OK the graduation stuff is pretty much done with. It was a lot of work but fun - what would you expect me to say?

The other day I got ahold of the new Radiohead CD "Hail to the Thief." I have also been enjoying my recent acquisition of the new Led Zeppelin DVD set and for Fathers Day my children pitched in and bought me the Beatles Anthology DVD collection - quite touching! - so I guess I am going through a "British Rock" phase, featuring the sounds of the 60s, 70s and now the New Millennium.

Though this music probably can not be well-defended as having much compatibility with Christianity in a strict sense, that doesn't stop me from liking it a lot and being quite affected by its power. With Led Zeppelin and the Beatles, of course, the appeal is substantially nostalgic, though the music is well-made and stands on its own aside from any period-piece considerations. Radiohead is more just an interesting band of the moment... I'm not yet sure how their music will hold up, other than "OK Computer" which definitely seems to stand out from the crowd. With today's rock bands, it just seems like no one is really able to produce work of comparable magnitude that both commands attention and reveals close attention to artistic detail upon repeated listening. Thinking of the proficiency and seeming ease with which bands like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin produced not just a handful of great songs but an entire catalog of memorable, instant classics within a very short timeframe - just a few years, really, when each were at their peak. But the albums just rolled out, each year at least, or more often than that even. Now we need to wait three years or more between major releases and even then we have to put up with filler that doesn't seem like it will age all that well.

I'm done with that now.