Butterflies and Zebras and Moonbeams

Elusive solutions

2007-06-23T00:51:00.000-07:00

I've enjoyed the feedback and discussion over the last few posts. It seems that a lot of people share in this dissatisfaction with the obvious problems in mainstream church within the west, particularly in Auckland. I think if we're honest, as a whole, the church in Auckland is very sick. Don't get me wrong - God is really at work, and the city is filled with people who love Him passionately and are committed to doing His will. And there are still more good things than not within the church here (in my view). However, the problems that the Church has are serious and cannot be ignored. I think that it's time to stop defending the actions of individuals and churches in the way they choose to behave just because they fall within the 'Christianity' bracket.

We must be open to reformation, and people need to stop seeing critique as 'church bashing'. In my personal view the church here is far too decadent, gives too much weight to prosperity gospel, and even though it is not explicit about it, promotes a thinking that you are fulfilling your duty as a Christian by turning up to a church service on a Sunday and singing songs. The main Christian movements in Auckland appear to outsiders as incredibly image focussed - there are certain Christian groups and churches that I can identify at a gathering like Parachute, purely by their degree of fashion.

There is so much that makes me sad about the church, purely because I'm passionate about the church's role in society. However, I realise that it's easy to point out the problems and to pick holes. And I think that's needed. However, it's not so easy to point out a way forward of 'how to do church' or the messages churches should be communicating in everything they do. Of course we'd all agree that things like love and grace, and acceptance should all be characteristics that every church should live with, but these terms are vague and don't give any real practical direction, just nice principles. What do these things look like when a church adopts them properly? What should a church do and look like? How do we know? When faced with questions like this I can only begin to appreciate the immense responsability that a pastor feels as he tries to lead his church in a good direction.

I want to try and tackle all of this, but am quite hesitant as I realise that there are thousands of different views, such a multitude of different areas to consider, and no simple answer to anything. There are also a whole heap of approaches I could take as well. I also acknowledge that I'm only, and however enlightened I feel that I am, I still have so much to learn, lots of wisdom to gain and understanding to wrestle towards. If anything I want to talk about things that I have questions about, to clear the thinking in my own head.

I know I said I was going to talk about Christian music, but now that I've delved deeper into thinking about it, I've come to the decision that the role of Christian music must be understood in the context of the role of God's people on earth, and not some seperate thing.

I guess what I'm saying is, I need all the help I can get - and any point of view is welcome. I'm looking forward to getting my head around stuff, and really understanding why people think the way they do, but I want to use my heart as well as my head.

Houston, we have a problem.

2007-06-04T17:38:00.000-07:00

There's no denying, Brian Houston's multimillion dollar megachurch is a phenomenon. Hillsong Church boasts the attendance of 19,000 people a week and has it's original music endorsed by thousands of churches worldwide, even rising to the top of the secular album charts in Australia. Their highly succesful sound is a blend of modern, high energy, feel good music, appealing both to the young and old, and their meetings are big, loud and proffessional. With so much backing from the modern church worldwide and others, you've got to agree that they must be doing something right.

Make no mistake, I never set out to bash Hillsong - I just want to have a bit of a think about their approach, an approach that on the whole, really works. People with an 'antique' view of church, as a building filled with a couple of dozen bored looking people hearing recitals from an ancient, irrelevant book, dressed in Sunday best would probably be relieved that there is actually something culturally relevant, something that people can get on side with, something that makes Christianity seem that it at least still looks alive. Church at Hillsong is not boring; it's action packed, it isn't monotonous; it's entertaining, it isn't dry and dead but fresh and energetic and enthusiastic.

But my concern is that perhaps Hillsong isn't actually a response to scripture, but actually a response to this unappealing old image. Instead of looking to a Bible orientated church practice, they are forming a style appropriate to the materialistic, celebrity centered culture around them. In trying to avoid being classified as an 'old church' they have swung in comletely the opposite direction, which could be argued, is just as dangerous.

Beyond the music, beyond the criticism, and beyond the Christian patriotism that safeguards Hillsong's future, the biggest problem I have with the way they do church is that they completely disregard the participatory nature that characterises the New Testament church. Paul informs us in 1 Corinthians 12 that we are all 'part of the body of Christ' and all have a contribution to make within each of our local church settings. None of us are less important than another, and basically each of us needs the contribution of everyone else in community.

