Searching For Chet Baker

An introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 20:29:00 +0000

About two years ago I set up this blog as a way to just give my thoughts on various topics. Sometimes it was serious things that bothered me and other times it would just be a funny video or some cool music I wanted to share.   I don't advertise the blog, aside from my facebook/twitter accounts, relying instead of word of mouth and google searches.

One of the main questions I get about the blog, is what's up with the name?   Searching for Chet Baker?   There's very little Chet Baker on the site.

That's true, but there WAS a method to my madness. lol.   When I was going to set this up, I wanted some name that would be catchy I suppose. Something that might stand out. A bunch of blogs that I liked had weird or strange names, and so I wanted something that would be fairly short and memorable.

*MORE AFTER THE BREAK*

As I was thinking of a name, I was listening to Chet Baker, who is one of my favorite jazz musicians, and for some reason the title of the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer" came into mind.   And so I just came up with "Searching for Chet Baker".

And occasionally I will post up some Chet Baker related stuff, including music videos, or even some rare live material.    However for the most part it's going to be a pot pourri of topics such as movies, music, sports, religion, politics, comedy, etc. Pretty much anything that gets my attention and makes me want to share my thoughts on it.

So I hope you enjoy the blog, and feel free to leave a message in the comments, and let me know how you found the site, whether it was google, or someone posted a link on a message board, or some other way.

I'll end this post with a video of my very favorite song of all time.   Chet Baker playing "My Funny Valentine"

CHET BAKER - My Funny Valentine (Chet Singing and Playing)

CHET BAKER - My Funny Valentine (Chet Playing. No Singing)

Download my E-Book "Through The Soul's Window" for free! [PDF]

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:34:00 +0000

Late last year I released my book of short stories on Amazon's Kindle store. It is still available there, if you prefer it in Kindle format, however I am giving away the .PDF version of it here. If you enjoy this, perhaps consider going to the Amazon link and leaving a review so others have a variety of opinions to go from.

This collection, "Through The Soul's Window" compiles short stories that I have written over the last twenty five years or so. Some fairly old, some more recent with one being written last summer. The people who have read it (and contacted me afterwards) seem to have enjoyed it, and I hope that you -- whoever YOU are -- do as well.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and let me know what you think in the comments below.

Also, I would like to give an enthusiastic and appreciative nod to the great Miami Kaos who came through with that amazing cover for me. I was humbled to get a Kaos cover for my book. Check out his work at his website Miami Kaos Art, and you can follow him on twitter as well at @RealMiamiKaos1.

NOTE: Click the cover art below to download the .PDF (Mediafire link)

SYNOPSIS

Emotions define us, for better or worse. Emotions more times than not dictate how we proceed through our lives. Whether our actions are motivated by guilt or passion or doubt or any number of other emotions, many of us walk around every day with said emotions written across our face viewable by all except ourselves.

Through The Soul's Window is a collection of 12 short stories dealing with people whose actions are driven by their emotions and how they react to them. Some react well, others do not. Some end happily, others do not.

Whether we like to admit it or not, we all tend to be driven by emotions, try as we might to avoid it.

DETAILS: 12 Stories / 40 Pages / 16,336 words

Contains some adult themes and mild adult language

01. Playing God: What do you do when you witness someone do something so horrific that goes against everything you believe in. And what if that person is someone that you envisioned making a life with? How does that affect you going forward, and what does your reaction say about you?

02. My Biggest Fear: A scorned lover drowns their sorrow in alcohol soaked memories, as they lament the one that got away, due to a lack of commitment.

03. The Flame: A tragic event births something even more tragic, one that will eventually come full circle.

04. Anniversary: A car crash wipes out the hopes and dreams of a newlywed couple, sending the lone survivor on a year-long spiral of depression and suicidal thoughts. Then he is presented with a potential second chance at the life that he thought he would have.

05. Unconventional Plans: A man seeks solace from the pain and anguish and guilt that he feels after a tragic accident, and finds perhaps the answers to his problems.

06. Ghost Story: Grant Joche, a prospective buyer inspects a fantastic loft in downtown Charlottesville Virginia, and listens to the real estate agent admit to the horrific events that took place in the building, which has caused many to shy away from renting.

07. My Encounter With Morris: Julian is a recovering addict who immediately upon drying out, packs everything up and moves away from everyone and thing he knows in an attempt to get a fresh start....to the worst possible place.

08. Circle Of Life: Four kids are at the end of their night of trick-or-treating when one of them is dared to go to the house of a mysterious resident. There have been stories about what happened to Gerald, and his mental makeup, however no one really knows for sure. What young Dylan finds up there is not at all what he expected.

09. A Hero's Guilt: What should have been a routine flight for a rookie US Marshal, the shooting of a armed man running for the cockpit door turns this supposed-to-be routine flight into a life changing situation for more than one person.

10. The Forgotten Letter: Clearing out the attic after his mother passes away, he finds a letter from the father that he barely knew -- but despised. This was a letter he had never seen though, and it was addressed to him. The shocking contents will change him forever.

11. Vegas Baby: They say "What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas". She can only wish that were true, as the memories of what happened in Vegas, and her actions that led to them, are going to be burned into her mind forever.

12. Time Out: Roman and Margaret meet up in a bar, and once the introductions and pleasantries are exchanged, the games of seduction and flirtations begin, leading both up to a line that, at least one of them, is not sure they are ready to cross.

Rihanna, Chris Brown and the troubling cycle of Domestic Violence

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:43:00 +0000

Years ago when I was living in Virginia I knew a woman named Carissa. This girl was amazing. I mean we just sort of clicked, you know? We both liked the same types of music, we both liked the same types of movies, we both had similar beliefs that strayed a bit from one another, but for the most part we were sympatico, as they say.

And I think we were both happy for about a year or so and then ... not so much. I'm not going to go into the reasoning, but we had a falling out. Carissa then ended up moving out of my place and into the apartment of someone else that she knew. The guy she moved in with and ended up getting into a relationship with was an abuser. He manipulated her, he abused her both physically and mentally. I don't know if the abuse went deeper than that, but I can only speak on what I was privy to.

I tried to intervene and help her out after I realized she was being beaten, and she rejected my help. She'd bring up past issues with me and her and she would insist that she was fine and that I wasn't wanted or needed. At the time that stung quite a bit, but as I've gotten older I realize what it was. She was locked into a relationship that she felt she could not leave. He had made her feel like she could not live without him. Despite his abuses, she had been conditioned to believe that without him there she would be lost.

So she stuck by him and took the beatings and the humiliation suffering the utter destruction of her mind, body and soul.

I pleaded with her to leave him and tried to make her understand, and yet she wouldn't. Or couldn't.

Then one day I got a call from a friend of her's telling me that she was dead, and that her "boyfriend" had been arrested. The frustrations and feelings of helplessness was devastating to me. I blamed myself for not doing more, I tried to rationalize the irrational, I tried to somehow find some reason that I had caused this. That something I had done when we were together pushed her away from me and into his abusive arms.

He ended up doing time for it, and it never felt like enough. I had since gotten involved with someone else and she was amazing in the face of this. I was a wreck and she helped me out immensely.

I tell that story, something I haven't really told anyone, because I find myself thinking back to that when I see all this stuff about Rihanna and Chris Brown. Chris Brown, as most people know by now, completely and viciously attacked Rihanna a few years back. The initial whispers about what may or may not have happened absolutely pales in comparison to the police report of what happened.

Below is information taken from the police report from back in 2009.

Brown was driving a vehicle with Robyn F. as the front passenger on an unknown street in Los Angeles. Robyn F. picked up Brown’s cellular phone and observed a three-page text message from a woman who Brown had a previous sexual relationship with.

“A verbal argument ensued and Brown pulled the vehicle over on an unknown street, reached over Robyn F. with his right hand, opened the car door and attempted to force her out. Brown was unable to force Robyn F. out of the vehicle because she was wearing a seat belt. When he could not force her to exit, he took his right hand and shoved her head against he passenger window of the vehicle, causing an approximate one-inch raised circular contusion.

“Robyn F. turned to face Brown and he punched her in the left eye with his right hand. He then drove away in the vehicle and continued to punch her in the face with his right hand while steering the vehicle with his left hand. The assault caused Robyn F.’s mouth to fill with blood and blood to splatter all over her clothing and the interior of the vehicle.

“Brown looked at Robyn F. and stated, ‘I’m going to beat the sh– out of you when we get home! You wait and see!’

” The detective said “Robyn F.” then used her cell phone to call her personal assistant Jennifer Rosales, who did not answer.

“Robyn F. pretended to talk to her and stated, ‘I’m on my way home. Make sure the police are there when I get there.’ After Robyn F. faked the call, Brown looked at her and stated, ‘You just did the stupidest thing ever! Now I’m really going to kill you!’

“Brown resumed punching Robyn F. and she interlocked her fingers behind her head and brought her elbows forward to protect her face. She then bent over at the waist, placing her elbows and face near her lap in [an] attempt to protect her face and head from the barrage of punches being levied upon her by Brown.

“Brown continued to punch Robyn F. on her left arm and hand, causing her to suffer a contusion on her left triceps (sic) that was approximately two inches in diameter and numerous contusions on her left hand.

“Robyn F. then attempted to send a text message to her other personal assistant, Melissa Ford. Brown snatched the cellular telephone out of her hand and threw it out of the window onto an unknown street.

“Brown continued driving and Robyn F. observed his cellular telephone sitting in his lap. She picked up the cellular telephone with her left hand and before she could make a call he placed her in a head lock with his right hand and continued to drive the vehicle with his left hand.

“Brown pulled Robyn F. close to him and bit her on her left ear. She was able to feel the vehicle swerving from right to left as Brown sped away. He stopped the vehicle in front of 333 North June Street and Robyn F. turned off the car, removed the key from the ignition and sat on it.

“Brown did not know what she did with the key and began punching her in the face and arms. He then placed her in a head lock positioning the front of her throat between his bicep and forearm. Brown began applying pressure to Robyn F.’s left and right carotid arteries, causing her to be unable to breathe and she began to lose consciousness.

“She reached up with her left hand and began attempting to gouge his eyes in an attempt to free herself. Brown bit her left ring and middle fingers and then released her. While Brown continued to punch her, she turned around and placed her back against the passenger door. She brought her knees to her chest, placed her feet against Brown’s body and began pushing him away. Brown continued to punch her on the legs and feet, causing several contusions.

“Robyn F. began screaming for help and Brown exited the vehicle and walked away. A resident in the neighborhood heard Robyn F.’s plea for help and called 911, causing a police response. An investigation was conducted and Robyn F. was issued a Domestic Violence Emergency Protective Order

And HERE is a picture of Rihanna taken after the incident

Now looking at those pictures of her, and reading that police report, ask yourself something. Do you think Chris Brown got off easy? He's done no jail time, he's paid no fine that I'm aware of, and aside from being ordered to stay away from her, he's really suffered nothing. There were allegations that Jay Z blackballed him from performing at the Michael Jackson tribute on the BET awards, but Jay Z denied this.

All in all, Chris Brown viciously brutalized a woman he professed to care about, and has gotten off scott free. Then when he came back he was attacking those attacking him and said that he was being persecuted.

Jay Smooth of Illdoctrine.com pretty much laid out why that is such a ridiculous thing to say and why Chris Brown really needs to brush up on his history of persecuted individuals.

So Chris Brown beats this woman he professes to care about, gets a restraining order slapped on him and then he makes out like he's being persecuted like Jesus or something.   All the while, on the flip side of the coin, Rihanna is surrounded by well wishers and a strong support system. She's got some of the most powerful people on her side at this moment.

She is then in a position that very few women who are victims of domestic violence find themselves in: A situation where they TRULY have options.   She does not have to run back to Chris Brown because she can't make it on her own. She doesn't have the problem of providing for herself or worried that he's going to be showing up at her job.

She's got people on her side who can help her out. Give her the support, emotionally and otherwise, that she may need. She clearly can provide for herself financially, so that's not an issue.   Once the pictures came out showing what he had done to her,the overwhelming support was in her corner and against Chris. Everyone was on her side, and rooting for her to overcome her tragic situation and were casting Chris as the devil incarnate.

The only thing she could do to change all that good will towards her, the ONLY thing that she could do to change people's opinions of her, she has done.   Almost immediately there were reports that she was actually still associating with Brown.   And just recently, there were reports that he showed up at her birthday party, after trying to get non-disclosure agreements from everyone at the party saying they would not tell anyone that he was there.

Brown and Rihanna were reportedly sitting together, holding hands and seeming close.

I wrote a few years back after Rihanna was given the "Woman of the Year" award from Glamour Magazine, that it was a sham "award" because it spits in the face of every woman who has suffered abuse at the hands of a boyfriend or husband and had the courage to walk away and not look back.

I also mentioned that Glamour was given the first exclusive interview by Rihanna about her situation prior to being given that "award", so that should be noted as well.

Look, I realize that this situation is not a black and white thing. Co-dependency is a powerful thing.   And I'm sure that Chris Brown has gotten into her head and made her think that he truly loves her and he didn't mean it.

But dammit, man. Read that police report. Look at those pictures of what this motherfucker did to her.   And to see him act like he's being persecuted, to see him lash out at those who find fault with what he did with "Hate all you want, I won a Grammy, that's the ultimate "fuck off", just infuriates me.   It shows someone who has a severe lack of perspective.

And it shows a society that rewards bad behavior where Brown faces almost NO repercussions for his actions. He didn't lose his record deal, his album still came out months later, he just won a damn Grammy for his shitty ass music, and he's STILL got a legion of female fans that are deluded into thinking this is some romantic guy.

He beat the shit out of a woman, and yet these mindless girls are tweeting things like "Chris Brown can beat me anytime". Seriously?

This is about as bad as it gets, folks. And the saddest part of this whole thing is that Rihanna has officially screwed herself by still being associated with Brown. Because when this happens again -- and it will -- she's going to get much less sympathy and support than before. Because before it was the first time and no one should blame a woman for being beaten at all. That said, if you go back to that person and get beaten again, as sad as it is to say this, a lot of people are not going to rush to your defense as quickly.

Because they don't want to feel that they are wasting their time.

And finally, what are the Grammy's thinking? Three years ago after a pre-Grammy party, Chris Brown beat the ever living shit out of Rihanna. So three years later the Grammy's bring him onstage to perform and he wins a Grammy? SERIOUSLY?

If there was ever a finer example of "money talks and bullshit walks" I don't know if I can think of one right now.   You can tell the Grammys are covering their bases for the inevitable Chris Brown and Rihanna duet song that will come out. Anyone wanna take odds on the comeback song for the two? My money's on "A Fool In Love".

Was that too cynical?

[INTERVIEW] Jin Tha Emcee

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:17:00 +0000

Jin Au-Yeung, better known as Jin tha Emcee or 100 Grand Jin, has had a pretty accomplished career over the last ten years. Since hitting the ground running on BET's Freestyle Friday segments on 106th and Park back in 2002, Jin has been busy ever since.

In the 10 years since he was on BET, he's been on the top of the battle rap scene, got a deal with Ruff Ryders records alongside hip hop heavyweights DMX, The Lox and Eve, had a minor role in the sequel to The Fast and The Furious, had some losses in the Battling arena, mutually parted ways with his label, and continued putting out music independently on his own mixtapes.

Then came the move to China where he's released the well received Cantonese album "ABC (American Born Chinese), and gotten roles on various TV series including a top TVB Drama "Lives of Omission".

Oh and he's married and has tightened up his life both musically, acting-wise, and his relationship with God.

It's been an eventful ten years for Jin, and he was kind enough to talk about it with me for this interview.

SFCB: You first came to national attention with your appearances on BET’s 106^th and Park “Freestyle Fridays” where you would battle other aspiring rappers. How did you get involved with that, and what was the process like? Did you just basically audition in front of a producer or something, or did you have to go up against other potential contestants in a process of elimination to get on the show?

JIN: I went up to Harlem on 106th street and Park Avenue where the BET studios used to be for an open audition, like the nearly 300 rappers that showed up that day. They gathered us into groups and two at a time, we would battle for a panel of judges which were comprised of the shows producers, etc. However, it wasn't a win or lose situation. After we'd each do our 30 second bit, it was pretty much, "Thank you gentleman, we'll keep in touch." Then we were sent on our way. About 2-3 weeks later, I got a call and they said, "You're the challenger this coming week." The rest is history.

SFCB: As you came up, you were, as obvious as it may be to point out, a Chinese rapper in an African American dominated art form. And a byproduct of that is that in a medium where the rules seem to be “anything goes”, there would often be personal attacks thrown your way with strong racial components. And this is a situation where clearly there is not an even playing field in that regard, as just about any rapper you go up against could throw out the Asian stereotypes and racial slurs against you, while if you were to have gone that route against an African American opponent, there might have been a bit of controversy there.

