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Monday, January 30, 2012

Leave a comment in response the our first podcast. Where and how did you hear it? Did you like it? What can we improve on?
If you haven’t heard it yet, listen to it here.

We’d love to know what you think.

The Boundaries of Cultural Engagement by Greg Veltman

Friday, January 27, 2012

I wrote this a while back in response to common criticism that those of “us” who are passionate about cultural engagement are merely trying to justify our love of something that is evil, or secular, or merely not pietistic enough to be within the bounds of Christianity. And yes, it is somewhat of an argument of justification, but only because the predominant view is that popular culture and Christianity cannot be reconciled. So, what is your reasoning for how these can be reconciled? Here is mine (in short form):

When I was in the ninth grade I wanted to be cool.  So, I bought the coolest album I could- Pearl Jam’s Ten. Everyone in high school seemed to love them.  They sounded good, and it wasn’t like I had to reflect to hard on the lyrics that you couldn’t catch most of the word too anyway.  It was about being cool.  I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but my Dad (a pastor) decided that we should sit down and listen and read the lyrics together.  At first this seemed even cooler, seeing as how my first experience of rock music was the Simon & Garfunkel my Dad recorded off the radio during his college days.  But as we read the lyrics of songs like “Evenflow” and “Jeremy” I began to realize that this was disturbing stuff- painful and emotional songs about child abuse.  My dad didn’t make me burn the CD’s or throw them out, he merely pointed out that there was a massive disconnect between my own life and experience and the music I was listening to. I came to the realization that I wouldn’t be listening to Pearl Jam anymore (My junior year of college I returned to them with more mature questions). I had to recognize my own limitations. 

What I have come to realize is that while a Reformed view allows Christians the freedom to really engage and ask good questions of culture, it also places on us the responsibility of knowing where the boundaries are.  Even before the Fall, God had told Adam and Eve the limits that they were under, not as slaves to God, but so that they could find their identity and flourish in their relationship with God, rather than being deceived by thinking of themselves as god.  This has become clearer, or rather more muddled, after the fall, where we now see the world “through a glass darkly.”  In a world with real goodness and real evil, we must come to realize what our boundaries are so that we are pursuing faithfulness, rather than running into ruin. 

What we need is a community of conversation- a space where we can learn and grow in maturity and discernment.  To be human is to be a creature in God’s world, and we flourish most when we live inside the limits that God’s grace provides.  Engaging culture is not a free for all in which we celebrate every created thing as art, rather it is a careful process in which we work out our faith with “fear and trembling,” trying to discern the complexities of an originally good creation that we have screwed up by mistaking grace for irresponsible freedom. Engaging culture will involve developing appropriate gestures in response to culture; these gestures then shape our posture toward culture.  Andy Crouch (Culture Makers, 2007) lists “condemnation, critique, consumption, and copying” as possible Christian responses to different things in culture.  While each of these responses are appropriate for different things, we should not allow one of them to become the dominating response. Rather, within the limits of God’s world we have to become creators and cultivators of culture- to truly be salt and light in the world.

Death Cab for Cutie student ticket pre-sale

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The Student Activities Office is now officially announcing a concert with Death Cab for Cutie with The Magik*Magik Orchestra on Saturday, April 14 at 8pm in the CFAC.

We are hosting a special pre-sale for student tickets on Monday, January 23 at 7pm in the Spoelhof Fieldhouse Complex.

The ticket purchasing policies are:
• $15 for Calvin students; $50 for faculty, staff, and public tickets.
• 1 ticket per Calvin Student ID card, with a maximum of 2 Calvin ID cards per student.
• Students will also be able to purchase a maximum of two full price ($50) ticket at this time.
• All tickets for this show are reserved seating. Student tickets are in a single block, so tickets purchased at full price will not be adjacent to student seats.
• There are a limited number of student tickets available.
• Tickets are not available for purchase online during the student pre-sale.
• Faculty and staff will be able to purchase two full price tickets ($50) at this time.

Student may want to contact their friends who are studying abroad this Interim in order to purchase a ticket for them, as this show will likely be sold out before they return.

Ticket sales for the public and online will begin at 9am on January 27.

All questions should be directed to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or check out the event on Facebook.

Greg’s top albums of 2011

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Here is my list of albums I enjoyed listening to most in 2011 (in alphabetical order).
* those that I saw live in 2011

Adele - 21
Alison Krauss & Union Station - Paper Airplane
The Black Keys - El Camino
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
The Civil Wars - Barton Hallow*
Cut Copy - Zonoscope*
Dawes - Nothing is Wrong*
The Decemberist - The King is Dead*
Feist - Metals
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues*
Florence + the Machine - Ceremonials
Gardens and Villa - Gardens and Villa*
Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest*
The Head and the Heart - The Head and the Heart*
Josh Garrels - Love & War & The Sea In Between
Lady Gaga - Born This Way
Laura Marling - A Creature, I Don’t Know
M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
My Brightest Diamond - All Things Will Unwind*
New York Hymns - Songs for Lent
Noah & the Whale - Last Night on Earth*
Over the Rhine - The Long Surrender*
Radical Face - The Family Tree: The Roots
The Roots - Undun
St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
Washed Out - Within and Without*
Zola Jesus - Conatus

And those I hope to listen to more in 2012:

Beirut - The Ripe Tide
Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
The Milk Carton Kids - Prologue and Retrospect*
My Morning Jacket - Circuital
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
tUnE yArDs - w h o k i l l
TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
Wilco - The Whole Love
Wye Oak - Civilian

The 54th Grammy Nominees (for 2011) that have played at Calvin College (22 nominations, 17 artists)

Friday, December 02, 2011

The Grammy Nominations were announced Wednesday night, so we decided to make a list of artist who are nominees and have performed at Calvin. Some of them in the quite recent past.

Best Dance/Electronica Album – Zonoscope Cut Copy

Best Rock Performance – “Down By The Water” The Decemberists

Best Rock Song - “Down By The Water” The Decemberists

Best Rock Album – The Whole Love Wilco

Best Alternative Music Album – Codes and Keys Death Cab For Cutie

Best Rap Performance – “The Show Goes On” Lupe Fiasco

Best Rap Song - “The Show Goes On” Lupe Fiasco

Best Rap Album – LASERS Lupe Fiasco

Best Country Duo/Group Performance – “Barton Hallow” The Civil Wars

Best Country Song – “God Gave Me You” written by Dave Barnes

Best Contemporary Christian Music Album – Ghosts Upon the Earth Gungor

Best Americana Album – Hard Bargain Emmylou Harris

Best Bluegrass Album – Sleep With One Eye Open Chris Thile (formerly of Nickel Creek) & Michael Daves

Best Blues Album – The Reflection Keb Mo

Best Folk Album – Barton Hallow The Civil Wars, I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive Steve Earle, Helplessness Blues Fleet Foxes, The Harrow & The Harvest Gillian Welch

Best World Music Album – Songs from a Zulu Farm Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Best Instrumental Composition – “Life in Eleven” Béla Fleck & the Flecktones

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical – The Harrow & the Harvest Gillian Welch

Best Short Form Music Video – “All Is Not Lost” OK GO