Уныние – мозаика, алтарная часть крипты базилики Нотр-Дам-де-Фурвьер, Лион, Франция – Rartat – Public Domain “Very early on, the monastic tradition became interested in a strange and complex phenomenon: acedia. Spiritual sloth, sadness, and a disgust with the things of God, a loss of the meaning of life, despair of attaining salvation: acedia drives the monk to leave his cell and to flee intimacy with God, so as to seek here and there some compensation for the austere way of... Read more
I guess I feel obligated to tell you that that isn’t a typo. The name of the song roughly translates to “modern computing / Lisa Frank 420” Macintosh Plus, the Canadian artist more commonly known as Vektroid, released the album “Floral Shop” in 2011, formally kicking off the “vaporwave” genre. Vaporwave is divisive. Usually, people either haven’t heard of it or they’re snobs about it (vaporwave is supposed to be “dead” already). A Portland, Maine-area magazine called Dispatch described vaporwave... Read more
“BLM protest against St. Paul Police brutality” – Fibonacci Blue – CC BY 2.0 Earlier in the week I presented a passage from St. John Chrysostom concerned with the importance of diversity in the gospels. I don’t do a *great* job of connecting what I blog about here to the daily headlines. I think there are predominantly two reasons for that. One is that I’m a neophyte, and so a lot of my engagement with religious thought, prayer, exploration, growth,... Read more
John in Korovniki church – unknown – Public Domain I’m currently reading the St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press edition of St. John Chrysostom’s On Wealth And Poverty, which is part of their amazing “Patristic Series”. Known in his own time as “the golden-mouthed”, Chrysostom’s simple and (deceptively?) straightforward sermons stand in quiet contrast with the complex poetic erudition of Bonaventure that I just put down. The book is composed of seven sermons, of which I’ve only read a few so far.... Read more
Grateful Dead at the Warfield Theater – Chris Stone – CC BY-SA 2.0 Well, I warned you about it so long ago and here it finally is: The good ol’ Grateful Dead. To take us into the Fourth of July weekend I thought I’d share what many (myself among them) consider THE BEST version of “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleoo” played in the early autumn of what many (I’m on the fence) consider the Dead’s best year: 1977. I’m coming around... Read more
“Footprint on Earth” – Nevit Dilmen – CC BY-SA 3.0 I’ve mentioned before that I’m doing a lot of background or foundational reading right now in the hopes of better understanding Laudato Si. When working your way back to Francis of Assisi, you’re obligated to go through Bonaventure at some point. Right now I’m reading The Classics of Western Spirituality’s Bonaventure, a text which contains “The Soul’s Journey Into God”, “The Tree of Life”, and “The Life of St. Francis”, translated and introduced... Read more
If people have heard The Handsome Family it’s usually because their song “Far From Any Road” was used as the title sequence track for the first seasons of HBO’s True Detective, but the husband/wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks have a solid discography that stretches back over twenty years. 2000 saw the release of the album In the Air, an open and airy follow up to their 1998 breakthrough album Through the Trees. At least musically. Lyrically, In the Air still has all the dark and... Read more
Skeleton Breedon Portrait – Roger from Derby, UK – CC BY-SA 2.0 IDEO, the insufferably named Silicon Valley company that created Apple’s first mouse, is trying to bring the shallow jouissance of the tech world to death itself. The website GOOD reported: It’s not easy to admit, but the way we die is broken. Everything—from the inadequate cliches we mumble, to the stark rooms where many spend their final hours, to the bizarre pomp of the average funeral home—could... Read more
As I mentioned in my last post, I plan on eventually using this blog to explore the connection between faith and art. To set the stage or mood for that project, I thought it might be fun to start sharing music with you on a regular basis. Why not on Fridays? Why not call it a “Friday Jam”? It’s on the nose, maybe cliche, but it’s clear and direct. This inaugural FJ (transformed into an acronym already? Sheesh…) comes to you... Read more
Will Self, prodigious British author, television personality, journalist, and former heroin addict who was once caught shooting up on then PM John Major’s jet thinks that Soviet film visionary Andrei Tarkovsky was very obviously a Christian. In the video embedded above, Self begins to introduce Tarkovsky’s film Solaris by saying: “I call to you, oh Jesus Christ. I call to you.” If you want to, in my view, engage with Tarkovsky’s Solaris as fully as possible, you really really need to accept at the outset... Read more
Through the Threshold
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