Kara and I just got back from Across the Universe. This is a musical-film not too unlike Moulin Rouge in concept. It is the story of the turbulent 60's (race riots, Vietnam war, drug culture, etc.) told through the songs of the Beatles. In one ad I saw the tag line was "In the lyrics of the world's best known songs lies a story that has never been told... until now." A fitting description. Across the Universe takes incredibly popular even ubiquitous Beatles songs that can seem sentimental to us young folk and puts them back in the uncertain times from where they came. So much more than a music video could, this film embodies the Beatles music, letting the lyrics rise from the people who sang these songs as if they were their own stories.

Labels: Film, Music

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Derek Webb has put to music what John the revelator put to papyrus so many years ago. Listen to the eschatalogical hope...

This Too Shall Be Made Right
by Derek Webb

People love you the most for the things you hate
And hate you for loving the things you can't keep straight.
People judge you on a curve
And tell you you're getting what you deserve
and this too shall be made right.

Children cannot learn when children cannot eat.
Stack them like lumber and children cannot sleep.
Children dream of wishing wells
Whose waters quench all the fires of hell.
and this too shall be made right

The earth and sky and the sea are all holding their breath.
Wars and abuses have nature goraning with death.
We say we're just trying to stay alive,
It looks so much more like a way to die.
and this too shall be made right

Yes there's a time for peace, there is a time for war.
There's a time to forgive and a time to settle the score.
A time for babies to loose their lives.
A time for hunger and genocide.
and this too shall be made right

Oh, I don't know the suffering of people outside my front door.
I join the oppressors of those I choose to ignore.
I'm trading comfort for human life,
And that's not just murder, it's suicide.
and this too shall be made right

Oh, this too shall be made right.

Labels: Music, Theology

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May 1st Derek Webb is releasing his new album, The Ringing Bell. If you are a crazy Derek Webb fan like myself and don't mind putting down $20 for the new album and a 96-page graphic novel that was apparently inspired by it then you can download the new album today.

Done and done.

I'm a few tracks into the new album, it's much more rock-n-roll than the previous folksy Mockingbird. It's making me think of 70's rock a bit as I listen to it. I'll write more later as I have time to digest it.

www.theringingbell.com
www.derekwebb.com

Labels: Music

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Labels: Funny, Music

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We’ve got a little less than one day left in 2006, so I think it’s safe for me to finally post my second annual “best of” lists for 2006. Man-O-Man I hope a bunch of great films and albums don’t come out in the next 18 hours and make me look like a fool. Feel free to argue the insanity of my picks and link to your own “best of” lists. Remember today and tomorrow are the two days when “thou SHALL judge” the previous year anyway.

Albums
5. Tool - 10,000 Days
4. AFI - DECEMBERUNDERGROUND
3. In Reverent Fear - Stomacher
2. Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
*1. Derek Webb - Mockingbird
*This album is FREE (just click the link)

Films
6. Why We Fight
5. Taladagea Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
4. Inconvienient Truth
3. Lady in the Water
2. Blood Diamond
1. Little Miss Sunshine

TV Shows
5. My Name is Earl
4. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
3. The Colbert Report
2. LOST
1. The Office

Books
5. The Secret Message of Jesus:
Uncovering the Truth that Could Change Everything
by Brian McLaren
4. The Irresistible Revolution:
Living as an Ordinary Radical
by Shane Claiborne
3. The Myth of a Christian Nation:
How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church
by Gregory Boyd
2. Presence-centered Youth Ministry:
Guiding Students into Spiritual Formation
by Mike King
1. The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture:
How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church
by Shane Hipps

Posts on chuckp3.com
5. July 4: Civil Religion’s Easter (10)
4. Dead Man’s Chest (11)
3. Kara and I are Engaged (17)
2. Radical [financial] Trust and Obedience (19)
1. Faith in the Military (46)

Gadgets
5. EyeTV Hybrid
4. Google Analytics
3. Library Thing
2. Harmony Remote
1. YouTube

Labels: Books, Film, Life, LOST, Music, Technology

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Labels: Music

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Labels: Music

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A King & A Kingdom
by Derek Webb

who's your brother, who's your sister
you just walked passed him
i think you missed her
as we're all migrating to the place where our father lives
'cause we married in to a family of immigrants

my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it's to a king & a kingdom

there are two great lies that i’ve heard:
“the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die”
and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican
and if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like Him

my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it's to a king & a kingdom

but nothing unifies like a common enemy
and we’ve got one, sure as hell
but he may be living in your house
he may be raising up your kids
he may be sleeping with your wife
oh no, he may not look like you think

Labels: Music, Politics

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One of the few "Christian" bands I've really been a fan of in the past eight years or so was Caedmon's Call. Their folksy sound was energetic and lively, to this day it makes the best road trip music. But what impressed me the most about Caedmon's Call were the theologically thoughtful lyrics so seldom found (at least by me) in Christian pop music. Songs like Lead of Love, Center Aisle, Love is Different stick out in my mind. My senior year of college my roommate Tim and I went to see Derek Webb (singer/songwriter for Caedmon's Call) who came and did a really small acoustic set on our campus. He had recently left Caedmon's Call and was working on some solo stuff. One of the songs he played, "Wedding Dress," blew me away. I'd never heard a Christian artist be so gutsy and honest about the whoreish state of the church. I'd heard plenty of Christian artists vilify the world for not being Christian enough, but nothing like this! Later I was introduced to Keith Green by a good friend Kaz, and I think that Green and Webb are in a similar cast of prophetic and talented musicians.

