Nathan Key

After seeing Paris based Phoenix play SNL this past week, I checked out their website and discovered that they, too, are providing fans with a multitrack version of their latest single- 1901. Add another band to the list of artists who are humble enough to allow other people to make something new from their art.

Over the past year, I've enjoyed Radiohead's Stem versions of Nude and Reckoner, Ben Folds' Stems and Seeds disc, and Third Eye Blind's pre-release of a number of songs off their forthcoming album on indabamusic. Each of these bands/arstist have all inspired users to interact with their music in ways that weren't even possible 10 years ago and I'm eager to see what other bands begin jumping on this idea.

So, If you hear anything or find anything in this vein, send a note my way and I'll keep do some updates every now and then about this topic.

OH- And if anyone out there in the movie industry is reading or listening- I'd love to be able to splice up some films, too. Sell us some extended versions with a lot of your cut footage and allow us to edit it up and make fan-cuts in Final Cut or Windows Movie Maker. Trust me, there's a market full of people who would be willing to pay for the opportunity to play with your art!

At the suggestion of Micah Tillman, I recently picked up Tim Keller’s The Reason For God from the library. So far, it’s been pretty reasonable even though it doesn’t have any particularly new ideas. Much of his work here is borrowing from CS Lewis or dressing up old arguments in new clothing, but it’s a good refresher course on basic apologetics.

As I get further into the text, perhaps I’ll throw in some commentary on Keller’s ideas, but so far I've decided that he’s one of the few Christian writers who know how to use theology and philosophy together in a way that makes sound use of each. Some writers, like John Piper, are really great on the theology end, but don’t use philosophy very well while others, like Brian McLaren, are powerhouses of Christian philosophy but don’t really do well at articulating their theology.

Keller seems to have his feet grounded in both realms.
It's quite refreshing.

Here’s a link to his book on Amazon:

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

Step One
Hand out taxpayer money to businesses who have mismanaged their capital interests, rewarding failure and maximizing the impending crash that comes when these companies fail anyway.

Step Two
Place pay restrictions on corporate executives, thereby crippling the potential of businesses who are on the brink of failure to attract top talent that might come up with some great ideas on how to turn things around. If they weren’t about to fail to begin with, this is a great way to speed up the process.

Step Three
Force out business executives who aren’t leading their companies the way you want them to. After all, who better to decide who gets to lead failing companies than a government that has managed to rack up the biggest national debt in the history of the world.

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Now that we know these 3 easy steps, let's all take a moment to give thanks to the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration for getting us through them all in less than a year. The only thing left to do is sit back and wait for Stagflation and Poverty to rid the entire country of the “evils of capitalism.”

Chris reminded me (through one of his latest posts) that I'm a bit overdue for a linkfest blog! So today I'm going to ask you, my gentle readers, to check out some of the blogs and sites that I've been really enjoying lately.

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GrizzlyBearCouture & KateKing
Two of my really good friends have each just started up a vintage clothing business. They salvage amazing clothing and find new homes for it. Please give both of them some love and encouragement by checking out their products (and buying something)!

Mirrorshards
100 word short stories, every single day. I subscribe to this site through an RSS feed and I’m telling you- other than my daily ESV feed, this is my morning fuel. Each story is smart and fun. And since they’re only 100 words,  even the ones that aren’t as great are still worth reading.

BabieMamaDrama
My wife just began blogging about our life. She is so much funnier than I could ever hope to be. If you want a really honest, humorous look at two new parents learning about life- this is a great blog (and I’m not just saying that because I’m married to the author). Two of my personal favorites include this One and this One.

A Book Elegantly Bound
Megan is one of the most articulate and descriptive writers I've ever had the pleasure of knowing/reading. Start following her now because she's bound to be on par with Sylvia Plath in another few years (although her writing doesn't smack of depression like Plath's does).

Dinosaur Comics
It’s hard to get into this comic at first because the art doesn’t change. Author Ryan North took the static form idea from David Lynch´s postmodern strip “The Angriest Dog in the World.” Seriously, though- it's a must read. Not only is it very funny- it’s also very thought provoking. It’s a comic about philosophy, religion, social commentary, and all sorts of other topics written concisely and with grand intellect and narrated by a self-absorbed T-Rex.

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Extra Credit
If you really want to read something of mine today, re-read through my Watchmen or Heroes Series cause I really enjoyed both of those. Prepare yourselves for tomorrow, too. I’m going to go on a tirade about THIS and I'd sure like your comments and thoughts.

I’m still mulling over this thought I picked up from Rob Bell the other day:

(Paraphrased and expanded by me)

The narrative of the Bible is mainly concerned with God waiting and wanting to father/mother/brother/husband us while we’d rather spend our time running around looking for fruitless ways to earn the right to be a part of His family.

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Bell's point was accentuated as he brought up all the parents from the audience who were holding young infants on their laps. He asked them to relate to the rest of the room how they felt about their child.

“I’m completely in love”
“Best thing that ever happened to me.”
“He’s our little surprise, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“She is a miracle.”
“We’ve overwhelmed with love.”
“I can’t describe how incredible she is.”
“We’re just so grateful to be her parents.”
“We prayed and waited for years in order to hold him.”

I almost burst into tears a number of times when I thought about the unity of love and gratitude that was voiced by each parent. And I couldn’t help but agree that I feel the same way about my own son- one year old and more amazing every single day.

Sure, a few years from now when sin continues to creep into our relationship, he’ll become defiant at certain moments. And I’ll probably hold unrealistic/prideful expectations of him that he’ll never obtain. There will be hostility and anger between us from time to time and I’m sure that he’ll sometimes wonder what life would be like if he had been born into a different family with different values that don’t seem so constraining.

But even within the fallen nature of our relationship, cracked and tainted by sin, there won’t be a requirement for him to perform a certain way in order to be my son. There’s absolutely nothing that he could do that would increase or decrease my love for him or my protection.

He’ll be my son no matter what happens.

And so if this is how an earthly relationship works, tarnished as it is by the human condition- I imagine that God’s attitude and love for us are even greater. I imagine that God doesn’t even have any “expectations” of us when it comes to our relationship other than that we engage in it as fully as we possibly can- just as we’d engage in relationships with our parents, siblings, and spouse.

After considering this further for the past few days, I believe that thinking of God in terms of relationship is a must. And it's also a perfect remedy for legalism!

What I mean is this: Anything that is done religiously that isn’t a relational joy between God and ourselves either is being done with the wrong attitude or is not an appropriate practice for us to engage in.

God doesn’t want us to perform, He wants us to engage.