The music doesn’t all appeal to me, neither does the dance moves they chose for the video. But the very fact of their being there sends chills up and down my spine. You see, I’ve been there. I spent some time in Eastern Europe six years ago, and stood in this very square in front of the Millenium Memorial. It’s an old, patinaed monument–this wasn’t erected at the turn of the millenium, but in honor of the thousandth year of Hungarian history in 1898. And it sits in the middle of a bleak square with an acre of paving stones around it in the heart of Budapest–a city still very much under the shadow of its years of Communism and repression, when Christians were not allowed to practice openly.

This church that started small in those dark days has grown to encompass a significant portion of the community, now holding multiple services of tens of thousands apiece on Sunday morning. I’m not wholeheartedly comfortable with the trend of megachurches in US mainline evangelical circles, but the Lord appears to be doing a mighty work here. For even just six years ago I couldn’t have imagined so many of Budapest’s youth (and older folks, too) standing joyful in one of the bleakest spots in downtown Budapest and dancing and singing the good news. For the song they were singing was particularly meaningful to me, having seen the damage statism and tyranny has done to their country in the past century.

That day will be remembered as the greatest day in history
The fate of the world changed in one glorious moment
When Life triumphed on Resurrection Sunday

The hope of a people searching for life
The day will be brighter
The message of freedom rings in the sky
Spreading the fire
The flag of a nation ready to fly
Taking them higher
The heart of a land that rises to fight
Full of desire
When nothing is as you want it to be
Look up to heaven
Freedom was paid for on Calvary
The chain is broken
Making a way right to destiny
Borders are open
And Jesus has granted the victory
That Sunday morning

Joy in this life time, utterly free
More than the world gives, beyond what you see
For nations its time to rise their hope is in Jesus Christ
If the giants come, just hold on, the advantage is now on your side
Jesus, will take the final fight

A light dawned that Sunday Morning
It broke through the boundaries of time
Hearts start shining, calling to all mankind
Lets celebrate eternal life

When nothing is as you want it to be
Look up to heaven
Freedom was paid for on Calvary
The chain is broken
Making a way right to destiny
Borders are open
And Jesus has granted the victory
That Sunday morning

Joy in this life time, utterly free
More than the world gives, beyond what you see
For nations its time to rise their hope is in Jesus Christ
If the giants come, just hold on, the advantage is now on your side
Jesus, will take the final fight

Watch it. I can’t hear this without crying. For a country that’s been through so much, come through the fires and flames of secular humanism, it is time to rise, and their greatest hope is in Jesus Christ. Jesus will take the final fight!

Lord, show me Your way,
When I walk in the gray
Not in darkness, or in light
But the mists of my own sight.

Lord, how can I know
How to walk, and then to grow
In the fog, when I cry out
In the midst of fear and doubt.

Lord, I cannot stand,
Unless You’re with me in this land.
Lest then from Your path I stray
And be found out of Your way.

Lord, here in my storm,
Is little light and less of form.
Let me hear the blessed sound,
In trackless waste, of solid ground.

Lord, faith give to me,
That I may walk this stormy sea.
Let me trust now that Thy arm
Shall protect me from all harm.

Lord, I cannot steer,
My own course, through storms of fear.
Without Your light I soon should fail;
My soul be swamped, unless you bail.

Lord, when I shall guide
My own steps, from this side.
Then I cannot help but sink
‘Neath the waves and o’er the brink.

Lord, I cannot see
What Your will would have of me.
Let me cry, lest I should fall
Thy Word be my all in all.

Lord, please clear mine eyes
Balance all, and let me prize
In my heart Thy Word aright
That I may safe come through this fight.

Lord, now help me fight
Long as I stand within Your light.
Yet when clouds shall cover me
Let not my thoughts stray far from Thee.

Solid truth shall set me free
Bring safe to harbor, near to Thee
Let not me trust my darkened sight
Be thou, my Lord, my perfect light.

This event got me to thinking about the nature of creativity. I would hesitate to use the word “inspired”, because that implies a lot of other things. But this was one of the stranger experiences I’ve had with creativity…usually, I spend some time over a poem, constructing each verse and rhyme–rarely does anything of length come to me fully– (or mostly-) formed. Yet all our creativity stems from God, subcreationally, so should we be surprised when He takes different paths with it?

