I remember when Rush of Blood to the Head came out my freshman year of college. “Clocks” was being played on most radio stations and some of my friends were trying to play the song on guitar. It made me frustrated that Coldplay had become something more than they were. I was frustrated that they had emerged. I listened to the album and said “This sounds like Radiohead, right there, did you hear the way he did his voice? That sounds like Thom Yorke.” Of course that was the first listen, and the more I heard that album the more it sounded less like Radiohead. Everytime I heard somebody praise that album I thought “Too bad they’ve forgotten Parachutes. Parachutes was a much more rawer album, much less produced.” That was 2002. After falling in love with Parachutes I thought Coldplay was beginning to be “too big” after “Clocks” was being played everywhere. “In My Place” was being played on television and that video looked really overproduced. At that point I had placed Coldplay in the category of bands who have a very orginal album and then make a album not so great the second time around, they were going to disappoint me. I’d happened to me before, and I had trained myself to not expect much of anything out of a band’s second album. That is, I should expect something less. Yet at some point in 2003 I bought “Rush of Blood to the Head” and found out that “In My Place” was probably the worst song on the album and the rest of the album was really good. I still heard a bit of the Radiohead from his voice and I really missed the acoustic feel that Coldplay had on the album before, but overall I appreciated the album. Three years later, my senior year of college, 2006, I saw a commercial on television for IPODS. Guess who’s on this commercial? Coldplay and they have a new album and it’s called X&Y. Chris Martin is on the commercial and I dismiss the band because once they have given themselves to big commercials, surely their album is going to disappoint and be over produced. My roommate in college had the X&Y album. He had the album. I remember opening the case to the album and there was this little cardboard thing that you could use to buy things on Itunes. I was like “This album is going to be the demise of Coldplay. They will suck after this album.(Simply because they are desperately going to these big companies to get help for promotion)” About two weeks later, I went to Zach’s room, grabbed the album and went to our garage and listened to it. I remember looking at the liner notes and seeing that it had actually come out in 2005, so I’d intentionally ignored it because I didn’t want to disappoint myself by listening to it. At our house in college we had this garage and I had some weights over there. I’d grab them the weights and listen to them every once and a while. After about 2 listens to that album I had decided that I was wrong about it. This album was great. It was very produced, but it was a great album, very inspiring and I liked it. Of course I didn’t like it as much as Parachutes, but it was inspiring. And that brings to mind a question I always wonder: why does music make you feel the way it does? As I am lifting weights listening to X&Y, it litereally makes me feel like I am doing something heroic. The album is not epic, but there a little hint of something epic there. I don’t know what it is. Thus, with Coldplay’s new album Viva something something, we have another near seamless album. I was listening to it on the way home from the bank today and realized that the songs worked together in a way that I never really recognized what song was what. The songs almost sound the same, but then again they don’t. Maybe a lot of them do really sound the same, and often the sameness of sound is a reason people don’t like a certain band, but for me, this means the album flows really well and I like that. It’s an awesome thing. After doubting the other albums, I still doubted Coldplay, but not as much as the past. The first time I heard this one was in Brian Turney’s car and it did not sound like Colplay, but it sure sounded good. So I burnt the album from Turney’s computer. The thing that you need to know about this album is that it is really really good. So all in all, the sound that I constantly are coming across when I listen to these albums is that I expect this band to fall on its face of mediocrity but this band does not do that, and it continues to produce albums that are incredibly innovatative, but through and through good albums. There’s not really anything that Coldplay has done new on this album, other than give us good music that we should listen to.

Black hole soul That’s what I got, it sucks the life outta me It takes and takes. I need something. I need more confidence. I need more. Give me understanding. Give me confidence. Give me more understanding. And more and more and more understanding. Cause my soul is a hole that doesn’t quit whinning for more. It’s a hole that will blame and complain. It will make my face bland, it will make me question myself with no end. I don’t want the hole. God fill it up, give me Jesus, in a very tangible way. Where is the Spirit in this world. Unbridled worship? I feel darkness within, I need the light of Christ, to shine on me.

