deal with continual change, and there is an ominous tone of something about to break which has been holding back "the flood" until now. Reflection, transience, and expectation all seem to meet in the lyrics and instrumentation. The Fripp version includes a sound clip during Water Music I of a narrorator describing cataclysmic climate change, rising sea levels, and the flooding of major cities. I think this song captures the essence of uncertainty and frailty in a world, seemingly, without absolutes or hope in anything beyond the natural order of things. Humanity tossed along on a sea of chance. It is the dreamer, the one who chooses his own reality, who will be able to survive in such a world. "Drink up dreamers you're running dry."

A rare song that merits multiple interpretations and repeated listenings.

When the night shows the signals grow on radios
All the strange things, they come and go as early warnings
Stranded starfish have no place to hide
Still waiting for the swollen easter tide
There's no point in direction
We cannot even choose a side

I took the old track, the hollow shoulder across the waters
On the tall cliffs they were getting older, sons and daughters
The jaded underworld was riding high
In waves of steel held metal at the sky
And as the nail sunk in the cloud
The rain was warm and soaked the crowd

When the flood calls you have no home, you have no walls
In that thunder crash you're a thousand minds within a flash
Don't be afraid to cry at what you've seen
The actor's gone there's only you and me
And if we break before the dawn
They'll use up what we used to be

Lord, here comes the flood
We will say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent in any still alive
It'll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up dreamers you're running dry

A Dense Fog

2006-12-13T08:15:00.000-06:00

A Dense Fog

It had set in the night before, but I was still surprised to be greeted come morning by a dense fog. Though the pillar of cloud appeared to block my way, the cotton ball aura yeilded to my car as I turned out of the driveway and onto the road. O coma way o coma way say I, sang U2 as I made my way through the neighborhood. I wasn't so much coma way-ing as goina way-ing to work. A new day obscured by clouds.

Life appears as a scene obscured by a dense fog. Events in the present are visible, moreso the closer they come. Events in the future or past, in front or behind, become hazy and eventually invisible. Experience and present view give an idea of what lies ahead, but only that. Efforts to project into the future, like high beams that shine back off of fog, often prove futile and have the unintended effect of blinding the view to the present.

On through the mist, the world white washed in wetness, I continued on my way. The skyline is still purified by the lather of clouds stretching up and over my twelth floor window. Awake without caffein, I wait for the coffee to be ready. Anticipation of future events confused with the awareness of the present and the memory of the past.

And you know it's time to go
Through the sleet and driving snow
Across the fields of mourning to a
Light that's in the distance

And you hunger for the time
Time to heal, desire, time
And your earth moves beneath
Your own dream landscape

Oh, oh, on borderland we run...
- U2

The Word of the Day is...

2006-12-07T15:42:00.000-06:00

The Word of the Day is...

MacGuffin

Apparently coined by Alfred Hitchcock himself. I'm most impressed by the example from G.I. Joe.

At the moment when she knew we couldn't see
She came up from the ocean, driven by the sea
And she kept on hangin' round like she would never leave
In between the wind and rain she screamed...
- King's X

What a Perfect Mess

2006-12-04T12:42:00.000-06:00

What a Perfect Mess

I've decided that the cleanliness of my apartment is exemplified by the condition of the blinds in my living room. I have two windows on one wall, and, thus, two sets of blinds. When I moved in, the blinds were caked with a layer of dust and grime that initial efforts failed to clean. When my brother moved in, he was determined to fix that. He spent about two days working at one set. Then he gave up too. Now one set of blinds is (fairly) clean and white, while the other is still a grimy gray.

The two sets now serve as symbols similar to Yin and Yang, representing my general attitude about cleaning. The white represents the extremes of cleanliness, and the dingy gray represents the apathy towards dirt that "doesn't hurt." When balanced against each other, these attitudes achieve an equilibrium of general cleanliness about the place.

The obvious and necessary parts of my house are kept rather clean (the carpet, the dishes, most of the bathroom), while the less noticeable parts (the corners behind the furniture, the dust on the blinds, the extra cabinets that I don't have anything to put in) are left well enough alone. The other day I noticed a family of spiders hanging out in the corner of the livingroom. At first I was startled and thought I should do something. Then I realized, "hey, as long as they eat the other bugs, they can stay." Generally, my motto is, "if you don't get it dirty, you won't have to clean it." These are principles that all men should live by, in all areas of life, I think...

In other news, I've re-discovered the joys of sweat pants. Why have I been depriving myself for so long? Warm, soft, flexible -- every man's best friend! Especially well suited for long, cold days (and nights) spent at home while nursing an illness, or for lounging around on the weekends. However, don't allow your new friend too much license. If you aren't sweating, you probably shouldn't take him out in public.

Mad props to Aquafresh. 24 years cavity free and counting. I should get paid for this type of publicity.

Speak to me in a language I can hear
Humour me before I have to go
Deep in thought I forgive everyone
As the cluttered streets greet me once again
I know I can't be late, supper's waiting on the table
Tomorrow's just an excuse away
So I pull my collar up and face the cold, on my own

The earth laughs beneath my heavy feet
At the blasphemy in my old jangly walk
Steeple guide me to my heart and home
The sun is out and up and down again
I know I'll make it, love can last forever
Graceful swans of never topple to the earth
And you can make it last, forever
You can make it last, forever you...
- Billy Corgan

This Day Keeps Getting Better and Better

2006-11-22T13:32:00.000-06:00

This Day Keeps Gettin Better and Better

I happen to be reading (or finally finishing) C.S. Lewis' space trilogy right now, so during lunch today I checked out Lewis' biography on Wikipedia. I had heard this before, but it was intersting to note that Lewis died the same day that President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Then I read the "On this day" segment on the main page and realized that today is the actual anniversary of Lewis' and Kennedy's respective demizes. It also happens to be Greg Hawkin's birthday.

