Sufferin' Sucky-tash

It has come to my attention that as of late the brothers lee have not been taking their blog to the rack. They have not put the blog in the corner pocket, sicked the dogs on it, ruffled its feathers, given it a once over, rocked the blog house, eaten it for breakfast, owned it, showed the blog who its daddy is, taken the blog downtown to Chinatown, or held its feet to the fire.

Their blog has not been served, whooped, updated, run ragged, lam blasted, held accountable or judged with a severe judgment.

It has been weighed on the scales and found wanting.

I have been in touch with the brothers lee and their blog and they offer their sincere apologies. They have assured me that the blog will no longer be neglected, willy-nilly, haphazard, up in the air, out to lunch, gone fishin', or taking a smoke break.

I hope this gives you some solace, peace, hope, giggles, and hyperbolic exclamations as it has me.

Trash Talk

Something you may not know about me is that I like sports talk radio. I started listening in Denver during football season because I love football, but it hooked me. There are limits to my enjoyment since talk radio people have perfected the art of saying the same thing fifty times before moving on when there's not much to talk about, but overall I like it.

Yesterday I was listening to said talk radio and they were talking about the U.S. Open (golf). Apparently the course is really tough this year and so their topic was whether the golfers were competing against each other or against the course. What a stupid question! If they're playing the same course then they all have the same difficulties to overcome, so of course they're competing against each other.

This post has ended up being lame, but the question just annoyed me. It's my blog, I'll do what I want.

A Strange New Land

Today I went into the bookstore at Huntington College (University) to see if the books were in since the class I'm teaching starts next week. While I was waiting for someone to talk to me I thought I'd take a quick look-see around the store to see what they had. Since I worked in the greatest bookstore in the world for almost three years (I'd like to send a shot out to all my former bookstore co-workers and homies) I'm interested in other bookstores, especially at Christian educational institutions.

I came to a bookcase that had the bestsellers listed. I want to preface what comes next by saying that I'm sure they took this list from some other place that lists the best selling Christian books, so I'm not hatin on them directly or anything...#1 on the shelf was something by Joyce Meyer. On the next shelf down, at #4 was Joel Olstien's book "Your Best Life Now."

Not wanting to launch into a judgmental (prophetic?) tirade, I will just say here that I think there are a nearly infinite number of books that would be more edifying for the followers of Christ than these. I hate that my alma mater is promoting them.

I'm not in the Denver Seminary bookstore anymore. Perhaps if I just close my eyes and recite the incantation, "There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no..."

B is my fave letter

Last night I was listening to Simon & Garfunkel while playing Settlers of Catan with Erika. As we were wrapping up the game, "My Little Town" was playing. I really love that song and it got me thinking...Is it possible to be nostalgic for a time when one wasn't yet alive?

When I was younger, I used to think I sure am glad that I was born when I was, because of the goings-on in the world of my youth (i.e. the Twins winning the pennant in '87 & '91 & Kirby Puckett was playing). Television was very widespread, etc. etc. Now I am older.

As I become more enthralled with film, theology, literature, music and philosophy, I also become more convinced of the amazing culture of the '60s and '70s. Check these stats.

-Music: On the mainstream scene, there were the likes of the Beetles, Simon & Garfunkel, the Mommas and Poppas, Leonard Cohen, Peter Paul and Mary, and many other incredible folk acts. On the non-mainstream, we had Nick Drake, Harry Nilsson (his performances, the music he wrote was pretty big) and a lot more that I don't know, because I wasn't alive.

-Film: These two decades saw some of the great works of Godard, Resnais, Ozu, Malle, Cassavetes, Brakhage, Bunuel Rohmer, and a whole host of other French New Wave greats. The good thing about film is that I can still enjoy, but I'm so far behind.

-Theology: This was the time for the likes of Moltmann, Pannenburg, Kitamori, Gutierrez, Cone, and many other people whose work is to this day being applied, but still remains insanely good and ground-breaking.

-Philosophy: Derrida, De Man, the climax of continental philosophy, latter Sartre, etc. Dang.

-Literature: Here we find the best work of Vonnegut, Burroughs, and probably a lot of other people I should have read by this point in life.

I understand that these examples represent only about 1% of culture in the '60s and '70s, but to some extent it seems that the cultural movements represented by these people point to at least a segment of the population and culture of the time. I also recognize the turbulence of the times politically. At this juncture, however, we once again have pretty turbulent political times.

I also recognize that it is easy to romanticize either the past or the future, especially for things we didn't personally experience. Having said these things, I am nostalgic for the '60s and '70s. When I am exposed to the cultural artifacts I expressed, it makes me long for a time I wasn't even around for. Plus, the Purple People Eaters were around in the '70s. It makes me wonder about the legitimacy of such pining. I'm sure those of you who were alive for these times can set me straight.

Deja Crap

Last night I had the misfortune of watching a movie called Deja Vu. It has Denzel in it and I've liked a number of other movies he's been in so I mistakenly thought to myself, "It must be all right Trevor, relax."

Some of my favorite crappiness from it...how they found a way to "bend" space (not saying that could never happen, read on) and that you couldn't send anyone back to the past, and they had never tried to send any object back, but they just happened to have the equipment laying around to do both...that when Denzel and the woman in the movie were trapped in a car underwater he kicked out the windshield and she escaped but then he insisted on trying the door, couldn't get it open, and drowned (perhaps the through the windshield method was beneath him)...he died but then mysteriously was still alive as the self that didn't know what was going on (don't ask)...his car was plowed by a semi but he remained unhurt and the car/jeep didn't appear to be affected at all.

Anyway, I don't think I would recommend it unless you like to watch crap.

The End.