19 May 2011

One thing I love about Netflix is how is causes me to watch something other than the usual mindless cinema that's generally forced down the throats of the American public. I watched this documentary yesterday called "Marwencol". It was definitely strange and left me feeling a little depressed in the end, but was it fantastic.

In the words of KPBS film critic Beth Accomando, "Recently we've had a spate of faux documentaries and films so wrapped up in their own cleverness that it's refreshing to have an old school documentary in which the filmmaker is more interested in his subject than in himself. Malmberg respects his subject and intrudes just enough to give us an amazing window to Hogancamp's world."

Check it out.

18 May 2011

I realize that the below post may be unnecessary, given that at least 50% of the people who read this blog with any regularity share the surname Pierce. But hey, maybe more people read my ramblings than I know of. And those people deserve to listen to some awesome music too.

Band press kits

15 May 2011

Been thinking about trying to write a worship song again. Inspired by the talk from our Encounter brainstorming sessions about "the rocks cry out". The idea that if we don't show up to praise, it doesn't mean God's going to go without. What I've got so far is a chorus, I think. It reads like this:


If I rise to praise You
If I fall down on my knees
It will not change who You are
No, Your worship's not dependent on me


These words were bouncing around in my head as I drove to church a couple weekends ago, so I wrote them down and stashed them away. Still not sure where I want to go from here, though. I'm thinking it would make sense if the other part of the song was all about God and didn't involve the words "me" or "I" at all. We could use more songs like that, I feel.

Anyway. That's what I was thinking about tonight. How about you?

11 May 2011

This topic has come up a couple times in the past few days. So I now present you with a little essay that I will title:

The Elimination of the Middle Class.

It used to be that there were distinct working classes in this country.

As always, you had your poor. Either poor because they aren't working at all - perhaps due to some sort of medical concern, perhaps due to laziness, perhaps due to some other unnamed variable. Or maybe they are working and just not making enough money to support the life or family they've got. The poor have always existed and will always exist as long as we live in a broken world. I'm pretty sure it's an inevitability.

Moving on from there, you had the middle class. These were the people who finished high school and maybe either went directly into the military or took up a trade or settled on some kind of boring, workaday factory job. Not illustrious by any stretch of the imagination, but functional. They had a car to drive, food on the table and a decent little house in the suburbs where they lived with their wife, 2.5 children and the family dog.

Then you had the upper class. The white collars. People who either by hard work (and higher education) or by the good grace of being born into a wealthy family lived very comfortably. They drove cars that were shinier, newer and bigger. They lived in houses that were more expansive, more nicely appointed. They were doctors, lawyers, politicians, professors. You know, things like that.

Our country maintained homeostasis. There were people to do all the jobs that needed doing and, for the most part, people were accepting (if not appreciative) of their place in the food chain.

Fast forward until present times, though, and you see a different picture. Now we tell our kids that if they don't go to college, they're never going to be worth anything. You need a degree to be a secretary or fix a car engine. Service jobs are the kinds of things that only the stupid people or illegal immigrants are good for.

Is it any wonder that so many companies outsource their factory work to other countries now? Sure, the labor is cheaper there, but they also have to deal with a country full of Americans who believe that they're too good to do menial tasks.

Am I against higher education? Not at all. Am I against higher education for the sake of higher education? Absolutely. If you have a goal in mind - maybe you want to be a doctor, or a chemist, or a professor - then by all means, learn away. Rack up a considerable amount of debt, but then get a job where you can pay that debt off. But this whole deal where kids go to college to figure out what they want to do with their lives? Rubbish. Either you know or you don't. So maybe you get a job pushing a broom for a year or two and in that time you have an epiphany and realize you were meant to be a dentist. Then you go to school with a goal in mind and some money in your pocket. Or maybe, just maybe, you discover that you're okay with pushing a broom. Maybe you find that you make enough money to live comfortably within your means and when you leave work for the day - you LEAVE work for the day. That doesn't make you stupid. That doesn't make you an underachiever. It makes you the same kind of average Joe that our country used to be filled with before we started becoming so full of our own virtue.

06 May 2011

Sleeping in two hour increments is dissatisfying. That is to say, those two hours are generally very good, deep sleep - but they often just leave me feeling a little fuzzy and in want of more.

I've one more night of work, then a somewhat busy weekend. But at least I can look forward to four nights in a row of sleeping in my own bed - with relatively little opportunity for the disruption of my circadian rhythm.

To sleep, perchance to dream....

04 May 2011

There is nothing new under the sun.

Isn't it funny how the old becomes new again? Several years ago, blogging was all the rage. Then, with the advent of Faceb**k, everyone seemed to transition to that venue. But now it seems the blog is making a resurgence. And I'm glad for it. Sure, it's still feeding into our disconnected world where we read about each other instead of actually sharing in each other's lives. But at least it's made up of well composed thoughts - not meaningless drivel like, "I think I'm going to have a sandwich for lunch today."

Blog on, friends. Use more words instead of less. Let me know what's going on in your head, not just what's on your agenda for the afternoon. And maybe, just maybe, sharing our thoughts in type will lead to sharing of our thoughts in words. Maybe instead of simply viewing peoples lives, we'll start becoming a functional part of them.

People talked to each other, once upon a time. Who knows - maybe it'll make a comeback?

02 May 2011

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. - John Donne


Images that outrage.














Somalia, 1993 - locals drag the body of the pilot of a downed Blackhawk helicopter through the streets of their town as others jump up an down on the rotor blades of same helicopter.






















Multiple Middle Eastern Nations, 2001 - Following the September 11th attacks on the U.S., images are repeatedly broadcast of large groups of people celebrating the loss of American lives while burning our flag.


I'm sure one could go on for hours recalling such vivid memories - but these are two that stand out most readily in my mind at this point in time. Events that surely made the blood of countless many boil and sickened the stomachs of countless more. And yet, as I sat watching the news at work last night, there were the images of a large crowd gathered outside of the White House. "USA! USA!" they chanted while holding signs boasting such clever slogans as, "Ding Dong - Bin Laden's Dead." And while they watched, I'm sure there was little sense of outrage in the hearts of most Americans. Why? Because "our team" won this time.
















Was Bin Laden's killing justified? Even necessary? I'm sure it's not a hard argument to make. But if we, who are so sickened by the celebration of death on foreign shores, are reduced to the same jubilation at the death of a man... are we any different than the ones who outrage us? It doesn't seem so in my mind.


Somewhere east of here people are watching that same news footage that I watched last night; and they are furious. They are no doubt making plans for how they can get vengeance for this outrageous behaviour. And so the circle will continue. Death for death. Righteous indignation for righteous indignation. One side will win, one side will lose. And in the end, we all will be the lesser for it.


The bell tolls for us all.