Wedding Gig!

John Case asked me to play music at his wedding. I'm very excited! I'm really excited to see him and Rachel get married, and honored and stoked to be playing in the wedding. I played for another set of friends who got married and it was pretty great. I've already come up with some song ideas, so I'm pretty stoked. :) :) :) :)

It's not Philosopy, stupid...

I have thus far blogged mostly about philosophical things or mundanity on my internet rental space here. I don't know that anybody reads these posts, but who cares. Man has been leaving his mark around him regardless of watching eyes because we're supposed to.

I read this dude's blog about Obama's election and U2 and Eugene Peterson and it got me thinking about my own personal life at this junction.

I came down to Oklahoma to heal from my own mental, emotional, spiritual, and financial baggage and to hopefully work on my relationship with my parents. I can't really say I've done significant, continuous work in any of those areas. In many ways, each of those areas is worse than they were before I came down to Oklahoma. At this moment in time, I feel that I'm going to look back regretfully on my life and choices down here. I've never had the opportunity to say that about any other time in my life. I've always had reason to carry any of my history in two hands, weighing out one side with the other, finding an even balance. The regrets I've had in my life have been more about things I had no control over. That is simply not possible with this epoch in my history. Without ever intending to, I've let each of these areas slip away in my life. I've made obviously bad choices, doing things I knew weren't really good for me, or even right, not to mention rife with all kinds of nasty potential consequences. I think I'm still in denial, actually. There's still a sense inside of me like I'm watching a car-crash in a movie and none of this can possibly be real and I'll wake up soon and it will all be okay.

Here in NW Oklahoma, I've been as isolated as I've ever been. I've made no friends down here. Everything I do is removed from what I'm used to reality being. Reality reveals itself very slowly down here. It's you and the grass and the animals and the dirt, by and large. And they don't tell you the consequences of your mistakes very quickly. It takes time. Everything grows out here. The wind has to blow through it for awhile. In the city, everything happens fast. You get virtually instant feedback. People tell you what you're doing wrong, or right. The shops and businesses and culture are all talking to you very loudly and quickly. If you don't have money, you can't get that new thing you've been seeing and hearing everyone else go on about. If you're hateful towards people, they'll return the favor without hesitation. There's all kinds of people and cultures with expectations they're holding over your head. Here, the cattle and the horses and the pickup trucks and wheat and birds don't have any expectations for you. They don't tell you're doing the right thing or the wrong thing. If you're a nasty human being, they suffer quietly. If you're a wonderful human being, they applaud you slowly or not at all.

There are aspects of that I enjoy. I don't feel any pressure to be something I'm not. Conversely, I don't feel much pressure to be all that I could be, either. No one cares whether my views line up with theirs. Conversely, counsel is dispensed just as sparingly. I don't have to worry about what anybody thinks of me. Conversely, they don't.

What was in these posts by this dude said to me, "Where have you been? I was looking for you, but I couldn't find you." It is difficult to face that mirror. It is embarassing. It is loaded with regret, baggage, and pain. There is hope in it. But the decision has to be made that the hope is worth the pain. And I hate pain. A lot. It's ultimately a decision between selfishness and selfless ness. Again, I hate decisions like that. I don't want to drive the car right now; I want Greyhound to do the driving for me. I will gladly brainstorm for you all day, just don't ask me to move. But when the Lord get ready, you gotta move.

"Beautiful Lord.... Awesome and mighty..." -Leeland

Thoughts from Oklahoma

I've had a very introspective day. I've spent the day working on the house on our farm. 160 acres, a quarter section, that was originally the property of my great-grandfather and the house that sits on that land was built by my great-grandfather and is the birthplace of my grandfather. It's in a state of most disrepair. My job today was to patch up the outside walls so that the weather couldn't come into the house through all the cracks. I didn't end up getting all that done, but I did get the backroom of the house cleaned out. It's been boarded up back there and there was a bunch of interesting old things in there, including a Dr. Pepper bottle that has the old 10-2-4 logo. (Dr. Pepper's recipe used to include prune juice and was originally marketed as a drink to keep you "regular". Read: laxative).

Between working with this old house and being on the farm, my thoughts started meandering toward the lifestyle I currently lead. There's been much talk recently about the price of oil and the cost of gasoline and so forth and so on; the kind of talk I've been hearing (and believing) the large majority of my life. I've also happened to hit an economic low of my own (lower than I've ever previously been, which, if you know me, is saying something). I've been thinking of ways to live that are cheaper than common way. Heating with wood, having only one room in the house that uses electricity, I was even thinking today (because I saw an old breadbox) about the possibility of food storage by vacuum rather than refrigeration. And I started thinking once again about the, as I see it, inevitable end of "modern living". I presume that as oil runs low, machine usage will decrease due to cost and lack of availability of lubricants, and that this will in turn increase the cost of electricity. My thinking hasn't really gone beyond that, because oil and electricity are probably the two aspects of modern living that I rely upon the most. I don't think that there will be any significant change in lifestyle for this country during my lifetime, except perhaps towards the end of my life, but I do think that in the lifetimes beyond my own, reasonably shortly after my own, there will be significant lifestyle changes.