"I'll take an earnest person over a hip person every day" Randy Pausch

The varibles do not fit right yet. Maybe in a few years I will understand. I'm not good at math. I wash my hands and rub my hands trying to get the oil out of them so I can back the car out of the bay. The bottom of my palms are always caked with dirt. I only wash the front of my hands. (This has no deep/religious meaning, just me talking about washing my hands.) Well, if I were writing another version of Moby Dick about and I were Herman Melville AND it was based on the relationships and goals of auto mechanics, I would have to write chapter 78 on washing my hands with that green soap that you use to get the deep dirt out of my hands. Now if I were Melville I would be able to expand on the deep meanings and religiuos meanings of working class things and connecet them to the thoughts of a person. Let's give this a shot here brotherman. Scrubbing of the hands to get the grease out required a certain quickness and aggressiveness that could only clean deep. It required patience and calmness and a bit of faith that the customer in the office is not in a hurry. If the worker washed his hands lightly and not throughouly then when he handed the customer the keys to their car, his hands would still be greyish black making the customer question of this guy has motor oil all over their steering wheel and leather seats. Therefore it is key to wash your hands throughly and aggressively so that the customer will ultimately trusth the business and you personally. Now an auto mechanic who changes oil throughout the day will proabably wash their hands at least 10 times a day, maybe as a cheif would. As you pump out the green grisly soap, one woudl think about the environment(what does green grisly soap do to trees?) and the money spent on soap and the water being used that could be used for some reason in another country. "Oh, well maybe I could not wash my hands and only wash them once at the end of the day." Yes, auto mechanics think about the money that could be saved from buying soap/the stray cats that might drink the oily water. But this is a passing thought and lunch breaks and 5:30 and cell phones are closer to the front of the brain.

i've gotten a whole ton of CD's lately. I had one friend send me the new My Morning Jacket live CD and another friend send me the Z album. I am happy. I like them alot. It makes me happy to hear good music from people my age: 23. I think about the artists today and hoped a little bit more from people my age. Where are the Kurt Cobains, the Billy Corgans, the Dave Matthews, the Eddie Vedders, the Thome Yorkes? Did our generation not have enough endurance to reach the featest of these guy? Should I have tried to play gutair, cause I suck. I want somebody to make music like Billy and Dave. make a sound like Thome. The closest that I've heard from a single personality is Sufjan Stevens. It seems the Sufjan has great inentions and great visions for the albums he wants to put out. He's producing them like a madman. Its the idea of that one single frontman that you will not forget. Maybe I wont see these guys until 2017. Maybe I wont realize what happened until then. And I will look back and say, Where are all the Chris Martins? Where are all those people MY AGE, those born in 1983 that made amazing music, that listened to all the same bands that I did and produced great music. It surely isnt apparent now. But maybe in the future. As far as brand new goes, I am going to go see them in vienna. I am going to this concert to see MewithoutYou cause I want to meet Aaron Weiss. Brand New was always the band that my brother daniel listened to and I never grasped onto them until Deju Entuenalkujdlafk was a year old and I heard some of those songs on the way back from the mountains with my brother. I'm doing a little reaserach and Daneil is sending me their new album. If I meet Jesse from thier band I want to have a regular conversation with him. Maybe I can ask him if he had any weird substitue teachers in elementary school or ask him about a book I'd read or american history or what his favorite dog is, cause I surely can't pscyhoanalyze any of his music cause I dont know it.

For an objective interpretation allows for a classroom of students to build on the criticism of a text. Instead of arguing about what exactly it means they instead will use criticism for what it was it was meant to be: a critique of the culture. Subjective interpretation of a text puts the reader at the center of the text. It demands intellectual effort and analysis, but little else. For one wonders if a person read Morrison, he or she might simply make their interpretation and then never actually analyze and potentially change their racial stereotypes. For that person might even deny that racial stereotypes exist under a subjective interpretation. That would be a tragedy. For that would make literature should be a cause and effect type of discourse. In that case it would have no effect.

