Living in the buckle of the Bible belt can be frustrating, even for devoted Christians. In some cases the difficulty comes from the image that is created when some of the more fundamentalist believers cast a shadow of intolerance around their specific moral agenda that seems at times to outweigh the love and grace aspect of the faith, and other times, liberal churches or followers are so tolerant that there doesn’t even seem to be a morality or an absolute to their belief. Those believers frustrate the attempts the stricter believers are making to make certain their culture knows where the God of the Bible stands on issues.
I was discussing some of the interesting things that have been happening in our pop culture recently with some friends of mine that are devoted, Bible-believing Christians (as well as some of the most intelligent people I know), around a bonfire at one of their 30th birthdays. We discussed the recent resurgence of morality-inspired albums and artistic projects that are reminiscent of the anti-war, secular humanism of the Vietnam era. Artists that were appreciated on a strictly artistic level throughout the Clinton and Bush I eras of Pax Americana, such as the Flaming Lips, Beastie Boys, and Cursive, that have recently released albums propagating a moral and political agenda.
On one hand, these artists have worked hard for many years to build a reputation as artists and as personalities, so there is some level of justification to them using that influence to endorse philosophies they believe deeply in. After all, every one of us around that bonfire had been fairly ignorant about the situation in Tibet until the Beastie Boys brought it to our attention. But they didn’t do it by tainting their music with a specific agenda, rather through external activism, without alienating any of their audience. With To the Five Burroughs, the Beastie Boys compromised their art as well as the integrity they had before their listeners when they forced out a less-than-inspired album wrought with political messages and released during an election year. Similarly The Flaming Lips have released At War with the Mystics, a politically charged album about the people taking the power back.
Probably most blatant, when it comes to indicting religion, is the new Cursive album Happy Hollow. On this musically brilliant album, the lyrical content addresses war or religion in every single song. While Tim Kasher distanced himself from the listener more on Happy Hollow than on any prior release, he also made harsh indictments on the church and their responsibility for so much emotional trouble and fabricated guilt and frustration in the world. Alongside this message is the anti-war theme.
I had the good fortune to get an opportunity to interview Cursive’s bass player, Matt Maginn, last week and I asked about these things. Read that interview to see his responses to some of these questions, but that is not really what I am addressing in this particular blog. In this blog I am addressing the place of pop culture in our personal philosophies. Books have been written and pundits have been outspoken about the illegitimacy of celebrities using their soap box to provide opinions that are neither expert nor qualified to be as influential as they are, as though they should be discredited for their opinions because they are artists. Personally I would rather hear what an artist that I admire thinks about something than listen to a pundit who is hardly more qualified and often seems to have put even less thought into the issue.
I don’t prefer the voice of the artists because I am more likely to sway to their ideals, in fact I doubt anyone likely to sway their ideals based on their fan status has ideals worth a shit anyway, but I enjoy a new perspective that forces me to rethink my own political and religious ideas. If believers are sincere in their convictions, if they really believe that the God of the Bible is an absolute and has established an absolute moral reality, there is no reason to be afraid of contrary voices. Truth is truth. So if Dan Brown releases The DaVinci Code and everyone wants to read it; let them. If it makes people question why they believe what they believe, won’t that deepen their faith and invoke a recommitment of sorts? If they are dealing in truth, won’t they come back to the true conclusions regardless of what the message was that inspired them to think on it again?
When I listened to Cursive’s Happy Hollow, I was upset by the distraction from the amazing music by the agenda that is showcased on the album. But the more I listened to the record, the more I realized the value of that distraction. Unlike The DaVinci Code, which presented “facts” contrary to a believers’ upbringing for cerebral and intellectual consideration, this was presented in the intimate moment of getting absorbed emotionally in the story of a song. Cursive’s Bad Sects off of Happy Hollow is a perfect example of this dichotomy. When I first heard it I wondered why Cursive wanted to throw their hat into the political discourse of gays in the church, and especially in the priesthood, but as I grew fonder of the song I started to experience it differently. Unlike Dan Brown’s poorly constructed mystery novel, Bad Sects pulled me into the story of one priests’ struggle to find a balance between his faith and his flesh.
“I know this is wrong because I’m told this is wrong.”
How often does our faith or our political position commit us to an idea that we have not thoroughly thought through on our own? We’ve taken ideas provided to us by a person or organization we trust, be it our church, our peer group, our candidates, or our favorite celebrities, and toted the party line because we are told how it makes sense. We are told this is wrong, but have we really taken it to court? Have we delved into why we think it is wrong and whom we are affecting with that decision?
Cursive didn’t change my mind about anything I believed spiritually, politically, or morally, but I realized the intimate depth of thought that can be brought on through a song. Through art that moves me. It is emotionally interactive. The depth of that impact can be threatening to someone that is weak-willed or has a poor foundation for their philosophies anyway, but for the thinking person, these re-evaluations are a good thing. They keep us honest.
