Yay, It’s Advent Transmission Time Again!
December 3, 2007
This Wednesday, Dec 5, from 7-9 pm, come to Bowie’s place for Advent Transmission. 
* Advent “Arts & Crafts” Stations.  Make Wreaths!  Calendars!  Collage!  And More.    
* Read a part in jSnodgrass’ short skit – “Nativity Mystery: The Elephant in Question”
* Come Sing “O Come O Come Emmanuel” (beautiful, ancient, haunting hymn…)
Please email if you need directions to Bowie’s apartment. 
Cookies, drinks, dinner side dishes, and RSVPs welcome!
church tolerates homegrown worship songs
November 26, 2007
As someone who writes a lot of original music for churches (including Transmission), this article is my worst nightmare! I hope folks never feel that way about my stuff…
That said, I found it highly amusing, especially lines like “If I fished with hooks that bad, I‚Äôd never get a bite.” Go peruse the site – there’s some great stuff on there…
Contrapuntal Theology
October 21, 2007
So for Transmission last week, we based our service on the passages in Matthew and Thomas in which Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do you say I am?” There are a variety of christologies present at Transmission – we have people who love Christianity and are proud to call themselves Christian, we have people who love Jesus and want to model their lives after him but who feel alienated or threatened by the term “Christian,” and we have people who are extremely skeptical of the ability of words, theology, and ideas to fully encompass God. With a group as diverse as this, we were more interested in asking the question than in coming up with a definitive answer.
After meditation, discussion, and prayer, we needed a song with which to end the ritual. Are there any songs about Christology that leave room for a diversity of theologies? I couldn’t think of any, so I asked j. Snodgrass to help me pen something.
We came up with a three-part chant, similar in style to Taize music. Instead of having multiple parts written in multiple languages, however, we wrote multiple parts in multiple theologies. Usually hymn lyrics assume that everyone present can agree to the same thing (or at least that they’ll temporarily sign on to the lyrics for the purposes of group singing). With this piece, on the other hand, we hoped that everyone would find a part they were comfortable singing, and that we can have a worshipful moment without making anyone sing anything that made them uncomfortable.¬† It was very successful.
If you like it, feel free to use it – click on the image above to download.
Sabbath Poem (Mahler 3)
October 7, 2007
Last night I saw Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 for the second time this year! This time it was the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, conducted by Pierre Boulez, at NYC’s own Carnegie Hall. This was only my second time there! and we sat in ‘limited legroom’ seats in the balcony, with wonderful sounds of 120 orchestra players, plus 30 women and 30 boy singers reverberating off the ceiling.
The first time I heard Mahler 3 was on July 14th at Tanglewood, MA with the James Levine conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. During the intermission between the first movement and the last five… I got engaged! Yup, George asked me to marry him on the hillside above Ozawa Hall. So this piece has permanent special significance to me…. especially the 6th movement, “What love tells me”.
I was struck again by the text for the 4th and 5th movements again last night and wanted to share them as my Sabbath Poems for this week. Enjoy!
IV. “What Man Tells Me”
Text: Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
Translation: Larry Rothe
O Mensch! Gib Acht!
Oh man, take heed!
What does deep midnight say?
I slept!
I have woken from a deep dream!
The world is deep—
Deeper than the day had thought!
Deep is the pain!
Joy deeper still than heart’s sorrow!
Pain says: Vanish!
Yet all joy aspires to eternity,
To deep, deep eternity.
V. “What the Angels Tell Me”
Text: from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Translation: Larry Rothe
Three angels sang a sweet song.
It resounded throughout heaven;
They also rejoiced
That Peter was free of sin.For as the Lord Jesus sat down at the table
And ate the evening meal with his twelve disciples,
The Lord Jesus said, “Why are you standing here?
When I look at you, you cry.”“And shouldn’t I cry, you kind God?”
You shouldn’t cry!
“I have broken the Ten Commandments;
I go and cry bitterly.”
You shouldn’t cry!
“Oh come, and have mercy on me!”“If you’ve broken the Ten Commandments,
Fall on your knees and pray to God.
Just love God always,
And you will have heavenly joy.”Heavenly joy is a blessed city,
Heavenly joy, which has no end;
Heavenly joy was prepared for Peter
By Jesus, and for everyone’s salvation.