The first solo album of Derek Webb's that I picked up was 2003's She Must and Shall Go Free where "Wedding Dress" first appears. Now, you can listen to Webb for about 14 seconds and tell that he's a through-and-through Calvinist, but I say "good for him!" Imagine a songwriter who didn't water down their theology to make it "user friendly." So while my Wesleyan eyebrows are raised by songs like "Thankful," "Nobody Loves Me" and "Crooked Deep Down" I am also glad that he's putting it out there instead of producing watered-down crappy music. I respect Webb's music so much that I hear his Uber-Calvin songs as reminders that I need to avoid Pelagianism. On She Must and Shall Go Free the songs "Take to the World" as well as "She Must and Shall Go Free" could be used as mission statement and theology of atonement respectively. I was so impressed by She Must and Shall Go Free and at just how much I resonated with this student of Calvin.

Well yesterday Kara gave me Webb's newest album Mockingbird. It's only been one day but I've got to tell you that I think this his best album yet. The songs "A King and a Kingdom," "My Enemies Are Men Like Me" and "In God We Trust" get very very political demanding that Christians understand being an American and being a Christian are not the same thing and are often in direct opposition. His song "A New Law" examines the short-cut legalism practiced by far too many Christians who would rather be given a new law, or be told how to think rather than doing the hard work of disciplining oneself or learning how to engage the world instead of withdrawing to a bunker. Get your hands on this album as soon as you can, Derek Webb is singing about some things that we Christians need to be thinking about. Beyond being intelligent and insightful this album truly is an act of worship because Webb's honesty and heart for discipleship honors God. Too much of the Christian music today is about spiritual self-gratification rather than honoring God with our talent and our minds. These days Webb is in a class of his own.

Labels: Music

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Craig Keen has been preaching in chapel this week at NTS for our "spiritual deepening week." I was able to talk to him breifly on a few occasions during the week and I can see why his students say such wonderful things about the guy. Along with a dramatic (and I mean dramatic here very positively, as in, the dramatic unfolding of) session of a NT Theology class where he and Andy Johnson taught the gospel of John in some amazingly vivid and new ways (for me. Although I hear it was all old news to Rowan Williams), his preaching this week has been really, really challenging, engaging and... well listen for yourself. His three themes were Fear, Love and finally today he spoke about Martyrdom. Just before he began preaching however, he had our chapel band play Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls.

Now even though Craig had been showing clips from some great films such as Babette's Feast, Cool Hand Luke and Run, Lola, Run, this seemed even more out of place. For chapel that is, from what I hear this is just the kind of genius that Craig is known for... but for chapel it was a big surprise to move from The Wonderful Cross to '90's alt-Rock... and not just as an illustration, but really as quite possibly the most moving song of worship I've heard. Granted, what Craig has been speaking about (along with that NT theology class session) really primed us to hear this song anew. But it was amazing.

Iris
by the Goo Goo Dolls

And I'd give up forever to touch you
Cuz I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
Cuz sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight

And I don't want the world to see me
Cuz I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything feels like the movies
Yeah, you'd bleed just to know you're alive

And I don't want the world to see me
Cuz I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And I don't want the world to see me
Cuz I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And I don't want the world to see me
Cuz I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am

Labels: Life, Music

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It's that time of year when everyone is reflecting back on 2005, taking stock of what it meant to us and what we enjoyed the most and least about the past year of our lives. The DJs are all playing their top 10 albums and the Academy Awards will soon pass judgement on the past year in flimmaking. And since I have a blog I'm obviously supposed to pass some of my own judgement, if for no other reason, so that you all may sleep better at night having known my opinions on such things... so here goes (feel free to disagree and post your own "best of" to rebut my foolishness).

Albums
5. Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
4. Weezer - Make Believe
3. The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
2. Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams
1. Death Cab for Cutie - Plans

Films [updated]
[this is a fluid list because I have yet to see Capote, A History of Violence, Millions, North Country and others]
5. Brokeback Mountain
4. Walk the Line
3. Jarhead
2. Crash
1. Good Night, and Good Luck

TV Shows
5. Squidbillies
4. CSI
3. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
2. The Office
1. The Colbert Report

Books [updated]
[the first two were actually published in 2004]
3. The March by E.L. Doctoro
2. Tortured Wonders by Rodney Clapp
1. Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren

...wow so after that woefully incomplete list, I'm looking forward to your "best of," so start commenting.

