About two years ago I set up this blog as a way to just give my thoughts on various topics. Sometimes it was serious things that bothered me and other times it would just be a funny video or some cool music I wanted to share. I don't advertise the blog, aside from my facebook/twitter accounts, relying instead of word of mouth and google searches.
One of the main questions I get about the blog, is what's up with the name? Searching for Chet Baker? There's very little Chet Baker on the site.
That's true, but there WAS a method to my madness. lol. When I was going to set this up, I wanted some name that would be catchy I suppose. Something that might stand out. A bunch of blogs that I liked had weird or strange names, and so I wanted something that would be fairly short and memorable.
"Most of all, I must see to it that I do not lend myself to the evils that I condemn" -- Henry David Thoreau
One of the things that have driven me crazy over the years are when you see each side of the political aisle sputter and hyperventilate when those on the other side say negative things about them. Nowhere is this more applicable than on political message boards.
A website I used to frequent, Newshounds, is a sort of watch dog site for everything Fox News. They will record the shows, and upload clips to highlight what they see as bias. They also from time to time love to go on Fox Nation's website (sort of a social gathering for fans of the Fox News way of thinking) and screencap comments showing vicious and vitriolic comments towards the President or other Democratic politicians.
And a common theme is this idea of "look at how mean those people are! Look at those racist pieces of crap! Look at how vicious they are in their attacks" all the while criticizing their moderators for not taking these things down and letting them stay up until they absolutely HAVE to take them down.
Now I'll admit that these comments that are typically highlighted ARE outrageous. They SHOULD be highlighted and called attention to. That said, often many people on the left will bristle at the idea that they themselves are guilty of this exact same thing.
And when you call them on that they'll scream "False Equivalency" and say "we aren't calling for the death of the President!"
Well, that's not always the truth, but I understand the point. The amount of death threats and things of that nature are a bit weightier on the right. Yet there is also a whole lot of viciousness on the left as well. I remember when Oral Roberts passed away, there were some nasty horrible things posted on sites like Raw Story, Crooks and Liars and Huffington Post among others. Same with Tony Snow when he passed away.
And then there's this story today about Rick Santorum taking leave of his Presidential campaign because his young daughter is sick in the hospital. Their daughter has a serious health condition that she's dealt with her entire life, so this isn't a case of Santorum leaving because she has a cough, alright.
But I thought it was the Republicans who were vicious and personal in their attacks? I thought the moderators on the progressive/liberal sites were on that shit! Some of these comments are 8 hours old and counting as of 2:37am on Monday morning.
The point I'm trying to make is that assholes are not strictly a monopoly of the Right. There are assholes on both sides. There are insensitive pricks on both sides. And THAT is not a false equivalency.
EDIT: and here it is almost a day later, and not only are those comments still there (despite allegedly being flagged) there are even more. And while there are those on there who are criticizing those who are mocking and questioning the illness of Santorum's child, the moderators should be doing their jobs, especially if the website is going to be attacking other sites of another political persuasion for that very same thing.
And the thing is I can't STAND Santorum. I'm morally and fundamentally opposed to just about everything this man stands for. And that goes for everyone else running in the GOP primaries. That said, we should be above this type of thing. Politicians should be fair game, their children should be off-limits, no matter WHO it is. Whether it's Chelsea Clinton, the Bush twins, the Obama daughters or Santorum's children.
Attacking children is low class behavior and proves you are no better than those that you criticize and claim to be offended by.
A few weeks ago someone posted on my Facebook page about this so-called Pastor named Mark Driscoll who had gone on another Christian podcast and proceeded to dress down the host and make various sexist remarks regarding women in authority in the Church.
In part of the interview he condescended and denigrated Jeremy and his wife, who is the pastor of their church. Driscoll, who is not a believer of females in authority in the church decided to ask some questions which, while in the written form is not quite as obvious, were laced with sarcasm and cynicism and to be quite honest he was being a bit of a prick.
Driscoll: So, in the church that your wife pastors, how many young men have come to Christ in the last year?
Brierley: Well we’re not a huge church, unlike yours, but I’d say there’s two or three probably in the last year who certainly, yah, I’d say have come to Christ in a pretty meaningful way.
Driscoll: Okay and in the church, what percentage is young men, single men?
Brierley: It’s difficult to say off the top of my head, but I’ll freely say it’s certainly not a big percentage, no.
Driscoll: Kay, and are you okay with that? Do you think that’s the best way to go?
Brierley: No, but can it be so easily put down to the fact that the church is being run by a woman? I mean, is that …
Driscoll: Yup. Yup. You look at your results, you look at my results, and you look at the variable that’s most obvious.
Brierley: Well, in our case, the …
Driscoll: This is where the excuses come, not the verses. This is where the excuses come, not the verses.
Brierley: … Up to the point my wife took over, it had been run by men. Since she’s come, lots of new families, lots of younger people, both men and women, have come. I wouldn’t say the balance is right perfect yet by any means. But it’s certainly a lot better than it ever was. And so I don’t necessarily see quite the same situation that you paint there in terms of men not relating. I see more men in the church since she’s been there than before she was there, in a way.
Driscoll: What kind of men? Strong men?
Brierley: Well, men. I mean, men come in different shapes and sizes. I mean, yah, both really. Men who are very masculine, men who are, I guess, on a spectrum, more effeminate. But I couldn’t say that there’s been a sort of dearth of men in the church since she’s arrived. I mean, Mark, I don’t want to get into a sort of argument.
Driscoll: No, no, you don’t want to sit in my seat, I understand. So does your wife do counseling with men? Sexual counseling? Does she talk about masturbation, pornography, the stuff that I do?
Brierley: Well no, she doesn’t.
Driscoll: Well, who does talk to the men about those things, especially the young men?
Brierley: Well there are other people that she can pass them on to. We have male elders in our church who, you know, would be able to tackle those kinds of questions. I mean, but would you speak with those kinds of issues to a female in your church?
Driscoll: Uh no. If they’re a married couple we might meet with them as a couple. But if it’s a woman, we would have women leaders meet with them.
Brierley: Sure, well it’s the same scenario in our church really.
And while he can try to run from his past inflammatory record and he can make all the false apologies he wants, the bottom line is to be quite honest is I don't think he really WANTS to run from his comments. I think he sincerely believes everything he is saying will help him out in the long run with his congregation.
These people will believe in him even more in the face of the "evil media" and he will use this to attract even more people, who are more often then not vulnerable and seeking someone to look up to. And he'll be there to fill that role of manipulator.
He will make outrageously offensive comments, and then when the pressure is on, he'll throw out a "sincere" apology and things will die down until he does it again. All the while garnering attention and media coverage of his mega-church in Seattle.
The laundry list of insulting comments unbecoming a man of God is staggering to behold. Below I'll list just a few of them, with sources so you can see for yourself that I'm not just making things up, because truly they sound like they have to be made up, because what true man of God would ever say and do some of the things he's saying and doing?
He had some bizarre rant about how masturbation was a form of homosexuality because the woman is not involved, and it's really bad if you're looking at yourself in a mirror and getting turned on by your own body. I think the guy's been hanging out with Patrick Bateman a little bit too much, but hey. To each their own I suppose. He said that if the wife is involved (no girlfriend of course, because you know... the whole premarital sex is a no-no ** more on that later**) then it's less gay.
