My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Brueggemann forces us to unblinkingly confront the God actually presented in the Old Testament, not the God we wish was there via the colored glasses of our Western rationalistic theology. He shows us that the Israelite conception of YHWH was as a god known only in relationship, an “unsettling” god, who while in some way “sovereign,” could also be capricious, irrationally angry or generous, and who could be changed by relationship with covenantal partners, even as they were indeed changed by their relationship to YHWH.
Brueggemann explores this relationship through each of YHWH’s four main “partners”: Israel, the human person, nations, and creation. In a final chapter, he issues the challenge that only an embracing of this unsettling God of abundance, suffering, and hope can provide a counter to the Enlightenment’s assumptions of scarcity, denial of brokenness, and ultimately despair. Israel in the Old Testament never concerned itself with an apologetical need to try to prove that YHWH exists, nor did they try to arrive at some kind of exhaustive definition of YHWH (both high concerns in Western Christian theology). Rather for them YHWH is the god who fits with “the way things are” in their experience of abundance / the Pit / restoration. So Brueggemann does not bother with such apologetics. Rather his interest is in how this very Jewish way of looking at existence might provide a pattern of counter-cultural living for those of us disillusioned with what our Enlightenment-Western culture has come to.
Are they geeks who are rock stars or rock stars who moonlight as geeks? Whichever is the chicken or the egg, the members of the rock band OK Go got their geek on once again and produced the most talked about music video since…well, since their last homemade music video, the justifiably famous treadmill video.
I speak, of course, of the “official” video for their song “This Too Shall Pass,” which involves a jimongous Rube Goldberg machine that fills an entire multi-story warehouse. Better yet, the machine coordinates exactly with the song (and even plays a small segment of the song at one point), and was shot in one take with one steadycam. OK Go enlisted the help of Los Angeles nerd collective Syyn Labs to build the machine over two months in an abandoned warehouse. (more…)
“Some men are Baptists, others Catholics; my father was an Oldsmobile man!” – Jean Shepherd as “Ralphie” in the film A Christmas Story
Recently an illness kept me confined to the bed for a couple of weeks. During that time, podcasts on my iPhone were my friend and companion. I have a number of favorites that I’ll be writing about in the weeks to come, but at some point I got to pondering: why do I like podcasts so much? There are probably a number of contributing factors. My father was in radio and podcasts are the closest thing we have to the way radio sounded in his day. I like good stories and conversation creatively presented. I can grow and learn (and laugh!) while doing other things (such as lying in bed sick). But at the very root, the foundation, the cornerstone of my love for podcasts is one name:
These days most people, if they know his name at all, know Jean Shepherd as the narrator of A Christmas Story, a movie now widely considered a Christmas classic for the ages. Fewer may know (unless they pay scrupulous attention to opening credits), that A Christmas Story is based on Shepherd’s written stories, mostly from his first novel, In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. Fewer still today would know of Jean Shepherd the actor, the novelist, the comedian, television presenter, writer for major magazines (Playboy, Car & Driver). But my connection with Shepherd (or Shep as we fans called him) was with his most long-lived medium: radio.
For 21 years, beginning in 1956, Jean Shepherd held sway for 45 minutes a night on WOR radio in New York. If you listen to any of the podcast rebroadcasts of these shows that I’ll link below, you’ll understand why I think of him as the Father of Podcasting (though he did not live to see the coining of the word). No music (other than his own collection of zany tunes he’d play the kazoo or Jew’s harp with). No guests. No interviews. No phone calls. Just 45 minutes of Shep spinning stories and whatever else came to his fertile mind. Jean Shepherd was the consummate raconteur and monologist of his time.
There were basically two kinds of Shepherd shows: the story shows and the social commentary shows. Although it was the former for which he was most beloved, the social commentary episodes could be just as entertaining. Don’t let my label of “social commentary” lead you to think these were dry, dusty analysis pieces. Shep had an eye for the offbeat and unusual, and could reveal what they said about us and our culture. Only Shep could explain how the old Flagship Furniture Store on Route 22 in New Jersey (a store that was a life-size model of a navy battleship) was a metaphor for the human condition.
