Fri 23 Feb 2007
Here it is. You’ve been waiting all week long with baited breath. Relax. Scoot your rolly-chair in a bit closer. Pull that cup of coffee up to your cheek and bask in the glow of the Weekly Town Crier. Below you’ll find links to some of the links I linked on this past week. Enjoy.
Read Pitchfork’s review of the Trees Community’s collection The Christ Tree. According to the review, “As explained by surviving members in 2005, the Trees Community’s aesthetic drew inspiration from the most disparate sects of Christianity,” which leads to the insight: “Our general understanding of modern Christian music is so far removed from what the Trees Community accomplished that this release comes as a startling revelation.”
Read the 5-star review of the Trees Community box set from Allmusic and read the A+ review from Stylus. Visit the prerequisite Myspace page here, order the four-disc box set from here, learn more about the Trees Community here and hear three songs here.
Read this Forbes article which examines “holdouts,” artists whose music is still not available digitally, including The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and others.
Read about the ongoing abortion debate in the U.K.
Read about the recent report which claims that continued learning can help lead to longer living.
Read Yahoo’s report that New Jersey plans to honor out-of-state same-sex unions (I still refuse to call them marriages because they are not).
Browse the list of “Music You Should Hear” from Daniel Levitin, author of This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of Human Obsession.
Read about the upcoming “conservative television satire” program to feature Ann Coulter.
Read about Opus Dei’s plans to protect their public image by making a movie.
Read about the SC Pastor who was paid to endorse Hillary in church. Read Hillary’s denial of paying the pastor for an endorsement.
Read about the confusion surrounding a man who delivered his dead baby to an abortion clinic.
Read about the seven Tanzanian Anglican Bishops who refused to take communion with the “head of the U.S. branch of the church, who supports ordaining gays and blessing same-sex unions.”
Read about the death of NT scholar Bruce Metzger. Read also, Gordon Fee’s tribute to Metzger.
Read about some of the interesting rule changes to Major League Baseball. Also read about MLB changing caps.
Read Al Mohler’s post wich deals with the recent book Washington’s God and the question of whether or not America’s first President actually believed the Gospel.
Read the recent Barna report which finds that “Born again Christians differ from other people regarding their religious beliefs, but their awareness of cultural icons and their feelings about most celebrities are indistinguishable from those of the population at-large” and that Billy Graham tops a recent list of recognizable “religious” figures.
Read Pitchfork’s review of the new album from TX instrumental outfit Explosions in the Sky, All of the Sudden I Miss Everyone.
Read about the “all-body” swimsuits (a.k.a. less-warm wetsuits) that are bringing Muslim women to the beaches.
Read as Jeremy Casella encourages us to “Destroy Your Vocabulary” and unlearn “Christian speak.”
Read as John McCain shows his true colors. Though he has quite positive things to say about Donal Rumsfeld upon his resignation, McCain now says he was “one of the worst.
Browse the growing confirmed list of bands for this year’s SxSW festival.
Watch Nora, the piano playing cat.
Read as Sufjan Stevens hints that his next state-themed album just might be about California.
Read about the continuing controversy at William and Mary College, who recently removed a cross from a chapel and allowed an art show by sex-workers instead.
Read about the many negative health effects on children from watching television.
Read about Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams’ recent move against liberals in the denomination.
Read this report that satelite radio providers Sirius and XM plan to merge.
Read about the 12-Step program for people addicted to e-mail.
Read as Ben Witherington offers some thoughts on Rob Bell (HT: JT).
Read along as the NY Times visits a gathering of the New York C.S. Lewis Society.
Please welcome my good friend Doug Wolter to the blogosphere.
Read as Gunny gives us the “slooge” on the word, its uses, mis-uses and legend.
Read about the RIAA cracking down on colleges across the country for illegal music downloading students.
Read about the pastor who claims that Thomas Jefferson believed in a “gate” through the wall of separation between church and state.
Read about former heavyweight boxing champ Tommy Morrison returning to the ring after it was discovered that the positive HIV test that ended his career a decade ago was actually a false-positive and he’s been negative the entire time.
Read Pitchfork’s review of the newest Eluvium album Copia, which is the first to fully incorporate strings, woodwinds and piano into the ambient washes.
Read about the recent agreement between Apple and Cisco to share the iPhone name.
Read as NPR celebrates the legacy of poet W.H. Auden.
Read about This American Life moving from Chicago to New York and to television.
Read about the lawsuit alleging that a boy was not allowed to dress as Jesus for Halloween while others were permitted to dress as witches and devils (there’s just so much wrong here).
Read as Mark reminds us of the need to make it our aim to please Him.
Read this report about a recent study which found that the P2P effect on music sales was not statistically distinguishable from zero.
Read Pitchfork’s review of one of my recent favorites, Benevento/Russo Duo’s Play Pause Stop.
on 23 Feb 2007 at 9:33 am 1.Nicholas said …
Hey Brent. If you like The Duo, you should check out the Benevento Russo Duo Fan Community. We welcome all Duo fans!
I’d also recommend checking out The Duo’s earlier stuff, too. It’s all available on iTunes.
on 23 Feb 2007 at 11:57 am 2.April Mauldin said …
Brent, Watch for Lucas Martin at the SxSw festival this year. He has two showcases already set up. Chad has been recording him for several years. HIs latest release will be debut at the festival. He is a guitar prodigy.
on 23 Feb 2007 at 2:04 pm 3.Mark said …
Brent,
I just wanted to tell you that I am always appreciative of your efforts to highlight my blog on your excellent one.
I feel like the Weekly Town Crier is an exercise in humility on your part.
Thanks again for serving your weaker blogging brother!
on 23 Feb 2007 at 2:18 pm 4.Rhett Smith said …
Brent:
Good stuff as always. Thanks for posting the Ben Witherington blog. Interesting stuff. We are hosting Rob at UCLA, along with Zondervan, NOOMA, Flannel and Borders on March 8th. Should be an interesting night.
Rhett
on 24 Feb 2007 at 3:39 pm 5.Brent Jeffrey Thomas said …
Pastor, I did pull up my chair and hold my warm cup of coffee up to my cheek, and did bask in the glow of your wonderful assortment of links.
Nora is one cool cat. Would her music be considered Aleatoric Music? She is almost as wonderful and cool as my cat Yodi, a cat-vocalist (she chirps, trills, yow-yows, etc.), who greets me politely each morning After the alarm clock rings, and leans against my ankle, sleepily blinking at me for some time while I drink my morning coffee. Yodi, of the tribe of tiger, inspires me to contemplate our Creator. I wonder why there are no references to domesticated cats in the Bible? Does anyone have a theory? Were there house cats in the Holy Land in Bible times?
Jeremy Casella’s essay on “Christian Speak” was just so uplifting, and just, oh so convicting, and just…I,just, agree with his sentiments. I so dislike hearing the word “just” used in prayer, which happens repeatedly it seems in almost every non-liturgical Christian prayer. I become distracted when I hear the word “just” uttered repeatedly in a prayer, and veer rapidly from being in a state of prayerfulness to being irritated. It is a good thing that salvation is by the grace of the Lord, because even in prayer I am an irritable soul. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.