Labels: Film, Life, Music

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Photo Gallery

Tuesday night I got a call from Brian Postlewait asking if I'd like to see U2 on Thursday night in Omaha, NE. It didn't take much pondering to know what my answer to this invitation was. So yesterday minutes after finishing up my second and last final of the semester I hopped in a minivan with 5 friends and we headed to the Quest Center in Omaha. Two of the guys with us were seeing U2 for the second time in as many days, they had just seen U2 in St. Louis the night before. And for one it was his 16th show! I however was going to my first ever U2 concert. Which makes this next part even more special.

As we entered Quest they scanned our tickets and Ed's (Mr. 16) ticket was a "lotto" ticket which meant he and his group got to upgrade tickets from regular floor to the "inner circle" encompased by the stage. Check out where we stood HERE. I'll just describe our closeness by saying that you could see the emotion in the eyes of The Edge.

Many U2 fanatics have told me that a U2 show has a litrugical feel to it. It begins with some fun songs but quickly draws you into worship, and with the songs they have to choose from its no wonder that many compare their music to a worship gathering. What's even more interesting is the way songs are placed in the set list determines their contribution to the overall "story" that is being told at a concert. Not unlike the books of the Bible, which when put in different order emphasize different things. For example, "The Hands That Bulit America" was written for Gangs of New York and is about immigrants building America. But in concert this song comes after "Sunday, Blood Sunday" and "Bullet The Blue Sky" and images of F-15 fighter jets are lit up behind the band, making the song a commentary on America being built by way of violence. There was a confessional movement within the concert between "Love and Peace Or Else" and "Where the Streets Have No Name." Bono brought a little girl up on stage and talked a little bit about CoeXisT. While the confessions of this section of the concert were largely confessions of violence, Bono didn't come across as hateful or bitter. He dedicated these songs to the safe and quick return of American soldiers.

This was their set list:

City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
Still Haven’t Found
Beautiful Day
Original of the Species
Sometimes you Can’t Make it On Your Own
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
The Hands That Built America
Miss Sarajevo
Pride in the Name of Love
Where the Streets have no Name
One

Until the End of the World
Mysterious Ways
With or Without You

Stuck in a Moment
Crumbs From Your Table
Yahweh
40

Update:
Here are a few short videos from the show, that I put the original music over and spared you the unintelligible static hiss.
City of Blinding Lights
Elevation
Pride

Labels: Life, Music

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"To love another person is to see the face of God." That is the last line of the amazing musical rendition of Victor Hugo's monumental novel Les Miserables. I just got back from seeing Les Mis with Kara and it was... scrumptulescent! Les Mis is theological poetry the likes of which the world rarely is graced with. Hugo's main character Jean Valjean is the embodiment of a Christlike parable from the moment the compassionate priest "buys him for God" by forgiving him of theft that would surely have sent him back to prision for decades more.
Valjean is the picture of mercy and compassion as he saves Fantine from jailtime after she is attacked by a man whom she would not sleep with. Again Valjean is the embodiment of integrity as he goes to confess his true identity so that another convict would not go to jail in his stead. Oh my I could go on and on and on. Suffice it to say that Valjean is an amazing picture of a person who truly understands grace and redefines their entire life by that grace, that can only come from Christ. If bookstores sold the Bible and Les Miserables together as a "value pack" or something, I would whole heartedly approve.

Seriously folks... it was church.

Who am I? I'm 24601!

Labels: Music

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Just got back from a great rock show out in Kansas. Weezer headlined... and did so WELL! It was 1994 when Weezer burst on the scene with classics like "In the Garage," "Say it Ain't So," "Undone" and one of my personal favorites "Surf Wax America." Their show was one long parade of great songs old and new that have been the soundtrack of my growing up.

Opening up the bigger bands of the night was Story of the Year, who I saw last summer for the first time with my cousin Chad. SotY is a hard rockin' band out of St. Louis, MO and they rocked out to some of their more popular tunes, "Anthem of our Dying Day" and "Unti the Day I Die," but also added a nice meaty edge to "Sweet Home [Kansas City]," "Wayward Son" among a few other classics. After SotY rocked the crowd the unique band known as Cake took the stage. Talk about fond High School memories... their album Fashion Nugget truly was the soundtrack to my last two years of High School. I think I weireded out Kara a bit with my outstanding lyric knowledge of their material.

The whole show went down a little bit west of Kansas City, KS in the new Verizon Wireless Amipatheater. It was a wonderful warm day and perfect evening to sit outside on blankets with a few thousand other people, smell some second hand pot and just enjoy a concert with the coolest girl around. What a great time.




Current Music: My Name is Jonas - Weezer
Current Mood: Stoked
Currently Reading: God's Politics

Labels: Life, Music

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I've been listening to the new Linkin Park cd I got yesterday. Good stuff. It strikes me that these guys have had their share of bad girlfriends though... much angst. Oh well, it's great driving music. I like the japanese flute on track 11 though... very... sick-tastic.

Labels: Music

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