I went downtown toward the end of last week to pick up tickets for our family to catch the Architecture in Helsinki show at the House of Blues in November. Our four year old daughter is a big fan — lately, she has been specifically requesting their new single, Heart It Races, during our car rides. Needless to say, we’re really looking forward to this show — especially after seeing their joyous Take Away Show performance below:
While I was at the box office, I realized that it would only be a quick jaunt to Horton Plaza to pick up a beloved fried — not baked — apple pie at the McDonald’s there. I was practically skipping as I made my way up the escalators in anticipation. But instead of being rewarded with this rare delicacy, I was greeted rudely by this sign:
I briefly considered taking their advice and visiting the food court for other dining options, but I knew that despite their wide international variety, any other dessert product would be a cheap substitute. Guess it’s back to the old fried apple pie locator for now.
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As long as I’m on this Take Away Show kick, check out these clips of Francois Virot. I hadn’t heard his work before this, but I must say the intimacy and immediacy of his performance has made a fan out of me.
Vincent Moon has created a series of brilliant short films called The Take-Away Shows. Moon has filmed artists such as Beirut, Menomena and Tapes’n Tapes performing their songs in surprising locations — perhaps walking down the street or playing in a basement stockroom. From the Take-Away Show site:
You meet a band. You take them outside, in the streets, and ask them to play there, shoot the movie in one unique shot, whatever happens. Those are the Take-Away Shows, the weekly video podcast from French weblog La Blogotheque.
This clip of the Arcade Fire gang crowding into an elevator to play Neon Bible — playing the snare drum by tearing pages from a magazine and the bass drum by pounding the walls — and then performing Wake Up in the middle of the audience is breathtaking. Moon doesn’t edit out the band laughing or tuning, or even the occasional musical misstep; the result is a vibe that is immediate, real and filled with joy. As Arcade Fire performs from the middle of the audience, you can almost see waves sweeping over the crowd as they become part of the band.
Many people have shared their insights into the problem of the “worship industry” recently. To highlight a few:
I am all for excellence in worship. Half-hearted, out of tune, I just picked these songs five minutes ago worship sets hardly bring glory to God. However, too often that drive for excellence results in slick, overproduced songs that are indistinguishable from the latest hits by Chris Daughtry or Kelly Clarkson (actually, I wouldn’t mind a worship “hit” that is as catchy as “Since U Been Gone”) — songs that hit all the right notes, but lack soul.
I realize that my particular musical aesthetic skews toward jangly indie collectives like Arcade Fire, Architecture in Helsinki and Broken Social Scene (or Los Campesinos! who are new to me), but it might breathe some much-needed life into our worship if we made a little bit more of a racket. In this Take-Away Show of Architecture in Helsinki performing Heart It Races, the band recruits a small backing choir of fans, which turns into a conga line, which becomes an impromptu invitation into a private party:
Architecture in Helsinki thought about everything : the choir, the bass drum and portable amplifiers. Alas, during the procession that starts shortly after, the amps die. So, with an extension cord, we borrow power from the locals, overlooking from their 2nd floor windows. Electricity from a kitchen !
Cameron Bird, shiny-eyed, asks me whether he can go up in one of the apartments, as he would like to sing from the window. Kelly goes in yet another flat and shows off the ice tea her hostess gave her. In our flat, dinner is cooking in a huge pan, the kids swarm towards the window in excitement, the mom goes about her business in the back of the place, and Cameron sings along with the small crowd down in the street. He winks laughingly at Kelly, he’s having so much fun. Behind us, the kids look impressed. We brought the Take Away Show to their home, in between the living room and the kitchen, we got in the place just by asking politely, we are an accident to this family. Just as Take Away Shows are an accident to the artists we follow. As soon as the song ends, everybody goes back down. The little girls put on their shoes, they run down the stairs before us.
Meanwhile, in the street, the little choir turned into a troop. The line is already long in front of the Flèche d’Or. Architecture in Helsinki, not even all there yet, have everybody form a “congo line”. Then that’s how it goes : something’s going on at the front, in the middle, in the back, everybody moves forward. Vincent Moon bumps into the percussionnist, goes again, wants to be everywhere at once, doesn’t have time, bumps into me. In the street, a blind man wiggles to the sound of the band passing by. Since the beginning, everybody is really out of tune. Cameron sings so loud, the mic is out… We go inside the Flèche d’Or, not open yet, a private cocktail is going on. The people follow us, twenty, thirty people, invited without a word. It was good, it was fun, it was about an invitation, returned almost immediately.
Sure, it’s kind of rough around the edges, but what a joyful noise! Wouldn’t it make God’s praise glorious if we replaced some of the sheen with more joy? What if we took Moon’s words from an interview with Spin, “I don’t want to see a band on the stage; I want to be on the same level” and realized that we are the band — all of us? Of course, someone has to play the instruments, but we’re all participants. I long for the day when we can “open up the doors and let the music play” and our worship becomes contagious, creating community and opens doors so that we can celebrate together.
