andrew mook - with abandon - blog

update... busy

2011-02-13T01:59:00.002-05:00

i've been pretty busy with
LOVE PROVIDENCE
SANCTUARY
AFTERSCHOOL ARTS
and that whole getting married thing.

i'm hoping to write more here soon.
in the mean time facebook and the sanctuary blog are the best places to catch me.

hope you are warm and loved,
andrew

God's Anger

2010-12-16T13:32:00.001-05:00

I often get asked why the God of the Bible gets so angry. Anger seems too much like a volatile human emotion. At best, it seems "beneath" our notions of an unchangeable, all-powerful God; at worst, it makes God seem petty or even cruel. Despite our discomfort, God's anger appears often in the biblical accounts. I think part of the problem is our mistaken assumption that God's anger and God's love are somehow in competition, as though God's love is somehow tempered or balanced out by God's wrath. But God's wrath is not opposed to God's love—it is God's love when it encounters sin, when it faces the self-destruction of the beloved. That's why we can say, as the Bible does, God is love, but we cannot say God is wrath.

Here in Canada where I live, there is a tendency for people to pride themselves on being "nice," on tolerance, on accepting everyone and everything. Most of the time this is great, but the problem is that "niceness"
in the face of great violence and injustice takes the side of injustice. Tolerance turns out to be a convenient label for acceptance of the status quo—having minimal involvement in the lives of others and no investment in their fate.

Recently one of my friends who lives on the streets of Toronto was telling me in great detail the story of the atrocious abuse she experienced as a child. As I was listening, feeling inwardly sickened but unsure of exactly how to respond, she would pause every so often and say "You're really angry, aren't you? I can tell—I can see it in your eyes." Then she would go on with her story. The truth is that while I did feel angry and sad and confused and any number of emotions at that moment, I'm not sure I was registering much on my face at all. Her frequent insistence that she could see how furious I was was less because of whatever visible anger I was displaying and more because she needed the affirmation that I was angry, that her pain and
shame would not leave me untouched. She wanted reassurance: "You are angry, aren't you?"

What we learn from the story of Jesus is that tolerance is a poor substitute for love. You can tolerate someone without loving her or him. And there are some things you cannot tolerate if you love truly and deeply. What lover is not angry at the betrayal of the beloved? What loving parents are not angry at the self-destructive behavior of their children? If God were not angry at the state of the world and the human heart, it would be a sign not that God is "nice" but that God does not care. As theologian Miroslav Volf has said, "A nonindignant God would be an accomplice in injustice, deception, and violence."(1)

The only objection against God raised more frequently than complaints about anger and judgment is the apparent lack of it—God's perceived restraint in the face of the world's great evils.

"How long, O LORD, will I call for help,
And You will not hear?
I cry out to
You, 'Violence!'
Yet You do not save.
Why do you make me see iniquity,
And cause me to look on wickedness?
Yes, destruction and violence are before me;
Strife exists and contention arises.
Therefore the law is ignored
And justice is never upheld.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore justice comes out perverted" (Habakkuk 1:2-4).

"Will You restrain Yourself at these things, O LORD? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?" (Isaiah 64:12).

In situations of great suffering and oppression, we want God to get angry and we have the strong suspicion that a God who does not get angry is a God who does not love that deeply. Only a God who is angry at the ruin of the beloved creation is a God who will act in deliverance. God's anger means that we are not abandoned or left to our fate.

It is not God's anger that is the problem—God's anger is our salvation. It is our anger that is the problem. We project our own personal indignations and
inclinations toward vengeance onto God. We use the phrase "righteous anger" to describe our own self-righteous anger. We deflect our own guilt by outrage at the moral failures of others. We respond to our anger by taking things into our own hands—either inflicting retribution or becoming self-appointed saviors, trying to fix the problems of others while ignoring our own.

But God is not like us. God does not have a split personality. God's anger is not a volatile, self-protective human emotion. The story of Jesus Christ reveals that God's love for us and God's anger against our life-destroying ways both lead inexorably toward the cross. And at the cross, God is not in those inflicting the pain but in the One suffering it in order to set things right.

Rachel Tulloch is a member of the speaking team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Toronto, Canada.

(1) Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and
Reconciliation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), 297.

this years need

2010-12-15T13:15:00.000-05:00

"The need is greater this year than I've ever seen it. One little girl didn't want anything for herself. She wanted a winter coat for her mother."

- "Head Elf" Pete Fontana at New York City’s main post office, who leads a staff of 22 people in sorting 2 million letters in Operation Santa, which connects needy children with "Secret Santas" who answer their wishes. (Source: USA Today)

advent 1

2010-11-30T12:29:00.003-05:00

Advent says hope is real. It drives us to look for it. To find it in the everyday. To find it the unexpected.

Advent is a season of expectation—of arrival. In the Church calendar, the four-week Advent season is the time in which we anticipate the coming of Christ into the world. It is a time in which we look to find hope, peace, joy, and love.

Yet, “the world must be experienced as it really is and not in some pretended way.”*

Advent confronts the cynicism of the heart with the insistence that God has not and will not abandon the world, hope is real, and something is coming.

And so each December we enter into a season of waiting, expecting, and longing. We open up and turn our hearts in the direction of that day. That day when the baby cries His first cry and we, surrounded by shepherds and angels and everyone in between, celebrate “Love come down.”

We really get into creative liturgy around this season at Sanctuary. We have some orginal readings based on the next four weeks, some interactive art pieces, a new film, and lot’s of music.

Sanctuary will start quietly and reflectively at 6:30. We will spend the first 20min or so around the theme of Advent before engaging in our ongoing teaching series through Matthew. Excited to be with you during this season.

hope and peace to you.

