Anthem

My good friend Foolish Knight, who you can visit here, recently held a 'Desert Island' poll, in which he asked people to pick three of their favorite books, movies, and music albums.
An idea came to me today and I thought I'd do something along the same lines, although in a different way. I'd be curious to know what you, my reader, consider your life anthem song to be. What do you consider to be the song that represents you? What song (or songs, if you so wish) gives meaning to your life?
Instead of giving you a test and telling you the answer (i.e. You're a Golden Retriever! You're warm, energetic and helpful!), I'm going to let you represent yourself.
If this goes well, I might try it in several catagories.
Have fun, and post often!

Movies 2004

For those interested, Christianity Today has posted their
Top Ten Favorite Films 2004
And
Top Ten Most Redeeming Films 2004
Lists for last year.
Comments are welcome, share your opinions!

Oh

And in other news, I'm considering getting an electric guitar. I need it so I can play guitar directly into my recording software. It might be a better sound quality. Anyway, I'll keep you posted.

Unforgettable

I know that my money would probably be put to better use elsewhere, but I just can't help myself when it comes to U2. I'm currently trying to build my U2 collection, and have a long way to go. But I made a small step by purchasing The Unforgettable Fire the other day. As always with U2, I wasn't disappointed.
I'd write a full review, but most of you who read this blog are already U2 fanatics and know about it yourself, and besides that, it's really late. So I'll write a capsule review instead. Here it is:
It's really good, excellent as a matter of fact, Bono sings great anthems, and the Edge has cool guitar riffs. Pretty much the same thing I've said about every U2 album. It's more for a collector who wants to understand the U2 sound progression throughout the years, and this is simply the progression between October and The Joshua Tree. Regardless of that though, it still deserves merit by itself as an excellent album.
Standout tracks: Pride (In The Name Of Love), Bad, MLK
So you might enjoy it if you buy it.
Yeah, that's all.

