I missed it...

Sorry, Johan. I tried to spread the word. But when I wasn't working, I was sleeping, being interviewed (alas, not by Tyra Banks) or riding the train from one to the other.

Anybody catch my boy on the Tyra Banks show today (Tues.) can tell me how that went?

Edit:

I didn't miss it. I only thought I did. The show was taped and will air probably in September. Johan also divulged (in the juicy comments section), that he is also being bandied about for a NY Times article. Hey, that's diversity for ya!

In other news, mutual friend Darnell Weathersby (Older brother to three of my youth now. Yes, three [3]. Mentor to several others.) was on the front page of the Central Illinois Journal Star. Essentially, they were reporting on the fact that the school district covering Peoria (or, Caterpillaria, Illinois) is trying to hire more black teachers. The student population is about 60% African American while the teaching staff is about 7% black. And, with the addition of Darnell, the entire district has fifteen male black teachers. The article reports that, "[o]nly 1.5 percent of the state's classroom teachers are black males."

On that, Darnell says, "I'm an African-American male, and that's very rare in teaching, period. I'm learning that my role is a lot more than academic... [In regards to teaching in Peoria,] I have a heart for the inner city. I'm an inner-city product. I want to play an influential role for those like me."

In similarly unrelated news, I attended Darnell's wedding (reception only, unfortunately) in shoes that were impossible to dance in. I proceeded to make a fool of myself dancing to New Jack sounds. As white as can be.

Additional note:

Almost lost my religion looking for this image. I finally settled on searching for "Tyra Banks face."

First off, props to mi hermano Johan Khalilian. While preparing to come back from a summer trip to So. Cal., he was asked to speak on the Tyra Banks show about living and teaching purity as a young adult in a thoroughly modern setting. Hey, I'll never reach that audience. The show airs Tuesday. Check your local listings.

Second, my pics are fast fading. I don't know if it's my comps or not (Don't know enough about 'em, but this one's been acting scwewy like Elmer Fudd falling for Bugs Bunny in drag.) but my images are disappearing like Speedy Gonzalez from the public image (Can't say I blame Warner Bros. for trying to Politically Correct that cultural faux pas.). Does anybody know a free, easy-to-use image uploader that is compatible with blogger and will save images on to the site? Right now, I'm thinking of just saving images onto the computer and posting it using the Blogger image uploader feature thingy.

Isn't she lovely?

One more thing: I'm going to try to update a few of my old "poems" throughout the week. Not that you care. But I do. And this is my blog. So, there, sucka!

Dan Brown, Jesus loves you!

I've got way too much to read as it is (I'd name check, but I don't want to embarrass people, especially myself.) and I'm a slow reader. So, ya'll've got a month to get me some N. T. Wright, peeps. For those who don't know who this Anglican bishop is, I was hipped to him by Philip Yancey and by doing a cursory reading of Anne Rice's reading list. (Yes, Anne Rice. She is a devout Catholic now. And she's writing a book about the life of Jesus. I flippin' kid you not. The Godmother of Goth!) Anyway, if you are one who thinks that Biblical scholars are now convinced that the Bible is inaccurate and that the historical Jesus is a different being altogether from the one presented in the New Testament, this cat's for you.

He made a stop at Seattle Pacific University, gave four lectures and an interview. The following excerpts are from his speech entitled, "Decoding The DaVinci Code," in which he tackles the best-selling, and horribly researched, thriller - which alleges, among other things, that the true accounts of Jesus were the Gnostic Nag Hammadi so-called Gospels, including the "Gospel of Thomas" and the "Gospel of Philip," that Jesus was not divine, that the canon Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were added and endorsed much later, specifically by rule of Emperor Constantine hundreds of years after Jesus died, that Jesus was basically a good and intelligent man who wanted to help people live good lives, and that Mary Magdelene had Jesus' love child and the Catholic Church is working hard to cover that fact.