He's also been on record with some fairly homophobic rants as well about how the Church is filled with men who aren't "real" men, who are "Effiminate", and he laments the lack of real men in the church these days.
Yeah he's a real walker and talker of Jesus folks.
Which brings me to that most important aspect, I suppose, of how Driscoll views Christ. See, to him Jesus was not the lovable hippie that he feels that He was portrayed as. The hugging lambs and patting little kids on the head that we see in images. No, see Jesus was kinda like Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli. He was kicking ass and taking names. He wasn't a pussy folks, he was a man's man, and Driscoll is tired of seeing Jesus portrayed as otherwise.
Or as Driscoll so eloquently described him, "He's like 'Thug Jesus'". I swear I didn't just make that up.
And of course could forget the fact that this guy has the ability to see things. He has admitted that he can see things like molestation and private things in your life that you have done. He's able to see these things, yet does nothing about them? I would like to think that if I had the power of being able to see horrific things like rapes and molestations and whatnot, that I would use it for good, not manipulation. But then again who's to say?
The counsel Driscoll gives is bad counsel. If by his own admission Driscoll's divinations are not "a hundred percent always right," he has no business accusing people of serious sins—including felony crimes—based on what he "sees" in his own imagination. Much less should he encourage his congregants to dream that they have such an ability and urge them to "use that gift."
The salacious details he recounts are totally unnecessary. They serve only to reinforce the concern some of us have raised: Why does Driscoll have such a fixation with obscene subject matter, ribald stories, and racy talk? The smutty particulars regarding a counselee's tryst in a cheap hotel are not merely unnecessary; "it is disgraceful even to speak of [such] things."
Plus Driscoll is FULL of excellent Christian advice as well! Such as say you're a paritioner of his and you feel the need to seek him out because you have been watching pornography. Whether you think that's a huge problem or not, I would think the Pastor, someone who is viewed as a powerful and important person in people's lives, would have a better response than THIS: (from his own book, "Confessions")
“Driscoll writes that the phone rang at ‘some godforsaken hour… when I’m not even a Christian’. He said, ‘some college guy was crying’. Driscoll said that he tried to ‘muster up my inner pastor… and tried to pretend I [he] was concerned’. Since the caller was beating around the bush, Mark blurted out, ‘What have you done?’ When the caller confessed he had watched porno and masturbated, Driscoll actually asked the upset caller, ‘Was it good porno?’ As expected, the caller was left speechless by his question.
Then, Mark told him, ‘Well, you’ve already watched the whole porno and tugged your tool, so what am I suppose to do?’ The caller answered him, ‘You are my pastor, so I thought that maybe you could pray with me.’ But, to the contrary, Mark wrote, ‘I did not want to pray so I just said the first thing that came to mind… Jesus thank you for not killing him for being a pervert. Amen.’ According to Driscoll, the caller was still left unclear about what he was suppose to do, so in Driscoll style, he told the caller, ‘A naked lady is good to look at, so get a job, get a wife, ask her to get naked, and look at her instead.’ (Confessions pp59-60).”
Yeah, that's that man's man Christianity. None of that wimpy hippie Liberal crap that Jesus taught about.
Also there's his troubling views on women's roles in Marriage. Ted Haggard is a former mega church Pastor in Colorado. He was all about Family Values, as most of these Mega-Church people are, and all about how "The Gays" are ruining everything in this country. And if you are supporting "The Gays" then you are just as bad. So here we have this really right wing mega church Pastor in Colorado who is all about Family Values and how the gays are bad. And yes, I know you know where this is heading, even if you've never heard of Haggard.
He got caught with a male prostitute with whom he did various things, including meth. So here you have a "man of God" caught with his pants down (literally) with a male prostitute and drugs. So naturally you would think that Haggard gets 100% of the blame here right? I mean he's in control of his own actions, so...yeah.
Actually you would be wrong. Mark Driscoll had a fantastic view of this whole thing (which he denied he ever spoke on when condescending Jeremy Brierley in the recent radio interview) where he said the following in a blog post which he later removed from his site after he got so much criticism:
Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be helping him either.
Then when the shit hit the fan, he responded with a comment about how he wasn't blaming the wife and that she seemed like a "lovely and very devoted wife".
WOW.
After that many people criticized Driscoll, including Rose Swetman, who is a co-pastor of a church in Seattle Washington, where Driscoll's "Mars Hill Church" is located.
In her very eloquent post she took him to task not just for his past comments about how women should not be in any position of authority in the church because they are "gullible and easily mislead" (also saying that opening the doors to female leaders, would then lead the church doors to open to homosexuals) and said that, as a result of the Episcopalian church electing a female Bishop, that next they'd be electing a "fluffy bunny rabbit", but also for the comments about Haggard's cheating being due to his wife not satisfying her wifely duties and keeping him at home.
Your comments above seem to say that you would call me a “Christian” feminist. You teach that women like me are out of God’s intended roles for women in the church and home and that if the church allows women in ministry then homosexuals in ministry would be the next logical conclusion. This is not only offensive to me, it is demeaning of my personhood. I would consider myself a daughter of my Father in heaven rather than a daughter of Eve, as per your wife’s article. I believe the work of Jesus has reversed the curse and set me free. I no longer live in Genesis Chapter 3.
...
It appears to me that in an effort to be cute or funny, neither of which works, this statement is one of the most mean-spirited I have ever read. Even if you had many valid points from your theological lens in your post, to name-call an ordained minister, whether you agree or not, a “bunny rabbit” you need to “man up” and retract such a demeaning statement and issue an apology.
These two comments, no matter how you explain them, are an offense to many women let alone pastors wives, and to me personally. Can’t you see how even posting that women have motives such as this — my husband is a pastor so he is trapped into fidelity so I can sit back and let myself go — is offensive? In the second post, you sound patronizing and demeaning of Gayle Haggard calling her “lovely and devoted.” Please don’t call me out as a feminist that does not want to be considered “lovely’ or “devoted” because that is not my issue.
The issue is that Ted Haggard’s struggle is homosexuality. It did not seem to matter if Gayle Haggard was the most beautiful, devoted woman, and with her husband the most sexuality active woman on the planet, it would not have changed this situation one iota. So for you make this statement in these terms and make it an issue of sexual impropriety, failure, and sin, in my opinion, simply misses the point. It is offensive to talk to men and women this way and certainly reveals something about your character which for this reader seems rather prurient. One of the marks of a great leader is when she or he discovers that they have not faired well under their responsibility to not arbitrarily offend, is to make a public or private apology as the circumstances dictate. Because this was a public statement, it calls for a public apology.
Driscoll would later issue an "apology" which seemed to sooth some people in Seattle who then stopped protesting outside the Mars Hill church, but provides Driscoll with yet another notch in his belt, another thing he can use to attract more impressionable and vulnerable young men and women to his flock. He's this badass "cursing" preacher who is a man's man and watches UFC. YEAH!
But the thing he has done is just mind boggling that anyone would really follow anything he says. I realize he ha a very charming way about him. He's got very good presence and he knows how to speak to a crowd. And the sad thing is that people get wrapped up in that and don't really focus on what he is saying.
