Rick Walker invited me to join him for Open Line on Powertalk again last night. Always a great time.
Last night was open-line along with discussion about teen dating and abstinence.
I’ve posted the audio over on my drop.io account if you want to download or listen to the show (or you can just download the show from the Power FM site as well).
See if you can hear us squirm in our chairs about mid-way through the show :-).
Been a big fan of The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks as of late.
Today they shared a couple great signs that mention some guy named “Jesus.”
Apparently this is an ongoing problem… there are 12 other related posts on the site, including ::
“Jesus” is coming
Open your heart to “Jesus”
and this one really worries me…
“Jesus” he know how much we can bare
In case you missed This American Life’s excellent job of explaining The Giant Pool of Money (go listen right away), or you’re more of a visual person, here’s a great visual explanation of why your 401(k) is in the crapper* and why the economy is going with it.
*Yes, I think that’s the official/technical term for the Credit Crisis right now :-).
For my friends in the UK and elsewhere who either don’t get Letterman – or missed seeing U2 last night, YouTube’s got the video (for now).
There’s nothing from the band’s performance on Letterman’s Website yet, but there is a hillarious “Ask U2” bit that I’d encourage you to check out.
Every day I die again, and again I’m reborn
Every day I have to find the courage
To walk out into the street
With arms out
Got a love you can’t defeat
Neither down nor out
There’s nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now
This song is quickly becoming one of my favorites on the album. It’s getting harder to pick a top song now.
Now that the album’s been released, what’s your favorite? What’s your favorite lyric? What songs are you dying to see and hear in the stadiums?
BTW – I picked up the “Limited Edition CD/Digi pack” today from Best Buy thanks to my sister and brother-in-law, who gave me a gift card for my birthday (you can order a copy from Amazon through the link above). Very pleased with the packaging — except that the poster is glued to the cardboard! That’s not frustrating at all!! Not that I expected Laurie to let me put the poster up in our living room — but I did have a spot for it in my cubicle at work! I’m hoping I can get it off without damaging either the poster or case too much. I’ll keep you posted.
Oh and BTW – I just noticed U2.com has been completely redesigned. Check it out.
I’m not even sure how I found this now, but the web-isodes of Jesus People have been cracking me up today. It’s a mockumentary (think Spinal Tap and Waiting for Guffman) based on an up and coming Christian Pop group, Cross My Heart.
“Jesus People” started as a webseries on FunnyorDie.com with the description of “Spinal Tap” set in the world of Christian dance-pop. The web series found 1/2 million fans, thanks to a cast including Kate Flannery (“The Office”), Deborah Theaker (“Waiting for Guffman”), & Stephnie Weir (“Mad TV”).
They’ve now completed a full movie based around the webisodes that’s due in the theaters this fall. Should be quite funny from the trailer and the current webisodes ::
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Movie trailer
Movie Clip
While some have told me they’re not digging U2’s new album, I’m loving it more and more as I listen to it.
Did a little research on the somber track “White as Snow,” of which I originally said, “The opening guitar, bass and vocals immediately remind me of Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson (U2’s worked with and written songs for both musicians in the past). Yet the melody reminds me of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.†It will be interesting to see if Bono blends the songs in concert.”
Turns out, according to the Guardian, the melody is intentionally that of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”
“There are a couple of songs from the point of view of an active soldier in Afghanistan,” Bono told me back in June 2008, at the group’s Hanover Quay studio in Dublin, during a break in recording, “and one of them, White As Snow, lasts the length of time it takes him to die”….
The song’s melody is based on an old hymn, Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel, that, according to The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal, was composed by “an unknown author, circa 1100″…
The idea of a song based on the dying thoughts of a soldier initially came to Bono after he read William Golding’s ambitious novel, Pincher Martin, which is told from the point of view of a British sailor who appears to have survived the torpedoing of his ship. As he approaches death, his thoughts roam back over his life, and the moral choices he made or avoided.
While the dying soldier isn’t quite what I had in mind when listening to it – it does add a whole new dimension to the lyrics and the song… another reason I keep digging U2.
And here are the some of the lyrics I was originally looking for, before my pleasant sidetrack…
Who can forgive forgiveness where forgiveness is not
Only the lamb as white as snow…
Now this dry ground, it bears no fruit at all
Only poppies laugh under the crescent moon
The road refuses strangers
The land, the seeds we sow
Where might we find the lamb as white as snow
As boys we would go hunting in the woods
To sleep the night shooting out the stars
Now the wolves are every passing stranger
Every face we cannot know
If only a heart could be as white as snow
If only a heart could be as white as snow
BTW – I think I’m gonna buy the Vinyl LP next week when it’s released and maybe the Digi-Pack. What about you?