Check out the band at: www.myspace.com/systemssound and keep checking up, we will have new music up towards the end of August.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Systems Shirt Ideas-Whatchu Think?
Four shirt ideas for my band Systems, click on the picture to see them larger. Feel free to leave feedback on my facebook or somewhere else you choose to leave feedback.
Check out the band at: www.myspace.com/systemssound and keep checking up, we will have new music up towards the end of August.
Check out the band at: www.myspace.com/systemssound and keep checking up, we will have new music up towards the end of August.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sonya, We Need You
Whatever happened to the Pet Psychic? You know the one I am talking about, the Pet Psychic that debuted her abilities a few years ago on Animal Planet or Discovery Channel or some other network that was struggling for interesting programming (maybe it was A&E). Whether you remember her or not most likely does not affect your life in any way whatsoever, but the more interesting thought resides in the question of whose lives did she affect, and how are they now? How is Fluffy doing after she was finally able to communicate her frustrations to her loving owner via the powers of the Pet Psychic? Or, how is Skipper the pony (No, I did not go back and research the names of the animals that were in the episodes.) who just wanted his mane to be brushed more? Is he getting that relaxing rub that he desired so desperately? In the spirit of hope for the betterment of humanity/nature, I hope that Fluffy’s and Skipper’s owners followed through with their pets’ desires and relieved them of their past frustrations.
A bigger question, however, is where the hell is the Pet Psychic now? Her show was cancelled, contrary to everyone’s expectations for tremendous success, and now we have no idea where she could be. What about all of our pet’s issues? Surely she must have an emergency clinic in Buffalo, New York where you can bring your pets to find out what is really going on with their strange urination patterns. Maybe she is trying to revitalize her television career, auditioning for shows like The Real World, Jersey Shore, or Extreme Home Makeover. I feel like Ty and the gang might need the help of a pet psychic so that before they decide on whether the family deserves a new house or not, they could send her to scope out the neighborhood to find the alley-cats and hear the truth about the family.
It just seems sad to me that such a metaphysical and supernatural gifting that the Pet Psychic possesses could be going to such a tragic waste. Forget people like Morgan Freeman to be your narrator for the newest and most elaborate nature film, let’s get someone who can tell me what the dolphin thinks about how his blow-hole looks on camera rather than how he uses it.
A bigger question, however, is where the hell is the Pet Psychic now? Her show was cancelled, contrary to everyone’s expectations for tremendous success, and now we have no idea where she could be. What about all of our pet’s issues? Surely she must have an emergency clinic in Buffalo, New York where you can bring your pets to find out what is really going on with their strange urination patterns. Maybe she is trying to revitalize her television career, auditioning for shows like The Real World, Jersey Shore, or Extreme Home Makeover. I feel like Ty and the gang might need the help of a pet psychic so that before they decide on whether the family deserves a new house or not, they could send her to scope out the neighborhood to find the alley-cats and hear the truth about the family.
It just seems sad to me that such a metaphysical and supernatural gifting that the Pet Psychic possesses could be going to such a tragic waste. Forget people like Morgan Freeman to be your narrator for the newest and most elaborate nature film, let’s get someone who can tell me what the dolphin thinks about how his blow-hole looks on camera rather than how he uses it.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Video for Sanctuary Initiative
Backpacks for Kids-Sanctuary Initiative from Michael Rowley on Vimeo.
A Video I did for Sanctuary, a church in Tulsa, Ok.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
The Cloud
The cloud
To the scientist, something to be calculated
To the farmer, a premonition of life
To the artist, the canvas for the sun to paint on
To the child, the artist painting
To the shivering, a curse
To the perspiring, a blessing
To those under a clear sky, non-existent
To the defiant, something to jump through
To the meteorologist, a money-maker
To the blood-thirsty, a veil to drop bombs through
To the pre-occupied, irrelevant
To the worn, a reminder
In the end, it is the cloud.
To the scientist, something to be calculated
To the farmer, a premonition of life
To the artist, the canvas for the sun to paint on
To the child, the artist painting
To the shivering, a curse
To the perspiring, a blessing
To those under a clear sky, non-existent
To the defiant, something to jump through
To the meteorologist, a money-maker
To the blood-thirsty, a veil to drop bombs through
To the pre-occupied, irrelevant
To the worn, a reminder
In the end, it is the cloud.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Forget me, please.
Traveling to the place of your rearing is always an interesting endeavor. It stirs up all sorts of feelings, some good, some bad, and some indeterminable.
I was in Amarillo and Portales (Grandma's) over the Thanksgiving Break and it was an interesting, unrestful experience. This visit back stuck out to me in particular for some reason, perhaps due to my expectations. Less speculation, more narration-after all you have no idea what I'm saying.
