ht JD
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Another Week Ends: More Linsanity, IMonk Grace, TechnoSabbaths, Defending Nic Cage, DFW on Corrosive Illusions, Cougarton Abbey and GNR Rumors
1. Just in case you haven’t overdosed on Linsanity yet, David Brooks offers a sympathetic big-picture perspective in his column in The NY Times, highlighting how the culture of achievement and glory in professional sports conflicts with ethical framework espoused by most of the major religious traditions. Some will certainly say that Brooks going overboard, but I’m not so sure. Of course, there are plenty of valid, non-religious ways to rationalize competition, but attempts to do so on the basis of Christianity have always struck this blogger as particularly unconvincing, ht TB:
The moral ethos of sport is in tension with…
Batman: The Agony of Loss and the Madness of Desire, Part 4c
You guessed it, Bat-Fans: this time The Riddler is our subject. As always, to start with, er, year one of Jeremiah Lawson’s soon-to-be-definitive exploration of Batman mythology, go here. Or to simply catch up on the current arc, the villain-themed The Wounds of Discovery, go here.
PART FOUR: THE WOUNDS OF DISCOVERY
3. The Life and Death of the Mind
All this I tested by wisdom and I said, “I am determined to be wise” — but this was beyond me. Ecclesiastes 7:28
Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Proverbs…
Damsels in Distress Trailer!!!
“We’re also trying to make a difference in people’s lives. And one way to do that is to stop them from killing themselves.”
Homina homina homina… To read our interview with writer-director Whit Stillman, go here. Or to figure out why we’re so excited about this film, dig into some of these posts. And don’t forget, yours truly will be leading a first-ever Mbird group outing to see the film in NYC on April 18th, the night before the Spring Conference. Once we get closer to the event, we’ll be taking names.
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Another Week Ends: Joseph Mills, Commitment Devices, Anxiety Rights, Bible Rescue, Imposter Syndrome, Hitch on Chesterton, Elmer Bernstein and Liz Lemon
1. One of the many things to adore about David Foster Wallace’s A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again is the cover (of the US edition). The collage manages to capture the torrential intellect at the heart of that wonderful collection without losing the humor. But it wasn’t until this past week that I knew anything about its designer, photographer/artist/pumpkin farmer Joseph Mills. The Washington City Paper did a feature on him back in 2003 in conjunction with an exhibit at the Corcoran, and Joseph’s words–and personal history with psychosis and depression–pack quite a punch, ht SJ:
When asked about…
Werner Herzog on Chickens
One of the funniest things I’ve seen in ages:
PZ’s Podcast 90-94: The Rest of Your Life, Sequels, G-d (Robinson Crusoe on Mars), Falsification and My New Program
Episode 90: “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?”
The song’s not actually that great. But the title!
This talk concerns your profession, and tries to say what I wish someone had said to me: I wish someone had said this to me when I was 21 and flailing around looking for something to do. I wish someone had said it to me when I was 41 and looking for something better to do. And I wish someone would say it to me when I’m 64 and still flailing around.
The original thought here comes from a paragraph towards the end…
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Another Week Ends: Immortal Smartphones, Jefferson Bethke, Adolescent Rewards, Profound Comedy, Therapeutic Irony, more George Lucas, Pixar and Hunger Games
1. In last weekend’s NY Times Magazine, Carina Chocano explained “The Dilemma of Being a Cyborg” – AKA what our current obsession with “data” has to say about our humanity – dropping her usual allotment of insight bombs along the way. Not only does she point out the increasingly prevailing illusion that if something wasn’t ‘documented’ it didn’t happen, she gets at the real crux of our smartphoned existence: the false promise of immortality. In other words, a familiar serpent has found its way into the, um, Apple Store:
This is the dilemma of being a cyborg: It’s not just that…
Batman: The Agony of Loss and the Madness of Desire, Pt 4b
Hey there, Bat-Fans! We interrupt our regularly scheduled blogging to bring you the next installment of Jeremiah Lawson’s expert look at Batman mythology. As the last entry indicated, these next few posts will look at the (utterly fascinating) psycho-spiritual motivations of the Dark Knight’s various villains.
PART FOUR: THE WOUNDS OF DISCOVERY
2. Idols of the Heart
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9
It’s not uncommon for a person to start down the path of wrong-doing through an obsession with a certain kind of relationship. We all know why restraining orders exist and we…
Cut the Blather: A 10-Point Mockingbird Super Bowl Preview
With two weeks between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl (ostensibly to let injured players heal) the hype machine goes into overdrive before the big game.
ESPN really has to scrape the bottom of the barrel to give some of its NFL analysts credibility. On their NBA studio show, to give a measure of perspective, Michael Wilbon introduces himself, and says that he’s joined by Jon Barry, “Hall-of-Famer Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson”, and Chris Broussard. That seems appropriate. On the NFL set, though, everyone’s gotta have something. Stuart Scott actually mentioned that he’d played for one day in an NFL…
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