The Grapefruit Discourses

Contemporary Christian Music == FAIL

2009-12-04T20:10:13Z

I never really watched a lot of South Park, but one episode that I saw was "Christian Rock Hard" - Cartman et. al. decide to form a Christian band in an attempt to record a platinum-selling record... even though they know nothing about Christian music. The solution? "All we have to do to make Christian songs is take regular old songs and add Jesus stuff to them. See? All we have to do is cross out words like 'baby' and 'Darling' and replace them with Jesus."

The result, sadly, sounds a lot like most of Contemporary Christian Music:

I know, it's an old episode, but it still serves a point. It's rare that I ever hear Christian music that doesn't sound like a sappy, pop-friendly love song with "Jesus" thrown in the lyrics somewhere to make it sell better.

Another hefty chunk of the modern Christian music library is praise songs. Which is fine; praise songs have their place, but they're kind of like stadium anthems. Just like stadium anthems at a ballgame, it's great to hear/sing praise songs during corporate worship - but I don't really want them living on my mp3 player.

I wonder if the problem isn't just that people are scared of crossing theological lines. It's hard to find thought-provoking intellectual Christian music when the artists won't say anything more significant than "God is good" because they feel that it dilutes their witness, or something. Well, there's a lot more to the religion than God being good, and there's certainly a lot more to it than how much you love whoever it is you think Jesus is. Grow a pair and write some real music.

</raging religious rant>

Nobody writes them like they used to

We got back the plague

2009-11-17T21:46:53Z

Today is my first day of feeling mostly fine since last Monday. Wednesday through Sunday I was totally out of it, and yesterday I was at least able to work but it wasn't great.

Impact: three days of just about 0 billable work, which doesn't help the bottom line much. NaNoWriMo also totally fell by the wayside, and after a week of not having the energy to write, I've decided it's a lost cause. I still find the idea interesting, and will do my best to continue working on it, but the idea of operating within the constraints of the official November contest is no longer feasible.

Before falling ill I'd gotten back into the habit of regular exercise. Goodness knows I need it.

I think I own too much music. Or maybe I just have too much of a fascination with lyrics. It's weird that I can pull out one that's this accurate:

"Early November we got back the plague."

Running playlist - need suggestions

2009-11-09T22:05:54Z

I need more songs to run to. This list is starting to get a bit repetitive... any suggestions appreciated:

Anamanaguchi - Power Supply
Basshunter - We are the Waccos
Basshunter - DotA (Club Mix)
Bloc Party - The Prayer
Blue Man Group - Rods and Cones
The Chemical Brothers - In Dust We Trust
The Chemical Brothers - Believe
Collective Soul - Heavy
The Crystal Method & Filter - (Can't You) Trip Like I Do
The Faint - The Geeks Were Right
Gorillaz - M1 A1
Incubus - Privilege
Interpol - Slow Hands
Ladyhawke - My Delirium
Lismore - Blood Bank
Metric - Combat Baby
Metric - Grow Up and Blow Away
Modest Mouse - Float On
The Notwist - One With the Freaks
Nullsleep - Ballistic Picnic
Our Lady Peace - One Man Army

<-- at this point YouTube went down on me, which makes it difficult to link to the remaining songs... will update later if I feel like it -->

Our Lady Peace - Neon Crossing
Pinback - AFK
Pomplamoose - All the Single Ladies
The Presidents of the United States of America - Munky River
The Prodigy - Run With the Wolves
Rammstein - Haifisch
Rammstein - Feuer Frei
Rammstein - Los
Rammstein - Engel
Random - Beautiful Brutality
Random - Hux Flux Deluxe
Santogold - You'll Find a Way
Say Hi To Your Mom - A Hit in Sweden
Weezer - Beverly Hills
Weezer - Troublemaker

Erin's on LJ

2009-11-08T19:09:17Z

Erin's joined up on livejournal as chevalierbear. So if you get a friend request from her, that's why

Checking in

2009-10-06T17:00:55Z

I've started keeping a "personal diary." Theoretically that means I keep most of my embarrassing/personal writings to myself rather than broadcasting them when I get the urge. We'll see how that goes.

I haven't written to it in the past week or so, as I was off helping Will and Kristi get married. Which was awesome. Weekend highlights:

- Bachelor party was a LAN party. Apparently some family members had difficulty believing this. "No, that's what they told you they were doing... but I know better." No, really, we just wanted to play some games.

- A wedding that was actually enjoyable. With few exceptions, weddings have always been more about labor than love, to me. This one wasn't, and I got to play a supportive role which made it even better.

- 3.5 hour drive back to Atlanta after the wedding. The wedding ended at about 9:30PM or so. This isn't really a highlight, so much, as it is an admission that I'm an idiot for not getting the hotel for an extra night, and an acknowledgment of the miracle it took to get us home without incident.

I've got a Mac now (long, work-related story), and I've been piddling around with GarageBand. I might actually try to record something at some point, although I don't know what I'd do with it.

duwanis @ 2009-05-20T23:04:00

2009-05-21T03:04:33Z

01:39 Am I Wrong? bit.ly/69b5A
08:14 "So... what to do? I loathe Twitter, but like the people that use it (and won't leave)." bit.ly/gYoC3
10:40 I'm still not going to Tech after 5! Continuing my streak. Get excited.
11:20 Woah, @af4hl (my dad) is on twitter now. Will wonders never cease.
15:13 Watching the uzbl folks talk about coding in C has me glad I'm using AS3, despite its faults.
20:35 RE: It's looking like I can't. The problem I have with this is the implication that 'first-to-market' when it comes to s… disq.us/4kv