Some Songs Say So Much

Posted on June 10, 2016 by awtraughber

One of the most interesting reads of the past week was an article at FiveThirtyEight from Leah Libresco about the language of contemporary Christian music as compared to the language of shape note hymns.  She did a survey and came up with this chart:

libresco-christianrock-1

The survey inspired other short articles like this reflection on great CCM music from the 90s and this reflection on the idea of “winter Christians” and “songs of exile.”  I think it’s a good and necessary conversation to have, especially when you think about the worship habits and rituals of younger Christians (or what we think they expect, even).

What’s interesting to me (and what shows my disconnect from CCM in general) is that I have found myself gravitating and revisiting artists who are Christian and who deal with the sadder, sober side of life.  Case in point: the music of Andrew Peterson.  Here’s a recording of a recent performance of the first track (“The Dark Before the Dawn”) from his latest album (The Burning Edge of Dawn).  It’s music like this that helps ground me in both the sorrow and joy of a fallible life in a fallen world.  It might not always employ particular words and concepts all the time, but it’s something, even to call it “the pain before the balm.”

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“The Traveling Wilburys of Pain”

Posted on June 9, 2016 by awtraughber

One of my favorite episodes of Community is “Paradigms of Human Memory,” which aired late in the show’s second season.  It’s basically a clip shows of stories that were not told previously (and yet here we have footage of those adventures).  It’s a nod to the conventionality of the sitcom, of course, and to one of the staples of this particular show: Jeff Winger’s grand speeches.  Such a great (and meta) way to approach a tried, true, (and sometimes tired) television genre.

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The Perfect Space

Posted on June 7, 2016 by awtraughber

Last night was good and rainy, great weather for listening to the Avett Brothers.  A few of their songs from I and Love and You really stick with me.  Last night, it was “The Perfect Space.” (The other is “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise,” but we’ll get to that some other time.)

I really like the sentiment of the song: the idea of security in a volatile space, the idea of those you can trust, the refusal of the wrong kind of pride.  I feel like I’ve been wrapping up this school year for a few weeks now.  And while I’ve been fortunate to have lots of time and space to get things done, the list seems a little longer than usual.  Part of it is that weird space between the old and the new, that overlap that holds you in an odd place for a while.  Songs like this kind of help me maneuver well.

I also really like the “second act” of the song, even though it’s a little jarring.  But then they weave back into the main tempo and melody seamlessly, which is a nice life challenge, too.

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Trailer Talk: A Matter of Loyalty

Posted on June 6, 2016 by awtraughber

Another new trailer that played before The Lobster was the latest from Meryl Streep.  She plays the title role in Florence Foster Jenkins, the real-life story of a woman with the desire to sing but not the talent.  On one level, this looks like clear Oscar material.  My favorite line comes at the 1:00 mark.

Virtue talk is tricky these days.  You’ll often read of “virtue signaling” when discussion social justice warriors and corporations making stands on certain topics.  In theory, virtue talk is prevalent in schools where character development is expected.  I’m not so sure of that, though, as we tend to feel like a virtueless culture.  Regardless, the assertion that “without loyalty, there’s nothing” is pretty challenging and at least a little damning for many of us.

Florence Foster Jenkins premieres August 12.

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Trailer Talk: The Dangers of Living Differently?

Posted on June 4, 2016 by awtraughber

Caught a matinee of The Lobster yesterday (thoughts to come early next week).  One of the joys of seeing an independent movie is that you see trailers for all of these other movies that you’ve probably never heard of.  Case in point: Captain Fantastic starring Viggo Mortensen.

I have no context for this story other than Benedict Option discussions and talks with friends and co-workers about the state of contemporary culture.  I love the line about children becoming philosopher-kings (a la Plato).

I hope (a) that this movie eventually screens in Hawaii and (b) that the movie does an even-handed portrayal of what is about to become more of a struggle for many: how to raise children in a way counter to the prevailing winds of culture.

Captain Fantastic drops July 8th in what I’m assuming will be select theaters at first.

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Church of Simon

Posted on June 3, 2016 by awtraughber

Yesterday Lifehouse’s “Simon” played while my music was on shuffle.  I hadn’t heard it in a while.  I was quickly reminded, though, of why I love the song (and the entire No Name Face album).  It’s not a perfect song, mind you, but it twists and turns in good ways.  Above all, it is a reminder of the damage we do to one another when our main goal is to manipulate.

Here’s a clip of a live performance from the early 2000s.  The vocals are pretty strong here, which is nice.

