Joan Jett, Hank III, Glasses, Randomness

• The political ads are killing me. I have to change the channel. They just seem much more extreme this year, like they're not holding back the crazier ideas.
• Our church is covering a book entitled, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. We're not typically a church-wide, book-covering type of place, but right now our sermons and small groups are all centered around these ideas.
• One of the major themes involves learning to identify that part of you that usually has you concerned with what other people think. It's part of what the author calls a "false self." It's that part of you that gets anxious before interacting with certain people, wanting to have all the right answers and behaviors in order to impress. It's that part of you that doesn't really allow you to just relax and be yourself. I'm simplifying of course, but ever since getting into this idea, I've had that Joan Jett lyric playing in my head. "I don't give a damn 'bout my repu-ta-tion!" I can't seem to shake it. I really don't want to have to dig out Joan Jett CDs.
• She still puts on a great show however. Her new stuff isn't half bad.
• No. I'm not perpetually stuck in the 80's. I just went through a short phase a few years ago.
• Okay. I love my Cars greatest hits CD too and Jim Croce and The Cure…
• It is fun to attend Jett's shows and listen to the drunk, homophobic, old guys complain because they believe she's gay, suggesting she take a ride on their love train to "turn her around," and in the next breath, praise her for rockin' out. What would a concert be without drunk old guys?
• I recently went to see Hank III (Hank the third - Hank Williams Senior's grandson, Hank Williams Junior's son). My cousin, Jasen treated me to a ticket. Hank III has a diverse collection of albums. He started with an old country sound mixed with more modern, gritty themes, which I'm fond of. He has some albums that would more closely resemble modern hillbilly country - think rude and somewhat stereotypical. He also does country infused heavy metal.
• It was strange to see a mosh pit moving to the sound of fiddles. It was strange, but still appropriate.
• The crowd was just as diverse. Some people hated the older sounding stuff. They jeered at the instrumentals. I'm not really a fan of his metal sets, and some of the hillbilly stuff is just a bit too rude for me lately. It was great to see him live. He looks and sounds a lot like his grandfather.
• As an old concert veteran, I can tell you, when you see the guy wearing a confederate flag as a cape: That's the guy to avoid. Having witnessed it over and over again, the guy wearing a flag as a cape is most likely to continue his need for bold statements by punching innocent standersby in the face for little or no reason.
• The Machine Shop is a gem in this area.
• It's been a bad year for Halloween horror movies. I usually get myself into the spooky spirit by watching my old favorites. I decided instead to catch up on a few I'd missed. That's been a mistake. Apparently I missed them for good reason.
• I highly recommend the following modern gems: Splinter, Trick 'R Treat, The Mist, and The Crazies remake. Old favorites include: the original Halloween, Return of the Living Dead, Martin, Night of the Living Dead, and The Monster Squad.
• Did I mention that the political ads have been scary? One guy very openly stated that he wanted to get rid of the income tax. Sounds fine on the surface. Hey, less taxes, but isn't the income tax one of the few remaining mechanisms in place to somewhat level the field between rich and poor? If you earn more, you therefore contribute more toward running the country. Those who earn less keep more to survive on.
• He wants to replace income tax with a much higher tax on goods and services. They say this will initially cause most products to be priced so high that lower income families will struggle intensely, but "eventually the market will adjust itself" so $8 for a gallon of milk will just be common place.
• Owen's vocabulary is increasing by leaps and bounds. I think it's the glasses. He's also spelling words regularly.
• His glasses have had me down for a while. There, on his face, is a metaphorical reminder of all the bullying and torment I went through starting at his age. I'm just praying he escapes it, but more and more, he reminds me of myself.
• I chaperoned his first field trip a few weeks back. I was responsible for one other child. She just happened to be the girl he had mentioned having a little crush on. He was so shy. I had to coax him into talking to me that day. He seemed to be a bit of a loaner around the other kids too. I've got to think of a way to get him out of these habits.
• Gage has glasses too, but he doesn't need to wear his as often.
• Everyone is having babies again. I hope my wife doesn't get any ideas.

…Because I love my Babylon.

I love this song, and the entire Jacaranda album by Josh Garrels.

I did this lyrical breakdown as a graphic. The song is split into two halves.

The song is called, Zion & Babylon.

Click on the graphic to make it larger.

I live on both sides, but once I saw/felt/tasted/experienced Zion(Heaven) the value of anything on the other side diminishes quickly (and hopefully permanently).

You can listen to the song and the entire album, here.

Josh Garrels video - Zion & Babylon

Diggin' this guy's music right now. Check it out:

Explaining the Sound Strike vs. Arizona

Zack De La Rocha for The Sound Strike from Producciones Cimarrón on Vimeo.

