A Rainbow from Akil
I've been spending a lot of time in Los Angeles this week because my grandmother is in the hospital for a few days. She's much better today.
My cousin's son, Akil, drew a rainbow that is on the wall of her room at the hospital.
January 14, 2006
January 12, 2006
Re-New Orleans
College sudents returned to New Orleans this week. Loyola Univeristy, which is the university that I attended, was expecting 90% of its students to return.
The Chronicle of Higher Education ran an article about one family who took their daughter to start classes at Loyola University in New Orleans for the second time.
Once they had returned safely to New York, the Linns' friends said they would be crazy to send their daughter back to New Orleans. Ms. Brathwaite spent the semester taking courses at Saint Peter's College, in New Jersey. But she and the Linns were determined that she would return to Loyola. Ms. Brathwaite says she had already made friends there. And she wanted to get involved in helping the community recover....
A few days after leaving New Orleans for the second time, Ms. Blake-Linn was still prone to crying. "You can't go through something like this in life and not think constantly about the individuals you met and what you saw," she says.On the plane home, she says, she broke down. "I was glad to let it out. And I felt really good after that." What makes her feel even better is talking to her daughter on the telephone, hearing her excitement about her classes and her friends.
"She's doing so well and she's very happy she made the decision to go back," her mother says. That, she says, was the closure she really needed.
Loyola has a fascinating series of upcoming lectures dealing with the city and the storm.
December 21, 2005
Los Rios and Serra Chapel
Being on holiday is nice because I’m doing different things with my days.
I went for an early coffee in Old San Juan this morning and walked around the Los Rios historic district. Los Rios is California’s oldest residential community.
I came to town early because I wanted to go to morning Mass at Serra Chapel, which is the heart of the Old Mission. I had never been to Serra Chapel or on the grounds of the Old Mission because I haven’t forked over the $6 for a visit. I have been to the new Basilica Church adjacent to the Old Mission.
It was fascinating being at Serra Chapel. Here’s a brief history that I’ve constructed on Serra Chapel:
I was fascinated by the old adobe building and moved by what I saw inside.
This ancient building suffers from age. However, it witnesses to the faith of generations of people who have worshipped here.
A side chapel is dedicated to St. Peregrine. I had not heard of St. Peregrine but it is clear that people have held St. Peregrine in reverence over the years.
St. Peregrine is the patron saint of cancer patients and people have written their prayers - mostly in Spanish - on the walls of the side chapel.
Even after this morning’s Mass, there were a number of people in St. Peregrine's chapel for private devotions.
There is also an ancient graveyard outside Serra Chapel that dates back to the Portola expedition of the mid 1700’s.
I have put together a photo album from this morning on my Smugmug site.
These are the bells of the Great Church. Fortunately there were no Swallows around today!
December 17, 2005
I-69 Exit #59
NPR reported that the James Dean Gallery is closing at the end of the month.
Like the museum owner, David Loehr, I became a James Dean fan after reading a biography. I've been to James Dean's grave in Fairmount, Indiana, and I have a rubbing of the tombstone hanging in my office. I've also been to the sight of the car crash where he died in Cholame, CA.
I agree with Mr. Loehr's response when he was asked which James Dean movie he'd recommend if a person can only watch one. I'd also pick East of Eden.
December 11, 2005
Insipid Podcasting
I had been thiniking about "words" yesterday because NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me passed on that podcasting was the New Oxford American Dictionary's word of the year. (The OED added podcating in 2004, by the way.)
Yet, the "grabber" in the article cited in yesterday's post is that people were inspired to look up "insipid" because Simon used it on American Idol.
December 05, 2005
"Early Decision" Now Playing in Santa Monica
From The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles:
In New York, parents tell horror stories about the pressure to get their 5-year-old kids into the right kindergartens, the kind attended by Woody Allen’s kids. In Los Angeles, the social cachet may be even more skewed.“So and so from the Lakers’ kid goes to some school,” says playwright David Levinson, whose play, “Early Decision,” at the Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica, has tapped into the Zeitgeist about the mania surrounding college admissions.
“I never really think of the Lakers as being emblematic of the world’s greatest scholars,” says Levinson, yet to some going to school with the child of a Laker or a big-time Hollywood director seems to suggest a bizarre status.
