Once upon a time there was sky lamp 1. Meanwhile, in another part of the city, a more primitive sky lamp lived alone, far from the parking lot, enduring the elements as best it could without the benefits of human companionship.

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This is not precisely in line with what I usually post here, but I couldn't pass this post up: 6 Freelancing Lessons from Tony Stark, aka "Iron Man."

First, let me encourage you to see the film--it's fantastic. Superb special effects, good character development, and witty dialog, with enough gutsy one-liners to make most guys want to run outside and fight the forces of evil with improvised weapons RIGHT NOW. Of course, it is a superhero movie, so if you're not ever so slightly a nerd at heart, you may not like it. Hey, your loss.

Second, as a freelance copywriter, this post is spot on for me. But truth to be told, you could make it pertain to accounting, composing, acting, church planting, you name it. So for an enjoyable reading experience, simply insert the pursuit of your choice in the appropriate places. Great imaginative perspective on what it takes to do something bravely and well.

Excerpt:

Embrace Publicity

"The truth is…I am Iron Man."

Tony Stark knows who he is and he isn’t afraid to tell a room full of reporters. If you want to be successful as a freelance writer, don’t be afraid to tell anyone and everyone what you do for a living. Carry business cards. Call potential clients. Send out query letters and proposals. Create your own web site and blog. Advertise in the local paper. Do whatever it takes to make sure that the people you want to do business with know who you are. Read the whole thing.

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Rumor has it that James McAvoy could be cast as Bilbo Baggins in the upcoming Hobbit movies. That's cool with me--McAvoy is a good actor, and can carry off that long-haired look that is prerequisite for all these Tolkien films. He did a superb job as Mr. Tumnus in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which convinces me he has what it takes to be a convincing Bilbo. The Tolkien-Lewis connection isn't bad either.

Another rumor is that Jack Black is in the running for the Baggins part. Please tell me no. No way does Black have the nuance or charm to pull off this part.

Also, if you haven't seen the transcripts of Peter Jackson's and Guillermo del Toro's recent chat with the media, they're pretty eye-opening.

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...From Lindsay. She gave the album an initial listen, and diagnosed it as "bad and trippy, weird and annoying." From where I'm standing, that sounds like a mixed review for Third, the first new album from Portishead in ten years.

"Weird" and "trippy" could be understood as denoting something uniquely compelling. The other half of the review, not so much. I haven't listened to this Portishead album yet, but I'll let you know when I do.

Anyone else want to weigh in?

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This review is long overdue, and the best I can do by way of penance is to cut to the chase and point to the best features of The Culturally Savvy Christian. Dick Staub's title is potentially pretentious, but he proves to be his own man, and elaborates on a very popular topic with a conversational voice that's original and very well-informed. Here's a quote that's a good summary of Staub's perspective:

I've spent a lot of time observing today's Christian enterprise. I see people obsessed with evangelism and discipleship, or passionate about the intellectual and artistic restoration of culture, or committed to engaging the culture politically. But for culturally savvy Christians, there is only on worthy obsession: God. Only God's deep spiritual, intelligent, creative presence in us will draw people to him. Only the presence of deeply well people will transform popular culture, and only by going deep in God can we be restored to deep wellness. - Dick Staub

The scope of The Culturally Savvy Christian was wider than I expected, as Straub's argument is that every serious believer should be "culturally savvy"--and that this entails much, much more than hipster cred. I was expecting something clever and stylishly trite, ala Relevant Magazine, but to my relief, Dick Staub surprised me. (An endorsement by N.T. Wright should probably have tipped me off.)

Staub goes beyond mere commentary to critique, integrate, and envision--and his vision is sweeping and compelling. Staub's perspective provides a deep spiritual grounding for cultural engagement and service. It's also loaded with the intriguing cultural references and insight you'd expect from a book with this title.

