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Archive for August 2009
Real-life Fantasy Creatures
Post from Writers Anonymous
Monday, August 31, 2009, 10:18 am
Read more: Writing
Ever wondered where people originally came up with descriptions of fantastic creatures like goblins, faeries, and others?
I’d suggest that many of these creatures came about as people tried to describe creatures from far-away lands, many of the creatures being so rare that it would be difficult to ever see them in one person’s lifetime. That [...]
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repurposed
Post from The Burnside Writers Blog
Sunday, August 30, 2009, 11:55 pm
Read more: Writing
In the home goods section of most department stores, you can find generic plaques with inspirational words like, “Family…Love…Memories” written in fancy scroll.
The other day I was walking through a Target in Portland when I saw one of these cream-colored plaques with black cursive writing. Except instead of “Family…Love…Memories,” it said, “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.”
Only in Portland does the word “Recycle” make it into artwork, I thought.
The plaque makes for a tacky decoration, but I appreciate the thoughtfulness behind it, especially since I’ve been thinking recently about a Christian’s response to consumerism. Living in Portland where values like stewardship, conservation, and frugality are widely practiced makes this endeavor easier.
When I first began thinking about the implications of my spending habits, my initial response was guilt. I felt very, very guilty about where I shopped, what I bought, and the wages that people were paid to produce these goods. And that’s where my response started and stopped. Just feeling guilty, about most things, most of the time.
And then I began to feel guilty about feeling guilty and it got really ugly.
I think guilt is a common response, especially for people who have been brought up in a punitive religious culture where feeling guilty seems to be the actual chief end of man.
The problem is that feeling guilty is not a helpful response to anything. If it doesn’t change your heart or your actions, what does it matter?
But then there’s conviction, which is the healthy alternative to guilt. Conviction recognizes that a behavior or an action has caused someone grief or harm, and this knowledge becomes the driving force for change.
Instead of being paralyzed by guilt, I’m trying to respond in practical ways to genuine conviction.
My best friend studied home economics in college, and she has been a great resource. She has useful insights into what it could look like to live out the concept that, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
We talked about clothes shopping, and she suggested that instead of getting brand new clothes from the store, I go to thrift stores and consignment shops to get things second-hand.
I bought a townhouse earlier this year, and we spent a long time brainstorming about the most responsible way to furnish my new home.
She suggested that I start furniture shopping at garage sales, thrift shops, or even antique stores. This practice is essentially recycling old furniture, which is environmentally responsible. And getting used furniture also means I’m not directly increasing the demand for new goods from stores who get their labor from cheap international factories.
We even had a conversation about the best way to dress the windows in my new place. “It’s smart to use curtains rather than blinds,” she said, “Because you can repurpose the fabric when you don’t need the curtains anymore.”
I’ve been trying to apply these principles over the past few months. And when I become convicted about another area of my life that could be more intentional, I call my friend and we brainstorm some more.
I think in our online community, the brainstorming needs to continue as we “spur one another on towards love and good deeds.”
And soon we may discover that it’s not just our curtains or our furniture or our clothes that are repurposed, but our minds and our hearts and our souls.
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Sunday Secrets
Post from Post Secret
Sunday, August 30, 2009, 4:49 am
Read more: Art
PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where peoplemail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.
—–Email Message—–
I work for the carriage company pictured in the photograph, and have done so for nearly a decade. Never once have we engaged in such a practice. Please know that the vast majority of [...]
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PostSecret Event Tour
Post from Post Secret
Sunday, August 30, 2009, 4:25 am
Read more: Art
I drove an hour and a half to have the opportunity to come to your PostSecret Event. It’s the first time I went completely alone to an event in recent memory and I’ve never felt more connected to so many people at the same time.
-August 27th, University of Iowa
The PostSecret Event in Raleigh, North Carolina [...]
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British Grocery Chain Appoints Three Poets as Food Laureates
Post from Writers Write
Friday, August 28, 2009, 8:00 pm
Read more: Writing
British supermarket chain Morrisons has teamed up with The Poetry Society and has appointed three well-known British poets to be the world’s first Food Laureates. The poets will set recipes to verse. The goal of the project is to get the British people to start cooking again, and not to rely so much on prepared, prepackaged foods.
