Rock the Vote - Coming in November

This is just a sneak preview for you blog readers. The Front Porch is teaming up with Randy Bacon and Springfield Music to bring you the local music event of the year on Saturday November 1: Rock the Vote 2008!

As you can see from the poster prototype, there will be (at least) three stages, the Front Porch, Randy Bacon Studio, and the studio next door to Randy Bacon, called Figment. Each stage will host its own style of music, and no matter where you are, there will be opportunities to register to vote, and to learn more about the major candidates in an informative, even-handed way.

The plan is to have at least two dozen bands, mostly local, but also to include several touring acts, and hopefully one big-name draw from outside the area. All proceeds will go to the continuing work of the Front Porch, but the main idea is to get people excited about exercising their right to vote the following Tuesday.

I'll definitely be keeping you up to speed on the details. If you know of any bands who would like to contribute to this effort, ideally for free, you can contact Ben Johnson at music@thecoredowntown.com. or if you'd like to help out in any way, please e-mail Christina Wiksell at christina@thecoredowntown.com. But in the meantime, just put it on your calendar and I'll plan to see you there!


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Ticketshyster

At the risk of gloating, I would like to make all of you aware that I am going to the Radiohead concert in St. Louis on May 14.

Tickets went on sale on a Saturday morning in the middle of February, and my wife and I were sitting at the computer, poised to obtain tickets for us and six of our friends so we could all go as a group. I'll spare you the details, but since Ticketmaster's website made it clear that there was a four-ticket-per-person limit, we decided that I would by four, and my wife would buy four.

To be honest, I'm not the only one who was disappointed in the idea of buying Radiohead tickets through Ticketmaster. Radiohead's immense popularity did not come as a result of heavy radio airplay (despite their name) or aggressive marketing. With the exception of providing some music for Baz Luhrmann's immensely popular film rendition of Romeo & Juliet in the mid-90's, Radiohead's rise to prominence has been overwhelmingly grassroots. So it seems antithetical that they would rely on a corporation that so completely exemplifies "the man" to distribute their concert tickets.

Nevertheless, I didn't make a big deal about it, because I figured it was probably a requirement of the venue (a corporately named, and corporately minded, humongous amphitheater) rather than a decision made by Radiohead themselves. Of course, the ideal concert in the minds of most RH fans would be in some dingy gothic theatre, or underground rave. But let's be realistic... a venue that cool would most certainly exclude me (and probably you) from going, if only for its smallness.

So I didn't complain about having to go through Ticketmaster. Until now. Remember I told you about that four-ticket-per-person limit? Well, like I said, I bought four tickets, and then my wife bought four tickets. So we had our two, and although we knew it would take a few weeks for them all to arrive in the mail, we started promising the other six to our friends.

Until we opened our credit card bill today. Because lo and behold, there was a charge for four tickets, another charge for four tickets, and then, three days further down the statement, a credit for the price of four tickets.

It turns out that their policy is not four-per-person, it is four-per-household. Whether it was a typo on their website, or an oversight on our part, they still let the transaction go through, making us think we had eight tickets, and forcing me to call several people today to tell them that we didn't have tickets for them after all. (Try spilling those beans to a h-a-r-d-c-o-r-e Radiohead fan living in the Midwest.)

I argued with customer service about it, to no avail. The usual shpiel... "A website can't be perfect, it let the transactions go through, and then when we discover later that two transactions have the same billing address, we canceled one of them." B.S.

A website can most certainly tell when two transactions come from the same household, when they share a billing address, and especially when they share a credit card number, and a last name.

What bothers me most is not what happened. It's that we had to find out by opening our credit card statement. Imagine going to a store and buying 8 shirts, and taking them home to give to your friends as Christmas presents, then having the clerk from the store sneak into your house that night, take 4 of them back, and credit your card for that amount.

Nonsense, right? Exactly.

Epilogue: After this debacle, I quickly called a friend who had tickets to the show, but only bought two, to see if he could get two more. Contrary to my assumption, the lawn tickets hadn't sold out at all, and he was able to get two more, which was the exact overage of friends to whom we had promised tickets. Whew! God does care about Radiohead concerts. ;-)

Fortress Maximus and the Marching Band

Last night's QAF Session was my favorite so far.

There was me, Steve, Tim, Latisha, Lindsey, Jarred, TJ, Tabitha, Jason, Snow, and Mik. And everybody contributed in some fashion.

Towards the end, I wanted to talk about my passion for following Jesus, and how it's not something that can be done in solitude. That's when an unusual metaphor entered my mind.

I don't know if you're too young, or too old, to have ever played with Transformers, but I loved them as a kid. The action figures were essentially robots that, if you cranked their torsos, or flipped their heads, etc, etc, they would become cars or planes or dinosaurs. The ultimate Transformer was a massive guy that was constructed by assembling six different Transformers together: one for each leg, one for each arm, and one for the head and one for the torso. First you had to own all six toys, and even then it took some work to get them all put together just right. And once you did, you had... FORTRESS MAXIMUS.

You could definitely have fun with each of the six individual Transformers. They were great toys. But you couldn't play with one for long without wanting to put it together with the other five and create the Ultimate Toy that was freakin' two-and-a-half feet tall.

I am not a kid asking for more toys for Christmas just so I can have more toys. I am the leg of Fortress Maximus, and I'm just trying to collect them all, to be part of the finished product.

Fast-forwarding a bit, to my high school years, imagine me in a green-and-gold marching band uniform. (As long as we're imagining, let's say that it made me look dashing and sophisticated.) I played the saxophone, which is a great instrument. You can stand out on the sidewalk and play whatever, and people will throw money in your case. I did it for the Salvation Army once (though there was a kettle instead of a case) and I played Christmas songs in front of the Front Porch long before it opened, last December.