- graphic by jeffrey bondorew / * Quote: W. Brueggemann in The Message of the Psalms / Mars Hill thoughts

bob dylan's words

2010-10-14T11:25:00.000-04:00

An interviewer asked Bob Dylan how he got into rock and roll…

Carelessness. I lost my one true love. I started drinking. The first thing I know, I’m in a card game. Then I’m in a crap game. I wake up in a pool hall. Then this big Mexican lady drags me off the table, takes me to Philadelphia. She leaves me alone in her house, and it burns down. I wind up in Phoenix. I get a job as a Chinaman. I start working in a dime store, and move in with a 13-year-old girl. Then this big Mexican lady from Philadelphia comes in and burns the house down. I go down to Dallas. I get a job as a “before” in a Charles Atlas “before and after” ad. I move in with a delivery boy who can cook fantastic chili and hot dogs. Then this 13-year-old girl from Phoenix comes and burns the house down. The delivery boy – he ain’t so mild: He gives her the knife, and the next thing I know I’m in Omaha. It’s so cold there, by this time I’m robbing my own bicycles and frying my own fish. I stumble onto some luck and get a job as a carburetor out at the hot-rod races every Thursday night. I move in with a high school teacher who also does a little plumbing on the side, who ain’t much to look at, but who’s built a special kind of refrigerator that can turn newspaper into lettuce. Everything’s going good until that delivery boy shows up and tries to knife me. Needless to say, he burned the house down, and I hit the road. The first guy that picked me up asked me if I wanted to be a star. What could I say?

Then the interviewer asked, “And that’s how you became a rock-’n'-roll singer?”

Dylan replied: “No, that’s how I got tuberculosis.”

sufjan and the good news

2010-10-12T09:58:00.013-04:00

below is an excerpt from an interview at The Quietus on October 12th.

...Is it good to work with people who have faith? I guess it wouldn’t be as easy working with drug addled lunatics right?

SS: Hahaha. [Pause] What’s the question?

I should probably rephrase it. You’re a Christian, so it’s probably easier to work with Christians than some heathen hoovering up cocaine every day...

SS: Yeah. [Long pause] What?!

What I’m asking is, is it easier to work with somebody in the same faith instead of somebody of a secular disposition?

SS: [Pintersque pause] Ahhh no, not at all. I don’t draw lines when it comes to my work. People I work with come from all over the place. There’s heathens and potheads in my band. I love them all, so...

Being an artist of some repute do you find the calling to spread the Good News sits awkwardly with your profile? Is it difficult?

SS: Not necessarily, you know, I think the Good News is about grace and hope and love and a relinquishing of self to God. And I think the Good News of salvation is kind of relevant to everyone and everything.

I find as I get older due to a sequence of events spirituality becomes more intriguing, though having been indoctrinated with the hard line dogma that I’d go to hell if I didn’t follow certain practices and believe very specific things, I was quite angry about Christianity for a while.

SS: Oh dear.

I suppose you could call it Protestant guilt.

SS: The church is an institution and it’s incredibly corrupt obviously, but that’s because it’s full of dysfunctional people and people who are hurt and battered and abused. It’s very normal in any institution to have that kind of level of dysfunction. That’s unfortunate. I find it very difficult, I find church culture very difficult you know; I think a lot of churches now are just fundamentally flawed. But that’s true for any institution you know, that’s true for education, universities and it’s definitely true for corporations because of greed, and I think part of faith is having to be reconciled with a flawed community. But the principles, I don’t think the principles have changed. They can get skewed and they can get abused and dogma can reign supreme, but I think the fundamentals, it’s really just about love. Loving God and loving your neighbour and giving up everything for God. The principles of that, the basis of that is very pure and life changing.

Do you believe that God can be reached through other faiths? John 3:16 categorically states Jesus is "the way, the truth and the life" and nobody can get to the Father expect through him. A lot of people take that very literally and don’t believe you can find spirituality through Buddhism or Islam or whatever...

SS: Yeah, I mean who can know the mind of God and who can be his counsellor? It’s not man’s decision, you know. If God is infinite and he’s in all of us and he created the world then I feel there is truth in every corner. There’s a kind of imprint of his life and his breath and his word and everything. You know, I’m no religious expert, and I don’t make any claims about the faith. All I can account for is myself and my own belief and that’s a pretty tall order just to take account of myself. I can’t make any claims about other religions. There’s no condemnation in Christ, that’s one of the fundamentals of Christianity.

The Gospels are a good read, and then you get Paul ruining everything with his right wing attitudes.

SS: Well Paul is a good reference for the character of church institutions, the setting down of cultural principles. Because God is the church and the church is an institution and the institution is culture; you have to reckon with all the trappings of culture and that’s kind of what Paul designed. You know, that was his role. You can’t read it without looking at it in the cultural context of the time and place, it’s inherent you know.

Church originally was a body of people and it had nothing to do with a building.

SS: I mean it’s weird. What’s the basis of Christianity? It’s really a meal, it’s communion right? It’s the Eucharist. That’s it, it’s the sharing a meal with your neighbours and what is that meal? It’s the body and blood of Christ. Basically God offering himself up to you as nutrition. Haha, that’s pretty weird. It’s pretty weird if you think about that, that’s the basis of your faith. You know, God is supplying a kind of refreshment and food for a meal. Everything else is just accessories and it’s vital of course, baptism and marriage, and there’s always the sacraments and praying and the Holy Spirit and all this stuff but really fundamentally it’s just about a meal.

And there’s the cross of course. It’s an extremely powerful symbol and it has permeated into some of the greatest art and literature of the last couple of thousand years, but it’s peculiar that people wear an object that represents the putting to death of their Lord.

SS: It’s really morbid. It’s a really morbid symbol you know. It is very grotesque when you start thinking about it. But it’s also beautiful you know, it’s the ultimate sacrifice. And I think it relates to the meal as well because it’s Christ giving up his blood and flesh as food and that then itself is the giving up of his body for eternal life, therefore salvation.

desmond tutu

2010-10-07T15:21:00.004-04:00

"There's nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression than the Bible. If you want to keep people subjugated, the last thing you place in their hands is a Bible."

- Desmond Tutu, in September 2008. Archbishop Tutu ended his public career today at 79 years old.

to see. ( two poems for perspective)

2010-10-05T23:46:00.003-04:00

Walt Whitman

(from To See God)

Why should I wish to see God better than this day?

I see something of God each hour of the twenty four,

and each moment then,

In the faces of men and women I see God

and in my own face in the glass,

I see letters from God dropped in the street,

and every one is signed by God's name.

David

(from Psalm 139)

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

You understand my thoughts from afar.

