This is my cell phone photo which conclusively proves I had little monster fans before Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga released Fame Monster on November 18, 2009…(click for wiki)
She gets all her best stuff from me? Perhaps.
PS
I forgive you, Gaga. Call me.
Hi. Welcome.
If you’re here to get your Wednesday funny fix, because Jon Acuff is serious on Wednesdays, thank you for stopping by. Everybody else, I think you’re pretty great too.
hint. I’m now plugging shame-free for this entire paragraph. If you click the Alluring Button (on the top left) you won’t miss anything funny on Wednesday–when you need it most. No funny from Jon on Wednesdays threw me into early onset seasonal depression this year. You too? I feel your pain. So, these Wednesday posts are really just my way to survive. Enjoy.
EXHIBIT A: The Faith Tones.
Bad girls of 1960s Christian Music. Y or N? You decide.
10 Things I LOVE about this album cover:
1. Big 60s hair. The higher the groovier, baby!
2. Healthy (I guess) round faces, like the Campbell’s Soup Kids.
3. Prophetic sense of bowling shirt fashion (as seen below with Lavern and Shirley). (Also could be hairdressing attire. Your guess?).
4. Subtle use of colorful, patterned or floral fashion, 60s hip blouses (under the matching uniform shirt) that says to the cool kids, “We know how to have fun…the way Jesus wants us to.”
5. Good vintage example of how you could be a Christian singer and still have crooked or subpar teeth. (Seriously. I defy you to spot a Christian album cover with an unattractive or crooked-toothed girl on it now, or for the last 20 years.)
6. Almost daring use of the album title, “Jesus Use Me,” and maybe just a hint of double entendré to spice it up for the Christian male audience. The 1960s were a time of sexual experimentation. Not so much in the Christian sphere, but a “clever” or edgy title couldn’t hurt sales. (Remember Stryper, “To Hell with the Devil”?) What do you think, was it purposeful, or just piety shinning through?
7. Girls use high tech (for the time) Stereo enhancement for our listening pleasure. Rock it, out, ladies.
8. The middle girl looks like she knows how to party. Whoot.
9. A vintage reminder that Aqua Net (not flower children) is what held the 1960s together.
10. This shows us that 50 years ago, much like today, music ministry tries too hard, but–sometimes–in a lovable sort of way.
Do you dig this photo?
ANYBODY have audio sample of the faith tones? Please, please, hook me up!
I’d like to hear them.
Golly, I sense some boss three-part harmony a-comin’!
I invited Shane to post here, chiefly because I feel a kinship to Shane. The artist and the spiritual formation learner I am jives so nicely with Shane’s outlook, and what he does as his life’s work. Writers, artist, thinkers, creatives, musicians, and so forth bring vital perspective to Christian Spirituality, and walking with God. Shane tends to this group, which is not an easy task.
Who is SHANE TUCKER?
Shane lived in Ireland for eleven years with his wife, two daughters and son. Visit his site. He works with the arts, spiritual disciplines, evocative messengers, and symposiums to engage people in their journey with Christ. He is passionate about seeing people live into their purpose in life, and he finds applications for that as a ‘soul friend’ (spiritual director) via Soul Friend (www.ArtistSoulFriend.com). He can be reached via either website or at shane dot tucker at gmail dot com.
Please enjoy Shane’s post, and feel free to offer your insights, comments, or questions.
Aesthetic Spirituality
by Shane Tucker
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
-ThomasMerton
We have an innate quality to notice beauty at every turn. To know that something is ugly or unattractive we must, of course, know that true beauty exists . . and in some way, to have experienced it. We resonate most strongly with that which seems to offer wholeness or a sense of completeness to our lives. That resonance may also be experienced as a deep hunger. Seldom do we know ourselves well enough to be able to express those yearnings in a coherent fashion. Itʼs in those times we need a bridge – something enabling us to connect, to integrate disparate elements into a whole. . . into a sense of being whole.
