...and what is typical of so many shows, especially those of Jerry Bruckheimer, but most typical of Cold Case.
Once again, as it has done repeatedly over the years, time and again, the show writers of this Sunday's segment once again made absolutely sure to trash marriage. Once again, romantic affairs are portrayed as a healthy way out of a stymying marriage. This has been said by so many show biz sources that many people are actually beginning to believe it. And it may well be true in a few instances. But here in real life, whether in the 1930s (the show's setting this week) or today, the vast majority of the time affairs don't make people stronger, they make people more foolish. They don't make people's lives more real, they play into people's fantasies. They don't build up, they destroy. Far, far more often than the other way around. And we always think of ourselves as the exception, when we are really the rule.
An affair is not someone standing up to break their chains. Much more often, it is a surrender to our own worst enemy, which is usually ourselves. But do you think a Bruckheimer show will ever say that? And am I being a [male tool] by asking that they start being real about it?
I'm almost mad. Can't get really mad, though. I met Allen Toussaint on Saturday, saw the Patriots win Sunday on TV, and then saw the return of Amazing Race !!
Monday, November 05, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
For Halloween
check out these links :
http://www.spirithome.com/halloween.html
http://www.spirithome.com/ghosts.html
Have fun!
http://www.spirithome.com/halloween.html
http://www.spirithome.com/ghosts.html
Have fun!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
At least I know who I'm not...
A note on the Robert Longmans that I am not :
- I was not the lead live broadcast engineer at the BBC for many years, who was instrumental in their live casts of Parliament sessions. He was, in many ways, a broadcast pioneer.
- I was not the town smithy in Easington UK in the 1850s.
Nor am I his probable ancestor who married a woman named Mary, who soon after his death married the son of the Rector of Easington, Thomas Mallory, in the 1650s. - I was not witness to the wedding of William Dowling and Ann Longman, 30 Oct 1785, at St. Mary Bourne, Winchester Anglican Diocese
- I was not a poet/writer in Lancashire UK around 1350.
- I was not the Anglican minister of Placentia NF starting in 1759.
- I did not live in Tingewick UK in the 1890s.
- I was not the son (1785 - 1850) of William & Matilda Longman.
- I did not marry a Jane Hodges in Corton-Denham, Somerset UK, whose son was Charles Longman (b. 1722). (Though I could be related to him.)
- I am not the president of Central Surveys Inc.
- I do not head the Australian Electoral Office.
- I was not he who agreed to the Protestation of 1641, in Stalbridge, Dorset UK -- nor would I have done so.
- I was not his probable descendant, a woodman from Hilton in Dorset, who at the time of the 1881 census was an inmate at the Poole Union Workhouse.
- I am not a credit officer at the Rural Community Assistance Corp. (though I have read articles related to his work)
- I am not the Laparoscopic Surgeon in Bristol UK.
- I did not marry Hillary Carter (Hillary was b. around 1954). (Or anyone else :( )
- I was not a fencer at Oberlin College (class of '62)
- I did not marry Hannah Scouse in Wherwell UK on 12 Jan 1767, nor marry Rachel Becket in Wherwell UK on 25 July 1785.
- I am not Group Technical Director at Plasmon.
- I am not in any way involved with USA Shout Media.
- I am not the Longman who is affiliated with Green Living Now.
- I am not the antitrust legal counsel at Kasowitz, Benson LLP. That Robert is also an officer of a group that works with the world's needy women and children, Heartbeats Of the World. His wedding to Chin Quee was written up in the New York Times (16 July 1996).
- I am not the consultant who was quoted in several news reports as having heard the Cory Lidle plane crash.
- I was not the 1800s British thief (whose real name, as far as I can tell, was Phineas Henry).
- I did not serve in the US Navy at sea on the USS Montrose in the Korean War.
(However, I am the son of a Marine who served on land in battle during that war.) - I am not the one who raises show cats in Sussex UK.
- I am not a staff lawyer for the Washington State legislature.
- Guitarist Richard Durrant's record label was not named after me or my family.
- I am not a leader in the Saskatchewan Miniature Horse Association.
- That sure wasn't me who was a leading character played by Linus Roache in the British TV show Seaforth.
- I did not publish scandal rags (newspaper/flyers) in New York in the 1900s. (Though I may be related to him.)
- So far as I can tell, I am not related to the Longman family that founded a major publishing company in the UK. (If someone has other information, I'd love to know.)
- and, I most certainly, absolutely am not the one who, under the apparent pen name Bob Longman, wrote the rated multiple "X" so-called 'underground classic' book titled 'The Debutante Whore'. (Believe it or not, I get occasional emails asking me about that.)
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Charismatic report card -- 2007 pt 1
How is the charismatic movement doing in regards to some of its most basic aims or signs of the Spirit's work? Not too good, from where I'm watching.
Let's take one of the aims : "Spontaneity, openness, freedom and joy in
praise and worship."
When I first wrote on this one in 1996, I was taking note that many mainline-church charismatic congregations were stiffening. Since then, that process has definitely continued. In many cases, the stiffening has taken them away from charismatic freedom to a rather frozen form of liturgical orderliness that feels like what they were originally objecting to. (This can't be blamed on the mainline liturgical renewal, a separate thing which is also beginning to show signs of stiffening and has never really been friendly to any charismatic input -- to its serious detriment, as I see it. They both in some way attempt to address the same situation in worship -- a palpable lack of spirit.) In any event, worship in many formerly charismatic mainline congregations has become, well, lifeless. It took on liturgical forms, which can be good, but then left the Spirit at the door, which is deadly. When returning to liturgy in freedom, the most important thing is that they use each traditional form based on what it means and what it does, and then feel free to modify the traditional form so it can better carry out that form's core purpose(s).
To be blunt, with the exception of some Anglican circles, mainline-Protestant Charismatics have not only failed to bring freedom and joy into their denominations' worship, they have for the most part lined up with leaders whose actions have been killing the Spirit in worship for decades -- the very ones who created the dead atmosphere that mainline Charismatics used to rail against. Instead of real spontaneity and empowerment of local worship leaders, they're straitjacketed into watching the 'experts' for the next 'acceptable' new thing. Those who didn't line up that way have for the most part headed out the door to independency.
Add to that a sense among Christian leaders that the mainline Charismatic movement's time has passed, and thus they are free to totally ignore them. The former part is true, unfortunately. The latter part is a continued serious breach of the near-absolute responsibility and duty to listen to, understand, bring to bear, and fully and fairly account for, all the parts of their church, whether in vogue or out of vogue. (But that's for a different rant....)
The independent churches and church networks have a different problem. They are not aware of their own set patterns of worship - they don't think they have any. Thus they don't know when they're just vamping for time, or when they are not maturing from an earlier set of experiences. Many of the newer worship leaders are keenly aware of charismatic worship's obsession with "me" and "I", and are working hard on ways to keep that sense of "my" intimacy with God and yet also be into "You" and "us" and "together". They're a promising development. Yet when the newest hit worship song makes the rounds, it's still usually an "I me mine" song, or is prone to misstate God's promises as if done by push-button. HELLO -- God is not focused on just you!! Worship leaders also have to be careful that certain false teachings about prosperity or about the end-times do not start worming their way into the worship service. Also, they must be more cautious about talk of receiving divine power -- power-talk can breed power-addiction.
So there are still signs of worship life in the independent circles. There may yet be some new positives coming from there. But for the most part, the non-Anglican mainline-Protestant charismatics have lost their first love. It's sad, but it's true. And if you're one of the exceptions, as a mainline-Protestant charismatic and/or a worship leader, you need to think hard and pray harder, in hopes that maybe you can be a part of a new and different thrust within the mainline churches, less stuck on worship rules and more firmly connected to the Holy Spirit as found in Scripture. A thrust that is self-consciously not an extension of the previous movements.
Let's take one of the aims : "Spontaneity, openness, freedom and joy in
praise and worship."
When I first wrote on this one in 1996, I was taking note that many mainline-church charismatic congregations were stiffening. Since then, that process has definitely continued. In many cases, the stiffening has taken them away from charismatic freedom to a rather frozen form of liturgical orderliness that feels like what they were originally objecting to. (This can't be blamed on the mainline liturgical renewal, a separate thing which is also beginning to show signs of stiffening and has never really been friendly to any charismatic input -- to its serious detriment, as I see it. They both in some way attempt to address the same situation in worship -- a palpable lack of spirit.) In any event, worship in many formerly charismatic mainline congregations has become, well, lifeless. It took on liturgical forms, which can be good, but then left the Spirit at the door, which is deadly. When returning to liturgy in freedom, the most important thing is that they use each traditional form based on what it means and what it does, and then feel free to modify the traditional form so it can better carry out that form's core purpose(s).
To be blunt, with the exception of some Anglican circles, mainline-Protestant Charismatics have not only failed to bring freedom and joy into their denominations' worship, they have for the most part lined up with leaders whose actions have been killing the Spirit in worship for decades -- the very ones who created the dead atmosphere that mainline Charismatics used to rail against. Instead of real spontaneity and empowerment of local worship leaders, they're straitjacketed into watching the 'experts' for the next 'acceptable' new thing. Those who didn't line up that way have for the most part headed out the door to independency.
Add to that a sense among Christian leaders that the mainline Charismatic movement's time has passed, and thus they are free to totally ignore them. The former part is true, unfortunately. The latter part is a continued serious breach of the near-absolute responsibility and duty to listen to, understand, bring to bear, and fully and fairly account for, all the parts of their church, whether in vogue or out of vogue. (But that's for a different rant....)
The independent churches and church networks have a different problem. They are not aware of their own set patterns of worship - they don't think they have any. Thus they don't know when they're just vamping for time, or when they are not maturing from an earlier set of experiences. Many of the newer worship leaders are keenly aware of charismatic worship's obsession with "me" and "I", and are working hard on ways to keep that sense of "my" intimacy with God and yet also be into "You" and "us" and "together". They're a promising development. Yet when the newest hit worship song makes the rounds, it's still usually an "I me mine" song, or is prone to misstate God's promises as if done by push-button. HELLO -- God is not focused on just you!! Worship leaders also have to be careful that certain false teachings about prosperity or about the end-times do not start worming their way into the worship service. Also, they must be more cautious about talk of receiving divine power -- power-talk can breed power-addiction.
So there are still signs of worship life in the independent circles. There may yet be some new positives coming from there. But for the most part, the non-Anglican mainline-Protestant charismatics have lost their first love. It's sad, but it's true. And if you're one of the exceptions, as a mainline-Protestant charismatic and/or a worship leader, you need to think hard and pray harder, in hopes that maybe you can be a part of a new and different thrust within the mainline churches, less stuck on worship rules and more firmly connected to the Holy Spirit as found in Scripture. A thrust that is self-consciously not an extension of the previous movements.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Blueberry's Razzberries
Some for whom nose-ick is too kind a descriptive :
(1) Ever and always, Ann Coulter. The Coultergeist. I heard she's got a new book out this week. That means we can expect a series of super-outrageous comments that will get this group or that group annoyed, angry, or afraid. She's got talent -- a talent for saying just the thing that most reflects hatred of somebody or some group. Usually, when some right-wing pundit says something, there's someone among those I know who will echo that sentiment; you can't get much further out there than these few. But when she made her comments about the 9/11 widows, even they couldn't stand it. She makes Laura Ingraham and Rush Limbaugh seem like Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears. I finally found the book in a store, right below Colbert's new book. Colbert, of course, lampoons the right by making stupidly extremist comments in character. But when someone writes in a tone that actually trumps the lampoon, what do you do? That's Coulter. So you'll buy the book, and reward the hate-talk? Not me.
(2) It's back -- the commercial with the guy whining "waaaaaa-ha-haaa...I maxed out my credit cards, so I can't get the new car I wanted....waaaaa!" And radio listeners all over the NY Metro are saying, "MAN UP! Stop spending on trivia and stick to the real needs, will ya?" "Waaaa... but my credit is bad...waaa!" And the listeners cry, "So you're the one who's been getting those loans that never should've been granted, ruining the credit picture for the rest of us!!! I'll sue the pants off you!!!"
(3) The *&%$#!@*! ticket scalping companies that sucked up all the Hannah Montana tickets. The punishment should be to throw them unprotected into an auditorium with tens of thousands of screaming, angry little kids who couldn't afford the tickets at the outrageous prices they're charging. I know -- that's inhuman, but as they suffer, the next set of would-be pro scalpers might think twice. Why, it would be far better and far more real that Kid Nation!
(1) Ever and always, Ann Coulter. The Coultergeist. I heard she's got a new book out this week. That means we can expect a series of super-outrageous comments that will get this group or that group annoyed, angry, or afraid. She's got talent -- a talent for saying just the thing that most reflects hatred of somebody or some group. Usually, when some right-wing pundit says something, there's someone among those I know who will echo that sentiment; you can't get much further out there than these few. But when she made her comments about the 9/11 widows, even they couldn't stand it. She makes Laura Ingraham and Rush Limbaugh seem like Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears. I finally found the book in a store, right below Colbert's new book. Colbert, of course, lampoons the right by making stupidly extremist comments in character. But when someone writes in a tone that actually trumps the lampoon, what do you do? That's Coulter. So you'll buy the book, and reward the hate-talk? Not me.
(2) It's back -- the commercial with the guy whining "waaaaaa-ha-haaa...I maxed out my credit cards, so I can't get the new car I wanted....waaaaa!" And radio listeners all over the NY Metro are saying, "MAN UP! Stop spending on trivia and stick to the real needs, will ya?" "Waaaa... but my credit is bad...waaa!" And the listeners cry, "So you're the one who's been getting those loans that never should've been granted, ruining the credit picture for the rest of us!!! I'll sue the pants off you!!!"
(3) The *&%$#!@*! ticket scalping companies that sucked up all the Hannah Montana tickets. The punishment should be to throw them unprotected into an auditorium with tens of thousands of screaming, angry little kids who couldn't afford the tickets at the outrageous prices they're charging. I know -- that's inhuman, but as they suffer, the next set of would-be pro scalpers might think twice. Why, it would be far better and far more real that Kid Nation!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
TV execs dreams could become nightmare
When the baseball playoffs started a week or so ago, the TV channels who were covering them were licking their lips and preparing for a feast. The Yankees made it, so did the Red Sox, and the Cubs. Just think : a New York-Boston AL championship (guaranteed to go all seven games, all long and tense), followed by a possible New York-Chicago or Boston-Chicago superstar World Series, with one of the two mega-ratings national-drawing teams plus all of Chicago panting for an historic miracle.
Well, now the dream has turned bleak. Three of the first round series were minimum-game sweeps, mostly with uneventful wins. (Try getting the full load of ad dollars from that.) Both the Yanks and the Cubs are out of it. So much for the mega-market matchup.
But it could get worse : if Colorado blows through Arizona (quite possible), and Cleveland defeats the Red Sox (a very remote possibility), the television nets/cable channels could have a series where the only people watching will be from two medium-market cities. I'll still be watching it, like any real fan of the game itself. But for the most part, the East, West, and South Coasts won't be. Then, what kind of money can they ask for next time, what with this latest example of the risk side of sports advertising? I can picture TV execs squirming and sweating in bed at night, watching their dream payday convert into a horror movie nightmare. And how they suddenly get religious enough to pray that Papi and Manny can send Cleveland back home.
Well, now the dream has turned bleak. Three of the first round series were minimum-game sweeps, mostly with uneventful wins. (Try getting the full load of ad dollars from that.) Both the Yanks and the Cubs are out of it. So much for the mega-market matchup.
