AROUND THE WORLD wide web: PART TWO

About a month and a half ago, I began a series called AROUND THE WORLD, click here for a fuller explanation of what it is.

After a weekend in Albuquerque, New Mexico for Matt and Jess's wedding (congrats!), I now have enough info to fill an AROUND THE WORLD blog (or at least an "around the country" posting). Here's what's going on:

• Paste Magazine's chief editor, Josh Jackson, writes on the central characters of 24 and Dexter (as well as on the character of our centers).
• Twitterers worth following: fake tips for proper writing, inside Christian jokes, the guy that created Freaks & Geeks.
• Best online comic strip? (beware: occasionally R-rated)
• Tony and Peggy Campolo talk about their various opinions of homosexuals in the church.
• 10 new songs (often times awesome remixes), 5 times a week, free downloads, and free music advice.

Local Natives (w/Suckers): A Concert Review

Percussion and vocals.

These are two things that can turn a concert from enjoyable to transcendent. While listening to NPR's All Songs Considered (NPR's music podcast) coverage of the recent South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, I noticed that they kept commenting on how this year's festival was really strong due to these two elements. So I'm going to agree with NPR (like any good, young progressive should and would) and reiterate that great percussion and vocals make for a great concert.

With that said, Kenan and I (above) attended a Local Natives concert at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor on Monday night. Luckily, great percussion and vocals were present as well.

The opening band were the Brooklynites, Suckers. I didn't bother checking out their music beforehand but these guys put on a really great opening act. Their set included a lot of energy and their lead vocalist (while reminding me of little of Jack Black) had a lot of character to his voice. I was also impressed by how multi-instrumental these guys were (as were Local Natives). There were times when the lead singer was strumming his guitar, banging a drum, and alternately whistling and singing, all at the same time. And everyone in the band did this to some degree or another. All this to say, they were really fun and their music, while foreign to just about everyone in the crowd, was very engaging.

Now onto Local Natives. After multiple recommendations of this band, I finally checked them out a couple weeks ago and, after a couple listens, I was hooked. Amidst other admirable attributes, they have great harmonies that beckon the listener to sing along, forcing me to fall in love with them. I also saw that they were playing the Blind Pig and my brother had been a mega-fan of their song, Airplanes since MySpace was cool/used, so we bought tickets to the show.

The show eventually sold out, making for a crowded standing area but which also made for a very energetic crowd. Going back to the opening line of this blog... this band knows how to sing. And not only that, they know how to get everyone in on the singing. The band had 4 of its 5 members mic'ed, adding to the group mentality of the vocals and they often had at least two members singing, even during the verses. This also encouraged the enthusiastic crowd to sing along with all of the choruses. The following is the shaky (I had to groove!) video of their crowd favorite, Airplanes:

I'm a sucker for great drums as well. So when I see that a band has a drummer plus someone else on another drum/cymbal, I know there's going to be some great beats. And I was certainly satisfied with the percussion the Local Natives provided. They often just went to town on the drums and this, coupled with the vocals, made for some incredible moments. The drum solo later on in the song Who Knows, Who Cares is one of my favorite moments on the album and, although I don't think I caught it on tape, here's part of that song:

The band played all the songs I was hoping for (not surprising considering they only have one album) but it was a good length of a concert. They repositioned themselves for a few songs in the middle (showcasing their ability to play any instrument), slowing it down a little bit, only to pick it up at the end with the song above and then an encore performance of Sun Hands.

OK, enough of my blabbing about my concert going experience. My final verdict: if at all possible, see this band live.

Relevant Confessions

I've been reading through St. Augustine's Confessions for the last year or so. It's been a slow read due to it's brainy nature but every once in a while there'll be a passage like the following that will give me reason to pause. So here's ol' Gus, giving relevant commentary on the relationship scripture has with truth:

When, therefore, someone says, ‘Moses meant what I understand by this passage,’ and someone else says, ‘No, he meant what I understand by it,’ I think I show more proper caution in saying: Why not both, if both are true? And if someone sees a third meaning in these words, or a fourth, or any truth at all, why should we not believe that Moses, through whom the one God tempered the Holy Scriptures to the minds of the many readers who would see various truths in them, himself saw them all? For my part, I am bold to avow that my own attitude is thus: if I were to write something of Scriptural authority, I would rather write in such a way that whatever truth one could comprehend about those matters, it would be echoed in my words, rather than write one true opinion so plainly as to exclude other opinions whose falsity could not offend me. I am reluctant, therefore, my God, to rush into believing that Moses did not receive a similar gift from you. In writing these words, Moses perceived and considered every truth that we have been able to find in them and every truth we have not been able to find, or have not yet been able to find but which nevertheless can be found in them.

