Monthly Archives: July 2005

I always knew that Steve Martin was a prophet when I would listen to that scratched ‘Let’s Get Small’ album. In this case I am thinking of his prophetic utterance in his stand-up routine entitled “Grandmother’s Song” where he states – “you can’t sing anything sad on a banjo.”

There is something in the American ethos when a banjo kicks in that evokes either gothic dread (think “Dueling Banjos” … There’s more to read here.

We are 200 pages into JK Rowling’s latest installment – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I have to agree with Stephen Waldmen’s 2004 article on Slate.com that drew connections between HP and Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series on a number of points, particularly the base line of the 21st century – fear sells. Also, the current trend to reimagine the current security-obessive zeitgeist in fantasy (Battlestar Galactica for example) … There’s more to read here.

…how it is that our supposedly “Christian nation” seems to be virtually ignoring this? Other than this blip on the NYTimes radar, it seems we just aren’t interested in millions of dying Nigeriens…I mean, heck, forget aid efforts, we’ve got terror attacks to worry about.

I’m really sorry I don’t have any more to say, anything profound or constructive, any suggestions as to what should be done, any … There’s more to read here.

There is a long tradition in popular music of writing music based upon the experience of performance and life after that last encore is sung, the house lights go up, and the mix tape the roadies put together gets played as the audience fights their way to the parking lot. It seems to hit artists after their first big tour – this need to express the experience of being the … There’s more to read here.

To say that the 70′s were kind to me would be a lie. Granted, I am still here to tell the tale and that does count for something, but the 70′s represented a period of unbelievable angst – being the shortest kid in my class through 9th grade (yup – that’s me in the class picture in the front row hold the class sign…), clinical acne I treated with a … There’s more to read here.

In a recent article on BeliefNet.com, Bono (patron saint of TheologyKungFu.com) made the following comments:

“Now, for all its failings and its perversions over the last 2,000 years—and as much as every exponent of this faith has attempted to dodge this idea—it is unarguably the central tenet of Christianity: that everybody is equal in God’s eyes. So you cannot, as a Christian, walk away from Africa. America will be … There’s more to read here.

“Well, as I was saying, the world is eaten up by boredom. To perceive this needs a little preliminary thought: you can’t see it all at once. It is like dust. You go about and never notice, you breathe it in, you eat and drink it. It is sifted so fine, it doesn’t even grit on your teeth. But stand still for an instant and there it is, coating your … There’s more to read here.