But it could get worse : if Colorado blows through Arizona (quite possible), and Cleveland defeats the Red Sox (a very remote possibility), the television nets/cable channels could have a series where the only people watching will be from two medium-market cities. I'll still be watching it, like any real fan of the game itself. But for the most part, the East, West, and South Coasts won't be. Then, what kind of money can they ask for next time, what with this latest example of the risk side of sports advertising? I can picture TV execs squirming and sweating in bed at night, watching their dream payday convert into a horror movie nightmare. And how they suddenly get religious enough to pray that Papi and Manny can send Cleveland back home.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
WUSB radio show Sun 30 September 2007
Bob Longman Sun 12:30-2:30 pm 30 September 2007
http://wusb.fm/
song -- artist -- album
Nobody's Fault But Mine -- Toby Walker -- Just Rolled In -- N
Cry Cry Cry -- Johnny Cash
Train of Love -- Jimmy Dale Gilmour
Amazing Grace -- Daniel Lanois/Aaron Neville -- Acadie
Desperate For Love -- Over the Rhine -- The Trumpet Child -- N
Somebrightmorningblues -- Peter Case -- Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John -- N
Go Boy -- Zap Mama -- Supermoon -- N
Walk On By -- Ian Moore -- To Be Loved -- N
The West Was Burning -- Martha Scanlon -- The West Was Burning -- N
Road to Hope -- Hilary Scott -- Road to Hope -- N
Confetti -- Lori McKenna -- Unglamorous -- N
On the Way -- Abra Moore -- On the Way -- N
You -- Al Green -- I Can't Stop
Need You Now -- Gurf Morlix -- Diamonds to Dust --N
Happy Ending -- Chuck Prophet -- Soap and Water -- N
Question -- Moody Blues
Blues Boy -- Phil Minnisale -- N
Prayer Song -- Danny Flowers -- Tools For the Soul -- N
How Deep Is Your Love -- the Bird and the Bee -- Please Clap Your Hands -- N
Got To Do Better -- Eric Bibb -- An Evening With -- N
Till Then -- Mills Brothers
Victory At Sea -- Bill Morrisey -- Come Running -- N
I Cover the Waterfront -- Don Byron
Too Marvelous For Words -- Nat King Cole
Prophet's new album shows he's ready to step forward. Bibb has a new live concert album; the track played here is a new(er) song. Gurf has recorded many albums -- mostly for others.
http://wusb.fm/
song -- artist -- album
Nobody's Fault But Mine -- Toby Walker -- Just Rolled In -- N
Cry Cry Cry -- Johnny Cash
Train of Love -- Jimmy Dale Gilmour
Amazing Grace -- Daniel Lanois/Aaron Neville -- Acadie
Desperate For Love -- Over the Rhine -- The Trumpet Child -- N
Somebrightmorningblues -- Peter Case -- Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John -- N
Go Boy -- Zap Mama -- Supermoon -- N
Walk On By -- Ian Moore -- To Be Loved -- N
The West Was Burning -- Martha Scanlon -- The West Was Burning -- N
Road to Hope -- Hilary Scott -- Road to Hope -- N
Confetti -- Lori McKenna -- Unglamorous -- N
On the Way -- Abra Moore -- On the Way -- N
You -- Al Green -- I Can't Stop
Need You Now -- Gurf Morlix -- Diamonds to Dust --N
Happy Ending -- Chuck Prophet -- Soap and Water -- N
Question -- Moody Blues
Blues Boy -- Phil Minnisale -- N
Prayer Song -- Danny Flowers -- Tools For the Soul -- N
How Deep Is Your Love -- the Bird and the Bee -- Please Clap Your Hands -- N
Got To Do Better -- Eric Bibb -- An Evening With -- N
Till Then -- Mills Brothers
Victory At Sea -- Bill Morrisey -- Come Running -- N
I Cover the Waterfront -- Don Byron
Too Marvelous For Words -- Nat King Cole
Prophet's new album shows he's ready to step forward. Bibb has a new live concert album; the track played here is a new(er) song. Gurf has recorded many albums -- mostly for others.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Griping about Cold Case
... no, not beer. I mean the TV show. I like the show. But there's one thing that really, really bugs me about it.
This past Sunday's show was a great example of it.
Teen girl is murdered. A quarter of the way through, we find out that she was part of a 'chastity circle', of teens who make a commitment not to have sex at this point in their life due to faith in Christ. I immediately thought, 'here it comes again...'. Sure enough. All the ghastly stereotypes about committed Christians get trotted out once more. In this case, of course the youth pastor had sex with a teen (or at least enjoying himself as she eagerly spoke her fantasies, apparently more than once), of course one of the girls was skilled at controlling the others, of course the couple was having sex and getting pregnant, and of course there was the closet homosexual who was denying it. (That's right, the youth pastor and all four of the other teens fit a stereotype.) And the dead girl got stoned (who stones but religious folk?) by all four other kids, taunting her and calling her slut and other hateful taunts while they were killing her.
The show, like many shows and just about anything loosely connected with Jerry Bruckheimer, has a steady track record on this. Nuns are shriveled biddies or closet Nazis (unless of course they're acting against a dogma, in which case they're always heroes). Fundamentalists (which by their definition includes evangelicals, charismatics, religiously conservative and even moderate mainline Protestants and Catholics) are mad bombers, guilt-trippers, crooks, or sex perverts. Religious ideas are always not only part of the problem, they are portrayed as its root cause, and must be smashed for the sake of the show's absolutist definition of 'personal freedom'. It's relentless. I can think of only one Cold Case episode in which religious faith and those who have it were treated with any real respect (a show that intersected two schoolyard murders last season, to the tunes of U2). Otherwise, it's been treated as a relentless enemy. The stereotypes are not entirely lies, mind you. I myself have known perv pastors, shrill nuns, hateful churchgoers. But I also know of a whole lot more who aren't - they're really fine people who really live their beliefs. They have to live under the burden not only of the bad ones, but also the hateful stereotypes that others foist upon them. Do I really have to say that they're not hate-filled? That they'd no more think of stoning someone to death than you would? Do I have to say they're the opposite of dangerous? If I do have to say that to you, then I have to say another truth to you : you're a raving bigot, and you have no business trying to foment more of your bigotry. And yes, I do know, very personally, what certain tightly-held dogmas can do to one's life. I also know that it is precisely my faith in Christ, shaped rather strongly by that same Bible they seem to hate so much, that has as a very practical, real-life matter led me to a life of caring and loving, in spite of the brutality of life that is (in reality) worse where the faith isn't than where it is. That is the truth. Can you portray that?
Of course, the show doesn't really believe in the reason teens join such groups either -- that is, to establish at least some level of sexual self-control. Even the attempt is ridiculed as being an inevitable 99% failure, and the people who make those commitments as invariable liars who are just looking for cover for their secret behaviors. They don't think it's even healthy to band together to at least try; better to feel free to have sex whenever you want to. In that view, their evidence is how often the effort fails. HELLO THERE -- teens are humans, and are still learning about the side of themselves that's their own worst enemy. That's all the failures mean. And many of these youth circles are quite aware of that, applying grace instead of law. (Yes, even many of the evangelical-based ones.) Sure, some don't; some can be quite cruel. But teens of all stripes and in all groups can find cruelty easy to do; being religious doesn't stop them from being teens.
I wonder what would happen if the youth pastor didn't go sexual toward one of them? If the couple could actually be shown as really dealing with their desires instead of just lying? If someone actually was trying to be a true friend to the dead girl? Couldn't they do even one of those? That, I propose, is much more of a reality than the predictable script way. They could've still had a good murder mystery without having everyone turn evil. But then the show wouldn't have reinforced its favorite set of prejudices in the minds of the public.
It seems that the one group that's fair game for bigotry nowadays is any sort of conservative Christian. NO. There is no such thing as 'fair game'; it's always unfair, always wrong. All bigotry rots your soul out. All bigotry undermines public life. ALL of it. It seems that conservative Christians are far from being the only ones who need to learn that. I hope more people tell the TV show makers that.
A P.S. : I'm not one of those who likes to rant about this sort of stuff. It makes me sound shrill and far right-wing. (They've jumped on the same episode with fangs out.) But I'm not at all a right-winger, a rabble-rouser, or much of a ranter; you can check me on that. But Cold Case's willingness to feed prejudices about a certain group of people has to be called to task. That's way more important than making their political point, because their political struggle is supposed to be largely about getting rid of prejudices. Do as you say, please.
This past Sunday's show was a great example of it.
Teen girl is murdered. A quarter of the way through, we find out that she was part of a 'chastity circle', of teens who make a commitment not to have sex at this point in their life due to faith in Christ. I immediately thought, 'here it comes again...'. Sure enough. All the ghastly stereotypes about committed Christians get trotted out once more. In this case, of course the youth pastor had sex with a teen (or at least enjoying himself as she eagerly spoke her fantasies, apparently more than once), of course one of the girls was skilled at controlling the others, of course the couple was having sex and getting pregnant, and of course there was the closet homosexual who was denying it. (That's right, the youth pastor and all four of the other teens fit a stereotype.) And the dead girl got stoned (who stones but religious folk?) by all four other kids, taunting her and calling her slut and other hateful taunts while they were killing her.
The show, like many shows and just about anything loosely connected with Jerry Bruckheimer, has a steady track record on this. Nuns are shriveled biddies or closet Nazis (unless of course they're acting against a dogma, in which case they're always heroes). Fundamentalists (which by their definition includes evangelicals, charismatics, religiously conservative and even moderate mainline Protestants and Catholics) are mad bombers, guilt-trippers, crooks, or sex perverts. Religious ideas are always not only part of the problem, they are portrayed as its root cause, and must be smashed for the sake of the show's absolutist definition of 'personal freedom'. It's relentless. I can think of only one Cold Case episode in which religious faith and those who have it were treated with any real respect (a show that intersected two schoolyard murders last season, to the tunes of U2). Otherwise, it's been treated as a relentless enemy. The stereotypes are not entirely lies, mind you. I myself have known perv pastors, shrill nuns, hateful churchgoers. But I also know of a whole lot more who aren't - they're really fine people who really live their beliefs. They have to live under the burden not only of the bad ones, but also the hateful stereotypes that others foist upon them. Do I really have to say that they're not hate-filled? That they'd no more think of stoning someone to death than you would? Do I have to say they're the opposite of dangerous? If I do have to say that to you, then I have to say another truth to you : you're a raving bigot, and you have no business trying to foment more of your bigotry. And yes, I do know, very personally, what certain tightly-held dogmas can do to one's life. I also know that it is precisely my faith in Christ, shaped rather strongly by that same Bible they seem to hate so much, that has as a very practical, real-life matter led me to a life of caring and loving, in spite of the brutality of life that is (in reality) worse where the faith isn't than where it is. That is the truth. Can you portray that?
Of course, the show doesn't really believe in the reason teens join such groups either -- that is, to establish at least some level of sexual self-control. Even the attempt is ridiculed as being an inevitable 99% failure, and the people who make those commitments as invariable liars who are just looking for cover for their secret behaviors. They don't think it's even healthy to band together to at least try; better to feel free to have sex whenever you want to. In that view, their evidence is how often the effort fails. HELLO THERE -- teens are humans, and are still learning about the side of themselves that's their own worst enemy. That's all the failures mean. And many of these youth circles are quite aware of that, applying grace instead of law. (Yes, even many of the evangelical-based ones.) Sure, some don't; some can be quite cruel. But teens of all stripes and in all groups can find cruelty easy to do; being religious doesn't stop them from being teens.
I wonder what would happen if the youth pastor didn't go sexual toward one of them? If the couple could actually be shown as really dealing with their desires instead of just lying? If someone actually was trying to be a true friend to the dead girl? Couldn't they do even one of those? That, I propose, is much more of a reality than the predictable script way. They could've still had a good murder mystery without having everyone turn evil. But then the show wouldn't have reinforced its favorite set of prejudices in the minds of the public.
It seems that the one group that's fair game for bigotry nowadays is any sort of conservative Christian. NO. There is no such thing as 'fair game'; it's always unfair, always wrong. All bigotry rots your soul out. All bigotry undermines public life. ALL of it. It seems that conservative Christians are far from being the only ones who need to learn that. I hope more people tell the TV show makers that.
A P.S. : I'm not one of those who likes to rant about this sort of stuff. It makes me sound shrill and far right-wing. (They've jumped on the same episode with fangs out.) But I'm not at all a right-winger, a rabble-rouser, or much of a ranter; you can check me on that. But Cold Case's willingness to feed prejudices about a certain group of people has to be called to task. That's way more important than making their political point, because their political struggle is supposed to be largely about getting rid of prejudices. Do as you say, please.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Another look at charismatics, 12 years later
Looking back on the points made 27 years ago by Charismatics at Geneva, I can only feel a great sadness. For I look at the landscape of what had then been the the robust, energetic Charismatic movement, and what is there now, the mainline part of it becoming either spent (Lutherans, for example) or reshaped and tamed in a manner better suited for the powers-that-be (like Catholics and Methodists). The 'Third Wave' part of it isn't in much better shape, for while there are many congregations within it that are better than ever, the overall impression is that they've lost their vision, and are being blended into a veriety of new mini-movements, or are being taken up by some larger movements that have little to do with following Christ.
I'll use the points from Geneva that I addressed 12 years ago as a starting point. When I do this, please remember that I am an outside observer, a mainstream Christian who is clearly not (by nearly all of the movement's own self-definitions) a charismatic, and never has been. I am simply a believer in Christ who insists on being in dialogue with a movement that, even at this stage, is still the main shaping force for many millions of Christians the world over. A believer in Christ who believes that mainstream Christian leaders are still seriously shirking their responsibility as Christians by choosing not to be in real dialogue with them.
In 1980, Charismatics at one of their many conferences saw a series of marks of the Spirit that they believed were present in their movements. These included :
- New openness toward the healing power
and the lordship of Jesus;
- Renewal of spiritual life of the church in
local congregations;
- Spontaneity, openness, freedom and joy in
praise and worship;
- New interest in the Bible as God's living
Word;
- Deeper experience of the reality, holiness,
and transcendence of God;
- Deeper interest and new openness in regard
to the essential doctrines of the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, his
death and resurrection, confirmed in experience;
- Renewal of the service of healing for the
sick;
- Lay leadership;
- New incentive for evangelization, missions
and witness in the power of the Spirit.
I'll be going over these in upcoming weeks.
Bob Longman Sun 12:30-2:30 pm 23 September 2007
wusb.fm (90.1 FM, Stony Brook NY USA)
title -- artist -- album (if any) -- notation
(N=new, R=request)
--------------------------------------------
No Love Is Free -- Tom Griffin -- 40 Years Later -- N
Mountains o' Things -- the Duhks
Stop By Anytime -- Devon Sproul -- Keep Your Silver Shined -- N
Between Friends -- Rollyn Zoubek -- Hinge
Victory At Sea -- Bill Morrissey -- Come Running -- N
the Deep -- Claire Holley
Let Someone Love Me -- Solomon Burke -- Make Do w. What You Got
Hang Out With the Moon -- Diana Jones -- The One That Got Away
Scarborough Fair -- Simon & Garfunkel
Away Down the River -- Alison Krauss -- 100 Miles or More -- N
Light Years -- Caroline Peyton -- Intuition
Right On Time -- Eric Bibb -- Natural Light
Lies (That I Have Known) -- Patsy Moore -- Regarding the Human Condition
Eyes On the Prize -- Mavis Staples -- We'll Never Turn Back -- N
Al 'n Yetta -- Allan Sherman
the Trumpet Child -- Over the Rhine -- Trumpet Child -- N
Let Us Get Together -- Marie Knight -- Let Us Get Together -- N
All My People -- Hope Nunnery -- Wilderness Lounge -- N
I'm Gonna Change My Ways -- Peter Case -- Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John -- N
Lelilungelo Ngelakho -- Soweto Gospel Choir -- N
Late In the Evening -- Spanish Harlem Orch/Paul Simon -- United We Swing -- N
That Was Me -- Paul McCartney -- Memory Almost Full -- N
She Remembers -- Tim Grimm
Feels Good -- Take 6 -- Feels Good -- N
Water To Drink -- BR6 -- Here To Stay -- N
----------------------------------------------
It's strange, how so many of the TV shows Allan Sherman mentions in Al 'n Yetta (from the '60s) can still be seen on some cable channel. Case's song is about wanting to repent -- but wanting it not quite enough. The Trumpet Child is eschatology through the grid of supper club music. Bill Morrisey (with Phil Minnisale) is appearing Sunday 2pm at the University Cafe here on the Stony Brook campus. Catch you there?
wusb.fm (90.1 FM, Stony Brook NY USA)
title -- artist -- album (if any) -- notation
(N=new, R=request)
--------------------------------------------
No Love Is Free -- Tom Griffin -- 40 Years Later -- N
Mountains o' Things -- the Duhks
Stop By Anytime -- Devon Sproul -- Keep Your Silver Shined -- N
Between Friends -- Rollyn Zoubek -- Hinge
Victory At Sea -- Bill Morrissey -- Come Running -- N
the Deep -- Claire Holley
Let Someone Love Me -- Solomon Burke -- Make Do w. What You Got
Hang Out With the Moon -- Diana Jones -- The One That Got Away
Scarborough Fair -- Simon & Garfunkel
Away Down the River -- Alison Krauss -- 100 Miles or More -- N
Light Years -- Caroline Peyton -- Intuition
Right On Time -- Eric Bibb -- Natural Light
Lies (That I Have Known) -- Patsy Moore -- Regarding the Human Condition
Eyes On the Prize -- Mavis Staples -- We'll Never Turn Back -- N
Al 'n Yetta -- Allan Sherman
the Trumpet Child -- Over the Rhine -- Trumpet Child -- N
Let Us Get Together -- Marie Knight -- Let Us Get Together -- N
All My People -- Hope Nunnery -- Wilderness Lounge -- N
I'm Gonna Change My Ways -- Peter Case -- Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John -- N
Lelilungelo Ngelakho -- Soweto Gospel Choir -- N
Late In the Evening -- Spanish Harlem Orch/Paul Simon -- United We Swing -- N
That Was Me -- Paul McCartney -- Memory Almost Full -- N
She Remembers -- Tim Grimm
Feels Good -- Take 6 -- Feels Good -- N
Water To Drink -- BR6 -- Here To Stay -- N
----------------------------------------------
It's strange, how so many of the TV shows Allan Sherman mentions in Al 'n Yetta (from the '60s) can still be seen on some cable channel. Case's song is about wanting to repent -- but wanting it not quite enough. The Trumpet Child is eschatology through the grid of supper club music. Bill Morrisey (with Phil Minnisale) is appearing Sunday 2pm at the University Cafe here on the Stony Brook campus. Catch you there?
