New digs

Movin' the blog. If you have any spare boxes I'd appreciate them.

New digs are at dontwastewine.wordpress.com.

Some politics

At this point in time I think that attack ads have become necessary. So here you go:

Another list of things that are true

1. I am not in Nashville.
2. I cannot get Abita Root Beer anywhere.
3. I cannot smoke inside anywhere.
4. I have no Flying Saucer, no Mulligan's, no hipster parties in East Nashville, no Belcourt (art house) Theatre...
5. My soul is very sad.

A list of things that are true

1. I am in Nashville.
2. I am at the Flying Saucer.
3. I am smoking Pembroke.
4. I am drinking draught Abita Root Beer.
5. My soul is Happy.

Small group hazing and I

The Holy Observer is my (distant) second favorite organ behind skin (skin is the largest organ, it provides a barrier against most bacteria and viruses, and it prunes in the tub... there's really no competition).

Anyway, the HO has a very important story in its latest issue that blows the whistle on small group hazing. I myself have been subjected to this recently at my own church. As some of you may have noticed, John made me yell out a request for "Free Bird" during a lull at our recent Christmas sing (when in fact I would have much preferred "Stairway to Heaven"). Furthermore, I was forced on three occasions to clean Allan's apartment while wearing a French maid's costume that was much skimpier than anything I would normally don.

Humiliating? Yes. Degrading? Yes... But at least I didn't have to deal with Joseph and the cream cheese.

An Excuse and a Video

So just as soon as I get a compliment on the consistency of my postings I have my longest drought yet. Well done there.

Anyway, hopefully with papers finally out of the way and having made my way back homewards I'll have some good stuff coming for the next few days. For now, I will leave you with another Michel Gondry video. This one is Beck's "Cellphone's Dead." Enjoy.

Umm...

I love Mythbusters, and once I found this I didn't really see any way I could not post it. But, umm... I... yeah...

I hearby propose...

That followers of Feyerabend be labeled "Feyerabanditos."

Amazing... An actual case of CCM being influential

In a Rolling Stone interview with Wyclef Jean (creative force behind the Fugees, and owner of a double platinum album for the solo project "The Carnival"), Clef reports that he got into music through Petra, Stryper, and Amy Grant.

If he had announced he was producing the next Wiggles cd, I think I would have been less surprised.

As a hip-hop kid from Haiti, how did you get into rock music?

My father was a Nazarene preacher, and his English wasn't too good. He went all over America as a missionary, and one day he comes back with a cassette by a rock band called Petra, this Christian rock band. I'll never forget it. We started listening to Christian rock: Petra, Stryper.

Stryper? Really?

Yeah, of course! I also had, like, Amy Grant. That was part of our church culture. Then I was like, "Yo, man, we got to start listening to some other shit." So we started listening to Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Pink Floyd. And my dad would accept it because he couldn't speak English. If I was listening to Metallica, he would say, "What's that?" And I would say, "It's Christian rock!"

Before the Bo was just nine days old...

ESPN.com has up a great story about Bo Jackson. I found it fascinating that in several places the author, without hint of irony or exaggeration, suggests that we are currently privy to the development of a folk myth. He compares Bo to Paul Bunyan, but I think John Henry is a more appropriate. Bo wasn't of mythic proportions, just mythic abilities.

Personally I would love to see this happen. I'm a big fan of mythology and have always wondered what it would be like to see a myth develop, to know its origins. I'm just old enough to remember Bo playing, and I do recall being in awe of him in a way that I never was of other sports heroes. As the memories faded and I grew older, I assumed that they were merely the embellishments of childhood, but this article has convinced me otherwise.

Realizing this, it made me sad that Bo seems to have been reduced to the punchline of a cultural reference joke about Tecmo Bowl. But that said, here's a contribution to the myth-making...

A Jade's Trick: Shakespeare and Argument

I noticed someone pulling a jade's trick on a friend's blog today, and decided to procrastinate by ranting about the tactic: I abhor it. It's crap and completely disrespectful of one's interlocutor. It usually indicates that the debater is unable to answer some key point by his opponent. In response, he frames the debate in his own terms and declares an end to the discussion.


I take the term "jade's trick" from the first scene of "Much Ado About Nothing," wherein the two characters Beatrice and Benedict engage in a "merry war" of verbal jabs which ends with this exchange:

BENEDICK: Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher.
BEATRICE: A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.
BENEDICK: I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer. But keep your way, i' God's name; I have done.
BEATRICE: You always end with a jade's trick: I know you of old.

"Jade's trick" is one Shakespearean term that has not managed to hang around, however, it seems reasonable to guess that it refers to Benedick's attempt to get in the last word by simply declaring "game over" before Beatrice has a chance to respond.

Of course, for a spirited, comedic battle there may be nothing wrong with taking this rhetorical out. When it comes to serious discussion (or even quasi-serious, such as blog commenting), however, the maneuver can only be appropriate when one has a position of authority, such as a teacher or moderator, and is exercising that authority to avoid fruitless banter. If one wishes to end a debate, then the respectful thing to do is to retire while refusing to respond. Or, declaring that this particular point will be one's last, it may be presented with a rebuttal allowed before retiring. But attempting to make an opponent seem petty for responding is simply bad form.

To let you know I'm going to be lazy

Just a quick note to say that I'm probably not going to be posting over the next handful of days, due to the holiday. I will, however, hopefully get some good work done on the problems of evil series and have that ready to go soon.

You should really take the extra time you have this week and go participate in my one question survey on this post.

You can't make this stuff up folks

This years coaches of the year for the A.L. and N.L. are named Wedge and Melvin.

If you're not sure why this is funny, ask the nearest jr. high male.

La Lune

I have just been subjected to my first drive-by mooning.

I am speechless. I am without speech.

Thanks Stadium Pal!

Men. Need a response to the question, "What do you want for Christmas?"

Women. Need a gift for a special guy?

Well joyeux Noel!

Raison d'Etre

I think I'm finally ready to write about the purpose of this blog. I've been tempted to start one for a long time (especially since I had the idea for the name "Don't Wast Wine," which I must say that I'm rather proud of). But I was stopped because I couldn't particularly see any value in the activity. So here's the value that I see now:

I enjoy putting my opinions down in writing. It forces me to make them more rigorous, and allows criticism that I then have to consider. In particular, I tend to think about art (especially film and music) with a review type of mindset, and now I have a place to give those reviews.

That was my original impetus, but it wasn't enough to make blogging seem worthwhile. It wasn't until I moved and missed this sort of interaction with the good friends that I have, but no longer see, that I felt justified in taking the time to blog.

So with that in mind, if you have something to add, or if you think I'm full of it, please comment! (Even if not an old friend). The tagline may say that this is a masturbatory enterprise, but I appreciate any help I can get.

Wait, I don't know if that came out right...

YHVH

Anyone who's been to Sunday School likely knows that Abram and Sarai got a name change to Abraham and Sarah when they entered into a covenant with God. But I learned something new about this change from a Jewish friend today. It is no coincidence that the letter H is added to both names. When we use H in the English version of these names it is a transliteration of the Hebraic letter Heh. Heh, with another mark, is a common shorthand for the name of God, so the addition of Hehs to the names of Abram and Sarai identified them as God's own.