Pray for Rain

They say it rains in Seattle
Well, I say let it rain
The trees, they all look thirsty
And the grass is brown with pain
No rain clouds come a callin'
No summer tempest storm
I thought this was a wet place
I thought that was the norm
So, God in heaven, listen
Bend ear and look on down
Refresh the streets and people
Of this bustling, groovy town
A drink is all I'm askin'
Refreshment for the soul
It will not dampen spirits
Just fill an empty hole

Magdalene

Last night, Sarah and I attended a staged reading of a new musical called "Magdalene." It's written by Allison Metcalf Allen with musical assists by Michele Pillar Carlton and Chris Eaton. The reading was done by Taproot performers. It tells the story of Magdalene (fictional) as she grows up, what led her to her life as a prostitute. During the first few minutes of the story, I was beginning to feel like I was at a typical Christian church performance. Cheesy, happy, la-la-la kinda stuff. But the story soon turned dark and the realities of life through painful experiences began to be revealed. In the story, Magdalene is raped by Roman soldiers thus ruining her innocence and her life of future marriage to Nathaniel. She moves to Jerusalem and is taken in by a group of prostitutes. She later gets revenge for her rape and then meets Jesus. The story was incomplete since the second act isn't completed. We got a glimpse only of what it will become. I believe it has potential. It is supposedly headed for a tour and run on Broadway. I hope it is successful. I don't really see a musical about Magdalene lighting the world on fire but with all the interest in the "Da Vinci Code" perhaps it has a chance.

For Rockers, Christian Blessing Can Be Fickle

Rocker Sufjan Stevens frequently channels faith through his music, but falls short of the standards of the Christian Music Trade Association -- a key U.S. gatekeeper in deciding what music is "Christian."
The association's seal of approval can mean lucrative exposure in a hot segment of an otherwise stagnant music market, and provide a stepping stone to broader success.
Stevens' ode to Jesus Christ, "To Be Alone With You," was heard during an episode of the popular and racy Fox TV teen drama "The OC."
An appearance on such a show would not necessarily hurt an artist's standing with the group, said president John Styll of the CMTA, which represents music labels specializing in Christian music.
"I would love to see more Christian music in venues that need it, so to speak," he said. "We love to let the light shine where it is darkest."
However, Styll said, Stevens lacks adequate distribution through Christian channels and has not shown a desire for the association's imprimatur. "He just doesn't want to play the Christian music-market game,* and that's OK," Styll said.
According to CMTA's Christian SoundScan arm, U.S. album sales of Christian rock grew around 125 percent from 2003 to 2004, expanding to 8.25 million from 3.66 million. During the same period, total U.S. album sales grew only 1.6 percent, rising to 666.7 million from 656.2 million.
Christian SoundScan data, collected with Nielsen Media Research, is publicized through Christian charts in Billboard magazine. Nielsen and Billboard are the property of Dutch media group VNU NV .
Hot groups on the Christian-music charts include Jars of Clay and Relient K. Jars of Clay sold 6 million albums last year, including many outside the CMTA's tracking.
To qualify, CMTA's Styll says albums must receive some national play on Christian radio, 25 percent of sales in the first week must be in Christian shops, and lyrics must have "Christian content."
Lyrics must be "in line with the principles taught in scripture," Styll said, a definition he acknowledges can be "a little loose."
Other factors might also play a role, he said, such as the venues an artist plays, or one's willingness to appear at Christian events like the twice-yearly Creation Festival. "You just kind of generally know" if someone fits in, he said.
Sufjan Stevens' growing appeal is not reflected in the Christian charts, despite songs like 'To Be Alone With You' and often strongly spiritual lyrics ("Oh Lamb of God!/Tell us your perfect design").
A favorite of the secular indie-rock scene, Stevens plays at edgier, smoke- and beer-choked venues, and his lyrics occasionally veer to off-color.
Lowell Brams, a manager at Stevens' label, Asthmatic Kitty, said most of the label's artists are Christian, but care little for the association's certification.
Other artists do care. The benefit of certification can be their first widespread publicity on Billboard, catching the eye of bigger retailers and labels.
"It's worked fine for us," said Jeff Risden, an agent representing Relient K.
The group got its first national exposure on the Christian charts in 2000, and eventually signed a recording contract with major label Capitol Records.

