4 posts tagged “comedy”

I am happy to say that another semester is behind me and that my time away from blogging has ended. I will be posting again on a regular basis. Below is a list of things I learned in my nearly three weeks away from this space:

• I am badly out of shape. It is possible for me to be 5'11” and 140 lbs. and still be getting my Roker on. Justice O'Connor used to grill her engaged law clerks to make sure they were staying in shape for their significant others. I point this out only because I am starting to look like Justice Scalia. I have seven months. (Michael Scott says always leave them with an ultimatum.)
• After watching him in Spike Lee's Kobe Doin' Work, Kobe Bryant has convinced me that it is possible to possess enough talent to take all joy from its use.
• I'm pretty sure Damien Jurado is in my “Top Ten Artists of All Time” list. Watch the music video for “Caskets” from his new album. It feels a lot like There Will Be Blood, only happier.

• Somehow, the equation for a successful grad school semester has been discovered: me - free time - sleep + panic + prayer = straight A's. If I had figured that out sooner, I'd be a much better student. Still, this will come in handy when I start my thesis next semester.
• Star Trek is completely nerdy but still totally enthralling, in a generally awesome and still slightly embarrassing way.
• Aziz Ansari continues to be the funniest guy in the entertainment industry that looks like me. (Kal Penn is just too Indian, and Aladdin doesn't count, as he's a fictional cartoon character. I will accept, however, “that guy from Slumdog Millionaire” as a close second.)

• For the first time in a long time, I really felt like I worshiped while playing guitar on stage. Sometimes in life you have to use the E-Bow.
  
• The best Spurs blog on the internet is, like the organization it follows, highly accessible for its fans. I even got to write a post for it! This last season was great for Spurs fans, even considering the early playoff exit, and Graydon Gordian's blog had a lot to do with it.
  

Well, it's that time again. Finals are here, and I've got a pretty full plate over the next two weeks. For the two or three of you (and I know I'm reaching there) who read this, I'll be back in a few days. You know, when I'm not bombarded by 20+ page papers and exams over dead philosophers. If you're in school, too, good luck. Just a few more meters left in this race. Go summer!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is the first in a weekly collection of links I stumble across. I call it "The Buckshot" because I have been known on occasion to be a bit scatterbrained. I like pancakes. Wait, what was I saying? Oh yeah, here's the inaugural launch for the four or five of you reading this thing.

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• Following a breakfast conversation at La Bandera Molina: Is Facebook a sign of cultural regression? Is it “porn?” That last charge is debatable, I suppose, but one thing's for sure. When my mom and my future mother-in-law each have profiles, Facebook has officially jumped the shark.
• Speaking of sharks, I know of at least one example (albeit a visually confusing one) of great whites being prey to another species. Crazy stuff.
  
• Don't look now, but UTSA has a football team. Well, it will eventually, but we do have a real coach. And he's doing stuff.
• It's tempting to think that money can solve all problems. This is true in our personal lives and in the actions of the government. Africa is a great example. If there is to be a solution to the dangerous and pervasive instability in places like Zimbabwe, it will likely be a combination of foreign aid and sovereignty.
• Roger Scruton, one of my favorite authors, focuses his characteristically lucid analysis on the “new humanism”. (Oddly enough, this sort of evolved atheism would have been decried by Nietzsche as reactionary; in the ultimate irony, the expounder of modern atheism has become the prophet of its inherent weaknesses.) A particularly brilliant passage:
  

Like so many modern ideologies, the new humanism seeks to define itself through what it is against rather than what it is for. It is for nothing, or at any rate for nothing in particular. Ever since the Enlightenment there has been a tendency to adopt this negative approach to the human condition, rather than to live out the exacting demands of the Enlightenment morality, which tells us to take responsibility for ourselves and to cease our sniveling. Having shaken off their shackles and discovered that they have not obtained contentment, human beings have a lamentable tendency to believe that they are victims of some alien force, be it aristocracy, the bourgeoisie, capitalism, the priesthood, or simply the belief in God. And the feeling arises that they need only destroy this alien force, and happiness will be served up on a plate, in a garden of pleasures. That, in my view, is why the Enlightenment, which promised the reign of freedom and justice, issued in an unending series of wars.

• Is capitalism dead? One argument is that the people who think Adam Smith was wrong seem to make the same mistake as the people who destroyed capitalism's reputation in the first place. They read The Wealth of Nations and forgot to look over Theory of Moral Sentiments. The system always depended on a sort of enforced, or guided, reciprocity. Apparently, we got all of the system and none of the theory.
• Speaking of capitalism, this is what it might look like when our budget deficit reaches its logical conclusion. This, too. (I heart The Onion. ...And I can't believe I just typed “I heart.”)
• The Spurs are a classy organization. Everybody knows this. David Robinson's recent entry into the Hall of Fame, for example, is merely a formality. In our minds, he's always been there. Another great thing about the Spurs organization: they apparently know how to win on the cheap. Um...duh.
• And speaking of Spurs and winning, what happened? Should we be hitting the panic button? I'm not ready to go there yet, but I'm close. Right now, I am not very confident about our squad heading into the playoffs, and without a solid rotation, a run against LA feels like an inevitable disappointment. Knicks Coach Mike D'antoni knows the feeling.
• As a music-obsessive, I can get into pretty heated debates over tastes. (Ask Kyle about our Kings of Leon discussion.) You can imagine how convicting this was. Bob Kauflin's blog, Worship Matters, is also an excellent resource, and he recently wrote a great piece about what makes a great Christian musician. He even includes a PDF of his notes from the presentation. Nice.
• The “60/60 Experiment” at our church is over. It went really well, and the Bible study I go to is primed for another great discussion. Here's what we're doing next. The best part about it: free copies of the book and study guide (in PDFs)!
• I recently discovered the work of Kevin De Young. As a pastor, he has that great and rare quality of not shying away from difficult theological questions but embracing these debates in love and a deep knowledge of scripture. This brief analysis of doctrine is a great example.
• Going to the movies this weekend? What are you going to see? Adventureland? Fast and Furious? Gigantic? This guy has another suggestion.

This. Is. Hilarious. Check out FrontPageFilms. Most of it is PG-13-ish. I promise.