Owner: nicholasfiedler.com/blog URL:http://nicholasfiedler.com/blog Join Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 08:40:58 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: I am a twenty-something married man living in the heartland of the American South. My blog walks through my spiritual journey and my married life and acts as a compliment to my music and my podcast. The Nick and Josh Podcast on iTunes. Site statistics:Click here
A Heretic's Guide to Eternity: A Review 2006-11-12 00:29:08 I recently just finished A Heretic
’s Guide
to Eternity
the newest work by Spencer Burke (of Nick and Josh Podcast fame).
I was pleased with the book, but it was entirely different than I had expected. I had thought it would be an exploration of the afterlife devoid of traditional conservative geography. I thought it would be a trip with a neo-Dante as my guide but a much different atmosphere than The Inferno.
It was none of those things. And it wasn’t literature that I would get anyone burned at the stake, unless Pat Robinson had that type of authority.
This book was a mix between Joseph Campbell’s reviews of Religion and Brian Mclaren’s Jesus-centered approach to the modern christian life.
I think Burke does an excellent job to bring people into the fold that actually don’t fit in the Christian sub-culture. They love Jesus’ life and teachings, but they can’t stand the institutionally church. Will these people ever be accepted into the Christi
Sunday Mornings Coming with Joseph Campbell 2006-11-12 19:19:28
Since Leslie and I have been married we haven’t attended church. We have been to a couple, but we don’t have a place to fit. We fit with small groups of people, who like to share wine (or beer) and break bread. This doesn’t mean that I am in a spiritually shallow place though. I have been growing in my spirituality daily. Recognizing the divine all around me and learning from authors and speakers.
I decided I would share thoughts on Sunday
. Maybe you went to church, maybe you didn’t. I didn’t, but here is my meditation for Sunday from a mentor of mine, JosephCampbell
, who passed away in 1987. This is from an essay he wrote in 1970 called “The Confrontation of Ease and West in Religion”, it can be found in his book, Myths to Live By.
A ritual is an organization of mythological symbols; and by participating in the drama of the rite one is brought directly in touch with these, not as verbal reports of historical events, either past, present, o Read more:Mornings
The Simpsons 2006-11-13 16:31:15
Some things cut straight into your soul and prove to you that there is a God and God wants you to be happy.
Read more:Simpsons
An Evening with Kris Kristofferson 2006-11-15 00:01:57
Saturday Night DB and I went to see Kris Kristofferson, the songwriter, actor, and musician.
You may know him from the Blade Trilogy, or you may know him through songs that he penned, but were made famous by others. Sunday Morning Coming Down (sung by Johnny Cash) or Me and Bobby Mcgee (Janis Joplin). He is rumored to have landed a helicopter in Cash’s backyard to get him to play his song Sunday Morning Coming Down.
I enjoyed the concert. Partly because you almost have to have respect for a man who has done as much as Kristofferson in his lifetime, but mostly because the style of music he played is soon to be gone.
While he played all I could think about were the collection of John Wayne movies that my family would rent Sunday after church. Mclintock, True Grit, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, etc.
I wanted to be wearing a six shooter on my hip while Kristofferson sang songs of freedom. The freedom that he sang about was different that the word that Dubbya uses when he talk
The Biggest Loser 2006-11-16 22:34:17 Last night Les and I joined the YMCA. We are looking to stay fit and active, like the desperate housewives of Denver, Colorado.
I don’t think I am gaining weight, but I think once puberty ends for me (having only started 1 year ago) I may start gaining weight.
I won a bet made with Josh and Jeremy (creater of CycleSpace) that I would not gain 10 pounds in the first 3 months of marriage. I didn’t gain the 10, and won the 6 pack from Josh, Jeremy has yet to make good on it for the full 12. The beer will be lite.
At anyrate. Last nigt I biked 16 miles in a stationary position and my ass has never felt tighter. Thank you YMCA. Josh says it won’t last, Barry put me down, but I will survive.
