Shatter Nicely » music

Metallica vs. Bryan Adams

Charity — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:38:30 +0000

This is why the internet exists, baby – to bring us this unadulterated awesomeness!

A mash-up of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and Bryan Adams’ “Run to You.”

You will not be able to stop watching. It’s like a train wreck, only more harmonious and no one gets hurt.

Never Going Back to Okay

Charity — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:09:11 +0000

That’s the title of a song that I get stuck in my head sometimes. It helps me feel better, when I am feeling sad or lost or overwhelmed since leaving Christianity. I’m never going back to okay. Things are always going to feel slightly uneasy without the promise that the almighty god is going to work everything out according to his good plan, or that, even if things suck for me here on earth, I get to experience a totally awesome afterlife. I cannot go back to that superficial life, where I never felt the natural highs and lows of life because I stuffed everything down and covered it with a shiny god veneer.

It’s been a rough couple of days and last night I found myself singing, “I’m never going back to okay. I’m never going back to easy. I’m never going back to the way it was. I’m never going back to okay.”

Then, I wondered, who is that song even by? So, I googled it. Oh, yeah. The Afters. A Christian band.

I don’t think that song means what I think it means.

Obviously, the singer is saying that they (it’s “we” not “I,” as I sing it) are never going back to the way they were before finding Jesus. I am saying that I am never going back to the way I was after I found Jesus. It’s rather ironic, no? I sing a Christian song to encourage me in my unbelief.

Let’s look at the lyrics from my perspective, that of someone who felt like she was not really living her life, but playing it safe by relying on Christianity to tell her how to live and thinking that prayer is actually an active way of dealing with her problems.

It’s not the end, but it feels like it is
I’m waking up, like I’m back from the dead
I’m stepping out, and I feel so free
But as long as I’m moving it’s all right

I feel alive, and it hurts for a change
No looking back
It’s hard to believe that I was cool
With the days that I wasted
Complacent and tasteless and bored
But that was yesterday…

We’re never going back to OK
We’re never going back to easy
We’re never going back to the way it was
We’re never going back to OK

Wow. It is uncanny how spot on that describes how I feel about my old life as a Christian (complacent, tasteless, bored, the days I wasted) and how I feel now (alive, waking up, back from the dead, so free).

And it hurts for a change. One of the things I have realized is that I never felt extreme pain when I was a Christian because I believed with all of my mind and heart that God was handling everything and I did not need to worry. I really believed that for a long time and it made my life relatively worry-free.

That might sound great. It is an appealing claim that Christianity makes and it really works, if you can make yourself believe it strongly enough.

But then there is the other side. You cannot suppress one side of your emotions without it affecting the other. So, while I was insulated from extreme pain and worry, I also was not feeling the extreme joy and pleasure that life has to offer. Everything was just a moderate lukewarm.

I’m waking up, like I’m back from the dead

I’m never going back to okay.

Guster, Demons – Live Acoustic

Charity — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 03:15:38 +0000

I saw Guster at the Flynn Center in Burlington, VT in May of 2001. That was before they added a fourth member. They were awesome. The drummer is an amazing sight to see live. Don’t get me wrong, the whole band is great.

I put all of my Guster CDs away when I stopped listening to secular music. I pulled out all of my CDs on this past November 6, shortly after I left Christianity. I only know the date because I was looking at their website that night and saw that they were playing in Burlington the next day. It was the 10th anniversary of the album “Lost and Gone Forever.” I would have loved to see that, but it was sold out.

Here’s a video of a live acoustic performance of the song “Demons,” from the 1997 album “Goldfly.” This is one of my favorite Guster songs.

There’s a Heaven Above You, Baby

Charity — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:23:32 +0000

This afternoon, I was on the treadmill, trying to walk off some of my frustrations, and the song “Don’t Cry” by Guns N’ Roses came on (original, not alternate lyrics). Naturally, I started singing along. Then, I got to the most important part of the song: why you should not cry. You know, besides that “I still love you, baby.”

There’s a heaven above you, baby.

That’s it, though, isn’t it. That is what everyone turns to when their life is going badly. God. Heaven. The promise of an eternal peace. A time and place where we will no longer be burdened by the pain, the difficulty, the confusion of this life.

Well, what happens when we are not so sure there’s a heaven above us, despite the assertions of Axl Rose? What then? What reason do we have to carry on?

Ah, but there’s one of life’s biggest questions. If I could answer that, I would be rich.

Perhaps the next song that shuffled onto my iPod can shed a little light on the subject.

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.

Don’t stop; it’ll soon be here.

It’ll be better than before.

Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.

I don’t pretend to have found the solution for all of life’s problems in a Fleetwood Mac song, but, for now, it’s enough for me.

The future and its limitless possibilities. What better reason to get through today?

Bob Dylan’s Christmas In the Heart

Charity — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:41:50 +0000

Bob Dylan released a Christmas album and I was just reading an interview with him about it from The Big Issue. I thought it was kind of funny. The interviewer kept asking questions that were meant to add depth to what Dylan was doing, but his answers seemed to refute that image. I found that comical. It was like an example of how journalists – all of us, really – tend to make so much more out of celebrities than there really is. You know, over-analyze. That, and take themselves too seriously.

I’m one to talk. Over-analyze is my middle name. I don’t take myself too seriously, though. If anything, I don’t take myself seriously enough.

I’m not a big Bob Dylan fan, so that may be why I don’t get what the big deal is that he recorded the songs traditionally, but I totally get why he did. They are Christmas songs. If they are not recorded traditionally, there is really little point to them.

You played this right down the middle, doing classic holiday songs in traditional arrangements. Did you know going in you wanted to play it straight?
Oh sure, there wasn’t any other way to play it. These songs are part of my life, just like folk songs. You have to play them straight too.

My favorite line in the piece has to be this next one. I just thought it was a great line.

The Chicago Tribune felt this record needed more irreverence. Doesn’t that miss the point?
Well sure it does, that’s an irresponsible statement anyway. Isn’t there enough irreverence in the world? Who would need more? Especially at Christmas time.

You can buy Christmas In the Heart at Amazon.com. “All of Bob Dylan’s U.S. current and future royalties from sales of Christmas In The Heart will be donated in perpetuity to Feeding America, guaranteeing that more than four million meals will be provided to over 1.4 million people in need in this country during this year’s holiday season.”