Now, with the way that the stage is used to seperate those on stage and those not on stage, I don't think that it can be said that the regular attendees of Hillsong church are all equally important. During the 'worship' time, the person in the 32nd row is not as important as Darlene or Joel or Marty. Of course, you have to take into account all of church life, but the services are a significant part of it. This false dichotomy between performer and audience is only fuelled by lyrics like 'All I need is you'. In fact you might want to question just how much the lyrics influence the neglect of true community and interdependance. Cam Donnell, a friend of mine blogged a couple of years ago about Hillsong lyrics and wrote this:

I dont know if I am the only one who really thinks about the 'worship' music i sing but this is some of my thoughts on the Christian 'worship' (which is really a lifestyle not just music but anyway...) scene.
To me this song is just one of the more blatent examples (out of hundreds of more or less subtle songs) of a "Jesus is my boyfriend" song.
The more i think about it, the more it bugs me. This could be a bad thing but these songs really need to be critiqued, in fact all worship music and indeed the whole structure of churches such as Hillsong.
1. I think most would agree that music produced by organisations such as Hillsong and planetshakers and most wider worship music producers would create their songs for the purpose of Corporate worship. Or to use a better word, Community worship through song. In my opinon community would suggest a combined song where we are singing Together, the same things praising and lifting up our Triune God. A high majority of Songs being produced consistantly use "I" instead of "we". This may seem padantic but in itself it creates a huge gap between you and the person worshiping next to you in supposed community. It creates an atmosphere of "me and God in our special moment of worship". It does not lead onto "me and my brothers and sisters in community which you have commanded us to be in want to praise you". It means its you and Jesus, alone, together with eyes shut and head to Heaven. Is this a problem?
2. "Jesus I Love you so much more than anything"
To make things worse when you are standing alone with you and Jesus you are consistantly singing about how much you love each other and how happy all of life is (this is an exaggeration to put across a point..sorry if its over the top!). Where is the "We are fallen. We are messed up. We drop to our knees and repent. We are sorry. We fear you Lord of all etc." where are the reflections on Christian suffering as is reflected on in important passages such as Romans 8 when read in light of Psalm 44 or being ready to be Western martyrs for Christ (which in the west we dont really appreciate) . Anyway. yeah...
3. "Jesus you are all that i need"
Get rid of this all together. Honestly. Completely misleading. If Jesus was all that we need why would he want us to be in unity and community. Why would we need to be accountable. Where is creation in "Jesus being all that i need?" Jesus works through fellow believers via the Holy Spirit and we need each other because of that! Is it just me who sees "Jesus you are all that i need" as limited?

Interesting? You can read his full blog and the comments here: http://feelfreetodisagree.blogspot.com/2005/06/jesus-is-my-boyfriend.html

Worship and Art... Let's finally talk about Hillsong United

2007-05-29T23:22:00.000-07:00

The problem with talking about Christian music, is that often we can forget the distinction between music as art and music for worship. I believe that worship music is simply music to aid people in their worship of God and to stir them to think upon and declare truths about God. Hopefully this will lead people to a desire to know God more fully and give God room to do His thing. With this in mind, it doesn't so much matter about the originality of the music, it's job is to reflect what the lyrics are attempting to express, and as long as the musicians aren't distracting by not being good enough or just by over doing it, then the music is doing the job it was designed for.

Worship teams are not performers, people meant to be up on stage wearing cool clothes and flicking a fringe around. There is no need for bright flashy lights, a PA system and a high stage and a hyped-up experience. Worship teams are musicians who are using their skills to create the music to aid people in their worship.

Music for art on the other hand is about the artist expressing themselves and communicating to an audience, using their performance and music to draw the listeners in, get them onside and willing to listen to the message. Performance in that context is therefore crucial. No one is impressed by a live band that don't perform like they believe in what they're saying.

The confusion and problem I have is when these two different Christian musical forms become difficult to distinguish and you don't know how to interpret what it's all about. Often there is Christian music that is extremely unoriginal and just plain boring - lyrically and musically. There are bands that keep pumping out songs that sound the same just because it sells. It could be said that they are the Christian versions of Nickleback.

On the other hand there are worship artists that create music that is more pop punk and their 'worship' events are hyped up, action packed evenings that more closely resemble a Fall Out Boy concert (trust me, I've seen the band). Instead of being musicians pointing to God through the music, they are stage diving, and are providing something to watch.