What then about the place of Mary Magdalene, who, according to Dan Brown and some other writers, features strongly in the Gnostic writings, representing a goddess-figure, the embodiment of the "sacred feminine," the Holy Grail, the Rose, the Divine Mother? It is all pure imagination. (Well, it is at least imagination, certainly.) Mary Magdalene is mentioned in precisely three of the Nag Hammadi scrolls (as against "the countless references to Jesus' and Mary Magdalene's union" (333)). The "Gospel of Mary" is the report of a vision which sets the material world against the nonmaterial, seeing Mind as the intermediary of Soul and Spirit. This is fairly standard Platonic idealism; it is hard to see what it's got to do with the sacred feminine, but it's easy to see that it has nothing to do with a first-century Jewish prophetic movement such as that of Jesus. "The Gospel of Philip" is the one where Jesus kisses Mary - but the idea that a kiss was a key gesture of romantic attachment won't survive two minutes when we move away from Hollywood and into the real world of late antiquity. There is not the slightest sign, in Nag Hammadi any more than in the Dead Sea Scrolls, of Jesus being married to Mary and having a child by her. The "Gospel of Thomas" has one saying about Mary (51:19), in which "Jesus" states that "Mary will be saved if she makes herself male, because every female who makes herself male will become fit for the kingdom of God." That is hardly a ringing endorsement for the sacred feminine. If it's sacred femininity you want, you must look elsewhere, to various forms of paganism ancient and modern. These have become enormously popular in some strands of New Age and postmodern thinking. They have found their way into some revisionist versions of western Christianity. But they have nothing to do with Nag Hammadi and nothing whatever to do with early Christianity.

Dan Brown, apparently, can't be bothered to check his facts.

In particular, the resurrection of Jesus was central to early Christianity, though you'd never know that, either, from Dan Brown or from the many other writers who perpetrate the modern myth in its various forms... The early Christian gospel, which was then written up in the four canonical Gospels, was the good news, not that a new teaching about hidden wisdom had appeared, enabling those who tapped into it to improve the quality of their lives here or even hereafter, but that something had happened through which the evil which had infected the world had been overthrown and a new creation launched, and that all human beings were invited to become part of that project by becoming renewed themselves. In particular, this included from the start a strong political critique. Not the tired old left-wing harangue in Christian dress, of course, but a more subtle, more Jewish, more devastating critique: Jesus is Lord, therefore Caesar isn't. That is there in Paul. It is there in Matthew, in John, in Revelation. If the canon was written, or read, to curry political favor, it was dramatically unsuccessful. Those who were thrown to the lions were not reading "Thomas" or Q or the "Gospel of Mary." They were reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the rest, and being sustained thereby in a subversive mode of faith and life which, growing out of apocalyptic Judaism, posed a far greater threat to Roman empire and pagan worldviews than Cynic philosophy or Gnostic spirituality ever could. Why would Caesar worry about people rearranging their private spiritualities?

Indeed. Flippin' morons.

Oh, and can someone get me some Eugene Peterson? I already have most of The Message. I'd like Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, if you may.

Oratory Cheek debuts!

Was gonna mention this on the last post, but it got kind of stuffed with stuff I thought is more interesting. I started yet another blog. Now, this isn't the same as the collective blog, Further Up, that is fine quality work and that nobody is going to even though they should and start bowing before their screens in abject adoration. This is, more or less, a site for archiving my speeches and preachings and maybe some lessons, etc., most of which are just to long to accomodate here.

If you so desire, you may peruse my work. If you so desire, you may pilfer. (Genius steals.) I only ask that you ask and give credit where credit is due (I could set up a PayPal account quite easily.) No, it's free. (But seriously, I could use some donations!)

So, again, while I will continue to hype up Further Up And Further In, I will not continue to blow the horn for Oratory Cheek (Yes, talking and praying cheeks).

Once again, Further Up And Further In is here.

While Oratory Cheek is here.

That is all.

She's a bad mamma jamma

For those of us in youth ministry, the end of summer means the return of our daily lives. The semblance of sanity being restored. The voices of relentless and reckless kids slowly receding from our subconsciouses on otherwise comfortable nights. We can begin to evaluate, reevaluate, polish up our resumes, consider the costs of assuming new identities. All the post-partum depressive tendencies we tend to have at this season. (Just as those poor whiny teachers begin their lesson plans for next year - or mark off the days 'til pension rolls in and dream about their summer homes, yachts, and a world without children.)

One thing I've noticed, we are not naturally a reflective lot. We tend to be doers and not thinkers. Which is partially why I've loved this change of pace as a youth director. But, after trying it out for a year, I've realized this, it just ain't my style, baby!

I love being able to reflect. And I'm lazy.

Speaking of reflective youth workers, my man Stinger's come back from Venezuela and he's just starting to delve into his experience there. In the infamous and glorious words of Napoleon, sounds like he had "a killer time." Manos! Manos! Manos!

