Two-time national slam poet champion Anis Mojgani performs “Shake the Dust” during To Write Love on Her Arms HEAVY AND LIGHT benefit.

What is slam poetry? A poet performs a poem for a live audience – a poem which is written to be heard aloud as opposed to read. It’s not hiphop (though it could be), it’s not angry screaming (though it could be), it’s just out-loud competitive performance poetry. Poets are judged and scored. More info at poetryslam.com. Still Waters Collective in Milwaukee is a local slam poetry resource.

“And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.” – Mark 6.11

First: What is Boxing Day? Do you “celebrate it”? Hope you bought local for xmas this year. I did, but i also didn’t, so i’m a jerk. Find a local business group like Our Milwaukee in your area and figure out how you can be a more community-oriented consumer in the next decade. Speaking of local, Atomic Records returns from the grave in t-shirt form (get a free sticker with every order!). Also absurdist literature stimulates our brains (what’s the difference between absurdist and surrealist?). R. Crumb illustrates a non-sardonic version of Genesis (i had to look it up too: “disdainfully or ironically humorous”). In related news The Mountain Goats walk through the bible in their 2009 release The Life of the World to Come, and as we wait patiently for Petra’s Rock Band release, we contemplate the place religion plays in video games (hint: not much unless you’re killing “demons”). In other christmas news we tried to make some new stuff this year – like modified books. I spent $12 at the goodwill and came away with some real treasures, including an original printing of The Space Child’s Mother Goose, which has the best cover ever (seen here) and some truly bizarre content. Also Frank Schaeffer gets all up in the dispensational grill of Tim LaHaye in his new book, and The Economist takes Karen Armstrong, the original Freelance Monotheist, to task for her new book. Karen Armstrong herself delivers a skeptical Christmas message with a heart of gold at the L.A. Times. Finally “Was Jesus Rich?” the prosperity theologians would like you to say “yes, please”.

8. Low – Things We Lost in the Fire, 2001: If you’ve ever watched an ice cube slowly melting at room temperature you know there is some beauty in that gradual process. I imagine if we could experience the change over years of cave formations or wind erosion we would see the subtle details and the slow transitions for little works of constantly moving art. Low is not as slow as all that, but early in the decade they did not fit my notions of rock and roll. I’ve since learned an important lesson about how slowly and beautifully you can rock. As The Magnetic Fields have said: If it’s too quiet you’re too young. I’ve lost some things in the fire this decade (as we all have), and this album will always speak to me about that.

Low – Laser Beam

7. The Appleseed Cast – Low Level Owl (vols. I/II), 2001: Released as a double album, LLO continued the evolution of The Appleseed Cast from 2nd wave emo to the leading-edge of post-rock. Incorporating swirling feedback loops, distorted drones, found sounds and rapid-fire drumming LLO is 2 hours of great music without a dud in the bunch. Experimental and breathtaking this album will make you believe in the power of rock and roll to innovate again.

The Appleseed Cast – Signal

6. Sufjan Stevens – Michigan, 2003: Born of the kind of awesome, quirky, multi-instrumental, post-folk ramblings of the Danielson Famile, Sufjan Stevens reintroduced the world to the Great Lakes State with an album of story songs and banjos. I’m choosing Michigan because it laid all the groundwork for 2005’s mega-hit Illinois. No christian writing unabashedly about faith has broken into the subculture of indie music the way Stevens has – garnering rave reviews from the likes of Pitchfork, the Onion AV Club, NPR, the New York Times, Seattle’s KEXP and others. Does it sound a little like a musical? Yes. Are there some marching songs on this one? Yeah. Still, if you’re a fan of the oboe, glockenspiel, vibraphone and good writing you’re sure to love it.

5. Joy Electric – The White Songbook: Legacy Volume 1, 2001: The first Joy Electric album I bought was in 1996 – it was a cassette tape in a discount bin somewhere of 1994’s Melody. I bought it as a joke, but I listened to it religiously until it was eaten by my car stereo. Never having heard of no-wave, electroclash or synthpop, I could only make sense of Joy Electric in the context of techno and industrial music, and the atari 2600 soundtrack of my youth. Ultimately The White Songbook is an intricate experiment in song composition – pushing past the common pop structures of rhythm and melody. It is electronic rock at its most basic and most complex: an analog synthesizer building layer upon layer of hand-crafted monophonic sound.

Joy Electric – And Without Help We Perish

4. Desert City Soundtrack – Funeral Car, 2003: If there was ever an argument for your kids to take piano lessons, Desert City Soundtrack is it. Funeral Car is the blazingest, hauntingest piano-based post-hardcore album you’ll ever listen to. With dynamics ranging from a whisper to a vocal-chord-scraping roar and some great writing and song construction there’s not much to complain about. Except for this: too scream-y for the indie kids, too emo for the hardcore kids Desert City Soundtrack has ended up as a footnote in the history of 21st century music.

