fallout

Whether it’s self-medicating, anger or violence, these are the consequences of war, and you have to think about all the people affected by soldiers coming home, the parents, spouses, children, brothers, sisters, aunts and cousins.

- Cynthia Thomas, an Army wife who runs a private assistance center for soldiers in Killeen, Tex., called Under the Hood Café. (Source: The New York Times)

integrity & intentions

"the last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason."
- t. s. elliot

taking things for granted

the jesus way in palestine: non violence

Nonviolence is our most powerful weapon. If they cannot accuse us of terrorism, they cannot stop us. The world will support us.

- Mohammed Khatib, secretary of the Bilin, West Bank, village council, referred to as "a modern-day Gandhi" whose nonviolent resistance, in cooperation with Israeli peace activists, has earned him arrests, beatings, and death threats by Israeli forces -- as well as modest legal victories, which have yet to be enforced, to change the Israeli separation barrier's route through his village's lands. (Source: Los Angeles Times)

love - ok

gospel - tim keller

When we realize that Jesus is going to someday destroy hunger, disease, poverty, injustice, and death itself, it makes Christianity what C. S. Lewis called a "fighting religion" when we are confronted with a city slum or a cancer ward. This full version of the gospel reminds us that God created both the material and the spiritual, and is going to redeem both the material and the spiritual. - tim keller

why i go...

why i go... pt 2

[click image to see]

[click on the "ART" tag to see pt 1]

fixing the death penalty

I no longer believe that you can fix the death penalty ... I learned that the death penalty throws millions of dollars down the drain -- money that I could be putting directly into crime fighting -- while dragging victims' families through a long and torturous process that only exacerbates their pain.

- james abbott, a 29-year veteran republican police chief from orange, new jersey, who served on a new jersey panel that recommended abolishment of capital punishment.
(source: the columbus dispatch)

time, change, and context.

why i go... a new piece.

this was just a quick piece i did tonite as i took a break from working on some teaching material on missiology and stared at the fire.

i think i'm going to make some more simple pieces in this vein. why i go - pt.1

[click the image to see]

google norris

type into the google main page

"where is chuck norris"

then push the "i'm feeling lucky" button.

who am i

the writer dietrich bonhoeffer was imprisoned in nazi germany during the years of world war II for his outspoken leadership of the confessing church bonhoeffer’s fellow prisoners frequently looked to him for encouragement and support, yet he knew that deep inside of him was an aching and struggling person. included in his book Letters and Papers from Prison is a poem that acknowledges his inner struggle.

the poem is entitled:

who am i?

Who am I? They often tell me
I step from my cell’s confinement
calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They often tell me
I talk to my warders
freely and friendly and clearly,
as though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I bear the days of misfortune
equably, smilingly, proudly,
like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all that which others tell of?
Or am I only what I know of myself,
restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat,
yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
tossing in expectation of great events,
powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today, and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
and before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine.

whats underneath?

There are many questions and truths that we would cognitively ascent to that we would intellectually affirm and yet the truth is that we think and feel and are driven by deep subterranean forces way down in our bones that actually drive us, and make us think and feel in particular ways. These things drive and shape us and create the filter by which we engage the world around us.

grizzly bear in a church.

click the full screen button (its cutoff to the right)

new sufjan

video from the from the front row at a recent sufjan show.

not exactly chicago part II.
much more you are the blood.
into the breakbeats and electro-jazz section.

sufjan and the brooklyn-queens expressway

Back in November 2007, Sufjan Stevens unveiled a multimedia performance inspired by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway called "The BQE" (which i was on last weekend). By all accounts, it was an over-the-top affair with an orchestra, artsy footage of the highway, and hula hoops. And now, Sufjan is putting out a purchase-able "BQE" package to satisfy bloodthirsty fans still waiting for his official follow-up to Illinois, which-- believe it or not-- came out four years ago this month.

Due out October 20 in the U.S. on Asthmatic Kitty (October 19 in the UK via Rough Trade), "The BQE" set is not a throw away-- it really may have taken him a couple years to put this thing together. The regular edition includes a CD of the show's soundtrack, a DVD of Brooklyn-Queen Expressway footage that accompanied the original performance (not a film of the performance itself), a 40-page booklet with liner notes and photos, and-- wait for it-- a stereoscopic 3D View-Master reel! Finally, a reason to dig that old View-Master out of the attic. (pitchfork)

THE BQE- A Film By Sufjan Stevens from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

Interlude I—Dream Sequence in Subi Circumnavigation from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

The Decade in Noise

The Decade in Noise

Shared via AddThis

overstated realities

"these practices are not just morally reprehensible, but they’re bad for the economy. When unscrupulous employers break the law, they’re robbing families of money to put food on the table, they’re robbing communities of spending power, and they’re robbing governments of vital tax revenues."

- annette bernhardt, co-director of the national employment law project and an author of a study showing that low-wage workers are routinely cheated out of overtime pay and workers' compensation, and are often paid less than the minimum wage. (Source: The New York Times)

rice and statistics

9/11 rice
[click image to make big]

iraq rice

[click image to make big]

crepes

// jay-z and beyonce at a grizzly bear show. it's just...interesting (sweet)




// a video from dead weather.





// one my favorite sigur ros videos. one of my favorite pieces of art. beautiful. i can't embed it... click here

ryan adams and gorf

ryan has a column about video games, "Long Player With D. R. Adams", on the blog the awl. The first offering concerns an ancient and fairly obscure arcade game called Gorf, but it's more of a long ramble, with digressions about Danzig and Bruce Willis and the impending apocalypse.

Long Player from The Awl on Vimeo.

new music [radiohead?]

NEW THRICE RECORD
beggars - its beautiful.

NEW BRAND NEW SINGLE
at the bottom

NEW RADIOHEAD?
A mysterious song has floated out of the ether and onto the interwebs, and apparently it's a new Radiohead song. Consequence of Sound reports that "These Are My Twisted Words" appeared on the message board of the Radiohead fan site At Ease earlier today with no explanation. Though it sounds like a Radiohead song, it has not been officially confirmed.

all the world is mad

"I wanted to make a point that humanitarianism is not a crime, and water’s not littering."

[Walt Staton, of “No More Death,” convicted in Tucson, Arizona, for littering after leaving water bottles for immigrants along trails in the desert. (Source: Los Angeles Times)]

spiders pay bills

funniee.

click the image to make big.