And the reason I bring up a touchy subject like that, is that many of your supporters over the years have pointed out that while those types of attacks have been used throughout, particularly in the Freestyle Friday battles, there was one battle in particular (against Serius Jones) where it felt like, as you watch it, that the racial stuff was flowing heavily and Jones was racking up points based on those racial stereotypes and slurs. And the common complaint that I’ve seen made from your supporters is that it wasn’t a fair playing field, because you would never have been able to respond in kind, even if you were someone that would have wanted to.

What are your thoughts on that aspect of it, and did knowing that you would be facing that type of thing encourage you to try to become even better to perhaps make up for that perceived uneven playing field, or was that something that you never really worried or put any stock in?

JIN: Dang, you wrote like a near essay just to get to the question at the end. Props to your for your incisiveness! When it comes to my battling experience and my race, it's almost been the most talked about topic ever since I stepped onto this platform. For me, it was never something I put too much emphasis on. I did in the sense of, strategically, when I did realize that my ethnicity seemed to be the main focal point for my opponents, I would utilize that to my advantage. As G.I. Joe always taught us as kids, "Now you know, and knowing is half the battle".

Since I was aware that my ethnicity would be targeted, I was always able to mentally prepare myself for it. From day one, I've never ever taken any of the race related insults to heart. In fact, as the years went by, I would always find myself reacting in different ways.. such as.. "Great, not the fried rice and egg roll stuff again".. or.. "Man, that was pretty creative!".

Pertaining to the Serius Jones battle, what he did was nothing new in the sense of content. "I ate DMX's dog. A billion people in China and I can't sell a record there." His efficiency was in two things: One, his demeanor was incredible when he delivered all that stuff. Two, I let it get to me in a certain way. Whereas all the previous times I would be able to brush it off when facing these tactics, this time it hit me. It happens. So when it was my turn to rebuttal, I was just ranting aimlessly into thin air without effectiveness. Think of a boxer who's throwing multiple punches and none of it is landing.

SFCB: So once you won the seventh week and was inducted into the Freestyle Friday Hall of Fame, how soon after that were you approached to sign with Ruff Ryders, and what was that like dealing with the potential of a major record contract?

JIN: I officially signed with Ruff Ryders around the 4th week of my Freestyle Friday run. All the way up to that point of my dream of pursuing a career as a rapper, it was the single most exciting moment. The feeling was like climbing Mount Everest and reaching the top.

SFCB: Once you signed with Ruff Ryders, you became the first Asian-American rapper to sign a major record deal. How did that feel at the time, knowing that you had accomplished something that had never been done before?

JIN: Initially, I think the media and the masses in general put more emphasis on it than I did myself, to the point where that became the main focus. It was like, "Yeah he won on BET, but he's Chinese! That's crazy!" In essence, I naturally fed into it like, "Yeah, I am Chinese". Of course, although my initial goal was never to overtly emphasize my race, it is not something I felt the need to shy away from either. I always say this: The fact that I was Chinese helped propel me into the spotlight as much as it held me back. If that makes any sense

SFCB: Your debut album “The Rest Is History” was not the commercial success that many had perhaps imagined it would be. I’ve always kind of felt that you were a strange fit for that label. When I thought of “Ruff Ryders” I just always imagined these really hard edged street cats, and while you clearly have your talent and your skills and whatnot, I just never thought you were a good fit with that label.

And I felt that if you had been with another label that would perhaps have given you time to develop and work with you, that things may have gone a bit better. I’m sure it didn’t help when Roc-a-fella basically kneecapped you by not letting you release as a second single the track with Kanye West, when West was just becoming a major star due to them not wanting to “over-expose” Kanye at the time.

Looking back on your time with Ruff Ryders, what are your thoughts on that time? Do you think that you were given the best of chances there, or are there things you wished had gone differently?

JIN: By the standards of 2004 it certainly was considered a flop. In 2012, to sell 250,000 records (actual physical CDs) would be considered a cause for celebration by any label. Even for me, as bummed as I was when things unfolded and I didn't catapult into superstardom as many predicted I would, upon releasing my album, I look back now and it's like, "Wow, 250,000 people bought my album, that's great!".

Considering once upon a time, I was standing on corners selling battle mix CDs for 5 dollars a pop. As far as the Ruff Ryders factor, this will always be my stance: I will forever be grateful for the label for giving me a chance and allowing me to learn what I did in the years that I was with them. Things just don't work out sometimes. Everyone had the best intentions I believe. Even the Roc-A-Fella/Kanye/single scenario. Back then I didn't think too much of it. Now, I'm even more beyond dwelling on the what ifs.

SFCB: After your time at Ruff Ryders you went the independent route and dropped some well received mix-tapes including The Emcee’s Properganda which featured what is probably one of your most well known and most popular songs, “Top 5 Dead or Alive” which was filmed inside Fat Beats with DJ Kool Herc. The video, I think for many, completely solidified your credentials as a true lover of hip hop and your utmost respect for those who came before you as you paid homage to the greats.

Talk about the making of that video and working with DJ Kool Herc.

JIN: Bottomline, Emcee's Properganda is straight up backpack rap. Which I think I've always been a fan of and had it in me to want to do. Top 5 Dead Or Alive specifically is a track that was without a doubt inspired by my love for the culture. To shoot the video in Fat Beats and have the legendary Kool Herc on the ones and twos is just mind-blowing to me.

SFCB: Speaking of Fat Beats, as I’m sure you know, Fat Beats NYC closed down a few years ago, and at the time I wrote that I was frustrated that there weren’t more hip hop heavyweights such as Russell Simmons and Jay Z and whatnot willing to step in and keep that place alive. I pointed to how Quentin Tarantino had stepped in and saved the classic movie theater The New Beverly which was going to have to shut down due to costs and bills and whatnot, and wondered why no one bothered to do that for Fat Beats or The Hit Factory which are two iconic aspects of hip hop’s history.

What are your memories of Fat Beats during your time in New York.

JIN: Fat Beats will always hold a special spot in my heart. Not so much for what took place in the store but downstairs. I can remember vividly standing by the entrance hours upon hours just trying to push some mix CDs to not only the people who were coming in and out of the store, but even just pedestrians who were passing by on 6th Ave.

Ever so often, the staff would come downstairs and scurry myself and other entrepreneurs away. I think that even though they may not have been keen to the idea of people selling CDs downstairs of their store, they realized that what we were doing downstairs was just essential to the essence and nature of Hip-Hop as what they were doing upstairs.

SFCB: Over the last several years your supporters have noticed a marked shift in not only your image but also your content as well. And you have spoken on your Christian faith and how it directs your life, and when people hear that you’re a Christian, they try to pinpoint the exact moment when the switch was flipped and you were suddenly “Jin the Christian Rapper” or whatever.

And I think that mentality kind of stems from the necessity that many of us have to explain things. To put something in a box and say "oh, so THAT's the reason", rather than being able to accept that things often happen after an accumulation of events in our lives, and that not everything has to be the result of a singular event in time.

How do you explain to those who desperately seem to want to latch on to that idea of "well there HAD to be something that pushed you to this"?

JIN: I think the most efficient way for me to describe it would be to say this. I've always believed in God. However, believing in God and having a relationship with Him is two different things. More so, to live a life that is reflective of love for God is also something that hinders many from really getting to know Him intimately. What may seem like a sudden switch to many in terms of direction and image is actually years and years of being lost. I am just thankful that He never gave up on me.

SFCB: So after you had released several mix-tapes independently, you decided to do something that was kind of bold and daring: you released an album entirely in Chinese called “ABC” (American Born Chinese) that was produced by the Far*East Movement. What made you decide to do that? Was it something that was on your list of things you’d always wanted to do?

JIN: Not at all. The only reason ABC came to be is because I had nothing else to do. Things weren't particularly popping in general.. I was totally moving on an independent level at the time. Which is the only way we were able to freely do a Cantonese project. Which if I were with a label, they probably would have thought, "Who's gonna buy it?"

SFCB: After your Cantonese album was released to success, you ended up moving from the United States to Hong Kong, China. What was that move like and what was the impetus for such a big move.

JIN: Initially, I was only planning on the Hong Kong run to be a three or four months at max. Not because I didn't have faith or was opposed to staying, but mainly because I wasn't sure of how I would be received as an artist. Three months turned into six months, which turned into a year and then another year. Now 2012 marks my fourth year here.

SFCB: Now a lot of your supporters may know that you’ve done Freestyle Friday, and you’ve been in the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious, and done your mix-tapes and Cantonese album, but what many may not know is that you have even tried standup comedy and motivational speaking.

If you would, talk about the decision to go into something like Standup, that really wasn't something that most people on the outside looking in would expect from you.

JIN: Ha! Standup comedy. That was just a one time thing. I put together a routine and rented a venue. Invited some guests. The show was called "I'm Not A Comedian". I really admire and appreciate the art of making people laugh and bringing them joy. As for the motivational speaking.. I don't know if I'm a motivational speaker by any means. I often get invited to share my testimony and experiences at various events. It is an enlightening experience for both me and the audience.

SFCB: You have pretty much hit on so many areas of entertainment, from rapping to acting in films and television to the comedy and motivational speaking, to commercials as well. You've done albums in English and Chinese. Is there anything out there that stands out as being something you've always wanted to do yet haven't really been blessed with the opportunity?

JIN: I've already exceeded my own expectation in this aspect.. At this point, just letting nature take it's course and trusting God's plans.

SFCB: When you moved to China and you got more involved in your faith, do you think that played any part in your desire to move away from the battle rap arena due to perhaps the necessity, in battling, to rely on tearing down your opponent, or saying and doing things that do not exactly mesh with the spiritual, or was it for other reasons?

JIN: It's a combination of the faith factor and just evolving out of that world. Once upon a time, battling was all that mattered to me. It defined me. Which is why, when I did endure those brutal losses, it was like a major, major reality check. You go from being top dog to bottom of the barrel in an instant. It's kind of refreshing and relieving to be able to break free from that stigma.

SFCB: Last year I was late to the party and just finally saw the video for “Angels” and was just blown away by not only the lyrical content, as this was the first time I had heard you in awhile so I was unaware of your faith, but also the visuals were just stunning.

Who directed that video, and where was it filmed? The environments were pretty amazing as well.

JIN: The video was directed by Hosanna Wong and we shot it in the city of Hong Kong. No rhyme intended. Angels, as a song and video, is a milestone for me. I say that not only because it's my one video to pass the one million mark view on Youtube but because it's my first track to really proclaim my faith boldly and what I want to say with my music in terms of how God is influencing my life.

SFCB: You recently were featured on the TV drama “Lives of Omission” which is a very popular show in China. You also were awarded the “Most Improved Actor” award from the TVB Anniversary Awards 2011, while also being nominated for “Favorite Male Character” as well.

What has it been like being on the TV series.

JIN: Another chapter in the book of "Things I Never Imagined I'd Get a Chance To Do But Am Enjoying Every Single Moment Of It".

SFCB: You are very involved on Twitter and often will spend a lot of time responding to just about every one who tweets you. And also on Youtube as well in the comments to your videos. Many artists who are on Twitter don't really interact with fans that much. They either have someone manage their account for them (while perhaps not always letting the fans know that it's not really them) or they will only seemingly respond to other artist friends and only occasionally respond to an actual fan of theirs.

You, on the other hand have sort of embraced your entire community of Twitter followers and have enacted what you have referred to as a "No Fan Zone". Explain what that is and what it means to you, if you would.

JIN: Real simple. The internet and real world are almost synonymous in this day and age. Especially as a performer/artist, one has to maintain internet presence. Any regular Joe can tell you that. For me, it's gotten to a point though where I feel like it's not even about maintaining a presence anymore or necessarily peddling whatever new project I have lined up. I just enjoy interacting and connecting with people in a real organic manner.

SFCB: Finally, it’s been just over 10 years since you burst onto the scene with your appearances on 106th and Park, and you've achieved so much whether it's music, TV, film, etc. Looking back and seeing what you've done in the past 10 years, and then looking forward, what do you hope to be able to accomplish over the next ten years that you have not already done?

JIN: As an artist/performer/entertainer, making the use of this talent and platform that God has given me to shine for His glory.

As a man, just to make a difference and contributing to the betterment of society in a very practical way.

SFCB: So I want to thank you for taking the time to do this interview, and in closing is there anything you’d like to say for your supporters out there who may be reading this right now?

JIN: I love you all. God bless you.

SFCB: Thank you very much, Jin, and I wish you the best of luck in whatever you do.

JIN: Likewise, brother.

Follow Jin on Twitter at @IAMMCJIN

Check out Jin's website at www.MCJIN.com

Check out Jin's Youtube Channel HERE

Below are a few videos of his from the past ten years. Enjoy!

Bill O'Reilly: Bigotry against pro-life people way more than bigotry against LGBT"

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:23:00 +0000

I typically don't respond to anything that Bill O'Reilly says, because let's be honest, he's a troll. He and those like him such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are all trolls. They say things that they know are going to rile up those on the opposite political spectrum, and often they may not even TRULY believe what they say, they just do it because they want to see the sparks fly.

So that in mind, I tend to just roll my eyes, perhaps make a comment on twitter or facebook, and then just keep it moving. Today however I'm not able to do that because what he said not only is something I think he honestly believes, but also is something that is incredibly ignorant and pretty incredible in it's tone deafness.

In a conversation with Bernie Goldberg on O'Reilly's show, Goldberg expressed outrage at a conservative group that is trying to get Ellen Degeneres fired from her endorsement role with JC Penneys, because she's a lesbian. Goldberg, surprisingly enough, correctly labeled trying to get someone fired due to their sexual orientation as "bigotry", causing O'Reilly to say that he felt that bigotry against "pro-life" people was much more than that against gay people.

Seriously.

So this is my open letter to Bill O'Reilly. Mr. O'Reilly, what about the Indian actor who was disowned by his family because he starred in a gay themed movie, which was likened to Brokeback Mountain? Kicked out of his home and had his inheritance and blood ties revoked.

[T]he Bombay Times reports that Yuvraaj Parasher has been disowned by his family and thrown [out] of the family home in Agra because of his role in the film. His father Satish Parasher told the newspaper: “I feel what he has done is against the culture and tradition of our country and it challenges the purity of the relationship between a man and a woman. He kept us in the dark right from when he signed the film and told us that he is acting with a girl. When we heard about the poster and the things he has done in the film, we were shocked, hurt and humiliated. People will make fun of us and we won’t be able to live peacefully ever again.”

He added that “his mother is totally devastated. We are a respected family and I’m appalled that he is playing a gay man’s role. We’re finished. All the dreams and hopes we had built around him are over. For just a film role, he has lost out on his blood ties. We don’t want to see his face ever… not even when we are dying.” The family claim that no woman will consider marrying him after playing a gay man on-screen.

Has that ever happened to a pro-life individual, Bill? Or what about the teenager who got his wish to be crowned Prom Queen at his school, and was then kicked out of his family's home as a result?

Prom will be a night Omar Bonilla will remember for several reasons.

The gay Flanagan High School senior who was suspended by the school before the prom because he wanted to wear a dress got a chance to participate in a different kind of prom on Saturday night.

Not only was he the special invited guest of Pridelines Youth Services gay prom at Florida International University's Biscayne Bay Campus, but he also was name prom "queen," reports the Miami Herald.

But all the publicity came at a costly price. Bonilla, 19, was disowned by his family right after the dance.
His parents apparently didn't like the fact that Bonilla dressed in drag (a blue sequined dress with the back cut out) and was referred to by his feminine alter ego, Allison Rodriguez, at the prom.

Again, is this something that routinely happens with pro-life people?   Personally I don't think so. I could be wrong, but aside from a few instances of someone online saying they'd never date someone who is a pro-life person or whatever, I haven't found any instances of it happening to pro-life people.

How about the gay man who when he told his father he was gay, his father sent the 18 year old off to a psych ward? Because obviously gay men and women are mentally ill, right?

Has anyone ever forced a pro-life person into a psych ward against their will?

What about those who have been killed due to their being gay, Bill? How many pro-life people have been killed due to their pro-life stance? How many have been bullied into suicide? How many have been told they are an abomination? Who is despised and hated by God? Who is going to Hell? Have any pro-life people EVER been subjected to that, Bill? Have pro-life people ever been subjected to humiliating and degrading tests to verify their pro-life status, as have some gay refugees?

Has there ever been a single instance in the history of the world, of a pro-life person being beaten, tortured and left tied to a fence to die? Suffering fractures to their skull and many lacerations around the face? Has that ever happened to someone due to their pro-life beliefs, Mr. O'Reilly? Because that has happened to a gay person due to bigotry.

There are numerous instances of these things happening to the LGBT community. Where is all the bloodshed in the pro-life community?   I mean besides the bloodshed committed BY the pro-life community, such as Scott Roeder who killed Dr. George Tiller in his church lobby.