This is where I think Hillsong falls off. I was watching a DVD of Hillsong United with a friend and he was telling me how much he loved it. I told him I thought they were a great band, but they are creating an unhelpful focus in worship. My friend then told me that he thought it was a concert, he didn't realise it was worship. We then watched the bass player jump into the crowd. There is no clear distinction. They market themselves as a worship band but then provide a performance.

Geoff Bullock (former Hillsong worship leader who left after a clash with Hillsong leader , Brian Houston) has written and contributed to many articles about Hillsong, often pointing out their focus on 'worship excellence' and neglecting the focus on what we can offer God, not what God can offer us. He says:

"The problem is, we have combined art and worship and made it the one thing. People think that what I do is worship, but what I do is an art. I'm an artist. I am also a worshipper, because I respond to Jesus in the panorama of my life - and part of my response is that I write worship songs, but that is my art. "Now we can have excellent art, because art is communication, and the best art is when you paint such a clear picture that people see beyond your words - the vessels of your communication - and actually see what you were looking at. That's especially important for us if we're trying to show them Jesus. "So if you want to have a Christian arts group and do performances - seek excellence. But if you want to talk about worship, then you've got to come back to brokenness."

Are Hillsong United nothing but 'Blink 182 with a religious twist'? Is the way they are marketed as 'worship music' unhelpful in the messages we are communicating to people about what worship is really about?

I know I'm treading on toes.

Music still has identity... I think.

2007-05-19T04:30:00.000-07:00

Let's keep pulling on threads for a bit.

Okay, so I accept that there are expressions that are equally important to different people. Dance is an incredibly important form of expression, one that is really powerful at times. More and more also I am discovering that thinking and discussion are really great ways of engaging with people too, ideas are great fun to chuck around and refine.

However, I would still argue that while these different expressions are equally important, none really come close to music as the art form that dominates the western culture. Identity is found in the music you listen to, not so much the way you dance, or the poetry you are into or the artists you admire. And I do accept that this is more for those in the 13 - 25 year old bracket, but I would also argue that the western culture is steered by and aimed at this age bracket. Those older and younger than that tend to have found their niche in life and don't care so much for the masses, but their passions or selected fields. Most people out of that age group tend to find specific ways to engage in their social groups and life is more relationship-focussed, not so much all about peer-pleasing and fitting into a broad social norm.

Even if this isn't the case, I would still agrue that the 13 - 25 age group is incredibly crucial. In New Zealand (I think a similar percentage is found throughout the world) 90% of people lose their faith while at University. Lots come back to faith later in life, but by then most the big life decisions have been made; career, spouse, family and location. And although God will use all things to His glory, it would be better for Christians to be listening to God for His direction for these decisions, and to make these decisions with the intention to further the gospel with their lives, not to make their lives more cooshie.

Engagement with this age bracket is crucial, and if music is the dominant form of engagement, then of course, good Christian music MUST infiltrate the airwaves. There is already too much music that is completely devoid of hope, and the only thing the industry points to as any sort of redemption tends to be various forms of hedonism.

I have been half asleep while writing this and know that I haven't thought enough about it or said what I wanted to say in the right way, so feel free to point holes in what I'm saying. The idea is that you guys get me thinking about how I'm thinking.

We need more musical heroes.

Musical Identity

2007-05-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks for your thoughts everybody. I haven't really had an overwhelming response to the last post, but that's largely because what I'm saying is hardly new, I think I'm just reiterating a lot of thinking that's been going on, and sorting out my own thoughts. Jacob wrote a reply on his blog which you'll find here --> http://theincredibleflyingmachine.blogspot.com/2007/05/reply-to-sams-post.html

It's a shame he agreed in way, because he puts up a good argument. I would like to touch on something that he questioned though. Jakes said "I'm not sure that I would go so far to say that music is the primary symptom of our insulated sub-culture, but it is a big part." It might seem like I'm pulling on threads here, but I don't think that's quite what I was getting at. I described it as 'at this moment in time, the most significant expression of subculture we know' so I guess I'm not really disagreeing here, I'm just clearing up what I meant, because I think it's pretty important.

It's hard to really deny, especially in this post modern age of individualism, that people like to find their own identity, and theirs alone. This is pretty evident in terms of music most of the time - more obscure bands are cool until everybody likes them, then they're lame. Back when I was a 14 year old n00b in England, and everybody there was into garage music and S Club 7 (slight exaggeration), Linkin Park started making their mark. I was the first person amongst anyone I knew that was into them, but about 3 months later everyone liked them, and I was gutted. My individuality had been whipped out from underneath me.

