Global Warming Skeptics Unite

I'm weary of defending my position (and intelligence) regarding my skepticism of man-made global warming.  Thankfully, this article might help show my fellow doubters and I aren't completely stupid.  

Our perspective tends to be limited to our lifespan.  Younger generations are growing up with global warming hysteria and accept it as fact. However I remember hearing the same hysteria in our media and science magazines over "Global Cooling" and the coming of the next "Ice Age".   Ours is a cyclical universe. . .

(VERY) Brief Film Reviews

I have a huge weakness for "bargain books".  Put a clearance sign over a bin of books and I'm there.  That weakness has garnered me a few duds, but also an interesting read or two.  While strolling through the Dollar Tree (of all places), I came across a little black book entitled, "Four Word Film Reviews."  I glanced through, chuckled a little, and determined it was worth a buck.

These little pithy reviews are consistently witty.  Here's just a same of the book's offerings:
The Bourne Identity - "One Bourne, many die."
The Dark Knight - "An unbalanced Ledger."
Pirates of the Caribbean - "High-seas dead people."
Saw - "Survival of de-footist."
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings - "Hobbit gains elf-respect."

Now, I'm hooked.  I find myself trying to come up with four-word reviews for films I watch.  Here are a few of my attempts:

Avengers - "Assembly required."
Thor - "Hammering worlds together."
Green Hornet - "Where's the bug spray?"

It's a great exercise in keeping your writing concise and still complete.

With Eric Church, I'm an Agnostic

Country Music has a new feud on its hands.  Eric Church (Smoke a little Smoke,  Springsteen) has raised eyebrows and some hackles with his interview in the current Rolling Stone magazine.  Church took issuewith talent shows such as American Idol and The Voice:

 "Honestly, if Blake Shelton and Cee Lo Green f--king turn around in a red chair, you got a deal? That’s crazy," says Church. "I don’t know what would make an art­ist do that. You're not an artist."  But he didn’t stop there, “Once your career becomes about some­thing other than the music, then that's what it is.   I'll never make that mistake. I don't care if I starve."        

Miranda Lambert, wife of Blake Shelton and herself a product of Nashville Star, took to Twitter: "Thanks Eric Church for saying I'm not a real artist. Or Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban.  You’re welcome for the tour in 2010"  [Church opened for Lambert during the tour.]  For his part, the usually outrageous tweeter Shelton kept it short and sweet with a link to the interview and the comment, “I wish I misunderstood this…”

To no one’s surprise, an apology (to Lambert if not Shelton) was quickly issued:

The comment I made to Rolling Stone was part of a larger commentary on these types of reality television shows and the perception they create, not the artists involved with the shows themselves. The shows make it appear that artists can shortcut their way to success. There are a lot of artists due to their own perseverance that have gone on to be successful after appearing on these shows, but the real obstacles come after the cameras stop rolling. Every artist has to follow up television appearances with dedication towards their craft, but these shows tend to gloss over that part and make it seem like you can be ordained into stardom."

When it comes to Church’s clarification, call me an agnostic.  I can’t help but believe there’s more going on here than just a rift between a commercial star and an “artist.” 

Growing up in North Carolina, Church began singing as a child and was writing songs by age 13.  By his senior year in high school, the self-taught singer-songwriter was playing gigs in rough bars.   While playing the bar scene with his band, “Mountain Boys,” Church also managed to graduate from Appalachian State college with, notably, a degree in marketing.  After college, church moved to Nashville to pursue a career in the music industry.  A year later, he had a song-publishing deal and began having his songs recorded by other artists.  Eventually he was signed by Capital Records and his debut album came out in 2006.  His sophomore effort in 2009 would result in a gold album.

The current issue of American Songwriter quotes Church on his rocky road to stardom:

"Man, if anyone knew the path that we've been on, no one in their right mind would ever try to duplicate it. That's something Nashville always tries to do, though," Church says. "If something is successful, they try to repeat it by telling other people, 'Hey, do what that guy did.'" But Church doesn't agree it always works like that. The way it works, he thinks, is by being the first one to cut a path. "It's always the roughest path, but I think it's got the most reward at the end." He also talks about how record label people are not the industry experts -- the fans are -- when he says, "You figure out that the real experts are out there in front of you every night."