*Tell me...what is a "Christian music-market game"? Is that like "Monopoly". Sounds more like "Balderdash" to me

Nonsense

Jeep, jeep
Hill too steep
Get in my way and I will beep
Miles to go before I sleep
Jeep, jeep
Hill too steep

Love, love
Rise above
Fly to me just like a dove
You're the one I'm thinking of
Love, love
Rise above

Hope, hope
Can I cope
I am quickly out of rope
Dangling here just like a dope
Hope, hope
Can I cope

Fear, fear
Drawing near
Will you go away from here
Vision's dim, will it clear
Fear, fear
Drawing near

Rain, rain
Liquid pain
Falling from the sky again
Black my heart with inky stain
Rain, rain
Liquid pain

Kiss, kiss
Two lips bliss
Nothing quite as good as this
When you're gone I really miss
Kiss, kiss
Two lips bliss

Gloom, gloom
Fills the room
Pressing down with weighty doom
Hits me like a sonic boom
Gloom, gloom
Fills the room

Light, light
Shining bright
Shatters dark and fearful night
Gives me strength to win the fight
Light, light
Shining bright

Sometimes I wonder if it's inspiration or snacks too late at night.

Thoughts Continued...

I do love you.
I want to be with you.
But I want to be a man you want to be with.
And I am not.
Life has broken me and I don't know how to pick up the pieces and keep going.
Until I can figure it all out, I need patience.
But I'm afraid patience is wearing thin.
You want me to ask God to help me.
Well, I have.
But it's hard since I feel like God let this happen.
And I don't trust him like I used to.
When will he open a door and let there be a light at the end of the tunnel.
I've never sought riches.
I've never sought fame.
I just want to be fulfilled.
I want to live a life that means something.
I want to love and be loved.
If that's too much to ask, then I don't know what to ask anymore

Modern Maskil Moment

Hopeless, Etc.
by Gene Eugene

I'm hopeless
Hopeless and tired
Will you give me the sign I'm looking for?
I am mired with the earnest and the sight-inspired
Hopeless

I'm helpless
Helpless and silent
Can you return my voice?
You left me mute and defiant
But I can't get my hands untied
Helpless

I'm useless
Useless without you
It's my fault
I am withered, I am weak
And about to find out why I'm so into being
Useless
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I feel this way.
Hopeless and tired.
Looking for a sign that never comes.
Surrounded by seemingly happy people while my world seems to crumble.
Wishing God would return my voice, my ministry, the life I was comfortable with.
And now I am mute and defiant. Silent and angry.
Hands tied unable to act.
Useless, yes.
But more useless without you.
There was a time when I could be alone.
Now I can't imagine life without you.
It is my fault.
Nobody's fault but mine.
But I am withered, weak, tired and fed up with life.
I am afraid I am becoming too comfortable being weak.

Anger

Anger is danger(ous)
But it's burning inside
I have to be gentle
In public
Amidst all the rudeness
The inconsiderate horde
I call the world
Is it righteous
My anger
Or is it the temper tantrum
Of a whining child
I want to lash out
Release this beast inside me
So I can feel some peace
But in the bottle it must stay
Else I offend someone's delicate nature
It fights to be free
This furious wildfire
Devouring the inner parts
Of me
I can't control it
It finds ways to escape
And it attacks
Not the ones guilty of injustice
But
The ones I love