Take this comment that he's made repeatedly about his interpretation of The Song of Solomon, which got his program pulled from a Christian Radio Station:
During the sermon, which was entitled “Sex, a Study of the Good Bits from Song of Solomon,” Driscoll interpreted Song of Solomon 2:3 as referring to oral sex and then said, “Men, I am glad to report to you that oral sex is biblical…The wife performing oral sex on the husband is biblical. God’s men said, Amen. Ladies, your husbands appreciate oral sex. They do. So, serve them, love them well. It’s biblical. Right here. We have a verse. ‘The fruit of her husband is sweet to her taste and she delights to be beneath him.’”
[In recounting the story about the man who started coming to Driscoll’s church because his wife began performing oral sex:]
She [the wife] says, “I’ve never performed oral sex on my husband. I’ve refused to.” I said, “You need to go home and tell your husband that you’ve met Jesus and you’ve been studying the Bible, and that you’re convicted of a terrible sin in your life. And then you need to drop his trousers, and you need to serve your husband. And when he asks why, say, ‘Because I’m a repentant woman. God has changed my heart and I’m supposed to be a biblical wife.’” She says, “Really?” I said, “Yeah. First Peter 3 says if your husband is an unbeliever to serve him with deeds of kindness.” [Laughter from audience] How many men would agree, that is a deed of kindness. He doesn’t want tracts. Those won’t do anything. What we’re talking about here could really help.
THIS. IS. A. PASTOR.!!!!! Imagine going to church this Sunday, and your Pastor telling you, "Ladies, God has commanded you to perform oral sex for your husbands. If you've done something wrong in your life? Go down on him and repent!"
Are you kidding me??? Look, I'm a laid back guy. And I realize this guy is trying to be all cool and hip and attracting a demographic from an area of the country which is not exactly full of church going people. And I realize that when you're dealing with younger kids you have to at least try to speak their language a bit.
Ed Lover's message for Mark Driscoll
But THIS? As Ed Lover famously says, "C'mon Son! C'mon!"
And now that brings us to the most recent controversy surrounding Mars Hill Church, and the reason for this post. I first heard about this last night, and I have to admit I was angrier than I think I've been in a long long time. There are certain topics that hit a bit too close to home for me which rile me up more than most. One is discrimination and violence towards the homeless, as I myself was homeless for many years, and this so-called "Church Discipline".
I haven't spoken on this to much of anyone really aside from a few throwaway comments here and there. Enough to basically say I disagreed with something, but I never really went into it because it's something that has caused me pain in my life and still does even though I'm far away from that environment. It still permeates my brain and I don't know if I'll ever get past it.
First let me explain what happened recently that brought all this out, and then I'll get into my thoughts.
On a faith based blog "MatthewPaulTurner.net" which I've read a few times before, they had an exclusive feature in there where a young man named "Andrew" (doubtful it's his real name) had recently left the Mars Hill Church after some truly terrible things went on. He admits his mistakes, but he feels (and so does Matthew, and I definitely do) that their reactions to them went far and beyond anything that should have happened.
Andrew was born and raised Independent Fundamental Baptist, so not only was Andrew accustomed to Mark’s anger-laced fiery style of sermon, he had a deep appreciation for it. In the beginning, some of Mars Hill’s reformed theologies rubbed against Andrew’s Baptist roots, but Mark’s enthrallment for preaching “Jesus Christ crucified” eventually was what relieved Andrew’s doctrinal concerns, and it wasn’t long before he became a member. Soon thereafter, he was wading heart deep amid the friendly, committed Mars Hill community, becoming more and more comfortable in his born again reformed skin, guzzling the Driscollized water.
According to Andrew, joining Mars Hill was a good move for him. While he didn’t agree with every theological declaration that came out Mark Driscoll’s mouth, he loved his community, a devoted group of believers who seemed to love, support, and value him the way Jesus commanded. Over the next couple of years, Andrew became well connected. He volunteered. He became active in a community group. He even volunteered on Sundays as church security.
Toward the beginning of 2011, Andrew met and eventually began dating the daughter of a church elder at Mars Hill. The two fell in love quickly. Last fall, they were engaged to be married.
But shortly after becoming engaged, Andrew made a costly choice, one that involved hanging out alone with a female friend he knew from the community college he attended. Andrew and his college friend messed around. They didn’t have sex. But they got close. But what they did and didn’t do isn’t the issue. He cheated on the woman he was planning to marry.
On the following morning, Andrew felt devastated, his brain flashing memories of what he’d done the night before, his heart full of shame, guilt, and hindsight’s remorse.
That evening, Andrew met his fiancee at community group. As soon as she saw his face, she knew something was wrong. After the meeting was finished, they walked outside to his car (he was planning to give her a ride home). A long hard conversation ensued, but at some point in the middle, Andrew confessed.
For obvious reasons, she was devastated, lost. They parted ways: She returned inside and he got in his car sped off. But again, his conscience screamed: You can’t run away from this. So as he turned around, he called one of the small group members and asked, “Can we talk?” He agreed, and when Andrew pulled back into the driveway of house where his community group meets, he confessed to his friend (and fellow community group member) what he’d done the night before.
So after he told the group member, that led to many weeks of "meetings" with the fellowship group. The reaction by them to him changed dramatically to a constant harsh and accusatory tone. He was labeled a "wolf" which according to Andrew, was the worst thing you could be labeled there, because it meant you were viewed as a "predator" someone who preys on the innocent.
According to Andrew, at Mars Hill, the cliche “it takes two to tango” isn’t true. Why? Because Pastor Mark teaches that women are “weaker vessels,” and therefore, when a girl and boy engage in consensual sexual activity, it is always assumed that it’s the man’s fault because he failed to lead the woman (or “weaker vessel”) toward righteousness. (And everybody knows that women can’t find righteousness unless a man leads her there. Ugh.)
“I don’t want people to feel sorry for me. I take responsibility for my actions. I messed up. But that doesn’t make me into a predator.”
At this point, despite all of the meetings, conversations, and tear-inducing confessionals that Andrew has engaged (some by choice, some not by choice), Andrew is not under “church discipline”. Nobody has even mentioned it to him as a possibility. That is, until he begins pushing back.
“After a month of trying to jump through all of their hoops, I’ll admit, I started questioning whether or not Mars Hill was the right church for me.” He admits this isn’t the first he had those thoughts. For a year or so, Andrew had questioned the many of the ideas/values of Mars Hill.
The week before Christmas, Andrew’s community group leader sent him another text message: What’s your schedule like on Wednesday? Another meeting was to be planned, this time with one of Mars Hills family/counseling pastors as well as Andrew’s new community group leader.
Andrew admits that, by this time, he was exhausted. The thought of one more meeting overwhelmed his already very full brain. “But I took some time to pray, and decided that I needed to meet with them and hear what they had to say.”
On the evening of December 18, Andrew met with the pastor and small group leader. It was during this meeting that Andrew first learned that he was being “brought under church discipline.”
And just what does that "Church Discipline" entail? Well they gave "Andrew" a contract that he had to sign, which outlined his "sins" and what he had to do to be accepted again.
1. Andrew will attend (leader's meeting) and meet with (leader) on a regular basis 2. Andrew will not be involved in serving at Mars Hill. 3. Andrew will not pursue or date any woman inside or outside of Mars Hill. 4. Andrew will write out in detail his sexual and emotional attachment history with women and share it with (leader) 5. Andrew will write out in detail the chronology of events and sexual/emotional sin with K and share it with (leader) and Pastor. 6. Andrew will write out a list of all people he has sinned against during this timeframe, either by sexual/emotional sin, lying or deceiving, share it with (Leader) and develop a plan to confess sin and ask forgiveness.
