Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Beach Boys' #1 on Pitchfork Top 200

Emessage from a friend who works for the Chicago Tribune:

Pitchfork is today's hip purveyor of music journalism, I'm told. They recently published their list of the Top 200 singles of the '60s and the top 20 is heavy on Beach Boys. ("Good Vibrations" came in at 21, I think. They limited their rankings to five per artist, so gems like "I Can Hear Music" and "Break Away" didn't make it.)

Anyway, take a look.
Take care, Pat


1. The Beach Boys: "God Only Knows"
(Tony Asher/Brian Wilson)
1966
Chart info: U.S. (#39), UK (#2)
Available on Pet Sounds

I'm sure you've read these: "the world's greatest song," "Brian Wilson's masterpiece," "the most beautiful piece of music ever recorded." Yes, the initiation into the Museum of Western Popular Music is always rough, as credible historians rush to summarize our collective experiences in short phrases. But for better or worse, "God Only Knows" is the kind of song that's almost impossible for me to talk about divorced from the way it makes me feel: sad, in love, honestly grateful, but also a little hopeless. Even in mono, it's like being swept up by a wave of compassion but still getting bruised.

The first words Carl Wilson sings, "I may not always love you," are already uncertain, so if you need a tie into the legacy of 1960s youth culture, glance no further than the naïve but strained optimism locked inside this song. Yet, Carl made this uncertainty sound gorgeous. The voices that sail behind his might just as well be a quartet of violas and cellos playing counterpoint that'd already been obsessed over a few times before they got it. "God Only Knows" is so ideally conceptualized and realized, critics can't help but support it. Somehow, even that can't turn it into an art exhibit; its humanity resists the attempt. To me, this song is a goodbye to being a kid, and hoping that love actually is the answer. And almost nobody knows if it is. --Dominique Leone



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Sunday, August 13, 2006

Rock & Religion ~ Bono & U2, Alice Cooper, "Kiss Me" ...

Faith, God and Rock & Roll:
How People of Faith Are Transforming American Popular Music




Mark Joseph
Baker Books

"It's easy to assume that rockers who feel equally at home in the secular and spiritual arenas are still a rare and isolated breed. But Mark Joseph shows just how commonplace this phenomenon has become right under our noses, concentrating not just on the usual suspects (U2, Creed, P.O.D.) but also some lesser-known lights (Dashboard Confessional, Pedro the Lion). And he's not afraid to ruffle feathers among those who would marginialize this music, be they gospel partisans who want to claim it for their own ghetto or old-school rockers desperate to keep 'the devil's music' unstained by God-fearing upstarts."--Chris Willman, senior writer, Entertainment Weekly

"Mark Joseph is a conscious writer with a love for music that moves both Heaven and Earth."--Lonn Friend, Rock Journalist, Fmr. Editor, Spin Magazine

"An engaging read about engaging culture. Mark Joseph makes the case for musicians who rock our world while shaking up conventional ideas about whether or not "people of faith" should be immersed in mainstream culture."--Jody Hassett, ABC News

"There is an undercurrent of profound spiritual content in popular music. Faith, God, and Rock & Roll is a riveting guide through the many spiritual influences of my favorite artists. This is a must read for anyone who is spiritually and culturally aware."-Chris Seay, author of The Gospel According to Tony Soprano

"It's easy to assume that rockers who feel equally at home in the secular and spiritual arenas are still a rare and isolated breed. But Mark Joseph shows just how commonplace this phenomenon has become."-Chris Willman, senior writer, Entertainment Weekly

"If you have ever wondered about God's concern for the rock and roll industry and the millions of lives it encircles, you cannot find a better resource than Mark Joseph's Faith, God and Rock & Roll. His experience and knowledge are evident in every chapter of this informative and engaging book. I'm greatly encouraged to see the way that God is at work outside the bubble of my own religious subculture.Thank you, Mark."--Chuck Smith Jr., author, The End of the World. . . As We Know It

Buy this book from Amazon.com, Christian Book Distributors (CBD), Barnes & Noble, or your local bookstore.

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Monday, August 07, 2006

New Johnny Cash Book + "Rare" DVD



>>>Click headline to order
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Saturday, August 05, 2006

70,000 Church Leaders to Hear U2's Bono

U2’s Bono among church and business leaders to address international leadership summit, August 10-12 at Willow Creek

By Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (ANS) -- Bono, lead singer of the rock band U2 and TIME magazine's 2005 Person of the Year, will be featured in an hour-long exclusive interview at The Leadership Summit, an annual global gathering that this year is expected to draw some 70,000 church and business leaders.

Bono

Bono is co-founder of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) a group leading efforts in the fight against global poverty and the AIDS pandemic, and will speak to the conference via pre-recorded videocast.

Now in its 11th year, The Summit’s principles of dynamic leadership have transcended the walls of the church as companies now routinely send teams to The Summit and use it as one of their core annual training events. The Leadership Summit satellite sites are accessible to most Americans within a 50-mile driving range.

According to a media release, The Leadership Summit, which originates from Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, will be beamed live via satellite and to 125 locations in North America, Thursday, Aug. 10 – Saturday, Aug. 12, and will be videocast to an additional 52 cities worldwide in late September and early October. The Leadership Summit provides inspiration and motivation for those with leadership abilities or responsibilities.

The release says speakers at The Leadership Summit 2006 will present motivation and innovative principles on topics that are applicable in both the boardroom and church and ministry settings, with topics including conflict management, team building, effective hiring, and avoiding burnout. Leadership experts will include:

**Bill Hybels – International leadership expert, presidential counselor, founder and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., recently rated the “Most Influential Church” in the U.S. in a survey of more than 2,000 congregations; author of Courageous Leadership.

