Four Questions with Carey Wallace

Everyday Liturgy: I really enjoyed your novel The Blind Contessa’s New Machine, but there is this other piece of your writing I didn’t enjoy as much: your essay in Comment “On Discipline.” That article has been nagging me to set aside time to be creative and write (I’m writing this during one of my two hour blocks). It’s like a ghost that haunts me and whispers “be disciplined” every time I watch more than an hour of TV. How are ways you have found to keep the habit of discipline fresh and alive?

Carey Wallace: The best way to keep discipline fresh is simply not to break it. When we work consistently, our work creates its own momentum, so that even when we encounter hassles or resistance, we’re willing to fight through them because we can’t wait to finish the chapter, or song, or painting we’ve been working on. That creative urge won’t sweep us towards creation every single day: that’s why we need discipline, for the days when it doesn’t. But when we apply discipline consistently on the hard days, we’ll find that there are fewer and fewer of them as the power of our work, and our ability to access it, becomes stronger and stronger.

That said, a disciplined life is not a life of constant work. It’s a life of choices, carried out. We make choices about what to work on, and when. But we also make choices about when to stop work and rest. If we make choices about when to work and rest, rather than being prompted by anxiety, guilt, or exhaustion, both our rest and our work are sweeter, because we aren’t torn by whether we should be doing one when we’re in the midst of the other.

I love television, and rest is important. We just shouldn’t be watching television when we’ve committed to work. And we shouldn’t keep working when we really need to rest.

EL: The publishing world is changing at a rapid pace. How do you see your work as a writer changing in the next few years?

Carey: Jorge Luis Borges talks about the fact that all good writing, throughout time, has so much in common that you could easily believe it was all written by the same author. It’s stunning how “modern” Greek plays seem — even the jokes are still funny, thousands of years later. And it’s amazing how timeless some “modern” authors feel, from the moment their work comes into print. The machinery of publication may make it easier or harder for a season to get read or get paid, but I don’t think the real work of a writer ever changes. And I believe good work will always find a lasting place.

EL: You’ve been working on this new project Songs About Books, could you tell us a little about it?

Songs About Books is an EP of songs that I wrote and recorded about the books I love, in celebration of the paperback release of The Blind Contessa’s New Machine. It includes tracks about Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor, The Arrival by Shaun Tan, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Sweet Bird of Youth by Tennessee Williams, and So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell. It’s my way of saying “no artist works alone” and pointing back to some of the writers who have lit my own way. It’s not for sale, but I’ve been making it available for trade. If anyone would like a copy, they can just send me something they’ve made. So far, I’ve received fine art, a knit bunny, a handmade bag, homemade cookies, paper flowers, a ceramic tea cup, photographs, jewelry, and dozens of other amazing items. I’ll be posting them in a gallery on my site soon, but in the meantime you can find out more information about the project here on my website and email me for trade directions at theblindcontessa[at]gmail[dot]com.

CAREY WALLACE | songs about books from Zeke Anders on Vimeo.

EL: What are some words of encouragement you have for fellow artists as they pursue their work as an artist?

Carey:  Be the best listener in the world. Listen to the people who came before you. Listen to the people working beside you. Listen to crazies on the street and clerks in the stores. Listen to singers and clowns. Listen to the ocean. Listen to the news. Listen to yourself. Listen for the voice of God.

And also, don’t listen to anyone.

Worship Music Bingo

Have you ever been standing in church and thought I’ve heard this before? or this word gets repeated a lot? or every song sounds the same!

Well I have news for you: the answers are yes, yes and of course!

That’s why I created worship music bingo. Now you have the opportunity to actually track the repetition, cliche and myopic viewpoints reinforced by much of modern worship music in real time and with your friends! It’s like sabermetrics for church! And the best part is that some one wins!

Here are the rules for worship music bingo:

1. Print off worship music bingo cards for you and your friends
2. Use the bingo cards to keep track of when different words are used
3. The first one to get bingo wins!

