Ive been thinking a lot about this movie lately and I really want to go back and watch it. Here a nice montage of clips I found on Youtube.
Theres a new movie coming out in about two weeks about the retro world of break-dancing. Its called "Kickin' It Old School." To be absolutely honest, I really want to see this movie. Sitting through a movie chock full of nostalgic references to the 80's sounds like good old fashion fun to me. Heres an interesting video that promotes the film:
More Townes. One of his best:
For the Sake of the Song
By: Townes Van Zandt
Why does she sing her sad songs for me, I'm not the one
To tenderly bring her soft sympathy, I've just begun
To see my way clear and it's plain if I stop I will fall
I can lay down a tear for her pain, just a tear and that's all
What does she want me to do
She says that she knows that moments are rare
I suppose that it's true
Then on she goes to say I don't care and she knows that I do
Maybe she just has to sing for the sake of the song
Who do I think that I am to decide that she's wrong
She'd like to think that I'm cruel but she knows that's a lie for I would be
No more than a tool if I allowed her to cry all over me
My sorrow is real even though I can't change my plans
If she could see how I feel then I know that she'd understand
Does she actually think I'm to blame
Does she really believe that some word of mine
Could relieve all her pain
Can't she see that she grieves just because she's been blindly deceived
By her shame
Maybe she just has to sing for the sake of the song
Who do I think that I am to decide that she's wrong
Nothin's what it seems, maybe she'll start someday to realize
If she abandons her dreams then all the words she can say are only lies
When will she see that to gain is only to lose
All that she offers me are her chains, I got to refuse
It's only to herself that she's lied
She likes to pretend there's something that she should defend with her pride
I don't intend to stand here and be the friend from whom she must hide
Maybe she just has to sing for the sake of the song
Who do I think that I am to decide that she's wrong
At My Window
By: Townes Van Zandt
At my window
Watching the sun go
Hoping the stars know
Its time to shine
Daydreams
Aloft on dark wings
Soft as the sun streams
At days decline
Living is laughing
Dying says nothing at all
Baby and I are laying here
Watching the evening fall
Time flows
Through brave beginnings
And she leaves her endings
Beneath our feet
Walk lightly
Upon their faces
Leave gentle traces
Upon their sleep
Living is dancing
Dying does nothing at all
Baby and I are laying here
Wathing the evening fall
Three dimes
Hard luck and good times
Fast lines and low rhymes
Aint much to say
Feel fine
Feel low and lazy
Feel grey and hazy
Feel far away
Living is sighing
Dying aint flying so high
Baby and I are lying here
Watching the day go by
Heres another one. A song about a man's wayward ways catchin' up to him:
Rake
By townes van zandt
I used to wake and run with the moon
I lived like a rake and a young man
I covered my lovers with flowers and wounds
My laughter the devil would frighten
The sun she would come and beat me back down
But every cruel day had its nightfall
Id welcome the stars with wine and guitars
Full of fire and forgetful
My body was sharp the dark air clean
And outrage my joyful companion
Whisperin women how sweet did they seem
Kneelin for me to command them
And time was like water but I was the sea
Id have never noticed it passin
Except for the turnin of night into day
And the turnin of day into cursin
You look at me now, and dont think I dont know
What all your eyes are a sayin
Does he want us to believe these ravings and lies
Theyre just tricks that his brains been a playin?
A lover of women he cant hardly stand
He trembles hes bent and hes broken
Ive fallen its true but I say unto you
Hold your tongues until after Ive spoken
I was takin my pride in the pleasures Id known
I laughed and thought Id be forgiven
But my laughter turned round eyes blazing and
Said my friend, were holdin a wedding
I buried my face but it spoke once again
The night to the day were a bindin
And now the dark air is like fire on my skin
And even the moonlight is blinding
Lyrics so good they deserve a post. These are among the best ever penned by Townes and thats saying a lot. Dont just read 'em once or you'll never truly take it in...and of course listen to the song if you get the chance because that makes all the difference. Been really feeling the Townes lately so I might post some more of these later:
Highway Kind
By: Townes Van Zandt
My days, they are the highway kind
They only come to leave
But the leavin I dont mind
Its the comin that I crave.
Pour the sun upon the ground
Stand to throw a shadow
Watch it grow into a night
And fill the spinnin sky.
Time among the pine trees
It felt like breath of air
Usually I just walk these streets
And tell myself to care.
Sometimes I believe me
And sometimes I dont hear.
Sometimes the shape Im in
Wont let me go.
Well, I dont know too much for true
But my heart knows how to pound
My legs know how to love someone
My voice knows how to sound.
Shame that its not enough
Shame that it is a shame.
Follow the circle down
Where would you be?
Youre the only one I want now
I never heard your name.
Lets hope we meet some day
If we dont its all the same.
Ill meet the ones between us,
And be thinkin bout you
And all the places I have seen
And why you were not there.