Breaking Benjamin

I recently stumbled upon a few old CDs of mine. Forgot how much I enjoy this band:

Weekend Randomness Parenting Heavy Edition

• I was looking through a bunch of old photos last week, preparing a project or two for Mother's Day. Found this photo of my parents and maternal grandparents. My dad is the guy with the beard (obviously), but my youngest brother Bill is the spitting image of him in this photo. Bill even thought that it was himself when given a quick glance of the photo. Even the way he's standing is apparently a genetic trait.
• I attended "Mother's Day Tea" at Owen's preschool last Friday. Luckily I was far from the only male present.
• There was mainly just singing. Owen didn't know most of the words. At first, I thought he was just being shy. He kept looking at me, and his expression seemed to ask, "Will I get into trouble with you if I sing along?" I kept trying to get him to participate.
• Luckily he wasn't the only one not singing. There was the clearly angry kid that was protesting this public group activity, and there was the kid who was moved to loud sobbing because he really, really, really didn't want to be singing.
• There was one teacher, her whole job was to hand out tissues to the kids before they got too far into their nose picking.
• Cookies and lemonade followed.
• Owen had a physical/"well visit" last Friday.
• Parenting moment that stops you dead in your tracks with dread: Receptionist at the pediatricians' office telling you that your four year old, who has never done such a thing before, will have to pee into a cup that you hold. To the best of my knowledge, my kids can't pee on command, and I was certain we'd be there for hours waiting. Just then, God must have heard an unspoken prayer from the depths of my soul because Owen states very loudly and publicly, "Papa? I have to go pee right now!"
• It went… okay. I wish there had been paper towels in their restrooms. Now I know what the little metal door in the wall is for.
• Despite the fact that I'd asked six months prior whether Owen needed any vaccinations at that time and being told no, he was "late" for a few. I had assured him earlier in the day he wouldn't need more than one or two. He needed five!
• Watching your children cry out in pain because of vaccinations, not easy.
• With the rain last week, we were forced to take our kids to many indoor play areas. They've gotten used to the extra exercise with our frequent park excursions throughout the week. There were some hard lessons for Owen on more than one occasion last week. You see, sometimes it's fun to pretend that one group of kids is the "alien" or "monster." It all works out okay when it's a group, but sometimes your kid is singled out as a single alien. Usually parents are quick to perceive what's going on and intervene, but sometimes parents don't really care or even seem to remember that they brought progeny.
• Owen has also failed two vision tests. I'm praying he hasn't inherited the family curse of early onset cataracts. Praying, praying, praying. If I have trouble when he gets vaccinations, I'm not sure how I'd get through eye surgery.
• Gage is finally stringing words together. Last week he ran in very randomly to ask, "Papa? I ah Beezzah?" Which translates into, "Dad? Can I have a pizza?" The kid goes nuts for pizza.
• Can't wait for him to go nuts for using the big boy potty.
• Gage also likes Buddy Holly. I've never heard him attempt to sing before playing Buddy Holly's greatest hits last week while we were driving around.
• Sorry. I've got to say it. I'm sick of all the Iron Man hype. I love comic books. Liked the first movie enough to watch it twice on DVD. Meh.
• Thanks to a friend of mine and Relevant FM, I've been listening to a band called 'Fun.' I'm really digging that.
• Is it wrong that I talked my kids into picking out slightly sexy pajamas as a gift for my wife for Mother's Day?

