While Mitsuwa just added tasty ramen to what can now rightly be called a food court there (before it was only one restaurant, which doesn’t seem to be a court in my mind) Marukai, with its aisles and aisles of $1.50 fun, might be my favorite store in the greater San Diego area.
For instance, over the weekend I purchased an awesome keyboard patch there which, if I had my way, would be ironed/sewed onto every article of clothing I own.
But the best purchase of the day was certainly this treasure:
I was hesitant to watch Last Comic Standing the other night because the Korean American woman made it to the semifinal round [update: apparently, the finals now – great] and her material is just awful. I was all excited to see her perform when the show first started, because Asian faces on television are so scarce. But now I wish she would just go away.
Her routine is like watching a six-year old Asian kid following around another Asian kid on the playground, yelling, “Me Chinese, me play joke” and “Why don’t you talk American good?” for three and half minutes, while all their non-Asian classmates watch, point and laugh. But less funny, if that’s even possible.
Last night at our church’s weekday gathering, in the midst of discussing the reliability of Scripture and the holy books of other religions, we ended up talking about The Karate Kid. My wife and I saw it the other night and we couldn’t believe how high Johnny’s voice was.
[An aside: Strange how William Zabka went from “Sweep the leg, Johnny!” to writing and producing the short film Most, which was nominated for an Oscar in 2004.]
We all remembered the theme song to Karate Kid 2 — The Glory of Love, of course! However, we struggled mightily when it came to naming the theme song to the first Karate Kid. We knew it was upbeat, we had a feeling it played over a fight montage…
And that’s why Al Gore invented the YouTubes — to solve such dilemmas. For your viewing pleasure, please find below the rousing anthem of the first Karate Kid film, You’re the Best!
After rewriting much of the worship vocabulary and reshaping the modern musical landscape of the Church over the past ten+ years and 14 albums, Delirious? has decided to call it quits at the end of 2009.
For all the complaining I might do about Jesus is my boyfriend-type praise songs, I have always appreciated the lyrical depth and musical integrity of the Delirious? crew. Though we might be inoculated to their power from overfamiliarity, there is something so deeply true about the following lyrics, taken from the chorus of Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?
Open up the doors and let the music play
Let the streets resound with singing
Songs that bring Your hope, songs that bring Your joy
Dancers who dance upon injustice
In our quest (pipe dream?) to build a community that actively engages God’s purposes in the world, we want to see worship and justice wed together in powerful ways. Our desire to become the change we hope to see in the world is fueled by the love who first came down to us.
We’d love to see more joy and authentic expressions of freedom in our gatherings (maybe any expression!), but it would be tragic for it to stop there. A true worship encounter with God does something to us — healing, restoration, joy and hope fill us and then flow out from us, both on a personal level and in the bigger picture of redemption.
Thanks, Martin and company, for the music.
A couple of hoorays! for the weekend…
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I enjoy stumbling around muxtape — sometimes, it’s the very particular, focused muxtapes (early 90s straightedge, anyone?) while, at other times, it’s the really random ones (?).
I was very happy to find this neat little muxtape search engine — muxseek. Harnessing the power of muxseek, I was able to find a couple of Rodan tracks. Three cheers for Louisville!
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headsparks* 