this was not broadcast on tv and only happened to see it in the background as i was listening to wolf, anderson, john king and james carville tearing into the opening night’s activities. it was a humble prayer by blue like jazz author, don miller, for the convention and for us. and for me.
Father God,
This week, as the world looks on, help the leaders in this room create a civil dialogue about our future.
We need you, God, as individuals and also as a nation.
We need you to protect us from our enemies, but also from ourselves, because we are easily tempted toward apathy.
Give us a passion to advance opportunities for the least of these, for widows and orphans, for single moms and children whose fathers have left.
Give us the eyes to see them, and the ears to hear them, and hands willing to serve them.
Help us serve people, not just causes. And stand up to specific injustices rather than vague notions.
Give those in this room who have power, along with those who will meet next week, the courage to work together to finally provide health care to those who don’t have any, and a living wage so families can thrive rather than struggle.
Hep us figure out how to pay teachers what they deserve and give children an equal opportunity to get a college education.
Help us figure out the balance between economic opportunity and corporate gluttony.
We have tried to solve these problems ourselves but they are still there. We need your help.
Father, will you restore our moral standing in the world.
A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American.
Will you give us favor and forgiveness, along with our allies around the world.
Help us be an example of humility and strength once again.
Lastly, father, unify us.
Even in our diversity help us see how much we have in common.
And unify us not just in our ideas and in our sentiments—but in our actions, as we look around and figure out something we can do to help create an America even greater than the one we have come to cherish.
God we know that you are good.
Thank you for blessing us in so many ways as Americans.
I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice.
Let Him be our example.
Amen.
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the sound cuts out on the video above so i’ll include this version but you have to jack up the volume to spinal tap 11 to hear some of it.
historiography is the the study of history. hosive-u2ograpy is the history of my life as it parallels u2’s history.
what’s the big deal? that’s what people want to know. why this band? they just seem like any other(old)band. why are you so attached to these guys? why the devotion?
aside from great songs and soul searing performances, let me try to explain it this way….recently, the new kids on the block performed in rockerfeller center and people(girls)lined up the day before! to see their childhood and teen idols. no one expected new songs. just nostalgia from times past. just the soundtrack to their lives for a short period. that’s what u2 is like for me except they’ve produced music for every significant period of my life since high school: my teenage years, my college years, my early twenties, my mid and late twenties, my early and mid thirties…and soon, when the new album is released in november, my late thirties. and when i see them in concert, its not a greatest hits from back in the day sing along…they are still producing new music.
every significant moment in my life has a u2 song, a u2 moment. in short, i can tell the history of my life to the tune of u2. i don’t know many people who have a band like that:one you’ve followed or followed you your whole (adult) life…and still making music! i don’t know many bands that fit that description. i don’t know how many bands are even around long enough to apply for the job…..the stones? pearl jam? dave matthews band? the spice girls? hanson?
as we approach the magical fall, i remember another late summertime…..
1993/22 years young: when i got home from rome after a summer of study in israel, egypt, greece and italy, the new album had just been released. i actually saw them in rome a few times..we had a chance to go to their concert in town but not all my friends had dough because it was toward the end of our study trip so we just listened to the music from outside the stadium. the next day, there was a mob outside a hotel and as we were passing by, the band came out. the pictures i took look like they were waving to me.
zooropa was recorded on the road while the band was touring for three years…and its their most underated album. the band had so many ideas….everything was fertile and alive..it is a wildly divergent album with techno, slow songs, trademark epic u2 and even johnny cash. my favorites are stay, lemon, the first time. stay is a moody, haunting yet hopeful song of longing. lemon is their prince dance song. there are not many u2 songs that you can dance to(bono would say there are none)but you might be able to get away with this one. being a prince hater, theresa finds it annoying. the first time is about god and specifically, the trinity and i quote it all the time at weddings. i love quoting the new updated lyrics that bono was using during the last tour that included his return to embrace grace.
with the summer fading and the magical fall approaching, this would be my soundtrack. uncertainty was in the air as i looked for work to supplement my church job income. how much longer would i stay in chicago? where was i going to get money to buy a car? what car would i buy? would i continue in ministry? a strangely nebulous and exciting time….a common experience for recent grads. i got a job working at a group home with borderline criminal youth and abandoned kids. it was one of the toughest work experiences. when i look back, it is zooropa that is playing.