You scrutinize my path and my lying down,

And are intimately aquainted with all my ways.

Even before there is a word on my tongue,

Behold, O Lord, you know it all.

You enclosed me behind and before,

And laid your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

It is too high, I cannot attain to it...

For you did form my inward parts;

You did weave me in my mothers womb.

I will give thanks to You,

for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Wonderful are Your works,

And my soul knows it very well...

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;

And in Your book they were all written,

The days that were ordained for me,

When as yet there was not one of them.

wild geese

2010-08-31T11:25:00.002-04:00

a poem by Mary Oliver

from Dreamwork (1986)

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

move

2010-08-18T02:52:00.004-04:00

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,'
then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."
-Vincent Van Gogh

how to fight a war - no fear in death

2010-08-16T10:01:00.003-04:00

"We want to pay tribute to each of our colleagues who died, to their commitment to serve the Afghan people. Those who have known them and seen them at work can do nothing but pay the highest tribute to them ... In some news articles, the people on this team have been described as 'saints.' This is not how they saw themselves. They were basically selfless professionals willing to spend their lives and energy in a meaningful way."

- The International Assistance Mission, on the 10 members of their team killed Friday in Afghanistan.

IAM is an international charitable, non-profit, Christian organisation, serving the people of Afghanistan, through capacity building in the sectors of Health and Economic Development.

my prayers are with the ten and their families and friends. They are part of a story, an advancing kingdom, of those who have lost their life serving Jesus (hebrews 11).

where oh death is your victory, where oh death is your sting.

some church

2010-08-08T03:08:00.001-04:00

Church is where we are reminded of the revolution of
sacrificial love - the cross and resurrection.

Church is where we learn to lay down our hurt, brokenness, and masks.

Church is where we renew our intention to see God everywhere.

Church is where we learn to love our neighbor.

Church is where we sing.

bear with

2010-08-06T00:17:00.003-04:00

Romans 15

¹ We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. ²We should all please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. ³ For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." ⁴For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. ⁵ May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, ⁶ so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
⁷ Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

janelle monae - first take

2010-08-05T17:59:00.000-04:00

new arcade fire song from the new record

2010-08-02T02:24:00.000-04:00

"Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"

the reality of pornography

2010-07-23T20:33:00.001-04:00

be honest.
bring your issues into the light.
tell someone.
seek accountability in community.
you are loved.

[click the image to read]

love your enemies

2010-07-21T13:36:00.006-04:00

engagement

2010-07-13T16:44:00.007-04:00

It says in scripture that in the same way that God is ONE, a husband and wife should be ONE. We both know that sin has fractured our world, and has fractured marriages, where they are no longer ONE.

Corrie and I believe that two people who have given themselves to each other are supposed to give the world a glimpse of hope, a display of what God is like, a bit of ONEness on earth.

I want to give the world this glimpse, this display, with Corrie.

I desire...
To serve her, and serve the world along side her.
To lay down my life for her, as we lay down our life for those around us.
To love her, and love the world along side her.

a return and a poem

2010-07-11T03:26:00.004-04:00

1 Cor 15:1-6
Paul tells them to return to the gospel, this is of first importance.

PRAISE

I cannot say it with mere words
Convincingly
So
I sing it with the life I live
Unflinchingly

. . .

a 5x5 of coffee

2010-07-10T09:51:00.002-04:00

my good friend jeffrey bondorew shot this 5x5. i like the vibe. i like the bear smoke,

Dessert 5x5 with audio from Jeffrey Bondorew on Vimeo.

a friday poem

2010-07-09T10:45:00.005-04:00

The Great Commission

There was a girl
in the eleventh grade
named Valerie
who told me
I would do great things
For God.

I've been trying to write a poem ever since.

[linford]

george macdonald: justice, hell and atonement

2010-07-08T13:11:00.001-04:00

An interesting discussion on judgement, hell, and atonement is going on at this theology blog. I'm interested in what people think about it.

The blog post is an analysis of a George MacDonald sermon that begins by asking us to think about the nature of justice and punishment... Are justice and punishment the same thing? This is an important question because when Christians speak of hell as "just" they are implicitly drawing an equivalence between the "punishment" of sin and God's "justice." But MacDonald wants to push back on that notion, to suggest that justice is a far richer concept than punishment. And if this is so, no amount of punishment in hell gets God closer to achieving justice.
CLICK HERE - for the post and discussion.

derek webb takes on gnarles and sufjan

2010-06-24T17:28:00.000-04:00

been a slow month - been posting most things to facebook - need to figure out a better pattern. like... post here and then put a link on twitter/facebook.

or... post nothing :)

i found this today - the gnarles barley cover is great.

derek webb covers sufjan, gnarls barkley…

MAY 27, 2010

by jalldredge

I posted a while back that singer-songwriter Derek Webb has embarked on a year-long album project entitled Democracy Vol. 1. Webb invited fans who bought special editions of his last albumStockholm Syndrome to vote on songs that they would like him to cover. He will then release an MP3 every month in 2010 to complete the project. The last two months have been incredible additions. Check out his covers of “Chicago” by Sufjan Stevens and “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” by Gnarls Barkley below. Sign up to receive the songs HERE.

the undocumented and the laws of the bible

2010-05-31T09:49:00.001-04:00

When I began hearing Christians chat about how to follow the Bible when it comes to the undocumented and illegals, I was a bit amazed both by the right and the left. This piece by Brad Hirschfield is exacting in its biblical awareness and shrewd in application: the issue is not so much about how folks got here as about whether or not they live according to the law. Does the Bible, so far as you know, ever say anything about the legality or illegality of entering a country? Does it speak about how to live once in someone else's land?

