Questions and Answers

A Huge Switchfoot Fan

If you are not familiar with the hugely successful Christain crossover band Swithfoot,  Broken Masterpieces is doing an awesome review of their latest album Nothing Is Sound.  You can check it out here...

My Son's Band

My oldest son came home very excited the other day.  He has gotten himself in with a few guys that have formed a garage band.  They have written four or five songs and now they have recorded their first one. 

There are no lyrics yet but the music itself is upbeat and catchy.  My son is the drummer.

Take a listen here... Catch Me Crazy (This will download the mp3 file to your pc).

Not bad if I do say so myself, but of course I am biased.  Enjoy!

Only The Good Die Young?

The other day I was listening to my local classic rock station. The Billy Joel classic, Only The Good Die Young  came on and of course I was singing along with it.  You know it’s a catchy tune, and I don’t listen to the lyrics so it doesn’t affect me blah blah blah…  OK, but this time I was listening and the lyrics did affect me.  I was thinking what are the results of living the life that he was lambasting?  And, what are the results of the lifestyle that Billy Joel was advocating in the song? 

American Idol: Bo and Carrie: And then there were two

And then there were two:

Last night on American Idol the 3rd to the last contestant Vonzell Solomon was eliminated.  She had the spark, she had the smile, she had the moves but maybe she was just a little too one dimensional.  Frankly I think she will still get record contracts.  That girl could sing!

We are now down to Bo and Carrie.  I had not been a huge Bo fan but as I get to know him a little bit more he is growing on me more and more.  After Tuesday nights A cappella performance, frankly I was blown away.

Carrie is strong from both a singing and appearance perspective, but she is a bit shy.  She will have to work on the whole entertainer part of her persona. 

Be that as it may, I have been an entertained viewer this season, and I will be trying very hard to see the finale.

Christian Carnival Posts I like...

I am going through this weeks Christian Carnival and I am reading the posts more carefuly.  Some I really like and I want to highlight them here.

Diane at BorgardBlog wrote a very interesting bit of fiction "The More Things Change" compairing the arguments that supported slavery to the current day arguments that support abortion.  Diane, you are a very good writer and this story really hit me.  You are like C. S. Lewis using the tools of fiction to build a very strong argument.  Well done.

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Missionary Joe hit it out of the park with "The Christian Apprentice: Book Smarts vs. Street Smarts"! 

I am tempted to say that it is better to have street smarts over book smarts. But then I know I'll get rained down upon by people who are concerned about doctrinal purity, etc. So I will admit that we cannot neglect book smarts. We are, after all, called to love God not just with all of our heart, soul and strength, but with our minds as well (Mk 12:30). At the same time, however, I think that it is too easy for people like me (bookish, introverted) to major on theology and minor on ministry.

I must say I am getting sick to death of all those nice Bible studies that result in no action!  Yes people, "faith without works is dead".  So either we are not learning a darn thing in all these Bible Studies.  When are we going to get to work doing the real ministry.  Loving our neighbors, yes even the ugly and difficult ones?

Peter was not an educated man but when the Holy Spirit came upon him he was a very different man that took action.  Lets' stop the hoity toity intellecualism and get our hands dirty!

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Eric Wiliams at Ales Rarus in his post "Proper Christian Behavior" is a discussion on reading and knowing the Church fathers.  I just had a conversation with a friend from church about this.  My assesment is that 90 - 95% of protestants know almost nothing of the church fathers.  Most Evangelicals think anything written before Luther is anathema (humor intended here, it is ok to laugh).  The sense is that it is ok for a dead puritan to quote them once in awhile, but we dare not read them.  Hogwash.  Read them and realish in their wisdom!  Excelant job Eric.

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Laura at A Practice in Belief (or uncreative laura) has an interesting post on the power of music for affecting our will.   I think maybe she is also discussing art in general, and the concept of intrinsic beauty and good.  Does beautiful and good art/music affect us in a good and positive way and bad and ugly art affect us in a bad way? Or maybe is there such a thing as intrinsic beauty?

