Music of the Spheres

Few things in this world have the power of music. Everytime I contemplate the amazingness of music, I am struck by it's complexity, it's affects on humans, and it's all-encompassing nature.
This evening, my wonderful, beautiful, Good, and in-most-other-ways perfect girlfriend took me to the Disney Concert Hall. If you have never been to this piece of art, it is worth your time and money. The building itself is a $100 million + statement of music. It captures your eye and intrigues your senses. A good amount of time was spent wandering the various corners of that creation. But, the gem of the struture, as is fitting, is the concert hall itself. Only fitting a couple thousand people, it actually feels quite small. The building is built in such a way that makes every member of the audience have a good seat and a good aucustical experience. However, what is fairly unique about this hall, is that they allow members of the audience to experience the performance from the chior loft. Thus, we sat two rows behind the actual orchestra itself. I have never been so enthralled by a performance (that I was not producing). I felt that I was literally a member of the Los Angeles Philarmonic, but instead of concentrating on my part I could focus on various members, or the conductor, or the entire orchestra. It was like what those filmed recordings of performances try to do with snap shots of various performers, except that it was live, and I could chose anyone and everyone I desired to see. The ability to see the nuances of the musicians, the facial expressions of the conductor, the fingers of a cellist on his strings was astounding. I could not believe that an hour had passed when they concluded Shostacovich's 11th. It was a beautiful evening.
The experience left me with a myriad of thoughts. I will not attempt to convey them all. But, consider for a moment, the depth of music. Before us lay a conglomeration of very talented individuals. For thousands of hours, these persons had learned to understand, feel, move, and otherwise tease out beautiful tones from a myriad of manmade instruments that produce various noises. Every type of physical means for making noise was represented. Vibrating strings, wood, metal, glass, stretched plastic or fabric were all represented in multiple forms. Every object creates their own individual set of overtones, which when added together establishes a veritable plethera of tonal variations. Through one man creating a mathimatical beat with a stick, this group of 80 individuals are able to establish order to the chaos. A man from Russia, who likely never spoke English, then created with a few scratch marks on paper, a historical, artistic, and compelling view of a dark moment in his country's past (1905's Bloody Sunday). A member of the audience needed to know nothing about this event, or Russia, or Russian, or even music, to be able to experience the horror, despair, and renewed hope that the Russian people experienced. Nothing else in this world has such cross-cultural, language, or experiential power. Music is a universal language. So, if America wants to be remembered, and if America desires to be great, then we really do need to get some good composers. Anyway, I am glad God created us with the ability to create and appreciate music. It is a marvelous gift!

Conspiracy theories

When is a conspiracy worth believing? I suppose a lot of it depends on your source. If I told you I had a very good source would you believe that the Aids pandemic was mostly a big hoax/scam? I have been informed of some interesting arguments for it, and they come from a very informed, wise christian, who is a Doctor from Berkeley with a multitude of connections. ;-) I don't know... He said he would get us more information if we are interested. If I can get ahold of it, maybe I'll post some of the links up here. It is possible that they are actually killing babies that need not die. If this is true, we must some how make it known. Perhaps blogs would be the best way to accomplish this...we shall see.

Doh!

Ya, so it's been a while since I posted on here. I blame it on my roommates. See, they forced me to get a blog before I was mentally ready to mantain one, and that is the reason I am having trouble keeping one up...ya, that's a good excuse. ;-)

Oh, appologies to the typo in my previous post...My good friend, Luke pointed it out. It should read "Therefore, I will now start..." Although, that might have been some type of fruedian slip...

God is truly Beautiful and worthy of our total devotion, love, and energies. Recently I have been reminded frequently how we should looking to Him for our hope and salvation, our inspiration and our joy. In church last sunday, through a sermon on worship, I cought a miniscule, fleeting glimpse of what true God-focus is. For a brief moment, I was focused entirely on God's glory and the worship that is due Him. I was not thinking about how I was worshipping Him, or my problems, or what I was offering to Him. I was not part of the equation. Instead of looking at God's very dim reflection on my own soul, I glimpsed briefly out towards the truth. My weakness quickly drew me back into myself, but it was an exillerating and enlightening moment that gave me a glimpse of what the Christian life can truly be like!

Go under the mercy, my friend.