Monday, September 17, 2007
radio show WUSB and wusb.fm, 11:30 am - 5 pm
Bob Longman Sun 11:30-2:30 pm 16 September 2007
Fool Like Me -- Porter Waggoner -- Wagonmaster N
Georgia Moon -- Pierce Pettis -- State of Grace
How Can I Meet Her? -- Everly Brothers
Kneeling Drunkard's Plea -- Johnny Cash
Confetti -- Lori McKenna -- Unglamourous N
Thank God -- Alpha Band
Cold Cold Heart -- Hank Williams
I Want To Be Ready to Meet Him -- Chuck Wagon Gang
I Can't Stand Up Alone -- Tom Kimmel -- Shallow Water
Ontario -- Diana Jones -- The One That Got Away
the Razor's Edge-- Carrie Newcomer -- My True Name
Patience and Hope -- Dan Bonis -- Delivering the Cake
Sweet Evalina -- Aengus Finnan -- Fool's Gold
Along Came Jones -- Ray Stevens
=========================================
Alone With You -- Joan Osborne -- Breakfast In Bed N
You -- Abra Moore -- On the Way N
Somebrightmorninblues -- Peter Case -- Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John N
Water Works Fine -- Eric Bibb -- Natural Light
Walk On By -- Ian Moore -- To Be Loved N
My Own Eyes -- Mavis Staples -- We'll Never Turn Back N
When the City Comes -- Chuck E. Costa N
Light Years -- Caroline Peyton
The Trumpet Child -- Over the Rhine -- The Trumpet Child N R
Crazy 8s -- Mae N
Must Have Done Something Right -- Relient K -- Five Score N
Nod Your Head -- Paul McCartney -- Memory Almost Full N
Plena Con Sabor -- Spanish Harlem Orchestra -- United We Swing N
La Hiedra Venenosa -- Los Straightjackets -- Rock En Espenol N
Wounded Me Wounded You -- Jan Krist -- Live at Calvin College N
Shanghai Moon -- Cosmos -- Aiming For the Stars N
Still Here -- Cosmos -- Aiming For the Stars N
Silver Bells -- Amandine -- Solace In Sore Hands N
I Got the Dirt On You -- Toby Walker -- Just Rolled In N
Walking On the Moon -- Eliza Gilkyson -- Tom Russell tribute N
Hot and Cold -- Flynn -- The Answer's Not Enough N
Made to Love -- TobyMac -- single
You'll Want Me Back -- Ethel Waters
Tu Scendi dalle Stelle -- Luciano Pavarotti -- Xmas
Twelve Gates -- Marie Knight -- Let Us Get Together N
==================================================
Jazz On the Air
I'd Love It -- Benny Carter Orchestra
Don't Worry 'Bout Me -- Ella Fitzgerald
Wrapped Tight -- Coleman Hawkins
Heading Home -- Joshua Redman
Coctails For Two -- Benny Carter Orchestra
Sweet Lorraine -- Nat King Cole
Can't Teach My Old Heart New Tricks -- Benny Goodman
Ooh Pop A Dah -- Dirty Dozen Jazz Band
Take the A Train -- Just 4 Kicks
Trouble Don't Last Always -- Allen & Allen R
But By the Grace -- Harrison & Blanchard
Ain't That the Truth -- Don Byron
Pink Champagne -- Lionel Hampton R
Ain't Nothing To It -- Fats Waller
Habanera 3 -- Kamikaze Ground Crew -- Postcards From the Highwire N
Yes and No -- Branford Marsalis -- Random Abstract
Gotta Travel On -- Ray Bryant
Show 'Nuff -- Red Rodney
Banished -- David Murray N
Joie De Vivre -- Dewey Redman
Old Music Master -- Nat King Cole
When Diana Dances -- Charlie Peacock
Happy-Go-Lucky Local -- Duke Ellington
Of Kindred Souls -- Roy Hargrove
But Not For Me -- Sarah Vaughan
All Too Soon -- Duke Ellington w. Ben Webster
Don's Idea -- James Carter
Make Sure You're Sure -- Joshua Redman
Tapajack -- Ray Anderson -- Alligatory Band
My One and Only Love -- Ella Fitzgerald
Yes Or No -- Jose Rizo N
Fool Like Me -- Porter Waggoner -- Wagonmaster N
Georgia Moon -- Pierce Pettis -- State of Grace
How Can I Meet Her? -- Everly Brothers
Kneeling Drunkard's Plea -- Johnny Cash
Confetti -- Lori McKenna -- Unglamourous N
Thank God -- Alpha Band
Cold Cold Heart -- Hank Williams
I Want To Be Ready to Meet Him -- Chuck Wagon Gang
I Can't Stand Up Alone -- Tom Kimmel -- Shallow Water
Ontario -- Diana Jones -- The One That Got Away
the Razor's Edge-- Carrie Newcomer -- My True Name
Patience and Hope -- Dan Bonis -- Delivering the Cake
Sweet Evalina -- Aengus Finnan -- Fool's Gold
Along Came Jones -- Ray Stevens
=========================================
Alone With You -- Joan Osborne -- Breakfast In Bed N
You -- Abra Moore -- On the Way N
Somebrightmorninblues -- Peter Case -- Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John N
Water Works Fine -- Eric Bibb -- Natural Light
Walk On By -- Ian Moore -- To Be Loved N
My Own Eyes -- Mavis Staples -- We'll Never Turn Back N
When the City Comes -- Chuck E. Costa N
Light Years -- Caroline Peyton
The Trumpet Child -- Over the Rhine -- The Trumpet Child N R
Crazy 8s -- Mae N
Must Have Done Something Right -- Relient K -- Five Score N
Nod Your Head -- Paul McCartney -- Memory Almost Full N
Plena Con Sabor -- Spanish Harlem Orchestra -- United We Swing N
La Hiedra Venenosa -- Los Straightjackets -- Rock En Espenol N
Wounded Me Wounded You -- Jan Krist -- Live at Calvin College N
Shanghai Moon -- Cosmos -- Aiming For the Stars N
Still Here -- Cosmos -- Aiming For the Stars N
Silver Bells -- Amandine -- Solace In Sore Hands N
I Got the Dirt On You -- Toby Walker -- Just Rolled In N
Walking On the Moon -- Eliza Gilkyson -- Tom Russell tribute N
Hot and Cold -- Flynn -- The Answer's Not Enough N
Made to Love -- TobyMac -- single
You'll Want Me Back -- Ethel Waters
Tu Scendi dalle Stelle -- Luciano Pavarotti -- Xmas
Twelve Gates -- Marie Knight -- Let Us Get Together N
==================================================
Jazz On the Air
I'd Love It -- Benny Carter Orchestra
Don't Worry 'Bout Me -- Ella Fitzgerald
Wrapped Tight -- Coleman Hawkins
Heading Home -- Joshua Redman
Coctails For Two -- Benny Carter Orchestra
Sweet Lorraine -- Nat King Cole
Can't Teach My Old Heart New Tricks -- Benny Goodman
Ooh Pop A Dah -- Dirty Dozen Jazz Band
Take the A Train -- Just 4 Kicks
Trouble Don't Last Always -- Allen & Allen R
But By the Grace -- Harrison & Blanchard
Ain't That the Truth -- Don Byron
Pink Champagne -- Lionel Hampton R
Ain't Nothing To It -- Fats Waller
Habanera 3 -- Kamikaze Ground Crew -- Postcards From the Highwire N
Yes and No -- Branford Marsalis -- Random Abstract
Gotta Travel On -- Ray Bryant
Show 'Nuff -- Red Rodney
Banished -- David Murray N
Joie De Vivre -- Dewey Redman
Old Music Master -- Nat King Cole
When Diana Dances -- Charlie Peacock
Happy-Go-Lucky Local -- Duke Ellington
Of Kindred Souls -- Roy Hargrove
But Not For Me -- Sarah Vaughan
All Too Soon -- Duke Ellington w. Ben Webster
Don's Idea -- James Carter
Make Sure You're Sure -- Joshua Redman
Tapajack -- Ray Anderson -- Alligatory Band
My One and Only Love -- Ella Fitzgerald
Yes Or No -- Jose Rizo N
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Commercials can get weird, pt 1
Take, for instance, the Dux Bed radio spots. I remember the first one I heard, lo so many years ago. They apparently accidentally sent their first rough run-through to 880 AM -- the announcer sounded sleepy and badly out of breath, and didn't even mention his name (though the voice was easily recognizable to me as that of Pat Summerall, the sportscaster). It was unedited, and poorly written. But since then, there have been a dozen or more ads over the years, each one sharply done.
The latest one, though, stands out. In it, Summerall talks about -- get this -- how much he loves getting to bed with his wife. And he does it with such breathless, joyous longing that he's getting high on it even as he's doing the commercial. Wow. 77 years old, and the old kicker's still got kick!
On the other hand, the considerably younger onetime darling of commercials, Britney Spears, hasn't been doing so many of them lately. Now that she looks so, well, ordinary. I'm hoping her young sister Jamie-Lynn (the Zoe Girl who has a great face, and whose body should fill out in the next few years) is taking note as to what not to do and how not to handle fame. Or more precisely, I hope she learns not to sell herself out to the drive for fame.
The latest one, though, stands out. In it, Summerall talks about -- get this -- how much he loves getting to bed with his wife. And he does it with such breathless, joyous longing that he's getting high on it even as he's doing the commercial. Wow. 77 years old, and the old kicker's still got kick!
On the other hand, the considerably younger onetime darling of commercials, Britney Spears, hasn't been doing so many of them lately. Now that she looks so, well, ordinary. I'm hoping her young sister Jamie-Lynn (the Zoe Girl who has a great face, and whose body should fill out in the next few years) is taking note as to what not to do and how not to handle fame. Or more precisely, I hope she learns not to sell herself out to the drive for fame.
Friday, September 07, 2007
Still Here.
------ but not on the radio, lately, at least not on my time slot. First, Riverhead's Polish Town festival, then Fiddle & Folk festival, then Bradstock. All are worthy shows, and I'm glad to step aside for them. I think next up is Valerie Wilcox, with Classical, my usual alternator. So it's a long time between playlists.
When I get back, there'll be new old stuff from Coleman Hawkins, Caroline Peyton, and David Brenner, and new new stuff from Hillary Scott, Bill Morrissey, and Mae. Also, acappella fans will get a dose of Cosmos, a superb band from Latvia.
My personal life? Oy vey... They dump me before they pick me up. I once dated Kim Possible, but when we got to commitment-time, she wouldn't promise anything for sure. For a few weeks I dated Hello Kitty, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get her to smile. And then there's Wonder Woman -- all she wanted from me was to do weird games using her lasso. (...tugging on my virtual necktie...) So I went to a matchmaking service. They made me pay for the phosphorus.
Then I went to another one, Yente To The Cosmos. They're not kidding -- they hooked me up with a six-eyed warted silica crawler from Alpha Centauri. We met on neutral ground, at the Tattooine Cantina. As the band played, she smiled, and said, "let's dance". Right... dance with a partner with no feet, lubricated by goo. As we held each other, I was noticing her eyes. I was looking into two of them, but the others were checking out four other guys! She left with one of the clarinet players. Hey, I can't keep this up -- interplanetary dating doesn't come cheap.
0-for-August. The story of my life (sigh).
When I get back, there'll be new old stuff from Coleman Hawkins, Caroline Peyton, and David Brenner, and new new stuff from Hillary Scott, Bill Morrissey, and Mae. Also, acappella fans will get a dose of Cosmos, a superb band from Latvia.
My personal life? Oy vey... They dump me before they pick me up. I once dated Kim Possible, but when we got to commitment-time, she wouldn't promise anything for sure. For a few weeks I dated Hello Kitty, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get her to smile. And then there's Wonder Woman -- all she wanted from me was to do weird games using her lasso. (...tugging on my virtual necktie...) So I went to a matchmaking service. They made me pay for the phosphorus.
Then I went to another one, Yente To The Cosmos. They're not kidding -- they hooked me up with a six-eyed warted silica crawler from Alpha Centauri. We met on neutral ground, at the Tattooine Cantina. As the band played, she smiled, and said, "let's dance". Right... dance with a partner with no feet, lubricated by goo. As we held each other, I was noticing her eyes. I was looking into two of them, but the others were checking out four other guys! She left with one of the clarinet players. Hey, I can't keep this up -- interplanetary dating doesn't come cheap.
0-for-August. The story of my life (sigh).
Thursday, August 23, 2007
personal morality and public religion
I was just catching some of the latest that Cristiana Anampour wrote about those "Teen Mania" youth rallying publicly in Frisco for a stronger sense of personal morality.
On the one hand, I see those groups. Major league crowds of young folks turn out. Do I know kids like these, committed as they are? Yes. I can tell you that their commitments came about not because of the rally group, but rather they were looking for someone to rally them on such matters, and the group came along.
Can they sustain that commitment? Some will, most won't. I say that with sadness. Because I really believe that they are far better off (happier, more whole, more able to devote to one another, and less likely to get disease) by not having sex at least until they have first wound their lives into another's. I really believe that some things are better off not tried; I've seen too often when someone tries these activities and gets hooked or has it turn ugly or even deadly. I've seen bad attitudes on one thing infect attitudes in other parts of their lives. I've seen with my own eyes and in my own life that self-control is critical to becoming a healthy adult, and how lack of it can stand in one's way.
Is our youthful "moral decline" all the fault of the "godless pop culture"? No. The urges are biological, psychological, and sociological. The body is geared to desire. The mind is geared to love intimately and be caught up in another. The soul longs to fit in, not just because of peer pressure but because people are inwardly constructed to be a person among other people and not someone separate or alone. Those things are part of what God has put into them. However, pop culture as it is now constructed talks a good game of individual freedom, while it undermines the discipline and ridicules the self-control needed to make it real freedom instead of a stealth captivity. There's a lot of good going on in pop culture, some really-true truths from people whose aim is still true, even if they misfire sometimes. (Who doesn't?) And many kids have gotten pretty good at finding it -- in fact they do a better job of finding it than my own "do your own thing" generation did at that age. (Not hard to do...) They're also smarter, if not wiser, about their own sexuality. But most of the time, pop culture celebrates the kind of lives that wreck a person or causes them to lose their sanity, or at least keeps them spending. It feeds a constant craving of attention or excitement, laying itself prostrate before the almighty buck, titillating and stimulating until the mind can't think straight from all the sensations and complications. Increasingly, it breeds a cynicism about living that rumbles ever louder under its ground.
But aren't I afraid of the right wing, the lurking fascists, the dominionists? Yes. From the part of Christianity I deal with, I know them well. I know how they kinda slip their ideas into everything. I do know how much they believe that they should be in charge of our country and our world. (I can say that about some of their opponents too; those opponents are just much less likely to use stealth and force to get there.) But not all conservatives, evangelicals, or even fundamentalists are dominionists; in fact they predominate only in some parts of the Pentecostal camp. Most people who are out there cheering on the conservative causes are ordinary people who live their lives pretty much like everyone else, with all the crazy quilt of conflicts between their morality and decision-making in daily life that everyone else has. And sometimes they choose better, and sometimes they don't. I am completely unafraid of those people, even as I must stand against the confining social vision and love of the halls of power of Dobson, LaHaye and dominionists, whom I do sometimes fear. The ordinary conservatives are every bit as much a part of America's backbone as the left's ordinary people, and like anyone else they have every right to a full place at the table - including a right to have a say in determining what that place is. These people are not an enemy. The more certain sectors (mostly from the Democratic Left) treat them as an enemy, the easier it will be to coalesce them with other ridiculed middle-Americans into a new silent majority, to once again be manipulated by politicians. That's why I hate so much to see them lampooned, ridiculed, and dismissed. We're still paying for the last time we let that happen.
It is not anti-freedom to try to develop a sense of public morality, one that stretches beyond just the issues of pluralism. It is not anti-freedom to publicly encourage stricter forms of personal morality -- public address is the only forum wide enough for it. A weak sense of personal and public morality erodes the ground on which freedom stands. Does that mean I'd support the Teen Mania rallies? No. I don't think their approach is real enough, it encourages youths to bypass important questions. But I don't oppose it either, because I really do believe in encouraging a clear moral vision for one's personal life, and that can only be done if the culture allows social space for it. It does not do so now, as proven by the constant protests against them. And we all eventually pay for that. That, I believe, is an absolutely critical public issue.
