yeezus and Jesus.

kanye. kim's baby daddy/fiance. yeezus.
whatever you call him he is a dude with an overinflated ego and a full tank of self importance.
but he may be doing a better job at presenting the gospel than you and I.  maybe.

like any concert, kanye brought along an opening act. for this go-round he chose kendrick lamar. whatever. i don't really care who he brings because i'm not a fan and i'm not going to go to his show. however, he's also brought along a guest that doesn't come out until the end of the concert. he's brought along Jesus.

what?

yeah, Jesus. according to various magazines' reviews of the concert (because like i said, i'm not going to his show) there is a character representing Jesus that comes out at the end of kanye's set and goes through a bit of dialog that includes Jesus saying He has been here all along and He has come to bring light to the darkness.

well that sounds like pretty solid Christian Truth, right?
you're right, it does.
but here's the catch...millennials are leaving the Church in droves (i am sure the barna group could give you all the reasons why) and are now finding their sense of hope at the temple of yeezus. and this truth that yeezus is giving them isn't the whole picture. yeezus is giving them a snapshot of what Truth is and then packing up his bus and leaving. maybe that snapshot is enough to really get to someone's heart to have them dig deeper for the whole Truth but i think it's probably no more effective than the guy standing on the street corner shouting turn and burn messages through a bullhorn. this way is just a little easier to swallow than that guy. but is the Church doing anything to reach out to those hurting/misguided/scorned/'too-intelligent-for-the-Church' twenty-somethings to tell them that Jesus has come to bring light to the dark? does the Church need to? i don't think we need to sell Jesus but are we doing enough to tell people He is here.
and i don't think that kanye is really looking to be the next poster-child for the Christian faith. i think he's probably just capitalizing on trend and trying to be the most shocking thing out there. too many people are talking about miley...not enough are talking about him.

i don't really know where to go from here. i have been thinking about it for days and the only thing i can come up with is to charge people hundreds of dollars a seat to get into church because people are paying that to hear a slice of the gospel from kanye and churches have the whole pie. i don't know if kanye is doing more harm than good or good than harm. any thoughts?

xo

royals

if you have listened to radio at all over the last couple of months it seems that every, and i mean every, station is playing a song called 'royals' by a 16 year old new zealand girl who goes by the name lorde. it's this anti-anthem singing, "and we'll never be royals, it don't run in our blood. that kind of luxe just ain't for us, we crave a different kind of buzz."
i literally don't know one person who doesn't like the song.
and like every good summer mega-hit after a week or so of being a single along came the slew of covers. there are always some incredible covers and some that are straight-up terrible but one that stands out above the rest is the cover of 'royals' by the one and only paper route.
it's ethereal without being sleepy.
it's got great gang vocals.
it's got a breakdown that feels like space.

now maybe i am biased saying that it is the greatest cover of this song because i love paper route and i clearly haven't listened to every cover of the song that has ever been done but it is fabulously great.
here's the link:
'royals' (cover) by: paper route
go listen to it. right now.

xo

fading west

i didn't think i could fall any more in love with jon foreman.
and then i did.

last week the 'fading west' tour came through the twin cities...i had been waiting for this tour since getting back from california.
as we approached the venue i literally started getting nervous/excited which is so weird, it's not like i've never seen switchfoot in concert before. i mean, i wasn't even this type of nervous/excited when we stepped on moonlight beach for bro-am but for some reason i knew this was special.

the tour was something they had never done before, they showed the documentary that they have been filming over the past year and then played a (slightly) stripped down set.

first things first, the film. the boys in the band took a surf tour to australia, new zealand, south africa, and bali and documented their trip. the film showed them surfing some of the most gorgeous beaches, playing at huge festivals and in dingy bars, hanging out with new friends and old, and doing life together. with some bands i would be a little afraid of cameras following them around capturing the members in their completely unfiltered states...i would be afraid that they wouldn't be the stand-up people i hope they are. no need to worry with the switchfoot guys, they were so encouraging to one another and were living life with joy. they seemed to take in their experiences and radiated excitement. they truly love one another and it showed. and can't forget the part where they showed shots from bro-am! yes, the had footage from this years' bro-am in the film. I WAS IN THOSE CROWD SHOTS YOU GUYS. obviously, i pre-ordered the film. it comes in january.