**James Meeks – Illinois state senator, an established leader in civil rights and diplomacy, and founder and pastor of Salem Baptist Church in Chicago’s Roseland Community, one of the nation’s fastest-growing churches.

**Jim Collins – Authority on enduring great companies — how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how they become great. He is co-author of the classic volumes, Built to Last and Good to Great.

**Andy Stanley – Founding and senior pastor of North Point Community Church, a congregation of 12,000 just north of Atlanta, and author of Visioneering.

**Peg Neuhauser – Management and organizational consultant who specializes in areas of conflict management, organizational culture, stress, and avoiding burn out.

**Patrick Lencioni – Founder and president of The Table Group, Inc., a specialized management-consulting firm focused on executive team-building and organizational health, and author of the bestselling The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

For information about local satellite sites or to register for The Leadership Summit 2006, visit www.willowcreek.com/summit or call (800) 570-9812. The Willow Creek Association (WCA), host of the annual Leadership Summit, is a growing multi-denominational worldwide network of more than 12,000 churches from 90 denominations and 35 countries. The WCA equips churches and church leaders with strategic vision, training, and resources.

Laura Swickard McGowan
Laura McGowan Communications
Phone (847) 328-8009
laura@lauramcgowan.com

www.lauramcgowan.com

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
Paul Braoudakis, (224) 512-1362
media@willowcreek.com


** Michael Ireland is an international British freelance journalist. A former reporter with a London newspaper, Michael is the Chief Correspondent for ASSIST News Service of Lake Forest, California. Michael immigrated to the United States in 1982 and became a US citizen in September, 1995. He is married with two children. Michael has also been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station.

** You may republish this story with proper attribution.
Send this story to a friend.

ASSIST News Service is brought to you in part by Gospel for Asia (GFA). Gospel for Asia's passion is to plant churches among the world's most unreached peoples - those who have never heard a Gospel message. More than 15,000 native missionaries are now on the field with more than 29,000 churches planted in 10 Asian nations. You can help sponsor a native missionary for less than a dollar a day. Gospel for Asia is currently working to relieve the poverty and hopelessness of the Dalit communities by reaching out to Dalit children with food, clothing, and an education - all through the love of Jesus Christ. To learn more about GFA and their work among the Dalits (Untouchables) of India please go to their website at www.gfa.org or in North America call 1-800-WIN-ASIA.
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Wednesday, August 02, 2006

10 Things You Should Do Before Going to Heaven

10 Things You Should Do Before Going to Heaven10 Things You Should Do Before Going to Heaven

Practical ideas for living a more complete life this side of eternity.


by David Bordon & Tom Winters




| Click here to read this article |


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Tuesday, August 01, 2006

String Theory ~ Good Vibrations Make-Up the Universe!

Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity are both accepted as
scientific fact even though they're mutually exclusive. Albert
Einstein spent the second half of his life searching for a unifying
truth that would reconcile the two.



Einstein was searching for String Theory. It not only reconciles
General Relativity to Quantum Mechanics, but it reconciles Science
and the Bible as well.

Listen to a group of physicists talk about String Theory and it will
slowly dawn on you that they're explaining the entire universe as
nothing but the quivering, dancing echo of the voice of God. "Let
there be light."

String Theory describes energy and matter as being composed of tiny,
wiggling strands of energy that look like strings. And the pitch of
a string's vibration determines the nature of its effect.

In essence, String Theory describes space and time, matter and
energy, gravity and light, indeed all of God's creation… as music.

Strings of gravity vibrate at a different frequency than strings of
light. The strings that make up protons vibrate at a different pitch
than the strings that make up electrons. Strings composing the
strong nuclear force vibrate differently than the strings composing
the weak nuclear force. And electromagnetism vibrates at its own
unique frequency as well.

We've known for a while that matter is made of protons, neutrons and
electrons – which are themselves made of quarks. Now String Theory
comes along to whisper in our ear that quarks are made of vibrating,
wiggling strings of energy that are unimaginably small. According to
Brian Greene, a Columbia University physicist educated at Harvard
and Oxford, "If an atom were enlarged to the size of the solar
system, a string would only be as large as a tree."

Greene goes on to say, "Just as different vibrational patterns or
frequencies of a single cello string create what we hear as
different musical notes, the different way that strings vibrate give
particles their unique properties, such as mass and charge. For
example, the only difference between the particles making up you and
me – and the particles that transmit gravity and the other forces –
is the way these tiny strings vibrate. Composed of an enormous
number of these oscillating strings, the universe can be thought of
as a grand, cosmic symphony."

According to String Theory, what appears to be empty space is
actually a tumultuous ocean of strings vibrating at the precise
frequencies that create the 4 dimensions you and I call height,
width, depth and time. We live in these 4 dimensions and know them
well. But String Theory describes an additional 7 dimensions beyond
our ability to perceive.

Suddenly the idea of an invisible world isn't quite so hard to
believe.

Physicist David Gross of the University of California in Santa
Barbara says, "It's as if we've stumbled in the dark into a house
which we thought was a 2-bedroom apartment and now we're discovering
there's a 19-room mansion at least, and maybe it's got a thousand
rooms and we're just beginning our journey."

Roy H. Williams

Roy Williams is the author of several best seller books on
advertising and communication. His best know is perhaps "The Wizard
of Ads," a collection of essays about life and his passion for
business. For more info on Roy's wonderful organization and world-
know communcation worshops go to www.wizardacademy.org.

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