Read more:Loser
The Simple Life 2006-11-17 15:40:28 I love it when people reduce all things to the greatest possible simplicity. They think they are taking away all the crud and getting down to the brass tacks, but really they are taking away factors and manipulating the outcome to fit to a singular ‘logical’ outcome.
A Georgia State site works to do that with religions. Try and guess the outcome of their reductions, but before you go, see if you can decide which major world religion is represented by which picture below. (Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, New Age, and Buddhism are the choices)
After you make your guess check your answers.
Check your answers here.
Read more:Simple
Fact of the Day 2006-11-17 22:19:50 There are more television sets in the United States than there are people in Japan.
PoMo, Techno, Pobia 2006-11-18 22:58:47 This is old news to some, new to others. Enjoy a weekend post.
Read more:Techno
9/11 Conspiracy Video 2006-11-19 02:39:22 Some of you may or may not know that I am into theories of sorts. Some of them have to do with 9/11. Here is a little interesting tidbit.
The Lone Gunmen is a show that had one season on Fox and was created by spinoff characters from The X Files. What some of you may not have know was that “The pilot episode, which first aired on March 4, 2001, concerned a terrorist plot to fly a hijacked airplane into the World Trade Center towers.” (IMDB.com). It may be worth Netflixing to watch the first episode. Here is a telling clip.
There are some scenes in the show where you see the plane headed straight for the World Trade Towers.
Interesting. It is almost like that novel that Morgan Robertson wrote 14 years before the Titanic sunk that told about a ship called the Titan that hit an iceburg.
Read more:Conspiracy
3.0 Podcast with Peter Rollins 2006-11-19 14:00:30
The newest version of The Nick and Josh Podcast
, the 30th Episode Aniversary Show kicks off with PeterRollins
, author of How (Not) to Speak of God a book that is “. . . a must read for anyone who has ever heard the name ‘Jesus’. . . ” according to the latest podcast.
In this intro special guest Barry Falke is in the studio talking about carny’s and sounding like Don Miller.
New Content, or - How I learned to share creative thoughts 2006-11-20 18:22:12 Two new sections to the blog. I have created/updated a ‘Poetry’ section. Enjoy reading some of my old, dark poetry. Hopefully this will lead to me crafting new poetry.
I have also started playing with the band previously known as “Intimate Strangers”, we have been working on some new music. I will add some rough tracks as we continue practicing. Use the mp3 player in the top right and check out track 4, for new raw stuff from. . . Pricillian of Avila?
Read more:Content
, creative
, thoughts
Delicious 2006-11-21 22:11:59
A couple months ago Tank recommended an awesome program to keep track of your Movies/Books/Music/and Games. It’s called Delicious
Library. After I was sold on the app, I told my dad about it and now he is a user. It is spreading, but I wanted a way to share my library and tell other people what I had so my dad and I could view eachothers and see what we wanted to borrow.
The answer didn’t come from inside the app, it came in DeliciWeb. And it created this.
How (Not) to Speak of Podcast's 2006-11-22 17:05:12 The Pete Rollins interview is currently down on iTunes. Come back to be informed as to when it will be available. Sorry for the delay.
Read more:Podcast
I get scared when. . . . 2006-11-22 21:04:34 I get scared when Muslims pray. I mean what if God hears them? Maybe they will crash a plane. Please report any one from a faith other than Jesusanity praying anywhere near a plane. It is your duty as an American.
The Fountain: A Review 2006-11-27 00:48:07
Like millions of Americans, the holiday weekend turned easily into a box-office weekend. Leslie and I have been married for 7 months now and up until this month I haven’t been to a theater to see a film. We have just had other things going on, and come on, a film is like 8 bucks a person. That shit is expensive. This month however we have seen three films. Borat, Casino Royal, and The Fountain
. Thankfully, due to generous families, we only paid for one of the films.
My favorite out of these was The Fountain and I’ll give it a powerful four and a half out of five stars. The film came out of nowhere as a moving work from the writer/director Darren Aronofsky who directed Requiem for for Dream. This film is just as real and emotion filled as Requiem, but contains a sign of hope that wasn’t apparent in that film.