On the one hand, I see those groups. Major league crowds of young folks turn out. Do I know kids like these, committed as they are? Yes. I can tell you that their commitments came about not because of the rally group, but rather they were looking for someone to rally them on such matters, and the group came along.
Can they sustain that commitment? Some will, most won't. I say that with sadness. Because I really believe that they are far better off (happier, more whole, more able to devote to one another, and less likely to get disease) by not having sex at least until they have first wound their lives into another's. I really believe that some things are better off not tried; I've seen too often when someone tries these activities and gets hooked or has it turn ugly or even deadly. I've seen bad attitudes on one thing infect attitudes in other parts of their lives. I've seen with my own eyes and in my own life that self-control is critical to becoming a healthy adult, and how lack of it can stand in one's way.
Is our youthful "moral decline" all the fault of the "godless pop culture"? No. The urges are biological, psychological, and sociological. The body is geared to desire. The mind is geared to love intimately and be caught up in another. The soul longs to fit in, not just because of peer pressure but because people are inwardly constructed to be a person among other people and not someone separate or alone. Those things are part of what God has put into them. However, pop culture as it is now constructed talks a good game of individual freedom, while it undermines the discipline and ridicules the self-control needed to make it real freedom instead of a stealth captivity. There's a lot of good going on in pop culture, some really-true truths from people whose aim is still true, even if they misfire sometimes. (Who doesn't?) And many kids have gotten pretty good at finding it -- in fact they do a better job of finding it than my own "do your own thing" generation did at that age. (Not hard to do...) They're also smarter, if not wiser, about their own sexuality. But most of the time, pop culture celebrates the kind of lives that wreck a person or causes them to lose their sanity, or at least keeps them spending. It feeds a constant craving of attention or excitement, laying itself prostrate before the almighty buck, titillating and stimulating until the mind can't think straight from all the sensations and complications. Increasingly, it breeds a cynicism about living that rumbles ever louder under its ground.
But aren't I afraid of the right wing, the lurking fascists, the dominionists? Yes. From the part of Christianity I deal with, I know them well. I know how they kinda slip their ideas into everything. I do know how much they believe that they should be in charge of our country and our world. (I can say that about some of their opponents too; those opponents are just much less likely to use stealth and force to get there.) But not all conservatives, evangelicals, or even fundamentalists are dominionists; in fact they predominate only in some parts of the Pentecostal camp. Most people who are out there cheering on the conservative causes are ordinary people who live their lives pretty much like everyone else, with all the crazy quilt of conflicts between their morality and decision-making in daily life that everyone else has. And sometimes they choose better, and sometimes they don't. I am completely unafraid of those people, even as I must stand against the confining social vision and love of the halls of power of Dobson, LaHaye and dominionists, whom I do sometimes fear. The ordinary conservatives are every bit as much a part of America's backbone as the left's ordinary people, and like anyone else they have every right to a full place at the table - including a right to have a say in determining what that place is. These people are not an enemy. The more certain sectors (mostly from the Democratic Left) treat them as an enemy, the easier it will be to coalesce them with other ridiculed middle-Americans into a new silent majority, to once again be manipulated by politicians. That's why I hate so much to see them lampooned, ridiculed, and dismissed. We're still paying for the last time we let that happen.
It is not anti-freedom to try to develop a sense of public morality, one that stretches beyond just the issues of pluralism. It is not anti-freedom to publicly encourage stricter forms of personal morality -- public address is the only forum wide enough for it. A weak sense of personal and public morality erodes the ground on which freedom stands. Does that mean I'd support the Teen Mania rallies? No. I don't think their approach is real enough, it encourages youths to bypass important questions. But I don't oppose it either, because I really do believe in encouraging a clear moral vision for one's personal life, and that can only be done if the culture allows social space for it. It does not do so now, as proven by the constant protests against them. And we all eventually pay for that. That, I believe, is an absolutely critical public issue.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
radio playlist, 19 August 2007, WUSB
Bob Longman Sun August 19 2007 11:30am-1:10 pm
WUSB 90.1 FM Long Island NY and coastal CT
http://wusb.fm/
includes Down Home Country fill-in.
The Family Who Prays -- Louvin Brothers
Stormy Waters -- Jimmy Martin/Sunny Mountain Boys
Come Thou Fount -- Claire Holley -- Sanctuary
Not What I Had In Mind -- Kelly Willis
He'll Have To Go -- Jim Reeves
The River's Gonna Run -- Sam Bush -- Laps In Seven
Honky Tonk Blues -- Hank Williams
Cowboy Camp Meeting -- Sons Of the Pioneers
Horse Wrangler -- Roger Welsh
Watch Man -- Hope Nunnery -- Wilderness Lounge -- N
Ticket to Heaven -- Tammy Rogers
Unglamourous -- Lori McKenna -- Unglamourous -- N
You Don't Have Very Far To Go -- Lucinda Williams -- Tulare Dust (Haggard tribute)
Silver Wings -- Marshall Crenshaw -- Tulare Dust (Merle Haggard tribute)
Thank God I'm Free -- Vicksburg Quartet
Why Me -- Kris Kristofferson
Whispering Pines -- Johnny Horton
Tears Falling Down -- Rosanne Cash
The West Was Burning -- Martha Scanlan -- The West Was Burning N
Walk On By -- Ian Moore -- To Be Loved -- N, R
Up Above My Head -- Maria Muldaur & Tracy Nelson
Death Don't Have No Mercy -- Marie Knight -- Let Us Get Together -- N
I Heard the Angels Singin' -- Eric Bibb
In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down -- Ella Fitzgerald
3 Minutes on 52nd St -- Lionel Hampton
Goody Goody -- Ella Fitzgerald
This week's show was pre-empted by special coverage of the Riverhead Polish Town Festival, hosted by Matt Mankiewicz and Teresa Zapolska. Teresa was in fine spirits and lots of good friends of the station and of polka stopped by at the fest to see here. A good time was had by all.
The pick on this week's abbreviated show was some first-rate pop-rock from Ian Moore. Are you listening, radio folks?
The description of the Watch Man in Nunnery's first verse gives such a strong mental vision...
When left to my own instincts, it's either Ella or Nat. Here, Ella briefly turns soul singer. Wow.
WUSB 90.1 FM Long Island NY and coastal CT
http://wusb.fm/
includes Down Home Country fill-in.
The Family Who Prays -- Louvin Brothers
Stormy Waters -- Jimmy Martin/Sunny Mountain Boys
Come Thou Fount -- Claire Holley -- Sanctuary
Not What I Had In Mind -- Kelly Willis
He'll Have To Go -- Jim Reeves
The River's Gonna Run -- Sam Bush -- Laps In Seven
Honky Tonk Blues -- Hank Williams
Cowboy Camp Meeting -- Sons Of the Pioneers
Horse Wrangler -- Roger Welsh
Watch Man -- Hope Nunnery -- Wilderness Lounge -- N
Ticket to Heaven -- Tammy Rogers
Unglamourous -- Lori McKenna -- Unglamourous -- N
You Don't Have Very Far To Go -- Lucinda Williams -- Tulare Dust (Haggard tribute)
Silver Wings -- Marshall Crenshaw -- Tulare Dust (Merle Haggard tribute)
Thank God I'm Free -- Vicksburg Quartet
Why Me -- Kris Kristofferson
Whispering Pines -- Johnny Horton
Tears Falling Down -- Rosanne Cash
The West Was Burning -- Martha Scanlan -- The West Was Burning N
Walk On By -- Ian Moore -- To Be Loved -- N, R
Up Above My Head -- Maria Muldaur & Tracy Nelson
Death Don't Have No Mercy -- Marie Knight -- Let Us Get Together -- N
I Heard the Angels Singin' -- Eric Bibb
In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down -- Ella Fitzgerald
3 Minutes on 52nd St -- Lionel Hampton
Goody Goody -- Ella Fitzgerald
This week's show was pre-empted by special coverage of the Riverhead Polish Town Festival, hosted by Matt Mankiewicz and Teresa Zapolska. Teresa was in fine spirits and lots of good friends of the station and of polka stopped by at the fest to see here. A good time was had by all.
The pick on this week's abbreviated show was some first-rate pop-rock from Ian Moore. Are you listening, radio folks?
The description of the Watch Man in Nunnery's first verse gives such a strong mental vision...
When left to my own instincts, it's either Ella or Nat. Here, Ella briefly turns soul singer. Wow.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
A review of the return of WCBS-FM
In New York radio, the big news this year has been the return of the mother of all oldies stations, the big fish in that medium-sized oldies pond, WCBS 101.1 FM. It departed from the scene two years ago as the ratings were dropping, not only in key demographics like mid-20 year olds and males (not the target audience anyway), but also in the 30s and 40s year olds. older males, and women. No advertisers, no station. (There was little hard evidence that ads had ceased to be effective, but one could hardly resist concluding that it had started to happen.) So, they changed to a Jack-format. There are several of these around the country -- faceless, characterless, almost voiceless, iPod shufflers. They boasted "we play what we want", which meant that they had jack-poor taste. Would that sell in New York? It quickly became clear that it wouldn't. Then, CBS brought in a PD who used to run a major SF Bay Area oldies outlet until it folded (similar demo problems, plus owner problems). I heard that and thought, oh my, they'll bring the oldies back when this jack thing is all jacked out. Sure enough, that's what they did, keeping that Jack director.
Okay, Bob, so enough radio shop-talk. What's the station like?? It's pretty much like what it was the last two months before it closed. Their morning and early afternoon shifts are familiar voices, the music of the '60s thru '80s is featured, Mr. G (my fellow Hofstra alum Irv Gikofsky) is back doing morning weather, they still try to bring on radio legends as best they can. They key on personalities, which is important anywhere but is crucial in New York. The last few months before closing, they had made futile changes such as dumping doowop and lessening ballads. Those changes only made things worse. They've undone that in a minor way, by once in a while playing a "Hall of Fame" pick (with a brief lead-in to say it's coming). Indeed, those lead-in montage/announcements for older oldies and for country (which is also segregated out of the main mix) may be the best new thing they're doing, because they need to create a trained/educated/spoiled audience that's easier to keep because there's few other places for them to go to get the quality they want.
Problems? A few.
Their flattened signal makes the songs, especially the mid-60s stuff, have a sound like the record's trying to be heard past other noises. If it wasn't so 'brightened', it'd be almost like having the voices wash out. Do that to recordings that have that problem to begin with (like 'Dancing In the Streets' or 'Go Now'), and it becomes really difficult to pick out the voices. The percussion becomes like sand. They need to address this, through both their broadcast settings and getting clearer copies of those songs, because it's quite distracting at times, and those recordings simply sound better on some other stations.
Also, they could try expanding the format. I hear you -- "are you nuts? It's already unmanageably large!" No, it wouldn't be. I mean expanding in both directions, selectively. I find it hard to believe that the audience would go running if once in a blue moon they heard, say, "Count Every Star" (the Ravens) or "Nature Boy" (Nat Cole) or "Dream a Little Dream" (Louis & Ella). Or for that matter, "The Game of Love" (Santana & Branch) or "Bailamos" or "Could I Have This Kiss" (Enrique Iglesias). The key is to be selective, with high-quality tracks that don't sound like big band or hip-hop. This is called "spicing". It creates enjoyable radio experiences others don't have, it's too rare for noticeable turnoff, and it spoils the audience. For all their playing on peoples' memories, they sometimes forget that their listeners are still alive and are still making great memories, including while they're listening to your station. The main music, the 'audience education', and the spicing can all be part of that.
Also, they should become the place to hear famous artists upon their death. What made them so big in their kind of music? Once again, it's a way to spoil, and the death-time guilt and curiosity factors would lessen button-pushing.
In its later years, WCBS was slower than snails on things that were happening with oldies artists. Like, for instance, the pre-rock rock side of Louis Prima when it was getting popular thru its use in commercials, or Johnny Cash as his popularity rose. Many little waves of popular attention to oldies acts were just plain missed. I hope the new WCBS does better with that.
Anyway, it's good to have a broad-format station back on the FM dial. People can relax from tending to their iPod mix for a while.
Okay, Bob, so enough radio shop-talk. What's the station like?? It's pretty much like what it was the last two months before it closed. Their morning and early afternoon shifts are familiar voices, the music of the '60s thru '80s is featured, Mr. G (my fellow Hofstra alum Irv Gikofsky) is back doing morning weather, they still try to bring on radio legends as best they can. They key on personalities, which is important anywhere but is crucial in New York. The last few months before closing, they had made futile changes such as dumping doowop and lessening ballads. Those changes only made things worse. They've undone that in a minor way, by once in a while playing a "Hall of Fame" pick (with a brief lead-in to say it's coming). Indeed, those lead-in montage/announcements for older oldies and for country (which is also segregated out of the main mix) may be the best new thing they're doing, because they need to create a trained/educated/spoiled audience that's easier to keep because there's few other places for them to go to get the quality they want.
Problems? A few.
Their flattened signal makes the songs, especially the mid-60s stuff, have a sound like the record's trying to be heard past other noises. If it wasn't so 'brightened', it'd be almost like having the voices wash out. Do that to recordings that have that problem to begin with (like 'Dancing In the Streets' or 'Go Now'), and it becomes really difficult to pick out the voices. The percussion becomes like sand. They need to address this, through both their broadcast settings and getting clearer copies of those songs, because it's quite distracting at times, and those recordings simply sound better on some other stations.
Also, they could try expanding the format. I hear you -- "are you nuts? It's already unmanageably large!" No, it wouldn't be. I mean expanding in both directions, selectively. I find it hard to believe that the audience would go running if once in a blue moon they heard, say, "Count Every Star" (the Ravens) or "Nature Boy" (Nat Cole) or "Dream a Little Dream" (Louis & Ella). Or for that matter, "The Game of Love" (Santana & Branch) or "Bailamos" or "Could I Have This Kiss" (Enrique Iglesias). The key is to be selective, with high-quality tracks that don't sound like big band or hip-hop. This is called "spicing". It creates enjoyable radio experiences others don't have, it's too rare for noticeable turnoff, and it spoils the audience. For all their playing on peoples' memories, they sometimes forget that their listeners are still alive and are still making great memories, including while they're listening to your station. The main music, the 'audience education', and the spicing can all be part of that.
Also, they should become the place to hear famous artists upon their death. What made them so big in their kind of music? Once again, it's a way to spoil, and the death-time guilt and curiosity factors would lessen button-pushing.
In its later years, WCBS was slower than snails on things that were happening with oldies artists. Like, for instance, the pre-rock rock side of Louis Prima when it was getting popular thru its use in commercials, or Johnny Cash as his popularity rose. Many little waves of popular attention to oldies acts were just plain missed. I hope the new WCBS does better with that.
Anyway, it's good to have a broad-format station back on the FM dial. People can relax from tending to their iPod mix for a while.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
WUSB, Sun 12:30-2:30 pm, 05 August 2007
Know -- Christopher Williams
Hang Out With the Moon -- Diana Jones
I Got the Dirt On You -- Toby Walker -- Just Rolled In -- N
A Little Room to Breathe -- James O'Malley
Drip Drop -- Mint Juleps
On Broadway -- Mint Juleps
You've Got A Friend In Me -- Randy Newman
Love -- Joni Mitchell
Forgiveness -- Cephas & Wiggins
You Will Be My Ain True Love -- Alison Krauss & Sting -- A Hundred Miles or More -- N
Tu Te Vas (You'll Lose A Good Thing) -- Los Straightjackets -- Rock En Espanol N
Sugar -- Ethel Waters
Louisiana 1927 -- Sonny Landreth
Masquerade -- Sam Hill
All My People -- Hope Nunnery -- Wilderness Lounge -- N
Unglamorous -- Lori McKenna -- Unglamorous -- N
I Second That Emotion -- Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
You -- Abra Moore -- On the Way N
In This Temple... -- Sufjan Stevens
Woke Up This Mornin' -- Eric Bibb
Eyes On the Prize -- Mavis Staples -- We'll Never Turn Back -- N
Getting Somewhere -- Allison Moorer
Something New -- Lisa Moscatiello
Seahouses -- Dave Bainbridge
You Still Believe In Me -- Beach Boys
Eyes of A Child -- Moody Blues
Ice Cream Song -- the Dynamics -- First Landing -- N
Water To Drink -- BR6 -- Here To Stay -- N
Waters of March/Rhapsody In Blue -- BR6 -- Here to Stay -- N
Love Is Here To Stay -- BR6 -- Here To Stay -- N
Delectible new stuff from Toby; he may be talkin' to you..... Classic Moodies, with a slightly different end mix.
