You better believe I've already re-named both of my fantasy baseball teams in his honor. (Oh yes, and if you didn't know, one of them was already named after him.) And an autographed picture of him hangs in my office at work. I love this man. As soon as he gets out of the pokey, he needs to grow out the white-man 'fro again. Did I mention I love this man???He then became "belligerent" with the officers, yelling curse words and "flailing about," the officers said.
Police say they told Oester to calm down and stop yelling or he would be arrested.
He "persisted with his actions," say police, and was arrested.
Next topic... Approximately twice per year, I go to billboard.com to see if I know any of the songs on the charts. I rarely do. For whatever reason, I find this fun. The Christian charts are especially hilarious. There are some good Christian artists out there, but none of them make the charts. I think the "mainstream Christian" music industry is such a waste. 2 of the top 10 songs currently on the charts are just mainstream country songs that were popular 6-months-to-a-year ago. Sing it with me, everyone... "and they'll know we are Christians by our irrelevance, by our irrelevance, yes they'll know we are Christians by our irrelevance..."
One of the fun treats at billboard.com is looking at the top 100 singles from 5, 10, and 15 years ago. 15 years ago, I was 9 years old and just started to develop poor tastes in music. So I recognize some of these "pop" hits from 1991. In my best Casey Kasem voice... "this week in 1991, Amy Grant moves up to #1 with her smash hit 'Baby Baby', knocking Wilson Phillips and 'You're In Love' out of the top slot. Firehouse continues to climb the charts with 'Don't Treat Me Bad'." Good stuff. Baby Baby continues to be played on Muzak at work 74 times per day, so that's good. And Mariah Carey had multiple former #1 songs in the top 40. Some things never change. She's as popular today as she was 15 years ago. She's like U2 with a boob job and a posse. Don't read that last sentence too fast, it might get us all in trouble.
Quickly changing subjects... my Jars of Clay moment with my son yesterday continues to be at the forefront of my mind. Tonight at my high school small group, most of my guys were bummed out about some things going on in their lives right now. I got to tell them about yesterday and that song. It never gets old... no matter how bad I think I am, Jesus still sees me as his son, and a loving father never rejects his son. Awesome stuff. I'm glad God gives us good experiences and insights for ourselves and to share with and encourage one another. My guys needed it tonight. I needed it yesterday. And as usual, Tobymac on the way home is good. And the beat goes on...
Finally... I'm doing a 3rd fantasy baseball league. NL-only, head to head. My head will explode by the end of May. A very competitive group of guys who all know their baseball. One of these guys plays in an experts' league and won money from them last year. My goal is to not finish last. Should be fun.
6 comments:
I think I'd comment more if your layout wasn't so darn user-unfriendly. Gray on Black with red?
It hurts meh eyebahlz!
image... of... bono... with... a rack... causing... aneurysm... argh
I can't express to you how much you personally insulted me, my husband, my mom, my sister, my mother in law and many, many more. There are lots of good artists on and off of Christian radio. I'm not a big fan of the format either so I don't listen a whole lot but I know people who do and get alot of encouragement from it. I know they do play some great artists like Casting Crowns, Nichole Nordemann and Chris Tomlin to name a few. I also happen to like some of the old pop music you mentioned. That Wilson Phillips single is on my ipod. Are you saying I have bad taste? Just cause people have different music tastes then you doesn't make them irrelevant.
Definitely no intention to insult. I, too, like Nordemann and Tomlin. Watermark is an all-time favorite. I like a lot of the dcTalk stuff. It's just that the whole "Christian radio experience" is really cheesy to me. A lot of the popular songs aren't even the album cuts, they are "radio edits". All in all, K-love and WAKW sound to me like they are WARM98 trying to be Q102 but they're landing in some unfortunate middle ground. I'm just not a fan. And the DJs! I can't take it.
As for the old pop music, there were tons of really bad singles on the list. I only mentioned the ones I like (or used to like). Just like my continued appreciation of Sixpence None The Richer and Steven Curtis Chapman, I'm somewhat embarassed to admit that I still find Amy Grant's 15-year-old songs listenable at the office.
If folks find encouragement in K-love and WAKW, more power to them. I hope they continue to be encouraged and I hope they continue to listen and enjoy. It's just that I can't take it. And Air1 doesn't cut it, as it's essentially just K-love with a little angst. Same format.
As for the irrelevance comment... that stems from my opinion that non-Christians would find K-love and WAKW to be incredibly boring. I think anyone our age would tune in for the first time and think it was WARM98 making a poor attempt at becoming Q102. And now I sound like Simon Cowell.
Jen, certainly I did not mean to offend. I guess this is what happens when I try to blog but don't have enough time to proofread and edit myself. Gotta love blogging drama.
Scott,
you're my friend and i love you. i left a harsh comment but i really want you to know you came off harsh, judgemental and maybe a little snobby. i consulted jason before i left the comment and he was put off by your statements as well. maybe we took it the wrong way?
scott, i think you and i sync up on this issue. these are all just opinions, please take them as such.
my problem with Christian radio is twofold:
- the talking heads - Jim Dobson and the like - have become more political activist than Christian writer and speaker. they push a political agenda instead of simply talking about Jesus. so for the rest of the world they begin to symbolize the right-wing conservative lunatics that they expect Christians to be.
- the programming and music on those stations continue to reinforce a certain stereotype of Christians - mainly that they feel the need to separate themselves from the rest of the world - because they're superior - and create their own radio stations, bookstores, etc.
i fight these stereotypes every day with the people around me who are staring at Jesus and his followers and trying to figure out if they have anything to offer. i guess what frustrates me is that there is nothing on K-love that does any good for them - on the contrary, it just drives non-Christians away, makes them feel excluded and inferior.
that's a fairly broad statement, i realize. it's the place where i came from, though, and where my co-workers, fellow geeks, and a lot of the high school kids i met doing young life are at.
i don't know.. i guess if it makes some Christians feel better and inspired, great.
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