1. “Are We Having Too Much Fun?” asks Megan Garber, in this week’s Atlantic. She’s examining the objections of renowned tech-skeptic Neil Postman (1931 – 2003) who cautioned against a society focused too heavily on entertainment — a bitter pill to serve this Golden Age of TV that so often leaves us viewing life as […]
Another Week Ends: Kanye, Mavis, Scalia, Narcissism, Cancer, and A Saintly Smackdown
Click here to listen to the accompanying episode of The Mockingcast, which features, among other things, Jacob Smith discussing “A Lenten Theology of the Cross”. 1. Following the release of Kanye’s new album, The Life of Pablo, which dropped on Valentine’s Day, but which is only available on Tidal, many of us find ourselves once […]
Nick Cave on Why Most Love Songs Are Hate Songs
Dr. Cave, again, in vivid form, tells us about love. This time he delves into literary philosophy of Lorca, and the term “duende,” which means the power of spontaneity, the language of the heart, and also the Portuguese term “saudade,” which is a deep, rooted longing for something/someone that is absent. In thinking of rock’n’roll […]
Nick Cave on Why the Love Song Must Be Sad
I’m finally converted to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I don’t think it was this 1999 Vienna lecture that did it, though it certainly helped. It was The Boatman’s Call, which a friend lent me, that then opened the door to the man’s darkness, and allowed me then to enjoy Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, […]
Another Week Ends: Reddit Confessionals, Influencing Nick Cave, Deciphering Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Gospel-Centrism, Reinhold Bieber, White People Problems, Bat-Staches and Haidt on Colbert
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
