LIBERATE gave us quite a gift on Friday! It only takes 10 minutes to unwrap. Amazing:
Jono and Paul-Vimeo HD from Coral Ridge | LIBERATE on Vimeo.
PZ’s Podcast: Girl Can’t Help It and Old Man River
Episode 142: Girl Can’t Help It
I’d like this one to be considered avant-garde. Like Journey.
It’s a pastoral meditation on realism and hope, geared a little from Eric Rohmer’s “political” movie of 1993, “The Tree, The Mayor, and The Mediatheque”.
This cast also gives me a chance to introduce ‘George’ to my listeners. He’s been with me since the 2nd of April. I christened him ‘George’ on the basis of a “Way Out” episode from long ago, entitled “Dissolve to Black”. My friend George, however, is nicer than the original ‘George’.
Anyway, I hope you like the music, hope you like the movie,…
PZ’s Podcast: Easter with Los Straitjackets
EPISODE 141
Yes, I know they’re Down Under this month, but their songs they leave behind them.
The real purpose of this cast is to ask, What’s been going wrong with our failing Christian lives — our failing religious lives — and what, to sound practical and American, can be done about it?
These days I feel like Marco Polo said he felt when he returned from his travels: He’d seen a lot and had a lot to tell. He might even be able to help some fellow travelers from falling into the kind of ditches that he had. I doubt anyone really…
Addiction / America / Film / Grace in Practice / Literature / Music / Politics / Relationships / Social Science / Suffering / Technology / Week In Review
Another Week Ends: Gucci Addictions, Narcissism Epidemics, DFW, Phone vs. Heart, PZ on Drones (on CNN), R. Crumb, Tale of Two Suedes, and Kung Fu Grandpa
1. The author of the original Friday Night Lights, Buzz Bissinger, dropped as offbeat and not-quite-repentant a tale of addiction on GQ this month as I have ever come across. A convergence of shopping and sex addiction rooted in Law-induced despair (never being able to measure up to initial success) and plain old powerlessness, the circumstances are so outrageous you almost wonder if it’s a prank. Like many an addict/human being, Bissinger is peculiar mix of self-loathing and self-indulgence, both fearful and proud at the same time, his smatterings of wisdom covered up by layers of misanthropic confusion and a…
A Lenten Devotion: Matthew Chapter Twenty One Verses Four and Five
Did you know that we are releasing, at our upcoming spring conference, The Mockingbird Devotional? Five years in the making, with 365 devotions from over 60 writers, the devotional travels from Genesis to Revelation to bring you God’s good news–including this Holy Week-appropriate reflection from Paul Zahl himself.
This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass.’” (RSV)
Palm Sunday is a day in the Christian Calendar, and a day in history,…
PZ’s Podcast: Lobo’s Dating Tips for Christian Guys and Journey with Boo, Me and You
Episode 138: Lobo’s Dating Tips for Christian Guys
This is a small exercise in Camp, a sort of “Visit to a Small Planet”. The text is the singles of Lobo. They are so “nuanced”, in terms of romantic relationships, that it’s hard to believe they were ever hits. But they were!
You could also say that this is a further note on “Notes from the Underground (River)”, the lecture series recently released by Mockingbird.
I had to leave out one of Lobo’s best songs, by the way, because it is just too heartbreaking. But you will hear “Don’t Expect Me To Be Your…
Now Available! Notes From The Underground (River): A Course in Grace in Practice
Announcing a brand new audio resource from Mockingbird! These 18 hours of lectures from Dr. Paul F.M. Zahl were recorded last summer during a week-long course he taught on his book Grace in Practice: A Theology of Everyday Life. They are now available for download on our Publications page for $30.
The Gospel of forgiveness is a beautiful idea, but it can be difficult to connect with our daily, down-in-the-trenches lives in a way that’s meaningful for practical experience. Christianity is often maligned as limiting and downbeat, but at its core lies the all-encompassing message of grace, which liberates the heart…
PZ’s Podcast: Brandy Station, Pillar of Salt, Elevator, Peaches La Verne, Hero of the War
Episode 133: Brandy Station
This one is about the creative process, the listening to God, as I would put it; and also about the Peace of God, to bring about the reconciling of opposites in the healing of the world.
I was thinking about “Peace Train” by Cat Stevens, which put me in touch with Looking Glass, “Brandy”, not to mention “Brandy’s” follow-up (It’s wonderful, as you will hear.); not to mention the memorable garment worn by the lead singer of Looking Glass and that comfort-food voice which calmed all fear.