second things second, the music. it was supposed to be an acoustic show but you can't take the rock out of a rock band so they did a couple of songs in true switchfoot style. the highlights of the music part of the night were when they sang 'learning to breath' and all gathered around one mic, completely unplugged and did 'needle and haystack life.' those moments really showcased their musicianship and they just plain owned them. in between songs they had people tweet questions at them that they then answered from stage. it was one of the most intimate-in-a-large-crowded-venue shows i have ever been to. one of the questions asked was "do you call your mom when you're on tour?" and tim responded that it's weird because on tour jon calls his mom (they're brothers). everyone laughed, jon laughed the hardest. it was those moments that so endeared me to them.

so i started the night completely in love with switchfoot and i ended the night even more in love with switchfoot. i think it's like when people have anniversary parties when they've been married for like a million years and one half of the couple says that they love the other half more now then the day they got married, like that.

xo

SBTS

i love knowing the story behind the song. it just gives the song more depth and even if i don't personally know the people involved in the story or haven't been in the same situation suddenly the song is so much more personal. knowing the writer's heart the moment they penned the words that will probably be stuck in my head on countless occasions and doodled on the edges of my notes during boring work meetings could probably be added to my list of favorite things. it's like seeing behind the scenes of a theater production, to some people it ruins the magic. to me, it makes it even more special.

i was just at a concert where the frontman shared the story that fueled a song of heartbreak.
apparently, after coming back from being out on tour the frontman was dumped by his girlfriend (as someone who has dreamed of marrying a rock star since she was 12 i find this completely unfathomable.) after he and his ex had been broken up for just a couple months he saw a picture of her on instagram wearing an engagement ring. ouch.

since then, i haven't been able to stop listening to the song. when the line, "a photograph is all it takes" i can't not imagine a picture of a girl complete with engagement ring. and when he sings "oh everybody knows i didn't want it end" my heart aches at his vulnerability.

if you wanna listen to the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KD_TnbPvOU

in response to the song i have crafted a short note to express my appreciation:

dear will anderson (frontman of parachute),
i'm sorry this girl broke your heart and flaunted her engagement on social media but i love the song that came out of your personal tragedy. thank you for sharing your story on stage and wearing your heart on your sleeve because yikes that has to be scary. also, i know this girl who would love to get coffee with you the next time you come through minneapolis (it's me.)
xoxo

xo

good girls don't make history.

miley cyrus.
time to throw my opinion into the ring since virtually everyone else has.

i think she's doing it right.
her video "tamed" came out a couple of years ago and everyone was wondering where sweet little miley went...now people are clamoring to get "tamed" miley back because that was only the beginning.

she released her mega-hit "we can't stop" which references drugs, sex, and a general lack of caring about what anyone else thinks with an equally racy (and in my opinion, completely tacky) video and people wouldn't stop talking about it.

she posed nude for a campaign to get people to take care of their skin. the photo, which leaves hardly anything to the imagination, was emblazoned on t-shirts and are available for sale. both her and her mom (kinda weird) were spotted wearing them. that's some good watering-hole fodder right there.  

she sang the chart-topper "we can't stop" on the vma's dressed in a bear-costume (which eventually came off), grinding up against a man 16 years her senior, turning a gigantic foam finger into male anatomy, sticking her tongue out at every opportunity and sounding pretty terrible considering the fact that she can actually sing. the buzz was huge, people are still talking about it.

she called a paparazzi a really bad word. an ugly word that shouldn't come out of anyone's mouth. instead of letting the press get ahold of that news and spin it how they wanted, she posted a tweet calling out what she had done and seeming rather proud of it. she was talking about herself.
 
just days ago she released a new video for her song "wrecking ball" where she is featured licking a sledgehammer in her underwear and then riding on a wrecking ball completely starkers. in the first twenty-four hours of the video being released she had 20 million hits. i imagine it will be the talk of tabloids, entertainment shows, and the chatter around the college campus where i work.

she is doing it right.