Bill, I think that it's unfortunate that you would sincerely not understand how completely ill informed that statement was. There are LGBT kids who are being disowned and/or killed all the time, unfortunately, and to attempt to diminish that by comparing it to the supposed discrimination and "bigotry" against pro-life people is disingenuous and dishonest and quite frankly, offensive.

You are not a stupid man. You know the power of your platform and you know the power of your words and how influential you are. I sincerely wish you would clarify your statement on your show, however I have no delusions of that happening.   Jon Stewart is fond of saying that you are the most reasonable person on Fox News. This is a great way for you to prove that statement true.

But I doubt you will, to be honest. And that's sad.

Lending yourself to the evils that you condemn

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:39:00 +0000

"Most of all, I must see to it that I do not lend myself to the evils that I condemn" -- Henry David Thoreau

One of the things that have driven me crazy over the years are when you see each side of the political aisle sputter and hyperventilate when those on the other side say negative things about them. Nowhere is this more applicable than on political message boards.

A website I used to frequent, Newshounds, is a sort of watch dog site for everything Fox News. They will record the shows, and upload clips to highlight what they see as bias. They also from time to time love to go on Fox Nation's website (sort of a social gathering for fans of the Fox News way of thinking) and screencap comments showing vicious and vitriolic comments towards the President or other Democratic politicians.

And a common theme is this idea of "look at how mean those people are! Look at those racist pieces of crap! Look at how vicious they are in their attacks" all the while criticizing their moderators for not taking these things down and letting them stay up until they absolutely HAVE to take them down.

Now I'll admit that these comments that are typically highlighted ARE outrageous. They SHOULD be highlighted and called attention to. That said, often many people on the left will bristle at the idea that they themselves are guilty of this exact same thing.

And when you call them on that they'll scream "False Equivalency" and say "we aren't calling for the death of the President!"

Well, that's not always the truth, but I understand the point. The amount of death threats and things of that nature are a bit weightier on the right. Yet there is also a whole lot of viciousness on the left as well. I remember when Oral Roberts passed away, there were some nasty horrible things posted on sites like Raw Story, Crooks and Liars and Huffington Post among others. Same with Tony Snow when he passed away.

And then there's this story today about Rick Santorum taking leave of his Presidential campaign because his young daughter is sick in the hospital. Their daughter has a serious health condition that she's dealt with her entire life, so this isn't a case of Santorum leaving because she has a cough, alright.

Yet look at these responses on Raw Story taken just a few minutes ago from their piece about Santorum's daughter..

But I thought it was the Republicans who were vicious and personal in their attacks? I thought the moderators on the progressive/liberal sites were on that shit! Some of these comments are 8 hours old and counting as of 2:37am on Monday morning.

The point I'm trying to make is that assholes are not strictly a monopoly of the Right. There are assholes on both sides. There are insensitive pricks on both sides. And THAT is not a false equivalency.

EDIT: and here it is almost a day later, and not only are those comments still there (despite allegedly being flagged) there are even more. And while there are those on there who are criticizing those who are mocking and questioning the illness of Santorum's child, the moderators should be doing their jobs, especially if the website is going to be attacking other sites of another political persuasion for that very same thing.

And the thing is I can't STAND Santorum. I'm morally and fundamentally opposed to just about everything this man stands for. And that goes for everyone else running in the GOP primaries. That said, we should be above this type of thing. Politicians should be fair game, their children should be off-limits, no matter WHO it is. Whether it's Chelsea Clinton, the Bush twins, the Obama daughters or Santorum's children.

Attacking children is low class behavior and proves you are no better than those that you criticize and claim to be offended by.

The Dangers of Mark Driscoll & The Mars Hill Church

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:12:00 +0000

A few weeks ago someone posted on my Facebook page about this so-called Pastor named Mark Driscoll who had gone on another Christian podcast and proceeded to dress down the host and make various sexist remarks regarding women in authority in the Church.

He had an interesting discussion with Jeremy Brierley on his podcast "Unbelievable", who asked him about a variety of topics involved with his church and books, and pointed out a lot of aspects that Driscoll has come under fire for (namely his misogyny, homophobic comments and other things). And to his credit, Brierley was shockingly polite and civil while Driscoll condescended and mocked him repeatedly.

In part of the interview he condescended and denigrated Jeremy and his wife, who is the pastor of their church. Driscoll, who is not a believer of females in authority in the church decided to ask some questions which, while in the written form is not quite as obvious, were laced with sarcasm and cynicism and to be quite honest he was being a bit of a prick.

Driscoll: So, in the church that your wife pastors, how many young men have come to Christ in the last year?

Brierley: Well we’re not a huge church, unlike yours, but I’d say there’s two or three probably in the last year who certainly, yah, I’d say have come to Christ in a pretty meaningful way.

Driscoll: Okay and in the church, what percentage is young men, single men?

Brierley: It’s difficult to say off the top of my head, but I’ll freely say it’s certainly not a big percentage, no.

Driscoll: Kay, and are you okay with that? Do you think that’s the best way to go?

Brierley: No, but can it be so easily put down to the fact that the church is being run by a woman? I mean, is that …

Driscoll: Yup. Yup. You look at your results, you look at my results, and you look at the variable that’s most obvious.

Brierley: Well, in our case, the …

Driscoll: This is where the excuses come, not the verses. This is where the excuses come, not the verses.

Brierley: … Up to the point my wife took over, it had been run by men. Since she’s come, lots of new families, lots of younger people, both men and women, have come. I wouldn’t say the balance is right perfect yet by any means. But it’s certainly a lot better than it ever was. And so I don’t necessarily see quite the same situation that you paint there in terms of men not relating. I see more men in the church since she’s been there than before she was there, in a way.

Driscoll: What kind of men? Strong men?

Brierley: Well, men. I mean, men come in different shapes and sizes. I mean, yah, both really. Men who are very masculine, men who are, I guess, on a spectrum, more effeminate. But I couldn’t say that there’s been a sort of dearth of men in the church since she’s arrived. I mean, Mark, I don’t want to get into a sort of argument.

Driscoll: No, no, you don’t want to sit in my seat, I understand. So does your wife do counseling with men? Sexual counseling? Does she talk about masturbation, pornography, the stuff that I do?

Brierley: Well no, she doesn’t.

Driscoll: Well, who does talk to the men about those things, especially the young men?

Brierley: Well there are other people that she can pass them on to. We have male elders in our church who, you know, would be able to tackle those kinds of questions. I mean, but would you speak with those kinds of issues to a female in your church?

Driscoll: Uh no. If they’re a married couple we might meet with them as a couple. But if it’s a woman, we would have women leaders meet with them.

Brierley: Sure, well it’s the same scenario in our church really.

Driscoll: Well except for who’s in charge.

Then after the intervew, Driscoll responded in attack mode saying he was maligned and misled, which led to Brierley releasing the entire hour long interview which you can hear for yourself online, and shows that - surprise surprise - Brierley was doing no such thing.

And while he can try to run from his past inflammatory record and he can make all the false apologies he wants, the bottom line is to be quite honest is I don't think he really WANTS to run from his comments. I think he sincerely believes everything he is saying will help him out in the long run with his congregation.

These people will believe in him even more in the face of the "evil media" and he will use this to attract even more people, who are more often then not vulnerable and seeking someone to look up to. And he'll be there to fill that role of manipulator.

He will make outrageously offensive comments, and then when the pressure is on, he'll throw out a "sincere" apology and things will die down until he does it again. All the while garnering attention and media coverage of his mega-church in Seattle.

The laundry list of insulting comments unbecoming a man of God is staggering to behold. Below I'll list just a few of them, with sources so you can see for yourself that I'm not just making things up, because truly they sound like they have to be made up, because what true man of God would ever say and do some of the things he's saying and doing?

He had some bizarre rant about how masturbation was a form of homosexuality because the woman is not involved, and it's really bad if you're looking at yourself in a mirror and getting turned on by your own body. I think the guy's been hanging out with Patrick Bateman a little bit too much, but hey. To each their own I suppose. He said that if the wife is involved (no girlfriend of course, because you know... the whole premarital sex is a no-no ** more on that later**) then it's less gay.

He's also been on record with some fairly homophobic rants as well about how the Church is filled with men who aren't "real" men, who are "Effiminate", and he laments the lack of real men in the church these days.

Yeah he's a real walker and talker of Jesus folks.

Which brings me to that most important aspect, I suppose, of how Driscoll views Christ. See, to him Jesus was not the lovable hippie that he feels that He was portrayed as. The hugging lambs and patting little kids on the head that we see in images. No, see Jesus was kinda like Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli. He was kicking ass and taking names. He wasn't a pussy folks, he was a man's man, and Driscoll is tired of seeing Jesus portrayed as otherwise.

Or as Driscoll so eloquently described him, "He's like 'Thug Jesus'". I swear I didn't just make that up.

And of course could forget the fact that this guy has the ability to see things. He has admitted that he can see things like molestation and private things in your life that you have done. He's able to see these things, yet does nothing about them? I would like to think that if I had the power of being able to see horrific things like rapes and molestations and whatnot, that I would use it for good, not manipulation. But then again who's to say?

Phil Johnson of the Team Pyro blog has an excellent summation of this aspect of Driscoll:

The counsel Driscoll gives is bad counsel. If by his own admission Driscoll's divinations are not "a hundred percent always right," he has no business accusing people of serious sins—including felony crimes—based on what he "sees" in his own imagination. Much less should he encourage his congregants to dream that they have such an ability and urge them to "use that gift."

The salacious details he recounts are totally unnecessary. They serve only to reinforce the concern some of us have raised: Why does Driscoll have such a fixation with obscene subject matter, ribald stories, and racy talk? The smutty particulars regarding a counselee's tryst in a cheap hotel are not merely unnecessary; "it is disgraceful even to speak of [such] things."

Plus Driscoll is FULL of excellent Christian advice as well! Such as say you're a paritioner of his and you feel the need to seek him out because you have been watching pornography. Whether you think that's a huge problem or not, I would think the Pastor, someone who is viewed as a powerful and important person in people's lives, would have a better response than THIS: (from his own book, "Confessions")

“Driscoll writes that the phone rang at ‘some godforsaken hour… when I’m not even a Christian’. He said, ‘some college guy was crying’. Driscoll said that he tried to ‘muster up my inner pastor… and tried to pretend I [he] was concerned’. Since the caller was beating around the bush, Mark blurted out, ‘What have you done?’ When the caller confessed he had watched porno and masturbated, Driscoll actually asked the upset caller, ‘Was it good porno?’ As expected, the caller was left speechless by his question.

Then, Mark told him, ‘Well, you’ve already watched the whole porno and tugged your tool, so what am I suppose to do?’ The caller answered him, ‘You are my pastor, so I thought that maybe you could pray with me.’ But, to the contrary, Mark wrote, ‘I did not want to pray so I just said the first thing that came to mind… Jesus thank you for not killing him for being a pervert. Amen.’ According to Driscoll, the caller was still left unclear about what he was suppose to do, so in Driscoll style, he told the caller, ‘A naked lady is good to look at, so get a job, get a wife, ask her to get naked, and look at her instead.’ (Confessions pp59-60).”

Yeah, that's that man's man Christianity. None of that wimpy hippie Liberal crap that Jesus taught about.

Also there's his troubling views on women's roles in Marriage. Ted Haggard is a former mega church Pastor in Colorado. He was all about Family Values, as most of these Mega-Church people are, and all about how "The Gays" are ruining everything in this country. And if you are supporting "The Gays" then you are just as bad. So here we have this really right wing mega church Pastor in Colorado who is all about Family Values and how the gays are bad. And yes, I know you know where this is heading, even if you've never heard of Haggard.

He got caught with a male prostitute with whom he did various things, including meth. So here you have a "man of God" caught with his pants down (literally) with a male prostitute and drugs. So naturally you would think that Haggard gets 100% of the blame here right? I mean he's in control of his own actions, so...yeah.

Actually you would be wrong. Mark Driscoll had a fantastic view of this whole thing (which he denied he ever spoke on when condescending Jeremy Brierley in the recent radio interview) where he said the following in a blog post which he later removed from his site after he got so much criticism:

Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be helping him either.

Then when the shit hit the fan, he responded with a comment about how he wasn't blaming the wife and that she seemed like a "lovely and very devoted wife".

WOW.

After that many people criticized Driscoll, including Rose Swetman, who is a co-pastor of a church in Seattle Washington, where Driscoll's "Mars Hill Church" is located.

In her very eloquent post she took him to task not just for his past comments about how women should not be in any position of authority in the church because they are "gullible and easily mislead" (also saying that opening the doors to female leaders, would then lead the church doors to open to homosexuals) and said that, as a result of the Episcopalian church electing a female Bishop, that next they'd be electing a "fluffy bunny rabbit", but also for the comments about Haggard's cheating being due to his wife not satisfying her wifely duties and keeping him at home.

Here's a few snippets from her longer piece which you can read in full by clicking HERE:

Your comments above seem to say that you would call me a “Christian” feminist. You teach that women like me are out of God’s intended roles for women in the church and home and that if the church allows women in ministry then homosexuals in ministry would be the next logical conclusion. This is not only offensive to me, it is demeaning of my personhood. I would consider myself a daughter of my Father in heaven rather than a daughter of Eve, as per your wife’s article. I believe the work of Jesus has reversed the curse and set me free. I no longer live in Genesis Chapter 3.

...

It appears to me that in an effort to be cute or funny, neither of which works, this statement is one of the most mean-spirited I have ever read. Even if you had many valid points from your theological lens in your post, to name-call an ordained minister, whether you agree or not, a “bunny rabbit” you need to “man up” and retract such a demeaning statement and issue an apology.

These two comments, no matter how you explain them, are an offense to many women let alone pastors wives, and to me personally. Can’t you see how even posting that women have motives such as this — my husband is a pastor so he is trapped into fidelity so I can sit back and let myself go — is offensive? In the second post, you sound patronizing and demeaning of Gayle Haggard calling her “lovely and devoted.” Please don’t call me out as a feminist that does not want to be considered “lovely’ or “devoted” because that is not my issue.

The issue is that Ted Haggard’s struggle is homosexuality. It did not seem to matter if Gayle Haggard was the most beautiful, devoted woman, and with her husband the most sexuality active woman on the planet, it would not have changed this situation one iota. So for you make this statement in these terms and make it an issue of sexual impropriety, failure, and sin, in my opinion, simply misses the point. It is offensive to talk to men and women this way and certainly reveals something about your character which for this reader seems rather prurient. One of the marks of a great leader is when she or he discovers that they have not faired well under their responsibility to not arbitrarily offend, is to make a public or private apology as the circumstances dictate. Because this was a public statement, it calls for a public apology.

Driscoll would later issue an "apology" which seemed to sooth some people in Seattle who then stopped protesting outside the Mars Hill church, but provides Driscoll with yet another notch in his belt, another thing he can use to attract more impressionable and vulnerable young men and women to his flock. He's this badass "cursing" preacher who is a man's man and watches UFC. YEAH!

But the thing he has done is just mind boggling that anyone would really follow anything he says. I realize he ha a very charming way about him. He's got very good presence and he knows how to speak to a crowd. And the sad thing is that people get wrapped up in that and don't really focus on what he is saying.

Take this comment that he's made repeatedly about his interpretation of The Song of Solomon, which got his program pulled from a Christian Radio Station:

During the sermon, which was entitled “Sex, a Study of the Good Bits from Song of Solomon,” Driscoll interpreted Song of Solomon 2:3 as referring to oral sex and then said, “Men, I am glad to report to you that oral sex is biblical…The wife performing oral sex on the husband is biblical. God’s men said, Amen. Ladies, your husbands appreciate oral sex. They do. So, serve them, love them well. It’s biblical. Right here. We have a verse. ‘The fruit of her husband is sweet to her taste and she delights to be beneath him.’”

[In recounting the story about the man who started coming to Driscoll’s church because his wife began performing oral sex:]

She [the wife] says, “I’ve never performed oral sex on my husband. I’ve refused to.” I said, “You need to go home and tell your husband that you’ve met Jesus and you’ve been studying the Bible, and that you’re convicted of a terrible sin in your life. And then you need to drop his trousers, and you need to serve your husband. And when he asks why, say, ‘Because I’m a repentant woman. God has changed my heart and I’m supposed to be a biblical wife.’” She says, “Really?” I said, “Yeah. First Peter 3 says if your husband is an unbeliever to serve him with deeds of kindness.” [Laughter from audience] How many men would agree, that is a deed of kindness. He doesn’t want tracts. Those won’t do anything. What we’re talking about here could really help.

THIS. IS. A. PASTOR.!!!!! Imagine going to church this Sunday, and your Pastor telling you, "Ladies, God has commanded you to perform oral sex for your husbands. If you've done something wrong in your life? Go down on him and repent!"

Are you kidding me??? Look, I'm a laid back guy. And I realize this guy is trying to be all cool and hip and attracting a demographic from an area of the country which is not exactly full of church going people. And I realize that when you're dealing with younger kids you have to at least try to speak their language a bit.

