a new doxology

This picture of LeBron “King” James is from NBA.com’s Photos of the Year (this particular photo was taken by Jed Jacobsen of Getty Images). It’s not often that you see sports photographs that aren’t completely in focus (e.g., see the other photos in the NBA.com gallery). The creativity you usually see in sports photographs–from the sports section of the newspaper or magazines like Sports Illustrated and ESPN–seem to rely on the athletic artistry of the athletes being photographed and the angles the photographers are shooting them from, but this picture is out-of-the-ordinary/different. I think it’s a wonderful illustration of the intersection between art & sports that is often overlooked; unless the “sport” in discussion is ballet, figure skating or synchronized swimming.

Have you ever noticed how many lists there are during this time of year? My family and I send out lists of things we’d be excited to receive as Christmas gifts from each other, music channels have “list shows” for the top songs of the year (click here to watch any/all of VH1’s Top 40 videos of the year), even Santa keeps lists of the “naughty” and the “nice” kids around the world.

We are list crazy in America, especially–it seems–at the end of a calendar year.

Apparently information isn’t interesting to us unless it can be organized in some sort of a list, preferably after first be filtered through a ranking system–starting with a large number (at least 10, but 20 or 40 is even better) and moving down to the #1 (random thing) of the year. And it seems we’re not only interested in the top/best things of the year, but also the lowest/worst things. A few examples…my sister brought the year-end issue of People magazine to my parent’s house over Christmas (the issue is dated January 7, 2008; explain to me how that works since I was reading it in December of 2007…was I time traveling while reading it?). Anyway, in big letters across the top of the cover of the “Special Double Issue” reads “BEST (AND WORST!) OF 2007,” and inside the magazine are all sorts of lists of the best (and worst) dresses, couples, stars, etc. of the year (according to the writers of People). Yesterday on msn.com one of the featured stories highlighted the Top 10 “Best housing markets” (listing the cities where home prices increased the most during the 3rd quarter compared with the same period in 2006) as well the Top 10 “Worst housing markets”).

I enjoy getting things I actually like/want for Christmas; I love music and culture, so I watch the video countdown shows on not just VH1, but also MTV, CMT and BET; and I do my best to stay on Santa’s “nice” list (I got some cash in my stocking this year, so the big jolly guy must still like me!). The lists of best/worst housing markets was somewhat interesting to me and I shamefully like reading People magazine, but there were a few other lists I ran across today that I didn’t expect to see. Like Foxsports.com’s “most hateable people, teams” of 2007“; babycenter.com’s Top 10 baby names of 2007 (girl’s and boy’s names); and–also from babycenter–the Top baby names through history, where you can find the Top 100 baby names for each year going back to 1996, the Top 40 baby names for each decade (1930s through 1990s), and the Top 10 baby names for each decade (1880s through 1920s). This is really incredible data. I never knew that my name (Andrew) was the 19th most popular boy’s name in the decade I was born (1980s), or that Margret was the #9 girl’s name in the 1940s (but #4 in the 1880s) and Mildred was the #7 girl’s name in the 1910s.

Perhaps even more interesting than finding humorous grandma names that were common one hundred years ago is looking at trends of popular names today that can be linked to popular culture (whether it be through character names on TV shows and movies, or even the names celebrities give their children). For instance, on NBC’s wildly popular show Friends, Rachel (and Ross) had a baby girl on the last episode of Season 8 and they named her Emma. The year before that episode aired (2001), Emma was only the 29th most popular girl’s name, but in 2002 it moved up to #11 . Friends was America’s most popular show until its last season (Season 10) in 2004. Baby Emma was a consistent character on the show and, as a result, Emma was the second most popular girls name in 2003 and the most popular for three straight years (2004, 2005 and 2006). It was finally de-throned this year, but it is still the third most popular girl’s name (and the final episode of Friends aired almost four years ago).