So, happy home-going to you Clive Staples Lewis! President Kennedy, I haven't much to say to you. And G, have a happy birthday and knock back an Amber Boch for me! It certainly is a noteworthy day in world history!

Ok, hey, I'm goin' outside you can put the plate back on the shelf
And it's cold, though the snow isn't falling
The neighbor can speak for himself
And the cold, hard look in your eye is more than a line in the sand
And the truth gets hard to imagine the hours get harder to stand

He's a seasick terminal passenger singing this song to himself
Til the soul bought soul on his skelleton leaks into somebody else
He's a sea-saw caught in a storm, a hurrican after the war
When he drinks all the blood you can offer he still wants more

Now the planes and rumbling trains
Are shaking the ground in our town again
Thought it twice, kicking the ice
I got myself turned back around singin'
Everything's gonna be fine
I'm sure that we'll both be OK

Hey, I'm back and outside now just put the plate back on the shelf
And its cold, though the snow isn't falling
The temperature speaks for itself
Its a moonlit reason to quit, and nobody answers the phone
So if there's still blood left in your body I'll come back
Home
- Kevin Moore

The Foolishness of Paragraphs that are Better as One Word

2006-11-20T08:08:00.000-06:00

The Foolishness of Paragraphs that are Better as One Word

The beginning of this Thanksgiving week finds us remembering Kevin Gilbert, who's birthday was today. I'm not one to jump on the dead hero bandwagon, but I'll recognize the influence Gilbert had on my musical landscape. Not only did he write Sharyl Crow's "All I Wanna Do," he produced the first two Spock's Beard albums, and was a major influence on Neal Morse and Nick D'Virgilio. He also inspired the songs "The Great Nothing" by Spock's Beard and "I Was Not Ready for You" by Mike Keneally. For a guy who wrote sarcastic folk-pop and who got his break engineering sessions for Michael Jackson and Madonna, Gilbert really did set the stage for a large segment of the nineties prog rock revival. Before his death, he was in line to replace Phil Collins in Genesis, and was supposed to produce what became Dream Theater's Falling Into Infinity album. I've been enjoying his album Thud for the last week. Pretty sad guy, but he turned a great rhyme. We'll be singing nah, nah, nah when we all fall down...

The Cubs are about to sign Alfonso Soriano to an eight year, gazillion dollar contract. That's pretty cool, except that it appears Juan Pierre won't be coming back, leaving us with a leadoff man who hit 40 homers last year. This guy has to bat down in the lineup if he's gonna do us any good. I'm still waiting to see how Jim Hendry plans on fixing the pitching problem.

I was contemplating the existence of Eskimos last night. I live in Mississippi and get cranky when the temperature drops below 40. It boggles my mind that people live in Alaska. So I wonder, how did Eskimos and other northern folk ever learn to survive up there? These people make houses out of snow. That is absolutely amazing. Crazy, but amazing nonetheless.

So this Thanksgiving, I'm thankful that I don't live in a house made out of snow, and that it is only 38 degrees outside, instead of 60 below. I'm trying to be mindful of the many blessings of modern America, and not be an ungrateful materialist. I've constantly been reminded this year that very few people in the history of the world have the wealth, convenience, and opportunity that I do. The overwhelming majority of people in the world live in extreme poverty (Why are little ones born only to suffer, for the want of immunity or a bowl of rice?)

I'm also reminded of the friends I have who are spending Thanksgiving on the mission field in China, Ukraine, Ethiopia, and Nigeria without all the American conveniences we take for granted. Let's not pull any punches, it's idolatrous to be thankful for "blessings" in the abstract. Our treasure is Christ, and our God is the one worthy of thanksgiving:

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

"Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content."

"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ"

(Case in point, I'm thankful for www.crosswalk.com, the Bible online in every modern English translation. People have died to have the Bible in their language, and so many people don't have it. I can search the whole thing on the net.)

No One Notices the Contrast of White of White

2006-11-14T08:27:00.000-06:00

No One Notices the Contrast of White on White

Music created out of depression can be starkly beautiful. The history of art is riddled with the stories of tormented souls trying to express themselves. Is it any surprise that themes of sadness, despair, rejection, loneliness, anger, and cynicism resonate with people almost universally?

Kevin Gilbert, a bright songwriter who lived a tragic life and suffered a despicable death wrote the line, "and everybody has someone they can share their sadness with" in the satirical Joytown, a song about a place that doesn't exist. People are in sad shape. While listening to Rush's Presto album last week, I was struck by the songs The Pass and Red Tide. The first deals with trying to talk a friend out of suicide, and the second is about modern epidemics, environmental disaster, and the ability of technologically advanced humans to kill others and themselves more efficiently. I realized, unbelievers have everything to worry about, because anything that threatens their own world threatens everything they have. See Neil Peart's Ghost Rider for a good example of this.

I dusted off Counting Crows' debut album August and Everything After last night. This is an amazing album musically and lyrically, one of those albums with a sound that fills up and changes the mood in a room. The critics loved this thing when it came out. Singer Adams Duritz is the perfect tragic Romeo character, desperately sad but loveable. He and all the characters in his songs have problems, and you get the sense that he is sharing your problems and singing about them for you.

In the song Mr. Jones, Duritz theorizes, "when everybody loves me, I'm gonna be just about as happy as I can be." When Counting Crows' follow up album Recovering the Satellites included more songs about depression and a retrospective on how life as a rockstar wasn't all that great, the critics became very unhappy with Mr. Duritz, labelling him a hypocritic whiner. Subsequent Crows albums have still included that air of melancholy, but haven't captured the pristine sadness of their first two works. They haven't affected me at all in the same way.

