My rhythm of posts decreased over the past few weeks as the fall semester at Fordham moved into the season of final examinations. But my students and I survived them (and many of my students even thrived through them), and now in the midst of a holiday break, on the cusp of a new calendar year, and at the beginning of a sabbatical from teaching that will allow me to focus intensively on research, writing, and renewal until September 2011, I am in the mood to (and the beneficiary of the privilege to be able to) think about charting my theological course, and especially in relation to my musical course, for the next little while.

If, as we find so many ways of arguing at Rock and Theology, musical and theological life are inseparably interwoven at many levels, then my paying attention to a musical itinerary in the coming months is important alongside thinking about what I want to read, write, live, or ponder theologically. So I am trying to imagine the various parts of what can happen musically and where that might take me in my theological life (by which I mean that dimension of life wherein the habitation of a claiming power is exercised; what others might call the personal and communal through-line of lived relation to God).

I wonder if our readers see things in a similar way. Are you thinking about where to go theologically and musically in the new year?

I see several musical domains for myself that can also be theological arenas: (1) musical projects: I want to return to writing music as a regular practice, to an active band life, and to different potential musical collaborations (including with members of the Rock and Theology Project); (2) live shows: while I have always been an active attender of live music, since moving to the New York City area, my live-music experience has been considerably deepened, expanded, regularized. It is just so easy to hear live rock and there is just so much to hear. Coming up in the first several weeks of the new year, I’ll be seeing the Broadway rock musicals “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” and “Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark,” and the bands Mother’s Finest and Robert Plant, with more shows to come as the year unfolds, both big rock events and shows by relative unknowns at small venues, all of which I’ll try to write about here;

(Here is Mother’s Finest in a recent show…)

(3) personal listening: I am still in the process of converting my CD collection to MP3s for my iPod, but I might actually be listening to more music than ever (which is saying a lot for me) due to this new technology. When combined with an active exposure

to the local circuit, the Internet makes it easy to stay abreast of new rock as well as being in constant contact with more established or “classic” acts. Even making such a statement would be a droll obviosity to younger music fans, but it remains relevant for all who keep adding days and new music — and new spiritual forests — to the music with which they initially fell in love.

And so life and love continue to unfold, and even on occasion radically detour, in musical-spiritual dynamism and — finally — uncontrollability. That this is the case suggests not a hasty or indifferent attitude toward our musical lives but instead an adequately intentional consent to the uncontrollable.

And in Western culture, that can start with thinking about what one wants to have happen musically, with shows and songs. Where are you in your preparation for a new year of music — and its depth of call in your life and your world?

Tom Beaudoin

Brookline, Massachusetts

1 Comment »

1. 

   Tom, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! After reading your post, I could not help but feel a bit of guilt about purchasing my wife a $25 gift card to Itunes; my plan was to have her spend the gift card on my profile and computer therefore benefiting from the gift to my wife. Yesterday she informed me that she would be using her own computer for the redemption of the card and log onto her own profile. I was also feeling terrible about not receiving my own gift card to Itune from the fat-man in the red pants, as it was first on my Christmas list. I am sure Santa read the intent of my heart for the Itunes gift card and shuffled me to the naughty list just before his visit, thus giving my card to someone else. It is my hopes that this year I will be able to remember the true meaning of gift giving and redeem myself next year. My only salvation…family sharing on Itunes, I have to make sure it is turned on!! Merry Christmas.

   Comment by Troy Allan — December 27, 2010 @ 11:19 am

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