December 01, 2005
World AIDS Day
World AIDS Day is a yearly, global event started in January 1988 to promote awareness and action in the fight against HIV/AIDS. According to UNAIDS estimates, there were 37.2 million adults and 2.2 million children worldwide living with HIV at the end of 2004. During the year 4.9 million people became newly infected with the virus. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35. Around 95% of people with HIV/AIDS live in developing nations. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world. In Africa alone, more than 17 million people have died from AIDS and another 25 million are infected with the HIV virus, approximately 1.9 million of whom are children. Every day in Africa, HIV/AIDS kills 6,300 people. 8,500 people are infected with the HIV virus and 1,400 newborn babies are infected during childbirth.Read about :
- World AIDS Day @ MIT
- World AIDS Day @ Stanford
- World AIDS Day events from The One Campaign
- Evangelicals: AIDS Activisim
- World AIDS Day in the Orange County Register
November 28, 2005
Cash: Intriguing Contradictions
Yesterday’s New York Times ran an editorial on Johnny Cash called Johnny Cash’s Journey Through the Other Side of Virtue.
The article suggests that there is a power and honesty in his music that intrigues us.
It is the angel on Johnny Cash's other shoulder that gives his music its depth and profundity. That same murderer in "Folsom Prison Blues" is penitent, singing: "Well, I know I had it coming. I know I can't be free." Cash himself summed it up that he was "trying, despite my many faults and my continuing attraction to all seven deadly sins, to treat my fellow man as Christ would." Johnny Cash merges our seemingly contradictory American traditions of outlaws prone to wild gunplay and pious Christians singing hymns, without stopping to explain how you can be both at once.
November 25, 2005
PodOmatic
I was fascinated with Tom's Podcast and decided to follow his lead. I've created my first Podcast.
It's very rough. I've totally stumbled through trying to figure out how to use the open-source mixing software I downloaded this afternoon (Audacity).
My first show is just under 13 minutes and includes only three songs, with limited commentary. (The rule is to keep shows under 20 minutes.)
The artist in my first Podcast are: Bill Mallonee and The Vigilantes of Love, Plumb and Damien Jurardo.
Here's the description on my PodOmatic profile:
Roland's Podcast features Indie and Alternative muscians that you might not have heard of. The "twist" is that most of them are Christian musicians who are not in the religious mainstream. Instead of being part of the Christian music "industry" these artists are genuninely independent.You won't hear this music in church - although it wouldn't hurt you if you did.
The Podcast will also discuss literature at a high level.
Something here just might wake up your soul - and mine.
I'm not a professional Podcaster, so bare with the roughness as I learn to edit myself.
November 13, 2005
Dallas Is a Snob Too
Dallas gets things off his chest and assures us that he, too, is a SNOB.
But - hey, isn't that why we blog? We think that we have something to say that even strangers will find worth reading. And some of these stangers will blogroll us or put us on their my del.icio.us. I mean, that's how I've gotten to know Joel over the past couple of years. And I think that he's pretty cool.
Truth be told, this self-publishing gig and the accompanying community is pretty good fun - and there are worse geeky things I could be doing with my time.
Well, with that being said, I'm going to hand-wash my car and go to the beach. (I know you're interested.)
November 09, 2005
Steve and O
Steve Beard (Thunderstruck) was just out here hanging out with Owen. Steve mentioned that they went to Walk the Line in Los Angeles.
November 05, 2005
Filling Up the iPod
The New Orleans Trio: Better Than Ezra : Before the Robots
Drake's current favorite band: Fall Out Boy : Evening Out With Your Girlfriend
October 31, 2005
Halloween in The Village
Warm Halloween Night in New York City
(Click Photo for Larger Image)I went to Washington Square in The Village tonight with a few colleagues to see the Halloween Parade. It was much more tame than I had expected. In fact, it reminded me of the rogue neighborhood parades that sprang up in New Orleans and became traditions. The only difference was that there were so many people. I felt that we were in the belly of the beast taking the crowded subway down to The Village and then putting ourselves in the mass wave of humanity down there to watch the parade.
The weather is amazing. We were in shirt sleeves tonight, which works for me, being a Californian.
I put together a short video of some of what we saw which gives more flavor than the photos that I've added to my New York Gallery, starting on page 2. We saw a street preacher, "women" who were NOT even close, people on stilts and break dancers - besides the parade.
The Bertelsmann Building houses this particular Virgin store, which is the largest record store in the world.
The Bertelsmann Building was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and is the North American home for the media giant, Bertelsmann, which owns BMG, Random House Books, a chunk of Sony Music and other properties that make it the third largest media company in the world.
The Art of Liberal Arts
Day one of the College Board Forum ended with a colloquium, which was a conversation with Lawrence Weschler, David Byrne, Thelma Golden and Sarah Vowell.
