Vampire Weekend has often been accused of making rather frivolous music that appeals mainly to hipsters, and, in many respects, that accusation is true of their first two albums, Vampire Weekend and Contra. Yet, I personally think that criticizing a band for writing about what they know, especially early in their career, has little merit. You never know when a band is going to take the next step and begin to touch on bigger ideas and struggles than, say, the use of the oxford comma or drinking horchata. On Modern Vampires of the City, the band retains its quirky, anything…
For Those Who Love Poorly: Forgiveness in The Woodsman & Around the Bend
“Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.” –Henri Nouwen
“…God’s grace and forgiveness, while free to the recipient, are always costly for the giver…. From the earliest parts of the Bible, it was understood that God could not forgive without sacrifice. No one who is seriously wronged can “just forgive” the perpetrator…. But when you forgive, that…
The Weight of Being a Gentleman
If you are a fan of college athletics, you are no doubt aware that the University of Alabama – my alma mater – lost one of its most beloved sons this past weekend. Mal Moore, who recently stepped down as athletics director , passed away on Saturday, March 30. A gentle, unassuming man in many respects, Coach Moore was a giant. As a player, coach and administrator, the man was part of ten – ten! – national championships in football. The athletics programs at the University are performing at a very high level, with excellent coaches and strong revenue streams.…
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…
New Music: Frightened Rabbit’s Pedestrian Verse
I wake up excited every Tuesday, even if there are no albums I am particularly anticipating, because every Tuesday brings the chance of stumbling into a thrilling musical experience. I had been hearing some buzz about Frightened Rabbit’s newest album, Pedestrian Verse, so I made sure to give it one of my first listens last Tuesday. Then, I listened to it again, and by Tuesday night I was recommending it to everyone I knew. A relative newcomer to the Scottish band’s music (although, since Tuesday I have listened to all of their albums), I was floored. Pedestrian Verse sounds like…
Grace When Justice Miscarries: The Story of the West Memphis Three
During the month of October while I drowned myself in slasher flicks, I chose four books that dealt with evil, horror, etc. to read alongside the horror. Mara Leveritt’s true crime book, Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three, was one of the selections (and is currently being made into a major motion picture). The book tells the unfolding tale of three teenagers who were accused, tried and convicted of killing and mutilating the bodies of three 8-year-old boys in the small town of West Memphis, Arkansas. The way the book plays out is much like that…
The Power of Listening in New Girl
This post comes from my wife, Hawley Schneider. She has been my muse on many occasions, providing pieces of culture she thinks I should consider writing about or incorporating into my preaching and teaching. I keep saying, why don’t you write something about it? She finally has:
I have a few shows that I like to call “folding TV.” I keep it under wraps that I sometimes watch them, generally doing so while folding laundry, by myself. They’re shows that are easy to watch without paying a lot of attention, and ones that my husband might not keep at the top of…
Previously on Parenthood: I Thought I Could Do It All, but I Can’t …
This is a little tardy since the most recent episode of Parenthood (“There’s Something I Need to Tell You …”) aired over a week ago, but I—perhaps like many of you—typically watch shows online several days later. Nevertheless, this is a follow up to a recent post regarding new developments in the Braverman clan. I am really enjoying season 4 for all its insight into human nature (and relationships, and suffering, and grace…), and this time I want to highlight what is happening with the Julia Braverman-Graham, the hard charging lawyer in the family played by Erika Christensen.
Spoiler alert: Don’t…
New Music: Mumford and Sons’ Babel
Everyone’s favorite British folk band, Mumford and Sons, and their latest album, Babel, have been a hot news item since the album was released a couple of weeks ago. Depending on who you ask, the band’s music is heartfelt and refreshing, beautifully expressing the human desire for love and grace or maudlin and mediocre, only created to prey on the sentimentality of the general population. Two recent articles on the band illustrate the variety of opinions that have been voiced about Babel and the obvious religious symbolism in the group’s music: the first, “Mumford & Sons Preaches to Masses”, from…
Ted Hughes on Inner Children and the Center of Magic and Revelation
Consistently in the Gospels, Christ tells people that they must become like little children in order to enter the Kingdom of God, in order to see the world properly through lenses unclouded by the ego (in modern terms), unimpaired by the countless protections and rationalizations and self-justifying constructions which permeate adult life. Last week Letters of Note, a blog that publishes interesting letters by public figures, featured an explication of the inner child by none other than Ted Hughes as he addresses his son’s feelings of childishness. It’s well worth reading in its entirety here, but some highlights include:
Nicholas, don’t…
Public Library Consquence and Amnesty (and Its Fruit)
A recent article over at Consumerist.com about the Chicago Public Library’s recent three-week long amnesty period waiving all overdue fines has caught my attention since this grace period prompted one person to return a 78-years overdue copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
It all started when her mom’s childhood friend checked out the copy of the 1911 edition in 1934 and never returned it. She even wrote her own name in the front of the book. Somehow it ended up with her mother, and the daughter found it in her deceased mother’s belongings back in 1993. But…
Elmo Loves You
About a year ago my daughter developed a deep affection for that furry red monster from Sesame Street, Elmo. I admit at first I was skeptical: Isn’t that the annoying little Muppet, you know, the one with the irritating laugh? But my wife and I quickly learned the power that the YouTube video of “Elmo’s Song” had in calming down an irate toddler, so we grew to appreciate Elmo.
About the same time, the documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey was released. I’m a little behind the game here given the documentary is no current event, but I feel obligated to write something…
New Music: Derek Webb’s Ctrl
“‘Ctrl’ is about one man’s desire for something he can’t have because it isn’t real, his journey pursuing it, and the costs of that journey.”-Derek Webb on Twitter
As someone who began listening to Derek Webb in 2004, shortly after the release of his second album I See Things Upside Down, I can say with confidence that Ctrl marks yet another evolution in Webb’s music, drawing upon the best of his earlier acoustic work and the recent electronic tinkering of Stockholm Syndrome and Feedback. At least on the surface, Ctrl should avoid most of the controversy that tends to follow Webb…
Kierkegaard on Erotic Love, Divine Sorrow and True Imputation
We’re embarking on one of Kierkegaard’s bizarre thought-experiments here, on the love of God in Christ. It’s anthropomorphic, it’s controversial, and it’s all possibly a crock of you-know-what…but it’s deeply moving and, to this blogger’s mind, it brings out some brilliant aspects of God’s love and imputation’s reality.
God’s eternal motive with regard to man is to make His love understood – just to communicate it, in the same way a romantic feels compulsion to send a love letter or an avid fan absolutely must praise the author of a book or song. God’s love for us compels him to make that…
von Balthasar on Buddhism; or, Zen and Jesus
A well-known 20th-century Catholic theologian on non-Christian religions:
Because through his faith and love Socrates – perfectly and to the point of folly – subordinated his existence to the daimon within him, he can be an intimation of Christ: he points to the divine by himself being a highway for the divine. The same could be said of Buddha or Lao Tzu. It is from their lived doctrine that Zen developed, the essence of which is to give practical training in how to transcend one’s own consciousness, how to make the finite spirit a vessel of the infinite Spirit – a flute…
David Zahl: Matt- Not sure if you've had the chance to read My Bright Abyss yet, ...
Bryan J.: I too have a difficult time with Vampire Weekend, though I'm trying ha...
mark mcculley: 1 Corinthians 6:20 You are not your own for you were bought with a pri...
Bill Chapman: I really cannot see why anyone coulkd be opposed to Esperanto. I’ve us...
Carl Laamanen: This is by far my favorite of their albums, and the album is paced won...