My Creative Apathy

Merry Vampire and Werewolf Nerd Christmas everyone!

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:24:11 -0800

Merry Vampire and Werewolf Nerd Christmas everyone!

Finally!!! A phone I can use to work on my Excel spreadsheets!...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:22:28 -0800

Finally!!! A phone I can use to work on my Excel spreadsheets! The huge screen on the phone will be perfect for the detail needed to work in Excel. Thank you!

End sarcasm

If you wouldn't mind...

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:38:37 -0700

Please join us in praying for my cousin’s daughter Isabelle. She was diagnosed with abdominal cancer this past weekend. Isabelle is 9 days younger than Isaac.

Pray for peace and calm for her parents Kyle and Tina as well.

Thanks.

Damn! This sucks.

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:51:00 -0700

Damn! This sucks.

I hate Charley Steiner

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:16:00 -0700

Besides the obvious reasons, I hate Steiner for jinxing the Dodgers yesterday during the top of the 9th.

Here is the situation. The Dodgers need one win to clinch the NL West title. They are tied 2-2 with the Pirates going into the 9th. The Dodgers score the go ahead run, and then one more to make it 4-2. At this point Steiner says something idiotic like “Get the bubbly ready!” signifying that the Dodgers will be celebrating at any moment. Moments later, the Dodgers score a 5th run and Steiner says “Champagne anyone?”

After both comments I say (outloud), “The game isn’t over Steiner, you idiot!” Sure enough the Pirates scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th off the suddenly very hittable Jonathon Broxton to win 6-5.

Fortunately the Dodgers had another chance to clinch the NL West today against the hapless Pirates. Unfortunately they got blown out of the water, 11-1.

Thanks Chuck.

"Whatever man. Your monkey’s got something to hide just like the rest of us."

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:57:52 -0700

““Whatever man. Your monkey’s got something to hide just like the rest of us.””

- Eric Elbogen of Say Hi - clever little Beatles reference

Profile on the new Bazan record. I have always been fascinated...

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:16:09 -0700

Profile on the new Bazan record. I have always been fascinated by Bazan and I think this record represents an interesting case study of faith in crisis. Definitely check it out if you can.

USC stole that game. If I was an OSU fan I would shoot...

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:34:30 -0700

USC stole that game. If I was an OSU fan I would shoot myself.

OSU continues to prove they don’t belong anywhere near the upper echelon.

Songs for Eating and Drinking

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:18:33 -0700

Songs for Eating and Drinking:

Was searching the web for reviews of David Bazan’s new album (haven’t got it yet but I will be doing so soon) and came across this web site. What a cool concept!

Latest Letter from a Leaver

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:47:27 -0700

Latest Letter from a Leaver:

I really like the latest letter posted to Letters from Leavers. You should read it.

I have given up on the Dodgers, bring on college football season!

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 09:22:00 -0700

At the all-star break I had visions of the Dodgers winning the World Series. After the last two games watching them lose to the Diamondbacks (the Diamondbacks?! One of the worst teams in baseball!!!) and watching their only consistent pitcher in the second half (Kuroda) get his head blasted yesterday, and watching Kershaw go from the most dominant pitcher in baseball to a guy who can’t throw strikes, and watching Broxton also go from being the most dominant pitcher in baseball to a guy who couldn’t get a save if his life depended on it, and watching Russell Martin continue his season long funk, and watching Casey Blake and Manny Ramirez go weeks without having a meaningful hit with runners on….etc. etc. whatever, I give up. If the Dodgers somehow limp into the playoffs and somehow make it past the first round then I will pay attention again, but until then go ahead and continue to be the worst team in baseball since the All-Star break and play completely uninspired baseball.

20 days until USC football!!!

My top 10 "Desert Island" albums- number 3

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:58:30 -0700

#3 Redemption’s Son- Joseph Arthur

“If you weren’t real, I would make you up”

Joseph Arthur - Honey and the Moon

Sorry for the long delay between top 10 album posts. Originally I thought it would take me about a month or two to go through all of these. I started counting back from 10 last year on September 1st, so unless I really pound out the top 2, it is going to take me longer than a year. Oh well.

My number 3 selection comes from one of my favorite artists, Joseph Arthur. Recently someone asked me what music I like and after saying that “The Beatles are my favorite band,” the first person I mentioned was Joseph Arthur. He has that “tortured soul/misunderstood genius” thing going on that a lot of great artists do. I remember when Mariah and I saw him perform at the Troubadour for the first time thinking two things: 1) during the concert I remember thinking “I want to live here. I want to get my stuff and just move into this concert” and 2) afterwards I told Mariah “I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that he died of a drug overdose or suicide.”

