Tish, this one's for you. I heard you liked my blog (I think you're the only one, ha ha) and just wanted to say thanks. You've helped me out so much since I've moved to Nashville. And I'm still really bummed (retroactively!) that we didn't get to go to Oktoberfest with you.

For everyone else: Tish is super-cool. Like, you don't even know. Think of the coolest person you know, and imagine the coolest person THEY know, and take that person aside and say, "Hey man, what's your secret?" And 9 times out of 10 they'll say, "Tish taught me everything I know about keepin' it real!"

Word. Keep it real, Tish.

John Peel
1939-2004
R.I.P.

I was going to write a big thing about something I read in the news today, but I decided it wasn't worth it. I'm really not interested in discussing politics here anyway, except to champion those who realize that 99% of it is just the perpetuation of a sham dichotomy onto the American people.

Instead, I'll post this observation that was forwarded to me by a friend of mine. (It's the only e-mail forward I've ever received that has some kind of merit.) I don't know who originally wrote this, except her name is Alisa Beth, and she has a blog. (As you can see, I take the credibility of my sources very seriously.) (I also like to use parentheses a lot.) (I don't think this is a problem at all. I like parentheses.) (I tried to edit this some, but there's just so much of it, and I'm tired, so I'm just going to paste it in here. I take no responsibility for any errors in spelling, grammar, or taste.)

What is Good Art?

So, a couple weekends ago I saw Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken in concert. I've been meaning to write about the concert even since my return, and I think I'll start with this little tidbit. The Mix family, being huge Bob Dylan fans, naturally requested "Every Grain of Sand" when Derek opened the floor up for requests. He was happy to oblige our request and said the following before he began playing: (I taped the concert!)

"This is a song by my favorite song writer of all time and is arguably one of the best song writers certainly of my generation. Bob Dylan...(here my mom said, "Thank you, Derek," to which he responded, "You're welcome, ma'm."). It's a tremendous song that comes off a tremendous record called Shot of Love which came out, I don't know when it was, but it was in the early 80's. It's such a great song. I recorded a version of it on my latest record. it's just such a great song. The reason that this song's so important to me is because it does what Christian art is supposed to do. Dylan himself came to the faith in the late 70's. It's just a great model for Christian artists: music, theater, film, print, writing, painting, sculpting, whatever it is, whatever kind of art that you do, there's something we can learn from the example of a guy like Bob Dylan who engages culture with his faith not with his mediocre buy explicit art, which is the vast majority of the art in the church now a days -- mediocre at best, but really explicit. But rather, he makes this really good art, just this excellent art and fuses his faith into it in ways that are sometimes more subtle than others, but all of it's good. I think that it would be a great thing if the church would learn how to discern, if we could tell the difference between good art and explicit art (because we don't know the difference). We think if it's explicit and if it talks about Jesus then that's good stuff. Maybe, it might be a good song, but it might be a terrible song. It might be terrible, awful art. We can't settle in this area. The church is putting out terrible art. Even your local Christian radio stations. It might be encouraging and uplifting, a lot of it is, but it's terrible art. I'm not saying that it can't be preferential. On the whole, the church is known for picking bad art. That's one of the main ways the church has engaged culture throughout history - through the artist - and we're failing miserably at that now a days...

I think it's time that we, as music listeners and art appreciators, stop holding artists to this unbelievable double standard that we don't impose on any other set of gifts, only artists. If your music is not explicit, then it's of no worth and you're wasting your talents. It's a lie! For those of you who are artists here, be encouraged. If you play guitar and you don't want to go and join a worship band although everyone tells you that you need to be playing worship music, it's a lie! The excellent use of your gift glorifies the Lord thoroughly. Don't feel pressured by a subculture who loves to categorize and market everything to the point where there's no room for anything that's not explicitly Christian. The best art is the stuff that never even makes it into the shelves of a Christian bookstore. If Thomas Kincaid is the best art that we've got in the church, then we're really in trouble. I'm not saying that's not good, I'm just saying that's not the whole point. What about abstract art? We're just so under the weight of Christian categories here in this country. Where are our artists engaged in culture? You want to talk about ruining our witness? We're just engaging with each other. We're the only people who have enough patience to deal with our terrible art. Christian art has nothing to do with content. Think about this: There's no such thing as a Christian painting or a Christian song. There are Christian and secular people; there's not Christian and secular music. We've invented it. It makes it easier for us to draw our battle lines and categorize our stores. It's all about the heart of the creator of the art itself. If you're a believer and you want to paint a painting that's not of Jesus but of some other bit of creation, there are some who are called to write, paint, and sing about the light and there are some who are call to write, paint, and sing about what they see illuminated by the light. The church needs all of those people. It's ok if you want to be in a praise and worship band. Amen to that. But if your neighbor doesn't want to, don't criticize him. The church needs all our diversity. No one is a perfect expression of a church. We're a community and we need each other. We need our stronger brothers and sisters who don't do things the way that we understand.