The Antlers: A Concert Review

In opposition to college, this year has been a slow year as far as concerts go. Not that there's been a shortage of them, it's just that I don't have a boat-load of scenester friends to encourage me to hit up the latest shows. So while I was debating whether or not to go to The Antlers concert last night, I had two options: I could go to the concert alone and count it as a low-point in my post-college, post-friend life, OR, I could go to the concert alone and count it as a celebration of my independence. I guess I'll go with the latter.

The Antlers are an indie band from Brooklyn, New York (which is where just about every indie band is from nowadays). They put out an album last year titled, Hospice. It's sort of a "sad elegy for a dying friend" type of an album that critics eat up. The album commonly has moments of naked emotion that are often coupled with the lead singer's wanderings into falsetto-land. The album also has quite a few moments of just noise. Enough so that it really annoyed me while listening to the album, but!, I kept coming back to it largely due to some of the more melodic songs (i.e. Two). I really wanted to go to the concert in order to make some sort of final verdict on the band.

The concert was held at Ann Arbor's The Blind Pig, a venue I had previously never been to before. It has a cool bar/small concert feel to it and, according to their website, was Nirvana's favorite venue at which to play... so that's kind of awesome. Anyhow, a band called Phantogram opened. Comprised of a male/female duo on guitar/synth (respectively), the band used pre-recorded drum loops, a lot of reverb on their vocals, and a strobe light to create some pretty stellar dance-ish music. My life wasn't changed or anything but they had a cool sound that, after their final request before their final song, had the crowd dancing. Here's a short video:

Next up, The Antlers came on stage. They only have the one full length album and an earlier ep so I was familiar with just about all of the music they played (which is always nice). Overall, they put on a good show, transitioning from bare vocals to loud noise rather well. The emotive feeling their music evokes translated well to a live performance. Unfortunately, their drumming was a bit choppy and they commonly played their songs just a little bit different from their album. For one, they never pulled out an acoustic guitar (sorely missed on their single, Two). Secondly, they have some great synth interlude parts to their songs that they just didn't hit as solidly as they could have. Both of these things hurt the performance in my view as they didn't achieve the range of sound the album covers. With my grievances expressed, I do think they put on a good performance.

Here's an acoustic-free, Two:

After they finished their set, they left the stage for about 30 seconds, then came back on for the encore (I hate when bands leave for a long time... as if they're not coming back). They played two more songs, the first of which was a cover of The xx's VCR, a song I really love so I was pretty excited about that and forgave them for any misgivings I had with their performance. (The (crappy) video is below.) So they finished on a high note and overall, it was a good Friday night. Check them out if they come around your part of town.

AROUND THE WORLD wide web: PART ONE

I'm not sure how well known the website, Burnside Writers Collective (BWC), is, but every so often (once a week?) they have a posting entitled Across the Universe where the author gives four or five links to interesting happenings on the internet. It's a great resource to find new corners of the web or fresh perspectives on popular topics. I suppose they could simply Twitter links every couple days but I just love how they're all grouped together in some sort of megaTweet of substantive information.

Anyways, I'm copying their idea and giving mine a snappy title: AROUND THE WORLD wide web.

Without any further ado, check out what's hip on the internets:

• Sufjan Steven directed and scored a film about New York's ugliest highway, The BQE. It released last fall but Pitchfork has the entire film streaming for the next week. I've loved the music for a few months now and the visual side (which I'm watching now) is equally beautiful.
• A great blog entry (stolen from BWC's Across the Universe) on appropriate responses to art.
• I don't pretend to know anything about fashion, etc. but The Sartorialist is one of my favorite GoogleReader followings. Just stylish people shot in the "real" world.
• March Madness has been madness. I thoroughly enjoyed filling out and following my own brackets. Here's Obama's picks.