On Thursday morning, We (my family and I) took the two hour trek over to the barren and forgotten land of East New Mexico. Arriving there around noon, the normal cycle began: carry the bags in, hug Mimi, eat chips with dip, and catch up on the news of the family-Cousin's surprise pregnancy, Aunt's argument with Mimi, and tears of frustration on the soft cheeks of my grandmother. Slowly more and more family start to trickle in, now finished working cattle at "the place."
Dinner begins and I, of course, take my seat at the "kids table." The kid's table is where I belong when I am in Portales. I am stuck in a time decelerrator in the minds of those sitting around "The Adult Table" as they poke fun at my facial hair as if I am a sixteen year old trying to grow out his first beard. I sit there, taking it, feeling as though I am a sixteen year old. The funniest experience, sitting at the kid's table, is getting talked to about your recent engagement and upcoming marriage. I suppose you don't graduate up to the Adult Table until you are old enough in the eyes of your relatives to be getting married.
That night, politics make their way into the discussion. I've never seen so many people avert their eyes to their cell-phones to avoid attempting to take my opinion seriously.
Portales:
Congratulations on the engagement: 1
"You don't need to get married this young" talks: 1
Beard jokes: Plenty
We traveled back to Amarillo on Friday, back to the town that is enigmatically unexplainable. This town you can taste and feel in a way I haven't experienced in many places. When I look around Amarillo, at the streets, the cars and the people, it's as if looking through a gray filter that slows time and progress. As if the spirits of the Native Americans that used to inhabit the land are hunting for those pursuing ingenuity and change and firing a tranquilizing arrow into their necks. A punishment for robbing them of their land. In Amarillo you have two choices: It's either impregnating and drugs or ministries and John Mayer.
It's interesting how seductive those two options seem to be to so many people. I suppose both provide orgasms and money.
I've noticed that the gray filter that slows time and progress disables those under its spell from investigating my personal growth and change, much like what I experienced in Portales. In their filmed eyes I am still the high-school Michael. The "emo" Michael. The "funny" Michael. The Michael that doesn't want to talk, but instead would rather busy himself with old practices.
I wish the tranquilizer could be sucked from the veins of that city, the grayness be erased, and a flower pop up in a sidewalk crack for someone to discover for the first time.
I want, rather than to be remembered, to be forgotten and reintroduced.
I was in Amarillo and Portales (Grandma's) over the Thanksgiving Break and it was an interesting, unrestful experience. This visit back stuck out to me in particular for some reason, perhaps due to my expectations. Less speculation, more narration-after all you have no idea what I'm saying.
On Thursday morning, We (my family and I) took the two hour trek over to the barren and forgotten land of East New Mexico. Arriving there around noon, the normal cycle began: carry the bags in, hug Mimi, eat chips with dip, and catch up on the news of the family-Cousin's surprise pregnancy, Aunt's argument with Mimi, and tears of frustration on the soft cheeks of my grandmother. Slowly more and more family start to trickle in, now finished working cattle at "the place."
Dinner begins and I, of course, take my seat at the "kids table." The kid's table is where I belong when I am in Portales. I am stuck in a time decelerrator in the minds of those sitting around "The Adult Table" as they poke fun at my facial hair as if I am a sixteen year old trying to grow out his first beard. I sit there, taking it, feeling as though I am a sixteen year old. The funniest experience, sitting at the kid's table, is getting talked to about your recent engagement and upcoming marriage. I suppose you don't graduate up to the Adult Table until you are old enough in the eyes of your relatives to be getting married.
That night, politics make their way into the discussion. I've never seen so many people avert their eyes to their cell-phones to avoid attempting to take my opinion seriously.
Portales:
Congratulations on the engagement: 1
"You don't need to get married this young" talks: 1
Beard jokes: Plenty
We traveled back to Amarillo on Friday, back to the town that is enigmatically unexplainable. This town you can taste and feel in a way I haven't experienced in many places. When I look around Amarillo, at the streets, the cars and the people, it's as if looking through a gray filter that slows time and progress. As if the spirits of the Native Americans that used to inhabit the land are hunting for those pursuing ingenuity and change and firing a tranquilizing arrow into their necks. A punishment for robbing them of their land. In Amarillo you have two choices: It's either impregnating and drugs or ministries and John Mayer.
It's interesting how seductive those two options seem to be to so many people. I suppose both provide orgasms and money.
I've noticed that the gray filter that slows time and progress disables those under its spell from investigating my personal growth and change, much like what I experienced in Portales. In their filmed eyes I am still the high-school Michael. The "emo" Michael. The "funny" Michael. The Michael that doesn't want to talk, but instead would rather busy himself with old practices.
I wish the tranquilizer could be sucked from the veins of that city, the grayness be erased, and a flower pop up in a sidewalk crack for someone to discover for the first time.
I want, rather than to be remembered, to be forgotten and reintroduced.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
hiss
The dead leaves hiss across the pavement, scraping, their voices amplified by the wind. Death is audible in this place and it clings to my clothing like the shed shell of the locust stuck to a branch. Death clings to life even after it is dead.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Systematic Theology Lecture Notes
September 17, 2009
Colossians 1:15-20
1 Corinthians 15:20-28, 8:6
John 1:1-9
What do these verses tell us about creation?