Ed Lover's message for Mark Driscoll

But THIS? As Ed Lover famously says, "C'mon Son! C'mon!"

And now that brings us to the most recent controversy surrounding Mars Hill Church, and the reason for this post. I first heard about this last night, and I have to admit I was angrier than I think I've been in a long long time. There are certain topics that hit a bit too close to home for me which rile me up more than most. One is discrimination and violence towards the homeless, as I myself was homeless for many years, and this so-called "Church Discipline".

I haven't spoken on this to much of anyone really aside from a few throwaway comments here and there. Enough to basically say I disagreed with something, but I never really went into it because it's something that has caused me pain in my life and still does even though I'm far away from that environment. It still permeates my brain and I don't know if I'll ever get past it.

First let me explain what happened recently that brought all this out, and then I'll get into my thoughts.

On a faith based blog "MatthewPaulTurner.net" which I've read a few times before, they had an exclusive feature in there where a young man named "Andrew" (doubtful it's his real name) had recently left the Mars Hill Church after some truly terrible things went on. He admits his mistakes, but he feels (and so does Matthew, and I definitely do) that their reactions to them went far and beyond anything that should have happened.

Below I'm going to give you little bits and pieces of the much larger piece which was split over two posts.

Andrew was born and raised Independent Fundamental Baptist, so not only was Andrew accustomed to Mark’s anger-laced fiery style of sermon, he had a deep appreciation for it. In the beginning, some of Mars Hill’s reformed theologies rubbed against Andrew’s Baptist roots, but Mark’s enthrallment for preaching “Jesus Christ crucified” eventually was what relieved Andrew’s doctrinal concerns, and it wasn’t long before he became a member. Soon thereafter, he was wading heart deep amid the friendly, committed Mars Hill community, becoming more and more comfortable in his born again reformed skin, guzzling the Driscollized water.

According to Andrew, joining Mars Hill was a good move for him. While he didn’t agree with every theological declaration that came out Mark Driscoll’s mouth, he loved his community, a devoted group of believers who seemed to love, support, and value him the way Jesus commanded. Over the next couple of years, Andrew became well connected. He volunteered. He became active in a community group. He even volunteered on Sundays as church security.

Toward the beginning of 2011, Andrew met and eventually began dating the daughter of a church elder at Mars Hill. The two fell in love quickly. Last fall, they were engaged to be married.

But shortly after becoming engaged, Andrew made a costly choice, one that involved hanging out alone with a female friend he knew from the community college he attended. Andrew and his college friend messed around. They didn’t have sex. But they got close. But what they did and didn’t do isn’t the issue. He cheated on the woman he was planning to marry.

On the following morning, Andrew felt devastated, his brain flashing memories of what he’d done the night before, his heart full of shame, guilt, and hindsight’s remorse.

That evening, Andrew met his fiancee at community group. As soon as she saw his face, she knew something was wrong. After the meeting was finished, they walked outside to his car (he was planning to give her a ride home). A long hard conversation ensued, but at some point in the middle, Andrew confessed.

For obvious reasons, she was devastated, lost. They parted ways: She returned inside and he got in his car sped off. But again, his conscience screamed: You can’t run away from this. So as he turned around, he called one of the small group members and asked, “Can we talk?” He agreed, and when Andrew pulled back into the driveway of house where his community group meets, he confessed to his friend (and fellow community group member) what he’d done the night before.

So after he told the group member, that led to many weeks of "meetings" with the fellowship group. The reaction by them to him changed dramatically to a constant harsh and accusatory tone. He was labeled a "wolf" which according to Andrew, was the worst thing you could be labeled there, because it meant you were viewed as a "predator" someone who preys on the innocent.

According to Andrew, at Mars Hill, the cliche “it takes two to tango” isn’t true. Why? Because Pastor Mark teaches that women are “weaker vessels,” and therefore, when a girl and boy engage in consensual sexual activity, it is always assumed that it’s the man’s fault because he failed to lead the woman (or “weaker vessel”) toward righteousness. (And everybody knows that women can’t find righteousness unless a man leads her there. Ugh.)

“I don’t want people to feel sorry for me. I take responsibility for my actions. I messed up. But that doesn’t make me into a predator.”

At this point, despite all of the meetings, conversations, and tear-inducing confessionals that Andrew has engaged (some by choice, some not by choice), Andrew is not under “church discipline”. Nobody has even mentioned it to him as a possibility. That is, until he begins pushing back.

“After a month of trying to jump through all of their hoops, I’ll admit, I started questioning whether or not Mars Hill was the right church for me.” He admits this isn’t the first he had those thoughts. For a year or so, Andrew had questioned the many of the ideas/values of Mars Hill.

The week before Christmas, Andrew’s community group leader sent him another text message: What’s your schedule like on Wednesday? Another meeting was to be planned, this time with one of Mars Hills family/counseling pastors as well as Andrew’s new community group leader.

Andrew admits that, by this time, he was exhausted. The thought of one more meeting overwhelmed his already very full brain. “But I took some time to pray, and decided that I needed to meet with them and hear what they had to say.”

On the evening of December 18, Andrew met with the pastor and small group leader. It was during this meeting that Andrew first learned that he was being “brought under church discipline.”

And just what does that "Church Discipline" entail? Well they gave "Andrew" a contract that he had to sign, which outlined his "sins" and what he had to do to be accepted again.

1. Andrew will attend (leader's meeting) and meet with (leader) on a regular basis
2. Andrew will not be involved in serving at Mars Hill.
3. Andrew will not pursue or date any woman inside or outside of Mars Hill.
4. Andrew will write out in detail his sexual and emotional attachment history with women and share it with (leader)
5. Andrew will write out in detail the chronology of events and sexual/emotional sin with K and share it with (leader) and Pastor.
6. Andrew will write out a list of all people he has sinned against during this timeframe, either by sexual/emotional sin, lying or deceiving, share it with (Leader) and develop a plan to confess sin and ask forgiveness.

Now the first three, okay. I can understand that. You think someone has some issues and you're sort of putting them through this discipline type program where they need to focus on their issues, that's fine. No problem with that, from me. I think #3 could be a bit of infringing on someone's rights, but hey...it's a church thing and I get it.

However starting with #4 and ending through #6 it becomes less a situation of wanting to help someone, and more a situation (in my opinion) of utterly controlling every aspect of their lives. And to be quite honest it is kinda pervy wankerish to start in on wanting to know every sexual detail of sin he's committed. I mean, really? REALLY?

If I didn't know better I'd think this was about some people wanting to get off by reading about other people's sexual conduct. That is definitely over the line and ridiculous, and thankfully "Andrew" ended his relationship with the church.

Also it's a power thing. They want you to admit to all your deepest darkest sins, so in the future they have something to hang over you. "Do as we say, do you REALLY want all your friends and family to know what you did that one time in college?". Plain and simple it's manipulation and an outright betrayal.

He wrote and told them he did not feel that Mars Hill was the place for him, and said goodbye.

They responded with "oh you're not getting off THAT easy", and has basically excommunicated him from the church, which means everyone in the church (even though many have voiced that they think it's a bit of an overreaction) have shunned him and refuse to have anything to do with him until he repents.

Funny, I though that was between "Andrew" and God, not a middle man. That's one of the beefs I have with Catholicism, where you have to confess all your dirty deeds to a priest who then relays God's forgiveness to you. It's wrong there and it's definitely wrong here.

Driscoll was raised Catholic, so perhaps that has something to do with it.

And there have been MANY people who have found issue with Driscoll's way of doing things, including this fantastic piece over at Big Circumstance.

Now finally to why this makes me so angry. I've written in the past on here about my faith and how growing up I didn't really want to go to church, but it was sort of expected. Once I was given the choice I decided to stop going, mainly because I was getting nothing out of it. I'd go to church and sit there and count the time until I could leave.

After I graduated I moved to a different town and things were fine there until they weren't. Without going into detail on THAT aspect, I ended up homeless. Now one thing that a lot of people perhaps are not aware of, is that the VAST majority of homeless shelters are faith based. Meaning that as a pre-requisite to you staying there, you have to go to church. Call it "rent" or "forced salvation" or whatever you like. However it was clearly stated when you came in there that you had to be at a little mini-service every day (where they'd do a headcount, make sure everyone was there) or you would be kicked out.

Now there were a few exceptions, such as if you had a medical appointment or you had a job (that was verified), however if you did not show up for that service, you were thrown out of the shelter, no matter if you had somewhere else to go or not.

A lot of the residents didn't particularly care for this, but they begrudgingly realized that the alternative was sleeping out in the cold where anything could happen.   So we all just accepted it.

So I bounced around from shelter to shelter and service to service. These services would often be led, not by actual Pastors or anything like that, but staff at the shelter, or in the case of one shelter in Bellingham Washington, "The Lighthouse Mission", anyone that donated money to them could get their own slot. So you'd have a service each night with a different person, none of which were accredited Pastors or anything, they just happened to have money. Money talks and...well...you know the rest.

So I ended up at this church and I kinda liked it, to be honest. It was probably one of the only churches I had been to that really made me want to be there.   The Pastor was really cool and seemed to be easy to talk to and you could relate to him, you know? He was a youngish pastor, where most I had been around were much older.

So I actually enjoyed going to the services. Nothing really struck me out of the ordinary, and eventually I decided that I wanted to take part in the "program" that they had. And seeing as how I didn't actually have a place of my own to live, that place DID become my home. I began to open up to them in ways I hadn't really opened up to anyone. Things that I never really thought I'd tell people. They were like family to me, and I thought that went both ways.

Then I started to disagree with things that were said. I viewed things that went on there, decisions that were made, rules that were implemented, as not quite right. I didn't like how they would treat people who were just coming in off the streets (as I had been at one point). Suddenly my eyes were opened to the abusive mentality that went on under the guise of "toughening" people up.

I'd seen people kicked out of the shelter for bogus reasons, all because they had offended one of the staff.   I saw a deaf man who was staying there kicked out because he came in late one night from work and when he took the breathalyzer test he failed. He showed them the cough spray that he was taking that caused the false positive, and they still threw him out at two in the morning with nowhere to go. There were many things that had gone on that I never even thought about, and then suddenly BOOM! everything was different for me.

It was as if I had suddenly taken the red pill and everything was clear.

However as I'm sure many people who have been in this type of situation knows, questioning authority is NOT allowed in many of these churches.   And so after I questioned one too many times, I was deemed as someone who was not "healthy" to be around.

I was told in no uncertain terms that there were people there that were on their walk to a better self. That they were trying to get their life together and were fragile. And that my being a problem was impacting them and putting their faith and their walk in jeopardy.

I was then slowly but surely shut out of everything. Now at first glance that doesn't seem overly bad. Okay things happen, you pick up and move on. The problem is this: I had grown to really like it there. I loved the people and I became good friends with many. I mean SOLID friendships that I valued greatly. As I said, it was like a family situation. At least to me it was.

Now those were gone. Like it never happened. And it was at that moment that I realized that the whole idea of a "family" that they were touting was nothing but garbage.   Because while I felt an immense pain and agony over my "excommunication", they just seemed to have no problem with shutting me out.   They showed no signs of any hesitation to shun me and to act like I was just some random stranger that looked like a threat.

A few days later I was kicked out due to not being a positive influence on the others who were actually trying to get their lives right. I was viewed as someone that was a liability and not serious about improving my spiritual life.   So there I was, nowhere to go, no one I knew, and I had a (barely) job at a sports bar type restaurant. I ended up taking a paycheck and moving across the country soon after that in an attempt to put that whole situation (and some other stuff) behind me.

To this day that whole situation haunts me. There are days that I long to call some of the "Friends" that I had, and yet I can't.   Even if I had their number, they want nothing to do with me. I'm an "outsider". It's similar to the controversial "Disconnecting" that allegedly goes on with Scientology. Where once you're deemed a trouble maker, you're essentially kicked out and everyone is told to have nothing to do with you.

And to this day I have not been able to get involved in a church. Even if they seem normal or fun. After all, that one seemed fun and normal too. And I refuse to get involved anymore.   Which is why when I run into people who believe that I am not a "proper Christian" it boils my blood. When I have people who are involved in a church tell me that they don't think I'm a "real Christian" and that they don't see me making efforts to improve myself spiritually, it makes me want to do things that perhaps aren't right.

So that is why this situation has hit me so hard and has gotten me so furious.   The utter betrayal of this kid by these people at Mars Hill is beyond justification.   I just hope his faith hasn't been shattered like mine has and he finds a way to reconnect with an actual church.

Mars Hill, predictably, responded to Andrew's story, and their statement is below:

“In recent days, there has been some discussion surrounding Mars Hill Church and our process of church discipline. We do not wish to comment on the specific scenario in question, as this is a private matter between church leadership and members, all of whom have voluntarily agreed to this prior to becoming members. We do want to be as clear and forthright as possible in presenting our theology of repentance, forgiveness, and church discipline and make clear that our convictions on this come from our study of Scripture and our deep love for our members and a desire for them to enjoy the freedom that comes from walking by the Spirit in response to Christ’s work on the Cross on our behalf. At the heart of the process is our deep belief that church discipline is about the grace of God, not penance.” -Pastor Justin Holcomb

So basically it's a "look this is how we do things" statement, without actually owning up to anything. Apparently they want everyone else to own up to their "sins" and wrongdoing, but aren't able to do the same.

Do as I say, not as I do is the way of the Mars Hill gang, apparently.

As a bonus, here's a video of The Young Turks discussing Mark Driscoll, the Pastor of Mars Hill Church, and his belief that masturbation is a form of homosexuality, and how that perhaps shines some light into his own proclivities.

Searching For Chet Baker Podcast #6: 90's R&B

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Well I'm back with another podcast for ya, this time with a theme of 90's R&B. I love 90's era R&B/Hip Hop music, and so I thought I'd post up a compilation that I put together recently for a friend. Hope you all like it, and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

As always thanks to the great K-Murdock whose voice you hear on the intro. Thank you for the support, my friend!

01. Intro feat. K-Murdock
02. Honey - Mariah feat. The Lox, Mase & Puffy
03. Tell Me - Groove Theory feat. Sadat X & Grand Puba
04. Old Times Sake - Sweet Sable
05. If You Love Me - Brownstone
06. I Love You - Mary J. Blige feat. Smiff N' Wessun
07. Every Little Thing I Do - Soul IV Real
08. You're Making Me High - Toni Braxton
09. You Remind Me - Usher feat. Method Man & Blu Cantrell
10. Shy Guy - Diana King
11. Be Happy - R. Kelly feat. Notorious B.I.G.
12. You're All I Need - Mary J. Blige feat. Method Man
13. Dolly My Baby - Supercat feat. Notorious B.I.G. & Puffy
14. No One Else - Total Feat. Da Brat
15. Sending My Love - Zhane
16. You Remind Me - Mary J. Blige
17. Anything (remix) - SWV
18. My Everything - Barry White & Faith Evans

SFCB Podcast #6: 90's R&B

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:29:00 +0000

01. Intro feat. K-Murdock
02. Honey - Mariah feat. The Lox, Mase & Puffy
03. Tell Me - Groove Theory feat. Sadat X & Grand Puba
04. Old Times Sake - Sweet Sable
05. If You Love Me - Brownstone
06. I Love You - Mary J. Blige feat. Smiff N' Wessun
07. You're Making Me High - Toni Braxton
08. You Remind Me - Usher feat. Method Man & Blu Cantrell
09. Shy Guy - Diana King
10. Be Happy - R. Kelly feat. Notorious B.I.G.
11. You're All I Need - Mary J. Blige feat. Method Man
12. Dolly My Baby - Supercat feat. Notorious B.I.G. & Puffy
13. No One Else - Total Feat. Da Brat
14. Sending My Love - Zhane
15. You Remind Me - Mary J. Blige
16. Anything (remix) - SWV
17. My Everything - Barry White & Faith Evans

[INTERVIEW] Isamu Jordan from The Flying Spiders

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 01:38:00 +0000

Isamu Jordan is the front man of the Spokane Washington hip hop collective known as The Flying Spiders. Having been together since late 2010, the group has just recently released their debut EP which you can pick up via Bandcamp, and are playing this weekend (January 21st) at Zola's which is located at 22 West Main Street in Spokane Washington.

Isamu was kind enough to answer some questions for the fans out there.

SFCB: Tell us about The Som Show and how that came about?

ISAMU JORDAN: The Som Show is basically a living resume of everything I do connected with music, more so focused on my work as a multimedia journalist, event coordinator and concert promoter. The web site is fairly inactive at the moment, but it's also been the site where voters decide the winners of the annual Sommy Awards, the local music awards event that presented by The Som Show -- Spokane's Online Music Show. Also, The Som Show internet micro-series episodes continue to circulate through youtube and live show highlights appear in The Som Show's High Five picks that are published an online newsletter. The brand is multifaceted and "lives" in a number of incarnations.