Sainsbury’s teamed up with Naked Chef Jamie Oliver and Asda went with Sharon Osbourne, but in an attempt to brand itself as the literary punters’ supermarket of choice, Morrisons has employed the services of three British poets to help get the people of Britain cooking.
The unlikely collaboration, which the supermarket chain has dubbed the “food laureate”, will see poets Ian McMillan, John Mole and Peter Sansom writing a series of poems about how to prepare different recipes. McMillan, a former poet in residence at Barnsley Football Club, has tackled the crumble. Mole, winner of an Eric Gregory award, has taken on batter – “What you’re going to need for a dish that can’t fail / Are a bowl, a deep fryer, flour and ale” – while Sansom has dreamed up verse about making a roast.
“Poets have always accepted shillings from patrons,” said McMillan. “A lot of courtly poets were given financial backing by the king, and there’s been a rise of poets in residence since the 80s. It’s fine, as long as you don’t write anything you’re not happy with.”
There are eight poems in all, including John Mole’s “Curry in a hurry” and “Use your loaf”, a bread recipe by Ian McMillan. The poems will be displayed in the 415 grocery stores all over the country. There are also video clips of the recipes with poetry voiceovers at the accompanying website, where you can send in your own family’s recipe set to verse and win 500 pounds.
We think it’s a marvelous idea. It brings poetry into the public arena in a new way and it’s a fun way to get people cooking more. It’s certainly easier to remember a recipe or some handy kitchen tips when they are set to verse.
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A Telephone Rings
Post from Writers Anonymous
Friday, August 28, 2009, 10:58 am
Read more: Writing
Each week, we post a writing prompt in the forum. Friday blog posts are dedicated to showcasing the best responses to the weekly writing prompt.
This week’s prompt was: A telephone rings.
We post a new prompt each Sunday, and pick the best prompts to be shared on Friday morning. All we ask is for you [...]
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Songwriter Ellie Greenwich is Dead at 68
Post from Writers Write
Friday, August 28, 2009, 3:00 am
Read more: Writing
Ellie Greenwich, the hitmaking songwriter of many of the most popular songs from the 60s, has died from complications from pneumonia. She was 68. The L.A. Times has the obituary:
Ellie Greenwich, the New York songwriter behind a string of 1960s hits that gave effervescent voice to unbridled teen romance including “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Chapel of Love” and “Be My Baby,” many of them in collaboration with producer Phil Spector, died Wednesday of a heart attack, according to her niece, Jessica Weiner.
“She was the greatest melody writer of all time,” Brian Wilson [of the Beach Boys] told The Times on Wednesday. The chief creative force of the Beach Boys, whose music was strongly influenced by many of the hits Greenwich and her husband Jeff Barry wrote with Spector, has often cited “Be My Baby” as his favorite record of all time.
*****
Their collaborations with Wall of Sound creator Spector are regarded among the greatest singles ever created. The music publishing rights organization Broadcast Music Inc. lists more than 200 songs she wrote or co-wrote, including “Then He Kissed Me” (the Crystals), “I Can Hear Music” (The Ronettes, Beach Boys), “Hanky Panky” (a hit for Tommy James & the Shondells), “Maybe I Know” (Lesley Gore) and the song Spector considered his greatest recording, “River Deep, Mountain High” (Ike and Tina Turner).
Ellie was an incredibly talented songwriter and the first female record producer. Our condolences to her family.
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Evangelical Myths
Post from The Burnside Writers Blog
Thursday, August 27, 2009, 11:38 pm
Read more: Writing
 A couple months ago I started watching the television show “Northern Exposure” on DVD. “Northern Exposure,” which ran for six seasons on CBS starting in 1990, is set in the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska. One of the most fascinating themes of this quirky, funny, and sometimes deeply moving series is the way Cicely’s white and Indian residents co-exist in community. One of my favorite episodes in Season Four depicts the Thanksgiving celebration, which in Cicely has taken on elements of El Día de los Muertos. Indians ambush whites on the street, pelting them with tomatoes – and then they hug, friends. The holiday culminates with a parade down main street with the Indians dressed as skeletons and spirits. Then everybody gathers at The Brick tavern for a community feast.
