Colby

It was raining. Colby had this shiny comic book that she borrowed from a friend. Of course I volunteered to help her get it safely to the car. So then we ran through the tsunami, umbrellaless, all the way to her car. "OPEN THE DOOR COLBY!!!" "AHHH I'M TRYING!!!" Finally, we got inside, soaked. My sweater vest fused to my tie, my hair got a slick new style. Thanks, Colby, thanks.

Colby is not boring. She said "I'm boring" and I was like "No way! You are so not boring." Today, she is wearing these really cool earrings that are pink and blue - they match her shirt quite nicely. Right now, we are both blogging at the same time - imagine that. She is a very nice person, and she pretends to care about what you are talking about even when she doesn't know what you are talking about. She comes to all these concerts with me - pretty soon we're going to see Relient K and Copeland. She sticks it out just to show she cares. A great listener, Colby is always someone you can tell anything. She laughs at my jokes, and she has awesome hair every single day.

Album art

I am a cd person. When a favorite band puts out a new cd, you can find me on the Walmart music aisle disappointed by Walmart's decision not to stock it.
However, I am also a downloads person. It would be wrong for me to ignore the cornucopia of free or cheap (and legal!) music on the internet. So what decides if I buy the hard copy or the download? Generally, the art.

Every single person on the face of the earth recognizes The Beatles' Abbey Road. And it is so simple - just four guys crossing the street on, of all places, the crosswalk. They aren't even edgy enough to jaywalk. This picture is why so many people list Abbey Road as their favorite Beatles' album, despite it being easily inferior to others like Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's. Good art + good music = classic picture.
One time, I almost bought Joy Electric's The Otherly Opus, just because I fell in love in the art. The color scheme is perfect, the idea is commendable. But then I realized I wasn't even that into the music, which should be the whole point of buying the cd in the first place. I wish they'd just put that design on a shirt.
Sometimes, the art is so bad (or weird), it stops me from buying the cd. Welcome to the Masquerade is supposedly the best Thousand Foot Krutch album yet, far above the two cds that I already have...but why would I want to have that picture sitting out in my room?
I didn't buy Copeland's Eat, Sleep, Repeat for this same reason.

I chose to download The Killers' Day & Age, even though I really did like the artwork. There was an Amazon deal...
Sometimes, like in Matisyahu's case, the art can tell you exactly what is on the cd...

...but other times you have no idea what is going on.

A few upcoming albums I already like just based on their art:

Try imagining yourself in space, walking down a giant mosaic tunnel. The picture gets more epic when you put yourself in the little man's position.

The White Album is the Times New Roman of album covers. I went to Barnes & Noble once and saw they were selling puzzles of this. I laughed.

I am not much of an artist, and neither am I a photographer, but I think coming up with creative art for your cd could be one of the best parts of the whole process.

In other news, Weezer's next is the opposite of The White Album.

Let's go exploring.

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Calvin and Hobbes is the best comic strip ever to hit newspapers. Nothing of today even compares. It is optimistic, but realistic. And it's funny.

The characters are so fresh. The dad is the perfect caricature of a typical "let's go camping"-type father; probably my favorite supporting character. The simple-minded bully, the little girl, the frustrated mother...every person (and tiger) jumps out of the page and into your life.

Calvin himself is quite the interesting six-year old. He has a huge vocabulary, and he sincerely believes his stuffed tiger is real. With his imagination, there is no reason to believe Hobbes isn't real. One time, Calvin and Hobbes get into a transmogrifier fight and Calvin ends up stuck as a tiger. Another time, Calvin visits his dad at work on a flying carpet. Often, he just pretends to be an airplane and flies around the yard for extended periods of time.

If I was imaginitive like Calvin, I wouldn't really need real life. Calvin sure doesn't. In his mind, his teacher is a space worm and he is a lone-ranger spaceman. If you can create a dream-like world for yourself, maybe you have found a better life.

But Calvin is always brought back to real life. When he tries to ditch home for the Yukon, he realizes he's better off with his parents. His love-hate relationship with Suzie Jenkins always swings back to the love side no matter how hard he tries to convince himself he hates girls.