The Other Side of the Story of trips such as what Stinger (and a group from my church that just came back from Haiti) took can be viewed in the latest edition of the journalistic juggernaut, LarkNews.

Barbara Nicolosi was interviewed by the New York Times again, this time about the whole, "Christians don't like The Da Vinci Code? What's not to like?" flap. Read her entry here and the article here (NYTimes requires free registration). If you wanna see me in one of my angrier moods, click here.

One disconcerting exchange that she notes with the interviewer, however, is:

Barb: I heard that the studio execs behind The Da Vinci Code are worried that some Christians are going to put them on a hit list. Someone claimed to have gotten death threats during the making of The Last Temptation of Christ. It's so ridiculous. We aren't the ones who throw bombs.

NYTimes Reporter: (paraphrase) Well, there are as many Christians out there throwing bombs as Muslims. Look at all the bombings Christians do of abortion clinics.

Sometimes, I just feel sorry for people.

And, lastly but not leastly (because I actually got his permission), Victor Morton has a post on a radio commentary done over the CBC. You gotta love any post that begins, "From the soft tyranny to the north aka, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Canuckistan..." (Love ya, Christine.) Apparently, Bob Ferguson has a lot of opinions on what should be official Catholic beliefs, certainly those validated by the state.

If Catholicism were illegal,

Then it would be illegal to require a particular marital status as a condition of employment or to exclude women from the priesthood.

On State-controlled church doctrine:

Of course the Vatican wouldn't like the changes, but they would come to accept them in time as a fact of life in Canada. Indeed I suspect many clergy would welcome the external pressure.

[In all truth, would it be much different than the Canadian Episcopalian Church?]

We could also help the general cause of religious freedom by introducing a code of moral practice for religions. They will never achieve unity so why not try for compatibility? Can't religious leaders agree to adjust doctrine so all religions can operate within the code?

As part of this code of compatiblility, ministers would take standardized coursework, sign a pact on agreed-upon terms, etc. Are you catching this? He literally wants the state to "regulate the practice of religion."

It's a good thing that this engineering professor is humble and doesn't overstep his boundaries on things he knows nothing about:

I won't try to propose what might be in the new code except for a few obvious things: A key item would have to be a ban on claims of exclusivity.

And this pearl of swinery,

Religion is important in our lives, but it can become a danger to society when people claim that the unalterable will of God is the basis for their opinions and actions.

Yeah, we wouldn't want to base our ideologies on something we don't completely understand, do we?

And my favorite line goes to:

Now what is the point of proposing this? I do it because I am worried that the separation between church and state is under threat.

Thank you, Bob Ferguson. You've amused me to no end!

Good night!

Attention Deficit of a village...

Bought The Idiot today. Read chapter 1. Kept holding off buying Russian literature because, I reasoned, how would I ever teach it to inner-city high schoolers? Heck, forget them.

Throwing another barbecue at my brother's place. In the email invitation, I felt it was necessary to warn people to drive straight ahead and look like they know exactly where they're going - to the house of the only whites in the neighborhood, not to participate in the illicit activities the other whites are visiting for.

The post about the hot virgin is bringing some traffic to this site. Within the last three days, about five people Googled for Johan Khalilian expecting to learn something else about him or some pix or something. Ok, he was a communications major. He's a pretty effective communicator. His mother's Puerto Rican and his father's Persian. He likes Cross Movement and hip hop. That's it for today's gossip information.

The Paste Magazine CD sampler was hard as blood to get out. But worth it. Along with some John Hiatt, the Redwalls, Sun Volt, Death Cab for Cutie, and Frank Black, it's got some Denison Witmer. "East From West." And just like his crony, Sufjan, who along with the Innocence Mission's Don Peris (conspirators on this album) can talk avidly and simply about his Christian faith without the critical backlash. Or at least so much. Adam really seems to like it. So, I'll give it a buy after I drop Illinois in my CD bin.

Sam Ashworth, if memory serves, is Charlie Peacock's son. Paste doesn't rave about his music (3 our of 5), but Matt Slocum (of Sixpence None the Richer), John Davis (Superdrag - I think. I may have to research that), and Fleming McWilliams (wifey part - and supervocalist - of Fleming & John duo) really seem to like him. The song has the air of Peacock's Aim a Little Higher.

By the way, Timi is "Foine."

Meee-ow.

Want proof?

