Another musical mood...

I'm in one of those bizarre moods right now where the world's best music is presenting itself to me. Here is what's going through my speakers tonight:

The Smiths, "How Soon is Now?"
Morrissey's voice is one that has been stuck in my head since I was too young to pay attention to music. The Smiths disbanded when I was just a baby, but this song in particular has been a soundtrack of growing up. It seems like every film that has a song by the Smiths on its soundtrack becomes a favorite of mine. For coming straight out of the 80s, this actually has some depth and meaning while also being a song you can blast with the windows down on a sunny day.

Peaches, "Talk to Me"
I was first introduced to Peaches about 5 years ago-- a friend of mine sent me what she thought to be a hilarious song called "F*** the Pain Away". "Talk to Me" is her newest release, and it's really raw, crunchy and bass-n-drums punky. Enjoy.

Emilíana Torrini, "Nothing Brings Me Down"
This tune is by the lovely Emilíana Torrini, a great singer from Iceland. Yep. Iceland has given us more than just Björk! This song has a sort of ethereal quality that paralyzes and captures me. I have listened to this one over and over and over today. This video of the song is a really great live performance version.

Antony and the Johnsons, "You Are My Sister"
Despite having a voice that initially reminded me of... well... a smoky version of Tiny Tim, I really have grown to love Antony's voice and his form of dark cabaret music. There are songs that if I were to listen to them over and over, I'd end up in tears. I'm on listen #4 or 5 now, and should probably move on.

Wilco, "War on War"
Simply put, Wilco rocks my world. In many ways, Wilco (along with Dylan, Lucinda Williams and Ryan Adams) have been the soundtrack of my college and young adult life. How could you not LOVE this lyric: "You have to lose. You have to learn how to die if you want to be alive." Listen to this song. Love it, and then listen to all the Wilco you can!

Beastellabeast, "Final Mistake"
This is raw. Another crunchy, bass and drums heavy tune full of raw sexuality and musical experimentation. Beatrice Brown is a wild and gorgeous lead woman to this London-based band. This video gives her an almost Courtney Love/Tragically California essence, and yet she's just a musical maniac from across the pond. This song specifically reminds me a bit of my early days learning the bass and playing along with Les Claypool, Flea and Mike Gordon. I'm really hoping to hear more from Beastellabeast in the next few years. Fingers crossed... perhaps some of my friends in radio can start playing them?

That's all for now. It's been a great day of music.

Grab a mop, suckas.

Being a committed participant in society sometimes means that it's okay to get dirty-- it's a good thing to stand by your opinions and beliefs, and that is harder said than done.

You want something to be done? Pull up your bootstraps and get involved-- make change happen if you want to see it in your lifetime. It's not enough to sit and point fingers and be such a whiney nimrod.

Obama spoke in New York on October 20th of 2009. The following quote is just too good to not pass on. I don't care if you're a Republican or Democrat, or one of those fancy Republican tea-bag break-off folks who rambles on about civil liberties, our founding fathers and an ambiguous understanding of the Constitution... this is true of any situation in which we are confronted with a messy situation.

"We understand exactly who and what got us into this mess. Now, we don't mind cleaning it up. I'm grabbing my mop and my broom, and we're scrubbing the floors and trying to neaten things up. But don't just stand there and say "you're not holding the mop right". Don't just stand there and say "you're not mopping fast enough". Don't accuse me of having a "socialist mop". Instead of standing on the sidelines, why don't you grab a mop? Help us clean up this mess and get America back on track!"

Wipe your whiney tears and do something that matters.

Response from Pastor Walter Kallestad

At the end of September, I emailed Pastor Walter Kallestad of Community Church of Joy in Glendale, AZ to inquire about the theological and potentially political reasoning behind his church leaving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The ELCA recently made the decision to recognize and support the ordination of homosexual clergy into the ministry of the church. Some churches, such as CCOJ have decided that this is unacceptable and that the decision was made outside the fundamental beliefs of Christianity.

Read my original question to Walt here.

