Eric's Eddyfications

Shawn's Bringing It

Check out Shawn Lovejoy's recent post about worship leaders. Shawn's a good friend who has a heart for church planting and makes it happen in Hotlanta. I think that his take, coming from the lead pastor p.o.v., is very interesting. What do you think?

Context is Everything

This is either the filthiest thing that any Christian could possibly view, or it is old-fashioned and quaint. I'll let you and 1956 be the judge. The first four minutes are as objectionable or arbitrary as you get to choose. But don't consider this an endorsement: I'm just a simple caveman... I have to go back to repenting now, so I can spend time copying and pasting fake swear words on people's blogs...

Difficile est saturam non scibere

"Difficile est saturam non scibere" - translated: it's difficult not to write satire.

Here at CCC, we don't take things too seriously. We like to joke and kid and make funny videos and have a really good time. You need proof? Check out this photolog of yesterday's video shoot involving goats, tables, and eating. Wow. I wasn't even there for that one.

Many churches don't seem to get it when it comes to comedy. I think part of that is because they are afraid to offend someone. Why is that? Because, as I've ranted many times before, comedy is always at the expense of someone. And anytime you are making fun of someone, well, that's definitely less than Christian-ish. But sometimes churches try to get around that one by offering "self-depreciating" comedy, where the only person being made fun of is the person on staff or the person speaking. This can work for a season, but will tire over time. And, because of that choice, it might not be built on truth, and doesn't hold up against examination, which brings me to my next thought...

I recently came across this quote from Aristotle, who is a really old greek dude who knew a whole lot about a whole lot of stuff. Here's what he said about humor: "Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit."

See, this Jesus thing is serious stuff. We've even been admonished on this blog to stop trying to be funny with our videos and all that and speak the scripture and be persecuted for being a Christian as though the two are mutually exclusive. I usually ignore those kind of comments (the suns will win the next three games against the spurs), but now I know why I ignore them. What we are doing is as serious as a heart attack: Helping People Find Their Way Back to God. Why do that with funny? Because funny reaches people and is a very effective way to crack open the defenses that the unchurched have developed over time due to the "persecuted" ones and their lame attempts at evangelizing.

But more importantly, good humor is connected to truth. A subject which will not bear the attacks of the comedic is suspicious, and the comedic must be born out of truth or it will be vapid. How do you know that something is truthful? Make fun of it! If it holds up, then it's truthful! And Jesus holds up, remember he said "I am the way, the funny, and the life." He can take a joke, I'm pretty sure.

Right now I'm watching my brother Elic construct a prop for a video sketch called "iBible." He's taking the craftmanship of that prop very seriously. But the good natured ribbing he's receiving for having "desecrated" the prop Bible (cutting out a hole for an iPod to fit), that, he's not taking too seriously. So you don't need to either. Trust me.

Or maybe I'm just kidding.

We're Not Making This Stuff Up

We continue to get all sorts of violent reactions to our Christian/Christ-follower videos, which is fine. But after seeing Scott Hodge's video from his past weekend services at the Orchard church down the road, well, I guess my passion for the topic has been renewed. The difference between an average joe's perception of Jesus vs. Christians is stark. We can do better. Check it out.

Why Should the Christians have all the bad music?

Everything I suspected is true. Read this article from Variety which proves every one of my soapboax speeches about Christianese muzac. And go purchase Carrie Underwood's CD, even if you don't like country music, because Jesus Take The Wheel should be played on all radio stations as one of the most overtly-drawn hard-hitting surrender-to-Jesus songs I've ever heard, and the fact that Christian Radio won't play it makes me sick.

Civil Rights game?

So I watched the Bulls lose to the Cavs today, and on ESPN they were going right to the "Civil Rights" game, a pre-season baseball game (Cardinals vs. Indians) set in Memphis. As far as I can tell, the only thing making it a Ciuvil Rights game is that Spike Lee was there. But here's the catch:

It's programmed to be up against Game 1 of the Final Four. Is ANYONE who watches sports going to choose the "civil rights" preseason baseball game over the Final Four? I know some Cardinal fans who wouldn't watch it if they had a choice.

And the thing that I kept thinking, is, if this is a civil rights game, isn't it really giving them the shaft by putting them against the Final Four? How in the world can that be considered progress?

