This OK Go video is amazing. Is there any way this was really all one big take? This must have taken days to set up, calibrate, time, not to mention the stuff that gets broken in the Rube Goldberg device (TV, Piano, etc). Some of the Rube Goldberg stuff even takes part in the song.

Special effects? Or real?



[H/T Stroke]

I discovered Mississippi John Hurt quite by accident a few weeks ago surfing around YouTube. Started consuming everything of his I could. One difficult night I listened to his songs on repeat, and God really ministered to me through them. There's something about his voice . . . I don't know, maybe it's just me. My friend Jason heard about my newfound appreciation, and being a long-time fan of the man's music, he sent me almost Hurt's entire catalog.

Here's one of the few video clips of Mississippi John Hurt available online, filmed shortly before his death on some television program along with Pete Seeger and Hedy West.



There's a really interesting story here. Hurt recorded a couple of albums in the early 20s that were commercial failures and then basically disappeared into obscurity for forty years, working as a sharecropper and playing the occasional party. Having grown to love the existing recordings, in 1963 a scholar tracked him down in Avalon, Mississippi and brought Hurt into the spotlight. Hurt played the Newport Folk Festival in 1964 and did some more recording, a long time coming. He died in 1966.

I love songs based on Scripture. We'll be worshiping to this one Sunday in our College and Young Singles group.

A sweet dose of Pomplamoose for you.



The word game at the end is fun too.

I love this song. We're playing it tomorrow in College and Young Singles.



As a side note (and not a criticism, just an observation) - are the Hillsongs people, audience included, not the best looking group of people you've ever seen?

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea:
A great High Priest, whose name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on his hands,
My name is written on his heart;
I know that while in heaven he stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look, and see him there
Who made an end of all my sin.

Because a sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
To look on Him and pardon me

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise the One,
Risen Son of God!

Behold him there, the risen Lamb
My perfect, spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace!

One in himself, I cannot die
My soul is purchased by his blood
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ, my Savior and my God
With Christ, my Savior and my God

From U2 by U2:

EDGE: It was a great thing to spend time reading the scriptures and find out about this whole system of belief, Christianity, what it really means. We later found out that the Rasta movement had a similar fascination with scripture, and they would sit around smoking weed and discussing Bible references in sessions they called 'reasoning'. We did the same really, but without the weed.

Continuing the tradition ...

This song/video made me happy. :-)



Merry Christmas, Thinklingsphere!

Pomplamoose. I don't think I can get enough of this (and you should hear their cover of All The Single Ladies too).

Some Christmas cheer. I worshiped to this (really).



[H/T: The Hub of the Nexus]

The Muppets cover Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." So glad to see my all-time favorite Muppet, Lew Zealand.

I don't listen to a lot of different music. I can't remember the last time I tuned in to FM radio, and the last time I watched MTV or VH1 was probably 1996. Most of the music I've been turned on to the past ten years has been handed down from my brother via copied CDs and, more recently, MP3s.

About a year ago or so my brother hooked me up with Coldplay, and I've been salivating over U2's heir apparent ever since. Right now I'm completely mesmerized with Coldplay's contemplative love song from A Rush of Blood to the Head, "The Scientist." I. Can't. Get. Enough.

The song is multilayered, poetic, profound, and mysterious -- from the get-go:

Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are.
I had to find you, tell you I need you,
Tell you I set you apart.

On that foundation the lyrics, music, and aura of the song build skyward, second by second. And what an incredible apex:

I was just guessin' at numbers and figures,
Pulling the puzzles apart.
Questions of science, science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart.

I'm thinking "The Scientist" has got to be one of the best love songs ever written. To borrow a phrase from U2, the song masterfully dissects "the mysterious distance, between a man and a woman," while circumspectly steering clear of the inherent codependency that manifests itself in so many modern love songs.

Thank you, Coldplay.

I'm goin' back to the start.

I really like this video (and the song too). Is there something wrong with me?

An olive branch. And a cry for help?



In the top 5 best hard rock bands ever? Discuss. :-)

The late Larry Norman being brilliant accompanied by the great Mike Roe (of classic Christian rockers The 77's).

I can't embed it, but it would not be a waste of time to watch this.

Great video. And the song is better than 80% of what the Beatles put out. [ducking]

(George even makes a cameo.)