Now the first three, okay. I can understand that. You think someone has some issues and you're sort of putting them through this discipline type program where they need to focus on their issues, that's fine. No problem with that, from me. I think #3 could be a bit of infringing on someone's rights, but hey...it's a church thing and I get it.
However starting with #4 and ending through #6 it becomes less a situation of wanting to help someone, and more a situation (in my opinion) of utterly controlling every aspect of their lives. And to be quite honest it is kinda pervy wankerish to start in on wanting to know every sexual detail of sin he's committed. I mean, really? REALLY?
If I didn't know better I'd think this was about some people wanting to get off by reading about other people's sexual conduct. That is definitely over the line and ridiculous, and thankfully "Andrew" ended his relationship with the church.
Also it's a power thing. They want you to admit to all your deepest darkest sins, so in the future they have something to hang over you. "Do as we say, do you REALLY want all your friends and family to know what you did that one time in college?". Plain and simple it's manipulation and an outright betrayal.
He wrote and told them he did not feel that Mars Hill was the place for him, and said goodbye.
They responded with "oh you're not getting off THAT easy", and has basically excommunicated him from the church, which means everyone in the church (even though many have voiced that they think it's a bit of an overreaction) have shunned him and refuse to have anything to do with him until he repents.
Funny, I though that was between "Andrew" and God, not a middle man. That's one of the beefs I have with Catholicism, where you have to confess all your dirty deeds to a priest who then relays God's forgiveness to you. It's wrong there and it's definitely wrong here.
Driscoll was raised Catholic, so perhaps that has something to do with it.
Now finally to why this makes me so angry. I've written in the past on here about my faith and how growing up I didn't really want to go to church, but it was sort of expected. Once I was given the choice I decided to stop going, mainly because I was getting nothing out of it. I'd go to church and sit there and count the time until I could leave.
After I graduated I moved to a different town and things were fine there until they weren't. Without going into detail on THAT aspect, I ended up homeless. Now one thing that a lot of people perhaps are not aware of, is that the VAST majority of homeless shelters are faith based. Meaning that as a pre-requisite to you staying there, you have to go to church. Call it "rent" or "forced salvation" or whatever you like. However it was clearly stated when you came in there that you had to be at a little mini-service every day (where they'd do a headcount, make sure everyone was there) or you would be kicked out.
Now there were a few exceptions, such as if you had a medical appointment or you had a job (that was verified), however if you did not show up for that service, you were thrown out of the shelter, no matter if you had somewhere else to go or not.
A lot of the residents didn't particularly care for this, but they begrudgingly realized that the alternative was sleeping out in the cold where anything could happen. So we all just accepted it.
So I bounced around from shelter to shelter and service to service. These services would often be led, not by actual Pastors or anything like that, but staff at the shelter, or in the case of one shelter in Bellingham Washington, "The Lighthouse Mission", anyone that donated money to them could get their own slot. So you'd have a service each night with a different person, none of which were accredited Pastors or anything, they just happened to have money. Money talks and...well...you know the rest.
So I ended up at this church and I kinda liked it, to be honest. It was probably one of the only churches I had been to that really made me want to be there. The Pastor was really cool and seemed to be easy to talk to and you could relate to him, you know? He was a youngish pastor, where most I had been around were much older.
So I actually enjoyed going to the services. Nothing really struck me out of the ordinary, and eventually I decided that I wanted to take part in the "program" that they had. And seeing as how I didn't actually have a place of my own to live, that place DID become my home. I began to open up to them in ways I hadn't really opened up to anyone. Things that I never really thought I'd tell people. They were like family to me, and I thought that went both ways.
Then I started to disagree with things that were said. I viewed things that went on there, decisions that were made, rules that were implemented, as not quite right. I didn't like how they would treat people who were just coming in off the streets (as I had been at one point). Suddenly my eyes were opened to the abusive mentality that went on under the guise of "toughening" people up.
I'd seen people kicked out of the shelter for bogus reasons, all because they had offended one of the staff. I saw a deaf man who was staying there kicked out because he came in late one night from work and when he took the breathalyzer test he failed. He showed them the cough spray that he was taking that caused the false positive, and they still threw him out at two in the morning with nowhere to go. There were many things that had gone on that I never even thought about, and then suddenly BOOM! everything was different for me.
It was as if I had suddenly taken the red pill and everything was clear.
However as I'm sure many people who have been in this type of situation knows, questioning authority is NOT allowed in many of these churches. And so after I questioned one too many times, I was deemed as someone who was not "healthy" to be around.
I was told in no uncertain terms that there were people there that were on their walk to a better self. That they were trying to get their life together and were fragile. And that my being a problem was impacting them and putting their faith and their walk in jeopardy.
I was then slowly but surely shut out of everything. Now at first glance that doesn't seem overly bad. Okay things happen, you pick up and move on. The problem is this: I had grown to really like it there. I loved the people and I became good friends with many. I mean SOLID friendships that I valued greatly. As I said, it was like a family situation. At least to me it was.
Now those were gone. Like it never happened. And it was at that moment that I realized that the whole idea of a "family" that they were touting was nothing but garbage. Because while I felt an immense pain and agony over my "excommunication", they just seemed to have no problem with shutting me out. They showed no signs of any hesitation to shun me and to act like I was just some random stranger that looked like a threat.
A few days later I was kicked out due to not being a positive influence on the others who were actually trying to get their lives right. I was viewed as someone that was a liability and not serious about improving my spiritual life. So there I was, nowhere to go, no one I knew, and I had a (barely) job at a sports bar type restaurant. I ended up taking a paycheck and moving across the country soon after that in an attempt to put that whole situation (and some other stuff) behind me.
To this day that whole situation haunts me. There are days that I long to call some of the "Friends" that I had, and yet I can't. Even if I had their number, they want nothing to do with me. I'm an "outsider". It's similar to the controversial "Disconnecting" that allegedly goes on with Scientology. Where once you're deemed a trouble maker, you're essentially kicked out and everyone is told to have nothing to do with you.
And to this day I have not been able to get involved in a church. Even if they seem normal or fun. After all, that one seemed fun and normal too. And I refuse to get involved anymore. Which is why when I run into people who believe that I am not a "proper Christian" it boils my blood. When I have people who are involved in a church tell me that they don't think I'm a "real Christian" and that they don't see me making efforts to improve myself spiritually, it makes me want to do things that perhaps aren't right.
So that is why this situation has hit me so hard and has gotten me so furious. The utter betrayal of this kid by these people at Mars Hill is beyond justification. I just hope his faith hasn't been shattered like mine has and he finds a way to reconnect with an actual church.
Mars Hill, predictably, responded to Andrew's story, and their statement is below:
“In recent days, there has been some discussion surrounding Mars Hill Church and our process of church discipline. We do not wish to comment on the specific scenario in question, as this is a private matter between church leadership and members, all of whom have voluntarily agreed to this prior to becoming members. We do want to be as clear and forthright as possible in presenting our theology of repentance, forgiveness, and church discipline and make clear that our convictions on this come from our study of Scripture and our deep love for our members and a desire for them to enjoy the freedom that comes from walking by the Spirit in response to Christ’s work on the Cross on our behalf. At the heart of the process is our deep belief that church discipline is about the grace of God, not penance.” -Pastor Justin Holcomb
So basically it's a "look this is how we do things" statement, without actually owning up to anything. Apparently they want everyone else to own up to their "sins" and wrongdoing, but aren't able to do the same.