These days it's easy to tell which kids listen to My Chemical Romance, and which ones listen to the Strokes, just from the way people tend to dress. The music we listen to often goes as far as to group us with other people with same tastes; we have the emos, the punks, the indies, the metalheads etc. Some people even take on similar spiritual beliefs to the artists, no matter what that is. Common ground through music is powerful. Whether we like it or not, the music at least to an extent, gives us an identity, it causes us to think a certain way, and has an impact on who we are.

To use another personal anecdote, I used to be a huge Green Day fan (I'm really doing nothing for my social credit in this post), and would know how to sing and play every song by them. I didn't realise how much of an impact the 'Dookie' album had on me until I listened to it a couple of years ago, started singing along to the words and entering into the worldview expressed throught the lyrics. Predominantly, that album encouraged me towards apathy. It influenced my thinking, I bought into the philosophy it expressed.

That's why Christian music does have an important role, in promoting a worldview that tells of the Biblical story. We need music out there that tells people of hope and engages with the struggle of being human. Unfortunately, I believe that the majority of contemporary Christian music is doing this very poorly, and I'm struggling to see why that's the case, why we do settle for second best, why it's okay to listen to someone because 'they're quite good for a Christian band.'

I think Jacob said it well when he wrote '...if we have the greatest story ever known in all of creation, and if we have divine inspiration from the Holy Spirit, should we not write and play the most magnificant music in the world?' He certainly has a point in my view.

If music has such an impact on who we are as people, and if Christian music is largely ignored, then the majority of worldviews, as you would expect are pointing away from truth (although large amount of songs talk of the struggle to find truth and grasp what it means to be Human, as Rob pointed out). The identities people are finding, are within subcultures in music, in which Christianity has predominantly become nothing more than another one on the list, just another music genre. That's why I would argue that for the west, it is the most significant expression of our subculture, because that is the main medium through which indivuals within our culture tend to engage with eachother.

Thoughts?

The Christianese people and their strange music

2007-05-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

Hey there everybody!

I do apologise for my lack of blogging over the last little while - it turns out that I've been doing a lot of thinking, reading, learning and getting ideas instead.

I've been sitting in lectures over the last little while, discussing the Church's engagement with scripture and society, looking at different worldviews and coming to grips with the magnitude of the job that Christians should be doing in this world, and subsequently, how much we're not doing.

In it's most simplistic form, it could be argued that the biggest that the most significant problem with the Church, or Christians at this point in time is the 'Christian Subculture' that we've created. In it's beginnings, followers of Christ were a radical counter-culture, that engaged with society and changed it from the inside out. The last Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus actually cited that it was the Christians that brought on the disintegration of the Roman Empire, by opposing the tight-fisted class system that kept their way of life afloat. Unfortunately, people with the same belief in Jesus made following Him the culture itself, but in the form of a theocracy. Today, Christianity in the western world is predominantly nothing more than a sub-culture.

Instead of engaging with the culture we live in, we have taken parts of it we like (namely music styles) and turned it into a Christian version of the same thing. KJ-52 serves as a wholesome alternative to Eminem in the same way that bands like Thousand Foot Krutch and Pillar offer nu-metal/alternative rock to Christians without swear words. These ideas aren't wrong in themselves, but they help to create a very 'us and them' type situation, and remove more common ground with an unbeliever.

There is far more that adds to this subculture environment, like the way we do Church like a rock show with an 'inspirational and motivational sermon' and the Christianese language we use, but I think music is, at this moment in time, the most significant expression of sub-culture that we know.

What I have come to realise is that I have a whole load of opinions on different 'Christian bands' and 'Christian music' but never really thought about the criteria by which I apply these opinions. I often feel that a large proportion of 'Christian music' is unnecessary and detracts from what the focus of the church really should be, employing shallow lyrics and painfully unoriginal music, and then marketing this music to a virtually completely Christian audience. To me, this seems like a widening of the gap between those who call themselves Christians, and those that don't.

When unbelievers are curious, Christians tend to try and bring these people into the 'Christian Culture', instead of engaging with the culture of the unbeliever, like Paul and the Apostles did. When these people are exposed to Christian music, they often discover that it is actually really poor, and cannot understand why so many people endorse it. This again, adds to the overall sense of a cultural barrier and widening gap between Christians and 'non-Christians'. I would argue that this is in an unfairly exaggerated dualism. We are all human living on the same planet. However, some of us are blessed enough to have been rescued from ourselves, and know of how, and therefore have the means to tell others. This is not a 'them and us' situation. It is a mission. It's all about the message.

