Saturday, January 26, 2008

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.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

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.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

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:


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.




Saturday, January 19, 2008

i've got the golden ticket

Thursday, January 3, 2008

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.

Monday, December 24, 2007

christmas part 2

salvation. in a lot of ways, to me, the books of Moses seem to capture people drifting away from God, and then God finding a way to bring them back. God uses several key people to do this. to me, this attitude God has of consistently pulling us out of our own mess is most accurately called "salvation." God also spends a lot of time in the Old Testament telling His people to stop trying to tame him. I love the line from Lewis's "Chronicles of Narnia," where the people are talking about the lion (who is meant to symbolize Jesus), and they say he is very good, but most definitely not safe.

rescue is coming. fast forward a little bit. in Isaiah, there is talk of a king who is coming to make things right again. at the time, though, the people are expecting a political king, a descendant of David, who will make things right the way all kings attempt to--by force and power. man, did they have a Surprise coming their way. God realizes that the only way he's gonna rescue His people out of their mess is to come down and become one of them.

a baby-seriously? so the night came. and let's get one thing straight. when people thought about the Messiah, they weren't thinking about a baby. yes, Isaiah did say that the Messiah would be born of a virgin (meaning he would have to be a baby), but when you think of a political leader, the first image that comes to mind probably isn't of a baby. my guess is they figured he would live a normal life, up until he was ready to become king, and then everything would start falling into place. maybe they thought he would just be a pretty normal guy, just born with a real gift for overthrowing stuff when he got older or something.

anyway, the time approaches, and i've got to think that if you were living back then, the story didn't really seem to play out the way you thought it would. i mean angels came and spoke to people, but they didn't really address a large audience of people. if you were outside of the loop of Mary, Joseph, and a select few others, you've gotta be thinking "this can't be. it should be more impressive than this." i mean for starters, for all you know, the mother who is carrying this "Messiah" seems like she is nothing more than an unfaithful fiance, right? Joseph was inches from leaving her because that's what he thought. then, the already off-kilter plan for Mary to give birth is thwarted when she, a very pregnant woman, has to hop onto a donkey and trek across miles and miles because of a census being taken. this has to look, from the outside, like the worst timing ever for having a baby. and to top it all off, he is born in a place where animals live, sleep, and poop. i mean i've met a lot of people who say they come from "humble beginnings," but I can think of about a million places I would rather my son be born than in a stable.

why. you've gotta think that there was a reason for all this irony though. i mean, if Jesus was born in a palace surrounded by gold and people catering to His every cry, there would be people all around saying, "well yeah, of course people love Him, he's rich." in order for the rescue to happen properly, God wanted to enter the world in the humblest possible position. so the whole least being the greatest concept held true from the very beginning. awesome. you know you've got to admit, even if you don't believe all or any of the Bible, you have to admit it's a pretty well put together story. i mean this story is simply loaded with metaphors, foreshadowing, all that good stuff I never paid attention to in school.

above and beyond. so God starts by living the perfect life as a human that Adam and Eve failed to do (rescue from sin). then He takes the beating and crucifixion that we deserve for our sin (rescue from death). and as if that just simply wasn't enough, he comes back to life (what I call rescue from the permanance of death). God has a lot of names, but sometimes I like to give him one of my own: the Persevering King. if there's ever an example of someone who refused to give up, it's God.

i realize none of this is new information to most of you, but I just really enjoy writing about it. I love the bibles that say on their cover, "the story of God." and maybe that's why I love writing about it, because I wish I could have written a story that good.

(CUE ORCHESTRA, OR CHEESY CHRISTMAS MUSIC, WHICHEVER YOU LIKE)

so whatever you do today, whether it be last-minute shopping, spending time with family, or singing carols, remember the awesomeness of the beautiful story of God.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

the obligatory Christmas post

just kidding. i wanted to do this just because i wanted to tell everybody (or anybody bored enough to read this here blog during Christmas time) my favorite part about Christmas. this comes right before Royal Dansk cookies on the list of favorite Christmas things. if you're martha, cliff, rhett, jeanne, or blake, you'll understand that; if not, try harder to be on the inside loop with the cool people next time.

don't get me wrong. i absolutely love the story of the birth of Jesus. it's awesome. but what i love more is the bigger story that it fits into. the story of a persistent God. a God who refused to let His people mess His story up. a God so loving that he would go through trial after trial to ensure that we had a way to get back to Him, despite us screwing up many many times. to me, this story has several "layers," or "chapters" or something like that. i'm gonna try to capture each one, and maybe give a really snazzy name to all of them. and after listening to the new live hillsong united album, i'm gonna try to find lyrics that capture some of them. also, i think i'm gonna make this my first multi-part blog, just because i promised i was gonna start doing shorter posts, and i don't wanna lie to my millions of faithful readers. anyway, here we go.

the beginning. God makes everything. and man, did he set it up perfect. man had no reason not to be tight with God. he got to be in constant communication with his Father, and his Father had set it up so that there wouldn't be any pain, any problems. anyway, when he set them there in the garden, God provided at least two trees for them to eat from, the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. now, personally, given the choice between those two, i would choose the first one, just because it sounds prettier. i don't know how Adam and Eve felt about it, but they are eventually talked into eating from the other one after a serpent talks them into it. i think it's really interesting that the first sin ever committed had to do with pursuing wisdom. Adam and Eve really thought that they could be smarter if they ate from that tree. they could eat from a tree that would give them life, or a tree that would make them smarter and dead, and they chose the second one. that remind You of anything? i don't think we (myself included) are much different today. we pursue all kinds of things to make us smarter, richer, and happier, a million times before we take the life that God holds out for us. when God says, "who told you you were naked?", i used to think he was really mad, just screaming at the two who had just forsaken Him. but when I read the story closer, i wonder if He wasn't simply heartbroken. i wonder if the look in His eyes wasn't more like the look of a spouse who has just realized the other cheated on them. and i wonder if he doesn't have that look in His eyes every time we cheat on Him.

further and further away. so that's when things kinda started going sour. another way i used to think about this story is that God was mad, and that's why he left and disconnected Himself from Adam and Eve. and the truth is he was mad at times. but the Bible tells us that God cannot be in the presence of sin, or, maybe more appropriately, sin cannot be in the presence of God. so I wonder that moment wasn't more like that same heartbroken father leaving his children after a divorce, getting on his plane to leave while reaching his arms out and saying "I wish I could stay, I really do wish I could stay, but I can't. But you can talk to me whenever you want to. all you have to do is call, and i'll be there. i really really wanna help you through this minefield that is your life, and i will, but i just can't be right beside you all the time now." God tried his best, through providing prayer, to allow the people who screwed up His relationship with them to still communicate with Him.

okay, i've been waiting for this moment ever since blog day 1...

. . . to be continued . . . .