We’re now seeing a similar trend in baby naming thanks to the popularity of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and the star of its spinoff show Private Practice, Dr. Addison Montgomery (played by Kate Walsh). The name Addison wasn’t even on the Top 100 girl’s name list of 2005 (the year Grey’s Anatomy came out), but as the show quickly became more popular, so did the name. Addison was the 26th most popular girl’s name in 2006 and this year (the same year Private Practice premiered) it cracked the Top 10, coming in at #6.

Do you think we watch too much TV in America? Maybe, but I love shows like Friends and Grey’s Anatomy, and–although I can’t say whether they would influence the decision of naming my own child (thankfully I’m no where close to facing this decision)–I don’t plan to stop watching them anytime soon (and I don’t think it’s such a terrible thing that 15 years from now, there are going to be a lot of college girls telling the story that they were named after a baby on their parent’s favorite TV show).

I’m sure there are plenty of other fascinating lists that I have yet to learn about, not to mention other trends between the popularity of baby names and the world of popular culture, but I’m going to let you discover them on your own. Let me know if you find anything interesting.

I saw the new Wes Anderson film The Darjeeling Limited with my friend Tim a few nights ago. Tim had already seen it, but when he realized there was a Chipotle just down the street from the Hopkins dollar theater where it was showing, and that we’d have time to eat a burrito before the movie, he was interested in coming with to see it again (actually, Tim’s a Wes Anderson fan and he wanted to see it again anyway, but he really does love Chipotle burritos, as do I, they’re delicious).

Darjeeling stars Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman as brothers who have lost touch with each other, so they take a trip together by train across India in hopes of becoming “like brothers again.” I don’t want to give anything away about the actual plot–because I think it’s a fascinating film that people should see for themselves–but I’d like to briefly comment on Darjeeling’s spiritual journey theme.

Early in their train voyage, Francis (Owen Wilson) tells his brothers, “I want us to make this a spiritual journey, and for us to seek the unknown and learn about it.” Although the “seeking” and “learning” takes the brothers on many bizarre and somewhat disturbing adventures–if you’ve seen any of Anderson’s other films (Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic, Bottle Rocket) you shouldn’t be surprised by any of Darjeeling’s quirks and randomness–their desire to discover something real and satisfying (spiritually or otherwise) is palpable. In the end…again, I promise not to give away any of the movie, especially not the ending…but in the end, it seems like they find what they are looking for under a big wood cross on the top of a mountain (well, I guess that’s only half true…they also seem to find something they were looking for next to a giant elephant statue on the top of another mountain, but a wood cross on top of a mountain has a lot more connections to Jesus/Christianity than a big fake elephant, so I mentioned that one first).

If you have seen any of Wes Anderson’s previous films (and you liked them), I would definitely recommend The Darjeeling Limited. My initial response to Darjeeling is similar to my thoughts after seeing Anderon’s other movies for the first time (especially Rushmore and Royal Tenenbaums); I walked out of the theater thinking “it was good, but not great”… but also, like those other films, I think I will like Darjeeling more every time I watch it, so I will probably see it a few more times after it comes out on video (which will probably be soon).

Has anyone else seen Darjeeling? If so, what did you think…good? bad? still not sure? If you’ve never heard of the film and think it sounds interesting, here’s a link to The Darjeeling Limited’s official site from Fox Pictures.

Does your church use video or other media tools to enhance the “worship experience?” Throughout the last five to ten years churches have been in a mad rush to install or update the technology in their sanctuaries and worship spaces. Projectors, screens, lighting and sound systems are all part of the new church media world, but are all these media options – no matter how cool and seamless they appear – helping or hurting the church’s ability to communicate the gospel message? This summer, FaithVisuals.com ran a conversation series on how visual media influences people, as both church-attending Christians and ordinary human beings living in today’s world. The two-part chat featured Shane Hipps, author of The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church. The people from Out of Ur (the blog companion to LeadershipJournal) got permission to put the two-part conversation on their site. Regardless of whether you live and/or work inside the church/ministry world, think the use of media in church is God-ordained or straight from the devil, or even if you haven’t formed an opinion yet…I think this is worth a quick read. Here are the links,

