Logocentric (adj).Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:
I have always enjoyed the longer distance running and skiing. The Marathon in Summer Olympics and the 50km Mass Start in the Winter. My wife can't understand how I can watch the same race for several hours. But they are fascinating to me. I like the Downhill Slalom, Bobsled and Luge sports. Attending a Winter Olympics remains on my bucket list.
My favorite sporting events in the Winter Olympics are the Luge, Bobsled, Figure Skating and curling. Initially, I thought I would be bored with curling but I'm not. It's fascinating how they determine each glide's angle and potential score.
When my children were younger we built them a luge course, they loved it. We were lucky that winter to have lots of snow to build up the walls and with some help with pallets that we covered with snow, it kept them and the neighborhood kids busy until it warmed up and melted. I was a lot more at ease with the luge course than I was when they decided to try arial jumps off our house roof. Never a dull moment when you live in Maine.
I am reading ESV through the Bible this time. Like you, I've explored a bunch of translations. My church uses NIV but my women's Bible study group (part of the same church) varies based on what Bible study we're doing.
Hope you enjoy the Olympics! I agree that the every four year thing makes them feel more special.
I read the New American Bible, which is a Catholic Bible. (NABRE) They include Tobit, Judith, 1 & 2 Maccabees, which generally aren't included in other versions of the Bible. I would be curious to read an orthodox bible or the Ethiopian Bible as I hear they have differences as well.
As for the Olympics, I love the Winter Olympics. I'm just crossing my fingers I have time to watch!
In terms of the original texts the NASB has the best reputation among conservative scholars. It looks at more translations, has a sensible hierarchy of text selection and the best principles for approaching the translation task. It favors original texts when possible. The ESV and NKJV are on a similar level. The Net Bible gives the best overview of the discussions in its commentary. The NIV renders the original text to make it more readable. It is a more functional text which is why many churches use it but it is also less precise. Greek or Russian orthodox are more Septuagint orientated and there is a considerable amount of ethical or emotional rendering to the text.The disadvantage of the NASB is that it loses much of the Hebrew poetical style in its effort to be precise as this does not translate into the English
I'm very fortunate to have met some practicing and humble Christians. Truly humble people seek to serve, not attain power and influence. The actions of many Christians make me run the opposite way... as fast as I can.
In his book, Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee states: "Nothing has done greater damage to our Christian testimony than our trying to be right and demanding right of others. We become preoccupied with what is and what is not right. We ask ourselves,' Have we been justly or unjustly treated?' and we think thus to vindicate our actions. But that is not our standard. The whole question for us is one of crossbearing".
Jeff, this is an excellent book. Perhaps one for your reading list?
Song: "Mexico" Artist: Jump, Little Children Album: Between The Dim & The Dark
Even though I have a personal rule against using the same band more than once in a Soundtrackers challenge, I have no such rule about song names... so this will be the second song titled "Mexico" that I'm using this month. Except, unlike the James Taylor version, this is a song I'll gladly admit to loving, and the pleasure of listening to it isn't guilt-ridden at all!
This is one of my relaxation songs. I almost always listen to it when I'm on the way home after a stressful day or when I want to just let my mind wander about something. I have a really hard time turning my brain off... if I'm not cramming input into it in the form of something I'm reading or listening to or watching, then I'm turning ideas over in my head, thinking about what I'm currently writing, want to write, have already written, etc. I constantly make and revise lists in my head and random bits of trivia and information stick in there and swirl around. It's really difficult for me to shut everything off and just be present wherever I am... and it usually takes some kind of external stimulus. This song is one of those songs for me. I can just let it wash over me and tune out the rest of the world. There aren't a lot of things that can get me to do that, so I tend to keep the ones that can very close. I've been listening to this song regularly for more than half a decade.
Jump, Little Children is a band out of North Carolina who rose to prominence thanks to finding a fan in Zach Braff, who used their material in his TV show Scrubs, as well as his feature directorial projects... most notably Wish I Was Here, the movie he produced with the help of a successful and noteworthy Kickstarter campaign. The band was around from 1991 to 2005, at which point the band members each went their separate ways. In 2015 they announced a reunion tour that sold out six shows in under a minute.
Song: "Pony" Artist: Ginuwine Album:Magic Mike Soundtrack
Figured I should end the Soundtrackers do Soundtracks segment of the challenge on a high note (or low note, depending on your opinion of this song and the movie it's from). Mostly I'm just trying to continue my ongoing goal of getting lizco252 to do a spit-take when she reads my entries. I feel like I almost had it with the Bieber and Warrant entries for Guilty Pleasures week, but alas I fell short. If Warrant's "Cherry Pie" is the perfect female stripper song, let's see how she handles a male stripper song!
Ginuwine (born Elgin Baylor Lumpkin... I think I can guess why he chose a stage name ) was one of the most successful R&B artists during the late 90s and early 00s. He put out a number of hits (including this one), as well as contributed material to the soundtracks of movies like Men In Black, Dr. Dolittle, and Romeo Must Die, among others. Like many artists from the time period, though, his success declined until a certain cult hit movie about male stripping brought it back into the public consciousness. It's re-introduction has been popular enough that Ginuwine "Stan Bush'ed" the track and did an update in 2015 with British house music duo Tough Love.
