Couplet about soccer

I attended Jesus is King: A Kanye West Experience last night in Chicago. Here is my recap of the night and some reflections:
My first introduction to Kanye West as religious experience was his 2010 performance of Runaway at the VMAs. I remember sitting in the living room of my old house with my dad and older brother, all of us fully arrested by the performance, and realizing for the first time how beautiful music could be. I didn’t have the words for it at the time, and maybe I still don’t. I just knew I was witnessing a moment. I was aware of the Taylor Swift debacle that occurred at the very same event a year prior, and even had the “I’mma Let U Finish” app on my iTouch. But mostly I remember finding it odd how he was greeted with raucous applause despite the supposed pariah the media had made him out to be for the previous 364 days.
My second time observing Kanye West as religious experience came a little over three years ago at Chance the Rapper’s one-day music festival, Magnificent Coloring Day. Kanye’s name wasn’t on the star-studded lineup, but just about everyone in the sold-out U.S. Cellular Field was fully expecting an appearance. Hell, even Jimmy Butler (sporting a Blackhawks jersey) and some dude from Black-ish made on-stage cameos. Sure enough, a few artists into the set, the opening of FSMH blared out from the center field speakers. It was instant pandemonium. I was seated a bit too far to try and make a break for the field, but thousands of people were leaping over the bannisters, trampling past security, to get closer to their literal god.
The Event Itself
After getting my tickets at 4:31 PM and calling everyone I know, I put on my TLOP shirt, took a train down to the city, and started queueing outside the theater around 6:30 PM – 2.5 hrs before the 9:00 PM start listed on Ticketmaster.
The line was already about 150 people deep when my roommate and I arrived at the Auditorium Theater, and just about to bend around the block. The crowd so far was a diverse group of ~22-30 year olds, every single one of them donning some form of Kanye apparel. Many had hype-beast energy. I spent most of my time in the queue chatting with a friendly guy from the city who kept up with streetwear trends. Every so often he would point out a pair of Yeezy’s or a person’s full outfit and tell me exactly how much that person spent on it. In our time waiting together, he estimated over a dozen people wearing upwards of a thousand dollars in attire.
House opened around 8:45 PM. Upon the presentation of our mobile tickets, we were handed pouches that resembled middle school pencil cases. Admission was only granted once all phones and Apple watches were locked in said pouches. Once sealed, it was impossible to be re-opened without the use of the security guards' fastening contraptions. We were told to “turn on AirDrop” (not a thing, btw) before locking our phones away. Apparently, we were to be AirDropped some sort of .gif or picture “from Kanye” that only sent once our phones were in these compartments. (Arrested Development narrator voice: “we weren’t”).
The theater itself was astonishing. Massive, beautiful paintings adorned the ceiling all the way up to the nosebleeds, and a mural of biblical sorts stretched all the way across the top of the projector screen currently drawn down on stage. Fitting, no doubt. Even though there was plenty of available seating, many people were full-on sprinting to find the closest available seats.
The first 15 rows were all empty, and every single person (including your correspondents) genuinely thought they had committed some sort of robbery by being able to score these unbelievable seats. Why is no one else getting as close as possible, we all undoubtedly thought as we got closer and closer, it’s not like this is some sort of comedy show where the comedian is going to pick on the front row. Of course, our robbery was immediately disarmed by the determined security guards. Evidently these seats were for VIPs; your correspondents still have no word on how these people were able to achieve such status.
We “settled” for two seats one row behind the VIP section on stage right, about 18 rows back, in the right-most seats of the “Audience–Left” part of the venue’s seating triptych. I cracked open my $9 Miller Lite and made myself comfortable.
Something I often forget about re: grand, public events is that a large portion of the American population will lose their fucking minds for a free t-shirt. Fortunately for Kanye, his marketing team didn’t. As we anxiously waited for Kanye to enter with no way of telling how long we’d been seated, the only thing reminding us of time’s arrow was someone from the crowd shouting “Merch! Merch!”, as a few people from ?? G.O.O.D. Music ?? frantically waved around a hitherto sold-out JIK hoodie or jumper like they were the T-shirt cannon people at the Bulls game.