Music Christians Love

Author's Note: When I run out of things to blog, I usually resort to forming some sort of list in some sort of imaginary category. Deal.

By now, many (/most) Evangelical Christians in the U.S. are unafraid to own "secular*" music. For a while there (I'm guessing: 1985-2005ish), it was kind of taboo to show up to church with Alanis Morissette or Nirvana blaring from your car's heathen-turned-radio. Maybe this wasn't everyone's experience, but I went through a couple "secular" music purgings in order to be sanctified from everything-not-Audio-Adrenaline.

Thankfully, many thinking Christians started to recognize that good music could exist outside of the Contemporary Christian Music market, and that music just might have some sort of spiritually redemptive qualities to it. But I won't digress any more on how I'm glad that many have started to identify truth in every area of culture (that blog has already been written).

What I really want to blog about is those "secular" artists that are Christians' favorites. Those bands or artists that, despite our demonization-through-music fear, keep us listening. Heck, it is even popular to listen to these bands even though they may not have said the sinner's prayer and subsequently signed onto Sparrow Records. Although the "secular" music stigma has diminished, these artists have and still top our iTunes play counts. Without any further adieu, here are three artists, reason why they're popular among Christians, and a personal sighting of their music in a church setting:

Artist: U2

Why: Every Christian who is a music fan loves U2. Their lyrics are often deeply spiritual and their music is top-notch. I mean, they created Joshua Tree. Even though Bono subscribes to some interfaith-ish beliefs, he's the world's largest rock star / social activist and thus, respectable.

Sighting: "Where The Streets Have No Name" in a mission trip slideshow at my old church, BCC.

Artist: Bob Dylan

Why: Well, he sort of became a Christian later on in life so this choice is kind of cheating. He's never, thankfully, been on a Christian label, though. But Dylan's beat-poet lyrics are loved by progressive Christians all across the land simply because he's probably the best lyricist alive today.

Sighting: Unknowingly sang one of his songs in my Indy church, Redeemer, as part of their liturgical service.

Artist: Coldplay

Why: Chris Martin has one of the smoothest, crooning voices. The only people that dislike Coldplay are music elitists bent on hating anything overly popular. And this is why Christians love Coldplay. Because everyone loves Coldplay. Their music is anything but raucous and their lyrics aren't even slightly offensive.

Sighting: Saddleback college group sang "Fix You" as one of their openers.

As usual, I would love to hear your input on the ridiculousness of this blog and/or suggestions for other artists to add to the list.

*I put the word "secular" in quotes because, really, it's rather absurd to label music as "Christian" or "not Christian." I only continue to use the word "secular" in order to differentiate it from music made on Christian music labels.

Opening Credits: Best Of

During this year living at home, working 30 some hours a week at a coffee shop, I've had a lot of time to watch television. More specifically, I've been watching a lot of television shows, not just "television." (There's a difference.)

One staple of every show is the introduction. That few seconds (or minutes) that is a staple of every episode of each particular show.

To me, what makes a fantastic intro is something that sets the tone for the show. It cannot be too lengthy (I want show, not pre-recorded credits overlayed with a montage of the show's cast!). And it doesn't hurt if it's infinitely funny or catchy.

I thought of this while watching Scrubs, a show with one of the best intros I've seen due to it's short, catchiness that gets right to the point:


I also love the LOST intro. It, also, is super short but has the mysterious edge the show runs on:


And finally, who doesn't know the entire introduction of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? Something that iconic has done something right:


Oh, and, at the risk of every girl in the country (/world) hating me, I hate the Friends intro because it's way too long and does nothing but show the cast playing in a fountain:


Of course there's many more but I can only add so many videos to a blog without it becoming tiresome. Please comment with any suggestions for your favorite/most hated television introductions.

Character

Near the end of last year, I watched the second and third seasons of Mad Men. While it is a slow moving drama that is "boring" to my little brother (and he enjoyed the slowest movie I have ever watched: Cache), I find the sets, plot-lines, and characters fascinating. I've already gone into the premise of the show on an older blog, but an abbreviated recap is that the show is about a 1960s ad agency located on Madison Avenue.

