Why Are The Hip Girls Never Good For Me?

I wrote this song a couple months ago at a say hi show. I had arrived early enough to take a seat at the bar with a Johnnie Black while the opening band started. The first song featured the “hip girl” in the band on the bass. It was at this point that I realized how much that was attractive to me. I also recognized how stupid such an attraction was. After the set, I sat at a table and began writing this song. I’ll get a recording up with all the others one of these days, along with a couple other tunes I have recently finished. Here’s the song – keep in mind, there was whiskey involved.

The way they swing their hips
 When they play the bass.
The way they purse their lips
 When they put on their face.

Hip girls look good on stage
 But they’re just no good for me.
Maybe it’s just my age…
 I like the fantasy.

Knee length skirts and converse kicks:
 The picture of perfection.
They make us all to look like hics,
 So hip is their direction.

Hip girls look good on stage
 But they’re just no good for me.
Maybe it’s just my age…
 I like the fantasy.

With hair dyed black and bangs cut short,
 The mood is apathetic.
Picky with whom they will cohort,
 Keeping up is hectic.

Hip girls look good on stage
 But they’re just no good for me.
Maybe it’s just my age…
 I like the fantasy.

Escape

I just wrote this song in the last two days. Nothing really behind it other than a desire to have a little change in my life, and having watched Slumdog Millionaire recently. So as to not sound like a complete anti-social hermit, I direct the song at a companion character.

Let’s get out of town.
Step off the merry-go-round.

I wanna get lost,
I wanna get away
I want to escape
With you.

Let’s go have adventures
Without safety, our fate unsure.

I wanna get lost,
I wanna get away
I want to escape
With you.

Let’s forget tomorrow,
Live now in joy not in sorrow.

I wanna get lost,
I wanna get away
I want to escape
With you.

Too Young to be in Love

I wrote this a few years ago, and I don’t remember the music I wrote for it. I put it to some music I recently wrote, and it works wonderfully. It sounds a bit cynical, but it was exactly what was going through my head at the time:

I’ve seen far too many
 Couples come and go.
I’ve seen far too many
 Square pegs in round round holes.

They’re too young to be in love,
They’re too young to be in love.

What happens ten years down the line?
What happens when they’re twenty-nine?

I’ve seen far too few
 Couples stick and stay.
I’ve seen far too few
 Who let God lead the way.

They’re too young to be in love,
They’re too young to be in love.

What happens ten years down the line?
What happens when they’re twenty-nine?

I’ve seen far too often
 Hearts break and shatter too.
And I don’t want this to happen
 To us, to me and you.

We’re too young to be in love!
We’re too young to be in love!

What happens ten years down the line?
What happens when you’re twenty-nine?

Unearthed Treasures

In rifling through my tattered Moleskine I’ve used for everything from drawing cartoons to venting my deepest frustrations, I discovered some long-lost lyrics from songs I have since forgotten the music to. I’ve taken the time to type them up and add some finishing touches. Since I’ve been on a bit of a dry spell lyrically, it’s exciting to have some lyrics to work with. I’ll go ahead and post the lyrics to the first two songs once I finish putting them to music.

It Has Been Too Long

I am not a fan of the “personal update” blog entries, but I owe anybody who actually expects me to write anything a reasonable explanation for my hiatus. When last I blogged, I was digging in to my final semester. After eleven long semesters, I have completed my degree in Electrical Engineering. Now that I'm no longer a prisoner of the University of Arizona, I can have my life back.

I have a few things I could write about in the near future, and I figure it might be nice to know what people want to hear me write about. So, let me know if you would like to hear me rant about something in particular, or just the first random thing that comes to mind.

Even More On Christian Community

So far, in this discussion, I have written of the absolute necessity of reconciliation. I feel very passionately about reconciliation, about deepening relationships rather than keeping them safe and easy, and about showing the world that we are followers of Jesus through our love for one another.

I am not always an easy person to get along with. If you know me at all, I don’t need to tell you all the reasons why. I go into relationships unafraid to offend. I try though, to be even more ready to apologize, forgive, and grow deeper in relationship.

A few years ago, I was driving in my car, and something hit my windshield. I now had a little chip in my windshield. I could have done the responsible thing by getting it fixed when it happened, but I am not exactly the model car owner. I did what was easy to do: I ignored the chip. The integrity of my windshield was compromised, but I chose to ignore it, because “it wasn’t that big of a deal.” Soon enough, the chip grew into a crack, but it was still easy to ignore it. I didn’t want to pay to fix my windshield. As time passed, the crack grew, and grew. By the time I was driving back from northern Arizona a couple of years ago, the crack extended across the windshield, and was so visible, I was pulled over because of it. It turns out, the state doesn’t like it when you have a cracked windshield. Something about safety...

I think you are smart enough to know where I’m going with this. When we don’t deal with our anger and hurt, resentment grows like cracks, compromising the integrity of the relationship. If we let this happen, our relationships can easily be broken.

I think it is very important for community to allow conflict to occur. When we avoid it, we choose the easy route. When we allow it, in healthy amounts, we strengthen our relationships, go deeper, and avoid the kind of catastrophic conflict which can truly endanger community. In short, we cannot afford to maintain the illusion of community at the expense of real community.

More On Christian Community

Before my mind begins to wander in another direction, I feel it is appropriate to continue my thoughts on Christian community. As I try to follow Jesus, I find myself increasingly passionate about the idea of reconciliation. I don’t think this passion is something I should keep to myself. Paul writes in his second letter to the church in Corinth, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (II Cor. 5:17-19)” Reconciliation with God through Christ is the foundation upon which the Kingdom of God is built.

Because we made the choice to follow our own way instead of God’s, our relationship with God was severed. This not only marred our relationship with God himself, but also with all of his creation, including the world around us and other people. We even have disunity between our own body, mind, heart, and soul. All of existence is screwed up because we cut the only tether keeping it all together. Christ came to repair that broken link, so that existence would become as it should be. Our reconciliation with God through Christ is that new bond through which all other reconciliation is possible.

What I find very interesting though, is how much reconciliation with each other is tied up with our reconciliation with God. Jesus puts it beautifully, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (Mat. 5:23-24)” We dare not approach the perfect God for forgiveness while we are not willing to approach another sinner. If we are in fact committed to following Jesus, and we truly desire to be forgiven by him, we should have no problem asking forgiveness from each other. And if Jesus, who did no wrong, can forgive even the worst we can do to him, shouldn’t we, who do wrong constantly, be able to forgive each other?

I’ll leave my rant there for the time being. I have so much more to say about this most important subject.