Filed under: Culture, Home, Music, New Zealand | Tags: Music, film, best of 2009, 2009, top 5, retrospective, books, inspiration
Here are some of my favourite things from 2009, some of them (such as music albums) weren’t released this year, but I only heard/saw them this year. So it might be better to call it ‘this year’s inspirations’.
Released this year:
The Appleseed Cast – Sagarmartha-
Mew – No More Stories Are Told Today, I’m Sorry, They Washed Away-
Paper Route – Absence-
Passion Pit – Manners-
Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix-
Discovered this year:
Francis and the Lights – A Modern Promise/Striking
Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak
M83 – Before the Dawn Heals Us
Songs:
Appleseed Cast – The Summer Before
Passion Pit – Moth’s Wings
Francis & The Lights – The Top
M83 – Teen Angst
Paper Route – Last Time
Moments/Significant Happenings:
“I do” – Wedding 16/8/09
“Goodbye” – Moving to New Zealand 20/8/09
Cat giving me a Macbook Pro for my birthday
Finishing Infinite Jest
Finishing my Grad. Dip in Graphic Design
Books:
Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace
Pagan Christianity – George Barna, Frank Viola
This Is Water – David Foster Wallace
Life After God – Douglas Coupland
From Eternity To Here – Frank Viola
Inspirations:
RMIT – Contextual Studies Reader
RMIT – Type & Identity Mini-Site
TED.com – John Francis and many others who inspired me
ffffound.com
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373
Websites?
ffffound.com
http://www.underconsideration.com/fpo/
facebook
bdnd.net – my website – shameless self promotion i know, but it’s my first website proper
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/
Films:
Man On Wire
A Guide To Recognising Your Saints
Revolutionary Road
Jerry Mcguire
Zidane
That’s everything! I could’ve covered some other things but didn’t have the time.
I will be creating a new blog early in the new year and it will be hosted on my own website, which will be reflecting some new changes.
Really liking the song ‘Cemetery’ by Say Anything.
Some of the lyrics towards the end of the song:
When I face the one who made
My disgusting heart from a lump of clay
Should he ask what got me through
If he asks me, it was you.
Filed under: Auto-Biog
50 posts. yay.
not the happiest one today.
realised i have a massive insecurity that stems out of a whole bunch of issues and at particular times it flares up and basically shuts me down.
anyway.
Filed under: Auto-Biog
The events of the last few weeks has taught me the following:
I only care about ideas like Hell or abstract, high concept ideas when everything is going peachy.
The rest of the time I’m trying to make things peachy again.
Life is never 100% peachy, we just like to gloss over the other stuff.
Who cares if the local church does their offering in a way that causes guilt for some people, if our lives are stuffed up.
Maybe we care about these things because they make things less than peachy. No one likes to be disturbed.
Perspective is a funny thing: Happy poor people vs. unhappy wealthy people.
Apart from the fact that there’s a pizza franchise called Hell, I’ve been thinking about the idea of Hell – the spiritual ‘place’.
Does it exist? Who goes there?
I hope it doesn’t exist but I have a terrible feeling it does.
If we assume that Hitler is going to Hell, then what is stopping me from going there? What criteria is used? Even the Bible implies that we’ll be surprised by who ‘gets in’ and who is ‘left out’ of Heaven.
What measure of Justice does God use? Does God exist? If the earth is outside of God, in order for us to have free will, then why would we be disciplined for that which we’ve done outside of his jurisdiction?
Will God hold Western nations who claim Christianity as their own guilty for all the ethical and moral failures in dealing with others?
Does this parable negate the idea of there being levels in Heaven? i.e. more goodness gets you into a higher ‘level’ of Heaven, less goodness means you get Heaven Lite?
Does this parable imply that the sort of God we believe in is the sort of God we’ll face in ‘the end’? I.e. believe in a graceful God, you get grace. believe in a harsh, judgemental God, you get harsh judgements? What beliefs about God stop us from achieving and from trying to better the lives of those around us?
Does this parable imply that abstract belief is like an oil lamp, but that being filled with the Spirit is the oil? Therefore implying that only those who are Spirit filled go to Heaven? And does the parable imply that there is a cut off time for being filled with the Spirit, which stops people from learning from their mistake?
Does this parable advise us from getting too caught up with earthly things? And again is there room for people to learn from their mistakes?
Sometimes I feel like the lost sheep in this parable but I don’t feel like God actually does anything to come and get me.