As we stood around the bonfire drinking our cocktails and making toasts, we also discussed the resurgence of the concept that religion is bad for our culture. The new children’s movie Happy Feet presents the idea that religion handicaps society. Green Day, in their American Idiot album, suggests that religion is the thing that starts wars and fights. This is a popular concept lately. But in their idiot savant brilliance, the writers of South Park have once again displayed their courage and unbiased frankness in a recent two-part episode wherein Cartman, impatiently awaiting the release of the Nintendo Wii, travels to the future. In the future he finds a world in the violent throes of war, even though in this future no one believes in God. The basis for their violent struggle is the inability to agree on a name for their atheist culture. The message: even if there were no religion, people would find things to fight about. How true.
All in all I would prefer a culture that trusts its participants to make their own informed decisions based on many presented options, rather than a culture that legislates morality and doesn’t allow for discourse. Ultimately this is the American way: to allow for individuality and to trust our citizens to pursue honesty, personally and interpersonally.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Life in the South's biggest small town is as exciting and rewarding as you want it to be, you just have to know what you're looking for and know where to find it. That is where EU Jacksonville wants to take you. We are not a Folio Weekly. We don't care who you vote for and it isn't up to us to inform you about corrupt city officials. The Folio Weekly does that and I for one am very glad we have a paper in town like that. But when it comes to entertainment, we want to provide more complete, comprehensive, and local coverage of what is really going on.
This blog is as close as you'll ever see to an editorial from me in EU Jacksonville, because I try to dillute my opinions among the vast and virtual space of the worldwide web, anonymously and drenched in cowardice. Here in the halls of the EU Jacksonville, my only goal is to let you in on the little secrets. You see there are amazingly creative things going on all over town and they are being put together by these innovative minds that we cultivate right here in the River City.
Jacksonville has a rich culture, but let me let you in on a little secret about the art and music scene. In every town, and even nationally, there are the people that are trying to hustle money out of the general public for their own gain. These people shake hands with other hustlers and schmoozers and they all pat each other on the back before and after shows at some beaches bar. There are the people that barely make above minimum wage working for local radio stations and they leverage their air time to try to make some money on the side. There are the myriad "Promoters" in town that put out flashy fliers and get some schlock bands from Orange Park to perform and the whole thing is sponsored by Duff Beer. Then there's the "managers" which are these green kids that happen to like their local metal core band so much they are willing to run their myspace and book their shows, and they call up all of the media outlets and try to blow their band up to help them make it big. The goal with these scheisters is always the same. Get money. Gain power and influence. This is the faux scene. The real artists are always hiding underground.
So think of the city as a swimming pool and all of the musicians and painters and performers as the aquatic life that is indiginous to our pool. The ones hustling to get somewhere are thrashing about, worried more about propulsion than creation or inspiration, and because of that, they rise in the pool and are more visible to everyone for their height and often will make it to the top, where they assume success is, and eventually they will get plucked out by fishermen, birds, or other predators that feed on their energy but have no use for their uninspired creations. They worked hard on success but never thought to look into their inspiration and the artists that preceded them. These people are not true artists, they just like the life of rock and roll or they enjoy a lofty status as an esoteric artist, but they have nothing to give the world that the world will later cherish.
On the bottom of that pool, on the other hand, are the artists. Bunkered down with the rest of the real people at the bottom of the aquarium, they are emmersed with the dregs of the pool, because they live in that reality, and their true and honest inspiration is something they pursue, not for fame or fortune, although this consumerist nation gets us all and of course the artists would like to be able to live off of their art and still eat, but this is not what compells them to keep on. They see success as the ability to be honest through their creativity and have their peers revel in their creation.
In the national scene there is a similar hierarchy. There are your Paris Hiltons and whoever that guy from Sugar Ray is, and then there are the real artists. Sometimes they are able to bring their honesty to the surface without compromising, such as artists as the Flaming Lips, but more often than not, the best artists you will never know about. Not enough people are excavating them from their individual pools. It is easier for national media to take people that are thrashing and report on them. So the best artists in every town probably never make it to the forefront of even their local scene, much less a national visibility. Unless their community is so supportive of them that the national scene is forced to pay attention.
At EU Jacksonville we hope to excavate these talents and show them to you. We hope you are not compelled by what the national scene thinks or what the local media tries to tell you you are supposed to like. My objective is to bring the most innovative and compelling artists in this city and parade them before you alongside every entertaining event happening in the coming week so that you can be aware of your community.
