Song of the Day: Tonight

Today's song is Tonight by the OC Supertones. I listened to the Supertones a lot in high school, but never really realized the depth of the lyrics in their songs. It's a bit odd to see ska music paired with great lyrics, sort of like seeing a clown sitting in church. Clowns are welcome in church of course, but you'd think they'd dress in normal clothes. But then again if you got a church full of clowns in clown attire, you would have one crazy awesome service. And that's exactly what the Supertones are.

Listen

I can feel the old earth shake tonight
Mother earth feels labor aches tonight
I can feel the old world passin'
I can hear the whole world crashing down tonight

And if I died here tonight, I know my soul is with You
I'm sure about the promises You've made

Surely then I will be judged tonight
Surely I'm a little scared tonight
Surely now the sheep and goats are split upon the
Threshing floor tonight

And if I died here tonight, I know my soul is with You
I'm sure about the promises You've made

Lord, You are my only good, I will hold to You
Should the fires of hell sear and singe me
Lord, You are my protector
I will hold to the fold of your robe
Should the devil himself come to claim me

And if I died here tonight, I know my soul is with You
I'm sure about the promises You've made

"If I died here tonight, I know my soul is with You/ I'm sure about the promises you made". This kind of lyric could only be in a Christian song. Matt Morginsky realizes a fundamental Christian truth: that all hope, comfort, and security is found in God's promises for us and not in our own feeble attempts to be good enough for Him.

Click here to see a hilarious Sims video someone made to the song Jury Duty.

Choosing a Major

I ran across this article by Dave Berry today on choosing a major and thought it was pretty funny. No offense to my non-science friends....

Here is a very important piece of advice: Be sure to choose a major
that does not involve Known Facts and Right Answers.

This means you must *not* major in mathematics, physics, biology, or chemistry, because these subjects involve actual facts. If, for example, you major in mathematics, you're going to wander into class one day and the professor will say: "Define the cosine integer of the quadrant of a rhomboid binary axis, and extrapolate your result to five significant vertices." If you don't come up with *exactly* the answer the professor has in mind, you fail. The same is true of chemistry: if you write in your exam book that carbon and hydrogen combine to form oak, your professor will flunk you. He wants you to come up with the same answer he and all the other chemists have agreed on. Scientists are extremely snotty about this.

So you should major in subjects like English, philosophy, psychology, and sociology -- subjects in which nobody really understands what anybody else is talking about, and which involve virtually no actual facts. I attended classes in all these subjects, so I'll give you a quick overview of each:

ENGLISH: This involves writing papers about long books you have read little snippets of just before class. Here is a tip on how to get good grades on your English papers: Never say anything about a book that anybody with any common sense would say. For example, suppose you are studying Moby-Dick. Anybody with any common sense would say that Moby-Dick is a big white whale, since the characters in the book refer to it as a big white whale roughly eleven thousand times. So in *your* paper, *you* say Moby-Dick is actually the Republic of Ireland. Your professor, who is sick to death of reading papers and never liked Moby-Dick anyway, will think you are enormously creative. If you can regularly come up with lunatic interpretations of simple stories, you should major in English.

PHILOSOPHY: Basically, this involves sitting in a room and deciding there is no such thing as reality and then going to lunch. You should major in philosophy if you plan to take a lot of drugs.

PSYCHOLOGY: This involves talking about rats and dreams. Psychologists are *obsessed* with rats and dreams. I once spent an entire semester training a rat to punch little buttons in a certain sequence, then training my roommate to do the same thing. The rat learned much faster. My roommate is now a doctor. If you like rats or dreams, and above all if you dream about rats, you should major in psychology.