People went absolutely mental at the prospect of getting one. The drunk girl behind me kept asking her visibly annoyed boyfriend to go run towards the merch people and grab one for her. I’m pretty sure Kim briefly made an appearance from the side seats on stage left, and threw one out to a man literally yelling, “Oh my godddd!!!”.
The two guys next to us had came to the show completely on a whim. They happened to be in town because their fantasy football league visits a different football stadium each year as a way to travel and keep in touch. This season they picked Soldier Field, and they just happened to enter the Ticketmaster waiting room on the off-chance they might be able to cop some tickets. It made me think back to the classic question asked by campus ambassadors when visiting a college: “who here thinks they traveled the furthest to get here today?”, and the family from China invariably winning the icebreaker every single time. It made me wonder: what percent of this audience was on a plane today? Surely some of the VIPs had flown from New York or LA, but I imagine many people from Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan all entered the waiting room, too.
One of the fantasy football dudes secures one of the giveaway hoodies. After what feels like an hour, the voice of Saint West blares through the waffle-combed acoustics of the auditorium:
“Hi, this is Saint!” came the adorable voice. “Are you ready for my daddy?” (roars from the crowd). “Are you ready for Kim?” (weird, but more roars). “This shit is gonna be crazy!” Pandemonium.
Enter - Kanye. He stands beside Kim and North in the “Abe Lincoln” seats on the Stage Left side of the theater, wearing a vest. Clearly, no one thought to tell the VIPs this is where he’d be setting up shop for the night. He holds a Mac laptop, and there are 2-3 other people standing beside him.
Two minutes of ovation passed before he simply said, in a way only Kanye can, “Chicago.”.
I’ve never heard a single word receive more applause in my entire life.
He asked us before we listened to the album if we want to watch a brief documentary about the charity work he’s doing for rebuilding homes in the Bahamas. Everyone went nuts. People were literally going apeshit at the prospect of watching a documentary. I attended a four-day festival for documentaries in March, and the combined pre-show applause of the dozen or so films I watched that weekend was tripled in size by the ~2,000 people here tonight.
Before we sat down however, he asked if we would all bow our heads while he said a prayer. This was the first moment where I knew the night was officially about to get weird. Kanye could hardly string together a full sentence without someone interrupting, either hooting and hollering at his pastoral rhetoric, or simply taking this opportunity to scream, “I LOVE YOU KANYE!”.
I’m not a particularly religious person. I’ve been at maybe two meals in my life where a person involved said grace. But holy shit, the disrespect from a crowd of “fans” – people wearing this man’s shoes, fighting over his clothing, memorizing his lyrics and internalizing them as an extension of their own personality – was shocking. Kanye made an aside, saying, “this has got to be the only prayer with cheering in it”, but the subtext was lost on the majority of the crowd.
Here is a man who validates these people's hardships, gives them confidence, and here are his followers, who can’t even let him literally say a prayer on their behalf. Halfway through the prayer (of which he clearly had more to say), he tells the tech people to play the documentary.
The film’s acoustics were completely off (which should have been a harbinger of what was to come), and definitely should have had closed captioning. It was nearly impossible to make out much of the mangled audio, and I remain unclear on what it was really about. It was lots of B-roll of Kanye in beautiful areas (which the credits would reveal included the likes of Japan, Uganda, and the Bahamas), mixed with shots of him looking pensive at a table of blueprints aside bespectacled architects. The parts I could make out involved Kanye laying out to these other men how he wanted the design of these ambiguous buildings to look – usually circular. There was vague rhetoric about the desire of humans to be in a community and circled around a hub, as in a school, a church, and a cafeteria, and more shots of round-table discussion. Credits eventually rolled to the tune of thunderous applause.
Jesus Is King Songs
Below are some scattered notes on the songs I can remember (there might have been one or two more I’m forgetting). Until the last song (in which the image on screen appeared to switch to ‘Night Mode’), the massive projector displayed a variation of the Jesus is King logo from the hoodie. A being one can only assumed is Jesus stands comfortably in the sky above a few clouds, acting as a gatekeeper to the heavens. He has one arm raised, and appears inviting.