Q: Illegal immigrants are flouting U.S. laws, but does affluent America (or Arizona for that matter) have a larger moral or spiritual obligation to help illegal immigrants who are trying to better their lives? What about religious obligations to welcome the stranger? Are we our brother's keeper?
The Hebrew Bible mentions obligations to so-called strangers on numerous occasions. The message is pretty much always the same and perhaps best summed up by the words of Leviticus 19:33-34, When a stranger dwells among you in your land, do not taunt him. The stranger who dwells with you shall be like a native among you, and you shall love him like yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt--I am the Lord, your God.
But who that stranger is that deserves such equality and even love is not necessarily a parallel to the millions of people who cross our borders illegally every year. Or perhaps it is. The stranger of the Hebrew Bible is better understood as a resident alien, a non-citizen who agrees to abide by the laws of the community into which he or she has come. To that extent then, many if not most, illegal aliens in this country, would not qualify. On the other hand, there is no mention in the Bible of barriers to entry into the Israelite nation, so perhaps they do....
While other biblical texts and traditions could be introduced into the debate on immigration, based on those verses bearing directly on the issue, the path forward is actually pretty clear: how one got here is largely irrelevant, though the obligations that must be assumed in order to stay are significant.
Biblical "immigration policy" was not about maintaining the purity of the community or fear of withholding the benefits of membership, but it was quite clear about the obligations that needed to be met to enjoy the privileges (not rights) of such membership. It would be quite a step forward to see people actually look to that model for guidance instead of simply thumping their Bibles to prove that which they already believe anyway.

installation: clean drinking water

2010-05-31T00:29:00.003-04:00

Solidarités International: Water talks from La Boite Concept on Vimeo.
Agence BDDP & Fils
Directeur  Artistique  :  David  Derouet      
Concepteur- Rédacteur  :  Emmanuel  de  Dieuleveult   

after school arts closing show

2010-05-29T01:27:00.002-04:00

promo 1

interesting

2010-05-27T17:45:00.000-04:00

i’ve bled for my country, i’ve sweated for my country, i’ve cried myself to sleep for my country -- which is a lot more than some people who are passing judgment on me have done. i would rather go sit in prison than go to Iraq.

- patrick hart, u.s. army sergeant with almost 10 years on active duty, who went to canada rather than face a second deployment to Iraq. (Source: USA Today)

NEW MUSIC: Janelle Monáe

2010-05-21T01:08:00.002-04:00

i first saw Janelle Monáe in a video called TIGHT ROPE.

I loved it. her new album just came out.

The songs zip gleefully from genre to genre, mostly grounded in R&B and funk, but spinning out into rap, pastoral British folk, psychedelic rock, disco, cabaret, cinematic scores, and whatever else strikes her fancy. It's about as bold as mainstream music gets, marrying the world-building possibilities of the concept album to the big tent genre-mutating pop of Michael Jackson and Prince in their prime.

A REVIEW AND A STREAM

The ArchAndroid

flawless

2010-05-19T01:14:00.002-04:00

one of the most incredible things i have ever seen.
this is modern still-life-like genius. alex roman is incredible.
A FULL-CG animated piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces. Sometimes in an abstract way. Sometimes surreal.
please watch it all. full screen.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

ASA 3rd graders

2010-05-18T15:29:00.000-04:00

a modern telling of the beatitudes

2010-05-05T19:56:00.000-04:00

blessed are those who don’t have it all together.

blessed are those who have run out of strength, ideas, will power, resolve, or energy.

blessed are those who ache because of how severely out of whack the world is.

blessed are those stumble, trip, and fall in the same place again and again.

blessed are those who on a regular basis have a dark day in which despair seems to be a step behind them wherever they go.

blessed are you, for God is with you, God is on your side, God meets you in that place.

the gospel is the counter-intuitive, joyous, exuberant news that Jesus has brought the unending, limitless, stunning love of God to even us.

grace

2010-05-04T19:58:00.000-04:00

i'm in seattle. i love it.

"we can only be said to be alive in those moments
when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."
-thornton wilder

a sabbath

2010-04-24T23:37:00.001-04:00

it's saturday.
i am preparing for my monday sabbath.
when do you stop?

new sage album & a beautiful first single

2010-04-23T13:49:00.006-04:00

download the new single: [BEST OF TIMES]
(it's pretty stunning - the composer who did the soundtrack for the film Amelie)

i've been drawn to his work for so long now. whether i'm in agreement with him on a subject or not - his honesty is always refreshing. we need more of this.

new sage francis album entitled LI(F)E: the record drops on may 11th, 2010 and features music that was written and/or performed by Califone, Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie, Tim Fite, Calexico, DeVotchKa, Yann Tiersen, Buck 65 and more. The album was produced by Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine.)

The cover art was done by formerly local artist and illustrator Shepard Fairey

http://www.sagefrancis.net/

roses

2010-04-22T13:28:00.003-04:00

"don't strew me with roses after I'm dead... give me my roses now."
-thomas f. healey

new music: freelance whales

2010-04-17T15:14:00.001-04:00

i'm going to see them tonight.
they seem accessible and smart.
i just started listening to them - we'll see if they hold up.
i'm going to see them on record store day at rainbow books and music.

*i added the song STARRING in the 'record of the day' window to the right.

below is a video.

Freelance Whales - Generator 2nd Floor

Freelance Whales | MySpace Music Videos

new film we made

2010-04-15T15:07:00.000-04:00

resurrection rain from andrew mook on Vimeo.

new national song

2010-04-13T18:37:00.001-04:00

Download the New National Song "Afraid of Everyone"

art: easter people

2010-04-02T23:00:00.006-04:00

this is a piece i've been working on after i read this anne lamott quote:
"christians are easter people living in a good friday world."

[click image to enlarge]

live your love update

2010-04-01T15:22:00.002-04:00

i just finished some preliminary designs for my good friends jasmine and jeremy who run an organization called LIVE YOUR LOVE.

liveyourlove.com

my sabbath mondays

2010-03-29T13:30:00.004-04:00

"to take a sabbath, simply define what work is for you and don't do
it that day." - nancy sleeth

palm sunday with colbert

2010-03-27T16:58:00.004-04:00

uk paper: health care bill

2010-03-25T16:46:00.002-04:00

haiti water

2010-03-23T13:22:00.017-04:00

helping Haiti recover by providing long-term clean water solutions. 100% of donations directly fund water projects in 11 areas in Haiti.

Unshaken - charity: water's campaign for Haiti from charity: water on Vimeo.