 This is where my agnosticism regarding Eric Church comes into play.  He decries Nashville music executives telling singers, “Hey, do what that guy did” and yet he is dismissive and critical of singers who choose different paths.  In fact, he tells them, “You’re not an artist.”  

It was 16 years from his senior year in high school (1995) to his gold album in 2011.    I can see where the sudden success of Carrie Underwood or other reality-show winners might get under Church’s skin.  However, the paradigm of a singer’s route to success, by paying dues performing in small bars or clubs that was the norm in days gone by, has to be updated to fit the current reality of a myriad of cable shows, social media, YouTube, etc.  The paths to stardom are plenteous in the 21^st century and should not be denigrated because they have moved beyond 20^th century means.  In fact, it’s interesting to note while Church may have played some rough gigs on his way up to stardom, his move to Nashville was financed by his father.  Some would argue that his father’s financial backing represented one of those despised shortcuts which he used on his way to success.

Envy is a destructive force and an ugly attribute.  Rather than worrying about how someone else succeeds, perhaps Church should stick to working on his career.   Sometimes the less talented singer has more success than the more talented singer.  Ecclesiastes tells us to expect this:  The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of  under-standing ,nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. 

However, I don’t believe the real issue here is American Idol, The Voice or Nashville Star.  My skepticism is rooted in his degree in marketing.  Rascal Flatts took him on tour in 2006, the year his 1^st album released.  He was kicked off the tour for playing too long.  This wasn’t a matter of an established group not wanting to be outshone; it was a matter of money.  He had a contractually-limited set time.  By playing long, he caused the rest of the show to go long and Rascal Flatts was assessed fines from the various concert arenas.   Viewing the rules as not applying to you and antagonizing peers will net some press coverage.  Apparently when you’re a new artist fighting for attention, any publicity is good publicity as long as they spell your name correctly.  Now on his first headlining tour, promoting his third album, Church has once again picked a fight.   I see a pattern here.  I see the cultivating of a persona, an image. 

His outlaw image was also addressed in the recent American Songwriter interview:

People have been calling you an outlaw. Is that an image you’ve tried to create for yourself?

Oh god. No! Not at all. I think we get thrown into that category because of our career path. For a long time, it wasn’t cool to play the kind of music we did. It wasn’t cool to talk about what we talked about. We were pariahs, and when we got fired from the Rascal Flatts tour, we were troublemakers. I think that’s where the outlaw name comes from, but I prefer to think there’s already been an outlaw movement, and I think we can leave it at that. I’m not into branding what we do, because that just sensationalizes things, when it should be about the music.

Yet a quick check of Eric Church’s website finds a whole page dedicated to “Outlaw” branding, with a brand new “Outlaw T-Shirt” now available for sale in the online store.

I’m not alone in my skepticism of the authenticity of Church’s concern for country music and new artists.  This blog excerpt is from 2010:

“[Eric Church] takes it a step further. His particular Madison Avenue-style marketing scheme involves him being an “outcast,” not giving a damn what anybody thinks about him and doing it his own way. So in every interview he does, he’s swerving all over the place, bumping into people, trying to start fights and bitching about “critics” of his music. Problem is these critics’ existence is questionable at best, and nobody but his fans are buying his bad boy brand. Nonetheless he perseveres, tilting at windmills to preserve this overthought Outlaw image.”

When asked about his rowdy shows, Church replied, “It’s a rowdy show for a rowdy crowd, and just because we’ve had some success in recent years, that doesn’t mean we’re gonna make the show tame. If anything, we’re gonna step on it harder.”

For the singer-songwriter with a marketing degree, it apparently means stepping in it harder as well if it keeps his name in the press.

Hospitality Commands

I recently reread Alexander Strauch's The Hospitality Commands. I had forgotten what a helpful and convicting booklet this was. Strauch begins his book by walking us through a quick history lesson on the lives of Christians as described in the New Testament. He shows hospitality was an absolutely integral part of the early church, to the point of it being a defining characteristic of these first believers.

