Posts tagged "U2"
Another Week Ends: Terry Eagleton, Nar-Anon, Crazy Stupid Love, Pottermore, Depression No-No’s, Drones, Speidi & Achtung Baby
Addiction / America / Celebrity / Film / Humor / Law / Music / Politics / Relationships / Religion / Suffering / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Terry Eagleton, Nar-Anon, Crazy Stupid Love, Pottermore, Depression No-No’s, Drones, Speidi & Achtung Baby

by David Zahl on Aug 5, 2011 • 1 Comment

1. Over at PatrolMag, David Sessions posted a terrific interview with British literary critic Terry Eagleton concerning, among other things, “Capitalism and the West’s Existential Crisis.” The occasion for the interview is the release of Eagleton’s new book on Marxism. Of course, Eagleton is not your garden variety Marxist (thank God), and regardless of your political convictions, his reflections are a good companion to the “relentlessly depressing debt ceiling news,” as Sessions memorably puts it. For example:

Sessions: While we’re talking about belief, in your Terry Lectures at Yale in 2008, you described Christianity as both more gloomy than any other…

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Webslingers Paradise? Making (Spidey) Sense of Turn Off The Dark
Comics / Music / Reviews

Webslingers Paradise? Making (Spidey) Sense of Turn Off The Dark

by David Zahl on Jul 7, 2011 • 2 Comments

Reviewing Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark without having seen the production is a bit like reviewing The Pale King. There are plenty of comments you can make, but nothing you can really say. It’s all conjecture. You can talk about the creators, their significance and ambition, but that’s about it. Song lyrics probably shouldn’t be considered outside of their musical settings, and showtunes can’t be evaluated (or even experienced) apart from their choreography. Yet here we are.

Doubtless you’re aware that the score for the show was written by Bono and The Edge – as they themselves have joked, “We used…

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June Playlist
Music / Playlist

June Playlist

by David Zahl on Jun 27, 2011 • 1 Comment

Don’t Let It Get You Down – Echo & The Bunnymen
A Lady of a Certain Age – The Divine Comedy
Time Spent in Los Angeles – Dawes
We’ve Met – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Back Into Your World – Son Volt
Dear Laughing Doubters – Sondre Lerche
Piledriver Waltz – Alex Turner
The Judgement – Solomon Burke
We Gotta Get Out Of This Place – The Animals
Jesus Came From Outta Space – Supergrass
A Freak Like Me Needs Company – Patrick Page in Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark
Tell Me I’m Not Free – John Davis
Church of Wilson – Cotton Mather
Automatic Soup – Shudder To Think feat.…

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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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This Will (Hopefully) Be Our Year: Top Four New Year’s Songs
Music / Playlist

This Will (Hopefully) Be Our Year: Top Four New Year’s Songs

by David Zahl on Jan 3, 2011 • No Comments

Lest all the anti-New-Years-resolutions sentiment come across as pure party-poopery, I give you four songs in keeping with the holiday, two of which are downright joyful:

1. The best of all-time, without question – sorry, Bono – is The Zombies’ “This Will Be Our Year”, covered here by The Avett Brothers:

2. I didn’t think it was possible, but Slaid Cleaves’ prayerful (and considerably more Mbird-friendly) “One Good Year” gives The Zombies a run for their money, sort of the peccator to their justus:

3. Let’s face it though – the aforementioned “New Years Day” from U2 is pretty darn great. Great…

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Music

U2 Sing Spidey: Boy Falls From The Sky

by David Zahl on Oct 4, 2010 • No Comments

Pretty exciting stuff, reminiscent of their other superhero-inspired song (below), and featuring some particularly great opening lines, the first preview of their upcoming Turn Off The Dark musical:


p.s. Believe it or not, the video above was responsible for introducing yours truly to post-Narnia Lewis (3:50).

Another Week Ends: Parenting, Katy Perry, New Weezer, U2 and "God Told me to…"
Children / Music / Psychology / Religion / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Parenting, Katy Perry, New Weezer, U2 and "God Told me to…"

by Todd Brewer on Aug 27, 2010 • 1 Comment

Filling in for DZ this week…

1. A great article from Chris Gottlieb for any parent who has ever been given unsolicited advice on their parenting skills ( I suppose that includes everyone?).

The author laments: I marvel at how comfortable people feel telling complete strangers about their purported parenting flaws…No infraction is too small or too strange to elicit comment. (The newspaper was too close to the baby’s eyes?) All my parent friends have experienced this no-win culture of judging parenting. Depending on their personalities, they have cowered, gotten angry or been demoralized by…

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Balm For the Soul: Sandra McCracken’s Feast Or Fallow
Church / Music / Reviews

Balm For the Soul: Sandra McCracken’s Feast Or Fallow

by Ben on May 18, 2010 • No Comments

“We cannot afford to lose these old hymns, they are full of the Gospel…” Basil Manley (1891)

Every December Paste Magazine publishes a list of their top fifty albums of the year. Each year I scan the picks searching for the worthy successors to Led Zeppelin and U2. Needless to say, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”

2008 was like any other year. I found myself nodding in agreement with some of their selection, shaking my head in dismay at others, and completely ignorant of most. But as I reached the end of the list I saw a write up…

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Music / News

Happy Birthday, Bono!

by David Zahl on May 10, 2010 • 1 Comment

The man himself turns the big Five-Zero today (and the rest of us feel a little older as a result).


