Damien the man

This guy is gold. I love his voice, and his whole style in general. I think he's the James Blunt before there was James Blunt.

This song to me always seemed like a worship song. Something about the words, and the mood, really makes me feel like the song is describing an actual relatonship with Christ, instead of a contrived one that many worship songs use.

So this is my half beef I guess: worship songs only describe a very particular aspect of a relationship with Christ, and deny that any other aspect exists.

I think that in general, today's worship music isn't 'bad' as a lot of people are beginning to feel, but I don't see it as complete. And The Blowers daughter (and many of the songs in the Mellow mix) fills in these gaps for me.

I'm not always madly in love Jesus, like the songs might say. Often I worry, or question, or am at a point where I'm figuring out a lot, and the words of today's worship music is insufficient to describe this actual relationship, one where there are ups and downs, where there's communication and compromise, and most importantly, struggle.

If I put on a WOW worship CD, it sounds like I just need to sing along or something to be in this relationship with Jesus, when in fact, like ANY relationship, it takes more work than that. Could you imagine if the extent of your relationship with your wife or husband was just "I love you. I love you. I love you."? It's be a fairly dry relationship, and were I the husband, I might want out bad.

I think this sogn though has a sense of struggle to it. It's this extremely [i]intense[/i] mellow song. the beat is slow, but the words are cutting as he sings them. "I can't take my eyes off you." I think THAT describes where I am right now. I can't take my eyes of Christ, whether I want to or not. He's sufficiently proven himself to me, that should I want to simply ignore him, that's not even an option now. And as beautiful as that should be, it certianly is wrought with struggle as well. I don't get a lot of what He does, or why He does it, but I'm in this position where I'm incappable of looking away.

If you must spend money...

This is my 'top ten things that are worth spending money on'


9) Tacos
This California-Mexican delight is ALWAYS worth it. I've yet to be disappointed. Even better when paired with #2
8) Mood lighting
Any boring, dull, unclean room can be made comfortable and liveable with a few well placed lights.
7) Birkenstocks
Yes, they are expensive, but worth EVERY penny. They are SO good for your feet. Get the Blue inserts for your shoes, they're only like $30.
6) Traveling
I don't think I've ever regretted a penny spent on travel Experience is priceless
5) Apple Computers
Had to include it. It's not perfect, but it's the best computer anyone's ever come up with.
4) Education
It's an investment baby.
3) Loan money
I don't do it a lot, but it's very freeing for some reason
3) Toilet Paper
Don't go cheap. You'll regret it later. Murpheys law: You'll always get the runs when you buy scratchy toilet paper.
2) Dinner with friends.
Really, don't be afraid to spend money on eating with other people.
1) a Duvay
I can't say ENOUGH about duvays. Yes they're pricey, but man oh man, nothing, but NOTHING feels better than sleeping under a down filled duvay. It's like your bed is hugging you all night long. If I had my duvay, I could sleep through world war three. If you've never experienced a duvay, buy one on my recomendation.

Number 8 *burp*

So to get the ball rolling, I'm going to jump right into track 8.

I don't know how this made it into my 'mellow mix' becuase it's really anything but. Regardless, it's a super song.

I think this one hit me like a tonne of bricks for the line "A war is going on, but the reason's undercover. The truth is kept secret, swept under the rug, if you never know truth then you never know love."

If Jesus did hip-hop (and I'm sure he would), he'd cover this song. It's like the whole message that Jesus taught in one song. Where IS the love? We try and fill our lives with everything EXCEPT love it seems. We'd rather consume, or strive towards success than sit back and actually LOVE one another. This is rampant among Christianity today. We purchase resources and read tonnes of self help books on spirituality and how we can personally be 'closer to God,' and negect completely the beauty of sharing in each others lives.

It is perhaps a bold statement, but I really believe that NO one can be a follower of Christ independently. It is impossible to further ones own journey without connecting deeply with other people. Not a superficial 'deep' either. Often we feel like if we share our bad stuff with people, we are being 'deep' with them. Granted it's a part of it, but is no where near the whole picture. Jesus surrounded himself with people, and when the deciples went out, they didn't go out alone.

This song is beautiful becuase it demands that we put ourselves aside and engage with the world around us.

The Mellow Mix and a new Christianity

I made a mix CD a while ago. It was called "Mellow Mix" because, as Jess so elequently put it, 'it's so mellow I want to shoot myself.' For reference, that wasn't the intended goal.

The more I listen to it, the more I love it. It is (for me) the nearly perfect mix in my life right now. The words, and the songs all describe something so alike to everything I'm experiencing with my faith right now.

