Discover The Chrysostom Society: Meet Editor and Book Enthusiast John Wilson
In the early days, they plotted how to kill each other.
0 Comments5 Minutes
What Breakup Record Cuts Your Heart Open? Readers Respond!
I posted a question on Facebook and elsewhere: What breakup songs or breakup records mean the most to you? What music do you find entangled in your own hurtful experiences of separation? The floodgates burst open.
0 Comments1 Minute
Listening Closer: Bjork’s “Stonemilker”
Sharing your heart with someone who in turn takes sledgehammer to it understandably leaves an impression.
1 Comment1 Minutes
Looking Elsewhere: January 24, 2015
I'll conclude with a few words about the American Sniper hubbub. But first, here are some of the things that caught my attention on the Wild Wild Web in the last couple of weeks...
4 Comments8 Minutes
Listening Closer to Joe Henry’s “Sparrow,” The Lone Bellow, and Jessica Pratt
The first song of Joe Henry’s album Invisible Hour — my favorite record of 2014 — is the subject of the second installment in my new series called "Listening Closer." Plus: Two new albums well worth your time and attention.
0 Comments1 Minutes
“Our nation was born in genocide…”
He's the great orator. Let's make a space for him to go on speaking. If you read great words from this great man today, feel free to share them in the Comments here.
5 Comments2 Minutes
Do You Hear What I Hear?
This week, I begin a new year-long adventure: "Listening Closer." I will write about one song every week, opening it up to consider what's inside, where it came from, what it might mean, and why it has caught my attention and stayed on my mind.
0 Comments2 Minutes
Selma (2014): My Review and a Looking Closer Film Forum
By choosing intimacy over an epic scale, by going small instead of large, by discernment and selectivity over throwing everything available to her at the screen, Ava Duvernay has surpassed all expectations with a masterfully crafted film that will become a standard by which historical films are measured.
0 Comments13 Minutes
Overstreet’s Favorite Recordings: 2014 — Part Two [Updated Feb. 2015]
Albums I wanted to hear every week; albums I would be happy to own in a variety of formats; albums I would like to put in the trunk of my car so that I can give them away to everyone I know; albums that made a significant difference in my head and heart this year.
2 Comments62 Minutes
Win a Lucinda Williams Double Album: Tell Us About Your Favorite 2014 Album
What album meant the most to you in 2014? Tell us about it, and you may win a copy of the excellent 2014 double album by Lucinda Williams: Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone.
14 Comments1 Minute
Nurse Claire Nieman’s Christmas Playlist
It just made sense. Inviting people to share Christmas playlists, shouldn't I invite someone who spends her days welcoming newborn babies?
0 Comments8 Minutes
W. David O. Taylor and Phaedra Taylor’s Christmas Playlist
W. David O. Taylor and Phaedra Taylor bring us one step closer to Christmas Eve with their own Christmas playlist.
0 Comments11 Minutes
Andy Whitman’s Christmas Playlist
Nobody I know writes about music with more passion, personality, and insight than Andy Whitman. And here he is with a Christmas playlist.
0 Comments12 Minutes
Steve Taylor’s Christmas Playlist
It is a thrill for me to share this Christmas playlist from one of my heroes for more than 30 years of artmaking.
0 Comments11 Minutes
Author Robert Clark’s Christmas Playlist
You may know the name Robert Clark because of his celebrated writing. Since I pay attention to his recommendations in almost everything, I knew that I wanted to include his Christmas playlist in this series.
0 Comments8 Minutes
Christmas, Calling, Carols, and #Ferguson: Jeff Keuss Hosts a Conversation with Rev. Richard Dahlstrom, Dr. Brian Bantum, Anna Miller, and Myself (with Music from Eric Miller)
What can we learn from Mary, the mother of Christ, that can help us understand what is happening in Ferguson?
0 Comments2 Minutes
Poet Tania Runyan’s Christmas Playlist
The author of How to Write a Poem shows us how to make a Christmas playlist.
0 Comments7 Minutes
Andy Crouch’s Christmas Playlist
Our guest DJ for some Christmas music: The author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling and Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power.
1 Comment12 Minutes
Looking Closer with Jeffrey Overstreet
(now the ears of my ears awake andnow the eyes of my eyes are opened)
– e. e. cummings, “i thank You God for most this amazing”