Isn't she hot stuff?

Even when she's concerned and worried about the trappings of life there's a sort of benign dignity about her.

Notice the way her lips curl. They scream, "You must know me, respect me, love me and my God. You must woo me and marry me before you get any smoochie-smoochie."

An honorable woman. A man who finds a Timi Allen (not the warmed-over comedian, but the warm, inviting and comely woman of God) finds a good thing.

Bookends

A couple quotes from Dostoevsky (why is it that everytime I see his name, it's spelled differently? They didn't have standard spelling in turn-of-the-century Russia?) and another from Tolstoy that I'm pilfering from Philip Yancey's The Jesus I Never Knew. Man, I miss writing quotes that I like. It's been awhile.

If anyone could prove to me that Christ was outside the truth, I would prefer to remain with Christ than with the truth. (p. 141)

The genuine realist, if he is an unbeliever, will always find strength and ability to disbelieve in the miraculous, and if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would rather disbelieve his own senses than admit the fact. Faith does not... spring from the miracle, but the miracle from faith. (p. 163)

[Concentrating on the Sermon on the Mount, Leo Tolstoy says,] The test of observance of Christ's teaching is our consciousness of our failure to attain an ideal perfection. The degree to which we draw near this perfection cannot be seen; all we can see is the extent of our deviation. (p. 126)

And this is from an introduction to an interview with Cambridge professor (actually, "associate principle at Ridley Hall at Cambridge") and musician and conductor Jeremy Begbie.

Cultural forms [as in, art forms imbued within the culture] are not simply utilitarian or ornamental, but are expressions of an understanding of the nature of creation, specifically of human nature and human well-being. Cultural conventions usually take form at specific times and places because they’re compatible with a set of dominant assumptions about things. They are concrete crystallizations of abstract hopes, desires, and theories.

Friday I'm in love

I'm just kidding. Far from it. Ladies, you still have your opportunities.

Take me while ya got me.

It has been flippin' too much today. I'm gonna look for that great story-teller voice that is just aching to come out and tell today's events in an enthralling way (if not, I just may start another post I won't ever finish or I may just decide to bore you another way).

But I wanna hit - real briefly - on two small, peripheral points. One, it was kind of cool to see my boy, superboymodel Johan Khalilian (remarkably, I think I misspelled his name) on the cover of the RedEye today. I say "kind of" because:

1) the RedEye sucks big time. It's the equivalent of saying, not only can't our children read, but neither can adults ages 18-35. So let's give them an alternative paper (This one being published and produced by Tribune Company, which gives us The Chicago Tribune, WGN, half of the WB "network", and the Chicago Cubs.) that's really only a daily US Magazine with a farm league sports section.

2) the way they cover the story about grown-up virgins /celibates (the article apparently either doesn't know that last word exists or doesn't want to risk assuming that its readership does). I think the topic is good and it needs to have some light shed on it. It says that there are some of us still out there. (Hey, if you're 30 and still haven't gotten any, you're either extremely antisocial or serious about the business of celibacy.) The problem is, the focus (again, because of projected images of readership) was on the beautiful virgins (Huh?? They exist?), and was way too short to address the issue with any clarity or depth. Which is bad enough in a regular newspaper (especially Red State / Blue State qualifiers like the NY Times), but this is a rag which delivers the cover story in a two page spread where 1/2 of it is dedicated to photos and another chunk is given to seriously unrelated - read, garbage - sidebars. As much as I want to see The 40 Year Old Virgin later this year, it has nothing to do with a worldview of purity in sexual relationships. Neither, shocker, does Brittney.

Also, got a chance to shortly meet JR from the Cross Movement crew today. One thing I know is, if he hangs out with CM, he's got his head straight. But joe can sing, and produce. He's engaged, ladies, so sorry. (Of course, I'm still available and I ain't got all that baggage.) But he's dropping his latest in Oct.

Memory meme

Timi put me up to this. I still love you, sis.

Ten years ago: I was just starting college. And I was working part-time and I was paying out of pocket and saving money like crazy. Course it was a community college.

Five years ago: I think that's when I took a year off from school to decide my next major. Yeeeaaah, English Education!

One year ago: I was broke. Bum broke. Only ocassionally working. My friends were helping me out. But I was also getting ready to go to a terrific urban sports camp (KAA, you know!) with my brother, my good friend AJ (Happy Birfday, AJ!) and several loveable rugrats, two of whom are in Haiti this week. I love my rugrats. Oh, and I started working full-time for the church as an interim youth director.

