Super pumped about the big win yesterday…#4 in the nation??!!! What??!! Haven’t done that since like 1980! Let’s keep it going Gamecocks! Tough road schedule ahead…according to ESPN we have the toughest schedule in the nation this year…but you know what they say…if you want to be the best, you gotta beat the best! Let’s go COCKS!!
“…Here’s what struck me: all this comes at precisely the time when our culture is growing weary of slick production and whatever’s new and is growing hungry for authentic presence and historical rootedness. Younger generations don’t want trendy engagement from the church; in fact, they’re suspicious of it. Instead they want truthfulness engagement with historical and theological solidity that enables meaningful interaction with transcendent reality. They want desperately to invest their lives in something worth dying for, not some here-today-gone-tomorrow fad.” -Tullian Tchividjian, Unfashionable
So…we are starting our church-wide small group off this week where all respective small groups will be going through the same book study…something we haven’t done since I’ve been going to Eternal Church…I’m pretty excited about it…there’s something about doing something together at a large level that interests me…I guess it’s the sense of community I feel while we are all doing the same thing…anywho…
We are going through a book called “Unfashionable” by Tullian Tchividjian. The main theme is about as Christians, we should live a life that’s countercultural, not trying to adapt to the world but in fact do the opposite. ”Live against the world, for the world” is how Tchividjian puts it. It looks promising and hopefully as a church we will benefit from the study.
But Skip (our pastor) got me thinking about how we should approach “Christian” books…specifically to Unfashionable… he said, if there’s anything we disagree on, we should re-look Scriptures in order to sharpen our beliefs. He said books should never be treated as a substitute from The Bible in any way.
Something else that got me thinking about this was a video I recently watched of Mark Driscoll criticizing the book, “The Shack”. Now I haven’t read the book so I can’t speak one way or another on whether I find it Scripturally sound or even if that’s what the book’s intention was in the first place. However, all this has reminded me that sometimes as members of a Christian culture, we read/see/experience/preach about things that seem benevolent and beneficial without ever seriously considering the subject matter and whether it’s theologically and biblically sound. If “Christian” messages (Worship, Messages, Books, Christian Music) we digest aren’t articulating Scripture, we need to question it and find out what the Scripture says about it.
Truth always wins out…and at the end of the day, isn’t that what we are all searching for in life anyway, truth?
So..one of my favorite bands broke up not too long ago. They were called The Everybodyfields. Sam Quinn and Jill Andrews were both part of that band and are now working on solo projects.
Recently I stumbled across this video on Jill Andrews’ website of her covering Lucinda Williams‘ “Sharp Cutting Wings.” I love her and Lucinda Williams’ music so much, if I were trapped on a desert island and was forced to listen to them both forever, I’d be just fine with that.
After a two minute introduction of what she’s doing now, the song begins…so don’t go anywhere.
So…this is an interesting new venture for Patton Oswalt considering he’s historically associated with comedy…but his new movie “Big Fan” appears more dramatic than anything I’ve ever seen him do…and looks really awesome…Here’s the trailer…
It’s written and directed by Robert D. Siegel, which if you have your movie trivia cap on, is the same guy who wrote “The Wrestler” ( and who’s slowly becoming my favorite writer/director if he keeps this up). All this ‘Wrestler’ talk has made me think of my favorite music video since Johnny Cash’s “Hurt”. Bruce Springsteen wrote the song “The Wrestler” for the movie. Here’s the video, and if you haven’t seen it, enjoy.
So…my grandmother (we all call her Mimi) passed away Sunday night; and having had a close relationship with her, I’ve been feeling very sad and also nostalgic. Growing up just through the woods (I literally walked through the woods down the “path” to get to her house) made for the majority of my memories from childhood. Summers (and sick days) were filled with mornings at Mimi’s eating cereal and bananas and watching Price is Right at 11 a.m. By the way, nothing is more medicinal than Mimi, Price is Right and chicken noodle soup when you’re sick. She gave me unlimited access to the sugar for the breakfast bran flakes, for which I am forever grateful. Her excuse for over-serving us kids with food was “they’re growing boys” (even though I was a chubby kid who could use a stint with the Atkins Diet).
