Harry Potter and the Personal Confession

The song "Guerrilla Radio" by Rage Against the Machine ends with Zack de la Rocha's ever-angry whisper:
It has to start somewhere.
It has to start sometime.
What better place than here?
What better time than now?

He then proceeds to shout All Hell can't stop us now. six times before the song ends.

Whenever I hear this song, I always find myself fighting the urge to punch my fist into the air and/or kick something. It's an absolutely wonderful, angry, rebellious song, and it gets me every time. It has 5-stars in my iTunes library.

As for the content of the song, I know very little of Rage's intended meaning. My best guess is that the song is one of anger and rebellion towards some exploitative authority, with the last 30 seconds comprising the call to battle. Huh. Go figure. A band with the name "Rage Against the Machine" is angry with corrupt authority figures. How insightful of me. Thanks Captain Obvious.

Anyway, the song always brings up two interesting thoughts (to me, at least):
(1) Wouldn't the battle cry "All Hell can't stop us now" dovetail nicely into a Christian context? (C.f., Mt. 16:18, most of Revelation, etc.)
(2) Why do I have such an affinity for angry rock music?

As for (1), I don't know how I feel about this. We're back to the notion of borrowing artistic expression authored and intended for one purpose, and using it for another. And Rage Against the Machine? These guys drop enough F-bombs to make Quentin Tarantino blush. Is this a good source from which to borrow art? If not, why? Should the character or intent of the originator(s) matter? Has it mattered in the past to our Christian founders?

As for (2), I can say that I have a soft-spot for angry music. Maybe that's just because I'm a Gen-X-er. I'll leave it at that rather than psychologize myself on the web, revealing to everybody that I have unresolved anger issues because my dog ate my favorite teddy bear when I was three. That aside, I will say that my experience, from very early on, with popular music, especially rock, has been on the rebellious, angry, side of the scale. From a young age until roughly nine years ago, rock music, on average, was redolent of aggression, anger, rebelliousness, and irreverence. Now, had my exposure been different, perhaps it'd be much easier for me to swallow contemporary worship music.

I think that's one of the reasons why I'm always blogging about this stuff. Something just doesn't seem right to me. In my experience, rock/pop is a style of music that has close ties with themes that don't jive all that well with worshipping God. Had I been raised Christian, where my first exposure to a rock song was "King of Majesty" instead of "Cum on Feel the Noize," perhaps I'd be less critical of contemporary Christian music. Perhaps...but let's not get crazy.

A Quick Rant...

There's a new ad campaign by Mohegan Sun (a local casino) in which capacity they take classic rock tunes and add lyrics that tell of the wonders of casino gambling. The artists do a good job covering the songs, so I have thrice been burned by this when scanning through radio stations. "Ooh, Sweet Home Alabama...wait, no. It's We Come to Mohegan. Drat." Anyway, I'm finding this infinitely annoying.

My Girl P.D.J.

What better way to kick off the June blogging season than with my original, unique, trademark, in now way copied (bogarted?) from Danny or any other person(s) living or dead, "Random Things" post. In lieu of irrational numbers, I will list said thoughts with primes:

3571 Summer is indeed upon us! I'm very much enjoying the nice weather, and the sense of renewed life and vitality that the beauty of God's creation brings. Since I became a beliver, spring and summer have always brought to mind God's redeptive power, and His plans to redeem and renew all of creation.
2069 Thanks in no small part to a feature in a recent Mars Hill issue, I started to read a mystery novel by P.D. James. This is truly excellent fiction. The world James creates is as rich and deep as her characters. Nary a page goes by when I don't think to myself, "Wow, I wish I could write like that." I'm working my way through The Lighthouse right now; I'm very much looking forward to reading more. It's the kind of adult fiction that doesn't make you feel guilty, like some of the literary junk food upon which I tend to gorge from time to time.
101 Celtics and Lakers in the NBA finals. I still remember eating breakfast at my home in Bridgewater the day after the Celtics took it all from the Lakers back in 1986. The morning news raved and I felt especially cool having watched the game (albeit on TV) the (late) night prior. Good times. I must say that the 21st century has certainly been an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Boston sports. The Patriots got it started, then the Red Sox got the "Reverse [the] Curv[s]e" sign taken off of Storrow Drive, now the Celtics. We're waiting, Bruins...
23 I took a swim lesson last week. It certainly helped me with some nagging issues of mine when I freestyle, but I still suck water (yummy, tepid, chlorinated water, no less) from time to time. This may force me to wait for the 2010 Olympics. Oh well.
2 Of the one participants [sic], nobody got my trivia question correct as to the significance of MCMLXXVI. April 1, 1976 was the date that Apple Computer was founded by the two Steve's. They are both doing very well now, so I gather.

Dig it. Bmarchio out.