SFCB: You are the Program Coordinator for Intercultural Student Services at Whitworth University here in Spokane Washington. How long have you had that position, and what exactly does that entail?

ISAMU JORDAN: I have been at Whitworth University a little longer than the band has been put together, but not by much... Just over a year. Basically I help provide resources and support for students from underrepresented student populations. For example, my office helps facilitate pre-orientation training for student leadership, international students and freshmen students. We also design programming for leadership initiatives and assist student government programming. The duties are broad but the focus is on providing all students with tools to assist in their academic, mental, emotional, physical and spiritual success and well-being.

SFCB: Recently during a few speeches, Republican Presidential candidates, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have made comments that some have viewed as equating welfare with black people, despite the fact that, according to an October 2010 government report, White people account for just over 34% of all food assistance recipients in the country, with African Americans making up slightly over 21%.

And while I think that the key to fighting misinformation like this is through education, it's frustrating because some of the same people in power who are pushing these lies all of these years, are also the same ones who are trying to cut education funding and modify text books to only tell their side of history.

How do you combat that? When the people are pushing damaging falsehoods based on negative stereotypes, and they seemingly control the flow of information, how do you deal with that? That's something that frustrates me because simply having a voice online or even on TV doesn't seem to do it. There are still people who think the President was born in Kenya even AFTER the facts have been revealed, so simply speaking truth to power, so to speak, doesn't necessarily seem to work at times in the face of such cognitive dissonance.

ISAMU JORDAN: This is as complicated as it is simple, but I don't have any easy answer for you. But if I were a cynical person I might say it's not surprising that there are more White people on government assistance than Black. If there were more Black people than White people on government assistance, a cynical person might say, it would have never taken effect in the first place. America's White power structure has a tradition of taking care of its constituents with more urgency than their African American counterparts, historically speaking. But even history is a fixed fight if you go by what is presented in the media and in the education system.

Fighting misinformation is a sleepless war but, and I love to quote Professor Xavier, "Any dream worth having is worth fighting for."

We've got a heavy job, to be sure.

SFCB: So let's talk about your band, now. Your band is called The Flying Spiders, and is in fact a band. You play your own instruments, so it's not all drum kits and keyboards. First off, what is the origin of the name of the band?

ISAMU JORDAN: It's very Batman. The name Flying Spiders represents me embracing my greatest fear with initiating this project. If Spiders learned to fly they'd be unstoppable. Also, it's a metaphor of what much of this band is about in terms of the dexterity of it being instrument-laden hip-hop, giving us a vivid pallet in a highly adaptive environment.

Hip-hop, with its sampling heritage, can incorporate any style or genre of music into it's boom-boom tick formula. So while Flying Spiders is hip-hop, all that means is we have access to any genre we want as long as it makes your head nod. It's Batman, and it's evolutionary and polymorphic.

SFCB: So I've read online about the band and there seems to be a different number of members quoted each time I've seen something. So how many actual members are there in The Flying Spiders? Because you guys seem almost like The Wu-Tang Clan or the Kennedy family. We're not 100% sure just how many of you guys there are.

ISAMU JORDAN: It's tricky to nail down because not only is there a varied lineup when we perform live, we also regularly perform in collaboration with guests and friends. But if you go by the album credits on our new "Doppelganger" EP, there are 10 Spiders (plus the three guests on the album, including two singers and a vibraphonist), although only nine appear on the album. On our forthcoming "Spokane Finest EP" there are 12 Spiders planned for the recording plus three guests on organ, trumpet and sax, plus the recording debut of two Spiders lead vocalists, so it won't just be my voice as people are used to at this point. Every time you see the band the lineup is different.

The same is true of each song, and that obviously extends to each album. Again, it's a deliberate part of this band's polymorphic evolution, this band is whatever it is at the moment. Sometimes the percussion is powered by a live drum kit, some times it's a human beatbox. Sometimes the saxophonist is playing flute, sometimes the lead emcee is playing tambourine, and sometimes the pianist is playing a spaceship. We do have a quorum for stage and rehearsal, but Flying Spiders is what it is depending on where it is and when it is. We rarely, if ever use all 12+ colors at once, and even if we did, there are an infinite number of shapes those colors can together take. It's whatever the song calls for.

Most of the songs have bass, but few of the songs have violin. We have a trombonist in Seattle and cellist in Portland. It's synesthetic and in the present tense. That's part of the freedom. We declare ourselves as not having to declare ourselves. Our only rule is, we are not governed by rules. We can be whatever we want to be however many times we want to be it.

SFCB: With there being so many members, how difficult is it to get everyone together for a show? Does that inhibit the amount of shows you guys can do?

ISAMU JORDAN: It is challenging to get everyone in the same room at the same time, people performing live as much as getting together to powwow, or rehearse, is always good incentive because we all enjoy being together. Surprisingly, we played six shows in December and five November. Sometimes the challenge is in not playing too many shows.

SFCB: So you guys have been around for a little over a year now, and I was wondering for a local band starting out, how difficult was it to get bookings? I wasn't sure whether starting out if it took awhile before you were getting stage time, or if right off the bat there were openings and bars and clubs were just "hey, come on in and set up and let's see what you got."

ISAMU JORDAN: Flying Spiders has only been around for a year, but several of its members have all been around the scene in some capacity for a long time and many of whom have existing contacts with other bands they play in, or work with or what have you. With so many members scheduling may not be convenient, but we also have the advantage of pooling our resources together to be self-sustainable.

SFCB: The thing I like is that not only do you play your own instruments, but also the lyrical content is on point. Too often you have groups that their lyrics aren't engaging or they aren't really about anything. And you seem to be able to bridge that gap between fun stuff and serious topics.

ISAMU JORDAN: Thanks! I think it's strange that an emcee is expected to have a limited faculty of emotions. "I'm the angry pro-Black rapper," or "I'm the comedy rapper" or "I'm the party rapper," An emcee should be able to relate a myriad emotional experiences, as a very fundamental requirement for the job.

SFCB: I watched your video for "Spokane's Finest" and living in Spokane I thought I might recognize some of the places, but despite living here for 10 years I still couldn't tell you where anything in this city is. Where was the video shot? I kind of recognized the park but not quite.

ISAMU JORDAN: Spokane's Finest was filmed in three locations -- on Manito Blvd. on the South Hill, at a studio lounge at KCDA, and at Larry's Barber Shop, Spokane's longest-running black-owned barber shop in the East Central neighborhood.

SFCB: I saw a video online that I really dug of you and a few members playing in what looked like your living room. The track was "BlackMail". What exactly was that video, was it just you guys jamming or learning a new song?

ISAMU JORDAN: Yeah, that was us practicing the song for the first time in Raj's living room. And since Raj, our violinist, wasn't on the song he turned on his camera and documented it. That's a straight-up live take of the first time we got through that song successfully. Incidentally, Raj produced and directed the video for "Spokane's Finest." He's a gifted photographer and filmmaker.

SFCB: Now, you guys just put out the "The Doppelganger EP: Villaging Trilogy Pt. I", which is available at Bandcamp at a "name your price" model (with a minimum of $1). What made you go the route of the slightly modified "name your own price"?

We've seen some high profile artists utilze this model, such as Radiohead and poet Saul Williams however it seems that it's almost always a situation where it's a one-off. They'll do it with one album that they distribute entirely on the internet and independent of a label, but then the next album and the rest of their albums will be in the stores, through the regular medium. And there's been discussions on whether or not that's a viable option for continued distribution, considering that honestly there's a lot of people who given the chance won't pay if they don't have to.

I remember Stephen King did a similar thing with an ebook serial called "The Plant" where he'd release it in installments for a $1 each installment, however it was on the honor system. He stated that as long as 75% of the downloaders paid their $1, then he'd keep on putting out installments, but threatened to shut it down if not.

The first three installments of about 20 pages each got anywhere from 70% to 85% paid downloads, however on the fourth he increased the price to $2 but also doubled the length to about 50+ pages. The pay rate dropped to 40% (as did the number of overall downloads), and the installments stopped soon after that.

King viewed the experiment as a way to potentially change how things were done, having already released the very first mass market ebook previously with "Riding The Bullet". How do you feel about the model, and how has it worked out for you and your EP?

ISAMU JORDAN: We know people want to support us, our friends and family who don't live in Spokane or what have you, so we just wanted to make it easily available. The price is pretty arbitrary. People who buy it online typically pay more than $1 because they want to, and people who download it free do so because they want to. We can't stop anyone for getting it for free. It's the internet. But we can also make it as easy as possible to buy, too.

SFCB: So now that you have put your debut EP out there, what is in store for The Flying Spiders in 2012?

ISAMU JORDAN: Spoiler Alert: We played our first show on 10.10.10. Released our first album on 11.11.11. It's a pretty safe bet all 12 of us will be at the same party 12.12.12. We've also got some volcanic plans for the 32 anniversary of Mount St. Helens.

SFCB: Isamu, thank you very much and I appreciate you taking your time to answer some questions.

Isamu and The Spiders will be playing at Zola's on 22 West Main Street, in Spokane Washington tomorrow night (Saturday the 21st of January) at 9pm. For information you can check the Flying Spiders' Facebook page!

The "Boycott Floyd & Manny Campaign" Needs To Happen!

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:04:00 +0000

Photo courtesy of Pound4Pound.com

In recent months (and let's be honest, years) there has been this back and forth between the camps of Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather over a potential fight. The fight has not been made at this point due to the posturing and overwhelming egos of pretty much everyone involved here. Whether it's Floyd's throwing out rarely ever done drug testing demands under the guise of "cleaning up the sport" but in reality nothing but a carpet bombing towards Manny's accomplishments for the intent of the Public to question everything he had done, or it was Manny's side coming out with excuse after excuse after excuse of why they couldn't take said tests, or it's Floyd and his family going all out in interviews flat out accusing Manny of taking drugs (in Floyd's case it attempts at subtlety, while his father and uncle were less covert), it's just been one stumble after another.

This fight will never be made, in my opinion, and to be honest with you, I don't care if it doesn't get made. I'm a fan of boxing, but there are way more interesting fights that I'd be interested in seeing before this hypothetical one. However there are many who do want to see it.

And there are many who feed and thrive off of every nugget thrown out about this so-called fight. And as a result, Bob Arum, Manny's promoter, and Floyd Mayweather along with Golden Boy who are his de-facto promoters, have thrived off it all the media attention that has come. A quick google search reveals millions of hits and thousands of news articles about the most random nonsense.

Everytime some obscure writer in another continent says that someone close to Manny has agreed to everything asked, everyone runs with it as if this is the first time anyone's ever made that statement. And everytime Floyd's father goes and does any boxing interview that will have him, he's guaranteed to make one asinine and inflammatory statement after another.

And the world keeps on spinning.

I have felt for awhile that I wish people would just stop talking about these two. They're not going to fight each other because there's really no incentive to. They both have WAY too much to lose if they fight and so they won't. However I have felt that my not writing about them changes nothing. Who am I? I run a multi-topic blog and have written about Mayweather a handful of times over the years so my not writing about him won't do a damn bit of good.

But now there is a more prominent boxing site that has decided to do just that. Boycott the Bullshit, is what it SHOULD be called, however it is simply a boycott on all things Mayweather and Pacquiao. No more nonsense about stipulations being agreed to, no more arguments over sites, no more discussions of drug testing or how much money can be made. Nothing.

William Trillo and Bret Newton over at Pound4Pound.com have introduced their own little blackout while asking other boxing writers to join in the fight. I'm not a boxing writer in the sense that they are, however I gladly take up arms in the good fight for the return of some sort of sanity.

No more enabling these egotistical pricks who have sidetracked, hijacked and sabotaged a sport that I love. So anyone out there who is a boxing writer or just a blogger who has written about the sport in the past, I encourage you to join in and just put your foot down.

No more to this bullshit. There are way too many excellent fighters to watch and fights to be made to focus on two guys who aren't going to fight each other and a "super fight" that will never be made. The first step is always the hardest, I suppose, as it's very tempting to write everytime something new happens. But just remember that you're only feeding the addict, which in this case is everyone at Top Rank, Golden ?Boy and most of all Team Mayweather. They need the attention like a junkie needs his fix.

It's time to stop enabling the addicts. Before we all overdose.

[REVIEW] Amber Ojeda: Space.Bar.Love

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:13:00 +0000

RATING: 4 CHET BAKERS

Remember the name Amber Ojeda. Because the San Diego artist will be the next big music star. I don't say that lightly, and I've never said that about someone in a review before, but listening to her album "Space.Bar.Love" I'm shocked that she isn't a major star already.

It's the most perplexing thing to me that she is not already a multi-platinum artist that is permeating every facet of the music aspect of the media. Her music should be on the radio every day, at least twice a day. She should have music videos on ... whatever channels still exist for music videos.

And while her music has been featured in some TV series and films, she should be all over. Her music should be in movie trailers, where it's that one song that gets stuck in your head after watching it, and you just have to track it down and listen to it. She should be on a ton of music magazines, she should be on every music blog that there is.

However she is not. Yet. I predict that she will be, at the very least much more well known than she is now by the end of 2012.

I love the way that Amber is able to balance some of the soulfully jazzy tracks with this lounge type vibe to them that evoke memories of another indie artist named Ondine Darcyl, with the more uptempo and danceable tracks which are more reminiscient of Nelly Furtado at times. I've always loved artists that can deftly combine various styles of music into a single effort and really pull it off. Amber pulls it off very well, and she is an immense talent that everyone should hear.

With a lot of indie artists when you hear their product, it doesn't come off as polished as it could be. There are some that I've received to review and the so-called "finished" product was just a mess, and it made me figure they didn't care enough about their work to put in the proper time and effort. Which in turn, made me not able to enjoy the work and I ended up not reviewing them.

Amber's album is extremely well done both in the production values and the overall presentation. Her album cover is quite honestly one of the better I've seen. It's fairly simple in execution, and yet it's just so fantastic and is just another illustration of the professional image that Amber has.

From the opening of the album on the track "Comma (Midtro)", I was hooked with the smooth mellow track, and the spoken word type rap, along the lines of Natalie Stewart aka The Floacist from the UK Soul group Floetry. As the album progressed, it varied between the loungy jazz tracks and the more mid-tempo R&B/soul tracks, and then the uptempo tracks.

All in all, this album is a gem and is not to be missed. Do yourself a favor and get this as soon as possible. You will not be sorry. Actually what you will be sorry for, which is the same thing I was regretting, is that you hadn't heard of Amber before now. All really good artists have that moment that they come into the collective awareness of the music fans.

Space.Bar.Love is that moment, for Amber Ojeda. Perhaps the Mayans got it wrong after all. 2012 doesn't mark the end of our world, it just marks the beginning of Amber Ojeda's introduction to the world that sadly has missed out on her up to this point. She's already been featured in small roles on a few excellent television shows, namely Veronica Mars and the cancelled-too-soon, Terriers, and I imagine that she's got big things ahead of her in 2012 and beyond.

I cannot recommend this album enough, and you can pick up "Space.Bar.Love" at Amazon's MP3 store or Itunes.

Follow Amber Ojeda on Twitter for all the latest news & info on this incredible artist on the rise.

The Curious Case of Jakadrian Turner & The Columbian Deportation

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 02:11:00 +0000

When I first heard the story of Jakadrian Turner, a fourteen year old girl who been deported to Columbia due to the I.C.E. agents believing she was an undocumented immigrant, I was outraged. The story went that she had run away from home because she had been through some troubling times. Her grandfather had passed away, and her parents were going to be getting a divorce. So sometime after that she got arrested for stealing some money, and when asked for her identity, she made up a name and unfortunately for her, that name was one of an undocumented immigrant that the officials had been looking for. Believing her to be the woman from Columbia, a 22 year old, Turner was then sent to Columbia where she lived for a year until her grandmother found her on Facebook.

I was outraged at the idea of this level of incompetence on the part of the government that they could have a fourteen year old black girl in their custody and mistake her for a 22 year old Spanish woman and there was no way they could A. tell that the girl they had was much younger and B. couldn't verify the story.

However as I began to read more about this story, things just didn't add up for me and I began to find myself sympathizing with Turner less and less. To be clear, the I.C.E. agents CLEARLY did not do their job. They had to have fingerprinted Turner, so did no one bother to run those prints?

However I think that Turner deserves much more condemnation and criticism than I am seeing from people, and allow me to explain why.

First off, when you read the account of what happened, it appears that Turner REPEATEDLY claimed that her name was Tika Lanay Cortez, who happened to be a 22 year old undocumented immigrant who had been on the radar of I.C.E. She reportedly continued to insist that was her name throughout the hearings on the case and leading up to her being put on a plane to Columbia. So while I.C.E. damn sure shoulda crossed their T's and dotted their I's here, and made sure that this was who she claimed to be, I don't know how you don't blame Turner some in this matter.