Why is it the music for PZ’s podcast that’s almost the most…
PZ’s Podcast: Love in the First Degree
EPISODE 132
We’ve got to move forward, just got to. “Come on, feet, don’t fail me now.” Even in isolation we’ve got to move forward, tho’ it’s better to move forward with colleagues and friends, and “thinking together” people, like the great Kreisau Circle of 1944 and ’45. Sometimes you can’t help being alone as you forge ahead.
I got a little help here from Christopher Isherwood: some thoughts on love and religion from the last period of his life. Then Galsworthy chimed in, in a short poem entitled “Reminder”; and St. John, too.
Finally, and maybe most important, at least in the…
PZ’s Podcast: 52 Pickup
EPISODE 131
An interesting experience recently, which recapitulated two other experiences similar to it, made me want to record this cast. It is a Christmas cast, with a salute to the New Year.
In the back of my mind was the Merry Christmas greeting that Journey put out one year for MTV. Gosh, that made an impression! Since I’ve said that the one person I wish I could have been born as (other than myself) is Steve Perry, the whole thing took on increasing resonance.
With a little help, too, from Mr. Harrison (R.I.P.) and also from Mr. Dylan, here lies, well, the…
PZ’s Podcast: Now What?, Amberley Wildbrooks, Hotel Taft, Dissociated Chef d’Oeuvre, First Infinite Frost, and Victor Hugo
Episode 125: Now What?
You’ve got to see the Blu Ray of “The Egyptian” (1954). Not just because it displays a certain kind of ‘high water mark’ for the Hollywood studio system and its visual and musical artistry. But also because it enshrines a kind of deep insight that a person simply cannot shake after you’ve seen it.
Taking a leaf out of the J. Geils Band (“Looking for a Love”), ‘Sinuhe the Egyptian’ spends his entire life looking for something. Looking for a love? Looking for himself? Looking for an explanation? Looking for peace? He gets them all, in fact. He…
PZ’s Podcast: Hold That Ghost, Worst That Could Happen (Zwingli), Saint’s Progress, and Done
Episode 121: Hold That Ghost
Love cannot exist in a context of fear. It can only exist in a context of freedom. Similarly, freedom issues in love — not in using. This cast is a rumination on freedom in relation to love. It’s intangible, freedom; and not substantial. Just try to Hold That Ghost! It will elude you, careen around you, and absolutely resist bottling.
In Podcast 121 Maxim Gorky will “Come to my Aid” (Simply Red), and you’ll like what he adds. Throw in something by The Young Rascals, and it’s heaven. Where Freedom enables Love, there is heaven. Mars is…
Art / Death / Film / Grace in Practice / Humor / Identity / Literature / Music / Philosophy / Psychology / Sermons / Suffering
Vade Mecum: The Garden of PZ’s Podcast
In lieu of new blurbs for PZ’s Podcast (two new episodes went up last week!), we are privileged to bring you an appreciation of and introduction to this truly one-of-a-kind project, courtesy of Fred Rogers. We’ve tried to link to all the casts that are referenced – a few are not currently available.
Followers of Mockingbird will be acquainted, at least by title, with episodes in Paul Zahl’s podcast series. Perhaps you’ve had a listen or two; possibly you have become a subscriber through iTunes and make a habit of dialing them up. I hope so — if it’s too much…
PZ’s Podcast: The Black Castle (He’s Ba-ack!)
Episode 120: The Black Castle
Here’s a chance to think about “legacy”, creativity, and how the batteries get re-charged. The occasion for talking about these things is a fun little farrago of a movie from 1952 entitled “The Black Castle”, which contains characters with names like ‘Count von Bruno’ and ‘Gargon’ (played by Lon Chaney, Jr.). It’s fantastic, in other words!
The point is, however, what it kindled in, well, PZ — thoughts about the future, about “52 Pick Up”, and about the Impersonality of inspiration, which is a relief, by the way.
“The Atomic Submarine” (1959) and “Horror Hotel” (1960) also make…
Hopelessly Devoted: Colossians Chapter Three Verses Three and Four
An amazing devotion this morning comes from Lynn MacDougall, who shares a reflection on both the Fall Mockingbird Conference and its cornerstone concept–the hope we find in death.
“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
Since my time at the recent Mockingbird Conference in Charlottesville, I have been thinking about death. A lot. Suffering was the heart of the matter, but “death” was the “piece de resistance.” Questions that emerged: What does it mean to live? What does it mean…
michael cooper: Thanks for this fantastic interview...what an honest man. The Heaney p...
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Clay: Michael - You could have also named this article "The Grace of Looking...
Tam: oh man, that last paragraph. I really needed that today. Thanks....
Marianne Brian: Loved it. So, so true! I love Ethanisms, as well!...