DONATE HERE

sigur ros meets mgmt

2010-03-22T11:29:00.005-04:00

sigur rós frontman jónsi stopped by bbc radio 1's live lounge this weekend to play a session. one of the two songs he played was a cover of mgmt's "time to pretend", rendered as a sad, florid piano lament.

and... jonsi's new, absolutely incredible looking new tour - get into this.

health care reform = not simple

2010-03-21T23:11:00.002-04:00

ARTICLE: A Principled Path to Rational Health Care Reform | The Heritage Foundation

"The health care policies outlined by President Obama during his campaign would centralize control over the health care system in Washington. There is a much better alternative."

the story of st. patrick

2010-03-17T12:35:00.011-04:00

the historical, faithful man behind the legends, parades and green beer.

Four years ago, I was able to cross an item off my do-before-I-die list: I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland—Dublin to be exact. And I was a little disappointed.

After shivering in the drizzle/snowfall for a few hours with thousands of other St. Patrick’s Day fans from around the globe, my friends and I witnessed a sad little parade. There were a few dance groups, a couple of bands, and some weird bobble-head creatures walking down the street. That was the parade. In Dublin. On St. Patrick’s Day.

[click the title to read full article]

Turns out, St. Patrick’s Day has been a mostly religious holiday for the Irish. They have only recently begun to offer attractions for the tourists around March 17. My parade experience was four years ago, so conditions may be better now. However, the tour guide suggested that next time I want to see a good St. Pat’s parade, I should go to New York City.

In America, we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day differently. We dress in green (or get pinched), we dye our rivers green and we drink lots of beer (some of it green). Rarely, though, do we consider the man behind the holiday—Patrick, a missionary to Ireland.

What Patrick’s life was actually like is difficult to determine. I don’t think it helps that he’s popular in Ireland, and many Irish have the gift of blarney. Therefore, the stories about Patrick’s life and ministry in Ireland seem a little outlandish at times. Many of them are, most likely, exaggerated.

With that being said, we do know, with a little more certainty, that Patrick was born in Britain, but captured and sold into slavery in Ireland as a teen. From there, it gets a fuzzier. He was probably put to work as a shepherd. Though he was not very religious at the time, he often prayed in the fields. One day, God told him to escape and start walking, so he did. He ended up at a beach, right as a ship was about to leave for the continent. He persuaded them to take him aboard and somehow eventually ended up in a monastery in France. Sometime later, perhaps after returning home to Great Britain, Patrick had a dream where an Irishman asked him to come back to Ireland to spread the Gospel. He was largely uneducated, because of the whole slavery thing, so he had to fight a little before the church would allow him to become a missionary to the Irish.

When he finally got to Ireland, the miracles really began to rack up. You may have heard that he drove all the snakes out of Ireland, but that is not all. It has also been reported that he once survived poisoning, that his fingers turned into flashlights on a particularly dark night, and that he turned an evil ruler into a fox. During this time, he is also known to have used the shamrock to explain the Trinity—the three leaves representing the three parts of God in one Being. When he died on March 17 (the year is debatable), the sun refused to set. For twelve days and nights, it shone as if it were day. And every March 17, fish rise from the sea, pass by St. Pat’s alter, and return to the water. Blarney? Perhaps.

What is true is that Patrick had enough of an impact on the Irish for them to take his holiday around the world. Though, our traditions may have become a little skewed from the original celebrations. We wear green on that day mainly because it happens to be in the spring. We drink beer because, well, the Irish are famous for loving that particular beverage.

When I celebrated the day in Ireland, there weren’t a whole lot of people around who were actually from Ireland. People from all over were in Dublin, celebrating their roots; whether or not they are aware, their roots include a man who followed the call of God to share the Gospel with his enemies. Patrick returned to the land of his enslavement to convert the people from paganism to Christianity. Whether you take in a parade, visit a green river or drink a pint of Guinness, this March 17, remember the man behind the day, and maybe invite your enemy to celebrate too

-Elizabeth Hyndman

awake

2010-03-16T19:04:00.003-04:00

most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

-Henry David Thoreau

Ryan Adams Makes "Metal" Record

2010-03-15T01:24:00.000-04:00

Ryan Adams Makes "Metal" Record

the key to failure

2010-03-12T15:12:00.001-05:00

the other side

2010-03-12T13:32:00.001-05:00

"weren’t both sides of the conflict totally immersed in their own tragedies, each one oblivious to, or even antagonistic toward, the narrative of the other? isn’t this inability to imagine the lives of the ‘other’ at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?"

- Sari Nusseibeh, a Palestinian philosopher, in his autobiography, Once Upon a Country, writing about Israeli Jew Amos Oz's book, A Tale of Love and Darkness. Oz's book was recently translated into Arabic for the first time due to the efforts of Palestinian lawyer Elias Khoury, who lost his family's land near Nazareth to Israel, and whose father and son were killed in separate Palestinian terrorist attacks. (source: The New York Times)

the great democratization

2010-03-11T01:01:00.006-05:00

every man and every woman is created in the image of God … there is no hierarchy. gen 1:27 is the great democratization of God’s image… to every citizen of the world.

if it's true, it has significant ramifications. it means that we are all in the same boat.

it means that the starving child in Africa has every bit as much worth as a hollywood celebrity.

it means that a drug lord in columbia is worth every bit as much as a u.s. senator.

it means that an indonesian sweat-shop worker is worth every bit as much as you or i.

the church is to speak this over a community. the authentic church is the living demonstration for everyone, that there is a God at the core of the universe who’s name is love and whose imprint is found on everyone.

a love that is with us and will not leave us.

a love that cannot give us up.

art - california strike anywhere

2010-03-09T19:17:00.002-05:00

/a design piece that i enjoy looking at.

what am i united to?

2010-03-08T10:27:00.000-05:00

what am i united to?

2010-03-04T15:53:00.003-05:00

new music: matt morris

2010-03-02T16:24:00.012-05:00

new artist matt morris and bgv's from justin timberlake and chad sexton on guitar. i can't speak for the rest of the record but this song is solid. the lyrics in the second verse are especially beautiful:

...She heard heaven is invite only preserved for Christian soldiers

Not unwed girls living in the city asking for change from strangers

But father said Jesus loves her even though she never married

God loves her more than the Christians do,

She's part of his holy bloodline

She got saved in her bloodline

The price he paid for the bloodline...

watch here: bloodline

what am i united to?