I internally note how Jesus’ role here sort of mirrors the security guards in front of the VIP section. I briefly consider the whole empty seat thing to be an intentional choice by Kanye as some sort of metaphor for not being able to get into heaven just yet, but abandon this interpretation when he invites everyone in the upper decks to come fill in the empty seats.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• It should be worth noting that some of these songs were only played for about a minute and a half. Whether this indicated they were unfinished, or that Kanye only intended to show us a few snippets to gauge our approval was a subject of much debate by yr. corresps. after the show.

Up from the Ashes
All Kanye said before pressing play on his Mac was, “This first song is called Up From the Ashes”. DM for my attempt at recreating the general melody of the first few lines. It was pretty one-note. If I had to compare its atmosphere to any of his existing songs, it would probably be “Only One” feat. Paul McCartney. Not in terms of the subject matter or emotional weight, but because of the lightness and limited instrumentation or layered production. I’ll be honest - it sounded very much like a demo.
Follow God
The smell of blunts being lit up permeates the air. I can’t remember much of the song sonically, other than that I really liked it. The lyrics were very much about Jesus, God, faith, and love. It becomes clear that very few people in attendance have been to an album release party before, let alone with the artist present. There’s a bit of anxious energy in the room, too, almost willing the project to be good. Surely no one is more anxious than Kanye, whose eager eyes resemble after certain songs those of your friend whose shoddy improv show you just saw.
At this point, many people in the crowd are standing up, nodding along in concert. I personally don’t think I’ve ever listened to a new album while standing up, so I remain seated. My roommate remarks on the cult-like atmosphere. I nod.
Closed on Sunday (the Chick Fil-A song)
“This next song is called Closed on Sunday, like Chick Fil-A”, jokes Kanye in the way only he can.
I can’t remember if there was a song before this one, but this is the next I remember. It was definitely my favorite – even compelling me to stand – and by far the most complete thing we heard in terms of having a clear structure and build to it. The production here is mysterious and heavy. The lyrics to the chorus give wise words about raising your daughter, raising your son. Yr. corresps. get the sense that many people feel compelled to pull their phones out and video-tape themselves experiencing this song, only to remember they are locked away.
LA Monster
I believe this is the beat that had a metronome-esque seatbelt alarm keeping a pointed, frantic time in the background, similar to the song Lay-by by Tennyson. However the beat here was much more rigid and staccato than the alarm in Lay-by, and kept wanting to drop into a hard beat. Unfortunately, it never did. The lyrics talked about the zombie-like people in LA, who need Jesus and let the devil control too many of their thoughts and actions. Many people are nodding and demonstrably agreeing with the words. Again, this event is becoming weird.
On God - prod. by Pierre
The beat here is your standard 2010’s rap beat c/o Pierre, but the bass has been raised so loud that I cannot hear many of the lyrics. Rest assured, I could still make out the occasional “Jesus” or “lord” every couplet or so. Someone behind me says they heard Kanye was late because he was performing “All We Got” with Chance over at the United Center. I remark how the people at the Chance concert probably saw Kanye on stage for a longer time tonight than we’re about to.
Water
Next was Water, (DM for my attempt at recreating). This is the only song I’d heard before to this point. I actually preferred the Coachella version. Here it sounds a bit muffled, “underwater”, even, and less driven by the natural open space of the prior version. People are starting to dance. The drunk girl behind me is grinding on her boyfriend. “It’s funny to watch people forget they don’t have to perform for social media”, I say to my roommate. My roommate notes that the eyes all around them probably still feel like cameras. Touché.
Selah - (the “Hallelujah!” song)
This song was what the clip from Friday night’s Detroit performance came from. It was cinematic. It was unbelievably loud. I felt like I was approaching Heaven, but still unsure if I was going to get in. Halfway through the song, so far just a verse from Kanye, the word Hallelujah is sung daringly for what feels like an eternity by a chorus of what can only be interpreted as angels. It is broken up by emotional, rapid-fire verses from Kanye. I am reminded of the moment in the South Park movie where Kenny thinks he’s about to get into Heaven. He sees beautiful, naked women and presses a button for admission. He then sees the words, ACCESS DENIED, and immediately plummets into heavy metal HELL.