I’m in Season Five now, and an episode I watched yesterday corresponds nicely with something I’ve been struggling with re: “On the Narrow Road”, my upcoming “evangelical pilgrimage” across the country. A recurring character in the show’s later seasons is a local shaman (he prefers the job description “healer” to “medicine man”) named Leonard. Since he is taking on more white patients, Leonard decides to do some research. He sets up a table in the community center and invites whites to come in and tell him their legends. One white man tells Leonard the story of Paul Bunyan. “How often do you think about that story?” Leonard asks (I’m paraphrasing). The man replies, “Oh, I haven’t thought about that story in years.” Other whites tell him campfire stories like the one about the man with the hook. But these stories aren’t what Leonard had in mind. Toward the end of the episode, Leonard is talking with the white DJ of the local radio station. “I’ve failed, Chris,” Leonard says with a defeated sigh. “I’ve failed to locate the white collective unconscious.”
I laughed out loud.
I read somewhere recently that many pilgrims will prepare for their journey by studying the stories, legends, songs, and myths of the land and people they plan to visit. This is one way I want to prepare for my own pilgrimage through evangelical America. But I feel a little like Leonard in that episode of “Northern Exposure.” I have failed so far to locate American evangelicalism’s collective unconscious.
What are the guiding myths, so to speak, of American evangelicals? Do we look to stories of the Puritans and the Piligrims (speaking of Thanksgiving), or to a particular interpretation of America’s founding? Does the Left Behind series qualify? Those stories do act as a symbolic representation of a meaning system – the beliefs, assumptions, and organizing principles – of a great many people in this country. What about “The Purpose Driven Life” or books by James Dobson? My sociologist friend Matt suggested I may have to approach these questions from a regional perspective – reading Jerry Falwell, for example, to better understand evangelicals in Virginia.
None of these are particularly satisfying, and I am starting to wonder if I am looking for something that doesn’t exist. Is American evangelicalism so individualistic that the only guiding myth that matters to the average evangelical is his or her own testimony (conversion story)? If this is true, what are the consequences for the movement? What does it mean that we don’t have stories to bind us together?
What do you think? Do American evangelicals have guiding myths? Does the shortage of these stories (if in fact there is a shortage) say something about the individualistic nature of evangelicalism? or about its regional and denominational complexity? I’m lost in a morass of questions.
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I Hate The WGA Elections
Post from Lee Goldberg
Thursday, August 27, 2009, 10:50 pm
Read more: Writing
I hate it when we’re asked to vote for new WGA officers and board members. We get inundated with mails, each side attacking the other, and then we get that bulging election packet, with its candidate statements, candidate rebuttals, rebuttals…
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The Image of God in Ted…
Post from The Burnside Writers Blog
Thursday, August 27, 2009, 3:09 pm
Read more: Writing
 I remember, about a decade ago, interviewing for a ministry position and getting into a doctrinal discussion about the image of God in man, particularly debating the question of what extent the image of God resides in fallen humans. “None” was the right answer, according to the team across the table from me, steeped as they were in a strong reformed theology and doctrine of depravity. “Humanity lost any capacity at all to display the character of God when Adam aligned with Satan.”
There it is. Simple. “Cut and dried” as they say. They quote some passages from Romans 3 that talk about none who do good, and how our righteousness is as filthy rags. Yes. I understand. I went to seminary.
The problem with this, it seems to me, is that it fails to take into account the profound respect that God has for all humanity in Genesis 9 where God says that human life is valuable precisely because we are made “in His image” – all of us. Fallen? Yes, tragically so, as each of our lives testifies in various ways. Yet, it’s so often the case that, right there in the midst of our fallenness, we rise up for moments and align ourselves with God. Isn’t Mozart’s Requiem something that displays God’s image, in spite of the drinking, gambling, and womenizing that characterized the composer? To declare that no unregenerate person displays the image of God in the face of evidence to the contrary seems tantamount to offering a mathematical explanation regarding why it’s not raining while standing in the middle of a downpour; evidence to the contrary is everywhere, if we’ll just pay attention.