His brief (and ambiguously relevant) response came yesterday, the 8th of October.

Dear Ian - I encourage you to re read Genesis 1,2,3. God's created order has a perfect plan for marriage and family. For anyone to redesign God's desires and designs is just plain wrong. Since the fall God has sacrificed everything to reconcile and redeem ALL creation.

Blessings,

Walt

This just stinks of ambiguity and misconception.

I believe what he meant by "Genesis 1,2,3" is actually Genesis 2: 24... again, what I would call "sound byte" scripture: a single sentence taken out of context found in a book full of diverse and conflicting ideas.

Furthermore, I asked for an explanation based on the teachings of Jesus, the very guy we Christians claim to follow, and all I got was a suggestion to read the first three chapters of the old testament? Really?? Jesus was merely a twinkle in God's eye at that point!

So, dear readers and committed participants, here's my question to you:

• What do you think about this issue and decision from a personal belief perspective (regardless of your faith background)?
• What would your response to this perfunctory message be? What questions would you ask at this point?
• As a participant in culture-- theological, popular, political-- what does his response actually say in regard to my initial set of questions? Does this give us any insight into how or why we should justify turning our backs to people who are simply biologically different than me?

I look forward to responding, and will post my return as soon as it is composed. Chime in with your questions if you'd like them addressed in my retort.

A letter to Pastor Walter Kallestad of Community Church of Joy

Recently, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to recognize gay marriage and allow the ordination of homosexuals in committed relationships. There are a certain number of small thinkers who have made a stink of this, and a noisy minority of ELCA churches are talking about leaving the church, claiming the ELCA's recent decisions to extend a Godly love to all as a main reason for their divorce from the synod.

One such church, Community Church of Joy in Glendale, Arizona has recently decided that a divorce would suit their congregation rather than trying to learn how to love.

Is nothing sacred any more?!

Here is a letter I just sent to Pastor Kallestad. I look forward to his response.

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Good evening, Pastor Kallestad,

I just read the unfortunate news about Community Church of Joy's decision to divorce from the ELCA. I appreciate the attempts at an explanation on the church's website, but am left confused, as most of the scripture used as a tool of human justification was used without much consideration of context.

Regardless, I would love to hear a more candid, real explanation from you if you're willing to engage in such conversation. I read your quote from the ELCA News Service, "There is such a different direction that the ELCA has chosen, a path they're traveling on, and we really believe that it just was not consistent to where God has called us. And so we're parting".

After having read the three documents released on your website, my question stems from my understanding of the ELCA's direction and of what Jesus actually said himself in Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."

As a people of faith, how could I even begin to use any secondary scripture to justify turning my back on people who are different than myself? Does this Godly love Jesus refers to only stretch to fellow Christians and to the state of Israel? Is this love applicable to only heterosexual sinners? I understand there is such a thing as "sound byte" scripture (Romans 1:27 for example) which, when used alone, is used to explain the sin in what is considered "unnatural" according to popular human culture.

But even in that case, the biblical and historical context reveals a deeper message. See Romans 2:1:

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.

I'm a sinner. You're a sinner. Heterosexuals, homosexuals, blacks, whites, hispanics, jews, christians, muslims... we're all sinners. And yet, God loves us all just the same, whether we like it or not. There is nothing any of us can do to escape this love, grace and forgiveness.

Please help clarify this issue if you can. I would much rather have respect for the thought behind this conversation and divorce (er... "God's calling") than be left wondering why Christian culture in America feels like we can justify bigotry and angry politics with a loose, misunderstood scripture.

Blessings to you and the people of CCOJ,

Ian McConnell

Minneapolis, MN

ian.mcconnell@comcast.net

On Bob Collins' "Lutherans step back from the edge"

Woody Harrelson cracks me up

Apparently Woody Harrelson is being sued by a TMZ photographer for damaging his primary camera and pushing him in the face at La Guardia airport on Wednesday evening. He had just arrived back in New York with his daughter after wrapping up the filming of "Zombieland", his latest project.