Staub effortlessly quotes the prophets and spokesmen of American culture, citing George Clooney, Orson Welles, Paris Hilton, Andy Warhol, Neil Postman, Carl Sandburg, Bruce Springsteen, Frederick Buechner, Napoleon Dynamite, Zero 7, Tom Cruise, Homer Simpson, David Kinnaman, Blaise Pascal, Francis Schaeffer, Alan Bloom, Leslie Newbigin, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Alan Wolfe, Maxim...and this is just in the first 40-some pages. (Some of my personal favorites like Bob Dylan, Wilco, C.S. Lewis, and Fyodor Dostoevsky appear later.)

Name-dropping does not an expert make, but Dick Staub's ability to synthesize the wildly diverse American zeitgeist is laudable. He uses his expertise to critique Christianity Lite, diagnose the sources of cultural vacuity, and convey a vision for strong, healthy, creative living--not knee-jerk consumption. Ultimately, The Culturally Savvy Christian is a good entry-level work for anyone wondering how the church should interact with culture today. But the book transcend its title, dealing with spiritual vitality and the way Jesus' character forms our stories and can heal us all.

** Staub brings together cultural and theological savvy, and the marriage is blissful. I award The Culturally Savvy Christian two of three stars--well worth your time.

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We're just now getting back up to normal life speed after a long weekend that involved a graduation bash, volleyball, multiple relatives visiting, and, of course, Kansas City's renowned Celebration at the Station.

Last I heard, there was an estimated 45,000 people there, sitting on the hill in front of the historic Union Station, and listening to the KC Symphony play patriotic melodies with the help of cannon and, eventually, fireworks.

We went with our friends Matt & Jessica. Aidan stayed home with his grandparents because large crowds give him the inexplicable desire to run like a manic soccer player screaming BALL! BALL! BALL! and asking strangers for licks of their ice cream cones. Asher accompanied us, however, and was absolutely unimpressed by the cannon fire and large explosions in the sky. I'm not even sure he blinked.

Watching fireworks with a symphonic soundtrack made us feel really sophisticated. You know, even more than usual.

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From Praval Singh comes this great post on the best Firefox extensions for blogging. I use quite a few of the extensions on this list, and discovered some new ones too. As Praval points out with graphs and data, Firefox is hands-down the browser you should be using if you read blogs or blog frequently yourself.

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You have to love the opening line of this KU recruiting article from KUSports.com...

The top four basketball players in the recruiting Class of 2009 — who all have Kansas University on their list of prospective schools — traveled to various AAU tournaments over the Memorial Day weekend. (emphasis mine)

...you have to love it if you're a Jayhawk basketball fan, that is. With blue-chippers everywhere putting Kansas on their top ten lists, the future is bright in Lawrence.

Pop quiz. Name the biggest event in this list: Winning a national NCAA championship, eating Kansas City bar-b-q, or playing a close football game with your border rival. What's that? Winning the national trophy, you say? Congrats, you are saner that the KC Star's Blair Kerkhoff!

As demonstrated in this article, Kerkhoff can't tell the difference between an interstate rivalry and a national title. With depth perception this bad, how does the man to get around town? When Kerkhoff wants to travel to the West coast, does he set off down State Line Road?

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According to Rivals.com, the Kansas Jayhawks have inked the nation's 2nd-best recruiting class (best in the Big 12) for the upcoming season. KUSports.com:

Kansas University’s seven-man basketball recruiting class of 2008 has been ranked No. 2 in the country by Rivals.com.

Rivals on Friday tapped UCLA’s class No. 1 following the Bruins’ end-of-the-week commitment from Dallas South Oak Cliff High center J’Mison Morgan.

KU’s class of Marcus and Markieff Morris, Travis Releford, Tyshawn Taylor, Quintrell Thomas, Mario Little and Tyrone Appleton was followed, in order, by Wake Forest, Louisville, Memphis, Ohio State, UConn, Florida State, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgetown, Alabama, Arizona, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Oregon, West Virginia, Washington, USC, Kentucky, Michigan State, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Xavier, Nevada, Duke, Georgia, Washington State and Cincinnati...

