Shushi and Such

I don't believe I've ever posted about this, but I am what Elliot refers to as a "foodie".

I like food. I like to eat it, and I like to cook it. I like to watch the Food Network on television. Particularly, I like Good Eats, the Surreal Gourmet, Chef at Home, and I have just discovered Food Jammers.

I'm not a particularly artistic guy. I can't draw, I can't sculpt, my design skills are seriously lacking. But I can make pretty food sometimes, and tasty food even more often. It's fun to be actually good at something.

Look at the pretty sushi I made!

Life Decisions

I think I may have mentioned my unhappiness with the Faculty of Education.

It's been a hard year for me—educationally. My personal life has been great, and my work this year with the youth at church has been wonderful, but school has been difficult.

The really sad thing is that I loved teaching English during my practicum (although I struggled with what I see as the watering-down of the curriculum). The part where I got to be a teacher was great. The part where I was a student was like being kicked repeatedly in the crotch. I felt actually sick to my stomach when I thought about going back.

So I'm not.

I've applied to the U of M's pre-Master's of English program. It is a one year program that will prepare me to enter a Master's program next year. When I've got my Master's degree, I'm going to get a Ph.D. After that, we'll see. Maybe by then CMU will be hiring another English prof. Maybe I'll just work as a full time youth pastor. Either way, it will be worth it.

I'm excited about school again.

War, what is it good for?

Diedre made a few comments recently about the Iraq war, and the callousness toward human life that seems to be accompanying it.

Al-Zarqawi, a powerful al-Qaeda member and "prince of terror" was killed recently by American forces. Diedre is uncomfortable with what she calls "100% jubilant 0% remorseful" murder. Now it seems that it is worse than we thought. Al-Zarqawi was not killed immediately, as originally reported, but bloodied and tried to run. American forces claim that he died of his injuries soon afterward, but some witnesses claim that the Americans beat him to death. His face was cleaned off before a picture was taken.

This war is vile. Maybe all wars are. I'm not an absolute pacifist in theory, but so far I am a pacifist in practice. I keep hearing stories about this war, about atrocities committed. It makes me sick.

I don't think Americans are somehow worse than other people. I don't think that soldiers are inherently evil. But I do wonder what killing people does to you. I wonder how you can kill people still respect their humanity. And I wonder how you can devalue and dehumanize your opponents without leading directly to atrocities. Maybe it's possible. I'm not sure.

Songs about Superman

It supports my earlier contention that Superman is the greatest of all heroes that there are an awful lot of songs about Superman. No other hero has pervaded the collective conscious to the degree that Superman has. There are many excellent songs about Superman, and far more that aren't strictly about him, but do reference him. A few of my favourites:

Crash Test Dummies: Superman: "Sometimes I despair the world will never see another man like him"

The Flaming Lips: Waitin' for a Superman: "Tell everybody waitin' for Superman that they should try to hold on as best they can. He hasn't dropped them, forgot them or anything. It's just to heavy for Superman to lift."

Johnny "Guitar" Watson: Superman Lover: "I got X-ray vision, and I can see see through steel too babe,I know that something wrong with me, cuz I can't see through you. But they call me the Superman Lover..."

The Kinks: (Wish I could Fly Like) Superman: "I'm too weak, I'm so thin, I'd like to fly but I can't even swim. Superman, Superman, I want to fly like Superman"

And others:
Five For Fighting: Superman
Three Doors Down: Kryptonite
Spin Doctors: Jimmy Olsen's Blues
Eminem: Superman (and references in about ten other songs)
Donovan: Sunshine Superman
Genesis: Land of Confusion

What do you think is the best song about Superman? How many can you add to my list?

A Winnipeg School with some... unorthodox practices

It's just too heavy for Superman to lift

Superman isn't invincible. He has his weaknesses. In fact, Superman's great weakness is probably about as well known as Achilles'.

But when Superman died, it wasn't Kryptonite that did it. When Superman died, it wasn't his tragic flaw, or his great weakness that did him in. Superman died when his strength failed. He just met someone stronger.

There's a lot about the Death of Superman storyline that I didn't like (particularly his re-incarnation as an energy being), but the means of his death is exactly right. Kryptonite may make Superman weak, but to actually kill him with it would seriously impovrish the story. From a mythic standpoint, Superman can't die because of his weakness or because he fails somehow. Superman is not a literary tragic hero. When he dies, it is simply because he finds something too strong for him—too heavy for him to lift.

Look, up in the sky!

Soon there will be a new movie about Superman. The trailers give me shivers.

Partly, it is the use of the original John Williams music—and Superman (along with Star Wars) is John Williams at his very best, emotionally evocative almost to the degree of being propoganda, but just short of being manipulative (as Williams tends toward at his worst). Even with my eyes closed, the sounds of the Superman Returns teaser trailer gives me goose bumps.

But there's more to it than that. Superheros play an important role in our mythic landscape. And of all the comic book superheros, Superman is undoubtedly the greatest.

