Posts tagged "Bob Dylan"
Creative Impasse, The Insight Experience and Highway 61 Revisited
Psychology / Science / Social Science

Creative Impasse, The Insight Experience and Highway 61 Revisited

by David Zahl on Apr 16, 2012 • No Comments

From the first chapter of Jonah Lehrer’s new book Imagine: How Creativity Works, in which the whiz kid illustrates a particularly sympathetic part of the creative process with a particularly sympathetic example. Shades of death and resurrection in the creative life of a man who often sang about it, ht MBH:

Every creative journey begins with a problem. It starts with a feeling of frustration, the dull ache of not being able to find the answer. We have worked hard, but we’ve hit the wall. We have no idea what to do next.

When we tell one another stories about creativity, we…

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Hey, Hey, It’s The Monkees (and Saint Matthew and Bob Dylan and The Holy Ghost)!
Music / Religion / TV

Hey, Hey, It’s The Monkees (and Saint Matthew and Bob Dylan and The Holy Ghost)!

by David Zahl on Mar 13, 2012 • 6 Comments

Davy Jones’ premature death last month was only the most recent (and visceral) in a long line of Monkee tragedies. Journalists have done their best to respect the late entertainer, shoring up The Monkees’ legacy by mentioning their influence on such contemporary attempts to manufacture prefab chart-toppers as American Idol and The Voice. And they’re not wrong. The Monkees do represent one of the more crass meetings of commerce and art in the TV-era. But the larger tragedy is that most people think that’s all they were.

The singles speak for themselves: “Last Train to Clarksville” “Valleri” “Listen to the Band”…

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PZ’s Podcast, 80-83: I’ll Catch The Sun, Violette Amoureuse, Speaking in Tongues, and I’m Younger Than That Now
Education / Film / Grace in Practice / Music / Relationships

PZ’s Podcast, 80-83: I’ll Catch The Sun, Violette Amoureuse, Speaking in Tongues, and I’m Younger Than That Now

by Mockingbird on Jan 9, 2012 • No Comments

EPISODE 80: I’ll Catch The Sun

This is about sentimentality. I’m not so bearish about sentimentality as I once was. In fact, I’m pretty bullish on it these days.

Yes, I know: “Sentimentality (is supposed to be) long-term cruelty.” And some well-known dictators have been a lot nicer to their pets than to their subjects. In other words, it’s possible to be a sentimentalist and awful at the same time.

But sentimentality has the benefit of being in touch with feeling. And feeling is good. Feeling is deep, instinctive almost, and often allied with love. Don’t we generally wish we had more “heart”…

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The Slighty Sacramental Dignity of Dignity Therapy
Death / Forgiveness / Psychology

The Slighty Sacramental Dignity of Dignity Therapy

by David Zahl on Sep 14, 2011 • No Comments

A fitting follow-up to our recent post about how memory relates to self-justification from NPR, “For the Dying, A Chance to Rewrite Life.” The segment looks at a new therapeutic technique being used with the dying, something called “dignity therapy,” which involves those in the last stages of life putting together formal written narratives of their lives. As you might imagine, the results have a sacramental aspect, combining confession, apology, self-justification, delusion and willful if heartfelt revision. What’s perhaps most interesting is the conclusion of the piece; dignity therapy may superficially appeal to our denial of death – i.e. the…

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Steve Jobs, Positively 4th Street and the Upside of Anger
Grace in Practice / Law / Music / Psychology / Social Science

Steve Jobs, Positively 4th Street and the Upside of Anger

by David Zahl on Aug 31, 2011 • 3 Comments

Apple cultivates such a serene image, it’s hard to believe that the underlying corporate culture, at least if reports about Steve Jobs’ management techniques are to be believed, is one of confrontation, brutal criticism and threat. Then again, perfectionism tends to produce such fruit. Sort of the opposite of Pixar, which is ironic, since Jobs help found that studio as well. Not that either company has suffered creatively (Cars 2 notwithstanding).

