Seven Things

1. I'll be working soon. There are two very real opportunities, and I'll let you all know the details soon. Maybe even before next month...

2. Episcopanglicanism will be splitting into two distinct expressions soon, I'm afraid, and we'll probably have to choose which "branch" we're sticking with by the end of the year. I'll explain the anguish that decision will cause in a future post.

3. Caleb is getting bigger and cuter every day. You should visit my My Space, and see some pictures of the family, if you haven't already.

4. The Bears lost the Super Bowl because of Rex Grossman, it's really as simple as that. My beloved Cubbies will break my heart again this year, despite all the new additions, because of Rex Grossman, it's really as simple as that.

5. You really need to see this.

6. Rock and roll ain't noise pollution. I wanna rock. Less talk, more rock. Do you remember rock 'n' roll radio? God gave rock and roll to you. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

7. And now, Seven Things:

a. Name a book that you want to share so much that you keep giving away copies.

Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger. This is one of the Glass Family stories, which indirectly inspired The Royal Tennenbaums, one of the best movies released in recent years. It's also the greatest theological work of the twentieth century. No, seriously. Okay, The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis is close, too, but it's not quite as brilliant. I lent this book out over a year ago, and haven't received it back yet. Ahem.

b. Name a piece of music that changed the way you listen to music.

I'd like to say something classy like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, or even be a hep cat and say John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. But, in all honesty, it's a rare demo recording of the Beach Boys' "Surf's Up", with a solo Brian Wilson playing piano and singing, without the smashing harmonies one expects on a Beach Boys record. The result is a poignant, mournful anthem for fading youth that Elvis Costello describes as discovering one of Mozart's private performances of an unfinished concerto. Okay, that was still pretty pretentious, wasn't it? Good, I still have it.

c. Name a film you can watch again and again without fatigue.

Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL. No, wait, Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Actually, I'm certain it's David O. Russell's I (heart) HUCKABEES. I like movies. But really, it's Brad Bird's THE IRON GIANT. For real.

d. Name a performer for whom you suspend all disbelief.

Maria Falconetti's performance as Joan in Carl Th. Dreyer's silent masterpiece THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC. It's her only film role, and it's devastating.

e. Name a work of art you’d like to live with.

I've only been to one world-class art museum (The Art Institute of Chicago), but each time I've been, I always visit the same piece and sit transfixed. Jackson Pollack's Greyed Rainbow. Yeah, it's messy, and I don't pretend to "get" modern art like this, but there's a melancholy intensity with this piece that I can't shake. Haunting...

f. Name a work of fiction which has penetrated your real life.

The Bible. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I don't want to just say Franny and Zooey again, so I'll go with Watchmen by Alan Moore. It's a superhero murder mystery that de-constructed the genre so completely that superhero comics never really recovered. Beyond that, it revolutionized the very art of story-telling in a graphic medium, and is one of the few comic books to be respected by the literary mainstream. So, what does that have to with MY real life? I don't know, you read the prose and dialogue in this sucker, and tell me it doesn't shade your perception of the ghastly beauty of life just a little.

g. Name a punch line that always makes you laugh.

"...and then I found my pants."

Alright, this is a meme, so I'm supposed to tag two other people to participate. Ryan on the East Coast at Everyday Faith, and Richard on the West Coast at Caught By the Light. Have fun, guys.