But it was his storytelling which one him legions of religiously dedicated fans. Viewers of A Christmas Story got a taste of Shep’s yarn spinning skills, but only a taste. From 10 to 10:45 each evening my brother and I would put the radio between our beds, trying to keep the volume low enough so our mom wouldn’t come in and switch it off. But that wasn’t the only battle each night. We also had to fight to stay awake to the end of the program, because Shep was famous for drawing out a story across a whole 45 minutes. He would go off on dozens of rabbit trails, and you’d be sure that this time he wasn’t going to finish the story in time. But somehow, every single time, he would miraculously get to the payoff of the story just in the last few seconds as his familiar theme song would reach its last crashing chords.
Jean Shepherd’s stories could be about almost anything, but most were in the form of recollections about his life. I say “in the form of” because, when pressed, Shep was always clear that he was in the STORYtelling business. Fans who dug too deeply into his past were in for many disappointments. But Shep was the first to teach me that the power of stories is that the best ones are always true, even if they aren’t “true” in the historiographical sense.
These stories tended to be about either his childhood in an Indiana steel mill town (a la A Christmas Story), his army days, or his various pre-WOR days on several radio and TV stations around the country. While his stories were not “laugh out loud” funny, they were indeed humorous, in the style of Mark Twain or George Aide. Most centered around a profound sense of irony, and the vague angst we all have that somehow life is a conspiracy against us. Shep’s humor always teetered on the precipice of cynical, but whenever it seemed that he might tumble over, he’d be sure to whip out his kazoo and a scratchy recording of “The Sheik of Araby” or “The Bear Missed the Train” (a satire of an Andrews Sisters German-language hit).
If I’ve made you want to hear some of Shep, the original podcaster, thanks to the miracle of podcasting, you can! There are at least two podcasts that put out daily replays of Shepherd’s old radio shows. The Brass Figlagee recently completed its four-year mission to podcast every available recording of Jean Shepherd’s shows. The owner of that podcast, however, graciously did the hard work of uploading all those files to archive.org (Jean Shepherd on Achive.org). Also, Max Schmid’s Mass Backwards program on WBAI radio broadcasts a Shepherd episode each week. You can find the podcast version by searching “Mass Backwards” in the iTunes store.
In this Year in Which I Kick My Cancer’s Ass, I’ve finally found my theme song (lyrics below video):
UPDATE: I wouldn’t have thought the wonderfulness of the video above could be surpassed, but OK GO has just issued the “official” video for this song, which may feature the greatest Rube Goldberg machine of all time:
This Too Shall Pass by OK Go
You know you can’t keep lettin’ it get you down
And you can’t keep draggin’ that dead weight around.
If there ain’t all that much to lug around,
Better run like hell when you hit the ground.
When the morning comes.
When the morning comes.
You can’t stop these kids from dancin’.
Why would you want to?
Especially when your already gettin’ yours.
‘Cause if your mind don’t move and your knees don’t bend,
well don’t go blamin’ the kids again.
When the morning comes.
When the morning comes.
Let it go, this too shall pass
When the morning comes.
Bonus! Let’s not forget that these were the lads who brought us one of the most viral music videos of all time:
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Charming, funny, sad, witty, moving…all these describe this gorgeous first novel by Brigid Pasulka. Set in both World War II and present Poland (and the times in between), A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True is a ringing affirmation of the value of sacrifice of one generation for the next, whether for the building of a family or a nation.
The story is built in alternating chapters. One set tells the tale of a family in a remote Polish mountain village starting just before the German invasion, and in particular the love story between the beautiful Anielica and her heroic suitor, “The Pigeon.” The other set of chapters brings us to present-day “New” Poland and the humdrum existence in Krakow of three women all descended from that mountain village family. As the novel progresses, the story of the war-time family races forward on a collision course with the contemporary story, and we more and more come to understand how much the present is rooted in the past. The challenge: will the present-day characters rise to the challenge of living lives worthy of the amazing sacrifices made for them by the generation before?
Pasulka often portrays village life with effective humor, but never at the expense of the characters’ dignity and worth. The humor helps soften the reader to the characters, and in some way prepare for the suffering that is to come.
A personal note: A number of years ago, while teaching at an English-language summer camp in Hungary, I had the opportunity to visit Krakow for a few days. Though the visit was short, I fell forever in love with the Old City, particularly the Rynek square and Wawel Castle, both of which play prominent roles in this novel. The author did an excellent job of capturing the spirit of this marvelous city.
One note about the title. It appears from the acknowledgments at the end of the book that Pasulka based her story on interviews with very real stories of survivors of World War II and the subsequent years of Russian occupation. Thus, I think, the “Essentially True” part of the title.
