Week 7: Catch of the Week
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. On deck this week:
We evangelize an alien species.
We grieve the likely outcome of student loan forgiveness.
We pour up a bowl of jams from Mr. Bam Bam Baklava
We make our way across the Atlantic for some neo-classical Icelandic compositions.
We let the robots build our echo chamber.
All aboard.
The Book of Strange New Things – Michel Faber
I’m always interested to see the presentation of Christians in fiction written by authors who don’t claim the religion. It’s a rare opportunity for the individual to gain insight from the outside, like sitting for a caricature artist on the boardwalk whom you just told, “Don’t hold back. Let me have it.“
What shows up on the canvas may not accurately depict you, your beliefs, or your convictions, but the somewhat generalized picture is taking cues from reality. There are things the general public knows and believes about Christians even though they may not have encountered one in the wild. That being said, I think Faber in his book, The Book of Strange New Things, provides a fair view of the Christian and his worldview, with its many complexities, paradoxes, and questions.
Like all good sci-fi stories, the premise of the novel and its world isn’t all that unbelievable. USIC, a mysterious shadow corporation, has discovered a new planet dubbed Oasis that is inhabited by an indigenous population. It becomes clear as the narrative unfolds that the primary motivation of USIC is to colonize the planet for human use pending a cataclysmic disaster on earth, but Peter, the main character and narrator, is tasked with a higher purpose.
Peter, a pastor from England, has been contracted to care for the spiritual needs of the indigenous population of Oasis. He will make the months-long journey to Oasis, leaving behind a wife and community of his own, to serve as a missionary to the Oasans. We come to find out that Peter isn’t breaking new ground, sowing seeds among an unreached people group, but inherits a flock with their own established beliefs and pre-conceived ideas about the religion and promises contained in he Book of Strange New Things (a.k.a. the Bible).
The NPR Politics Podcast – Will Supreme Court Un-Forgive Student Debt? Seems Like It…
So I’ve got a vested interest in this one, like the 40+ million other borrowers who have been waiting for that life-changing direct deposit to clear their Nelnet account.
Obviously, this is a loaded topic, with loud voices on both sides trying to make their arguments, but I’d like to think if the shoe was on the other foot, and I didn’t have any student loans or I paid them off before forgiveness was possible, that I’d still be okay helping people get out of a bad financial situation. Especially when higher education by and large improves the wellbeing of both citizen and society.
But who knows. If I’d paid 30k worth of debt by struggling, scraping, and scrounging, I’d probably think it’s unfair for someone else’s debts to be forgiven. That being said, I think the humanity in me would not want any other person to have to suffer the crushing circumstances I went through because it was an exercise in building character.
Action Bronson – Lamb Over Rice
When I travel, I’ll sometimes do deep dives on artists by downloading their entire discography on Spotify and listening to everything back-to-back-to-back. It’s like my own private time machine listening session.
I did this very thing last week with the man, the myth, the author, singer, dancer, exotic olive oil taster, actor, Action Bronson.
While listening through the back catalog, Bronsoliño’s first few albums definitely had some good tracks, but none could compare to Lamb Over Rice. The 20 minute EP, from start to finish, is oops all jams. With full production by The Alchemist and Bronson coming off a small part in 2019’s The Irishman, the sound is more refined with Bam Bam’s rhymes and flow illuminated by the limelight.
Ólafur Arnalds: Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts
On a late-night pickup from the airport, a friend of mine shared a symphony he’d been listening to that reminded me of how much I enjoyed the compositions of Ólafur Arnalds back in the day. His Tiny Desk show from this past year is a treat.
Artifact: A personalized news feed powered by artificial intelligence
A few weeks back I learned about a new app in beta from the guy who made Instagram. Last week, Artifact opened up the app for the public.
Some articles are behind paywalls which isn’t the best, but if you pay for news like an adult, you can get articles from your typical spots in the app along with an assortment of other topics the robots think you might like.
See you next week.
Ad meliora
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