Do as I say, not as I do is the way of the Mars Hill gang, apparently.
As a bonus, here's a video of The Young Turks discussing Mark Driscoll, the Pastor of Mars Hill Church, and his belief that masturbation is a form of homosexuality, and how that perhaps shines some light into his own proclivities.
Well I'm back with another podcast for ya, this time with a theme of 90's R&B. I love 90's era R&B/Hip Hop music, and so I thought I'd post up a compilation that I put together recently for a friend. Hope you all like it, and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
As always thanks to the great K-Murdock whose voice you hear on the intro. Thank you for the support, my friend!
01. Intro feat. K-Murdock 02. Honey - Mariah feat. The Lox, Mase & Puffy 03. Tell Me - Groove Theory feat. Sadat X & Grand Puba 04. Old Times Sake - Sweet Sable 05. If You Love Me - Brownstone 06. I Love You - Mary J. Blige feat. Smiff N' Wessun 07. Every Little Thing I Do - Soul IV Real 08. You're Making Me High - Toni Braxton 09. You Remind Me - Usher feat. Method Man & Blu Cantrell 10. Shy Guy - Diana King 11. Be Happy - R. Kelly feat. Notorious B.I.G. 12. You're All I Need - Mary J. Blige feat. Method Man 13. Dolly My Baby - Supercat feat. Notorious B.I.G. & Puffy 14. No One Else - Total Feat. Da Brat 15. Sending My Love - Zhane 16. You Remind Me - Mary J. Blige 17. Anything (remix) - SWV 18. My Everything - Barry White & Faith Evans
Well I'm back with another podcast for ya, this time with a theme of 90's R&B. I love 90's era R&B/Hip Hop music, and so I thought I'd post up a compilation that I put together recently for a friend. Hope you all like it, and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
As always thanks to the great K-Murdock whose voice you hear on the intro. Thank you for the support, my friend!
01. Intro feat. K-Murdock
02. Honey - Mariah feat. The Lox, Mase & Puffy
03. Tell Me - Groove Theory feat. Sadat X & Grand Puba
04. Old Times Sake - Sweet Sable
05. If You Love Me - Brownstone 06. I Love You - Mary J. Blige feat. Smiff N' Wessun
07. You're Making Me High - Toni Braxton
08. You Remind Me - Usher feat. Method Man & Blu Cantrell
09. Shy Guy - Diana King
10. Be Happy - R. Kelly feat. Notorious B.I.G.
11. You're All I Need - Mary J. Blige feat. Method Man
12. Dolly My Baby - Supercat feat. Notorious B.I.G. & Puffy
13. No One Else - Total Feat. Da Brat
14. Sending My Love - Zhane
15. You Remind Me - Mary J. Blige
16. Anything (remix) - SWV
17. My Everything - Barry White & Faith Evans
Isamu Jordan is the front man of the Spokane Washington hip hop collective known as The Flying Spiders. Having been together since late 2010, the group has just recently released their debut EP which you can pick up via Bandcamp, and are playing this weekend (January 21st) at Zola's which is located at 22 West Main Street in Spokane Washington.
Isamu was kind enough to answer some questions for the fans out there.
SFCB: Tell us about The Som Show and how that came about?
ISAMU JORDAN: The Som Show is basically a living resume of everything I do connected with music, more so focused on my work as a multimedia journalist, event coordinator and concert promoter. The web site is fairly inactive at the moment, but it's also been the site where voters decide the winners of the annual Sommy Awards, the local music awards event that presented by The Som Show -- Spokane's Online Music Show. Also, The Som Show internet micro-series episodes continue to circulate through youtube and live show highlights appear in The Som Show's High Five picks that are published an online newsletter. The brand is multifaceted and "lives" in a number of incarnations.
SFCB: You are the Program Coordinator for Intercultural Student Services at Whitworth University here in Spokane Washington. How long have you had that position, and what exactly does that entail?
ISAMU JORDAN: I have been at Whitworth University a little longer than the band has been put together, but not by much... Just over a year. Basically I help provide resources and support for students from underrepresented student populations. For example, my office helps facilitate pre-orientation training for student leadership, international students and freshmen students. We also design programming for leadership initiatives and assist student government programming. The duties are broad but the focus is on providing all students with tools to assist in their academic, mental, emotional, physical and spiritual success and well-being.
And while I think that the key to fighting misinformation like this is through education, it's frustrating because some of the same people in power who are pushing these lies all of these years, are also the same ones who are trying to cut education funding and modify text books to only tell their side of history.
How do you combat that? When the people are pushing damaging falsehoods based on negative stereotypes, and they seemingly control the flow of information, how do you deal with that? That's something that frustrates me because simply having a voice online or even on TV doesn't seem to do it. There are still people who think the President was born in Kenya even AFTER the facts have been revealed, so simply speaking truth to power, so to speak, doesn't necessarily seem to work at times in the face of such cognitive dissonance.
ISAMU JORDAN: This is as complicated as it is simple, but I don't have any easy answer for you. But if I were a cynical person I might say it's not surprising that there are more White people on government assistance than Black. If there were more Black people than White people on government assistance, a cynical person might say, it would have never taken effect in the first place. America's White power structure has a tradition of taking care of its constituents with more urgency than their African American counterparts, historically speaking. But even history is a fixed fight if you go by what is presented in the media and in the education system.
Fighting misinformation is a sleepless war but, and I love to quote Professor Xavier, "Any dream worth having is worth fighting for."
We've got a heavy job, to be sure.
SFCB: So let's talk about your band, now. Your band is called The Flying Spiders, and is in fact a band. You play your own instruments, so it's not all drum kits and keyboards. First off, what is the origin of the name of the band?
ISAMU JORDAN: It's very Batman. The name Flying Spiders represents me embracing my greatest fear with initiating this project. If Spiders learned to fly they'd be unstoppable. Also, it's a metaphor of what much of this band is about in terms of the dexterity of it being instrument-laden hip-hop, giving us a vivid pallet in a highly adaptive environment.
Hip-hop, with its sampling heritage, can incorporate any style or genre of music into it's boom-boom tick formula. So while Flying Spiders is hip-hop, all that means is we have access to any genre we want as long as it makes your head nod. It's Batman, and it's evolutionary and polymorphic.
SFCB: So I've read online about the band and there seems to be a different number of members quoted each time I've seen something. So how many actual members are there in The Flying Spiders? Because you guys seem almost like The Wu-Tang Clan or the Kennedy family. We're not 100% sure just how many of you guys there are.
ISAMU JORDAN: It's tricky to nail down because not only is there a varied lineup when we perform live, we also regularly perform in collaboration with guests and friends. But if you go by the album credits on our new "Doppelganger" EP, there are 10 Spiders (plus the three guests on the album, including two singers and a vibraphonist), although only nine appear on the album. On our forthcoming "Spokane Finest EP" there are 12 Spiders planned for the recording plus three guests on organ, trumpet and sax, plus the recording debut of two Spiders lead vocalists, so it won't just be my voice as people are used to at this point. Every time you see the band the lineup is different.