Desert City Soundtrack – Drawn and Quartered

3. A Silver Mt. Zion – 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons, 2008: Nothing says “Canada” like enormous post-rock bands playing sprawling compositions on a darkened stage. Rising from the ashes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, A Silver Mt. Zion roots itself firmly in that space between punk and orchestral music (yeah, that space exists). With four songs averaging 14 minutes each 13 Blues is an angry, violin-laden manifesto against the bleakness and apathy of the 21st century. If BlindBlindBlind doesn’t make you think, you’re not human.

A Silver Mt. Zion – BlindBlindBlind

2. mewithoutYou – brother, sister, 2006: “Bridge” albums are sometimes confusing — is the band shifting styles permanently? is this just a new producer? is this the swan song of a band imploding? brother, sister sees mwY moving between the post-hardcore of their early days, to a more stripped-down “lighter” style. The yelling all but disappears, the guitars are turning down, and much of the angst from 2004’s Catch for us the Foxes has been replaced by thoughtfulness. There is a lot to like though: more diverse instrumentation, interesting song structures and some great writing. This is a really good stand-alone album, but in the context of mwY’s growth as a band through the decade it is a great album.

mewithoutYou – Wolf Am I! (And Shadow)

1. Radiohead – Kid A, 2000: To me, Radiohead represents all that is right with music. A band should definitely evolve over time and these 90s alternative holdovers have only increased in relevance (unlike say… Pearl Jam). I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say their Saturday Night Live electronic freak-out in October 2000 made me instantly question everything I had known about the universe. From the glitchy electronics to the distorted squalls to Thom Yorke’s curious vocal affectations Radiohead is that rare band that transcends the era into which they were born.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A note: There are two “runners-up” which I could not in good conscience put on this list because they are just too new. A “decade” band needs to have been around for at least a decade, so a tip-o-the-hat to The Manchester Orchestra’s “Mean Everything to Nothing” and We Were Promised Jetpacks‘ “These Four Walls”. You would do yourself a favor buying either of these albums.

Sleeth is not an academic or a scientist. He is a medical doctor, but whether that MD after his name gets him any cache on his environmental views is up for debate. So instead of a lot of charts (there are exactly none), climatology data, statistics (there are a little), and photos of polars bears, you get short readable chapters filled with anecdotes about how and why the Sleeth family decided to change their relationship with God and the planet. And it’s pretty hardcore. They unplug from their suburban lives, moving into a rural area, become small-plot farmers, examine how each aspect of their lives impacts the local and global environment, and permanently and drastically change their lifestyles. The strength of Sleeth’s argument is that he isn’t some poindexter rubbing our faces in global warming, he’s just a regular guy that stopped closing his eyes to the realities of the destruction human beings have caused to our earthly home. More importantly he constantly weighs our commitment to creation with our relationship to God. God the Creator and God the Sustainer fall to the wayside when we embrace habits and lifestyles that damage nature. “If God made nature to sustain us, and if we reject his sustaining gifts, will there be no consequences?” Indeed.

Each chapter breaks down a cultural ill and makes suggestions on what we can do in our individual lives to move away from it. Each ill has a spiritual and environmental component, and Sleeth shares stories of how he and his family have rejected each and embraced a solution. Some examples: downsizing your possessions (no dryer! one car! smaller house!), growing your own food, carefully recycling and composting, drastically reduced power consumption. But Sleeth also unleashes a screed against consumerism, materialism, TV, overpopulation, and healthcare (he is a doctor after all) — without sounding crazy. I can’t recommend this book enough to my friends that haven’t had a good resource to see beyond the politics of this issue. In fact Sleeth never once mentions politics or uses the phrase “carbon footprint”. And for those of you already convinced we are destroying the planet, this book is a fresh voice from a christian perspective with a ton of practical advice. Sleeth provides an appendix with a family energy audit, an appliance guide and an almost impossibly challenging To-Do List. It’s a quick read, well-written, with each chapter structured as a stand-alone source of information.

Each of us must choose how we relate to the earth. Sleeth’s environmentalism is missionary work: he encourages us to change our families so that we might be better ministers to our community and the world. I’ll end with this zinger from chapter 5 (”Moving from Faith to Works”):

Our relationship to God’s gifts can be one of entitlement, ignorance, and gluttony or one of praise, thanks and temperance…Are you, like the [Good] Samaritan, ready to move along the path from ignorance to awareness and from compassion to action?

According to the BBC article, a big (controversial) chunk of American Christianity – namely prosperity theology – has spread into S. Korea. I wondered what else we exported and how the S. Koreans were making it their own. My friend Nathan, who is Catholic, has been living in S. Korea for a number of years and agreed to answer a few of my questions.