So really, I think the focus of this blog for the near future will be discussing these ideas, seeing the problems for what they are and talking about ways to make it better. In the end, I'm thinking of writing something exploring these questions :

'How is a Christian band/Christian music defined?'
'How should it be defined?'
'How do Christians making music best engage with the world?'

Feel free to post comments and talk about this, I need your help here!

It's one AM.

2007-04-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

Perfect time to blog. Perfect time to get my groove on. Perfect time to bust out a post and get down with my bad self.

My good friend Rhys (who you will find at the top of my link list) has a habit. His habit is whining. He likes to whine a lot to me and about me. He whines all the time about the fact that I never blog anymore, and whenever he blogs, I don't blog and visa versa and how that's not good because then how can our blogs ever be synchronised?

I said I'd blog tonight on one condition: that he sent me a picture of us posing with dark glasses on, so I could post that. So he did. And then I get this email:

"I just looked at that picture.I look like an incredible loser who has a gay facial hair thing going on.

Don't put it up and we can take another one.

Cheers"

But that would mean I don't get my part of the deal. Granted, he does look like a loser in the picture, but it's as natural as we get to the real Rhys in my opinion. I think he would agree that the black out I have put over his face has done the world a favour.

However, I'm sure there are many people that would love to see the whole thing - so I am open for bribes and offerings of man-love.

This post may make me seem incredibly heartless, especially in light of the fact that he just drew me this.

In other news, I got glasses.

I'm bringing geeky back. And all you haters don't know how to act. Want to avoid a big fat cataract. So I'm making sure they stay in tact. Yeah! Put your speccies on!

That wasn't even funny.

When all else fails, resort to talking about poos and wees. I was in the toilet the other day at work when I realised that at that point in time I was being paid to push.

And that made me smile. The worst part about this post is reading it in light of the previous post. So much for 'I want my life to be something beautiful.' I don't think a commentary on my adventures into the men's room is what I had in mind at the time.

I should really stop typing.

How not to live life

2007-04-02T03:00:00.000-07:00

I was thinking today, if I was to write my autobiography to date, that I would probably name it 'How not to live life by Sam Burrows aka the world's biggest dumbass'.

I don't know whether it's because I think everyone has huge expectations on me that I can't meet, or whether I set the bar too high for myself, but in terms of who I am and what I've used my life for, I always feel like I could do better. Like I'm nothing but a waste of space and resources and other people's love sometimes. I'm not looking for sympathy at all, but on honest reflection I don't give myself a very high score for who I am. I think this is quite a repetitive theme for me.

There hasn't been any particular thing that's triggered it this time, it's more when I look at what I've got, and what I'm doing with it I just see a huge gap.

There have been times when I've thought that how I was acting and what I was doing was the way that I really want to be, but there have been so few of those and they're always so fleeting that sometimes I think that all I am is a shell with a 'potential' label stuck on, always waiting for when he will finally reach that illusive point of living out what he should be living out.

I can already hear some of the answers back, sincerely trying to encourage me that 'I am doing okay' and that I 'don't need to reach these standards, because God loves you just the way you are, and Christ has done it all so you don't have to' and I get that, it's just that, I guess I want my life to be something beautiful.

I want to do something beautiful, something extraordinary, and I believe that I will, I've just got to wake up or something.

Am I making any sense?

Saturday night I was towed.

2007-03-25T23:45:00.000-07:00

This brings the tally to a grand total of four incidents over the last four months involving my car.

#1 - Speeding ticket. I got a $400 fine for driving at 118ks an hour in an 80k zone, undertaking an undercover cop in the process. Good move.

#2 - Vandalism to my back window. Some Greenlane gangstas decided to throw a bottle at my back window. It took $540 to replace. That was a good night out.

#3 - The crash and break in. The back damage cost me $1215 alone. The new window was $90. I still have to repair the front ($650), pay for my guitar ($600) and digital camera ($450) and relace my bag and contents ($200).

#4 - My car then just happened to be towed in a customer car park on Saturday night. $200 to recover.

Total loss = $4545

I knew there was a reason that I dislike maths.

To quote a great teacher 'Life is a childbirth. We endure this world with the hope of what is to come.' Yeeeeeeeeep.

Some things aren't so bad though.

