Posts tagged "NY Times"
The All-Seeing, Never-Seeing Google Goggles
Everyday / News / Technology

The All-Seeing, Never-Seeing Google Goggles

by Ethan Richardson on May 7, 2012 • 4 Comments

And little by little, Google crafts a creature-comfort Terminator. Here’s a look into the anticipated Google Project Glass:

It’s not that these probably won’t be the norm in five years–it’s that I always wanted to be the Terminator, and yet this Terminator is so lame. This Terminator is still kind of a control-freak, a hollow-bodied, short-attentioned ukelele-lover. He’s not an explosive-toter, a renegade Savior–he’s a Manhattan dweller who still doesn’t know where the Strand is, much less can he remember when a show is, or how long ago his friend said he’d meet him for “Mud Truck”. Bah! That sounds just…

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Another Week Ends: Celebrity Body Image, Depression Chemistry, the Burden of Secrecy, Fitz Allison, Ryan Gosling, Community, Game of Thrones, and Spiritualized
Celebrity / Film / Humor / Music / Psychology / Science / Suffering / Technology / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Celebrity Body Image, Depression Chemistry, the Burden of Secrecy, Fitz Allison, Ryan Gosling, Community, Game of Thrones, and Spiritualized

by David Zahl on Apr 27, 2012 • 5 Comments

1. On Slate, Emily Shire asks, “Should Celebrity Body ‘Struggles’ Make Us Feel Better About Ourselves?” and her insightful little response doubles as quite the treatise on the function of Standards (of beauty etc) and how attempts to allay judgment often backfire, i.e. that the notch on the scale isn’t the issue so much as the scale itself:

Allure’s feature is only one of the latest in a long line of magazine stories about female celebrities “bravely” grappling with their “physical imperfections.” A growing number of publications are trying to pass off barely-clad celebrities strutting their stuff as an inspiring act…

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Instagram Knowing: Why Little Sips Don’t Equal A Big Gulp
America / Identity / Relationships

Instagram Knowing: Why Little Sips Don’t Equal A Big Gulp

by Ethan Richardson on Apr 25, 2012 • 3 Comments

As if there weren’t enough people writing about it already, I suppose for posterity’s sake we’ll continue unfurling the scrolls. Apparently there’s an opinion out there that says that if we’re everywhere at once, we’re nowhere at all. That technology–most significantly the ever-presence of the smartphone, the synced life, the facebooked life–has kept anyone from knowing anybody. Why, though? Having a sister who lives 2,000 miles away, I’m glad I have a chance to watch my nieces and nephew grow up by way of her Instagram updates. Is there anything wrong with that? It’s a great way for me see…

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Angry Birds, Good Friday
Addiction / Technology / Theology

Angry Birds, Good Friday

by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Apr 6, 2012 • 7 Comments

This morning I hit snooze four or five times. And so began a day of making non-optimal self-defeating choices. So often—and I mean All The Time—we do things that we know will cause ourselves pain, suffering, regret, guilt, and unhappiness. And then we do it again. Yet so often, the advice we get is to make better choices. We appeal to our rational minds, our wills. It never works. But that fact doesn’t seem to bother any one. The sermons, advice columns, pep talks, and self-help books just keep coming.

For those who still believe people are rational and able to…

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Are Stage Mothers the New Tax Collectors? Toddlers, Tiaras and Dieting 7-Year Olds
America / Children / Gender / Identity / Law / Relationships

Are Stage Mothers the New Tax Collectors? Toddlers, Tiaras and Dieting 7-Year Olds

by David Zahl on Apr 4, 2012 • 3 Comments

A couple of notable new volleys in the parenting wars world. Doubtless by now you’ve heard about Dara-Lynn Weiss, the New York City mother who set off a firestorm by writing an article for Vogue detailing her, um, zealous efforts to curb her 7-year-old daughter’s eating habits. Apparently the poor girl in question was failing to “self-regulate” adequately at the preschool snack table. Weiss has been publicly reproached on every website imaginable (“I’m pretty sure Weiss just handed her daughter the road map to all her future eating disorders,” wrote one commenter on nymag.com), and it’s hard not to concur…

