Contrariwise

As the whole world now knows, Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. I was so saddened by the news. I had such hope for her. She’s a better singer than her sister, and Zoey 101 is a cute show. This makes it seem like she’s headed down Britney’s path. I know fame played a substantial role in Britney’s decline, but there are plenty of famous people that lead more wholesome lives. (Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe were my showbiz couple role models until they got divorced.)

The consensus around the table was that it was unrealistic to think that 16-year-olds would not have sex, and that someone should have talked to Ms. Spears about contraception.

The girls, who had followed the story on TV and the Internet, were also critical of Ms. Spears’s mother, who had been widely quoted as saying that one reason she was shocked by her daughter’s pregnancy was that she had always followed her curfew.

“When I heard that, I started laughing out loud,” Ms. Akusis said. “You can have sex during the middle of the day,” adding, “It’s not like there’s a time limit.”

Jamie Lynn’s situation goes to show that something is seriously wrong with our society. It is completely realistic to expect that 16-year-olds can control themselves enough to stay abstinent. Moreover, they can stay chaste. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible. Obese people can’t blame stores and restaurants for selling them unhealthy food; they choose to eat it. Likewise, teenagers can’t blame their hormones and the existence of temptation for giving in to it. We’re people, not animals. No, no one needed to talk to Jamie Lynn about contraception. Someone needed to tell her she deserved better than an 19-year-old boyfriend who didn’t care enough to guard her body and her heart.

Disbelief: what I feel at having been linked from SwitchFeed. I love Switchfoot; they’re my favorite band. I was delighted to find Switchfeed, and I thought it was really cool when they went official. Never, ever did I think that I would find myself linked in SwitchFeed, and therefore linked from Switchfoot.com. Never!

Here’s what my site traffic looked like in response:

This is the coolest thing that has happened to me since I was personally blessed by Archbishop Wuerl.

Yeah, I’m a great big Catholic nerd, but if this is what happens to Catholic nerds, I say, bring it on!

I just finished watching over two hours of free streaming concert footage of “Rock the Boat,” the Evan Almighty/Habitat for Humanity promo concert featuring DecembeRadio, Relient K, Jeremy Camp, and Switchfoot. It was so awesome. I had to wait forever to get the link to watch it because traffic to Hollywood Jesus was inundated by the traffic, and the video ran 1-3 seconds behind the audio, but I loved it anyway.

I think I’d heard of DecembeRadio before, but I’d never heard their music. They were cool, though definitely more on the hard rock end of the Christian rock music spectrum. Relient K came next. I hadn’t realized Matt, the lead singer, played keyboard for so many of their songs. It reminds me of when MuteMath opened for the Switchfoot concert I went to. Their lead singer plays only keyboard, so they had him on an extension from the stage, and he was much harder to see than any of the other guys. But they had a keytar, so it evened out. I’ve been listening to Pandora Radio at work, and one of my stations is seeded by Relient K and Switchfoot. “Sadie Hawkins Dance” is such a fun song. I hoped they’d play it, but I got “Life After Death and Taxes” instead. Fair trade. They’re a bit like the much cleaner, more Christian version of Fallout Boy in that sense. Plus, one of the guitarists also played bells and banjo.

I don’t think I’d ever actually seen Jeremy Camp before. He was much more like a rock star than I’d expected. When I hear his songs on my Wow Hits CDs or WGTS on the radio, he sounds much more CCM/adult contemporary than he did in concert. I liked it. I also liked how he made his plug for Jesus and the beauty of the gospel in his life without sounding *too preachy. It fit well. He led a sing-along for “Right Here”: “I’m going to lead the guys to sing the first line, and then Randy will lead the girls for the second. So guys, be nice and manly, and girls…Randy.” (I don’t think he knows that’s already an adjective.) So then Randy broke out a hilarious falsetto to lead the girls. It was great.

Finally, Switchfoot came on. They started with “Stars,” which is always gold. At the end of “This Is Your Life,” I think Jon was playing his guitar with his tongue. “Got a little into that one,” he said. “Just a little bit,” I replied to my computer screen. He introduced the guys, including “Jerome Fontamillas, on keyboard, on guitar, on tambourine, and singing. He’s like Prince, except he doesn’t have a purple guitar. I’m trying to convince him, though.”

Switchfoot’s performance was amazing, even in its cut-down, streamed form. Jon still does the “Cowboy Song,” which for the occasion went like this:

I’m not a comedian because I’m not funny
Every time I try to make a joke, it won’t sell
That’s why they didn’t cast me as Evan Almighty,
And instead they chose my buddy Steve Carrell.

Then he played the harmonica. I was so excited, it was like I was there. I chose not to yell the words, though, because I’m at home this weekend, and I don’t think my family would have liked that very much.

I love how much energy they put into all their songs. Jon spent about a third of their set playing and singing at his mike, and the other two-thirds leaping onto Chad’s drums or running around the stage and jumping on amps. You can tell they do it because they love it, and we get all the benefits, and get to join in for audience singing where everyone knows all the words.

Switchfoot is definitely my favorite band. Their position was only cemented when *NSync was finally demolished for good. (Why, Lance, why?) I missed their current tour since it was on a Sunday night and I didn’t have anyone to go with, but two super-cool things happened in the meantime.

First was SwitchfootBootlegs.com. During the tour, they press and hand out a free bootleg of the show each night. They encouraged the fans to share it, so they have: online. It’s so cool: a website of live concert mp3s from Switchfoot’s tour, available for free downloading. The best part is that, because the band gave permission to distribute their music this way, it’s totally legal. Yay!

The second is that I found two new videos. This brings me to do something I don’t think I’ve ever done before: embed YouTube videos into my blog. (I had the videos embedded, but that made my XHTML invalid, and I like having valid code.) The first is their new video that just came out in the email newsletter today, for the song “Awakening.” Bonus points for recognizing the two video games they parody. If I can spot them, you can.

Cool, no? The second is a cover song from the Yahoo! Pepsi Smash series. They covered Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love”! I kinda like it…though I don’t think the Beyonce booty bounce would quite work to Switchfoot’s version.

Via Happy Catholic. Despite being over a week behind on my Bible in a Year plan, this is good news (and a sign that it was a really easy quiz).

I’ll make a real post soon.