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What is your music lately?

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David In Indy:

--- Quote from: Ellemeno on January 19, 2007, 03:55:00 am ---It would be funny to think what might be appropriate reciprocating gifts to these.  A "What Would Jesus Do" wristband and some KY jelly?  :)

--- End quote ---

Well at least it would help protect the wrist from chafing.

ednbarby:
:laugh: at Elle and David!

I know - I was floored.  I should have said these are neighbors and friends whose kids play with Will.  Ed plays tennis with the husband regularly.  But still...  They asked us point blank at a picnic once where we go to church.  They had been good to us during/after the hurricanes, so we gave our stock polite answer - that Ed was raised Catholic and I was raised Methodist, but that we don't attend any church right now.

Last year their kids brought over presents for Will.  We were totally unprepared.  So this year, we got their kids something and a little something for them.  In our case, we gave them a  bike rack you suspend from your garage ceiling for their and their three kids' bikes.  We have one and they had admired it one time when they were over.  Ed even installed it for them, which is no mean feat as I recall, but he likes doing that sort of thing.  Totally appropriate, right?  So again, I was floored.  We were both polite about it, but after they left, I said, "So, are you gonna carry that everywhere you go in case you have trouble remembering a verse you're quoting?"  He goes, "Now, now.  You know they're deeply religious."  I said, "Yeah, but that doesn't mean we have to be."  He says 'they meant well.'  I don't know - I find it deeply arrogant, myself.

And Katherine, I'm guessing that if these folks even know who Green Day are (their oldest is 10, so they may not yet), they'd be appalled to know I let Will listen to them, too, and for that same reason.  Let's put it this way - the day after the mid-term elections, when I was walking on Cloud Nine and gave them a hearty "Hey!  Beautiful day today, isn't it?"  I got, "We don't want to talk about it" in return.

Scott6373:
This episode reminds me of when I first started working at a UU church as a soloist.  It's been quite a long time now, but, back then I was still a practicing Catholic (I stress practicing because I really never could get it right)...anyway...I walked in for my first Sunday service not knowing quite what to expect.  Their so-called altar had all sorts of symbology on it from almost every religion...I was a little nervous...LOL.

All my Cath friends said, make sure those heathens don't convert you...I laughed and said yeah right...well don't ya know...as soon as the service was over, one of the more vocal members of the church came up to introduce himself and promptly attempted to "convert" me.  As politely as I could ( and for those of you who know me, you know I have no problem speaking my mind), I told him thanks but no thanks, but I thought...holy crap...it's like a business with religions...get em quick and get em to pledge...money...whatever. 

As an aside...I'm still there 17 years later.  A lot of the folks I sing with have become dear friends.  I no longer practice Catholicism (or any other religion), and the one thing I have learned is that organized religion, by the very nature of the name, it anything but religious.

ednbarby:
It's funny how these folks (and our other religious friends) always seem to like Ed better, when he is the one, secretly, who is much more a devout atheist than I.  Maybe he's just better at hiding his disdain for their missionary (so to speak) ways than I am.  The wife of the two tried pretty hard with me in the beginning, come to think of it.  She was hosting a ladies' reading group at her house every Thursday morning, and the book was The Purpose-Driven Life.  I knew the "purpose" spoken of in the title is God's purpose, so I didn't want any part of that.  I was very polite about it - saying that I couldn't do it because I was working (part-time at that point).  But she'd still ask me every week as if we'd never had the conversation.  I think she's always been a little bit offended that I blew that off.  But how come she doesn't worry that I'm a little bit offended that she even badgered me about it in the first place?  This is the arrogance I'm talking about.  I mean, I happen to believe that there is no God.  But I'm not so arrogant as to believe that everyone should think the same way.  If I were, I'd have given her a much different answer than the polite one I did give.

Getting back to the music this thread is supposed to be about (yes, I've once again hijacked a thread, haven't I?), I can't help but think of myself sometimes when I hear this Green Day lyric in "Jesus of Suburbia" - "In a land of make-believe, they don't believe in me."

Scott6373:
Back to music...good idea.

Being a professional musician has one huge downfall.  Active music listening becomes work and pleasure listening becomes more a desire to not listen to silence.  That being said, I spend the greatest amount of time inactively listening BBM radio (at work), and then work on music that I am going to be performing otherwise.

Right now, I am preparing for a concert in March, at which I will be premiering a piece that was written for me back in 2001.  It's a solo cantata for tenor, strings and keyboard titles "I Am".  It uses text from various sources set in a traditional cantata form, but the music itself is...well...very avant garde to say the least.

The only time I get to truly listen to music for pleasure is during the summer when my performance schedule isn't quite as packed.

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