zooropa was also my first car soundtrack….growing up in nyc, i learned to drive late and i got my first car that fall so zooropa was my first album that i played over and over as i drove. my car did not have a cd player so i had a tape that was played so much that it snapped and i had to buy a second copy!i remember driving around wheaton and naperville at night just to drive around and this was my companion.
a year later, i was headed back to the east coast, nyc and eventually maryland…we drove east in the summer. i’m sure the album was part of the rotation….. these were the zooropa days.
i do not have olympic fever. as i told my boy, patrick: its been a strange role reversal. usually, on any given evening, i am watching sportscenter while disinterested theresa is reading or on the internet occasionally looking up when something spectacular sounding is being shown. these past few weeks, its theresa watching sports while disinterested joseph is reading or on the internet occasionally looking up when something spectacular sounding is being shown.
olympics is my bizarro(sports)world.
but here is my favorite olympic moment thanks to youtube, nike and the killers:
its the killers getting their due with their greatest song(to date)featured in an olympic spot shown around the world capturing the (theoretical)olympic spirit. such a short clip that sends hearts soaring. imagine a full performance.
the song is off their first album(third album due in the magical fall)and experienced a boost in sales on amazon and itunes thanks to nike and the five ring circus.
here’s the alternate video made by justin timberlake that was rejected because it had too much booze, misogny and justin timberlake. it was also widely panned for its lack of the olympic spirit. nike was upset because it had no nike. he really wasted everyone’s money and time.
imagine no longer: here’s a full performance at the borgata in atlantic city.
we’ve been traveling so i thought i would share a few places that we like to eat at not in nyc. again, not necessarily the best or whatever superlative…just places we go to regularly when we are in your town. this little neighborhood joint is in the ‘hood of germantown in philly so you better know where you are going if you look for it. almost everytime we visit our friends the lees: q, christe, amoz and now theo(dore).
its local food cooked by locals for locals. a fubu vibe. they sell mostly caribbean food with some soul food selections. they also have drink flavors that i rarely find elsewhere like pineapple and peanut. i was going to try peanut but it was too thick; like a yogurt…i stuck with the pineapple soda
when q and i go to dine, we are the usually definitely the only asians in the house. but we are welcomed just the same! the girl at the counter almost always recognizes us and sometimes even gives us a discount because q brings so many folks to the place. or maybe she gets a kick out of us being there.
we got a sampler buffet feast after our atlantic city killers trip: curry goat, bbq chicken, oxtail stew and of course jerk chicken(one regular and one extra spicy). the sides are potato salad, collard greens, plantains, cabbage, mac and cheese and rice and beans. i usually go for the jerk chicken…its my favorite but oxtail comes second which i would order more but i don’t want to pay and get all that bone.
but you can’t really go wrong with any of the selections….its all super yummy….just ask the lees!
eating in their home is a treat. its one of the few houses that is actually a home. maybe its all the cool little niches. maybe its because they are not just there for the house to appreciate and make a killing. maybe because so much life is lived and made there. maybe its just them. it feels like home.
there’s a theory that you can only nap in a place you feel safe(falling asleep drunk does not qualify as a nap)…but places you choose to rest are places you call home. then as for me and my house, this is home.
in the book series, not so big house, the key to getting the most out of a small space are niches. even in big homes, what makes a home “homey” are the small little places that feel cozy and safe. where memories are made. so good architects, builders and home makers build little spots into a house or apt to make the space memorable and alive. i’ve been blessed to live in a few places with little nooks and spots that radiate with life.
we bought one of the not so big house books because we were moving from a 2400 sq/ft md house into a 1100 sq/ft nyc apartment. but it turns out the not so big homes in the not so big house books were not so not-so-big. they were huge places! we have different definitions of not so big house!
in these features, i’ll detail mundane little spots around our apartment…..the spots where we live…and life is made.
this is our bedroom…and where the magic happens. but not in the way you think. let me explain.
during one of our housewarmings, i gave the folks a tour of the place….lagging behind, ricky yu entered the room and saw the desk right next to our bed…he assumed that this is where i write my sermons. and while i was showing others the master bath, we heard ricky say behind us…”so…this is where the magic happens.” we turned to see ricky, a little embarrassed realizing that most in room thought he was noting the king sized bed.
but some “magic” does occur here….since space in nyc is a premium, many spaces double or triple in function…
in this space, as you can see by the piles of books and papers is where i sometimes meet with god in meditation, prayer, readings, connection with nature. these are the windows i look out of when i pray….