Scripture describes the relationship between Christians in familial terms. In fact, the terms brethren, brother or sister occur some 250 times in the New Testament, particularly in Paul's letters. Home is where familial relationships are built. Martin Luther's Table Talk is a compilation of just that - talks around his table recorded by his students and guests. Luther and his wife were known for their generous and frequently-extended hospitality. Sharing a meal, eating together, is an intimate activity.

Strauch says, "Unless we open the doors of our homes to one another, the reality of the local church as a close-knit family of loving brothers and sisters is only a theory...We cannot know or grow close to our brothers and sisters meeting for an hour and fifteen minutes a week with a large group in a church sanctuary."

Homes are natural places for the spread of the Gospel. I'll never forget hearing Chuck Swindoll repeat this quote on one of his radio shows, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." Opening their homes to others has been a hallmark of Christianity since the beginning. Just think about the homes of Aquila and Priscilla or the home of Martha. We have the scriptural examples of Cornelius and Matthew opening their homes for the purpose of spreading the Gospel. Inviting visitors into your home (or out for a meal if the budget allows) shows loving concern and can be a more effective means of evangelism than all the talking in the world.

Showing hospitality provides us with more than just evangelistic opportunities. It lets us put the solitary in families (Psalm 68:6). We have the opportunity to give our singles experience with what a Christian home looks like, how a Christian husband and wife interact, and how Christian parenting is done (albeit all imperfectly). We have the opportunity to show "pure and undefiled religion" by caring for our senior adults (James 1:27) through the sharing of meals and fellowship. When we host visiting college kids, traveling Christians or missionaries, and others in our homes, it gives our families glimpses into their lives and callings that others may never see. When we help God's messengers, we become partners in their work (I John 8). Finally, we can't forget it gives us the opportunity to play host to angels (Hebrews 13:2)!

An experience in my 20s has had a lasting impact on my life. It was the summer after I graduated from college. I decided to delay starting a career until the fall to participate in my denomination's summer missions program and spend ten weeks in the American Southwest working with local churches. One week was spent in a home that could have come straight from the pages of Architectural Digest. The house was stunning, but I always felt I was an intrusion upon them.

Another week, I spent a week with a family who shared from their poverty, not their wealth. The home was humble and the conditions were, at times, downright challenging. I confess several mornings I woke up grumbling. My hosts were consistently warm and welcoming. When we left, this loving family gave my partner and me gifts. From observation, they didn't have the extra funds to do this. It brought me to tears. I have never forgotten that lesson on gracious, truly Christian hospitality.

Let me make myself clear: What differentiated these two families was not their socioeconomic levels; it was their love and concern for guests.

If we are going to practice hospitality, we have to plan to practice hospitality. Set a regular time each week or month to have people over for a meal. If you don't plan, typically you won't do because life will get in the way. Plan ahead simple (and budget-appropriate) meals. Remember, beans and franks, when freely shared, is showing hospitality. If you have an extra room or your kids could be persuaded to bunk up for a night or two, host a visiting missionary or traveling Christian.

Sometimes the scariest thing about having strangers or new acquaintances in our home is the fear of running out of things to talk about! Be interested in people's lives. Ask questions. If we're honest, we all love to talk about ourselves and our families.

It was a tradition after communion in the church of my youth to sing, "Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above." That blessed tie is developed and strengthened around the dinner table.

Book Review: Wordsmithy by Douglas Wilson

"Interesting people are interested people." If I had stopped reading on page 23, this quote would have made the book worthwhile. Staying engaged in life and culture is a must if you are to presume to have anything relevant to say. Douglas Wilson has lots of pithy quotes and admonitions for writers, and those of us who aspire to be called writers, in his book, Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life.

