a disturbing aesthetic.

All morning, I've been stuck on the psychology behind creating disturbing art. I'm thinking of David Lynch movies, weird horror flicks, and, the painter, Frances Bacon. See his Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion below.

I guess that I'm having trouble understanding the why. It is not beautiful. It is meant to push our minds to the edge of comfort and peer over a dark chasm of the strange. Invaluable? Maybe. Upsetting? Yes. Interesting? Yep, that too.

Bjork comes to mind as well.

If you think of any strange, weird, or disturbing works or artists, please share them in the comments section. I'd be interested.

Good People.

You know when you have something that's been traveling around with you that you've been meaning to read for several months now, but just haven't found the time yet, and you'll get to it eventually, it's just that you're so busy, and...

Well. I finally got to this: "Good People" by David Foster Wallace, who hung himself on my birthday last year.

He's one of those guys who I knew was good, but hadn't read. It's only four pages. Take the time.

I built this...

at work this week.



It's really gratifying to build something that works and be creative doing it. Kind of like building your first lightsaber, I'd imagine.

I can't tell you what it does though.

Pittsburgh.

Lauren and I went to Pittsburgh this past weekend. I had an English Conference, where I presented a cleaner version of this paper.

But! We also got to sightsee.

I finally got to go to the Andy Warhol Museum! (For you long term readers, you may remember that I arrived at the front door of this little Mecca of mine, 15 minutes too late last time.)

We also went to a cool art gallery called The Mattress Factory, which had several installations.

We ate Lauren's birthday dinner in a nice restaurant that used to be a railway station a long time ago.

One of my favorite new artists is James Turrell. Imagine an elevator opening up to a floor, where there is only a map lighted in front of you. You have to walk through a dark kind of labyrinth to see his pieces like the one below. As you walk toward what you think is a two dimensional surface, you realize that it is actually a hole into another room!!!

I love it when any artist can present you with an alternate reality. There's something magical about that for me.

A Good Read

I just finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. It was a really fun book to read and the ending made me feel like this:

If you want to borrow it, put your address in the comments section, and I'll send it to you. (Or maybe e-mail me your address, so that the internet won't find out where you live.)

Christless Christianity

My friend Drew, led our bible study recently, and gave us a handout with the following challenging quotations:

"Aside from the packaging, there is nothing that cannot be found in most churches today that could not be satisfied by any number of secular programs and self-help groups."

"In my view, we are living out our creed, but that creed is closer to the American Dream than it is to the Christian faith. "

"Just as you don’t really need Jesus Christ in order to have T-shirts and coffee mugs, it is unclear to me why he is necessary for most of the things I hear a lot of pastors and Christians talking about in church these days"

 – Michael Horton, from Christless Christianity

And also...

Jesus has become supplemental instead of instrumental to the church – Tim Challies

Find an Encouraging Church.

To those of you who are seeking, there are good churches out there. I found one.

Here's the link: http://www.scumoftheearth.net/.

It's crazy. There are all kinds of people, and all kinds of great churches out there for all those various kinds of people.

Jesus is still the saviour of the broken, the outcast, and the lost (which means everybody).