Bulletin Board of the Brain

2010 Pop Culture Conference Rundown

4 days, hundreds of professors, PhD/Grad/Undergraduate students and very short food breaks = the Southwest/Texas Popular and American Culture Association’s annual conference.

Ian Klein joined me in Albuquerque for another year of frying our brains with academic discourse on popular culture. We heard about 50 papers and drank a lot of smoothies. It was indescribably delightful.
Here’s [...]

Posted in Books, Cultural Shifts, Film, History, Lists, Mars Hill Graduate School, Pop Culture, Psychology/Being Human, Quotes, The Universe, intertextuality, theology | 3 Comments »

The Woman Buried Under the Words

Here’s a link to a paper I wrote that’s currently featured on Mars Hill Graduate School’s site for student and faculty writings. I can’t vouch too much for the the writing quality, but I can confidently say the topic is pretty amazing. Do you know about Junia, the first (mentioned) female apostle? If [...]

Posted in Cultural Shifts, History, Mars Hill Graduate School, theology | 3 Comments »

December is A List-Lover’s Favorite Time of Year

While I’m currently chained to my desk working on my last paper of 2009, due Monday dec 21st, i figured I’d encourage myself my posting my annual list of paper titles a little early, as proof to myself that I have indeed, on numerous occasions, actually completed the paper-writing process.

Seems like I wrote fewer papers [...]

Posted in Books, Cultural Shifts, Film, History, Lists, Mars Hill Graduate School, Music, Pop Culture, Psychology/Being Human, Uncategorized, intertextuality, theology | 4 Comments »

I’m Published In A Magazine! (ad)

If you happen to flip thorugh the latest issue of Relevant Magazine, you’ll find something that looks like a non-bifurcated version of this nestled into an article about the new face of homelessness, somewhere after the Matisyahu and Switchfoot interviews… (My ellipses are trying to connote irony, but about what, I’m not entirely sure).
MHGS marketing [...]

Posted in Books, Bravery, Cultural Shifts, History, Mars Hill Graduate School, Pop Culture, Quotes, Seattle, intertextuality, theatre, theology | 4 Comments »

Can I Just Clarify One Thing Real Quickly Here?

“…one of the problems with women taking full leadership is that it inevitably involves a collapsing of the distinctions between the sexes.”
–Thomas R. Schreiner in [...]

Posted in Books, Cultural Shifts, Quotes, theology | 5 Comments »

There’s A Whole Chapter On Cannibalism And I’m Not Sure Why

The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature by Leon R. Kass
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Kass’s philosophical exploration of the human need and habits around food, seems to depend largely on Western, modernist notions of self-perfection through progress. Kass appears to equate human civilization with virtue, (references to animals always being [...]

Posted in Books, Cultural Shifts, Psychology/Being Human | No Comments »

Tiny Movie Review: Autism: The Musical

Everyone watch this film
Right Now.

Posted in Bravery, Cultural Shifts, Film, Psychology/Being Human | 1 Comment »

The Criterion Caitlin

I don’t follow many non-friend Twitters. However, one of my non-friend Twitterers just twittered about my friend and basically blew my mind apart with awesomeness.
I follow The Criterion Collection and get updates on their film releases, etc. Like most non-uber-avant-garde-film-buff people, the only Criterion Collection films I own are by Wes Anderson, but [...]

Posted in Art, Cultural Shifts, Film, History, Pop Culture | No Comments »

Tiny TV Review: Mad Men

Confession- this isn’t really a review so much as knee-jerk response. I gave up watching the series after only 2 episodes. When asked why, this was my answer:
“Well- it just didn’t grab me, for one. The directing and pacing is really odd. And it seems way too amused by its cultural differences and historical [...]

Posted in Cultural Shifts, History, Pop Culture, Television | No Comments »

"A" is for "AHA!": The Scarlet Letter as Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Biggest Inside Joke

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
We all read it in eleventh grade. The language was dense, but we ached for Hester, hated Chillingworth and rooted for Dimmesdale. It all felt so dramatic and deep and dark, like moss on an old oak tree covering up secret messages [...]

Posted in Books, Bravery, Cultural Shifts, History, Psychology/Being Human | 1 Comment »