But for a shocking exposure to it last Thanksgiving, I haven’t watched the NFL on television for years as part of a deliberate decision to cut spectator sports entirely out of my life, finally. Football was the last to go. Objectively I love the game, even in its perverse aspects: its violence, its physical specialization,Continue reading “A Note on the NFL”
Tag Archives: sermon
Saturday Sermon
No Exit (originally published on Dec 11, 2007)Now that all the groups have disappeared, and every tribe has dispersed, we know ourselves as isolated but similar to each other, and we have lost the desire to unite.—The Possibility of an Island, Michel Houellebecq Reality is the only word in the English language that should always comeContinue reading “Saturday Sermon”
The Carrot and the Stick All of these fatigued and serious faces showed no evidence of despair…they made their way with the resigned expression of those who are condemned to hope forever.–Charles Baudelaire, To Each His Own Chimera Human beings are, necessarily, actors who…can be divided…into the sane who know they are acting and theContinue reading
In Memoriam
Originally posted on June 25, 2009 The Multitude Killed the Video Star But I am invented too for your entertainment and amusement. And you, poor creatures, who conjured you out of the clay? Is God in show business too?–”Arthur Frayne”, Zardoz We played the grooves off of that record. My girlfriend had Michael Jackson’s OffContinue reading “In Memoriam”
Cadence Song
Me? I hope to go out singing, defiantly. Like DeNiro’s redneck Nemesis in Cape Fear, warbling in tongues as the rising tide consumes him. I want to play myself over this way, a segue between shows, until the dirty water fills my lungs. It’s not bravery, it’s denial; and denial gets a bad rap. DenialContinue reading “Cadence Song”
Possession
I confess I’ve never been overtaken entirely by passion. I’ve never given myself over unconditionally and without reservation to anything; neither joy nor grief, hate nor love. Likewise for any given idea; but this is just another way of saying the same thing, for the passions are ideas too. The purest ideas, confounding transposition intoContinue reading “Possession”
Monday Sermonette
petit frère Cats can’t smile. This is their fundamental incapacity in relating to humanity.Home just before dawn and our youngest cat greets me in the driveway. He’s about six months old, a handsome Russian blue mix. It’s dry and not too cold outside; on such nights I typically leave the sliding door out back openContinue reading “Monday Sermonette”
Sunday Sermonette
The Unanticipated Consequences of Unacknowledged Ambitions Let’s try to be precise then. The word “torture” does not appear in our orders… And those who explode bombs in public places, do they perhaps respect the law? … No, gentlemen, believe me, it is a vicious circle. And we could discuss the problem for hours without reachingContinue reading “Sunday Sermonette”
Sexual Perversity
Youth, beauty, strength: the criteria for physical love are exactly the same as those of Nazism. In short, I was in the shit.—Michel Houellebecq, The Possibility of an Island Sexual innocence has gone to market.In our liberated era, sexuality is increasingly valued, and modesty increasingly devalued (once was a person was a deviant if overlyContinue reading “Sexual Perversity”
Pilgrimage
It’s funny how the colours of the like real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen.–Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange You are a little soul carrying about a corpse.—Epictetus There are no bystanders in life.Dignity is an aloofness from passion. It is the essence of the civilized individual. Yet civilizationContinue reading “Pilgrimage”
untethered 