I am quite a big fan of the band "The Frames". They're an Irish band, formed by a member of The Committments - Glen Hansard. Well, it's come to my realisation that a lot of my friends don't know their music well at all. So I've compiled a Best-of compilation. Some are live tracks, and any tracks that I've got more than 1 version of in the folder I've duplicated as the same number. You'll understand.
Anyway, the link is HERE, so download when you wish and let me know what you think.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Movie Soundtrack to my Life
I got sent this thing a few years ago which asked this: "If someone were to make a movie of your life; what music would you have for what scene?". And then there was a list of the different generic scenes in a film. And I'd done it loads of times and changed it and done it again, but here's my latest effort. I've uploaded it to a file-sharing site as a ZIP file, and you can download it HERE. Please, have a listen, and fill it in for yourself.
Here's my list. Do your own, and pop it on a comment or your blog or an e-mail to me or something. And then create a ZIP file of the songs and send me it.
The Movie of My Life's Soundtrack
1. Opening Credits:
Longview - Further
2. Waking Up scene:
The Arcade Fire – Wake Up
3. Average Day scene:
Fionn Regan – Put a Penny in the Slot
4. Best Friend scene:
Broken Social Scene – Fire Eye’d Boy
5. First Date scene:
Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
6. Falling In Love scene:
The Frames - Headlong
7. Love scene:
Goldfrapp – Let It Take You
8. Fight With Friend scene:
Ash - Clones
9. Break Up scene:
Tracy Chapman - Goodbye
10. Lonely scene:
Elliott Smith – Waltz # 1
11. Get Back Together scene:
Nada Surf – Concrete Bed
12. Fight scene:
Bloc Party - Helicopter
13. Wandering Around Randomly scene:
Mum – We Have a Map of the Piano
14. Heartbreak scene:
The Swell Season - Leave
15. Mental Breakdown scene:
The Cribs – Be Safe
16. Driving scene:
Deftones – Be Quiet and Drive
17. Lesson Learning scene:
Adem – Love and Other Planets
18. Deep Thought scene:
Ryan Adams – The Shadowlands
19. Revenge scene:
Reuben – Let’s Stop Hanging Out
20. Flashback scene:
Fink – This is the Thing
21. Party scene
Head Automatica – Disco Hades II
22. Happy Dance scene:
Reel Big Fish – The Set Up (You Need This)
23. Regret scene:
Feist - So Sorry
24. Long Night Alone scene:
Colin Hay - I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You
25. Closing Credits:
Gemma Hayes – 4:35am
Enjoy
Here's my list. Do your own, and pop it on a comment or your blog or an e-mail to me or something. And then create a ZIP file of the songs and send me it.
The Movie of My Life's Soundtrack
1. Opening Credits:
Longview - Further
2. Waking Up scene:
The Arcade Fire – Wake Up
3. Average Day scene:
Fionn Regan – Put a Penny in the Slot
4. Best Friend scene:
Broken Social Scene – Fire Eye’d Boy
5. First Date scene:
Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
6. Falling In Love scene:
The Frames - Headlong
7. Love scene:
Goldfrapp – Let It Take You
8. Fight With Friend scene:
Ash - Clones
9. Break Up scene:
Tracy Chapman - Goodbye
10. Lonely scene:
Elliott Smith – Waltz # 1
11. Get Back Together scene:
Nada Surf – Concrete Bed
12. Fight scene:
Bloc Party - Helicopter
13. Wandering Around Randomly scene:
Mum – We Have a Map of the Piano
14. Heartbreak scene:
The Swell Season - Leave
15. Mental Breakdown scene:
The Cribs – Be Safe
16. Driving scene:
Deftones – Be Quiet and Drive
17. Lesson Learning scene:
Adem – Love and Other Planets
18. Deep Thought scene:
Ryan Adams – The Shadowlands
19. Revenge scene:
Reuben – Let’s Stop Hanging Out
20. Flashback scene:
Fink – This is the Thing
21. Party scene
Head Automatica – Disco Hades II
22. Happy Dance scene:
Reel Big Fish – The Set Up (You Need This)
23. Regret scene:
Feist - So Sorry
24. Long Night Alone scene:
Colin Hay - I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You
25. Closing Credits:
Gemma Hayes – 4:35am
Enjoy
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Joke
This made me laugh:
I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump. I ran over and said: "Stop. Don't do it."