Fightme: Do S. Koreans with traditional beliefs feel threatened by the rise in christianity?

Nathan: I wouldn’t say people feel threatened. Christians follow most of the social aspects of the [traditional] holidays, as most of them call for respecting your family’s dead. Most protestant churches there are very, very evangelical. They set up speakers outside subway stations, and will have high schoolers walk up and down the subway trains. Many of the protestant churches are quite competitive both with each other, and especially with Catholics and Buddhists. The overall effect of this is that often they badmouth other denominations excessively. There will be entire portions of a sermon dealing only with how another denomination is wrong and thus bad.

Fm: Is Catholicism a growing force as well?

N: There is a big divide between Protestants and Catholics. Most Catholics will agree that we are all Christian, but the Protestants of Korea will argue strongly that Catholics are not Christian. I am not sure how this came about, and it may in some way be because of the words used for denoting them in Korean. They mean “Christian” and “Catholic” — most people are not raised realizing that Catholics are one of the many types of Christians.

Fm: Does S. Korean christianity have a distinct Korean-ness to it? what does Korean christianity look like as it is lived out in the community?

N: Protestants who really follow their faith can be quite strict. They do not drink, smoke, gamble, or use the sex industry at all. There are very few people who are that strict. Especially among men in management, drinking/whoring are a strong part of the Korean culture, but that is another discussion. Catholics are fine with gambling, drinking and smoking, as long as they are done responsibly. Doing any of them to an amount that causes health, social, or monetary issues is still seen as a sin. Priests will take groups out drinking after a hard day preparing for some event, but this is not big time drinking. Usually just a beer or two along with dinner. There seem to be more people on average [than in America] who are well-educated about their particular church’s beliefs, however there are also many people that give lip service. Many people go to church for business reasons, and among 20-somethings, it is often seen as a singles club activity where your main goal is to just pick up women. As to the church mentioned in the article, many people I knew attended. Out of the 5 I can think of offhand, 3 were going there just to find a marriage match.

Fm: Any other thoughts?

N: Overall, I think Asia in general is on a Christian (inclusive) upswing. Korea itself is poised to be the next hub for what could and probably needs to be a strong round of missionary and evangelical work. There is a good base there that could refresh other churches worldwide, and hopefully fuel many conversions in the rest of Asia, China in particular.

Other resources: “Does Global Christianity Equal American Christianity?”, Christianity Today

Having read the Harry Potter series there are some moments that harken to the christian story. I mean, The One who must die and resurrect to save humanity? Yeah, it’s been done. But this is another unfortunate example of the christian world jumping into pop culture in either a desperate attempt to seem like critical thinkers*** or to make a little money off a hot trend or maybe both. One commentator makes this point:

“When stories become as popular as the Harry Potter stories, they no longer simply reflect the religious views of the author, but become artifacts of the culture…”

While that statement is true, my own view on art in all its forms is that it is a specific reflection of the existential views of its author. That is what gives art value – first as self expression, secondarily as general expression. I approach art by asking “what is the artist saying?” If i can satisfy that answer, i may ask “what is the art saying to me?” or i may not.

And that brings me to my next point: Rowling’s world is not a supernatural free-for-all with God and Dumbeldore speaking face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. In fact God is rather loudly absent. Aside from celebrating christmas there is nothing remotely christian about the world of harry potter. The supernatural is barely present: spells are basically recipes or litanies to be memorized and dissected, fantasy monsters are merely secretive beings, and good and evil have no higher authority. To me the absence of God (see: Buffy the Vampire Slayer) says more about Rowling’s theology than harry’s turn as saviour of the world.

Until the prequels that is, when we learn all about the source of the Force magic.

* Only interesting if you’re a nerd.
** I’m trademarking this. Someone at least make an unofficial list.
*** I’m describing myself again, aren’t i?

Those of us in “the city” often lament sub/ex-urban sprawl. Like an uninvited guest parking lots and strip malls stretch across the landscape putting their gym shoes all over farmlands and creekbeds. With names like “Woodglen Rivers” and “Fieldstone Vistas” pre-fab communities spread out from freeway to freeway necessitating more cars and more wal-marts and less small towns and down towns. Milwaukee’s not too bad – drive in any direction for 20 minutes and you’re out of the suburbs and into the glacier-carved rural settings that make wisconsin such a beautiful state. It’s a losing battle though. Someday i imagine a mass of suburbs sprawled out from milwaukee to chicago and maybe even from milwaukee to madison. Maybe not in my lifetime, but perhaps in the next century many of the small farms and rural villages will be abandoned and absorbed into Chicawaukee and Milwadison.

