Thoughts From the Moral High Ground

Here’s an interesting quote:

"A good artist should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable"

I’m not too sure just how I fit on that. I’ve thought about it for many years, even though I’d just recently heard it. But I’ve spent a long time contemplating the concept.

When I first thought I wanted to do LDS rock music, it was back in the early ‘80s. It was right around the time of my mission. For the next many years, I wanted to shake my fist at the Mormons and really rock their world. They were living wrong, and I was gonna show them just how!

In retrospect, it was a pretty typical response to life from a 20-something-er.

Over the years, I’ve decided that there’s some good to be said for making music that comforts the afflicted. Especially if I’m the one that’s afflicted. As I look at my best tunes, time and again, they’re written to teach ME something, to help ME get through a tough time.

Still, I do have a few “afflict the comfortable” tunes in my arsenal. “Millstones”, “Out of the Chapel”, “Dance With the Devil”, and a few others are all about shaking up the calm.

One of my personal all-time favorites, “Long-Haired Weirdo” is a classic example of Mark Afflicting the Comfortable.

But then, again, there’s a few I’ve written that comfort the afflicted as well. My newest one, “How Beautiful” is one of these. Both “Here in Me”, and “He’s Out There” are written that same way. With different approaches, lyrical and musical, you could also consider “The Taker”, and “One United Generation” to comfort the afflicted.

One of the problems I have with so much LDS art, though, is that there’s a strong tendency to avoid both sides of this particular issue and to simply “Comfort the Comfortable”. And while that’s nice and pleasant, it doesn’t make for great art.

Another problem I have with the original quote is that the REAL original quote goes like this: “In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong.” It’s attributed to economist John Kenneth Galbraith, Guardian (London, 28 July 1989)

The problem that I have with that is that often in my life I’ve set myself up to crusade against something I perceived as wrong only to find out that I was the one wrong. Perspectives can change, points of view shift. What I thought was true turned out to be a shadow of a real truth.

So, I have to be more cautious now, when I choose my crusades. But, frankly, there are still some things that will get me up on my high horse.


MRKH
Mark Hansen
http://markhansenmusic.com

What's Your Major?

I'm not usually much into quizzes, but this one struck me:

You scored as Journalism. You are an aspiring journalist, and you should major in journalism! Like me, you are passionate about writing and expressing yourself, and you want the world to understand your beliefs through writing. Art 100% Journalism 100% English 83% Philosophy 83% Psychology 75% Sociology 75% Dance 67% Linguistics 67% Mathematics 67% Theater 58% Anthropology 50% Engineering 42% Biology 42% Chemistry 33% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3) created with QuizFarm.com

MRKH
Mark Hansen
http://markhansenmusic.com

Mo' Movie Update II

Since I posted my “ranking” of the current LDS movies back in August, I’ve seen quite a few more. So, I thought I’d update my list. Again, let me make my fond disclaimer that these rankings are based entirely and subjectively on my own reactions to the movies, not on any technical merits or polish, but whether or not I enjoyed it, laughed at it, learned from it, or grew personally as a result of watching it. The comments are only for the ones I’ve added to the list. To read the comments on the other shows, click back to the original post.



1. Brigham City
2. Sons of Provo
3. The Best Two Years
4. Saints and Soldiers
5. New York Doll – a very uplifting movie about a great man’s final exam
6. God’s Army 2 – States of Grace – A great film, very real, but also very very intense.
7. God’s Army
8. The Work and The Glory – American Zion – Much better story and performance than the first one!
9. Mobsters and Mormons – Not much to say about it, but that I liked it!
10. The RM
11. The Singles Ward
12. Charly
13. The Other Side of Heaven
14. Out of Step
15. Baptists At Our Barbecue
16. Pride and Prejudice
17. The Home Teachers
18. Napoleon Dynamite – Meh. Some bits were good, but pretty loosely strung together. Overall… meh…
19. The Work and the Glory
20. The Book of Mormon Movie


As an added bonus, I got the DVD of Johnny Biscuit’s stand-up routine. Man! What a show. I busted my gut lots of times, and I’ve got a lot of gut to bust! It’s where “Latter Day Night Live” wanted to go but never quite got there. Absolutely hilarious!

Agree or disagree with me, it’s all good!

...And I just have to add that I really enjoy following the scene. I honestly wish that there were less backbiting and sniping going on among those that both make these movies and those that wanna be making these movies. I like the shows. I wish the sideshow weren’t so harsh...


MRKH
Mark Hansen
http://markhansenmusic.com