For every heavy wagon-careening-down-a-hill philosophy discussion, there is a hilarious Calvin-running-naked-around-the-house-to-avoid-his- bath. Buy a collection and be engrossed in Calvin's world. You might like it even more than your own.

You make me grouchy.

I have a problem. Actually, somebody else has a problem. Every morning, my dad brings me to school in his shiny car and drops me off up in the soccer parking lot. Then, I start the long trek down to the highschool building. About halfway there, I run into a crosswalk. On some days I am able to walk right across but on most days I run into my problem. Some parents think a good place to drop off their kids is at this crosswalk. Like, right on top of the crosswalk. Like, right in my way. Now I have to walk around their car and onto the grass, the muddy, wet grass, because somebody thought it was a good idea to have a sprinkler system. I have to then trudge into school with my slippery when wet fake converses. Squeak, squeak, squeak... I feel like a mouse. Sometimes I want to get right up in the driver's face and say "HEY! Why not park NOT on the crosswalk?" But no, I'm a nice, polite kid and I do not want to offend. So I keep the anger inside, growl a little, stomp my feet, but don't audibly complain. I've considered other alternatives to walking around the car... maybe I could climb over the car or open the door and walk right through it - that would sure get my message across baby.

Here is what you, humble student of FPD, can do to help this situation. If you are a little middle school kid who gets dropped off by mom every day (or a big high school kid like me who gets dropped off by dad every day), tell your guardian to stop right before this crosswalk. If they refuse, beg them or bribe them. Do the right thing, make my life easier. For the love of all that is good in this world.

Adriana

I might say that Adriana was a cool person, but I won't. She can sing; I remember one time I was in this play called Starmites and she sang a duet with Anne Strickland and it was really something beautiful. She is short, and she used to have braces on her bottom teeth. A very encouraging person, she'll come up to me in the hallway just to tell me to have a good day. One time, she gave me a flower and I ate it. She can play that Panic! At The Disco song on the piano and she loves the music from the Windwaker. Her spanglish is hysterical, but walking to her house might give you pneuomonia.

David Darnell says I should explain all the these inside jokes, so I will. One time, Adriana had braces on her bottom teeth and I made fun of her, and now if I make fun of her I say "at least you don't have braces on your bottom teeth." The flower thing is a true story. The Windwaker is a video game and the Panic! song is called "I Write Sins Not Tragedies". Oh, and, on the phone with her mom she mixes Spanish and English together in a truly hilarious way. Also, this girl named Colby got pneumonia just because she walked to Adriana's house. Thanks, Adriana. At least you don't have braces on your bottom teeth.

Satanism in Christian music?

The sun won't rise, my spirit dies, All hope has withdrawn,
So here I lay because either way I know we'll all be dead by dawn.
A chainsaw can remove a limb or act as a replacement,
Smell the gas as hours pass, contrary to my statement,
The corpses wish to cover me with kisses,
So just maybe I'll cover this cabin with their blood,
Hail to the king baby.

You wait for me, a wretch of a man, no record of wrongs do You keep
You are comfort when I mourn, You are strength when I am weak
Jesus Christ, the king of kings
Though we ache, though we cry, never break, never die
We sing of His great love again and again
And His love reigns forever, and forevermore
Forever and ever, Amen

Believe it or not, both the above verses were penned by the same Jesus claiming hard rock band. In the conservative Christian community, Showbread is a hot topic of controversy. In response to their lyrics from songs such as "Dead by Dawn" (the first song above), as well as their affection for lip piercings and skull tattoos, an article from Worldview Weekend entitled “Christian Gore: Death Enthusiasts for Jesus?” condemns Showbread as “clearly in utter rebellion to God's Word” and asks “why would a band like Showbread be allowed on church property unless it was for purposes of evangelizing the band members?” After reading the article, most of the complaints do not seem too unfounded. What does seem unfounded is describing the band as "satanic". Hmm... there must be two sides to this story.

