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Mephistopheles_ph
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Name: Ben
Country: United States
State: Kentucky
Metro: Lexington
Birthday: 3/17/1984
Gender: Male
Interests: Music (lots), Videogames, Good Books, Graphic Illustration, Uncraptacular movies, blah blah blah
Expertise: screwing up, apparently
Occupation: Student
Industry: Other
Message: message me
AIM:  mephistophelesph
Member Since:
12/18/2002
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| Well, it has been awhile, so here is a huge update on my current listenings:
Nice soft stuff:
Jose Gonzalez
Ian Love
Matt Costa
The Slip
Weirder stuff:
Regina Spektor
The Raconteurs
Arcade Fire
Doves
Fun stuff:
Strokes
Panic!
Wolfmother
Franz Ferdinand
Old stuff:
Led Zeppelin (as always)
Velvet Underground
Lou Reed
New CDs:
Pearl Jam
Snow Patrol - Open Eyes
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
It's all pretty durn good. I'm going to be buying the new Snow Patrol and RHCP albums when they come out--they are solid.
If you like dudes with acoustic guitars, check out the first three
artists, they are all good. The Slip is a sweet jam band (coming to me
via Guitar Hero).
For me, weird, eclectic music is pretty hit or miss. I can't say I like
everything by those bands, but I do really like at least some. The
Raconteurs is Jack White's new band, pretty interesting stuff.
Fun stuff is for fun, and it can get grating after awhile. I've got to
take it easy to not overload on "dance rock" as I call it. The new
Strokes album grew on me pretty well though. Wolfmother is sweet in a
tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating kind of way. They are like all the
good rock of the 70's rolled up into one. Think Spinal Tap.
Just started listening to the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed. Pretty
amazing stuff I never knew existed. and all in the 60's! Led Zep is
amazing as always. One of the few bands I never tire of; they are so
deep it is unbelievable.
Well, that's pretty much it in a nutshell. I'm sure I left out a bunch
of stuff but I'm tired of typing, so you get what you paid for.
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Essay 1
I
apologize to anyone that actually reads all of this. It's basically
just me rambling without drawing any concrete conclusions. It's a
subject I really don't consider myself resolved on, and something I
need to think a lot more about. In any case, I'm posting it because I'm
getting really tired of it just sitting in a text file on my computer.
_______________________________
Essay 1: The Arts
Recently,
I have had a few things mulling around in my head -- cooking on the
back burner, shall we say. It started with a discussion I had with
Laura and Jake a few weeks ago, and I haven't been able to stop
thinking about it for a while, so I decided to write it all down and
finalize my thoughts on it. The subject is art and media, and how they
influence us, our relationship with God, and our decisions.
"Finally,
brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble,
whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and
if there is anything praiseworthymeditate on these things."
- Philippians 4:8, NKJV
Can
arts, entertainment in general, and media be enjoyed, or even viewed,
by a Christian without sinking into sin? I think that yes, they can;
however, we can also be negatively affected by said things, sometimes
unconsciously, and always incredibly easily. In the discussion I had
with Laura and Jake, we were speaking about Sin City, an ultra-violent
film. Jake was considering watching it, and Laura was trying to
convince him otherwise. Jake's arguement, if I may paraphrase, went
similar to this:
I can view things, or listen to things,
without being personally affected by them. I don't revel in them, and
I can appreciate them for their artistic value. I don't look to them
to shape my worldview, and I am aware of things that may be
incorrectly presented in them.
Laura's arguement (once again, forgive me for any inconsistencies):
A Christian cannot, and should not, view things that Christ would not
have us view. We have been explicitly told in the Word what
constitutes sin, and feeding our carnal desires definitely qualifies
as sin.
After listening to them for a bit, without saying much
myself, I interjected with my (then) current thoughts on the matter.
(This is far more well-thought out than it was then)
Artistic value is not something that is directly addressed in the
Bible, however, I think that people, including Christians, can be
edified by the Arts, as well as obfuscated. Yes, Christ does instruct
us to dwell on things that edify us, and to not be caught up in
worldly desires. However, our world is full of evil, and I know that
God would not have us to be ignorant of it. If anything, He desires us
to be very aware of it, and to do as much as we can to correct it.
People
complain that the news is filled with dreary and saddening news, and
reporters should focus solely on uplifting news. I disagree, strongly.
Even though there might be a point to be made that news programs focus
on terrible news too much, I think that if these things were not
reported on and were simply ignored, we as Christians would be
sinning. As I said, this world is full of evil, and for us to be
willfully ignorant of it is contrary to God's wishes.
