A Sound of Sheer Silence

My brother's birthday is today.  In his honor, here are two videos from one of his favorite bands, who also played what were probably their last shows together this weekend in Atlanta.  Plus, there is never a bad time for Outkast. Happy Birthday, Jim.  Love you, brother. Bonus content:  My favorite Outkast song.

I love sports.  I always have.  My clearest early memory was going to the first ever Kickoff Classic--the opening game of the college football season--in 1983 (age 5).  I drove with my father to Giants Stadium in the swamps of the Meadowlands to see his favorite team, the Penn State Nittany Lions, begin their defense of the National Title against Nebraska.  He was excited, I was excited--it was great.  We sat right behind the goal posts.  I couldn't be happier. Penn State lost 44 to 6 to a Nebraska team that would go on to play for the National Championship and featured eventual Heisman Trophy winner Mike Rozier.  Rozier ran for, I think, 800 yards or something.  In reality, it wasn't as close as 44-6 would suggest.  It was really, really ugly.  Nevertheless, it is still a fond memory. Being a sports fan is fundamentally an irrational act.  You think about and put mental energy into something that has no idea that you exist. ...

About a week ago, Kanye West gave an interview to GQ  magazine , where he weighed in on a number of topics.  As is often the case with 'Ye, he said a number of insane and ludicrous things.  I was particularly struck this quote, in which he discusses the content of a 45 minute toast he made to himself at his wedding to Kim Kardashian recently: And what I talked about in it was the idea of celebrity, and celebrities being treated like blacks were in the '60s, having no rights, and the fact that people can slander your name. I said that in the toast. And I had to say this in a position where I, from the art world, am marrying Kim. And how we're going to fight to raise the respect level for celebrities so that my daughter can live a more normal life. She didn't choose to be a celebrity. But she is. So I'm going to fight to make sure she has a better life. The notion that "celebrities" are some sort of persecuted minority in society, and that he is planni...

I have been meaning for some time to talk about things other than religion on this blog, but it seems like I can never quite get around to doing it.  So, I am going to try out a new series called "Pop Culture Mondays."  This will be a series of short or medium-size musings on something in the broader culture that interested me over the course of the week.  We'll see how it goes. *************************** According to the Billboard Charts, the Number 1 R&B/Hip-Hop song in the U.S. this week belongs to the woman shown at the left.  She goes by the name Iggy Azalea, and she is a 24 year old originally from Australia. Her song "Fancy" is clearly a big hit-- it was Number 1 last week on the overall Billboard Chart .  It is one of those classic "earworm" songs, in that it is incredibly catchy and sticks in your head whether or not you want it to do so.  For earworm songs, a discussion of whether the song is "good" or "bad" i...