happy halloweenhead

Today was a pretty crazy day and though I'm too tired to fully tell the tale of our chevrolet equinox problems, it ended up happily enough. Unfortunately, not so happy for your friend and mine, Weston Grillo, who apparently fell trying to help his boss Dave build a pirate ship in the front yard of Dave's house. Sprained ligaments are sooo 2007. I know because I'm just getting over one myself. With Amelia in her little duck suit, we stopped by and saw the ship and pirate Dave for ourselves. It was pretty impressive and therefore probably worth a little pain.

Now it's about eight pm and the trick or treaters are mostly done I think...speaking of which, doesn't it seem as though there are fewer and fewer people out on halloween? Maybe they're all at Harvest Parties or something. Here's a picture of Ryan Adams...have a safe night everyone.

nick burns, your company's computer guy

Just a short post today in honor of your friend and mine, Nick Burns. Someone told me about this sketch today and I had to come home and check it out like immediately.

Tonight, we're starting some new recordings for the overdubs ep. Excited even though I'm tired.

the jealous sound

I finally got my hands on an official copy of Day Three of My New Life by Knapsack, I've been meaning to get a copy of the second album by Davis' finest band ever for some time. Previously, I only had some questionable quality mp3s that must have been ripped in 1999 (remember 96kbps--near cd quality?). Thanks to emusic, I now have the official and great sounding record. I know, I know I probably could've just ordered it from Amazon like two years ago but when I buy something I like to have it right away, I'm a American after all. The record is produced by Mark Trombino, who you might of heard of from his work with Jimmy Eat World among others,
and is an impassioned, rough slice of cathartic post-punk and emo (from way back when emo-core was actually considered cool and sounded nothing like the lame "emo" bands today).

Anyway, speaking of Knapsack, does anybody and your mother know if The Jealous Sound are ever going to release the album they've supposedly been recording for The Militia Group Record Label? For the uninitiated, here are some free mp3s from last.fm to help you understand why many of us have been waiting for this record for over four years now.

The Jealous Sound "The Fold Out" from Kill Them With Kindness
The Jealous Sound "For Once in Your Life" from Kill Them With Kindness

conversations

Wow, it's been a crazy week and it's only Thursday. The rest of the weekend is going to be filled with at least two engagements every day...but they all have some fun potential and fun potential is an important indicator for me in predicting the quality of a weekend. You'll have to excuse me, I've been defending my beliefs to Justin over the phone, haha. Speaking of which, if you are reading any of these posts (mostly the ones with discussion-worthy content, not the ones that say I stayed home with my sick daughter and wife on wednesday) don't hesitate to comment and/or agree/disagree. Really, I love the feedback. Interestingly though, I had to call Justin and clear some things up with him over the phone, so for all you mosaic minds, Internet communication is not the end-all...sometimes you really do have to speak on the phone or in person.

In a sense, I am not fully pleased with my efforts in my tuesday blog ... however, the ensuing conversation has been far more productive than I imagined when I first wrote the entry. Ultimately, looking back on Tuesday (when my wife was just getting sick, as oppossed to full blown sick) what I guess I really intended to say, could have been said in one sentence, and would have been... "People don't care that much about what we believe, they care more about what we do." or "Believing the right things is important, but the American church has done a lot of believing the right things but not done too much about it (gross generalization alert!) and the result is people leaving the church. (?)" Anyway, that too, seems pretty heavy handed.

In lighter news, some day I will make it to the movies and then I will see...

reasons not to show up

In preparation for this coming Sunday, I've been doing a lot of thinking about what keeps people away from church. By church, I just mean a bunch of believers gathering on Sunday mornings/evenings (or Friday or Saturday) specifically. [you'd have to consult a panel of theologians to get to the bottom of what keeps people out of Church capital c]

One thing that strikes me anecdotally at least, is that most people don't have too much of a problem with what churches believe. In a few instances yes, views on right to life issues, homosexuality, or evolution might make people angry enough to not come back. But overwhelmingly, these are not topics that are brought up on Sundays...typically, most Christians or "people interested in learning about following Jesus" wouldn't find too much theology to disagree with in most evangelical-type churches in America. It seems to me that many people don't take issues with beliefs but with actions or with style(two very different concepts). "That church just wasn't a friendly place." "They don't have anything for young people there." "The pastor just seemed out of touch with the rest of the world." "All they talked about was money and tithing." "They had the nerve to talk about politics." See what I mean? What are your experiences with people who won't attend or have left churches? Are they fed up with heresy and bad doctrine, or did they not like the music pastor's hair? I don't mean to make light of the reason people choose not to be part of faith communities, some people experience incredible rejection and pain, others just get pissed. But short of having any substantial answers to this question, it does seem that to most people (Bible scholars and seminary students aside) put more emphasis on what we do than on what we believe. If this is even remotely true, what do we do about it?

I could be wrong though. Let me know if I am off in erroneous-tangential land.

body piercing saved my life

Today, I finished reading Body Piercing Saved My Life, inside the phenomenon of christian rock ... and loved it. It's been awhile since I read a book as fascinating and as interesting to me, probably because the author Andrew Beaujon combines two of my favorite topics: pop-cultural criticism and the strange, irritating and mystifyingly profitable evangelical christian culture that I grew up in. More than anything I've read recently, this book, without intending to (Beaujon is an avowed non-believer) sheds more light on the struggle of being "in the world but not of it" by profiling such a diverse group of Christian and post-christian artists. Fascinatingly, none of those profiled renounce their faith in Jesus, only in a church and industry that has gotten away (or was never near) from it's ultimate purpose, most of them would likely never agree on what the purpose of "christian" art is to begin with. Much more on that book in the future ...

This weekend, friday night specifically, we were in a hotel room watching tv and happened to watch America's Next Great Band. Unfortunately, I found that I could not tear my eyes away from the train-wreck spectacle of terrible bands parading across the nevada desert. Johnny Reznik? Way too nice. However accidental the viewing was, I hate to say it but we'll probably watch every week. And...yes, most of the bands were crap but not The Muggs!

bicycle

in an almost immediate response to the post I just wrote::
I had to go and listen to the song, "bicycle" by plankeye which I mentioned the other day. only christian rock can produce a rebel song about being married, riding a bike, and worship.

I have a wife, and together we live, in a very small room
Yesterday she lost, her car broke down, and now I ride a bicycle
You say, I told you so, you were much too young to get married.
But I say, You're way too old, and when did you stop living anyway?
As I ride my bike, with my safety helmet on, and white tennis shoes,
they stare at me but I see through new eyes, or maybe you just don't remember
This place that I'm supposed to be, is not the chair in front of a desk in front of a mirror
Can't you see that it's not here or there or anywhere
But in speaking distance with God,and where can you go that's too far?
Because I can worship him anywhere