So

Every so often, I come across something that just blows my mind. Peter Gabriel's masterpiece, So, is such a something. It partially blows my mind that I haven't come across this up till now. It seems that such an incredible piece of art should have come across my line of sight sometime or other. But of course, it could have something to do with the fact that So was recorded in 1986. Actually, 1986 was a great year for finding great albums. Sam (then Leslie) Phillips released her last Christian album, and her greatest up to that point, The Turning. That same year also turned out what has come to be seen as probably the greatest (or at least in the top three greatest) rock albums of all time, The Joshua Tree. It was a year that the music industry started to take a turn towards greatness, even if that greatness turned out to be short-lived. That turn towards greatness was in part pushed on by the brilliancy of Peter Gabriel, and his first true mainstream rock album. It shouted out to the world, and the world listened. Now, almost 20 years later, I'm hearing the echoes of what originally was a mighty call.
I think maybe that the thing about So that makes it so intriguing is it's depth. Many albums that I've listened to numerous times and enjoyed, had an outside layer that drew me in originally because of the superior sound, the emotions of the music. But when I tried reached that point, that was it. It seemed beautiful on the outside, but when I got to the center of the message, there was no substance. It was shallow, with nothing else to give me but a good feeling for a while. And that's why So is so special. It too has an outer shell of music, and I have to say I've rarely come up against such brilliance in rythym and beat. His unique sythesizers work perfectly with the eclectic sounding, syncipated percussion. He has since scored several movies, including Martin Scorcese's The Last Temtation Of Christ, and the recent Rabbit Proof Fence. His musical skills are indeed quite impressive, but the thing that makes So special is that when the polish of the music has been worn away, we find that there is another layer pulling us in, a lyrical layer, filled with incredible metaphores and diverse emotional allusions to our daily lives. It is rare indeed to find a work of art that asks to be explored. We are practically required to take time to think about what Peter Gabriel is saying. None of the answers to his songs are found at first glance, they must be studied and thought about thoroughly, and then, only then, do we begin to develop a concept of the profound thoughts he puts forth. And in the end, it truly pays off to find the answers.
Every song is filled with incredible feelings, and the breadth of emotion is seen throughout the songs, as they flow into each other. The first song is a song that sets the meaning for the album, the song Red Rain. It is about surrender, about losing ourselves, and being found by love. The lyrics speak for themselves, "Just let the red rain splash you/Let the rain fall on your skin/I come to you with defenses down/With the trust of a child".
The next song, Sledgehammer, is a bit of a contradiction to the whole album, as it's basically an intense love song. It still feels right on the album, but in a strange way. Interestingly enough, that song has probably garnered more attention than any other on the album, through it's music video, which is considered by most critics to be the greatest music video of all time.
Next in line, the song Don't Give Up, is where Gabriel starts in on one of his lasting themes of the album. There is hope, even in the darkest of places, and hardest of situations. The song, sung as a duet with Kate Bush, is a beautiful anthem to the power of faith in goodness overcoming evil, and has had a powerful effect on many people's lives.
For the following song, That Voice Again, he does a positional twist, and puts himself in the place of the very individual he was encouraging in the previous song. He expresses the desire to be at unity with love, but is held back by the voices that attack from all sides, at all times. The fear and doubt are close, but so is security and love.
I think that maybe the song Mercy Street, although often overlooked, might be the most intesively poignant, and at the same time, incredibly brilliant song of the entire album. It is the last glorious cry of a broken individual, who looks darkness and despair directly in the eyes, and says, you may beat me, you may break my body, you may defeat every last light in me, but you can never break my spirit. It is what we find at the very center of what makes us human, the intensive truth of goodness, love, and mercy. The allusions to Christianity in this song are also fascinating.
I love the way the song Big Time begins, with a deliberate, "Hi there!". It is a spirit of defiance, almost arrogance, that makes this song so interesting. It almost makes me think of American culture, with everything warped and oversized to our liking. It portrays the modern want to have more, and to experience more, as heard in the line "And I will pray to a big God/As I kneel in the big Church/Big time/I'm on my way to making it big time". Very interesting.
Moving along in the album, we start to see that Gabriel enjoys songs that repeat the lyrics, as witnessed in the songs Red Rain, Big Time,and the next song, We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37). The song title also is the lyric that is repeated over and over again in the song, until we begin to hear a series of statements, all beginning with one (i.e. One life, One love, etc.). I think that the point of the song is even though we do what we're told, there still are basic things that are true that stay true no matter what we are pressed to do by this world. A very interesting interlude.
The following song is one of the weirdest songs I've ever heard. This Is The Picture (Excellent Birds) doesn't seem to have a meaning right off. And I'm still in the dark about what it means. I'll get back to you when I figure it out. One thing it isn't is boring. It starts with a offset beat, that builds up along with the instruments the entire song to a energetic ending. It's almost as if the whole song is leading up to something, we just never get to find out what. Still fun.
The last song, In Your Eyes, though not the most profound, is probably the most recognizable radio songs by Gabriel. As a matter of fact, I didn't even know it was done by Gabriel to start out with, as the first place I heard it was on Christian radio, on of two covers done by Christian artists of the song. I'm actually glad that it was Gabriel who wrote it to begin with, because his version is infinitely better than the remakes. It actually reminds me ever so slightly of something Phil Collins might have done. But as always, the writing in this song is much better than anything Collins ever did. It is a song that ends the album with hope, hope in people, hope in love. It in a way ties the whole album together, and everything starts to make sense. It simply goes to show what a masterpiece So is.
So, don't hesitate to go out and buy this album. I did for a long time, I now I regret I didn't get it earlier. It is one of the best albums you'll ever run across, and I can think of almost no better way I could spend musical time than to spend it listening to Peter Gabriel's So.

revise

I been thinking lately that as I've done so many reviews, I should start to rate the subjects I write of. You know, do a scale of 1 to 5 stars, and then rate the piece of work according to that scale. But I think I've decided against it, for the very reason that really, first off, pretty much the only things I review are things I have incredibly enjoyed, and want you to enjoy as well. So that kind of makes me biased. But also, many times in the past, I've read a review by someone who rated the work in question such and such a rating, and then from that point on, I assumed that person was correct in their assumption. The things I say about the things I review are my opinions, not actual truth, and if I started to rate things, I would probably just end up doing them an injustice. Therefore, you can take my reviews as more of my thoughts as they come to me.

Random thoughts about U2

I just read a figure from an online U2 source that quoted that the total album sales of the band U2 are in the vicinity of 135 million to 140 million albums worldwide. Signs are good that the total listed above could continue to grow, and could meet or surpass the Beatle's total worldwide album sales, 160 million. I'm guessing that as the album, 'All That You Can't Leave Behind' sold 14 million copies, that Atomic Bomb will do as well or better.
But the real point is that U2's actually got a message worth hearing. In other news recently, Bono was nominated for the Nobel prize, for his incredible efforts to bring an end to poverty and AIDs crisis in Africa (I'd love to see him win, but it's unlikely, as he's up against the pope this year). He has been, and continues to be the voice for many trying to find meaning for life, and brings a good message to those willing to hear it. He reaches out to all peoples, bringing divided groups together to change the outlook on many social problems. And besides all that, U2 just does flat out cool music. No one can do it better, or charm a larger audience. Really, it's just really hard to ignore the enormous impact U2 and Bono have had on our world. So, Viva U2!
Visit U2's website here, got some cool stuff.

