The Christian rock band Jars of Clay apparently wants to tamper with the walls of the sterile Christian bubble–but they’re afraid (maybe much afraid?). And in the process we’re denied hearing the war protest songs they’ve written.
“People want to buy what they want to be told,” lead singer Dan Haseltine told Sioux Falls, S.D. newspaper columnist Robert Morast. “They want people to lie to them. … If you rock the boat too much, your records won’t appear in certain Christian record stores anymore.”
I can understand the fears (just ask the Dixie Chicks how it feels to be shunned by your genre). As I full-time writer I worry about clients being offended by what I write here. But I would think Jars of Clay is good enough and established enough to say what needs to be said and let things fall where they may. Suddenly Jars of Clay seem much less like artists and more like mere entertainers. I hope they can find the confidence to be prophetic.
For the record, I think two songs from their latest relaese, Good Monsters, are among the best of their career and among my favorite songs from 2006: “Work” and “Dead Man (Carry Me)”. (link via CT’s Weblog)
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I worked for an organization that produced the movie Last Flight Out. I’ve talked before about how horrible the movie is and perhaps it holds a special place in my heart because I had a chance to read and comment on the script. The fact that the final product was so bad pains me because it had a tiny glimmer of potential to be something more. Not that my comments or input could have saved it (I don’t know if my comments were even read), but it’s just another example of squandered potential.
Anyway, about the time Last Flight Out was coming together there was a made-for-TV movie called Ice Bound that featured a 20 second clip that pretty much sums up Last Flight Out. Now that we have YouTube it seemed time to share.
The Foursquare NextGen Summit ’07 is coming to Anaheim, Calif on December 29-31, 2007. And Monkey Outta Nowhere is helping it get there. The Foursquare NextGen Summit ’07 is the first national Foursquare youth event in over ten years. It’s an opportunity for the next generation to embrace orphans, stop human trafficking and fight poverty. Plus there will be challenging speakers, informative workshops, kickin’ live music and extreme sports. Imagine that.
Monkey Outta Nowhere is managing the web site, coordinating the marketing efforts and writing copy for all the communications pieces. Check out the teaser trailer for a little taste of what’s to come.
I get a kick out of this story about the rise of the word ‘meh,’ thanks to the Internet. The best part is when the writer asks where the word came from and my immediate thought was the Simpsons. Is there anything they don’t know?
So much of our modern culture has been borrowed from the Simpsons with an exclamatory yoink. Just visit the list of Simpsons’ neologisms from Wikipedia (of course the list doesn’t include ‘meh’–doh!). (link via Josh Lewis!)
We’re starting to pack up our house and this morning I went through some of my files and discovered a folder of quotes. Now I have incredible packrat tendencies (three pages of hand-written quotes from Pleasantville?!), but some of these were worth saving.
In college my roommates used to say the strangest things and I started writing them down. Keep in mind that this was before we were all married and before many of us were dating. Here are some of the best …
But first, if you buy your tunes on iTunes, consider snagging a (Product) Red gift card. You can order them online or pick one up at an Apple store. It’s $25 to spent at the iTunes store and 10% goes to the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS.
Your article says that $18 million and soon to be $25 million (when we have completed our most recent accounting) is a “meager” amount. It’s five times the amount given to the Global Fund by the private sector in four years. (emphasis added)
And it was raised in a year–five months if you consider that the U.S. launch didn’t happen until October.
The only substantial point in your article is the notion that people will stop contributing to charity because they’ve purchased (RED) products. There is actual data showing that when people become aware of crises, they give more money rather than less. Your writer doesn’t mention that data. We believe (RED) will lead to more rather than less giving.
Recently I talked about how I work for a cause marketing agency and how much I like the cause marketing concept. So it grates on me a bit when so many people pick on (Product) Red. First it was Buy (Less) Crap. Then AdAge. Now Jason Kottke. They’re all shocked and outraged that the Global Fund (Product Red’s target charity) has only received $18 million.
It’s time to eat my words. I complained before about the labyrinth that is online banking. While I maintain that it’s still overly complex, it’s not as broken as I first thought.
I’m now paying some bills online and downloading my transactions and syncing them with Quicken so I can do budgeting and keep track of stuff for taxes. Not as fear-enducing as I thought, though there is plenty of room for improvement (some bills require the multiple login crap I complained about before and some don’t). And it’s also not always a free service–you’ll have to check with your bank. It works with my personal checking account, which I upgraded last year to allow for online transfers (it’s a free account as long as we have a monthly direct deposit; otherwise it’s $7/month). My business checking account isn’t so lucky, and I’ll be ponying up $3/month for the privilege of downloading my transactions. Oh well, the time saved will be worth it.
So unless those online transactions go kerflooey, I’ve gone digital with my financial life.
After digging out of the snowstorm I decided to make a dorky little video to show how much snow we had. I guess it’s a video blog, or a vlog. Anyway, just some dorky fun.
A work-at-home dad wrestles with faith, social justice & story.
The Christian rock band Jars of Clay apparently wants to tamper with the walls of the sterile Christian bubble–but they’re afraid (maybe much afraid?). And in the process we’re denied hearing the war protest songs they’ve written.
It’s time to share my recent music finds.