Peter Steele, Type O's front man, gone at age 48, Loved His Music

Random Randomness from the weekend: March 15th

• When we were first married, my wife and I would lose things… a lot. I'm mainly talking about paper work, important documents. We just weren't organized. We'd misplace something (a tax form, a bill, a rebate check) at least once a month or more. We've gotten a lot better. We're down to about once a year, and it has much more to do with how hectic life can get than poor organization at this point.
• We misplaced this year's tax return. The federal and state forms were e-filed, so no biggie. We wanted to check something yesterday, and neither of us could remember what had happened to the packet. It wasn't in the "Taxes" folder in our filing cabinet. I hadn't sent in the city return yet. We panicked a bit. Searched for about an hour.
• We found them, and the truth started to take shape. I remember, two weeks ago, bringing the packet home and leaving it out so Heidi could see it. Shortly after she got home, we decided to leave the house for some reason, and we were in a hurry. Not wanting to leave the packet out in plain sight (burglar paranoia), I scooped up the packet and put it with a stack of unimportant mail in a more out of the way location. I could have taken the extra thirty seconds and put it in the "Taxes" folder, but that would have been out of character for me.
• Kind of a leftover from last week: Put the kids to bed as usual one night. An hour or so later we hear Gage kind of whimpering, whining. After a few minutes of this off and on, we both decide to investigate. Upon entering, we find him not in his bed, not in his brother's bed, so we try to find him based on the occasional noise he's making. I determine that he's somewhere in the closest corner of the dark room. We find him sitting in the cloth clothes hamper. The only sane explanation being that he climbed on top of the toy box and down into the hamper thinking that he was getting into his brother's bed. We still can't figure out how he didn't knock the entire thing over.
• Parties are fun. I don't care what you say.
• Dancing is not my thing. There may be lessons in my near future. My wife got way too much enjoyment out of that three minute time span for me to ignore it.
• Laura should be our church's cow bell player. Every church needs a cow bell.
• Law Abiding Citizen was a great idea for a movie, but it tanked toward the end. The director tries to flip things on you in the middle, make your sympathies pass from one side to the other. The problem is, you start the movie feeling strong feelings against that side of the conflict, and that faction of people never really have a transforming moment in the film. It's implied that they should or could, but it never seemed to actually happen. No matter how I feel about the original protagonist in the film and how shocking he gets, I never feel sympathy for the person he's trying to change. Can you tell I'm trying not to say too much?
• Sometimes when I'm in the grocery store, I start to think about all the things I'm picking up and the reasons behind them. Yesterday it made me realize how much I really care about my wife and kids, how every little decision is about trying to make life better or healthy for them. Yeah. I over think the grocery store.
• I really wish Mulder and Scully were still stopping evil on a weekly basis on my television screen. Watching full seasons of the X-Files for the first time. That show wasn't as sci-fi centric as I thought it was.
• I've been listening to Hank III (Hank Williams the 3rd), mainly his older stuff. I like the old country feel with the modern, gritty themes. Reminds me of Johnny Cash. I'm not really into his newer, heavy metal, country fusion stuff. I like heavy metal. I like some country, but I need them to keep a distance from one another.
• I love it when Meijer puts strange seafood on sale. By strange I mean new to me. I picked up muscles for the first time a few weeks ago. It's fun to try new things, expand the horizons a bit.
• My wife has me reading vampire fiction.
• No. Not the Twilight novels.
• I'm an Anne Rice fan from way back, so the whole glittering vampires thing is going to take me a while to get used to.
• On another note: I highly recommend Anne Rice's Jesus novels. Her knack for historical mood setting is unmatched.

Jesus and Rob Zombie

I've said before, music is a very spiritual thing to me. The following piece surprises even me, but every time I think about the song Scum of the Earth by Rob Zombie, I think of Jesus. When I hear this, I see him up there, straining against the nails to beckon us forward, gritting his teeth against the pain, screaming to those of us that count ourselves among the scum of the earth. In his pain, he's calling to us to come to him.

If you've never heard it, this song is a heavy metal anthem. It's got a fast, heavy drum track with electro synth beats added in. It's thrashy. Rob Zombie growls and shouts. What Jesus did with his life, whether you believe he was divine or not, was not often clean, easy, or dull. His message was radical enough to get him killed. I think that deserves a heavy metal anthem.

Scum of the earth

Come on

Yeah

Run and kill

Destroy the will

A hero that doesn't exist

Yeah

Smoking gun

Well I am the one

A bullet hole

In your fist

Yeah

Hey, I'm breathing

Hey, I'm bleeding

Hey, I'm screaming

Scum of the earth

Come on

Yeah

Wake up dead

Bleeding red

A world that doesn't exist

Yeah

Heaven waits

With the gates

Rusting in the mist

Yeah

Yeah

Hey, I'm breathing

Hey, I'm bleeding

Hey, I'm screaming

Scum of the earth

Come on

Do all the lyrics fit? Does it ever matter? Each poem or song can mean something completely different to any given reader. It doesn't even matter what the writer's original intentions were. At least, that's my opinion of music and poetry.

Let's break it down a bit (no pun intended).

The song repeats "A hero that doesn't exit," and I think of what the Prophet Isaiah said about Jesus' own people denying him, harming him. Jesus wasn't often treated as a hero while he was alive. Heroes don't end up on crosses.

"Smoking gun, well I am the one, a bullet hole in your fist." Jesus on the cross wanted to be nothing but guilty. That's what the cross was about, Jesus paying the price for everyone else's wrong doing. To me, a fist is the universal symbol of violence, and Jesus, time and again, symbolized and spoke out about non-violence being the best way to do anything. Holes in fists also remind me of the holes left from being crucified.

The parts about "a world that doesn't exist" and "Heaven's gates" remind me of the Kingdom of Heaven, which Jesus said was closer than we thought, it was upon us, and it was also coming. All mysterious statements about a world that doesn't quite exist yet, but then again, every time we try to make the world a better place, Heaven appears.

All this might seem like a stretch to you, gentle reader, but I have a very active imagination. This is what goes through my mind, this is what I feel when I hear this song.