Robert

culture faith favorite highlighted noise saturday night video tech

  • Recontextualization

    When I heard that Starflyer 59 was releasing a new album hot on the heels of their critically acclaimed 2024 record Lust For Gold, I was a bit surprised. Once I dove further into the concept for the record, though, I began to understand why the band was able to put this out so quickly. This isn’t a collection of new songs, but rather a reimagining of previous material in a gently soporific, slumber-inducing format. I wasn’t sure about the premise, but I have to admit to being fond of the results.

    The collection comes off as very similar to the Lullaby Renditions of… series that came together almost two decades ago. The series took the songs of popular bands and recreated them in a format that sounded like lullabies. Tracks by Nirvana or Radiohead or even Led Zeppelin were transformed into something that you would hear coming from the plastic mobile rotating over an infant’s crib. If it sounds hokey, maybe it was a bit, but somehow it worked. We had the volume dedicated to The Cure and used to play it to get my oldest son to settle down when he was a baby. 

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  • A CGI Ape Takes To The Screen

    David Sims writes for The Atlantic about Better Man, the new Robbie Williams music biopic where the singer is depicted by a CGI ape.

    Why is he a primate? Better Man doesn’t ever explain—though in its trailer, Williams mentions feeling “less evolved” than everyone else—and none of the characters ever remarks on it. Instead, the meaning of the conceit is left in the hands of the audience. This decision is a baffling swerve for a celebrity biopic, one that will probably keep it from becoming an out-and-out sensation. But Better Man deserves to be treated as more than a strange curio: Despite the seemingly run-of-the-mill premise and the contrivance of the protagonist, it properly delves into its subject’s erratic persona, using the musical segments to advance the story instead of as mandatory breaks in the action. The result is one of the most thoughtfully constructed movies about a musician I’ve seen in years.

    It’s high concept stuff, for sure. I’m just not sure I could watch the movie without constantly feeling like it’s the spiritual successor to Dunston Checks In.

  • American Pharisaism

    I have wondered much that Christianity is not practiced by the very people who vouch for that wonderful conception of exemplary living. It appears that they are anxious to pass on their religion to all other races, but keep little of it for themselves.

    […]

    It is my personal belief, after thirty-five years experience of it, that there is no such thing as “Christian civilization.” I believe that Christianity and modern civilization are opposed and irreconcilable, and the spirit of Christianity and of our ancient religion is essentially the same.

    ~ Charles Alexander Eastman, whose American Indian name was Ohiyesa. Quoted by Paul Kingsnorth in his 2024 Erasmus Lecture.

    Via Intellectualoid

  • An Atheist Attends All Saints

    On December 22, 2024, I embarrassingly missed Divine Liturgy at my parish because I slept in. Jared Smith, a video blogging atheist who visits churches and audits them, did make it. He chronicled his visit on his YouTube channel and was highly complimentary.

    In his video, Smith explains the reasons he was impressed by the church, the tradition and our priest, Fr. David. He touches on some of the reasons I converted to Orthodoxy but I especially appreciated his kind words about Fr. David (all of which, I can assure you, were merited).

    An Atheist visits an ORTHODOX Church (YouTube)

  • Dell Charm

    Nick Heer from Pixel Envy points out that Dell hasn’t lost its branding charm. When configuring a laptop on the website, he got an error message, “Composite Rule Error: Invalid selection in Processor Branding.” He was further informed about the error:

    The Chassis Option requires the matching Memory size. The 16gb Memory is only available with the Ultra 5 236V/226V and Ultra 7 266V. The 32gb Memory is only available with the Ultra 5 238V and Ultra 7 268V.

    I have often marveled at the challenging model names that PC manufacturers give their products, which starkly contrast to those from Apple. Everyday people can remember the names of their Apple devices. Not so for most of what PC manufacturers come up with.

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  • The Revenge of Googie

    Five Points Car Wash sign via Davidag on Flickr

    Anna Kodé has a piece in the New York Times (gift article) about the early Space Age Googie style of architecture. The article is filled with eye candy and visual delights from the style, some prominent artifacts of which were still around when I was young. It brings a tremendous sense of nostalgia.

    Kodé examines why people now seems so attracted to buildings that were, just a few decades ago, disparaged as being garish.

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