Politically-charged Mavis -- hey, she really was there, and still is. Bainbridge of
Iona doing solo wonders. Landreth doing Randy Newman. Smooth soul
from the Dynamics. C-Dub starts off; the acappella Brazilian jazz of BR6 finishes off.
Hang Out With the Moon -- Diana Jones
I Got the Dirt On You -- Toby Walker -- Just Rolled In -- N
A Little Room to Breathe -- James O'Malley
Drip Drop -- Mint Juleps
On Broadway -- Mint Juleps
You've Got A Friend In Me -- Randy Newman
Love -- Joni Mitchell
Forgiveness -- Cephas & Wiggins
You Will Be My Ain True Love -- Alison Krauss & Sting -- A Hundred Miles or More -- N
Tu Te Vas (You'll Lose A Good Thing) -- Los Straightjackets -- Rock En Espanol N
Sugar -- Ethel Waters
Louisiana 1927 -- Sonny Landreth
Masquerade -- Sam Hill
All My People -- Hope Nunnery -- Wilderness Lounge -- N
Unglamorous -- Lori McKenna -- Unglamorous -- N
I Second That Emotion -- Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
You -- Abra Moore -- On the Way N
In This Temple... -- Sufjan Stevens
Woke Up This Mornin' -- Eric Bibb
Eyes On the Prize -- Mavis Staples -- We'll Never Turn Back -- N
Getting Somewhere -- Allison Moorer
Something New -- Lisa Moscatiello
Seahouses -- Dave Bainbridge
You Still Believe In Me -- Beach Boys
Eyes of A Child -- Moody Blues
Ice Cream Song -- the Dynamics -- First Landing -- N
Water To Drink -- BR6 -- Here To Stay -- N
Waters of March/Rhapsody In Blue -- BR6 -- Here to Stay -- N
Love Is Here To Stay -- BR6 -- Here To Stay -- N
Delectible new stuff from Toby; he may be talkin' to you..... Classic Moodies, with a slightly different end mix.
Politically-charged Mavis -- hey, she really was there, and still is. Bainbridge of
Iona doing solo wonders. Landreth doing Randy Newman. Smooth soul
from the Dynamics. C-Dub starts off; the acappella Brazilian jazz of BR6 finishes off.
Monday, July 30, 2007
WUSB 29 July 2007
BOB LONGMAN Sunday 7/29/07 12:30-2:30 pm
Track -- Artist -- Album -- other notes (N=New, R=request)
Little River Canyon -- Pierce Pettis
Like I Do -- Diana Jones
Don't Let the Whole World Know -- Everly Brothers
Away Down the River -- Alison Krauss -- 100 Miles or More -- N
Watch Man -- Hope Nunnery -- Wilderness Lounge -- N, R
Blues Will Do You Good -- Cephas & Wiggins
Color Him Father -- Keb' Mo'
Right On Time -- Eric Bibb
12 Gates -- Marie Knight -- Let Us Get Together -- N
Tell 'Em About Me -- Ethel Waters
A Conjunction of Drones... -- Sufjan Stevens
Heart of Stone -- Joan Osborne -- Breakfast in Bed N, R
Patterns In the Sky -- Jan Krist -- -- R
Almost Peaceful -- LeRoy Martez Bell -- Spending Time -- N
Plead the Fifth -- Relient K -- Five Score and Seven -- N
A Prayer -- Madeleine Peyroux
Wings of Angels -- Rosanne Cash -- Anchored In Love (J.Carter trib.) -- N
Hibbing -- Nathan Rogers -- True Stories -- N
On the Way -- Abra Moore -- On the Way -- N
Too Much Stuff -- Duke Robillard
Stop By Anytime -- Devon Spoule -- Keep Your Silver Shined -- N
I Me Mine -- Beatles
Nod Your Head -- Paul McCartney -- Memory Almost Full -- N
Shadow of Doubt -- Tinsley Ellis -- Moment of Truth -- N
Song From June -- Slaid Cleaves -- Unsung -- N
Mujer Divina -- Spanish Harlem Orch. -- United We Swing -- N
A Gozar -- Arturo Sandoval -- Rumba Palace -- N
Dry Cleaner from Des Moines -- Cadence -- 20 for 1
Come On -- Take 6 -- Feels Good
Heading Home -- Joshua Redman
Notes : Hope Nunnery was the guest on Sunday Street w. Charlie Backfish (9-11:30 am)
"Dry Cleaner" is a Joni Mitchell song. "Don't Let the Whole World Know" was done in concert, with one of the brothers being louder and harder than usual. "Too Much Stuff" is an Eric Bibb song that Robillard does well. "Patterns In the Sky" is one of Jan Krist's best performances. Marie Knight was part of a duo with Rosetta Tharpe some 60 years ago; the pairing gave Tharpe several of her biggest hits. Knight's album is all covers of Gary Davis' gospel material. If the liner notes are to be believed, Knight never met Davis and didn't know his songs, even though they were contemporaries, so she comes to the material with fresh eyes.
Track -- Artist -- Album -- other notes (N=New, R=request)
Little River Canyon -- Pierce Pettis
Like I Do -- Diana Jones
Don't Let the Whole World Know -- Everly Brothers
Away Down the River -- Alison Krauss -- 100 Miles or More -- N
Watch Man -- Hope Nunnery -- Wilderness Lounge -- N, R
Blues Will Do You Good -- Cephas & Wiggins
Color Him Father -- Keb' Mo'
Right On Time -- Eric Bibb
12 Gates -- Marie Knight -- Let Us Get Together -- N
Tell 'Em About Me -- Ethel Waters
A Conjunction of Drones... -- Sufjan Stevens
Heart of Stone -- Joan Osborne -- Breakfast in Bed N, R
Patterns In the Sky -- Jan Krist -- -- R
Almost Peaceful -- LeRoy Martez Bell -- Spending Time -- N
Plead the Fifth -- Relient K -- Five Score and Seven -- N
A Prayer -- Madeleine Peyroux
Wings of Angels -- Rosanne Cash -- Anchored In Love (J.Carter trib.) -- N
Hibbing -- Nathan Rogers -- True Stories -- N
On the Way -- Abra Moore -- On the Way -- N
Too Much Stuff -- Duke Robillard
Stop By Anytime -- Devon Spoule -- Keep Your Silver Shined -- N
I Me Mine -- Beatles
Nod Your Head -- Paul McCartney -- Memory Almost Full -- N
Shadow of Doubt -- Tinsley Ellis -- Moment of Truth -- N
Song From June -- Slaid Cleaves -- Unsung -- N
Mujer Divina -- Spanish Harlem Orch. -- United We Swing -- N
A Gozar -- Arturo Sandoval -- Rumba Palace -- N
Dry Cleaner from Des Moines -- Cadence -- 20 for 1
Come On -- Take 6 -- Feels Good
Heading Home -- Joshua Redman
Notes : Hope Nunnery was the guest on Sunday Street w. Charlie Backfish (9-11:30 am)
"Dry Cleaner" is a Joni Mitchell song. "Don't Let the Whole World Know" was done in concert, with one of the brothers being louder and harder than usual. "Too Much Stuff" is an Eric Bibb song that Robillard does well. "Patterns In the Sky" is one of Jan Krist's best performances. Marie Knight was part of a duo with Rosetta Tharpe some 60 years ago; the pairing gave Tharpe several of her biggest hits. Knight's album is all covers of Gary Davis' gospel material. If the liner notes are to be believed, Knight never met Davis and didn't know his songs, even though they were contemporaries, so she comes to the material with fresh eyes.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Lucinda Williams
at Brookhaven (NY) Amphitheater. Her usual mix of rock songs with country songs is jarring but interesting. But the contrast was a bit more jarring this night : she did two numbers with bluegrass great Charlie Louvin, then launched into '90s heavy rock/ AOR (with traces of metal) for the next four songs. The new songs in the bunch were, with one exception, harder than even her past forays into hard rock. In a way, that music suits her lyrics better : so many songs were almost clinically cynical and aimed at bursting any bubbles. Lost love, lost faith, lost hope, and most of all, lost joy. Usually (not always) even when it's about sex. She doesn't seem like someone who's actually really lost any of that, but that is her lyric of choice. But then again, there were moments she seemed like she lost track of what she was doing -- all that changing of gears, so much material, maybe some other reasons.
I must say, those are not my kind of song. It shows one kind of reality, but telling reality does not always tell truth, at least when taken in isolated moments almost shorn of context. It tells feelings and thoughts fairly straight, then spins them out so you catch how deep (or shallow) they go. Not bad, but then not good enough, either. It just is, that's all. Maybe that's the most honest way to be. But it does lack something, not as a style but as a way of seeing the world. Lucinda does this way of seeing with consummate skill. But the more you talk/sing like that, the more it starts working on your mind. Both rock and country have ample evidence of that. I hope that doesn't happen to her, but it's a hard path to refuse.
I must say, those are not my kind of song. It shows one kind of reality, but telling reality does not always tell truth, at least when taken in isolated moments almost shorn of context. It tells feelings and thoughts fairly straight, then spins them out so you catch how deep (or shallow) they go. Not bad, but then not good enough, either. It just is, that's all. Maybe that's the most honest way to be. But it does lack something, not as a style but as a way of seeing the world. Lucinda does this way of seeing with consummate skill. But the more you talk/sing like that, the more it starts working on your mind. Both rock and country have ample evidence of that. I hope that doesn't happen to her, but it's a hard path to refuse.
Friday, July 27, 2007
School, violence, and choice
Some things just defy reason. I get reminded of that every day. But there are few times that it strikes me as this hard to understand.
You see, a couple weeks ago, the high school I graduated from apparently came close to having a Columbine-style massacre. Two boys were arrested for their role in this plot that was still not yet ready-to-go. From what has been said in the press, the main plotter apparently didn't have life going so well. The profile that's developing for those who do these sort of things -- God that's scary, that there's enough of them to make a profile -- says that they're socially abused, physically beaten, isolated from their parents and other students, and show signs of instability. Thus they become angry, drawn to violence, despondent about their future, wanting to grab attention in a definitive and unforgettable way. (The Columbine killers did that, for sure.)
The thing I don't understand is, they were me. What did they get that I didn't have in spades? Tauntings. Beatings. Countless concussions. Set-ups. Pranks on me that were done so often and so unimaginatively I eventually became bored with them, in a "ho-hum, it's Tuesday, when my shoes go into the gym rafters" kind of way. For my years in elementary into special-ed and through 11th grade, hardly a day went by without some sort of humiliation. I acted out, sometimes with temper outbursts, sometimes by running and hiding. I was usually alone, and I couldn't get a girlfriend to save my life -- which it full well might have, in the state I was in. And the school staff didn't do right by me either -- I never once made up anything, but I was treated as if I was a grand story-teller. And home life wasn't a prize either. And it's not like there were no very visible examples of violence in a violent world : the Six-Day War, the race riots, Kennedy, King, the skyjackings, Munich.
So, why was it that I never thought to do harm to people? Even those who beat or humiliated me? Why was I so intensely focused on getting through to them, why did I care so much, that the frustration and hurt of their unlove would cause me to act out? Why couldn't I just tell them all to go roast in hell? Why couldn't I hate, or even not care, even for a moment?
And, most importantly, why can these budding murderers hate when I couldn't? What gives them that bitter edge, that cynicism, that screw-you-all spit-in-your-face -ness that would even let the thought cross their minds?
I don't understand. I want to understand, because maybe that will uncover the clues to this murderous mystery, and maybe that will tell me a lot about myself. But I get this nagging feeling that I'll never know, that it will always be something to wonder about, at times like this.
You see, a couple weeks ago, the high school I graduated from apparently came close to having a Columbine-style massacre. Two boys were arrested for their role in this plot that was still not yet ready-to-go. From what has been said in the press, the main plotter apparently didn't have life going so well. The profile that's developing for those who do these sort of things -- God that's scary, that there's enough of them to make a profile -- says that they're socially abused, physically beaten, isolated from their parents and other students, and show signs of instability. Thus they become angry, drawn to violence, despondent about their future, wanting to grab attention in a definitive and unforgettable way. (The Columbine killers did that, for sure.)
The thing I don't understand is, they were me. What did they get that I didn't have in spades? Tauntings. Beatings. Countless concussions. Set-ups. Pranks on me that were done so often and so unimaginatively I eventually became bored with them, in a "ho-hum, it's Tuesday, when my shoes go into the gym rafters" kind of way. For my years in elementary into special-ed and through 11th grade, hardly a day went by without some sort of humiliation. I acted out, sometimes with temper outbursts, sometimes by running and hiding. I was usually alone, and I couldn't get a girlfriend to save my life -- which it full well might have, in the state I was in. And the school staff didn't do right by me either -- I never once made up anything, but I was treated as if I was a grand story-teller. And home life wasn't a prize either. And it's not like there were no very visible examples of violence in a violent world : the Six-Day War, the race riots, Kennedy, King, the skyjackings, Munich.
So, why was it that I never thought to do harm to people? Even those who beat or humiliated me? Why was I so intensely focused on getting through to them, why did I care so much, that the frustration and hurt of their unlove would cause me to act out? Why couldn't I just tell them all to go roast in hell? Why couldn't I hate, or even not care, even for a moment?
And, most importantly, why can these budding murderers hate when I couldn't? What gives them that bitter edge, that cynicism, that screw-you-all spit-in-your-face -ness that would even let the thought cross their minds?
I don't understand. I want to understand, because maybe that will uncover the clues to this murderous mystery, and maybe that will tell me a lot about myself. But I get this nagging feeling that I'll never know, that it will always be something to wonder about, at times like this.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Gospel Blues WUSB Special, 22 July 2007
Bob Longman, WUSB 90.1 fm/wusb.fm -- Sunday
7/22/07 -- 12:30-2:30 pm
The Lord Will Make a Way -- Mighty Sam McClain
I Want to Be Ready -- Holmes Bros.
If I Fall -- Doug Wamble
Death Don't Have No Mercy -- Jorma Kaukonen
Soon My Work Will Be All Done -- Gary Davis
Can't Nobody Hide -- Blind Willie Johnson
Nobody's Fault But Mine -- Toby Walker -- Just Rolled In -- N
If You See My Savior -- Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
John the Revelator -- Son House
Keep the Faith -- Johnny Rawls & the Rays
Shaky Ground -- Glenn Kaiser/Darrell Mansfield
Farther Along -- Mike Bloomfield
Hallelu Hallelu -- Rory Block
A Friend Like Lonely Jesus -- Gary Davis
Woke Up This Morning -- Ruthie Foster
Feel Like Going On -- Ruthie Foster, Pat Boyack
Read Way Back -- Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith
Just Keep Goin' On -- Dan Smith
Take Your Burden -- Washington Phillips
Take Your Burden to the Lord -- Joseph Spence
Shadow of Doubt -- Tinsley Ellis -- Moment of Truth -- N
Where Shall I Be -- Mississippi John Hurt
Take My Hand -- Blind Boys AL & Ben Harper
Without the Help of Jesus -- Blind Boys AL
Death Don't Have No Mercy -- Marie Knight -- Let Us Get Together -- N
Witness -- Mighty Sam McClain
Be With Me Jesus -- Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers
7/22/07 -- 12:30-2:30 pm
The Lord Will Make a Way -- Mighty Sam McClain
I Want to Be Ready -- Holmes Bros.
If I Fall -- Doug Wamble
Death Don't Have No Mercy -- Jorma Kaukonen
Soon My Work Will Be All Done -- Gary Davis
Can't Nobody Hide -- Blind Willie Johnson
Nobody's Fault But Mine -- Toby Walker -- Just Rolled In -- N
If You See My Savior -- Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
John the Revelator -- Son House
Keep the Faith -- Johnny Rawls & the Rays
Shaky Ground -- Glenn Kaiser/Darrell Mansfield
Farther Along -- Mike Bloomfield
Hallelu Hallelu -- Rory Block
A Friend Like Lonely Jesus -- Gary Davis
Woke Up This Morning -- Ruthie Foster
Feel Like Going On -- Ruthie Foster, Pat Boyack
Read Way Back -- Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith
Just Keep Goin' On -- Dan Smith
Take Your Burden -- Washington Phillips
Take Your Burden to the Lord -- Joseph Spence
Shadow of Doubt -- Tinsley Ellis -- Moment of Truth -- N
Where Shall I Be -- Mississippi John Hurt
Take My Hand -- Blind Boys AL & Ben Harper
Without the Help of Jesus -- Blind Boys AL
Death Don't Have No Mercy -- Marie Knight -- Let Us Get Together -- N
Witness -- Mighty Sam McClain
Be With Me Jesus -- Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers
Thursday, July 19, 2007
My Lowest Pages
Most people will spread the word high and far about how popular their website is, and boast about their page with the highest usage (in my case, http://www.spirithome.com/angels.html , averaging over 360 users per day, and top 5 in Google searches for 'angels'). But where can you find a site that tells you which ones are the least-used pages? Spirithome.com, of course.
