A bit lengthy for a youtube video, but worth your time. Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
May 27, 2011
April 30, 2011
For listening and watching
I lived in Des Moines for about five months with a college friend of mine while I was engaged. While I was there my friend and I attended Lutheran Church of Hope off and on. I came across two videos they posted on facebook from their Easter service last weekend, and I wanted to share them with you (can't embed them, so I have to make you click on the links).
The first is probably my new favorite video/song, and you can check it out HERE.
The second is of Simon Estes, a world-renowned singer, performing one of my long-time favorites, "Were You There?"
The first is probably my new favorite video/song, and you can check it out HERE.
The second is of Simon Estes, a world-renowned singer, performing one of my long-time favorites, "Were You There?"
March 21, 2011
Simple Music
I have a pretty eclectic musical taste and I listen to a very wide range of artists and genres, but more than any other genre, country music seems to stir up certain friends of mine into a sort of elitist frenzy where country music is mocked and belittled for being simplistic and unsophisticated. I can certainly understand such claims, and I've never suggested that anyone must enjoy all the same kinds of music I happen to. But for all those friends who made fun of Garth Brooks and then turned on their Casey Kasem top-40 radio stations, I present the following video. (warning: there are a couple instances of inappropriate language)
January 3, 2011
A long video - but worth it.
I found the below video to be fun and insightful, and I'm really glad I watched it. It's 20 minutes long, which usually means I won't take the time, but this time I did and I'm glad.
You also might benefit from reading Kevin DeYoung's blog post where I first saw this video. He describes what he likes about it and what we might gain from it.
You also might benefit from reading Kevin DeYoung's blog post where I first saw this video. He describes what he likes about it and what we might gain from it.
December 8, 2010
iBand
There's probably something to be said about rampant consumerism in this video, but this video is really nifty. A church's "iBand" plays some Christmas songs using only iPads and iPhones.
July 28, 2010
"May God speed the day of reckoning." - Justin Taylor
Perhaps I should be embarrassed about this, but I had never heard of Andrew Peterson until yesterday morning. All of a sudden his music and information about his brand new album, Counting Stars, started showing up on a number of blogs I read and Twitter feeds I follow. Since a few of the songs from this album were available to stream on a couple of the blogs, I gave him a listen. After listening to three songs I decided I'm a big fan of Peterson (it really only took one song). He's making a rapid climb up my "favorites" ladder, and if I had the money to buy a music album right now it would be his for sure.
I've embedded two of his songs below. The first one is a music video for Dancing in the Minefields, which is a close second-favorite for me. The second "video" just plays the song The Reckoning as well as its lyrics. The Reckoning might be my new favorite song. Out of, you know, ALL the songs. That exist (even ahead of the amazing song that Emily posted last night). Anyway, listen to these songs and then let me know if you'd like to join me in becoming an Andrew Peterson fan (or if you already are one!).
I've embedded two of his songs below. The first one is a music video for Dancing in the Minefields, which is a close second-favorite for me. The second "video" just plays the song The Reckoning as well as its lyrics. The Reckoning might be my new favorite song. Out of, you know, ALL the songs. That exist (even ahead of the amazing song that Emily posted last night). Anyway, listen to these songs and then let me know if you'd like to join me in becoming an Andrew Peterson fan (or if you already are one!).
July 14, 2010
Three Years
Three years ago today I married the most wonderful woman in the world.
When I think of my life with Elizabeth, a few songs come to my mind. You can listen to them below, but I'll give you a brief description here:
Then by Brad Paisley: Goes through a couple of milestones in the life of the singer and his wife, and how during each one he thought he couldn't possibly ever love her any more deeply, but looking back he can see how much his love for her continues to grow.
Little Moments by Brad Paisley: About the "little moments" of imperfection in life that are shared between the singer and his wife. My favorite part is the bridge because it hits very close to home: "When she's laying on my shoulder on the sofa in the dark, and about the time she falls asleep so does my right arm, and I want so bad to move it, cuz it's tingling and it's numb, but she looks so much like an angel that I don't want to wake her up -- yeah, I live for little moments like that."