At the time I didn’t know a ton about Joseph Arthur. I had been introduced to him by hearing his beautiful song “Honey and the Moon” on one of the soundtracks for the TV show The OC. Since the first concert at The Troub (I have seen him there 2 or 3 other times since then) I have come to realize that Joseph’s music explores a beautiful balance between the dark corners of human existence and messages of hope and faith.

Redemption’s Son as an album is a perfect example of that balance. In the title track which opens the album, Arthur describes a character who thinks “Jesus is my only friend, No one else knows who I am” and who is struggling to overcome the inherited struggles of his father:

I know I’ll never make it on the cross
Spend my days looking for what my daddy lost
He was too proud to have a boss
Sold himself out but he couldn’t afford the cost

The chorus of the song sets the tone for the entire album when Arthur asks,

Angel of love
Shine a light on us
I was born to be
Redemption’s Son

Themes of struggle followed by redemption flow through each song. In fact the last song, You’ve Been Loved forms a sort of thematic bookend with the first when it says:

It’s always hard to admit
Most days you feel like you don’t exist
Temptation sneaks past your fists
Until the devil won’t let you resist

Oblivion is what you want

But you’ve been loved

This is a rare album in that it has 16 songs (most artists seem to be trying to get away with 10 or 11 recently) and not one of the 16 songs is bad or even mediocre. One of the ways I judge an album from an artist who has released multiple albums is to say, “If I were to make a greatest hits album for this artist, how many songs from this album would appear on the greatest hits?” Joseph Arthur is a prolific musician whose discography includes 8 full length albums and 11 ep’s and I would have to put at least 6-8 songs from this album onto my Joseph Arthur greatest hits collection.

If you are interested, you can read a short review I did of my second Joseph Arthur concert at Relevant Magazine dot com

You can buy Redemption’s Son on iTunes or here, although for some strange reason the track listings are slightly different. The version I have has the track listing as shown on iTunes.

"I feel that people who happen to be both artists and Christians need to make art from the center of..."

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 09:13:08 -0700

“I feel that people who happen to be both artists and Christians need to make art from the center of their beings, art that is honest and real and glorifying to God all at the same time. Art that can vibrate to the chords of anyone’s hearts, despite what they profess to believe. Are we not all human, and is not art a bridge that crosses over otherwise unbridgeable chasms?”

- Dustin Kensrue - lead singer of the band Thrice

"There’s a collective experience happening at a rock concert that I’ve always assumed..."

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 09:11:56 -0700

“There’s a collective experience happening at a rock concert that I’ve always assumed would probably be what Church should be like, if Church was what it should be.”

- Jeff Tweedy

"Music is finished in the audience."

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:55:39 -0700

“Music is finished in the audience.”

- Jeff Tweedy (lead singer of Wilco).

I am working on a paper on the Spiritual trends of Indie music and I keep coming back to Jeff Tweedy, who I believe has some profound things to say about the artistic pursuit in light of today’s oversaturated capitalistic society. Tweedy gets that music (and any art for that matter) is a communal endeavor.

Except for the lecture part (I am keen to a good lecture from...

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:04:51 -0700

Except for the lecture part (I am keen to a good lecture from time to time), this is me.

via asbojesus.files.wordpress.com

Happy Dependence Day!

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:55:52 -0700

Happy Dependence Day!

This is my new favorite picture of Isaac. He looks like he...

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:15:11 -0700

This is my new favorite picture of Isaac. He looks like he belongs on a dilapidated porch alongside 5 other children during the dust bowl era.

Well that is one way to put it via asbojesus.files.wordpress.com

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:25:35 -0700

Well that is one way to put it

via asbojesus.files.wordpress.com

The adult alarm has been silenced*

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:42:49 -0700

Surprisingly absent from the insane Michael Jackson coverage this afternoon and evening has been any reference to his er umm… how do I say this?… indescretions with young boys. I know the guy just died and you want to be respectful but listening to newscasters blabber on about how Michael Jackson’s legacy will be that “he took the music we heard with our ears and put movement to it” (actual lame quote I heard today) without any reference to the fact that this dude was STRAIGHT UP CREEPY!!!!!! seems like an instant case of revisionist history.

The King of Pop died long ago and some bleached out sea horse looking guy has been masquerading as Michael Jackson. RIP (I guess)

*My post title is a reference to allegations that ol’ Whacko Jacko had an alarm installed in his house that would alert him if any adults were coming while he lie in bed pretending to be Peter Pan with his Lost Boys. This alleged alarm has become immortalized by Jim Rome on his radio show.