In real life, Duritz seems to be kind of a lousy guy. He apparently went Brian Wilson a few years ago, staying home for a year, not shaving, and refusing to record or play live because he couldn't handle criticism. I can't say I blame him. If he's down and out, the critics don't want to hear him whine. If he's writing happy-cheery songs, the fans are unhappy. At this point, I would rather the guy get his life together and never make another classic, depressed Counting Crows album. It's kind of selfish to hope that your favorite songwriters stay depressed so they'll keep making good music.

All this begs questions about art in general. Authenticity is very valuable in art, and most people are genuinely suffering. Christians should be able to recognize this, and be mindful of the fact that coming from unbelievers, good art is art that tells us about the condition in which they find themselves. Likewise, Christian artists shouldn't gloss over the troubles that are present in their own lives, as unbelievers will smell a fake. I think it is important to make the contrast as vivid and real as possible, to accurately portray the effects of sin in the world, admit our own weakness, and then be able to demonstrate the real hope that we have.

I got bones beneath my skin, and mister
There's a skeleton in every man's house
Beneath the dust and love
and sweat that hangs on everybody
There's a dead man trying to get out
Please help me stay awake, I'm falling

Asleep in perfect blue buildings
Beside the green apple sea
Gonna get me a little oblivion, baby
Try to keep myself away from me
- Counting Crows

Canadian Cowboy

2006-11-13T17:04:00.000-06:00

Canadian Cowboy

"When I'm writing lyrics I always wear a cowboy hat, because I figure that you can never take yourself too seriously with a cowboy hat on."

I find this quotation from our favorite songwriter and drum guru Neil Elwood Peart to be hysterical. Good advice for the average joe rock star wannabe. The mental image got me thinking, "I wonder if there are any pictures?" Then I decided to make my own. Get along little dogie!

We should all wear cowboy hats more often.

We can rise and fall like empires
Flow in and out like the tide
Be vain and smart, humble and dumb
We can hit and miss like pride

We can circle around like hurricanes
Dance and dream like lovers
Attack the day like birds of prey
Or scavengers under cover
- Neil Peart

When Today is as Far as We Can See

2006-10-30T07:47:00.000-06:00

When Today is as Far as We Can See

Had a few items collect over the last week for posting...

Books A Million - I realized that Books A Million is the anti-Borders or Barnes & Noble. The place has absolutely no atmosphere. It is all white, the music is this tacky muzak, the chairs are a strange grey leather, and there is no hint of interior decorating. Still, I somehow found myself at home there. I ended up spending an hour or so reading in one of their cushy, grey chairs, all the while catching a spattering of employee conversation. I thought to myself, "These are real people, and this is a real store," not some manipulated environment created by Trading Spaces designer wannabees. Hats off to BAM.

Why was Brad Reading Anyway? - That's a good question. I finally got around to picking up Neil Peart's Ghost Rider. I read about two chapters in the store and decided I had to take it home. Great stuff as always from my favorite all around writer. Engaging non-fiction that is as poetic as his song lyrics - really holds my attention. Ghost Rider is the story of Peart's self imposed motorcylce exile following the death of both his daughter and "wife" within a two year period. I'm always intrigued by how poeple deal with loss. Rush's Vapor Trails album was the musical counterpart to this book, so it is cool to gain new insight into Peart's process of recovery which was hinted at in his lyrics. It's interesting to me that a common reaction to the loss of close family always seems to be guilt: at still being alive, at not being grieved enough, or of not being able to save the person you loved. I wonder if believers and non-believers share this struggle in the same way. One dissapointment was finding out that Peart was married to his "wife" only by common-law. Not surprising for someone who doesn't "believe" in God to not take any vows to demonstrate his commitment to his spouse. Note to self, agnostics make bad role models. "I'm not a role model, I'm a drummer. I just hit things with sticks."

Man is Not Free - So long as man must depend on another man to cut his hair, man is not free. At best, man can hope by force of will to cause another man (or woman) to give him the hair cut he desires. Yet the lack of perfect communication between different entities will always prevent the exact replication of the cuttee's desires by the cutter. Sometimes lack of communication will prevent the cuttee from getting inside the shop of the cutter.

They're There to Protect Us - Why is it that I wave to everybody I see in the neighborhood except for the security folks? Why do they make me feel so nervous? I think it is because I feel that they are outsiders, not actually part of the neighborhood. It is the reverse feeling I have when I drive around in a different neighborhood. I feel like everyone knows I don't belong and is suspicious of me. Weird huh?

1 Timothy 2:13-15 - For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

I've always read this and wondered how the woman is saved through childbearing. Maybe it has to do with the seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent. But I think the reason this verse seems so strange is that our society disparages the role of childbearing in womanhood. It is seen as optional, something a woman may or may not do in her lifetime. While some women are not called to be mothers, the Bible teaches the exact opposite of what is generally accepted in our culture. Childbearing is closely tied to what it means to be a woman. I think the refusal of a woman to have children is being paralleled with Eve's original transgression in the garden, in which she denied her God given roll as subservient to God through Adam's headship.

90125 - Every time I think I've exhausted the best of music from the 80's, I uncover another hidden gem. Well, this was more like a recovery than a discovery. I'm not a huge Yes fan, but I can't deny the exuberant catchiness of this record. I've always held the belief, albeit a tenuous one, that if people had more 80's rock in their lives, they would be a lot more positive. Listen to Our Song and tell me if having that bass line in your head doesn't give you a little pep in your step. It did for me on my way into work. Thank you Mr. Squire!

Foot upon the stair
Shoulder to the wheel
You can't tell yourself not to care
You can't tell yourself how to feel

That's how it is

It's such a cloudy day
Seems we'll never see the sun
Or feel the day has possibilities
Frozen in the moment - the lack of imagination
Between how it is and how it ought to be...
- Neil Peart

The Importance of Being Man

2006-10-23T07:54:00.000-05:00

The Importance of Being Man

I've been thinking again. I know, dangerous you say. Well, I'm open to correction or rebuke on this one, whichever is necessary.