Night of the Iguana

Sarah and I saw the play "Night of the Iguana" today. It was a freebie since Taproot gets comps to other plays sometimes. It was at ACT Theater. The play is by Tennessee Williams. The plot involves a defrocked Episcopalian minister who is guiding a tour of Baptist women in Mexico. Not a great position for him to be in since he is defrocked due to fornication and heresy. They stop at a hotel run by a woman named Maxine, someone from the ministers past. He also must deal with a young woman he slept with on the tour and another spinster painter who sees him for what he is. There's alot I could say about the play and it's content. It brought up some interesting theological issues. Perhaps another day. All in all, the play was good but I didn't care for the actor playing the minister. He played the part too whiney...too fragile...too prissy. He didn't seem like the type of man who would have women wanting to bed him. I just wanted to slap him and tell him that life is rough and you've gotta play the cards your dealt. Doubts about God are fine. I've had those myself. But don't whine. After the play, we drove down the street to Utrecht, an art supplies store. I didn't find anything but Sarah bought some canvas. We then checked out a little gallery on the fringes of Capitol Hill called Bluebottle Gallery. They deal in lowbrow art. Pretty cool stuff but a small place. The neighborhood we were in was quite eclectic. I wouldn't mind strolling through there another day but we were tired so we came home. Sarah fixed jambalaya and we watched "Open Range." Now, it's time for bed. Goodnight.

20/20 Piece on Art

You Call That Art?
Observers, Artists, Critics Rank Children's Paintings With the Masters
Mar. 14, 2005 - This story was originally broadcast March 11, 2005
People got very excited this year about Christo's massive public art work, "The Gates," in New York's Central Park. For two weeks in February, 7,500 metal gates draped with orange fabric were staked along 23 miles of the park's footpaths. Some people called "The Gates" a masterpiece. Others called it an ugly nuisance.
New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser said all the orange fabric on "The Gates" made it look like an ad for Home Depot.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) was annoyed by the criticism. "Nobody's criticizing this. Everybody likes it. And this is certainly art," he said.
It is? Well, I kinda like it, but how does the mayor know that "The Gates" is really art, and not just shower curtains on poles? Do people really know what's art and what's just stuff?
We ran a test.
On ABCNews.com, we showed four reproductions of art works that are considered masterpieces of modern art along with six pieces that will never make it into any museum. We asked viewers to decide which work was art and which was not.
I assumed the famous art would get the most votes if only because art lovers would recognize them, but they didn't. Most got far fewer votes than the winner.
The one that received the most votes as a "real" artwork was a piece of framed fabric "20/20" bought at a thrift store for $5.
We also conducted the test with New Yorkers at Manhattan Mall. We asked people to tell us which artworks they'd expect to see in a museum. We included copies of the famous paintings, plus some other items.
How do critics and curators decide which is art?
How do they determine that Damien Hirst's embalmed shark and sliced cow carcasses are art?
Why is Willem de Kooning's "A Tree in Naples," which we included a reproduction of in our quiz, worth millions, when a more realistic looking landscape, done by elephants with paintbrushes in Thailand, is worth much less?
I asked an art historian: Why is De Kooning's "A Tree in Naples" art? The work doesn't look like a tree, let alone Naples.
"But if you look closely, you might say this brown part is the bark of the tree. You might say the blue is the sky. Maybe that's, maybe that's the case and maybe it's not. But you bring to it whatever feelings that this evokes," said Samantha Hoover, an art historian at New York's School of Visual Arts.
What about Kasimir Malevich's Black Circle, which we also included in the online quiz? "He was saying I want to free art from telling a story," said Hoover.
So it's just all in the eye of the beholder?
"I wouldn't say it's all in the eye of the beholder," Hoover said. "I think you need to know the story behind the work to understand its full impact and meaning."
OK, I can get that concept. Watching Ed Harris' performance in the film about famous artist Jackson Pollock, I learned that Pollock's creative genius came from his tortured soul. That led to a big breakthrough in modern art. But do the people who pay millions for Pollock's work really see the difference between his dripping colors and a child's painting?
Four of the art works in our test were done by 4-year-olds, and when we showed their artwork on the Web, and showed it to people at the mall, the kids' work ranked ahead of most of the masters.
I assumed real artists wouldn't fall for the trick, so we invited some to take our test. Most of them also put at least some of the kids' work up there with the masters.
One artist, Victor Acevedo, described one of the children's pieces as "a competent execution of abstract expressionism which was first made famous by de Kooning and Jackson Pollock and others. So it's emulating that style and it's a school of art."
When I told him the work was done by a 4-year-old he said, "That's amazing. Give that kid a show."
Actually, it was a collaboration. Maybe they should give Hannah and Haley, the two 4-year-old girls who painted it, a show of their own. More than 1,800 people said their work was great art.
And even Hoover, the art historian, ranked one of the children's paintings among the real artworks. When I told her who did the work she said, "It has good composition. I think it has good depth and space."
So can anybody explain to me why people want to spend millions of dollars on abstract art if any 4-year-old could create something great?
"There's some art that's validated by the establishment or by the media and then there's the rest," said artist Deborah Gilbert.
But maybe the establishment is out to lunch.
An artist who calls himself Flash Light told me, "The function of art is to make rich people feel more important."
Well, if rich people want to spend their own money this way, fine.
But whether you think it's art or junk, the real deal is that you're contributing your money too.
The politicians may say they're starved for funds, but they're still giving your hard-earned tax dollars to museums that exhibit these kinds of things.
Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures

Modern Maskil Moment

In the book of Psalms, some of the poems are referred to as "maskils." Maskil is thought to mean a song or poem that teaches. With that in mind, from time to time, I would like to share a few Modern Maskils.

Reservations to Live
by Steve Lukather

Never should rush into things.
Shouldn't spill the wine before its time.
Wait and see what fortune brings.
Waste away till you can't see the signs.
Always taught to play it safe.
Wouldn't stick your neck out if you could.
Everything is in its place.
Might as well be chiseled out of wood.
And your time's running thin.
It's slipping through your fingers.
With your chance to begin.
Forever again.

Chorus:
Don't know what you're waiting for.
Don't need a reservation just to live.
You might be expecting more.
But you won't get more than you have to give.
And that's just the way it is.
Everyday it rains somewhere.

You've got to make the best of what you have.
You could tie a train out there.
You better get some sunshine while you can.
But you've heard this before.
It's ancient information.
Just walk through the door.
It's not that complicated.

Repeat Chorus

Gallery Websites

I like perusing gallery websites. I'm really into "lowbrow" art right now. I'll post more as they come to me. Image above is "Broken" by Jimmy Pickering.

http://www.digdugs.com/
http://www.lunaboygallery.com/
http://www.circusposterus.com/
http://www.glbarr.com/
http://www.toyroomgallery.com/
http://www.nineteeneightyeight.com/
http://www.winstonsmith.com/
http://www.mitchoconnell.com/
http://www.dvagallery.com/
http://www.roqlarue.com/
http://www.bluebottleart.com/
http://www.dalekart.com/
http://www.jimmypickering.com/
http://www.toddschorr.com
www.rikcat.com
www.hugemagazine.com

Woodland Park Zoo

Sarah and I went to the zoo on Sunday. Turned out to be a great deal to get a year pass for the zoo and the aquarium so we did. For the price of parking, we now have some great options for fun dates over the next year. We haven't been to the aquarium yet...probably this weekend. It's a nice zoo...not the best I've ever seen but with the shady trails and wonderful Seattle weather, it was nice. I really loved the bears! There's a window that shows the bears in the water. It was fun for me to watch this enormous brown bear swimming and having a good old time in the water. Sarah liked the otters. Most of the animals were napping when we got there. We never saw any lions and all the other animals were sacked out for siesta time. Later in the afternoon they started to get active. The other wildlife present on Sunday was kids. Man, there were a bunch of rugrats running around. And strollers...my gosh...I've never seen so many strollers in all my life. The annoying thing was that people would just push their stroller (with kids in them) up under me while I was watching something and then I would go to move and trip over it. I nearly squashed several children due to the ignorance of their parents. I wish there was an adults only day at the zoo. Then us big kids could enjoy the animals without all the little ones underfoot. Not sure how many times I can hear, "Monkeys! Look at the monkeys!" without going bonkers.