Here’s a brief bio on each:
- Lawrence Weschler, the moderator, is a graduate of University of California: Santa Cruz. He covered politics and culture for The New Yorker for twenty years, retired, and is currently the director of New York University’s Institute for the Humanities.
- David Byrne was born in Scotland and is the co-founder of the Talking Heads, the band he led from 1976 to 1988. He is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design and the Maryland Institute College of Art.
- Thelma Golden attended independent school on Long Island and is a graduate of Smith College. She is chief curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem. She previously served as a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
- Sarah Vowell is absolutely fascinating, in my mind. She was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Her parents moved to Bozeman, Montana when she was eleven – a college town with a library. She didn’t have the talent to make it in music and started writing music reviews for the Montana State student newspaper and eventually starting writing essays for National Public Radio’s This American Life. She was the voice of Violet Parr in The Incredibles and this summer she was an editorial page writer for the New York Times.
The conversation was on teachers who inspired them. Thelma Golden has an art history teacher who took her students to art museums in New York City – less as field trips, but more as encountering the world beyond the textbook. Sarah Vowell had the music teacher who had the heart to tell her to hang up her trumpet and move on from performing music, which led her to writing about music.
However, Lawrence Weschler made a critical point at the end of the colloquium when he talked about his daughter’s experience as a student taking AP World History and AP Art History: The students were excited by the French Revolution in AP World History, but the teacher couldn’t spend time to explore the particular subject because of the race to make it to the exam. And, in the Art History class, his daughter came up with an assignment to write multiple choice questions on a topic being discussed. Again, to better prepare for the exam. His point was that college courses are not taught that way.
It was a wonderful conversation with fascinating presenters. However, I don't think that the College Board is able to understand that its AP curriculum isn't producing intellectual excitement the way that these panelists experienced it with inspirational teachers.
I'm not a fan of the Advanced Placement program and these types of conversations leave me torn each year. I know that school are not going to get rid of the Advanced Placement program, but hearing the message of inspiring teaches touches me deeply each time I hear it.
October 25, 2005
Rosa Parks + A Personal Story From the Back of the Bus
These images are from the New York Times article on Ms. Parks.
One Sunday when I was growing up in Mobile, Alabama, my aunt was visiting from Los Angeles. As a treat, she gave my twin brother and me money to take the bus to go downtown to see a movie. And we got to go by ourselves.
When we got to the bus stop, we met two white boys who were also our age and twins as well. The four of us talked and got on the bus together and were enjoying each other as young boys will do. And we thought it was neat that we were two sets of twins who happened to meet each other at the bus stop.
My parents hadn't taught my brother and me the "rules" of segregation, even though they weren't legal rules of the day, but still so in some people's memory. Clearly, the two other boys hadn't been taught those rules either. However, an old man on the bus was upset that the four of us boys were sitting together and he had the driver stop the bus to ask my brother and me to move to the back of the bus.
October 22, 2005
Al Shamshoon
What happens when you take The Simpsons and take out the beer and bacon? You get Al Shamshoon, the newly exported version of the popular show for Arab TV.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - When an Arab satellite TV network, MBC, decided to introduce "The Simpsons" to the Middle East, they knew the family would have to make some fundamental lifestyle changes."Omar Shamshoon," as he is called on the show, looks like the same Homer Simpson, but he has given up beer and bacon, which are both against Islam, and he no longer hangs out at "seedy bars with bums and lowlifes." In Arabia, Homer's beer is soda, and his hot dogs are barbequed Egyptian beef sausages. And the donut-shaped snacks he gobbles are the traditional Arab cookies called kahk.
An Arabized "Simpsons" - called "Al Shamshoon" - made its debut in the Arab world earlier this month, in time for Ramadan, a time of high TV viewership. It uses the original "Simpsons" animation, but the voices are dubbed into Arabic and the scripts have been adapted to make the show more accessible, and acceptable, to Arab audiences.
September 06, 2005
Registering for Help
We were a friendly bunch, alternating between mind-numbing boredom and periods of absolute delight. Something similar to watching the Saints, without the terrible first quarter. We sat and talked to folks from Mandeville, Luling, New Orleans East, the Loyola neighborhood and (no surprise) someone who actually lived literally around the corner from us (on Constance.). Our neighbor opined that, had we been doing this actually IN New Orleans, someone would have long since fired up a BBQ grill and another group would have taken up a collection for alcohol.A New Orleans Metro Blogger paints the picture of registering for help after the storm: Metroblogging New Orleans: The Paper Chase
He certainly captures the heart of New Orleans culture.
