“Worthy of What One Great Woman Should Have Written of Another”: Gaskell’s Life of Brontë

May 23rd, 2011

The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell My rating: 4 of 5 stars In my late teens, I read nearly every Charlotte Brontë biography in the cannon, except the most famous one: the one written by her friend, fellow author Elizabeth Gaskell. I skipped it for a few reasons. One, every contemporary biography essentially [...]

My Bookshelves Are Organized By Color

May 2nd, 2011

Thus, when I receive an email like this from my roommate, “Do you have any of these? Plato’s The Symposium Saint Augustine’s Confessions Thomas Aquinas Summa Contra Gentiles: God Rene Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy Immanuel Kant Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics If so, can i borrow them? b” My response turns out like this, [...]

There and Back Again: An Annual Journey

February 8th, 2011

For the third year in a row, I joined a faithful fellowship of travelers for a New Year’s Day Lord of the Rings Marathon. I love starting the year with this epic film journey. Sets a good precedent for the months to come. This year, two of our fellowship came equipped with swords. Yes, swords. [...]

Enchantment: Living in Magical Reality

February 4th, 2011

en·chant –verb (used with object) 1. to subject to magical influence; 2. to delight or captivate utterly; fascinate; charm; 3. to impart a magic quality or effect to; “Enchantment produces a Secondary World into which both designer and spectator can enter, to the satisfaction of their sense while they are inside.” –J.R.R Tolkien, ‘On Fairy [...]

A Blessing & A Prayer

December 9th, 2010

Today was the final day of BTI 501 Introduction to the Hermeneutical Task at MHGS where I had the honor and privilege of assisting Prof. Dwight Friesen these past four months. Here’s the benediction I offered the students at the end of their first term of graduate school. A Blessing A Prayer May you read [...]

NaNoWriMo A-Go-Go

November 5th, 2010

It’s National Novel Writing Month, and I’ve decided to take the plunge. Though the goal for NaNoWriMo participants is 50,000 words by November 30th, I’m approaching more from a discipline goal than a word goal: writing one hour a day at least five days a week. I want to try on a non-academic writing discipline, [...]

Received The Greatest Birthday Card Of My Life…

October 22nd, 2010

one of many favorite quotes from said card: “I love that you have the classical music knowledge of Frasier, the bar-tending skills of Sam Malone (actually, probably better), and most features of the life of Liz Lemon (I wanted to come up with another character from Cheers, but no dice. It’s still NBC though!).” oh [...]

Jet Bike Steve, Jimmy Fallon and Other Signs of our Changing Textual Identites

October 7th, 2010

In “Introduction to the Hermeneutical Task” today at MHGS, I got to lecture on some questions that have been buzzing in my brain for quite some time now. I am obsessively curious about and amazed by the changing role of text and author in a culture where, due to blogs and social media, we are [...]

When Good People Makes Bad Films

September 23rd, 2010

The critically acclaimed and greatly anticipated (by myself and Maryann) film “Me and Orson Welles” by Richard Linklater proved one of the biggest film disappointments since, well…it was one of the most colossal movie let-downs in recent memory. Since I find it ultimately undeserving of a review, here instead are quotes from mine and Maryann’s [...]

Oh How I’ll Miss His Elegant Handwriting

August 15th, 2010

Reunited for one magical summer (which is about to come to an end), Ian & I have been bar-brainstorming- both for cocktails, inventory, menus, everything. Basically, we need to open a bar together. We could call it popCULTURE and it could be a cocktail bar/dvd&comic book retail store. What do you think Ian? But for [...]