I feel like both parts of that scene are happening to me at once, like I’m plummeting down into Heaven. I’m not alone. The audience has visibly dropped their act of “fucking with it so far”, and is transfixed. People are lifting their hands up. Kanye runs the entire song back. This time, the entire audience has their hands up during the Hallelujah section. It is a transcendent moment. Kanye can tell we are more engaged now. It felt like he wanted to run it another time, but he moved on.
~~~~
I could be wrong, but I believe this is the moment where he started to say a few words again, but continued to be interrupted by his rabid acolytes.
I got really annoyed because he was pretty clearly trying to explain to his own apostles how Jesus saved him during his recent breakdowns and frequent hospitalizations. How he has since found God, and claims to be fully recovered. The words I cannot get out of my head from this digression are, “Jesus gave me back my mind”. After one particularly annoying heckler screamed something about Kim looking hot, I fired back possibly a little too loudly “shut up!”. Seconds after, Kanye – after a tug on his sleeve– replied, “North says shut up is a bad word”.
The crowd cheered, and I have literally never felt more terrified in my life. These shivers were definitely not the “goosebumps” as advertised by Ticketmaster. My roommate later clarified he thinks it’s because Kanye himself also said shut up, but that moment will forever haunt me. My efforts to give Kanye more voice at his own event, somehow swatted away by the man himself.
Kanye then gathered himself, and calmly told the crowd he is not here to entertain them. The room is SILENT. That, "this is not some comedy show where you can just heckle the performer”. “THIS IS MY LIFE”, echoes his voice, to cautious applause from the very people who’ve been interrupting him endlessly all night. Kanye continues on, and you can hear a pin drop. We have officially experienced every emotion on the spectrum, and there’s still a whole second movie yet to watch. While watching Kanye during this moment, I’m reminded of Andre 3000’s profound reflections in the latter half of Hey Ya. My roommate shoots me a look as if to say, this event is officially REALLY FUCKING WEIRD.
Next is a song featuring Fred Hammond. Can’t remember the title. I don’t know why, but I was expecting this. Unfortunately, that clip never appeared in any shape during the entire night. I can’t remember much of this song, but I generally liked it and also started to realize we were officially not going to see any live performance, nor any gospel, and started to get a bit let down.
Use This Gospel - feat. Clipse and Kenny G.
(DM for me monkey-ing out the notes of the chorus)
This was another powerful moment. He mentioned how he envisioned the chorus to echo out in soccer stadiums. Our guinea pig test proved it will no doubt sound dope as fuck at Bulls games for years to come as Zach LaVine jacks up contested long-twos with 20 seconds left on the shot clock. The verses from Pusha T and No Malice here are pointed, although they honestly sounded like they were having trouble finding the rhythm of the beat at times.
The album listening party is now over, and he asks if we want to watch another documentary, this time about the making of Sunday Service. More applause.
The Jesus is King graphic disappears and we literally see the Mac’s screen on the projector. Someone opens up the next documentary on Quicktime Media Player. They start playing it 5 minutes into the video for literally no reason. Kanye is talking to this person through the microphone, “No, start it a little earlier, yeah there, no a little earlier, yeah… wait, do you guys wanna see the whole thing? (Cheering) nah yeah just start it from the beginning. And turn that shit up. Turn it all the way up. (we hear the Mac volume noise boink up a few times) Turn it all the way, yeah (we see the little volume mac thing go as loud as possible)”.
Before describing the rest of the night, I need to fully communicate that this documentary was actually the loudest thing I have ever heard in my entire life. After about a minute of watching the film – which is largely b-roll of beautiful nature accompanied by footage of songs that are familiar if you’ve been watching the Sunday Service videos – many people start to file out. It is simply way too fucking loud. During a lull, one guy shouts, “Yo Kanye, turn it down!”. More and more people walk out after each new song. I don’t think I’m exaggerating, it was literally that fucking loud. You can feel the familiar energy of schoolchildren genuinely praying that a boring video in Health class is over after each song ends. My roommate leaves, but I’m determined to see this through.