The Good Stuff by Kenny Chesney: After the "first big fight" between the singer and his gal he heads to a bar where, instead of alcohol, he gets some wise advice from the bartender. The "good stuff" includes, once again, all of the shared moments with the woman you love.
I know this list makes me sound like some gun-totin' redneck backwoods hick, but the truth is I grew up on country music, and it still happens to be my genre of choice most of the time... and these songs have really great lyrics (from what I know of my audience, I'm sure Emily will appreciate my song choices the most!). Don't judge me. Listen to the songs.
Anyway, all of this is basically to say, Elizabeth, I love you, and my favorite part of being married to you is all of the little moments we share together that no one else will ever know about (like this one: "What? He played racquetball in his room with a tornado?"). :)
*If you're viewing this in a reader you might have to click through to be able to listen to the songs in the widget below.
When I think of my life with Elizabeth, a few songs come to my mind. You can listen to them below, but I'll give you a brief description here:
Then by Brad Paisley: Goes through a couple of milestones in the life of the singer and his wife, and how during each one he thought he couldn't possibly ever love her any more deeply, but looking back he can see how much his love for her continues to grow.
Little Moments by Brad Paisley: About the "little moments" of imperfection in life that are shared between the singer and his wife. My favorite part is the bridge because it hits very close to home: "When she's laying on my shoulder on the sofa in the dark, and about the time she falls asleep so does my right arm, and I want so bad to move it, cuz it's tingling and it's numb, but she looks so much like an angel that I don't want to wake her up -- yeah, I live for little moments like that."
The Good Stuff by Kenny Chesney: After the "first big fight" between the singer and his gal he heads to a bar where, instead of alcohol, he gets some wise advice from the bartender. The "good stuff" includes, once again, all of the shared moments with the woman you love.
I know this list makes me sound like some gun-totin' redneck backwoods hick, but the truth is I grew up on country music, and it still happens to be my genre of choice most of the time... and these songs have really great lyrics (from what I know of my audience, I'm sure Emily will appreciate my song choices the most!). Don't judge me. Listen to the songs.
Anyway, all of this is basically to say, Elizabeth, I love you, and my favorite part of being married to you is all of the little moments we share together that no one else will ever know about (like this one: "What? He played racquetball in his room with a tornado?"). :)
*If you're viewing this in a reader you might have to click through to be able to listen to the songs in the widget below.
June 23, 2010
Art
I believe that there is actual truth in the world, and that some things are good and some things are bad regardless of what an individual might think about them. But when it comes to art I'm completely in the dark.
I have no idea what makes some art "good" and some "bad." A year or two ago I saw a couple of news stories about some 9-year old "prodigy" who completed these "brilliant" and "beautiful" paintings that sold for thousands of dollars. To me it looked like the kid had used paint to scribble on a canvas. If I had painted the exact same things, mine wouldn't have sold for 10 cents at a garage sale.
I remember almost none of the stuff I learned in elementary school art classes. What I remember the best was when we learned how to draw a person's face. We learned that a person's head is more of an oval in shape than a circle. I also remember learning that the eyes sit roughly in the middle of a person's head -- about even with the ears (as opposed to way up at the top of the face, which is where my stick-figures' eyes always had been). After I learned these things in elementary school, my drawings of peoples' faces got a lot better. But Pablo Picasso probably would have failed elementary school art, because he never really seemed to care where facial features were supposed to go. Yet he's a famous artist whose works still sell for crazy amounts of money all over the world. Why?
My ignorance of "good" art is not restricted to paintings or visual arts either. It extends to music. I like to consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about music, but at times I feel like a complete moron. I watched Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" music video the other day. Whereas most people apparently see a revolutionary and artistic video performed to a groundbreaking song and musical style, I see a complete whack-job wearing the most non-sensical costumes that seem to be designed around two objectives: 1) making Lady Gaga as naked as possible without being censored on television, and 2) ugliness (and I'm talking about the costumes, not the woman wearing them).