she wants to be talked about, and by golly, she is being talked about.
america loves a good trainwreck and she is doing a fantastic job at playing conductor.
there is a saying, "good girls don't make history" and miley, it seems, is bound and determined to be remembered.

i think she's a 20 year old who is making the mistakes most 20 year olds would make when given that amount of freedom, celebrity, and money. i think that someday she will seriously regret these choices she is making. i think she is a terrible role model for little girls and teenagers. i know i felt sad for her when i watched her vma performance. but she is doing exactly what the industry wants from her and (as much as we may say we don't) what we want from her. we may think she's trashy and goes way over the line and hate her choice of hairstyle at the vma's but we can't help but wonder what she's going to do next. at least i can't. i just hope that she realizes that she's better than that before the train completely derails.

xo

whiney post for a wednesday.

this past weekend a part of my heart heaved one big sigh and cried a single tear as i realized that i am becoming too old to creep.
i am not above admitting that i readily internet-stalk my favorite artists and really know more about them and their personal lives than i should. i am not above admitting that when i am at festivals i will go to the show of a dude who's band i couldn't give two cares about just because i think he's pretty. i am not above admitting having a shameless love for guys instead of men. yeah, there's a difference.
but now things are getting real.
see, now bands at festivals (they always were, i was just younger then so it was completely appropriate) ARE IN THEIR TEENS. i can't, in good conscious, creep on a 17 year old. i just can't do it. instead of thinking "mmmm, he's super attractive and probably wants to buy me fro yo," i now think, "oh cute, he's like 12 and actually pretty decent at guitar, how precious."
even bands where you think just maybe they are a little closer to my age and it wouldn't be weird at all to be friends....nope, they are still only 20 and act like they're 15.
one of the things that sucks the most about this revelation is that they are the up and coming bands that are playing on the stages that i appreciate most at festivals. i know the huge names on mainstage are often the ones that draw the masses but i love the smaller stages with the no-name bands where maybe you've heard one of their songs before but are pleasantly surprised (or perhaps left trying to find a way to gracefully walk away from the crowd of twelve people because you know they will notice one person leaving) by their set. those stages are the whole reason i get to brag and say that i saw and fell in love with mutemath, tfk, switchfoot, and others before they got wildly popular. but now standing by those stages makes me oh-so-very aware that i'm at the older end of the "millennial" age category. but self-awareness is a good thing, right?
it's not that i can't still appreciate the art they make or that i won't buy their album or go to their shows, it's just that now instead of playing 'which band member is the cutest?' you can't help but think that had you lived in the same town you probably would have been their babysitter.
i fear for the day i am able to say "i'm old enough to be your mother," and like to hang out at mainstage.

xo

where did summer go?

summer is coming to it's end and that always makes me sad. i love the freedom that summer represents. i love tank tops, shorts, and sundresses. i love fro-yo dates with friends and movies in the park. it's always a bitter taste when august wraps up.
however,
this year september holds some exciting moments that i am so looking forward to it almost makes me forget that another summer has come and gone.
lifelight will kick off the month in true south dakota style (if that's even a thing.) this will be the only music festival i get to this summer so i am determined to make it more than count even though i'm not super excited about the line up nor will i get to be there all three days.
then a week later parachute is playing at mill city nights. YES. the last two times they have come through minnie i haven't been able to go so i am pumped. i have what is known as a 'gigantic crush' on the lead singer. a few days ago a friend of mine went and saw them in north carolina and got a picture of her kissing my man on the cheek after the show. now i gotta one-up her...any ideas that don't turn me into a total groupie?
a week after the parachute show the band i manage (more on that in a different post) has their first show of the school year so hopefully there will be a killer turnout for that. if you wanna come they are playing at the depot in hopkins, mn!
then the following week the gentlemen of switchfoot are coming and bringing their documentary with them. it's the fading west tour and i.am.so.excited. my roommate already promised me that she won't make fun of me when i inevitably tear up during the showing of the film. i know i've said again and again and again how amazing i think jon foreman and company are but i just can't help but gush over them. and i know i just flew halfway across the country to see them but i JUST LOVE THEM SO MUCH. don't judge me.
so yes, summer is over but this year it has more of a bittersweet taste to it.

xo