The songs are as follows:

1) The Blowers Daughter - Damien Rice
2) Call and Answer - Barenaked Ladies
3) Cannonball - Damien Rice
4) Lovers in a Dangerous Time - Barenaked Ladies
5) Sparks Fly - David Crowder
6) Spies - Coldplay
7) The Shepherd is the Lamb - The OC Supertones
8) Where is the Love - Black Eyed Peas
9) Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
10) Tell Him - Lauren Hill

Over the next few posts, I plan to sort of deconstruct each song and explain what I think it has to say about a new Christianity.

Now to begin with, I hate the term 'New Christianity,' becuase it seems like nothing more than a new take on religion, which this isn't. Rather, I see it as a journey around religion to discover the actual reality behind the dogmas and doctrines of the Christian religion.

I'm almost inclined to use the term 'emergent church' sort of stuff, but I think that's a misnomer as well. From my understanding, the Emergent church is an attempt to recapture the early church from the perspective of post-modernism, and I don't think that's entirely what I'm describing.

More what I'm describing when I say 'New Christianity' is an attempt to see Jesus without the eyes of religion or the history of the church. The church sees Jesus as the foundation, and then builds up rules and laws and sacraments on top of this foundation. But more what I'm suggesting is that Jesus is the whole building, foundation, walls, and roof, and the question I'm probing is, what does that building look like and what's inside?

Basically, without the cheesy analogy, I'm suggesting that getting to know Jesus, what he did and why he did it, is paramount, and nothing else is needed as a starting point or finishing point.

Hopefully this will make sense as I continue this musical experiment.

More movies

Donnie Darko

It was about TIME I saw this movie. Everyone raves about it, and I can see why. My opinion (possibly a spoiler? Watch out anyway):

The whole sotry is a very unique religious encounter. Donnie was taken in by a flase prophet, Frank, the creepiest bunny ever, becuase Frank saved Donnie from dying. Donie's fear was being alone, and we see that all throughout the movie. He thinks that Frank is an answer to this fear, but Frank leaves him just as alone, and worse off. Frank leads him to a taste of togetherness, and then takes it away (the death of Gretchen). In the end, Donnie is enlightened, and sees that in death, he will no longer be alone, and that life for everyone else will be better as well.

Rent

It's about time I added this one to my blog, I saw this over a month ago.

My verdict: good, fun, worth watching, perhaps not great. I think my original point that it didn't warrent being made into a film was slightly invalid. That being said, I enjoyed, and would watch it again, but it won't be making any top ten lists I don't think. (Sorry Ai Rei)

Narnia

The first installment of this series. What can I say? I LOVE C.S. Lewis (his non-fiction literature, I think, is the gold standard of theological literature. VERY loaded with thought, but also VERY relevent and accessible.

The movie did a great job capturing the book I thought. I don't think this was for children however, which the original stories were. Reading about the Lion being killed was one thing, but watching it in fron of you is another, and there were a lot of tears during that scene.

One little dissapointment: Jadis's power was turning people to stone, Aslan's was bringing them back. Not a great fight.

Father of the Bride II

All I can say is that Steve Martin is easily the worst actor ever in this movie. He's NOT funny, he's incredibly dry. You could poke a dead cat with a stick and get better line delivery that he gave in this film.

Fever Pitch

Jimmy Fallon however IS funny. And so is Drew Barrymore. This was a great film. Very stock, but with a couple twists.
"What's you're sick movie?"
"Annie Hall..."
"Oh my gosh... that's... that's so weird.. this is crazy, you're not going to belive it: Raging Bull! What are the chances?"

The Cremaster Cycle

This is a pomo film. 7 hours long. We only watched 30 minutes. It was about a scotish man who was barfing up fabric and dressed in hot pink climbing up the walls of the Guggenheim, trying to reach the man who threw wax at lead while fighting the tiger woman with no legs.

Need I say more?

I don't get pomo. Apparenlty this is a VERY deep film. The Cremaster is apparently the muscle that raises and lowers the testicles to keep them at the appropriate temperature.

The Birds

A Hitchcock great. We only watched certain clips from it, to study the use of sound. So the sound was great, and I;d love to see the rest of the movie. He really is the master of suspense. I heard a bird flapping the other day and got kind of tense.

Not "either/or" but "both/and"

So it's coming to fruition. The idea that was posed several months ago, about gathering together to talk about life and love and spirituality in this day and age, is going to happen. Now, no kidding around, this is actually somewhat part of IVCF (Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship), but they've trusted me (for some reason) to host this thing.

The convo starters will be based around the gospel of John. Jesus, believe in him or not, certainly presented a lot of philosophy about right living and spirituality. He flew in the face of religion and dogma and tried to bring down the institutions and traditions that the religious leaders used to hold the people in bondage.

Ironically, we formed a religious institution around this thinking.