Let's not limit ourselves to music and paintings. What about audio-visual arts like movies? I can be just as stupid about those! When the movie Sin City first came out I went and saw it in the theater with a group of my friends from college. If I hadn't been dependent on my friends for a ride home, I probably would have walked out of it. It was awful. In my opinion it had less of a plot than if I had shot home video of a drunk guy stumbling down the sidewalk. As far as I could tell, it was mostly about sex and violence. I didn't understand it, and I regretted spending money on a ticket. But on the way home, my friends and I were discussing it. One of my more intelligent, more cultured friends tried to explain to me how artistic and creative the movie had been. I told him that I could throw mud on the wall and draw a monkey out of it and you could call it "artistic and creative," or you could just be upset that I had thrown mud all over an otherwise clean wall. I guess I don't understand who decides where the line is between a stupid waste of time and a priceless masterpiece.
Part of what's frustrating is that oftentimes I do see rather subtle things in a song's lyrics or a movie's cinematography that make me think I have at least a slight eye for artistic things. One example is the final, climactic, dramatic scene in one of my all-time favorite movies, A Few Good Men. Colonel Jessep (Jack Nicholson) enters the courtroom to take the witness stand, and the camera angle is from below, looking up at him, and through some kind of lens that makes him look almost larger than life; proud, extremely powerful, and intimidating. By the end of the scene, after Jessep has exploded on the witness stand and gotten himself into all kinds of trouble, the camera angle looks slightly down on him, making him appear weak, and almost inconsequential. In the last 20 minutes of the movie he goes from a big, bullying, tough-guy, almost super-hero to a weakened criminal who's under arrest. It's one of the things I LOVE about movies. A filmmaker can rouse emotions and responses from the audience that would not come from just the dialogue or the action. I consider it very "artistic." I can usually tell what makes one photograph better than another. I can go to an art museum and really enjoy myself, but I'll probably linger at only 5-6 different exhibits that seem to attract me. The vast majority will probably not make much sense to me, so I'll glance quickly and move on.
But surely an artistic work's "goodness" or "badness" is not simply a matter of subjective opinion, right? Is Lady Gaga a great artist only because a lot of people happen to enjoy her music and videos? I find that hard to believe. Somebody educate me.
I have no idea what makes some art "good" and some "bad." A year or two ago I saw a couple of news stories about some 9-year old "prodigy" who completed these "brilliant" and "beautiful" paintings that sold for thousands of dollars. To me it looked like the kid had used paint to scribble on a canvas. If I had painted the exact same things, mine wouldn't have sold for 10 cents at a garage sale.
I remember almost none of the stuff I learned in elementary school art classes. What I remember the best was when we learned how to draw a person's face. We learned that a person's head is more of an oval in shape than a circle. I also remember learning that the eyes sit roughly in the middle of a person's head -- about even with the ears (as opposed to way up at the top of the face, which is where my stick-figures' eyes always had been). After I learned these things in elementary school, my drawings of peoples' faces got a lot better. But Pablo Picasso probably would have failed elementary school art, because he never really seemed to care where facial features were supposed to go. Yet he's a famous artist whose works still sell for crazy amounts of money all over the world. Why?
My ignorance of "good" art is not restricted to paintings or visual arts either. It extends to music. I like to consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about music, but at times I feel like a complete moron. I watched Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" music video the other day. Whereas most people apparently see a revolutionary and artistic video performed to a groundbreaking song and musical style, I see a complete whack-job wearing the most non-sensical costumes that seem to be designed around two objectives: 1) making Lady Gaga as naked as possible without being censored on television, and 2) ugliness (and I'm talking about the costumes, not the woman wearing them).
Let's not limit ourselves to music and paintings. What about audio-visual arts like movies? I can be just as stupid about those! When the movie Sin City first came out I went and saw it in the theater with a group of my friends from college. If I hadn't been dependent on my friends for a ride home, I probably would have walked out of it. It was awful. In my opinion it had less of a plot than if I had shot home video of a drunk guy stumbling down the sidewalk. As far as I could tell, it was mostly about sex and violence. I didn't understand it, and I regretted spending money on a ticket. But on the way home, my friends and I were discussing it. One of my more intelligent, more cultured friends tried to explain to me how artistic and creative the movie had been. I told him that I could throw mud on the wall and draw a monkey out of it and you could call it "artistic and creative," or you could just be upset that I had thrown mud all over an otherwise clean wall. I guess I don't understand who decides where the line is between a stupid waste of time and a priceless masterpiece.