"Why shouldn't I?" he asked.
"Well, there's so much to live for!"
"Like what?"
"Are you religious?"
He said, "Yes."
I said, "Me too. Are you Christian or Buddhist?"
"Christian."
"Me too. Are you Catholic or Protestant?"
"Protestant."
"Me too. Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"
"Baptist."
"Wow. Me too. Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?"
"Baptist Church of God."
"Me too. Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?"
"Reformed Baptist Church of God."
"Me too. Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?"
He said: "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915."
I said: "Die, heretic scum," and pushed him off.
I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump. I ran over and said: "Stop. Don't do it."
"Why shouldn't I?" he asked.
"Well, there's so much to live for!"
"Like what?"
"Are you religious?"
He said, "Yes."
I said, "Me too. Are you Christian or Buddhist?"
"Christian."
"Me too. Are you Catholic or Protestant?"
"Protestant."
"Me too. Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"
"Baptist."
"Wow. Me too. Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?"
"Baptist Church of God."
"Me too. Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?"
"Reformed Baptist Church of God."
"Me too. Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?"
He said: "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915."
I said: "Die, heretic scum," and pushed him off.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Meet my new Love...
I may have bought a new guitar. I haven't actually taken it home yet, but it's mine. And I'm excited. It's lovely. Here, for those of you who know these things, are some specifications (taken from a website, not my own words!)...
Super jumbo cutaway body
All solid, premium grade woods
Solid Sitka spruce top
Solid African mahogany back and sides
High gloss body
Satin neck
Rosewood Bridge and fingerboard
Bone top nut and compensating saddle
Multiple celluloid bound body
Bound neck and headstock
Green abalone snowflake position markers
Gold Grover machine heads
Fishman Prefix plus Equalizer
And here's what it looks like:
Needless to say, I am excited.
Update - I forgot to tell you all, it's a Tanglewood TW55-DLX. NIIIIICE!
Super jumbo cutaway body
All solid, premium grade woods
Solid Sitka spruce top
Solid African mahogany back and sides
High gloss body
Satin neck
Rosewood Bridge and fingerboard
Bone top nut and compensating saddle
Multiple celluloid bound body
Bound neck and headstock
Green abalone snowflake position markers
Gold Grover machine heads
Fishman Prefix plus Equalizer
And here's what it looks like:
Needless to say, I am excited.
Update - I forgot to tell you all, it's a Tanglewood TW55-DLX. NIIIIICE!
Friday, April 13, 2007
Thinkings and Challenges
I have the honour and responsibility to preach at my home church this Sunday evening, and the passage I have been given is Jonah chapter 1+2 - a passage I knew with such familiarity that it could have bordered on complacency. And so approaching it, I was cautious. And so aware to not find lessons I was led to believe were there as a child, but are infact not there.
It has been a humbling time. Allow me to share just a few things with you that I've been struck by.
Firstly, the utter defiance of Jonah. God gives him in v1 a very clear command. "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me". Nothing ambiguous in that. Go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, 500 miles North East of where he was, and preach that message. Simple.
But instead, vs 3 tells us... "But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD" And here I quote a scholar on the structure of this verse in the original Hebrew: 'Verse 3 is made up of 7 clauses. And in this type of Hebrew writing, line 1 corresponds to line 7, line 2 corresponds to line 6, line 3 corresponds to line 5, and line 4 stands all by itself as the pinacle of the verse. And here, in line 1 the storyteller mentions Tarshish. And in line 7 he mentions Tarshish. And in line 4 he mentions Tarshish! 3 times in 1 verse?! He doesn’t mention it cos we’re hard of hearing, he is using Geography to help us feel the intensity of Jonah’s defiance. God called him to Nineveh – Jonah fled to Tarshish. It’s not confusion. It is deliberate defiance. And it is ugly.'
Add this to the fact that Tarshish was thousands of miles South West of where Jonah was. Jonah's defiance was strong and heady and clearly thought out.