I don't want to get into one of those Superman vs Batman vs Spiderman vs Wolverine vs Green Lantern vs Plastic Man vs Ghost Rider vs Silver Surfer who is the best superhero ever debates. Although I do find that kind of thing fun sometimes, what I'm trying to get at now is not that Superman is the best superhero in the sense of who would win in a fight, or even of who is the most fun to read stories about.

Superman is almost certainly the most iconic and culturally the richest of superheros, with the most depth of influence upon culture as a whole, who resonates most deeply and fully with the human condition and with our yearning for salvation. And Superman fills a cultural, narrative, mythic niche which is not filled by any of the other major¹ superheros.

Batman and Spiderman are both examples (in very different ways) of humanity saving itself. They are models for us, who demonstrate the heights to which humanity can rise. They give us hope in ourselves. Superman, at the heart of his story, exemplifies something quite different. Superman is not one of us. Clark Kent is the costume, and Superman is the real him. He is alien, not merely in the sense that he is from another planet (and I think the best presentations of Superman downplay the sci-fi little-green-man extraterrestrial alien connection) but in that he is outside our experience².

Superman is help from beyond. And as such he is a Christ-figure in a very different way than, say, Spiderman is. Spiderman is a Christ-figure in that he is a man who suffers for his fellow men. Superman is more closely analagous to a God who descends to dwell among us for our salvation. Neither, clearly, is a full metephor for Christ (and I would suggest that the only story that adequately captures the complexity of Christ's function is the story found in the Gospels), but each represents different aspects of a human need for salvation³.

It's been five years since the United States experienced an attack which shook it to its foundations and fundamentally altered dominant worldview of its culture. In the second trailer for Superman Returns, there is a clip of Superman saving a plane. Superman flies out of the blue and keeps an airplane from crashing. It occurs to me that the past five years have seen a re-emergence of the superhero movie. It occurs to me that it is about time Superman returned.



1 I know that there are examples (like J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter) of superheroes who are, like Superman, alien in one sense or another, but as I have said I'm mostly concerned here with the level of cultural impact. I've never heard any songs about the Martian Manhunter.

2 Yes, a guy who can stick to walls, a guy with blades that come out of his hands, a woman who can control the weather are also outside our experience, but what I'm talking about is not the power but the origin. Other superheros (including mutants) are fundamentally human, however altered. Superman is not one of us.

3 This need is shown in all of human storytelling, in all myth. So why do we call it "Christ-figure", when clearly some of the stories predate Jesus of Nazareth? C.S. Lewis once said that in Christ myth was made fact, just as God was made flesh. Only in Christ do we find the myth fully realized and also made fact.

New Apartment

Well, we've moved.

We have left our big sunny corner apartment in the heart of Osborne Village for a slightly smaller sunny corner apartment a short walk from downtown.

Our new place is a little smaller than our old place, but it feels bigger to me.

Hardwood floors, new appliances, a buzzer at the door, and a fake fireplace all add up to sweet sweet digs.

Monday Webcomics

It's Monday, and that means that there is a new comic up at the St. Margaret's youth webpage. This week, it is courtesy of Elliot gave me a new "Paul and Jan" comic.

While we're on the subject of webcomics, Sinfest has had a few quite interesting and funny comics lately, and Sam and Fuzzy has been one of my favourites for a while now.

I swear I'm not making this up

My mother visited Winnipeg for a few days recently, on her way home from visiting her new granddaughter.

It was nice to see her, and it was nice to be able to show her our life.

One of the things she wanted to do while she was here was take a walk through the Winnipeg Art Gallery. So we went, on Wednesday evening. We got to the WAG at 8:00, and it closed at 9. We decided that it was still worth taking a walk through, even if it was only for an hour. My mom talked the clerk into giving us all student rates, since our visit was going to be so short. So far, so good.

We decided that we would start at the top, and work our way down. So we went to the roof, to look at the sculpture garden. Honestly, it was a little disappointing. We walked around for a bit, but the sculptures were actually few and far between, so we decided to move down to the Gallery level, to look at some paintings.

The door wouldn't open.

This must be a mistake. I thought. We must be pulling instead of pushing, or something. So we pulled, and pushed, and twisted, and banged on the walls. Nothing. The door was securely locked. We were trapped on the roof of the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The walls were high, the fall was long, and my mother is not as young as she once was. We couldn't jump off. We found the fire exit, and peered through the door at what we guessed was our best hope: a long dimly lit staircase behind the gallery. At each floor we tried the door, but to no avail. Our situation had not improved in any measurable way. We were now trapped in a stairway instead of on a roof. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, we found a door with a sign which informed us that an alarm would sound if the door were opened, and the fire department would be called. We considered our options. It was 8:30 by this time, and we knew that if the fire department was called, we would see no art. If, on the other hand, we could find a way out without sounding an alarm, at least we would still get half an hour of gallery touring.

I left my wife and mother trapped together in a stairwell and ran back to the roof to give one last ditch effort on every door I could find. I found the door to a restaurant on the top floor of the WAG, and found to my delight that it was unlocked.