Snoopy Go Home

At the beginning of Dillon's Kindergarten year, he brought home a special friend. Snoopy, a stuffed animal, who was the class mascot. Each kid got to bring him home, and play with him, do some activity with him, and take pictures with him and write about your experiences with Snoopy in Snoopy's journal. Great idea, right?

We took Snoopy to the park, took pictures of him swinging, going out to dinner, eating at the house, and wrote all about it.

In September.

It's March, and Snoopy has now visited our house, with the same implied expectations of adventures, SIX times. He was here last night. Again.

We've run out of material, and Snoopy has overstayed his welcome. Snoopy, go home.

Journal entry for March 16: Today, Snoopy sat in his bag, hanging with jackets, for the bulk of his stay at the Bramlett house, until finally one of us remembered that he was even there, and then Snoopy watched Dillon play a video game for twenty seconds before it was time to bring him back to the school, hoping that he never, ever, visits us again.

I'm considering dressing up as the Red Baron the next time I see him come through the door. Then maybe he'll think twice about his seventh visit.

American Idol Freakshow

So American Idol kicked off its sixth season last night, with horrific results. This show has two phases, and I am generally much more interested in the second phase. Last night was an abundance of the first phase, and the manipulation of that moment throughout was pretty hard to stomach.

The two phases of course, are: Circus Freakshow and Singing Competition. Because of the buzz about truly horrible vocalists who really think they are good, AI is putting more time and effort into highlighting these circus geeks. But I think they do so at a high integrity price.

The example that really cheesed me off last night was one vocalist in particular. She was butchering "Kiss" by Prince. I mean, butchering - but oddly enough, staying in the moment. It was a total freakshow that looked like it was on a foreign planet. Funny? Maybe. But mostly, I'm thinking, hmmm. Didn't she know the song she auditioned with?

So then, later in the show, they show one of their "totally spontaneous" bad-singer collages, where they get everyone to sing the same song, badly, so they can string together the performances into one big bad mash up of a bad performance. Guess what the song was: Kiss by Prince! Which means...

That poor girl who was "losing her lyrics" had never planned to sing that song. They asked her to sing it in the moment to be a part of a collage, just like they did with everyone else. But her inability to get through it while still maintaining some kind of freakish style and stick-to-itive-ness made her entire performance (or lack thereof) worthy of more air time. So they switched the order in the show, they made it look like she "lost her lyrics" with what she had originally prepared, because it's much less interesting the other way around, and they would lose their ability to show the montage otherwise.

I suppose I could be wrong on this, but I doubt it. Ithink it's pretty lowball of them to set her up like that. They'll do it all through this week as they ask people to sing a song to fit their "montage idea." And each time it will reveal how forced their moments in the Circus Freak stage really are.

That being said, it's like a traffic accident. You drive by, and you slow down, and you look at the wreckage. I'd much rather go past the accident on my way to the Kodak Theatre and enjoy the show... but... I can't... stop... looking... 

Your Laptop is cleared for takeoff...

Okay, so lately, I've been noticing that my laptop is getting noisier and noisier. Literally, the fan of the thing kicks in and sounds like it's going to hit the runway and take off.

What could I possibly be doing to this thing to send it into orbit everytime I check my email?

Those of you who have seen my laptop know that it's the biggest laptop to ever be considered a computer for your lap. So it's not suprising that whatever it does, it does so loudly. But I'm starting to not be able to hear myself talk.

I'll blog again later once we've landed. I think I have to put my tray in the upright position now.

Block-head-Buster

Isn't it time that competitors who compete in different niches within the same product learn to just leave each other alone?

Blockbuster has been around forever, right? Then, Netflix comes along, providing online rentals and prepaid postage envelopes so you can avoid the store experience altogether.

So Blockbuster gets into the mail-online market. And now, the online system has a brand new perk that Blockbuster is advertising. Get this - now, Blockbuster has provided an option for those who use their online service... they can return them in the store, and check out other titles in the store!

What a concept! What a brand new idea - video rentals in a store! I can't wait to sign up for my online, mail order service so that I can avoid the "store" experience, and then take advantage of these brand new "stores" where I can return my video rentals.

I can't wait for Peapod to offer a brand new online "store" experience, where you order your groceries online or on the phone, and then are offered the convenience of heading to their store and selecting those items from convenient "shelves" organized by food group.