culture. ish. page two

Sheffield’s book is structured around mix tapes, each chapter opening with the play list of a tape made by him or his wife. The chapter that follows is full of ruminations that were kick-started in his mind by that particular tape. His writing is warm and personal, inviting the reader into the world of his reminisces.

In its tracing of his relationship with his wife from the day they met until the day she died, the book takes an inevitable turn in to the melancholy without being dark or depressing. Despite his past experiences, Sheffield is a man who believes in love and in music, and he has an optimism and confidence lacking in so many memoirs of personal pain. Sheffield concludes that love is a mix tape--sometimes it’s good, sometimes bad, but always worth the effort.

Labels: books, nc, number eighteen, rob sheffield

The visual cues in the cinematography played so well together that is was almost a reminder of the Sixth Sense. With these cues in mind, not all the flashbacks would have been needed; if someone can remember something from forty-five minutes ago they could puzzle it together.

Sure, the plot isn't completely original, but with good acting (including Morgan Freeman, Lucy Liu and more), awesome cinematography and thought-out direction Slevin is a completely pleasurable movie. So, delight yourself and watch.

Labels: jc, movies, number eighteen, paul mcguigan

There are, of course, degrees of this. Dead Poet's Society, the History Boys and Stand and Deliver do a pretty good job of staying in the realm of the real, which gives them more relevance to actual situations; films like Dangerous Minds and Coach Carter, on the other hand, make education trivial and simple if the teacher just asserts themselves.

This film does the opposite of these films. You are sympathetic to the main character Dan (Ryan Gosling), a junior high history teacher in an urban school. He is somewhat of a renegade teacher in that he frequently leaves the set-out curriculum to give his students his own view of how history works. Added to all this is the important fact that he is hiding his drug addiction from everyone. One of his students, Drey (played excellently by Shareeka Epps), accidentally discovers this secret and their relationship is forever changed.

The rest of the film develops the nuances of this relationship and how it changes both Drey and Dan. This secret connects them to the truth and while it doesn't ultimately set them free, it allows them to recognize the potential to be set free.

Labels: gpv, movies, number eighteen, ryan fleck

The album is below average at best. It has a mixtape quality in the mixing department, and the lyrics are average and sound like every one else in gangster rap. Loon does take time to respond to the beef between him and fellow rappers the Dipset. The production is the best part of Bad Boy; it's the only part that doesn't make the album seem like it was made in some basement last week. If you like good beats and reparative gangster rap, this album is for you. If you require depth from the artist and good musical quality then save your money.

Labels: g-dep, js, loon, music, number eighteen

We often separate knowing from doing. These are not two separate entities, with labels like “good” and “bad,” sacred/secular, etc. Rather, “the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it” ( Ps.24:1). Culture.ish. longs to see life holistically, like the Biblical narrative teaches. This does not, however, mean that Culture.ish. is a priest that baptizes and makes holy everything that it reviews and talks about so that students will know that it is safe and pleasing to God. Culture.ish. is the beginning of a conversation about what it means to live in God's world, to see the world and hear the world the way God does.

It is deism to say that God doesn't listen to U2 and watch The Office, because the Christian God is a God who is involved in our redemption, on a very physical level... “lowering himself...”(Phil. 4). God redeems us by making us discerning participants of this world, to be culture critics, culture lovers, and culture makers and shapers. Culture.ish. places its hopes in God being able to transform Geneva students from a view of a legalism that damns them to a view of God's grace manifesting itself in all the places we sometimes fail to look. The Christian God is huge; we are merely the small and finite creatures. Hopefully Geneva College can be a place where people are known for having "eyes to see, and ears to hear," and hearts and minds to practice wisdom and resurrection. Culture.ish. is an attempt to step faithfully into God’s world.

Labels: gpv, number eighteen, respond, why culture ish

Every Wednesday afternoon the culture. ish. contributors gathers on the third floor of Old Main for planning and conversation. Because one of our hopes in producing culture. ish. is to encourage conversation about popular culture, maybe getting at the “why” of our cultural participation, we thought as a group we should ask the question “why culture. ish.?” Over the next few months the black box will include individual and collect responses to the question “why culture. ish.?” and more fundamentally “why engage culture?” As always we encourage your contributions to the conversation online at www.culture-ish.com.

Labels: ck, number eighteen, respond, why culture ish

At times you wait for a band like Radiohead--Yorke's main project--to kick in, but it never happens. There is no grand entrance of instruments or a climax in each song, which is probably why he makes such a statement. The album does not follow what is expected-- it’s linear and not begging for attention. The Eraser is not something you'd hear on the radio, but an album that can be downloaded on your “chill” playlist. It forces you to examine the uniqueness of generated sounds not often heard.