Francis Schaffer has much to say about art and beauty and would be an interesting addition to this conversation. Here is a great link to some of his writings.
http://www.rationalpi.com/theshe...ter/ escape.html

I have interest in this topic because I am a member of the worship team at church.  (I sing up front and hopefully point others to worship God) .  The issues of real beauty in music and the power of music come up on a regular basis.  It is very difficult to make the correct selection of melodically pleasing music with lyrics that are well written, meaningful and theologically correct, and connect with the sermon.   But when all this comes together, it is really like we are in Heaven in the presence of God. 

Yes, music has incredible power.

Lighter Things: American Idol

If you are plugged into the culture at all, you have at least heard of American Idol. Basically they are going through the TV season trying to select the best singer from a very large group of singers.  In our household I would have to say that we are huge fans of the show.  This is the only show (except for Everybody Loves Raymond) that we will sit down and watch.

Sonspot is of the opinion that Anthony Federov is going to win the competition.  I must respectfully disagree.  While I love Carrie Underwood the best as both a singer and a nice person, I think one of the two rockers are going to win this year, in fact I think it is going to be Bo Bice.  Bo is a gifted muscian and singer but it turns out he is also a nice guy.

I local radio station during one of the morning shows that tries to be funny was trying to get some dirt on Bo, so they called a person that know him well.  The person had nothing but praise for Bo in his personal affairs and in the way he treated people.

Call me old fashioned, I like nice people.

Online Classical Christian Education

This morning I was cruising around the Internet and I stumbled across a fantastic educational resource.   It is a site for On-line Classical Christian Education.   You know what the coolest thing is?  For the most part it is free!!!  Now you are talking my language.  When I looked at the curriculum I was almost shaking with excitement.  Excitement not only for my kids, but also selfishly for me.  I want to take these classes.  Their tag line says it all.

Not Just An Information Site - Not Just A Single Course - Not Just A Bundle of Tutorials World's Only Real-Time Classical Christian Academy - Comprehensive, Interactive & FREE!

Check it out!  Maybe for your kids, maybe for you.

Bush and His iPod

So we hear Bush has an iPod!  I can't believe it, the President is more cool than I am.  Where is this world going?

Now keep in mind, I am a software engineer.  I make my living with high-tech stuff, doing high-tech things, and here I am a relative Luddite in comparison to the President.  I only have an MP3 player because it comes with all of the players on my computer.  Of course even my kids would tell you how backwards I am, but that is a different story for a different time.

The most interesting part of the iPod story is the fact that Bush listens to "My Sharona" from the Knack.  That was the first "cassette" that my mom took away from me when I was a teenager because of the raunchy lyrics.  Yes, it has a good beat, I can dance to it, I give it a 9.5 and it transports me back to my youth. 

GWB, what are you doing listening to raunchy lyrics?  Oh, I bet you don't listen to the lyrics?  This sounds like a conversation I will have with my kids....

Now for Something Completely Different

You have heard the saying, "music calms the animal within", well in that vain in my rushed and hurried world I am purposefully inserting more moments of calm and more moments of beauty.

One of the ways I am doing that is by listening to great music.  I found a great list of classical music to calm the beast.  Two things are happening, I am becoming more familiar with great music and I am also becoming more calm (at least for moments).

See if you can find anything interesting here.

Classical CD Guide -- Top 10 Orchestral Works to Start Your Classical Music Collection

Top 10 Essential Orchestral Works

1 Stravinsky: Rite of Spring -- Igor Stravinsky
A scandalous ballet.

2 Handel: Water Music -- Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
How to get in the good graces of a king.

3 Ravel: Bolero; Debussy: La Mer -- Herbert von Karajan
Orchestral landscapes and seascapes.

4 Tchaikovsky: Ballet Suites -- Mstislav Rostropovich
The Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairies, and much more.

5 Mozart: "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" -- Bruno Walter
The famous serenade hides a mystery.

6 Holst: The Planets -- Charles Dutoit
Music that's out of this world.

7 Copland: Applachian Spring -- Leonard Bernstein
The American master's Simple Gift to posterity.

8 Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade -- Valery Gergiev
Musical storytelling from the Arabian Nights.

9 Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra -- Fritz Reiner
Swan song for a man of many talents.

10 Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, American in Paris -- Leonard Bernstein
The fusion of Jazz and Classical.