Bob Dylan, man, he just gives us a great road map for what this looks like. He makes great, great art and that's why he's still relevant. The church is scared to death to claim him because they can't control him. that's why the church didn't put their name on Johnny Cash until he was dead, because he was too dangerous. If the church said, "Yeah, Johnny Cash is one of us," and then he held up his middle finger to the country music industry, the church would then have to say, "No he's not, take him back." Bob Dylan is a believer and he makes great art. He can show us how to blow our framework apart to prove that we actually have room for all of this. There's a lot of art out there for us to enjoy. Just because it isn't labeled Christian, doesn't mean it's dangerous. And just because it is Christian, doesn't mean it's good. Here's Bob Dylan's 'Every Grain of Sand.'"

It took me nearly an hour to listen to the tape and write all of that down. Amen to what he said. Please forgive any spelling/grammar/format errors...this has taken forever to get up and I just don't feel like proofreading before I hit publish post. :-)

More fuel for the fire in the Jon Stewart/Crossfire controversy. A little more lighthearted this time.

I'm really tired. I was up all night writing a syllabus for my Theory Pedagogy class, and now I have to give a presentation on this guy today. He writes some really good stuff. The presentation is going to consist of setting up my PS2, playing an Instant Action mission in Secret Weapons Over Normandy, and playing the movie clip about the score. It's about as nerdy as you can get.

But first, a nap.

(EDIT: revised the setlist. I think it's accurate now)

A quick post tonight, because it's 3 AM and I'm dead tired. Tonight was the night. I got to see Morrissey in all his glory. Our tickets were way closer than I had thought, which meant I got to stand right in front of the stage. There was a nice opening act, Damien somebody, straight from Ireland with an accent to match. He played a solo acoustic set and reminded me of someone else named Damien. He told some good stories and joked around about meeting Morrissey.

Then, it was time. The stage drop was lifted to reveal an enormous MORRISSEY sign. The band came on and took a bow, and launched right into "How Soon Is Now?", which was a great opening move. Throughout the concert there were plenty of Smiths songs - definitely the right thing to do. Here's the setlist (thanks to morrissey-solo.com):

How Soon Is Now?
First Of The Gang To Die
November Spawned A Monster
I Like You
Bigmouth Strikes Again
How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?
I'm Not Sorry
Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference
Subway Train (into) Everyday Is Like Sunday
Shoplifters Of The World Unite
Irish Blood, English Heart
Let Me Kiss You
The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
I Have Forgiven Jesus
The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get
You Know I Couldn't Last
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (encore)

The encore consisted of the band walking on and starting "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" - at which point people started jumping on stage (I guess that is a tradition? both playing the song for an encore and the stage jumping). It got to be more than security could handle (there were only 3 or 4 security guards) at which point Morrissey quickly left the stage. Never even got to the chorus! The band wrapped the song up and the house lights came up very quickly after that. A disappointing end to the show for sure, but otherwise incredible. The highlight of course was when I handed Morrissey a copy of my demo CD, which he held up for everyone to see and then put away. Later on near the end, he looked over and said "good luck", which just about wraps this up as the best concert I've ever been to.

