Musical Roulette: Where The Streets Have No Name by U2

*Going to try to get back to doing this. Stole the idea from Riley Breckenridge of Thrice. I'll randomly play one of my "saved" songs on Spotify and post it regardless of how mundane or embarrassing it may be. There's a story behind a person's relationship with every song. These are my stories.

I didn't become the music lover I am until middle school. Early on I liked the Beach Boys and listened to a lot of oldies, but I didn't listen to modern, popular music until middle school. In 7th grade I had one of those young, cool science teachers and I'd hang out in this guy's classroom at lunch sometimes, and he'd give me music. Joshua Tree was one of the tapes he gave me. The other I remember vividly is Def Leppard's Hysteria. This one's an instant classic - hard to believe it's about to be 30 years old. 

I'm not a huge U2 fan, but have tons of respect for what they've done. And I absolutely love how much they've worked to make the world a better place through AIDS prevention, sourcing clean water, etc. Good dudes bringing the Kingdom to the world, not trying to take the world to the Kingdom. 

Musings

I keep coming back to this thing. The internet is a noisy place and the last thing I want to do is add to the noise, but there are things I want to say. I think I've refrained from writing here much because I don't want to say things that'll hurt someone's feelings. But maybe it's worth it? Maybe I should just say what I think should be said and whatever happens, happens?? Shaking my head. I don't even know if I'll ever finish and post this one. 

I love that I named it "Burn It, Build It."  At the time, I was just looking for a catchy name and it was the theme of a song by Thrice called The Arsonist: 

We will burn it down and build it again

What was buried in flame

Burn it down and build it again from the bricks that remain

This is what's happened with my faith and general worldview. It's been burned down and built again. The burning process has happened over a few years and it's been tough. I internalize most things and am not good at in-person conversations, so it's a process I've largely undertaken on my own. I have tons of conversations in my head. Words that will never be said, although there's a lot I want to say. 

I'm very careful with how I word things. I work in sales and I'm extremely conscious of wording that sets expectations correctly. If there's a solid chance I can't deliver something, I won't give the expectations that I can. Customers don't love it, but they also know they're getting the truth from me. How's that for sales tactics? Meh.

Sooooo maybe I'll just write some. For what it's worth...all but the last paragraph of this post was written back in June, abandoned and forgotten until now.

Random Start: Father Son Picnic by Slick Shoes

Love these shredders. They were one of the first bands I worked with when I was hired on at Davdon. They were super young at the time - I think the singer Ryan was 14 when they started up.  His mom was their manager. We had to book shows around their school schedule, although eventually Ryan dropped out to do the band full time. This was mid-90s and pop-punk was hitting big.

Slick Shoes was a band that could hang with their peers "chops"-wise. The first thing that always comes to mind when a song from them comes up is "my favorite little shredders." I only got to meet up with them and see them play once here in Nashville. Definitely wish I could have seen them play more. They just reunited for a show last August with MxPx and Five Iron Frenzy, and they're either about to play or just played w/Zebrahead.

Here's a recent podcast ep from the Mike Herrerra show with the guys talking about the reunion shows.

And a bit of live vid from that show:

Random Start: One True Love by Rich Mullins

Rich Mullins was the realest. In 6th or 7th grade a missionary came to our church and introduced me to Christian music. I wasn't really looking for it, and I didn't really have any limitations on what I could listen to from my parents - but I dove in. Maybe because it was a small, more exclusive community where I fit in - as opposed to the bigger world out there. Thinking back...there's something to that - something that's off.

Anyway, this tape was included among the tapes this guy gave me to go home and dub. I liked the melodies and feel of the music. In the late 80s this had kind of a Paul Simon/Billy Joel/Singer-Songwriter vibe that I was into. Musically this is very 80s - echo chamber drums, spacey-sounding keyboard bits, bass line that flows but seems more treble than bass.

Back to Rich being the realest. This guy kept making music and was part of the "Ragamuffin" community that embraced grace and simple living. He even had his accountants figure out the minimum amount of income he could live on and donate the rest to charity.

