Wednesday, my wife and will be moving to a new apartment. We’re very excited. We’ve been in our current digs for over 2 years and are glad to move “up” just a little bit. We’ll have more room and all the amenities of nice gated complex (tennis courts, bball courts, vball courts, pool, fitness room, etc).
We’ll aslo have a new roomie. A friend of ours from back home just graduated college and is taking the next few months/year or so to work and save and just really seek God about the next phase in her life. We’re excited to be a part of shaping her character in this next season.
We decided early on in our marriage that if and when we had an extra room we would always try to fill it with young people getting on their feet. This wil be our first. We view it as our attempt to live in community like the early church did, with an obvious modern flair. It will be mututally beneficial for us and her.
Anyways, as the moving day approaches we’re running around here crazy packing and organizing everything for the move. Should be a piece of cake when the Wednesday comes!
Searching high and low to bring you this week’s best of the best from around the intarwebz, it’s Feedreader Friday! Well, actually, these are the best of the best from this week in my google feedreader. But TO ME, these are the best of the best from around the information superhighway!
I used to be hip-hop star. This is one of my posts. I thought I’d give myself a nod since it’s a fun post about my hip-hop heritage, complete with a video of me rapping at church last year, and audio of a track from a recording from my old rock band, Blind Men See.
But one of my BIG musical influences is hip hop. Not the watered-down, monotonous drivel that has crept into the mainstream these days, but more of the underground, old school stuff. Ya know, kind of the Dirty South stuff before it became public enough to package it up, slap a label on it and make billions of dollars off of it.
When I was in high school way back in the early 90s I used to “make beats.” That’s right. I was a scrawny, one-hundred-twenty pound mix master. I went to a predominantly black high school and the majority of my friends were up and coming rappers (or so we thought).
I had a Roland W-30, a cool workstation with some great patches and a sampler and I made mad beats. At least that’s what they told me.
When I was around 13 or 14 I got to do my thang in front of about 1500 teens at a youth conference called Ski Invasionin Gatlinburg, TN. I wasn’t coming straight outta compton or anything, but I was pretty well received by hundreds of teenagers who rocked out to concerts from David and The Giants and Rick Cua that weekend. I guess I did well enough to do it again the next year, because I did!
Anyways, back in my teens I really, really enjoyed writing rap lyrics. I think I was pretty good at it too. I wrote a song in 1991 that I continued to perform all the way up until about 2005 (different versions of course). It was always received well.
When I started the last band I was in, Blind Men See, back in 2003, we wrote a bunch of raprock stuff. We eventually wrote more melodic rock stuff, but it’s cool to hear some of our friends that still have our ringtones from back in the day.
I thought I’d share just a little of my musical history today. And along with that I’m including a video of a song that I did as a message series tag-along last year. It’s called Open My Eyes. After that you can take a listen to the Blind Men See version (which is a little more rock-ish).
Now the audio from our first (and only EP) Open My Eyes (copyright 2003 Russ Hutto):
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At House of Joy, the church I serve at currently, we have a very diverse family. Blacks, whites, hispanics. Urban/hip hop flavored stuff really resonates, so I’m able to use my past influences NOW! It’s pretty sweet. We’ll add little rap bridges to songs like Shackles and Jesus is the Best Thing. Fun.
What is/are some little known area(s) of influence from your past that most people wouldn’t guess about you if they met you now, that play a big part in who you are and what you do today?
When Russell Brand poked fun at the Jonas Brothers for pledging to save sex for marriage at the VMAs I’m sure he thought he was as funny as his hair is hideous. Which is very. But unfortunately he wasn’t. He was just rude and looked like a complete donkey. The VMAs should have been a place where artists were awarded for their art (if you can call it that, Britney). But instead Brand turned it into a maniacal rant on politics and purity. What a goob.
Jordin Sparks came on later and said, “I just have one thing to say about promise rings. It’s not bad to wear a promise ring, because not everybody — guy or girl — wants to be a slut.” Good for you Jordin.
Now before we come to the conclusion that people who don’t wear promise rings are all sluts, I do want to point out that I believe teenagers shouldn’t engage in behavior that has adult consequences if they aren’t ready to take responsibility for the consequences of those adult actions. So I’m a proponent of saving sex until you’re an adult and more specifically until you’re married.
But the question I’m curious to hear from you about is this:
Do you think purity pledges or promise rings are effective? Do teens stick to the “promises” they make?