Another issue to question is what is the mentality of someone who is willing to be shipped off to a foreign country where they know nobody, don't speak the language, and is going to be thousands and thousands of miles away from everyone they know and care about? What does it say about Turner, that she not only continued to insist that she was this Cortez woman, even after she found out that they were accusing her of being an undocumented immigrant, even after she realized they were going to deport her to Columbia, she still continued to lie and say she was someone she was not.

Courtesy of Washington Post Blog:

Turner was deported because she assumed the false identity of a Colombian woman. Turner is now 15 and possibly being held in a detention center in Colombia.

The agency says Turner first assumed the identity, calling herself Tika Lanay Cortez, when she was arrested on state charges for theft by the Houston Police Department. Turner told police that she was an adult from Colombia with no legal status in the United States, and went through an entire trial, was charged, convicted and served time under the name Tika Lanay Cortez. Records from court indicated that it convicted a 21-year-old woman from Columbia. Her defense attorney believed that to be true as well.

Upon her conviction, ICE says Turner was referred to them, where she continued to maintain a false identity during immigration court proceedings. The agency did fingerprints and record checks to verify that the woman was Tika Lanay Cortez, and nothing came up to invalidate her claim. When she went before an immigration lawyer, Turner continued to say she was a Colombia woman. She was interviewed at the Colombian consulate, where she also kept up the false identity.

Turner was ultimately ordered removed from the United States by a Department of Justice immigration judge last year.

I.C.E. officials have stated that many people are under the impression that if they claim they are a foreign national, that they can get out of jail time. Perhaps that is what happened here. I have to think there's more to this story though. On her facebook and twitter accounts while in Columbia, Turner often spoke of her being born in Columbia and how she missed those in Houston and wanted to return, but that Columbia was her home.

Whether or not she was truly born in Texas and where in the hell she got the name Tika Lanay Cortez from (as it doesn't seem like a generic name, but I'm a gringo so perhaps my opinion of what's generic doesn't count), I don't know. And the fact that she gave the birth date of Cortez and that must have matched what they had.

The I.C.E. agents also stated that they ran her finger prints but she was not in the system and so nothing came back. Therefore they only had her word to fall back on, and as I posted before, she continued to lie and state that her name was Tika and that she was from Columbia and was in this country undocumented.

Now she's back home with her family, and while I hope things go well for her, I can't imagine that this situation is done with. Someone will look into her story and background and I imagine we will discover just what her connection with Tika is, if any, and what caused her to continue to lie again and again and again. That is not something that someone does simply because their parents are getting divorced and their grandfather passes on.

We all react differently to tragic things in our lives, and a fourteen year old dealing with her grandfather passing and then her parents splitting up could be a horrible thing. However is that something that would cause you to want to leave the country and end up in a very dangerous place like Columbia where you know no one or anything?

It's strange to say the least and I'm kind of interested to learn more about what happened here because I honestly don't think we know what the hell is going on in this case.

I do know one thing though, and that is Turner is not the innocent victim that she's being made out to be. She's just as much to blame for this (if not more so) as the I.C.E agents who fumbled this situation.

[REVIEW] The Flying Spiders: Doppelganger EP: The Villaging Trilogy Pt. 1

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:21:00 +0000

RATING: 4 CHET BAKERS

Good music is a thing of beauty. Really good music, often times, is very difficult to find. There are the old standbys of course, the old reliables that you can always count on to come with good solid meaningful music, however it seems that as the years go by the quality of new music seems to drop.

Not to say there aren't good music acts out there, it's just a matter of discovering them. The stuff that gets pushed and marketed tend to be the most generic and easily digested of the selections. Things that aren't really challenging anything and often are not really saying anything beyond generic cliched messages.

That's why you have to go beyond the mainstream and search out the music that is lying there bubbling beneath the surface. To search out those groups that are creating music that is truly saying something and doing somethng that is genuinely creative. Recently a musician friend of mine stopped by and gave me a disc of a group he said that he felt I'd like.

I've gotten to be kinda particular with what I listen to, but he knows that some of the groups I like are those who sort of combine multiple genres into a single act. Acts like Gangstagrass (Hip Hop + Bluegrass), Apocalyptica (Metal + Classical) or whatever, I enjoy multi-genre music. Creative offerings that truly try different things without fear of whether or not it'll be accepted.

The band that my friend introduced me to is a local Spokane Washington group known as The Flying Spiders. I don't get out a lot and don't really frequent the live scene here in Spokane so I had not heard of them, however they've been around for about a year now, premiering in October of 2010, so they are relatively new and have just put out their debut "Doppleganger EP: The Villaging Trilogy Part 1".

The Flying Spiders are billed as a "Hip Hop Orchestra", and while I agree with that description, I sort of view The Flying Spiders as a multi-cultural Jam Band. According to their facebook page, there are currently twelve members of the group, and a revolving set of guest musicians making up this collective. Some nights you will get all of them, and other nights you may get seven or eight of them, when you go see them live.

Reminds me of the days of The Rat Pack (another of my all time favorite groups), where the Rat Pack had evolved from the early days of Sinatra, Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, David Niven and others, and then into the 60's it became the version that most people know which was Frank, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. The Pack also included extended members Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop and the "Rat Pack Mascots" which included Shirley MacLaine, Marilyn Monroe, Angie Dickinson and Juliet Prowse.

And since there were so many members of the group, often no one knew who would show up on the stage when they bought their tickets to the show and sat down. Sometimes Dean would play a show, and then several of the others would just show up out of the blue and join him on stage and sing and do their acts. So often the casinos and hotels where they would perform would include on their sign, the following: "DEAN MARTIN - MAYBE FRANK - MAYBE SAMMY". And I think that the Spiders are sort of like that, as there are so many who are in the Spiders collective, that you never know what surprises are in store for you when you go to a show.

There will be obvious comparisons of this band to The Roots, as they are making their bones as a live hip hop band and they play their own instruments. While listening to their EP I often would think of how much, at times, they would remind me of other jam bands that would incorporate various musical styles into their music such as Dave Matthews Band and Jamiroquai. The Spiders utilize everything from hip hop to funk to soul to electronic to jazz to just about anything they can think to add that will work.

As I listened to their EP, I thought about the transition from being a live "jam band" used to improvisation and just getting up on stage and doing your thing, and getting into a more sterile and controlled environment, and laying down a studio recording. You run the risk of losing the element of what makes them so great.

While living in Charlottesville, Virginia, there was this band called "The Secret" which was only together for a few years, and were flat out fantastic live. You go to their shows, and it was just an experience to behold. They would get on stage and everything just clicked and would just groove. They were this beast on stage combining funk and soul and blues and jazz and rock and it was just amazing. Then they put out their debut CD and ... it was just not the same. I mean it was THEM and it wasn't them, if that makes sense.

It was like they were inhibited and restrained from what it was that made them such a wonder to see. They were unable to translate their success as a live act into a studio environment, and it was just a bad result. And I wonder still if that may have played a role in their breaking up a year or so after the release of their debut.

I haven't been able to see the Spiders live at this point, however I've found a few videos online of them playing live and while it's not the greatest sample size, I don't really think that they lose a lot when you hear them on the EP. It's clearly not going to be the same vibe as a live recording as there's so many elements that come into play that affect the overall feel to a live show, however I think where "The Secret" failed, The Flying Spiders has succeeded. Where the Secret seemed lackluster and restrained on their studio release, the Flying Spiders EP is still full of life and emotions.

Another thing I like about the group is that their songs tackle topics that we see affecting our lives, whether it's racism or political machinations of this country we live in, or the ways the society that we are influenced by, in turn influences how we go about our lives and bring up the next generation.

Whether it's lead rapper Isamu Jordan's (Program Coordinator for Intercultural Student Services at the local Whitworth University) pointing fingers at his own flaws ("And I'm an alcoholic, another statistic of an economic slaughter"), calling out what he feels is a sad state of affairs among the Black community ("Black America, what has it come to, you hate that your brother has more money than you ... we can act all chummy and invite your friends over and chill, but there'd better be some money involved.") or lamenting other political issues, The Flying Spiders have established themselves as a group to be taken seriously and that they have something to say.

It's not all serious heavy subject matters though, as there are some playful lines as well including one of my favorites, "Hail to the Thief, I stole the show and jacked the beat and blacked out on 'em." and of course the "I've got that big diction" which of course is a crowd pleaser to be sure.

And while I loved Spokane's Finest, in part because it utilizes a re-interpreted sample of Wu-Tang's Reunited which is one of my all time favorite instrumentals, I think my favorite track on the EP is "Rainmaker" Some of the lines just left me stunned and seriously contemplating the meanings after the song was over. Particularly the line of "This time the "Master" is our own race, 400 years of practice and we've made ourselves slaves." I've had conversations with my friend Miami Kaos about this very subject several times in the past and while we have differing thoughts on it, the fact is that it is a devastating problem today.

From beginning to end, this EP is solid. From the 8-bit like synths in the opening track, "Subject Matters", to the Wu-Tang sampled "Spokane's Finest" which closes, this is a really fantastic offering, and one I encourage everyone to pick up. You can go to The Flying Spider's bandcamp page where you can pick up their EP which is priced as a "Pay What You Want" offering. While the minimum is $1, you can offer more than that if you want to support independent music.

JOIN THE FLYING SPIDERS FACEBOOK PAGE TO STAY UP ON ALL UPCOMING LIVE PERFORMANCES

VISIT THE FLYING SPIDERS BANDCAMP

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://flyingspiders.bandcamp.com/album/the-doppelganger-ep-villaging-trilogy-pt-i"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;The Doppelganger EP: Villaging Trilogy Pt. I by Flying Spiders&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Through The Soul's Window Available Now!

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 02:49:00 +0000

So the day has finally arrived, slightly earlier than expected. I am now officially a self-published author. My collection of short stories is now available to purchase on Amazon's Kindle Store. This moment is the culmination of many years of writing and thinking that the idea of selling my work was just a fantasy.

Fantasy no more.

If you are interested in purchasing this, you can do so by going to the Amazon Kindle Store and picking up my collection of short stories, "Through The Soul's Window" which is priced at $2.99. If you would prefer your copy in .PDF or another format, please email me and I will sell to you directly, as Amazon only seems to sell for the Kindle (as far as I know).

Thanks for the support and for those who buy it I hope you enjoy it!

And I can't say this enough, thank you from the bottom of my heart to Miami Kaos who did the fantastic cover art for my book.

[REVIEW] Marvin Ambrosius: A Taste of Ambrosius

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:02:00 +0000

RATING: 4 CHET BAKERS

The other day I came across this mixtape called "A Taste of Ambrosius" by singer Marvin Ambrosius.

Marvin Ambrosius seems to be less of a reflection of today's R&B scene as much as he is a throwback to the old 90's artists that were very soulful and seductive at the same time with a bit of a club feel. Imagine Jodeci with a UK twist.

One of the interesting aspects of the 90's style of R&B (and to an extent it still goes on) was the penchant for lyrics that in another context would be problematic.

Comedian Elon James White who has the excellent podcast "This Week in Blackness" had a brilliant video up about the song "Please Excuse My Hands" by Jamie Foxx, The Dream and Plies, and joked about some of the suspect lyrics in there and deduced that it was one of the "top 10 most rapiest songs ever".

Ambrosius' lyrics aren't quite in that category, however I must note that the song Hush has a lyric that I posted on twitter and sarcastically noted that it was the most romantic line ever. I won't even spoil it by posting it here, so go out and cop the mixtape and hear it for yourself.

The thing about that 90's era sex jams type music is that there were lyrics that were CLEARLY about the act of getting down, and yet as with a lot of lyrics I'm sure, you could take those lyrics out of that song and put them in another situation and it could be "Game Over" time, if ya know what I mean.

I was digging this tape from the moment the synths began on the opening track, "Mixtape". As I mentioned above this feels kind of like a throwback to some of that really dope 90's R&B/soul music, just with a modern UK twist to it. Most of the songs are the more up tempo ones, although it has a few of the slower tracks, including the spectacular closing song "(The Real) Marvin's Room".

Overall this is a very solid mixtape by an artist that is on the rise now. When I was on his bandcamp page, I saw the tags for the music and it had it listed as "Futuristic R&B". I had just done a review for Dezaray Dawn's EP which is also in this genre and I mentioned in that review that I had never really heard that genre mentioned before.

Now that I've heard that and this I have a better idea of what that entails, and I get it. I like it as well. As I mentioned there as well there's a UK soul/electronic band that kinda fits into that category as well called Slow Train Soul and I heard little elements of them in Dezaray and Marvin's releases, which is a good thing, I believe.

I highly encourage you to go and get this if you can. You can get this by going to Marvin Ambrosius' Bandcamp page and downloading it. It's FREE! What are you waiting for?

Highlights: Mixtape, Download Me,(The Real) Marvin's Room, Soula System

FOLLOW MARVIN AMBROSIUS ON TWITTER

CHECK OUT MARVIN AMBROSIUS' BANDCAMP PAGE

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://mpamusic.bandcamp.com/album/a-taste-of-ambrosius"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;A Taste Of Ambrosius by MPA&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Christopher Hitchens Passes On, a Disbeliever til the End

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:38:00 +0000

When I learned of the passing of Christopher Hitchens on Friday, I figured that things would be interesting in the coming days. Whenever a controversial figure dies, there's usually a strange way in how different people react. Supporters mourn and remember, detractors will mock and ridicule and snark. When the person who has died is a political/religious figure, then it's even more so.

Hitchens was a proud and avowed Atheist, the author of books with titles like "God is Not Great", and had made many enemies among those who believe in God. I was not a fan of his and refused to listen to much of what he said, not because he did not believe as I do in the existence of God (as even I have questions and issues surrounding the idea of my faith) however it was the way he went about it.

I wrote a blog post a year or two ago about this new brand of Atheism that seeks not just to elocute their positions on the issue of Religion, but who felt that it was their job to denigrate and disparage anyone who believes in God or any faith. That it wasn't enough to simply disagree and offer reasons why, they had to belittle and disrespect anyone who does believe in a higher power, as being delusional or mentally ill.

That was my issue with Hitchens, as he had that smugness about him that conveyed just what he felt about those who believe in God and it went beyond the idea of simply relating your view points (which he did well), and into the territory of openly mocking and trying to infuriate his opponents.

He even went so far as to say, after being diagnosed with Cancer, that in his final days he would NOT suddenly become a Christian and that if anyone heard that he had it was either a lie, or that he had lost his mental health.

And of course my opinion is colored by the fact that it was my Faith that he was mocking (along with others), so I at least acknowledge that.

Now that he has passed there is the obvious responses from many out there. While there are many Christians who have mourned Hitchen's passing and lamented that he was a worthy adversary, there are others who are seemingly reveling in the idea that Hitchens will soon find out that there IS a God, and that he will be regretting his decision.

A typical response came from conservative radio host Bryan Fischer who posited that since God loves Hitchens, then that meant that Hitchens was burning in Hell. His reasoning being that because God loved him, God would never want to place Hitchens in a place he hated (Heaven) and therefore showed His love by placing him in Hell.

Look, I've gone overboard in my posts on this blog about extremism as it pertains to rhetoric or actions, and so I'm not going to go in on Fischer for his stupid comments. I think they stand on their own and people should realize how stupid they are.

However I think that with Hitchens it's a special situation. He made his life about mocking and deriding a huge segment of the population. He thrived on conflict and he enjoyed riling people up over his beliefs, or more specifically his non belief of their beliefs. And as such, I think it's a situation where people feel that it's more than warranted for them to turn that mocking back on him now.

I've never felt comfortable kicking someone when they are down. I didn't feel good when Hitchens was diagnosed with Cancer, and I'm not feeling good about it now that he's passed. I don't celebrate the deaths of others, even in the case of Bin Laden when he was taken out. I wrote a piece about that as well and how I felt uneasy about how everyone celebrated the death of someone, even someone as reprehensible as Bin Laden. As a Christian I perhaps wanted more from us.

However when you make your living antagonizing and mocking and ridiculing those who are your opposition, then I suppose it's only natural that eventually the shoe will be on the other foot and when you fall on hard times, or pass on, it's inevitable that things will shift and they will mock you.

Now the idea of mocking the dead is not something that appeals to me and the idea of doing so is just incredible. Anyone who does it is someone who is seriously morally bankrupt and I would question their idea of being a Christian (if they in fact consider themselves as such).

So yeah. Hitch is dead, and the Atheist movement has lost a huge voice. A strong voice. A voice not soon to be replaced, I think. There's plenty of strong voices in the Atheist movement, but Hitch was probably the biggest shining star in their group. I mourn today for his passing and his family and friends. He was not someone that I had any interest in associating with or reading/listening to him and perhaps that signals a sort of intolerance within me of hearing opposing views. I've certainly been accused of that in the past so it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

That said, I'm sad he's gone, particularly how he went. I think just about everyone has someone that has been touched by cancer and it's not a pretty situation.

Rest in Peace, Christopher Hitchens. Wherever you may be.