there is a collage of man and god that is in my mind as i pray. when i see the inner courtyard with old buildings and gut renovations, i am grounded in reality…..my head is not in the clouds filled with illusions and delusions. i am reminded of the fact that i still live on a broken earth with all kinds of people with real lives and real problems; sometimes too real and sometimes much realer than mine. even realer than the real thing. but in the midst of the grittiness, i still see the majesty and power of god surrounding, peeking through, illuminating, permeating……this is the backdrop that pray with.
i am blessed to have these windows and so much light in my apartment…..here’s a shot before we moved all our stuff in…you can see that they are pretty epic. yeah!….upper, upper west side.
i already have a column about comic books but i also wanted one exclusively on collecting(mostly toys). so i thought of the collector…the supervillian identity of the comic book guy on the simpsons….this is a nerdy homage to him, collecting and indirectly to matt groening.
i read somewhere that its part of human nature to collect. so a question to ask, that is strangely revealing, is what is it that we collect?……handbags, music, stamps, coins, shoes, clothes, memories, gadgets, junk, plastic bags to reuse, rocks…
i like these well made toys…..
here’s a quick look at the second wave of toynami’s current futurama line. if you have not been to a toy store lately, you might be surprised that the days of $5 figures are gone. gone are also the days where toys are made primarily for kids. these figures are for adults. quality materials. premiere sculpting, design and art….. wasted on kiddies who’s figures wind up with missing heads and limbs.
what’s cool about the zapp brannigan figure is that it also comes with president nixon’s head in case…a bonus figure in its own right. this reminds me of the latest(terrible)x-files movie that deals with the apparently real science of severed heads still being able to live without a body. if you do some googling, you’ll find some really freaky science non-fiction research. here’s a creepy sample video from youtube if you dare(sorry, facebook…you’ll have to go to the agapeshack site to see it). futurama is more science than fiction!
this is the second of three waves…as previously stated, each figure coming with a piece of the devil robot figure….one more wave to go and we go robot building!
in this segment, i’ll detail my amore for the art and medium of comics. the title comes from a comic shop i frequented as a kid and a nod to my boy q and his blog. i only recently restarted this feature so you might want to go back to the earlier posts to read what this is all about. ironically….despite this picture, i don’t really read too much marvel stuff.
here’s what i’ve been reading lately, starting with my non-spandex pick:
y the last man just finished not that long ago…and with the current comic avalanche on hollywood and movies, this modern classic should be adapted very soon. but that’s what we thought about the watchmen 25 years ago. and watchmen was named on time magazine’s top 100 novels of the 20th century! but watchmen gets its due in the spring of 2009. hopefully, y gets greenlit faster!
y is not about superheroes but a thriller about a plague that wipes out every male on the planet except for one guy named yorick and his monkey. the women rule the world and yorick is the last man on earth. what happened? what will happen to humanity? who did this? it’s a series of mysteries and social analysis….for example, what happens when women are really in charge? the answer…a nuanced, depends on which women!
brian k vaughn who writes for lost(the tv show)scripts this 10 volume set. pia guerra provides most of the pencils. and they create a realistic, disturbing window into a possible future. high recommendations but be warned…its an rated r read. i took a girl to an anime movie once and her mom thought i took her to a cartoon…like for kids. this is not for kids.
j g jones provides the covers and when i actually met j g, sketching in my sketchbook above, i thought he looked really familiar. on the covers of y….he drew himself as yorick!
speaking of j g jones, he’s doing the covers and most of the interiors for final crisis…the universal cataclysmic threat to all the dc heroes. reading this series feels like something evil has crawled into the room…under the couch or under the bed….something insidious is taking over the world…and everything is falling apart. it comes from one of the writers i trust, grant morrison. he crafts complex mindbenders that make you feel like you’re on something…..drugs done for you! which might just be the case.
i’m a sucker for these epics and i trust grant and j g to deliver. the third issue just came out with a bunch of specials to supplement the story. this is definitely worth my time as opposed to other dc mega projects that have just bored me.
when people come into the city, we are always surprised by where they want to visit or go eat. they are equally surprised that we do not frequent those places or want to go eat there. no. i do not want to eat at ruby tuesdays , bennigans or tgifridays in times square. then they ask where we go……so here are the places we like…not the best or the cheapest or whatever category….just where we go and go on a regular basis:
people ask where we go for chinese food…..this is one of the places…
…..one of theresa’s favorite, favorite restaurants period. maybe because they advertise one of their specialties as being chinese bibimbop. that’s the way to appeal to koreans. but the way to pack your place with actual chinese is to serve authentic stuff.
