Ironies abound

Yesterday I went to see Almodovar--he's a Spanish director--movie. It was really good, and although it was at its base two intertwined love triangles, it was better than a majority of the crap pumped out of the West Coast at any given point of time nowadays. It made me think, to say the least.

But really this post starts, or my point in bringing this up is that I went with some people who speak Spanish fairly fluently and so we spoke Spanish all the way there (and there) and on the way back (with Radiohead in the background, hehe, but I promise I didn't pick it, even if I enjoyed it!). Now except for a couple of points on 795 when I hit those spells of mental fatigue that one hits--I was the one driving--I understood everything and participated, but admittedly, it takes a lot more work than speaking in English. And here's my point. I talked less, listened more, and was much more careful that what I said was really what I meant. Which I guess makes sense, but in the language that I'm most comfortable in (I don't have many choices, here) it's weird how I can be very careless, not really making sure that everything I say is what I really mean.

In fact as of late, I find that I say a lot of things that I'm really not sure I mean. Or sometimes I say things and right afterwards I'm really don't know where they come from. Or after saying smoething I will stop and really question what I say and end up not buying it at all. In fact nowadays there's just a lot I don't buy. But of course once you say something, you're like held to it, and everything you say is pieced together, used to glue some kind of dripping, popsicle stick figure of you that has to keep having more sticks added to it so it won't collapse, or one taken away from here and added there--more glue! more glue!

Or maybe I'm confusing metaphors here. Maybe that's what we do with our picture of God. And be sure that our understanding of God is not the same as who God is. And btw, a lot of what I'm thinking/not buying/skeptical of what I once may have been saying has had to do with God, though not everything. A lot of it has to do with other people, life, etc. Personal realizations, etc.

I was having a conversation this past week about God and why people's experience of God are so different, and I said there are two possibilities: either God manifests Himself (I personally mean nothing by using the reflexive masculine pronoun) differently to every person or we've all got it wrong. Of course, right? In my nice black-and-white dichotomous way. Being the positive person I am, at the time I said that I tend to believe the latter--we've all got it wrong, except of course then that is slightly problematic, especially if I truly believe God is trying to build relationships with His people. Sooo... I've modified my view, though it's still too simplistic probably, that we've all have different understandings of God, but they're incomplete. And it's when we think that our understanding is complete that I think we've got it wrong. And if God is so infinite, I think that He probably does manifest Himself different to different people. (Of course I think certain views of God are wrong like, I don't know, God being evil or something like that.)

So, yeah, maybe I need to just shut up and listen I say as I post a ridiculously long blog.

Sufjan!

So I went to see Sufjan Stevens on Thursday, September 28, 2006.

As of late I've been having a hard time assessing things. Yeah, yeah, I know, that's unbelievable coming from me, but it's true. I think it was good, you know overall, though I quibble with some of his arrangements. The brass and string section were excellent. And he's a great arranger. Just I don't like everything he did. But the stuff near the end was great. Actually Sister was really, the 2nd song after the instrumental song that was really beautiful was good, nicely arranged. The whole team jammed out Jacksonville, and that was fun. Most of the Seven Swans
songs were good. I mean A Good Man is Hard to Find, probably one of my favorite Sufjan songs of all time, he always performs well, and is always great. The encore, To Be Alone with You and The Dress Looks Nice on You were beautiful. That part in The Dress, you know what part I'm talking about. After the second the verse. Because they had like 4 or 5 people on guitars and banjos. Oh yeah. That was utterly fantastic. I mean, that part of the song when that countermelody comes in, you just want to hear it over and over. And it just was very ethereal with all of them complementing each other on it. Yeah. Let's see...


Oh yeah. Majesty Snowbird. The new song everyone is talking about. It is good. I don't know if it is amazing. It's solid. He hasn't lost it. It wasn't chilling like the first time I heard Chicago at my first Sufjan concert before Illinois came out, before Sufjan was big. I could just tell that was going to be awesome. I got so excited about Illinois. Don't get me wrong, Majesty Snowbird is big, huge song. And it probably is great. Maybe it is amazing. I don't know. As I said, I have this problem with assessing things. Probably goes along with some other things I'm combatting that I do find problematic, and this is in fact tied to it. Ah, everything has consequence.

Actually, I'm listening to it now, someone recorded the song (it's actually what I heard on Thursday). Okay, it's pretty good. It's somewhat different then his previous stuff. I really like the melody. It is beautiful. Very dynamic. A little predictable. (Or signature maybe?) He's definitely going in a different direction. It's not very folky except in parts. Very symphonic in tone, an obvious progression and logical step from Illinois, I guess.

Enough about that.

Oh, other highlights. Palisades was really good. They pulled that off strinkingly well. (Minus one thing that I'll get to in a minute.) They played The Lord God Bird which was cool. Believe it or not, I thought John Wayne was more chilling at his last concert, which was definitely not as good as this one. But he still performed it well.

And, and, and, they played another of my favorite songs: Detroit! Lift up your weary! Reconsider! Rebuild! (Or something like that!) No, it wasn't as....something as the album, but it was magnificent with the brass and string section. So, yeah.

My biggest quibble was, minus flubbing a few of the songs at beginning which is forgivable, he was probably nervous, the noise. Many of the songs built up to this noisy, unbearable auditory mess that I simply could not stand, and (yes I'm making a value judgment) really is not good music. Especially when used in the same manner over and over again. I know he has this fascination with noise, which thankfully he curbs on his albums (though not enough on The Avalanche) and uses to *great* effect on Michigan, but it was waaaay too much at the concert. And to what effect? Why? I still have no idea. I don't know what meaning it evoked nor what feeling except for me, pure irritation and bewilderment. Sufjan: cut the noise (and do you really need the distorted guitar?) and stick with the symphonic arrangements.

And that's all I've got.