What's wrong with being a Postmodern Christian?

People like to make sense of their experiences, to seek either a meaning behind the things that happen to them and an essential harmony of the different beauties they encounter. I imagine some people still manage to achieve a straight line through by living their lives in one place, surrounded by people who will agree with them on everything important. What if everyone you respected agreed on everything significant about life? I suppose if you ever got a hold of that kind of life, you'd try to keep it going.

I believe in Jesus, I believe women can do what men can do, I believe the universe is around 13.7 billion years old, I believe in the baptism of the holy spirit, I believe we don't have anything as worked out as we think we do, I believe in the freedom of a Christian.

What has any of this to do with dreaded "postmodern theology?" I have to think about that, but I am working on a decent answer.

Nice story

Pretty good little story

Who's still gettin' it done?

Suzy Bogguss, that's who. If you are only a very casual country fan, you had to be paying attention circa 1992 to know her music. I fell in love with it around that time (round about when I was graduating high school). She's been a favorite since, but she's been missing for a while. Last year, I stumbled on her website and, long story short, preordered her newest CD. It came autographed by the artist, which I sheepishly admit was kind of a kick for me.

I've always sort of felt that Suzy was a guilty pleasure, an attitude no doubt born of the sense that anything I was a fan of at age 18 must, necessarily, be discreditable to my wiser, 33-year old self. Somehow, her sonorous alto has always been both settling and enthralling to me, from Letting Go and Diamonds and Tears, Just Like the Weather, to Outbound Plane... Her cover of "Take it to the Limit" is better than the Eagles. Heck, Drive South was so entrenched as a favorite it managed not only to turn me on to John Hiatt but also to lay what now must be thought as early framework for moving an Iowa boy to Tennessee. Simpatico was a brilliant album.

It turns out, there's no need for the pleasure to have been guilty. Thanks to the good folks at Wikipedia, where the story can now be told, and I think I like her music even more. First, she's from my neck of the woods (roughly), which is cool to start with. While I always secretly worried her good looks betrayed a secret story of being just a creation of some Nashville boardroom, I was moved to see her "breakthrough" in 1991-1993 was preceded by a decade of dues-paying. She appears to have been let down, not propped up, by the cool kids on Music Row. And while she (sensibly) took some years to raise a family, she has since resurrected her career as a music artist.

Suzy is now so Web 2.0! She now has a passable web page, an aptly named blog: "Blogguss," a series of YouTube videos on the making of her newest album, you name it. I happily endure the bacn emails from her people. And the results of the album preorder I was happy to make are pictured above. Last spring, she posted one track "Even If" from the new album free to download, DRM-free on the site.

When I downloaded the track, I admit I wasn't quite as excited as I am now. In fact, for about a month, I forgot it was on my iPod (wish the track had been labelled with artist name automatically). But when I figured it out and fixed the name label, I started remembering why I love Suzy's music. "Even if that were true" has a seemingly typical, even stereotypical theme: a woman confessing to her affair she knows the relationship is doomed. The melody is simple and the instruments subtle with a touch of Western twang. Maybe the fourth or the fifth time it came up on shuffle, it clicked with me. I don't identify with the situation described, but the song is perfect anyway.

When I go the album on Wednesday, I gave it a spin. It is varied, but well-produced. It is not boring or cookie-cutter. "In Heaven", the first single, is that song that will build the cult following, and probably move more than a few people who identify with its theme to tears. "Chain lover" is a gutsy song for a female artist to put out there for sure. "Everything" has a sense of humor. But it's songs like "Even If" and "Its not gonna happen today" that remind me to love this. Suzy's sad and easy voice is the warm rub of Novocaine to the emotions before the stabbing heartbreak. Just wonderful. Way to go, Ms. Bogguss.



Usually, one feels rather trapped by the thought that some of the best music is controlled by big corporations that sue, and otherwise treat as criminals, music fans. The same corporations certainly aren't out for the artists, but to prop up their failing business model against the unturnable current of technological change. To discover the voice of an old friend doing music the way I hope the market will start doing music, and to support it and appreciate it, is that not joy?

Dark Matter

You know what really worries me? Dark Matter. 25% of the mass in the universe is apparently made of this stuff, as opposed to the 4% of the universe made of non-dark matter, or "normal" matter. Dark matter can't been seen, it does not interact with non-dark matter. It therefore has never been directly observed. Instead, it is really an idea used to explain the fact the equations about the universe aren't coming out properly. Not that it's necessarily wrong. Apparently, two galaxies that passed through each other left some sort of gravitational schmear that the astronomers are calling proof of dark matter.