So, I started thinking: what would I miss the most? I can tell you that of the three things about modern life I love the most: cars, stereos, and refrigeration, I'll miss music the most. It's almost impossible for me to imagine a life in which I cannot turn on a device and hear music. The few times I have had to go for any length (like a week) without electronically reproduced music have left me rather depressed. It's the one thing I go out of my way to ensure availability of. If I'm going anywhere for any length of time, a means of listening to music is a must. Ipod, stereo, Discman, computer, Walkman, whatever, I've got one. I don't worry about food or transportation nor money hardly, but music is right at the top of the list. I always have a way to listen to music with the highest quality I can reasonalby muster.

So... here's a list:
Can you imagine lifestyle where the only time you hear music is if someone in your range of hearing is creating it?
Can you imagine lifestyle where there are no electric lights? Once the sun goes down, candles and fire are all you've got.
Can you imagine a lifestyle where there are no cars? Not just because you can't afford one, but because nobody can. You're not jumping a ride with a friend, or taking the bus. It's bicycles, horses, and feet.
Can you imagine a lifestyle without fast food? Without grocery stores? No, you can't get strawberries year-round?

I could go on but I won't. The point is not to scare, nor to educate either, but more to point out that the lifestyle I take for granted, poor as I am, is luxurious in the light of history, and, I think, destined to be short-lived. And when this luxury becomes economically unfeasible, what will it be like? I completely take for granted all kinds of "basic" things that are, in fact, amazing luxuries. (Hot showers... I'll miss them when they're gone, even if I'm in the grave, I'll miss hot showers...)

And I think that's more the point of what I'm saying:

These things that appear to me as "normal" are in fact totally exotic and amazingly luxurious. It's the lack of appreciation for the profound luxuries we have managed for ourselves that astounds me. The lack of people saying: "Yes, these are luxuries." I don't have a problem with luxuries, per se. I love Pizza Hut. I love hot showers. I love, love, love, being able to record and playback music. I love electric lights and the way the dashboard on a car lights up when you turn it on. I don't think they're bad things. I wouldn't even necessarily say it's bad to take down a mountain for its coal so we can have all these things, as long as we're agreed that we're willing to live with the consequences. It's like Halloween when I was a kid: I always ate all my candy quickly. I would run out in two or three weeks. My older brother would always eat his slowly and long about Thanksgiving, he'd still have some. That was okay with me. I enjoyed my candy up front, leaving nothing for the home stretch. That's a perfectly legitimate choice. Use all you've got now, live with the nothing you leave for yourself. But you should realize that is what you're doing, and nod your head in approval and say, "Yep, I'm willing to live with the consequences."

Resources are limited, and it's okay to choose how you want to use them, but acting like they are unlimited is not okay. Somebody's children are going to do without oil, unless you use oil at a lower rate than it renews itself (which it does... takes millions of years, but it does...). And that's okay. There have been people who lived prior to the mass use of oil and there will likely be people who live after the mass use of oil. It's just like passenger pigeons or dodo birds. We don't have them anymore because people used them up at a rate greater than their own renewal rate. That's a resource choice. I don't know how to evaluate whether that was a responsible choice or not, I just now I've never seen a passenger pigeon or a dodo bird. And there are going to be people who never see a car driving down the road, or who never turn on an electric light.

I'm not suggesting that resource management is outside of the realm of morality. I simply don't know how to determine the morality of resource management and so I'm suggesting that at least making responsible choices and accepting the consequences is the only appropriate decision.

I am now going to deflate my discussion and go see if I have any messages on Myspace. And then I'm going to open up the frig and cook some food and go downstairs and work on some recorded music, all the while electric lights blazing like miniature stars.

Postal for Mail

I just mailed something to Finland! It was every bit as exciting and thrilling as I expected. I think I might try to send myself to Finland soon. Heck, it's got to be the cheapest way to travel.

Also, Postal for Mail is my new band. We're going to rock the new-wave/alt-country tip. It's going to be awesome.

Quotes from Dad

The world isn't really as simple as they make you want to believe. That's only so the students can work the problems. -Omer Prewett

Coookie Crisp!