2010-03-02T00:01:00.002-05:00

(for those interested, i posted a few new songs in the record of the day column)

what am i united to?

2010-03-01T02:43:00.002-05:00

a necessary death

2010-02-27T22:48:00.001-05:00

“Through Jesus, we all have to face the embarrassing truth that we ourselves are our primary problem. It is we who must die, he teaches, not others! Our greatest temptation is to try to change other people instead of ourselves. Jesus allowed himself to be transformed and thus transformed others. That is the meaning of the necessary death of Jesus.”

– Richard Rohr, Things Hidden

adopt a terrorist

2010-02-19T10:04:00.016-05:00

adopt a terrorist for prayer
[click the icon]

“love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”

-matthew 5:44

the bible and the poor

2010-02-18T16:05:00.002-05:00

“Not only is the Bible extensive in its teaching on wealth and poverty, but it is uncomfortably clear and plain. There is not the ambiguity and complexity that one finds in some other subjects, as in the 'tension' and dynamic balance of apparent opposites that one finds in such doctrines as the New Testament view of the state. The Bible is clearly and emphatically on the side of the poor.”

–Bob Sabath, in a 1974 article for Sojourners.

art and accident

2010-02-17T10:53:00.007-05:00

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are.

Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."

-St. Augustine

if i created a commercial

2010-02-13T14:04:00.001-05:00

records and being fully engaged

2010-02-12T01:49:00.000-05:00

I think we’re seeing a counter reaction to impersonal social media.

The New York Times reports that vinyl record sales are up again. Why? Because you have this object in your hands. You place the record on a phonograph. You sit down and listen and there’s this total experience that engages you.

If bands are selling less music, what do they do? They go out and tour. This is the power of flesh and blood, the power of holding something like a record in your hands—it’s very attractive.

The power of an actual room of people with a real human being up front—that’s exciting. As things get more and more virtual in our world—the live, real experiences we can share will become all the more rare and unique and important in our lives.

[amook & rbell]

mothers in iran

2010-02-11T21:52:00.002-05:00

"it shows how frightened they are of their own people, when they cannot tolerate mothers who are holding a silent vigil and want accountability."

- Hadi Ghaemi, director of the new york-based international campaign for human rights in iran, discussing the mourning mothers, an organization founded by women whose children were killed by government agents in the protests that broke out after the election in june. every saturday, the group sits quietly in a park in tehran, and according to witnesses, are then arrested by the police, and taken to prison. (Source: The New York Times)

friends = live your love, sri lanka

2010-02-10T14:46:00.004-05:00

my good friends jasmine and jeremy dean are leaving for SRI LANKA today. i've attached there latest newsletter below. it's beautiful whats going on.

[i also just finished designed the beginings of a website for them: go to liveyourlove]

NEWSLETTER:

Live Your Love Tea & LLC
In early December we became an official Limited Liability Company. Part of the LLC will be branding our own Live Your Love tea that we will sell in the states and on our website. The tea will give us the opportunity to share the vision as well as raise capital for current and future projects. Each box will have a little blurb about the vision of Live Your Love as well as a link to our website so people can learn more or buy more. Thank you to our wonderful lawyer friend Dave who did all the filing for us!

Back to Sri Lanka in February
We are flying back to Sri Lanka February 10th, 2010 and will return on March 3rd. During this short trip we will meet with the tea company and talk about getting our first shipment of Live Your Love tea this year. We will travel to the south to visit the widows at Smile Lanka that we began to partner with last year. CLICK HERE to see 2009 photos We will also travel to the east to revisit some incredibly impoverished communities that we hope to be able to help in 2010.

Landon & Stacie:
Within weeks of moving to Seattle in July, we met Landon and Stacie Snoddy who had also just moved here from Louisiana. Since then, they have jumped on board with the vision and mission of Live Your Love and have been a big help to us as well as becoming great friends! Landon and Stacie have committed to joining us on the February trip to Sri Lanka to see everything first hand and fully experience the vision. We are over the top excited to get to share Sri Lanka with them!

Needs:
The cost of this trip is over $3000 and as we set up our first tea purchase that will be a big investment. Help us in getting Live Your Love off the ground in 2010 with any kind of donation you can! You can send checks to our Seattle address and until we have our tax ID they will have to be personal checks. Someone will deposit checks weekly while we’re in Sri Lanka.

Jeremy and Jasmine Dean
215 2nd Ave South #205
Seattle, WA 98104

Thank you.

Sage Francis Teams With Indie Rockers on New Album

2010-02-09T10:48:00.000-05:00

Sage Francis Teams With Indie Rockers on New Album

one-anothers 1

2010-02-09T10:26:00.000-05:00

in the new testament, there are 43 "one another" passages, and during a sunday morning service you might be able to practice three or four of them. and as the service gets large, you can probably do fewer. a massive group setting can be dangerous. you can come, sit, listen, and go home and think, i've been to church, even if you haven't practiced any "one anothers."

beat the defense budget into a plowshare

2010-02-01T19:16:00.002-05:00

Almost exactly 4 years ago, more than 100 faith leaders from around the country went to jail together as we prayed for a moral budget and lamented the current one. I think it may be time to do it again.

On Oct. 28, 2009, President Obama signed into law the $680 billion 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, the largest military spending bill of its kind, increasing the military budget 24 billion from the last fiscal year.

With all the hope for an end to the recession, military spending does seem to be the open wound of America (and perhaps no coincidence that the military budget is almost the same as the bailout package). The military spending is the elephant in the room any time we speak of health care for all or reforming the broken education system; one wonders how much good we can do when nearly half of every tax dollar goes to the military. Dr. King’s words ring truer than ever: “A country that spends more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching a spiritual death.”

The U.S. is now paying over $16 billion a year just to maintain its nuclear arsenal, an arsenal so big it takes the next 50 countries combined to even get close. I did a little research recently and talked to some folks in DC just to wrap my hands around the numbers. Using the Hiroshima bomb as a measuring unit (and remembering that this bomb killed 140,000 people in one blast, and 90 of these bombs could blow up all of Russia), the U.S. now has the equivalent of more than 122,000 Hiroshimas. How many times do we need to be able to blow up the world? It must break God’s heart. As Jesus wept over Jerusalem because it did not know the things that lead to peace, Jesus must be weeping over America today.

