‘Run to the Woods’: Songs for an Appalachian Dystopian Narrative

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April 23rd, 2012

I tend to only use Pandora in situations where I can’t use iTunes, which then means I just try to recreate my finely honed playlists designed mostly for reading. So of course for re-reading The Hunger Games, I needed to create a portable station with which to read along. When I started plugging tracks from [...]

Posted in Books, Film, intertextuality, Music, Pop Culture, Psychology/Being Human, Quotes | 5 Comments »

Writing Papers for Fun & Amusement (and battling personal demons)

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March 9th, 2012

It’s been about a month since I presented my Harry Potter research at the 2012 Southwest/Texas Popular & American Culture Association’s conference. Per the growing trend in my life, I wrote the paper in order to address some personal questions. Some people make art installations; I write research papers. I’m learning to accept this about [...]

Posted in Books, Film, intertextuality, Pop Culture, Psychology/Being Human, Quotes, theology | 4 Comments »

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

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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 [...]

Posted in Anglophilia, Books, History, intertextuality, Quotes, theology | No Comments »

My Bookshelves Are Organized By Color

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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, [...]

Posted in Books, Lists, Quotes, The Seattle School/MHGS | 1 Comment »

There and Back Again: An Annual Journey

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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. [...]

Posted in Anglophilia, Books, Film, intertextuality, Lists, Quotes, Seattle | No Comments »

Enchantment: Living in Magical Reality

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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 [...]

Posted in Anglophilia, Art, Books, Film, Quotes, The Seattle School/MHGS, theology | 2 Comments »

A Blessing & A Prayer

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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 [...]

Posted in Art, Books, Bravery, Film, History, intertextuality, Lists, Psychology/Being Human, Quotes, Seattle, The Seattle School/MHGS, theology | 2 Comments »

NaNoWriMo A-Go-Go

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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, [...]

Posted in Books, Bravery, Poetry, Quotes | 4 Comments »

Received The Greatest Birthday Card Of My Life…

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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 [...]

Posted in Bartending, intertextuality, Lists, Quotes, Seattle, Television | No Comments »

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

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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 [...]

Posted in Cultural Shifts, History, intertextuality, Lists, Pop Culture, Quotes, Seattle, Television, The Seattle School/MHGS, The Universe, theology | 2 Comments »