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S. Kierkegaard on the Anxiety of Alienation and Dizziness of Freedom
Philosophy / Psychology / Suffering

S. Kierkegaard on the Anxiety of Alienation and Dizziness of Freedom

by Blair on Mar 29, 2012 • 2 Comments

Somewhat recently, Gordon Marino, a professor of philosophy and director of the Hong Kierkegaard Library at St. Olaf College, authored a piece for The NY Times on Søren Kierkegaard’s experience with anxiety entitled, “Kierkegaard, Danish Doctor of Dread.” The subject here being a man who once described his pervasive dread in the following terms:

“All existence makes me anxious, from the smallest fly to the mysteries of the Incarnation; the whole thing is inexplicable, I most of all; to me all existence is infected, I most of all. My distress is enormous, boundless; no one knows it…

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Another Week Ends: Zeitgeistlichkeit, Atheist Religiosity, Freakonomic Fathers, Ralph Erskine, MJ, Devo’s Paradox, Hunger Games, Deep Blue Sea, and Hoarders
Books / Children / Death / Economics / Film / Humor / Law / Literature / Music / Religion / Theology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Zeitgeistlichkeit, Atheist Religiosity, Freakonomic Fathers, Ralph Erskine, MJ, Devo’s Paradox, Hunger Games, Deep Blue Sea, and Hoarders

by David Zahl on Mar 23, 2012 • No Comments

1. A pair of terrific book reviews have appeared in The NY Times over the last couple weeks, the first being Generation X author Douglas Coupland‘s inspiring riff on Hari Kunzu’s opus, Gods Without Men, and the exciting new genre it epitomizes (“Translit”). Ironically enough, he makes a number of Twitter-ready observations:

[We are living in a] “state of possibly permanent atemporality given to us courtesy of the Internet. No particular era now dominates. We live in a post-era without forms of its own powerful enough to brand the times. The zeitgest of 2012 is that we have a lot of…

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Another Week Ends: Indie Law, The New Marriage Killer, Futurizing Fear, Apatheism, Damsels in Distress, George Lucas and Downton Abbey
America / Film / Grace in Practice / Law / Music / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Social Science / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Indie Law, The New Marriage Killer, Futurizing Fear, Apatheism, Damsels in Distress, George Lucas and Downton Abbey

by David Zahl on Jan 27, 2012 • 3 Comments

1. In his short article “The Pitfalls of Indie Fame” on Grantland, Chuck Klosterman captures something we have been trying to say on here forever. Don’t be put off by all the music jargon; he is using the critical success of the tUnE-yArDs debut record as an opportunity to reflect on the cruelty of the Law. Which may be particularly pronounced in the indie world (or any rarified/snobby setting for that matter), but the phenomenon is universal. The human relationship to righteousness is a troubled one, love/hate at best, and it finds expression in every possible arena. And while non-religious…

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Does The “Age of Anxiety” Ever End?
America / Grace in Practice / News / Psychology / Social Science / Suffering

Does The “Age of Anxiety” Ever End?

by Blair on Jan 25, 2012 • 3 Comments

I’ve been a rather anxious person for most of my short (thus far) life. I was anxious about grades while in middle school, I was anxious about getting into college while in high school, and I was anxious about getting a job while a senior in college. Today, I’m anxious about an ever-lengthening “to-do” list that never seems to diminish. Tonight, I’m guessing I’ll be anxious about getting up early to go the gym. That being said, an article written by Daniel Smith (author of an anxiety-focused website, The Monkey Mind Chronicles) on what some have called our “Age of…

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Suicidal Psychosis, Young Marriage and One-Way Love
Grace in Practice / Relationships

Suicidal Psychosis, Young Marriage and One-Way Love

by David Zahl on Nov 28, 2011 • 4 Comments

A beautiful entry to the NY Times’ Modern Love series appeared this past weekend, Mark Lukach’s brave “Out of Darkness,” which reflects on his wife’s unexpected and prolonged period of mental illness, and his default role as a caregiver during that time. For whatever reason, stories of husbandly love are pretty thin in the column itself, and some might say they are hard to find, period. Perhaps this is because men tend not to write about these things as much, or perhaps because the kind of nurturing being recounted here is (falsely) viewed as a purely feminine domain, I don’t…

