After months of wrangling, tonight we posted a new web site for Spirit Garage. I am really excited. If all goes according to plan, it will not just be another digital brochure but a real space for people to interact. The site is built on a great open source project drupal which is designed in part to develop interactive web sites for communites. Comments and bug alerts would be very welcome here or at the Spirit Garage site.
I am such a fan of how U2 uses their superstardom to promote issues of peace and justice. This bit from the LA Times was in Friday's Star Tribune.
ON THIS GENERATION'S CHALLENGE"I'm not sure if it's Catholic guilt or what, but I genuinely believe that second only to personal redemption, the most important thing in the Scriptures -- 2,103 passages in all -- refers to taking care of the world's poor. Each generation has to ask itself what it wants to be remembered for. Previous generations have ushered in civil rights in America, gotten rid of apartheid in South Africa and brought down the Iron Curtain. I think this generation can bring that kind of energy and conviction to problems in Africa. There are 6,000 people a day dying there just because we can't get them drugs that are available in the West. If we don't do something to change that, we are going to look in history like barbarians."
Bono, Los Angeles Times, April 2005
The whole show had a feeling that was much more than a rock concert. It was music that was about making this world a better place. According to Bono, The Edge is from the future. They went to the Mayo clinic while in the area so they could study his brain. When The Edge was asked what it was like in the future, he said, "better."
Maybe this is what it felt like to be a part of the peace and justice movements of the 60's, the music echoing a changing spirit of the people and a hope for a better tomorrow. We could use a better future and I hope we are up to the challenge of getting there.
Friday was the U2 concert and I got to be there! Vertigo, while the name of the tour also described the feeling we had from our seats, I think there were 2 people that were farther away from the stage than I was, and the guy two people back tipped over and fell on top of me during the show. It was a big fall, but he seemed to be ok afterwards. Even with the nosebleed seats, it was still one of the best shows I've been to. They really know how to play to the cheap seats. Here's the set list.
There were two highlights for me. In the runner up spot was City of Blinding Lights and hearing 20,000 people sing "Oh you look so beautiful." Wearing the tiara for the evening was Miss Sarajevo. I had not noticed before how the form of the song mimics Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. The background story about the song was what clinched it for me.
In classic U2 form, social justice issues flowed through the concert leaning heavily on The One Campaign and the idea of CoeXisT (which is an iconographic spelling using the muslim crescent as the "C" the star of David as the "X" and a christian cross as the "T." A great message of unity that is running into issues as it is apparently trademarked by a US clothing company.
Yahoo News posted an interesting story: Hollywood Marketing Films Through Churches. The article examines the recent phenomenon of previewing films with christian audiences. This paragraph sums a lot of it up.
The approach reflects the next step in Hollywood's attempt to capitalize on the business lessons of ''The Passion of the Christ," a surprising blockbuster last year thanks to unprecedented marketing and mobilization in churches. With Congress cracking down on indecency in television, video games and films, there's a political dimension as well.
The article links to Fox Films Family and Christian Films Section of their web site. They even have a church resources sections where you can download clips from a couple of films.
I'm conflicted in my feelings about this. In one sense they movie industry seems to be taking the US christian audience seriously and looking for input for their secular films. I am very much for dialogue between faith communities and popular film, so in that sense, hooray.
On the other hand, any time the entertainment industry with its massive resources, power, and influence, gets involved with faith communities, I get nervous. The film and television industry has massive power in shaping the US cultural consciousness. If they are going to start making "christian" films, what is their central christian message? I am guessing that it may have a lot to do with the "buddy christ will bring you a happier, healthier, more moral you" viewpoint that already seems rampant in mass media today. An idea of a suffering God who calls God's followers into the sufferings of the world just doesn't seem to have the same box office draw that the former might.
The Forgiveness Project is an amazing organization that is working to break cycles of violence through reconciliation, conflict resolution, and telling stories of individuals struggling with violence and forgiveness. The stories are incredible, heartbreaking and hopeful.
Mike Doughty (of Soul Coughing fame) has a new solo album, Haughty Melodic., It has really gotten a hold of me. It might be the gravel in his voice, the fact that he sings in a range that I can belt in the car, the acoustic and steel guitars...anyway it's a great album. Mike deals with a lot of spiritual topics; especially in His Truth Is Marching On. Your Misfortune is a great look at what it means to be there for someone who is having a hard time and seems to have a God narrative running through the verses. It raises thoughts for me about what it is to join God in the sufferings of this world. Being there for someone in bad times is often really hard, but for those of us who call ourselves followers of Christ, it's what we're supposed to do.
This blog was coaxed into being with the help of an assignment in "proactive ministry in a media culture," a class I am taking from Mary Hess at Luther Seminary. Part of the assignment is for the class to all set up blogs, comment and use news readers.
For the class:
Firefox Browser--The tabbed browsing is great open a new tab in the window with Ctrl+t. (F11 also gives you full window browsing, nice.) Sage RSS Reader--A RSS plugin for Firefox, activate with Alt+s. Thunderbird--Mozilla's email client. It's free, relatively customizable and supports opensource but the address book isn't that great.
I am interested in how media, religion, and culture are colliding and intersecting in the U.S. and in other societies, particularly in pop-media such as music, film, television, photography, visual arts, cult-brands, and graphic design. This blog is intended to be a place to investigate these intersections, play around with them, and make connections with people who are interested in similar things. I am also exploring these interests as a staff member at Spirit Garage, a student at Luther Seminary, and a member of the Emerging Leaders Network.