• Is Video Technology in Church Manipulative: The unintended consequences of using visual media in ministry (part 1)
  
• The Ever-Changing Message: How visual technology always impacts what we preach (part 2)

This is absolutely fantastic and to be honest, I’m still not sure what to think about it; according to an article on espn.com, a descendant of Davey Crocket killed a 445-pound black bear while hunting. That’s a very large animal, but it’s not the size of the bear that makes the story so incredible, it’s the size of the boy who killed the bear, and who he is related to, that makes this story so unbelievable. Tre Merrit is only 5 years old and he is descendant of Davey Crocket, the legendary American mountain man (aka “King of the Wild Frontier”). Tre’s grandfather witnessed the instantly-legendary hunting story; here’s how they told it to a reporter from KATV/Little Rock,

“His 10th great-grandfather was Davy Crockett,” Mike Merritt said. “And Davy supposedly killed him a bear when he was three. And Tre is five and really killed a bear. I really doubt if Davy killed one when he was three.”

Mike Merritt was in the stand at the time but said Tre did it all by himself.

“He came in about 40 to 50 yards,” Mike Merritt said of the black bear, “and when he got in the open, I whistled at him and he stopped and I said, ‘Shoot Tre.’”

Tre confirmed his grandfather’s account.

“I was up in the stand and I seen the bear,” Tre Merritt said. “It came from the thicket and it was beside the road and I shot it.”

At first, Mike Merritt didn’t think Tre had hit the bear with his youth rifle.

“I said, ‘Tre, you missed the bear,’ ” Mike Merritt said. “He said, ‘Paw-paw I squeezed the trigger and I didn’t close my eyes. I killed him.”‘

The bear turned out to be 445 pounds — 12 times the weight of Tre. Mike Merritt said tears rolled down his cheeks when he found out his grandson killed the enormous bear.

The entire article – including a video of Tre, Mike and the bear – can be found on espn.com (or by clicking here).

I was sitting in church a few years ago when the pastor started his sermon with a series of questions, inviting the people in the pews to raise their hand if their answer was “yes.” Do you bring your cell phone to church? Nearly everyone’s hand went up. Do you leave your phone on during church? About the same amount of hands were raised. Do you ever use your phone to text? Quite a few hands went up, mostly the younger people in the crowd. (Remember, this was a few years ago when texting was not as common). The last question… Have you sent or received a text since the service started tonight? A scattering of hands went up throughout the sanctuary, although not as straight-armed as before, followed by some embarrassed yet honest laughter (the kind of laughter you have after being exposed for something that isn’t all that bad, but you still didn’t want everyone to know about it…especially not everyone at church). Although I can’t actually remember what the pastor went on to talk about – come to think of it, I’m not really sure if I went to church that night or if a friend told me about it later – but I’m sure the point he was hoping to make as an introduction to his sermon was made.

Text messaging is a fascinating thing to me, not so much that it exists or that people use it as a form of communication, but that there is such disparity between who does it and how often. I have spent several hours of my life “teaching” my mom how to use different kinds of technology, including how to text. I put the word teaching in quotes because teaching usually implies a person learns something and then has the ability to use the skills and/or information that has been learned. While my mom has “learned” how to read and sent texts, her understanding is quite limited and it has an incredible way of disappearing without warning; meaning that I will inevitably be asked to re-teach her, so the teaching and learning moves in cycles. I find myself getting frustrated by this, but I realize it’s just a glaring example of a generation gap. When it comes to technology, I speak a different language than my mom, and as a result, I see things in a different way than she does. My mom’s phone bill probably includes about 5 text messages per month. In comparison, my plan includes 400 texts per month. I had dinner with some friends last week and they shared that their teenage daughter sent and received a total of 3,500 texts last month (thankfully, she has unlimited texting). [Note: I verified this total with my friend and it turns out that his daughter's highest monthly text total is actually 5,300...wow!]