One of the things that I think can become confusing about Christianity is what it has to say about man's worth. Sure, as Reformed Christians we affirm what the Bible teaches about the fallen state of man. All mankind, since Adam, has rebelled against its creator, is born in sin, and is thus worthy of condemnation. There is none who is righteous, none who seeks after God, and all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Then one considers the incarnation again, and things get squirrly. The Son of God lays aside the glory of being God, and veils himself in human flesh, taking on a human nature (all while still being God), and lives and dies on behalf of fallen men, in whom there is nothing lovely or worthy of such grace. It's pretty difficult to wrap your mind around Christ's two natures. It is so easy to emphasize one over the other.

It occurred to me recently, that if Christ was God, than the incarnation should have been a sinch. I mean, what is 30 years to an eternal God? What is the minuscule temptation of the flesh for the one who created all flesh and who commands the angels in heaven? You might even say, when considering this, that the deck was stacked in Christ's favor. Well, certainly it was. There was never any chance of Christ failing in his mission, because God had determined and bound himself via covenant to redeem fallen man. It was over when God gave the covenant to Abraham. It was as good as done when God promised Adam and Eve that one of their seed would crush the serpent. It was finished before it started, in a way. God cannot be thwarted.

I'm not going to try to figure out, much less explain, the correlation between God's perfect decrees and the will of man. However, there is a balance there, and I think it was present in the incarnation. In other words, Christ was a real man and he experienced that fully (short of possessing a sinful nature). But what really strikes me, is that the incarnation, and the value of Christ's life and death demonstrate the value of man. Schaeffer uses the term, "the mannishness of man." Man is made in the likeness of almighty God, and in spite of his sin he still bears God's image. Thus his feelings, desires, and emotions have worth. There is something about man that is noble, valuable, and significant. The incarnation proves this.

First, it was no mere pin prick that Christ experienced in his life and death on earth. The pain and suffering he felt was real, and it was valuable. We know from scripture that God cares about human suffering. He knows our needs in intimate detail. God has granted humans significance. "What is man that you are mindful of him, yet you have made him a little lower than the angels." If being a man were an insignificant thing, than I believe the incarnation would be less significant, and the death Christ died wouldn't seem all that great.

Secondly, if man were not created noble and righteous and for greatness, than the fall would be less significant. At various points throughout history, different theologians and philosophers have tried to explain the fall as being the natural result of a created being which was by definition imperfect. I think we can degrade God's creation too much in this way. Rather, consider the depth of depravity that a righteous being, made in God's image and having fellowship with his creator, has fallen to in his sin. If you begin to get a sense of man's importance than you begin to understand the wrath of God that our sins deserve. To whom much is given much is required.

Finally, if this is so, than the judgment poured out on Christ becomes all the more significant. Human suffering is a real and significant thing, because human nature is significant. Sin is a significant thing, because the status of man is significant. And the wrath of God towards sin is significant, because of this. It was no small suffering that Christ experienced on the cross. The full wrath of God was placed on Christ in the place of all whom God had chosen to save. This was the complete wrath of God, that not even the most depraved sinner can ever fully exhaust in Hell. Certainly, this would not be possible if Christ were only human. However, all of this emphasizes the point that we have a great high priest who can sympathize with our weakness, because he is fully man -- a significant thing.

Secular philosophy sees Christianity as devaluing and degrading to man. It denies man his pleasures and confines him to the chains of obedience to a higher being. Certainly, this philosophy in itself is the mind set of rebellion. However, as Christians, we have the ability to demonstrate the value of man, that Christ would identify with us and elevate us to an even higher status than that in which we were created. We shall be called sons of God.

And it's all because you made me see
What is false and what is true
Like the inside and the outside of me
Is being made again by you
- Marillion

The Ghosts of Mississippi

2006-10-09T07:47:00.000-05:00

The Ghosts of Mississippi

Every man should encounter the reality of death while he is still young. A youth must also overcome fear of the unknown if he is to ever become a man. And with such thoughts in mind, the hero of our tale did set out nigh to midnight with four companions on a trip to the infamous ghost town of Rocky Springs, Mississippi.

Rocky Springs was a small agrarian community, once thriving but doomed to extinction by the bubonic plague, the Civil War, and poor soil conservation. Now all that remains are two bank safes, the church house and the old graveyard. It is rhumored to be among the most haunted places in Mississippi. A good place for five youths to go at midnight.

A mile's hike through the woods lay between our campsite and the town. I suppose we were all a little thankful for the nearly full moon which made midnight seem extraordinarily, and perhaps unnaturally, bright. I kept imagining myself as a renegade or a refugee, traveling by night with fear and adrenaline driving my escape from what lay behind and blinding me to what might lay ahead in the dark. Perhaps 200 years ago some runaway slave trod this same path, albeit in the other direction, with the slave catcher's hounds hard on his heals.

Before long we came to the church. The artificial light of the streetlights outside managed to dull the mood and took something away from the aura of a place that was supposed to be deserted (the church is still in regular use). We proceeded to enter the church, which oddly enough remains unlocked for adventurers such as us to come and go as they please. A rather humorous sign was placed by the piano, instructing anyone who wanted to play it to kindly replace the red velvet cloth over the keys before leaving.

The companion known as Nathan sat down to play. The one room church had a rich resonance, and the piano filled the air, thick and warm in contrast to the cold night outside. As we sung Amazing Grace I couldn't help but feel a little sacrilegious. It seemed like more of a charm to ward of the evil spirits than a hymn of praise to our Creator Redeemer. Imagine our surprise and amazement when Nathan then transitioned into the morose tones of Black Sabbath's Iron Man. In sudden fear of what such an arrangement might conjure, Nathan again transitioned into Blessed Assurance. Inspite of the original glances around the room and sudden turns to scan the dark behind us, we soon became relaxed in the spooky setting.

