Another peek at our recent Humor Issue (which we’re starting to run low on — grab yours before it sells out…!): We all have a list of our favorite Seinfeld episodes. Mine are mainly clustered around seasons five and six (The Puffy Shirt, The Lip Reader, The Marine Biologist), with a special affection for season nine’s […]
Everything I Never Learned from Seinfeld - David Zahl
In this talk, from the recent Mockingbird conference in Tyler TX, DZ speaks about the personal and spiritual significance of Seinfeld’s trivial obsessions (9 seasons’ worth). It’s an abbreviated version of his essay featured in the just-released Humor Issue, which you can find here.
Everything I Never Learned from Seinfeld – David Zahl from Mockingbird on Vimeo.
You Complete Me? Grace, Loneliness and the Religion of Romance - David Zahl
Carrying on with the videos from Tyler, here’s the first of the breakouts, courtesy of DZ:
You Complete Me?: Grace, Loneliness and the Religion of Romance ~ David Zahl from Mockingbird on Vimeo.
Another Week Ends: Working Class Christianity, Farewell Toast, High-Functioning Anxiety, Cheeto Moms, and Evil Thoughts
Click here to listen to this week’s episode of The Mockingcast, which features an interview with theologian Miroslav Volf. 1. J.D. Vance wrote an op-ed in the New York Times entitled The Bad Faith of the White Working Class. In it, Vance describes his own upbringing in not only a working class Southern Ohio town, […]
Everything I Never Learned From Seinfeld
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of our all time favorite show’s premiere, we offer up a re-run of “a breakout session about nothing”: Rochelle Rochelle. Yo Yo Ma. Vandelay Industries. Marble Rye. Del Boca Vista. Get Out! The sea was angry that day. I’m a Da-ay Person. These. Pretzels. Are. Making. Me. Thirsty. You got […]
Another Week Ends: Amy Chua's Three Traits for Success, Nietzsche's Subversion of Atheism, Why Fun Is Fun, The Eighth-Grade Ubermensch, Dostoevsky's Internet Anxiety and Lena Dunham's Eden
1. What happens when you combine an unshakeable superiority complex with deep insecurity? Probably a nervous breakdown in mid-life, or Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan. But Amy Chua (of “Tiger Mother” fame) asks us to guess again. The real answer is… success. For those unfamiliar with her work on hyper-controlling parenting (using that adjective as value-neutrally as possible), it’s […]
Jeff Orr, Helmet Sundaes, and the Anatomy of the Heckler
This morning’s sports column comes from our new sports writer Howie Espenshied. I have the dubious privilege of being a high school basketball official. We’re the ones in stripes out there, only noticed when a mistake is made. Coming up through the ranks, some of the most pronounced heckling I have experienced have come from […]
Hopelessly Devoted: Colossians Chapter One Verses Twenty One and Twenty Two
This morning’s devotion comes from Todd Brewer. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. (Colossians 1:21-22, NIV) Everyone, at some […]
On Being a Finalist in The New Yorker's Cartoon Caption Contest
I recently received some of the most exciting news of my life: I am a finalist in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest this week, Oct. 21 to Oct. 27. This is kind of a big deal. So I am shamelessly begging you to go to newyorker.com/humor/caption to vote for your favorite caption (hopefully mine, please) in […]
Another Week Ends: Merciful Pontifex, Louis CK's Daughters, Winning Losers, Seinfeld Movies, Dairy Queen Grace, and Whitewashing Walter
1. This guy! No doubt you’ve seen it elsewhere, but a must-read interview with Pope Francis I appeared this week in which the undeniably humble and surprisingly sympathetic Bishop of Rome articulated something like a new poetics of faith. Ironically enough, most pundits have jumped on his decidedly apolitical focus as evidence of some political […]
The Neve 8028: Shaping the Contours of Creativity and Freedom Since 1973
I wasn’t really old enough to get into Nirvana, but I did catch the Foo Fighters wave. So when I heard that Dave Grohl—who was the drummer for Nirvana & the lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist for Foo Fighters—was making a documentary on Sound City Studios—along with an accompanying soundtrack of new material by the people […]