The film is all about humans search for immorality and moreover our search for meaning and understanding of a great journey. When I finished seeing it I wished
Children of Men 2006-11-27 23:29:41 The movie I am most excited to see this December is Children
of Men. Josh Case just reminded me of it, when he said he got to see a European screening of it. He makes notes in his blog. Leslie and I got a chance to sit down with he and his wife yesterday afternoon and break bread and have some wine over video chat. The world seems to be getting flatter these days. Virtual Communion.
NPR, Tobacco, and Religion 2006-11-28 17:10:01 On my way into work I caught my normal 12 minutes of Morning Edition and heard a piece on Tabacco Barns in Kentucky. The story can be found here. Betty King was one of the people the NPR staff interviewed. King has recently bought an old Tobacco
Barn and converted it into an apartment to live in. She had this to say about it.
“Barns are so beautiful; I hate to see those disappear from the landscape,” she says. “I don’t get the tobacco smell, but I do look up at some of the rafters and see strays of tobacco from years past hanging down. I feel good because it is part of history, and I left as much as I could with the original beams showing. I’m not a smoker and I don’t promote smoking, but I think there’s part of that culture that I’m pleased to have preserved.”
I think her statement is important in ways she never knew it could be. When I heard her say that she wasn’t a smoker and didn’t promote it, however she was please Read more:Religion
Soul Cravings: A Review 2006-11-29 16:25:24
Erwin McManus, cranks some stuff out. He works at a faith community in LA called Mosaic, he is also a speaker at conferences all across the country, and he tries to shoot out a book every couple years. Sounds like he has a Woody Allen work ethic.
This week I finished his latest book, Soul Cravings
. I have been turned off to McManus in the past few years. Whereas, he has written some things that have completely shaped my idea of how to live my life (Seizing your Divine Moment, An Unstoppable Force), he recent works have just been this Barbarian life stuff. Each book turned to restate what he had previously written, with the same proposals and sometimes different stories.
I was recently sent Soul Cravings and decided to give it a shot, even though Barbarian Way had left me dissapointed and felt shafted with the price of an unoriginal mini-book. I was glad the new book had nothing to do with Barbarians. I was also glad he started to write it in the style of a journal.
Soul Cravings is a
John Black 2006-11-30 15:30:16 John Black
is a talented musician, Birmingham-ite, and friend to all around these parts. I met him while I was living in Georgia and he and his wife moved to Birmingham at about the same time Leslie and I moved over here.
Since moving here he has popped up in random places. Red Mountain Church, The Birmingham Sidewalk Film Festival, and Alabama’s famous Deamland BBQ.
Most recently however he has showed up in my bathroom. While reading a copy of Relevant.
Check out his website and music.
nicholasfiedler.com/blog — update 2006-12-01 18:51:30 I have added to the About Nick page. My Myers-Briggs personality test and description. Learn more about me today. You know you want to.
Jesus is Sci-Fi: Or, How We Need to Learn to Speak Myths 2006-12-05 04:39:52 Creation
Sky is the lung of christ
that god made in the open
chest of his son,
placing creation in his side,
safely underneath the ribs.
The bright capillaries
twist inside him
and line the expanse
that holds humanity
beneath the heart
that beats in time
with the oceans movements. Read more:Jesus
, Myths
Mr. President, Tear down this epidemic! 2006-12-05 16:04:50 It seems that Bush’s plan to help stop AIDS in Africa is failing, due to restrictive spending and his conservative beliefs. This report says that it could be his religious views on abstinence that hinder the ability to get this epidemic
stopped. Read more here. The report was conducted over the last year by The Center for Public Integrity and is aptly titled “Divine Intervention”.
UPDATE: I read this post about 20 minutes after posting and realized it is a downer that just complains about someone I have never met. Though Bush may be as Danny Davito says, a numb-nut, I haven’t met him and don’t know why he fails to act in ways I think he should. So in addition to my complaint I offer this - lets write our congresspeople and senators and tell them that Aids in Africa is exteremly important to us and we want to see more done.