While acknowledging that Florida State still has an outside shot at the national title, I'm going to go ahead and say that I think Auburn will go all the way this season. If you look at their schedule, the only close game was against LSU, which is certainly acceptable. All the other games have been blowouts. Cadillac Williams is unstoppable. I can see them beating just about anyone - including Oklahoma and Miami. By the way, the BCS is still full of crap, even with all the stuff they've thrown out this year. It's obvious to anyone who's watched a Miami game this year that they are not the No. 2 team in the country. Even on strength of schedule Auburn comes out ahead by playing LSU, Tennessee, and Georgia.

That's about it for my daily sports rant. Mark my words - Auburn is going to the Orange Bowl.

It's been a good day today. I did some serious work on my research project, and I think I have a pretty good topic. It has to do with the role of nostalgia in music, and specifically how artists and songwriters use nostalgia to promote political agendas. I'm comparing the music and ideologies of U2, Radiohead, and the Manic Street Preachers. It's been interesting so far, and I can't wait to finish.

I'll step out on a limb here and say that Copeland is the best band I've heard in a long time, and they haven't even released anything this year - with the exception of an EP consisting solely of 80's covers. No thanks. (Maybe the Killers are a close second, but Copeland asserts that there cannot be a close second, so there you go.) Meanwhile, I'm going to see Morrissey on Tuesday. I haven't thought about it too much, but it will probably be a defining moment for me. I think I'll try to get him a copy of my demo.

The girls next door had us over for beer and apple pie (it's not as gross as it sounds ... trust me). It was really nice of them to do that. Plus I got to try Taj Mahal beer, which turned out to be delicious. They have a great-looking apartment with artwork, and fresh paint, and everything. And what do we have? Not much, but I'm proud of my Clash poster taped up on the wall.

I love Wyatt Sexton.

That is all.

This is what I'm talking about. Listen up, this is important.

Jon Stewart on Crossfire

transcript

If you have any kind of political beliefs at all (as I suppose most people do), you need to watch this, or at least read the transcript. Jon Stewart goes on Crossfire presumably to talk about his new book, and ends up ripping apart the two hosts for being tools of the political spin system. Man, it felt good to watch that.

Meanwhile, tonight I got to see Dave Brubeck in concert. (Yeah, THE Dave Brubeck!) He was performing with his quartet and the Nashville Symphony. We got some comp tickets from a teacher at Belmont. It was amazing. I can't believe how prolific he is as a composer. The last number on the program was "Take Five", the first encore was "Take the 'A' Train", and the second encore was Dave by himself. He began to play the Brahms lullaby, got to the end of the phrase, hit the V chord, stood up and left. It was hilarious. I think it was the perfect encore - he came out again for us, played some music, let us in on a little joke, and let us know that it was time to go home.

I read an article the other day that really blew my mind. It went something like this:

The purpose of popular music is to perpetuate the capitalist system. It exists only to pacify the general public, to give them something pleasant to listen to that is not challenging or offensive in any way. This gives people the sense that they have some meaning in their life, when they are really just being distracted from the harsh reality of things. Each year, people work longer hours for less pay and benefits. Therefore, the purpose of popular music is not only to make money directly, but to keep people in line, comfortable, and satisfied with their own job of keeping the capitalist machine running.

Of course, this is a highly condensed summary. You can read the full article here. The article itself is incredibly complex and difficult to grasp (it doesn't help that it's been translated from German).

You might say it's a very polarized argument. Certainly, the man who wrote it was very anti-capitalist. I'd like to think that what he said isn't true, but I have a feeling that it is. I thought about it for a long time, and I realized that every single piece of music I have ever "chosen" to listen to wasn't a choice at all. Somewhere along the line, somebody before me listened to it and made a decision to market it. All the music I love was pre-chosen and pre-digested for me. I think maybe in 1 or 2 cases I have heard a group first hand, a group that didn't have any record label support or anyone telling me to go listen to them, and in those cases I might have made a choice.