[REVIEW] MeeMee Nelzy: Ame Nouvelle (French Soul)

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 01:45:00 +0000

RATING: 3 CHET BAKERS

I have a few albums in my music collection that are in languages other than English, such as releases from Les Nubians (French) and SoulDavid (Italian). And it's kind of strange to review an album in which you can't understand the primary language that it is in, however there is always the idea that Music is it's own language unto itself. And so with that said, allow me to share my thoughts on French Soul singer, MeeMee Nelzy's album Ame Nouvelle.

Seeing as how I can't really go into the lyrics and substance of them, I will instead focus on the music itself, and the production of this, and make no mistake, this is a very good album. I had heard of MeeMee only a bit prior to hearing this, as I had heard one of her songs, L'Essentiel, on DJ Come of Age's podcast "Soul Music of the World".

I have to say that there's something to be said for listening to an album in which you cannot understand the words. I know that sounds odd to say, but it allows you to simply put it on and kick back and just enjoy the music for the music. You don't really have to focus on whether or not the lyrics are adhering to your belief structure, or whether or not they are positive or negative influences, just enjoy good music.

As I said before, I have a few albums from other parts of the world, and it's an interesting experience to put something on that you can't understand the words, because we are so used to knowing what is being said. It's a strange thing, indeed.

The music on this is so good though. The vibe to this is very upbeat, very positive, very Jill Scott-like. In Scott's music it's very much a celebration of love and life and all the great things that we have, while also dealing with the inevitable subjects of loss and pain as well, all while maintaining that positive vibe. This album has that same feel to it. And MeeMee's voice has a very soothing and beautiful sound to it, that conveys the musical equivalent to the beauty that the singer possesses on the outside, as well.

In fact, the track "Face A Toi" has a very Jill Scott like feel to it, where I could absolutely hear Jilly from Philly singing over this. The album also has a touch of Erykah Badu in spots as well.

All in all, this is a very feel-good type album and I encourage you to pick it up. If you know French you'd no doubt be able to get a bit more out of it than I ever could, however if you want some good music, this is definitely a good place to check out.

FOLLOW MEEMEE ON TWITTER

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The Curious Case of Tim Tebow

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:42:00 +0000

Tim Tebow. Are there two more divisive and polarizing words in sports right now? For the past few months it's been All Tebow All The Time, it seems, with many blog posts, news reports, ESPN reports, and message board posts devoted to diagnosing every aspect of Tebow and the Broncos inexplicable victories. There's also been some pretty clever .gifs and videos made as well, with DJ Steve Porter's "All he Does is Win" video involving ESPN's Skip Bayless being probably the best.

However for all those who are cheering on Tebow and praising his every victory, there are also a large number who are criticizing him and nitpicking every slight defect they can find in order to paint him as a failure and someone who will never make it in this league, despite his 7-1 record as a starter this year, after the team started 1-4 without him. There are those who will mock his faith in God and make disparaging comments about said faith, and will go so far as to root for his failure, so they can then kick him while down and somehow vindicate everyone that ever had to listen to the crazy media hype around this kid.

And I think that there is a portion of the backlash against Tebow that stems from their frustration at how people are framing Tebow's success. There is, of course, the aspect where there are those who feel that Tebow is getting too much credit that his defense, coaches and kickers should be getting, and that it's made out that Tebow is doing all of this on his own.

Yet I think there's a huge part of this demographic that vehemently root against Tebow that are doing this in reaction to the huge contingent of Tebow's supporters that view Tebow as a huge bonafide example of God's grace and how He can shine his love and good fortune on someone and allow them to succeed in the face of insurmountable odds.

I've talked with many other Christians who are FIRMLY in the camp that Tebow's success is owed exclusively to his faith in God. That because of Tebow's unabashed love of God and his not being ashamed of his faith, that God is smiling on him and allowing him to go out there and win each week. And they view everyone who disparages Tebow as being this unrelenting cabal of Christian Hating heathens who want to make this an Anti-Christian nation and suppress all forms of exhibition of one's faith in God.

And this is what I think causes a great number of people to disparage Tebow with such venom. It goes beyond simply thinking he isn't a capable pocket passer, or a traditional QB or even being a fan of a rival team. This is something much deeper. I think this is in direct response to many Christians in this country that subscribe to this myth that Christians are some persecuted minority.

I can't tell you how many Christians I've spoken to at Church or other functions that are sincere in their beliefs that mocking Christians is widely accepted and seem to believe that being a Christian in America is somehow something that you have to be quiet about or people will discriminate against you and/or disparage you. However, if you think about it, this makes no sense.

A Gallup poll from earlier this year revealed that 92% of Americans polled identify that they "Believe in God or a Universal Spirit" More specifically 80% said they believed in God and 12% said a "universal spirit". 7% said they do not believe in God or a Universal Spirit and 1% had no opinion.

So this idea that Christians or those who believe in God are some heavily persecuted demographic in society is ludicrous when you really think about it. how can 92% of the population be discriminated and persecuted by 7% of the people who claim to not believe in God and/or the 1% that had no opinion?

Are there those out there who are strongly anti-faith? Of course there are. Are there movies out there and TV shows that exhibit a disliking or disrespect of the Christian faith? Of course there are. However this idea that there's a heavy discrimination is outrageously laughable. Christians in this country are the VAST majority, so the idea that we are oppressed as Christians, is just ridiculous.

I mean think about it for a moment. In this country it's gotten to the point where if you are NOT someone who believes in God you are looked at as having no morals or ethics. If you doubt that, ask yourself this question: What are the odds that in this country that an Atheist could ever be elected President?

Think about that. In theConstitution it states, CLEARLY and EXPLICITLY that there shall be no religiouslitmus test for political candidates, and yet that's what we have done. If someone even seems like they don't go to church regularly, Christians have a tendency to look down on those people and question their faith, and often will refuse to even consider voting for them.

As a result politicians, particularly those in the Republican Party, have to go out of their way to reinforce that they do indeed believe in God. President Obama STILL has his faith questioned by many on the conservative side, because of his political beliefs and this ridiculous smear campaign put out by Fox News, World Net Daily and their ilk, about him being born in Kenya and being a "secret Muslim", as if being a Muslim is absolutely the worst thing you could possibly be.

Look at this year's Republican field. People are falling all over themselves to claim God, insist that they are the biggest lover of the Jewish people that's ever been, and seemingly secretly cater to and appeal to those in the Christian conservative base that refuse to vote for Mitt Romney due to his Mormon faith. Because according to them, he's not a "real Christian" and therefore, they don't trust him.

There are many reasons not to trust Mitt Romney however his specific faith is not one of them. However that is where we are at, where being Christian is the thing to be, and if you are not, you're just not trustworthy or respectable enough, whether it's Politics or whatever. As if Christians have the market cornered on morals and ethics. It's this arrogance that turns off those who do not share our faith, and turns them against us.

And it's my belief that this stems from a sort of victimhood that many of my faith tends to latch on to. And it's not exclusive to the religion of Christianity, it's embraced by many people whether it's rappers who want to insist that everyone that doesn't like them or their music are "haters" or it's athletes who insist no one gives them or their team respect. There's something that perhaps is ingrained in our DNA that seems to make us, as human beings, susceptible to this victim complex where everytime we perceive someone as disrespecting us or perhaps not giving us our due, we flip that switch and suddenly our defense mechanism kicks into gear and we are able to explain it away as saying "it's not US, it's not anything we are doing, it's THEM! They're HATERS!"

And I think this ties in to the whole Tim Tebow phenomenon that is sweeping the sports world, and to be honest the entire country at this point. I've written about this situation before, and I've posited that for the most part people love Tim Tebow for the exact same reasons as those who hate him. And those reasons are as follows:

A. His belief in God and his being unafraid to let everyone know about it.

B. His story is a feel-good type story which has been hyped Ad nauseam by the time he graduated College, with us hearing this story of his life over and over again.

C. The media has hyped him up, in part due to his faith, in part due to his being a good looking kid who's ultra-polite and respectful, and in part because of his overwhelming success in college.

And there's another reason that I didn't touch on before in my previous post, however it is a part of this and only someone who perhaps doesn't want to accept or acknowledge it would deny at least the possibility:

D. The perception that the Media is overlooking his flaws in his game, to highlight all the positives, and the similar perception that if Tebow were black that this situation would be handled in a vastly different way.

Now while I DO think that part of his appeal to many in the media is his wholesome aw-shucks clean cut white boy who loves Jesus image, I'm not going to get into THAT aspect in this piece, because that's a whole book worth of discussion and I'm just not in the place right now to even tackle that. I WILL say that it should be pretty clear to most people that his being White perhaps has led many in the media and fans to perhaps look at him completely differently than if he were a Black QB with the EXACT same skills, flaws, and beliefs.

Would he be given so much leeway for his mistakes and bad passing abilities and had as many people demanding he continue to be given the keys to the Broncos Kingdom? Who knows? All situations are different so we won't know. As I said, another discussion for another day.

However I do think that there's an aspect to this whole Tebow thing that bothers me and has me conflicted. I am a self-admitted fan of Tim Tebow. I was hoping the Patriots would end up drafting him late 1st round or early 2nd round, but the Broncos jumped the gun and grabbed him earlier than many thought he'd go (or felt he deserved to go).

I would have loved to have him learn behind Tom Brady for three or four years, and then when Brady eventually retires, have Tebow with years of tutelage by Belichick and Brady under his belt, he could be amazing. I have always liked the kid's heart, his attitude and the fact that we are both of the same faith, I'm not going to deny had a part in it I'm sure.

I'm very happy for the success that he has been getting, and I think that he's only going to get better. Remember, he had no time to learn the new system or practice a lot because of the lockout this past summer. He's basically learning a new system on the fly with receivers who aren't necessarily all pro quality. He's also benefitted from a vastly improving defense, and some solid coaching and kicking as well, not to mention Willis McGahee's performance as the running back.

All that said, I also understand to a degree why many people dislike him. While I believe most people do not like athletes who get in trouble all the time for DUI's or beating their girlfriends or getting caught with drugs or guns, they also don't like the extreme opposite, and that is someone who seems too good to be true. When someone comes along and the media is working overtime to convince you that they are the real deal and a great guy and all this, it makes some get turned off.

We're used to people supposedly being great guys and great role models and then they get caught with steroids, or accused of raping a girl in a hotel room in Colorado, or making it rain in a night club and fighting people, or running a dog fighting ring. We've been hurt before, as the saying goes, and so our defenses are up. People are much less likely to buy into the "oh but THIS guy is for real!" even if that guy is for real.

We keep expecting that person to fail. To not live up to what they have been made out to be, and when that happens I think we have a tendency to want to encourage it. We get carried away by waiting for people to show the cracks in their armor, the flaws in their character, that we start actively rooting for it, and when it happens, we celebrate and say "SEE! I told you that guy wasn't all that!"

That's happening with Tebow. I firmly believe he is sincere. I don't think there's anything fake about Tim Tebow. Everything he says I think you can take it to the bank. That said, I also think that he is in a horrible position, thanks in part to the overhyping that the Media has done with him.

And oddly enough I think that a group of people who are doing the most harm to Tebow in this whole thing are his fans. Whether it's the kids who are engaging in the "Tebowing" craze who seem to be doing this while perhaps not really recognizing the whole reason for Tebow kneeling in that pose to begin with, or the idiots who are wearing custom #15 Bronco Jerseys with "Jesus" written on the back it's detrimental to Tebow, because that fuels those who have this obsession with hoping Tebow fails. It adds fire to those who are already riled up over the religious aspect to this whole situation.

And don't even get me started on the idiot at the Jewish Weekly that wrote the article saying that a Tim Tebow led Bronco victory in the Super Bowl would lead Christians to burn mosques, bash gays and banish immigrants.

However what I think does the most damage are those who claim that Tebow's success is owed entirely (are even partly) to his faith in God. That somehow God is intervening on Tebow's behalf and pushing the Broncos to victory of their opponents. Now I've heard some say this in jest, mainly out of shock at how to explain the unexplainable (such as Marion Barber for whatever reason running out of bounds when if he had stayed in, the Broncos most likely lose that game), however there are those who strongly believe that God is the reason Tebow has had the success that he has.

In fact in the recent week there was a report from TMZ about a Pastor in Colorado named Wayne Hanson, who is the Pastor of Summit Creek Church. Hanson allegedly said that he felt that God was the reason that Tim was having the success that he was.

Since then Hanson has come out and refuted that report, and claimed that TMZ misled him as to what they were going to be reporting, and twisted his words into something they weren't. I know what you're thinking. I can't believe TMZ would do something like that either. (sarcasm)

However this opens the door to some very unsavory suggestions. It reminds me of that urban legend that gets emailed around about a girl who's walking down a dark alley late at night and there's these criminal looking guys leaning against a wall staring at her as she walks by. She's praying to God as she walks by and makes it home safe and thanks God in her prayers. Next day she reads about some girl who was raped and killed in the alley by those same guys. She ends up going to see the guys in prison and asks them why they didn't do that to her. What made them attack that other girl, but not her.

The men told her that the other girl was alone, while she (the first girl) was walking with these two big bodyguard looking dudes. The story then reveals that those two "bodyguard looking dudes" were actually Angels that appeared because she was praying for God to protect her.

Now this is my problem with that truly atrocious and highly despicable story. That implies that the other girl was beaten, raped and killed because she just didn't believe in God enough. That implied that God saved the one girl because she prayed to Him, but the other girl was left to be violated and abused and ultimately killed because she didn't pray to Him or wasn't a Christian. This infuriated me when I first read it because that story represents EVERYTHING that I despise about fundamentalist Christians. Those people who take the faith that I believe in and twist it and make it something that is ugly. I can feel myself getting angry just recounting it and so that's about all I'm going to spend on that because I don't wanna get deeper into it and say some things that I perhaps shouldn't.

But this attribution of credit to God (in part or whole) for his success, is the kind of thing that causes many people to grow tired of Tim Tebow, and the media hype around him. This is the type of thing that makes people root against him at every opportunity, and this is the very thing that causes many people, once Tebow lands on a multi-game losing streak -- and he will, just as everyone does -- to lash out with snark and sarcasm, peppering their insults with mocking of his faith.

Calls of "Where's your God now, Tebow?" and "I guess God wanted the other team to win this week, huh?" and a whole other slew of things will be coming his way. Mind you this is not in response to anything he has done, but a reaction to the zealots that are among his supporters. Many Christians want to create a martyr in advance out of Tim Tebow and make it out that people hate Tim Tebow because he is a Christian. That's not true at all. Kurt Warner, for the most part, was a very popular player and he was very outspoken on his faith, even going so far as to scream "THANK YOU JESUS!" when he won the Super Bowl. That sound bite is awesome and is still played, years later, on sports talk radio. I can't find THAT clip, but here's another clip after winning the NFC Championship.

There's nothing wrong with professing your faith in a higher power. Where some people take offense is how massive the Tebow hype machine is at this point. Now this is not Tebow's fault, he's going about his business the same as he always has. He's very humble, and he's not a fake. However I DO think he could afford to dial back his outspokenness just a tad. Jake Plummer caught some flak for speaking on this in an interview, saying that we know that Tebow loves God, and that the time when he realizes that we know this, he'll be better off. And I agree, although he might have worded that a bit better than he did.

I was talking with my father about this and I said that while I admire him for his openness about his faith and all his other attributes that I have mentioned above, that I did think that it gets to be a bit much when during a post-game interview he responds to every single question with first saying that he thanks his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and THEN answering the question. As Plummer (perhaps not so eloquently) put it, we get that. We know you love you some Jesus. That's not what you were asked.

Say it at the beginning of your interviews, and then move on to what you're asked. But he's a kid and he's very enthusiastic about his faith and that's great! No problems with that and I'll never criticize his faith. I simply think he could learn to dial it back a tad. Christian Football player and Super Bowl winner Kurt Warner has said pretty much the same thing, and he's someone who's been in Tebow's shoes, so I would think he'd have a good idea of what he's talking about.

We'll see what the future holds for Tim Tebow. I firmly believe he'll have a very good career in this league, and considering what he's accomplished and the fact that he hasn't even had a regular off-season workout with this system or coaching staff/players, I think he's doing pretty well. With the lockout preventing his from learning the system in the off-season, he's had to pick up this stuff on the fly. I think he's only going to improve when he's got an off-season to learn the playbook, practice with the squad, spend more time with the players, and of course John Elway's tutelage can't hurt.

He clearly has a ways to go, his mechanics in throwing are definitely not great, and he absolutely has to get better, something which he has already admitted to. The kid has a ton of heart and will and I know that if he sets his mind to getting better, he will do just that. The kid isn't perfect, and right now all things considered he's nowhere near the QB that he's going to have to be to succeed long term in the league. However I think he is going to get his chance to improve and show everyone that doubted him that he does have what it takes.

I just hope that those who are slamming him based on his faith can knock it off, and that goes doubly for those who are using his Faith as a way of justifying his success, and his supporters who are wearing the "Jesus" Bronco jerseys and dubbing him the "Mile High Messiah". Tebow's got enough to worry about without being kneecapped by his own supporters.

