Is this the begnning of the end for me?

In a couple weeks, the world will see the latest release from my all-time favorite band, delirious?, which is titled The MIssion Bell. I'm hoping it's better than World Service and hearkens back to their old stuff a bit more, but we'll see.

However, there's a scary wrinkle in it that I just noticed. One of the songs features a guest appearance by former dc Talk member TobyMac. And noting his recent track record with albums and over-saturation on Christian music compilations, I'm not sure I'm looking forward to rap on a delirious? album. It's too bad their USA label got to the band that easily. For more info, check out the official unofficial delirious? site.

This post is all about L.A. Last night I've watched Crash, and it got me thinking about what I know about the City of Angels. Of course, most of what I know is from movies, fom last night's movie to Collateral and many other crappier movies like Pretty Woman and A Cinderella Story. So it's a very Hollywood view.

I guess the biggest thing is that SoCal folks just wait in traffic too much. Apparently half of life takes place on the freeway. And that's not cool. I wonder if there's much of a public transportation system, because the movies don't talk about anything but taxis.

Secondly, besides that one house up on the hill where John Reuben shot the press photos for Hindsight, it's al flat. And there's no cool trees or nothin - it looks almost as inviting as Nebraska.

The biggest one is that everybody seems to be a self-conceited jerk. Now I know where Tom Cruise gets his attitude from. Life in L.A. seems to be all about how life sucks. And, well, that's not something I can really identify with.

So what did I think of the movie half my friends claimed was the best movie of the year? Frankly, I thought Crash sucked. The music was just high-pitched whining. It was supposed to feel like real life, but when the same five characters get in more problems that all the summer's action movies combined, you know it's not real life. It's just the most pessimistic view of real life that anyone could make up. Plus, it had more characters and plot twists than Mission: Impossible and it was pretty darn hard to figure out what was going on.

If you want to make a movie about L.A., I'd reccomend just doing a highly stylized version of L.A., something like Pulp Fiction. At least that wasn't completely depressing.

In other movie news, check out new trailers for The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and Underworld: Evolution. That movie was a bit weird, but I liked it. The sad part is that Kevin Grevioux, who came up with the first movie and is a Christian, isn't listed on IMDB for the new one. I hope he's still involved and it just doesn't become a mindless action movie.

Last night I made it to a show of Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers. They were pretty entertaining but very annoying, but the main reason I went was to see the opening act. Mat Kearney hit the stage with just his acoustic guitar, but that did not detract from his set at all.

Mat kept the small audience engaged, had a more raw delivery during the songs, and played a half hour of great tunes. During a couple songs, he did freestyle verses about Minneapolis, some of the sights in the neighborhood, and the drive through Wisconsin to get here. It was awesome.

Afterwards, I got to chat with Mat a bit. We thanked each other for our interview, I tried to get info about the upcoming re-release without pressuring him (all I really got was that it will be February), and we tried to decide about the headlining band. It was cool.

I just need to make a couple lists.

Artists I Need More CDs From:

• Jason Upton
• Rich Mullins
• Phil Keaggy
• Ashley Cleveland (If you've never hread her, you can download her first album for free.)
• Over The Rhine
• The Rocket Summer
• The Violet Burning
• U2 (possibly)

Artists I Need To Listen To More:

• Andrew Peterson
• Sara Groves
• Mae
• Starflyer 59 (maybe)

For a list of music I've been listning to a lot, check out my Last.fm page.