Ahh Halloween. Another day, another chance to rant about American imperialism (on a slightly related note, anybody seen those super-sharp ads for being a Mormon. It’s America’s own religion.).
This is, however, is the silver lining.
For another slightly related note – here’s a lady bug taking off in super slow motion…
That one needs some Transformers sound effects.
1999 was a big year for me. We moved to Brisbane. I started year 11 at school. I was suddenly meant to be taking things seriously. And I started earning a little bit more money than the $2 a week we were previously entitled to. So I could afford to buy a few more CDs.
For the first few months of our life in Brisbane we were living in a modernish rental house in Keperra. With a pool. Bells, and whistles. And I remember this song was doing the radio rounds…
Eminem didn’t really do it for me in a big way. I do remember enjoying Cake in that year…
But the defining album for me from 1999 was Powderfinger’s Internationalist. I bought it with the proceeds of an afternoon spent cleaning the fence at our new house (where my parents still live).
I also discovered the Whitlams, properly, in 1999, when I got me a copy of Eternal Nightcap (incidentally, we saw them two weeks ago with the Queensland Symphony. We had second row seats and they were amazing. Playing through Eternal Nightcap plus some more recent hits)…
This was also the year I discovered the Smashing Pumpkins. Thanks largely to my obsessive friend Benny. And my friend Damien who brought me a pirated copy of Siamese Dream back from China. Disarm has embedding disabled – and I think it’s the best song on that album, followed by Soma…
And Today…
This Ben Kweller cover of Today is pretty cool.
Ahh, the Smashing Pumpkins, what a band. Who’d have guessed that that title would stand the test of time and become the title of this post…
So, one more reflection from my sermon today and my thoughts on Matthew 9-10.
One of the other things I stressed was the urgency of the harvest – I picked up this little pointer from Tony Robowtham at Spur in Brisbane last week – but that I should have known given the family I married into – the language of the harvest is loaded with a sense of urgency.
It strikes me that your approach to evangelism is greatly influenced by your eschatology – how and when you think the world will end will profoundly effect how you live and how urgently you approach the task.
Given that I’m of the inclination that the world could end whenever God calls stumps – I’m inclined to priorities evangelism over things like caring for the planet. I can see how that’s a much greater concern if you’re a long term thinker. Probably not as profound as it seems in my head, but worth jotting down for when the idea resurfaces in my head in the future and I search for eschatology on my blog.
The Smashing Pumpkins have been one of my favourite bands since Ben introduced me to them in grade 11. He incessantly talked about them. They were impossible to avoid.
Super Mario Brothers is one of my favourite games of all time. How can you not enjoy taking the guise of a plumber and running around a world full of walking fungus and drain pipes filled with treasure?
So combining the two is pure awesomeness.