New Radio

My kids know all about these things, but to me on the down side of 40, I am amazed by the new ways of listening to music. The following sites allow you to access music you may never hear on regular radio.

Pandora: allows you to set up individual stations, then sow a "seed" song or two. Pandora then builds a station around your selections showcasing similar styles. I have built several stations:
Dust and Diesel, given to gritty folk, alt country and a touch of blues. Blue Jesu, given to a blend of rock'n gospel, sanctified blues, and largely female folksters. John Michael Talbot Radio, given to sacred music of John Michael Talbot and the likes of Frank Ortega and Michael Card. And finally Wind, War, And Chicago - a station given to groove rock with Chicago, Earth-wind-and Fire, and War as my seed bands. Go here to listen to my stations.

It appears that Paste Radio, the means by which I discovered Accuradio, is in a state of suspension given licence issues for playing music over computer. However, the larger Accuradio is still in full swing. Accuradio allows you to pick one of hundreds of stations or substations given to different themes. This is a great source for all the music that is hard to find on the radio: Classical (over thirty substations), Celtic, jazz, gospel, British rock, reggae. You name it, you'll probably find an Accustation playing your stuff.

Finally, for those with an ear for music from the Jesus Revolution (before the "Contemporary Christian" genre was damaged by commercial success) here are links to some stations that play music you'll never hear anywhere else.

http://www.live365.com/stations/okej?play

Voices of Black Dissent

In the Wake of the pigment-barrier breaking election it is interesting to find people in the African American community who are not on the Obama bandwagon. Here are a few voices of dissent. (I do not know that all of these have commented on the Obama specifically, however, the following generally take positions that put them at odds with national black leadership.

Eric Remond

http://theologica.blogspot.com/2008/11/eric-redmond-living-soli-deo-gloria.html


Star Parker
http://www.urbancure.org/dev/pagedetails.asp?SubCatID=162

list to grow

Thomas Sowell

Shelby Steele (who will have to eat crow after writing a book stating the Obama was unelectable.)

Alan Keys (who lost a body of legitimacy in my mind given his anitcs years ago when not given space at some of the Republican debates.)

Phrase finder (Cool Find)

A friend of mine asked what "Pushing the envelope" meant. I knew its meaning by use, but not the relevance of the phrase. So we looked it up. It was not what I thought.

So take a guess... then check yourself against
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/push-the-envelope.html

and for a thousand other odd idioms see the phrase megasite:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/index.html

Prayer and Parody

The links in this post are a tad late, and are certainly incongrous. Prayer and parody often pull in different directions. I present these links given the diverse nature of folks I call my friends. It may be that we need to pray, even as we wince.

This first post features the thoughts of Pastor John Piper, posted before election night (who probably votes like an elephant), nonetheless has things to say to fellow Christians of any political persuasion who would place their confidence in a political process.

See: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1473_thoughts_on_voting_and_politics/

Or for a response see

Justin Taylor responds generously and critically to John Piper's thoughts on voting and politics.


Beyond that, here is a site given to political parody. I do not care for profanity (even the bleeped kind) especially when employed as humor. However, this public service ad by the Liberal activist group Move On Org. shows a clever way to motivate Democrat non-voters.

http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/video.shtml?nid=5cYV8I2.4D8D7aZeOiuJjTM4MTA4Ng--

A note

Pam...I am enjoying strange emotions this evening. As a Republican with an appreciation of limited government I am apprehensive. (I gave my vote to a third party candidate.) As an American who has longed to see the pigment walls come down, I'm thrilled.

Blessings to you on this great night.

Kirk (who just watched the McCain concession speech and is waiting to hear from my new president.)

* I use "great" here in an older sense of the word -- A sense, that blends the ideas of monumental and historic, with a touch of uncertainty and even foreboding. Foreboding in that the sense that we are a nation with unbent knees.