It's a little depressing, isn't it? But at the same time, I can think of it from another angle and realize I have made choices, and just because a band is signed or has a ton of airplay or is marketed to my demographic, that doesn't mean ... well, it doesn't mean anything, really. Just thinking about this has made me incredibly cynical. Which brings me to my next point:

People are full of shit. I'm surprised this axiom hasn't superceded Newton's laws of physics by now. It's not equally distributed - some people have a lot more than others - but everybody has some. I'm getting real tired of people arguing about stupid and petty things. Here's a short list:

1. Voting. It's stupid. Do it if you want to, but I certainly don't have to, and I'm not any less of a person if I don't. (I mailed my absentee ballot in last week, just so you know.) Democracy is not about one person making a difference. It's about everyone choosing together what they want to do. So ideally, nobody would be telling anyone else who to vote for. We'd just each make our decision and vote and that would be it. Oh, by the way, if you're a so-called "voting organization" that pretends they are raising "voter awareness" but really are campaigning for a particular candidate (I'm looking at you, Rock the Vote!), please accept a formal invitation to the theological place of eternal damnation. Yes, I'm talking about a John Mayer concert.

1a. Politics. YOU ARE NOT RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING. YOUR WAY IS NOT ALWAYS THE BEST WAY. I don't care who you are. I don't care how well-reasoned your argument is. The fact that you want to convince me you are right immediately lets me know that you are insecure in your beliefs, because if you truly believe something, you don't give a damn what anybody else thinks. Don't argue with this. It's true. I'm right.

I hate fusion, I hate contemporary Christian music, I hate just about everything metal, and I absolutely despise Andromeda.

That's about it. I need to chill out. Leave me an encouraging comment if you like. I'm going to go distract myself from the inhumane barbarism of the capitalist system.

I thought I was awesome ...

... but I'm not. I can win at NCAA Football 2004 on the Varsity setting. Not only that, I can make the stats and look good doing it. I can even win on the All-American setting, my stats are decent, and I still look pretty good. But the Heisman setting just makes me cry. I know I can do it - I can win! - but it will take lots of time and practice. Hmmm ... I bet I could beat Duke ...

I hope Louisville beats the crap out of Miami this weekend. They have a chance, at least.

And now, a random link for all you non-sports fans out there.

I played a session tonight - first of all, now that Dan has set the bar for interesting blog posts [note: this refers to a post that was later deleted], I feel the need to inject some more ... "spice" into my own posts. We'll see how it goes.

I played a session tonight. My first one in Nashville, actually. I thought I was prepared for it, and it sort of ended up being what I expected, but at the same time parts of it were disappointing. Somehow this girl that knows my roommate somehow asked us to arrange and produce one of her songs for a recording session. (It's a cool song with a lot of time changes and opportunities for me to play dirty art-punk guitar.) We spent some time on it, and she made a nice chart for us, and everything seemed great. Then we went to the session, and they set up the drums. And they set up some other stuff. And the one guy went to go look for something, and the other guy went over there to do something else. 3 hours later, we're not much further. I didn't even get much more than a cursory sound check and no talkback mic. So there I am, sitting in an isolation booth, trying to follow the session and play where I'm supposed to, but I can't talk to anyone else, and I can't always hear everyone else. It was a little irritating. But we got past that, and at least the drums and bass got taken care of. There's an overdub session in a couple weeks where we can finish the guitars and vocals.

So after the stressful recording session, we packed up and went out for a drink. I didn't really want to - that great anti-social part of me - but I ignored that and went anyway. We had a pretty good time. Chris had us go by this tobacco store that had a drive-thru window so he could get some cigarettes to smoke at the bar. He's not a smoker. Neither are we, but he was generous enough to share with us. There we are, sitting on the patio, enjoying drinks and talking about funny TV shows, not caring what anyone thought of us.

That's about it. We came back to our place and watched Army of Darkness but our company split in the middle of the movie, so we didn't finish it. Oh well. Another time, maybe?

My composition teacher told me today that he thinks I should write an opera. I think that's outrageous. First of all, I've only seen 3 operas my whole life. Wait, no - four. Five. Still, not very many. And I've never really liked opera that much. But maybe I should try it. It would be an interesting experiment.

I haven't heard any good new music lately. Well, that's not entirely true. There's the new Streets CD, which I used to hate and now it's starting to grow on me. I just discovered the Velvet Underground, who sound nothing like I imagined they would. I always associated them with Sonic Youth for some reason (yet another band who I am not quite sure what they sound like, even though I've seen them in concert). Instead, I get Lou Reed barking out lines like Dylan possessed by wild and surly demons, and John Cale doing some great stuff on viola. I'm sorry I never checked them out before.