Our party proceeded to the graveyard, which was a much more somber location than the church. As we stopped to read the names and ages of the deceased, we naturally were reminded of the brevity of life. So many young among the dead, by our modern reckoning at least. We stayed for some minutes, weighing the reality of death and the uncertainty of whether or not those dead really did haunt this place. However, as we left I couldn't help but feel a mixture of relief that we didn't encounter any haunting spirits, and dissapointment that there really wasn't anything to be afraid of. The desire to experience first hand and with certainty what you only hear of in dubious accounts and urban legends would remain unfulfilled.

It is interesting how, as a child, I was deathly afraid of the dark, the supernatural, and the unknown. At some point in time, without realization or event, these things lost their mystery and awe and no longer hold sway over my emotions. I suppose it is a combination of age, sanctification, and a jaded scientific understanding of the world around me. I remember being young, and wondering how my parents could not be afraid. I suppose I've a little better understanding of that now, and a story to tell my children.

On certain nights when the angles are right
And the moon is a slender cressent
Its circle shows in a ghostly glow
Of earthly luminescence

Earthshine, a becon in the night
I can raise my eyes to earthshine
Earthsine, a jewel out of reach
For a dream to rise to earthsine

Reflected light to another's sight
And the moon tells a lover's story
My borrowed face and my third hand grace
Only reflect your glory...
- Neil Peart

Sometimes a View from Sinless Eyes

2006-10-05T12:41:00.000-05:00

Sometimes A View From Sinless Eyes...

Last weekend I watched the movie Barry Lyndon, directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is based on the novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray. It made me ashamed for being a part of the human race and overall left me feeling dirty. The main character Redmond Barry (aka Barry Lyndon) is an 18th century Irish youth who kills a British army officer in a duel for the woman he loves and is forced to flee his hometown. His character can be summed up in the line, "I'd sooner go to Hell than go to Dublin." What follows is a story of lying, cheating, infidelity, delusional pursuit of status, and all around selfishness. Barry is an opportunist who uses people and cirmcumstances to advance his status in life, going from a runaway to an enlisted man to an officer, and eventually to a gentleman.

However, his sins eventually catch up with him, and the movie leaves him a broken, poor, exiled man. Everyone around him also ends up ruined. However, the movie daftly avoids giving the viewer any real sense that justice was meeted out. The fact of the matter is, there are no characters in the movie who are worthy of justice. Barry's mother, though a poor widow, is ultimatly just a scheming, and self-serving miser. The characters Barry meets along the way are thieves, conivers, and flatterers. All of 18th century Europe is indicted on the charge of being trivial, opulent, and fake. The nobility live in great splendor and are surrounded by all the pleasures of life. But they are hiding behind powdered faces and wigs, performing services only to get ahead, marrying only for status, and spending all of their time in meaningless passtimes like playing cards (a central and particularly poignant motif in the film). Kubrick closes the movie with the pronouncement that all of these characters who strove for favor, wealth, and status in those days are now equal in the grave.

All of these events are portrayed against the breathtaking backdrop of Europe's landscape, art, and architecture, and set to classical music. The contrast is stark. This place has such great beauty, and history has painted it with a grand legacy, but its people were exceedingly hollow and ugly. The narrorator tells the tale as if it were one of significance, and as if the story were of a worthy subject. But ultimately, we find there was nothing noteworthy about Barry, save his exceedingly great wickedness.

Last night I was in a discussion about the incarnation, and this morning my mind traveled back to Barry Lyndon. The question arose of what it must have been like for the Son of God to not only lay aside the splendor of Heaven and become an insignificant man, but also to identify with a sinful people in his circumcision, baptism, and death. If simply watching the acts of others on screen can fill me with such disguist for being human, without even really taking stock in my own sinful character, what an absurd prospect it is for Christ to willingly become a man and die for a people which were as unlovely and sinfull as Redmond Barry.

This is great love, mercy, and glory that contrasts with and far overshadows the greatness of the evil that is displayed in Barry Lyndon. You see, Kubrick's Nihilsm only gets it half right. There is true morality and justice, and therefore true mercy, with God. When one considers that God, in His infinite wisdom, ordained all things in order to demonstrate His greatness in His Son through the redemption of His people, one should be filled with: 1. a sense of awe at who God is, 2. a humility and thankfulness for what He has done, and 3. a great sense of joy for being a part of that race of redeemed humanity.

Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The steadfast love of God endures all the day. Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit. You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking what is right. You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.

But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. The righteous shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him, saying, See the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his own destruction!

But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. I will thank you forever, because you have done it. I will wait for your name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly.
- Psalm 52

Mom, This is What I Wanna Do When I Grow Up

2006-09-27T13:09:00.000-05:00

Mom, This is What I Wanna Do When I Grow Up

David Letterman in all his 1980's glory, setting fashion trends for the next several centuries:

Dave Wears the Velcro Suit

Dave Wears the Suit of Magnets

Dave Wears the Sponge Suit

I now have a new answer when people ask me that dreaded question, "If you could have any one job in the world, what would it be."

Even if the good old days were good
Even if the old days were golden days
Even if the good old days were good
The past is a terrible place to live...
- Steve Hogarth

2006-09-21T09:15:00.000-05:00

For Those of You Who Ask About My "Other" Brother

This picture says it all:

It's nice here with a view of the trees
Eating with a spoon?
They don't give you knives?
'Spect you watch those trees
Blowing in the breeze
We want to see you lead a normal life
- Peter Gabriel

2006-09-18T13:00:00.000-05:00

Empty Calories: McDonald's, Def Leppard, and Shaniah Twain

I grew up listening to bands like Def Leppard. Last week, I took a stroll down memory lane and bought a copy of their Adrenalize CD for about three bucks. It had been about 5 years since I'd listened to Def Leppard. In that time, I'd rediscovered grunge, accepted the Radiohead fad, and become more interested in obscure progressive rock bands like Marillion and King Crimson than glam metal.