Art – any method or medium of creativity – can often serve as this necessary bridge, this connection, between what we know and what we long or yearn to know. Art gives us the tools, the words, the motion to live into what we sense is already there, but as of yet remains unseen. In this sense, art itself is a means by which we find ourselves by moving beyond ourselves. Through art (the highest sort) we are transported into places and spaces where we can lose ourselves. Itʼs a gift to be fully present to, and fully absorbed into, a situation or individual where weʼve forgotten to be concerned with our own desires or even aware of our image before others. Iʼve had a few experiences like this directly and by extension.
One of those experiences occurred three summers ago while I was attending a festival of creativity in middle England. I sought out a band I wanted to become acquainted with and unexpectedly, during their set I was in continual awe. Through their skillful use of music and visual elements, I was caught up in the moment and I forgot myself. Classic. Iʼve had similar experiences standing on green, broad, bald hilltops around Ireland as I drank in the arresting landscape around me. Another example are Christmas mornings since my three children arrived on the scene. Experiencing the uninhibited enthusiasm and joy demonstrated by these little people as they open gifts and share their excitement with the family – these are moments of pure bliss.
In times such as these we are given the gift of losing ourselves . . more specifically, concern for ourselves. The end, however, is not the experience of forgetting oneself in beauty, wonder, and awe; or even that of knowing a deep resonance which affords us the equivalent of tonal tonic through lifeʼs journey. Itʼs knowing Him. I hear, see, touch, taste and feel the Creator in this God-saturated existence called life. Heʼs made Himself ever- present in the created order and ever-accessible. He has, in fact, painted Himself into the portrait, written Himself into the narrative and sung Himself into our lives – even into existence, in Jesus Christ. When we recognize His overtures of love, our moment is to respond whole-heartedly, in trust, recklessly abandoned. In His hands, we then become the artwork by which He invites others to lose and find themselves in Love.
“Those who want to save their lives will lose them. But those who lose their lives for me will find them.” – Jesus, Matthew 16:25
by Shane Tucker / Soul Friend (Spiritual Director) / www.ArtistSoulFriend.com
Thank you, Shane.
I live in Cressona, a dinky little town known for tractor trailers getting stuck under the 11′ 8″ train overpass.
But, just a few roads away are some of the most spectacular landscapes you can imagine.
Each season has its own beauty, and spring and fall are the most colorful. Here are a few photos from my latest bike ride.
[slideshow]
This chapter comes to mind:
1 Praise the LORD. [a]
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD.
Now, I realize joking about a meat dress is fairly easy. But, essentially she drew first blood, so I think she completely expects the wisecracks, even if they get a little raw.
So, I’m going to up the ante. 15 jokes, right off the top of my head, (I’ll update with better ones, should I think them up.) Tell me which you like the best, or submit one of your own.
1. If she fails down, she’ll be nothing but hamburger.
2. Obviously the VMA’s don’t lack protein now, and that’s a relief.
3. Strangely she looked less like meat in her beef dress than she did in her trashy Bad Romance video. Ahem.
4. Just like Cinderella, it’ll all go bad by midnight.
5. Maybe Gaga made this dress solely to torture dogs.
6. Never tell Gaga to bring an entrée to your BBQ.
7. If I wore something like this, I’d get grilled.
8. You think this dress is bad, wait until she comes out with eyewear.
9. Gaga’s outfit normally sells for $13.98…. a pound.
10. If she wears this to India, she’ll be dressed in someone’s relative–then, you guess it, a public relations nightmare.
11. Why on earth didn’t her steak hat have a garnish? What a Philistine!
12. For Hannibal Lector, that dress would be the appetizer, and she’d be the main course. I’m not sure about dessert, probably ice cream.
13. Thank God she didn’t marinate.
14. Gaga is officially rare.
15. People screamed, “Gaga, well done!” But she didn’t realize they were actually petitioning her.
Bonus:
Gaga can easily feed a party of 6.
Dog walkers, this is a fashion don’t.
Thanks, Gaga! You just decided what 1.2 million ppl will wear for Halloween.
(notice to readers: I enjoy Gaga. Much love to her and her fans! I’m still bucking to be her spiritual director, seriously. I’m waiting by the phone. Bring it on Stefani.) :)