How,
then, does this relate to entertainment and the arts? Well, although
these things aren't "real" in the sense that news is real, they
provide a clear mirror of our world, and more importantly, our
culture. In the least, they allow us a direct window into our culture,
something from which many Christians today are disconnected. Call it a
"bubble" or what have you (as trite as that term has become), but it
is incredibly prevalent in the Church today. I don't really want to go
off on this tangent as I think everyone has had about eleventy-billion
"the bubble" talks, etc. It will suffice to leave it at that. Not only
does media provide us a window into our culture, albeit a sometimes
skewed one, it can even edify us. Not crossing the line between viewing
media and filtering it correctly, and viewing media and having it
affect ones worldview is one of the biggest challenges of the modern
Christian.
Another thing that arose from thinking about this
quandry was the difference between art and entertainment. I don't know
if I'm the person to make this distinction, but the way I see it is
this: Entertainment exists purely for enjoyment. Its sole purpose is
to produce joy or endearment in those that view it. Art, however,
exists not only for enjoyment, but also to challenge us--our
perspectives, our fundamentals, ourselves. Art's purpose is to not only
produce joy, but even revulsion, sadness, nostalgia, etc. Put another
way, entertainment reinforces our views, whereas art can reinforce or
challenge them.
Personally, this is something I have slowly
been becoming aware of, in music especially. I have realized that just
because something does not look or sound pleasing to me doesn't mean
that it is valueless. Radiohead's song "The National Anthem" is a
great example of this. It starts out having a great bassline that is
slowly built on by a variety of instruments and sounds. About three
minutes into the song, there is this amazing crescendo of horns and
saxes that devolves into a huge cacophony as each instrument separates
from unison. I used to always skip to the next song at this point,
because it is one of the most audibly displeasing things I have heard.
Eventually though, I would let the song play through, because I
realized that this song can be valued even if it is displeasing. In
fact, it can be valued for the
displeasure it causes. It might have even been the intention of the
artist to cause displeasure in the listener. I don't necessarily want
to put words behind Radiohead's sounds, but were I forced to, I might
say that the clear dichotomy between an unchanging musical phrase (the
bassline and drums) and the progression from unison to disharmony of
the various other instruments might have been the purpose of the song.
Another example is Wilco's "She's a Jar," this time lyrically.
It is incredibly cryptic, with lines like "She's a jar/With a heavy
lid/My pop quiz kid/A sleepy kisser/With feelings hid" and "Before
there were water skies/I warned you not to drive/Dry your eyes you
poor devil." As I was listening to the song, trying to make sense of
what Jeff Tweedy meant, the final line of the song hit me like a bomb:
"She begs me not to hit her." This obviously changes the
interpretation of everything before it, radically. The song is still
cryptic, and I can't claim to know what exactly it means, but it is
obviously from the point of an abuser. I think about 95% of Christians
would reject Wilco, simply for this single lyric. Is Wilco glorifying
abuse, or even condoning it? Absolutely not. I'm not claiming to have
a correct interpretation of the song (if there is one); I'm saying
that interpreting the song as advocating abuse in relationships is
seriously missing the boat on this one. Abuse, specifically against
women, as mentioned in the song, is real. It exists and it is ugly.
Completely shutting down just because it is mentioned is definitely the
wrong response. | | |
| The joy I feel,
When your face shines.
I decided to
Leave unsaid.
The way I feel,
When next to you.
This I again
Leave unsaid.
You never knew
How strong I felt,
Because I left
Things unsaid.
You go your way
And I go mine.
My dreams of us
Left unsaid.
I watch us as
We grow apart,
And what we had
vanishes.
The pain I feel
and frustration
I had better
Leave unsaid.
I hide my eyes
To stop the tears.
You look away,
Thoughts unsaid.
Was the joy we had
worth this pain?
I cannot say --
'Twas unsaid.
My chest is crushed.
My sadness swells.
All because I
could not speak.
_________________________
i was too late
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| So, after a 2 month hiatus, the Benmeister is back. That's right. Back
and better than ever. Just kidding, that's a complete lie; this blog
will still suck and be as uninteresting as ever.
I got myspace, apparently that's what all the kids are doing these
days. I got it mainly to comment on friends sites, but after looking
around for awhile on myspace, I have to admit it scared the hell outta
me. There are some craaaaaazzzzyyyyy people out there, like Laura's
cousin. Oh, if you're wondering, here is my myspace (my myspace? grrr) page.
Another sweet thingamajig I got is Audioscrobbler, aka lastfm.com.
Basically it's a program that hooks into whatever music player you use
on your computer and logs all the music you listen to. It then
generates charts and graphs displaying your listening habits, as well
as makes recommendations of other artists, based on listening trends of
other people that have similar listening tastes as you. I haven't
really liked any of the reccommendations its made yet, but that's
mainly that I have only logged about 1,500 songs, and its only
recommended artists I already like (and my music library is ~6,000
songs). It is, however, pretty interesting to see what I've been
listening to recently. If you are interested in what it looks like, this is the page.
Well, that's pretty much all I feel like writing now, I'll probably
make a more music-centric (hah! take that, english language) post later
on. Heck, I might even throw in more media thoughts/reviews as well.
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