But did you know that to this very day, on the day of Atonement, the book of Jonah is read in Synagogues around the world as part of the Jewish liturgy? And do you know the traditional response of the congregation on the conclusion of the reading of this book? With one voice the congregations says: “WE ARE JONAH”.
This is NOT just a book for prophets or prophetic types. We are all Jonah. Everyone of us. We have all been privelidged recipients of the clear word of the Lord. Our problem has not been confusion, or a lack of clarity, our problem is not ambiguity or fuzziness. We are Jonah in that we have heard the difinitive word of the Lord in the Bible and we have gone in the opposite direction. God’s word to children: ARISE, GO, OBEY YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER. To not do this is defiance. God’s word to wives: ARISE, GO, SUBMIT TO YOUR HUSBANDS. To refuse is defiance. God’s word to husbands: ARISE, GO, LOVE YOUR WIVES! To hesitate IS TO DEFY.
So where else has God been clear with us?? Has he been clear with us about Baptism? About the kind of words that should come out of our mouths? About our responsibilities in the Great Commission? About how we are to perform our job? About submitting to church leaders? About how we use our money? About forgiving one another? About the subject of sexual purity? HAS GOD BEEN CLEAR WITH US?!?! Yes he has. And so to not respond in immediate obedience is to react in a radical and violent display of defiance. WE ARE JONAH. YOU ARE JONAH AND I AM JONAH. IT IS ALL DEFIANCE. And if you or I don’t repent of it, defiance will damn us. No defiant person goes to heaven, because defiance, unchecked, is a mark of an unregenerate heart – no matter WHAT prayer you or I prayed.
And I have been so smacked and humbled and shamed by this. I am, and have been, so defiant and disobedient to God. I have shamed myself and him. And I worry that even know there are things in me which are still defiant to him which are unchecked. I have struggles which I LET get the better of me. I let myself be led in ways I should not.
I am so ashamed of my past. All I seem to have made in my life is mistakes. I have hurt people and friends and loved ones, but most of all I have defied my God. I am Jonah and you are Jonah. In Romans we read "NONE IS RIGHTEOUS. NO NOT ONE. NO ONE SEEKS FOR GOD. ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME WORTHLESS. NO ONE DOES GOOD, NOT EVEN ONE" All are Jonah. All.
That is, all but one: The greater Gallilean prophet: Jesus. There was never the slightest defiance on his hands or heart. He said it was his pleasure to do the Father’s will. He was obedient, even to death, even to death on a cross. If Jonah is the personification of defiance, then Jesus Christ is the personification of obedience and righteousness. And the amazing thing is this; His obedience was for the purpose of taking away the guilt of our defiance. He perfectly fulfilled the will of God FOR US. I am Jonah and you are Jonah but he is NOT Jonah. He is our saviour. And if you and I see our defiance for what it is, then confess it to God, forsake it forever, repent of your sin and put your trust in the merits of the only one who ever fully obeyed - His life, His death, His resurrection are ALL acts of obedience that have won eternal life for people like you and me.
And I have to say that thrills my soul. That makes me well-up and rejoice. I don't deserve it! God had every right to do nothing to help me and you. And yet he came down as a man and suffered what we deserve. Why doesn't this spur me on more? Why doesn't it affect me more?
Prone to wander - Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.
Lord it is my chief complaint that my love is weak and faint.
Praise be to the God of heaven. He does not give up on us; defiant and sinful and rebellious as we are.
It has been a humbling time. Allow me to share just a few things with you that I've been struck by.
Firstly, the utter defiance of Jonah. God gives him in v1 a very clear command. "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me". Nothing ambiguous in that. Go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, 500 miles North East of where he was, and preach that message. Simple.
But instead, vs 3 tells us... "But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD" And here I quote a scholar on the structure of this verse in the original Hebrew: 'Verse 3 is made up of 7 clauses. And in this type of Hebrew writing, line 1 corresponds to line 7, line 2 corresponds to line 6, line 3 corresponds to line 5, and line 4 stands all by itself as the pinacle of the verse. And here, in line 1 the storyteller mentions Tarshish. And in line 7 he mentions Tarshish. And in line 4 he mentions Tarshish! 3 times in 1 verse?! He doesn’t mention it cos we’re hard of hearing, he is using Geography to help us feel the intensity of Jonah’s defiance. God called him to Nineveh – Jonah fled to Tarshish. It’s not confusion. It is deliberate defiance. And it is ugly.'
