Here, in the title essay for Christian Wiman’s My Bright Abyss, he talks about the perennial nostalgia “seasoned” Christians tend to feel about the faith of younger years. Often selectively remembered (and often unhelpfully untrue), selves of the past are conjured up as a judgment upon the faith that is lacking here and now. We think about the devotion we used to have, the fervor. We used to journal, we say, we used to pray, really pray, as we walked to work–bible studies used to feel like something. Now it doesn’t so much–so what does that say about where the…
Reflections on Identity and Bracketology
Congratulations to Louisville, winners of the NCAA tournament, and the team I picked to win in my tournament bracket! Unlike Louisville though, I only came in third in my pool for picking who would advance throughout the annual collegiate basketball tournament. Third out of six participants. Some bracket I picked, huh?
Maybe it’s just me, but this year in particular, it felt like the trend of “bracketizing” things left the sports world and entered pop culture big time. Are you a fan of public radio programming? A Southern Cali public radio station put all your favorite programs on a bracket. Needless…
The 80s: A ‘Me’ Decade of Law-Gospel-Love
This one comes to us from our good friend Jonathan Adams:
Minding my own business at the local Starbucks this morning, everyone’s favorite high brow publication, USA Today, grabbed my eye, specifically, an article entitled “We’d Zap Back To The 80’s, If We Could” written in conjunction with National Geographic’s new documentary “The ’80s: The Decade that Made Us” which airs this weekend. The headline alone had me turning on my Walk-man and singing “Take on Me” by A-ha (the best music video MTV ever put out!). I was instantly transported into my parachute pants and Nike Air Jordan’s, break-dancing on…
Through the Wire: A Reading From the Post-Punk Gospel
Wire’s initial three albums have long been favorites of mine, especially the first and the third. The debut album, Pink Flag, employed punk minimalism and acidity with a slyly absurd literal-ism, while completely throwing out punk’s reliance on traditional rock n’ roll song structure. It’s fast and fun and leaves you off kilter in a way you don’t quite get at first. The third album, 154, is to me the consummate post-punk album, more so than say the usual suggestions of something by the Gang of Four, Joy Division or Pere Ubu. It’s polished and often desolate art rock (cold…
A Lenten Devotion: The Difficulty of Receiving and the Greatness of the Giver
‘This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.’ For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, ‘Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ Nehemiah 8:9-10
As the people weep and mourn for the sinful, law-breaking ways, Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites call the people to look no longer at themselves but…
Lighting Sixteen Candles at Lehman Brothers: When the Worst Thing Is the Best Thing
I’ve noticed a thread that runs through a few of my favorite (relatively) recent films. Win Win and City Island and Ruby Sparks and Secrets and Lies and even last year’s Flight–all highly recommended–tell stories where the thing that everyone is dreading, the outcome that the characters are working tirelessly to avoid, turns out to be the key to their personal happy ending. Films, in other words, where the worst thing that could happen turns out to be the best thing and vice versa. This is what John Z talks about so beautifully in the opening to Grace in…
16 Horsepower Grace and the Music of David Eugene Edwards
When I’m in the studio I have the opportunity to do things in a certain way, and I try to make records more pleasant sounding, records that you can listen to while you’re sitting in your room. But live, I want to rip your throat off with the music, I want to beat you into a pulp with the law. I bring the law, I bring it! So you wanted to live by it? You want to know what’s good and evil? OK, let’s talk about it, if you wanna live by your expectations or someone else’s. But I know…
Failure is Always an Option: Reflections on Searching My Way Out of a Job
A few months ago, the associate pastor search committee at my church—of which I am a member—began the process of meeting to find the new addition to the church staff; in effect, leading to the end of my interim position as college ministry director. I have been working toward my own demise as a member of the staff. All interims know that a pink slip has been filled out for them from the first day that they started, but my scenario is a little different than most. I was a member of the church and in the college ministry before…
“Excuse Me, Ma’am, But That’s TMI”: Six Favorite Moments of 2012
