Odds 'n' Ends

I've been away from my computer for a few days for the sad reason that, yes, even Macs need the doctor sometimes. My optical drive went caput on me so I took it to the Mac store where they informed me that I needed a new one. Happily, I was still under the original warranty and had to pay absolutely zero for the repair.

In other news, I'm enjoying reading a few books. My reading list right now is as follows:

• Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry, ed. R. Scott Clark
• The Baptism of Disciples Alone, Fred Malone ( I'm working on the baptism issue)
  
• Covenant and Eschatology, Michael Horton
• Perelandra, C. S. Lewis
• The Radical Reformission, Mark Driscoll
• Hidden Art, Edith Schaeffer

I've been listening to a lot of U2 lately. It's easy to see their widespread influence in so much of pop and rock of the last 15 years or so. And you know, it's understandable that they should have invited Arcade Fire to tour with them because, just as U2 is hailed by many as the greatest rock band of all time, if that's true, Arcade Fire is in the running for a close second. Time will tell.

Also, I've been wearing out my copy of Derek Webb's new CD, The Ringing Bell since I got it about a month before it was released on May 1. (Well, actually, I received a digital download early for preordering it; I've been listening mostly on my iPod, and I've already loaned the CD out to someone.) This newest record of Derek's has caused quite a stir among many Christians (big surprise!), and I've been involved in a few blog threads discussing it. The guys over at Said at Southern have been reviewing the album song by song. Most of their reviews have been line by line, a curious way to review music, I would say. It's so interesting to hear people's interpretations of songs that sometimes are largely speculative and fail to interact with the artist's corpus or the context of the artist's life or even the artist's explicit statements about a song. Having heard a few different interpretations of some of these songs, I decided to get Derek's own authoritative perspective. You can listen to him explaining the basic gist of the songs on this album in this interview with Geof Morris. I was amused as I listened to hear Josh Moore in the background laying down some B3 organ tracks and that Geof and Derek had to shut the door just to be heard. I wonder if they worried about letting the cat out of the bag too early regarding Derek's recent reuniting with Caedmon's Call...

Other listens of late include:

• Iron and Wine, Our Endless Numbered Days
• Austin Britton, Flowers in Mud Puddles
• Denison Witmer, Philadelphia Songs
• Dan Mangan and Mark Berube (live @ Vinbladh's Cafe -- I played first then recorded these fellas -- Excellent!)
• Simon Joyner
• Laura Gibson
• and lots o' M. Ward!