The same is true of each song, and that obviously extends to each album. Again, it's a deliberate part of this band's polymorphic evolution, this band is whatever it is at the moment. Sometimes the percussion is powered by a live drum kit, some times it's a human beatbox. Sometimes the saxophonist is playing flute, sometimes the lead emcee is playing tambourine, and sometimes the pianist is playing a spaceship. We do have a quorum for stage and rehearsal, but Flying Spiders is what it is depending on where it is and when it is. We rarely, if ever use all 12+ colors at once, and even if we did, there are an infinite number of shapes those colors can together take. It's whatever the song calls for.
Most of the songs have bass, but few of the songs have violin. We have a trombonist in Seattle and cellist in Portland. It's synesthetic and in the present tense. That's part of the freedom. We declare ourselves as not having to declare ourselves. Our only rule is, we are not governed by rules. We can be whatever we want to be however many times we want to be it.
SFCB: With there being so many members, how difficult is it to get everyone together for a show? Does that inhibit the amount of shows you guys can do?
ISAMU JORDAN: It is challenging to get everyone in the same room at the same time, people performing live as much as getting together to powwow, or rehearse, is always good incentive because we all enjoy being together. Surprisingly, we played six shows in December and five November. Sometimes the challenge is in not playing too many shows.
SFCB: So you guys have been around for a little over a year now, and I was wondering for a local band starting out, how difficult was it to get bookings? I wasn't sure whether starting out if it took awhile before you were getting stage time, or if right off the bat there were openings and bars and clubs were just "hey, come on in and set up and let's see what you got."
ISAMU JORDAN: Flying Spiders has only been around for a year, but several of its members have all been around the scene in some capacity for a long time and many of whom have existing contacts with other bands they play in, or work with or what have you. With so many members scheduling may not be convenient, but we also have the advantage of pooling our resources together to be self-sustainable.
SFCB: The thing I like is that not only do you play your own instruments, but also the lyrical content is on point. Too often you have groups that their lyrics aren't engaging or they aren't really about anything. And you seem to be able to bridge that gap between fun stuff and serious topics.
ISAMU JORDAN: Thanks! I think it's strange that an emcee is expected to have a limited faculty of emotions. "I'm the angry pro-Black rapper," or "I'm the comedy rapper" or "I'm the party rapper," An emcee should be able to relate a myriad emotional experiences, as a very fundamental requirement for the job.
SFCB: I watched your video for "Spokane's Finest" and living in Spokane I thought I might recognize some of the places, but despite living here for 10 years I still couldn't tell you where anything in this city is. Where was the video shot? I kind of recognized the park but not quite.
ISAMU JORDAN: Spokane's Finest was filmed in three locations -- on Manito Blvd. on the South Hill, at a studio lounge at KCDA, and at Larry's Barber Shop, Spokane's longest-running black-owned barber shop in the East Central neighborhood.
SFCB: I saw a video online that I really dug of you and a few members playing in what looked like your living room. The track was "BlackMail". What exactly was that video, was it just you guys jamming or learning a new song?
ISAMU JORDAN: Yeah, that was us practicing the song for the first time in Raj's living room. And since Raj, our violinist, wasn't on the song he turned on his camera and documented it. That's a straight-up live take of the first time we got through that song successfully. Incidentally, Raj produced and directed the video for "Spokane's Finest." He's a gifted photographer and filmmaker.
SFCB: Now, you guys just put out the "The Doppelganger EP: Villaging Trilogy Pt. I", which is available at Bandcamp at a "name your price" model (with a minimum of $1). What made you go the route of the slightly modified "name your own price"?
We've seen some high profile artists utilze this model, such as Radiohead and poet Saul Williams however it seems that it's almost always a situation where it's a one-off. They'll do it with one album that they distribute entirely on the internet and independent of a label, but then the next album and the rest of their albums will be in the stores, through the regular medium. And there's been discussions on whether or not that's a viable option for continued distribution, considering that honestly there's a lot of people who given the chance won't pay if they don't have to.
I remember Stephen King did a similar thing with an ebook serial called "The Plant" where he'd release it in installments for a $1 each installment, however it was on the honor system. He stated that as long as 75% of the downloaders paid their $1, then he'd keep on putting out installments, but threatened to shut it down if not.
The first three installments of about 20 pages each got anywhere from 70% to 85% paid downloads, however on the fourth he increased the price to $2 but also doubled the length to about 50+ pages. The pay rate dropped to 40% (as did the number of overall downloads), and the installments stopped soon after that.
King viewed the experiment as a way to potentially change how things were done, having already released the very first mass market ebook previously with "Riding The Bullet". How do you feel about the model, and how has it worked out for you and your EP?
ISAMU JORDAN: We know people want to support us, our friends and family who don't live in Spokane or what have you, so we just wanted to make it easily available. The price is pretty arbitrary. People who buy it online typically pay more than $1 because they want to, and people who download it free do so because they want to. We can't stop anyone for getting it for free. It's the internet. But we can also make it as easy as possible to buy, too.
SFCB: So now that you have put your debut EP out there, what is in store for The Flying Spiders in 2012?
ISAMU JORDAN: Spoiler Alert: We played our first show on 10.10.10. Released our first album on 11.11.11. It's a pretty safe bet all 12 of us will be at the same party 12.12.12. We've also got some volcanic plans for the 32 anniversary of Mount St. Helens.
SFCB: Isamu, thank you very much and I appreciate you taking your time to answer some questions.
Isamu and The Spiders will be playing at Zola's on 22 West Main Street, in Spokane Washington tomorrow night (Saturday the 21st of January) at 9pm. For information you can check the Flying Spiders' Facebook page!
In recent months (and let's be honest, years) there has been this back and forth between the camps of Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather over a potential fight. The fight has not been made at this point due to the posturing and overwhelming egos of pretty much everyone involved here. Whether it's Floyd's throwing out rarely ever done drug testing demands under the guise of "cleaning up the sport" but in reality nothing but a carpet bombing towards Manny's accomplishments for the intent of the Public to question everything he had done, or it was Manny's side coming out with excuse after excuse after excuse of why they couldn't take said tests, or it's Floyd and his family going all out in interviews flat out accusing Manny of taking drugs (in Floyd's case it attempts at subtlety, while his father and uncle were less covert), it's just been one stumble after another.
This fight will never be made, in my opinion, and to be honest with you, I don't care if it doesn't get made. I'm a fan of boxing, but there are way more interesting fights that I'd be interested in seeing before this hypothetical one. However there are many who do want to see it.
And there are many who feed and thrive off of every nugget thrown out about this so-called fight. And as a result, Bob Arum, Manny's promoter, and Floyd Mayweather along with Golden Boy who are his de-facto promoters, have thrived off it all the media attention that has come. A quick google search reveals millions of hits and thousands of news articles about the most random nonsense.
Everytime some obscure writer in another continent says that someone close to Manny has agreed to everything asked, everyone runs with it as if this is the first time anyone's ever made that statement. And everytime Floyd's father goes and does any boxing interview that will have him, he's guaranteed to make one asinine and inflammatory statement after another.
And the world keeps on spinning.