It is my prayer that we would have the courage and imagination to beat these “swords into plows” — to turn the things that have brought death into things that bring life. As the rate of soldiers dying by suicide has now outnumbered those dying in combat, it is time for us to say “enough” to the sword which we have picked up and died by over and over. It is time to choose another future than wars and rumors of wars. And perhaps it is time once again to pray on the steps of Congress for a moral budget… and to go to jail as we pray.

by Shane Claiborne 11-11-2009

following jesus

2010-01-31T14:45:00.001-05:00

...what is God to do with a religion
that legitimizes indifference and
worship that inspires indulgence?"

faith - a poem

2010-01-30T14:05:00.003-05:00

i was reminded today of the great poem my friend matt wrote in regards to a certain water walking incident in the bible.

faith

:after we returned to shore
and their initial amazement wore thin
mention was made of my forgotten focus
and subsequent sinking

they had their laughs
at his lesson (and my expense)
but He soon came to my rescue
noting not only my wet robes

but their dry feet

~MEH
Mathew Henry

being made new

2010-01-26T11:55:00.002-05:00

the world is not likely to receive a message of transformation by untransformed people.

-how is your soul?
-are your eyes wide open?
-every moment is an opportunity to be connected the spirit.

ortberg asked dallas willard "how do I evaluate where my soul is at, how connected i am to jesus?" willard responded:

are you growing more and more 'easily irritated' these days... or less?

haiti help

2010-01-22T02:23:00.000-05:00

mlk, paul, & america

2010-01-22T02:11:00.003-05:00

...americans, you may give your goods to feed the poor. you may give great gifts to charity. you may tower high in philanthropy. but if you have not love it means nothing.

[rev. martin luther king jr. in his speech, "paul's letter to american christians," nov. 4, 1956.]

bible on guns

2010-01-19T12:42:00.002-05:00

once again... jesus weeps //

U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret 'Jesus' Bible Codes:
Pentagon Supplier for Rifle Sights Says It Has 'Always' Added New Testament References

[the article and video]

**thanks adam for the link

bed walk

2010-01-15T11:25:00.001-05:00

white stripes doc

2010-01-05T13:49:00.000-05:00

The Birth: The Innkeeper

2009-12-20T15:01:00.003-05:00

[a christmas reading from the perspective of the innkeeper]

And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
Luke 2:7 RSV

“That was a long, long time ago,” said the Innkeeper, “and a long, long way away. But the memories of men are also long, and nobody has forgotten anything about my own sad, queer part in it all unless maybe they have forgotten the truth about it. But you can never blame people for forgetting the truth because it is, after all, such a subtle and evasive commodity. In fact, all that distinguishes a truth from a lie may finally be no more than just the flutter of an eyelid or the tone of a voice. If I were to say, ‘I BELIEVE!’ that would be a lie, but if I were to say, ‘I believe…’ that might be the truth. So I do not blame posterity for forgetting the subtleties and making me out to be the black villain of the piece – the heartless one who said, ‘No room! No room!’ I’ll even grant you that a kind of villainy may be part of the truth. But if you want to speak the whole truth, then you will have to call me a villain with a catch in your voice, at least a tremor, a hesitation maybe, with even the glitter of almost a tear in your eye. Because nothing is entirely black, you know. Not even the human heart.

“I speak to you as mean of the world,” said the Innkeeper. “Not as idealists but as realists. Do you know what it is like to run an inn – to run a business, a family, to run anything in this world for that matter, even your own life? It is like being lost in a forest of a million trees,” said the Innkeeper, “and each tree is a thing to be done. Is there fresh linen on all the beds? Did the children put on their coats before they went out? Has the letter been written, the book read? Is there money enough left in the bank? Today we have food in our bellies and clothes on our backs, but what can we do to make sure that we will have them still tomorrow? A million trees. A million things.

“Until finally we have eyes for nothing else, and whatever we see turns into a thing. The sparrow lying in the dust at your feet – just a thing to be kicked out of the way, not the mystery of death. The calling of children outside your window – just a distraction, an irrelevance, not life, not the wildest miracle of them all. That whispering in the air that comes sudden and soft from nowhere – only the wind, the wind…

“Of course I remember very well the evening they arrived. I was working on my accounts and looked up just in time to see the woman coming through the door. She walked in that slow, heavy-footed way that women have in their last months, as though they are walking in a dream or at the bottom of the sea. Her husband stood a little behind her – a tongue-tied, helpless kind of man, I though. I cannot remember either of them saying anything, although I suppose some words must have passed. But at least it was mostly silence. The clumsy silence of the poor. You know what I mean. It was clear enough what they wanted.

“The stars had come out. I remember the stars perfectly though I don’t know why I should, sitting inside as I was. And my wife’s cat jumped up onto the table where I was sitting. I had not stood up, of course. There was mainly just silence. Then it happened much in the way you have heard. I did not lie about there being no room left – there really was none – though perhaps if there had been a room, I might have lied. As much for their sakes as for the sake of the inn. Their kind would have felt more at home in a stable, that’s all, and I do not mean that unkindly either. God knows.

“Later that night, when the baby came, I was not there,” the Innkeeper said. “I was lost in the forest somewhere, the unenchanted forest of a million trees. Fifteen steps to the cellar, and watch out for your head going down. Firewood to the left. If the fire goes out, the heart freezes. Only the wind, the wind. I speak to you as men of the world. So when the baby came, I was not around, and I saw none of it. As for what I heard – just at that moment itself of birth when nobody turns into somebody – I do not rightly know what I heard.

“But this I do know. My own true love. All your life long, you wait for your own true love to come – we all of us do – our destiny, our joy, our heart’s desire. So how am I to say it, gentlemen? When he came, I missed him.

“Pray for me, brothers and sisters. Pray for the Innkeeper. Pray for me, and for us all, my own true love.”