If you are in Alabama
Email
Richard Shelby
Jeff Sessions
Also
Check out Congress.org to take more action. Read more:President
I get scared when. . . (Post 2) 2006-12-06 17:37:34 A few weeks ago, I stated that I get scared when Muslims pray (or rather, when they Salat), I am going to add another fear in this ongoing list. . .
I also get scared when Muslims become Congressmen, like Keith Ellison. What if a minority like that gains a voice in America?
Thankfully people like Glenn Beck are sticking it to him.
Email Glenn Beck and tell him how much you think of what he is doing to protect America.
NPR, IRAQ, SADNESS, JOHN PIPER 2006-12-07 19:23:41 On my way into work this morning I was listening to NPR’s Morning Edition and listening to a segment on Listners who called in to give some feedback. Here is what one Iraqi wrote about having a child in Baghdad.
“Why would I want to bring an innocent child into a bloddy savage world. . . I don’t, I regret what I did. I got my wife pregnant.”
This made me sad. I heard this with a backdrop of conversations that I have had with friends lately that want to have kids, that can’t wait to have kids. Then I think about what John Piper says about human depravity, and the lapsarian world. If I thought the world was only evil and that man was only evil and I was in a country that is in turmoil than I would understand this statement more. I tend to believe that humanity is beautiful and a reflection of the divine.
I hope I will never reach a point in my life when I don’t think this world is a good place to bring a child up, though I can understand how living i Read more:PIPER
Fearless Leader Quote #236 2006-12-08 18:36:48 President Bush: “Some reports are issued and just gather dust. And truth of the matter is, a lot of reports in Washington are never read by anybody. To show you how important this one is, I read it, and our guest read it. The Prime Minister read — read a report prepared by a commission.”
This was said moments before he rejected major portions of the report. Get em’ Tex.
What’s your favorite FearlessLeaderQuote
? Let me know.
My Email Correspondence with Glenn Beck 2006-12-11 18:26:35 [My Email
]
Mr Beck,
I am a CNN viewer that has seen your show a few times. I just wanted to thank you for the work you do and tell you that I feel validated now for my thoughts on Muslims. I am in no way racist, but I just don’t trust Muslim officials in our government. It’s about time that we had someone say that outloud. I know you are getting flack for that, but I want to let you know you are just saying what we are feeling. I will not get on a plane if I see Muslims praying in line with tickets, and I will be scared when I see any Muslim take a public position. That is not my America. Those are not my values. The world has changed. Has 9/11 taught us nothing?
Thank you,
Nicholas
Also
Do you have any press kits that you send out to viewers? I would love a Glen Beck picture if you have them.
Thanks again for taking time to answer my email.
[The Response]
Dear Nicholas,
We're glad you're watching. Thanks for your support.
Post-Script: The e-mail was sent after I sent Read more:Glenn
3.1 Podcast is up!!! Diana Butler-Bass, Christianity for the Rest of Us 2006-12-13 05:08:02
Last month I reviewed a book on my blog called Christianity
for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith, by DianaButler
-Bass. To read the review go here.
Josh scored an interview with the author and though I couldn’t make it he handled the situation nicely. Enjoy the latest podcast.
Read more:Podcast
Children of Men: A review 2006-12-14 20:08:56 I got the chance to watch an early release of Children
of Men with Leslie and I was quite taken. Christmas day Children of Men (An Alfonso Cuaron film) will be released in theaters in the United States. I couldn’t think of a better day for it. The backdrop to the story is that something has happened on the Earth and by the year 2026 women are sterile. There is an underground group called The Human Project, that may or may not exist, but hope in there existence fuels hope that women will one day be fertile again. Enter Clive Owen and his ex-wife that are determined to get a pregnant woman to the unreachable Human Project. Never before has there been so much hope in the birth of a child.
With the exception of the birth of Jesus, who was the hope of the world for those who had accepted he was a Messiah told of in ancient prophecies.
I know that a Nativity movie is coming out this month, but honestly I have no desire to see it. Don’t get me wrong, the Nativity is a beautiful st Read more:review
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