Two quick things...

1. The link below is not a rickroll, I promise (but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be on the lookout in the future).
2. I am a fan of Brad Cecil - he was one of my gateways into the Emergent world, and it could be because of phrases like this:  "I had to repent from my empirical shame to be a person of faith..."

Those two things said...

WOW!

I just finished re-watching High Fidelity with John Cusack, and I have reached a conclusion....

No actor walks, talks, stands, or makes telephone calls in the rain like John Cusack. In fact, I think he may act better in rain scenes. Just an observation.

They say that everybody is doing this.

I guess, now I am too.  Be on the lookout.

Tara and I are wanting to get into the habit of reading together from a fiction book.  Since she reads all kinds of fiction, and I am a wonk who reads books about theology, ethics, leadership issues, organizational issues, and "doing" church, I was hoping to prevail upon you, my faithful readers for suggestions.  I was thinking about Labyrinth by Kate Mosse to start with, because I thought it would be a good middle ground.  What do you think?  Keep in mind, Tara has read plenty of books that you find on the front tables in Barnes & Noble.  All helpful suggestions are welcome.

Recently, I posted a review of Tony Jones' The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier.  My review was favorable, but I did list a couple of things in particular that bugged me about the book.

One of the things I highlighted that bugged me a bit was in reference to the pull-out quotes in the margins (not to be confused with the way the 'dispatches' are presented in the text).

A commenter, Kara, wrote the following response:

re: the couple of things that bugged you, the quotes in the margins

Those are called pull-quotes, or call-outs, and serve to highlight a particularly interesting sentence/thought -- something powerful or moving that will engage the reader. They're also helpful if you're trying to flip through the book and find a specific section that you want to reference. And I suppose they're helpful to lazy people who just want to skim the book and pretend to be smart later. (Skimmers tend to be the want-it-in-a-nutshell mentality.)

Anyway, they do serve to make long texts visually interesting. But I think their purpose in this book is to serve as a visual learning aid. The subject matter is lengthy, engrossing and complex, so these pull-quotes help me to commit some main points to memory, or get me off my mental tangent and back to the crux of what he's saying.

While I already new much of what she was saying, I realized that perhaps the question I was asking of Tony wasn't clear. 

In a discussion about a Bible that looks like a teen magazine, Tony makes the point that spaces and mediums are shaped by their designers (especially books).  In this discussion, he points out that these designs either implicitly or explicitly proclaim a particular perspective or idea as having importance. My statement was intended to ask what kind of reflection was done by either Tony or the editors in deciding what to call-out in the text (at least one is a quote of someone else's words, not Tony's), because at some point a determination was made about what to highlight in this way.

I suppose I am directly asking if Tony was involved in this process, and if not, why?  If he was involved, what was the intended message?  Or, does it just not matter?

This past Wednesday, Doug visited the Dallas and Fort Worth Emergent Village cohorts for some conversation and pizza.  It was a good time. 

At one point Danielle Shroyer decidedly stirred the pot by bringing up Doug's view on "original sin", and I tried to follow suit, but may have been too successful or acted it out too well, because I think some people walked away thinking that I am all about the penal substitutionary theory of the atonement - I'm not.  However, I thought that bringing it up and making the argument would give voice to some who were remaining quiet as well as making our conversation more robust.  I think I succeeded at the latter, because we got around to discussing a reframing or re-understanding what "sin" even happens to be.  But I don't know if I succeeded in asking some questions I think some were afraid to ask. 

Maybe I should stop trying to make conversation more robust and let it alone. Or maybe making arguments for something you disagree with to hear better arguments from the side you do actually agree with can too often leave people with unwanted false impressions.  Either way, I think I may not be doing much of that, if I can help it (I never seem to be able to control this impulse well).

I also walked away with several throw-away lines from the evening that make me laugh - something I always do when I encounter Doug.  Consequently, I will share with you my favorite Pagittian understanding from the eveining.  In shilling for his new book, he made the following sarcastic assertion, one which I will repeat endlessly, I'm sure...

"Public libraries are the Napster of books."

'nuff said.

So, my friend J.T. has written me a small letter in response to my post about David Cook.  While I admit to missing the statement about it being Chris Cornell's version, for 2 reasons, I remain impressed.  Here's why:

1. David Cook's execution of this song was great - his voice was strong and clear and enjoyable.
2. It was Chris Cornell's version - that should be enough in and of itself for David Cook to win Idol. 
   

You see, as my friend, J.T., should remember, I am a big fan of Chris Cornell.  Of all of the singing voices on earth to steal, Chris Cornell is at the top of my list.  Yes, as he has gotten older, his voice doesn't have quite the same quality - it is a little scratchy (smoking maybe?), but it remains wicked awesome all the same.  While all you folks out there were falling in love with Nirvana, I was pining away for the real kings of grunge, Soundgarden.  Soundgarden, which was fronted by Cornell, is the best band of that era, in my opinion. 

So my question to J.T. is this:  Is it an unfair advantage to recognize the greatness of others, especially if that greatness comes from Chris Cornell?  Or is it that other Idol contestants aren't smarter than a 5th grader?

If you want to hear Cornell's version, click here.

In honor of Doug Pagitt spending some time with the Fort Worth Cohort & Dallas Cohort tonight, I am posting one of my favorite Minnesotan colloquialisms....

"I'm not even kiddin' ya."

Now, I'll use it in context for everyone.

"I have a lot of Minnesotans for friends - I'm not even kiddin' ya."

This guy should win American Idol.

Technorati Tags: American Idol, Music, Television

I am fully in love with this chick.