So, two days ago, I finally fulfilled a life long dream and bought a box of Cookie Crisp. I'm not joking either. When we were kids, our parents wouldn't let us have sugar cereals, so we had Ralston instead. Awesome. Kix were about as sugary as we were allowed and if you've had Kix...well, you know they're mother-approved. So, between growing up without sugar and being broke for the last eleven years, I've never managed to eat any Cookie Crisp.

I finally bought a box. And ate the contents. It was good.

A New President

Well, CNN just projected Obama as winning the presidential election, meaning should he in fact win (which he will), he will become our new president-elect. I'm glad for this, I think. I think the country needs this for it's own sake. For people to feel involved again in politics, that their vote and their voice matters, that the future is possibly better than the past. The hope generated by those who supported Obama will hopefully be infectious.

Whether Obama will actually make a good President remains to be seen. I certainly hope so, because we could certainly use one. He brings a freshness to the office and to politics in general that has been missing for far too long. I think the important question has always been, will he use his popularity and mental acuity for the whole benefit of the American people, or will he allow it to be siphoned in other directions, whether by other people or by himself? Certainly, he will not be able to enact all of the ideas he ran his campaign on. No one can do that. (Or, let's hope not!) But there is a chance that he can move the government and the people to make the changes that are best for both of them. This is never a popular thing, but it is the only important function of a leader. Doing what is best for those being lead. May he accomplish it and well.

There are a number of things I would like to speak on regarding the election. First, Obama was going to win this election. The news media did its best to portray the election as being winnable for either candidate, but in reality, Obama won this election a long time ago. And he kept winning this election. From the time the voting polls opened, McCain did not have a realistic chance. Move the voting date back or forward three months and McCain would still not have had a realistic chance.

Here are a few articles on the subject:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/04/pollster-calms-paranoid-d_n_140960.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-thomson/the-most-accurate-electio_b_140181.html
http://www.eternalgambling.com/gambling-news/20081101-when-will-john-mccain-admit-defeat-in-presidential-race.html

Yes, two are regarding gambling. I got intrigued to know something about whether political betting existed and if so, what did they say about the election. It turned out to be very illuminating.

Here's Big Point Number One: with even a cursory look at the three articles I listed, it becomes clear that the general news media was not reporting what was happening in its actual context. They were reporting what was happening but not with any contextual accuracy. It is very easy to then believe that the news media was warping the news with the purpose of keeping you coming back for more. This is important. Many people have talked about the inacuracy of the news media, esp. in the right-wing, christian circles I'm familiar with. I've always believed that, but I've taken it with a grain of salt. This is, for me, very clear evidence of the what, how, and why of the news media. What are they doing? Selling you news-entertainment. How are they doing it? By setting up the scene so you come back for more. Why are they doing it? This is less clear, but my guess is that it is related to the fact that advertising pays their bills. The further issue here is that, at least as far as this presidential campaign is concerned, they have done it intentionally.

I can't say that I'm upset about this, but it certainly clarifies the attitude with which I accept the news given to me.

My only other gripe with coverage of this election is race. I'm glad Obama is African-American. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be who he is, and it's good that everyone be who they actually are and not somebody else. I have never really looked at Obama as being black. Thank goodness. The important thing to me is how he conducts himself and what he chooses.
Why is it then that the first thing the CNN people talked about after having projected him as President-Elect was his race? It's an obvious enough thing to talk about, certainly, and it is important to many people in this country and to the country's history and future, however, why such focus? I'm so glad they kept race out of their coverage as much as they did, do we have to now begin to cover that small aspect of Obama? The purpose of an election is not to elect a group of people, but individuals. If race is such a problem in this country, does it make sense to focus on race as an important thing? Is that helpful to the problem, to perpetuate the way of thinking that caused the problem in the first place? I will never discount or discredit someone's history and what went into that history. But there is a gradiation of importance, some things large, some things small. I don't think Obama won because he was African-American. So let's focus on why he won.

It is also important to keep in mind that we were going to make history in this election with either ticket. A woman has never been Vice-President. I'm sad that today wasn't the day for that. I wish Palin had been on the Obama ticket, then we could really have had a historical sweep! Maybe in four years.

Thinking over what I've just wrote, I don't mean to sound unhappy that people celebrate the election of an African-American President. I'm pretty excited about that and what that historical event could mean for this country. Maybe now people with black skin or African heritage across this nation, and across this world, will feel like they don't have to prove themselves anymore. Maybe they will feel like they are just as important and valuable as anyone else. Because of course they are. Maybe we as a culture can put the nail in the coffin of the history and practice of our bigotry. Let us hope so. I just don't want race to be the important focus, because it should never be.

Well, whew! Glad we all got through today. Glad everyone voted (largest turnout since women's suffrage)! Cheers!

-mike