Labels: kll, music, number eighteen, thom yorke

About halfway through the album of Montreal takes a turn into an eleven minute song, "the Past Is A Grotesque Animal." It's still their style, but the fact that this song goes on for eleven minutes makes the hair on one's back stand up. Thankfully, halfway through the next song the album returns to its fun pop feel which brings joy to the soul. Simply, it's a delightfully enjoyable album, but it's best to skip the eleven minute song and get right on to the "so-o-o-o-o-o-o-oul" of the album.

--jc

Listen.

Labels: jc, music, number eighteen, of montreal

Alias: Steve Robbins
Major: Business/Musical Performance
Year: Junior

here's as much of steve's playlist as i could find. check it out.

Labels: number eighteen, playlist

Please Come Home is an eight track album that pulls from a variety of musical directions. Kensrue and guitarist Teppei Teranishi crafted this album using heavy folk, country and blues tones while adding a driving beat that leads you through the song. The first ten seconds of the CD begin with a fast guitar while the last ten seconds of the CD end with a slow drumming and quiet cymbals. Kensrue reaches to each of those rustic genres in individual songs in addition to fraternizing them; this combination is done with his use of guitar, drums, bass, organ and harmonica.

Many of his songs deal with girls, drinking, bars and cars. While Kensrue is a Christian--but not an exclusively "Christian artist"--his lyrics show a clear witness of Kensrue coming to grips with his faith. His voice in Please Come Home is harsh and similar to that of Gavin DeGraw, moreso than his work with Thrice.

The transition from the vocalist of an emocore band to a rough folk singer may seem to be unnatural, but Kensrue presents it effortlessly.

Labels: dustin kensrue, md, music, number eighteen

Labels: number seventeen, playlist

Labels: ap, deerhoof, music, number seventeen

Labels: clap your hands say yeah, music, nc, number seventeen

For competitive individuals, coming in third place just isn’t acceptable. But I am not writing this to talk about the third place in a negative light but probably the most positive light that the third place has been talked about, ever.

What I am talking about is the term “The Third Place” coined by Ray Oldenburg (Oldenburg is an urban sociologist and author of Celebrating the Third Place and The Great Good Place and a contributor to Parallel Utopias: The Quest for Community). There are three places in our lives. The First Place is home. The Second Place is work. I couldn’t define The Third Place in one word and neither could Oldenburg. To quote, he says that Third Places “host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work.” Third Places become a neutral ground for meeting and provide a no pressure atmosphere.

Third Places are typically thought of as coffee shops. While coffee shops definitely attract a Third Place atmosphere we are not limited to that. Other Third Places could be parks, bars, even sidewalks or hardware stores like Kelly’s in Beaver Falls.

To some frequenters, the Beaver Falls Coffee & Tea Company may already be a Third Place. That is exactly what owners Russell and Bethany Warren desired for their business; they understood the need for a comfortable, relaxed place where you don't necessarily have to be, but rather choose to be.

The need of association is the main point to draw from this concept. Home is where you live and work, you have to go there but do you have a place that you are compelled to be? Sorry to bust your Geneva bubble, but if you don’t have a third place then you are depriving yourself of the essential necessity of association. If you don’t have one then you’re depriving yourself of the essential necessity of association.

Interested in reading more? Celebrating The Third Place and The Great Good Place can both be found on the bookshelves at BFC&T and the McCartney Library.

Labels: md, number seventeen, third places

Labels: movies, number seventeen, phillip noyce, sk

Labels: clint eastwood, flags of our fathers, gpv, letters from iwo jima, movies, number seventeen

Ok. So, here’s where we’re at. We’ve gotten seven hundred and eighty dollars in donations. Five hundred of that was matched by The Call Office. That leaves us with over one thousand two hundred dollars in the kitty. Pretty good. Only… We’re still over four thousand dollars away from our goal of a little over five grand.

Keep those funds coming. The more the merrier.

Special thanks to those who have given since the first round of names that we printed such as: denise godwin. robert liljestrand. rachel menke. matt dodd. seth wing. jared willson. christiana dementriou. bronya clyde. The student ministries and bible departments. and a bunch of anonymous givers.

We’ve had a lot of questions about the timeline for The Well Fund, and while we’re not entirely sure when we’re going to cut off donations. The goal is to raise the entire $5390—to build a well. Please bring your donation to The Call office.

