shameless plug

so this is kinda late notice--but if you have nothing to do tonight you should probably come to The Channel in Greenville, even if it's not to see the two greatest musicians ever (namely myself and my friend Paige). We're opening for three bands: Austin Webb, Jethro's Advice, and Corey Crowder are also playing. (So you're bound to like something you hear.) The Channel is right across Orchard Park from Outback Steakhouse in Greenville, off of Haywood Road. Hope to see you there. Here's some links to the bands:

JETHRO'S ADVICE MYSPACE PAGE


COREY CROWDER MYSPACE PAGE


Hope to see ya there!

p.s.--We'll be playing lots of "Christian" music.

the verdict is in: I don't like Christian music

do I have your attention now? I don't mean for half of these posts to sound as derogatory as they end up sounding, but oh well--I think most of you get my point (which is the benefit of only people who know you well reading your blog).

So I was importing some CDs into my new Mac (sorry, I had to get one more plug in for the new toy). I am mostly just putting worship-esque stuff on this laptop, since my entire 3,000 song library is on my Dell, and there's really no use in taking up just as much room on this computer too. So I am listening to each of these CDs as they are scanning, and I come to a conclusion: I really don't like Christian music that much. Let me explain.

First of all, I just don't like the idea of "Christian" or "Gospel" as a genre. I think it's kind of ridiculous. When I look on MySpace, I see bands classified as "Christian/Pop/Rock." This seems strange for me. It's strange because Dave Matthews isn't labeled "Political/Pop/Rock." And Bob Marley isn't labeled "Love/Reggae/Marijuana." And Kenny Chesney isn't labled "Childhood Memories/College Good Times/Country." Am I making any sense? It just seems like mentioning God in songs should only be a natural outgrowth of a Christian writer/performer, not a classification of his or her music. Keep in mind what I'm talking about here is the music that talks about God, rather than simply praise songs meant for corporate worship.

It's not so much that I hate the music. It's more that if I'm just riding around listening to music, I generally won't choose Chris Tomlin, or something of the like. I just think that sometimes music that is labeled "Christian" can be fairly un-Christian in the sense that it doesn't reflect any of the creativity instilled by God in the artist who created it. I say this because I recently heard someone say, in so few words, that the "Christian" music market was wonderful because it is appealing to a bigger and bigger audience, all it takes is "limited musical ability." Anyone can be a "Christian" artist.

I enjoy the fact that many artists are bucking this trend. David Crowder Band, for instance, keeps their songs very accessible while integrating technology into them. Bands like The Glorious Unseen and Jeremy Riddle are showing that you can be "Christian," "Secular," accessible and innovative all at the same time. Amen.

it has arrived

well, my massive audience out there on the world wide web will be pleased to know that this is the inaugural post on the new MacBook.  This is how the delivery happened (dramatics have been added to enhance your experience):

7:56 a.m.: I awaken only to realize that my alarm set for 6:45 (in time to make it to my 8 a.m. class) never went off.  And considering it takes 10 minutes to drive to campus followed by 5 minutes to walk to the Coliseum, I started to do the math (not a pretty sight at 7:57 in the morning).  My calculations had me walking into class at 8:14--not too bad.  Then I remembered what that professor had said about showing up late.  I think it went something like this:

 

"If you're gonna be more than five or ten minutes late, just don't bother."

So I didn't.

8:01 a.m.: I start trying to go back to sleep.

8:09 a.m.: I stop trying to go back to sleep.  Useless.  Special thanks goes out to the Three Guys Lawn Service who have deemed it necessary to cut the grass at our apartment 3 times a week, starting each day just before the crack of dawn, and finishing up around 9 a.m.  

8:10 a.m.: I track my shipment online (this has been a frequent event over the past week).  Good news!  My package arrived in Columbia at 2:57 this morning, and is now "on vehicle for delivery."

8:13 a.m.: Not quite willing to give up on additional sleep or on being awake when my computer arrives, I bring my comforter into the living room and collapse onto the couch.

9:52 a.m.:  I must have fallen asleep.  A loud knock at the door.  My heart begins to pound with the same strength as the knock at the door.  Okay, that was a little much.  Sorry.  

I open the door.  There stands a parcel worker, complete in winter attire.  She drops my package on the ground.  I repeat: she DROPS my COMPUTER on the ground.  I get a little sick to my stomach.  

"How ya doin'?" she says.

"I was better when you were holding that package instead of dropping it."  Okay, so I didn't really say that.  But I thunk it.  I don't wanna badmouth this particular company, so we'll just call them "EdFex."

9:52:56 a.m.: I open the box.  Never to fear--no damage.  

10:32 a.m.: After installing a new operating system and sixteen updates, my machine is ready to go.  (I've just recently learned that most Mac people say "machines" instead of "computers."  

Long story short (or at least after I gave you the long version), this thing is awesome.  It's just so daggum easy to use (can I say daggum on a blog?).  I know that sounds strange coming from a college student who is supposed to know all about these things, but they just make it easy.  Stuff like telling you every time there's an update, not just on your operating system or main components, but on all your programs.  And other little things, like the power cord being magnetic so it doesn't mess anything up if someone steps on it.  Or having a battery with a battery life longer than 30 minutes, which has been my experience with some other laptops.  It's just really personal, which (I guess) is what I was going for.