So as you can see, I've got some listening to do. I wonder how the new CAKE is?

I just found the coolest article ever. Tell me that's not cool! I've been waiting for a solution like this. It just might be the thing that breaks file sharing wide open - legitimizing something that should have been legal all along.

Woohoo! I got my Morrissey tickets today. I have a ton of stuff to do, so I can't write any more, but I wanted to say that. And Shaun of the Dead is the best movie I've seen in a long time.

The good news is I won't talk about politics today. The bad news is who cares? (In case you were wondering, self-deprecating humor is an essential part of every Morrissey fan's arsenal. Ha.)

I played my first paid gig today - a wedding out ... somewhere off the highway ("Is the place really that important?" I like to ask myself this question whenever I realize I don't know the names of any places around here). It was fun, if a bit windy and overcast. I wore a black shirt and pants with a white necktie - I wanted to crack jokes about the Hives all day, but nobody I was with knew who they were. (That's the definition of "nerd" if there ever was one.) Anyway, I guess I'm going to be playing a lot of weddings, like it or not. I just never expected to land gigs on viola, or rather, I was hoping I could land gigs on guitar. But hey - whatever pays the bills.

My roommate (I'll call him "the Mayor" or possibly "Hizzoner") played me some Brand New Heavies today. I was vaguely aware of their existence, but I always thought they were some sort of techno outfit. Maybe that's not the best way to explain it - I'll just say I never really knew what kind of music they put out. It's some pretty cool stuff. Of course, I wish I knew more about the music scene in Britain so I would understand the terminology (acid jazz, rare groove, acid house). But even if I don't understand the music or the references, I'm glad I have the Streets to listen to.

Politics is the only competition I know of where people will back a losing candidate without fail and without a second thought, just because he's on their "team". There are no bandwagons in politics, no switching sides, and if your candidate loses, it's your obligation to insist that he really should have won.

I was going to say a lot more about politics, but this isn't a political blog, and the other funny thing about politics is that everyone loves to argue, but no one is ever convinced. So I'll try to keep it short here.

I hate the fact that everyone is pushing voting as some kind of moral obligation. The worst offenders in my book are the Christian authorities. (Isn't that an oxymoron?) Everywhere I turn, some preacher or other is telling me to vote "or else". I have heard people actually say that not voting is lazy and sinful behavior. I can't believe someone could be so misled as to believe this. First of all - going back to the original source - during the writing of the New Testament, Jesus and his followers were persecuted in just about every way possible. Most of the time, this was perpetuated or at least permitted by the government. So, what did they do about it? Nothing. From what I understand, the only thing Jesus ever said about the government was to do what they asked of us ("render unto Caesar" - basically, support your government). And elsewhere, we are encouraged to pray for our political leaders. (Note that it does not say "pray for your leaders only if you agree with them.") The point I'm trying to make is: Jesus didn't vote for anybody. He was not a political activist. In fact, I would argue that he was the exact opposite of the word "political". If you get hung up on politics, you're losing sight of the big picture. Especially if you are a leader in the Christian community. Who told you that Christians are supposed to stand up for their rights? Who told you that the laws of a country should enforce the moral code of the Old Testament? I know for a fact that the Bible didn't tell you that. Especially not the New Testament. We're talking about a set of laws - THE set of laws - that were fulfilled by the life and death of Jesus. Why do the Ten Commandments need to be displayed in public? They've been fulfilled. We don't need to worry about that anymore. (1 Cor 6:12 in case you were wondering. It doesn't get any clearer than "everything is permissible.")

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox. Sure I'm going to vote, but not because anyone tells me to. Maybe I'll write in John McCain. That guy is awesome. There's so much BS in politics that when somebody is actually honest and forthcoming, they really stand out, and that's the impression I get from McCain.

Check out the transcript of the first presidential debate. I would encourage you to draw your own conclusions based on how the candidates responded to their questions. It was interesting and seemed to get beyond the standard rhetorical garbage that is usually thrown back and forth between candidates.

Here's to ending on a humorous note...