I was disabused of the notion my vocabulary was sufficient several times while reading Wordsmithy. Wilson's use of uncommon words or foreign languages phrases was not for pretension's sake, but rather to underscore his point that if we wish to be writers, we have to view words as our tools. Wilson encourages writers and would-be writers to keep a notebook handy to jot down an interesting word or turn of phrase that pops out at you while living a real life. "Words are the bricks with which you build. Buy the bricks before starting on the wall." (pg 104). Having a record of notable quotes is also recommended. Sad to say, some of my favorite quotes are not from classic novels, but from romantic comedies such as Under the Tuscan Sun ("Regrets are a waste of time. They're the past crippling you in the present."). [Maybe I'd better get busy expanding my notebook. . . ]

Wilson especially stresses living a real life - as in living in the real world. This is not the trendy call to authenticity that is all the rage today, which Wilson skewers delightfully:

One of our great problems today is that we have gotten caught up in our culture-wide quest for authenticity. We want our jeans authentic (pre-ripped at the factory), we want our apples authentic (grown locally instead of somewhere else), we want our music authentic (underground bands nobody ever heard of), we want our lettuce authentic (organically manured), we want our literature authentic (full of angst), we want our movies authentic (subtitles), we want our coffee tables authentic (purchased from a genuine peasant while we were on some eco-tour). . . This quest for authenticity, in its current configuration, is actually a quest to feel superior to other people, and because everybody has gotten in on this very attractive proposition, this presents a considerable marketing challenge.

Wilson's book is a book of 7s - seven chapters with seven subpoints in each. The advice is practical, the style is rather playful, and the suggested reading lists made me want to run to my local library immediately [always library first, Amazon second. Frugality reigns!]. He also advises writers to stretch their boundaries. Attempt writing forms and styles which are beyond your comfort zone. So, in that spirit, I'll conclude with my attempt at one of the forms Wilson mentioned, a clerihew:

Douglas Wilson writes on writing

Of all the errors that need righting.

On bon mots and clerihews,

on writing don'ts and writing do's.

Book Review - The Tipping Point: How Little Changes Can Make a Big Difference

Pop sociology at best, shallow science at worst, Malcolm Gladwell nevertheless had me rapidly flipping the pages of this now 10-year-old book. The phrase Tipping Point "comes from the world of epidemiology. It's the name given to that moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass." The book looks at products, societal changes, a certain Revolutionary War event and more through this prism. What made each go viral, become infectious, as it were? What creates a fad? A trend? A phenomenon? Is the importance of word of mouth dependent upon from whose mouth the word proceeds? Can ideas, products and behaviors become infectious?

Gladwell theorizes, "The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts." He asserts it requires three types of people: Connectors, highly social with a huge Rolodex of contacts usually crossing several socioeconomic levels; Mavens, who devour Consumer Reports and actually read the product manuals and who relish passing on their knowledge; and, finally, Salesmen, the persuaders who convince the general populace to act on their recommendations. At times, one or more of these 3 personality types may exist in one person, which may explain why Paul Revere is a household name while another midnight rider, William Dawes, is not.

Gladwell presents the story of Paul Revere in light of his Tipping Point thesis. Revere was very integrated in many communities and knew the movers and shakers across socioeconomic lines (Connector). He had a reputation as being in the know (Maven) an, as evidenced by the response his alarm generated, was persuasive (Salesman). Gladwell describes the latter as personified by a person he meets: "He seems to ahve some indefinable trait, something powerful and contagious and irresistible that goes beyond that comes out of his mouth, that makes people who meet him what to agree with him. It's energy. It's enthusiasm. It's charm. It's likability. It's all those things and yet something more."

What causes rapid, dramatic changes in the market or society? According to Gladwell, it's the Context (the situational environment), the Idea and its "stickiness" (has to resonate) and the People involved (Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen). He believes when an idea reaches key people in the appropriate context, dramatic change can occur.