Variations:

• See how many weeks it takes to fill up the whole card.
• Give cards out to your friends who attend different churches and compare your cards at a Sunday brunch.

You can download your own Everyday Liturgy Presents Worship Music Bingo™ card by clicking the download button.

Is It Hymn or Him?

by Omar Niebles

I grew up in a Spanish speaking church.   We sang hymns, in Spanish of course, every single Sunday morning, but one day we were introduced to coritos.  These were songs, but it’s not like we were making a transition into contemporary music.  They were just choruses that you’d sing over and over again.  It was a Baptist church so by no means get the picture of an AG church singing out a chorus, guitars blazing, drums building and rockin, and people with hands up in the air.  No, we sang them pretty much the same way we’d sing a hymn.  A guy led the song from the front and someone accompanied him on the piano.  No arms rising.  No hands clapping.  No drums rockin.  That would have been a BIG no-no.

In my late teen years, I left the church I grew up in and checked out other churches.  These churches were different.  These churches had people clapping and guitars ringing and drums rockin.  Wow.   I experienced culture shock for sure.  I loved it.  I would see people raising their hands and they just seemed completely into the music and I thought to myself that I didn’t worship God in that way.  I was raised to think that it was wrong to worship in this way.  It was too much and over the top and God was not pleased.

A few years down the line, I found myself caught in the middle of a struggle.  People, who loved hymns, thought they were being cheated from worshiping God.  They did not feel that worship was about drums, fast music and hand clapping.  They refused to even be with the rest of the church community as the rest of the community was worshiping.  The people who were about being contemporary didn’t really care much about what the others thought.  This was the “new way forward.”  This way was what was going to grip the young people.  Contemporary worship was how “we” were going to worship God.

Something’s off here, isn’t it?  Was one group more right than the other?  When did worshiping God become a power struggle?  Should we scrap hymns because some of the language is no longer relevant?  Is contemporary music shallow?

Let’s ask this question…does God really care about the songs we sing on Sunday morning?  I mean I guess God would care if our songs talked about the awesomeness of Satan or our submission to evil.  Yeah, God would have beef with that.  But is God more pleased one way or the other on which genre of music we choose for our church communities?

God could care less about the songs you and I sing on a Sunday morning if our worship smells like you know what during the rest of the week.    Check out Colossians 3.  Notice the context of verse 16.  The verses circled around verse 15 deals with how we are to LIVE.  How we worship God with our lives, through our routines, through our children, through our spouses, through our authorities matters tremendously to God.  So much so that Paul decided it was good to have 24 verses on that and one verse to what we sing.

Check out Isaiah, Jeremiah, and what Jesus says about those who worship God.  The so-called religious come to God with His name on their lips, yet their hearts are far away.

Let’s be a people whose hearts are close to Him.  Let’s no longer make worship about hymn or no hymn, but about Him.  Let’s worship Him with our lives.  Let’s be people who put to death the junk of this world and clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Then, hymn or no hymn, corito or no corito, drums or no drums, let’s sing in complete gratitude of Him.

Raising Children in a Media World

Media is everywhere. It is transforming, communal act. Media is the language in which our culture speaks, informs and attempts to understand the ever-changing world we find ourselves in.

Place a child into the mix, and things get a bit more complicated. People have been asking, and will continue to ask: How should my child engage the media? What is wrong or improper for children to view? At what age is it okay? Is it ever okay? How does my child become discerning.

The two prominent metaphors for media engagement are consumption and conversation. To me, consumption implies a passive, couch potato mentality. I will sit here and let the commercials and shows wash over me. This metaphor sees entertainment as the goal of all media. The second metaphor is conversation. This implies a relational stance toward media. The person and the media are on equal levels, and media is something to be engaged, wrestled, contemplated and critiqued. This metaphor sees art as the goal of all media.

On a whole, I think it is better to teach media as conversation, not consumption. In conversation with media, we ask: How does our worldview interact with a book, music or film? How do we engage with a piece of art? How do we tell if something is art or not?

