“Sometimes I think it is my mission to bring faith to the faithless, and doubt to the faithful.”
—Paul Tillich (via 07121843)
October 2011
“The way we differ from Radiohead— who are unquestionably brilliant— is that, at the end of the day, I’m still a slave to catchy songs. I love sing-alongs. And within the limits of that, we’ll try anything. But we’re in the middle because I love ‘Last Friday Night’ by Katy Perry almost as much as ‘Karma Police’, and if you want to straddle that line, you have to take the slings and arrows.”
—Chris Martin (via pitchfork)
Bad Religion jam session in traffic. #strangerthanfiction
“I think we ought to read only the kinds of books that wound and stab us…We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into a forest far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be an axe for the frozen sea inside us.”
—Franz Kafka (via mrbrokenrecords)
Just showed up to the Norva for this NOFX and Bouncing Souls show. #punkrock #adolescenttherapy #stoked
Thinking about “The Rotation of Crops” and people’s desire to remain distracted. #lunchtime #Kierkegaard
Brief thoughts on the “two hopes” http://t.co/LZ02WLH9
[ˈkɾeːdoː]: Government things vs. Jesus things →
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Just submitted my first comment to the Jesus Needs New PR blog. It’s a little nerve-wracking.
But anyway, here’s what I said (in response to this post from Matthew Paul Turner):
Can any Christian readers explain to the rest of us how Reed’s political positions are in any way consistent with…
Christianity and Politics. It is problematic to approach this problem as a conflict of two well understood and established institutions (i.e the institution of christianity vs the political system). The issue is, instead, one of the individual and his or her way of appropriating the Christian faith. Christianity is an inward process which never arrives at a level holistic understanding. So, an attempt to make such an outward expression of your faith as a motivation in deciding political issues presumes an confident understanding of Christ and it immediately compromises ones own earnestness (if one is indeed earnest and honest) and it disrupts the already (justifiably) flawed perception of Christianity as a faith, as a characteristic of ones identity. Perhaps the most important message of Christ is the message of humility, and at what point does that begin to exist at odds with the proclamation of “God as your guide?”
“Christianity has not wanted to hurl governments from the throne in order to set itself on the throne; in an external sense it has never striven for a place in the world, for it is not of this world.”—Soren Kierkegaard
Brief thoughts on the “two hopes”
There are two kinds of hope. The poetic hope and the necessary hope. Poetic hope is not disingenuous in and of itself, but it exists in constant danger of of being bastardized. While there exist many occasions of poetic hope in a beautiful and balanced expression, it can often devolve into a show of masturbatory, nonsensical, uninspired, slogan driven drivel. It can be artful, but it can also be turned into a whore, finding its expression in R. Kelly songs or a guidance counselor’s office posters. Poetic hope is abstract and vague, it is imprinted onto the striving individual and expressed loudly for others to here an admire, it is expressed to motivate oneself. It indeed is a pre-requisite of accomplishment, and can also become an avoidance of reality.
Necessary hope remains unseen and consistent. Necessary hope is just that–necessary, it’s vital. It is never displayed in any pre-meditated fashion. One doesn’t put together a speech to express a necessary hope. Necessary hope is expressed in routine and quiet decisions. One’s decision to unromantically and artlessly persist is an expression of necessary hope. To claim hopelessness while simultaneously continuing to pursue a goal, or to pursue spiritual survival, is a display, as paradoxical as it may be, of necessary hope. I do not find it too out of place to lose hope, and furthermore, the loss of hope is not as tragic as many claim. I think many of us do lose hope, but still recollect it poetically as nostalgia, as something to encourage and hold onto while one has it.
To lose hope does not mean that one exists without it, it means exactly what it says, that one has lost hope–one has misplaced it. It is still there, swelling in places that aren’t easily recognized as such because it is altogether necessary.
The act of willfully choosing to exist is a display of hope, but it’s often mocked as compliance. Those who mock necessary hope are lazy and in error. Necessary hope hides its goal, rather it protects its goal. One puts with with an onslaught of bullshit and injustice in order to keep doors open for his or her loved ones. Necessary hope engages, and never acknowledges words that refer to failure (those terms are not recognized because they refer to a framework which has become void), not out of blindness with drunk ambition, but because anything else would be would lead to a dismantling of purpose, a denial of the role one does not choose but has the responsibility to uphold-and that is a selfish surrender.
on and on and on
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Join Ray Harkins and I as we welcome special guest Chuck Daley from Bear Trap PR/Tiny Engines, plus he used to work at Deep Elm. Find out what Emo Diaries compilation I was on and the life of a…
Everyone check out my good buddy Tom Mullen dropping knowledge on his new podcast! Also, make sure to visit washedupemo.com.
“@thepeejatron: Who is foster the people? Sold out show down the street? Huh” Pumped up Kicks blah blah. #blah
“His concern was always what it is to be a human being - that is, how to be an actual person, someone whose life is informed by values and principles, instead of just an especially shrewd kind of self-preserving animal.”
—David Foster Wallace on Dostoevsky (via maxistentialist)
“be a sheep, a radical sheep that turns away from the herd of wolves where everybody is trying to devour each other, where everybody is trying to maintain political power, where everybody is trying to build and maintain economic power, where everybody is trying to climb a corporate ladder. The radical rebellion of Christ is to go down and live a life of peace, of humility, of servant hood, gentleness and kindness, and lowliness, in a world full of pride, and wealth, and power, and arrogance and fighting and scrambling.”
—Aaron Weiss (via questionofaperson)
Early morning will turn into a long day. Work->French->beer->pumpkins->French food->music. #el_cupcake
There’s a lot of love* going on in the world, too much. Let’s dial it back a notch and refrain from just saying sh*t cause of the “moment.”
“@pitchforkmedia: Kanye West to Perform at Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show http://t.co/qndQtfMV” Barf.
“He’s been borrowing money from me for so long that I had to put a stop to it. He’s a gentleman, he came into the studio and took his hat off and all these birds flew out.”
—Tom Waits talking about Keith Richards (via forestsongs)
RT @matthewhoopes: Check out the new @deasvail record on the @amazonmp3 Deal of the Day for $3.99!!! I love you all! Please RT! http://t …
“@jxason: Is there a better record than Nevermind? #didntthinkso” #inutero
