Music I’m Listening to.

Music I'm Listening to. I've been enjoying going through all of my old CD's and trying to organize my music on my Zune to see what CD's I've forgotten. I now have 344 albums, 3,498 songs, which takes up just slightly over 22 gigabytes of my Zune. I'm impressed by how much my music player can hold.

 

Here are a few of my favorite songs / albums that I'm enjoying:

 

• Party Starter – 80's Mix. I picked up this little gem at Target. It has a couple of songs from such 80's stalwarts as Katrina and the Waves, the Knack, and Culture Club; But it also has fun party songs like Whip It (from Devo), 867-5309 (Tommy Tutone), and the original Go Go's version of We've the Beat. It also has such classic party stalwarts as Walk Like an Egyptian (Bangles), Everybody Have Fun Tonight (Wang Chung), and Take on Me (Ah-Ha). If you wanted to start with one 80's party CD, a great place to start is this little gem;
  

 

• RCA Records – 1^st Note in Black Music. Wow, only by going through all of my CD's did I realize that I had this great collection. My favorite is the 3^rd CD which starts with Harry Belafonte's 'Day-O', the Isley Brothers' 'Shout!' (now I see why Otis Day and the Knights did their song in Animal House like they did), Nina Simone's 'To Be Young, Gifted and Black', all the way through The Fresh Prince's 'Parents Just Don't Understand'. I love this one!;
  

 

• Anything by Chris Isaak. I picked up 'Heart Shaped World' at Half Price Bookstore for $4. I only had it on cassette before, and having it on CD is like having a new album. But this has caused me to listen to his other great stuff too – love him!;
  

 

• Favorite Song – 'American Storm' by Bob Seger. I also picked up 'Live Bullet', which gave me fond memories of playing cosom hockey in Beanie's basement. But 'American Storm' is something special. Mr. Seger getting socially relevant singing about the California drug culture in the 70's and 80's. Can you beat these lyrics?:
  

 

…You face a wall of mirrors.

You charge them at full speed.

You cover up, you hear the shattering glass,

But you never bleed…

 

• I've also picked up some of the most recent (2007 releases) Christian heavy-weights' albums – Casting Crowns ('Altar and the Door'), Mercy Me ('All That I Am'), and Steven Curtis Chapman ('This Moment'). I love Mercy Me's 'God With Us', but the whole album is so God-glorifying, I give it an unqualified recommendation to anyone. But it was SCC's album that surprised me the most. It is very easy to listen to, catchy, fun. And yes, his Cinderella song makes me get a little misty every time I listen to it. I haven't heard anything on Casting Crowns' album that has struck me yet. Which surprises me, as this was the CD I was most looking forward to when I bought it.
  

 

Anyone else enjoying some good music? I'd enjoy hearing from you.

QTrax is Working!

You may remember a few months ago I posted about a new music site that allows the FREE downloading of music. Well, it looks like Qtrax is starting to roll now. The website for the download is at: http://www.qtrax.com/.

 

They have some interesting artists that you can download for free: Elvis Costello, Elton John, The Police, Amy Winehouse, Janet Jackson and more. Check it out, but be forewarned, the website is not easy to use. You have to sign in first, before you can download or play music. And you can only play music from your 'Library'. They have set up a Playlist but I had trouble actually using it. But anyways, you can't beat the price.

Expelled – A Movie Review

Hi everyone. I attended the opening day, matinee showing of Expelled – No Intelligence Allowed earlier today. This is the documentary with actor/economist Ben Stein showing the "war" between science and religion currently taking place in America. Ben Stein uses a method similar to a Lee Strobel book, where he asks a question, and then finds an expert to discuss the topic. He also uses hilarious clips of such famous Darwinist supporters as Michael Shermer, Richard Dawkins, and Minnesota's own PZ Myers saying stupid things about how well Darwinism is supported by scientific evidence, and how Intelligent Design (ID) supporters would never be attacked for having views that see life on Earth as having been intelligently designed (Stein interviews many people who have lost their jobs / tenure because of holding a point of view supporting ID.

 

So what is the importance of this issue? Is it only a small academic disagreement taking place at universities? No, Expelled shows that truth, American freedom, people's jobs, and the protection of the lives of those who may be viewed as genetically inferior, all are at stake in this "war". I'm not kidding, the movie does a very good job of showing the importance of the issues that are involved in this fight. The movie has a number of scenes of the Berlin Wall to emphasize the magnitude of this battle. This is all done with humor, and surprising seriousness at several points in the movie. For example, Ben Stein visits a German concentration camp, where 15,000 people with disabilities were exterminated. The reason for this killing by the Nazis? Not only was this the elimination of political enemies, but also the elimination of people who were draining resources (like jobs, food, etc.) from the German nation. And all of this was done by the scientists not only in Germany but also America who were basing their eugenic beliefs in significant part upon Darwinism. This part of the movie was horrifying and most powerful at the same time.

 

To show the silliness of the mainstream Darwinist positions, I will use two quick examples: first, Ben Stein asks scientist Michael Russo how life started on Earth. Russo explains that a leading view is that chemicals went on top of some crystals, and were able to become living from this. Ben Stein mercilessly keeps asking the question, but how did this start life? Russo repeatedly responds, I already explained it to you. Stein then incredulously says, piggy-backing on crystals is how life started? The scenes from other movies of people praying to crystals, I think adds to the silliness of what Russo said. Another funny scene is the final interview Ben Stein has with Richard Dawkins (famous atheist/biologist, author of The God Delusion). Dawkins starts by saying that a belief in God is along the same line as believing in fairies or angels. Stein then asks Dawkins how life started on Earth, and Dawkins said that he had no idea, and that no one had any idea of how life started. Stein then pressed him, and Dawkins admitted that it appears that life is designed, and perhaps a very intelligent alien race planted 'seeds' on Earth to get life started. It seems this point shows the ridiculousness of academia in America – a scientist can hold a silly view such as thinking that life was planted on Earth by Aliens, and receive full support from their colleagues. While if anyone dares to suggest that God was responsible for planting life on Earth will result in a full out attack from the Darwinist army.

 

I give the movie an enthusiastic 'thumbs up'. Because it is a documentary, it is important for people to get out and see the movie, so that it has a greater impact on our culture. You will not be bored. It is an important and entertaining movie for those who love free-thinking and religious freedom. I hope you will check it out.