Much Ado About Something Quite Good

Posted on June 28, 2013 by awtraughber

Much Ado About NothingThis year’s take on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing plays like a Joss Whedon’s Greatest Hits album.

Whedon is known for a number of things: witty dialogue, strong female characters, large casts, and choosing amazing actors.  All of that is on display in this movie that brings together people from Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, and The Avengers.  The movie is set in one location: the house designed by Whedon’s wife.  The music is by Whedon and friends (with lyrics by Shakespeare).  The film is shot in black and white.  It does so many things so well.  But here are my top three things:

1.  Amy Acker is brilliant.  She was good in Angel and creepy in Dollhouse.  She shines brightly here.  Her facial expressions, her body language, her voice.  She is amazingly intense, and it’s great to see her use her whole range here.

2.  Alexis Denisof is hilarious.  He is Acker’s perfect foil.  His monologues are spot-on.  His physical humor is over-the-top wonderful.  After last seeing him in a faceless part in The Avengers and as a creepy character on How I Met Your Mother, it’s good seeing him here pulling out every stop in his performance.

3.  Fran Kranz really comes into his own.  I think he’s the unsung hero of Dollhouse.  And while he brought the funny in Cabin in the Woods, it’s better seeing him take on a full range like Acker and Denisof.  There’s a manic bent to his humor that keeps him unique in an amazing cast.

If you get a chance, see this movie.  It’s a nice change from summer’s blockbuster-of-the-week trend.  You’ll probably recognize a few faces (Nathan Fillion, when he finally shows up, plays his part perfectly.)  I think you’ll find it a couple of hours in the theater well-spent.  (And after a while you’ll totally forget you’re watching a black and white movie in Shakespeare’s English.)  Highly recommended.

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Dave Eggers: The British Skateboarding Magazine Interview

Posted on June 27, 2013 by awtraughber

Huck #38 with Dave EggersI received my copy of Huck Magazine #38 in the mail a few days ago, straight from the Church of London.  It’s not often that I order a British skateboarding magazine, but then it’s not often that Dave Eggers graces the cover of even the most American of magazines, either.¹  But arrive it did, in gray plastic bagging and with a sheet of skateboard decals and a nifty, miniature notebook to make lists of things.  The Eggers article and comments alone were worth the postal fee.

Perhaps my favorite image from Eggers’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is that of “the lattice.”  The lattice is this sense of the connectedness of people, of things, this thing of people that will catch us when we fall, where we will catch others when they fall.  The article is titled “Beyond the Lattice,” and in it you get a glimpse of Eggers past, present, and future.  You find out about his next book (his first biographical book since AHWOSG), about how he connects writing with helping others, and about his love for books and stories.  Quality quote about the lattice and young adult life:

In a way, in your twenties in a new city when no one’s from here, we’re all sort of orphans.  The only people that you can count on are a bunch of people that you work with and that you know.  You’re only as good as the reliability of that latticework.  If it holds it can feel very good.  And if there are any weak links it can be very heartbreaking . . .

You can check out the first part of the article here.  And you can order the whole magazine here.  It’s well-made.  It has an interview with Judd Apatow in it.  You get at least one book recommendation from Eggers that I myself have taken and am almost halfway done with.  Plus you get some decals and a notebook.  You have to love that.

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¹ It’s more than just a skateboarding magazine, really.  It’s about “radical culture.”  So there’s skateboarding and surfing and literary stuff and craftsmen content.  A nice collection of good things.

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I Dreamed an English Major’s Dream

Posted on June 26, 2013 by awtraughber

Last week I dreamed that I was back in college and walking into the English department.  There I ran into, saw for the first time in years, three of my favorite English professors, each perfectly in character, each a joy to see.  Two have moved on from that wonderful West Tennessee school, but I consider all of them significant to my formation as both an English major and a Bible major.

English majors and the things they love and do well have been in the media a bit recently.  A couple of my English major friends posted Facebook links to the New York Times article, “The Decline and Fall of the English Major.”  The quality article focuses primarily on the broad significance of the humanities and the hallmark skill of writing in which English majors find themselves immersed.

Steve Strauss, columnist and small business expert, shared his thoughts in praise of English majors over at the Huffington Post in an article titled “Why I Hire English Majors.”  Strauss praises English majors for their smarts, boldness, writing ability, and how easy they are to work with.

Being a solid writer is important.  I can’t help but believe, though, that being a solid reader might be the more important quality sometime soon.  I grew up thinking that all adults read, which I have since found to be not-so-true.  People are busy.  We love sound-bytes and status updates.  We prefer 2-1/2 hour adaptations to reading the 400-page book that serves as the movie’s source.  Few people have time to “waste” reading a good book unless we’re on vacation.  But I think that Karen Swallow Prior is on to something in her article at the Atlantic, “How Reading Makes Us More Human.”  True: there’s a lot of controversy around the benefits of reading fiction, but her approach to “spiritual reading” is spot-on.  That she quotes Eugene Peterson makes me trust her even more.  Give the article a read . . . and be sure to read the comments.  It’s an interesting conversation that we would all do well to think about.

I grew up in a pre-STEM world, where the humanities were of primary importance.  And while I respect mathematics and science greatly, I do believe that literature (and literary writing) will be of vital importance as culture moves forward.  Good literature read well both anchors us and challenges us in ways that logical problems and their significant solutions cannot.  Civilization is made up of buildings and roadways and telescopes to see the stars and research to stop diseases, but people are at its heart.  And if we’re not careful, if we allow ourselves to stop reading deeply, we will find ourselves in a great societal deficit we could only know exists if we have made it a point to read the best of our stories well.

