Musings

As a society, we don't just admire physical beauty, we admire people who are physically beautiful. We confer our love of beauty to an entire person. The entertainment and fashion industries perpetuate this mindset. Pity the person who doesn't fit the standards of conventional beauty.

If you're reading this and you happen to be beautiful, don't take offense, but it is a sad value system that places a person's entire worth in their physical appearance. Beauty is vain, say the Scriptures.


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From the gifted mind of Noam Chomsky: when we talk about “national defense,” what we really mean is “national offense.” When was the last time the United States waged a defensive war?

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Why do we love the change of seasons so much?

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A well-written hip hop song requires much more songwriting dexterity than a conventional rock or pop song. If you don't believe me, check out Tupac's "My Block" or Blackstar's "Thieves in the Night." Have you ever heard such deft rhyming from, say, John Mayer or Green Day?

Thoughts

The music of Au Revoir Simone has a rare quality: although it mostly synthetic, it somehow feels completely down-home and organic, like something you could perform at a low-key coffee shop. It's great fireplace listening.

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Regarding the cold snap: we're currently experiencing Winter's Last Stand.

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Suicide has a dark paradox: although it is an enormously self-consumed act, it is antithetical to a self-interested self-preservation instict.

Hustlers

Last Sunday after church, I saw one of the boys from my 1st-2nd grade Sunday School class. I said to him "What's up hustler?" His reply was full of 6 year-old sincerity: "I don't really know what hustler means."

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Speaking of hustlers, I've talked to some of you about how much I love "The Wire." It is a breathtaking epic of the American city and its institutions. The characters are fascinatingly flawed and the storylines are uncompromisingly complex. It is a ruthlessly grim picture of urban life, but somehow it is unfailingly entertaining. More on why I love this show later.