The American Holiday of Thanksgiving was formalized as a national celebration in 1863, although it was largely celebrated throughout the country for quite sometime before. I have always found this extremely interesting, because this was done in the midst of…
The Prelude One of the surprises of the past three years was how popular a post I did on the theological language and style of the alt-pop band Twenty One Pilots. It’s been a slow burn, but it consistently gets…
There is an old saying which is as certain in its meaning as it is uncertain in its origins: “Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” Destruction is preceded by delusion. This idea, which is rooted in…
In the spring of 2010, I remember driving my car around town on errands. I often listen to the radio, so that I can know what songs and artists are most popular, and what people are hearing. It has proven…
New Year, New Kanye People love conversion stories. This is a fact that transcends religion and culture. This is especially true when this involves some degree of vindication of the other side’s claims. Whether the claims are of ultimate metaphysical…
On the Hype Train Back in 2013 or so, I had lunch with some of my relatives, and I heard from my Great Aunt, of all people, about this new show on HBO called Game of Thrones. Quite honestly, a…
As readers may already have guessed, I love all sorts of music. Beauty in all its forms has a way of bypassing all the typical rational and even affective resistances which we have built up in our minds and…
It has been said that hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue. I would add that perhaps vulgarity is the tribute ugliness pays to beauty: to take art and its various forms and to reduce them to the banal…
The band Foster the People suddenly shot into prominence onto the national and international scene in 2011 with the releasing of their album Torches, and especially their hit single Pumped Up Kicks, which along with Helena Beat (even achieving a place in the popular 2012…