Labels: action, number seventeen, the well fund

Labels: bloc party, kll, music, number seventeen

The Center for Creative Arts Expression is an open art studio created and run by Jerry McCorr, the Beaver Falls High School’s art teacher. Her vision for the center is to promote and support the visual arts within the community. The uniqueness of the center comes from its location, the previously vacant John T. Reeves Bank on Main Street, just half a block from the McCartney Library. Each teller window now offers a pallet of different art media, such as acrylic, watercolor, scrap booking, stamping, charcoal, pencil and ink. Two pottery wheels pose in the bank’s vault. Pottery, crayon batiking, quilting and other classes are available.

Jerry is a one-woman show, playing secretary, paying the electric and sewer bills, cleaning the toilet, buying the majority of the center’s supplies and making the coffee for the Café Art. She now awaits the artists. The center is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 3:30-6 and Saturday 11-4, though more hours are available by appointment. A year membership for children and students is $15 and for adults, $20.

Labels: community, guest, number sixteen

Nas has always had is pulse on life in gritty urban life in America. Like in Hold Down the Block: “I gotta lay down the block, when the block is hot/I gotta use my imagination, to change the situation/Yea, Feds feast on street dons, look at their teeth showin'/Salivatin' at the mouth, South to East Orange.” And commenting on the political in Black Republican, where he compares the current administration with dealing drugs and looking out for their “hood.”

Featuring great beats and melodies, this is a good listen. It also features collaborations with some of the biggest names in the game, including: Jay-Z, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Will.i.am, The Game, and Nas’s wife Kelis.

--gpv

Listen.

Labels: gpv, music, nas, number sixteen

In comparison to other Damien Jurado albums this one ranks as the favored, but that may be due to a temporary emotional inclination. Some words of advice from one's interpretation of Jurado, "Come and rest, so quiet in the meadow" (There Goes Your Man) to this album and breath in the thoughtfully placed lyrics and notes. Otherwise you may find yourself, "broken jaw and all/crippled in your glory/restless till my death." (Hoquiam)

If looking for comparative bands Damien Jurado are similar in ways to Pedro the Lion, Iron & Wine, Sufjan Stevens, Nick Drake, or Belle & Sebastian among others.

Labels: damien jurado, jc, music, number sixteen

--nc

Site.

Labels: nbc, nc, number sixteen, tv

The lyrics are fairly mundane, espousing the kind of struggles with meaning and life that you expect from angsty emo singers. The whole album reflects very well the trend in the crowd of emo/screamo/post-hardcore bands toward making “statement albums” that are intended to reflect the depth of their artistry and the seriousness of their souls’ torment. And while this album might be one of the more competent examples of that trend, one has to wonder what kind of statement is being made with the lyrics “I'd drown all these crying babies if I knew that their mothers wouldn't cry. I'd lower them down and squeeze real hard and let a piece of myself die.”

Labels: brand new, music, nc, number sixteen

Set in Spain during WWII, young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) moves with her mother to live with a new father who is a military commander in charge of suppressing a rebel movement that hides in the surrounding woods. Her mother is pregnant, and it becomes apparent that this second marriage is more for political reasons than any sort of love. Ofelia's love of reading allows her to explore the surrounding area and hear the story of who she really is: the princess of a world beneath the earth. A fairy leads her to a faun who tells her the tasks she must complete in order to take her place back in the kingdom. These two stories and world are weaved together magically and with visual brilliance.

The harsh and brutal reality of the war is intentionally juxtaposed to Ofelia's fantasy world, until the very end of the film where the two worlds collide in a heart wrenching confrontation. In an NPR interview, del Toro talked about how the imagination is a way to cope with childhood traumas and the reality of evil in the world, not as a way to escape it but as a way of survival. While a portrait of a child's experience, this is neither a film for children nor a fantasy film. Instead this film explores the depth of human evil, and the imagination required to recognize the good, to love, and to hope.

Labels: gpv, guillermo del toro, movies

Once in those early years he'd wakened in a barren wood and lay listening to flocks of migratory birds overhead in that bitter dark. Their half muted crankings miles above where they circled the earth as senselessly as insects trooping the rim of a bowl. He wished them godspeed till they were gone. He never heard them again."

Cormac McCarthy never specifies what turns the world to ashes in the Road. Nor does he need to; cities are reduced to slag, carbonized forests shudder in cinder-flecked wind, and very little life--plant, animal, human--remains. So why would the why or how matter?