As I opened the door I heard a strange beeping sound. And then a loud wailing sound. The door was not locked, but it did have an alarm, and instead of the fire department, the police were now on their way. I hurried down to the front desk, and told the clerk and the security officer:

"We were on the roof in the sculpture garden, and the doors were locked. My wife and mother are now trapped together in a fire escape, and when I opened the only door I found unlocked, an alarm started to go off."

It took a bit of explaining to make it clear that there were two issues that required immediate attention. 1) The alarm, and the police would soon be responding to it, and 2) My wife and mother trapped in fire escape.

The security guard took me back to the roof, disabled the alarm, and followed me back down the fire escape to where Jan and my mom were waiting in silent hope.

We got out, and my mother expressed her disatisfaction to the clerk, who gave us some free family passes!

Anyone want to check out the Marvel Comics exibit with us?

I think she looks like Yoda

As promised, I have pictures of my new niece.













She's adorable. I can't wait to see her in person!

Say hello to Freda Margaret Hope.

Jews and Judaism

I'm reading a book called The Gospel According to Moses. So far it is quite good. It's simultaniously a defence of Christianity in the light of the Jewish Scriptures, a defence of Judaism to Christians, and an attempt at building fellowship between Christians and Jews.

Some historical Christians have claimed that in failing to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, the Jews have lost their special place in God's favour, but Jesus himself said "everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven." (Luke 12:10) Jews, who do not acknowledge Jesus but who DO acknowledge the Holy Spirit of God have clearly and explicitly NOT lost their place with God. The Apostle Paul says "All Israel will be saved, as it is written: 'The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob'" (Romans 11:26)

I have become convinced lately that most Christians (at least, myself and most of the Christians I know) are insufficiently knowledgable and insufficiently respectful of Judaism. Jesus was a Jew. Christianity is Jewish. Although it is true (as the apostle Paul repeatedly points out) that Christians believe that through Jesus the law has been fulfilled, and God's grace has been extended to all people, and that the cultural trappings of Judaism are not necessary for salvation, yet it is also true that the roots of Christianity are in Judaism, that the God Christians worship in the Jewish God, that the promises of God to his chosen people have not been anulled simply because they have been widened, and that Christians impovrish ourselves spiritually by ignoring the vast depth of Jewish commentary, thought, insight, tradition and faith.

So for myself, I intend to study the Talmud, the history of Israel and try to learn about God from Judaism. I think it will make me a better Christian.

Check it Out!

New comic at the St. Margaret's Youth webpage, and a promise of new comics every Monday.

This is what I get for caring

The Ottawa Senators have been eliminated by the Buffalo Sabres.

Boo.

Comments are Necessary

Who would win in a fight, Plastic Man, or Elongated Man (or Mr. Fantastic)?

Graffiti as Conversation

Sometimes the graffiti in Winnipeg is purely destructive, like spraypainted squiggles on a snowbank (yes, it has happened). Sometimes it is bizarre and mysterious, like "Murder Capital" and "Stand Tall", and "Baby Mama" stenciled around the city. Sometimes it is affirming and even sweet, like the various "I love you"s found throughout the city, not to mention "Forgive Her". Sometimes it is worth quoting for months, like "Sam Katz Eats Babies".

I like it when it is a conversation. There is a bus stop on the walk from church to home where someone wrote "Hang Dykes", and someone else wrote "... and homophobes." Although I can't say I approve of violence, it's neat to see conversations carried out anonymously, over months.

There's a traffic box that had "Happy is a choice" written on it for months. Eventually someone wrote "Directions please" underneath it. A few weeks after that, a third person added directions to the nearest church.

I think that's cool.

Sam Katz eats babies.

With my Own Two Hands

I can change the world
With my own two hands
I can make it a better place
With my own two hands
Make it a kinder place
With my own two hands
With my own, with my own two hands.

I can make peace on earth
With my own two hands
I can clean up the earth
With my own two hands
I can reach out to you
With my own two hands
With my own, with my own to hands

I'm gonna make it a brighter place
With my own two hands
I'm gonna make it a safer place
With my own two hands
I'm gonna help the human race
With my own two hands
With my own, with my own two hands

I can hold you
With my own two hands
I can comfort you
With my own two hands
But you've got to use
Use your own two hands
Use your own, use your own two hands
-Ben Harper

Shhhh

Cathy tells me: "You know that whole thing women say about how childbirth is so painful? Lies. It was a snap. She just popped right out. But don't spread that around. We have to keep the secret."

Does posting it on my blog count as spreading it around? I'll ask her.

News

I got a phone call today.

My sister Cathy had her baby.

My new niece is named "Freida". She was eight pounds, and had lots of black hair. I'll post a picture when I get one, but just for comparison, here's the "before" picture.

You learn something new every day

I made an announcement in church today.

After the service, someone came up to Jan and said "I didn't know Paul was funny!"