I sat down to listen to Adrenalize as I ate my double cheeseburger from McDonald's. Needless to say, the cheese flowed liberally in more ways than one. It is amazing how comparable the music of Def Leppard is to a meal from McDonald's. You enjoy the first few bites, or maybe you even wolf down the whole thing. But then a few moments later, your stomach becomes a bit queezy, and you begin to question your judgment and taste. You see, the thing about McDonald's is that it tastes great, and if you go long enough without eating it, you begin to pine away for a big greasy cheese burger. Afterwards you realize you've stuffed yourself, but your body has received no real nutritional benefit.

And such is the music of Def Leppard. Oh, don't get me wrong. This has to be some of the most brilliantly produced pop music of all time. Pounding electronic drum beats, shimmery electric guitars, slick vocal harmonies, everything you need to make a great pop/rock song is there. Catchy is hardly the word to describe it. It's more like infectious. This is the kind of music that begs you to turn your car speakers up to ridiculous volumes. All this, and the drummer only has ONE arm! You can't beat that.

However... Joe Elliot has to have the most ridiculously affected vocal style aside from Creed's Scott Stapp. This is British campiness at its best. The whole thing is sugary sweet, like putting extra sugar on Frosted Flakes sweet. Layers upon layers of processed vocals are smothered all over the sing along choruses. But that only serves to accentuate the lyrics. A word of caution: when Def Leppard uses the word "love" in their songs, they aren't really talking about love at all, if you know what I mean. "If it pleases you it pleases me." Don't be fooled, this has nothing to do with self-sacrifice. This stuff is pure hedonism. Ah, but its all couched in the best (and I do mean best) of power ballad open heartedness. So when Elliot sings "Stand up for love!" with all seriousness and emotion, you kind of just feel nauseated.

But still, the whole thing has just enough believability to keep me listening for a weekend straight (I think my fever broke this morning). And it has enough charisma to sell about 150 million plus CDs worldwide. You see, the person largely responsible for Def Leppard's glorious "sound" is producer Mutt Lange. Now, even if you've never heard Def Leppard, chances are you've heard Mutt Lange. In addition to producing AC/DC, Brian Adams and The Corrs, Mutt Lang is married to the ostentatious Shaniah Twain.

Oh, and he makes her music too. If you listen closely, you begin to realize that Shaniah Twain is little more than Def Leppard with a country twist. It really is remarkable. Lange took a sound that had become dated, unfashionable, and hokey with rock fans, and turned his struggling, country-ditty singing sweetheart into the highest selling female artist ever. Certainly the whole midriff thing helps. But I've gotta think that somehwere deep down in the world's musical psyche, there is a hunger for the pounding, anthemic overtones of the Def Leppard/Mutt Lange sound.

Shaniah may be a nobody right now. The Leppard might be old and toothless. But in about 10 years, Lange will resurrect his sound with some new musical prodigy, and the whole thing will begin anew. "Try to stop this thing coming." I dare you.

All I wanna do is take a ride into the blue
Every time I wanna rock I'm stuck inside my room
Heaven knows I'm sick and tired of dancing with this broom
Do you wanna get rocked?
- Def Leppard

2006-09-13T12:45:00.000-05:00

You Mad Dog, Shaven Head, Bottle-Boy Freaks!

The theme of the day is things you'll never be able to use in normal conversation. Such as the title phrase. It's a beautiful and heartfelt rant. But I don't really know anybody that fits the description. Alas, I'll probably never get to use it... much like Jerry Stiller's Festivus greeting in Seinfeld, "I've got a lot of problems with you people."

How about thouse big, ostentatious words (like ostentatious) that rattle around in your head while you're internally dialoging with yourself? You use them quite confidently with yourself, as if you were assured of their meaning and no other word in the human language could express your thought as well. My word is cognizant. I use it all the time to myself, as if I'm cognizant of the fact that my subconscious is screaming at me to use it in public. People would certainly be impressed by my using such a word. But the opportunity never quite seems to arise. By the way, who knew there was a "z" in cognizant?

Then there are some situations that call for a double negative, a subject/verb disagreement, mixed tense, or some other non-linear gramatical expression. Today's is, "used to was," because that is the truth. I woke up this morning and was cognizant of the fact that it is colder than it used to was. It is not just colder than it is, it is colder than it was. "Be" sort of carries the idea of something that is now. Obviously, the phrase "used to" makes up for it. But saying it my way emphasizes the fact that non-cold weather exists only in the past and was extremely transient in nature. It didn't just "used to be," it "used to was." See the difference? I give you permission to use logically incoherent phraseology at least once today.

One off topic thing to touch on before I go. If you have any dreams involving me sitting on the roof enjoying the view while on acid and hiding from society, please do let me know. I don't know how, but I fear such visions may really concern me and my wellbeing. Friends let friends know about that kind of stuff.

No sleep no sleep no sleep no sleep
And no mad video machine to eat time
A city scene I can't explain
The Seine alone at 4am, the Seine alone at 4am
Neal and Jack and me
Absent lovers, absent lovers...
- King Crimson

2006-08-24T12:16:00.000-05:00

Updating an Item From Yesterday...

The platen glass is no longer dirty. I'm not sure what the cosmological significance of this is. I'm guessing somebody found some Windex. However, the copier is now requesting that I, "check the TCP/IP connection." Now that you mention it, I suppose my TCP/IP connection has been a little out of whack recently...

If I were as many miles from here
I'd be sailing on an open boat on the sea
Instead I'm on this window ledge
With the whole world below...