"I dont envision a very long life for myself"- Townes Van Zandt
I can honestly say that there is not a day that goes by when I dont spend considerable time thinking about the fact that Im going to die one day, that this life is defined first and foremost by its temporality, and that I really have no idea what that moment will be like when I actually breathe my last breath. Will I wake back up? What will I wake back up to? I know this sounds like morose thinking to some, but it is our inescapable human predicament and I just cant stop thinking about it. I want to know that I have hope, that we all have hope, for something beyond this life. I want to know that we are all going to wake back up and that the next time around everything will be better. And of this I want assurance.
I really have stopped believing that anything in this world can give me the kind of assurance I am speaking of and have longed for. No matter how deep my sense of spiritual conviction, or compelling the arguments of the preachers and teachers, or ancient the tradtions of faith, or inspired the words of Scripture, or phenomenal the person of Christ, I will never truly escape the presence in my life, whether minimal or great, of doubt and despair.
This morning I was reading the first chapter of II Corinthians in which the Apostle Paul discusses despair in his own life. He writes "For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again."
Ive spent some time today reflecting on that last line "on Him we have set our hope." Basically, Ive just been thinking a lot about hope. What is it? How do we have it? How do we use it? Paul talks about setting his hope on Christ and I find it interesting that he uses that language. At first it seems like Paul is just making a declarative statement, "He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us." But he doesnt stop there. He goes on to say "On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again." Now Im no Bible scholar but this seems to change the nature of Paul's statement.
Think of it this way. Imagine if I made plans to spend my entire weekend outdoors, on a camping trip or something else of that nature. And what if found out that there was 50% chance of rain the whole weekend. Now I could just completely give up and not go on the camping trip because I really have no idea whether its going to rain or not. Or I might say something like this to myself. I might say, "Its not going to rain. I have set my hope on the fact that its not going to rain." And I proceed to go on the camping trip.
Now thats a really weak analogy Im sure for a lot of reasons. Im not sure I feel comfortable saying that our hope for eternal life is like taking a bet on a 50% chance of rain. But I do think our knowledge of life after death can be a lot like our knowledge of the weather. We can make a lot of predictions and read a lot of the signs, but in the end we really dont know 100% for sure whats going to happen. But we make our plans anyway. We continue to live our life and set our actions completely toward what we think is going to happen. I think thats kind of what "settting our hope" on something is like. When Paul says, paraphrasing, "God will deliver me from death...I have set my hope on the fact that God will deliver me from death," Paul is qualifying what he declares to be knowledge with his own choice to believe and therefore hope in that knowledge.
Maybe this is a better analogy. Consider a man who decides to ask for a woman's hand in marriage. Now typically, in our society, that man would not take such a step until he has abundantly good reasons to believe that the woman will say yes. He would probably have an established level of intimacy and affection with this woman by this point, and he would feel an almost unshakeable confidence that she feels the same way about him as he does about her. For many relationships, the act of asking for a woman's hand in marriage only occurs after the man has eliminated all foreseen elements of risk, so that the act itself is something of a formality. The man by that point has already won the day and merely needs to do what is expected of him. Nevertheless, the man has no way of knowing beyond any shadow of a doubt that the woman will indeed say yes, for who can really know the heart of a woman. Any number of unforeseeable factors may cause her to change her mind and give an unexpected and undesired response. The man just has no way of knowing. There is always going to be some degree of risk in kneeling down and pulling out that ring. So when he is aking he is in essence saying "Shes going to say yes...I am setting my hope on the fact that she will say yes." He declares his knowledge of what will happpen, but this knowledge must be qualified by hope.
I think this is perhaps a better analogy since we really do have a lot of good reasons, like the man who proposes to his longtime girlfriend, that we have hope for life beyond the grave. We have so many good reasons, that its a wonder that we have as many atheists in the world as we do. And yet we can never escape the need to "set our hope" on the thing which we have good reasons to believe. We never escape having to throw ourselves into what we hope for, hoping for it so much that we declare it to be doubtlessly true.
So I guess the question is do we live lives of people who hope, or as people who despair? I confess that I vascillate between the two options a lot. I dont think anything will ever truly prepare for the day when certain people in my life that I really care about actually die. Will I really believe that they have attained eternal life, if they are believers, or have begun to suffer eternal condemnation, if they are unbelievers. And what about the day, if this day ever comes, when I am confronted with my own death so that it comes not as a surprise but as an inevitable moment to be consciously reckoned with. How will I handle that? Will I confront it with unshakeable hope? Will I continue to set up my tent and start the fire even when I start to hear the distant crackling of thunder? Well I guess I dont know how I will act on that day. I realize its not really something that I can prepare myself for. But I can choose to set my hope upon eternal life in Christ today, with whatever strength I have to do so, however imperfect that may be. And thats just going to have to be enough for now.