In no particular order, here is my list of the best books I read during this past year
The Sacredness of Questioning Everything – David Dark
Definitely the one book with the most profound effect on me this year. Dark says not only is it not damaging to a life of faith to question everything, it is necessary to do so if that faith is to have any reality. Also an entertaining read, with references to art, literature, music, and pop culture on nearly every page.
The Unlikely Disciple – Kevin Roose
A non-Christian Brown University student takes a year to go “undercover” as a student at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. As a Liberty alum who has very much left behind the “Liberty Way,” I found the outsider-as-insider insights fascinating. Roose even experiences a bit of Stockholm Syndrome, ending up more sympathetic to his LU classmates than he expected to be. Highlight: Roose ends up conducting what turned out to be the last interview of Falwell’s life.
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver… See More
Haunting, disturbing, convicting, beautiful. Kingsolver juggles five distinct narrative voices in this three-decade family saga. A naive but zealous southern fundamentalist family goes as missionaries to a late 1950s Congo on the verge of revolution. The family serves as a metaphor for the tragedy and destructiveness of the western colonialist impulse. Read my extended review.
Manifold Witness: The Plurality of Truth – Theologian John Franke
Franke argues that an understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity allows for a diversity of belief within the unity of the creedal core of orthodoxy.
The Jesus Way – Eugene Peterson
Petereson reminds us that following Jesus is a “way” more than a belief system; a walk of suffering, humility and service. Especially interesting is that this book about Jesus spends most of its time in the Old Testament.
Traveling Mercies – Anne Lamott
Lamott has a way of finding reverence in irreverence. A collection of autobiographical essays attempting to explain how a confirmed reprobate finds herself inexplicably in love with this Jesus guy. Humorous and candid.
Snow Falling on Cedars – David Guterson
Courtroom drama/murder mystery revolving around the clash of Japanese and anglo-American cultures in an island community just after World War II. Throw in an inter-racial Romeo & Juliet and lovingly rendered descriptions of life in a small, closed community, and you have a first novel that is both a joy to read and educational as well.
The Hungry Ocean – Linda Greenlaw
Linda Greenlaw became known to the world through Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm, as the fishing boat captain colleague of the ill-fated captain of the Andrea Gail. Hungry Ocean is her own telling of a less-dramatic but nonetheless intriguing typical voyage of a North Atlantic sword fishing boat. Best surprise is that Greenlaw turns out to be a pretty good writer.
Surprised by Hope – N. T. Wright
Wright is that rare intellectual who can write with equal adeptness for both scholarly and lay audiences. This book is for the latter. Wright explodes the mythology that has grown like barnacles on Christian conceptions of the afterlife. Newsflash: the destiny of Christians is not “heaven,” and it never was. Wright draws out the here-and-now implications of a full-orbed conception of Christian resurrection.
Siddhartha – Herman Hesse
A highly poetic saga of an Indian man’s quest for spiritual integrity. Points at common elements of spiritual journeying that transcend particular religions and practices.
The Damnation of Theron Ware – Harold Frederick
Cautionary tale about the dangers of pride and hubris, as well as the sorrow that results from rejecting one’s community for what we would today call “self-actualization.” Theron Ware is a young, charismatic, promising Methodist minister at the close of the 19th century. Burned by being passed over for a more prominent church assignment, he latches on to a secret intellectual society comprised of a Catholic priest, an amateur scientist, and a wealthy but bored heiress, and seems willing to sell his soul to gain their admiration and acceptance.
proud nowhere of earth’s most prodigious night
blossoms a newborn babe: around him, eyes
-gifted with every keener appetite
than mere unmiracle can quite appease-
humbly in their imagined bodies kneel
(over time space doom dream while floats the whole
perhapsless mystery of paradise)
mind without soul may blast some universe
to might have been, and stop ten thousand stars
but not one heartbeat of this child; nor shall
even prevail a million questionings
against the silence of his mother’s smile
This must be why mystics and poets record /
The slender incursions of splintered light, /
Echoes, fragments, odd words and phrases /
Like flashes through darkened hallways. - Rod Jellema
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Mark Traphagen (aka Foolish Sage) is a lover of dark beers and darker music, of things that are but are not as they seem, of contexts taken out of context to become new contexts, of resurrections and that which is already (but not yet). Mark lives in Durham, NC, with his wife and pet Macbook Pro. He has two married daughters and six grandchildren, and currently freelances as an Internet marketer.