presentsense

this just in, narcissism leads the way

America woke this morning to find itself in the same Groundhog Day political nightmare it went to bed with. Clinton won again, and with just enough of a margin to maintain the status quo of Democratic party in-fighting for another couple weeks at least. She has to know that any victory she might gain would be entirely Pyrrhic. There's no way she pulls off the nomination without seriously alienating a significant part of the Democratic base. There's no way for her to win "fair and square."

I like Obama's pledge to focus on McCain from now on, but I don't buy it. Politicians never draw a hard line and stick to it, but the idea that he would just ignore Hillary and focus all his efforts on McCain would be the kind of thing that would just steam her and her people so much that they might crack under the pressure. She's broker than broke, and her ideas are so similar to Obama's that it leads me to the conclusion that she has no regard for what's best for the country here. SHE WANTS TO BE PRESIDENT, DAMMIT! HER! NO ONE ELSE! Don't care how, I want it now! If she really had the interests of the country at heart, she would bow out and get behind the Democratic agenda embodied in Obama. She would work to unite the Democrat base and independents in order to put a whoopin' on McCain in November. But alas, she is narcissism writ large. For the party's sake, Hil, leave your party with something in the tank for November.

The Power of Nightmares

Framing stories...

If you have not had the pleasure of watching Adam Curtis's documentary work for the BBC, you are really missing out. I have seen several of them in the last few weeks, and today, I came across a link to one of his most important series, The Power of Nightmares.

Quite simply, if you care to know why we got to where we are with our global and domestic political situations, you must watch these films.

Here's a link to the archive.org page for this series. Do yourself a favor and find the time to watch. Your eyes will likely be opened.

Joining the dark side...

   As a big fan of Apple products in the last 20 years or so, and after coming close to pulling the trigger many times over that span, it might surprise you to know that yesterday I purchased my first Mac. I've said jokingly that I probably hold the record for owning the most Apple products without actually having one of their computers. Well, as of this Friday when it gets here, I won't say that any more.

freely, freely...

You might know I am musician. I have been writing songs and playing since I was a teenager. My writing really started to get decent in college, and I know I am a good songwriter. I always thought I was good enough to at least be a part-time pro. But, over the course of 20 or so years of writing, I have never felt comfortable enough to "sell myself" as a writer or anything else. I couldn't really tell you why.

Today, at least a part of that changed for me. In a quiet moment with the Lord, I realized - truly and fully realized - a few things:

- Writing has always for me been a true talent. It's not a skill that I have worked much to develop, but more of a gift that I was given. That's not to say I couldn't get better if I worked at it, of course I could, but aside from a songwriting course I took in college, I simply never have worked on the "craft."

- Gifts aren't always for keeping. I've heard my dad preach that some gifts are food for eating, while some are seed for sowing. I am beginning to wonder if songwriting for me falls into the latter category. Let's face it, I don't think any songs I have written until now have earned me so much as a cheeseburger. So, maybe, just maybe, songwriting as a gift is not food for my own eating.

- These days, songs are easy to give away, specifically recordings of songs. An author retains copyright on a musical composition for his entire life, but the actual recording of those songs is usually sold in some way, either as a track on some sort of physical medium, like a CD, or, increasingly, as a digitally downloaded file.

With those things in mind, I wanted to get the word out that I am considering giving away the store. I am not sure how it will work or what it will look like, but I am ready to give some of it away. A lot of my songs - especially my worship material - have never been properly recorded, and I am not looking to just heave my junk out to the masses. So I have some work to do, but I have the tools to do it, a little bit at a time. I guess this post is partly here to let you in on my plans, and partly to give you an opportunity to shape the idea, or friggin' talk me out of it.

What do you think? Is it a good idea? What should it look like? How should it work? I'm flying blind here, but I really feel like I have heard from the Lord on this. I am hoping my friends could help me make this better than it would be if left to my own devices.

peace,
eli

The art of the sales pitch...

I was never much of a CCM nerd. Mostly because I am a musician, and I care about quality. Let that sink in.

Still, I had my favorite guilt-free bands (you know - the ones that Mom and Dad would approve of if they found out about them) One of those bands for me was the Allies. I am listening to some old stuff that I just got my mitts on again (thanks Luke). I am struck by two things:

• How great the band/production was...and
• How crappy and predictable the lyrics were

To the band - Bob Carlisle was and is a world class vocalist. I really wish he would get back to the balls-out rock that Allies was, but - and Bob might be the first to agree - virtually no one knew about him until his song "Butterfly Kisses" tore up the charts as a crossover. And sorry youth pastors - it wasn't evangelistic in any way. Hence its popularity.

I don't fault the writers on these records and others of their ilk. I know Bob can write some powerful lyrics, but at the time of the Allies, he wasn't allowed to. He had to write 3 minute sales pitches. They had to be direct and to the point, which was to get hundreds of little wayward boys and girls to say the sinner's prayer at the end of the night. Honestly - did you go to any "Christian concerts" in the 80's? Didn't every last one end with an altar call, like these bands had to justify the fact that they were playing music by saying it was their "mission." And like the only way to fulfill the mission was to give a standard invitation after an hour and a half of "selling Jesus" to the audience (which by the way, at most shows, was made up mostly of busloads of youth groups out for a night of "Christian entertainment")

Now don't shoot me. I had a band in college, and we considered ourselves evangelistic. I even wrote at least one musical sales pitch. So I am looking back and shaking my head at myself too. I remember touring Russia, and playing Beatles music to get people to come close (everyone loves the Beatles). I also remember the guilt I felt when one Russian kid came up after a show and asked me (through an interpreter) if we approved of the drug use the Beatles were famous for. I wish I knew now what I knew then. I would have said, "'Help' is a damned good song, and that's why we played it." It's not like we took tabs of LSD on stage and invited the crowd to join us. We were just trying to be attractive. Ain't nothing wrong with that.

As my music tastes have matured, my collection has grown, and the "Christian" section has shrunk relatively speaking. It's a shame. It's a shame we ever invented a Christian counter-culture. Our music vs. their music.  It makes me sick now.  What a waste of time and money we didn't really have in the first place.

My apologies if you got saved at a Carman concert.

Hayden and Jack in Mickey's house

Proof

Ok so maybe this doesn't prove it was actually me there. But I was.

Tony Jones on homeschooling...

Here's an excellent (old) article on homeschooling vs. private vs. public schools from Tony Jones.

Full disclosure: I have attended only two schools in my life, and both of them were private. Attending private schools was on balance an advantage to me. Was it advantageous to the kingdom? I don't know. No really, I don't know.

More full disclosure: My kids go to public school, and even if I had the money to send them all to private school, my kids would go to public school. Why? Read the article.