We can help you, we can help you!!
We're all your freinds
If you come on down and talk to us, Harry
Take a run and jump!!
- Genesis

2006-08-23T15:13:00.000-05:00

Phrase of the Day and Riddle of the Week

“The platen glass is dirty”

Why do I feel like there is a deeper philosophical meaning behind this statement? Every time I go to make copies in the office, I am greeted by this phrase. It begs the question, why has no one cleaned the platen glass? Maybe it alludes to the reality of things which were once meant to be good, functional, and clean which have now become dirty and useless due to neglect or abuse. Is it an analogy for this sin stained world, which was once good and perfect, but which now can never be made clean apart from Divine intervention? Perhaps it is simply a testament to the tendency we have to coddle those imperfections in our personalities which hold us back from being all that we could be. Maybe the phrase is simply put their to mock us, and let us know that no matter how hard we try to clean something, it will inevitably become dirty again. But most telling, is the fact that no matter how many times I see that phrase flashing on the screen, I will never bother to clean the platen glass. Partly because I don’t feel it is my responsibility; mostly because I am too lazy. And then there is the cynical side of me that says even if I try cleaning the glass, the phrase probably still won’t go away. And so it will continue, until I become totally desensitized to the warning…

It’s time for my afternoon coffee.

Meanwhile, lurking by a stone in the mud
Two eyes looked to see
What I was, and then something spoke
And this is what it said to me…

Clothes of brass and hair of brown
Seldom need to breathe
Don't need no wings to fly
With a heart of stone
And a fear of fire and water
Who am I?
- Genesis

2006-08-22T08:58:00.000-05:00

One Last Great Summer Blockbuster
Little to tell you this fine late summer morning. I will say that getting 8.5 hours of sleep in a night is infinitely better than getting 5.5.

The other night Nathan and I watched the longer than I remembered it as a kid but still pretty funny No Time for Sergeants starring Andy Griffith. A couple observations:

1. Griffith's character, Will Stockdale, possesses super human strength and is no mere mortal, ripping gas pumps apart with his bare hands, throwing other GIs around the room like bowling balls, and guzzling whiskey, scotch, and kerosene like it was grape juice.

2. Private Ben Whitledge is Taylor Wilson, for all of you Twin Lakers. "Airman!!"

3. If this movie has any basis in reality, then our military is filthy with corruption at every level. There is a Sergeant who breaks regulations by creating the position of "Permanent Latrine Orderly" and then bribes said PLO in order to avoid reprimand. There are the Generals who transfer soldiers out of their division under cover of darkness to cover up the truth. There are soldiers sleeping on the job, and deserters who abandon their post at the first sign of danger. This explains why we lost in Vietnam.

"End of the story he gets the pony anyhow."

And be on the lookout for the new film Lost in Criticism, possibly coming in September to a theater near you...

~ Taken from The Newsletter of Joy ~

...Lost in Criticism, the new film starring Daniel Shaw and John Aaron Johnson who also wrote, directed, and produced the film in the space of six days. When two famous 19th century literary figures get caught in the afterlife, things begin heating up as Oscar Wilde (Johnson) becomes lost in a maze of modern literary criticism. This is the story of two unlikely partners who become fast friends in the midst of hidden perils and pernicious critics. Can Melville (Shaw) find Wilde in time? Will they escape before they and their texts are lost for good? Can Wilde win the hand of the woman he loves? Careful--You might never find your way out!

Hear what the movie critics are saying about this new suspense-filled action adventure romantic thriller comedy drama:

"Post-postmodern. A luminescent, incendiary piece of cinema and artistry." - Andrew Hilleke

"A sexy new thriller. Captivating, breathtaking. A scintillating toure-de-force of film-making." - Lydia Goeglein

"Due to this movie, my winter is no longer discontent." - Michael Phillips

"A triumph of the human spirit." - Dr. Edwin McAllister

"I loved this movie." - John Aaron's mom

(Used without permission from Daniel W. Shaw - i.e. free publicity)

2006-08-10T13:04:00.000-05:00

And Then the Rains Came

After spending the last week swimming in humidity, something had to give. Last night it did. Blessed rain!! The temperature dropped about 30 degrees and is now at a reasonable 73. Massive downpours and lightning are pretty sweet when you think about it (provided you have adequate shelter, I was walking/running home when it hit). But the best part was that I managed to catch an incredible sunset after the storm. One half of the sky was all layers of red clouds, and the other half, still dominated by the storm, was black with the occasional streak of lightning. Pretty cool stuff.

You can do a lot in a lifetime
If you don't burn out too fast
You can make the most of the distance
First you need endurance -
First you've got to last...

From first to last
The peak is never passed
Something always fires the light
That gets in your eyes
One moment's high
And glory rolls on by
Like a streak of lightening
That flashes and fades
In the summer sky
- Neil Peart (from Marathon)

2006-07-31T12:29:00.000-05:00

For a Moment of Forgetting... (Musings on Materialism)

To paraphrase Glenn Phillips, we've all got a lot to be thankful for. Some mornings you don't wake up feeling too thankful. Isn't it odd then, that an icecream cone and a chocolate cookie can suddenly make you feel better when you're feeling low? Conversely, eating an icecream cone and a cookie can ruin your chargrilled chicken sandwich. Had to eat the cone before it melted...

I listened to Peter Gabriel on the way into work this morning, and got hit by these lines. We're all so alike...

I caught sight of my reflection, I saw it in the window
I saw the darkness in my heart
I saw the signs of my undoing, they had been there from the start

And the darkness still has work to do, the knotted chords untying
The heated and the holy, oh they’re sitting there on high
So secure in everything they’re buying

I can hear the distant thunder of a million unheard souls
Of a million unheard souls
Watch each one reach for creature comforts
For the filling of their holes

... To paraphrase (more like read into) Chris Cornell, I can have the Wooden Jesus of materialism and "spend all my money on a future grave" or the real thing and be satisfied. I shouldn't quite be so much like everyone else.

2006-07-19T12:03:00.000-05:00

I Had A Dream...