Booklist

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter continues his quest to find out more about Voldemort and his role in destroying the Dark Lord. I must begin by saying that I enjoyed this book less than some of the other recent ones, however, the last part of the book is very exciting and emotional. The book takes it time in the beginning to build up steam. It's a couple of chapters before we even pick up with what's going on with Harry. The first chapter about the new Minister of Magic and Prime Minister of England was slightly interesting but unnecessary. It didn't drive the book at all. Merely an aside which is, in my opinion, a bad way to start a book. Later, as we get into life at Hogwarts, we begin to see Harry struggle with the part he must ultimately play in the destruction of Voldemort. To add difficulty to his life, he and Ron both have begun the whole "teenage crush" thing and must deal with their feelings for the gals in their lives. As Dumbledore and Harry team up at the end to solve another piece of the Voldemort puzzle, the book picks up the pace. In the end, a battle ensues at Hogwarts and someone very important dies at the hands of someone unexpected. Harry ends the book realizing his life has changed and he has a mission to fulfill...one that may or may not include returning to Hogwarts. As I've said before, this is not my favorite of the recent books but it certainly opens up great possibilities for the last book. I am sad that the rumor is that Harry will die. This is possibly a necessary step for the climax of the story but I will miss the world of magic that is Harry Potter after it is all complete. It's been a most satisfying ride.

Pike Street Market

Sarah and I visited the Pike Street Market today. This is the place where they throw the fish. The picture to your left is quite serene compared to what we witnessed today. After driving downtown to the 5th Ave. Theater to pick up some costumes for an upcoming show at Taproot, Sarah and I decided to stay parked and walk a bit. We headed down Pike Street toward the water and there was the Market. It was packed today. I think every tourist in America was there today. Inside, the first thing we saw was the "fish throwers." Then we walked around a bit among the several floors of shops. On the main floor there is mostly produce, seafood and flowers. Pretty good prices on most. On nearly every corner there was a street musician. After about an hour, Sarah and I had had enough so we headed back to the jeep which we had parked 3 levels above Hell. I kid you not, this garage went down, down deep into the bowels of Seattle. I swear I could feel the flames of Hades lapping at my buttocks. The amazing thing was that after we left the garage, I was able to find my way out of downtown Seattle and back on 99 to get us back to Sarah's. Seattle is an interesting place, but I do not like the traffic.

Mars Hill Church

Sarah and I attended Mars Hill Church a couple of times over the past few weeks. I had heard great things about it over the years and wanted to see what the hype was all about. The services were ok...well done and slick. The music was really good. What turned us off was the preaching. The pastor delivers a good sermon but it's way too long. He preached well over an hour both times we went and what he said could have been boiled down to 30-40 minutes tops. A friend hinted that the pastor there likes himself too much and I understood his comment all too well. It's been my experience that pastors become full of themselves, using the excuse of presenting the gospel as a way to get their stage time. In some of the churches I have served in, the pastor won't give up his sermon time for anything. In one particular church, the pastor told me that it isn't a service unless the gospel is preached. Well, the gospel can be preached in many ways, through music, drama, etc. To me, it's just arrogance and self-importance showing through. St. Francis of Assisi said, "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words." Enough said. Another thing about Mars Hill we didn't like was the lack of creativity. No drama, video or anything. Just the same old contemporary church fall back order of service. Worship, preaching, etc. Nothing new. So, Sarah and I are attending Sanctuary. It is true they are not using creativity to it's fullest either but the pastor really ministers to folks. His heart is to reach the community not to build a grand megachurch. After all I've been through, I can relate to that. Outside the walls of the church is where it's going to happen these days. It's just like a drama I saw presented one time. Two old guys are fishing in their driveway and one comments that they have been faithful and one day the fish will just come to them. Yeah, right! You gotta go to the lake, people! For now, Sarah and I will continue at Sanctuary and hopefully God will show us what it is He would have us do.