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Posted in Music on Feb 28th, 2010
On Communion Sundays we at our church seem to frequently sing “Put Peace Into Each Other’s Hands.”
The melody/arrangement is gorgeous, but the lyrics are hysterical.
For instance, in the third verse, everyone sings dramatically:
Look people warmly in the eye
Really?
“Look people warmly in the eye?”
Okay . . . .
____
But the last verse is the kicker. Here’s how [...]
Posted in Literature, Music, Religion on Nov 1st, 2009
It’s the hardcore genre of praise-n-worship, as opposed to the girly-man guitar-pop one normally gets in praise-n-worship.
Actually, I’m just kidding.
(Anybody remember ’80s praise-n-worship, back before the girly-man guitar-pop days? Like “Awesome God” and “El-Shaddai,” and “Sing Your Praise to the Lord.” Okay, it looks like what I mean is, “Anyone remember when praise-n-worship was written [...]
Posted in Ethics (Philosophy), Music on Jun 19th, 2009
Speaking of people saying stupid things:
Jason Mraz’s latest, catchy, Jack Johnson-rip-off single (”I’m Yours“) includes the following mind-blowing line:
It’s our God-forsaken right to be loved.
Utterly mind-blowing.
What in the world could that possibly mean?
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First: “God-forsaken” refers to places, not rights.
Second: If God forsakes a right (i.e., God decides to stop supporting the right, or decides to [...]
Posted in Music on Jun 13th, 2009
After hearing part of a song (”Love Game”?) by some artist called “Lady Gaga” (is that how you spell it?), I had to ask once again:
How do songs that aren’t good get recorded, and get played on the radio?
Why don’t people who are writing bad songs just give up in the middle of the song [...]
I was talking to a friend yesterday about the differences between the current emo craze, vs. the 90’s grunge wave. He said one of the things that bothered him most about emo was what he found to be a kind of lyrical failure on the part of the songwriters.
So, that reminded me of my theory [...]
Went to see Watchmen today with The Wife and friends.
I very much enjoyed it, but still have a lot of processing to do.
Also watched the latest episode of Dollhouse today on Hulu.
Continues to be awesome.
So, there you have it. The Wife is reading over my shoulder and I can’t write when she does that. So [...]
So, since I discovered that SNL has a lot of stuff up on Hulu, I’ve become a big fan of Andy Samberg.
This is one of my favorite of the “Digital Shorts” in which he co-stars. (I know, it’s “old” by now and everyone’s already seen it, but watch it again. It’s hilarious, and good. Hilariously [...]
Two things to report:
(1) The Foo Fighter’s album, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, is the best album I’ve heard since Coldplay’s X&Y.
An essentially perfect album.
(Like Joy Electric’s The White Songbook.)
(Or Saints & Children’s Of Seasons, Of Souls. ;-)
(2) Wall-E is fantasmagorical. It’s amazing how much they could do with essentially no dialogue between the [...]
Posted in Music on Dec 15th, 2008
It’s by Bobby Helms. And after hearing it again this Christmas Season, I have come to the conclusion that it is a work of genius.
Listen to what he does with the melody, the chord progression, and the song structure.
(The song doesn’t have a verse-chorus structure like normal rock songs. It has a verse-chorus-verse structure. Or [...]
(1) “Winter Wonderland,” by Felix Bernard and Richard Smith
I heard a version of the song the other day that included the second half of the song:
In the meadow we can build a snowman
And pretend that he’s a circus clown
We’ll have lots of fun with Mr. Snowman
Until the other kiddies knock him down
When it snows, ain’t [...]
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