Shuffleboard 6

1. "Hanani" by The O.C. Supertones from Chase The Sun

Chase The Sun was one of my least favorite Supertones albums. After Supertones Strike Back, nothing could really compare. Hi-Fi Revival was my next favorite, and then they disbanded. Sad.

Anyways, it's still entertaining ska/rock.

This track's got a good beat, good use of horns, and nominal spiritual lyrics. Sounds exactly like most Supertones songs, nothing really that interesting. Still head-boppin' ska.

2. "Stockholm Syndrome" by Muse from Absolution

Oh man. Where do I even begin with this song? Every Muse album has shown us a new side of them, and Absolution was my first real sit-down-seriously-listen experience with them.

Stockholm Syndrome is definitely in their top Ten songs of all-time. Blistering intro guitar and drums (with scarily accurate and steady bass work from Wolstenholme). The steady eighth-note riffs continue over conspiracy-theory laden lyrics from Bellamy. Then comes the chorus. The synths come in with a brooding pound, which then gives way to a eerie arpeggiated guitar riff and nice piano backgrounds, with the drums cutting down to heavy quarter notes.

And all the while, the bass keeps playing steady quarters.

Then, back into a crazy-fast build up, and into verse two (if you couldn't tell, this is one of my favorites).

Bellamy seems especially angry on this song, and the heavy steady bass and drums (and guitar, sorta) really emphasizes that fury, making this a great driving-fast song.

The lyrics also stand out as some of Muse's most memorable.

This is the last time I'll abandon you
and this is the last time I'll forget you
I wish I could

The song ends with a head-banging guitar and bass in unison outro. One of their best, hands down.

3. "Please Don't Talk About Murder While I'm Eating" by Ben Harper from Both Sides of the Gun

Weird title, epic artist. Ben Harper impresses me time and time again how many genres he can slide to. Heavy rock, country, blues, jazz, acoustic, reggae, the guy can do it all.

This is a short rock/country/blues track, with some bluesy lyrics. Harper owns on a hot blues solo in the middle. The lyrics talk about a self-obsessed snob who tries to push views on others (I think) that Harper tells to just chill the heck out.

Something you'd expect to hear while eating barbecue outside. Great track.

4. "Anakin's Betrayal" by John Williams from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith

I think it's statistically impossible for me to play five songs without John Williams being in there.

And I'm okay with that.

This is the haunting music that accompanies The Purge, an event that Star Wars fans knew existed but had not seen until Episode III. The Jedi were wiped out by the Emperor, and that's what brought about the war seen in the last three movies.

This is some of the saddest music Williams has written, save for most of the Schindler's List score. It really highlights the hopelessness of The Purge, and without it, the scene would have been a few explosions.

The end of this track (and scene) always gives me chills. The newly-christened Darth Vader walks into a room in the Jedi Temple full of kids, where they ask him "Master Skywalker! What are we going to do?"

He replies by igniting his lightsaber.

One of the saddest scenes in the movie, made so by excellent music.

5. "Sparks" by Coldplay from Parachutes

I bought Parachutes, my first Coldplay album, when I was home in Minnesota for Christmas break back in 2007. I've been a Coldplay fan ever since.

This is one of the first Coldplay songs I learned on guitar, too.

A nice mellow track, just acoustic guitar, smooth bass, light drums, and a few electric guitar and piano bits thrown in for good measure, as accents more than anything.

The lyrics are quite romantic, if somewhat confusing at times (it is Coldplay). I like this style of Coldplay, but I also like their newer weirder stuff too. Sparks is one of my favorite older songs, though.

The Comfort of Discomfort

I usually don't post personal things on this blog, but this is something that needs to be said in our world today.

My wife and I are taking a Gospel/membership class for our church here in Kansas City, Redeemer Fellowship. It's been sweet to hear the Gospel twice a week from the great staff there, and we really feel at home there.

But on to the juicy stuff. The content of said church.

We're talking through the main tenets of what Redeemer as a church believes. God, Scripture, Creation, Sin, the Gospel. That kind of thing.

And every week, both in the class and during the sermon, a resounding message rings through that this world, both the secular and "Christian" worlds, needs to hear.

We are sinners.

Stop dancing around the issue, stop saying different words for it, stop preaching happy sunshine meadow sermons.

Too often churches today beat around the bush of our sin so much that the bush is now hundreds of feet above them and they're in a pit they've worn in the dirt.

This is how it is. We are born into a sinful nature. Anyone who denies that is not thinking logically. What do you have to do with kids? Teach them to be GOOD. No one has to teach them to be bad.

But here's what really gets me. Their reason for not preaching about this, or glazing over it, is that they don't want to be "negative." They don't want to "depress" their congregation by preaching that we're sinners.

Which is ridiculous, because they're leaving out the second part of the message.

We are sinners (part 1), but Christ has redeemed us through His sacrifice on the Cross. (part 2)

Our Navs staffer at KU once said that our favorite word in the Bible should be "but."

