Messages From the Past For the Present...

21st Century Schizoid Man

Cat's foot iron claw
Neuro-surgeons scream for more
At paranoia's poison door.
Twenty-first century schizoid man.

Blood rack barbed wire
Politicians' funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire
Twenty-first century schizoid man.

Death seed blind man's greed
Poets' starving children bleed
Nothing he's got he really needs
Twenty-first century schizoid man.

Epitaph

The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams.
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams.
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams,
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
As silence drowns the screams.

Between the iron gates of fate,
The seeds of time were sown,
And watered by the deeds of those
Who know and who are known;
Knowledge is a deadly friend
When no one sets the rules.
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools.

Confusion will be my epitaph.
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
If we make it we can all sit back
and laugh.
But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying,
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying.

From the 1969 King Crimson album, In the Court of the Crimson King

Head of Radio...

I overfloweth with great anticipation!

Radiohead has just made their new studio album, In Rainbows, available for pre-order.

In true Radiohead-curveball fashion: you name your own price when you pre-order the album download.
Seriously.
No, really.
I just did it. Just fill in the blanks.
Welcome to Radiohead in their post-EMI contract world.


(Sidenote: I think this is really a fantastic experiment, but if you're a Radiohead fan, I think that you should pay what you deem their art to be worth... rather than see how little you can pay to consume... just my two pence.)

I'll plan to post my thoughts on the album after I am able to download it on October 10th...

::anticipatory grin::

*Photo credit: Dead Air Space

Thank you, Vusi Mahlasela.

My wife tells me that I don't post enough (and I agree). She says that I shouldn't be afraid to just post random things because that's what blogging's all about: giving people a window into what's happening in your realm (and I agree... I like to agree with her because she's smart and good lookin' with a capital "GOOD LOOKIN'"). So rather than posting wordy, in-depth commentaries about the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the spiritual application of the concept regarding "degrees of separation," or my musings about my medium-term plans for what to do with myself and my family [all of which are dominating my mind these days], instead I'm going to succinctly thank a musician that I just discovered: Vusi Mahlasela.

South African singer-songwriter Vusi Mahlasela was a crucial artistic voice during the fight against apartheid, and now in the new modern-day nation. Blending traditional African music with soul and blues, his music showcases powerful vocals and poetic lyrics.

As someone who used to spend a lot of time playing guitar, I love the tone that he produces with his fleshy-fingerstyle. But beyond that, as I watched him play and sing for the first time, I was reminded of why I originally fell head-over-heels in love with music when I was 17 (wittingly or not): There are times when I experience a profoundly intimate connection with someone's creativity in sound... just me and the notes, the words, the melody. And it rings throughout my humanity... sweeps me into the reality of what beautiful is, that God made this, and that there's hope for this messy world because a God that can create such nuanced wonder most certainly has a plan for His people going forward. [That probably doesn't really make sense, but it does for me;-]

Anyway, I hope Vusi's music, his creativity, grabs you as it does me...