Do people still read this thing? We'll find out I guess.

So I had this dream last night with Dr. Sachs, the chair of the Belhaven music department, in it.

There was a record shop (they sold actual records) that I frequented. It was similar to Beebop on 55, only it was around the other side where Blockbuster is now. Apparently, it was owned by Dr. Sachs. Well, one night when I went to the store, it had been replaced by a Barnes and Nobles. The only records they had were these Shel Silverstine records (don’t know if Shel Silverstine ever made a record…). While I was brousing the store, I got a call on my cell phone, which turned out to be Dr. Sachs…

Dr. Sachs was very upset. Apparently he went out of business on the account that I didn’t buy enough records. He felt that I owed it to him to be his friend, since it was my fault the store got bought out. I decided I better get back home before he showed up. He started following me around, and I got really creeped out (he was wearing a light blue cardigan the whole time). After I got home, I was really paranoid. He came and knocked on my front door, and I locked the door. Then somebody knocked on my backdoor. I let out a tremendous “NOOOOOO!!!!” and then I looked out the window. It was not Dr. Sachs, but Danny and Jon Aaron. I opened the door and told them to hurry up and come in, because Dr. Sachs was hanging around and I didn’t want him to get in. They stood there like complete morons, smiling and making Danny and Jon Aaron hand gestures. Just as Dr. Sachs started to force his way in the door, my alarm went off, and I awoke from my dream.

Pretty weird huh?

Earlier, I had dreamed that due to some sort of impending military strike in the area, which was somehow connected to the current conflict in Lebanon, Grant was organizing a militia (consisting of He, Page, the young-marrieds, and I) and was going to use the event as a foil to take the local Wal-Mart by force. It was his assertion that 1.) If we controlled Wal-Mart, we would have everything we needed to survive the war (or nuclear attack or whatever it was, can’t remember), and 2.) because it was the middle of a war, there would be no retribution for our actions. At first I went along with it, then I realized there was no way Grant and a bunch of us pencil necked geeks could take a Wal-Mart by force (although we were heavily armed for some reason). The whole thing fell apart in the end, but I can’t remember why…

All your spirit rack abuses
Come to haunt you back by day
All your Byzantine excuses
Given time, given you away

So don't be surprised when daylight comes
To find that memory prick your thumbs
You'll tell them where we run to hide
I'm already dead, it's a matter of time
- Marillion

2006-06-26T08:43:00.000-05:00

I Was Gonna Post Something Serious...

But it just wasn't coming to me. However, I've made up for it by providing your entertainment for the week in the link below. There is a reason why Rush is one of the greatest bands ever. Aside from their music being great, they are just plain funny. Just watch this video and tell me you don't want to be Geddy Lee's best friend!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIeZBeUTOSY&search=Geddy

"Small children, and those worried about their brain..."

And a woman needs a man
Like a fish needs a bicycle
When you're trying to throw your arms around the world
- Bono

2006-06-12T08:32:00.000-05:00

70 Years Ago Yesterday...

The Orthodox Presbyterian Church was born. No, you are not the only perfect church, but you have been faithful to the word for seven decades. Happy Birthday OPC!!!

http://www.opc.org/today.html

The OPC's Founding Father, J. Gresham Machen. Swell Guy!!

How sweet and awful is the place
With Christ within the doors,
While everlasting love displays
The choicest of her stores.

While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to admire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thankful tongues,
"Lord, why was I a guest?

"Why was I made to hear thy voice,
And enter while there's room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?"

'Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly drew us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
And perished in our sin.

Pity the nations, O our God,
Constrain the earth to come;
Send thy victorious Word abroad,
And bring the strangers home.

We long to see thy churches full,
That all the chosen race
May, with one voice and heart and soul,
Sing thy redeeming grace.

2006-06-09T17:06:00.000-05:00

It Started Out as Innocent Fun...

And Ended Up in Bloodshed...

OK, you can't really tell from the picture, but that my friends, is a lacerated chin. It resulted in an unspecified number of stitches, three hours in the ER, and a substantial medical bill. By the time it's all said and done, I will have the $1,000 chin to go with my $1,000,000 good looks.

The greatest tragedy here folks, is that I was definitely safe at home. I slid in right under that tag. Both catcher and runner tumbled to the ground. The ump was in no position to make the call. As it turned out, we lost by one measily run. Watch out Rhythm and Brewes, we will have our revenge...

So I've decided that this gives new meaning to the legend that is Brad's Beard. The immortal question of whether or not I will ever be able to grow a beard apart from some miracle of medical science seems to have been answered last night. In the words of Dr. Karl Hatten, Jr., "You used to grow hair here. You won't anymore." Little did he know, I never grew hair there. Ha!!!! Jokes on you Hatten!!

For a long time I felt
Without style or grace
Wearing shoes with no socks
In cold weather

- Talking Heads

2006-06-09T13:12:00.000-05:00

Hmmm.... what is this formatting stuff? Script? Obviously this is not blogging for dummies over here.

Well, this is the sequal to www.xanga.com/theaveragebrad. Don't know which one I'll end up using. It is actually the third in a series of blogs which I have had entitled "The Average Brad," but the original The Average Brad was more of a prequal than a first version. A prototype if you will. Oh, it still exists, but you will never know where...

There is exciting news about my chin, and I'd like to share it with all of you, but I'm waiting for the pictures. Thursday, June 8, 2006 was an historic day in the life of Brad's Beard. It may never be the same...

I was safe I tell you.

Cause I'm the one who knows what scares you
I'm the one who loves you best
I'm the thirteenth at the table
I'm the uninvited guest
I'm the Banquo at your banquet
I'm the cuckoo in your nest
I'm your fifteen-stone first-footer
I'm the uninvited guest

- Marillion

2006-06-09T12:48:00.000-05:00

"That blast came from the Death Star. That thing's operational."

Is this thing working?