Show Posters

So this is awesome. I asked yesterday if anybody wanted to help me on a poster for my show this week. The next time I checked my email I had TWO awesome posters.

This one is by Mark Whiten of whitendesign.



Mark, and his wife Brenda, have helped me out more than you guys can possibly imagine, and he just keeps helping. Thanks so much, Mark! You can download a full-size JPG here and a PDF here.

This one is by Jacob Souva, of TwoFish Illustrations and Design.



His site is really cool, he's got quite a style. Definitely worth a couple minutes of clicking around. You can download a full-size JPG here and a PDF here.

Feel free to print these out, if you live in Nashville, hang them up somewhere visible. If you have a blog, I'd love it if you'd throw it up there for a couple days and help me spread the word. Also, they look pretty cool as a desktop.

Many thanks to Mark and Jacob. This is just another example of how you guys are an active part of what I do. I hope to see a ton of you out at the show.

I'll be setting up for pre-production tomorrow and we get started on Tuesday, so stay posted. This is going to be a great week to be around.

All right, Alison's heading off to church and I'm staying home with the runny noses watching Lady and the Tramp. Go Whoever's-Playing-In-The-Super-Bowl!

New Photos on MySpace

I just spent way too long putting up new photos, along with incredibly witty captions, on my MySpace page. If you're so inclined, head here to check them out. And leave comments on them. They look lonely.

I had a good, but full, day yesterday. I sang background vocals on a record Steve Hindalong and Marc Byrd were producing and it went very well. We did it at Derri Daughtery's studio. You might not remember them, but Steve and Derri were (are) in a band called The Choir. They were one of my favorite bands in high school.

One of my favorite things about what I do is that I've gotten to become friends and peers with my heroes. Steve and Derri definitely are. And thinking that Matt Odmark, who plays with Jars, is a part of the band that's backing me up on local shows, that's just crazy. I had a poster of them on my wall in high school. What a privilege and an honor getting to make music with these people is for me.

Anyway, I did that session, went to the doctor (all was well) then spent some time at Garett's with he and Todd. We have been mapping out ways to make the drums and percussion more interesting on the new Caedmon's record. We have some really fun ideas that I can't wait to get into.

I came home and there was a crew of people over at the house. Seems everybody was driving by and decided to stop in at the same time, and that was nice. Jason Feller and Emily Deloach stayed for dinner. I was feeling pretty beat so I laid down for a few minutes at 8pm. Alison woke me up at 2am and now I'm on baby duty. Sadie's sleeping now, though, so I'm going to see if I can go back to sleep. Happy Saturday.

I am out of titles for these things...

I just got back from tonight's show at 3rd and Lindsley. It was really fun. There weren't a ton of people there, so we felt a little more free to jam a little bit. I played the Gretsch and my 70's Strat tonight, and we ended Marilyn with a nice long, clean Strat jam. That one's been fun to explore live. The other bands were pretty good and very nice and it was a good way to spend a couple hours. I can't wait for our bigger show next week at the Exit/In. It's going to be a good one, I have no doubt. Tell your friends and let's pack the place out and have a good, old time.

In other news, The Office was brilliant, as usual, tonight. It doesn't even seem possible for that show to continue to be so amazing every single week. I was against it running any longer than the BBC version in the beginning, but they are making it work, and then some. I laughed out loud so much I have to watch it again, cause I know I missed a ton of it.

The discussion on my first post about the U2 Church has been fascinating and tomorrow I'll try to expand on it with my second thought, which the comments have already started hitting on. Thanks especially to those of you who have disagreed with me. I really appreciate the honest dialogue and it's making me think this stuff through even more deeply. That's a real gift.

Also, do any of you graphic design hobbyists want to help make a poster for my show next week? The other bands are Green River Ordinance and ide. It's at the Exit/In at 9pm. If you get creative and come up with something just shoot it to me at andrew@andrewosenga.com Appreciate it.

All right, I'm going to get to bed. I have a session in the morning singing background vocals for something Steve Hindalong and Marc Byrd are working on, and in the afternoon I have a doctor appt to check on the junk that caused my cancer scare last year. I'll let you know how it goes.

Nashville show tonight

A quick reminder to the Nashvillians that I'm playing tonight at 3rd and Lindsley with a great band. Tickets are five bucks and we go on around 10:30. Bring friends!! Bring Money!! See you there!