“Kansas might not have a marquee five-star recruit, but the Jayhawks are reloading after a national championship run with an impressively deep class and intriguingly diverse class,” Rivals.com analyst Jerry Meyer said.

Marcus Morris is ranked No. 29 overall and brother Markieff 50, followed by Releford (70), Taylor (77) and Thomas (150). Little is the No. 1-rated juco player and Appleton No. 3.

Watching the Jayhawks' enigmatic, seven-man class figure out their roles is going to be a major storyline this fall. With three post players and four perimeter players coming in, the current roster will have to compete for their minutes too, which will only help the team.

Bill Self has repeatedly said the incoming players are winners, and "better than people think," and I'm pretty convinced of Self's ability to recruit skill and toughness at this point. That said, other than a few proven starters (Cole Aldrich, Sherron Collins) I have no idea what we'll see on the court in Allen Field House come November.

UCLA should be feeling good, though. With the addition of some blue-chip players, maybe in 2009 the 'Ruins will make it to the Final Four showdown against KU that everyone was expecting this year.

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Thought I'd pimp some recent posts from my theology & church planting blog, including a couple book reviews, which will continue to proliferate over there:

A book review of Tim Challies' Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, guest post from Matt Maestas.
A book review of Intuitive Leadership by Tim Keel, guest post from Robbie Phillips.
My post on the church's relation to the creative arts and social activism.

In the near future, I'll start posting blow-by-blow church planting updates over there as well.

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DSC_0090
Originally uploaded by AjVan

Spelunking, in its urban form, includes exploring dark recesses under chairs. If you look closely, you can see the blue crystal football artifact that Asher unearthed in the background.

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From the Urban Explorers site:

We like to explore abandoned or unused buildings, structures, caves, tunnels, etc. Sometimes, we infiltrate occupied spaces which are ordinarily off-limits to the public.

Wherever we go, we take nothing and we break nothing. Sometimes we may move something, but then we replace it. We leave a site in the same condition that we found it.

Our motto is: "Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints."

Some locations are dangerous. There can be pollution or physical hazards. You could be injured. If you go on someone else's property without permission, you could be cited by the police or arrested. Nobody connected with this web site is advising you to do anything illegal or dangerous. If you do so, it is your choice, and you agree to take responsibility for your own actions.

Are you kidding me? A grown-up Mark Twain adventure club in my own back yard, and it's taken me this long to discover it? Anytime "explore," "infiltrate," "pictures," "hazards," "arrested," "illegal," and "dangerous" appear in the same job description, that objective really doesn't have a chance. It'll just have to resign itself to being a freaking great hobby.

Aidan and Asher have been tugging on my pants leg all morning with knives between their teeth, begging me to take them on the next Urban Explorers expedition. I wonder if there's a recommended minimum height...

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"Poohbishaw" and "The Boom Song" Emerge as Favorites


Aidan loves music and acts as a critic here; he's previously tagged acts like Feist, Innocence Mission, and Ben Folds in his acclaimed Fall 2007 list. Now I'm happy to report that his tastes have evolved somewhat to include artists with more range and emotional timbre.

"Poohbishaw" has been a hot topic around here for months, as Aidan would use it like a rev-your-engine exclamation when he was, for example, climbing over the back of the futon using minuscule holds he discovered with his fingertips or throwing blocks over our 2/3-height wall into the utility closet so that they banged against the hot water tank. Poohbishaw, Poohbishaw, Poohbishaw!

This was all the more intriguing because Lindsay and I didn't know which song Poohbishaw was a direct quotation from. Not until this morning, anyway, when Ben Harper's latest album, Lifeline was playing, and Aidan remarked coolly, "Man sing Poohbishaw song." Lindsay and I were ecstatic, WE'VE DISCOVERED THE POOHBISHAW SONG, YES! while Aidan just looked at us with a humorous, long-suffering expression, like, Your powers of comprehension are sadly limited, but then, you don't understand the joy of rubbing peanut butter in your hair either, so I have ceased to be surprised.