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Attitudes of Gratitude and the Most Psychologically Correct Holiday
Church / Psychology / Religion / Sermons / Theology

Attitudes of Gratitude and the Most Psychologically Correct Holiday

by David Zahl on Nov 23, 2011 • 2 Comments

John Tierney, co-author of the much Mbird-covered Willpower, published a column in The NY Times, which begins with the declaration that the most “psychologically correct holiday is upon us.” As much as I love Christmas, and as much as the spiritual/religious significance of Easter dwarves all its cousins, I can’t help but agree with him about Thanksgiving here. The article, which will likely set off your self-help alarms, contains more than a few worthy insights on that most Gospel of subjects: gratitude. That is, if you can read between the tips on “how to be more grateful” – which seem…

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Never-Enoughs, Good-Enoughs and Self-Improvement Junkies
Addiction / Gender / Identity / Psychology / Social Science

Never-Enoughs, Good-Enoughs and Self-Improvement Junkies

by David Zahl on Nov 9, 2011 • No Comments

A revealing piece by Alina Tugend in The NY Times, “Self-Improvement, at the Risk of Self-Acceptance,” tracing our collective obsession with growth and self-help, and how the Occupy movement might signal a much-needed reaction against American aspiration imperatives. While the political/ideological ramifications of her observations are still very much up for debate – Lord knows there’s plenty of basis for skepticism re: OWS – Ms. Tugend is nonetheless wise to draw attention to both the addictive aspect and illusory future-orientation of self-improvement culture. Which is not to say you can lump every “system” into the easy target of self-help (contrary…

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Another Week Ends: Ben Franklin’s Bible, Desperate Millennials, The Costanza Key to Success, Prohibition, Zombie vs. Vampire, Whit Stillman, Craig Thompson and Rango
Church / Comics / Film / Humor / Law / Politics / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Testimony / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Ben Franklin’s Bible, Desperate Millennials, The Costanza Key to Success, Prohibition, Zombie vs. Vampire, Whit Stillman, Craig Thompson and Rango

by David Zahl on Nov 4, 2011 • No Comments

1. Doubtless you’ve heard, but in a true laugh-or-you’ll-cry moment, Ben Franklin’s notorious “God helps those who help themselves” motto was quoted as Scripture from quite an auspicious, or I should say audacious, pulpit this past week. This just a few weeks after the Atlanta branch of my church put forward an out-of-nowhere (or, you could argue, an if-the-shoe-fits) proposal to rehabilitate Mockingbird baddie numero uno… Let’s just say it’s been a tough few weeks for us Augustinians.

2. A wonderful profile in The NY Times of Vito Aiuto and his church, Resurrection Pres in Brooklyn. You may remember him from…

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Dragon Mothers and the Greatest Love Story Ever Told
Children / Grace in Practice / Relationships

Dragon Mothers and the Greatest Love Story Ever Told

by David Zahl on Oct 17, 2011 • 10 Comments

When was the last time you cried reading The NY Times? Not just teared up, but really bawled? Well, if Emily Rapp’s “Notes from a Dragon Mom” doesn’t open the waterworks, I don’t know what will. It’s a staggering piece, the kind that puts all of our lives in due perspective, parenting- or otherwise. The theological implications are enormous and should hopefully be pretty clear (clue: they have less to do with parenting, more to do with being parented). Emily is describing the kind of love that is fundamentally unconcerned with results or behavior (because it can’t be) and is…

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“Quitster”: What Netflix Has Learned About Simplicity
America / Death / Money / News

“Quitster”: What Netflix Has Learned About Simplicity

by Ethan Richardson on Oct 12, 2011 • No Comments

You may have received a “reversal e-mail” this week from media titans Netflix, just days after launching their newly bifurcated delivery system with the addition of the mail-in-DVD division, Qwikster. To those patrons of Netflix who decried not just the accompanying price hike, but the new inconvenience of (imagine!) two accounts, two passwords, two queues, CEO Reed Hastings’ decision was certainly a move of public appeasement, saying: “This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster. While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.”

Really, it was a question of…

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