“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” Buddha…
Category: culture
Avatar
Okay, so I contributed to the James Cameron Self Love Fund and saw AVATAR. Yesterday we went to the 3-D showing (no way I would spend money on the normal view, I can wait for the DVD the way I do with 99% of the movies I see anymore). I’ve had a day to think about it now and I’ve come to some conclusions, which are hardly profound, but I think worth saying.
Let me say up front that I wasn’t bored. Visually, this is a stunning achievement. But that’s what everyone is saying. It is, in fact, the best 3-D I’ve ever seen. …
Secular Charity
On the chance that you’re like me and don’t really want to hand your money over to a religious organization and trust that the charity work you think you’re paying for won’t be redirected into missionary work, here is a link to a list of secular and atheist charities.
I’m not at all sure if anyone assumes atheists are the functional equivalent of Scrooge at this time of year—assuming anyone thinks about it at all—but it’s nice to be able to point out that, in fact, we’re not. If you think about it for a minute, atheists ought to be more likely to support charitable work, since we believe that people are all we’ve got. …
A Little Bragging
It’s my blog, I get to be self-indulgent. I want to brag a little. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep this up, but for now it feels good to be able to make these claims.
I’m 55. I am amazed at that fact when I stop to think about it. I don’t feel 55. But having never been it before, I’m not exactly sure how it’s supposed to feel. In any event, I am, as I say, 55.
This morning I went to the gym.
I went to the gym after walking the dog—about a mile, that’s what we usually do—during which hegira I had to run a full block twice to avoid loose dogs. …
Prophets, Providence, and Problems: An Observation
This is one of those notions I stumble on from time to time while daydreaming or free associating. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about religion of late—as how could many people not be, what with the state of the world (he says with tongue in his other cheek, being both ironic and absurd)?—and trying to come up with some theory of it that might bleed off the poisons that seem to bubble up from it from time to time.
Someone said something to me that triggered this idea and it’s probably not original. But we were discussing Roman Catholicism and the observation was made that in its long history it has absorbed more than it has suppressed.…
The Paradox of Popularity
Over on her blog, Kelley Eskridge has a video of a “Bono Moment” in which you see two distinct types of fans interacting with U2’s lead singer. Check it out and come back here.
Okay, the guy in the t-shirt obviously is carrying on a conversation. he may be being a fan, but he hasn’t lost his mind. The female is being…a groupie, I guess. Though the groupies I’ve met in my time have been a bit more specific about what they wanted and had a better plan on how to get it. In any event, the questions Kelley raises are interesting and relate on so many levels to so many different things. …
Celebration 2009
Here’s a picture from our just past Celebration of the Book, at Stephens College, Columbia, MO, October 10th. Shown is our special guest, Margaret Sayers Peden, who lives in Columbia and is a Spanish language translator. If you are a fan of Isabelle Allende or Arturo Perez-Reverte, you may have read some of her work. She’s something of a phenom and we were pleased to present her with a special award honoring her literature contributions. Missouri First Lady Georgann Nixon presented it on our and the state’s behalf. It was all very emotional and wonderful.
Also pictured, to the right, is Tom Dillingham, estimable member of the board, designer and Atlas of the Celebration (having in many ways lifted it onto his own shoulders and held it up). …
Rude Behavior Redux
What follows is an old post from my original website, back in 2005. I’m reposting it because of a revisitation. Yesterday I had a knock on the door and there were a couple of people from some small church, spreading the good news.
Now, there is irony here, because I’ve just started reading Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. I didn’t read it when it first came out because it received so much attention and there was an enormous quantity of posturing, both pro and con, regarding it, that I decided to wait till the furor died down. Besides, it’s not like I needed convincing on this point. …
Events and Events
Hard to believe it’s mid-October already. Last weekend I was in Columbia, MO, for the MCB annual Celebration. I’ve talked about this before—History and Fiction: Dueling Narratives—and all I’ll add here is that the programming for the day was marvelous.
Turnout was another matter. It wasn’t embarrassing low, to be sure, but it wasn’t up where I’d hoped it would be. We have a lot to learn about proper promotions. But it was generally successful enough that there is no question about next year, which will be—
MISSOURI GENRE.
I sort of grabbed the title out of the air at the last board meeting, just so we could all start thinking about it and working toward it, and to make sure everyone understood that we have a program (even though we don’t, exactly). …
More Doors
(Robin Trower is jamming on the stereo as I write this. Just sayin’.)
I feel the urge to write something, but no one topic presents itself with sufficient weight to dominate a whole entry. What to talk about, that is the question. That poor guy who got tied to a tree in Kentucky was on my mind last week.
Census takers have, in certain parts of the country, been lumped in with so-called “revenooers” (to use Snuffy Smith jargon) and generally threatened, shot at, occasionally killed by folks exercising their right to be separate. So they assume. Appalachia, the Ozarks, parts of Tennessee and Kentucky, Texas…a lot of pockets, populated by people who have, for many reasons, acquired a sense of identity apart from the mainstream, and who feel imposed upon if the gov’ment so much as notices their existence. …