Although technically the "U" in EU Jacksonville doesn't stand for anything, it is a silly way to say "you" as in "Entertaining U, Jacksonville." I prefer to think of the "U" as standing for Understanding. To really get to know this city, you have to know more than Jaguars and Limp Bizkit. You have to really get to know the artists and entertainers that this city has nurtured in secret. See what we have to offer that you can't find anywhere else in the country. You have to know about the San Marco Theatre's midnight movies, the underground music venue in Springfield that isn't even a real club, musicians like Bob Maynard and The Yusge, and record stores such as Moon Colony Razorblade. You won't see an ad in Folio Weekly for TSI. You won't find anything about Moon Colony Razorblade in the Florida Times Union (but that's mostly because you don't read the Times Union) and you won't find these advertisements here either. These things are underground, and they enjoy it there. They cannot afford to advertise, perhaps, but more likely they are not interested in it. They are interested in a community that wanst to understand them. The real people don't have publicists to organize an interview. The true artists and the performers worth seeing are spending their time creating and concepting, not hiring promoters and managers. To understand this community, you have to understand the creative people that are under and behind it.
So here we are. Entertaining and Understanding Jacksonville. Our goal is to provide a weekly guide to everything going on in this town. We want to be the most comprehensive guide to entertainment in the town, and we say that we don't just want to remind you that Toby Kieth is playing at the coliseum or that the Gator Bowl is this weekend, we also want to be the ones that let you know about a garage rock showcase at Jack Rabbits or a festival featuring eight hardcore bands at a little dive bar in Murray Hill. Whatever people are working hard to bring to life in this town, we intend to showcase it for you: the local. We will feature the true underground in Jacksonville's invisible culture so that you can be proud of it.
I'm not supposing that an Emperor X performance at TSI is more relevant or better for you than a musical presented by the FCCJ Artist Series, I am simply suggesting that you can find out about the musical anywhere; we want to give you the option. You are free to enjoy the same things that hundreds or even thousands of your peers enjoy, but if you are one of those few that are looking for something different, exciting, or original, we want you to find what you are looking for as well. Vote for whoever you want when elections roll around, we aren't here to demonize any political party or even give you our opinion of people or events. We are here to find and report on those things that are Entertaining U in Jacksonville. We are Entertaining and Understanding Jacksonville and then passing the things we learn on to you so that you can be entertained and in turn understand that Jacksonville does have a culture of its own.
So instead of moping about how much this city sucks, try to find something that will spark your interest. Lord knows the underground needs more audience participation, and you are sitting around wishing there was something to entertain you. No matter what you are into, hip-hop, local films, rock bands, local theater, jazz, writing workshops, break dancing, or anything, we have it here. It's going on somewhere and you are missing it if you are not staying in touch. Our new goal is to help you stay in touch as much as possible. So check us out. We are about to be making big changes in line with many big changes we've made over the past five years, all to be a better source of information for you. Let us know more about what you'd like to see and we will respond. Let us know what entertainment is slipping through our fingers and we will tighten our grip. Entertaining U is a team effort. We have to know what entertainers are doing in town and we have to know every little thing you are interested in being entertained by. Get on the team and tell others about this publication. Make us your source and we will do our best to make sure you learn about what you want to know about.
-Jon Bosworth
Managing Editor
EU Jacksonville
This blog is as close as you'll ever see to an editorial from me in EU Jacksonville, because I try to dillute my opinions among the vast and virtual space of the worldwide web, anonymously and drenched in cowardice. Here in the halls of the EU Jacksonville, my only goal is to let you in on the little secrets. You see there are amazingly creative things going on all over town and they are being put together by these innovative minds that we cultivate right here in the River City.
Jacksonville has a rich culture, but let me let you in on a little secret about the art and music scene. In every town, and even nationally, there are the people that are trying to hustle money out of the general public for their own gain. These people shake hands with other hustlers and schmoozers and they all pat each other on the back before and after shows at some beaches bar. There are the people that barely make above minimum wage working for local radio stations and they leverage their air time to try to make some money on the side. There are the myriad "Promoters" in town that put out flashy fliers and get some schlock bands from Orange Park to perform and the whole thing is sponsored by Duff Beer. Then there's the "managers" which are these green kids that happen to like their local metal core band so much they are willing to run their myspace and book their shows, and they call up all of the media outlets and try to blow their band up to help them make it big. The goal with these scheisters is always the same. Get money. Gain power and influence. This is the faux scene. The real artists are always hiding underground.
So think of the city as a swimming pool and all of the musicians and painters and performers as the aquatic life that is indiginous to our pool. The ones hustling to get somewhere are thrashing about, worried more about propulsion than creation or inspiration, and because of that, they rise in the pool and are more visible to everyone for their height and often will make it to the top, where they assume success is, and eventually they will get plucked out by fishermen, birds, or other predators that feed on their energy but have no use for their uninspired creations. They worked hard on success but never thought to look into their inspiration and the artists that preceded them. These people are not true artists, they just like the life of rock and roll or they enjoy a lofty status as an esoteric artist, but they have nothing to give the world that the world will later cherish.
