An addendum to yesterday’s rant:
Those who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself.
Miguel de Unamuno
I was just rereading my notes from Pastor Tim’s sermon from Sunday, specifically the section where he was discussing what it looks like to be a people connected. The text we were looking at (Romans 12:9-18) spoke of the many ways in which we are to have love for one another: sincerity, devotion, sacrifice, humility. But the one that stuck with me was passion.
Passion is something I’ve been exploring in a big way lately. My passion for music is evident, but it wasn’t until the last few months that I began to wonder where my passion for music comes from. That’s a whole book in itself so I won’t go there. But, through all my wondering, I’ve begun to understand my faith in a new way.
Understanding one’s unique passion further solidifies the idea that God makes each of us as individuals, not as cookie-cutter images of people that came before us. To understand one’s passion is the foundation required for one to understand what God made him to be.
I see a widespread lack of passion in my generation, in the church and in the population as a whole. So many kids are getting caught in the go-to-college, get-a-job, start-a-family mentality — or, in the church’s case, kids feeling forced into some facet of full-time, part-time or “volunteer” ministry before they understand their own spiritual gifts — that they never have a time where they come to understand their passions. Especially in college, students must decide on a major, which dictates their course of study. Heaven help the students whose passions span multiple subjects or cover ground that no university will ever teach about. (Had I stuck with school and finished a degree in computer science, I’d probably not have had a chance to stop and wonder about any of this myself.)
I don’t know the solution to this issue, but it’s frustrating to see so many people living unfulfilled, passionless lives because they haven’t ever had the opportunity to explore their own passion.
Anyway, I’m ranting. Coming back to Tim’s message: If we cannot understand our own God-given passions, how can we ever hope to understand how to be passionate about the people we are supposed to be so closely connected with?
I was reading a four-part exhortation by Scott Tennent called Can’t Talk; Hyping (via Ryan Catbird) about how blogs have become the new marketing scheme for the music industry. Tennent makes some valuable points about how so many blogs are more about staying on top of the daily buzz and bringing in traffic — becoming a “news feed,” as he puts it — rather than actually affecting music by discussing and uncovering music that’s worth listening to.
Because I have a passion for finding music that touches the soul, but also write for a blog that fits Tennent’s formula (more or less), I’d like to think I’m at least somewhat equipped to respond.
I was originally going to post a series of Tennent quotes and respond to them in turn, but I began to realize a trend in each of my responses: the shortcomings of human nature.
What I mean by that is this: Any time a man looks to someone else to do his work for him, it must be accounted for that there’s a very large possibility that this person will have unspoken motives apart from serving his desires. Humans are selfish. Combine that selfishness with the ego and laziness that are inherent in each human being at some level and you will realize that, over time, you will be hard-pressed to find a music blog that isn’t willing to write as little as possible (for they are lazy) because that’s what their readers want (for their readers are also lazy) in order to get the ad revenue they want (for they are selfish) and the popularity they desire (for they have ego) and you will see how easy it is to “streamline” a blog to meet these self-serving needs.
Certainly there are bloggers out there, such as Said The Gramophone, that are affecting music, but finding the writers with the integrity needed to stick to what they originally intended is no easy task.
We could talk and wish and hope that people will change, but human nature dictates that it never really will. The best one can hope of others is that they at least stay true to whatever niche they write about and, even if unintentionally, show new music to their readers, albeit in as few words as possible.
It sounds hopeless, but it’s a fact of life: If you are passionate about the discovery of music, turn the selfishness in on itself and find the tools necessary to do it for yourself.
If you want to write and share your discoveries with others, blogging is clearly the easiest method, but it can’t be done without the awareness of your own human nature, so do it with no intent that it will be read by anyone other than the occasional passerby. It’s a painful place to be for those that want others to see what they’re finding (trust me, this blog is there in that place), but it’s probably better, if for no other reason than that it keeps you humble.
Reorganizing my music collection has stirred up a question in my mind: what do I do with the things I don’t listen to any more?
I have all sorts of music I don’t like and would only listen to for nostalgic purposes. (And, to be honest, some of it is music I’d never be caught dead listening to, but I can still enjoy the memories it stirs.)
Do I copy it to my computer for archival purposes? Do I sell back the CD to get other music I’d rather have but may not listen to 5 or 10 years down the road? Do I just hold on to it for memory’s sake?
Maybe I’m more emotionally attached to my music than some people are, but I don’t think that’s such a bad thing for someone like me.
Note to self: although the Santa Barbara Bowl’s site says quite clearly that there are no cameras allowed, security doesn’t seem to care about such things.
The Shins did a great job on Saturday, and we enjoyed ourselves despite bad seats. I can’t track down a set list anywhere, unfortunately, but they did play all their big favorites (Caring Is Creepy and New Slang got the most cheers, of course) and they played the two I wanted to hear: Sea Legs and Phantom Limb. The show-stopper, though, was during their encore: they pulled off an amazing rendition of Pink Floyd’s Breathe that made the crowd go insane.
If anyone ever doubts that The Shins have the talent to prove their worth beyond their run-of-the-mill indie pop, go see them live.
Oh, hey… it’s October already! Time for last month’s playlist.
September saw me visiting people I love in Ohio, buying lots of music (explaining Of Montreal and John Mayer), watching the VMAs (explaining the Timberlake, Timbaland, Rihanna appearances), listening to Kanye and 50 Cent face off with albums releasing on the same day (Kanye clearly won) and making an alt. country playlist for a friend (which explains Ray LaMontagne, Patsy Cline, Emmylou and the always-intriguing Ryan Adams) and anticipating the release of Iron & Wine’s new album (which is amazing, by the way).
Thanks to Hype Machine for making the linking thing easier, by the way.
As though there weren’t enough stories about the new Radiohead album already, I thought I’d allay your fears and let you know that, yes, I’ve already pre-ordered my copy of the discbox.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan, so it will (hopefully) come as no surprise to anyone that I braved the first wave of rabid fans nearly taking down the band’s online store to put my order in well after midnight last night.
And before anyone tells me that I paid way too much for an album, I’ll remind you that, in all seriousness, this isn’t just about Radiohead. It’s also about showing the music industry that they look at the digital revolution backwards, bastardizing artistic expression in the process, and that artists may not need a corporation’s backing to succeed in the future.