One of the reasons I wanted to include this song (other than to see if I can still shock our fearless leader), is because there's a great version on Lip Sync Battle. While the spinoff show isn't as great as when originator Jimmy Fallon does the bit on The Tonight Show, the higher production value and willingness to give artists some room to use props and plan out their performance does result in some memorable moments. Like this one, where Channing Tatum does a kind of scary version of "Run the World (Girls)" and his wife/competitor Jenna Dewan Tatum recreates his scenes from Magic Mike and Magic Mike XXL. It's worth a watch:
While Channing Tatum's mortified, "I can't believe this is happening" looks are classic, LL Cool J is the real standout in terms of reaction shots here, going from, "Hell yeah, let's see where this is going!" to "I'm not sure I should be watching this" to "Are the network censors going to come out and stop this?" Between this and some other articles about one (or both) of their antics... like this classic example of Channing's style of email correspondence... they just seem like a really fun couple who knows how to laugh at themselves and not take life too seriously.
Below is a link to the actual Ginuwine song for Soundtrackers administrative purposes. Soundtrackers on Soundtracks Week is officially complete! Onto The Precious Few!
Song: "Gimme Some Lovin'" Artist: The Spencer Davis Group Album:The Big Chill Soundtrack
Full disclosure #1: My favorite song from this soundtrack is "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" by The Temptations, but I already blogged about that song during a previous Soundtrackers event and I have a strict no-repeatsies policy.
Full disclosure #2: I probably could have picked any song from this album, since the whole soundtrack is great. Other finalists included "Good Lovin'" by The Rascals, "Tracks of My Tears" by The Miracles, "It's The Same Old Song" by The Four Tops, and "My Girl" by The Temptations.
Full disclosure #3: This soundtrack has been released so many times in so many different formats that I've lost track of where it appears. There's the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, More Songs from The Original Soundtrack, the Deluxe Edition (including songs inspired by The Original Soundtrack)... I'm not sure where this song falls, but who really cares beside OCD people like me?
Full disclosure #4: This song was also featured prominently during the "race to get the girl" scene toward the end of Notting Hill, which was also an excellent use of this song.
Okay, now that we have all the legal mumbo-jumbo out of the way... this album is honestly probably one of my favorites of all time. With most albums (even soundtracks and compilations) it's usually about 20% songs I love, 40% songs I think are okay, and 40% songs that I don't really ever listen to unless they come up and I'm too lazy to change the track. With this album (or albums plural, if you include all the supplemental releases), though, it's closer to 50% songs I love, 40% songs I think are okay, and 10% songs that I don't really ever listen to. I can easily listen to this album on repeat all day long. Plus, I figured as long as I did a Gen-X "generational" soundtrack, I should probably include their parents' generational soundtrack on my playlist as well!
For the longest time, I didn't realize that Steve Winwood was an original member of this band (as well as Blind Faith and Traffic); I had always known him as a solo artist who sang hits like "Higher Love" and "Valerie" and "Roll With It." When I found out about his connection to The Spencer Davis Group, the sound of his voice is unmistakable. The Spencer Davis Group, while Winwood was off pursuing other projects and his own solo career, broke up and reformed over the years, including a 22 year hiatus between 1974 and 2006. This song remains one of their most successful and most popular, still used on soundtracks in modern movies.
Song: "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion) Artist: John Parr Album:St. Elmo's Fire Soundtrack
So I was bad this weekend and pretty much didn't check into WdC at all. Which means today is catch-up day where I have to finish up my Soundtrackers do Soundtracks week. For some reason I picked a song from another Joel Schumacher movie after already covering "Kiss From A Rose" , but don't worry... this is from one of Schumacher's earlier works that doesn't involve bat-nipples or Colin Farrell screaming into a pay phone for 81 minutes. No, for this entry I went all the way back to 1985 to recall John Parr's classic theme song "St. Elmo's Fire" from the movie of the same name. You're not going to find a better 80s power ballad than this one!
While the song rose to prominence after being included in Schumacher's movie (eventually spending two weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100), it was originally written by John Parr and David Foster for Canadian athlete Rick Hansen who was then touring the world in his wheelchair to raise awareness for spinal injuries. Hansen's event was called the "Man in Motion Tour" which is where this song derives the parenthetical in its title (and a line of its lyrics).
Unlike certain other artists I've mentioned during this challenge {e:cough} Stan Bush {e:cough}, John Parr did not feel the need to include his only major hit on multiple album releases. He didn't even include it on his studio albums, with the exception of the re-release of his self-titled album in the United Kingdom, and on an exceedingly rare West German re-release. Parr did update the song in 2012, renaming it and revising some of the lyrics to "Tim Tebow's Fire" in honor of the current NFL free agent quarterback who gained a lot of publicity for being outspoken about his Christian values.
The song has appeared in numerous other media. If you've seen The Brothers Solomon... you have my condolences. But hopefully you enjoyed the pervasive use of this song throughout, including John Parr himself performing two different versions of the song. That's probably still not enough to make that movie worth paying any amount of money to see it, but it's better than nothing?
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Mostly I'm just trying to continue my ongoing goal of getting 