Yesterday: We celebrated AJ's birthday. AJ likes to think of herself as a spy. That's ok, 'cuz we do too. For this surprise party, her roommates and best friends devised a fun little spy romp, where they'd leave little clues that lead to one another and lead to evidence (such as random pirate noises, etc.) that I had kidnapped them (hence, the Pirate Kidnapper text some of y'all got yesterday) and brought them downtwon to a factory (Cheesecake Factory, where the cheesecake is both really expensive and really rich. Honestly, I didn't eat dinner like everybody else did, and still I couldn't finish my slice. Course I had some burgers 'fore we left. But that was 5 hours before the cheesecake. And I, like Timi, LOOOOVE cheesecake!) where she could 'Declare our Independence' - meaning in the John Hancock building. She actually got the Cheesecake Factory reference, but somehow missed the Declaration of Independence reference, so she started looking for another room of some sort. Tracked her down like an animal. Lot of fun.

Huh? »

Today: Woke up before the alarm.

Tomorrow: Is Thursday. Baby steps, baby steps.

5 snacks I enjoy: Technically, not snacks: Cheesecake, Ice Cream, Doritos, Cookies, Frappaccinos. (I'm gonna be diabetic and lactose intolerant, I swear.)

5 bands that I know the lyrics of most of their songs:
Not all of the lyrics to songs, but a lot of them, and not all bands but, U2, Switchfoot, dc Talk (Sooo much shame!), Fred Hammond, Stevie Wonder & Cross Movement. 6, so what? They're all incomplete!

Stryper, eat your heart out!

5 things I would do with $100,000,000:
1) Get out of debt
2) Take care of my family
3) Buy a home
4) Use 20,000,000 to donate to World Vision, some other charities I believe in (KAA, Inner City Impact, my church). And yes, I do tithe now.
5) Start a company. It's the best way to get people work.
*This is all contingent on taxation. I'm figuring that I'll still owe the gov half even if I donate one-third and start a company with most of the rest. Now, if I started a corporation...

5 locations I’d like to runaway to: Hawaii. OK, I haven't the foggiest. I'm planning on going south in a few weeks in a rental car, so, we'll see.

5 bad habits I have:
1) Touch my hair.
2) Touch my face (oily skin I've got, can't be touching no face).
3) My bedroom's a super-duper mess and I always put it off.
4) I watch way too much late night tv.
5) Sarcasm.

5 things I like doing:
1) Writing
2) Reading
3) Having mixed intelligent/goofy conversations
4) Having someone make me laugh
5) Figuring things out (I'm pretty slow)

5 things I would never wear:
1) Skirt
2) Dress
3) Hot pants
4) halter tops
5) tattoos (I'm too beautiful to blemish my skin with ink)
Yes, the last three were Timi's, but they're applicable.

5 TV shows I like:
1) Simpsons
2) Letterman
3) Conan O'Brien
4) Buffy (It's been awhile, though. Don't laugh, it's got some of the finest writing, period.)
5) The Office *
*On DVD

5 movies I like:
1) Napoleon Dynamite
2) Hoop Dreams
3) Star Wars IV
4) Star Wars V
5) Magnolia

Don't lie, you thought I was gonna put an image of Napoleon, didn't you? What the heck is your problem?

5 famous people I’d like to meet:
They're dead. And they're the same ones others would say. And what would I say to them? "Wanna play me?"

5 biggest joys at the moment:
1) Spending time with my youth kids.
2) Spending time with my friends.
3) Alone time.
4) Writing.
5) Making someone laugh.

5 favorite toys: Toys? I can't afford toys!

Who's next?
I'm'a tag (and I know some are on hiatus and some ain't gonna want to do this, pero...) Adam Ant, Gabzilla, Alibabba, Destiny and - just for kicks - Micah, 'cuz he's bored out of his skull.

This is why I like reading Relevant Magazine online

After a fairly stale and unoriginal - though not without merit nor humorless - take on the death of the English language and its main culprit - the internet - several readers responded thanking the author of "The Impotence of Literacy," and a few tried to be witty.

But this is my favorite line of the week:

'it's also time the american people starting putting the u back into words like "colour"

language is constantly changing....'

