soapbox: on kitsch [from the draft file/2009]

While I spend time catching up on rest and family time and battle continued sinus headaches that are keeping me from much reading or writing, I thought I'd publish several rough posts that never made it out of my draft file this past year. Please be gracious, the words are unedited, unfinished and, frequently, half-baked. But in an attempt to put something out into the world (and working my way backwards), I offer you unedited draft #5...



Go here to read Jeff Berryman's entire post on kitsch (a topic I will revisit I am sure):

Kitsch

Christian Kitsch

Here’s another interesting review of Robert Scruton’s book Beauty.  This time the subject is high art’s trashy cousin, kitsch. Robert Fulford, of the National Post, doesn’t really let on whether he agrees with Scruton’s didsdain of kitsch or not, be he does a nice job of summarizing the issue.  On the essence of kitsch: “an imitation of human feeling wrapped in a thick layer of cuteness.”  On the problem of kitsch: “Kitsch encourages us to dwell on our own satisfactions and anxieties; it tells us to be pleased with what we have always felt and known. It reaches us at the level where we are easiest to please, a level requiring a minimum of mental effort.”  And in contrast with beauty:

At the other end of the scale (from art and beauty), kitsch (“that peculiar disease that we can instantly recognise but never precisely define, and whose Austro-German name links it to the mass movements and crowd sentiments of the 20th century”) degrades beauty through the Disneyfication of art. Kitsch trivializes human conflict and demotes feeling into bathos. It’s a mould that forms, as Scruton says, over a living culture.

What’s behind this sort of thinking is the notion that in an encounter with art,...read more...

A related post at Culture Making on a topic I'm sure will come up again:



Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Kinkade

No doubt many people who would praise a rich, popular, establishment-approved hack like Andy Warhol despise Kinkade for being a rich, popular, evangelical-approved hack. But I think a solid case against Kinkade can be made on purely aesthetic criteria, especially when you compare his work to a superior artist.

Consider two works of on similar themes. Both are images of the Water Tower in Chicago. Both have similar elements—a carriage, trees, people with umbrellas. Indeed, paintings are almost identical in theme and content, if not in style.

And yet the first is unquestionably technically superior. The use of texture and shadow puts the viewer within the picture. You can almost feel...read more...

soapbox: local listening [from the draft file/2009]

I continue to battle sinus headaches that are making it almost impossible for me to enjoy my two favorite loves: reading and writing. There's so much I wanted to try to articulate in this blog-forum but am just not well enough to attend to the task. If you don't mind, I thought I'd publish several rough posts that never made it out of my draft file this past year. Please be gracious, the words are unedited, unfinished and, frequently, half-baked. But in an attempt to put something out into the world (and working my way backwards), I offer you unedited draft #4...

Go here to read the entirety of this post at Image Journal's Good Letters blog.  I was apparently roused enough to start a post with the word Soapbox in the title, but not enough to add any thoughts of my own.  Hmmmmm.....

Ideas for Listening to Music for People Who Listen to Too Much Music

Monday September 14, 2009

By Joel Hartse

If you’re like me, you like listening to music all the time. And if you’re like me, you are also now in a graduate program in language and literacy education, which means you do not have time to do anything except read incomprehensible books about sociocultural theories of language.

Perhaps you are not exactly like me. But I’ll bet you sometimes find that although you were once the type of person who needed nothing more than a dark bedroom, a pair of headphones, and a copy of Portishead’s Dummy to spend a blissfully contemplative evening soaking in your favorite pastime (listening to records), you are now the kind of person who doesn’t do that.

There could be any number of personal reasons: you have kids now, maybe, or two jobs. But I suspect things have changed for most of us simply because too much music being thrust toward us. Being a music enthusiast today feels somewhat like being an unwilling participant in a paintball battle: here they are, hundreds of brand new things, each exquisitely crafted to get your attention, coming straight at you, from the internet, the TV, other peoples’ phones, weekly newspapers, friends.

In light of all this, I offer some suggestions, some experiments in purposeful music-listening, for each of us who loves music but feels its purpose floating away from us. I hope you will consider them, maybe try one out, and report on the results. I’ll try the same after I finish this book by Bourdieu.

Audio Divina. No blasphemy intended—I just figured if you can do it with reading (lectio), why not try listening? Obviously, this is a spiritual approach to music-listening, and it might be difficult to do with, say, a Kelly Clarkson single (I am not responsible for any epiphanies that may, in fact, emerge from repeated, meditative listens to “Since U Been Gone”), but you might want to try it with a song whose mood suits the idea of diligent, spiritual contemplation – something like “Spirit Fall” by David Åhlén (recommended..... read the rest

why liturgical calendar: [from the draft file/2009]

I continue to battle sinus headaches that are making it almost impossible for me to enjoy my two favorite loves: reading and writing. There's so much I wanted to try to articulate in this blog-forum but am just not well enough to attend to the task. If you don't mind, I thought I'd publish several rough posts that never made it out of my draft file this past year. Please be gracious, the words are unedited, unfinished and, frequently, half-baked. But in an attempt to put something out into the world (and working my way backwards), I offer you unedited draft #3...