When viewed as a conversation, media is not an adversary. Instead, media is a gift. Every person is all called to be creative and generative, whether you lay down brick or lay down tracks. This is so crucial to raising children in a media world, because unless a child understands that he or she is a creative being they will feel unworthy to engage culture and become a consumer. For that reason, it’s more important to teach critical engagement with a movie than it is to label certain media “safe for consumption” and certain media “bad or poisonous.” An example:

Harry Potter was largely dismissed as misguided or satanic by much of the evangelical world when it came out, yet it has a lot of Christian allegory in it and, if you take J.K. Rowling at her word, a broadly Christian worldview of justice and the defeat of death and evil.

On the flip side, the Twilight saga has been accepted by many evangelicals because it teaches abstinence. Yet, what does Twilight say about young girl’s sexuality, other than that a young women should find her worth in making men fight for her and that young women should use their virginity as a weapon or bargaining chip? (A great read on this is “Why Are You Apologizing For Bleeding?“

Media has always surrounded and saturated any culture; culture can only be built and conveyed through media. As Christians, living both within and outside of a culture, I think it is important to teach media discernment and disciple young adults in such a way that they can look at media critically and meaningfully. Over the next few weeks I want to look at the specifics of raising children in a constantly evolving media world.

Just Like God, Indie Rock is Resurrected

My latest post on The Other Journal’s Mediation blog, “Just Like God, Indie Rock is Resurrected” is now up for your viewing pleasure.

An excerpt:

In Maddux’s essay, she notes that Elson used as support a quote from Kierkegaard:“The day when Christianity and the world become friends, Christianity is done away with.” In similar fashion, indie had begun to make piece with the world of advertising. The Decemberists and other indie darlings signed onto major record labels like Capital Records. Indie music has become the de facto soundtrack of TV shows not named Glee. Indie was entering the mainstream as Maddux wrote; therfore, it must be dead. Taking that perspective, Arcade Fire winning a Grammy award is the gravestone. Yet, this could also be interpreted as the stone rolling away.

Also, check out some of the other recent Mediation posts on Black Swan, Jon Stewart, and Facebook.

What Are Performances For?

My friend Tim Ghali was gracious enough to invite me along to the Sufjan Stevens show on Monday night which ended his Age of Adz tour. I will be sharing my more detailed reflections on the Sufjan show in issue 3 of GENERATE, but I have been reflecting on what his performance, and any performance for that matter, is for?

This show was a production. There were movies, lights, dancers, balloons and costume changes. It wasn’t just an indie rock concert, it was theater. It made a deep impact on me and the audience. It was awesome, inspiring, brilliant, overwhelming, cheesy, chaotic and wonderful. People were having fun. Everyone around me was looking at each other and grinning, and by the end of the show, dancing (except for Tim, who was tweeting).

This was a lot different response than when I saw Sufjan last October. At that show there was a solemnity for the whole affair. There were no background dancers, light shows, costumes, or grunge movies in the background. No one in the audience talked or even whispered. People were just in awe of Sufjan. It was like an art gallery.

Like taking the tranquility of a Bruegel painting and then actually acting out the revelry behind its peaceful state, Sufjan’s music moved from curated art into art performance during this tour. It went from static to dynamic.

Last October I felt like I had gone to church. The show was worshipful. This time around, I felt like I had just been to a grand party. It was like the Giants won the Super Bowl. People were just elated and the high art that has accompanied Sufjan’s performance melted into this ecstatic performance piece, yet I wonder, what is it for?

Really: why do I like multi-media spectacles so much? Why do you? Why do we crave all of our senses to be bursting with wonderment?

I don’t know exactly, which is the answer, I think. Our desire for performance is innate, inside of us, craving connection between the metaphorical and symbolic. In other words, we want our art to come to life, not collect dust in libraries or galleries. We want it to burst out of the seams and consume us. That’s what performances are for.

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To read more about the performance, Jon Pareles wrote an excellent review in the New York Times: “Acoustics Meet Excess on Road to Who Knows Where.”

Featured Photo by Chris Robinson