I have felt for awhile that I wish people would just stop talking about these two. They're not going to fight each other because there's really no incentive to. They both have WAY too much to lose if they fight and so they won't. However I have felt that my not writing about them changes nothing. Who am I? I run a multi-topic blog and have written about Mayweather a handful of times over the years so my not writing about him won't do a damn bit of good.
But now there is a more prominent boxing site that has decided to do just that. Boycott the Bullshit, is what it SHOULD be called, however it is simply a boycott on all things Mayweather and Pacquiao. No more nonsense about stipulations being agreed to, no more arguments over sites, no more discussions of drug testing or how much money can be made. Nothing.
No more enabling these egotistical pricks who have sidetracked, hijacked and sabotaged a sport that I love. So anyone out there who is a boxing writer or just a blogger who has written about the sport in the past, I encourage you to join in and just put your foot down.
No more to this bullshit. There are way too many excellent fighters to watch and fights to be made to focus on two guys who aren't going to fight each other and a "super fight" that will never be made. The first step is always the hardest, I suppose, as it's very tempting to write everytime something new happens. But just remember that you're only feeding the addict, which in this case is everyone at Top Rank, Golden ?Boy and most of all Team Mayweather. They need the attention like a junkie needs his fix.
It's time to stop enabling the addicts. Before we all overdose.
Remember the name Amber Ojeda. Because the San Diego artist will be the next big music star. I don't say that lightly, and I've never said that about someone in a review before, but listening to her album "Space.Bar.Love" I'm shocked that she isn't a major star already.
It's the most perplexing thing to me that she is not already a multi-platinum artist that is permeating every facet of the music aspect of the media. Her music should be on the radio every day, at least twice a day. She should have music videos on ... whatever channels still exist for music videos.
And while her music has been featured in some TV series and films, she should be all over. Her music should be in movie trailers, where it's that one song that gets stuck in your head after watching it, and you just have to track it down and listen to it. She should be on a ton of music magazines, she should be on every music blog that there is.
However she is not. Yet. I predict that she will be, at the very least much more well known than she is now by the end of 2012.
I love the way that Amber is able to balance some of the soulfully jazzy tracks with this lounge type vibe to them that evoke memories of another indie artist named Ondine Darcyl, with the more uptempo and danceable tracks which are more reminiscient of Nelly Furtado at times. I've always loved artists that can deftly combine various styles of music into a single effort and really pull it off. Amber pulls it off very well, and she is an immense talent that everyone should hear.
With a lot of indie artists when you hear their product, it doesn't come off as polished as it could be. There are some that I've received to review and the so-called "finished" product was just a mess, and it made me figure they didn't care enough about their work to put in the proper time and effort. Which in turn, made me not able to enjoy the work and I ended up not reviewing them.
Amber's album is extremely well done both in the production values and the overall presentation. Her album cover is quite honestly one of the better I've seen. It's fairly simple in execution, and yet it's just so fantastic and is just another illustration of the professional image that Amber has.
From the opening of the album on the track "Comma (Midtro)", I was hooked with the smooth mellow track, and the spoken word type rap, along the lines of Natalie Stewart aka The Floacist from the UK Soul group Floetry. As the album progressed, it varied between the loungy jazz tracks and the more mid-tempo R&B/soul tracks, and then the uptempo tracks.
All in all, this album is a gem and is not to be missed. Do yourself a favor and get this as soon as possible. You will not be sorry. Actually what you will be sorry for, which is the same thing I was regretting, is that you hadn't heard of Amber before now. All really good artists have that moment that they come into the collective awareness of the music fans.
Space.Bar.Love is that moment, for Amber Ojeda. Perhaps the Mayans got it wrong after all. 2012 doesn't mark the end of our world, it just marks the beginning of Amber Ojeda's introduction to the world that sadly has missed out on her up to this point. She's already been featured in small roles on a few excellent television shows, namely Veronica Mars and the cancelled-too-soon, Terriers, and I imagine that she's got big things ahead of her in 2012 and beyond.
When I first heard the story of Jakadrian Turner, a fourteen year old girl who been deported to Columbia due to the I.C.E. agents believing she was an undocumented immigrant, I was outraged. The story went that she had run away from home because she had been through some troubling times. Her grandfather had passed away, and her parents were going to be getting a divorce. So sometime after that she got arrested for stealing some money, and when asked for her identity, she made up a name and unfortunately for her, that name was one of an undocumented immigrant that the officials had been looking for. Believing her to be the woman from Columbia, a 22 year old, Turner was then sent to Columbia where she lived for a year until her grandmother found her on Facebook.
I was outraged at the idea of this level of incompetence on the part of the government that they could have a fourteen year old black girl in their custody and mistake her for a 22 year old Spanish woman and there was no way they could A. tell that the girl they had was much younger and B. couldn't verify the story.
However as I began to read more about this story, things just didn't add up for me and I began to find myself sympathizing with Turner less and less. To be clear, the I.C.E. agents CLEARLY did not do their job. They had to have fingerprinted Turner, so did no one bother to run those prints?
However I think that Turner deserves much more condemnation and criticism than I am seeing from people, and allow me to explain why.
First off, when you read the account of what happened, it appears that Turner REPEATEDLY claimed that her name was Tika Lanay Cortez, who happened to be a 22 year old undocumented immigrant who had been on the radar of I.C.E. She reportedly continued to insist that was her name throughout the hearings on the case and leading up to her being put on a plane to Columbia. So while I.C.E. damn sure shoulda crossed their T's and dotted their I's here, and made sure that this was who she claimed to be, I don't know how you don't blame Turner some in this matter.
Another issue to question is what is the mentality of someone who is willing to be shipped off to a foreign country where they know nobody, don't speak the language, and is going to be thousands and thousands of miles away from everyone they know and care about? What does it say about Turner, that she not only continued to insist that she was this Cortez woman, even after she found out that they were accusing her of being an undocumented immigrant, even after she realized they were going to deport her to Columbia, she still continued to lie and say she was someone she was not.
Turner was deported because she assumed the false identity of a Colombian woman. Turner is now 15 and possibly being held in a detention center in Colombia.
The agency says Turner first assumed the identity, calling herself Tika Lanay Cortez, when she was arrested on state charges for theft by the Houston Police Department. Turner told police that she was an adult from Colombia with no legal status in the United States, and went through an entire trial, was charged, convicted and served time under the name Tika Lanay Cortez. Records from court indicated that it convicted a 21-year-old woman from Columbia. Her defense attorney believed that to be true as well.
Upon her conviction, ICE says Turner was referred to them, where she continued to maintain a false identity during immigration court proceedings. The agency did fingerprints and record checks to verify that the woman was Tika Lanay Cortez, and nothing came up to invalidate her claim. When she went before an immigration lawyer, Turner continued to say she was a Colombia woman. She was interviewed at the Colombian consulate, where she also kept up the false identity.
Turner was ultimately ordered removed from the United States by a Department of Justice immigration judge last year.
I.C.E. officials have stated that many people are under the impression that if they claim they are a foreign national, that they can get out of jail time. Perhaps that is what happened here. I have to think there's more to this story though. On her facebook and twitter accounts while in Columbia, Turner often spoke of her being born in Columbia and how she missed those in Houston and wanted to return, but that Columbia was her home.