Fredrick Buechner

unity where it counts

2009-12-14T23:42:00.001-05:00

when we confess our virtues, we are competitors.
when we confess our sins, we are brothers.
~ Karl Barth

No Line on the Horizon - Rose Bowl

2009-12-07T12:22:00.000-05:00

No Line on the Horizon - Rose Bowl

tea & riots

2009-12-05T12:21:00.002-05:00

everywhere Jesus went there was a riot.
everywhere i go they make me cups of tea!
- the words of an archbishop

the giving of thanks

2009-11-26T23:58:00.002-05:00

[thank you for loving me]

thrice and brand new

2009-11-25T23:53:00.005-05:00

- a new thrice of video.
- two live (mellow) versions of songs from brand new's daisy record.

Brand New "At The Bottom" (Live In Studio)

i think jesse sounds like kurt cobain circa mtv unplugged.

Brand New - Bought A Bride (Daisy Session)

thrice - from the new "beggars" record.
In Exile

Thrice MySpace Music Videos

good morning

2009-11-23T08:32:00.001-05:00

Goodmorning - William Fitzsimmons

fallout

2009-11-14T15:51:00.000-05:00

Whether it’s self-medicating, anger or violence, these are the consequences of war, and you have to think about all the people affected by soldiers coming home, the parents, spouses, children, brothers, sisters, aunts and cousins.

- Cynthia Thomas, an Army wife who runs a private assistance center for soldiers in Killeen, Tex., called Under the Hood Café. (Source: The New York Times)

integrity & intentions

2009-11-11T14:50:00.002-05:00

"the last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason."
- t. s. elliot

taking things for granted

2009-11-10T14:05:00.002-05:00

the jesus way in palestine: non violence

2009-11-05T22:37:00.001-05:00

Nonviolence is our most powerful weapon. If they cannot accuse us of terrorism, they cannot stop us. The world will support us.

- Mohammed Khatib, secretary of the Bilin, West Bank, village council, referred to as "a modern-day Gandhi" whose nonviolent resistance, in cooperation with Israeli peace activists, has earned him arrests, beatings, and death threats by Israeli forces -- as well as modest legal victories, which have yet to be enforced, to change the Israeli separation barrier's route through his village's lands. (Source: Los Angeles Times)

love - ok

2009-11-02T23:35:00.001-05:00

gospel - tim keller

2009-11-02T11:08:00.000-05:00

When we realize that Jesus is going to someday destroy hunger, disease, poverty, injustice, and death itself, it makes Christianity what C. S. Lewis called a "fighting religion" when we are confronted with a city slum or a cancer ward. This full version of the gospel reminds us that God created both the material and the spiritual, and is going to redeem both the material and the spiritual. - tim keller

why i go...

2009-10-31T13:32:00.005-04:00

why i go... pt 2

[click image to see]

[click on the "ART" tag to see pt 1]

fixing the death penalty

2009-10-23T13:56:00.001-04:00

I no longer believe that you can fix the death penalty ... I learned that the death penalty throws millions of dollars down the drain -- money that I could be putting directly into crime fighting -- while dragging victims' families through a long and torturous process that only exacerbates their pain.

- james abbott, a 29-year veteran republican police chief from orange, new jersey, who served on a new jersey panel that recommended abolishment of capital punishment.
(source: the columbus dispatch)

time, change, and context.

2009-10-22T11:30:00.002-04:00

why i go... a new piece.

2009-10-20T23:04:00.008-04:00

this was just a quick piece i did tonite as i took a break from working on some teaching material on missiology and stared at the fire.

i think i'm going to make some more simple pieces in this vein. why i go - pt.1

[click the image to see]

google norris

2009-10-20T00:14:00.003-04:00

type into the google main page

"where is chuck norris"

then push the "i'm feeling lucky" button.

who am i

2009-10-12T14:12:00.005-04:00

the writer dietrich bonhoeffer was imprisoned in nazi germany during the years of world war II for his outspoken leadership of the confessing church bonhoeffer’s fellow prisoners frequently looked to him for encouragement and support, yet he knew that deep inside of him was an aching and struggling person. included in his book Letters and Papers from Prison is a poem that acknowledges his inner struggle.

the poem is entitled:

who am i?

Who am I? They often tell me
I step from my cell’s confinement
calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They often tell me
I talk to my warders
freely and friendly and clearly,
as though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I bear the days of misfortune
equably, smilingly, proudly,
like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all that which others tell of?
Or am I only what I know of myself,
restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat,
yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
tossing in expectation of great events,
powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today, and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
and before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine.

whats underneath?

2009-10-09T03:36:00.001-04:00

There are many questions and truths that we would cognitively ascent to that we would intellectually affirm and yet the truth is that we think and feel and are driven by deep subterranean forces way down in our bones that actually drive us, and make us think and feel in particular ways. These things drive and shape us and create the filter by which we engage the world around us.

grizzly bear in a church.

2009-10-05T13:57:00.003-04:00

click the full screen button (its cutoff to the right)

new sufjan

2009-09-25T16:22:00.003-04:00

video from the from the front row at a recent sufjan show.

not exactly chicago part II.
much more you are the blood.
into the breakbeats and electro-jazz section.

sufjan and the brooklyn-queens expressway

2009-09-16T14:01:00.002-04:00

Back in November 2007, Sufjan Stevens unveiled a multimedia performance inspired by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway called "The BQE" (which i was on last weekend). By all accounts, it was an over-the-top affair with an orchestra, artsy footage of the highway, and hula hoops. And now, Sufjan is putting out a purchase-able "BQE" package to satisfy bloodthirsty fans still waiting for his official follow-up to Illinois, which-- believe it or not-- came out four years ago this month.

Due out October 20 in the U.S. on Asthmatic Kitty (October 19 in the UK via Rough Trade), "The BQE" set is not a throw away-- it really may have taken him a couple years to put this thing together. The regular edition includes a CD of the show's soundtrack, a DVD of Brooklyn-Queen Expressway footage that accompanied the original performance (not a film of the performance itself), a 40-page booklet with liner notes and photos, and-- wait for it-- a stereoscopic 3D View-Master reel! Finally, a reason to dig that old View-Master out of the attic. (pitchfork)

THE BQE- A Film By Sufjan Stevens from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

Interlude I—Dream Sequence in Subi Circumnavigation from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.