Recently I have been imagining myself playing drums for Explosions in the sky. That patience and that wonder is amazing. that passion. I wonder what it would take for a person to write an album like that. For sufjan stevens and explosions in the sky are the two albums that I would hold up in a crowd of people and tell them that they would have memories with these. they would have real expereinces where they have nostalgia and it would rise something inside of them that longs deep. Longing makes me swallow hard and gives me chill bumps in the middle of a library. It makes me close my eyes and my stomach twist and hurt. It is going to that place where I long for and yearn for but cannot explain why I have it. Why do I have such a longing, such passionate feeling inside of me that want to pour out? What is it about music given through black headphones in an empty library that makes me want to be alive with every vein in my body? The music just keeps playing tenderly at first(EiS) and then violently, but with purpose. It is controlled but real. It goes in a direction and is not a confused Peter Townshed angst gutair ripping up but it is the oppoiste. It is being satified. It is actually loving the moment and NOT being loud for the sake of its own praise but for something else. For we were not made(that is, we were not made to tear things up so other people would think we were really dangerous and was made about something, because ultimately you look very dumb punching walls, that's not passion that's confusion and anger) to bring praise to something else, so nothing it dependent on us. We have to quit performing and trying to uphold our insecure images. we begin by putting our masks on the floor and being real an transparent to everyone and praising the God that allowed us to live. For my desires will be fulfilled I bring glory to God. Passion is real and it demands attention and we begin to follow those who have it. We begin to follow those who are transparent, not those who are aimlessly violent. I'll try to mimic Pete Townshed and then look up to realize everyone is looking at me and realize taht I actually don't know how everyone is going to react. I'll be scared and try not to pretend I dont knwo what I am doing. Ill have to get mad at every concert and tear up drum sets and then realize I was pretty insecure and I'll change my image again by not doing it. For what is constant?