All of this is the backdrop for my contention that, among politicians, Edward Kennedy displayed the glory of God’s image more gloriously, and the tragedy of man’s falleness more tragically, than most politicians who’ve graced the pages of history with their exploits.
The tragedy is easy to see. Chappaquiddick stands at the top of a sizable list of improprieties, leaving us with, at the very least, severe question marks regarding judgement and moral character. Christians will excoriate him for his treatment of Justice Bjork and his views on abortion. All this is true.
But there’s another side to the man. In 1964 he was instrumental in passing the critical Civil Rights Act which has helped turn the ship of American history away from blatent racism towards egalitarianism. Kennedy’s Immigration Act of 1965 sought to give non Europeans some sense of reality for the words that are inscribed at Ellis Island: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free. If you’re a woman and you played high school sports, it’s because you had an advocate in Ted Kennedy. If you’re disabled, and you have access to major buildings and sidewalks in your city, it’s because of the efforts of Kennedy. If you’re a senior citizen living on fixed income and thus receiving “Meals on Wheels”, it’s because Kennedy went to bat for you.
A constant advocate for the downtrodden, marginalized, and weak, I can’t help but think of James definition of true religion when I think of Kennedy, which has to do with caring for widows and orphans in their distress.
You can argue the politics if you like, declaring the government shouldn’t care about racism, or gender equality, or health care, that the extent of their ‘intrusion’ should be to pave our roads and provide an army, leaving us to fend for ourselves with the rest of life. You can point to his failures. But what you can’t do is declare that he didn’t “give a damn” about the least of these. As the church has, in recent years awakened to her calling to care for those who can’t care for themselves, we’ve been reminded that caring for those on the margins is our calling precisely because such acts of mercy make the character of Christ visible.
Ted cared for the “least of these” and in so doing, displayed something of the image of God. This is not only a blessing, but a challenge. The challenge lies in our propensity to put black or white hats on everyone, presuming the unfallen to display only the character of Satan,and painting the saved in white because, as we like to say, we’re “clothed in Christ”.
It’s all a bit too convenient. Reality forces us to wrestle with the truths that Samaritans, homosexuals, and political liberals, all manifest compassion, sometimes more visibly than the “saved”. Maybe it’s time for a little humility on our part, and a little gratitude, and a little openness to the possibility that there are those in this world who’ve not yet been born again who, nonetheless, display Christ’s character at times. May we learn from them by their acts, and honor them.
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And they all lived happily ever after?
Post from Lasting Tribute
Thursday, August 27, 2009, 1:41 pm
Read more: Writing
Peter Pan and Wendy settle down to domestic bliss. The Ugly Duckling joins a support group. The Lord of the Flies boys all get along splendidly.These are among the happy endings proposed by Stephen Moss in the Guardian as he examines the unjust, tragic…
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‘Hall of Fame’ songwriter Ellie Greenwich has died
Post from Lasting Tribute
Thursday, August 27, 2009, 11:03 am
Read more: Writing
Ellie Greenwich, one of the most important figures in shaping pop music in the 1960s, has died at the age of 68.She was an in-demand songwriter whose credits included doo-wop and rock ’n’ roll classics such as Be My Baby (The Ronettes), Da Doo Ron …
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Portland Wins yet another Beer Game
Post from The Burnside Writers Blog
Thursday, August 27, 2009, 8:22 am
Read more: Writing
I almost titled this “Portland Ruins yet another Mid-Western Beer Drinker.” And I very well could have because that’s what it did. The greatest city in the Northwest ruined me. And I’m here tell about it. It’s a tragic tale. It really is.
I recently moved from Portland back home to Missouri. A drastic and brave move if you ask me. This place is a real bore sometimes. Not much is shaking in the Midwest. Portland looms large in my heart. But this is home and I’ll embrace it nonetheless (at least for a few more weeks…I’m leaving for China very soon if all the paper work goes through). But this place is special to me. It holds all the familiar quirks and smells that I’m used to. I can’t abandon it just yet.