But, as I’ve gotten older, my perception of Mimi has changed from a woman who cooked me some of my most memorable meals and who tolerated the grandkids’ perpetual mischievousness to something more substantive. Although those are great things and most of what my memory of her from childhood is, it just touched the surface of what kind of person she was.
She believed in values, character, family and tolerance over everything else in life. She was a soft-spoken woman (outside of the family of course!) who didn’t wear her emotions on her sleeve. She was a strong Christian woman who didn’t talk about her faith much, but she didn’t have to. She lived it. That’s more than most of us can say about ourselves.
Her generation amazes me in their toughness, both emotionally and physically. I’m embarrassed to admit I come from the MTV generation. Instead of out plowing the fields, we’re inside watching The Hills. Hopefully we can turn it around though. If we have even a fraction of the drive and character this WWII generation did, including Mimi, I think we’d be doing alright. I hope I make Mimi proud. I love you always.
So, I saw Start Trek the other day with a friend (and it’s awesome by the way)…she will remain nameless…who on the way to the movie said in all seriousness, “I’m glad I’ll finally be able to now tell my friends I’ve seen a Star Wars movie.” Haha…
This made me think of a video I watched a while back of a girl retelling the Star Wars story based on bits of information she’s gathered about the movies without ever having seen any of them. Hilariousness ensues. Here’s the link to the video. Enjoy.
well…if you want my opinion anyway.
So, I haven’t posted on here in a while because I’ve been crazy busy with house stuff, but while I have a lull here goes.
The first band I’ll throw out there is Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers. They just released their first full-length album titled “Songs in the Night”. Her sound likens itself to this new folk (if you can call it that) movement that’s surfaced, similar to what we’ve seen with The Avett Brothers and Langhorne Slim. I’m not sure how you would describe that collective sound, but all I know is it’s daggum good. Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers are signed with Ramseur Records, home to the likes of The Avett Brothers and The Everybodyfields. On May 22nd, Ramseur will be showcasing many of its great artists at the Visulite Theater in Charlotte including Samantha Crain, Jim Avett, Paleface and Bombadil. Come out and show some support for this great local record company if you can. I’ll be there!
Next, I’ll throw out The Lovell Sisters. If you don’t like bluegrass, you may want to sit this one out. I first saw The Lovell Sisters at Merlefest (the biggest bluegrass festival in the southeast…i think) last year. Their new album entitled “Time To Grow” is their latest since 2005!!?? What took yall so long?!! Anyway, these girls are seriously one song away from becoming the next big thing in country music. However, the Sisters maintain an uncompromising approach to writing and playing their music. They won’t be swayed by big label executives who have tried to steer them in a very Nashville direction in the past and failed.
From thebluegrassblog.com :
“We were working with a manager who was shopping us to labels in Nashville, and we had met with five of them who were serious about signing us. After a lot of thought and discussion, we decided to sign with Lyric Street Records, which is a division of Disney.
They had paired us up with producer Mark Bright, and everything seemed perfect. Mark had just finished producing Carrie Underwood, so we knew he could work well with female artists, and he had previously produced Mountain Heart, so we knew he was great with bluegrass and acoustic instruments.”
As they got closer to start recording, they started to get nervous about the direction things were taking. It was becoming clear that the label had chosen a path and a sound for the Lovells, and that the artist’s input wasn’t a high priority.
“It really hit me when Mark Bright mentioned one day that when he worked with Rascal Flatts, the biggest problem he had was convincing them not to record any of their original material. That hit me hard, as we wanted to do exactly that!
I don’t mean any disrespect to Mark or Lyric Street. They were great to us and treated us very fairly. It just started to look like we were heading into a place where we would lose control over our music.”
The Lovells consulted with their attorney, who was able to negotiate a release from their contract with Lyric Street in December of 2007, something not many young artists would consider. Turning down a major label and an established producer?
“People were telling us we were crazy! But to me, selling out means doing music you don’t believe in, and we didn’t want to start out like that.”