Recently I picked my crate full of old albums up from home. I shifted them around and unstacked to see what I could find. Going through an old album collection is like going through an old picture book. The recovery of older albums bring back nostalgia from the past. I’ll remember the album covers from when I pondered whether to buy the album at the music store at the mall. Asking myself if I should wait or not. In seventh grade there Napster did not exist or any Internet system for that matter. Only the radio and those CDs which I annually bought, when I had debated for probably three weeks to buy or not. My parents would always ask what I got at the mall when I went to the mall by myself. Music has changed much now and only recently did I buy an album that I hadn’t heard. In later years in high school CDNow stoked me because you could listen online before buying the CD. And now we can avoid spending over a dollar for an album whether that be a pirated disk or purchasing MP3’s online. If you would ask me if burning CDs were morally wrong I would have not choice to say “no” because I have an entire CD case full of burnt CDs pirated off the internet. I do not think it is wrong because to me music is art and art should be shared. I might pay for a concert but for music no. Please disagree with me but if you are starting a band what is your motive? Is your motive to make this a career? Is your motive to get a message across? Messages that people truly believe require sacrifice. If a guitar-bearing 20 year old wants to get a message across, then he will play at clubs and let people know of his message. Did not Paul do the same in the Bible? Paul went around preaching the Gospel and it seems that if a man wants to get a message across he will let that message be known. Maybe if more musicians sang about topics less women and started singing about things that mattered they would quit complaining. I say to the artist, know what your living for: Is it the Gospel? Is it to glorify God? I never saw a rich artist. Most people who stand for something have to give up something. And it seems that an artist must give up some of his dreams and expectations if he wants to get a message across. What did Paul do? He was crazy about Christ. He went to jail for Christ and made the Gospel known. He gave up himself. He did not conform to the religious standard, he let people know about his personal relationship with Jesus Christ. People who believe something let others know about it. People who believe something want others to know and see the glory of God as well. What is it that I believe in? What is it that I give up my aspirations of making money for the sake of a cause, a cause bigger than myself? That’s when I’ll quit complaining about what is fair and start saying what is true. Last night we watched Dead Poet Society. The beginning of the movie is set with a new professor John Keating coming to an all boys school. The boys are drilled by older men, professors who have their traditional way of teaching. Keating is younger professor, one who’s step has a driving force behind it. He does not walk with the passivity and self-protection of the olderf professors but he walks with a move forward. Keating moves with what he knows to be true and doesn’t question what he believes. The first day of class he orders that the boys rip the pages out of their books. What does Christ have to do with this? Well keating meant what he said when he said rip the pages out of the book. I know that Christ meant what he said when he said turn the other cheek. Keating finally told the boys yes do it tear them out, tear the pages out of the book. The boys hesitated thinking he was only talking figuratively. Christ meant what he said when he said pray for your enemies. Bless those who persecute you. Jesus did not make jokes about what he wanted to say. The boys ripped the pages out of the book. I’m not suggesting ripping the pages out of the Bible. I am suggesting putting them in the heart and taking them literally. When Paul talked about praying for his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ I know that he meant it. Paul seemed to be a very dependable guy. Am I kidding? Am I kidding when I say what I am going to do? When I tell others I am going to start doing this or that do I do it or am I just trying to impress others. Is it empty talk? What about when I write this? Am I saying this or do I mean it? The Danielson Famile’s new album Off the Ol’ Chopping Block is a CD that as some say “grows on you.” The first time I heard it I thought it was a joke. I bought it a year ago off the internet after Laudio told me I would like it. He knows the next band to break big. So a year ago I listened to it and I laughed out loud and the absurdity of some of the lyrics. The lyrics were simply stated but they all sounded as if they were part of the Muppet Babies. It was if Sufjan Stevens met the Muppets met Nirvana. So I laughed and thought about showing it to my friends so they could laugh with me. And I did. They laughed thought the voices were hilarious. But it was never an album that I thought I could listen to all the way through. It was too comical. So when I picked it up the other day I started listening to it and realized it the lyrics were simplified themes of the Bible. It was almost as if the muppets had went to seminary and started reading out of the message, that Bible that people claim to be easier to read, but they never read it anyways they just like to say its easier to read. I’ve never seen someone with a worn in Message. Lyrics like “my daddy can beat your daddy” and “take a bath in the blood” and “we’re all brothers, we’re all sisters.” Its like a subconscious slogans of biblical truths. God can conquer people. The blood of Christ can wash us of our sin. To take a bath in the blood means that we need to be human and not modern(who thinmk that we’ve progressed past things like that). And that we are are all brother and sisters in Christ and why are we lusting after one another? We wouldn’t have sex with our sister, so why think lustfully of other women. And more than that, women who are not saved, we shouldn’t be thinking of them in that way either. Don’t pervert our lives with selfish sexual desires. Probably the best thing I still like about the Danielson Famile is that they have a 12 year old in the band. And I cannot tell if that little person’s voice that sounds like a muppet is the one singing the refrains throughout the album. Maybe that’s my favorite part about this album: it makes real biblical truth fun and tasteful, putting it into the slogans that go through our head. Not that we should make it fun. But that is the way it is supposed to be. I went to Wendy’s to grab a bite to eat. I sat down beside a couple, beside me and thanked the Lord for my food. I ate and talked to my brother and Matt, we thought about going outside to have fun in this new place. I ate my buger and my shake and then felt full with my brothers here. I noticed the two strangers. They looked to be married. While matt and Daniel talked, I thought about these two. They sat together but did not talk. They probably had raised kids together and had fun together and laughed together but only started and ate their fries with a quiet faces. Were they sitting alone? Were they both blind? Did they know that their husband and wife were sitting near? Why did they not talk? I pited them and hoped they might just be in an arugment, which was about the be resolved. But could this be the norm. A marriage that only was a phsycial companion. And inability to communicate. Why do walls build between the two? Why do they have such heavy burden? Let this not be the case in my life. Will and I were talking yesterday about gossip. Will said that gossip ruined community. He said that when people talk about each other people give each other bad looks and glare at one another. He said that girls are bad at this, and used the word “splintered” about a group of girls who are no longer friend because of gossip. There cannot be community with gossip. Gossip doesn’t even have to be coming out of our mouths. Gossip is expressed in our facial expressions and in our private rooms where we muse and get angry about people. We say we are not confrontational people but we go into our rooms and think bad thoughts about people. What is a bad thought? That sounds like a command to a three year old. You are being bad today.

http://www.smartmarriages.com/marriage.quotes.html

I believe all men have this in common: that they want to be happy. They do not all agree on what brings the greatest happiness, but they do all long to have it. And this longing is not bad. It is good. Evil consists in trying to find happiness in ways that displease and dishonor God. Goodness consists in finding happiness in ways that please and honor God. We can conceive of a world in which we might be called upon to do right at the expense of our ultimate happiness. But that is not the world in which we live. God has established this world in such a way that doing good through faith in Christ always leads to greater happiness eventually. We do not live in a world where we must choose between our eternal happiness and God's glory! God has created this world and its moral laws in such a way that the more we choose to glorify God, the happier we will be.