Should you care to discuss this, or other issues surrounding faith/religion/philosophy/spirituality, feel free to show up at my place (Neill Wycik, unit 5P, ask me if you don't know where that is) on Wednesdays at 6:30. Hopefully there will be food. Sometimes there won't be. It all depends.

As for the title of this post, it comes from the following article.

Pomo and the Church

Ode to Alaina

This is Alaina. Alaina, is one of my oldest aquaintences, stemming back to us sitting next to each other in grade 8. Actually, if you go a little further back, you might find Eva or Paul there. But this is about Alaina.

Alaina is one of the most down to earth people I've ever known. She doesn't get phased, or upset often, and when she does, she's always right.

If it weren't for Alaina, I wouldn't know the following things:

-how to drive stick
-that plastic off-gasses
-that I should cough into my shoulder to avoid spreading germs
-that purell is NOT a substitute for hand washing
-how to edit creatively
-that you can remember John Mulvahill's name by thinking 'Tom Bombadill'
-the horrors of urban sprawl
-different tree spiecies, and how to identify them
-how to do the C storke
-how to properly trade places in a canoe
-from that same trip, how to avoid angry seagulls
-why recyling isn't all it's cracked up to be, but why we should do it anyway
-the meaning of the word 'ensconced"


If it weren't for Alaina, the following things would never have got done:

-Cool Character DVD
-The Wiz DVD
-the moving of Paul's booth
-Take a Chance
-The yearbook cover we never submitted

If Alaina hadn't been born, the following would occur:

-we would continue to increase our waste
-the water balloons would still be in the water
-World War 3 (I assume)


So that's Alaina. Some of you may not know her, but hopefully you'll see how important she is to society anyway.

The art of People

For anyone who doesn't know (perhaps you've been hiding under a rock on Mars), I have come to love Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

They are instrumental artists, who create massive projects that involve bringing people together for an irrational thing of beatuy.

This is possibly my favourite work of theirs, the wrapping of the Reichstag. It's not their most 'beautiful' work I don't think. I think the Umbrella's in California and Japan, or the Islands in Miami hold that title. But I think this is one of their most significant works.

The Reichstag was the former German parliment building, and is located right next to the Berin wall. It became a symbol of Facism, and Nazism, as well as soviet occupation. It was somewhat horrific in that sense.

So Christo and Jeanne-Claude suggested that it be wrapped, and transformed. Cover it up for two weeks, and by doing that, you'll be getting rid of the negative symbolism. The object is no longer a thing of the past, but a beautiful peice of art-work that can be enjoyed by everyone. And indeed it was. It was a party for two weeks outside the Reichstag.

Thousands of people brought together, and a less than stellar history put to rest. To me, this was Christo giving something back to the world. Not that all his projects aren't like that, but this one specifically so. This one was less for Christo than it was for humanity.

Semester Deux

Coming back to Toronto has been wonderful. I got 2 new roomates. One is a med student, the other is an interior designer. Both are clean, and like to clean. And I think we're going to get along just fine.

In fact, my apartment is cleaner than it has ever been before. For the first time it actually 'feels' like it's clean. I went mad the other day and disinfected a lot of stuff. I even used our kitchen last night. Which is something I was rather afraid to do before.

The picture was taken on Dec 12th, at a hill on Keele St. just north of Bloor. It was the day I went sledding, and also the day I finished my first semester.

The guy on the hill

So this was my small bout of creativity this Christmas season. And in that, it's not even very creative. Shannon McCulkeen painted an image very similar to this for the cover of my journal. It was perfect. I gave it to her one week and asked if she would paint it. She asked what did I want on it? I told her I didn't know, so she said she'd pray about it, and find the right image.

And this is similar to what she came up with. It's freakin brilliant if you ask me (her picture). The image has stuck with me for years, and I've always pictured myself as the man in the image (litterally in the image above. That's me in black there). Over the years I've always been drawn to what that guy is thinking about up there. It changes with my mood, but he's never upset or angry. He's always very contemplative. Either he's saying thank you, or pouring his heart out, or saying he's sorry, or just hanging out with the Man.

A lot of my work includes subtle references to this image. For my final ISU in English, I wrote a short sotry entitled 'Up on the Mountain,' For a few of my films, I've included shiloettes to define characters, and this year, two of my design projects have featured this colour scheme.

Should Shannon ever read this, I'm sorry the most creative thing I've done lately is to simply steal your work. But of all the images I've ever seen, for some reason, yours stands out above them all.

And in this new year...

Apparently 2005 was a 'leap second' year. Due to our inability to create perfect time (really, you'd think we'd get it by now), we had to add another second to 2005 to keep us in line with the sun. Otherwise, in millions of years, we might be watching a beautiful sunrise at 2:30 in the morning, or be hitting rush hour traffic (I don't know which way the shift goes).

So unfortuneately, if you counted down from ten this year, you celebrated a little bit early.

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