Besides the obvious discussion about the paparazzo's respect of the privacy of celebrities and their families, Harrelson's statement about the situation, found in this CNN article, is particularly hilarious and TOTALLY worth talking about: 

"I wrapped a movie called 'Zombieland', in which I was constantly under assault by zombies, then flew to New York, still very much in character. With my daughter at the airport I was startled by a paparazzo, who I quite understandably mistook for a zombie."

My love for Woody has just grown exponentially. That is awesome.

This speaks for itself... AMERICA!

This sticker is faded, just like the idea behind it.

xoxo,

a "saved" american.

Reality exists in the Gray: an open thread

To be a committed participant is to be able and willing to engage in open debate and argument.

To engage in open debate and argument is to have a keen understanding of not only your own take on the issue but those opposing yours.

To have a keen understanding of both the black and white of an issue in debate is to, in reality, think somewhere in the gray zone that is lost in the media's form of debate.

Therefore, my question to you is this: as a committed participant in society, do the pundits on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc hold any value or weight of importance? If so, how should we effectively sort through the information being fed to us by these traditional media outlets? If they do not have value or importance to you, where do you get information from all angles in order to truly be equipped for real discussion and debate?

'Tis a frustrating quandary.

Participate by sharing your thoughts in the comments section, if you feel so inclined.

Needed: One major culture change

This is not a request, a suggestion, or a passing idea.

This is a plea. I am begging you.

For the love of anything sacred in American [and western] culture, it's time we re-examine what we hold important.

To those of you who listen to mainstream radio owned and operated by Clear Channel Communication (click here if you don't know), I beg of you one thing:

Explore your options. Listen to music that hasn't tested well in radio markets. Listen to lyrics. Learn to not only hear music, but listen to it. Feel it. 

If what you're listening to includes lyrics about chains, jewelry, women and cars, I blame you just as much as producers for killing one of the few things we should actually be proud of: culture. OUR music: blues, jazz, rock and roll, bebop, swing, and all the fusions that come along with what used to be a beautiful process of natural artistic evolution.

Here is my challenge to you:

1) Listen to public radio. If you live in Minneapolis-St. Paul, try 89.3 The Current (or stream it online). This is a station that plays something that resembles music. Real, natural, organic music.

2) Explore America's history. Begin to take pride in more than our pride. Have you ever wondered what we've actually given the world other than a higher per-capita ego? We have a rich history which created so many new genres that have spread all over the world. 

Before you listen to that synthetically-produced crap again, get a healthy dose of real American music.

Here's the prescription. You need to take a listen to these. Seriously:

• Muddy Waters
• Howlin' Wolf
• Mississippi John Hurt
• Woody Guthrie
• Chuck Berry
• Sam Cooke
• Wilco
• Bob Dylan
• North Mississippi All-Stars
• Ryan Adams
• Lucinda Williams
• Jimi Hendrix... and not just the ones you know-- find some deep tracks
• Johnny Cash (you think you like "country"? this is country)
• George Gershwin
• Dizzie Gillespie
• Hank Williams (the real one, not the third)

Again... let me suggest that you listen to some of the music of all the artists listed above. If you find something you like, do a little digging. 

Be a committed participant in culture.

If you find, after listening to all of this, that you simply don't like any of it, then fine. 

Return to your commercial radio. 

Return to being a music consumer rather than a music fan.

Return to allowing one of the major contributions of America slowly get flushed by vocoders, producers as artists, and money-driven "art".

Northstar Line! Yes!

It's about damn time.

And all of a sudden, Fridley is actually a part of the city. I am so thrilled that we are breaking ground on building more commuter rails.

Again.

Life's Soundtrack: A Few Musical Nuggets

Music has played many roles in my life: it has most often provided me a meditative space within myself to interpret, reflect upon and detoxify myself from a messy reality. It has both sparked the flame of friendships and fed the fire of deep, intense relationships.

In many ways, some combination of melodies, harmonies and snippets of lyrical phrases have shaped my life and continue to provide some context for how I see it happening.

That being said, I want to share with you a short list of some of the albums that I absolutely identify with and have trouble separating from who I am at the very core.