If you want to actually know something intelligible about dark matter, you should probably visit some websites. As always, mahalo.com has some of the best (low-ad) links for more info. I listened to a mind-blowing account of the problem on the always-awesome Astronomy Cast podcast. (Sorry, I can't remember which episode they talked about it on.)

So what is the deal with a huge hunk of all there is being stuff that might be close it hand, but we have never seen? Is it really just a massive mistake, or just a placeholder for something that is going to make more sense later? Will it be like so many scientific puzzles, that seem to fall within a generation of realizing the problem, or will it never be solved by humans? Is Einstein wrong (apparently that's an option that works out well enough). He's been wrong before (see: Quantum mechanics).

And I didn't even mention doggone dark energy. Pete's sake!

Just brilliant. I have ear envy.

For more fun like this, I recommend Boing Boing

Something enjoyable

So, the idea is to drop a fair amount of content at first, before the novelty of a blog wears off. May I direct your attention to one of the internet stories I really enjoyed last year. If you have been to Best Buy, you should enjoy this prank some improv-minded folks pulled on them in New York:

Article on the Improv Everywhere site

Opening post

There is nothing quite so suited to a blog as one's fantasy sports teams. Why? you might ask? Because only one person really cares to hear about how your teams are doing, and that is the same person who is the primary reader of your blog.

That all said, my current standings in baseball:
Beat the Geeks league: 3rd of 11
FBM Keeper League: 3rd of 11
Milwaukee league: 6th seed in playoffs, playing 3rd seed this week.

It has been a bitterly disappointing season, as I started with realistic hopes of winning all three leagues.

In the keeper league, I tried a desperate trade of Albert Pujols for three guys just before the trade deadline, in hopes of finally breaking through. The move clearly failed. I am locked for another month in a likely third-place finish, with a weaker team going into next year. Scott Rolen, Raul Ibanez, Rickie Weeks, Joe Mauer, you all know what you did to me. This after my luck at drafting pitching totally turned around for the positive this year, too! Gnash!

In the Milwaukee league, I caught a lot of heat early for the vaunted pitch-or-ditch strategy, which does play havoc with a head-to-head league where it is tough to actually bury yourself in ERA or WHIP. Problem is, I just haven't had the best players all year and I'm desperately trying to scrap my way to the finals to defend my title. August was unkind.

In the Geeks league (of the now-defunct Baseball Geeks podcast), I have actually improved a lot. For a time, I was in last. Now, however, I am steadily climbing. I really think I still have a shot to win, especially if my home runs and wins pick up a bit (which they should). I never played a weekly transaction league before, and I'm starting to appreciate the importance of the two-start pitcher a little more. I am two-starting all the positions through September, and hoping for at least one title to salvage 2007.

Football season is also upon us. I have three leagues to keep up with again:

First and foremost is my church's 10-team league. I felt pretty good after this league's draft starting with Romo-LJ-Parker-Wayne-Evans-S.Moss-Davis. Biggest reach was taking Davis right ahead of Tony Gonzalez, which felt like a bad decision even at the time. Ronnie Brown and Fred Taylor as backup RBs are outstanding. I should be good for a playoff spot if all goes according to form, but you never know.

Second is the Milwaukee league, where I continue to play a group of rather profane fellows I have never actually met. It's a fourteen-team league, which explains why I am trotting out Rivers-LJ-F.Taylor/J.Lewis-Holt-Wayne-Hackett-Gonzalez. My receivers are again a source of strength, but my bet on Cleveland's rebuilt offensive line will be tested here. Again, with an 8-team playoff, I feel somewhat confident I should survive into December, and then, who knows?

Last is the official league of NFL China, or so it purports to be. I got hooked up with it through a guy I've been playing against for years who works in Shanghai. I think most of the players in this 12-teamer are actually Chinese, which is pretty cool. (I had a Chinese friend once who explained to me the things he hated most about America were cheese and football. I explained the logical conclusion that he must really hate the Packers. But I digress.) These football-loving fellows allowed me VY-Kitna-Westbrook-MJD-Wayne-Cotchery-Norwood-S.Holmes-LJSmith. A deep and confusing roster, but it should keep me competitive.

The problem with having three fantasy football teams is akin to the problem of three baseball teams: whenever someone on one of your teams does good, he is probably doing harm to you in another league. I really makes it difficult to cheer. In football at least, you have the day Monday to clear your mind to focus on the crucial last player coming up in a Monday night game. The common thread of my teams is clearly Reggie Wayne. I see him as a top-5 wide receiver. That I got him in all three of my leagues, though, tells me I must think better of him, on average, than the 33 teams I drafted against in August. Will he be the Rickie Weeks of my football season (the sixth-round bust who ends up on all my clubs and screws them all up)? Soon to see, I guess.

More, better, later.