Unfortunately Rich died in a jeep wreck in 1997. I'd be curious to see what part of the faith community he'd be in today. I have a feeling he would shun the evangelical title just as I have.

Random Start: It's All About Fear by The Crucified

This band was my jam all through high school.  Still love this record. This was from a time when there were folks making "Christian" music but its quality and creativity matched their "general market" counterparts. IMO the 90s were a golden age for music and the same goes for "Christian" bands from that decade - stuff like Adam Again and The Prayer Chain.

Gender Inequality - It's a Thing

We just got home from a pinning ceremony for the Collegiate Academy at our son's high school.  It's a program where students take advanced courses, complete additional projects, and perform community service. In exchange, the students can take dual enrollment courses (get college credit in high school FOR FREE ***HOLLA!!***) and have access to our local university's resources (MTSU).  

My wife and I noticed that the student population being pinned were overwhelmingly female - 112 to 53 to be precise.  And we thought back to awards ceremonies at the kids' middle school and noticing that the award winners were mostly female.  So why is it that females seem to achieve more in school?  And why do they get to the workplace and be paid less than their male counterparts?

Dude be like, "psst, what's the answer to #7?"

An article in The Economist suggests a few possible reasons for the disparity in school performance. 

1. Girls read more than boys, and reading and comprehension are key to everything educational.
2. Girls spend more time on their homework.  They simply care more about school, while the "too cool for school" attitude is still pervasive in boys.
3. Boys spend much of their spare time in front of a screen, watching TV or playing video games. No mom, it turns out those games aren't educational...and your hand eye coordination from playing video games means jack in the real world.

I put a lot of credence in the "too cool for school" reasoning.  It seems like it always has been and always will be.  I remember being called "school boy" in elementary school just for making good grades, like it's a bad thing.

It's funny though, and sad I guess, that the stuff above makes me want to be encouraging to boys to work hard and care more...but then I think about what happens in the workplace and take a step back.

I work for a large computer company and from what I know we have a good reputation for being inclusive and for promoting equality.  But facts are facts, and the facts are that women are paid less than men for equal work.  I'm wracking my brain about what to do about this and one answer keeps popping into my head - JUST FIX IT! 

Obviously, there's more to fixing it than what my man Keenan is saying, but the disparity is something that everyone knows about and no one seems to have a handle on. 

Really, all I wanted to do here was point out how many more girls than boys are killing it at school.  Good for them!  Their work ethic and perseverance will serve them well later in life, and hopefully one day soon they'll get paid dollar for dollar for the same work as their male counterparts.

Don't do it Alan...Don't...

As I've gotten older I've developed more of an interest in politics.  I guess that's pretty normal, right?  I still don't like or trust most politicians - and I generally think they don't work to enact the changes they said they'd make.  On top of that the amount of money spent and ultimately wasted by losing candidates is sickening. 

I DON'T want to steer folks toward a candidate.  That's your decision.  We're still super early in this process and a lot will change between now and NEXT November.  Yeah, a candidate has peaked my interest and I did some binge posting about said candidate a little while back. Maybe I'll stick with him, maybe not.

But here's what I want to say....

In my view, the political world would be a better place if folks would pay more attention to the individual candidates and not their parties.  Maybe you're a lifelong Democrat - but you don't HAVE to choose between Hillary or Bernie...or random other guy no one has ever heard of.  Maybe you've always voted Republican. You don't HAVE to choose among anyone in the plethora of candidates running.

Personally, there are 3 candidates I feel I could vote for with a clean conscience.  I don't agree with everything they say, including on some moral issues - but for me, they're the few in the pack that seem qualified to lead the country, which is a pretty big job, right?

OK - one last thing, and this is directed at Christians. Some of the candidates touting their faith publicly are the same ones advocating for Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (torture), consider war before diplomacy, claim Pro-Life, but won't fund programs to help the poor, etc.  

Christians - let's seriously see how our candidates stand up to our Lord's command to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.