Note: I don’t have a tune for this, and so if anyone’d like to tackle it, shoot me a message! I did notice while I was writing this post that it fits fairly well with the traditional Celtic tune arranged by the Scottish band Runrig for “One Thing” on their The Stamping Grou

Though I am weak, sometimes weary
In times of trial I hide my face
In the balance, judge me wholly
Please don’t judge me
By my shame

In dark hours of confrontation
When words may fall too soon to unsay
Don’t mistake them for my true meaning
They are measures
Of my shame

Refrain:
I have tried to live life humbly
Not a coward, not in vain
When my meekness overcomes me
Remember me, not my shame
Not my shame

I am small and self-conscious
Every mirror reflects the grain
Judge my essence by my kinships
Remember me
Not my shame

I am weak, sometimes weary
Sometimes small, I hide away
When my hours are all accounted
Please don’t bind me
To my shame

Refrain

Ortega’s arrangements of traditional hymns, particularly little-known Celtic hymns, are among the best I’ve ever heard. His music is typically expressive, without being overly embellished–the hymns in particular are well-suited to sing along with. I hope you will find his music, as I do, unusually appropriate for a Sunday morning, and well worth listening to throughout the week.

Last week one of my classmates introduced us to a most interesting song by Irish band Guggenheim Grotto, Philosophia.

When we’re young we set our hearts upon some beautiful idea
Maybe something from a holy book or French philosophia
Upon the thoughts of better men than us we swear by and decree a
Perfect way to end the war of ways the only way to be a…

Work of art, oh to be a work of art

But in time a thought comes tugging on the sleeve edge of our minds
Perhaps no perfect way exists at all, just many different kinds
Oh but if it’s just a thing of taste then everything unwinds
For without an absolute how can the absolute define…

A work of art, oh to be a work of art

The end of the second verse is excellent…it refutes the central tenet of post-modern relativism in only two rhyming lines! If you deny absolutism (the existence of an absolute truth, virtue, or moral standard) than you self-refute your assertion–how can a statement (the absence of universal truth) then be universal? The video is also quite significant–it’s not just random images or eye candy–the director and DP were very aware of the meaning of the song.

You can find Philosophia on iTunes or on Amazon MP3 here.

…without the absolute how can the absolute define…
John Calvin Young

Last night I drove to Roanoke to see the new movie Watchmen, based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. I expected the film to be violent, considering the tone set by the graphic novel, but the finished work was far more violent than I had foreseen. Each of the scenes I mentioned above was in the movie, and many worse. At my count, there were at least 4 sex scenes, 4–8 extraordinarily violent murders, and a near-innumerable count of other gory and horrifying deaths, including dozens vaporized, obliterated, or simply exploded by Dr. Manhattan.

Now don’t get me wrong–not all violence is wrong, and often times it is necessary, even in a fictional story. I had no problem with Night Owl and Miss Jupiter’s fight scene in the prison riot–it was superbly choreographed and not unduly violent. I’ve watched a number of films with very violent wartime scenes, such as Gods and Generals, The Last Samurai, and the Lord of the Rings. These films largely did not bother me. What offends me though is the macabre fascination with death that would have us watch as a character takes a cleaver to another man’s head or a paralyzed man is made to fall on a sword, as in Serenity.

Sometimes violence is simply necessary for the plot, as in Ben Hur or Passion of the Christ. But in many cases understated or suggested action can be even more powerful that directly showing it. In Watchmen, three organized-crime types try to break into Rorschach’s prison cell to extract retribution for his vigilante work. The first two are gruesomely killed–the first dismembered with a circular saw and the second electrocuted, all in the midst of a prison riot–but the third’s death is not shown. Rorschach chases him into a bathroom, from which we only hear a flushing sound after a long moment. All the teens in the theater looked at each in horrified fascination–“WHAT did he DO to him?” This scene was far more powerful than the bloody deaths gruesomely depicted all around the characters, we recoil in disgust even though the only visual image we are left with is blood-tinged water flowing underneath the door. We were simply left in shock from the previous killings, but this one was left to our imagination, and it was far more effective than the others.

While I was thinking over this topic this morning, the thought-provoking song “Junkyard” by Celtic Christian band Ceili Rain came on the radio.