Volume aside, the film is stunning. It contains about 7 full songs, including a re-lyricized version of “Lost in the World” with biblical verbiage, and closes with a tender cover of “Streetlights” by Daniel Caesar. Kanye exits from the balcony area about halfway through the playing of this film.
The choir and Kanye are located in divine structures during these filmings, often resembling the interior of Bob Hope’s house in Palm Springs. One of the structures they perform in has a literal golden staircase descending from the circular opening, symbolizing a stairway to heaven. I start to think these edifices are what he was designing the construction of in the previous documentary. The people still here are all watching with both hands clamped over their ears.
The chorus sounds heavenly. The single most remarkable musical moment of the full night, adjusted for volume, was their overwhelming rendition of How Excellent. We only see the choir director, shot in black and white, with the opening of the Hope-esque structure above his head. The room echoes as his off-screen choir bellows and belts. He is giving his full body to the song, to the spirit, as if the energy of this chorus is being sent through the hole in the sky to God himself. Trying to awaken him or generate his curiosity, so that in hearing their beautiful prayer he might be nice enough to answer it. Or maybe God is entering through the hole and manifesting himself through the choir director's body, and into the music. But probably a little bit of both. It’s hard to deny this isn’t actually happening. The scene, even at 10 decibels too loud, is really that divine.
These thoughts are quelled by more and more people leaving. It’s hard not to comment on the irony here. Kanye is accidently doing the exact opposite of what he set out to with this project. He is literally forcing religion onto deaf ears. People are not only failing to indulge him on his belief system, but are quite literally plugging their ears, unable to bear it. There’s a lot of metaphor going on here, I think to myself as I crack open my $5 bag of Goldfish.
Eventually, a sigh of relief sweeps through the auditorium after the Daniel Caesar cover (a curious way to end the evening, to say the least) finishes. A few words along the lines of “Shot for IMAX” briefly dance on screen. Roll credits. ~~~~~~~~~
Takeaways:
As someone conditioned (probably by Marvel) to stay seated until the very end of a screening, I was one of the last people to leave once the house lights went back up. I don’t know what I was expecting, especially since we literally saw Kanye leave, but a part of me was hoping for more. Something. Anything. Not a single word was uttered about the album, or what was to be expected re: next steps, and yet no one seemed to care. I started having lots of thoughts about fame, celebrity, what it means to be of faith, and re-examined my criticisms of religious people.
I began to realize I might be of faith to art, and that it is likely a sign of privilege to criticize those who do believe in God. That I’m passing judgement on faith, when my faith in good art to articulate and validate my thoughts is at times the only way I can make sense of the world. Faith in someone like Kanye. Maybe religion reflects an external locus of control, which I’m only lucky enough to criticize on account of being privileged, and literally can control anything in my life if I actually, truly wanted to. Maybe art is my version of “God”. Maybe Kanye already knows this. Maybe this whole rouse is all one big charade for us to further deify him. His son is literally named Saint for goodness sake. Or maybe, more innocently, his plan all along was really just to spread the good word of Jesus Christ, because he really believes in doing so, only now he’s doing it more explicitly and with less subtlety.
An old acting teacher of mine used to often say that, “Good art should disturb the comfortable, and comfort the disturbed”. Obviously, “good” is subjective. Not to mention that upon acknowledging the religious undertones of the word good, “good art” takes on a layered meaning here.
But I think strictly speaking by this axiom, Jesus is King is good art.
It’s certainly given me a lot to think about.
Hope you enjoyed reading this :)

https://youtu.be/EUoGkKsL_Mk
week #105 - 2/11/2018
run over by a truck is a off kilter hidden gem on the deluxe version of raditude. it effectively hides an emotional impact behind its goofiness, in much the same way as the original cant stop partying. the bouncy piano and goofy couplets betray the reality described in the chorus: "i'm lacking the passion to do anything, i don't care much about anything..." in the bridge it is revealed that the death of a grandmother is the source of this pain, and he laments "how i wish that i had been around" in between mournful oh-woahs. it's surprisingly not only quite effective, but also eloquently done, considering the album it found itself on. even those goofy lines hold more depth than you'd think - he claims to used to learn chinese before saying japanese phrases, and he talks about his basketball habits before listing soccer plays. it's not poetry, but it's got a little depth to it. even instrumentally its nice, the song slowly adding guitar tracks and drums to compliment the bouncy piano. the song's most fatal flaw is that it's on raditude, which means the glossy production siphon most of the life out of what could have been a far more emotional statement. i can safely say this is the best song to come out of the raditude era, although i kind of like it being on the deluxe version. it feels like its own weird little rarity, and i'm not so sure it'd fit on the main album (and not just because it's so much better).