Add this to the fact that Tarshish was thousands of miles South West of where Jonah was. Jonah's defiance was strong and heady and clearly thought out.
But did you know that to this very day, on the day of Atonement, the book of Jonah is read in Synagogues around the world as part of the Jewish liturgy? And do you know the traditional response of the congregation on the conclusion of the reading of this book? With one voice the congregations says: “WE ARE JONAH”.
This is NOT just a book for prophets or prophetic types. We are all Jonah. Everyone of us. We have all been privelidged recipients of the clear word of the Lord. Our problem has not been confusion, or a lack of clarity, our problem is not ambiguity or fuzziness. We are Jonah in that we have heard the difinitive word of the Lord in the Bible and we have gone in the opposite direction. God’s word to children: ARISE, GO, OBEY YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER. To not do this is defiance. God’s word to wives: ARISE, GO, SUBMIT TO YOUR HUSBANDS. To refuse is defiance. God’s word to husbands: ARISE, GO, LOVE YOUR WIVES! To hesitate IS TO DEFY.
So where else has God been clear with us?? Has he been clear with us about Baptism? About the kind of words that should come out of our mouths? About our responsibilities in the Great Commission? About how we are to perform our job? About submitting to church leaders? About how we use our money? About forgiving one another? About the subject of sexual purity? HAS GOD BEEN CLEAR WITH US?!?! Yes he has. And so to not respond in immediate obedience is to react in a radical and violent display of defiance. WE ARE JONAH. YOU ARE JONAH AND I AM JONAH. IT IS ALL DEFIANCE. And if you or I don’t repent of it, defiance will damn us. No defiant person goes to heaven, because defiance, unchecked, is a mark of an unregenerate heart – no matter WHAT prayer you or I prayed.
And I have been so smacked and humbled and shamed by this. I am, and have been, so defiant and disobedient to God. I have shamed myself and him. And I worry that even know there are things in me which are still defiant to him which are unchecked. I have struggles which I LET get the better of me. I let myself be led in ways I should not.
I am so ashamed of my past. All I seem to have made in my life is mistakes. I have hurt people and friends and loved ones, but most of all I have defied my God. I am Jonah and you are Jonah. In Romans we read "NONE IS RIGHTEOUS. NO NOT ONE. NO ONE SEEKS FOR GOD. ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME WORTHLESS. NO ONE DOES GOOD, NOT EVEN ONE" All are Jonah. All.
That is, all but one: The greater Gallilean prophet: Jesus. There was never the slightest defiance on his hands or heart. He said it was his pleasure to do the Father’s will. He was obedient, even to death, even to death on a cross. If Jonah is the personification of defiance, then Jesus Christ is the personification of obedience and righteousness. And the amazing thing is this; His obedience was for the purpose of taking away the guilt of our defiance. He perfectly fulfilled the will of God FOR US. I am Jonah and you are Jonah but he is NOT Jonah. He is our saviour. And if you and I see our defiance for what it is, then confess it to God, forsake it forever, repent of your sin and put your trust in the merits of the only one who ever fully obeyed - His life, His death, His resurrection are ALL acts of obedience that have won eternal life for people like you and me.
And I have to say that thrills my soul. That makes me well-up and rejoice. I don't deserve it! God had every right to do nothing to help me and you. And yet he came down as a man and suffered what we deserve. Why doesn't this spur me on more? Why doesn't it affect me more?
Prone to wander - Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.
Lord it is my chief complaint that my love is weak and faint.
Praise be to the God of heaven. He does not give up on us; defiant and sinful and rebellious as we are.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Music and Music and Music
Come and click on here and listen to "I Could Just Break" and let me know what you think. The first Dan James original recording for a while.
Feedback is always welcome!
Feedback is always welcome!
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