Although I was only a "University New Orleanian" while I studied at Loyola, I enjoyed the easy and ready social life of living in New Orleans, or, as we called it, "THE City" - despite what they say in New York or San Francisco.
As a philosophy major at Loyola, we had regular haunts (beer gardens) for evening study sessions and discussions of metaphysics and rationalism, or a particular Walker Percy novel (Love in the Ruins, The Moviegoer) or Flannery O'Connor short story. (Percy taught at Loyola during my senior year at the University.)
New Orleans is a special culture that has to be lived in order to be understood. New Orleans is tactile, and not merely something in the head.
I've already gone out and purchased Mardi Gras beads and I fully plan to celebrate this year.
A little known fact is that Mardi Gras, or Carnival, in my hometown of Mobile, AL predates the celebration in New Orleans.
Let me know if you need help planning for a Mardi Gras celebration. Mardi Gras Day falls very late this coming year, on Tuesday, February 28.
August 23, 2005
Habit-ually Enthused
August 10, 2005
Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage in Harvard Square
I drove back to Boston this afternoon. The drive wasn't too bad, although I drove into a harrowing rain storm on a hilltop to the west of Albany, New York. It passed in about 4 minutes.
I drove directly to Harvard Square, because I wanted to talk to Kevin again before returning to California tomorrow evening.
Kevin was at dinner with his friends when I arrived, so I found a shady spot on the steps of Widener Library in Harvard Yard.
When Kevin and his friends returned from dinner, we took a walk towards the Charles River and ended up at the John F. Kennedy memorial park at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
After leaving Kevin and his friends, I was going to drive to my hotel, but I decided to give the traffic a bit more time to settle, so I went to dinner at Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage in Harvard Square.
If you do nothing else when visiting Harvard, going to Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage is a worthy investment of time. It's much more worthy than standing in front of the statue of John Harvard and having your photo taken. (<-- Actually, doing that is pretty dorky and it won't get you into Harvard. FYI.)
I had the "liberally plump" Ted Kennedy burger at Mr. Bartley's.
Great burgers and the best onion rings in the world make Bartley's a perennial favorite with a cross section of Cambridge, from Harvard students to regular folks. The 40-plus-year-old family business isn't a cottage, but a high-ceilinged, crowded room plastered with signs and posters (there's also a small outdoor seating area). Burgers bear the names of local and national celebrities, notably political figures; the names change, but the ingredients stay the same.
July 23, 2005
Code Talkers
Joel lives in Oklahoma, which makes this post even more relevant:
Joel Blain: Last of the Code Talkers.
July 09, 2005
10th Annual Redneck Games
USATODAY.com - Rednecks find ingredients for another successful Games
Git the Games On!
July 06, 2005
Revisiting Strong Bad and Homestarrunner
I haven't mentioned Homestarrunner and Strong Bad in a long while. I revisited some of my all time favorite Strong Bad e-mails.
This is one: Strong Bad e-mail #101.
Be sure to click on the "No!" at the end of the e-mail and the word "car".
July 05, 2005
Fake It
Sprayonmud is a specially formulated spray-on product for anyone that wants to give friends, neighbours, colleagues or just anyone at all, the impression that they have been off-road or, at the very least, out in the country for the weekend.
Well, at least it wasn't developed in California.
July 02, 2005
Wear a White Band
Please wear a White Band:
WHITE BAND - Questions and answers.
July 1 was International White Band Day.
The dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in London was one of the world landmarks wrapped in a White Band.
Live8:
Every single day, 30,000 children die, needlessly, of extreme poverty.
Extreme Poverty is Extreme Violence. Period.
June 23, 2005
Young@Heart Chorus
Time Magazine has a wonderful photo essay on The Young@Heart Chorus, which is a group of seniors in Northampton, MA who sing and perform. The members are in their 70's, 80's and 90's.
I read an article in the Orange County Register earlier this year that talked about high school students and community service. The article reported that it's particularly difficult to match students with service projects serving the elderly because teens are uncomfortable being around older people.
My thoughts are that the culture celebrates pertending that people don't grow old and die. The reality is that everyone does - at least the second part.
This photo essay shows the beauty of growing old. Hooray! for people who live lively lives.
May 31, 2005
The Guitar
This is a very cool story on the history of the guitar - it's best
heard rather than read.
