I ventured out to Tuesday night's concert at Club Congress in Tucson. It was a great venue. It was fun to see some live music. I felt incredibly old. Old, old, old. And I was all alone. I thought about catheter bags and bible studies as I waited for the first band to perform. They were fun, but loud. I wore ear plugs, sat in the bar, and enjoyed some Bombay Gin. Then Tapes n Tapes came on, past my bedtime I might add, and played a good, solid show. I really enjoyed their old stuff and still can't find myself connecting to the new. I like their energy. I think the drummer is adorable and I wish that I needed a glasses Rx so that I could get dark red army frames and practically strap them to the back of my head. Meh, it was alright. I would have rather gone not during my busiest week on internship thus far.
I actually might agree with Pitchfork's somewhat low rating (I think it could have been lower) of the new Tapes 'n Tapes album. I don't think that's ever happened. Am I becoming more pretentious? There are a couple of songs that I've been enjoying, but I'm feeling a little let down. I'll see them in Tucson in May, so I'm holding out final judgment on this beloved MN band until then. Stay tuned.
On the Radio, by Regina Spektor, was one of my favorite songs of 2006. The video, which I finally got around to seeing on You Tube, is now, too, one of my favorites.
I became a thin blue flame Polished on a mountain range And over hills and fields I flew Wrapped up in a royal blue I flew over Royal City last night A bullfighter on the horns of a new moon’s light Caesar’s ghost I saw the war-time tides The prince of Denmark’s father still and quiet And the whole world was looking to get drowned Trees were a fist shaking themselves at the clouds I looked over curtains and it was then that I knew Only a full house gonna make it through
I became a thin blue wire That held the world above the fire And so it was I saw behind Heaven's just a thin blue line If God's up there he's in a cold dark room The heavenly host are just the cold dark moons He bent down and made the world in seven days And ever since he’s been a-walking away Mixing with nitrogen in lonely holes Where neither seraphim or raindrops go I see an old man wandering the halls alone Only a full house gonna make a home
I became a thin blue stream The smoke between asleep and dreams And in that clear blue undertow I saw Royal City far below Borders soft with refugees Streets a-swimming with amputees It’s a Bible or a bullet they put over your heart It’s getting harder and harder to tell them apart Days are nights and the nights are long Beating hearts blossom into walking bombs And those still looking in the clear blue sky for a sign Get missiles from so high they might as well be divine Now the dogs are howling at your door Singing bout vengeance like it’s the joy of the Lord Bringing justice to the enemies not the other way round They’re guilty when killed and they’re killed where they’re found If what’s loosed on earth will be loosed up on high It’s a Hell of a Heaven we must go to when we die Where even Laurel begs Hardy for vengeance please The fat man is crying on his hands and his knees Back in the peacetime he caught roses on the stage Now he twists indecision takes bourbon for rage Lead pellets peppering aluminum Halcyon, laudanum and Opium Sings kiss thee hardy this poisoned cup His winding sheet is busy winding up In darkness he looks for the light that has died You need faith for the same reasons that it's so hard to find And this whole thing is headed for a terrible wreck And like good tragedy that's what we expect
At night I make plans for a city laid down Like the hips of a girl on the spring covered ground Spirals and capitals in the twist of a script Streets named for heroes that could almost exist Fruit trees of Eden and the gardens that seem To float like the smoke from a lithium dream Cedar trees growing in the cool of the squares The young women walking in the portals of prayer And the future glass buildings and the past an address The weddings in pollen and the wine bottomless And all wrongs forgotten and all vengeance made right The suffering verbs put to sleep in the night The future descending like a bright chandelier And the world just beginning and the guests in good cheer In Royal City I fell into a trance 'Cause it’s hell to believe there ain’t a hell of a chance
I woke beneath a clear blue sky The sun a shout the breeze a sigh The old hometown and the streets I knew Were wrapped up in a royal blue I heard my friends laughing out across the fields The girls in the gloaming and the birds on the wheel The raw smell of horses and the warm smell of hay Cicadas electric in the heat of the day A run of Three Sisters and the flush of the land And the lake was a diamond in the valley’s hand The straight of the highway and the scattered out hearts They were coming together they pulling apart And angels everywhere were in that midst In the ones that I loved in the ones that I kissed I wondered what it was I’d been looking for up above Heaven is so big there ain’t no need to look up So I stopped looking for royal cities in the air Only a full house gonna have a prayer
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In a Jeff Buckley manner, Ritter strums his electric guitar as one would an acoustic as he seeps into "Thin Blue Flame," my latest obsession at the intersection of faith, life and music. Justin sent this album to me and we've been talking about the beauty of this song.