In today’s digital world, it has often been said that people are either natives or immigrants*, of course, we all know who the natives are (the young people) and we can distinguish them quite easily from the immigrants (the not so young people). While many of today’s church and business leaders are natural born immigrants, some are attempting to learn a new language (become natives). For instance, Leith Anderson, pastor of mega-church Wooddale in Eden Prairie, Minnesota – and known for his national radio ministry Faith Matters – was recently interviewed by Leadership Journal (the article is titled “Is Powerpoint Fading?”). As a veteran pastor, Anderson offers an experienced perspective on preaching and the ways he believes technology can both help and hurt the communication of the message. Borrowing from Aristotle’s classical teaching that there are three necessary elements of effective communication – word/truth (logos), passion (pathos) and character (ethos) – Anderson clearly states that “The best communicating is done by a person of good character, well spoken, telling the truth.” The relationship between media and the church is an interesting and tricky one, and this article sheds light on just a few of the issues that pastors and church leaders will be forced to face for a long time. If you’d like to read the full interview with Leith Anderson—including an innovative example from Wooddale about inviting congregants to text message their questions following a sermon and then putting their questions on the screens—click here.

* There is some controversy over who first used and/or popularized the terms “native” and “immigrant” in reference to individuals in our modern digital world, but from my limited research, it seems Marc Prensky is at least one of the front-runners. For an interesting analysis on the origin of these terms, read this post from Prensky’s blog.

Sorry if I’m a bit behind in passing on this story, but apparently The Hills–MTV’s spinoff of Laguna Beach that follows rich young adults as they live (and work?) in LA’s Hollywood hills–has been facing a lot of controversy recently about whether or not it is really “reality” television. I know I know, it’d be a huge shocker to anyone who has ever watched Lauren’s glamorous life or observed Heidi and Spencer’s ridiculous relationship to find out it they were acting, but those are the rumors. Anyway, check out this interview from Best Week Ever with a guy who went on a date with Lauren in an episode earlier this season (it’s the guy she took to Brody’s beach house party); he was incredibly honest in the interview (about Lauren, Brody, and the show in general), it’s really interesting stuff. Lauren has never specifically responded to the interview (that I know of), but she did comment on the rumors that The Hills is scripted in Us Magazine (there is even a viewer poll on the question, “Do you think the show is real or fake?”).

A lot of people watch shows like The Hills and its MTV counterpart Real World (the original reality show) and they’re not all teenagers. I watch both shows every week and so do several other people I know who are older than the shows characters, yet I think I watch them from a different perspective than most. To say I don’t view them as entertainment would be a lie, but I also watch them as a cultural or societal study; seeking to discover how the shows connect with viewers in real ways, as if watching an episode of The Hills has the ability to meet a person’s needs on some level or help them make sense of life and has a potentially scary way of shaping how we make meaning. If I am truthful, I cannot claim that watching these shows is always part of my social/cultural “experiment,” but I do like to think of it as homework for the masters degree I am currently pursuing in the areas of “Theology & Pop-Culture.” It’s from a theological perspective that I attempt to observe culture, and when considering shows like The Hills I am lead to ask several difficult questions, like, Why do we watch these shows? What is so fascinating about Lauren and her friend’s lives that we care so much if they are real or scripted? Are we jealous of how they’re living? Is it perhaps just some strange way for us to “experience” what it would be like to be young, rich and beautiful living in Hollywood? Why do I watch The Hills every week (with my roommate) and get so wrapped up in the story lines (e.g., why do I get so frustrated by Spencer?). These are all interesting questions and I’m not sure I have any answers, but shows like The Hills are very popular right now and even though it probably won’t be a show for very much longer, I’m sure it will be replaced by something else that will appeal to people in the same ways (MTV seems to know what it is that we are looking for and they give us just enough of it to keep us coming back for more every week).