These ten average less than one unique visitor per day, and no external links so far. They are listed with their pagerank and their Google rank for their primary keyword, where there is any known rank.
page --- pagerank --- search rank --- internal links
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Isaiah66-17.html --- PR 3 --- supplemental --- 3
endtimes_2.html --- PR 3 --- 240 --- 6
asiapract.html --- PR 3 -- no search rank --- 3
prosperity.html -- PR 0 -- no search rank -- 6
universalism.html --- PR 3 --- 145 --- 8
heresies.html --- PR 1 --- no search rank on 4 of 5 terms, 230 on the fifth -- 2
disclaimers.html --- PR 3 --- no search rank --- 6
loving.html --- PR 0 --- no search rank --- 8
letters7.html -- PR 3 --- supplemental on 2 terms -- 3
letters4.html --- PR 3 -- supplemental on 3 terms -- 5
I'm still trying to figure out this puzzle. I realize that most of these are specialized pages, and will never get angels.html-level use. But they should at least rank in searches. (Of course, I'd love to have you link to them....)
These ten average less than one unique visitor per day, and no external links so far. They are listed with their pagerank and their Google rank for their primary keyword, where there is any known rank.
page --- pagerank --- search rank --- internal links
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Isaiah66-17.html --- PR 3 --- supplemental --- 3
endtimes_2.html --- PR 3 --- 240 --- 6
asiapract.html --- PR 3 -- no search rank --- 3
prosperity.html -- PR 0 -- no search rank -- 6
universalism.html --- PR 3 --- 145 --- 8
heresies.html --- PR 1 --- no search rank on 4 of 5 terms, 230 on the fifth -- 2
disclaimers.html --- PR 3 --- no search rank --- 6
loving.html --- PR 0 --- no search rank --- 8
letters7.html -- PR 3 --- supplemental on 2 terms -- 3
letters4.html --- PR 3 -- supplemental on 3 terms -- 5
I'm still trying to figure out this puzzle. I realize that most of these are specialized pages, and will never get angels.html-level use. But they should at least rank in searches. (Of course, I'd love to have you link to them....)
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Playlist, 08 July 2007
BOB LONGMAN Sunday 7/8/07 12:30-2:30 pm WUSB 90.1 FM and wusb.fm
track -- performer -- album
_________________________________
Hard Love -- Brooks Williams -- How the Nighttime Sings
Suit Yourself -- Kate Campbell -- Visions Of Plenty
Hard To Say -- Dave Crossland -- Pearl --- (N)
Sometimes the Romance Fades -- John Dodge
Southland Of the Heart -- Maria Muldaur -- Southland of the Heart
Roseville Fair -- Rose Laughlin -- Souvenir --- (N)
If I Fall -- Doug Wamble
I'm Not Thinking Of You -- Carrie Newcomer --- (R)
Sometimes Trouble Is A Gift -- Tim Grimm
Mississippi Swamp Moan --Alfred Lewis
Stay A While -- Greg Glancey
Hope Sleeps -- John Flynn
Love Abides -- Tom Russell
Watch Man -- Hope Nunnery -- Wilderness Lounge --- (N)
(a fabulous track.)
Ring of Fire -- Elvis Costello -- Anchored In Love (June Carter Cash trib.) (N)
Molly Ban -- Alison Krauss -- 100 Miles or More --- (N)
Tu Te Vas -- Los Straightjackets -- Rock En Espanol vol.1 --- (N)
What Would I Do? -- the Dynamics -- First Landing --- (N)
(smooth soul.)
Nod Your Head -- Paul McCartney -- Memory Almost Full --- (N, R)
Wooden Shoes -- Eight Page Story -- Eight Page Story --- (N)
Santa Fe Dream -- Anais Mitchell -- the Brightness --- (N)
When Worlds Collide -- Bainbridge / Donockley -- When Worlds Collide
Y-Note -- Gino Sitson -- Bamisphere --- (N)
Wait For the Sunshine -- Take 6 -- Feels Good --- (N)
Love That Breaks All Lines -- Trey Anastasio
After the Gold Rush -- Prelude
Spread Love -- Take 6
(N) = new to station (R) = request
track -- performer -- album
_________________________________
Hard Love -- Brooks Williams -- How the Nighttime Sings
Suit Yourself -- Kate Campbell -- Visions Of Plenty
Hard To Say -- Dave Crossland -- Pearl --- (N)
Sometimes the Romance Fades -- John Dodge
Southland Of the Heart -- Maria Muldaur -- Southland of the Heart
Roseville Fair -- Rose Laughlin -- Souvenir --- (N)
If I Fall -- Doug Wamble
I'm Not Thinking Of You -- Carrie Newcomer --- (R)
Sometimes Trouble Is A Gift -- Tim Grimm
Mississippi Swamp Moan --Alfred Lewis
Stay A While -- Greg Glancey
Hope Sleeps -- John Flynn
Love Abides -- Tom Russell
Watch Man -- Hope Nunnery -- Wilderness Lounge --- (N)
(a fabulous track.)
Ring of Fire -- Elvis Costello -- Anchored In Love (June Carter Cash trib.) (N)
Molly Ban -- Alison Krauss -- 100 Miles or More --- (N)
Tu Te Vas -- Los Straightjackets -- Rock En Espanol vol.1 --- (N)
What Would I Do? -- the Dynamics -- First Landing --- (N)
(smooth soul.)
Nod Your Head -- Paul McCartney -- Memory Almost Full --- (N, R)
Wooden Shoes -- Eight Page Story -- Eight Page Story --- (N)
Santa Fe Dream -- Anais Mitchell -- the Brightness --- (N)
When Worlds Collide -- Bainbridge / Donockley -- When Worlds Collide
Y-Note -- Gino Sitson -- Bamisphere --- (N)
Wait For the Sunshine -- Take 6 -- Feels Good --- (N)
Love That Breaks All Lines -- Trey Anastasio
After the Gold Rush -- Prelude
Spread Love -- Take 6
(N) = new to station (R) = request
Monday, July 16, 2007
Notes on local live music events
I've been at two local live music events this summer, with another one coming next week (the Riverhead Blues Festival). Some quick notes :
(1) You know you're old when the people who are 10 years younger than you look old.
(2) There is a race gap in these events. Not on stage : that's fairly well integrated. But there are usually more African-Americans on stage than in the crowd. Part of that's #3 below. But is that all there is to it?...
(3) These events are really for guitar-based rock audiences. Sure, there's some electric blues and soul, but that's in guitar-rock's roots from the start and have always been present at these festivals. But the heart of it is album rock. Understandable : their sounds 30+ years ago created most of the festivals. Yet it is an aging sound, now mostly for 35-55-year-olds. (At least one group, the Defibrillators, has fun with that.)
(4) Two main products : guitar-rock and beer. Oh - and two others : beer bellies and thick thighs.
(5) These fans do bring their kids, and there's always the kid who's up front below playing their toy guitar like the musician on stage. The 5-year old boy on Friday was especially into it. I expect to see his first album available for download soon.
(1) You know you're old when the people who are 10 years younger than you look old.
(2) There is a race gap in these events. Not on stage : that's fairly well integrated. But there are usually more African-Americans on stage than in the crowd. Part of that's #3 below. But is that all there is to it?...
(3) These events are really for guitar-based rock audiences. Sure, there's some electric blues and soul, but that's in guitar-rock's roots from the start and have always been present at these festivals. But the heart of it is album rock. Understandable : their sounds 30+ years ago created most of the festivals. Yet it is an aging sound, now mostly for 35-55-year-olds. (At least one group, the Defibrillators, has fun with that.)
(4) Two main products : guitar-rock and beer. Oh - and two others : beer bellies and thick thighs.
(5) These fans do bring their kids, and there's always the kid who's up front below playing their toy guitar like the musician on stage. The 5-year old boy on Friday was especially into it. I expect to see his first album available for download soon.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
A review of an Idea of North show
http://dreamqueen.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html
If you ever (if *I* ever) get a chance to see them, take it!!
By the way, my WUSB listeners have given lots of great feedback on their Unfortunate Tale. The last verse is lost on them (it's veddy British), but otherwise so fun.
If you ever (if *I* ever) get a chance to see them, take it!!
By the way, my WUSB listeners have given lots of great feedback on their Unfortunate Tale. The last verse is lost on them (it's veddy British), but otherwise so fun.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Odd online dating things
There are some things about the online dating stuff that just feels strange.
For instance, what happened a week ago. I got a sudden burst of emails at one of the sites I'm part of. That in itself is strange -- I can send out 30 letters before getting a single non-automated reply, and I almost never get someone contacting me first. Just seeing the number of incomings, I got suspicious. But I looked at them all.
Each was of a different woman with a different account. (Well, one was really a girl -- says 18, but had to be at least 2 yrs younger.) Each was from either Eastern Europe or Taiwan. And the self-description paragraphs had a strangely similar sound to them -- they covered the same topics, and used many of the same words. Each had 5 photos -- not 4, not 6, always exactly 5 -- and four of them would be each of the same 4 types. A front facial, a lightly-clad frontal full-body, an almost-direct side view, and a view lying mainly clothed in bed with body front turned toward the camera. The fifth would cover what could be considered their best view, which was different for each one. The two busty women had a cleavage shot with a slight down angle (the same angle in each), another had a 60-degree facial shot for a great look, two others showed the woman's athleticism by running basepaths. Another had a beach shot that bore an eery resemblance to the hot inside come-on photo in Alison Krauss' new album (which only just now got released, so how??). The last two had scenes of each woman enjoying herself in Paris, with drink in hand.
It's obvious that all eight profiles were produced (and probably sent) by the same person or firm. I must admit it was professionally done, with a good eye for details and an awareness of the qualities of each specific 'product'. The strangest part is that they apparently picked up on something in my own profile that told them I was likely to go for what they had. Each profile mentioned a certain set of styles of music -- acappella and singer-songwriter -- that are uncommon in combination, and even mentioned a specific band in neither genre ("Iona UK", which is not how the band identifies itself). I have to think that the marketeer found my profile through a search mechanism for keywords, then actually looked at my profile, and took the time to slightly tailor theirs to mine. I have to admit, if it weren't for their location and sameness, I might have gone for it. Each of the eight were a somewhat different kind of wow, which if there was just one and it was in the New York Metro, I would have eagerly sent an email. But 8? On the other side of the world? In an obviously 'managed' fashion? No. But the profiles' polish (~ Polish?) makes me think that this could be a trend. A consultant who uses existing dating services as a place to market marriageables by putting their best foot forward. Could be a 'next big thing' in online dating.
For instance, what happened a week ago. I got a sudden burst of emails at one of the sites I'm part of. That in itself is strange -- I can send out 30 letters before getting a single non-automated reply, and I almost never get someone contacting me first. Just seeing the number of incomings, I got suspicious. But I looked at them all.
Each was of a different woman with a different account. (Well, one was really a girl -- says 18, but had to be at least 2 yrs younger.) Each was from either Eastern Europe or Taiwan. And the self-description paragraphs had a strangely similar sound to them -- they covered the same topics, and used many of the same words. Each had 5 photos -- not 4, not 6, always exactly 5 -- and four of them would be each of the same 4 types. A front facial, a lightly-clad frontal full-body, an almost-direct side view, and a view lying mainly clothed in bed with body front turned toward the camera. The fifth would cover what could be considered their best view, which was different for each one. The two busty women had a cleavage shot with a slight down angle (the same angle in each), another had a 60-degree facial shot for a great look, two others showed the woman's athleticism by running basepaths. Another had a beach shot that bore an eery resemblance to the hot inside come-on photo in Alison Krauss' new album (which only just now got released, so how??). The last two had scenes of each woman enjoying herself in Paris, with drink in hand.
It's obvious that all eight profiles were produced (and probably sent) by the same person or firm. I must admit it was professionally done, with a good eye for details and an awareness of the qualities of each specific 'product'. The strangest part is that they apparently picked up on something in my own profile that told them I was likely to go for what they had. Each profile mentioned a certain set of styles of music -- acappella and singer-songwriter -- that are uncommon in combination, and even mentioned a specific band in neither genre ("Iona UK", which is not how the band identifies itself). I have to think that the marketeer found my profile through a search mechanism for keywords, then actually looked at my profile, and took the time to slightly tailor theirs to mine. I have to admit, if it weren't for their location and sameness, I might have gone for it. Each of the eight were a somewhat different kind of wow, which if there was just one and it was in the New York Metro, I would have eagerly sent an email. But 8? On the other side of the world? In an obviously 'managed' fashion? No. But the profiles' polish (~ Polish?) makes me think that this could be a trend. A consultant who uses existing dating services as a place to market marriageables by putting their best foot forward. Could be a 'next big thing' in online dating.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
More assorted notes
(1) Still sore over missing TARCon :(. Sounds like the TARFlies had a blast. Well, there's still Amazing Race 12 this fall unless CBS does something weird. I did pick the winner right in a March blog here : Eric and Danielle. Just about everyone else in the late going (poss. excepting Charla) showed some sign of serious fatigue. Even Dustin & Kandice (their little fight, and their struggle with the last task). Oswald and Danny were hit the worst, with all the classic signs : arguing, disorientation, bleary eyes, and bungling tedious tasks. Heck, even Phil looked a bit weary.
(2) I'm still getting good feedback on the singing groups special, especially the Alvin Chea interview. Take 6 fans a re coming out of the woodwork. See below, April for a played-list. Acappella fans should know that while the Fall WUSB 'thon will probably generate a different show (on ethereal music), I'm still hoping for an acappella jam show on one of my regular shows in September/October. But I'm going to need a lot of groups to show up. So if you're in a Metro NY, Jersey, or Connecticut bandless band, leave me word here as to availability and contact. And keep checking here for further developments -- they will be posted.
(3) Revamped many of the word definitions on the Spirithome.com site. That includes clearer sections on homiletics and "deliverance ministries". If you're a student of religion or of Christianity, or you're a news reporter or talk show producer searching for information on a topic on Christianity, Spirithome.com is what you're looking for. There's no end to what you can find there.
(end of shameless plug for my own site....)
(4) I still can't get over those who keep calling the expression of religious belief in the public and political realms "dangerous". The Constitution specifically protects religious practice. Christian religious practice is based on loving one's neighbor, and being of help even to those who don't hold our beliefs. This is often unavoidably public, and sometimes unavoidably political. If I can't fully follow through on that, then I am not free to practice my faith. The Founders of the US understood that. Yet some writers, mostly but not exclusively on the Left, just don't get it, mainly because some religious person says something they oppose, and they (sometimes rightly) fear that the advocates are tyrants in disguise. But that's irrelevant; you fight them by opposing their viewpoint on the subject matter, not by telling them to shut up like O'Reilly does. You're free to oppose. Just don't even try to cut off the social space for the public parts of religious practice. You'll have me in your face. For your own good. For our freedom to speak is also yours, and if we don't have it, you also won't have it before long.
That said, some Christians should learn when to speak and when to listen. Listening, too, is part of loving one's neighbor.
(2) I'm still getting good feedback on the singing groups special, especially the Alvin Chea interview. Take 6 fans a re coming out of the woodwork. See below, April for a played-list. Acappella fans should know that while the Fall WUSB 'thon will probably generate a different show (on ethereal music), I'm still hoping for an acappella jam show on one of my regular shows in September/October. But I'm going to need a lot of groups to show up. So if you're in a Metro NY, Jersey, or Connecticut bandless band, leave me word here as to availability and contact. And keep checking here for further developments -- they will be posted.
(3) Revamped many of the word definitions on the Spirithome.com site. That includes clearer sections on homiletics and "deliverance ministries". If you're a student of religion or of Christianity, or you're a news reporter or talk show producer searching for information on a topic on Christianity, Spirithome.com is what you're looking for. There's no end to what you can find there.
(end of shameless plug for my own site....)
(4) I still can't get over those who keep calling the expression of religious belief in the public and political realms "dangerous". The Constitution specifically protects religious practice. Christian religious practice is based on loving one's neighbor, and being of help even to those who don't hold our beliefs. This is often unavoidably public, and sometimes unavoidably political. If I can't fully follow through on that, then I am not free to practice my faith. The Founders of the US understood that. Yet some writers, mostly but not exclusively on the Left, just don't get it, mainly because some religious person says something they oppose, and they (sometimes rightly) fear that the advocates are tyrants in disguise. But that's irrelevant; you fight them by opposing their viewpoint on the subject matter, not by telling them to shut up like O'Reilly does. You're free to oppose. Just don't even try to cut off the social space for the public parts of religious practice. You'll have me in your face. For your own good. For our freedom to speak is also yours, and if we don't have it, you also won't have it before long.
