All things Scottish

I had grown quite tired of Belle and Sebastian, but my love and appreciation for them was resurrected this morning as I drove to school and listened closely to the lyrics of "We Rule The School" from Tigermilk. The best bits:
"Do something pretty while you can
Don't fall asleep
Skating a pirouette on ice is cool

Do something pretty while you can
Don't be a fool
Reading the Gospel to yourself is fine"

I also realized how much listening to these guys makes me long for Glasgow, my favorite city in the UK--a place both earthy and electric. My favorite aspect of Glasgow is the imprint that architect/designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh left on the place. Here he is:

Every time I visted that city (and I have been many times), I endeavored to see a different Mackintosh building. The highlights of all these sitings are definitely the library in the Glasgow School of Art and Design (Macintosh designed both the interior and exterior of the building--and they also have a lot of his furniture and paintings on display).
The library:

The front of the Art School (take a tour if at all possible):

My second favorite place is the music hall in the "House For an Art Lover":

**I hope to find a better photo of this later--I think I might have one somewhere.

Love, Love, Love The Man

My dear friend Lisa Short just sent me a link to this video and I am in love once again. The footage in this is brilliant--there is nothing better than the Elvis of the Fifties--the Rockabilly, pelvis-banned, ball of energy young Elvis. Can you get much cooler than this or, even better-- this?

Maybe some of my love for Elvis comes from my Memphis roots--and from the fact that my Mom was friends with him. I grew up hearing my grandmother exclaim, "Oh what a sweet boy!" whenever Elvis' name was mentioned. She actually hired him twice to play for a fundraiser in Forrest City, Arkansas. One day soon I want to formally interview my mother and grandmother about their Elvis experiences and post them here.
I also love thinking about Elvis not only as an icon not only of energy and style, but also as a symbol of a movement forward in American race relations (in fact, I gave my composition class a mini lecture on this the other day).
I have one question concerning Elvis' legacy that has always bothered me: why are Elvis impersonators always characterizing the 70's, tacky, fat, white Jump suited Elvis? I have never seen a sleek, twisting 1950's Elvis. Why?

Aaron Belz and Ectoplasm

I had a privilege of seeing my good friend Aaron Belz give a fantastic poetry reading last Thursday. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time (not at Aaron, but at the poems--okay, maybe a little bit at Aaron). I encourage you all to check out and purchase his new book (pictured above). You can take a look (it's searchable) and buy it here on Amazon.


Here is one of my favorites from the reading the other night:

The One About the Ectoplasm and the Osteoblast
Aaron Belz

Some ectoplasm sits next to an osteoblast
at a bar. The ectoplasm asks the osteoblast,
"Why do you form bones?" And the osteoblast
responds, "Why are you the outer relatively
rigid granule-free layer of the cytoplasm usually
held to be a gel reversibly convertible to a sol?"
And the ectoplasm is like, "Wow, that is such
an awkward question." And so the osteoblast
goes, "Seriously, why are you? I form bones
for the same reason." The bartender, an osteoclast,
asks them what they want to drink. The ectoplasm
asks him what he recommends that's on draft,
and he says the Dead Guy Ale, it's a fresh keg.
They both break into fits of laughter. "Oh my gosh!"
says the osteoblast, "Dead Guy is a German-style
Maibock that's deep honey in color with a malty
aroma, rich hearty flavor and a well balanced finish.
Now does that sound like the kind of beer we drink?"

Very Exciting!

Wow--long blog silence. Sorry. I have just been reading about the first full length study of Douglas Coupland--written by Lancaster University Professor Andrew Tate. I have known about this up and coming book for quite a while as Andrew was my external examiner for my PhD Viva. I am thrilled to finally be able to order a copy and read the whole thing!! Yipee!! You can read a bit about the new book on this guy's blog.

L'abri

L'abri, originally uploaded by dimbles7uk.

Just testing the "Blog This" feature on flckr. So, I am back from L'abri and ready (sort of) to begin teaching. Here is my favorite photo from Bill's time at L'abri--with Andrew Fellows.

Click in the above photos to see many more photos from this summer.
**The sweater that Bill is wearing in the photo has had an amazing, almost mystical short life. Bill, please share the sweater's tale with the Blog readers if you will!

Simone Weil and Blaise Pascal: Entry into "The Moment"

As mentioned before, the writings of both Simone Weil and Blaise Pascal have been very important to me of late. I think it fascinating to look here at the words they use to describe their initial and profound encounters with God--mystical experiences, "the fullness of the moment" as Kierkegaard says. Both of their accounts indicate instances of passivity on their part, testifying to the weight and glory of the experience, the Presence being forced upon them.
Simone Weil even claims that she was "possessed by Christ" while reading George Herbert's "Love". Weil, a thinker and activist who had no interest and perhaps little previous exposure to Christianity, was struck by the strange, unexpected reality of this "possession". She claims that:
"God in his mercy had prevented me from reading the mystics, so that it should be evident to me that I had not invented this absolutely unexpected contact."

Then she goes onto say some beautiful, fascinating, challenging, important things:

"Yet I still half refused, not my love but my intelligence. For it seemed to me certain, and I still think so today, that one can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of pure regard for the truth. Christ likes us to prefer truth to him because, before being Christ, he is truth. If one turns aside from him to go toward the truth, one will not go far before falling into his arms."
To read Weil's full account look here.
Pascal's famous close call with death/conversion moment beautifully coloured his life, writing, perspective until his death, when a piece of cloth detailing his encounter was found sewn onto the inside of his jacket. It said this:

"From about half past ten in the evening to about half an hour after midnight.
Fire.
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob.
Not the God of philosophers and scholars.
Absolute Certainty: Beyond reason. Joy. Peace.
Forgetfulness of the world and everything but God.
The world has not known Thee, but I have known Thee.
Joy! Joy! Joy! Tears of Joy!"

I wish I could say that the above photos were my own--they aren't. Kurt Simonson, professor of photography from Biola Univeristy, was just visiting L'abri and took many beautiful photos--these are a small sampling. To see more of his wonderful work look here.

It Makes Me Feel Schizometric

I am up in Newcastle for the week and watched Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep last night. Brilliant. For the first hour of the film I was delighted--it was was whimsical, creative, fresh--then the saturation of delight, fantasy, whimsy began to take its toll. The film became prfound, frightening, even tragic. I don't even know how to speak about it without giving too much away. But I can say that this is a rare film which enters the world of dreams in a very poignant, beautiful, yet frightening way--its creativity is astounding. But its accuracy is even more so. The main character, Stehane, lives inside his head--constantly between the moments of waking and sleeping. His dream world continually merges with "real" life, and he lives according to his most base, subconscious impulses, hs primal, childlike desires. This iability to edit the self, to tame one's deepest urges proves to be tragically isolating. Watch this film--let me know what you think.