For anyone who is interested, MTV is airing a two-hour special this Sunday (December 8 at 5:00pm central) called “Lauren Looks Back,” following Lauren from her high school days in Laguna as “LC” to her fashion career in Los Angeles today. My DVR is already set.

As promised in my previous post, here is the video for “Almost Lover” by A Fine Frenzy. It’s a great song with a really cool video that I got excited about every time it was on VH1 this fall (remember how exciting it used to be when your favorite song came on the radio? it was kinda like that). I’d like to dedicate this to all the good looking girls I’ve seen in coffee shops over the past few years who I never got the courage to say hello to…

I had coffee with my friend Elizabeth a few days ago (actually, it’s been a lot more than a few days ago now, but I didn’t finish writing this until today; and actually (part II), I had tea–not coffee, but saying you had tea with a friend makes it sound like you’re in England and it’s the 19th century…p.s., try the Cinnamint tea at Caribou, it’s an herbal tea with no caffeine, so it’s afternoon safe, and it’s plenty sweet, even without sugar or honey). Anyway, Elizabeth and I hadn’t hung out for a while and, since we’ve both worked in churches for most of our “adult” years, we started our conversation the way we normally do, by solving all the church’s problems and agreeing that things would be a lot better if we were in charge. After about ten minutes in itsnevergonnahappenland, we started talking about life and where we thought/hoped God was leading us.

Somewhere around minute 60, our conversation turned to the topic of tree houses (I have no idea how that happened), and since we were just a few blocks from one of the coolest tree houses I have ever seen in real life–second only to the Swiss Family Robinson tree house I saw at Disney World when I was six–I suggested we go for a little drive. So we hopped in my Honda and checked out the tree house* I had been telling her about – which has something like four different levels, spiraling stairs and I think maybe even electricity in some of the “rooms” – like me, she was really impressed (not sure if she’s seen the Swiss Family Robinson one).

We drove around for a little while after that, continuing our random conversations and listening to music. I played her a few songs from a CD I got this fall by A Fine Frenzy (which sounds like it’d be the name of a group, but it’s actually just one girl). The song that most people know by her–from the radio–is “Almost Lover” (it was on my short list of “most listened to” songs this past summer and it has a really cool video…I should post that music video in case people haven’t seen/heard it, look for that to be up soon). One of the last songs on the album is called “Hope for the Hopeless” and it’s the song I’ve become the most attached to on the disc. Listening to the song got Elizabeth and I talking about the idea of hope, which is a biggie for not only Christians, but for anyone trying to make it through life in this crazy world. Liz mentioned a blog she wrote on her myspace page about hope and mentioned that “Hope” is probably going to be the theme of her next album (she is a musicican).

After our chilltime at the ‘Bou and the tree house-inspired car ride, I went home and decided to read her blog; it’s really good. When I saw her a few days later I asked if it would be okay if I shared it with people on anewdoxology. Her response was something like this, “For sure, as long as you tell them how great my music is and make sure they know they can listen to some of my songs on myspace or even go to my website (www.elizabethhunnicutt.com) to order CDs and find out where I’ll be playing.” She actually didn’t say all of that, but she did say it was cool to mention what she wrote and pass on a link. I added all the other stuff because I think it is true. Her music really is good and it has been a blessing in my life as well as many others who have seen her in concert, leading worship at churches, or have just listened to her CDs. Take a minute and jump over to Elizabeth’s myspace page to read her writing titled “Dare to Hope,” and if you’re interested, listen to a few of her songs and maybe even check out her website to learn more about a wonderful Minneapolis artist.

*Out of respect for the people who live in the house with the yard in which the tree house exists, I am intentionally not mentioning where it is located. Some of you may already be familiar with the tree house I’m writing about, but if you really really really want to know where it’s at and promise to be respectful if you go to look at it, email me and maybe I’ll give you the info (hint: it’s just off Hwy. 100).