NPR : Tim Brookes, Telling the Story of the Guitar
Tim Brookes, a British expatriate living in Vermont, has mused on the air about cricket, swimming with sharks, king cakes and the mysteries of a snipe that flies over his country home. He's also a passionate and talented guitar player. And he's just published Guitar: An American Life, which he describes as part history and part love song.
May 22, 2005
New Cathedral for Oakland
I'm a fan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. It's cool to see a great Cathedral being designed for Oakland.
May 15, 2005
Holy Simpsons
The Simpsons: The Father, The Son, & The Holy Guest Star.
I only saw the final twenty minutes of The Simpsons tonight. It was a great episode: Bart is sent to Catholic school and becomes a Catholic. Homer is sent to rescue him from the Catholics but is taken in by a charismatic priest who introduces him to the advantages of confession, BINGO and real wine at communion.
My favorite part was when Marge imagined going to Protestant Heaven and looking over with envy at the much more fun Bart, Homer AND Jesus were having in Catholic Heaven.
April 22, 2005
"Soup Nazi" Goes National
April 18, 2005
Napoleon Honored
Idaho Legislature - The Idaho Statesman - Always Idaho
Some people think Idaho lawmakers are freakin' idiots, but a resolution honoring filmmakers Jared and Jerusha Hess for their Idaho-centric "Napoleon Dynamite" might change their minds.The House Ways and Means Committee, which is the Legislature's equivalent of the Happy Hands Club, approved the resolution on a voice vote, sending the measure forward to the House floor.
Lawmakers who vote against the measure are threatened with having the worst day of their lives.
Thanks to my MidWest friends for alerting me to this bit of culture.
April 16, 2005
Emotional Ties: iPod
The Washington Post carried an article on iPod thefts. The article also spoke to the emotional value of music to the people who have had their iPods stolen.
One woman whose iPod had been stolen "even stopped going to the gym because she could not bear to exercise without her favorite tunes" reports the article.
"I know it sounds silly, but it changed everything. I was really upset," said the 34-year-old graduate student. "I can't explain it. But it hurt."
It is an interesting thought. No doubt about it, the bond to music is strong, and one that I understand.
April 07, 2005
What I Learned About Being an American at India Cook House
I went to dinner with friends last night.
I thought that we'd go to an Irish pub, grab a pint and watch what the rest of the world calls football on a big screen, because of Gareth, who is Irish, although he went to university in England and currently works for the British Consulate.
However, like most Brits I know, Gareth has a love for Indian food, particularly Chicken Tiki Masala, so we went to an obscure Indian restaurant in Irvine.
Gareth doesn’t “get” the spicy-ness rating that accompanies ordering Indian dishes in America. In his thinking, there should be one way to prepare the dish. Period. As we talked, I tried to explain that ethnic restaurants cook to the American palate. That made absolutely no sense to Gareth. Americanizing a dish makes it American and not Indian, Mexican, Armenian, Chinese or whatever it should be.
All of this leads me to mention a story I heard on a local public radio station on Transethnics. Basically, it’s about white people in Santa Monica who live like they’re Asian people born into the body of a white Californian. You know, they go to Whole Foods to pick out green tea scented soaplets, twist chopsticks into their hair, and discriminate between soy products. The point of the article is that ethnic “borrowing” and adaptation is what America is really about.
However, to Gareth, that means that in Orange County, at least, he’s not going to find a good Chicken Tiki Masala. And I didn't get the pint I was expecting.
March 07, 2005
Big Fat Actress
March 05, 2005
Sean and Drake: At the Top of Their Game
Drake and Sean put their all into preparing for tonight's debut show of their band, Three's A Crowd.
If you missed the show, here's a short movie of Drake and Sean getting ready for the show (and being protected by Geoff.)
I've also posted photos that highlight the evening in the TACDebut tab above.
It was very cool that so many students and faculty came out tonight. A group of my close friends came as well.
February 28, 2005
China Philharmonic
I was able to go to the symphony tonight, through the kindness of the parents of one of my students who gave me two tickets to hear the American debut of the China Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert was hosted by the Orange County Philharmonic.
My friend and I were invited to a private party after the concert to honor the evening's major sponsors - among whom were the parents of the student who gave me the tickets.
The China Philharnomic is a brilliant orchestra.
February 08, 2005
Happy Mardi Gras
My sister called me on Saturday. It's Mardi Gras time in Mobile, our home town, and in New Orleans. She absolutely loves Mardi Gras season and is having a great time. Fortunately the weather has been nicer down there, although I read that showers are expected today, the final day of Mardi Gras.