Turns out we’ve written pretty extensively on U2 and their charismatic lead singer. For an index of those posts, go here.

Film / Music / Playlist / TV / Year In Review

Favorite Movies, Music and TV of 2009 (Plus)

by David Zahl on Dec 30, 2009 • 2 Comments

Okay, here goes. I would break the pop culture of 2009 down this way: a pretty good year for music, an alright year for film and a downright incredible year for television.

Five Favorite Films Of 2009*
1. Fantastic Mr Fox
2. District 9
3. In The Loop [warning for profuse-albeit-very-inventive foul language]
4. Coraline
5. Up

Most Underrated: Duplicity
Most Overrated: Inglourious Basterds

*Bear in mind that I haven’t seen The Hurt Locker, An Education, A Serious Man, The Road, Dr Parnassus, Big Fan or 2012 yet. So this is definitely more of a favorites list than a “best of”. And I am as surprised by the predominance…

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September Playlist
Film / Music / Playlist

September Playlist

by David Zahl on Sep 30, 2009 • 3 Comments

1. Old White Lincoln – The Gaslight Anthem
2. It’s All True – The Lemonheads
3. Don’t Go Away – Oasis
4. Hey Bulldog [mono] – The Beatles
5. Psalms 40:2 – The Mountain Goats
6. Bless This Mess – David Bazan
7. Jena & Jimmy – Derek Webb
8. True Love 1980 – Ash
9. Got The Hots – Michael Jackson
10. Do It Again – Steely Dan
11. Come Undone – Duran Duran
12. Wake Up – Teddy Thompson
13. For Your Lover, Give Some Time – Richard Hawley
14. Jesus Is Waiting – Al Green
15. All Things Must Pass – Billy Preston
16. Why Do I Keep Counting – The Killers
17.…

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How Can You Stand Next To The Truth And Not See It? – U2 at Giants Stadium
Church / Music / Reviews / Theology

How Can You Stand Next To The Truth And Not See It? – U2 at Giants Stadium

by Mockingbird on Sep 25, 2009 • 18 Comments

Talk about jealousy – our friend Nathan was among those fortunate enough to score tickets to U2′s much-anticipated gig in NYC last night, and he sent us the following report. [To read Aaron Zimmerman's excellent 4-part series on the spiritual history of the band, click here, here, here and here.]

“We’ve got a spaceship,” Bono said in reference to the massive staging above his head in the center of the stadium, “but we’re not going anywhere without you.”

He didn’t just invite the audience on his otherworldly journey, he also invited Someone Else: at the end of the first song, “Breathe”, he…

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Music

Carolina Liar Tells the Truth

by Tom on Jul 30, 2009 • 2 Comments

I downloaded “Show Me What I’m Looking For” (any U2 similarities are purely coincidental?) by Carolina Liar a few months ago for free on iTunes, but didn’t pay much attention to what it said until I heard it on a preview for the Time Traveler’s Wife yesterday.

While the verdict is out on any intentional Christian meaning, I don’t think it matters. The lyrics are pure Gospel, and even the video, depicting the singer in his best v-neck tee wandering forlorn through Atlantic City, seems to suggest this man gets his inability to fix things for himself.

The last chorus, where…

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U2: From Seekers, to Saints, to Sinners, to Saved by Grace (Part 4)
Grace in Practice / Music / Theology

U2: From Seekers, to Saints, to Sinners, to Saved by Grace (Part 4)

by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Jun 30, 2009 • 7 Comments

PART 4: SAVED BY GRACE

Back in May, Mockingbird began a series examining the intersection of the lives, the faith, and the music of the members of U2. You can read the earlier posts here, here, and here.

The series was born out of the observation that the personal journey of the band—in particular that of Bono, and to a lesser extent, The Edge—traces a narrative arc that is mirrored in the lives of so many Christians. That is, some crisis in our lives turns us into seekers, people looking for love or mercy (ultimately, a quest for a gracious God). Then,…

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U2: Seekers to Saints to Sinners to Saved (by Grace)–Part 3
Law / Music / Theology

U2: Seekers to Saints to Sinners to Saved (by Grace)–Part 3

by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on May 21, 2009 • 3 Comments

Part 3: Sinners

Our four-part series on U2′s spiritual journey continues with a look at how the band dealt with the failure of their early aggressive form of Christianity. As we saw last week, their spiritual seeking had led them to a deep faith in Jesus. But it was in the context of an extremely legalistic community. They could not reconcile the grace they saw in Jesus with the rules-based living this community sought to enforce.

You can hear a lot of the ensuing doubt in the 1987 classic album, The Joshua Tree, especially in the super-obviously-titled, “I Still Haven’t Found What…

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