More Chesterton

"I don't deny that there should be priests to remind men that they will one day die. I only say it is necessary to have another kind of priests, called poets, actually to remind men that they are not dead yet."
--G.K. Chesterton

Links

Check out this trailer for the movie, 'Millions', coming out soon. Looks interesting.

Also from apple movie trailers website, a 'Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe' featurette, with Richard Taylor of Weta (Lord of the Rings special effects) commenting on crafting the different characters in the movie.
See that here.

Also, I was browsing through the Relevant Magazine website archives and found this article. I'd be interested to know if anyone agrees or disagrees with the list. Comments are welcome.

This Review Is Long Overdue...

...Not because I promised to do it in some past post, but because the book, 'The Man Who Was Thursday' deserves mention by all those who've read it and have understood the theological implications in it.
Put quite simply, 'The Man Who Was Thursday' is a masterpiece. A slice of literary genius hidden among many other more popular, but quite mediocre books. It is in my opinion G.K. Chesterton's greatest work, and throughout the pages of the book he wove his being, the essence that defined him.
The book itself is quite short, barely 200 pages, yet in the text he wrote his cry for the continued life of rationality and western Christian thought. It covers ideas and moral issues such as rationality, moral relativism, nihilism, and addresses Christian thoughts such as peace and suffering, God's absolute power in our lives, and much more. And in his fine fashion, he molds all the ideas into one great, exciting, confusing misadventure that charms all who read it.
Interestingly, The Man Who Was Thursday has less to do with a great fantasy like The Lord of the Rings than it does with the movie, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The whole book is one big chase, from beginning to end, and it brings our hero, Gabriel Syme, from England all the way across Europe, and back. It's very fast paced, and it could easily fool the less attentive reader into thinking it's just a long fractured fairy tale. But in reality, G.K. Chesterton wrote into the madcap story the realities of true goodness, the subtlety in the balance between sin and salvation, and the horror of complete evil.
On a side note quickly, this book contains an interesting bit of Chesterton trivia in it. It's kind of a riddle for those who don't know, but the name of the protagonist is Gabriel Syme, which at first glance, seems unimportant. But when looked at closer, we find that in a name dictionary, Gabriel is a variation of Gilbert, and the surname Syme, comes from an old-english word meaning, 'One in the Same', or something to that effect. So what we find as meaning in the hero's name is 'Gilbert, one in the same'. Many take this to mean that this was in some ways a fictional story telling the story of an actual life, that of G.K. Chesterton. It may have been in some ways, an autobiography.
The story begins with our Character coming into a conversation with a poet who lives for anarchy, the ideals of those who wish destruction of all men, and ultimately, themselves. He delves into a conversation that leads to events through which a great conspiracy is unmasked to Syme, and through a turn of events, he himself finds himself secretly taking part as a type of agent for truth in an movement of disorder and false hope. On another side note, it should be mentioned that this book was published in 1906, contemporary with a movement of anarchism, that found it's roots in people such as Nietzsche, through the idealism of nihilism, and eventually materialised in the form of communism, and socialistic order, found only a decade later in Russia.
Syme, in his unique position begins to probe what the order of people he has secretly joined is all about, and in a short while, stumbles into a trail with unexpected twists and turns, that could mean good or evil for him. His trail leads him to many suprises, that open his eyes to the subtleties of truth that lay, awaiting our finding them.
Beyond the small description I've given above of the book, I can't say much. It is the kind of book that if the plotline was revealed, even in part, it would spoil the interesting hand that the book has to play. Hopefully, instead of pouring over this review for ever, you will go to your local library and check out The Man Who Was Thursday, and read it for yourself. It has so many delightful suprises to offer, and if understood in it's entirety, answers many questions that haunt our modern philosophies. If only to aquaint yourself with G.K. Chesterton, by all means read it, for it truely was autobiographical, portraying who Chesterton really was. I consider it one of the great apologetical calls for Christianity, and should be counted among the finest Christian thought has to offer. It truely is a masterpiece.
Postscript:
For many who read it the first time around, it brings up a lot more questions than it answers, and it must be taken as a work almost that must be exegeted to be understood fully. I hope in the future to write a thesis of the ways everything ties in. If you have a question about the book, don't hesitate to post it.