U2 Church, Part 1 : False Advertising

Ok, so here it is. I've got a couple of opinions about this, but I'm not, again I say I am NOT claiming to be right. I can be convinced. I'd really love discussion about this, because I just don't get it. There are three main things here that I see: False advertising, Idolatry and Money. Today, I’ll discuss the first one.

I linked the other day to this church where you can find these video clips. The ones I first saw were the "U2 Christmas" clips, but they also have Switchfoot, McCartney and Coldplay covers, as well as a few of people acting like the Blue Man Group.

I posted this link and was surprised by some of the comments. I figured a lot of people would dog it, and a few did, but a lot of you said good things about it, whether for the production values or the apparent ministry or other reasons.

Now I have no idea who this church is, but I know I've been to about a thousand like it, so this is BROAD and not SPECIFIC about these people. Some of "those" people may be you, and I'm seriously asking here.

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My main question is this: Why? Why does a church spend a very large amount of money to be a cover band? Is it to bring people to church who otherwise wouldn't go? Is it to be culturally relevant?

What's the first thing you see when you click on that church's website? The logo for the Fox TV show "24". Why? Turns out they're doing a series based on it. But, not really... They're doing a series based on what the life of a 24/7 Christian looks like. It has nothing to do with the TV show, except for the stolen logo. So why did they do it? Is Jack Bauer preaching? Do they think that I'll see the ad for their "version" of the show and I'll go to their church?

I maintain that this is false advertising. They are obviously using "24" and U2 as advertising. They have graphics and logos and I imagine they're printed up and hanging all over the church, as well as the website. But it's not "24". The pastor isn't disarming a bomb while torturing deacons for vital information. He's talking about Jesus. And I don’t doubt that He is. I've read everything on their site about the beliefs of this Church and they're wonderful. The notes on the services are full of Scripture. Their mission statement is doctrinally sound and well-written, so none of that is the issue.

The issue is that they're lying to people so they can tell them the truth.

Again, the message being preached is NOT a rip-off. But the methods are sketchy. I found this article from the satirical Lark News that illustrates my point. People are coming because of an ad campaign based on a half-truth.

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Curt left a comment containing this quote from a wonderful movie called The Big Kahuna about a salesman who's evangalising instead of doing his job...

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling Jesus or Buddha or civil rights or ‘How to Make Money in Real Estate With No Money Down.’ That doesn’t make you a human being; it makes you a marketing rep. If you want to talk to somebody honestly, as a human being, ask him about his kids. Find out what his dreams are–just to find out, for no other reason. Because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it’s not a conversation anymore; it’s a pitch.�

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Is the Church a venue or a community of believers? Does seeing your pastor dress up like Bono and shout "Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce!!" bring you further into your community? It might for you, it really might, but it definitely doesn't for me.

I’m a storyteller. I have no problem with using pop culture as a reference. Illustrations are valuable, and U2’s songs are full of great ones. But do you really have to copy the band’s staging (the red open heart) so somebody understands the spiritual longing in “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For�? If it’s that great of a song, the point is probably made without the light show. In fact, seeing your pastor huffing it around the stage dressed like a rock star makes the depth of the lyric a little harder to focus on, I’d imagine.

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It’s the thing to do these days to make the church look like a rock show, but really, that’s ridiculous.

I was in Atlanta at a YouthSpecialties conference with Caedmon’s a couple years ago. 7000 or so youth group leaders and pastors were there to catch up on the hottest tools and trends. Cliff took a moment to point out what should be obvious. “We will never be as cool as MTV,� he told them. “They set the definition of cool, and we spend too much time chasing it. What MTV doesn’t have is the love of Jesus.� We were told we’ll never be asked back by YouthSpecialties.

But that is the truth. MTV may have cool, but it doesn’t have the love of Jesus. Every single person in this world lives near somebody else. It doesn’t take a lot of cool to love my neighbor, but it often takes a lot of time and effort, (and it’s never as glamorous as 15 minutes of getting to be The Edge.)

For 2000 years people have been coming into their local church meetings. Every soul has a void and a longing for the world to make sense, for the pain to be healed. The Church has what fills that void. We can cover U2 to fill some seats, and Kiefer Sutherland could baptize people on video screens, but it doesn’t matter. People will come to Church because that’s where they look when they want to find Jesus.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Am I missing something important? Has your life been changed for the better by things like this? I've got opinions for days, but it doesn't mean they're always right...