The song is 9:41 in length and requires commitment to hear it through. I've listened to it about 27 times in the last 48 hours. It reads like an op-ed piece on the NY Times, 750 words of criticism and hope. It is so wordy, at times, that he begins to sound like the three stooges look when they attempt to walk through a doorway: all three at the same time and unable to get through. But that is how life is, how life in the world is: it creeps in and overwhelms; when you see the world and its multi-stories intricacies, the cup overflows and you have to tread fast, think fast, speak fast, lest you succumb to the waters that threaten to drown.
Ritter employs imagery that I can only hope to capture in the Word and words that I preach:
A bullfighter on the horns of a new moon’s light
Trees were a fist shaking themselves at the clouds
And the lake was a diamond in the valley’s hand
Ritter preaches a gospel that I can only hope to hear:
Only a full house gonna make it through
Only a full house gonna make a home
Only a full house gonna have a prayer
Ritter dabbles in a despair of theodicy and reality that is somehow comforting to question:
If God's up there he's in a cold dark room/The heavenly host are just the cold dark moons/He bent down and made the world in seven days/And ever since he's been a-walking away.
Borders soft with refugees/Streets a-swimming with amputees/It's a
Bible or a bullet over your heart/It's getting harder and harder to
tell them apart/Days are nights and the nights are long/Beating hearts
blossom into walking bombs/And those still looking in the clear blue
sky for a sign/Get missles from so high they might as well be
divine/Now the dogs are howlin' at your door/Singing 'bout vengeance
like it's the joy of the Lord/Bringing justice to the enemies not the
other way round/They're guilty when killed and they're killed where
they're found/If what's loosed on earth will be loosed up on high/It's a Hell of a Heaven we must go to when we die.
With these two immediately above lyrics, Ritter reminds me of Annie Dillard with his preference for the via negativa:
"Its seasoned travelers (Gregory of Nyssa in the fourth century and
Pseudo-Dionysius in the sixth) stressed God's unknowability. Anything we may say of God is untrue, as we can know only creaturely attributes, which do not apply to God. Thinkers on the via negativa jettisoned everything that was not God; they hoped that what was left would be only the divine dark." (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Afterword to the 25th Anniversary Edition, p. 279.)
He also reminds me of Dillard with his cross-self-references:
In "Girl in the War," Ritter sings, "But now talkin' to God is Laurel beggin' Hardy for a gun."
In "Thin Blue Flame," Ritter again references Laurel and Hardy, "Where even Laurel begs Hardy for vengeance please."
Again in "Girl in the War," Ritter references the office of the keys: "Because the keys to the kingdom got locked inside the kingdom."
In "Thin Blue Flame," Ritter continues: "If what’s loosed on earth will be loosed up on high/It’s a Hell of a Heaven we must go to when we die."
N.B. anytime anyone can remind of Annie Dillard, I am thankful and my cup overflows.
Ritter also references plays by Shakespeare and Chekhov:
Caesar's ghost I saw the war-time tides (Julius Caesar)
The Prince of Denmark's father still and quiet (Hamlet)
A Run of Three Sisters
Maybe the Chekhov play doesn't fit with the Shakespeare references, for the Shakespeare references seem to refer to conspiracy and betrayal where Three Sisters seems to be for Ritter, as Annie Dillard is for me, that which brings joy and pleasure.
Ritter offers a vision of a different future in light of the present:
And all wrongs forgotten and all vengeance made right/The suffering verbs put to sleep in the night/The future descending like a bright chandelier/And the world just beginning and the guests in good cheer.