The U2 fan community at interference.com has got a nifty message board page with forum titles like "Don't Expect, Suggest" and "Everything You Know Is Wrong."

The forum titles are taken from various U2 song titles, quotations, lyrics, and factoids. I'll give a few examples here. I'd say if you can quickly identify the source for 9 out of 10 of these titles, then you're a hard core fan. If you get 10 out of 10, you need to get a life. If you get anything below 7 out of 10, you need to go back to your Beatles Rolling Stones records.*

DON'T EXPECT, SUGGEST

EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG

INTRODUCE YOURSELF IN THE BABYFACE CAFE

RESTART AND REBOOT YOURSELF

PEELING OFF THOSE DOLLAR BILLS

ALL I WANT IS U2

EVERY ARTIST IS A CANNIBAL, EVERY POET IS A THIEF

STUCK IN A MOMENT

DISCOTHEQUE

THE GOAL IS SOUL

The rest of you . . . well . . . you'd probably be better off just moving along - nothing to see here :-)

Several years ago I completed a seven year run as an equipper of student worship bands. In the waning days of that time the last band I worked with recorded a few songs. The quality is not that great, but we had fun doing it (and Brian in Spring and I had fun mixing it on my Mac in an almost-all-nighter a few days later).

The quality on this one is especially bad (it was one of the first recorded and I didn't have my act together yet), but it's packed with great memories. This band was a great worship band, but we didn't mind playing some off the wall stuff too, at times. This is a cover of one of the songs from Alladin.

It took three takes, but I almost like listening to the chatter around the mistakes as much as the song itself (which doesn't actually start until about the 01:56 mark.

A more serious, more worshipful sample from this recording session can be found here.

HOUSTON -- The U2 show at Reliant was magnificent. We were able to secure "seats" in the inner circle, about five feet from the rail, perfectly positioned between Bono and The Edge. I don't have time to give a full breakdown of the show, but here's a photo we took of Bono:

The City of Blinding Lights -- for me, that was Houston, Texas on the evening of October 28, 2005.

On that evening me and a few friends and family members saw U2 at Houston's Toyota Center. As the evening faded, and the downtown lights of Houston flickered on, me, my brother, sister, and three of our friends waited patiently in line with our general admission tickets, ready to watch the greatest band in history play especially for us -- little did we know how special that evening would turn out to be.

Thanks to my brother's fan club connections we were able to secure coveted General Admission (GA) tickets. The GA tickets on U2's Vertigo tour were the best thing going. They were ground level, and with a GA pass you had the opportunity to be chosen, at random, to enter into the ellipse, which would put you front-and-center for the show -- the inner circle.

When you arrived inside the Toyota Center on that evening, an employee scanned your ticket, if the computer adjacent to the employee lit up "VERTIGO-VERTIGO-VERTIGO" then you won entrance into the ellipse. My sister was one of the first of our group to enter the arena that night, and I'll never forget her screams of joy as the computer flashed "VERTIGO!" before her eyes. My brother, who was next to her, quickly gravitated to her; since you were allowed to take one person with you into the ellipse, he had just gotten his ticket to a front row show.

Our three friends then entered the arena, scanned their tickets, and nothing happened. I was the last one to enter, and when I handed the attendee my ticket, she scanned it with a quick flick of her wrist and then -- euphoria! The computer screen lit up. I was in!

As we entered the inner circle, our little group secured a spot on the rail, just a few feet from The Edge. (In fact, during "Love and Peace ... Or Else," I screamed "Edge!" and he looked down at me and winked. ;-) I can truly say the entire experience -- being surrounded by hard core U2 fans, being so close to the band it was ridiculous, and hearing the incomparable U2 live in concert -- was perfect. From the opening piano notes of "City of Blinding Lights" to the worshipful closing of "40," the evening couldn't have gone better. My only regret was not having my wife with me.

As we were leaving, my brother said that it felt like "U2 played a private show for us." Yeah, he was right. It felt something like that.

Yet again we have floor tickets to on October U2 show in Houston. This time it's at Reliant Stadium in just a few short days. This time my wife, Brandi, will be with me, and we'll be braving the crowds, and the Houston traffic, to once again get a decent view of the greatest band in history.

I'm ready, ready for the gridlock.