Genesis 1-Let Us make- us is the divine council-the writer of Genesis doesn’t know about the Trinity, but back then they were aware of a “divine council”
We are not just in God’s image-we are in the image of all the creatures created before us.
Creation story is not to tell us how sin came to be, sin is already there or else there wouldn’t be a tempting serpent, but what this story tells us is the creation of the human and how sin enters the human experience.
What does it mean to be human- gen 1,2,3.
LET US MAKE-God is going to mediate his creation through these higher beings (angels-in their image as well).
What is the significance of a mediated creation- It keeps a distinction between the creator and the creation.
Proverbs 3:19-20 God creates with wisdom. Sends wisdom out to the mediators who create using his wisdom.
Psalm 8:3-5 - a hierarchy. We have been made a little bit lower than the gods. Word is elohim which means lord.
Creator human distinction that cannot be overcome
Wisdom literature (Wisdom of Solomon, Proverbs etc..)-the point is to gain wisdom, creation is the outcome of wisdom mediating God’s will. When we get wisdom, we can know God and know what he wants us to do with his creation.
the Torah become the way in which God is mediating
Shekinah-where God is, it is but it is not God
Tabernacle/Temple-Psalmists want to be in the Temple, because that’s where God’s presence is
Angel of the Lord-not God, but when the angel of the Lord speaks, God speaks.
Gen 18-God appears to him in the mediation of three men, don’t think the trinity, they didn’t have that.-The text is intentionally being coy. You don’t know what Abraham knows or how he knows it. Even though this is three men, it is still God speaking. How can no one see God, yet see God? Because God’s presence is accessible mediatorally.
Ezek 1.4-
Above, middle, middle, over- theologically- you can’t quite get to GOD. But this God wants to make himself known to us, so these mediated beings are the way he can relate to us. God is inaccessible to us but is imminent through mediated beings.
All of this sets us up with the picture of Christ. It doesn’t let you fall into the thought that God is only inaccessible and it doesn’t allow you to know him wholly accessible.
Scripture is set up for us to have mediators, but the scandal of Christianity is that God mediates as God. Jesus is shekinah, temple, etc…but he is also GOD. Because he is God and not some creature, what does this mean? The Mediation is complete. Never before has the mediation been complete because some is lost in the translation. Now that it is God doing the mediation, then nothing is lost.
Colossians 1:15-20
1 Corinthians 15:20-28, 8:6
John 1:1-9
What do these verses tell us about creation?
Genesis 1-Let Us make- us is the divine council-the writer of Genesis doesn’t know about the Trinity, but back then they were aware of a “divine council”
We are not just in God’s image-we are in the image of all the creatures created before us.
Creation story is not to tell us how sin came to be, sin is already there or else there wouldn’t be a tempting serpent, but what this story tells us is the creation of the human and how sin enters the human experience.
What does it mean to be human- gen 1,2,3.
LET US MAKE-God is going to mediate his creation through these higher beings (angels-in their image as well).
What is the significance of a mediated creation- It keeps a distinction between the creator and the creation.
Proverbs 3:19-20 God creates with wisdom. Sends wisdom out to the mediators who create using his wisdom.
Psalm 8:3-5 - a hierarchy. We have been made a little bit lower than the gods. Word is elohim which means lord.
Creator human distinction that cannot be overcome
Wisdom literature (Wisdom of Solomon, Proverbs etc..)-the point is to gain wisdom, creation is the outcome of wisdom mediating God’s will. When we get wisdom, we can know God and know what he wants us to do with his creation.
the Torah become the way in which God is mediating
Shekinah-where God is, it is but it is not God
Tabernacle/Temple-Psalmists want to be in the Temple, because that’s where God’s presence is
Angel of the Lord-not God, but when the angel of the Lord speaks, God speaks.
Gen 18-God appears to him in the mediation of three men, don’t think the trinity, they didn’t have that.-The text is intentionally being coy. You don’t know what Abraham knows or how he knows it. Even though this is three men, it is still God speaking. How can no one see God, yet see God? Because God’s presence is accessible mediatorally.
Ezek 1.4-
Above, middle, middle, over- theologically- you can’t quite get to GOD. But this God wants to make himself known to us, so these mediated beings are the way he can relate to us. God is inaccessible to us but is imminent through mediated beings.
All of this sets us up with the picture of Christ. It doesn’t let you fall into the thought that God is only inaccessible and it doesn’t allow you to know him wholly accessible.
Scripture is set up for us to have mediators, but the scandal of Christianity is that God mediates as God. Jesus is shekinah, temple, etc…but he is also GOD. Because he is God and not some creature, what does this mean? The Mediation is complete. Never before has the mediation been complete because some is lost in the translation. Now that it is God doing the mediation, then nothing is lost.
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