Now Playing

I've got my mp3 playlist set to "shuffle" and these are the last fifteen songs that came through:

"Somewhere in Between" - Lifehouse
"Crush" - Dave Matthews Band
"To Conquer and Destroy" - Luxury
"The Wonderful Cross" - Chris Tomlin
"Fall Down" - Toad the Wet Sprocket
"Goodnight Elisabeth" - Counting Crows
"American English" - Idlewild
"The Man Comes Around" - Johnny Cash
"Time After Time" - Cyndi Lauper
"Fairlee" - Matt Pond PA
"Open Apology" - Far Star
"Have You Seen Me Lately" - Counting Crows
"Don't Panic" - Coldplay
"Green Eyes" - Coldplay
"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" - Eddie Vedder

It could be a little more random... there are two bands with two songs each, but I'm not sure if RealOne is smart enough to know that, or if the clip data is entered correctly so it could know that. Also, there's more U2 on my drive than Coldplay or Counting Crows, the two bands that got played twice, but U2 didn't get played at all. Interesting...

Don't Waste Your Life

I've been interested in reading some of John Piper's work lately, and a recent post on Truth Becomes Lies alerted me to a new book he's written called Don't Waste Your Life. The best part is that Desiring God Ministries is giving the book away for free. Read the preface of the book and then request your free copy. It looks like a great book... I'll write more about it once I've gotten my copy.

Even More Matrix

A plethora of interesting thoughts and links regarding The Matrix are available by visiting the blog Matrix Essays. It is entirely dedicated to The Matrix, offering thoughts, discussion, and links to external essays and articles about the films and their relation to philosophy, religion, and mythology. One fascinating post is about the origin of the name The Merovingian. The following quotes hit the high points:

The word Merovingian is taken from the name of a blood line of kings who ruled what is present-day France in the 5th to 8th century... According to the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail (which is something of a conspiracy-theory classic), the Merovingians are the descendants of Jesus -- who did not die on the cross, but lived to have children... According to conspiracy theorists, the mysterious secret society that is supposedly working behind the scenes on behalf of the Merovingians is known as the Priory of Zion.

I find this fascinating simply because of the possibilities it opens up. Is The Merovingian the first incarnation "the one" perhaps? His wife, before kissing Neo, says "my husband used to be like you." The more I think about these things, the more excited I am about seeing the final film and hopefully piecing all this together. Despite its imperfections, the films are telling a captivating story.

Questions Reloaded

Tonight I experienced my second viewing of The Matrix Reloaded. It wasn't as excellent as two viewings in four days would imply, though. It definitely suffered from hype, heightened expectations, and "middle chapter" baggage, but it was absolutely worth seeing. On the ride home from the theater, Genia and I, along with Joel and April, had a fairly stimulating conversation about the film, which lead to some further thoughts I'd like to entertain in this forum if you'll allow the indulgence. Oh, and if you don't want any Reloaded spoilers, stop reading now.

After my first viewing of the film, I began reading other reactions to the film online, and via MetaFilter I found a very interesting article about Gnosticism and Buddhism in The Matrix. Gnosticism is an ancient heretical offshoot of Orthodox Christianity which has some concepts in common with The Matrix. In Gnosticism, a person is "saved" basically from ignorance rather than sin. You become "enlightened" with secret knowledge, knowledge that the world you know is but an illusion, and then transcend it. There is even a concept within the beliefs of Gnosticism of enlightened ones who remain within the physical world to share this knowledge with the unenlightened, Jesus being the chief of these. Is The Matrix Gnostic or Christian? makes the excellent point, however, that in The Matrix, it is the non-physical world th!
at is the illusion, and the physical world, where Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity are "unplugged" that is the real world. So in The Matrix to be enlightened you exit the non-physical world and enter the physical world. In that sense, The Matrix is not really a Gnostic tale after all, unless Agent Smith (whom the article names the only true Gnostic of the films) ends up being the hero after all. While an intriguing thought, my guess is that it's extremely unlikely. Incidentally, the new dynamic between Smith and Neo is one of the more interesting parts of Reloaded.

We all noticed is that the city of Zion is depicted as being quite culturally primitive, even though there is a great deal of technology being utilized by the people of Zion. The people themselves are shown as very tribal, and in one scene, appear animalistic, or more correctly, hedonistic. The mission of the enlightened is to spread the truth about the matrix and the real world to those who are still plugged in -- salvation is purely a matter of knowledge. There is no mention of sin, no mention of morality. The only discernable morals are to tell "the truth" and not to betray your fellow man to those in charge of, or working for, the matrix. Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity, along with the others who are a part of their quest are in fact extremely violent within the matrix, killing "agents" who are inhabiting the bodies of those they are ultimately trying to free and ordinary citizens of the matrix. It is interesting that The Architect of the matrix tells Neo that the original ma!
trix was designed to be perfect, but the human mind could not accept it and so that matrix was an utter failure. However within Zion it is assumed that all people are by nature "good" and there seems to be no system of morality or law. Alternately, I suppose it could be argued that they are all "good" because they are the enlightened ones. This city of Zion does not seem to correspond with the Christian ideal of heaven.