And why do Christians get so caught up in being pure and righteous through their own strength when they’ve been made righteous through Christ. It says God celebrates more for someone becoming a new or re-dedicated Christian than he does for the Christian who doesn’t need to repent, and that the payment for both workers is equal. Does this mean that a Free-Pass into Heaven is all that we’re after? Will God actually care about the Christian who doesn’t do a thing to help his fellow man, as long as he believes? If Hitler repented (most would add – sincerely – before the ‘r’ word), would he be paid the gift of eternal life in Heaven? As Christians we say yes, but then ask – where is the justice? I’ll finish with this thought – if you make it to Heaven, will people ask ‘where is the justice?’
Am currently reading Sex God by Rob Bell, and there are a lot of points he makes that I’ve made in a previous post. Weird.
I think it’s an exciting time to be a “Christian” right now. whatever that means.
Filed under: Auto-Biog, Culture, Music, New Zealand, Theological Nuts, Work Comments | Tags: Branding, Christianity, Folio, Francis and the Lights, Graphic Design, Hamilton Gardens, Infinite Jest, Kid Cudi, Monsters of Folk, New Zealand, Postmodernism, Sufjan Stevens, Waikato Museum, Waikato River
First things first:
So I have heard a few people make disparaging remarks about postmodernism as a world-view. Only Christians though, I should say. I know that Christians don’t like the idea of there not being absolute truth. I think they don’t like the idea of not being able to claim to have the absolute truth more. In any case, Postmodernism presents Christianity with a beautiful challenge: Rather than Christians being lazy and claiming to have the only truth, we now need to prove by way of action that Christianity is the best truth.
Anyway, enough about that. The past week was spent doing housework, listening to music, listening to new music, applying for jobs, doing a bit of exercise, cooking, learning how to be productive without a job, exploring the city, meeting people and getting into a (hopefully) temporary routine.
Have been continuing to read Infinite Jest, as well as a book on the Fundamentals of Graphic Design to refresh what I already know. Once IJ is finished I can get onto The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet. Can’t wait.
Will probably have to change my website + branding soon, initial versions were rushed and not very well thought out. Unfortunate but true! Oh well, means that I can really get into it properly while still applying for jobs using the old stuff.
Had a look around the city the other day and went to the Waikato Museum. Pretty good for how big it is. And not lacking in technology either. Top notch I reckon, but I’m hardly an expert in Museums!
Kiwis are incredibly patriotic. Well they don’t actually think so but there are a lot of Aussie-bashing advertisements around, not to mention the amount of corporate logos that somehow incorporate the fern! Too bad the Wallabies lost (though I didn’t get treated too badly!), but the Diamonds won so apparently that evens things out, even if noone really follows the netball in Australia. Oh well.
We bought some mountain bikes the other day. I’m looking forward to riding them next to the Waikato River. Beautiful down there. Also had a quick visit to the Hamilton Gardens which is stunning. And everyone was there having a good time at Sunday lunchtime so I reckon that’s a good thing too.
Next things to do for Benjamin are to re-design my folio and then logo/branding, then get my folio printed and personally go to design businesses and harass them either for a job or for an internship. Also I’ll probably be starting to learn guitar soon. Yay!
Music recs: Sufjan Stevens – The BQE (officially coming out in late October), Kid Cudi – Man on the Moon – The End of Day, Francis and the Lights, and Monsters of Folk.
Until next time.
Filed under: Auto-Biog, Culture, Home, Music, New Zealand, Questions, Theological Nuts
So now my website is completed I can really start applying for jobs and stuff here which is cool. There’s not a whole lot on offer but I’ll do my best to get something!!
Went to a church meeting this morning at Gateway Christian Centre in Hamilton. It was our second time there and we’re really enjoying it so far. Met a few people as well which is lovely :) I watched a social rugby game in the afternoon between the under and over 25s and met 2 or 3 more people there too. Any advice for those entering a new social situation – take the front foot approach. It works well :) Unless you’re an axe murderer, in which case I would heartily recommend the give-yourself-up-to-the-police approach.
As far as church practice goes, it’s not terribly different. They don’t hand around offering buckets (there’s a slot up the back next to the info desk), there’s not much focal attention given to the musicians/singers (lack of concert-style lighting), for communion everyone comes up the front and gets their emblems then walks back to their seats. They also have a 10 minute break after their brief announcements (which follows the music), and before the message (which goes for about 35-40 mins).
It’s always both funny and fun being the new people around and trying to scope things out. Cat and I are really enjoying it though and I think we’ve found it a really positive experience so far. We went to a young adults meeting (it was combined with the high school aged kiddywinkles) and the speaker there was really good as well.
Cat’s had her first week at work and she’s enjoying it thoroughly, apart from having to do reading on the weekend.