One of the thoughts I had while watching the later seasons involved the idea of characters. The show does a swell job of developing each main character, slowly unveiling small portions of each character's person-hood, and rarely using large plot twists in order to interrupt the unveiling. As with every story told, the writers (/actors/etc.) build a character that evokes a certain emotion for those viewing. With an established character, the writer can mold the story in a variety of ways.

Peggy Olson, one of the main characters, is a young, single woman, who started out as a receptionist but worked her way up in the company despite prejudices held against women. To me (and most others watching), she is infinitely likable.





Pete Campbell, another main character, is an ad man waiting for his chance to move up in the company. He does fine at his job but is extremely self-centered and overestimates himself. He is wholly unlikable.


The show often contains meetings held where the ad men try to sell advertising ideas to large corporations. Say, for example, they're meeting with British Airways. They would come up with a quick slogan printed beneath a picture of a well dressed man walking through an airport. The ad would not just be advertising airline tickets, it would be selling a certain quality of life and "cool" factor in attempts to draw the consumer in. There's a story in every advertisement that says to the consumer, "I'm fun and likable in one way or another, you can have this life too with my product." The ad men in Mad Men are experts at tapping into the human psyche in order to find what the consumer wants.

I realized that that's exactly what the show does (as do all stories). It builds a character that is likable, unlikable, or in between...-able. A good writer knows humans well. Well enough to create someone that I have strong feelings for, or against. When Peggy Olson (the one I like) does something, I almost always root for her. When Pete Campbell does something, I almost always root against him.

What I'm starting to realize is that a mark of a good critic is the ability to look outside of a character and start to see why that character is portrayed a particular way. The writer uses a certain criteria to develop characters and I want to get to the place where I'm not so much analyzing a certain character as I am analyzing why and how that character is portrayed the way he/she is.

So I don't want to just like Peggy Olson, I want to know why I like Peggy Olson. And conversely, I don't want to simply dislike Pete Campbell, I want to know why I dislike Pete Campbell.

Basically, I don't want to just buy the product because the ad man sold the product well.

My thoughts on SNL

Every time I see an old Saturday Night Live skit, I think to myself, "Man, Saturday Night Live was so funny 20, 30 years ago. It's too bad it hasn't stayed as funny."

This thought is followed with another thought, "Well, perhaps all the skits I'm seeing are just the 'best of' skits, the highlight reels. Not all of the skits were super funny. It was hit or miss, just like it is now."

After having these two thoughts, I typically verbalize them to my brother, Kenan.

Unfortunately, I seldom remember that I've already told this to Kenan on multiple occasions.

Kenan hates when I do this.

You should probably watch Saturday Night Live tonight (11:30 on NBC). Ashton Kutcher is hosting and he's bound to have at least one highlight reel skit that I'll be laughing at 10 years from now while having my usual thoughts.

Spend the afternoon; you can't take it with you

Self-consciousness is the curse of the city and all that sophistication implies. It is the glimpse of oneself in a storefront window, the unbidden awareness of reactions on the faces of other people- the novelist’s world, not the poet’s. I’ve lived there. I remember what the city has to offer: human companionship, major-league baseball, and a clatter of quickening stimulus like a rush from strong drugs that leaves you drained. I remember how you bide your time in the city, and think, if you stop to think, “next year … I’ll start living; next year … I’ll start my life.” Innocence is a better world.

Annie Dillard's Pulitzer Prize winning book, "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek," reminded me of a few important truisms. For one, innocence can be a better world. To be completely lost in nature, in music, in a novel, in a relationship, in calligraphy, in ... whatever it is you're into, it can be a beautiful world. She advises to do what you do.

She's also funny.

Squirrels and box turtles are immune to the poison in mushrooms, so it is not safe to eat a mushroom on the grounds that squirrels eat it.

And finally, she finds ways to love what she loves in spite of imperfections. She acknowledges the brokenness of our world and adores it anyhow.

I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done my share of eating too. I am not washed and beautiful, in control of a shining world in which everything fits, but instead am wandering awed about on a splintered wreck I’ve come to care for, whose gnawed trees breathe a delicate air, whose bloodied and scarred creatures are my dearest companions, and whose beauty beats and shines not in its imperfections but overwhelmingly in spite of them, under the wind-rent clouds, upstream and down. Simone Weil says simply, “Let us love the country of here below. It is real; it offers resistance to love.”