I’m not an avid enough moviegoer to give you a list of my favorite films of the year. I’m nowhere near up to speed on current music enough to talk about the best artists of 2012. The only books I’ve read are theological ones, mostly Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther, so books of 2012? I haven’t got a clue. What I can give you as a year-in-review a la LRE Larkin, is, well, me. So what follows are some of the moments this past year when I was reminded that I don’t have my act together, that I’m not in…
Newly Unemployed Newlyweds and Billy Joel’s Fiery Optimism
And now for an inspired change of pace from new contributor Charlotte Getz:
I’ve recently become fixated on fire – in both its noun and verb form. This preoccupation began when, three days after returning from my honeymoon, ten days into my marriage, I was fired from my position as a first-time 5th and 6th grade teacher. This jarring turn of events has (much like the beginnings of a B-rated rom-com) led to some soul searching. After weeks of crosswords, wedding thank you notes, episodes of Gilmore Girls, and intermittent moments of panic, I’ve landed on Billy Joel’s 1989 hit “We…
An Inspirational Speech: Chuck Pagano and The Power of The Word
Here’s Colts head coach Chuck Pagano in the locker room after his team won on Sunday. Pagano has been unable to coach the team this season, having been diagnosed with leukemia and undergoing chemotherapy:
My first response to this video was, “Really? People are really inspired by the ‘Rah rah I’m gonna beat this and we’re gonna win’ stuff?” I was all prepared to compose a post about that old sports saying that Father Time is undefeated. In the sports world, it’s used to call attention to the inevitability of players aging and declining in ability. It happens even…
PZ’s Podcast: Horror Hotel, Les Elucubrations de PZ, Over the River I&II, and “Hoping Without Hope” Conf Preview
Episode 117: Horror Hotel
Guess I’ve learned something new, or at least new to me, from an old and beloved source. That source is a tight little expressionist movie from 1960 entitled Horror Hotel. It featured Christopher Lee and Patricia Jessel, and was written by George Baxt. Horror Hotel, which was made in England about Americans, understands the phenomenon it is talking about, acutely. Horror Hotel understands the phenomenon it is talking about to be the drive to prolong physical life. The “heroine” and her husband, played by the sinister Valentine Dyall, are all about prolonging life. They are taking extreme…
Fathers and Sons
My third anniversary as a father is fast approaching and I find myself asking, like David Byrne, ‘How did I get here?’ I’m 40 now. I’ve got a toddler. I’ve got a proper job. I’ve got a little gray hair. I eat vegetables and watch my fiber intake. I quit going to clubs years ago; pubs, perhaps, but only if it isn’t too crowded, or noisy. My parents have already had one minor surgery each…well, just ‘a procedure‘ really. I saw the new Bourne movie last week with my wife, and I’m not that guy…I imagine that I am, but…
The Road (to Canterbury) Goes on Forever: Gregg Allman the Unlikely Episcopalian
I just finished reading Gregg Allman’s really-pretty-good new memoir, My Cross to Bear, and the final chapter contains a revelation too unexpected not to share here. Which isn’t to say the first eighteen chapters aren’t full of remarkable twists and turns as well. There are more than enough anecdotes to support the Almost Famous-Allman Brothers connection, and let’s just say that Gregg’s legendary proclivity for female, er, attention does not go undocumented. Nor does his distaste for one Mr. Richard Betts. But as much as debauchery and dysfunction serve as touchstones, so do sorrow and tragedy–which you might expect from…
Violence in Gotham, Pittsburgh, and Aurora: Breaking the 4th Wall
This post is not a review of The Dark Knight Rises, but a bit of therapeutic reflection on the massacre that occurred in Aurora Co. during the midnight showing of the movie. So consider this piece to be spoiler free and a bit more vulnerable than the average Mockingbird post. For those who are interested in the film itself, Mockingbird’s two official reviews of TDKR are WB’s “The Dark Knight (Dies and) Rises: Sacrifice and Freedom in Gotham” and Jeremiah Lawson’s three-part “A Path Through Three Prisons: Bruce Wayne in Nolan’s Batman Trilogy.”
Mockingbird has often discussed the drama concept of…
brandon: This needs to be the onion article: Man who burns Down Neighbors Yard ...
Zach: "Amen" 27 times to that Bradley post. All that stuff about being "mis...
John Zahl: The British version blows the American version out of the water! One ...
Scot: To this psychiatric-clinic veteran, Amy clearly has the entire range o...
michael cooper: The Office at its best was full of grace-infused irony, and concrete p...