Part of what's frustrating is that oftentimes I do see rather subtle things in a song's lyrics or a movie's cinematography that make me think I have at least a slight eye for artistic things. One example is the final, climactic, dramatic scene in one of my all-time favorite movies, A Few Good Men. Colonel Jessep (Jack Nicholson) enters the courtroom to take the witness stand, and the camera angle is from below, looking up at him, and through some kind of lens that makes him look almost larger than life; proud, extremely powerful, and intimidating. By the end of the scene, after Jessep has exploded on the witness stand and gotten himself into all kinds of trouble, the camera angle looks slightly down on him, making him appear weak, and almost inconsequential. In the last 20 minutes of the movie he goes from a big, bullying, tough-guy, almost super-hero to a weakened criminal who's under arrest. It's one of the things I LOVE about movies. A filmmaker can rouse emotions and responses from the audience that would not come from just the dialogue or the action. I consider it very "artistic." I can usually tell what makes one photograph better than another. I can go to an art museum and really enjoy myself, but I'll probably linger at only 5-6 different exhibits that seem to attract me. The vast majority will probably not make much sense to me, so I'll glance quickly and move on.
But surely an artistic work's "goodness" or "badness" is not simply a matter of subjective opinion, right? Is Lady Gaga a great artist only because a lot of people happen to enjoy her music and videos? I find that hard to believe. Somebody educate me.
December 17, 2009
My Life According to Nouveaux
I took the bait.
Nouveaux is my favorite band of all time. They recorded two albums and a total of 22 tracks (two of them aren't songs, but brief little intros... I used one of them). Since there are 19 questions I didn't have a whole lot of extras to choose from. I still think it turned out pretty well. Enjoy!
Pick your Artist: Nouveaux
Are you a male or a female?
"If Only..."
Describe yourself:
"Red, White, Black & Blue"
How do you feel?
"Hurt So Bad"
Describe where you currently live:
"Across the Miles"
If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
"Through Heaven's Fields"
Your favorite form of transportation is:
"All That Glitters"
Your best friend is:
"Simply Beautiful"
You and your best friends are:
"We Believe"
What's the weather like?
"Nice"
Favorite time of day:
"Chasing Shadows"
If your life was a TV show, what would it be called?
"Maybe Tomorrow" (I tend to procrastinate)
What is life to you?
"Wonder"
Your relationship:
"United We Stand"
Your fear:
"Bridge Across the Water"
What is the best advice you have to give?
"You Breathe" (cuz otherwise, you die)
Thought for the Day:
"Some Things Never Change"
How I would like to die:
"Never See the Day"
My soul's present condition:
"Listen"
My motto:
"Holding My Own"
December 9, 2009
How to Write a Country Song
I really enjoy most country music. I still found this video pretty hilarious.
September 24, 2009
Groovin' with the sharks
I just discovered grooveshark.com, a site which I will be using quite often in the future, I'm sure. It allowed me to quickly and easily create the widget you see in the right-hand column of my blog (if you're reading this in a reader you'll have to come to my blog to check it out) that will play whatever songs I want it to. Right now the three options I've got for you are a few of my current favorites: "Proud of Your Boy" by Clay Aiken (this was originally going to be a song on Disney's animated classic Aladdin but it got dropped when they made Aladdin an orphan, I guess... it can be found on the extra features of the DVD, which I'm not embarrassed to say I own and watch from time to time), "Piano Man" by Billy Joel, and "Rushing Wind" by Keith Green. I would most strongly encourage you to listen to Keith Green. Whenever you can. The guy's amazing.
The more fun part about Grooveshark.com for you would be that you can play any song you want on demand there. So when you're on iTunes and you only get to listen to a 30-second clip of the song and you wish they'd play the whole thing, just go to Grooveshark.com and you can! Cool, huh?
September 17, 2009
iTunes stuf
First of all, I can't believe my wife was the only one who commented on my "I have Cowboys-Broncos tickets!" post below. Isn't anyone happy for me?