Whether or not she was truly born in Texas and where in the hell she got the name Tika Lanay Cortez from (as it doesn't seem like a generic name, but I'm a gringo so perhaps my opinion of what's generic doesn't count), I don't know. And the fact that she gave the birth date of Cortez and that must have matched what they had.
The I.C.E. agents also stated that they ran her finger prints but she was not in the system and so nothing came back. Therefore they only had her word to fall back on, and as I posted before, she continued to lie and state that her name was Tika and that she was from Columbia and was in this country undocumented.
Now she's back home with her family, and while I hope things go well for her, I can't imagine that this situation is done with. Someone will look into her story and background and I imagine we will discover just what her connection with Tika is, if any, and what caused her to continue to lie again and again and again. That is not something that someone does simply because their parents are getting divorced and their grandfather passes on.
We all react differently to tragic things in our lives, and a fourteen year old dealing with her grandfather passing and then her parents splitting up could be a horrible thing. However is that something that would cause you to want to leave the country and end up in a very dangerous place like Columbia where you know no one or anything?
It's strange to say the least and I'm kind of interested to learn more about what happened here because I honestly don't think we know what the hell is going on in this case.
I do know one thing though, and that is Turner is not the innocent victim that she's being made out to be. She's just as much to blame for this (if not more so) as the I.C.E agents who fumbled this situation.
Good music is a thing of beauty. Really good music, often times, is very difficult to find. There are the old standbys of course, the old reliables that you can always count on to come with good solid meaningful music, however it seems that as the years go by the quality of new music seems to drop.
Not to say there aren't good music acts out there, it's just a matter of discovering them. The stuff that gets pushed and marketed tend to be the most generic and easily digested of the selections. Things that aren't really challenging anything and often are not really saying anything beyond generic cliched messages.
That's why you have to go beyond the mainstream and search out the music that is lying there bubbling beneath the surface. To search out those groups that are creating music that is truly saying something and doing somethng that is genuinely creative. Recently a musician friend of mine stopped by and gave me a disc of a group he said that he felt I'd like.
I've gotten to be kinda particular with what I listen to, but he knows that some of the groups I like are those who sort of combine multiple genres into a single act. Acts like Gangstagrass (Hip Hop + Bluegrass), Apocalyptica (Metal + Classical) or whatever, I enjoy multi-genre music. Creative offerings that truly try different things without fear of whether or not it'll be accepted.
The band that my friend introduced me to is a local Spokane Washington group known as The Flying Spiders. I don't get out a lot and don't really frequent the live scene here in Spokane so I had not heard of them, however they've been around for about a year now, premiering in October of 2010, so they are relatively new and have just put out their debut "Doppleganger EP: The Villaging Trilogy Part 1".
The Flying Spiders are billed as a "Hip Hop Orchestra", and while I agree with that description, I sort of view The Flying Spiders as a multi-cultural Jam Band. According to their facebook page, there are currently twelve members of the group, and a revolving set of guest musicians making up this collective. Some nights you will get all of them, and other nights you may get seven or eight of them, when you go see them live.
Reminds me of the days of The Rat Pack (another of my all time favorite groups), where the Rat Pack had evolved from the early days of Sinatra, Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, David Niven and others, and then into the 60's it became the version that most people know which was Frank, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. The Pack also included extended members Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop and the "Rat Pack Mascots" which included Shirley MacLaine, Marilyn Monroe, Angie Dickinson and Juliet Prowse.
And since there were so many members of the group, often no one knew who would show up on the stage when they bought their tickets to the show and sat down. Sometimes Dean would play a show, and then several of the others would just show up out of the blue and join him on stage and sing and do their acts. So often the casinos and hotels where they would perform would include on their sign, the following: "DEAN MARTIN - MAYBE FRANK - MAYBE SAMMY". And I think that the Spiders are sort of like that, as there are so many who are in the Spiders collective, that you never know what surprises are in store for you when you go to a show.
There will be obvious comparisons of this band to The Roots, as they are making their bones as a live hip hop band and they play their own instruments. While listening to their EP I often would think of how much, at times, they would remind me of other jam bands that would incorporate various musical styles into their music such as Dave Matthews Band and Jamiroquai. The Spiders utilize everything from hip hop to funk to soul to electronic to jazz to just about anything they can think to add that will work.
As I listened to their EP, I thought about the transition from being a live "jam band" used to improvisation and just getting up on stage and doing your thing, and getting into a more sterile and controlled environment, and laying down a studio recording. You run the risk of losing the element of what makes them so great.
While living in Charlottesville, Virginia, there was this band called "The Secret" which was only together for a few years, and were flat out fantastic live. You go to their shows, and it was just an experience to behold. They would get on stage and everything just clicked and would just groove. They were this beast on stage combining funk and soul and blues and jazz and rock and it was just amazing. Then they put out their debut CD and ... it was just not the same. I mean it was THEM and it wasn't them, if that makes sense.
It was like they were inhibited and restrained from what it was that made them such a wonder to see. They were unable to translate their success as a live act into a studio environment, and it was just a bad result. And I wonder still if that may have played a role in their breaking up a year or so after the release of their debut.
I haven't been able to see the Spiders live at this point, however I've found a few videos online of them playing live and while it's not the greatest sample size, I don't really think that they lose a lot when you hear them on the EP. It's clearly not going to be the same vibe as a live recording as there's so many elements that come into play that affect the overall feel to a live show, however I think where "The Secret" failed, The Flying Spiders has succeeded. Where the Secret seemed lackluster and restrained on their studio release, the Flying Spiders EP is still full of life and emotions.
Another thing I like about the group is that their songs tackle topics that we see affecting our lives, whether it's racism or political machinations of this country we live in, or the ways the society that we are influenced by, in turn influences how we go about our lives and bring up the next generation.
Whether it's lead rapper Isamu Jordan's (Program Coordinator for Intercultural Student Services at the local Whitworth University) pointing fingers at his own flaws ("And I'm an alcoholic, another statistic of an economic slaughter"), calling out what he feels is a sad state of affairs among the Black community ("Black America, what has it come to, you hate that your brother has more money than you ... we can act all chummy and invite your friends over and chill, but there'd better be some money involved.") or lamenting other political issues, The Flying Spiders have established themselves as a group to be taken seriously and that they have something to say.
It's not all serious heavy subject matters though, as there are some playful lines as well including one of my favorites, "Hail to the Thief, I stole the show and jacked the beat and blacked out on 'em." and of course the "I've got that big diction" which of course is a crowd pleaser to be sure.
And while I loved Spokane's Finest, in part because it utilizes a re-interpreted sample of Wu-Tang's Reunited which is one of my all time favorite instrumentals, I think my favorite track on the EP is "Rainmaker" Some of the lines just left me stunned and seriously contemplating the meanings after the song was over. Particularly the line of "This time the "Master" is our own race, 400 years of practice and we've made ourselves slaves." I've had conversations with my friend Miami Kaos about this very subject several times in the past and while we have differing thoughts on it, the fact is that it is a devastating problem today.
From beginning to end, this EP is solid. From the 8-bit like synths in the opening track, "Subject Matters", to the Wu-Tang sampled "Spokane's Finest" which closes, this is a really fantastic offering, and one I encourage everyone to pick up. You can go to The Flying Spider's bandcamp page where you can pick up their EP which is priced as a "Pay What You Want" offering. While the minimum is $1, you can offer more than that if you want to support independent music.