Out on the town I leaned in and asked the hearty blonde haired waitress with exaggerated curls and spritz perfume what she had on her beer menu and she replied most mysteriously, “Bud Light, Budweiser, Miller Lite, Miller High Life, Miller Genuine Draft, Busch, Busch Light, Coors, Coors Light, Pabst etc… I scratched my head and asked, “Corona?” She shook her head and said, “No.”
I don’t remember what I drank that night, and no not because I drank too much, but because it was awful. I am baffled. I really am. How did frat-boy light-beer win the Midwest beer game? I don’t like it.
I am beginning to understand why most Christians in the Midwest demonize beer. Chalk it up, it’s a taboo ’round them here parts. But it can’t be because beer is evil. No, that’s foolishness. Drunkenness is evil. I believe we’ve ostracized beer in the Midwest because the only names that are known around here sound so much like Bud Light and Coors Light. If this is the case then I don’t blame you (Midwest) for your beer hating. I mean, you don’t know the other names. The better names. Here are a few . . . take notes: Deschutes, Widmer’s, BridgePort, McMenamins, Rogue, Full Sail, Henry Weinhard’s.
And I haven’t even scratched the surface. I told you I wasn’t a snob. Somebody else please fill-in the blanks. But I promise you won’t hate beer anymore. Or at least you’ll hate the right beer for the right reasons. Proper hate is good. I’ll let you hate Busch Light if you like Deschutes Black Butte Porter.
I cannot go back. I can’t possibly nurse a Miller Lite. And like that . . . Portland wins again.
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Dominick Dunne Dead at 83
Post from Writers Write
Thursday, August 27, 2009, 3:35 am
Read more: Writing
 Bestselling author Dominick Dunne has died after a long battle with bladder cancer, according to his son, Griffin Dunne.
Dunne — who joined Vanity Fair in 1984 as a contributing editor and was named special correspondent in 1993 — famously covered the trials of O. J. Simpson, the Menendez brothers, Michael Skakel, William Kennedy Smith, and Phil Spector, as well as the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. He wrote memorable profiles on numerous personalities, among them Imelda Marcos, Robert Mapplethorpe, Elizabeth Taylor, Claus von Bulow, Adnan Khashoggi, and Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. His monthly column provided a glimpse inside high society, and captivated readers.
His first article for the magazine appeared in March 1984 — an account of the trial of the man who murdered his daughter Dominique. Throughout his life, Dunne was a vocal advocate for victims’ rights.
Dominic’s last book, Too Much Money: A Novel, will be released by Random House in December. Our condolences to his family at this very sad time. You can read Dominick’s fascinating life story — how we went from war hero to studio head to bestselling author to victims’ rights advocate — at his website.
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Tom Wolfe Takes Aim at Fallen CEOs
Post from Writers Write
Wednesday, August 26, 2009, 9:00 pm
Read more: Writing
Tom Wolfe has a new short story in Vanity Fair magazine called “The Rich Have Feelings, Too, in which he channels the self-righteous anger of the CEOs who
have lost jobs and perks like private jets after the bottom fell out of the banking industry. Wolfe is very funny as he describes the absolute horror of having to fly commercial after being used to fly in private jets where the captain serves you drinks and obeys your every whim. Here is part of the narrator’s stream of consciousness thoughts about going through airports security:
… and inspected us up and down again before admitting us to what proved to be the inner coils of Hell … We found ourselves walking down a corridor with a disconcertingly slick surface made of some sort of synthetic concrete … After what seemed like a very long time we arrived at an open space — and the line from Inner Hell … It folded back upon itself, back upon itself, back upon itself, back upon itself so many times, it looked like Hell’s descending colon …
And it only gets worse from there. It’s most amusing and it’s free to read online. It’s nice to see that some writers are still getting paid to write fiction for major magazines. We’d almost forgotten what that was like.
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My Ted Kennedy biography
Post from Alex Wire
Wednesday, August 26, 2009, 8:42 pm
Read more: Writing
I write obituaries for a memorial website and penned one for Ted Kennedy about a year ago. Unfortunately due to a mix-up at editorial level it wasn’t used when news broke of his death last night. I hate to see work unpublished, so thought I’d put it up…
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