Briefly, we wondered where exactly "Poohbishaw" appeared in the lyrics of "Fight Outta You," then Aidan identified the line in question, and all became bright and shiningly crystal clear:

"I would rather take your punch than not give you a shot." So "Poohbishaw" is an unorthodox portmanteau--an entire line condensed into one word. "Smoke" and "fog" yield "smog," so Ben Harper's line here gives us "Poohbishaw," obviously. The consonants from "punch" and "shot" can be easily identified. So now that's cleared up. Here's the song. When you listen to it all this linguistic wrangling will become plain as day, I promise...



The other half of this post, which will only run a few sentences, involves "15 Step" from Radionhead's latest album, In Rainbows. "15 Step" has been identified as "The Boom Song," thanks to its ice-cold-cool, understated, ever-evolving rhythm section. Aidan likes his percussion, and has given Radiohead his stamp of approval based on the one song. Warning: Thom Yorke's dancing in this clip is borderline catatonic, so I wouldn't recommend watching if you're on strong pain meds or, you know, prone to react with panic to sudden, unpredictable movements. OK, ready, set...

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Sorta. After I finish my summer class in five weeks, we'll be able to celebrate with even more conviction.

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Everyone remembers that Paul Pierce starred as a Kansas Jayhawk, right? I'll never forget his baseline game, which he showcased even as a freshman: Paralyze the defender with a jab step and a deceptively little head nod--like you're thinking about tossing up a shot right there--then explode for the thunder dunk, frequently over a couple players. Go Boston. And go former Kansas All-Stars. Once a winner, always a winner!

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Lindsay and I went to see Iron Man as a graduation celebration thing, and that movie was spectacular. It was a classic case of having no expectations and being very well rewarded for not having them. As a study in contrasts, what I've been hearing about Prince Caspian makes me apprehensive about seeing the film.

As I geared up for the release, I knew the second Narnia film would be darker and more martial--as is C.S. Lewis' book. What I wasn't expecting was a sequel to the Lord of the Rings movies featuring talking animals... Here's some of the chatter I'm hearing.

Andrew Adamson is finally making the big epic fantasy battle movie that he really wanted to make the first time around, and his devotion to that vision holds Prince Caspian together and makes it a more consistent, and consistently entertaining, sort of film than Wardrobe was. But in steering the film closer to his own vision, Adamson steers it away from Lewis's, and so it loses some of the book's core spiritual themes. - Peter Chattaway

Prince Caspian, by the reasoning of Walden executives, no doubt needed to be a more mature movie or else run the risk of losing the newly-blossoming teenagers who saw the first one. Enter Prince Caspian—no longer the boy he is in the book, but now Ben Barnes, a one-dimensional, chiseled emblem of masculinity (also 27 years old in real life...) who speaks in a supposedly sexy Mediterranean accent—and we have something for the teenage girls. Now take Susan Pevensie (Anna Popplewell, 19 years old), make her look like she just beat Amy Winehouse in an eyeliner duel, and we have something for the teenage boys. - Timothy Zila

This Aslan was an absent, passive, weak figure who did not belong to the story. It seems that the Disney/Walden people, without the clear death-and-resurrection myth around which to center the plot, simply didn’t know what to do with Him. So they decided to write a new story, one about doubt and distance and only dreaming your faith is true. That story, they must have reasoned, is more relevant to today’s society. - Sørina Higgins

The film version of Narnia does Lewis justice to not try to capture his literary genius on film. It does better to focus on its own form (spectacularized summer blockbuster) and wow the audience with cinematic wonder, in the way Lewis wows us with his poetic literary whimsy. One might complain, for example, that the film transforms Susan into a Tarantino-esque killing machine, wielding a bow-and-arrow with Legolas-like tenacity. But this is a film, built around action, so it’s much better to have our heroine Susan smack-dab in the middle of it all rather than cheering from the off-camera sidelines. - Brett McCracken

All this is kind of disquieting. Then we have a few people saying that Prince Caspian, the movie, is better than Prince Caspian, the book--but I guess there are a handful of crackpots willing to jump on every bandwagon.