Being mildly fascinated (paradox, I know) in linguistic history as well as an English teacher, I can attest that the responder is correct in that language is never static (For instance, double negatives were common in the English language - even in Shakespeare's time among the intelligentsia - until one brilliant man pointed out that double negatives in math equal positive equations, so therefore it should not work in language.) and, further, that there is no such thing as a correct English - besides what we confer as to being correct. But there is a huge difference between 'constantly' and 'radically' changing language.

The responder cannot, at will, change the meaning of words, basic punctuation, nor the function of syntax. There is no verb in that first sentence. Idiot.

Media-to-rare

Because I don't have anything clever to say today, these are the lyrics in entirety (without the obligatory labeling of chorus, verse, repeat, etc., and etc.) of Five Iron Frenzy's "Oh Canada." It is available on three different discs, of which two are live and of which I think I may own all three. But I will try to recollect solely from one of the live versions, sans printed lyrics.

welcome to canada
it's a maple leaf state,
canada, o canada,
it's great
people are nice here,
there's beef and stew
if you don't like it here
man, you sniff glue

the great white north
the kids say 'blah'
hosers say 'ah
it's not that bad.'

i want to be
where yaks can run free
where the royal mounties
can arrest me

let's go to canada
let's leave today
canada, o, canada
ay, s'il vous plait

they've got trees and mooses
and sled dogs
lots of lumber and lumberjacks
and logs
don't you think that it's kind of a drag
that you have to go in [?]
and get milk from a bag
they say "eh?" instead of
"what?" or "duh!"
that's the mighty power of canada

i want to be
where the lemmings run into the sea
where the marmasacks [editor: huh?]
can attack me

can you please
explain to me
how this all has come to be
we forgot to mention something here
did we say that william shatner is
a native citizen
and slurpees made from venison
that's here [?]

Thank you. Goodnight!

You think Leanor (the girl, of course) will accept my proposal...
for ice cream?

Followed by a courtship?

Speaking of girls (ok, I don't usually use that term, but, there's always exceptions to the rule), I'm liking Mary Mary's Mary Mary (sorry, already made that joke). Several scorchers toward the beginning are instant classics and hits just waiting to happen. Of course that may never happen for a few of the songs because of their self-referential nods to the '40s and '70s, two decades definitely not in favor with the Top-40 music crowd (and I use the term 'crowd' very loosely). Except for the clean-as-a-vacuum production and some latter-era Black Gospel vocal stylings, you'd almost swear some of these songs came out of that era, although "Heaven" does parch a riff from the 1970's. And of course, I'm embarrassed to say I don't even know who they copped, and that I've never heard of them. But even the instant hits begin to fit after a while, which is not something that I say often of female pop groups, or contemporary R&B. Mary, Mary quite contemplative. Yeppers.

The last stanza's a mess

While I was writing this simple little poem (Sometimes it's an exercise I do to clear my head so I can write some quality stuff. But sometimes it turns out quite all right on its own.) at the cafe, a couple were loudly and profanely demonstrating their grievances toward each other. And although it was almost funny at the beginning, it was also sad. Not for them. Forget them. It was sad for those of us enjoying the relative cool of the night (That day it surpassed a 100 degrees Farenheit, which is the scientific-equivalent term for So Hot You Can't Even Sweat No Mo') and trying to study/read/write.

how will i
will to do
what the few
choose to rule

cause matter
of the mind
still shattered
lingered time

never could
matter mind
take two pills
& grow a spine

The blogosphere is in danger of itself

I like the ideal of the coffeehouse setting, or what David Dark calls the Waffle House - an idyllic uniquely American locale where people of various opinion can opine, argue, inform and eventually - but not always - agree to disagree.

It occurs to me that, more than nearly any other sort of electric medium, the blogosphere (Or what I care to call the blogocosmos. Yes, you may borrow it. It'll satisfy my ego to no end to see that phrase everywhere in lights. And then I'll sue.) is such a place. It seems to fight against logic that blogs offer a respite for democratic civility, for 1) blogs revolve around the individual, rather than the communal and those that are set up for a sort of communal output - at least as far as the posts are concerned - do not tend to last long or be well-involved (cf. FurtherUP.blogspot.com) and 2) there are so many pages on the internet that those who carry a certain taste for a certain rhetorical polemical politicos can feasible feast solely on a staple of ideological ditto-heads.