I attended university in New Orleans, right on St. Charles Avenue, which is the "main street" of uptown New Orleans. I enjoyed Mardi Gras. It's wild to think back on those times, and about how an entire city shuts down for a four-day party - which is what happened at college the final weekend of Mardi Gras and on Mardi Gras Monday and Tuesday.
For a long time I felt New Orleans "nostalgia" at Mardi Gras, and I'd hunt down a six pack of Dixie Beer to share with friends on Mardi Gras day. I haven't done that for a while. If you've ever had Dixie Beer you're probably asking "Why bother?" You're right, Dixie isn't worth the bother.
Mobile's Mardi Gras, although it's older than Mardi Gras in New Orleans, is big, but not massive like New Orleans. I mean, no one thinks of Mobile when they think of Mardi Gras. In this country, only New Orleans comes to mind. That's ok.
Anyway, Happy Mardi Gras!
February 06, 2005
Fat, Drunk and Stupid
"Fat, Drunk and Stupid is no way to go through life, son."- Dean Vernon Wormer
National Lampoon's Animal House
National Public Radio had a piece on actor John Vernon and reported his death earlier this week.
As an edcator with a history in higher education, I have to acknowledge Dean Wormer's passing.
February 04, 2005
roDog Produces Art
My newest gallery work: art.com artPad
Thanks to RobotJohnny for passing this one along.
January 08, 2005
People Seeking an Answer
There's a good deal of theological posturing about the recent tragedy and devastation in South Asia.
This article is pretty thoughtful.
Boston.com / News / World / Asia / The faithful seek answers
''God created nature, but what happens within that creation is complex and follows its own set of rules. In the old times, there was a belief that such disasters were a punishment by God. . . . That is not the way we see it, that is not the way the Gospels tell us that Jesus saw it," added Langstrom, who presided over a service that was better attended than usual in this secular country....
Deaths in war seem easier to comprehend. Even in the moral black holes of history, from the Nazi death camps to the slaughter in Rwanda, assigning blame is easier, even if the grieving is no less difficult.
But when a natural disaster strikes, the question of God's role -- or lack of one -- presents an especially difficult challenge to theologians. Each of the four major religions in the quake region -- Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity -- possesses its own theology to help its followers try to put the enormity of the disaster into perspective and to help them find the faith to move on.
November 23, 2004
Get Up Off Your Knees
A lot of people wonder about the meaning of songs on U2's new album, particularly now that How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is officially on the streets. For people like me who are aware of and can make sense of some of the spiritual nuances in Bono's lyrics, this is an exciting and deeply moving album.
Literally, Beth Maynard wrote the book on this topic. And she's an avid and notable blogger.
Here are links to a couple of interviews with Beth:
One is by culture watcher Dick Staub, the other by urban youth worker and blogger Rudy Carrasco.
November 01, 2004
Eminem Mosh
September 28, 2004
Evangelicals Engaging Culture
Biola University was featured in a New York Times Magazine article.
Here's an excerpt from the article.
Like a lot of Christian colleges in the United States, Biola has in recent years made serious efforts to compete academically with secular and more mainstream religiously affiliated colleges. That hasn't meant a reduced emphasis on religious teachings. If anything, the school has intensified its commitment to cultivating devout Christians. But it does mean that the school has expanded its curriculum in areas of study like psychology, bioethics and popular culture, and that it is encouraging a new level of engagement with the secular world. Detweiler, a screenwriter who is something of a maverick on campus and in the evangelical Christian community, is on the front lines of that effort at Biola.
Read the complete The New York Times Magazine’s article (PDF).
The University has posted a page describing the project.
August 19, 2004
Bear Passes Out After Only 36 Beers
SEATTLE (Reuters) - A black bear was found passed out at a campground in Washington state recently after guzzling down three dozen cans of a local beer, a campground worker said on Wednesday.
"We noticed a bear sleeping on the common lawn and wondered what was going on until we discovered that there were a lot of beer cans lying around," said Lisa Broxson, a worker at the Baker Lake Resort, 80 miles northeast of Seattle.
The hard-drinking bear, estimated to be about two years old, broke into campers' coolers and, using his claws and teeth to open the cans, swilled down the suds.
It turns out the bear was a bit of a beer sophisticate. He tried a mass-market Busch beer, but switched to Rainier Beer, a local ale, and stuck with it for his drinking binge.
Wildlife agents chased the bear away, but it returned the next day, said Broxson.
They set a trap using as bait some doughnuts, honey and two cans of Rainier Beer. It worked, and the bear was captured for relocation.