I wrote this song a long time ago, if I tagged you on facebook, that means that I think you will like it and/or you appreciate good music. Click here to listen to the song on last.fm. Here’s the lyrics:
When you’re walking on down the mountain side
You’re walking on down the old country road
And it don’t seem black and it don’t seem white
You just gotta settle for a little grayish light
You’re looking for love in the taverns at night
But you can’t find it in the skirts and shirts
It’s an old, old world out there
Yeah, it’s an old, old world out there
Just keep on down the open road
And whistle a tune until you’re broke
And don’t wonder if it could all be different
Of course it could
And don’t look back at the city on fire
Unless you want to be called Lot’s Wife
Cause things they burn in the battles of might
Sometimes it’s the only right
It’s an old, old world out there.
It’s an old, old world out there
My God, it’s an old, old world out there.
After writing two posts on Songbird vs. iTunes 9 here and here, I now feel like I should write a post comparing iTunes 9 to Songbird. Is it worth it to make the switch to Songbird.
The changes in iTunes 9 are mostly in the iTunes store, and not in any of the actual software of of iTunes. The iTunes store becomes a bit easier to navigate and process through, and there is also the new addition of iTunes LP.
iTunes LP is the ability to buy certain new albums in the classic LP fashion. In other words, you get lyrics, artwork, other special art graphics, videos, and other extras to go along with the music. However, with the recent price increases at the iTunes store, amazon.com still usually offers cheaper music prices. I would always check with amazon before buying from iTunes, and that makes Songbird’s built-in broswer the quickest for searching and comparing music prices without switching between browsers and music players.
One of the advantages of iTunes 9 is the sleek look that people are often looking for. Although Songbird already has many of the features of iTunes LP already built in for free (you can have the lyrics right next to you on Songbird, you can watch artist videos straight from the mashtape feature, and also read an artist bio and more right form the browser).
I do have to applaud iTunes, however, for trying to create a product that is more difficult for music piraters to copy (although definitly not impossible). This may just make for more elaborate torrents and other such things. I think that the people who already buy music will find this new feature cool, but those who never did in the first place won’t start now.
Being that I’m working part time at night and desperately trying to sub (somewhat unsuccessfully), I’ve been using the time to record songs I’ve written over the years. You can listen to them at last.fm here. I wrote this a while ago, you can take it for what you will…
The Third Street Freedom Rally Parade happens today
Marching with rifles and pistols
Down along the way
Carrying the second amendment
With them to their graves
American flags wave like
beauty pageant stars
Oh, but down the way another rally meets
Yelling explevities and down with the state
Singing old Lennon songs,
just give peace a chance
Their so young and in love
With the sunset and the shades of the moon
Then the rallies met with cold words exchanged
Partisan politics always was the game
Stop yelling just listen to the river
Stop talking listen to the sound of it all
But me, I’m somewhere in the middle
But me, I just can’t understand
I’m just a poet with a heavy heart
I’m just a man, what can I do?
What can I do?
When everyone stopped yelling all around
I told in my dreams to, oh,
Just sit down
Maybe if you were just to listen
you’d be calm
Stop yelling, and looking for a way
to be right.
See that tear streaming down your cheek
Just keep crying
It’s probably what you need
Better look for roses on the
other side of spring
Scattered six feet above where you are.
But me, I’m can’t just the words
To say exactly how it hurts
The pain, another life that’s lost
The shame, but I still don’t know for
what it’s for
I don’t know what it’s for, for, for
The third street freedom rally
parade happens today
Marching with rifles and pistols
down along the way
Carrying the second amendment
like hawks to their graves
American flags burn
Like the setting of the sun
tonight.
Before I get into some new music I am listening to, I found this article on the mp3 generation quite interesting (hat tip: Jason)
New Music that I’ve been listening to:
The Tallest man in the World is a singer-songwriter from Sweden with a certain Dylanesque qualities. His music hooked me instantly. I love the lyrics particularly in this song (“The Gardener”):
Horse Feathers is another singer-songwriter that is worth listening to, check him out:
Julie Clawson talks about confession as she heard it first hand at Mars Hill. Rather than simply being about confessing your sins and feeling badly about it, she makes the point that:
“…for example, when we participate in systems that support injustices in the world we are disrupting Shalom. I would never go so far as to say that buying a banana grown by oppressed workers and with dangerous polluting pesticides is a sin in the traditional understanding of the word, but it is a failure to love and a disruption of the way things ought to be. So we can confess that we have participated in the wrong order of things, failed to support God’s Shalom, and then choose to return (repent) to the order of love and stewardship that God desires. It’s not about acts of individual sin, it’s about an orientation of love.”
I think this is important because repentance is about more than feeling about, it is a turn that we make in our lives.
There’s money-lenders inside the temple
That circus tiger’s gonna break my heart
Something so wild turned into paper
If you love me, then that’s your fault
There’s money-enders inside the temple
This crystal city’s gonna fall apart
When all their power turns into vapor
If I miss you, well that’s my fault
-Conor Oberst, Lenders in the Temple
After recently reading Mark’s thoughts on Jesus Loves me and Wes’ thoughts on the Withering Fig Tree, I decided I needed to write a theologically laden thought.
The thought begins on many long walks or in silent shadows when I think about the fairness of God. I think of Saul stripped of his kingdom because he wouldn’t follow some very tall orders from Samuel. Can Saul really be blamed that Samuel was late in getting to a meeting? Can Saul really be blamed for the extreme pressure put on the leader of a country to make a decision in the heat of the moment? I read the story which Wes so eloquently spoke on in his post:
“The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And his disciples heard him say it… In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!’” Mark 11:12-14 & 20-21
I again come back to the basic question: Why would he expect a fig when it was not the season for figs? Why does he expect the impossible? Why does he utterly destroy it when what he wanted was a miracle?
Why does he expect so much out of season?
How can he?
Apparently Jesus doesn’t expect ordinary.
He expects a commitment of life in and out of season.
Apparently he really does take faith seriously
He expects a serious faith in all seasons of life.