Over at Wired, Jonah Lehrer uses Jobs’ announcement last week as an opportunity to report on a few recent discoveries on the relationship between creativity and anger. Discoveries which frankly…

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Another Week Ends: Online Echo Chambers, Deathbed Regrets, Dylan at the Cross, MJ’s Bad, Singing Spiderman, Penmanship Psychology & Seinfeld
America / Celebrity / Death / Music / Psychology / Religion / Technology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Online Echo Chambers, Deathbed Regrets, Dylan at the Cross, MJ’s Bad, Singing Spiderman, Penmanship Psychology & Seinfeld

by David Zahl on Jun 3, 2011 • 2 Comments

1. A couple of articles that follow-up on the filter bubble phenomenon we posted on last week, both from The NY Times. The first is an editorial by Eli Pariser, “When The Internet Thinks It Knows You” and the second a slightly broader look at the issue, “The Trouble With The Echo Chamber Online.” While the issue is clearly an important one, the solutions being proposed – i.e. programmed diversity  – strikes me as a tad shallow. That is, there’s clearly a resistance to the idea that we might actually be culpable in our selective listening/browsing in a way that…

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Christmas / Music

Bob Dylan on the Christmas Craze

by Ethan on Dec 21, 2010 • 1 Comment

It seems that Dylan might have written Russ’s entry! As the list gets longer (“Ho ho ho”, beard that’s white, cherry nose, reindeer sleigh, and so on, and so on), the pace gets quicker, and the party gets rowdier. Watch as the classic mood goes from jovial festivity–arm-swinging good times–to a violent barrage of shattering nog glasses and chandelier swinging. I love the shrug at the end. What are you gonna do? What can be done?

It seems that Christmas brings out the best in us.

PZ’s Podcast This Week: The British Invasion
Film / Music / Poetry / Theology

PZ’s Podcast This Week: The British Invasion

by Mockingbird on Aug 19, 2010 • 1 Comment

Today two new talks have been published on “PZ’s Podcast” (Subscribe free on iTunes.)

The first is entitled The Browning Version and concerns a 1951 movie starring Michael Redgrave and written by Terence Rattigan, which is based on Rattigan’s 1948 play.

It is about a man who must lose his life in order to gain it. The material connects directly with the 25th Chorus of “Mexico City Blues”:

Is my own, is your own,
Is not Owned by Self-Owner
but found by Self-Loser –
Old Ancient Teaching

This podcast is dedicated to David Browder.

The second cast for this week is called “‘Man Gave Names…

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Thursday Afternoon Blues: Blind Willie McTell and Mark Miller
Music / Suffering / Theology

Thursday Afternoon Blues: Blind Willie McTell and Mark Miller

by Mockingbird on Jul 22, 2010 • 2 Comments

Mockingbird friend Mark Miller has just released an amazing record called “Ain’t It Grand: The Gospel Songs of Blind Willie McTell.” It’s really quite astonishing – gospel blues of the highest order with some jaw-dropping slide guitar. Get your copy today, and then tell everyone you know! We need to support this very worthy project. The music speaks for itself, as do Mark’s powerful liner notes:

My fascination with the music and life of Blind Willie McTell began on a seemingly mundane Tuesday morning in September 2009. I was searching through my iTunes for songs when a title that both intrigued…

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Rating My Life Away: Van Halen, STP and Bob Dylan’s Street Legal
Identity / Law / Music

Rating My Life Away: Van Halen, STP and Bob Dylan’s Street Legal

by David Zahl on Apr 12, 2010 • 5 Comments

In 1994, Chuck Klosterman wrote an insightful and very funny piece for Spin entitled “Give Me Centrism of Give Me Death!” where he argued:

If you are the kind of person who talks about music too much, there are two words that undoubtedly play an integral role in your workaday lexicon: “overrated” and “underrated.” This is because those two sentiments pop up in 90 percent of all musical discussions…

I am not interested in overrated and underrated bands. 