Yet I see - and am involved in - several threads where maybe one person dissents to the small majority of faithful readers' opinion, holds up his or her own and is constantly rebutted by members of that online community in various opinions that belie as many differed opinions as shared. And in an atmosphere where the writer/replier can offer their opinion in the frame of several paragraphs while still holding interest of the reader/replier, the odds that intelligent dialogue is happening is greatly increased.

Contrast that to the endless gluttony of Rush Limbaugh or Al Franken fact- agreeants, whose diet is stable and malnourishing, at best. As a consequence, truth suffers for lack of vision. Although I am new to the blogging world, I have witnessed witnesses to democratic speech, people aware that others may not share their views and offer to share their own, usually in civility, with hopes of teaching and learning.

Maybe that sounds a bit myopic and severely naive. I've also seen environs of ridicule and meanness - the internet has long been infamous, for instance, as a place where violent and closet racists and child molesters can fester. But these are, by and large, places of anonymity, where one can enter and leave various chat rooms with a new identity intact and attached for each one, an electronic village of Sybils.

In order for bloggers to suffer our massive egos, on the other hand, anonymity must be kept at bay. We search other blogs not necessarily to find others that we may only agree with, but in search of friends - in the blogosphere and elsewhere, in search of people who can add to our blog as we do to theirs, usually out of joy, although sometimes out of boredom or sense of duty. Our identities, to a greater extent, certainly, stay intact with our personhood - or at the least, there is only one of each of us.

Add to that the newness of blogging itself. Although there are several veterans (veterans also being a relative term), an unscientific perusal finds that a good amount of bloggers are, like myself, neophytes, having done this for under a year. So, the blogocosmos is young, having just been spoken into existence. What we find, then, is a larger sense of community, a grouping of divergents coming together in defence of each other.

That thread of unity, however, may more quicky tear than we would desire. For disunity always starts somewhere, then feeds off itself until there is enough asexual reproduction to make any amoeba ashamed at its slowness. The cause, I believe, is not argumentation nor liberals nor conservatives. The cause, presumably, will not be over religious issues, but perhaps, over a false and pervasive religion that is spreading like a viral infection throughout at least the US - celebrity. (Who, after having seen Access Hollywood, E! Entertainment, or US Magazine can doubt the power of this strange cult of demigods?) Celebrities are now joining the tide and all reviews are heaving the thumbs down. Megalomania at its fiercist. What can Pamela Anderson offer the print and dialogical world? What possibly interesting tidbits of his life - that are not in his scripts - can Kevin Smith toss to his salivating fandom?

Pablum.

Real writers and journal-ists will not suffer more, will we? In order to take full advantage of our 15 minutes promised us by Andy Warhol, we will gladly rip the celeb-bloggers a new one. And in the process, the tearing of the fabric will begin and will not end.

Da- da -duhn!

Events

You know I don't like these "this is what's going on in my life" posts. Others, like Revolt, are really good at it. It's not much of my t'ang, y'all.

But, while I'm waiting for my resumes to print (stupid printer, stupid printer), thought I'd bore y'all too...

Finally bought Five Iron Frenzy's last, The End Is Here. They used to be one of my favorite bands. But personally, I'm not big on ska. I think it's a fairly limited musical form. Which is why I don't listen to much hard music. (By the way, if you don't own Arcade Fire's Funeral, what the heck is wrong with you? Pick it up. I said, "NOW!"). Five Iron, however, is a good ska band, and some great songwriters, in the tradition of - though not quite there yet - of a Steve Taylor or Terry Taylor. If you don't know who these two people are, what the heck is wrong with you? All right, I'll provide the links later.

But FIF is socially conscious and funny and fairly probing, in social, personal, spiritual and political matters (which, I think, is the way it should be). "Kingdom of the Dinosaurs" shall live on, mis gentes! I do have one more thing to say about it, at this point (Like I'll do a review on it. Puh-leeze!). Can somebody introduce me to Leanor Ortega? I think I want to marry her, or at least ask her to remove the court order.

I also picked up Mary Mary's Mary Mary, if for no other reason than to obligate myself to write the name Mary several times in a row. Actually, to my ears, it seems they avoided the sophomore slump on this, their third album. I wish they had also avoided it on their sophomore album. But dang, some Stax-like soul burners, a couple big band influenced torchers. A couple softy songs (not one for 'em, but their main demographic is girls so, go figure). Warryn Campbell is a genius (so much so he married one of them before I got the chance to even propose), although his rapping skills leave a bit to be desired. I still wish they'd take advantage of the skills of some of the finest rappers out there (hello ManChild, Ambassador, Coffee, Freddy Bruno, Pigeon... no, no Pigeon John. Sorry baby. Loose cannon.) And the sisters can sang, period. Especially in gospel music, they will just flat embarrass poseurs like Beyonce. But don't take my word for it, buy it.

