Wednesday, June 28, 2006

still more katie...





i'm going to see her this weekend. expect, like, 400 pictures. i'm serious.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

good weekend!

an afternoon of jazz at the national gallery of art sculpture garden

a pitcher of beer outside on the grass

taking photos like a tourist

beer bottles can be hazardous!

and we found indiana avenue, which is the shortest of all the state streets. seriously, it's one block. assholes.


what a week. all this, and i bought a new coffee mug!

and, i'll post more katie pictures soon if my lazy brother ever sends me more pictures. matt, this means you!

Friday, June 16, 2006

fear the random fate

man, so long without an actual update. well, i'm back, and i want to talk about jesus.

i just started listening to a new album (well, new to me) by mike doughty, the guy who used to front soul coughing. so, mike doughty is cool. the album is fantastic. but there's this one song, his truth is marching on, that really troubles me.

so, apparently mike doughty is a christian, and some of you might know about me that christian indie rockers ick me out a little bit. i love sufjan stevens and neutral milk hotel but it takes a bit more effort than usual. is that closed-minded and judgmental of me? sure. but let me explain why, using the example of this mike doughty song. mike doughty typically writes really gorgeous, insightful lyrics. in his truth is marching on, though, he starts out with some of the most trite, awful lines i've ever heard, especially compared to his other stuff:

they say that god is great/
they say that god is love/
well, i believe them/
don't fear the random fate/
i trust the hand of the almighty and the infinite

okay, now this is total crap, and not just because of the christianity aspect, although that's a large part of it. it's not imaginative in the least. sufjan would never write obvious lyrics like this. also, this line exemplifies the major thing that i think is wrong with christianity. "don't fear the random fate/i trust the hand of the almighty." you don't fear the random fate? why the hell not? sometimes awful random shit happens. sometimes a drunk driver crosses the center line. sometimes there's a war. sometimes the levees break and your entire city is flooded. god will not protect you from "the random fate." and if he does, what does that say about those he fails to protect?

this is the fundamental problem, the reason i have no faith: how can you believe that an all-powerful, all-knowing, benevolent god would allow, or even cause, horrible things to happen? i cannot accept that god is somehow "protecting" me, or mike doughty, or sufjan stevens, while allowing millions of people to suffer.

okay, since i've mentioned sufjan, let's talk about that guy for a minute. now, i absolutely love his music. let me just say that upfront. but i have some issues with the guy. in the song casimir pulaski day, which is about a friend dying of cancer, he says:

tuesday nights at the bible study/
we lift our hands and pray over your body/
but nothing ever happens/

then...

Oh the glory that the lord has made/
And the complications when I see his face/
In the morning in the window/

Oh the glory when he took our place/
But he took my shoulders and he shook my face/
And he takes and he takes and he takes/

now, a lot of you know that i was a christian for a long time, until i was 15 or so. basically, i was a christian until this benevolent god question occurred to me, then i thought, well, there's probably not really a literal god anyway, but even if there really is a god and this is how he operates, i want nothing to do with it. so i guess i assumed that people are only christians until this question occurs to them - then, finding it intractable, they become former christians, like i did. but, look at those sufjan lyrics! he has obviously had the thought, "god could have done something to save my friend's life, but he chose not to" and yet continued to have faith. how is that possible? can you really fully believe that god has some grand master plan that makes up for all the shit we have to go through? i have no idea.

so, coming back to my original point that christian indie rockers ick me out: i think it's because i expect these people to have some sort of insight that i don't have. i want them to explain something to me, or make me see something in a way i haven't thought of before. but, "everything will be okay if you just trust jesus" is such a cop-out.

or maybe music should just be music.

thoughts?

Monday, June 12, 2006

super-special honor doctor

knox college on colbert report

good god, i love stephen colbert.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

a few more

graduation day with my boys.

aren't they cute?

me, on the night of my birthday. drunk. with an orange. it was a gift.

Monday, June 05, 2006

commencement



i'm back from knox! highlights include:
1) the midwest! it's so flat and gorgeous.
2) knox people! kate, nate, brian, steve, heather, frank, scotty, mikey, matt.
3) um, stephen colbert. did i even need to say this? god, he was so fucking funny. sub-highlights from the speech (transcript):
  • "The Lincoln-Douglas debate drinking game. When someone mentions the Dred-Scott decision, chug a beer! Well, actually, 3/5 of a beer."
  • "Yeah, sure, immigrants helped build this country. But here's the thing: it's built now! I think it was finished in the mid-70s sometime. At this point it’s a touch-up and repair job. But thankfully Congress is acting and soon English will be the official language of America. Because if we surrender the national anthem to Spanish, the next thing you know, they’ll be translating the Bible. God wrote it in English for a reason! So it could be taught in our public schools."
  • a cautionary note: "I don't know if they've told you what's been happening in the world while you've been matriculating. The world is waiting for you people with a club! They are playing for KEEPS out there, folks."
  • Colbert gets serious: "Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blinder, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying yes begins things. Saying yes is how things grow. Saying yes leads to knowledge. Yes is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say yes. And that’s The Word."

and, this letter to Colbert from Barack Obama:

"Stephen, Congratulations on being asked to speak at the 2006 Knox College Commencement. This is an enormous honor and on behalf of the people of Illinois, I'd like to welcome you to our state. As you know, I was invited to speak at Knox after my keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and subsequent election to the United States Senate. Your convention speech must also have gone really well to have been invited. It's weird that I didn't read about it somewhere.

"Before you deliver your remarks in front of literally millions fewer people than you would at say, a nationally televised political convention, I'd like to offer you a few words of advice. First, I know you're fond of your Peabody Awards, whatever those are, but I'd recommend not bringing them. The students at Knox are down to earth and not impressed by materials possessions like my Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

"Second, use hand sanitizer after the Pumphandle. Lots of germs there. I cannot stress this enough.

"And finally, don't forget to bring the Truth. I'd recommend putting it in your carry-on bag rather than in your checked luggage. O'Hare Airport is notoriously unreliable.

"To the Knox College class of 2006, I'm sorry I won't get to speak with you this year, but congratulations and best of luck. You make us all proud."

awww, Barack.

flatlands

kate

mattie

brian

nate

f