Tertiary learning with my friends and I

2007-03-20T14:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes lectures become dry and need redeeming. In response to this, me and my pal Buffy sometimes like to write stories to fill time. This is our latest piece of work, and athough I accept that this is a combined effort, I must also acknowlege the fact that Buffy probably doesnt know what 'telekinesis', 'cryogenically' or 'colonic irrigation' mean. And as these are quite important features of this written text, I can only conclude upon reading, that the true mastermind behind it is me. That's something to be proud of. Buffy is the regular font, I'm in bold.

Once upon a time in a far away treehouse
Lived a dangerous face who was friends with an old pair of baggy trousers
The face's name was Bumtrinket. Holding his nose, Grampa felt weak.
Bumtrinket had amazing powers which meant he could make the trousers dance and fart purely through telekinesis.
One day Bumtrinket sold the trousers to Grampa to trick him into flying.
Grampa died.
Just kidding. That would have been an anti climax.
So we cryogenically froze Grampa and brought him back to life in 2099 wen science knew how.
Science wasn't boring these days. And kids were not goats trying out experimentals out of the moon and into the sea.
Just like seahorses. They're so silly.
They are called seahorses and I don't know why. Rugby is the answer, just score a try.
One day, Mary Fairweather found a rather odd shoe.
She sat on it and thought 'I might go to the supermarket.'
So she did, but while she was still sitting, the shoe exclaimed 'It wasn't a good day for Beatrice!'
'Get out of thy laboratory!' Mary screamed as she felt a hand touch her feet.

'Somebody get me a colonic irrigation and a sandwich!'

The butler got mary a chocolate one instead. Go to the zoo.

So they raced for 12 full days on their fingers.

And trampled for miles on foot. What will come of the footless foot?

The footless foot? The footless foot? e one from the land of mud and soot?

My poem you're ruining, and ruining you do. Stop putting your pants in cow poo.

That was a bit harsh, really quite harsh - just take my advice and grow a moustache. With Toni Marsh.

Oh have a bath, oh have a shower, give your shoes back to that flower!

I don't like that flower ad I don't like your ditty, but I bet my girlfriend could teach the flower how to be pretty.

How I like it hot, I like that pot, but your treehouse I do not!

Thanks for being mine Buffy. We're cool.

Well would ya look at that...

2007-03-20T14:39:00.000-07:00

For those of you that prayed, thank you greatly. Turns out that my church thought it would be a good idea to all get together and give me some money to help pay for stuff.

That folks, is family.

How not to spend a Sunday afternoon

2007-03-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you a sad little story about what happened to me while driving through the city on Sunday.

I believe it was about 5:45pm. The weather was slightly overcast, it was a nice temperature, and the day had that 'lazy Sunday' feel about it. I'm not sure how biblical a lazy Sunday is, but I guess that's a bit irrelevant. I was sitting in my car at a set of traffic lights, listening to music, looking out the window and day dreaming. Then, rudely my whole car started shaking.

It turns out a young girl had crashed into the back of me, and pretty hard too. My car could have been worse, the car in front was fine, but this girl's car was pretty screwed. I got out, everyone was panicking and I guess I was a bit shaken up, but I managed to calm the other driver down and get everyone's details sorted out. The lady in front drove off, but the car of the girl behind wouldn't start. So I told her I would stay and help her, drove round the corner, parked my car and came back.

Only to find that car empty. Left in the middle of the road with the hazards on.

I assumed the girl had gone to get help so me and few other guys pushed the car round the corner next to mine and I went back to wait for them. I waited around for about 10 minutes and they weren't showing so I decided to leave. That woud've been bad enough.

When I got back to my car I found a back window smashed in and my guitar, camera, wallet, guitar bag, glasses and a few other things gone. Brilliant.

At that moment, the most reasonable action to me was to call the Police. It turns out that that the car the young girl was driving was stolen and she had no registered drivers lisence. It's amazing wat the Police can tell you. It then occured to me that the girl did look about fourteen years old.

I feel just a tad screwed over by this experience. I didn't have to stay and help, but I sure paid for it. It's not that I'm angry or upset, it's just with everything else that life chucks at you, it's exhausting to have to deal with something like this.

I can't get any damage fixed until this girl is caught. Chances are the Police won't find her, I'm guessing the details she gave me were false.

I accept donations. Even donations of sympathy.

I got myself a laptop

2007-03-10T22:30:00.000-08:00

This calls for a new blog look. Holidays are over folks.

Enjoy stylish read.