1. Last week I mentioned a recent study exploring the physical impact of keeping secrets, and by implication, the biological necessity of confession (to say nothing of absolution). This week, that study has become manifest in an alarming way. A Reddit thread which asked the question, “What Secret Could Ruin Your Life If It Came Out?” has turned into a stomach-churning tour of the darkest recesses of the human heart and experience, with people anonymously confessing to things as innocuous as petty theft and faking an illness (e.g. “I once helped out my a female friend’s family by taking care…
Another Week Ends: The New York Mets, The New York Smokers, The New Wash-Ups, The Myth of the Man Pig, and the Voice and the Self
1. A touching piece by dying atheist Christopher Hitchens in the recent Vanity Fair, writing quite confessionally on the loss of his own voice in his bout with terminal cancer. The way it is written, and through reference to a heart-piercing Leonard Cohen lyric, one can sense that this silencing is a deeper sort of loss of self, the “unspoken truth” that what he was by way of his voice, exposes a deeper presence of something in its very disappearance (ht AZ).
My chief consolation in this year of living dyingly has been the presence of friends. I can’t eat or…
November Playlist
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…
Nick Cave Introduces the Gospel of Mark
Almost ten years ago, Canongate Books published a series of single books from the Bible with prefaces from some unlikely people. Bono did the Psalms, Doris Lessing took Ecclesiastes, and Australian post-punk/goth singer-songwriter Nick Cave introduced Mark. I hadn’t gotten around to reading Cave’s piece until recently. For those with only a passing familiarity with Cave, a musician known primarily for the dark and violent content of his lyrics, the choice seemed odd. But anyone who had been listening closely knew that Cave’s music had long been soaked in Biblical language and ideas (his recent, critically acclaimed record Dig!!! Lazarus…
John Zahl: Congrats to everyone involved! What a huge accomplishment! I know Eth...
Charles: "full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction" ...
Paul Walker: Amazing post! Thank you....
David Morton: Thanks! Ummm... yeah... that was probably the most dead-on, jam p...
Mark Salomon: How am I only discovering this... today? Best to you and your future e...