Seriously, I know Caspian wasn't Lewis' strongest Narnia book, but the idea of Andrew Adamson, WETA, and a boy-band Caspian outdoing Lewis is like a tag-team of midgets taking on the Incredible Hulk. On his worst day, Lewis is a better storyteller than anyone in Hollywood at this moment. But wait, am I being overly biased? Am I failing to give this very talented production crew a fair shake, or being snidely dismissive as I imply that the following two writers were on drugs when they wrote their reviews? Naaw. Anyway, here's the counter-perspective.

Prince Caspian was the second to be written in the series, and it’s rushed and thin... most of the book is occupied with the Pevensies’ struggle to cross mountains and rivers to get to him... When they finally meet Caspian there is a brief battle and a happy ending, and before you know it you’re running into the opening pages of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (a much better book). Prince Caspian, the movie, fixes all this. It knits a whole lot more story around that spare frame, and the plot gains traction while the characters gain complexity. The movie is just plain better than the book. - Frederica Matthews-Green

This is a splendid family film and a reminder that movie making is not a second class artistic cousin to literature. The acting is solid throughout. Peter in particular is much better in this film than the first. He is given a greater emotional range and handles it well. Caspian earned cries of delight from our nearly sixteen daughter . . . and the touch of romance in the film was welcome. We are all glad we will get to see Caspian more in the next film. - John Mark Reynolds

Any other opinions out there? When we make it to the theater, I'll post my take.

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Ever since he was about a year old, Aidan and I have performed morning coffee ceremonies together. A coffee ceremony is similar to a tea ceremony, except that it is less formal, more manly, involves getting ground coffee in your hair, and is frequently performed in your underwear. The last is due to the urgent nature of the coffee ceremony and the fact that it often takes place around 6 a.m.

Contrary to what I portray on the blog, Aidan is not allowed to drink coffee yet, because that would increase his already-remarkable powers of levitation to the point where he would not only steal bananas off the top of the frig, but would create murals with crayons on our ten-foot ceilings.

This morning, he made his latest attempt to rip off my cappuccino. I frothed some extra milk into microfoam on our Solis SL-70 espresso machine (SOLIS SL-70, SOLIS SL-70--don't you wish you had an espresso machine named after a lethal fighter jet?) and gave it to him in his dedicated "coffee" cup. He picked it up in both hands, slowly upended it like a frat boy draining a pint, and slammed it down on the coffee table. Then he started circling me, chanting, "More coffee in cup, more coffee in cup, more coffee in cup."

This was eerie and surreal for several reasons, not the least because Aidan was a spitting image of me, the way I usually behave anytime before 10 in the morning. I was like, OK, you really captured me there, how did you do that? Did your mom coach you? It was cool and scary to see a miniature of myself, circling at knee level, perfectly willing to present himself as a child beggar in order to procure more coffee.

And the funny thing is, he's not even on the juice yet, but he has grasped the fundamental importance of the entity, COFFEE, nonetheless. I am very, very proud.

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Reviews for Death Cab for Cutie's new album, Narrow Stairs, have begun to appear. They're solid, if not glowing. Here are a couple from Pitchfork and Patrol. Pitchfork:

Narrow Stairs, Death Cab's second album for Atlantic and sixth proper LP overall, is one of the darkest and most muscular in the band's discography, but they're still aiming for the same place: your heart. It's an album about growing and changing and becoming resigned to the fact that you'll never be truly content-- not even if you quit that day job, achieve your rock'n'roll dreams, and find yourself in a loving marriage. At times, the maturation feels forced; the more adventurous moments here are experimental only for such a high-profile group, and they don't play to Gibbard's sentimental, word-weighing strengths.