I'll put links in later.

Oh, and tomorrow's the big day. Fly or crash and burn. If I don't get some bites at the Chicago Public School county/job meet & greet fair, I'm moving to the country. Skraight up, y'all!

Mars Ill is trying to kill me!

ProPain is the one album I've been looking forward to buying this summer. It was originally set to be released early in spring by Gotee Records. But there were some sample-clearing issues and Gotee wanted to push the record like it does with some of their other acts (Relient K is now on TRL. I didn't even know TRL is on tv anymore You know, like maybe it was on Kiss FM or something.) and/or something else.

But now the records being pushed back even further. And, to top it off, their site's still closed due to tech difficulties.

The news over at Deepspace 5's site is that the album was delayed by EMI, the evil distributor, for as-yet undisclosed reasons. In the meantime, listen to two new hots on their myspace (sorry, ladies) spot.

L.A. Symphony, apparently, is supposed to drop a fresh rec in Okt.

And apparently, getting a hold of Sufjan Steven's Illinois is hard to do - especially if you want a cover with Superman flying through Chicago (which I had always dreamed of) since DC Comics once again pulled out the cease and desist (just like they did for Capt. Marvel).

Flash Gordon, where are you? We need you!
5 points for both the references of that quote.

Edit: And check out their radio interview/performance.

Aslan is going to be played by...

Drumroll please....

...

...

...

Liam "Schindler" Neeson.

And the best joke (sorry I couldn't find the link, but credit goes to Peter T. Chattaway) I've heard about this so far, "This would make at least three films this year that Neeson has either given someone a sword and/or taught them to use it."

I see you still haven't learned to be aware of your bearings.

Lewisheads and fantasy film lovers: More Narnia news from ComicCon [Sorry, don't really know much about it. Kinda scares me. Comic book conventions, not The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, of which Aslan is the Lion.] available here. (If you haven't registered yet, what's your prob?)

People, I'm White!

I never did a John Walker-Lindh, I never pretended to be someone else. But some people have assumed (partially for cultural reasons, or the fact that I tended to have conversations with and about African Americans) that I'm Black. I'm not. In a sense, I'm not White either. But, I talk more about that here and in the near-to-distant future. In the meantime, I thought it just an excuse to post a picture of myself, but since I don't care for my pix, I decided to post a group photo. Thanks, Lori, miss ya kid.

10 points to the first one who guesses which one I am.

Graze

Once again, the poem of the week is an incomplete one. Which is okay, I suppose. I should start going back and complete some of them, or try to. Just as I should go back and complete some of the series and loose ends I said I would.

Pero, maybe I'll put some of them at Further Up & Further In, in a shrewd marketing campaign to draw people to that site (another one would be to pretty it up. But good things happen to those who wait.)

And for your reading pleasure:

so long

so far

so wide

i grazed

consumed

soil, grass

what's left

of it


so long

so far

i wade

on substance

that drips

like sweat that

glistens

the devil's back

Wim Wenders and projective space

Yes, that Wim Wenders!

OK, I won't pretend. I've yet to see Wings of Desire or any of his other films for that matter. But I loved the soundtrack for Until The End of the World, which inspired the Judas-kiss song of the same name by U2 and let us fans into their studio and minds months before they released Achtung Baby. It also gave us an acoustic peak at a song that T-Bone Burnett released on his brilliant and classic (but most likely out of stock) Criminal Under My Own Hat.

But he (Wimmy, that is) had some nice things to say in an interview recently about film and literature that I think are worth hearing (or reading). You can catch an abridged version here or you can go to the source (Again, my internet blocker's supersensitive spidey sense was tingling, so I didn't get a chance to read it yet). The gist of it, though, is that movies, like books and well yes, music, are best read between the spaces of the action and dialogue and happenings. The best stuff happens, he says, when you are allowed to "sneak in with your imagination, to dream on and to project your innermost hopes or fears or desires into what you see and thereby pushing it further." But of course, he says this in the negative, lamenting the passing of silent moments in the movie theaters.

Flame On!