Second, here's the 10-Question iTunes post. You should all copy the questions to your own blogs. I'm curious. (These questions assume you have an iTunes library... or at least some kind of music library on your computer/mp3 player.)
1. What's your favorite non-musical item in your iTunes library (audiobook, podcast, video, photo, application, etc.)?: I think I've got to say it's my "Marley and Me" audiobook. It provided a lot of entertainment for Elizabeth and I when we drove through Nebraska.
2. Name all the movies/shows for which you have the soundtrack in your iTunes library: A Goofy Movie (a few songs), Mad About You, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Phantom of the Opera, Animaniacs (a few songs), End of the Spear, Moulin Rouge, 10 Things I Hate About You, The Music Man, Titanic, Chicago, Newsies, Gummi Bears, High School Musical 3 (which I've never seen), Across the Universe (which I've never seen), The Lion King, Juno (a few songs), Tarzan (which I've never seen), Cars (a few songs), South Pacific, Grease, Jonah (Veggie Tales), Summer of '66 (high school choir tour stage show in Myrtle Beach), The Preacher's Wife, Sister Act II, Rent, The West Wing. Wow, that's way more than I thought!
3. What's your favorite album in your iTunes library?: Nouveaux, "And This is How I Feel"
4. Artist/band in your iTunes library who you wish would get a new career: Prince
5. Artist/band in your iTunes library who you wish would make a lot more music: Keith Green (but he can't, unfortunately)
6. 21st song (alphabetically) under letter "I" iTunes library: "I Can't Wait to Get to Heaven" by Keith Green
7. 4th artist/band under the letter "C" in your iTunes library: Carman
8. One artist from your iTunes library you'd like to have dinner with: Keith Green (sorry, he's showing up a lot)
9. Five artists/bands you proudly name when people ask what's on your iPod: Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Michael Buble, Garth Brooks, The Proclaimers
10. Five artists/bands you don't tell anyone about, but secretly LOVE to listen to on your iPod: Disney stuff (all of it), Ray Stevens, Mark Knopfler, Carman, B*Witched
There you have it. G'bye!
April 26, 2009
March 7, 2009
"Online"
I really like Brad Paisley. His songs are often very VERY funny. The video below is of his song, "Online," which is probably my favorite Brad Paisley song. The best part is that the video is every bit as funny as the song. Paisley enlisted Seinfeld's George Castanza (Jason Alexander) as the overweight loser, and used himself as the rich, good-looking guy that the loser wants to be like. It's great. Tell me if you laughed.
February 19, 2009
Keith Green: Servant of the Living God
I'm a big Keith Green fan. I don't think he's generally considered "the norm" for what music my generation appreciates, but his lyrics blow me away (even the 50th or 60th time I hear/read/sing them), and when I hear him sing and play the piano (beautifully!) I can tell how much love he had for his Lord. In every song he sings it's as if he might never get a chance to sing it again.
Green was killed in a plane crash in 1982 at the age of just 28. I know it's probably not the most theologically responsible thing to assert (and I'm a seminary student to boot!), and I'm not sure where this idea came from, but I think someone suggested to me once that maybe Keith just longed to be with his heavenly father so much that God thought that was a good idea. You can read more about Keith Green and the ministries that have stemmed from his story here. I would also encourage you to Youtube some of his songs (or get them from iTunes or whatever, just listen to them).
And for those of you who have always wondered why my blog is called "Rushing Wind," I've reproduced Green's lyrics to one of my favorite songs.
Rushing wind blow through this temple
Blowing out the dust within
Come and breathe your breath upon me
I've been born again
Holy Spirit, I surrender
Take me where you want to go
Plant me by your living waters
Plant me deep so I can grow
Jesus, you're the one who set my spirit free
Use me, Lord, glorify your Holy name through me
Separate me from this world, Lord
Sanctify my life for you
Daily change me to your image
Help me bear good fruit
Every day your drawing closer
Trials come to test my faith
But when all is said and done, Lord
You know, it's been worth the wait
Jesus, you're the one who set my spirit free
Use me, Lord, glorify your Holy name through me
Rushing wind blow through this temple
Blowing out the dust within
Come and breathe your breath upon me
I've been born again
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