Filed under: Music
Looking for some new music? Check these out on iTunes:
-The Weepies “Hidaway”
-Dave Barnes “Me and You and the World”
-Missy Higgins “On a Clear Night”
-Derek Webb “Mockingbird”
-The Whitest Boy Alive “Dreams”
-Robbie Seay Band “Give Yourself Away”
-John Mayer “Continuum”
-Sleeping at Last “Ghosts” and “Keep no Score”
-Ingrid Michaelson “Girls and Boys”
-Shane and Shane “Pages”
-Jackson Browne “Solo Acoustic Vol.2″
-Leeland “Opposite Way”
-Wyclef Jean “Carnival Vol.II: Memoirs of an Immigrant”
-Jon Foreman “Fall-EP”, “Winter-EP”, “Spring-EP”
What have you been listening to lately? Post a comment!
1. 30 Rock is a monumentally better TV show than The Office. It’s been better since the pilot aired a few years ago. Don’t get my wrong, I like the Office, but I believe they’ve jumped the shark. Don’t believe me? Watch the last two episodes. This is the beginning of the end.
2. David Archuleta will beat David Cook in the finale of American Idol. This season has been all about the guys from the beginning. Six people are left. Brook White will go next, followed by Sayeshi Mercado, then Jason Castro, then Carly Smithson, leaving the David’s. On a side note, David Cook is the Daughtry or the Blake Lewis of the competition. He doesn’t want to win, I mean, of course he does, but career wise number 2 is the way to go. It means you get all the popularity and record sales without American Idol completely owning you. He’ll also have a little more say in what his album sounds like.
3. On to Politics. Despite what the poll numbers say right now, Clinton would be dismantled by McCain in the General Election if she wins the nomination. But, if Obama wins, like he should, he will run circles around McCain. It’s just too much of a contrast.
This is all, of course, in my opinion and done in the spirit of entertainment and partisan politics. 
What do you think?
Filed under: Politics
A little context: Earlier in the week Barack Obama made some comments about rural Pennsylvania voters being bitter and clinging to guns, religion, anti-trade and anti-immigration sentiment to explain their frustrations. It was a poor choice of wording but it made sense in context. Since then, Hillary has been dive-bombing him for his comments calling him elitist and “out of touch” (Let’s be honest, they’re both elitist but that doesn’t make them out of touch or unfit to be President. In today’s political system, you have to be among the country’s elite to get anywhere near the presidency.) Earlier today, Clinton told a story about her father taking her hunting in Pennsylvania as a child and then proceeded to make it sound as if she hunts all the time and as a results understands the average Pennsylvania voter. This was Obama’s response a few hours later…
Just some random thoughts for you:
I’m watching the Compassion Forum on CNN right now (Sunday Night, 6pm) with Clinton and Obama. (McCain declined the invitation, which is fodder for another post on another day) The audience is a large cross-section of religious leaders from around the country and the topics are all issues relating to faith and politics. So far each candidate has vaguely addressed their faith and tried to dodge creating a memorable sound bite on subjects like God’s intervention in our day to day lives, abortion, euthanasia, the problem of Evil, you know, the basics. My problem is that I don’t get forums like this. What’s the goal, who’s it for, do we expect our presidential candidates to be theologians, to be prophetic or pastoral? Are we just making sure that these people don’t believe anything weird? Or are we pandering to evangelicals who vote for the person who says Jesus the most or makes references to popular hymns? If so, Hillary Clinton talked about the Holy Spirit tonight. That’s got to be worth a few points!
American Idol. Did you notice that the contestants sang, Shout to the Lord, not once but twice this week? The first was at the end of the Idol Gives Back telethon on Wednesday, and the second was at the beginning of the results show on Thursday. The cynical skeptic in me thinks the savvy FOX network knows their audience, particularly in our countries mid-section, and was, in the spirit of TBN, using religion to open people’s wallets. Granted, the money was going to a good cause, but I couldn’t help but feel patronized. When Religion, the gospel and worship music enter pop culture I get nervous and pay close attention to a few things: Who’s behind it? What motivations might they have? What’s the desired outcome? Is it disingenuous or done with a spirit of respect and reverence? These are particularly important criteria when it concerns something being broadcast to millions. I thought Shout to the Lord was a little weird for American Idol (JJ thought it was like watching Sandi Patty sing Sexual Healing) but more so I felt like the salt was losing its saltiness. The gospel in the public square, in many instances, has become nice, inspirational, a part of our history and tradition, and all too comfortable and common-place. Can God work through this? Yes! Absolutely. He works through lots of unfortunate things, I’m just not sure these occurrences help build the Kingdom of God. If you’re thinking that Shout to the Lord on American Idol was a good thing, remember that the show opened with some classic Bump-and-Grind to Rihanna’s Please Don’t Stop the Music and continued on with Fergie and Heart performing Baracuda in leather. It was entertainment, not a worship service. (I also think there are better worship songs, if it has to be done! )
Lastly, I spent Friday night and Saturday at the Everything Must Change Conference with Brian McLaren. I highly recommend the book to you! It is centered around two questions: What are the World’s most pressing problems and what does Jesus have to say about them? Interestingly enough, he talks about more than gay marriage and abortion, how liberal of him! While I was at the conference I also picked up the new Shane Claiborne book, Jesus for President. The book aims to inspire the Christian Political Imagination, and I suspect it will inspire a few posts in the next few weeks.