The book reviews the near demise and subsequent rebirth of the Hushpuppies brand of shoes. Prior to 1994, sales were down to 30,000 pairs and the brand was in trouble. Then the sales went to 430,000 and in 1995 they were 4 x that amount! What happened? Gladwell presents the difference between a brand being phased out and explosive growth as individuals in the fashion forward New York neighborhoods of Greenwich Village and Soho began picking up the shoes in consignment shops. Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi and others were spotted wearing the shoes. Soon the shoes were featured in fashion shows presenting designers' new lines. Suddenly everything old is new again and Hushpuppies became de rigueur for wannabee fashionistas. Gladwell recognizes we have trouble accepting these types of epidemics in terms of geometric progression because the end results seem far out of proportion to the cause.

New York City's drastic decline in crime is given the Tipping Point treatment. This is where a lot of the book's critics takes aim. Some of his assertions may be overly broad, but I did find his Broken Window theory discussion interesting. (In a nutshell - when broken windows aren't repaired in a neighborhood, it gives off a sense of apathy and the criminal element feels free to act believing no one will care enough to do anything about it.)

Some of Gladwell's claims do seem questionable, at times he makes rather large leaps, and his evolutionary perspective made me groin, but he redeems himself somewhat when discussing such drastic changes as the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood going rapidly from a modestly successful book to a blockbuster bestseller or of the success of children's programming such as Sesame Street or Blues Clues.

Flawed but fun, The Tipping Point made me incredibly curious about the genesis of recent trends and bestsellers. If books like Freakonomics fascinate you or you are interested in marketing and haven't yet devoured it, The Tipping Point will be an interesting and quick read.

Whitney Houston: A Lesson on Addiction

Whitney Houston's debut album was the soundtrack of my summer in 1985. Along with about every other girl in her teens and twenties, I sang Saving All My Love into an imaginary microphone. I played her follow-up album and danced my heart out to I Wanna Dance with Somebody. The vocals soared and the melodies were infectious. She was incredibly talented.

Watching Whitney's character fall for Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard, I almost believed he was sexy (almost). Hearing her sing, I Will Always Love You inexplicably brought me to tears each time. I had loved the Dolly Parton song for years, but Whitney transformed it into something completely new. She was amazing.

Bobby Brown had three children by two different women and a rumored history of drug use before Whitney married him in 1987. Like a lot of her fans, I wondered what the daughter of a gospel singer who had grown up in church was doing with the New Edition bad boy. It wasn't long before rumors of Whitney's drug use started appearing in the tabloids. In 2000, she was arrested for drug possession and a succession of rehab stays began shortly thereafter. She was an addict.

Her long-time champion Clive Davis spearheaded an intervention for Whitney. In 2011, he worked with her for what was hoped to be her comeback. During several concerts, the woman with the angelic voice was booed off the stage. The damage to her vocal cords couldn't be hidden. By February 11, 2012, she was dead.

The callous, cruel jokes began almost immediately. You've read them - "Houston, we have a problem." "Whitney Houston died. Did she fall off the wagon and hit her head?". What surprised me was reading these cold-hearted remarks from some people who had battled their own demons. It seems, "There, but by the the grace of God, go I" is a forgotten saying.

"Whitney Houston caused her own death." "She had everything going for her and threw it all away." I won't argue with either of those statements. However, I will ask for at least a modicum of compassion for a person made in the image of God who fell into the pit of addiction and couldn't find her way back out.

In his excellent book, Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave, Ed Welch points out that addicts feel trapped and out of control. They feel they can't let go even when the addictive behavior yields few pleasures and a great deal of pain. Something or someone other than the living God controls them. That controlling object tells them how to live, think and feel. Drunkenness, for example, is a lordship problem. Who is your master? God or your desires? Creator or creature? At root, drunkards are worshiping another god, alcohol. The drunk is controlled by alcohol as if he is its subject and it was his ruler. The alcohol worship is a form of self worship. We worship people and things to get what we want even when what we are wanting is destroying us.

I have a great deal of respect for Houston's mother Cissy Houston and Clive Davis for never giving up on Whitney. Mel Gibson, who has publicly crashed and burned and battled back numerous times with his substance issues, reached out to Whitney several times, which is why his name was on the funeral guest list. Addicts need people to love them enough to confront them and keep confronting and caring - as long as it takes.

I pray those who mocked Whitney Houston's death never find themselves needing such longsuffering compassion.