I’m doing housework, finished my website/folio/showreel/cv and finalised my branding and all that so that’s all done. Means I have a few other things here that need to get taken care of.
What’s fun though during the day is being able to listen to music. Love it. New Kid Cudi album is cool. Also been whacking on a bit of Sufjan Stevens which is also lovely.
I’ve been looking for this store called Wunderland, which has a really bad logo but it seems like they’ve gone out of business. It was going to be the one cool store to go to. It’s probably a better thing they are closed down so I can’t indulge my consumerist whims!
I made a really nice dinner the other night. Steak on top of spicy kumara mash with mushroom sauce and broccoli. It was lovely. I’ve been saying lovely a lot in this blog.
Really missed home and my family today. At times it really hits you.
Anyway that’s enough for now.
Random memory: I was talking with an older guy on a train once (I already knew him), and he loves the book of Revelation, in a kinda kooky way. Anyway he was hinting that Obama could be the anti-christ because he wants to make peace with Muslims. apparently the anti-christ makes peace between 2 ‘kingdoms’ – apparently this is islam and christianity. I said “That’s interesting, though Jesus did say ‘blessed are the peacemakers’.” He replied ‘Yeah, I didn’t think of that’… there was a pause.
This will be brief as my left hand is out of action (kitchen accident: knife into hand = blood and me being a sook)
We’ve arrived in our new home for 4 years – Hamilton, NZ.
Also, my new site is up! (you may have noticed the change in banner – that’s the website!)
It’s not 100% completed (e.g. Folio & CV aren’t up) but I thought I’d give it a go!
Missing everyone a fair bit, though NZ doesn’t feel all that different from Aus.
Went to church for the first time here, was a good experience overall.
Will say more later when hand has healed up :)
Ben
P.S. Music Recs: Mew, Mutemath, Sleeping at Last, Paper Route, Closure in Moscow
I have trouble getting sentimental about friendships. Even though I would do anything (most of the time) to keep a friendship, in the face of such a big life change I have trouble holding on. Normally anyway. Because right now I’m feeling pretty scared.
Because I don’t know how many of you I’ll ever see again.
But because I don’t want to hold on so much that I never embrace my new environment.
I’ve always known that friends don’t stay around forever, but in this case it’s me that’s leaving. And most of the time it means that I easily forget that which keeps me going – deeper conversations about life, love, God/religion etc.
So in all this I want to say that I have learned so much from all of you.
My friends. My acquaintances. My one-off meeting people.
Many of you I couldn’t invite to my wedding. But it doesn’t mean I’m any less grateful.
The post-school formative years have been a wonderful experience, and I owe it to every single person I’ve met, but moreso to the people I’ve always enjoyed conversing with, no matter where or when.
I’ve enjoyed exploring unknown territory with all of you. Thanks for opening your hearts and minds to be a part of my life.
This isn’t a final goodbye, but I feel I need to mark the occasion of leaving.
For all the times I piked on going out, or the times when I missed the most important moments in your life, I’m sorry. Sometimes I really hate the ambition I have, and the sacrifices that those ambitions call for.
Getting married and moving to another country scares me so much. It honestly does. There is a whole world of emotions going through my brain right now, and I’m trying to work it all out, which I’m sure is a futile effort.
To my church/christian/old school/lighthouse friends: I’ve only been honest about my struggles with Christianity and church with a few of you. I want to thank you for helping me expressing them. We’ve been through so much together, and you’re the ones that truly understand where I’m coming from.
To my Deakin friends: Thanks for putting up with me during those formative years. Fresh out of Bible college, i thought i had all the answers. Thanks for not avoiding or pigeonholing me.
Maddy (tucker) I just want to say that from that whole time I haven’t lost the deep respect I have for you. You’ve always been willing to take conversations to places where they haven’t been before, and your patience for this young fundamentalist has been superb. Thanks.
Wanyima, you’ve been a great friend to talk with. Our conversations have always been fantastic.
To my Bayside friends: even though I haven’t felt the same ability to be as honest about my struggles with church with you, you have restored a little bit of the fun back to Christianity that I had forgotten. The first 9 months of being at Bayside were crazy in my head as I unlearned some of the well-intentioned untruths of my former church. Thanks for sticking by.
To my RMIT friends: we haven’t known each other long, but I have the feeling that if we had more time, those friendships would have blossomed like crazy. Thanks for the fun times and great discussions.
To everyone:
You must come and visit us in NZ. We have a spare room.
Well this hasn’t been the most well-written piece I’ve ever created but with the amount of different emotions swimming around I’m surprised I even finished it.
Once again,
Thanks