Patrol:

With the release of 2008’s Narrow Stairs DCFC flips the dial away from sugar pop, away from mainstream melodies, but unfortunately still fails to deliver a product that could be considered brilliant. You wouldn’t know that from the start of the album as the nearly 14-minute super-jam “Bixby Canyon Bridge”/“I Will Possess Your Heart” provides a harder, darker edge to anything that you’ve heard from Death Cab so far. Gibbard chants “you can’t see a dream” over swirling distortion that finally resolves into a screaming finale that closes with the whispered “No closer to any kind of truth/as I assume was the case with you.” This song provides the context for the pregnant introduction to “I Will Possess Your Heart” that puzzled/frustrated so many early listeners. You need the intro to recover from the finale and by the time that the song builds back up, you’re ready for another trip.

Life in the public eye isn't necessarily easy for a former indie darling, as proved by the latest grade cards (6 and 6.8 out of 10). But will that stop me from grabbing Narrow Stairs? Absolutely not. I think "sentimental, word-weighing strengths" (Pitchfork) is the best encapsulation of Ben Gibbard's abilities I've come across, and the band has that rare knack for creating melodies that are catchy/haunting.

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Ten Things I'll Miss About Grad School

That's Right, I'm Graduating Getting Out!

On Tuesday I took my last final for the semester, and this morning I missed the rehearsal for my graduation ceremony and spent an hour cruising up and down Kansas City's I-29 and US-71 and I-435 due to subtly deceptive directions. So it looks like things are pretty much on schedule for me to walk out of all this with a Masters degree tomorrow morning.

I'll take this moment to clarify something that people keep asking me about. My degree, the Master of Divinity, is an utterly comprehensive course of study that has prepared me for anything that life can throw at me. It also equips me to explain the sorry state of the world, and, if I feel like it, entitles me to tell you what to do with your life IN A HIGH DECIBEL VOICE! Ha ha!

In reality, it's a three-year theology degree, covering topics like Old & New Testament, Hebrew, Greek, Theology, Leadership, etc.--but to finish it in three years time you'd have to take 15.7 upper-level hours a semester, which would be a sign of mental neurosis, not enhanced intelligence. Just so you know, it took me four years, which means I'm fairly healthy, although a five year plan would have been an even better indicator. I walk tomorrow, but I won't officially graduate until I finish off one summer class, coming up in a week.

My experiences at Midwestern Baptist Seminary have been celebrated and satirized on the blog, and my classes have given me lots of theological brainfood. No educational experience is perfect, and getting my degree has felt like a bare-knuckle fistfight on an uphill, snow-covered road at times, but I'm happy I've invested these years. Therefore, now seems an appropriate time to introduce my latest Top Ten list...

Ten Things I'll Miss About Grad School

1. The awesome privilege of training my gray cells on the best ology of them all, in my opinion: the study of God himself. That's still a Wow.
2. Professors who went out of their way to make things work for me--like class schedules and make-up exams.
3. Professors who responded to my naive questions with humor and patience.
4. Drinking coffee and talking shop with other guys who like theology. We're kind of a rare breed.
5. Sitting down in the classroom with the possibility of meeting someone you'll still call a friend ten years down the road.
6. Writing essays on topics that intrigue me, like C.S. Lewis & the Atonement: Penal or Magical, Final or Gradual?
7. Meeting pastors and theologians who are worth emulating.
8. Meeting dead pastors and theologians who are worth emulating.
   
9. Getting a bigger picture of the world, the way Jesus is working in it, and the intricate networks of people that I'm privileged to tap into.
10. Gaining greater insight into my personality and character so I can grow.
    
11. Bonus: Getting a vision for doing good, hard things I've never done before.
    

Of course, there are things I won't miss too, like fluff essays, bubble living, bad books, patronizing lectures, and people who always suspect you're trying to get away with something (I promise, we didn't intentionally have the baby during midterms). Seminary has been rough but good for me, shown me tough love. I don't want to paint too rosy a picture. But ultimately, graduation is a time to consolidate your triumphs, right?

I've worked hard, played hurt, learned a lot, kept my family off the streets, and it's time to celebrate! Aside from the larger cranium, I'm coming out of school with a bunch of friends I would never have otherwise known and a substan