So anyway, if you are thinking about buying one, I say go for it.  Tell them Kent sent you (yeah--I'm sure that'll do you a lot of good.)  And if you really wanna keep up with the times, get the new MacBook Air which, of course, came out the day after I bought mine.  Check it out:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GBCfW9-hjKI

Or you can go to my cooler blog, and watch it.  The song in the ad, by the way is a girl named Regina Spektor (spelling??), and if you haven't checked out her music, you need to.

i've got the golden ticket

wow. charlie and the chocolate factory. good movie. good movie indeed. but if you're wondering, that's not what this post is about. me and a couple friends, through visits to some pretty "conservative" (this is one of those labels that I really don't think even has a logical meaning any more), have heard plenty of what we like to call "golden ticket" theology. I don't mean for this post to be denouncing anyone who subscribes to this kind of thinking, and to a certain degree I think most all christians adhere to this. what I want to call attention to is the importance of it only being a PART of our faith, as opposed to all of it.

the "golden ticket" belief basically stresses that the goal of becoming a Christian is to obtain a way off of this earth, into heaven (hence, "golden ticket.") this is important. our belief in heaven and in our eternal life there is vital to our faith. the problem i think, though, is when this becomes our only goal in being a follower of Christ. This is how I heard it put about a week ago, by a youth pastor:

"this is a nasty, liberal world. and as Christians the only place we can find hope is in knowing that one day this world will be destroyed and we will go to heaven to be with God."

While this strikes me as somewhat true, telling half the truth is still telling a lie in a lot of ways. I think perhaps a better assessment would be:

"there are ugly things happening in this world, because of us. It's not God's fault. The world, as he made it, was good. He said so. all of the nastiness, the brokenness, happens not because of God, but because of a decision Adam made, which is the same decision we continue to make, trying to 'one-up' God. our only hope is Christ. we can look forward to the day when suffering is over, and we are at peace with God, but until then we have some responsibilities. we should be doing everything in our power to see God's kingdom come 'on earth, as it is in heaven.' not just idly waiting for the day when we get to see it in heaven. that idleness accomplishes absolutely nothing except contributing to the nastiness that we are so very opposed to as Christians."

for all I know, the youth pastor I heard, could have meant the latter, but only had time to say the former. the "nasty, liberal" thing just didn't strike me as all that Christ-like, that's all. To me, it just seems like when you read all the accounts of Jesus' teaching, you find a lot less about going to heaven to be with God than you do about bringing the kingdom of God, to earth. (hint: kingdom of God is related to heaven, but "kingdom of God" and "heaven" meaning a place believers go after the die, are not the same thing.) let me try to paint a picture of just why this "golden ticket" idea, by itself, seems so screwed up to me.

meet Jim Bob. Jim Bob has just bought a one-way plane ticket to Jamaica. He's never coming back. He has just retired and he's going to live in Jamaica forever. He can't wait. While he sits in the boarding area, with all the big windows watching airplanes outside, an officer alerts Jim Bob that everyone outside in the landing/take-off area is being overcome with a deadly virus, a virus which Jim Bob has already had, is immune to, and can make others immune to simply by shaking their hand. Jim Bob, though, acknowledges the officer and remains in his chair, watching people die outside, where his plane will be landing. because, after all, he wouldn't want to miss that plane.

I realize that's a little morbid, but essentially that's the kind of behavior that exclusively "golden ticket" kind of thinking draws you to.

I once heard it put this way: if people continue to drown in the river, we can go downstream and pull all the people out, but that's not change. that's not justice. justice is when one of us says "I'm gonna go upstream and figure who's throwing everybody in the river."

welcome back, welcome back, welcome back

isn't it weird how certain songs (especially theme songs) enter your head at the most random times? even though most people my age probably have no clue why i said that, those of the slightly older generation hopefully know exactly what I mean. and I know what those people are thinking: "Kent, there's no way you're old enough to have watched Welcome Back Kotter." well thanks to the modern day time machine that is Nick at Nite, I have seen virtually every episode of Kotter, and will gladly take on any of you in Kotter trivia, so up your nose with a rubber hose!

(a very confused 20 year old would also like to ask the brains behind Nick at Nite about the sudden promotion of shows like Home Improvement and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to classic status, while nearly an entire decade of much better quality television, namely The Cosby Show and Saved by the Bell seem to have been skipped. I am not happy about this decision and will fight to the death in order to see Zach and Slater grace the screen once again.)

Anyway, since I already told all you faithful readers about my favorite thing about Christmas (see previous two posts), I figured I would use this one to tell you about some of the "stuff" I got, which is much less important, but still exciting. so here goes:

• MacBook laptop. okay, so I don't technically have this one yet, but I got some money for a start towards it, and hopefully it will be in my hands in the next week or two. around the same time, I will return to a regular diet of ramen noodles and grilled cheeses, and go on dates with said laptop, instead of with girls, because the macbook will, in comparison, be already paid for. (all of these events occuring immediately after buying a laptop out of pocket is a complete coincidence, of course.) hey, why not do stupid stuff while you're still in college and have an excuse for being stupid, right??
• Everything Must Change. Brian McLaren, in this semi-sequel to The Secret Message of Jesus, writes about how the message of the kingdom of God can, in many ways, provide real solutions to fighting the world's major problems of hunger, prosperity gaps, and war--stuff like that. not light reading to say the least. I'm almost done with it, and if you want a book to make you feel really uneasy yet really motivated at the same time, I say go for it. seriously.
• Wide Open Spaces and Divine Nobodies. These are both by Jim Palmer. I haven't really dug into them that much yet, but I'm sure, if you're a regular reader here, you will hear about them in the near future. the cover illustrations look real pretty though.
• Royal Dansk Danish Butter Cookies. I think I got 5 cans total, and they're pretty much all gone. these can light up my Christmas more than a hundred dollar bill. (okay, maybe a fifty. or a twenty, or...)
• Barnes & Noble Gift Cards. Talk about a gift that keeps on giving.

Anyway, I'm headed to bed. feel free to post about anything you got. if you sincerely are bored enough to read through my entire list, I feel like I owe you at least a listen.