impermanence
evil’s event horizon
I. To Hell With It Coming from a religious background largely influenced by Buddhism in recent years, the concept of an eternal hell has been, for me, one of the most difficult to swallow during my recent return to my childhood Christian faith (albeit via the Eastern Orthodox Church, rather than the Catholic Church I... »
the revolutionary spirit\/\/fast cheap and out of control
The only thing that performance studies scholars can agree on when they talk about performance seems to be that “performance” is an essentially contested concept. The fact that we can call just about any action a performance can lead to some pretty stupid conversations. Are you performing when you’re asleep? Who gives a flying... »
iconostasis
“It is impossible to spend the coming day in faith if we do not think of it as the last day of our life.” ~ St John Climacus I. A small blob of light in the distance bounces delicately back and forth. It comes slowly into focus, as though you’re just coming to after having... »
a word from our silence
“The Logos became man, so that man might become Logos.” ~ The Philokalia, Vol. I, p. 156. I. We humans are creatures of comfort, and that applies no less to our purchasing choices than to our desire for warmth, food, and a roof over our heads. Enter the brand: the staple of a commercial and high-tech civilization.... »
pink kitten\/\/xoxo andy z
There once was a man named kitten. His cute name belied his usually negative disposition while his usually negative disposition belied his sincerity, friendship, and general amiability. It has been years since kitten and I last spoke, and though we will never speak again, at least not in person, kitten has left an indelible... »
commodity fetishism gone right \/\/ consumerism in the age of cyber mud-slinging
“I don’t know the percentage of the internet that’s valid, do you? Jesus, it’s scary.” — Hunter S. Thompson It’s difficult to pin down the spirit of the times when there’s simply so much information and stimulation at our fingertips. The cultural movements that once defined generations have managed to fragment into a dizzying array... »
sinatra \/\/ my way
Back in the primeval days of lumbering desktop PCs and peer-to-peer file sharing, I trolled my shallow pools for free music. These were the good old college days, when I’d put Cee-Lo’s “Closet Freak” up to full volume before combining forces with the fellas on my dorm floor to find a filthy party on... »
what comes out of oneself defiles oneself
The Tower of Babel, we are told, was a monument to mankind's hubris in thinking Heaven could be taken by an act of architecture. In a mythical age devoid of scientific philosophy, the Tower of Babel was what passed in that time for the Ontological Argument, a formal proof attempting to locate God at... »
sh*ttalkers \/\/ a thumbnail poetics
I’ve been thinking lately on the subject of poetry contests, trying to figure out the ancestry of poetry slams (shouts to Bob Holman and his Bowery Poetry Club for many a fine evening), and literary magazine competitions (no one here to really shout out, and would they be listening). I guess I wonder about Tyler’s... »
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