Marc Ostlie-Olson, friend, theologian and all around good guy says this of the future, "In the parlance of Christian discourse, the term 'future' never means more of the present."
Amen, and amen to the image of the suffering verbs being put to sleep in the night.
Lastly two lyrics that are daily bread in a world gone mad:
You need faith for the same reasons that it's so hard to find
'Cause it's hell to believe there ain't a hell of a chance
Natalie Portman just put together an album on iTunes to raise money and awareness for the Foundation for International Community
Assistance (FINCA) International, a micro-finance organization that provides financial services to the poorest of the working poor in the world. More specifically, they provide loans, savings programs and insurance to entrepreneurs. It is one of the world's most effective solutions to poverty.
The song linked above is on the album. I've heard it before, on Scrubs. Lyrics:
There ain’t no reason things are this way.
Its how they always been and they intend to stay.
I can't explain why we live this way, we do it everyday.
Preachers on the podium speakin’ of saints,
Prophets on the sidewalk beggin’ for change,
Old ladies laughing from the fire escape, cursing my name.
I got a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same,
A window and a pigeon with a broken wing,
You can spend your whole life workin’ for something
Just to have it taken away.
People walk around pushing back their debts,
Wearing pay checks like necklaces and bracelets,
Talking ‘bout nothing, not thinking ‘bout death,
Every little heartbeat, every little breath.
People walk a tight rope on a razors edge
Carrying their hurt and hatred and weapons.
It could be a bomb or a bullet or a pen
Or a thought or a word or a sentence.
There Ain't no reason things are this way.
It's how they always been and they intend to stay
I don’t know why I say the things I say, but I say them anyway.
But love will come set me free
Love will come set me free,*I do believe*
Love will come set me free, *I know it will*
Love will come set me free, yes.
Prison walls still standing tall,
Some things never change at all.
Keep on buildin’ prisons, gonna fill them all,
Keep on buildin’ bombs, gonna drop them all.
Working your fingers bear to the bone,
Breaking your back, make you sell your soul.
Like a lung that’s filled with coal, suffocatin’ slow.
The wind blows wild and I may move,
The politicians lie and I am not fooled.
You don't need no reason or a three piece suit to argue the truth.
The air on my skin and the world under my toes,
Slavery stitched into the fabric of my clothes,
Chaos and commotion wherever I go, love I try to follow.
Love will come set me free
Love will come set me free, I do believe
Love will come set me free, I know it will
Love will come set me free, yes.
There ain't no reason things are this way
It’s how they always been and they intend to stay
I can't explain why we live this way, we do it everyday
I highly recommend this album, not only for its music, which I like, but because it supports a good organization. I think instead of Christmas presents this year, I will give this album and a small donation to FINCA International. This is, of course, against Walmart's current Christmas message: "The more you save, the more Christmas you can give."
Big Change: Songs for FINCA tracklist:
01 Tokyo Police Club: "Be Good"
02 Beirut: "My Night With the Prostitute From Marseille" [exclusive]
03 Tom Brosseau: "Plaid Lined Jacket"
04 Curumin: "Tudo Bem Malandro"
05 The Shins: "Australia (Bjorn Yttling Mix)" [exclusive]
06 Brett Dennen: "Ain't No Reason"
07 Sean Hayes: "Turnaroundturnmeon"
08 Thee More Shallows: "Oh Yes, Another Mother"
09 Angus & Julia Stone: "The Beast"
10 Antony & the Johnsons: "Paddy's Gone"
11 Vetiver: "Idle Ties"
12 Norah Jones: "Broken"
13 Devendra Banhart: "There's Always Something Happening" [exclusive]
14 M. Ward: "What Is a Soul?" [exclusive]
15 Wooden Wand: "Forgiveness Figg (Bethany Hotel Blues)"
16 Rogue Wave: "How We Landed" [exclusive]
Pitchfork gave it a 4.4 rating, so it must be good.*
* I've decided that sometimes, the lower the score from Pitchfork, the better. Though this is not the case with Jens Lekman, Kanye West, Beirut, Tapes n' Tapes et al.