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The Full Bono Interview

Posted on June 25, 2013 by awtraughber

Here is the full interview between Bono and Focus on the Family.  There’s no video, but feel free to turn it on, turn it up, and listen to an interesting conversation about important things.

 

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Bono and Something Like Experiencing God

Posted on June 24, 2013 by awtraughber

Lots of interesting talk about an interview that U2 frontman Bono gave to the President of Focus on the Family.  The folks over at Christianity Today posted some comments in their “Gleanings” section.  You can check that out here.  You can also see the Religious News Service take on the conversation here.

Mixing celebrity and faith is always an interesting thing.  We wander so close to a kind of faulty appeal to authority sometimes.  Bono, of course, has been doing this for a while, his work in other countries through the ONE program.  This week in my summer school class we’re talking about persuasive speaking, and he definitely seems to have the appeal of ethos down.

Two comments: I love what he says about joining God where He is already working, that such a work is “blessed.”  It’s an echo from Experiencing God all those years ago.  And it’s a good truth to wrestle with, especially in our age of distance and distraction.  And then there’s this:

“It’s very annoying following this person of Christ around, because he’s very demanding of your life,” he said while chuckling. “You don’t have to go to university and do a Ph.D. to understand this stuff. You just go to the person of Christ.”

I miss hearing about that Jesus, the one who is demanding and uncomfortable.  The one who reaches out to people in all walks of life.

I’m looking forward to hearing more of the interview.

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Habit and Habits

Posted on June 17, 2013 by awtraughber

Seth Godin recently posted some thoughts on habit, mainly through the lens of things like anger.  I’ve been thinking a lot about habit lately, through the lenses of faith (James Smith) and psychology (Charles Duhigg).  Godin says:

Habits are great when they help us get what we want. Bad habits, on the other hand, are bad because the shortcut that satisfies us in the moment gets in the way of our long term goals.

Once you can see that your emotions are as much as a habit as cracking your knuckles, they’re a lot easier to work with.

Sometimes you can direct your habits (let me tell you about how I changed me diet last year).  Others just kind of creep in and take a foothold (Godin mentions distrust and generosity.  Whatever their place on the spectrum, habits are powerful things.  Check out this interview with Duhigg below or check out his book, The Power of Habit.  You can read Godin’s blog post here.

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Jonathan Safran Foer and the Danger of Being an Archivist

Posted on June 12, 2013 by awtraughber

Graduation season has come and gone, and a few commencement addresses have risen to the top of the optimistic consciousness.  Joss Whedon said something about everybody dying.  At least one high school speaker ripped up his speech and recited the Lord’s Prayer.  Then that cool rendition of David Foster Wallace’s Kenyon address made it big on YouTube before being taken down.

Author Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything’s Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) spoke at Middlebury College’s graduation and said some interesting things about technology and death and life.  It’s couched in some interesting banter about the college president and the story of a young girl yelling into her phone.  I think it’s worth the viewing and listen.  He maneuvers through a real “either-or” when it comes to technology and “the moment.”  Check it out.

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The Desolation of Smaug Trailer Arrives

Posted on June 11, 2013 by awtraughber

True, we’re all waiting expectantly for The Man of Steel to fly into theaters this weekend, but the knowledge that the first trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug makes that wait a little bit sweeter.  An international version of the trailer came online this morning.  Now that the pleasantries of introductions are out of the way, it looks like we’ve got action, action, and more action (look at those 3-D ready shots).  Plus we’ve got the most important thing: barrels!

Take a look below.

 

And don’t forget to see Man of Steel this weekend.  If the rumors are true, it’s going to be one amazing adventure.

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Is a Blog Better than Having Friends?

Posted on May 14, 2013 by awtraughber

I’m not sure I’ve ever bought a book with the intent of only reading half of it, but that’s what I did with Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together.  The first half, about robots and relationships, didn’t really catch my attention.  But the second half, which is all about cell phones and social networks and online gaming, was part of my spring break sweet spot.

Below is a TED talk Turkle gave last year about “technology as substitute” that hits on something important.  Some might say she exaggerates the point at times, but I think she’s onto something.  Somewhere along the way had to replace real conversations and real time together with Words with Friends (for which I am thankful).  I strongly encourage you to take some time and watch this talk.

Tomorrow’s all about Star Trek: Into Darkness, so we’ll see if I get a post in.  If not, we’ll see you Friday.

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David Brooks and How C. S. Lewis Was Right

Posted on May 13, 2013 by awtraughber

One of the books I enjoyed the most over spring break was David Brooks’ The Social Animal.  Brooks says lots of things, and most of them well, in the book.  He creates two characters and tracks their imaginary lives through the decisions they make.  A big part of his premise is that people are not primarily thinkers, that many decisions are made on a more subconscious level.  This, of course, was part of C. S. Lewis’ argument at the beginning of The Abolition of Man, that we create “men without chests” when we teach them thinking correctly without helping them feel correctly.

Below is a TED talk that Brooks gave a couple of years ago about the book.  Don’t let his humor throw you- he has a lot of good things to say.  One thing he doesn’t address in his talk that I found most helpful was his view on emergent systems, which is a thread I’ve started noticing in a number of places.  So if you’ve got 18 minutes to spare, give this guy a bit of your time.

I really like Brooks’ take on limerance.  It’s a word he seems to want to rehabilitate.  It doesn’t have the best original uses, I fear.

Tomorrow I’ll direct you to another TED talk by an author that has more to say about technology.  And at some point soon, I’ll get to what is becoming a transitional metaphor for me as I try to put things together.

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