Have you filled out your bracket yet for March Madness?
If you have, congratulations. Prepared to be kicked around by my picks.
If you haven’t, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!
Hurry hard! Hurry hard!
Go to Yahoo Fantasy Sports. Log in, and join this league…
Group ID#: 18339
Password: madness
Then make your picks before 10 AM on Thursday, and say thanks to me for watching your back.
Now run! Go! Time’s ticking…
Yes, it’s the beginning of March Madness, the highlight of the true sports lover’s year! And yes, I’m pumped and ready to take it all in.
But this March is even better than usual, thanks to tickets that are in my possession. On Saturday, March 31, the dynamic duo of Bowser & Blue are doing a show in the Queen City. My lovely wife and I are grabbing a couple unsuspecting friends and taking in the show.
Bowser & Blue? Odds are decent that you don’t know them.
Here’s my introduction to them…
My friend Ian (yes, that’s Ian of the Muirhead variety) lent me a tape years back. He said it was his mom’s and that it was funny. After initial hesitation (because who listens to his mom’s stuff anyway), that tape didn’t come out of my stereo for weeks. And it gave me much pleasure.
Bowser & Blue… they’re like…
Old, Quebec-dwelling, guitar-wielding Rick Mercers. They’re big on political satire (they have NO sacred cows), Canadian culture (they have a song called “In the Key of Eh”), and anything else that can be presented in a way you’d have never thought of it.
Below is a video of one of their “earthier” classics. It’s entitled “Working Where the Sun Don’t Shine”. I’d say “Enjoy!”, but I fear a few of you won’t!
That’s okay. You’re still welcome back another time.
“There’s no such thing as a dumb question.” I’ve heard that a few times.
I’ve also set out to prove it wrong more than a few times.
I don’t know what your questions might be these days, but I do hope you’ve got some. Whatever your questions, I’ll bet that they themselves are worth questioning.
Huh?
The people around Jesus had their own questions: Is he THE one? When will his kingdom come? Will it look like we’ve always dreamed?
N.T. Wright grabs it here…
“As was so often the case, Jesus didn’t answer their question directly. Many of the question we as God can’t be answered directly, not because God doesn’t know the answers but because our questions don’t make sense. As C.S. Lewis once pointed out, many of our questions are, from God’s point of view, rather like someone asking, ‘Is yellow square or round?’ or ‘How many hours are there in a mile?’ Jesus gently puts off the question.”
Hmm. I’d never thought of it that way before.
My friend Wade passed this on to me a while back. Some of you may enjoy reading it… or slamming it. All responses welcome, in the form of wandering and wondering.
Here’s the opening bit…
Nashville — THE strobe lights pulse and the air vibrates to a killer rock beat. Giant screens show mayhem and gross-out pranks: a car wreck, a sucker punch, a flabby (and naked) rear end, sealed with duct tape.
Brad Stine runs onstage in ripped blue jeans, his shirt untucked, his long hair shaggy. He’s a stand-up comic by trade, but he’s here today as an evangelist, on a mission to build up a new Christian man — one profanity at a time. “It’s the wuss-ification of America that’s getting us!” screeches Stine, 46.
A moment later he adds a fervent: “Thank you, Lord, for our testosterone!”
It’s an apt anthem for a contrarian movement gaining momentum on the fringes of Christianity. In daybreak fraternity meetings and weekend paintball wars, in wilderness retreats and X-rated chats about lust, thousands of Christian men are reaching for more forceful, more rugged expressions of their faith.
If you want the whole thing, click and read: Manly Man Movement.
Another great quote, this time from Walker Percy…
He defined boredom as:
“the self stuffed with the self”.
Ouch! Sorry if you’re reading this on a “boring day”.
But you know, when I think of some people I know who are “always bored”… I suspect Percy is on to something in a major way.
To leap-frog off of Percy’s idea…
A life stuffed with self is a small life, and a small life is a boring life.
You can quote JayBan on that last line. But I’m not telling you how I learned that little nugget.