1. The Beatles - “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

“Sgt Pepper” was the first album I bought with my own money. I had just gotten my first CD player boombox for Christmas, and had a gift certificate to spend at Sam Goody. I had no idea where to start, and per my mom’s suggestion, this is the one I blindly purchased.

I popped it in my player hit play, and I kid you not, I did not take it out for well over a year. In my mind, after hearing it, I did not need any new music. Ever. To some extent, I still believe that.

The Beatles have taken me on so many journeys in my mind since that first listen. I learned how to interpret lyrics from this album. I mourned the loss of Lennon while listening to the song “A Day in the Life” on repeat for about a week. I learned how to have an intimate relationship with music. I am forever grateful to my mom and to the Beatles for this album.

2. Barenaked Ladies - “Gordon”

I was introduced to Barenaked Ladies’ “Gordon” in about 1994, I believe. I was seven years old. There isn’t a bad track on the whole damn thing. BNL means more to me than I know how to write in short— they are fantastic, you need to listen to this album again if you haven’t recently.

Starting with “Gordon”, Barenaked Ladies taught me how to be goofy while remaining genuine. They are masters of the art.

3. k.d. Lang - “Ingenue”

Have you heard this, one chapter of the soundtrack of my childhood? As long as I have had the ability to distinguish voices from each other, k.d.’s voice has been in my head. Some of my very favorite memories take place in our living room, yellow with artificial light. Brynn and I danced and sang along to Ingenue in our P.J.s. We used to do this quite a bit, actually, and I now realize that this album provided us some great memories which we’ll always look back on, almost with some jealousy for our younger selves.

Also, k.d. Lang was on Pee Wee Herman’s Christmas special when we was really little. That was awesome.

4. Lucinda Williams - “World Without Tears”

Brieanna gave this one to me a couple years back during a period of time that was fairly difficult for both of us. She had driven down to the Twin Cities from Cloquet on a damp, cloudy autumn afternoon and gave me this CD to listen to. As that winter progressed, we talked almost every night on the phone— her from northern Minnesota, me from my dark, cold bedroom in our rental house in SE Minneapolis. There were a number of mornings I woke up with my ear to the receiver of my cell phone, all tangled up in a sea of blankets after falling asleep singing “People Talkin’” to each other a few hours before.

I cannot hear Lucinda Williams anymore without thinking fondly of that time of my life, talking with Brieanna. I hope to have more conversations like those. In the meanwhile, I’ll keep listening to this album.

5. Guster - “Keep it Together”

The fine gentlemen of Guster are some of my best friends. They are not aware of this, but they are. Since I was in high school, their music has spoken to me in a very real way. The song “Come Downstairs and Say Hello” hits me in a weirdly sentimental and nostalgic way each time I hear the first guitar line noodling through my head.

This album reminds me a lot of my freshman year of college. I’m sure my roommate Matt got really sick of it toward the end of the year. Obviously not too much though— he agreed to live with me for 2 years after that!

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I will perhaps share some more of my favorites at another time, but for now, this list of 5 has been fun to discuss with you. What are your favorites? Which albums stick out in your mind as ones that really shaped you as a person?

Thoughts of one Mill City Native

This site was inspired by the idea of exigency-- the concept of the "right message at the right time to the right people".

In this chaotic and messy world we live in, I strongly believe in the importance of open conversation and honest dialogue. Without such interactions, we become less than American. Less than free. Less than human.

On this blog, "From a Committed Participant", I will share my thoughts on politics, peace and justice as well as personal philosophies that I occasionally dust off and release from the old cranium. I draw inspiration from a variety of texts, videos and pictures, and encourage you to join with me in conversation surrounding these various tidbits.

A fundamental in any democracy is the commitment of its people to participate in open debate. The great Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone once wrote,

"We can and must move U.S. politics forward by means of committed participation."

I agree. These are my two cents.

Peace to you and yours,

Ian

If you're interested in following my life here on the internets, here are a few more links for you to browse:

Ian's Twitter

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