my mom used to pick stuff up from here and transport it on the chinatown bus all the way to maryland. the food was good warm but its best served piping, piping hot.
yummy noodles is located at the corner of bowery and this alley. no joke. this alley is home to many hole in the wall joints. it looks understandably scary to tourists…so the places attract many locals and tourists in the know. or those who are lost. sometimes its better to be lost than lucky. if you need a better cross street, its closest to bowery and canal.
there used to be a japanese toy store here in the 70’s that had power rangers and voltron figures way before america discovered them. i used to come and lust after these magical figures that were way too expensive for our middle class budget. but when the products became mainstream and i actually had cashflow of my own, i lost interest. lust sometimes is about wanting what you can’t have.
the place has standard chinese fare that is very tasty…a lot of regular chinese people come and dine which is a good sign…its THE sign for a chinese place. if you see too many outsiders, the place maybe closer to panda express than what real chinese eat.
another good sign: my uncle who is a filthy rich doctor channels his inner ghetto and comes down and eats in this moderately sanitary joint. that’s a compliment when the upper class come and hang with the masses because of the eats.
the prize specialty ironically is not a noodle dish but are these rice dishes cooked in clay pots at extreme heat. you can add chicken, pork, sausage, veggies, mushrooms, eggs….then its steamed to yummy perfection.
this is for harvey fine in celebration of his wedding. i believe in harvey fine.
rejoice! after the stunningly disappointing announcement that the second half of the final season would not air until january 2009…a full six months after the midseason cliffhanger!!!!…the sci fi channel tossed three bones for nerds everywhere!
first, there is a new battlestar series!:caprica…a prequel to the current series..with the premiere coming as early fall 2008! i’m stunned that there is going to be so much more new material from the battlestar folks. here’s the trailer.
second, grace park leaked ahead of time that another battlestar galactica movie ala razor had been greenlit. razor premiered on television first followed by an extended version released on dvd. it has since been confirmed and here are some of the details:
Sci Fi Channel today announced “an all-new Battlestar Galactica special event” (fancy talk for telemovie) that’s set to air in 2009 after the fourth and final season of BSG concludes. Like Razor, a previous Battlestar movie, it will be released on DVD shortly after it airs.
The two-hour flick will be written by Jane Espenson and directed by actor Edward James Olmos, who plays Bill Adama. However, Olmos may only be behind the camera; currently the only cast members announced for the film are Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Aaron Douglas (Chief Galen Tyrol), and Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavil).
The “event” will take place just before the events of the miniseries that started everything off. According to Sci-Fi, the unnamed movie will show the aftermath of the destruction of Caprica and concentrate on two Cylon agents trying to clean up the mess after human spaceships manage to escape.
finally, sci fi.com has also announced a another set of webisodes that bridge us to the last 10 episodes. two sets of webisodes that bridged season 2 to 3 and season 3 to 4/razor had previously been aired on the website, once a week for 10 weeks. here’s the announcement: “A new series of ten Webisodes will air during the extended hiatus between Season 4.0 and Season 4.5. The two- to three-minute serialized chapters will be available on the official SciFi.com website in the fall of 2008.” and most importantly, note that the first episodes Airs: Wednesday October 1, 2008. the fall is almost here……
we were pretty content(ecstatic)with getting tickets to the small borgata show of 3,700 in atlantic city. at the time, it was the only north american appearance in 2008…later, when other shows were announced, the ac show was still the only local appearance.
but then the killers announced a fan club only show at the highline ballroom in chelsea, with a capacity of 700. we had last seen the killers with 50,000 plus in austin in the heat and in nyc at the garden with 20,000. if 3,700 was going to small and intimate, what would 700 be like?
this is a true fan club perk. some clubs offer gear, cd’s and access to tickets….but i’ve never seeen a band do a show just for fans.
the highline ballroom is right next to the highline, an old stretch of elevated train tracks that is set to be a park and oasis of nature in the city. in the future, this will be one of the blazing hot places to live but haggling over property has slowed the process.
the usual suspects lined up for the tiny show at the highline after getting tickets through the fan club site: the victims! steph’s brother lawrence joined us in the late afternoon. he was confused why we were there so early for a 9pm show…
but he figured out early as we wound up in the second row. normally our early showing would yield a “better” result but the venue was so tiny….and even though we were not in the front, we were closer to the instruments, the band, the everything than we normally would be when we are in the front…at msg, acl and as you’ll see in atlantic city.
