Got a light?
Dear Friends in the Blogosphere,
As of yesterday, plans are being solidified for me to move to Chicago as soon as 1 May and to attend school (pending acceptance) at Columbia College in the fall. I'm going the way of most of my friends (think Ryan, Kornst@r, and the Tottens) who are vacating Chattavegas for bigger and better things.
So basically if you want to say g'bye to me, stop by Starbucks sometime. I'm usually here (see? I'm even at Starbucks as I write this). Hopefully I'll see many of you tonight when I show up uninvited to Mesh's Oscar party--ending a two-(three- maybe?) year tradition of hosting my own AWESOME Oscar parties. Eh bien, Kornst@r, Shaw, and Flynn have failed me, so I must give in and join the ranks of those.......Mesh people.
That's all for now.
Today, the Episcopal Church (EPCUSA), the primary Anglican denomination in the US, along with the Anglican Church of Canada have withdrawn from the Anglican Consultative Council, a key contact group of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, until at least 2008. Under pressure from conservative primates from various places in the world (Nigeria and Rwanda being the most outspoken), the churches are being asked to give defense for their actions in blessing same-sex unions and gay ordinations (Bishop Robinson).
At the heart of the matter, is the unanimous 1998 resolution out of Lambeth that condemned gay practices as "incompatible with Scripture."
As a gay Episcopalian (Gasp! Yes, I'm Episcopalian...settle down all of you), reading this news today on CNN is kind of a drag. I guess I can just blame it on that damned Robinson, who dared to want to be ordained. He could have just hung out with the rest of us in the Ecclesiastical Closet, but no. He had to go for that whole equal rights thing.
I'm not trying to start a debate here about Biblical sexuality. But it is depressing to be in a Church that is condemned by its Worldwide Communion on an issue that is more-or-less moot in most of its parishes and dioceses (I think pretty much four out of five Episcopalians support, if not love, Bishop Robinson).
Eventually, this matter will be resolved, but it might take a while. It's already mirroring the process that led to the ordination of women back in the 70s, and there's not much animosity left over from that. But I think there's going to be a lot of head- and heartache over this in the next few years, and I guess I'm in the middle of it.
It is exciting in a way, because I feel like I can do good things in the church right now, but the antagonism is real and sometimes it just kinda hurts.
Got a light?
Hopefully, you'll read this in the Pulse.
Aha Shake Heartbreak, Kings of Leon 2005 (RCA)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
The Kings of Leon are supposed to be the current incarnation of Southern Rock, which is kind of ironic considering they never stepped into their adopted "home" Tennessee until they signed with RCA Nashville (think My Morning Jacket). Still, their sound isn't bad; it comes out something like David Byrne performing the Strokes, if David Byrne grew up with his two brothers and a cousin in Alabama.
Heartbreak is a good deal more rocking than their 2003 LP, Youth and Young Manhood. And the overall sound is a lot less "Southern" than their EP Holy Roller Novocaine. The first few tracks are too similar to R&B-heavy Strokes tunes to avoid comparison (the Kings opened for The Strokes on their 2003 Room on Fire tour). "Taper Jean Girl," whose lyrics inspire the album's title, is intermittently throbbing and jazzy. "Pistol of Fire" sounds like a Credence cover, and "Milk" is just plain creepy.
The big single from this album is "The Bucket"--a tune not unlike something from The Strokes' Is This It?. Like several of the tracks on Heartbreak, its lyrics come straight from some kids who have been living the rocker lifestyle for the past few years. "Bucket" is followed by "Soft," another rocking Strokes-esque number about unfortunate flaccidity.
The next couple of tracks, "Razz" and "Day Old Blues" reach more obviously for their late-60's R&B/Funk inspirations. They pick right back up on "Four Kicks" with punky, throbbing-guitar, smashing-drums driven rock. A pugnacious song about a city-boy/country-boy showdown, it sounds a little like something from the White Stripes.
Their songs, like most of the Strokes', tend to fall apart rather than end properly. Maybe this is where rock is "going"--or maybe they are just toeing the line of influence between modern indie and classic southern rock.
Also, here's my review of SMiLE (finally). I don't feel like HTML tagging the italics. Do it yourself:
SMiLE, Brian Wilson 2004 (Nonesuch)
By Tyler Grisham
In the wake of Sgt. Pepper's release in 1967, the silence from the Beach Boys was stunning. Their Pet Sounds was America's response to Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper's marked a new challenge. Brian Wilson had teamed with Van Dyke Parks for the first time to create Dumb Angel, hyped in the media (to the ones who cared anymore--Rolling Stone had already declared the Beach Boys "uncool").
But Dumb Angel (later renamed SMiLE), hoped to be one of the greatest concept albums yet written, was shelved and not resurrected until this year. Of all the possible outcomes of trying to release the greatest lost album of rock history, Wilson's triumph with SMiLE is an exceedingly unlikely one. But somehow he has achieved his innovative vision from nearly forty years ago--and its final form is as breathtaking now as it would have been as a follow-up to Pet Sounds.
SMiLE is more like a baroque oratorio than a rock album, arranged into movements--the realization of Wilson's "modular music" style, with which he experimented in Pet Sounds. The introit is actually two tracks, "Our Prayer/Gee" serving as a barbershop vocal vamp into the single "Heroes and Villians," earlier released on Smile's bastard brother album Smiley Smile.
The album continues musically in a series of choruses, arias, fugues on melodies from earlier tracks, and impressive orchestrations (using voices as instruments far more than in Pet Sounds). The tunes vary--sometimes within tracks--from Wilson's intentional indulgence in his surf-rock repertoire, to public domain folk melodies, to symphonic experiments.
The bouncy "Cabin Essence," which (with "Our Prayer") originally found a home on the late-60's Beach Boys release 20-20, is the conclusion to the first of three movements in the album. Evolving from a banjo-led folk tune into an industrial explosion of orchestra, the track opens a window to the already-partially-known tunes to follow.
"Wonderful," "Vega-tables," "Wind Chimes," and parts of "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" found their way to the album, like the single "Heroes and Villians," via Smiley Smile, now available only as a double-album with Wild Honey.
Lyrically, SMiLE is a grand venture, moving westward through American history, from Plymouth Rock to Waikiki. The sounds of the industrial revolution, hammers and saws, and even farm noises accompany Van Dyke Park's songs, mostly unchanged since 1967. A few of the tracks, "Heroes and Villains" for instance, are expanded, but usually from versions already recorded and released as bonus tracks on Smiley Smile/Wild Honey.
Wilson concludes the musical journey through American history with the never-more-lovely "Good Vibrations" (which also appeared on Smiley Smile). Using lyrics from an alternate version recorded during the original sessions, the piece is simpler and fits the less-personal lyrical motif of the album. It's still a rocking love song--among Wilson's best--and makes for a remarkably romantic finale to an album so long associated with tragedy.