It’s too easy, and all it means is that somebody else was wrong. I’m obsessed with bands that are rated as accurately…

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Maybe Rod Stewart Is Amazed By The Groom Still Waiting At The Altar
Music / Playlist / Religion

Maybe Rod Stewart Is Amazed By The Groom Still Waiting At The Altar

by David Zahl on Mar 23, 2010 • 13 Comments

If you’re not a Rod Stewart fan, that’s understandable. Lord knows the man has given even his most faithful followers plenty of reasons to jump ship over the years, the least of which being his recent reinvention as Tony Bennett, Mach II. Greil Marcus once proclaimed, perhaps a little unfairly, that “no one in the history of popular music has more comprehensively betrayed their talent than Rod Stewart.” Indeed, it is increasingly difficult to believe that there was period of time between 1968 and 1975 when Rod made some of the most glorious music the idiom has ever produced. His…

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Another Reason To Buy Bob Dylan’s Christmas In The Heart
Christmas / Interviews / Music / News / Religion

Another Reason To Buy Bob Dylan’s Christmas In The Heart

by David Zahl on Nov 30, 2009 • 4 Comments

From an interview he did with the North American Street Newspaper Association last week in support of Christmas In The Heart. The entire interview is very much worth reading, but for our purposes, the clear highlight is:

Interviewer: You really give a heroic performance of O’ LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM. The way you do it reminds me a little of an Irish rebel song. There’s something almost defiant in the way you sing, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” I don’t want to put you on the spot, but you sure deliver that…

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November Playlist
Music / Playlist

November Playlist

by David Zahl on Nov 30, 2009 • 2 Comments

Pretty heavy on the classic rock this time. Happy belated Thanksgiving:

1. Heroes And Villains – The Beach Boys
2. Just Another Whistle Stop – The Band
3. Caribbean Wind – Bob Dylan
4. The Cross – Prince
5. Space Age Mom – Damien Jurado
6. Apple Of My Eye – Badfinger
7. Everytime I Itch I Wind Up Scratching You – Glen Campbell
8. Better Things – The Kinks
9. September Gurls – Big Star
10. Love Is The Law – The Seahorses
11. I Want Love – Elton John
12. Glorious Day – Embrace
13. Rue The Day – The Walkmen
14. God’s Comic – Elvis Costello
15. The Mercy Seat – Johnny…

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Another Week Ends: Kierkegaard, Suicidal Pastors, Andre Agassi, Rick Warren, Weezer, Julian C, BSG
Church / Identity / Music / Philosophy / Sports / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Kierkegaard, Suicidal Pastors, Andre Agassi, Rick Warren, Weezer, Julian C, BSG

by David Zahl on Oct 30, 2009 • 5 Comments

1. A very interesting blog post over at the NY Times entitled, “Kierkegaard, Despair and Depression”, the final paragraph of which is really something (ht Jeff Dean):

Each of us is subject to the weather of our own moods. Clearly, Kierkegaard thought that the darkling sky of his inner life was very much due to his father’s morbidity. But the issue of spiritual health looms up with regard to the way that we relate to our emotional lives. Again, for Kierkegaard, despair is not a feeling, but an attitude, a posture towards ourselves. The man who did not become Caesar, the…

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And Now… Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey (and Converted/De-Converted Rockers)
Humor / Music / Religion

And Now… Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey (and Converted/De-Converted Rockers)

by David Zahl on Sep 28, 2009 • 5 Comments

1. I was reminded over the weekend of the brilliance of Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey, a SNL treasure from the 90s if ever there was one. Some favorites, including a few with thematic relevance:

I think a good product would be “Baby Duck Hat”. It’s a fake baby duck, which you strap on top of your head. Then you go swimming underwater until you find a mommy duck and her babies, and you join them. Then, all of a sudden, you stand up out of the water and roar like Godzilla. Man, those ducks really take off! Also, Baby Duck…

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