ZAIREEKA!

this might be a silly thing to blog about (but judging from other blog sites and bloggers, that is never a true statement) but i love the Flaming Lips, and after reading visiting their site and reading wayne's notes on albums, my love is that much more confirmed. while i was scratching around on http://www.flaminglips.com/main.php i found this little know album called Zaireeka, 4 discs to be played simultaneously. here's a discription of the first time the band heard it all together:

"Okay, on go we start it," Wayne pauses for this to sink in and shouts, "One, two, three, go!" He stabs the play button on the CD player and a voice declares, "This is track number eight." This voice surrounds us - coming from all the stereos in this room and the next. It sounds... POWERFUL. "CD Number One," comes a voice from behind me.

From the other room, "Number Two."

From in front of me, "Number Three."

Then it begins.... unearthly yet melodic music is, quite literally, swirling around us. We move to the hallway between the two rooms, Wayne cranks a stereo - in the room we just left - a little higher, and then joins us in the hallway. Then he grins as his voice comes from around a corner and begins to relate a tale about his dogs. And fluffy toy animals, and some giant plastic bugs. A Bonham-with-a-hangover drum pattern synchs in with a crazy dobule bass drum sound from the opposite side of the house, and then it really starts... voices EVERYWHERE singing the choral refrain, "The big ol' bu--ug is the new... ba-by..no--owww..." The music surges from alternate directions and we start to turn ourselves round and move side to side - experimenting with this melange that has become this glorious total sound. Gentle guitar, stray noises, voices, voices, and beautiful strings and horns just swooping past and around. At times it's like there are three clones of the Flaming Lips all playing at once, with slightly different songs that only almost lock in. Then it's all synched and it's a total sound again. The process just makes it all the more exciting and powerful. Stuff races around the room and you feel like you've been hit in the head. This particular song ends with about a million dogs all barking from all directions i.e. it's bloody frightening.

Which kind of sums up the record - alternately glorious, breathtaking, exciting, fragile and ultimately frightening. An intense vision realised in the true rich Flaming Lips tradition but eschewing the guitar pyrotechnics of the past for an altogether more atmospheric (and ultimately more stunning) arsenal that leads, truly, to a step beyond. Wayne explains that he was, ".. bored of people being able to point at a part of a song and say, 'Well, that's a Nirvana influence and there's the Stooges,' and all that.." So he made a record that comes on four CDs to be played simultaneously. "Well, now no-one can say that we're doing anything that's been done before..."

sorry, kindof long, but it got my attention. so of course i ordered the cds and sometime in july i'll play them at the living room. you can chill out with me and experience Zaireeka.

blessing all,
j-w

Do-It-Yourself Religion

On Friday the Wall Street Journal ran a story on "Do-It-Yourself Religion." The article was reprinted in the Naples Daily News, and is currently available on their Web site (although they may take it down before you read this). It's not terribly good coverage, managing to miss most of the important points. And all of the examples are from the Journal's home turf: New York. But it is significant in that it brings attention to newly-popular forms of worship.

I'm alive and well. Potatos, anyone?

Hey y'all. Well, I've been in Idaho for a week now. Miss you all already. Talk about desert spirituality! Pocatello is one of those places that you would expect Johnny Cash to sing about as a tumbleweed rolls across the interstate. This is actually my third summer here as I'm finishing up my degree at Idaho State University (www.isu.edu). Please keep me in your prayers, you all are in mine!!! Agape!

~Ray

More on who knows more

The Tim Bednar "We Know More Than Our Pastors" post Karen wrote about below and in her blog is a small part of a huge whitepaper on the topic of spiritual blogging. There's a lot to take in, and a lot to think about. I find compelling the notion that the emerging church is a culture hack, and a technically sweet one. Like flash mobs or blogging, it leverages technology to obviate the need for a rigid, monolithic, over-sized organizational structure. It makes worship ad-hoc and distributed (again), and something about that strikes me as very genuine.

Something Completely Different

Microsoft technology evangelist (yeah, that's his title) Robert Scoble was in Dallas recently and was invited to visit Fellowship Church to take a tour of their IT infrastructure. Fellowship is a bit larger than CotA; with weekend attendance at 18,000, it's America's fifth-largest church. Scoble posted in his blog a list of 10 "lessons learned" by the church, and Fellowship's Internet Technology Manager (yeah, that's his title), Brian Bailey, blogged the visit as well.

did you hear what i heard?

Hey did anybody hear graham travis playing live on 107.7 the end sunday night? He was fabulous... you can also hear him (and me too) at numos on capitol hill this friday night and at the kirkland teen center this saturday, with united states of electronica, which always makes for a "dance like its 1981" kinda night. love yall
ryan... i mean, jerry.

WOW

OK, so I've never posted to a blog before, but I just had to take a minute and say WAY COOL!!! I can't wait to see all the cool stuff our community comes up with. THANK YOU to all of COTA for the many ways you bless my life!!!!

garageband church

hey shawn, your post on 'unchurch' lead me to read another (related) tim bednar post, which get's to the very core of what churches like apostles seek to be about. i added a new post on my blog (motivated by your post). read it and let me know what you think. it is posted here

The Un-conference as un-church

I recently ran across a thought-provoking essay from Tim Bednar titled, "BloggerCon: The Unconference As An Example of the Participatory Church And Glimpse The Future Pastor." In it he compares the changing role of moderators, panelists, and audiences in conferences to the changing role of pastors and congregations in churches. I found intriguing his thoughts about the participatory church and pastors as discussion leaders.

Interactive Church Music Player

I know some of y'all are musicians, so I thought I'd share with you an interesting Web-based application for exploring church music. I originally heard about it from a MetaFilter discussion. It's called the "Interactive Church Music Player," and it's from the Tabernacle people at the LDS Church. It "not only shows the sheet music, but allows transposition, tempo changes, part selection," and other cool stuff. If you have Flash, check it out.