Playing the saxophone by yourself is fun. But a part of you always wants to put it together with something else.... with piano and drums to make a jazz combo, or three other saxophones to make a sax quartet. Or... 250 instruments of all kinds to make a Marching Band.

My high school marching band was just that big, too. HUGE. Sometimes we would take half an hour to enter a stadium for a marching band competition in a single file line, just to intimidate the other bands by our sheer size. (Wow... was that really as dorky as it sounds to me now?)

But size wasn't really the point. The point is to get together some people who know how to play the saxophone, with some who can play the trumpet, the trombone, the tuba, the flute, the clarinet, the fluegelhorn, the snare, the bass drum, the quads, the cymbals, the marimba... and some people who can toss the flags and dance the drills, and you've got something there. Then all you've got to do is learn to march and put together a show that spells out the name of your school, or something.

I'm not a recruiter standing on the sidewalk, talking people into playing and marching so we can have the biggest band in the state. I am a saxophonist who wants the whole set... someone to play every part, and stand in the right spots so we can make our formations.

I'm not an evangelist... a promoter of Christianity. I don't just want a large church, and certainly not a big name for myself. I'm just a Christ-follower with a certain set of gifts, trying to complete the beautiful, diverse picture that God has given me of the Body of Christ. Don't become a Christian just to be on the winning team. Join us because we need your help. God has given you a gift that we don't have yet, and maybe that's why we're struggling... maybe that's why we seem to be lacking something important. Because you're holding out on us.

The secular world talks a lot about diversity, but when we're at our best, they ain't got nothin' on the Body of Christ.

Groovin' at the FroPo

Back on October 20, Skyler Smith and friends rocked our faces... and for the first time at the Front Porch, a group of people got up and danced! Here's a link to some really crummy cell phone video of it. You have to have RealPlayer installed.

I Got Soul, But I'm Not a Soldier

This Sunday we're having our last Sunday-evening Merge gathering (starting October 28 it will be weekly, and take place on Sunday morning.) And for the occasion, I wanted to present a message/discussion called "I Got Soul, but I'm Not a Soldier", about basing our spirituality on Christ's love instead of a defensive, combative religion often presented to us by a majority evangelical sub-culture. When I really looked at the lyrics of the song by The Killers entitled "All These Things that I Have Done" I was amazed. I'm going to comment on them intermittently. Here goes...

When there's nowhere else to run
Is there room for one more son
One more son

Here's a man who's reached the end of his rope, and is asking to be let into God's family. Although he doubts if he'd be accepted as a child of God.

If you can hold on
If you can hold on, hold on
I wanna stand up, I wanna let go
You know, you know - no you don't, you don't

He's in a state of paradox. He wants to hold on to his life as he knows it, but even more, he wants to stand up and let go of everything, you know? No... you don't know.

I wanna shine on in the hearts of men
I wanna mean it from the back of my broken hand

There's an overwhelming desire to escape the darkness... not only to live in the light, but bring that light to other people's hearts as well. There's also a longing for authenticity. To take what he knows (the back of his hand) even though it's broken and shattered... and to let that be his platform for vulnerability and healing.

Another head aches, another heart breaks
I am so much older than I can take
And my affection, well it comes and goes
I need direction to perfection, no no no no

His desire for redemption comes not only from his own condition, but from the pain he sees all around him. But he doubts his ability to really help, because he's old and worn out, because his love is inadequate and inconsistent. He's crying out for some guidance and support.

Help me out
Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the back burner
You know you got to help me out

This is the desperate prayer of a man backed into a corner... begging God not to ignore him.

And when there's nowhere else to run
Is there room for one more son
These changes ain't changing me
The gold-hearted boy I used to be

He used to be a good kid... probably raised in Church. But after "falling from grace" he hasn't heard any advice yet that's worked. All promises, no delivery. Some people have tried to return him to the ranks of Christianity... to recruit him back to the team, but what they're saying just doesn't ring true.

Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the back burner
You know you got to help me out
You're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down

Still conflicted, he wants Jesus to come in and rescue him, but he knows that Jesus can't doing it without bringing himself down. In other words, his Savior will take his place at the guillotine.

I got soul, but I'm not a soldier
I got soul, but I'm not a soldier [x10]

With an actualization of his own spirituality, he is proud to say he has a soul. He realizes that he's worth something after all. And yet, he refuses to join the ranks of the "us-and-them" subculture that raised him. Now that he's aware of his soul again, this time he wants to use it to bring love, joy, and peace... to "shine on in the hearts of men".

Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the back burner
You know you got to help me out
You're gonna bring yourself down
You're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the back burner
You're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down

Over and in, last call for sin
While everyone's lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I've done
All these things that I've done
If you can hold on
If you can hold on

He's redeemed... he's rescued. Sin's grasp on him is fading fast. But the duality remains. Everyone around him is lost, but he feels a personal victory. He's no soldier, but he's won a battle in his heart against the multiplicity of wrongs in his past. And now, finally, he's got something worth holding on to.

Someone Still Mourns You, Boris Yeltsin

Today we mourn a hero among hard-working, hard-drinking, funky-dancing former presidents of former super-power communist conglomerations. Boris Yeltsin died this morning at the age of 76. One finds it difficult to truly grasp the ramifications of such a loss, although three questions do come to mind: "Has the ultra-cool name of the popular Springfield-based band 'Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin' now been rendered meaningless? Or is it all the more poignant now? Indeed, might the value of their records even climb in his absence?"

In all seriousness, to the Yeltsin family and the people of Russia... you have our condolences. May he rest in peace.