The Road centers on a nameless father and his young son as they search for warmer weather and less dangerous surroundings. The latter is especially difficult, as rover packs of marauders are more interested in cannibalism than discourse. It's a grim, bleak setting for a novel, but that only emphasizes the selfless love the father and son share for one another. Paraphrasing Dostoevsky, the relentless darkness of the setting just makes the beauty more clear.

McCarthy's gorgeous, sparse narrative clings to the skeletal plot. The father and son spend much of the novel tired, hungry and cold. Searches for food never yield much, encounters with the remains of humankind are mortifying, and the bitter winter winds continue to follow the man and the boy coastward. Through haunting vignettes, McCarthy elevates the despair until it's shy of overwhelming; the parent and child's devotion to each other, though, always acts as a buffer before it becomes unbearable.

I can't relate the paradoxical nature of the book enough--it's harsh, brutal, but simultaneously moving and unbelievably humane. McCarthy is a master of brief, clipped sentences that give just enough flavor to convince you how absolutely dire the father and son's situation is. The world is a burnt husk. Plants will not grow. Canned food is increasingly hard to find, and fresh food is a decade-old dream. The child's mother took her own life because of her anguish. The father carries a revolver with two rounds left in the cylinder; they may be for protection, they may not be. But their shortcomings aside, the child possesses a luminous faith in the eternal, and the father a marked appreciation for the small things--fresh apples, beach breeze through his wife's gauzy dress--that are easily taken for granted.

Labels: books, cormac mccarthy, jp

Switchfoot's lyrics attempt to lead us through the maze that we have constructed out of life (notice "enter here" arrow on back page). Like a coloring book, the empty album cover is screaming for color and life…similar to many chasing after excess. Jon Foreman recognizes this and sings colors into the microphone. He masters his words so that even without music the frustrations and tension ring through. Whether daring us to move or questioning the American Dream, Switchfoot has always challenged our contentment with "modern machines" and "being puppets on a monetary string." As the band moves more into the mainstream and big time lights they do not lose focus. Foreman confesses that he is "head over heels" and pleads with One to "Let your love be strong."

Labels: music, sk, switchfoot

The continuity of this twelve track disc alone is enough to draw a person into their message. Their overarching theme focuses on the pains of the world. In this theme they draw out the search for self, wrestle with the idea of what love is all about, and simply say that life isn’t simple. The symbolism of light and darkness in ten out of the twelve songs can not be overlooked all the while. We see this is “Barley Listening” with lines like “Light tears through open windows/for now the day has won.”

The band contrasts that with track eight “Into Your Hideout” with lines like “I’ll still kiss the darkness/what I’ve wasted I’ll still taste it.” This drastic contrast appears in their music as well as their lyrics. “Hold The Line” could be easily mistaken as an easy going U2 song while “Ambulance” begins with a head-bopping intro. Why listen to this album? For lines like this, “I hear the drum/I just can’t keep the beat” from “Turn the Lights On.”

Best listening environment for this album: driving.

Labels: md, music, pilot speed

Labels: kll, music, norah jones

The Geneva College chapter of Acting on AIDS has been active on our campus since spring semester 2005. Our mission is to change hearts on our campus, create awareness in our community, and advocate for the most innocent victims of HIV/AIDS around the world. Geneva College Acting on AIDS (AoA) is part of a larger, national AoA movement that is in partnership with World Vision, a Christian relief and development organization and the Coalition for Christian Colleges and Universities.

So, that is was AoA is in a nutshell. Now, for the past 2 years AoA has put on many programs that have helped educate Geneva about this pandemic. The Orange ORPHAN T-shirt Campaign has made its mark several times, there have been chapel speakers, benefit concerts, move discussions, fundraisers, forums, and AIDS Awareness Weeks which have all been a part of fulfilling our mission.

A look ahead at some upcoming, campus-wide programs: a Broken Bread Meal, a simulcast with a prominent person in society, and much more so stay tuned!

At the beginning of each fall semester we have a table for Cokes & Clubs, but that is not enough – we need YOUR HELP. With leaders graduating and moving on to the real world, we need people who would like to make a difference on this campus; those who have a passion for creating awareness, advocating for innocent victims, and being active in our community for the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We would love for you to help us and many others in this movement if you feel God tugging at your heart in this area. We hold meetings every Monday during the chapel slot (10:10-11:00) in Skye Lounge. If you are interested please prayerfully consider attending these meetings. Also, contact Katie Martin at kathleen.martin@geneva.edu.

