Archive for February, 2006

The Hold Steady – Separation Sunday

Angel-headed hipsters of the underground voted Separation Sunday (Frenchkiss Records) among the best albums of 2005, and with another album due out later this year, The Hold Steady is the band to keep your eye on in 2006. Ubiquitously labeled a bar band, The Hold Steady uses skulking guitar riffs and...
February 15th, 2006 | Music | Read More

Living Out the Greatest Commandment in America: Irony or Truth?

I had an interesting email exchange with a gentleman named Kevin in response to my “Flag-Waving SUV” article that really got me thinking. Those of you that read Blue Like Jazz may know that I had an unconventional upbringing by two fairly eccentric folks. I know very little of the life...
February 15th, 2006 | Social Justice | Read More

Cat Power – The Greatest

In the three years since Chan Marshall, a musician who spends her days playing hypnotic and beautiful music under the name Cat Power, released her last album You Are Free, she has emerged from the shadows less tentatively than one might expect. Chan Marshall has been prone to being reduced to tears...
February 15th, 2006 | Music | Read More

Christian Simplicity – A Virtue Come of Age

This article has been reprinted and condensed for use on this page. To find the entire article, click here. Introduction Christian theologian Douglas John Hall sent shock waves out through many Christian groups in the 1990′s when he sounded this alarm: “…the Christian faith, the official...
February 15th, 2006 | Social Justice | Read More

10 Ways to be a Do-er of Justice

1. Spend time with God – get closer to His heart. Ask him to show you injustice and how to respond. (see The Aidan Way) 2. Know and understand your world. Pray, read the newspaper and check out other global news sites. - Francis Schaeffer is known to have advised us to study the Bible with...
February 15th, 2006 | Social Justice | Read More

William Faulkner – As I Lay Dying

Last year in school, I took a class that required me to read the book Absalom, Absalom!. I knew the author’s name and that he had written The Sound and the Fury, not to mention knowing the caricature that the Coen Brothers made of him in their film Barton Fink (the drunken writer W.P. Mayhew,...
February 15th, 2006 | Books | Read More

Marah – If You Didn’t Laugh, You’d Cry

In the year 2000 (did you just picture Andy Richter?), Marah jumped the national scene with Kids In Philly, an album of raw, raucous and danceable rock and roll. The album popped up on dozens of notable top album lists that year, including Rolling Stone and The Onion’s A.V. Club, and for good...
February 15th, 2006 | Music | Read More

Mailer, Norman – The Executioner’s Song

In 1976, in Provo, Utah, repeat felon Gary Gilmore robbed a hotel and a gas station. During the robberies, he shot two bystanders in the head, killing them. Gilmore’s murder trial captivated and divided a nation as Gilmore was convicted, sentenced to death and then defied expectations by fighting...
February 15th, 2006 | Books | Read More

St. Francis in the Modern World: Problems of Race Relations, Poverty, and War

This article has been condensed for use on this site. To read the article in its entirety click here. Text of the keynote address delivered to the Annual Conference of the Eastern Region, St. John the Baptist Province of the Third Order of St. Francis, at the University of Dayton by Robert M. Bowman,...
February 15th, 2006 | Social Justice | Read More

Menomena – Under an Hour

Today I was sitting in a fine Portland coffee shop, intent upon accomplishing a long list of assignments. I couldn’t help but notice all three members of Menomena stroll through the door and gaze up at the menu. I don’t normally do this, but I hailed them over to my table in the corner of...
February 15th, 2006 | Music | Read More