Through Christ's sacrifice, we are made right with God. God is a perfect and Holy being, and therefore cannot allow unrighteousness near Him without a price being paid. Christ paid that price for us, so that we may be made righteous and be with Him forever.

Too often churches harp on one side of this. There's the sunny-happy-flower churches and the you're-all-going-to-die-and-burn-fire-and-brimstone churches.

How about just being a Jesus church? A Gospel church?

This realization grows larger as we grow more mature in our faith, of course. An example I've heard many times is that as we're more aware of our sin and more aware of God's holiness at the same time, we grow more aware of the gap between the two, which is filled by Jesus.

Wake up, churches. Don't cheapen the Gospel by not thinking about sin or dwelling on nothing else.

Shuffleboard 5

1. "Think For Yourself" by The Beatles from Rubber Soul

I'm preemptively ducking. The Beatles are only okay to me.

*ducks*

But seriously. They were indeed responsible for ushering in the rock era we're living in 40 or 50 years later, but their music sounds eerily similar to the 5,000 other songs by them.

I've never heard this one and it's been sitting dormant in my iTunes library for a few months. But, it's not bad. It's a catchy song, the harmonies are impeccable, and the fuzz guitar in the right channel only adds some excitement to the otherwise formulaic three-minute-or-less Beatles song.

Meh.

2. "Hostile Negotiations" by Michael Giacchino from LOST Season 4 Soundtrack

The music of LOST is a huge part of what has made the show so successful. Giacchino, who has worked with J.J. Abrams on many things (Star Trek, Cloverfield, Mission: Impossible 3), treats LOST like another movie, and the score is immensely rich because of it. He's able to carry themes and hooks for characters across multiple seasons, keep the same creepy vibe, and build unbelievable tension.

This track shows off some low brass and strings, creating said tension in the beginning, and then builds to higher strings playing one of the sadder island themes, as onscreen Keamy kills Ben's daughter Alex.

Overall, it's a great background tension builder, and that's what Giacchino excels at.

3. "The First Ambush & Remembering The Wilderness" by John Williams from The Patriot

The obligatory John Williams track of the post. What can I say, he's my homeboy!

I wasn't the biggest fan of The Patriot's score (the movie was outstanding). It felt a little flat. But the "creepy" theme that accompanies Jason Isaac's great character William Tavington (the guy you love to hate), is certainly the most striking theme from the score. It's eerie and sad, with plenty of unnerving statelyness to it that fits the evil character.

The rest of the track is interesting because it illustrates Williams' shift from his bombastic days of Star Wars and Indiana Jones to his current mellower and ensemble-style days of Catch Me If You Can and Minority Report.

Because it includes the great creepy theme, it's still entertaining.

4. "Tonight" by Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim from West Side Story

Ah, West Side Story. We did this for our high school musical production in 2004, my junior year. It was such a huge undertaking, what with the massive set and extremely dark story, that the high school took a break from doing serious musicals for a few years after it.

This is one of the classics from it. Maria and Tony sing of their (rather recently founded as of this song) love, in one of the most well-known Broadway tunes of all time.

The orchestra is second-to-none (I played saxophone it our production), and the excellent musicians really shine. The vocals, obviously, are outstanding, and you can almost hear the unexplainable longing and yearning in their voices.

Really well-done song.

5. "RAY Escapes" by Harry Gregson-Williams from Metal Gear Solid 2

My roommate junior year of college had a PS3. He also had a few random PS2 games, and Metal Gear Solid 2 was one of them. I played through half of it before he sold it, but I was throughly impressed with the cinematic nature of the game. And the music was outstanding! I was quite surprised to learn that it was done by Narnia scorer Gregson-Williams, who also wrote the great "The Number 23" score.

It's dark, it's creepy, with Blade Runner-esque electronic hints. It most definitely fits the gritty technoviolent world of Metal Gear.

This score is surprisingly good.

My Bid For The Nobel Prize

Dear Nobel Peace Prize People,

I think I should win the next Nobel Prize. I will now tell you why.

I want to do lots of good stuff. I want to make everyone like each other and make no one not like each other. In other words, I want to not keep my nose out of anything.

I want to promise to do lots of stuff with the words "bipartisan" and "across the aisle" in it.

I have the vision of a unified America, but no balls whatsoever to do anything about it.

I will promise to be bipartisan, but I will alienate both my own party and the other one.

I will promise "Hope" and "Change," not do anything to bring about either, and then whine when people call me out on it.

I will call everyone who disagrees with me or my policies uneducated, stupid, racist, and anti-American.

I will use the words "Hope" and "Change" some more.

I will promise to think about maybe possibly doing some more stuff involving this magical word "diplomacy."

I will use the word "Change" and pair it with "Hope."

I will use the word "Hope" and pair it with "Change."
I will talk often of my visions and dreams for my country, but not do anything about it (that'll make everyone like me, right?).

I will use my status as making America "post-racist" and drive it firmly back down the path it's been making since slavery was outlawed a long time ago.

I will blame all the problems (including the ones I cause) on Bush.

I will be nice to everyone.

I will get the principal to put ice cream in the lunches.

Sincerely, Barack Obama.