And this ladies and gentlemen is just one of many reasons I love them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llIRV-fmlgU
So, one more ought to be enough huh?
I know I’ve talked about him before on here, but I can never say enough about this guy. In my humble opinion, he’s the most underrated rock and roll musician out there. Seriously, why is he not selling out huge venues across the country. His name is Alejandro Escovedo and he changed my life. Well, maybe I’m exaggerating, but this guy is good. And just listening to his albums doesn’t do him justice. You MUST go see him live if you get the chance. I’ve had the pleasure of doing that twice now. I’ve never really connected to songs like I have with Escovedo’s. It’s something about the man. He kind of embodies the idea of rock and roll. He’s been there and he’s lived it….not like a bunch of these hipster indie wanna-be rock and rollers. He was at the Chelsea Hotel when Sid killed Nancy for crying out loud!! His latest album is “Real Animal”. Seriously, go check it out!
Here’s him and the Boss singing Escovedo’s “Always A Friend”…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8s-chAgIPU
So, there it is…I could go on and on, but I’ll hold off for another time…until then….go see some music yo!!
So, I’m closing on my house Monday…exciting and scary all in one emotion. Definitely the most adult thing I’ve ever done. Rockin’ the suburbs yo!!
Wow…I haven’t put anything up here since Valentines Day…that’s crazy…I’m sure my vast fan base will be in an uproar soon…
But until then, I figured I would share some good books I’ve been reading…
I just got through reading John Stott’s “Basic Christianity”. This book floored me with its simplicity yet uncompromising intellectual description of what it means to be a Christian. It’s a great book if you are like me, and kind of missed a lot of the more important concepts of Christianity growing up in church. It really gets back to the “basics” while offering up fresh ideas I had not yet wrapped my mind around as a Christian. I recommend giving it a read especially if you are curious about the gospel. Stott really simplifies the gospel, Jesus’ message and what it means to be a believer all in this book; something the church has tried to over-complicate for years.
Next, I just started reading Tim Keller’s “The Reason For God: Belief In An Age of Skepticism”. As a skeptic sometimes myself, I have really enjoyed this book so far. Keller started a church in New York City called Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
Redeemer is a church in Manhattan and continues to grow and influence church planters from around the country. What’s unique about Redeemer is its location which doesn’t seem to be the best location for growing church membership; especially a church with a very traditional worship service. Manhattan isn’t necessarily the bible belt, but Keller’s honest and rational take on Christianity provides a general curiosity for people who may have never given Christianity a second look. It’s a relief to me that just by being inviting, tolerant and disciplined to the gospel message can be enough to attract non-believers to church without having to have elaborate aesthetic worship tools to get people interested in coming (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Back to the book. It reminds me a lot of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. He’s speaking to skeptics here and counters a lot of the arguments we all here about the reasons why God can’t exist. He exposes a lot of the hypocrisy that comes with challenging God’s existence and really makes an intellectually credible case for God. The most popular argument non-believers make seems to be this perceived intellectual sacrifice they feel you must make to believe in God. Keller does a good job countering this argument throughout the book in a respectable and honest way. Go read it mm’kay..
Til next time…
So..I’m actually not going to write about Valentines Day…I’ve never celebrated this lame ass holiday anyway…
But, I will talk about the Ryan Adams tickets I scored today…Some good friends and I will be attending one of Ryan Adams’ last shows (or so he says) in Atlanta at the Tabernacle, which is an awesome venue. Ryan and I just saw Kings of Leon there not too long ago…apparently they are coming to Charlotte soon…will probably catch them while they are in town…here’s a new video from them for your viewing pleasure:
Also, I just realized some friends of mine from Eternal Church Niles , Jesse , and Jimmy have blogs….check them out….
Musical advice for the day (not that you care anyway): If you haven’t been listening to okkervil river or bon iver, do it now!!…oh and the new neko case album comes out in a couple of weeks…i’m pretty excited about that too…and subscribe to PASTE for crying out loud!!…
ok i’m done with my random blog post…do not get your girlfriend a rose for valentines day…whatever you do….it’s cliche!!!!