That said, some Christians should learn when to speak and when to listen. Listening, too, is part of loving one's neighbor.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Played-List, Singing Groups special
This is what I have in my notes; I fully expect to revise it as I go over it. But this is how it went :
When I Needed Him Most -- Blind Boys of Alabama
Heaven's Joy Awaits -- Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver
A Voice From On High -- Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys
Helplessly Hoping -- Crosby Stills Nash
Down to the River to Pray -- Alison Krauss (fr. 'O Brother')
All Is Well -- Ollabelle
An tAiseirl (the Resurrection) -- Noirin Ni Riain
Blue Shadows On the Trail -- Roy Rogers / Sons of the Pioneers
(unspecified)
Oklahoma Wind -- Tonic Sol-Fa
Very Last Day -- Peter Paul & Mary
Tone-Whole -- Just 4 Kicks
Poppity-Pop -- Just 4 Kicks
Vinterlude -- Take 6
If I Fell -- the Essentials
Why I Feel This Way -- Take 6 / Stevie Wonder
I Believe -- Take 6
++ [start of interview with Alvin Chea, bass singer of Take 6]
Harmony -- Take 6 / Queen Latifah
You Can Make It - Go On -- Take 6
++ [end of Chea interview]
Gypsy Woman -- the Persuasions
Inside Of You -- Ray Goodman & Brown
(You Gave Me) Peace Of Mind -- Johnny Maestro & the Brooklyn Bridge
Everything's Coming Up Roses -- Realtime
Pretty Baby -- Sean Altman
Zombie Jamboree -- Rockapella
++ [ start of interview with Sean Altman, founding member of Rockapella ]
Under the Boardwalk -- Rockapella w. True Image (fr. Spike & Co. Do It Acappella)
Secret Santa -- the GrooveBarbers
U'vnay Yerusalayim -- Kol Zimra
Change In My Life -- Rockapella
++ [ end of Altman interview ]
South American Getaway -- soundtrack of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
[several other songs)
How Many Psychiatrists -- P.D.Q Bach
2 -- m-pact
++ [ start of interview with Trist Ethan Curless of m-pact ]
I Thought You Cared For Me -- m-pact
My Favorite Things -- m-pact
What Are You Doing the Rest Of Your Life -- m-pact
++ [ end of Curless interview ]
(something or other)
Tal Vez Seja Voce -- Groove Society
Rockin' Chair -- the Mills Brothers
We Three (My Echo, My Shadow, and Me) -- the Ink Spots
Uncloudy Day -- Staple Singers
Morse Code of Love -- the Capris
All Mine (acappella mix) -- the Five Satins
In the Still Of the Night -- the Five Satins
Vowels of Love -- the Poets
Silence Is Golden -- the Four Seasons
Whispering Bells -- the Dell Vikings
You've Really Got A Hold On Me -- Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
Papa Was A Rolling Stone -- the Temptations
Lovers Never Say Goodbye -- the Flamingos
Splanky -- Toxic Audio
Amazing Grace / Nearer My God -- Ladysmith Black Mambazo w. Emmylou Harris
------------------------------------
The interviews, esp. Chea, were so good I had to let them run on. I didn't get to soooo much stuff, including segments on the Mint Juleps, the Ravens, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as well as songs from the Beach Boys, Prelude, Dixie Hummingbirds, Comedian Harmonists, and some 1990s improv from Extempo. Both time and weather shot down the idea of a jam (maybe during the fall?)
Any questions? Make a comment.
When I Needed Him Most -- Blind Boys of Alabama
Heaven's Joy Awaits -- Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver
A Voice From On High -- Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys
Helplessly Hoping -- Crosby Stills Nash
Down to the River to Pray -- Alison Krauss (fr. 'O Brother')
All Is Well -- Ollabelle
An tAiseirl (the Resurrection) -- Noirin Ni Riain
Blue Shadows On the Trail -- Roy Rogers / Sons of the Pioneers
(unspecified)
Oklahoma Wind -- Tonic Sol-Fa
Very Last Day -- Peter Paul & Mary
Tone-Whole -- Just 4 Kicks
Poppity-Pop -- Just 4 Kicks
Vinterlude -- Take 6
If I Fell -- the Essentials
Why I Feel This Way -- Take 6 / Stevie Wonder
I Believe -- Take 6
++ [start of interview with Alvin Chea, bass singer of Take 6]
Harmony -- Take 6 / Queen Latifah
You Can Make It - Go On -- Take 6
++ [end of Chea interview]
Gypsy Woman -- the Persuasions
Inside Of You -- Ray Goodman & Brown
(You Gave Me) Peace Of Mind -- Johnny Maestro & the Brooklyn Bridge
Everything's Coming Up Roses -- Realtime
Pretty Baby -- Sean Altman
Zombie Jamboree -- Rockapella
++ [ start of interview with Sean Altman, founding member of Rockapella ]
Under the Boardwalk -- Rockapella w. True Image (fr. Spike & Co. Do It Acappella)
Secret Santa -- the GrooveBarbers
U'vnay Yerusalayim -- Kol Zimra
Change In My Life -- Rockapella
++ [ end of Altman interview ]
South American Getaway -- soundtrack of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
[several other songs)
How Many Psychiatrists -- P.D.Q Bach
2 -- m-pact
++ [ start of interview with Trist Ethan Curless of m-pact ]
I Thought You Cared For Me -- m-pact
My Favorite Things -- m-pact
What Are You Doing the Rest Of Your Life -- m-pact
++ [ end of Curless interview ]
(something or other)
Tal Vez Seja Voce -- Groove Society
Rockin' Chair -- the Mills Brothers
We Three (My Echo, My Shadow, and Me) -- the Ink Spots
Uncloudy Day -- Staple Singers
Morse Code of Love -- the Capris
All Mine (acappella mix) -- the Five Satins
In the Still Of the Night -- the Five Satins
Vowels of Love -- the Poets
Silence Is Golden -- the Four Seasons
Whispering Bells -- the Dell Vikings
You've Really Got A Hold On Me -- Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
Papa Was A Rolling Stone -- the Temptations
Lovers Never Say Goodbye -- the Flamingos
Splanky -- Toxic Audio
Amazing Grace / Nearer My God -- Ladysmith Black Mambazo w. Emmylou Harris
------------------------------------
The interviews, esp. Chea, were so good I had to let them run on. I didn't get to soooo much stuff, including segments on the Mint Juleps, the Ravens, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as well as songs from the Beach Boys, Prelude, Dixie Hummingbirds, Comedian Harmonists, and some 1990s improv from Extempo. Both time and weather shot down the idea of a jam (maybe during the fall?)
Any questions? Make a comment.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Chea, Altman on singing group radio special
It's pretty much official now for the April 15 singing groups special on WUSB 90.1FM on Lon Guyland, or wusb.fm on webcast. The following phone interviews are on :
( all times in Eastern Daylight (New York) Time )
Alvin Chea of Take 6, 1:30 pm
Sean Altman, founding member of Rockapella, 2:30 pm
Trist Curless of m-pact, 3:30 pm.
Attempts at setting up live have taken a back seat because of the bad weather forecasted for Long Island.
In any event, there will be no lack of great music. I have my digi copy of "All Mine" (Five Satins), my greatest prize. I will find myself a better copy of "South American Getaway" (Butch Cassidy soundtrack). And the Black Mambazo segment is all set up. Fun, fun, FUN. Be there or be octagonal.
( all times in Eastern Daylight (New York) Time )
Alvin Chea of Take 6, 1:30 pm
Sean Altman, founding member of Rockapella, 2:30 pm
Trist Curless of m-pact, 3:30 pm.
Attempts at setting up live have taken a back seat because of the bad weather forecasted for Long Island.
In any event, there will be no lack of great music. I have my digi copy of "All Mine" (Five Satins), my greatest prize. I will find myself a better copy of "South American Getaway" (Butch Cassidy soundtrack). And the Black Mambazo segment is all set up. Fun, fun, FUN. Be there or be octagonal.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Singing Groups, II -- In Harmony
Yes, we've got another radio special coming up April 15 at 12:30-5 pm, on wusb.fm. Music to do taxes by.
I can say with complete assurance that there will be great recorded group music, from a wide range of styles.. Switching leads, unison, fugues, gospel, world, but most importantly harmonies. A whole lot of WOW.
I'm also piecing together a live music segment, for acappella bands from Metro NY/coastal western CT. If that's your band's home base and you want to be involved, leave me word in the comments here.
If you're a fan of the music, the wusb.fm site has a link to the live webcast. So if you're an acappella fan in California, Seattle, Jo'burg, or Dalmatia, you've got no excuses. You can listen in.
Oh -- if you like what you hear, donate to the station; there's a form at the website, or call 631-632-6901.
I can say with complete assurance that there will be great recorded group music, from a wide range of styles.. Switching leads, unison, fugues, gospel, world, but most importantly harmonies. A whole lot of WOW.
I'm also piecing together a live music segment, for acappella bands from Metro NY/coastal western CT. If that's your band's home base and you want to be involved, leave me word in the comments here.
If you're a fan of the music, the wusb.fm site has a link to the live webcast. So if you're an acappella fan in California, Seattle, Jo'burg, or Dalmatia, you've got no excuses. You can listen in.
Oh -- if you like what you hear, donate to the station; there's a form at the website, or call 631-632-6901.
Friday, April 06, 2007
Three Days experiences
The Three Days (or, to Catholics, the Triduum -- uh, hello, Latin's dead?) always gets to me. Not that the design of the services helps a whole lot. Good intentions, I'm sure, but it's more important to get the feeling of gloom and darkness on Good Friday than to read a bulletin. Have just enough light to get to a seat, perhaps with an usher's help. It's something to experience, so you can explain it afterward, if you wish, but pre-explanations dull the impact. I realize most traditions read the whole ending up to Jesus' death on Maundy Thursday, but shouldn't the service focus on Thursday's events, the last supper and the betrayal? The Good Friday, Easter Vigil, and Easter services have their own special emphases, even when seen as continuations of each other. Use the stream of continuity to take people through the days -- a mental pilgrimage traveling through the Gospel story. You can't get that experience by overtly tipping the hand (that's where symbolism and allusion can help).
Only once has an Easter Vigil given me the sense of anticipation or waiting for God to act. That once was where it happened in the early morning before sunrise. (Sparsely-attended, of course; just three church women, 6 theology students, an Episcopal vicar, a Vineyard minister, and me.) It led right into the praise music hour that led up to the somewhat-high Episcopal Easter sunrise service at 7 am. It made me think of the Marys who went to the tomb, the loss they were feeling, the surprise they had when they got there, the joy at the incredible news. In a way, I entered into what they went through, by way of the flow of the worship services. Unfortunately, it also left me totally spoiled.
The congregation I'm a member of has a fairly good time of it on Easter. The place is full of balloons and butterfly cut-outs and vigorously-loud organ music. My worst Easter experience was about 12 or so years ago, when I was visiting a church in New Jersey I had heard good things about some 8 years earlier. (I was on my way back to Long Island from Maryland, and chose a church to go to along the way.) Unfortunately, 8 years can be a long time when there's a lot of change going on. The newly-hired pastor was doing his first Easter service there (he'd served nearby for 5 years, arrived a month or so ago). Have you ever been to a service where noone gets it? The music was noise with no flow, no harmonies, and a relentless tone of "look at me, I'm saying God loves me". The lectors talked almost like robots from the old sci-fi movies. The assistant looked and acted like she had snorted a whole bag of coke, with the ghastliest painted-on grin -- I giggle thinking about it. The pastor had obviously used the sermon before, I suspect so he could feel more comfortable in his new surroundings. He should've burned it. He spoke as much of TV shows as Jesus. And he was having great trouble reading his sermon -- meanings can change greatly by mistaking one letter. Two of the mistakes were rather racy - freudian slips, perhaps? The acolyte stumbled twice -- once over the robe, once from playing around with the crucifix. There was even a sharp but indirect reference to the firing of the previous minister. (Even the sharpest of visitors should never be able to detect that during a worship service). Of course, I was totally ignored on the way in and out, since I am a stranger.
Yes, Holy Week has its lessons.
Only once has an Easter Vigil given me the sense of anticipation or waiting for God to act. That once was where it happened in the early morning before sunrise. (Sparsely-attended, of course; just three church women, 6 theology students, an Episcopal vicar, a Vineyard minister, and me.) It led right into the praise music hour that led up to the somewhat-high Episcopal Easter sunrise service at 7 am. It made me think of the Marys who went to the tomb, the loss they were feeling, the surprise they had when they got there, the joy at the incredible news. In a way, I entered into what they went through, by way of the flow of the worship services. Unfortunately, it also left me totally spoiled.
The congregation I'm a member of has a fairly good time of it on Easter. The place is full of balloons and butterfly cut-outs and vigorously-loud organ music. My worst Easter experience was about 12 or so years ago, when I was visiting a church in New Jersey I had heard good things about some 8 years earlier. (I was on my way back to Long Island from Maryland, and chose a church to go to along the way.) Unfortunately, 8 years can be a long time when there's a lot of change going on. The newly-hired pastor was doing his first Easter service there (he'd served nearby for 5 years, arrived a month or so ago). Have you ever been to a service where noone gets it? The music was noise with no flow, no harmonies, and a relentless tone of "look at me, I'm saying God loves me". The lectors talked almost like robots from the old sci-fi movies. The assistant looked and acted like she had snorted a whole bag of coke, with the ghastliest painted-on grin -- I giggle thinking about it. The pastor had obviously used the sermon before, I suspect so he could feel more comfortable in his new surroundings. He should've burned it. He spoke as much of TV shows as Jesus. And he was having great trouble reading his sermon -- meanings can change greatly by mistaking one letter. Two of the mistakes were rather racy - freudian slips, perhaps? The acolyte stumbled twice -- once over the robe, once from playing around with the crucifix. There was even a sharp but indirect reference to the firing of the previous minister. (Even the sharpest of visitors should never be able to detect that during a worship service). Of course, I was totally ignored on the way in and out, since I am a stranger.
Yes, Holy Week has its lessons.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Latest on the Site, and other tidbits
Spirithome.com has been tidying up lately -- a lot of pain-in-the-butt little tweaks that add up to a lot. For instance, further refinement in the subject index means you can either scroll through the index to see what interests you, or look for a particular topic alphabetically and see what's there. It can be really fun to use! If it needs further refinements, please pass the idea along to me (in comments to this blog entry).
I hear that in an upcoming leg, the Amazing Race folks couldn't do what they had arranged to do, so they had to make a new stop 'on the fly'. Also, that on an upcoming leg, someone(s) got really far behind the leader - a half-day or more, which is a logistical nightmare. I wonder how they'll edit around those troubles.
Still pondering the apparent clash between the freedom to claim one's own spiritual identity and being spiritually honest with the rest of us. During this 'Jesus tomb' stuff, I read someone well up in the Methodist ranks saying that he doesn't believe in Christ's actual resurrection. Yet this person still acts in the name of an organization whose core belief is rooted firmly in precisely that resurrection, as a living reality not just a symbol. If what he said really is his settled conviction (and not just an expression of doubt or wondering), I think he ought to leave the Methodist church and admit what he really is, a Unitarian Universalist, Religious Scientist, or some other such group. Because the stated belief puts the lie to his stated identity. I can deal with people more honestly when they are being what they really are. I can respect that even when I disagree with them. But there's no respecting a lie.
Later, 'gator. (Oops... shouldn't say that during the NCAAs....)
I hear that in an upcoming leg, the Amazing Race folks couldn't do what they had arranged to do, so they had to make a new stop 'on the fly'. Also, that on an upcoming leg, someone(s) got really far behind the leader - a half-day or more, which is a logistical nightmare. I wonder how they'll edit around those troubles.
Still pondering the apparent clash between the freedom to claim one's own spiritual identity and being spiritually honest with the rest of us. During this 'Jesus tomb' stuff, I read someone well up in the Methodist ranks saying that he doesn't believe in Christ's actual resurrection. Yet this person still acts in the name of an organization whose core belief is rooted firmly in precisely that resurrection, as a living reality not just a symbol. If what he said really is his settled conviction (and not just an expression of doubt or wondering), I think he ought to leave the Methodist church and admit what he really is, a Unitarian Universalist, Religious Scientist, or some other such group. Because the stated belief puts the lie to his stated identity. I can deal with people more honestly when they are being what they really are. I can respect that even when I disagree with them. But there's no respecting a lie.
Later, 'gator. (Oops... shouldn't say that during the NCAAs....)
Friday, March 09, 2007
David Wilcox, and the headache
Went to see David Wilcox tonight at the Boulton Center in Bay Shore NY. Great show, funny as ever, and his songs still strike that special spot. A bit too much time tuning the guitar, but that was fine, for the kind of show he did. It gave him a chance to do what he does second-best -- tell a story. (That's second only to singing that story.) It was a bit disappointing to see the place a little over half-full, he deserves better than that. But then again, he strikes me as someone who really would love doing it for just a handful.