This post had me formulating a whole post in my mind; never got to the post but this excerpt is pretty self-explanatory:


"The church year is set up so people will remember each event, rather than just hoping that they will pay attention to each one on their own. The reminders are perfect for families and children, as they are sensual: We see the colors, we smell the incense or holy water or anointing oil, we taste the food, we hear the bells, we touch the crucifix or other holy objects. It is also physical in that we do something with our bodies as we pray. There are particular passages of scripture that are read for particular holidays, there are songs sung on those days. These all help teach and tie together what and who each celebration or memorial is about, so that we get a better understanding of it.


Our children especially have enjoyed the ways we have brought the Church Year home. This is not just something we do at church, it is something we live each day, in our homes and lives. Our family has been blessed to travel a bit more lately than we have over the last year, and in that time we have visited other churches. Although we have enjoyed the services (for the most part), they were not liturgical, didn't follow the Church's calendar and afterward we found ourselves having a greater appreciation for that Church year. Rich commented to me after one of our visits to another church that he was so glad that we had the cycles of the Church year to anchor our daily life. We didn't have to try to come up with something to prepare ourselves at the last minute, each day was a preparation for the next day, the next holiday, the next season.

The Church, in her wisdom provided Lent to prepare for Easter, so we didn't have it sneak up on us, we don't have to cram all of Holy Week and Good Friday into Easter Sunday, when we should be rejoicing in the resurrection, not recalling the crucifixion. Our Christmas season begins with Christmas day, not the day after Thanksgiving, focusing on the Incarnation and Nativity, not the Macy's window or how many presents are under a tree. In much the same way, Pentecost is a reminder of the Spirit which empowers each believer as well as the authority given to the apostles (and their successors, the bishops) and the Church. It is the close to Eastertide. Ascension day (and the eight days following it) is a mini-season within the Paschal season, but it is Pentecost that empowers us to go forth and do as Christ commands." 

photo diary of window shopping: [from the draft file/2009]

I continue to battle sinus headaches that are making it almost impossible for me to enjoy my two favorite loves: reading and writing. There's so much I wanted to verbalize in this blog-forum but am just not well enough to attend to the task. If you don't mind, I thought I'd publish several rough posts that never made it out of my draft file this past year. Please be gracious, the words are unedited, unfinished and, frequently, half-baked in many places. But in an attempt to put something out into the world and working my way backwards....unedited draft #2..





I love this post (and I loved this movie)!

It made me think of the windows Brian and I saw on our last trip to NY.  Total design delight!

Worship & Arts at the Center - Giving Thanks for 2009!

For all who prayed, made or enjoyed the arts at Union Center in 2009 - we are grateful!

[music: Robbie Seay Band, "Rise" from Give Yourself Away]

we are expecting! [from the draft file/2009]

I continue to battle sinus headaches that are making it almost impossible for me to enjoy my two favorite loves: reading and writing. There's so much I wanted to verbalize in this blog-forum but am just not well enough to attend to the task. If you don't mind, I thought I'd publish several rough posts that never made it out of my draft file this past year. Please be gracious, the words are unedited, unfinished and, frequently, half-baked in many places. But in an attempt to put something out into the world and working my way backwards....unedited draft #1...

We are expecting.

But not the kind you think.  Those days are done, but they were glorious and exhausting and unforgettable.

The kind of expecting I mean is the waiting and longing and travailing for something that is glorious and exhausting and thrilling and painful and unknown but familiar all at the same time.

And, really, what better time than Advent to wait for a birth?

This morning I sat with our Advent book (I'd told the worship team that each year I'm hit or miss with a daily Advent reading and that this year, by God, I wanted to be more hit than miss). Well, I'd missed yesterday so I started there.  I read Luci Shaw's essay for Third Sunday Of Advent.  Then I read it again.  Then I called Brian into the living room and read it to him in the middle of his banging around to make me a fire and getting up and down to make us tea.  I waited until he settled in with the dog on the couch so he could really hear the words because I suspected they were intended for him this morning.

Anticipation lifts the heart. Desire is created to be fulfilled - perhaps not all at once, more likely in slow stages. Isaiah uttered his prophetic words about the renewal of the natural Creation into a wilderness of spiritual barrenness and thirst. For him, and for many other Old Testament seers, the vacuum of dry indifference into which he spoke was not yet a place of fulfillment. Yet the promise of God through this human mouthpiece (and the word "promise" always holds a kind of certainty) was verdant with hope, a kind of greenness and glory. A softening of hard-heartedness, a lively expectation, would herald the coming of Messiah. And once again, in this season of Advent, the same promise for the same Anointed One is coming closer.

Without naming the darkness, I knew as I read these words out loud that both of us were fighting whispers of cynical and despairing demonry.  Our cozy scene of crackling fire and steaming mugs of tea in a quiet house on a quiet day off is a phony, Kinkadian snapshot to our true tumultuous internal scene.  In defiance to the unseen, I kept reading.