After an intense thirty second combing of the internet, I stumbled upon a blog post that Josh Dies, the lead singer/screamer for the band, had written in response to the alleged offensive content in Showbread’s work. But what first popped out to me from the blog was an unrelated post about how Satanism is simply the philosophy of “you are your own God, do whatever you want.” Well, by that definition of Satanism, Showbread certainly could fall into that category…(funny that the party on trial would be the one to explain the accusation). Anyways, the post I was looking for was at the very bottom of the page. Dies clarifies that the song “Dead by Dawn” is about a campy, low-budget, cult classic horror film called “Evil Dead” (where, get this, the main character has a chainsaw for an arm)... Now why would Christians write about such a violent topic? Dies argues that merely the depicting violence is not evil, unlike the glorification of violence. Even some passages in the Bible are gruesomely violent, such as Jesus’ death on the cross or the story of Cain and Abel. Just a bit of violence doesn't qualify you for Satanism.

But this doesn’t change the fact that a “Christian rock” band sing songs about violence and not about God. Is a band like Showbread allowed to write a fun, pointless song like “Dead by Dawn”? Or does every song have to be an “I love you, Jesus” style worship song? Chris Tomlin is all well and good, but I don't think anyone really sits down and listens to “How Great is Our God/Holy is the Lord/Jesus Messiah” all day long*. Enjoying some simple, shallow entertainment doesn't make one wholly worldly. Christianity has never been and will never be about what you can and can’t do. Is there anything sinful about a group of friends watching a cheesy horror movie, laughing and screaming and enjoying the company and growing closer together? That was all this band was trying to accomplish with their song.

Despite Showbread's a passion for meaningless, fun songs, they know when to keep it serious, and they have a passion for Jesus. “Matthias Replaces Judas” and more recently “The Fear of God” (the second song at the top) begin as simple prayers but morph into raw, obvious worship songs overflowing with respect and awe. I doubt Ingrid Schlueter (author of the anti-Showbread article) has heard either of these tracks.

What’s really inspiring about a band like Showbread is how they can go into a totally secular venue and still proclaim their faith like it’s the greatest part of them, even when the bands immediately before them are over-the-top profane and proud of it, or the crowd is violent and drunk. They don’t share in a forceful “accept my faith or go to hell” type of way, it’s more of a “don't believe anything because someone tells you to, and don't not believe anything because someone tells you to. Discover the truth yourself. I personally believe the truth is Jesus Christ, and in that truth I find my comfort.” (jumping, screaming, and guitar-ing ensue)

So should a band’s love of horror b-movies turn you away from them? (I don’t even like horror flicks myself…I scare easily…) Their unique style, enthralling lyrics, genuine charisma, and love for God all combine to make me a fan. They are Christians having a good time.

Peace

*Chris Tomlin is awesome. I am all for worship music in the right setting.

What is a blog?

What is a blog supposed to be? A diary? Should I just tell stories about my life and write about my day or my feelings for my friends and enemies? No, that can't be it. I don't think a blog really has to have a theme or any sort of guidelines. I could write about how much I hated a recent hit movie. And then fans of that movie could comment about how wrong I am, and then an intelligent argument on the merits and flaws of the movie could develop. Or if I'm feeling particularly happy, I could describe the beauty of the world. How every bird resting on a tree limb and every summer thunderstorm was meant to be. Color and shape and sound combine to create natural art, like the spray of a waterfall blasting the rocks below. And from there I could move onto the beauty of humanity. How every person driving down the highway has a different story to tell and a different obstacle to overcome ... their dreams and loves, as well as their opinions and complaints. And I could write about about how humans are a species destined to create. Whether it is creating a story in song form, or building a beautiful bridge, humans gain pleasure from making something new. Being in the image of God the creator, that must be where this desire comes from. I might throw in a political blog every now and then, and rudely bash your favorite party. Yes, since a blog can be about anything, and I am going to have many posts in the future, I felt it necessary to have some sort of rambling introduction. The meaningful, pointed blogs can come later.