Translation copyright © 2003 by the San Francisco Symphony
Transmission featured on Trax16
September 6, 2007
Well, ok, I’m talking about the album and not about the community, but it’s still pretty exciting. If you aren’t familiar with it, Trax16 is a monthly British podcast about alternative Christian culture. Give it a listen here: http://www.trax16.com
Transmission – the soundtrack
August 30, 2007
All right, so here it is, a year in the making.  The album will be available in a few weeks on Proost, a small London-based boutique label, and in a few months on iTunes.
Proost, by the way, is well worth checking out.  For about $120, you get access to their entire catalog (about 15 CDs, several movies, and a bajillion books) along with monthly updates for a year.  Well worth the price for any church, church plant, or church goer.
Also, for our Transmissioners and loyal readers, I’m pleased to give you a couple of pre-release singles from the Album.¬† All songs on the album were written by me and j. Snodgrass, whose smashing profile you can see on the cover of the album.¬† Enjoy!
First, we have The Stranger, which is a Eucharistic prayer (kind of).¬† If you listen closely, you’ll hear a preface, salvation history, sanctus, memorial acclamation, and the Lord’s prayer, but I also tried to include all my soap boxes about how Jesus has been misappropriated as a tool for oppression.
[audio:thestranger.mp3]
Second, we have a musical rendition of the Lukan Beattitudes.  Although the Beattitudes can come across as a little touchy-feely, I think they contain an extremely radical, subversive message (woe to the rich, etc).  So I threw in some riot noises, some police sirens, and generally tried to make the Sermon on the Mount sound as much like a protest rally as possible.
[audio:beattitude.mp3]
Finally, we’ve got a remix of a song you’ve heard on this site before, the Canticle of the Sun, which is based on a poem written by Francis of Assisi in 1224.¬† Basically, there were these guys called the Cathars who were running around telling everyone that the spiritual was good and the physical was evil, so Francis wrote this poem about how he could find God in his everyday surroundings.¬† It appeals to my hippy side.
[audio:canticleofthesun.mp3]
Enjoy!
Isaac & the “musicianhood of all believers”
August 7, 2007
There’s a great interview with Isaac by Becky Garrison on emergingchurch.info.
Definitely worth checking out…
I like his bit about a “musicianhood of all believers”
Martin Luther talked about the “priesthood of all believers” and the broad, folky appeal of his hymns suggest that he believed in the “musicianhood of all believers” as well. The job of professional ministers and musicians should not be to direct liturgical and musical activity, but rather to facilitate them. A liturgical leader’s job is not merely to pray and to worship, but to get the entire congregation praying and worshiping. Similarly, my job is not just to play well, but also to get everyone in the room participating in the music; my job is to help everyone find an entry point into the ritual activity.
Naboth’s Vineyard
June 18, 2007
So one of our Transmissioners, j. Snodgrass, wrote a play for a service at Sanctuary, an Episcopal church over on the east side. I’m a big fan of using arts in worship, yet I don’t know much about drama and rarely think to include it in a ritual. Kudos to Sanctuary. It’s an entertaining read – go read it on their site.
Also, in the spirit of Elijah, enjoy this song written by j. Snodgrass and myself (Isaac Everett). The extended intro features my friend, Yoel Ben Simhon, and the english-language singer is RC Laird.
[audio:misconception.mp3]
Album Name Survey
June 10, 2007
Isaac and John are working on an album this summer and need a name for it by next week, yikes! below are some of sample we’ve been bouncing around…
please comment and let us know which you like – or add one to the mix!
tangent spaces
intrinsic mass
Ike and the Hipostles
Critical mass
Moment of Inertia
service
mass acceleration
transmissio
resistance of a body
momentousmass
Mass, Density, Volume
Building a Religion: A Limited Edition
May 24, 2007
here’s a mix by my bro, TJSnodgrass. I’ve been listening to it a lot lately and wanted to share the playlist for your musical pleasure…
Building a Religion
A Limited Edition
1. The Doors : Whisky, Mystics and Men
2. Bo Didley : Who Do You Love?
3. Buffy St. Marie : Starwalker
4. Kermit the Frog : The Rainbow Connection
5. Elton John : Circle of Life
6. Hava Nagila : Dick Dale
7. Stephen Schwarz : On the Willows
8. Stephen Schwarz : When You Believe
9. Neil Diamond : Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show
10. Eddie Kendricks : Going Up in Smoke
11. The Pixies : In Heaven
12. Tom Waits : Jesus Gonna Be Here
13. Cake : Building a Religion
14. Sangeeta : Pyar Ka Hai Bairi
15. Sting : Desert Rose
16. Prince : Paisley Park
17. The Flaming Lips : Do You Realize??
18. The Doors : The Soft Parade