So, if you have a passion for doing something about the global AIDS pandemic- let us know. Follow God’s calling and direction so we can work together with other campuses around the nation to help the affected HIV/AIDS victims and educate others about this pandemic.

Labels: acting on aids, action

I fell in love with Smith’s debut album One Moment More (2004) from the first notes of Come to Jesus. Her beautiful voice draws in the listener to a bigger story. While her earlier work focuses on early stages and elementary questions of spirituality and relationships filled with angst you can hear and feel, on this sophomore album she matures both lyrically and musically. These songs are more reflective, the pace gives the sense of an open space to reflect: “The edge of love, like a knife/Shimmer shines when it hits the light/Just like that it’ll change a life/And it makes time stand/It makes time stand still” (Edge of Love). It has taken me longer, but I have come to appreciate these new songs.

On this album she goes deeper into issues of spirituality: “Bird on the telephone wire/Come down and sing to me/Have you heard from my Father/have you any news to bring/I know I’m not the only one asking/Among wandering souls down here/Can you shout it from the highest peak/Or at least whisper it in my ear” (I’m Not the Only One Asking), she also gets more personal singing about her childhood home on Long Island and on the title track, remembering her adoptive parents who were both taken by cancer within 3 years of each other: “There my father/Preached at the church/On the corner of old Nichols Road/He raised four children in a green house/We are all well/And now we’re all grown.” She is never trite in trying to make sense of life and human brokenness, rather she lets the questions and thoughts linger.

Long Island Shores stays closer to the folk/country roots, toning down the electric guitars of her first album, in favor of an acoustic guitar, strings, and banjo, she also adds a great duet with Buddy Miller (What if the World Stops Turning), and has moments of hushed tones as she sings gentle lullabies (Peace of Mind).

While this album is not love at first listen, these songs are more like a friendship that develops.

Labels: gpv, mindy smith, music

The Queen is almost a paean to traditionalism – but only almost. The movie is a dramatic presentation of the British royal family’s reaction to Princess Diana’s death. Helen Mirren’s magnificent Elizabeth II is portrayed as emotionally stunted in her reaction to the Princess’s death, and Prince Charles is played as a manipulative seven-year-old girl by Alex Jennings – but, whatever the title of the movie, the real protagonist is Michael Sheen’s Tony Blair, whose shift from moderate anti-royalist sympathies to a much more profound appreciation for the institution of monarchy is the real center of the film.

Without Blair, the film would be nothing more than a character study – albeit an exceedingly well-executed one. With him, however, it becomes a study in the effects of modernization on human society. The questions of whether public sentiment or historic royal protocol is more important, or if a monarch has responsibilities which transcend and eclipse any consideration of the will of the people, for example, are given uncommonly serious and even-handed treatment. Ultimately, though, it is left to the actors to carry the film (which they do excellently, aided by Peter Morgan’s generally superb screenplay), as the film finally gives up the tension and falls into the sort of blasé capitulation to “modernization” that is typical of so much recent British media.

Labels: ap, movies, the queen

Labels: badly drawn boy, music, nc

Here’s a great piece by long-time culture. ish. contibutor Greg P. Veltman on engaging culture. It’s nine pages long, but you definitely won’t regret the read. Enjoy.

Engaging Culture by Greg P. Veltman
Greg’s Blog

Labels: action, engage, engaging culture, gpv

so, here’s an ambitious project, let’s raise over five grand in two weeks. not really intrigued? what if it was to build a well in Africa to help provide clean water to people who currently do not have it? that’s where you and the five grand both come into play.

five grand seems a bit daunting, but let’s break that down. with over fourteen hundred undergraduates as well as hundreds of faculty of staff that’s not much. we’re asking for around five bucks. sure you can give more and you can give less. whatever works for you, works for us. just give it to your RD or drop it off at the Call Office on the third floor of old main. make sure to put it in a sealed envelope with your name on it.

here’s a link to world vision (that’s who we’re going through for this). we’ll keep you updated on the progress. thanks for your help.

Labels: action, cc, the well fund

wednesday, january twenty-fourth, we’ll be showing Tsotsi as a part of the both the culture. ish. focus on africa as well as a part of the film and life series. it’s a great movie. check out greg’s review in this weeks issue (january twenty-second).

we’ll be showing it 8 PM in the John White Chapel. show up if you can. it’s a great story that you really don’t want to miss.

check out these links to get more info: greg’s blog review, imdb page, rotten tomatoes.

Labels: film and life seiries, tsotsi