Even after six years, September 11th continues to weigh so heavily for so many people that I hesitate to share my experiences from that time. My words are small and insignificant — I can only pray that, somehow, God will be more present than the pain in the hearts of the broken.
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We were living right across the bridge in northern New Jersey at the time — many members of our church community lived and worked in the city. After the initial chaos, we were relieved to find out that everyone had made it home safely. As we heard the stories of people who worked in lower Manhattan but, for some reason, were late for work that day our hearts were filled with gratitude at the providence and mercy of God.
But then we heard the news that someone was missing. A young couple from our church was going to be married that weekend and no one could locate the best man, who worked in the World Trade Center. While the best man was not a member of our particular church, our church — and the entire Korean American church community in the area — was in fervent prayer for him and his family. The groom-to-be, during what should have been a time of great joy and anticipation, spent the entire week traveling to and from Ground Zero frantically searching for news about his best friend because the best man’s parents were overwhelmed with grief.
Out of respect for their missing friend, and because of the surrounding sorrow, this couple was considering whether or not they should have their wedding ceremony that weekend. Our senior pastor reasoned that our community needed to experience some joy during those dark days and advised them to marry that weekend, as planned. The wedding and reception were subdued and respectful, but provided the glimpse of grace and hope that had all but disappeared.
Our community needed to come together in fervent, heart-rending prayer; we needed to grieve, weep and question together. But we also needed to come together and be reminded of God’s providence which is revealed not only when the results turn in our favor, but even when it seems all hope is lost.
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You are not alone. No matter how dark the brokenness of this world might seem, the light of Christ endures — if even only as a faint spark in the distance. May the words of the psalmist become reality in your life, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
On my way to church today I was listening to The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths. Apart from the nostalgia I always feel when listening to The Smiths (and many other new-wave era bands that formed the soundtrack to much of my teenage experience) and the profound influence this album has had on scores of artists since its release in 1986 (!) — check out My Old Kentucky Blog to see how many bands have covered There Is A Light That Never Goes Out — there are a couple of lyrics that good ol’ Moz penned for this album that cut deep, for followers of Christ in particular. To wit, from the song Frankly, Mr. Shankly:
Fame, fame, fatal fame / It can play hideous tricks on the brain
But still I’d rather be famous / Than righteous or holy / Any day, any day, any day
Most of the time, I think we strive for the right things — humility, servanthood, authenticity, community, love — but it’s so easy to value and uphold fame over righteousness or holiness. Fame is obvious and easy to quantify; not always the case with either holiness or righteousness. Sure, there are probably cases where people become famous because of their holiness or righteousness, but our subculture’s fixation on fame is troubling.
And, as long as we’re traveling together through this album, Moz hits close to home with this lyric from I Know It’s Over:
It’s so easy to laugh / It’s so easy to hate
It take strength to be gentle and kind / Over, over, over, over
Kind of flies in the face of the myth of redemptive violence, which David over at Next Gener.Asian has been exploring lately [read Lost In Translation? here]. The way up is the way down; if we want to be great, we must become small; the first shall be last and the last shall be first — that is, until push comes to shove and what we really believe kicks in.
I have written a new piece over at Relevantmagazine.com, Mother Teresa and the Experience of Doubt. It is strange to think of the well-known as actual human beings. One of my favorite passages from The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne is the one in which he describes his phone conversation with Mother Teresa. Shane writes about how, in his pursuit of living out his faith in Jesus with abandon and authenticity, he wrote to Mother Teresa to seek an “internship.” Through a bit of detective work, he was able to place a phone call to directly to the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta:
So I got the digits for Mother Teresa… we called at 2 a.m. from the pay phone in our college lounge. It began ringing. I was expecting to hear a formal greeting, “Missionaries of Charity, how can we help you?” Nope. I just heard an old raspy voice on the other end mutter, “Hullo.” Thinking I had the wrong number in Calcutta with the tab rolling at four dollars a minute, I started railing: “Hi-I’m-calling-from-the-USA-trying-to-reach-Mother-Teresa… I’m wanting to visit.” On the other end, I heard the muffled voice say, “This is the Missionaries of Charity. This is Mother Teresa.” My initial reaction was, “Yeah right, and I’m the pope.” But I held back. I told her we had written and wanted to come work with her… She said, “No, come for the summer. Come.” Come? Where would we eat and sleep? … She didn’t worry a lot about that. She said, “God takes care of the lilies and the sparrows, and God will take care of you. Just come.” Who am I to argue with that? I thanked her, and we hung up.
On June 20, 2007 the Simple Way community center in Philadelphia was destroyed — along with much of the neighborhood — in a massive fire. According to the latest news on the Simple Way site, it looks like they could use some people who are looking to pursue Christ with abandon and authenticity in their rebuilding efforts — in particular, roofers, carpenters and plumbers. If you’re in the area and can lend a hand, I’m sure they could use your help. Even if you’re not in the area, sending gift cards from Home Depot or Lowe’s would help purchase some of the tools they need in the rebuilding process.
This clip of the Arcade Fire gang
headsparks* 