I'm sitting here watching TV and there was just a Verizon commercial on. They were advertising their video phones and they were playing that song "Video Killed the Radio Star" in the background. I don't know... I had always thought of that song as having a rather negative message, like video was bad. I wonder how many other people get the same connotations from that song as I do.

I'm watching Jimmy Kimmel Live because he is funny and because Sarah Silverman is going to be on there in a few minutes. She is in that movie The Aristocrats but she is also playing "Alexi Darling" in Rent, so I'm hoping that she will say something about it. I know. Pathetic. Danielle and I were just singing along to some of the songs and I was dancing around the living room to La Vie Boheme. This is the song where they're all at the Life Cafe after Maureen's show and dancing on the tables and stuff. While I was prancing around the living room, shaking my tailfeather, I caught a glance of myself reflected in the window and realized, "When I try to dance the way they do in Rent, I don't look nearly as good as they do. I wonder why that is." Then I realized that it's partially because I'm by myself and I'm not dancing on a table, and partially because I'm awkward and uncoordinated. Actually, it wouldn't matter if I was dancing with all the rest of them on the table. I would still be awkward and uncoordinated, and I would probably stick out like a sore thumb. (The director would ask, "Would we still be able to hear you if you sang from the wings?")

By the way, Sarah Silverman said nothing about Rent. But she was awfully funny.

I've read a couple of different blogs today. The first one was on the Nickel Creek website (they are my favorite band.) Their guitar player made a point about some Christian songs being watered down and I totally agreed with him. Then I read my friend, Jessica's blog and she posted about virtually the same thing. (You can read both of these entries by going to the corresponding links in my sidebar.) I have very strong views about the place of Christians in the media, and reading these articles written by people I agree with and trust has stirred me up again.

I am a Christian, relatively conservative, and yet I enjoy the full scope of mainstream culture. I am not ashamed of this fact. God has brought me on quite a journey to this point. If you haven't guessed, I truly love music. It is one of my great passions in life. I was even a music major in college. I didn't always enjoy the eclectic tastes I do now; there were a few years in college when I didn't buy a single CD outside the Christian market. Then something happened- it stopped satisfying me. I needed something deeper. I was already a Christian, and Christian music didn't satisfy me! So I branched out a little. (I credit my friend, Daniel with part of the branching out- he introduced me to the sublime sounds of James Taylor and Ben Folds.) And I realized that I didn't feel guilty about it. My heart had finally found music that spoke its language.

I realized that God uses books, movies, music and yes, even TV to speak to me. For example:
1. Even though Rent is at times offensive and several of the characters lead lifestyles that do not fit into my worldview, the over-arching theme of the musical is love. What speaks the most is that the characters are all searching for something more to this life. In my favorite song, "One Song, Glory," Roger sings about his desire to leave something behind, one great song for people to remember after he's dead. He wants immortality, eternity.
2. In Sarah Dessen's book, The Truth About Forever, the main character (Macy) lost her father to a freak heart attack. Her reaction: to embark upon this massive search for perfection, even down to a perfectly straight part in her hair. She has to control every aspect in her life. In fact, she felt like she started to heal only after letting loose of some of that control and letting the unexpected into her life. This is a powerful message- it never works to try to heal yourself.
3. Damien Rice's music has changed my life. I never knew that there was someone who could write the exact kind of music that touches my soul, but he has done it. This is a man who has basically set his journal to music- he is so utterly transparent about his inadequacies that sometimes I actually hurt for him. His song, "Cannonball," speaks to the paradoxes of loving someone- "Stones taught me to fly/love taught me to lie/life taught me to die/so it's not hard to fall/when you float like a cannonball." That's perfection in songwriting, people! And his music... there are times when it's just him and a guitar, and then he'll pull out these amazing string parts, and a chello solo, and end it all up with an opera singer on the album's final track, "Eskimo." I am blown away by the beauty of his music, and I thank God that he gave Damien Rice this talent and that I was introduced to it.

None of these things take the place of the Word, prayer, or fellowship with other believers. I am not advocating skipping church to watch Alias (even though I have been tempted at times, especially when it was on Sunday nights.) But they are conduits to God for me. I know that it's not that way for a lot of people, and that the media can be a stumbling block to others. I mean no malice toward those who do not share my love of popular culture. There was a time when it was very hard for me to watch a movie with profanity in it. (Mostly, this is because I used to curse like a sailor.) I am still sensitive to it, and it is still hard for me to take when it's gratuitous, but I can confidently say that I enjoy Good Will Hunting every time I sit down to watch it. Will I take the fifteen-year-old girls I hang out with at the church youth group to see Rent when it comes out? Not a chance. It's not appropriate. It wouldn't have been appropriate for me when I was fifteen. But I'm older now and confident in my beliefs, so I can enjoy something like that for what it is and not be swayed by the things that may run contrary to what I believe. I had a friend last year say that you have to run everything through your "Worldview filter." I feel like I am constantly doing that, and cutting things out of my life that get stuck in that filter. There are some things that do get stuck there, believe it or not. But that is a story for "another day..."

Anyway, that is just my take on that subject. Like I said, it sort of ended up being the subject of the day on the blogs I read. This has turned into my manifesto on Christians and culture, so I'll take this opportunity to sign off. Go to "Scope for Imagination" to read more- Jessica says it much better than I do, anyway! That's all for now. Aloha,

Brianne <><