Living word by word

Why not us?

To all those buried under snow in Baltimore and Washington, I say, NO FAIR!

I mean, really, all you need to shut down your cities are a couple inches. You don't NEED 20 inches to have a snow day. We, on the other hand, have to be cumped on good and hard before we get the benefit of staying home from work.

I'm praying, again, with Peter Mayer this year:

This winter, please, dear Lord
Send us a real good storm
One where we’re all snowed in
. . .

We who get so uptight
Need a good snowball fight
And should be forced to ski
To rent a DVD
So heap it up to the window sill
Make the mad world stand still
Bury us Lord
Under a real good storm

Pre-sabbath fun.

OK, this is fun: Radical Torah syncs R.E.M.s Automatic for the People with the pre-Shabbat psalmody -- including Psalm 98.

And the best line:
        I’m not claiming that R.E.M. had this sequence of psalms in mind when they wrote Automatic for             the People, and I’m certainly not claiming that the psalmist foretold the works of R.E.M. But I’m             asserting my postmodern right to not care.

Happy Friday Everyone!

Harmonic convergence

Will and I have often talked about how our apparently unrelated fields of work intersect. In fact, we’re co-writing an article with the working title, “Actually you did go to seminary to solve parking problems.” But it’s rare for us to see these two areas intersect in anyone else’s mind.

But here it is, in no other place than a New York Times’ article about Radiohead’s decision to put their latest album up for download on a whatever-you-want-to-pay basis. Basically, they couldn’t imagine signing another major record deal. Mr Yorke explains:

“I mean, it’s tempting to have someone say to you, ‘You will never have to worry about money ever again, but no matter how much money someone gives you – what , you’re not going to spend it? You’re not going to find stupid ways to get rid of it? Of course you are. It’s like building roads and expecting there to be less traffic.”

And there you have it: human fallibility and traffic planning, straight from Radiohead.

now playing

After years of hearing about Peter Mayer -- the Minnesota one -- from friends, I finally got to see him in concert in November. It was a great show, and later I picked up his Midwinter album. It's become my soundtrack for this snowy December. Lovely tunes. There's one Ode to My Eternal Soul that I find a bit self-indulgent and cloying, but mostly his lyrics and melodies are just right for a quiet evening, and not one order to go out and shop. Here are the words to Stables, my favorite.

In Bethlehem a manger waits
Long ago and so today
Where hatred-weary people pray
Love will come and lay there

And so do countless stables stand
In hearts as harsh as desert lands
Rough shelters in the wind and sand
That love may come and stay there

Love that opens fists of hate
Heaps up gold on beggars’ plates
Love that shows a kindly face
To enemies and strangers

And the walls of stables tremble so
When the winds of fear and judgment blow
For a stable hopes in love alone
And knows that love’s the answer

O Love, the prophet’s only word
The only lesson left to learn
The only end of heaven’s work
And the only road that goes there

           Love that sees with mercy’s eyes
           Holds its arms out open wide
           Threads its loom with separate lives
           And weaves them all together

so much music. .. so little time

Will and I went to see Dan Wilson at the Guthrie on Friday night. What a great show. Tall skinny guy with glasses, who plays guitar and references Chekhov and Shakespeare? Be still, my beating heart. I wasn't a huge Semisonic fan, but this guy knows how to work a crowd.

There's just too much good music to be had this month. We're missing half the shows we'd like to see. But Tuesday night will be fun: Jonathan Rundman and Bill Mallonee will be doing a Christmas show at my church. Mallonee was formerly with the Vigilantes of Love, and has, among other things, the Festival of Faith and Writing in his credits. Good enough for me. Should be fun. Join us!

Bury us Lord

This winter, please, dear Lord
Send us a real good storm
One where we’re all snowed in
. . .

We who get so uptight
Need a good snowball fight
And should be forced to ski
To rent a DVD
So heap it up to the window sill
Make the mad world stand still
Bury us Lord
Under a real good storm
-- Peter Mayer (the Minnesota one)

We are giddy around here, anticipating a real good SNOW tomorrow! For people who fear every winter is our last (and I mean that our in the collective sense, and winter in the meteorological sense), there's nothing like a prediction of 6-10 inches to lift the spirits.

Now, those of you who hate shoveling and long for wearing your sandals again, I don't want to hear any whining. It's almost December, and you live in Minnesota. The larger climate pattern of the earth favors you summer people anyway. Let us have our snow days. .. lots of them, please.

sermon exposition project

One of our members put me on to the Sermon on Exposition Boulevard, a fascinating attempt at getting the words of Jesus to the public in new ways. While I'm not sure ripping them out of historical context is always the best approach, there's no denying that there's a role for musicians like Rickie Lee Jones in getting to people who wouldn't listen otherwise. I heard a local DJ recently admit he loved this album, even though he stumbled over his words a thousand times saying that religion wasn't really his thing.

This site has a good explanation of the relationship between Caleton's  project and the album, including this from RLJ:

”The words of Jesus remain a ‘soft dream' that falls night by night, until the soul is ignited with courage. Our hearts, that did not sing until now, are filled with hope that did not yet dare to dream of freedom from poverty and oppression. With faith, what one feels is the Truth, and the truth, while difficult to teach, is immense. It is easy to learn. We have Christ among us, speaking through each of us, if we choose to listen. We have Christ and though there are few words, they are enough, they are enough to last two thousand years. In spite of so much distortion of His will and meaning, they reverberate clearly in the good work of so many Christians who may not even know they are ‘followers.'”

Harmonic convergence

Harmonic convergence

Many parts of my blogosphere come together today. My article in Christian Century is in print and online -- the cover story! The piece is primarily about what I learned at Spirit Garage. And tonight, John Kerns, of Spirit Garage, is one of our musical guests at my current parish, Edina Community Lutheran, for our Media, Music and Marketing series. Jonathan Rundman, has put together a line-up of musicians -- including Michael Morris, Nate Houge and MAYBE John Hermanson, to do U2 covers as a prelude to a talk by Christian Scharen, who were pleased to have with us again. Chris' talk will be titled "Even Better than the Real Thing," which is pretty funny given that we're going to be starting with covers. But it WILL be fun. If you're in town, make your way over to ECLC by 7 p.m.  We're all ready for a night out of the house by now. . .

Storyhill

Saturday night we saw Storyhill at the Cedar Cultural Centre with some friends. It was a fabulous show, reminding me how well music can pull you into a different place of mind and heart. I re-live my 20's in some of their songs, but some of their new ones are right where I am now.

Unfortunately their new CD (produced by Semisonic's Dan Wilson, who also played some at the show) is only available at their shows for the moment. If you can get to see them, or get a friend to pick one up for you, it's well worth it.

great tunes

We flew back in from Thanksgiving in California last night, stuffed the kids with mac & cheese, and proceeded directly to the Fine Line for the Brothers Frantzich holiday show. Generally I don't do holiday shows in November. . . but it's becoming increasingly impossible to keep the secular Christmas calendar at bay, so here we go. (We're also going to the St. Olaf Christmas concert this week. I guess they have  to do it before finals.)

It was the 3rd time I've seen the brothers perform this month, by a weird set of coincidences. They played the synod's "Relax Boldly" event at lunch, then opened for Storyhill at the Cedar Cultural Center, and then we got invited  to go to the Fine Line show by John and Erin Kerns. I really appreciate their mix of old and new. And wow, the band rocked!

It inspired me to sing more with our kids.