The world, of course, is full of Simons.  Like the song implies, many of us can’t help but feel the same.  That’s something worth keeping in mind.  The world is full of the wounded; and we are often both the wounded and the one wounding others.  Perhaps the song is less about personal empowerment and more a reminder for community and work that is healthy and right.  Worth thinking about.

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Jeff Winger on Becoming a Community

Posted on June 2, 2016 by awtraughber

The last couple of days I’ve shared some excerpts from a Plough Quarterly interview with Stanley Hauerwas on the idea of community, particularly as it can be “played out” in Christian faith and practice.  Now for something related and yet completely different.

At the end of the first-ever episode of Community, Jeff Winger (played by Joel McHale) has to find some way to bring a disparate group of people together in some significant way.  True: his motives are all off.  But also true: what he says about our ability to empathize and connect (and even to extend forgiveness to one another) has a certain inspiring quality to it.  Here’s the clip.  See if you feel what Abed feels, too.

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Joy from Being a Part

Posted on June 1, 2016 by awtraughber

Yesterday I quoted and linked to a recent interview with Stanley Hauerwas from Plough Quarterly concerning Christians and community.  And while I don’t agree with everything that he has to say, Hauerwas has definitely reminded me of the unique nature of the church in the world (elsewhere he speaks of the task of the church being “to make the world the world,” which is interesting).  One of my other favorite quotes from the article has to do with churches and the concept of mission:

The church doesn’t have a mission. The church is mission. Our fundamental being is based on the presumption that we are witnesses to a Christ who is known only through witnesses. To be a witness means you bear the marks of Christ so that your life gives life to others. I can’t imagine Christians who are not fundamentally in mission as constitutive of their very being – because you don’t know who Christ is except by someone else telling you who Christ is. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore it is the task of Christians to embody the joy that comes from being made part of the body of Christ. That joy should be infectious and pull other people toward it.

That’s a pretty high standard, one that should make those of us with tight connections to more “institutionalized” churches take pause for a moment’s reflection.  You can read more of the interview here.

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When You “Can’t Make a Community Up”

Posted on May 31, 2016 by awtraughber

football fanOver the last year, I’ve slowly added a couple of professors/theologians to the list of authors that I “follow.”  One of those, Kevin VanHoozer has helped me articulate “next steps” when thinking about the biblical story as a “drama” that calls us into faithful action.  The second, Stanley Hauerwas, hasn’t made it into my classroom thinking just yet, but he’s definitely challenged the way I think about Christian practice in a “post-Constantinian” world.  He recently had a substantial interview with Plough Quarterly in which he answered questions about the Christian faith and community.  Here’s an interesting set of comments about the connection between the two.

My hunch is that you don’t just make a community up. You discover that you need one another because you’re in danger. We need to figure out how to reclaim the disciplines that are necessary for building a communal life in a manner that indicates that we are a people who need help. We need to pray to God to help us, because we’re not quite sure anymore where we are – we’re not quite sure what the dangers are. We need all the help we can get from one another, and we need God in order to know how to be accountable to one another . . .

First, community for community’s sake is not a good idea. Sartre is right: hell is other people! Community by itself cannot overwhelm the loneliness of our lives. I think we are a culture that produces extreme loneliness. Loneliness creates a hunger – and hunger is the right word, indicating as it does the physical character of the desire and need to touch another human being.

But such desperate loneliness is very dangerous. Look at NFL football. Suddenly you’re in a stadium with a hundred thousand people and they are jumping up and down. Their bodies are painted red, like the bodies that surround them. They now think their loneliness has been overcome. I used to give a lecture in my basic Christian Ethics class that I called “The Fascism of College Basketball.” You take alienated upper-middle-class kids who are extremely unsure of who they are – and suddenly they are Duke Basketball. I call it Duke Basketball Fascism because fascism has a deep commitment to turning the modern nation-state into a community. But to make the modern state into a kind of community – for the state to become the primary source of identity through loose talk about community – is very dangerous. It is not community for its own sake that we seek. Rather, we should try to be a definite kind of community.

(image from bloomberg.com)

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Laughter in High Definition

Posted on May 28, 2016 by awtraughber

I’ve recently been re-watching the fourth season of 30 Rock, and I’m pleasantly surprised at how much I’ve been laughing.  In many ways, the show is a total opposite of what I think is the funniest short-lived sitcom ever, Arrested Development.  AD worked by building in gags that would percolate over entire seasons (or the entire series), making it wonderfully quotable by fans.  30 Rock, on the other hand, is an example of every episode being packed with one-off jokes, jokes that move so fast you might not catch them.

Here’s one of my favorite gags from the fourth season.  It’s from the time that Liz Lemon had the chance to host her own talk show, Dealbreakers.  Turns out that high-definition cameras don’t always bring out the best in you.

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