Saw a movie where a guy
Kills another guy, twice
Don’t know if I can forget about it

Saw a guy finish a fight
With a butcher knife, slice
Pretty sure I won’t forget about it

Is it OK If I say?:

My heart is not a junkyard
My mind is not a dump for all the gunk around
My spirit’s not a junkyard
No, it’s Holy Ground

Saw a photo on the net
Can’t believe that I’ve seen
Don’t know if I can forget about it

Two kids were playing in some dirt
That will never come clean
Wish to God I could forget about it

No one’s safe till we all say:

Wanna keep, keep the temple clean
Gotta keep, keep the temple clean
Tryin’ to keep, keep the temple clean
How do I keep the temple clean?

Vicious rumor went around
Wrecked my Uncle John’s life
Guess he never could forget about it

The song is right–our hearts and minds are not places to fill with this kind of gratuitous filth. Some violence is necessary to a plot or unavoidable–crime is evil, war is violent, it would be pointless to try to deny it–but to voyeuristically dwell on these sorts of elements is not healthy or desirable. The Apostle Paul states in Philippians 4:8,

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” (NKJV)

Gruesome death, rape, fornication, and murder are not true, noble, just, pure, lovely, or of good report. Let us not meditate on these things.

In His Service,
John Calvin Young

A beautiful Celtic Christian song I heard recently on the excellent Celtic Christian Tunes web radio station: Andrew Lobb’s “Weep For Winter” from his Pools of Light CD.

Weep for winter when spring comes down
Along the banks and rivers of desire
Sun warmed earth, the snow drops melt
Yellow flamed primroses of the fire

Weep for winter when frosts are no more
On white laced hills across the land
As dew drops form on spiders web
No robins song, nor crows lonely stand

Weep for winter as the cuckoo calls
Across forest sun lights fall
Breathe new life among trees of green
Cold hard hands release us all

CH-Time to grow and leave behind
All our thoughts of years gone by
Say goodbye to winters tears, roll on down, Yes roll on down
On rivers banks they leave a sigh
On rivers banks they leave a sigh

You can listen to a short sample here, or to a Youtube video of the complete song performed live at the Alnwick International Music Festival and posted by the artist here.

http://dbmedia.crossrhythms.co.uk/audio/mp3/12684–12.mp3

And no, iTunes doesn’t have it–I checked… You can purchase the CD direct from him or from the Crossrhythms.co.uk site.

I was working on an arrangement of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” for me, my brothers, and my Dad to perform at a wedding, when who should pop in the studio… the Chipmunks (or a reasonable facsmimile thereof). They were kind enough to record their own version of the song; but, don’t be too picky about their pitch, they could only do one take

This is a really neat, classy arrangement of the classic Christmas carol. And may I mention for the record that I prefer these Chipmunks to the recent film adaptation… Listen and enjoy.

[See post to listen to audio]

Although the organization of the project has been interesting, the quality of the finished project is the most intriguing point for me. Blender has come a long way–I’ve been using it since 2005, and its capabilities have expanded by leaps and bounds (no pun intended), especially in furs and particles, which are showcased in this film. This software has opened opportunities for many young animators who could not otherwise have made the step into professional-level animation. Some projects are even specifically using Blender for scalability, as it is freely available, such as The Filthy Spoon Project, modeled and designed entirely in Blender.

P.S.–The entire production files are also available, as well as DVDs for sale on the site. In the spirit of open-source software, though, the film is downloadable in up to 1080p resolution for free.

In other notes, the composer for the film, Jan Morgenstern, has released the whole score as a freely downloadable album.
Very interesting for those who might be scoring other short films. A full feature score is very interesting, but scoring a short film (like shooting one) is a rather different art.

Very, very interesting project. And I believe it was done with 7 lead animators. I think a project like this could very easily be done by one or another of the online groups, like CF.org for example.

In His Service,
John Calvin Young

I hear, I hear a voice out of heaven
I see the heaven’s open up
I see, I see the dove is descending
A sign from God in whom He is well pleased

Chorus
And I am called to take another simple step of obedience
An open witness of my faith for you
So I will sink underneath the waters to crucify the old man
And rise up from the waters anew

If by faith I have accepted
All my life I yield to you
If by example you say follow
Then by water I will prove

Chorus
That I am called to take another simple step of obedience
An open witness of my faith for you
So I will sink underneath the waters to crucify the old man
And rise up from the waters anew

Repeat Chorus

Awesome baptismal hymn–Stephen said they sang it at his baptism. Unfortunately you won’t be able to get it on CD for some time yet, but you can see why I can’t wait to get the full CD if you listen to this sample from “I Am Called” here.

They have more samples and lyrics on their website–check it out!