I hope Wilcox didn't think I was bored. I wasn't -- I was just down. I had a sour stomach and an even sourer disposition. Eating the cost of a ticket has a very bad taste. What hurts much more is why : getting stood up. After all these years and all those turndowns, it still hurts like hell. And while Wilcox's show gave me some smiles, it also reminded me of what I miss. You see, he sings of hope and love, especially about love that grows when all you can expect of it is to die. I can't get it to even begin. I want to be the wonder in a woman's life, the one who gets her heart to blossom. There have even been specific women whom I most wanted to light up. But the story of my life is being not just dumped, but being dumped on my head. Hence, a persistent headache.
I'll gladly take the headaches that come with love.
I hope Wilcox didn't think I was bored. I wasn't -- I was just down. I had a sour stomach and an even sourer disposition. Eating the cost of a ticket has a very bad taste. What hurts much more is why : getting stood up. After all these years and all those turndowns, it still hurts like hell. And while Wilcox's show gave me some smiles, it also reminded me of what I miss. You see, he sings of hope and love, especially about love that grows when all you can expect of it is to die. I can't get it to even begin. I want to be the wonder in a woman's life, the one who gets her heart to blossom. There have even been specific women whom I most wanted to light up. But the story of my life is being not just dumped, but being dumped on my head. Hence, a persistent headache.
I'll gladly take the headaches that come with love.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Amazing Race
A guilty pleasure every Sunday night, on CBS. This time, it's the All-Stars.
I had been wondering where I had seen Joyce (of Uchenna & Joyce, one of the better all-star teams) before. Then, I was going by a TV that had Star Trek : Next Generation playing. There she was, on the bridge, in navigation. Checking up on the fan sites, it turns out she was on quite a few of them, labeled as having a 'bit part', but a bit less 'bit' than most; even had a character name, Ensign Gates. Quite attractive back then, and to some extent still is. I wonder if the folks at Stony Brook's ICON convention know about this? The question then is : if she can help navigate a starship to a far-away galaxy, it can't be all that much of a challenge to navigate a Chilean back road, could it? :)
I for one am going to miss David & Mary (aka Kentucky). She can be an angel in some ways, a harsh nag in others, but somehow both of them are more like real people I know than most of the others (TV actresses, beauty queens, in the previous edition an ESPY-winning triathlete, etc.). And they are both growing. But they also aren't very good at the Race, which is why it was okay for them to be eliminated.
I'm hoping for Oswald & Danny, but expecting Eric & Danielle.
I had been wondering where I had seen Joyce (of Uchenna & Joyce, one of the better all-star teams) before. Then, I was going by a TV that had Star Trek : Next Generation playing. There she was, on the bridge, in navigation. Checking up on the fan sites, it turns out she was on quite a few of them, labeled as having a 'bit part', but a bit less 'bit' than most; even had a character name, Ensign Gates. Quite attractive back then, and to some extent still is. I wonder if the folks at Stony Brook's ICON convention know about this? The question then is : if she can help navigate a starship to a far-away galaxy, it can't be all that much of a challenge to navigate a Chilean back road, could it? :)
I for one am going to miss David & Mary (aka Kentucky). She can be an angel in some ways, a harsh nag in others, but somehow both of them are more like real people I know than most of the others (TV actresses, beauty queens, in the previous edition an ESPY-winning triathlete, etc.). And they are both growing. But they also aren't very good at the Race, which is why it was okay for them to be eliminated.
I'm hoping for Oswald & Danny, but expecting Eric & Danielle.
audio devotionals for Lent
There are now 3 Spirithome.com audio devotionals for Lent : Third Sunday in Lent, Fourth Midweek, and Fifth Sunday. The sound quality is good, especially for using a computer's built-in mic. (I guess I'm learning how to fix overmod.) Give 'em a listen, and spread the word.
(Oh -- don't forget the written versions, Midweek and Sunday each week, for example Third Midweek of Lent.)
(Oh -- don't forget the written versions, Midweek and Sunday each week, for example Third Midweek of Lent.)
Friday, March 02, 2007
More on Mariamne and the Jesus Tomb
I was just reading some more about Jesus' time, to see the plausibility of the Jesus Tomb claim. More weakness in the Mariam(e)ne/Magdalene connection. Guess where I found some Mariamnes? In Herod's family. Several, in fact. The Herodian Miriams usually used the extended Greek form, which makes sense, given their longtime affectation for Greek culture. They, of course, would insist on a Greek or even Roman inscription on their box, while many other Jews (especially the rural ones, like Miriam of Migdal was) would insist on Hebrew or Aramaic in the face of the foreign occupiers.
Maybe I should make a cable TV special showing how these ossuaries are a Herodian link to Jesus? Nah. They're not ornate enough. These sort of burial ground ossuaries (bone boxes) were for the well-to-do landowners, merchants, and top officials, not the poor, the artisan, or the farmer. However, this was still way too simple to be a Herod.
The passage that identifies Mariamne in Acts of Philip reads thusly (in modern language):
The more I sift through this particular Jacobovici claim, the the more impossible it becomes. (Just as it was for the DaVinci Code's Magdalene claims.) And it would be hard to come up with a way to link Jesus of Nazareth to the Jesus of the bone box without such a link to Mary Magdalene, since we don't have a known sample of Jesus of Nazareth's DNA to compare to. (Knowing Jacobovici, he'll come up with something.) The whole thing is starting to have an abundance of Colbert's 'truthiness' -- some people really really want it to be true, want it to at least feel true.
Maybe I should make a cable TV special showing how these ossuaries are a Herodian link to Jesus? Nah. They're not ornate enough. These sort of burial ground ossuaries (bone boxes) were for the well-to-do landowners, merchants, and top officials, not the poor, the artisan, or the farmer. However, this was still way too simple to be a Herod.
The passage that identifies Mariamne in Acts of Philip reads thusly (in modern language):
- "Then the time came for the Savior to split the apostles up, and each went out to the area he was sent. It fell to Philip to go to the land of the Greeks. He thought it to be difficult, and wept. Then Mariamne his sister (the one who readied the bread and salt at the breaking of bread - though it was Martha that worked hard to serve it to the multitudes) saw this, and went to Jesus and said, ' Lord, see how much anguish this is causing for my brother?' "
The more I sift through this particular Jacobovici claim, the the more impossible it becomes. (Just as it was for the DaVinci Code's Magdalene claims.) And it would be hard to come up with a way to link Jesus of Nazareth to the Jesus of the bone box without such a link to Mary Magdalene, since we don't have a known sample of Jesus of Nazareth's DNA to compare to. (Knowing Jacobovici, he'll come up with something.) The whole thing is starting to have an abundance of Colbert's 'truthiness' -- some people really really want it to be true, want it to at least feel true.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Discovery Channel and Jesus' Tomb
Everyone's heard about this Jesus Tomb thing. It's very interesting. It is my duty as a human being with any sort of a brain to check out something that has bearing on what is to me the core incident that I have centered my life on. The Christian faith has trained me differently than it has others. Precisely because the Bible taught me that truth matters, I can't simplistically cordon off by itself a category known as 'religious truth' (a separate category from reality). There is such a thing as 'religious truth', but it is something that is embedded in reality, not hovering above it. (That is the way the God of the Bible works.) It means I -- and any credibly-thinking person, believer or not -- must take the claim seriously, and treat it with a rigorous going-over.
That's hard for me to do. Not because of faith, but because I know too much already about one of the two main people involved, Simcha Jacobovici. He is, to say the least, very fishy. He was the one who made the documentary that put the so-called James ossuary into the public spotlight a few years ago. It has been scientifically demonstrated that while it was a real ancient bone box, the inscription on it had been recently altered or added to, probably by a known counterfeiter. But he still tries to make people believe it's real. That wasn't the only time he shaded truth. He and James Cameron made the film (or is it a 'flim'?) Exodus Decoded, which theorized that mariners from Crete were instrumental in the happenings in Exodus. They also posited a bizarre time line and geography of what happened, and explained the plagues as the eventual result of seismic happenings across the Mediterranean. (There's a site that gives a good, if obsessive, point-by-point on it.) Why didn't he add space aliens, or Sasquatch? With that kind of a track record, his involvement should do big-time damage to the credibility of any theory. When combined with the director of Titanic, there is the distinct fragrance of P.T. Barnum in the air.
But that by itself means nothing; liars are occasionally capable of telling the truth, or at least stumbling upon it. The question is, has Jacobovici done so here? One of the items I've seen in the press and publicity strikes me as especially weak : the supposed connection of the Mariamne box to Mary Magdalene. Talk about a stretch! Mariam(e)ne is a well-attested long-form Greek version of Miriam (Mary), used by Josephus for all sorts of Miriams. So far as my old Greek class notes tell me, there are two early sources where Mariamne was used as a name for New Testament figures : the gnostic Acts of Philip and the Gospel of Mary, both written at least 5 generations later. And the use in Philip was for Philip's preacher-sister, not Mary Magdalene. The second word in the inscription is Mara, said to mean 'master'. But its position in the inscription is where the other boxes have the name of a person. My old notes say Mara was used by Hellenistic Jews as a short form of Martha. However, it also may be a Hellenist's rendering of the Jewish name/word Mara(h) ('bitter'; found in Ruth 1:20). That could be a reference to the bitterness of Mariamne after a miscarriage, stillbirth, or abandonment. In any event, in all the sources (including the gnostic ones), Mary Magdalene is named not by parentage but by town : Migdal. There is no mention of Migdal in the inscription. And, she was an Aramaic-speaking Jew from a small Jewish fishing village -- so why the Greek name forms on the inscription? Especially if she was the wife of a Jew that had a Jewish (not Roman or Greek) name, as the theory says?
If Cameron bases the identification of Jesus on linking the Mariamne bone box to Mary Magdalene, it is built on a foundation of sand.
That's hard for me to do. Not because of faith, but because I know too much already about one of the two main people involved, Simcha Jacobovici. He is, to say the least, very fishy. He was the one who made the documentary that put the so-called James ossuary into the public spotlight a few years ago. It has been scientifically demonstrated that while it was a real ancient bone box, the inscription on it had been recently altered or added to, probably by a known counterfeiter. But he still tries to make people believe it's real. That wasn't the only time he shaded truth. He and James Cameron made the film (or is it a 'flim'?) Exodus Decoded, which theorized that mariners from Crete were instrumental in the happenings in Exodus. They also posited a bizarre time line and geography of what happened, and explained the plagues as the eventual result of seismic happenings across the Mediterranean. (There's a site that gives a good, if obsessive, point-by-point on it.) Why didn't he add space aliens, or Sasquatch? With that kind of a track record, his involvement should do big-time damage to the credibility of any theory. When combined with the director of Titanic, there is the distinct fragrance of P.T. Barnum in the air.
But that by itself means nothing; liars are occasionally capable of telling the truth, or at least stumbling upon it. The question is, has Jacobovici done so here? One of the items I've seen in the press and publicity strikes me as especially weak : the supposed connection of the Mariamne box to Mary Magdalene. Talk about a stretch! Mariam(e)ne is a well-attested long-form Greek version of Miriam (Mary), used by Josephus for all sorts of Miriams. So far as my old Greek class notes tell me, there are two early sources where Mariamne was used as a name for New Testament figures : the gnostic Acts of Philip and the Gospel of Mary, both written at least 5 generations later. And the use in Philip was for Philip's preacher-sister, not Mary Magdalene. The second word in the inscription is Mara, said to mean 'master'. But its position in the inscription is where the other boxes have the name of a person. My old notes say Mara was used by Hellenistic Jews as a short form of Martha. However, it also may be a Hellenist's rendering of the Jewish name/word Mara(h) ('bitter'; found in Ruth 1:20). That could be a reference to the bitterness of Mariamne after a miscarriage, stillbirth, or abandonment. In any event, in all the sources (including the gnostic ones), Mary Magdalene is named not by parentage but by town : Migdal. There is no mention of Migdal in the inscription. And, she was an Aramaic-speaking Jew from a small Jewish fishing village -- so why the Greek name forms on the inscription? Especially if she was the wife of a Jew that had a Jewish (not Roman or Greek) name, as the theory says?
If Cameron bases the identification of Jesus on linking the Mariamne bone box to Mary Magdalene, it is built on a foundation of sand.
Monday, February 19, 2007
You Don't Know Until You Try
In this case, it's trying to make all sorts of little improvements to a 240-page-big website in time for the Lenten surge. In this case, it's CSS-ing the pages, validating the HTML, checking for readability, sending out to correct others' links to the site, and making the subject index actually easy to use. (You can check the subject index out for yourself -- comments, please?) That's 3 days' work. Like I can use more social isolation.... But it has to be ready for Lent, when usage jumps 3-fold. And the overhaul is overdue by a few years. Picture what it would be like if I didn't "keep it simple".
Feedback would be much appreciated.
Feedback would be much appreciated.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
A Form of Insanity
I'm used to being on the periphery of the 'organization' part of organized religion. One would think that would be a creative place to be. I can see the needs that organization leaders must deal with, and I can feel the alienation and disengagement in those who aren't let 'in' on it.
But what I feel most is a sense of impotence. I speak up, I take part, I relate, whether in 'hierarchical' ways or in 'emergent' ways. But each new venture ends up peetering out, either in frustrating failure or acceptance of small, almost trivial gains. Maybe it's middle-age getting to me. Or just the endless repeating of the pattern. I still want to make a difference. I still want to be a vessel for God's work in moving the Church Universal ahead. But instead, I'm a part of spiritual regression. I try to do it a little differently each time (and occasionally a lot differently), knowing how insane it is to keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. But I still make nibbles when full bites are needed. I keep myself spiritually open, looking for God's open doors, trying some doorknobs, peeping through peepholes. But nothing much happens. I have so much to offer, but instead everyone else wants me to do what I'm not at all good at, with predictable results. And when I try to start something myself, I end up out there alone. It's not a good place to be. I don't belong there.
I don't really think anyone has an answer for that. But I share it anyway.
But what I feel most is a sense of impotence. I speak up, I take part, I relate, whether in 'hierarchical' ways or in 'emergent' ways. But each new venture ends up peetering out, either in frustrating failure or acceptance of small, almost trivial gains. Maybe it's middle-age getting to me. Or just the endless repeating of the pattern. I still want to make a difference. I still want to be a vessel for God's work in moving the Church Universal ahead. But instead, I'm a part of spiritual regression. I try to do it a little differently each time (and occasionally a lot differently), knowing how insane it is to keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. But I still make nibbles when full bites are needed. I keep myself spiritually open, looking for God's open doors, trying some doorknobs, peeping through peepholes. But nothing much happens. I have so much to offer, but instead everyone else wants me to do what I'm not at all good at, with predictable results. And when I try to start something myself, I end up out there alone. It's not a good place to be. I don't belong there.
I don't really think anyone has an answer for that. But I share it anyway.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Opting out
I've been digging into some stats and several case studies/examples about Christian believers who no longer belong to denominational churches, or even to churches at all. I'm not talking about people who find that they no longer believe in Christ. I'm talking about those who believe in Christ, and some who even stake their lives and livelihoods on that faith, but are avoiding 'organized church' entirely. Some pretty interesting stuff.
I can't say I identify all that much with these people. Their stories display many of the reasons I choose not to opt out. But I've gone through some of the things they have, so I can't simply ignore them. I have to listen. And so do all the leaders of those who choose not to join them.
More on that later.
I can't say I identify all that much with these people. Their stories display many of the reasons I choose not to opt out. But I've gone through some of the things they have, so I can't simply ignore them. I have to listen. And so do all the leaders of those who choose not to join them.
More on that later.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Second Midweek in Advent
Rejoice. It's a theme that Paul keeps coming back to throughout his letter to the Philippians. But the Philippian church isn't doing much rejoicing. They're split into at least two factions, probably more. The reasons for the split are not clear; he warns about common enemies that might come, but they don't appear to be there yet. Instead, he appeals to them to follow examples of how to be caring and self-giving -- Jesus, Timothy, Epaphroditus (the church at Philippi's own cofounder), and himself.
Paul loves this church. He speaks as someone who is torn when it is torn, uplifted when it raises upward. He is concerned that maybe they've lost track of what they have to rejoice over. "The Lord is near", Paul writes. And with Him comes the peace of God beyond all understanding.
When our life together is marked by bickering and feuding and backbiting (if not backstabbing), it becomes easy to forget the reasons we have for rejoicing. It is still true : "The Lord is near."
Lord, grant us Your peace, restore our joy, and lift our worry from us, so that we can live in a way fitting for the nearness of Christ. Amen.
A challenge : Keep watch on what you say. If you catch yourself saying things to tear people down, think of something to say that might build them up, and say that instead.
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