[REVIEW] Dezaray Dawn: Chameleon (EP)

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 09:14:00 +0000

RATING: 4 CHET BAKERS

There seems to be an influx of female artists over the past several years that have eschewed the idea of selling their sex for success, and instead are falling back on a perhaps often overlooked attribute: talent.

I did a review awhile back by an artist named "Lina" which was called "The Inner Beauty Movement" and that also had that female empowerment aspect to it featured in songs such as "I'm Leaving", which had the line "I'm leaving you, for me."

Emily King is another strong female artist that relies on her talents to win her acclaim rather than trying to shock the system with sex appeal. It seems that somewhere along the way we've seen female artists slip away from the old way of doing things and just basically get in anyway they can. Almost as if they don't have enough faith in their talents to have people base their verdicts on their music alone.

Dezaray Dawn, an independent soul artist living in Atlanta Georgia, is a very talented artist who's EP "Chameleon" is really good. As I was listening to it I found myself sort of recalling various artists I've heard in the past (as I tend to do with all music) and certain aspects of either her voice or pieces of the drum tracks or overall production would bring to mind other great music as well, which allowed me to appreciate this even more.

A fantastic group that I would most compare the feel of some of these tracks is a UK trip hop/down tempo group called Slow Train Soul. They also used that drum-step type beat (not sure of the proper terminology, mind you) and an, at times, almost hypnotic trance type beat. They also dabbled in the electronic aspects which Dezaray seems very comfortable in.

I liked the very positive vibes that emanates from her songs, such as the title track "Chameleon", as well as "Da Day" and probably my favorite track on the EP, "Don't Look Down."

I saw this being described as "Future Soul" as in Dezaray being part of the "Future Soul Movement". I have to say I've never really been familiar with that phrase, although I imagine it relates to soul music infused with electronic/broken beats/dub step elements. However I definitely have to say that if she is able to continue to reproduce the quality of this EP, then she definitely is representative of the Future of Soul Music.

I encourage everyone to check out Dezaray's website were you can learn more about her and her music.

FOLLOW DEZARAY ON TWITTER

BUY DEZARAY'S EP FROM BANDCAMP

[REVIEW] Deft Deviceware's Deft Poe: Black Folio Case for the Kindle 4

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 01:53:00 +0000

I just bought my first Kindle (the special offers supported Kindle 4) and needed a case. I didn't want to spend 50 bucks on an 80 dollar device, however I wanted something that would protect it and look nice.

I was sort of nervous picking this up just because the price was very low and all the others I saw were more expensive. Plus I'd seen many reviews of third party Kindle covers that were cheaply made and/or holding the Kindle too loosely, and it would fall out.

This has none of those issues. This is an excellent Kindle case that has some little aspects to it that I love.

First of all, you can fit it in with these elastic straps on each of the four corners of the Kindle that secures it in place so it cannot move out. So that means there's no chance of it slipping out of your case and falling when you pick it up, or are moving it.

The case is small (not much bigger than the Kindle itself) and has a nice secure closing mechanism as well.

Inside of the case are slots for business cards, and a sleeve type spot where you can place some folded papers. This would make for a nice "portfolio" type thing where you could basically carry your money and business cards in there, if you were wont to do something along those lines.

I love this case very much, and highly recommend it to everyone!

A World Where Extremism Passes For Normal

noreply@blogger.com (SearchingForChetBaker) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:20:00 +0000

Since I've had this blog I've used my venue here to speak out on things that bother me. Things that disturb me and set my teeth on edge, so to speak. One of those things is how my faith, Christianity, often seems hijacked by extremists and those "Wolves in sheep's clothing" that pass themselves off as genuine concerned Christians, and yet are speaking utter vitriolic evil, and then sadly many who don't know any better (or perhaps are already bitter at Religion as a whole) believe that these few speak for the many in representing my faith.

I've spoken on here before about how I've been driven from attending Church because I grew tired of being told that I'm not a true Christian because of political beliefs that I have. Because I am a supporter of LGBT rights, I am supposedly not a "True" Christian. Because I believe in a woman's right to choose, I can't be a "True" Christian. And shockingly enough, because I'm not a Conservative/Republican I can't be a "True" Christian.

I have heard that so many times that finally I just stopped going to church. I firmly believe that God knows my heart and He knows what I believe and how sincere I am in my beliefs. So while I don't put a lot of stock in what many say, I admit it still hurts and it prevents me from really getting involved in a church environment. Ironically enough, I live above a church. Go figure.

I wrote a piece here earlier this year called "When your Faith is Hijacked" and posed the question of what do you do when that happens? What do you do when your faith that you adhere to has been seemingly commandeered by those who represent beliefs that you are morally opposed to? Who represent everything you despise about the charlatans and fakes of history? And even worse, when other people see those professing to be about your faith presenting it wrong, and believing them? Believing that these people truly represent what your faith is about?

When people commit mass murder and they claim they are doing it because God told them. Or someone like Scott Roeder walks into a church and murders Dr. George Tiller, because he believed that he was morally justified and spiritually justified in killing Tiller, because Tiller performed LEGAL abortions.

When you have those on networks like Fox News who present themselves as being Christian and yet they sit on TV all day every day seemingly, spewing vile hatred at anyone that they perceive as believing different than they do.

What do you do? How do you combat that, particularly when you do not have the bully pulpit that they do. You don't have access to a major organization behind you, you don't have access to cameras and newspapers. You have the internet and can set up a blog, but you'll never be able to reach as many as they can, it seems.

It's the same with many people of faith, whether it's Christian, it's Catholic, it's Muslim, or whatever. All Christians aren't wanting to persecute (or in some cases execute) gays and lesbians. All Catholics aren't trying to touch young boys. All Muslims aren't wanting to be suicide bombers or terrorists.

Yet that's not the message we are receiving, it seems. Never is this more clear than the situation that has developed around Canadian author Irshad Manji, a Muslim, who has been served with death threats at a book signing in Amsterdam last night along with Tofik Dibi (Dutch MP).

According to Abigail R. Esman's account on Forbes.com, there was a bit of confusion over who was to blame for the threats, however there isn't really any debate over the severity of the situation.

A group of over 20 Muslims stormed a debate featuring Muslim writer Irshad Manji in Amsterdam last night, threatening to break Manji’s neck as they issued cries of “Allahu Akbar,” (“God is great”) according to witnesses and Manji’s own Twitter feed. Though they reportedly claimed to be part of the group Sharia4Holland, witnesses stated that they spoke with a Flemish (Belgian) accent, and were likely members of Sharia4Belgium, one of a number of groups of Muslim extremists seeking to install sharia law in Europe. Irshad Manji is a practicing Muslim who promotes modernization and reform within the faith. She is the author of several books, including The Trouble With Islam Today.

On her Twitter account since the incident at the book signing, Manji talked about it a bit more:

For a more detailed account (in English) please go to Thijskleinpaste.nl and read what has been posted there about the situation. For the report in Dutch, go here where I believe there is an embedded video posted about it.

This is crazy, folks. I mean look, I don't pretend to know everything there is to know about Islam. I know enough to know that I don't know enough to speak in absolutes. So I don't. And I won't. However I WILL say, that I've met many Muslims and none of them are the type of person who would flip the fuck out and attack someone and threaten them because of a difference of belief.

There's DEFINITELY those people out there, mind you. I'm not trying to say that everyone that practices Islam is a peaceful loving individual. There are those out there who are radical extremists who have a twisted sense of what their Holy book tells them. Just like there are many who are Radical Christians who have a warped sense of what they believe God is saying in The Bible.

Those people do not represent me or any of the good moral Christians that I know anymore than those who ran up on Manji's book signing and "ordered" that her neck be broken and spat on her, represent the vast majority of good, loving, peaceful Muslims in the world who want nothing to do with Radicalism.

I've had people of my faith try to explain to me how Islam is an evil religion. That it says right there in their book (a book that I'd bet dollars to donuts that they never read) that it says Kill all Christians. Well, if you wanna pick and choose, we have a lot of shit in our Bible that isn't exactly "Christian-Like" if you know what I mean.

I guess what I'm saying is that even after writing about this subject a bit in the past and talking with people about it I just don't get it. It's the same reason I don't get racism. Someone can explain to me with vigor about why they believe white people are better than black people or that the "jews run the media" or whatever, and I'll just scratch my head and be like "I'm sorry man, I just don't get it."

There are fucked up people in this world, that which there can be no denying. And those people belong to some group or organization that no doubt does not believe in nor would condone the actions of those fucked up people. And their claiming to be a member of that organization, does not mean that they are properly representative of that organization or group.

And to act like they are is ridiculous. All Christians are not Timothy McVeigh and Scott Roeder, and all Muslims are not these clowns that ran up on Irshad Manji and spit on her and ordered her to be killed. Anyone that claims otherwise is either sorely misguided or a liar determined to stir up racial and/or religious hatred.

Tonight I pray for Irshad Manji, Tofik Dibi and all others who face religious persecution at the hands of zealots, and who face backlash due to the bucking of what they view as radicalism. Whether it's Christian Radicalism or Islamic or any types of radicalism. I pray that they can continue fighting the good fight, and anyone who would try to stifle their speaking out should be dealt with in a legal fashion.

[MUSIC VIDEO] Jin feat. Joseph Vincent: When The Lights Come On

noreply@blogger.com (SearchingForChetBaker) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 10:59:00 +0000

MC Jin is back with another music video that is continuing the solid string of quality music that he's become known for. I posted before about his video Angels that was just amazing, not just in visuals but also lyrical content. The song talked about his becoming Saved, and how his walk with God has influenced his actions and words.

After that came Shoot For The Moon, which served as mostly a retrospective of his career, video wise, with clips and photos of him on BET's Freestyle Friday, on the set of 2 Fast 2 Furious, the video for "Learn Chinese", his first single off of his Ruff Ryders debut, as well as a variety of scenes from various commercials and tv shows that he was in while living in China.

Now he's back and brings with him singer Joseph Vincent for their new single "When the Lights Come On". Once again he's got a positive message, while delivering quality music and a very good video to boot.Check it out, and follow Jin on Twitter. Also you can follow Joseph Vincent on twitter too. Show both of them the love and support that they deserve!

[REVIEW] The Roots: UNDUN

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 08:37:00 +0000

RATING: 5 CHET BAKERS

The Roots continue to prove that they are the most consistent music group out there. Even some of their older albums that were perhaps not as good as we might have liked, were still leaps and bounds better than seemingly 80% of the other music out there.

Last year I reviewed their album How I Got Over and gave it a perfect five rating.   In my time of doing reviews on here I've only given four albums a perfect five rating. The Roots' album from last year, their collaboration with John Legend "Wake Up", Hidden Beach Unwrapped Volume 1 and "The Carnivale" by Wyclef Jean, which remains today one of my top 10 albums that I've ever heard in my life.

Today The Roots get the fifth 5 Rating (and third album to get that that they are involved with).   I've been a fan of the Roots for a long time, having come to them via D'Angelo who is my favorite artist.   I heard some collaborations that he had done with them in some live recordings that I have and was just hooked.

Here you have a rap group that's an actual BAND. They play their instruments, and they play them well.   It's not often you come across a hip hop band, but the Roots have been putting it down for hip hop in a serious way for years now and show no signs of creative drop off.

Never more clear than on their newest album "UnDun" which in a first for the legendary Roots Crew, is a concept album. Undun chronicles the life and death of Redford Stephens who embraces some bad choices in his life and ends up paying the ultimate price for it, and tells said story in reverse.

The album begins with his dying and works it's way back to the beginning of the story -- the end of the album. Clocking in at just a shade under 40 minutes it's a fairly short album, however it's an amazing piece of work that seems to alternate between being staggeringly beautiful and hauntingly depressing at various points throughout.

One thing that I loved about How I Got Over was their utilizing feature appearances by artists that many perhaps would not have heard, who listen to the Roots regularly. Artists like The Dirty Projectors, Monsters of Folk, Joanna Newsome and STS.

This album also features some of these indie rock artists and once again I'm kind of blown away by the incredible sound that has been made with the Roots collaborating with these artists.

In fact one of my favorite tracks on here is "Sleep" which features a singer named Aaron Livingston. I have never heard him before, but he has a line in there that when I heard it I just sat back in awe, dumbstruck by the implications of it and the very idea of it.

Something so seemingly simple, and yet complex and deep at the same time. One of those things you'll end up thinking about later after you've put the album away to go to sleep yourself.

I love the idea behind this concept album. The idea of chronicling a man who for lack of a bad choices might have ended up with a whole different (and perhaps much longer) life, and made it out of the environment that he found himself trapped in.

I've thought back before to mistakes I've made, decisions I've made and how it influenced my life and how it impacted my ending up in the very room I sit right now writing this review.

If I had done things differently, would I be here right now? Would I have ended up in another state? Perhaps gone to college, got a helluva job? Met someone, settled down, had kids, and the stereotypical American Dream?

Or was I always destined to end up where I'm at now? I thought about that as I listened to Undun, because it made me wonder whether Redford was doomed from the beginning. Whether his ending was predetermined from jump street and that he realized that and simply embraced what he felt was his destiny.

It's definitely an interesting conversation piece, I think. And that, ultimately, is what separates The Roots from your average hip hop artists out there. The Roots stay coming correct with their intelligent and introspective works, while many others tend to focus on more materialistic gains.

Unfortunately too many people would rather Watch The Throne, rather than get their heads into some real solid intelligent hip hop music. And that's sad, but unfortunately a part of life.

As the album ends, it has it's final piece, a cover of singer Sufjan Stevens' song Redford, split into four "movements", and tell the "beginning" of Stephen's life.

The first part is Sufjan himself on the piano, followed by a string quartet interpreting the song. After that you have Roots' drummer Questlove and pianist D.D. Jackson going to work, and then the final movement, which actually tells the beginning of Redford Stephen's life.

As I'm listening right now to the final four tracks that form this sort of orchestral movement it's absolutely stunningly beautiful! I mean I've read online where there were some who heard the album and didn't like the final four tracks and felt that it would have been better ending on the 10th track.

I think those who feel this way are missing the whole idea of a concept album, and how every piece fits. Every piece tells a part of the story. Every piece serves a purpose. And personally, I actually thought I'd be moved to tears by the 12th track "Possibility". It was amazing in a way that words can't express.

To sum up, this is yet again, another potentially classic album by a group that we've come to expect excellence from. However just because we have grown to expect this type of brilliance, doesn't negate or diminish the quality of this album.

If you like good hip hop music, if you like good MUSIC period, you need to do yourself a favor and pick this up!

The Roots "UnDun" is available everywhere on December 6th 2011.

[REVIEW] @JoViaMusic : Fuzzy Blue Robe Chronicles

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Anderson) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 23:59:00 +0000

RATING: 4 CHET BAKERS

I went into listening to this having never heard JoVia before, nor had I heard any of the guest artists on here (aside from Kafele who was featured on a previous album I reviewed), but man there are some great artists on here, not least of which is the woman of the hour herself, JoVia.

The musical styles of this album alternated between soulfully jazzy to reggae to moments that hearken back to old school jazz, and all the while with this really nice percussion throughout.

The overall vibe this was at times relaxing and hypnotic, such as on the great track "Think Twice" feat. Phoenix, and at other times upbeat and make-you-wanna-get-up-and-dance inducing such as the fantastic "Head Games" featuring Pathe Jassi, Fred Jackson and Kafele. And don't even get me started on the absolute fire that is Miss Con Strued with emcee S.M. featured. I'm definitely looking for more music from S.M. after hearing that.

It's amazing how we sometimes get caught up in the music that is mass produced and delivered to us via the radio and magazines and whatnot, and often there are some diamonds in the rough, so to speak, that are criminally under represented and under appreciated.

This is another album that was pointed out to me by DJ Come of Age and once again I have to say that the man knows his indie soul music. His track record speaks for itself! If you want to hear more great positive music that is off the radar, so to speak, check out DJ COA's podcast "Soul Music Of The World" for yourself and see what I mean.

Stay tuned because I have several more indie soul music to review in the coming weeks, and months. So if that's the type of music you like, you definitely don't wanna go anywhere.

Standout Tracks: Head Games, Justified, Mis Con Strued, Think Twice

JoVia - Fuzzy Blue Robe Chronicles

1. Intro 0:45
2. Think Twice Feat. Phoenix 6:27
3. Gullah Geechee feat. Lola Morales & Damon Warmack 8:02
4. Head Games feat. Pathe Jassi, Fred Jackson & Kafele 7:52
5. Justified feat. Yaw 5:00
6. Miss Con Strued feat. S.M. 4:54
7. Freddie The Chump feat. Rellevent 5:10
8. Bizarre feat. Allegra Delores 4:55

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Check out JoVia's "Fuzzy Blue Robe Chronicles" at her Bandcamp page