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About Me
I'm Michael Koby, and I love technology. I'm also a programmer, currently doing Ruby on Rails development for a small Houston startup. Here I talk about technology, programming, politics, movies, music, and anything else I feel I need to talk about. If you would like to know more, you can check out the About page.Popular Series
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Songs & Such: “Smash Hit” by All Star United
Welcome to the first weekly “Songs & Such” article. These (hopefully) weekly write ups on songs, lyrics, and analysis of those two things, will hopefully give you readers some insight into the songs I like, why I like (or even dislike) them. Think of it as a way to get to know me a little better why looking at some songs and bands you might not have heard of, or seeing something new in a song you have listened to for years. This week, we are going to look at a song by All Star United entitled “Smash Hit” from their self-titled release, which can be purchased at Amazon.com (affiliate link).
The reason I like this song is because there is a lot of truth in the “tongue in cheek” approach to looking at the Christian sub-culture. The lyric “Join His name to any cause, drop His name to get applause” is/was extremely true especially when this song came out (1997). This song came out in a time when the Christian sub-culture was in full swing. Christians had to have their own alternative solution to everything that the secular (non-Christian) market had. Clothing, music, movies, books, and even jewelry. It was sold to the Christian masses and these folks (myself included) ate it up and dropped hard earned dollars on this merchandise (“This Jesus thing, it’s a smash hit. It’s packaged right”). While progress has been somewhat made in the separation of music and movies there remains a large sub-culture when it comes to Christian merchandise.
From a song perspective, this song is about as pop as one can get. Simple verse-chorus-verse methodology keeps it simple and helps the lyrics make their point quite well. While I do not know if the music or the lyrics came first in this song, it is probably safe to say that the music was written after the lyrics (or at least the chorus) was on paper.
Pity though, that like other songs that take a similar approach, the point was sadly lost or missed entirely in 1997. Oh well, that does not make the song any less appealing now.
Lyrics in their entirety after the jump… Continue reading
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Songs & Such: "Smash Hit" by All Star United
Welcome to the first weekly “Songs & Such” article. These (hopefully) weekly write ups on songs, lyrics, and analysis of those two things, will hopefully give you readers some insight into the songs I like, why I like (or even dislike) them. Think of it as a way to get to know me a little better why looking at some songs and bands you might not have heard of, or seeing something new in a song you have listened to for years. This week, we are going to look at a song by All Star United entitled “Smash Hit” from their self-titled release, which can be purchased at Amazon.com (affiliate link).
The reason I like this song is because there is a lot of truth in the “tongue in cheek” approach to looking at the Christian sub-culture. The lyric “Join His name to any cause, drop His name to get applause” is/was extremely true especially when this song came out (1997). This song came out in a time when the Christian sub-culture was in full swing. Christians had to have their own alternative solution to everything that the secular (non-Christian) market had. Clothing, music, movies, books, and even jewelry. It was sold to the Christian masses and these folks (myself included) ate it up and dropped hard earned dollars on this merchandise (“This Jesus thing, it’s a smash hit. It’s packaged right”). While progress has been somewhat made in the separation of music and movies there remains a large sub-culture when it comes to Christian merchandise.
From a song perspective, this song is about as pop as one can get. Simple verse-chorus-verse methodology keeps it simple and helps the lyrics make their point quite well. While I do not know if the music or the lyrics came first in this song, it is probably safe to say that the music was written after the lyrics (or at least the chorus) was on paper.
Pity though, that like other songs that take a similar approach, the point was sadly lost or missed entirely in 1997. Oh well, that does not make the song any less appealing now.
Lyrics in their entirety after the jump… Continue reading
Posted in Music
Comments Off on Songs & Such: "Smash Hit" by All Star United
Michael Koby 
Children and Technology
Today, kids have it easy. All the technology that we only dreamed about is at their fingertips. They can watch almost any television show they want at the press of a button, they get music on devices that don’t ruin tapes or CDs, and computers are in every household. Now, I am 27 years old, and some people would still consider me a child, I’m sure. However, I grew up in a time when computers were still something you did not find in every home. These days, they are everywhere. I can remember the first time I encoded a song into an Mp3 file and then trying to explain to my parents why this was cool. I can tell you what it was like to install Linux without all the niceties we have for performing that same task.
Does all the technology really help our children or is it just dumbing them down more with each passing advance? It seems that children read less, no longer play outside, and talk like they are constantly in a chat room. The advent of cellular telephones has not helped that last one at all. Children today have iPods, cell phones, and MySpace accounts. Gone are the days of vocal conversation. Instead we get text messages, instant messages, and emails. Remember when you would talk to your boy/girlfriend for hours on the telephone, well into the wee hours of the night hoping that your parents would not hear you thus ending your conversation? Parents instead are trying to find a way to keep their kids off the computer after 10pm.
My 4 year old daughter has an iPod. Granted, it is a 512MB shuffle that I used to use when going to gym, but it is an iPod none-the-less. She loves the thing and gets upset when it is time for a recharge. My wife and I love it for the simple fact we are not subjected to hours of repeated Veggitales songs on our stereo or computer speakers. However, I find myself thinking about what kind of environment I am creating for my daughter. I know that when she has those earphones in her ears, she is pretty much out of contact with me and her mother. She walks around the house earphones in and singing the songs at the top of her little lungs. Part of me is proud (I am a singer at heart and musician in that I play guitar as has having been in a couple of bands) that she enjoys music so much, but do I really want to create the idea that socially cutting yourself off is acceptable behavior on such a regular basis? I mean, I understand that there are times when cutting one’s self off socially is not only okay but necessary, however I do not believe it is okay for people to walk around with headphones in their ears, ignoring the world around them. To counter this, my wife and I do not allow our daughter to listen to her iPod all the time and actually cut her off if we feel she is listening to it too much and explain to her why we are doing it.
Is this kind of action enough? Will this help our daughter understand the concept of “everything in moderation” or will it just cause her to want that iPod more while finding ways to listen to it without us knowing? What about the toddlers with fully functioning computers in their bedrooms? Are we teaching our children anti-social behavior so early on or is the use of a computer at such a young age so helpful that the consequences are out-weighed by the results?
Are there things that some of you do with your children (if you have any) to allow them to familiarize themselves with technology but also keep them social and from locking themselves indoors? Leave a comment, I am really interested in seeing others opinions on this issue.