the show was electric. the boys had not played since last fall and had all that energy unleashed for their club. people from across the country and the world joined the mostly nykr crowd. they were alive the whole night! just about any show you can see after a band has been hiatus will have this explosion. sometimes, things come across slightly unpolished(a transition here, getting lost in the setlist there) but bands are eager to justify their existence and their souls are overflowing with emotions to be put on display with the audience being the beneficiary.
there’s no zoom here folks….they were this close. it was like we were on stage with them. if the drummer is about halfway on stage and the bass player(with the black bass) is on the far right, you can get a feel for the space.
the only downside of the night was that theresa almost went to jail when the drunk girl in front of her was flailing and almost swung her head into theresa’s face. she was getting dangerous. we tried to back up and give her some room but she kept pushing the radius of her head whipping. she gave theresa the finger when theresa said something. probably thought theresa was a meek asian girl from the table tennis squad. theresa’s more like the enforcer from the mixed martial arts street gang. luckily, the drunk girl’s (more)sober, cooler head, clearer thinking friend saved drunk girl’s life. the friend stepped in, tried to make peace and kept drunk girl’s spasms to a smaller range. so theresa did not go to jail. and the drunk girl did not go to the morgue. all this was happening under brandon flowers.
the setlists had a ton of b-sides from their sawdust album. they also did a few new songs: spaceman and neon tiger. they also did acoustic versions of sams town and smile like you mean it. my new live favorites were sweet talk, under the gun and shadowplay. here’s a sample:
friday, brandon lee took us to atlantic city to see brandon(flowers). we got there just as the security guards were figuring out what to do with the growing crowd. one of them went to the office and informed me that wristbands would be handed out soon.
we inadvertently created the crowd when we were talking to the guard and they finally dispersed us because they can’t have a cluster on the floor near the casino. they say its a fire hazard but i think its merely a profit drain.
theresa and i hung around like sharks with a taste of blood in our mouths awaiting the coveted wristbands. a few venues use this method…you get a numbered band and you come back later and line up in order. it costs money so some places forego it. but places like the boston garden which is near major mass transit entrances and at this casino where they would rather have you gambling…they don’t want people hanging around.
finally, the office delivered the wristbands, we got on line and snagged prime spots. feeling lucky about getting railing.
we had a few hours to kill so the kids played penny slots. casinos always have a hint of desperation to me so i try to avoid it and walked around instead.
later, we got some burgers and cheesesteaks at the food court because no one wanted to give the celebrity chefs in the hotel $50 for an entree.
food and gambling were not why we were here….we had our eye on the big prize.
prize obtained.
the benefit of the front row goes beyond the obvious. what is not clear immediately to those in rows 2 to the near back is how hot it will get in the middle. it can be a sauna with the humidity supplied by mr. i’ll shower after the concert and ms. jumps around a lot and mr. and mrs. i’m with fatty. it would kinda be ok if the sweat on you at the end of the show was yours and yours alone…but its not…so its(really)not ok. the front row gives you a vent…a steady stream of cooler air. and often, bands have fans blowing from some location and you get some of that breeze too.
another great attribute is that you can lean or sit against the railing. standing is much easier when you are supported by steel infrastructure. in between acts, we turn around and put our backs to the barrier to stretch and rest. if we do sit, our backs enjoy the same support.
other benefits we’ve gotten up front are safe places to hang our jackets or bags; leftover water bottles from security’s stash after the concert; setlists, picks and other props off the stage thrown into the audience.
its worth the extra effort and on occasion the loss of some sleep to get there early for a show.
the killers fans ahead of us in line were pros and had the same game plan we did(i guess we’re pros too)so we did not get the spot we had projected and wound up on the left…closer to the guitarist and away from the lead mike and the bassist. however, we noticed that the string of big light boxes did not have many gaps for the band members to cross over from the stage to the audience. serendipitously, there were a few gaps for them to step out and walk toward us…..
…right in front of the spot where we were parked. so the whole night they were in and out and up and down, right in front of us.
another great show with a few setlist changes and just tighter musicianship. the band is from las vegas so being in a casino seemed to really feel like home for them. brandon flowers is an underrated front man…he is teriffically expressive, fearless in jumping on and off of things on the stage…dave keuning, the guitar player is equally into it….the drummer, ronnie vannucciis almost always ripping it…mark stoermer, the bassist provides the steady focus holding down the band.
some postscripts: here we are at the end of the night with some of the flowers thrown from the stage…most of the flowers were given to people in the front row. refer to earlier comments about front row benefits.