One interesting issue raised by Gnosticism and Buddhism in The Matrix is that in The Matrix there is no apparent higher power, no God working outside of the Matrix and outside of the real world. There are many strong allusions to fate, predestination, and prophecy, and it is obvious that there is a "Creator" of the matrix itself, but no absolutely powerful God is mentioned. In The Matrix Reloaded there is a scene that takes place in the city of Zion where citizens attend a temple ceremony and are lead in a "prayer" by one of the rulers of the city and by Morpheus, but still there is no mention of a God.

We learn in the scene with The Architect that the entire concept of "the one" is a sort of work around to flaws that developed in the program, and that Neo is the sixth incarnation of "the one." Each one fulfills the prophecy, the matrix is reset, zion is intentionally repopulated, and it all happens all over again. Zion itself may be nothing more than a matrix within a matrix. How else would you explain that the Oracle (a regenegade program within the matrix) and The Architect know about the dreams Neo has when he's unplugged? How else would Neo have been able to stop the sentinels in the "real world" when his powers up until that point had only existed within the matrix? And how else would Agent Smith have been able to enter the "real world"?

Hopefully all these questions and theories will make more sense in light of The Matrix Revolutions, the final chapter of the trilogy. All in all, while they aren't "Christian" films or worthy of following as spiritual guides, the first two films have been entertaining and interesting. I wish I could say that about more movies.

Every Artist is a Cannibal

Via Blogs4God I found an interesting article entitled If it Looks Like an Evangelical Skunk over at The Internet Monk which discusses art and the Evangelical Christian subculture. He mentions some specific criticisms of the subculture and the art being produced from within it, but the main point I got from it is contained in the following quotes:

Christians are not obligated to approve of all that comes sprouting forth from the evangelical subculture compost heap... we have an obligation, in the name of the integrity of truth, to call a skunk a skunk, even if he is carrying a Bible and singing "As the Deer."

I think Christians should freely express their criticisms of the mediocrity and distortion that emerges from the evangelical ghetto, and not be the least ashamed to do so. If we critique ourselves, that only speaks more to our confidence in the truth. It also shows (surprise) humility to acknowledge none of us are beyond criticism. It is a general observation of mine that Christians are woefully afraid of engaging in criticism of their own sub-culture as if that meant they were criticizing Jesus. Believe me, Jesus did not come up with all that Y2K nonsense. Or the script for the Omega Code.

I certainly agree with the Monk and have occaisonally voiced my frustrations with Contemporary Christian Music in particular. Scott recently voiced a similar opinion. One of the things that bothers me about CCM is that the artistry seems to take a back seat to getting across a clear, nice, warm-fuzzy message. And the lyrics are nothing much to speak of. Most of it is the "Jesus is my girlfriend/boyfriend" type lyrics or a "don't worry, be happy" mentality. Even many of the songs that are supposedly about struggle are little more than "I made it through, and you can too." Did any of these people actually write songs when they were right in the middle of the trial, when they didn't understand what God was up to or if He was paying attention at all? Or is it just that the CCM culture will not all!
ow unanswered questions? Give me Peace on Earth by U2 any day. I can relate to that. And so could the Psalmist. The only CCM song I can think of in that vein is Silence by Jars of Clay, and I would almost guarantee it'll never be a single on Christian radio. The primary reason Jars of Clay is my favorite CCM group is because they are unafriad to be transparent, admit desperation, and cry out to God in a real way.

Favorite Places

Genia and I have lived in Chattanooga, specifically St. Elmo, for about three and a half months now, and I am really fond of this city. We hadn't been here long before we started having favorite places. Our favorite Mexican place is Amigos on Brainerd. Our favorite pizza place is Lupi's downtown, but we're also a big fan of Mr. T's, especially since it's ridiculously cheap if you get take out. Buffalo Wild Wings, affectionately known as B Dubs, is a frequent choice. And, ah yes, the little ice cream shop on the corner of Market and Third... magic! It's just a window sticking out of the building next to Altruda's, but their ice cream is amazing. It tastes like homemade. My coffee loyalties are split, though. I love the comfortable setting of Greyfriar's, and Andy and I have been able to get some good strategy!
work done there, along with just good conversation. However, Rembrandt's is really special, too, mainly because of the great patio.

Last night, I found a new favorite place: McKay's, a used book and cd store. It's amazing! The book selection was huge, and not my primary mission last night, but I'm sure I could spend a lot of time searching the books. But I wanted music. I found a good number of cds I was interested in, and narrowed my purchases down to Counting Crows Recovering the Satellites, Travis The Invisible Band, and Doves The Last Broadcast. All for $24! If that wasn't good enough, a mulleted cashier flirted with my brother's wife. A femmullted cashier. We'll be laughing about that for a long time.

Praise Me... or Hire Me

It's my blog, so I can solicit for web and graphic design jobs or compliments any time I feel like it! Right now, I want yout to take a look at my Portfolio since I just added some examples of my graphic design work, including the CD booklet and some flyers that I designed. If you like anything in particular, let me know. Hopefully I'll be inspired to post something a little less self-indulgent soon, but I've been completely in "Esplodere mode" for the last couple of days. There are a lot of exciting things going on for Andy and I right now -- and by "exciting things" I mean potential projects. Who knows, this business may take off sooner than we thought!

New Design Projects Are Always Fun

I love them... I could stay up until all hours of the night and forget anything else exists (well, almost anything else) when I'm working on a new project and feeling inspired. My latest project was a website for a band called Served to Raise made up of Covenant students. I've heard a couple of their songs and they are pretty talented. Take a look at their site, and let me know what you think.