SOCIOLOGY: For sheer lack of intelligibility, sociology is far and away the number one subject. I sat through hundreds of hours of sociology courses, and read gobs of sociology writing, and I never once heard or read a coherent statement. This is because sociologists want to be considered scientists, so they spend most of their time translating simple, obvious observations into scientific-sounding code. If you plan to major in sociology, you'll have to learn to do the same thing. For example, suppose you have observed that children cry when they fall down. You should write: "Methodological observation of the sociometrical behavior tendencies of prematurated isolates indicates that a casual relationship exists between groundward tropism and lachrimatory, or 'crying,' behavior forms." If you can keep this up for fifty or sixty pages, you will get a large government grant.

It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David's town

And the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother's hand to hold

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love

Noble Joseph at her side
Callused hands and weary eyes
There were no midwives to be found
In the streets of David's town
In the middle of the night

So he held her and he prayed
Shafts of moonlight on his face
But the baby in her womb
He was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the faith
That could make the mountains move

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
For little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
It was a labor of love

Written by Andrew Peterson
Performed by Jill Phillips

Come and Follow Me

You may have noticed (but probably not) that I recently added a new section on the righthand side of the blog titled "Followers". Please take a minute to become a follower so I can feel better about myself and learn who all reads this silly blog.

A Couple of Hoes (Songs of the Day)

Two "Songs of the Day" featured today, both named Hosanna. The first is by Andrew Peterson (big suprise). I've been thinking about this a little bit and this may be Andrew's best, most complete song yet. I'm basing this on a combination of songwriting, melody, and production. Before performing this live, Andrew likes to explain a little about the name Hosanna. "Hosanna" is both a shout of praise and a cry out meaning "save us!". When the Jews called Jesus "Hosanna" on Palm Sunday, during his arrival into Jerusalem, they were saying that a) they recognize their need to be saved and b) Jesus was the one that saves and that they were praising him for that. Listen here.

I am tangled up in contradiction.
I am strangled by my own two hands.
I am hunted by the hounds of addiction.
Hosanna!

I have lied to everyone who trusts me.
I have tried to fall when I could stand.
I have only loved the ones who loves me.
Hosanna!

O Hosanna!
See the long awaited king
come to set his people free.
We cry O Hosanna!
Come and tear the temple down.
Raise it up on holy ground.
Hosanna!

I have struggled to remove this raiment,
tried to hide every shimmering strand.
I contend with these ghosts and these hosts of bright angels.
Hosanna!
I have cursed the man that you have made me,
as I have nursed the beast that bays for my blood.
Oh, I have run from the one who would save me.
Save me, Hosanna!

O Hosanna!
See the long awaited king,
come to set his people free.
We cry O Hosanna!
Come and tear the temple down.
Raise it up on holy ground.
Hosanna!

You have crushed beneath your heel the vile serpent.
You have carried to the grave the black stain.
You have torn apart the temple’s holy curtain.
You have beaten Death at Death’s own game. Hosanna!

O Hosanna!
Hail the long awaited king,
come to set his people free.
We cry O Hosanna!
Won’t you tear this temple down,
raise it up on holy ground.
O Hosanna!
I will lift my voice and sing:
you have come and washed me clean.
Hosanna.

I you listened to this song in the link, you probably noticed the choir singing the "Oh Hosanna"s in the chorus. This choir consisted of 40 Andrew Peterson fans who came to Nashville for a weekend to be on the album. Andrew posted a notice on his blog that the first 40 people to respond would have the chance to come and be on the record. Pretty cool.

The second "Hosanna" was written by Brooke Fraser and is performed by herself and Hillsong United on All of the Above. Listen here.

I see the king of glory
Coming on the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes
The whole earth shakes
Yeah

I see his love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing
The people sing

Hosanna
Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith
With selfless faith

I see a near revival
Stirring as we pray and seek
We're on our knees
We're on our knees

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from Earth into
Eternity

Hosanna
Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

While the lyrics are pretty good in this song, it's the music that I love more. Hillsong is great at building up songs into huge crashing climaxes. By the time the bridge comes around (heal my heart and make it clean) I'm pregnant with excitement and literally can't wait to sing out.

Anyway, I hope yall enjoy these songs as much as I do.