I used to sing songs at the break of the day Zippity-doo-dah Zippity-ay Workin' myself into a frenzy But I don't do that no more no way I used like to learn how to speak in Chinese "O-Kudasai" means "Baby, would ya please" Conjugate your verbs with the greatest of ease But I fell down hard on my bended knees
I feel like I've been run over by a truck I don't care much about anything I'm happy to sing I'm lackin' the passion to do anything I feel like I've been run over by a truck I don't care much about anything So give me a ring And tell me to wake up and do anything
I used to play B-ball down at the park Runnin' up the sideline until it got dark Outside step-over with my right foot Push off with the outside of my left foot I used to chat up the girls out in the club Lookin' for one of 'em to give me some love The show wasn't over till the dough-boy come Old, young, fat, dumb, I loved everyone
Grandma never was a pushover Ain't nobody try to step to her She could teach a common hustler to dance in France Till her plane came a-crashin' down On the way to see the Cleveland Brown She was scramblin' on fourth down How I wish that I had been around

alternate versions:
jackknife lee version
song of the week archive: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1b2nJlkbqWlVfRY3_k_yoZFtq8-t1Hv1eJhWp8A6IvtY/edit#gid=0

I know we have a few of these posts already but I feel like some people are too bat shit mad about everything to take a step back and look at the programming, that or too many people hate "the dave castro" to really look at the big picture! He's not the only one who programs, he has a team and his team tests shit all the time, stop hating on him and fyi, he loves the hate!
I watched every single heat of every single event for the individuals and thoroughly enjoyed the experience
Events: Here's some minor tweaks which would have made the games much more manageable/entertaining for the viewers
Pier Paddle this was just kinda boring tbh, don't really have a fix, I felt the same about the sandbag event but its a good test, and the wheelbarrow aspect was very tense
Morning Murph: Murph was not the problem, murph with the vest in the middle of the day with the heat with little rest before the snatch ladder was
Snatch Speed ladder: I know the tennis stadium is only small but more athletes in each heat would have been much more entertaining! I understand why (snatches more dangerous, more likely for barbells to go flying/crash) but only 5 people wasn't as exciting as the 8-10 like last years cleans
Heavy DT: Too damn heavy after the volume of the day, -10 or 15lbs and you'd probably be sweet, double DT would have been stupid
Sprint Course was fast and surprisingly entertaining, but maybe a wall to climb or another obstacle, and why not make this in the morning or put this event on just before the last team event for the day
Soccer chippeClean and jerk I really enjoyed, womens weight probably should have been 20lbs lighter for the pig
Triangle Couplet, coming off last years clean speed ladder + push pull, this just lacked the wow factor of 2014 or 2013s legless event, it was just kinda eh, cool couplet but didn't wow like Push Pull or legless
Midline Madness was the only event that could have been heavier I think, and maybe make it 3rounds of 400 + 100ft carry
Pedal to the Metal, the event which is dividing crossfitters, I personally really loved this event, loved watching the whole thing. Women's heats obviously lacked people pulling off the peg board, but it was kind of cool watching these super women be taking down by this task and made the women who could do it seem even more incredible. But each of the categories came down to the final event, and not just that the leader going into the event was not the leader coming out, and that was insane to watch. Fraser vs Smith will go down as one of the best crossfit games finishes of all time
Lastly again stop hating on Castro and thinking he's the problem, he's a character for the games because it gets attention! He's not the only one who programs, he is the face of the programmers, this happens all the time with other sports, gaming and so many other activities, people hate the face of the group of people in charge, they leave and the problems are still there because it comes from a team!
Commentators needs more than 1 thing to say about each athlete too...
What other minor things do you think should change in order to make the games better?