Seems too glum? Thanks to news like this: A popular suburban restaurant petitions to the city to tear down a couple surrounding houses and put in more parking lots. Supposedly this will reduce, among other things, customers “urinating on people’s lawns.” I’ve got news for Wauwatosa: now you will have triple the amount of urinating. More congestion, more drunk drivers, more noise, more heat in the summer thanks to all that blacktop. It’ll be glorious. I’m including an artist’s rendition of the “ideal” parking situation for Mo’s Pub, and I think you’ll agree it’s pretty great — a boon to the community some might say.

My dear suburbs, it’s time to rethink sprawl. Instead of more parking lots and strip malls further and further out why not start rebuilding and reusing the stuff you put up 30 years ago? I know we can’t eliminate sprawl – there will always be sprawlers – but we can minimize it and slow it down a bit. Also: get your feet off the couch.

1. Wendell Berry @ Woodland Patterns, Saturday, Oct. 10 2p.m.
   Poet, farmer, pacifist, moralist. Not to put too morbid a point on it, but he’s 75 years old and part of a vanishing generation. Also a christian with a lot of interesting things to say about faith and God.
2. Max Brooks @ UWM Union, Monday, Oct. 12 7p.m.
   I’m not too proud to say it: I loved World War Z. Yes, it’s a book about zombies, but it’s a very, very good book about zombies. Consider this talk “just in time for Halloween.”

Go Books!

A lot of things enrage me about the abortion debate, which is why that alone of all social/cultural/ethical issues I have difficulty talking about without getting upset. Over the years I have heard many (self-identified) abortion advocates (or their spouses or friends) use the phrase “going to have a baby!” when they (or their spouses or friends) are pregnant. They use words like “life” and “baby” even in the first trimester, inexplicably not seeing the double standard. I think this is because they want that baby. They want her to grow and develop and be born and live a complicated, dramatic life. The National Organization for Women even uses the phrase “Every Child a Wanted Child” to describe its stance on birth control. But the second that life is not wanted, well then it’s not a baby anymore.

“Hey, Dan,” you might be thinking “what’s with all this right-wing ranting? I thought you were a socialist?” Well friend, in the last few months there have been two similar stories in the news — with drastically different outcomes — that have caught my attention. I direct you to this story about an American woman who was implanted with the wrong embryo. Long story short: she had the baby, not for herself, but for the baby’s biological parents. Essentially she went from “mom” to “surrogate” in the space of a few seconds. But she knew that someone else wanted that baby. Now I wouldn’t exactly call this woman a hero — she pulled some stuff along the way that I have real ethical problems with — but she made an impossibly hard choice to a horrifying dilemma. Contrast that with this other lady in the UK who made the opposite decision. She didn’t want someone else’s baby growing inside her so she aborted. When I first read this I was stunned. I can imagine few acts more selfish. And it’s not just western culture that destroys things it doesn’t want. In India there is an ongoing genocide of girls through gender selective abortions. But really, why should we be horrified by that? The “slippery-slope argument” that conservatives are so fond of doesn’t even apply here. There is no slippery slope: it’s already happened. All those baby girls growing “in their mother’s stomachs” aren’t wanted. So who are we to judge? “Hey, China! It’s totally cool. We get it: you don’t want any girls either!”

I’ll let you decide  whether something the size of this period (.) is human. My point is more about the callousness of postnatal humanity. We live in an age where only the things we want are valued. And if we don’t want it, we destroy it. We live in a new Age of Imperialism where each of us is an empire of one. Like our forefathers who destroyed as many civilizations as they could get their hands on — whether it’s a forest or a whale or an embryo or a pre-modern hunter/gatherer society it must conform to our sovereign will. Once again we’ve proven our quality as a global community.

From explanatory (”Hard to Be”) to accusatory (”In Stitches”, “When We Fell”) Bazan’s agnostic resentment reminds me of the exchange in Pitch Black when Vin Diesel is accused of being an atheist and replies thoughtfully: “You’re wrong, I absolutely believe in God, and I absolutely hate the f***er.” I’m sure many bloggers and writers and music wonks will have more to say about Bazan’s departure from the faith. As someone who has struggled with some of the same issues that Bazan struggled with, I can only say with absolute sincerity that it is heartbreaking. To hear it documented so beautifully and explicitly in this album will make it a difficult listen for some, perhaps liberating for others. And while I disagree with Bazan’s ultimate conclusions about what Christianity is about, I completely understand his point.

Now, the music: Downtempo rock and roll that would fit neatly between indie pop and adult alternative. Bazan backs up the standard guitars and drums with some subtle electronics, acoustical meanderings, and the occasional piano. His vocals are in top form – sometimes straining, sometimes whispering. The boffins over at Paste are streaming the entire album, so go check it out and let me know what you think.

See also:
The Passion of David Bazan from the Chicago Reader (08/09)