Just as in Lent, the season of watchful waiting and preparation for Jesus' dying and the great transformation of his rising, so in Advent, we wait for his coming down to be with us once again. The word Lent is derived from the Middle English lente, meaning "Spring," and in French "lent" means slow. In winter it seems that the season of Spring will never come, and in both Lent and Advent it's the waiting that's hard, the in-between of divine promise and its fulfillment, like a leap across a ditch after take-off and before landing. Most of us find ourselves dangling in this hiatus, which is the interval may seem a waste of time.

Harumph...dangling in mid-leap.  How about clawing by our bare fingernails after being pushed off a cliff?  Seems more like it to me. Again with the inner tormenty whispers.  Again with the intrepid reading.

Paul gives us an astonishing understanding of waiting in the New Testament book of Romans, as rendered by Eugene Peterson, "Waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the  more joyful our expectancy." With such motivation, we can wait as we sense God is indeed with us, and at work within us, as he was with Mary as the child within her grew.

Merry Christmas from the Murphy Family

A blessing from our home to yours.  May your life be transformed by a relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit in 2010.

*Song is "Here It Is" from Over the Rhine, Snow Angels

advent #5

A few more Advent posts for your enjoyment:

Richard Fudge - Art in Church:  Every day a new calendar block is turned to reveal a new painting.  In the author's words, Our artsy Advent Calendar which is on display in the Stirring Art Gallery. Each day is an original piece by featured artists Brittney Owens and Deeann Carson Rieves. It is a part of our current exhibit – Atonement."
You can find out more about the current exhibit in this post.

carrying ballast: I hope I get to meet this blogger in real life someday.  I feel like we are kindred spirits.  Each Sunday in Advent she is posting an original piece of artwork from someone in her church family and a poem that she loves.  (we are definately kindred spirits when it comes to poetry!)

Good, True and Beautiful:   I've mentioned Sharon before and she was also part of the Beautiful Christmas series I linked in the last post.  I'm including her here again because this post Expectation is just lovely - in both word and photograph.  It speaks profoundly to the spirit I hope to cultivate during this season.

advent #4

Sending along some of the advent and Christmas posts I've enjoyed from my blogroll these past couple of weeks.

PhaedraJean ArtMachine: A lovely writing about a lovely piece of Advent artwork.

Cha-Ching on a Shoestring's Beautiful Christmas Series: My sister Kaley and her frugal and crafty blogging friends share great tips for meaningful traditions, decorations, baking and gift-making!

A Ten O'Clock Scholar's The Third Annual Advent Carnival  If you have time, make a cup of tea and pull up by the fireplace to read through some of the history and traditions for recognizing Advent.  I've also enjoyed the Advent playlist from this post.

habit: Last and not exactly specific to the season as much as timely all year long, I've been thoroughly enjoying the concept and the photographs from this site.  I like it so much I'm trying to figure out how to reproduce the concept somewhere in my life!

advent #3

The Annunciation - Henry Tanner

This second Monday in Advent finds me thinking about Mary.  The young woman is a mystery to me -- partly from the sheer incomprehensibility of her circumstances and partly from a well-bred Protestant phobia of all things Marion.  But, tonight,  I spent some time looking at pictures of her.  And trying to imagine.

Twelve years ago, at this very hour, I was in the deep throes of labor pains with my fourth child.  A second baby girl (although we didn't know it, yet).  She who is born at Christmas -- Natalie.  As I recall, Brian was sound asleep on the couch, the television was blaring some late night sports talk show but I was gripped in spasm after anguished spasm and could not leave the recliner chair to get up to turn the blasted thing off.  So I lay there -- breathing in and out and in and out and in again -- and telling God I'd be happy to just go back to sleep for the night and start up labor again in the morning.  Thankfully, He did not answer that prayer and within three hours I was holding my daughter in my arms, studying her little Murphy chin, trying to describe her across the phone lines to far-flung family members.  Becoming alive -- natality.

These things I remember.  Mary's experience I can not imagine.  I hold her in high regard.

recession-proof romance

One Over the Rhine concert and dinner and drinks to celebrate 19th anniversary = $[you'd have to ask my husband]

Two art galleries on my "must see" list = $14

Two days traipsing through the city  = horrific head cold that has me laid up in bed for going on 48 hours now

Spending time with this man whom I love so deeply enjoying beauty and adventure = PRICELESS!

(and there's so much more I'd like to say about everything, but I sort of feel like I'm on the verge of death with  this head thing so it'll have to wait...)

Late Anniversary/Early Christmas

I'm so EXCITED!
Brian and I are headed to NYC for one more time in 2009.
We're going straight here to see this:

And tonight, we're going here to see them:

 (hopefully, we'll get to hear a little bit of this):

And tomorrow, we're going here to see this:

and do a little bit of this:

and a lot of this:

joy, joy, joy!