On the bottom of that pool, on the other hand, are the artists. Bunkered down with the rest of the real people at the bottom of the aquarium, they are emmersed with the dregs of the pool, because they live in that reality, and their true and honest inspiration is something they pursue, not for fame or fortune, although this consumerist nation gets us all and of course the artists would like to be able to live off of their art and still eat, but this is not what compells them to keep on. They see success as the ability to be honest through their creativity and have their peers revel in their creation.
In the national scene there is a similar hierarchy. There are your Paris Hiltons and whoever that guy from Sugar Ray is, and then there are the real artists. Sometimes they are able to bring their honesty to the surface without compromising, such as artists as the Flaming Lips, but more often than not, the best artists you will never know about. Not enough people are excavating them from their individual pools. It is easier for national media to take people that are thrashing and report on them. So the best artists in every town probably never make it to the forefront of even their local scene, much less a national visibility. Unless their community is so supportive of them that the national scene is forced to pay attention.
At EU Jacksonville we hope to excavate these talents and show them to you. We hope you are not compelled by what the national scene thinks or what the local media tries to tell you you are supposed to like. My objective is to bring the most innovative and compelling artists in this city and parade them before you alongside every entertaining event happening in the coming week so that you can be aware of your community.
Although technically the "U" in EU Jacksonville doesn't stand for anything, it is a silly way to say "you" as in "Entertaining U, Jacksonville." I prefer to think of the "U" as standing for Understanding. To really get to know this city, you have to know more than Jaguars and Limp Bizkit. You have to really get to know the artists and entertainers that this city has nurtured in secret. See what we have to offer that you can't find anywhere else in the country. You have to know about the San Marco Theatre's midnight movies, the underground music venue in Springfield that isn't even a real club, musicians like Bob Maynard and The Yusge, and record stores such as Moon Colony Razorblade. You won't see an ad in Folio Weekly for TSI. You won't find anything about Moon Colony Razorblade in the Florida Times Union (but that's mostly because you don't read the Times Union) and you won't find these advertisements here either. These things are underground, and they enjoy it there. They cannot afford to advertise, perhaps, but more likely they are not interested in it. They are interested in a community that wanst to understand them. The real people don't have publicists to organize an interview. The true artists and the performers worth seeing are spending their time creating and concepting, not hiring promoters and managers. To understand this community, you have to understand the creative people that are under and behind it.
So here we are. Entertaining and Understanding Jacksonville. Our goal is to provide a weekly guide to everything going on in this town. We want to be the most comprehensive guide to entertainment in the town, and we say that we don't just want to remind you that Toby Kieth is playing at the coliseum or that the Gator Bowl is this weekend, we also want to be the ones that let you know about a garage rock showcase at Jack Rabbits or a festival featuring eight hardcore bands at a little dive bar in Murray Hill. Whatever people are working hard to bring to life in this town, we intend to showcase it for you: the local. We will feature the true underground in Jacksonville's invisible culture so that you can be proud of it.
I'm not supposing that an Emperor X performance at TSI is more relevant or better for you than a musical presented by the FCCJ Artist Series, I am simply suggesting that you can find out about the musical anywhere; we want to give you the option. You are free to enjoy the same things that hundreds or even thousands of your peers enjoy, but if you are one of those few that are looking for something different, exciting, or original, we want you to find what you are looking for as well. Vote for whoever you want when elections roll around, we aren't here to demonize any political party or even give you our opinion of people or events. We are here to find and report on those things that are Entertaining U in Jacksonville. We are Entertaining and Understanding Jacksonville and then passing the things we learn on to you so that you can be entertained and in turn understand that Jacksonville does have a culture of its own.
So instead of moping about how much this city sucks, try to find something that will spark your interest. Lord knows the underground needs more audience participation, and you are sitting around wishing there was something to entertain you. No matter what you are into, hip-hop, local films, rock bands, local theater, jazz, writing workshops, break dancing, or anything, we have it here. It's going on somewhere and you are missing it if you are not staying in touch. Our new goal is to help you stay in touch as much as possible. So check us out. We are about to be making big changes in line with many big changes we've made over the past five years, all to be a better source of information for you. Let us know more about what you'd like to see and we will respond. Let us know what entertainment is slipping through our fingers and we will tighten our grip. Entertaining U is a team effort. We have to know what entertainers are doing in town and we have to know every little thing you are interested in being entertained by. Get on the team and tell others about this publication. Make us your source and we will do our best to make sure you learn about what you want to know about.
-Jon Bosworth
Managing Editor
EU Jacksonville
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