Clandestine Cool OKC

When I was a kid growing up in Moore, I thought that being from Moore meant that I was from Oklahoma City. And, since I knew that there was nothing to do in Moore, that meant that there was nothing to do in Oklahoma City. But when I moved back from Memphis, I actually moved into the city (we're now the stuck-up Northsiders we were supposed to hate).

Since moving back, we have travelled a lot, but we have also occasionally stuck around for in-town vacations. If you have never pretended to be a tourist in your own town, no matter how big or small it may be, I suggest that you do so. Go all out. Get a hotel room in a nice hotel, carry a camera around, and go to the places you see on the free tourist maps you get in Bricktown.

Since coming home and getting out and visiting my own town, I have discovered how cool home is. Today we went into midtown. In OKC, midtown includes the area around St. Anthony Hospital, Automobile Alley (NW 10th/Broadway area), an the Mesta Park neighborhood. We ate at McNellie's Pub in Crown Plaza (a historic three sided building that sits on one of the city's few roundabouts). We sat at a table with a view of downtown, ate traditional Irish dishes, and had a pint of Guinness (well, Charissa didn't). We then walked across the roundabout and had a gigantic banana split at the Grateful Bean Cafe which inhabits the old, classic Kaiser's Ice Cream building, just down the street from St. Anthony's.

And this was just one example of decidedly cool, big city afternoons we've had here. No more am I the teenager who thinks there's "nothing to do" here. I've lived in Memphis, spent considerable time in Boston, and visited most of the major cities in the U.S. and I've finally discovered that OKC belongs among any of these cities.

We've stayed in the Skirvin Hotel, walked around in the underground (a part of this city many residents don't even know about), hung out in the wonderfully strange Paseo Arts District (NW 3oth and Dewey), and eaten every kind of ethnic food.

I've patrolled districts that are primarily Mexican where all the businesses have signs in Spanish, and another that is primarily Vietnamese where all the signs are in their language. I've eaten in Mediterranean restaurants owned by Iranians and pizza parlors owned by New York Italian-Americans. I even have a German Deli (significant to me) a mile from my house.

Okies, this place is cool! And the secret is getting out. If you haven't noticed, then get out of Moore, get a room in the Skirvin and become a tourist in your own town for a couple of days. It just may change your mind about our clandestine cool city.

Officers Down

If it seems like there have been a lot of police officer killings in the news lately, it's because there have been. According to the Officer Down Memorial Page thirty-four officers have been killed in the line of duty so far this year. That number is equal to the number killed through the end of April last year, so we are only slightly ahead of where we were to date one year ago. The staggering numbers, however, are the number of officers killed in the last two months. After a slower start to the year (ten this January compared to fifteen in 2008, and seven in February compared to seven in 2008), March and April have been extremely deadly. Twelve officers were killed nationwide in March -up from five in March of 2008, and six have been killed through the first seven days of April. Four were killed in the entire month of April last year.

I have heard pop-sociologists blaming economic conditions for the recent upswing in violence in the US (the AP reports that 57 have been killed in mass shootings in the last month). I have even wondered (along with others who have always wondered this) if news reports about violence in fact perpetuate violence. Whatever the case, my brothers, now is a time to be extra-vigilant. Watch out for each other.

Goodbye Robert

From the Officer Down Memorial Page:

Sergeant Robert Douglas succumbed to injuries sustained in a motorcycle
accident five years earlier.His police motorcycle was struck by a car and he was
then thrown into the path of oncoming truck. He had remained in a coma from the
time of the accident until succumbing to his injuries.Sergeant Douglas is
survived by his wife and 6-year-old son.

Retraction

RE: My last Blog

Once again, Theo Epstein, you have proven that you are smarter than me. The Bay/ Manny trade has proven about even as far as actual performance, but the collateral effects have been shocking. The Red Sox are playing inspired baseball and Pedroia has picked up the slack big time, going eight for eight with two walks in the first two games against the evil empire. He is only slightly slackened since that run. I don't know that getting rid of Manny has had anything to do with the performance of the rest of the team, but whatever distraction he ma have cause has clearly gone with him.

I'm a man. When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong.

An Open Letter to the Boston Red Sox

To the Management,

Thank you for seeing to it that I will have plenty of time to grade papers in October.

Yours,

Jeff

P.S. You're idiots.

Welcome? The OKC SuperSonics

This is a blog response I made at SupersonicSoul, a fan blog by understandably angry Seattle fans. I thought i'd put it here for my two readers.

I came here to issue a heartfelt apology for what Clay Bennett did to you in the name of the people of Oklahoma City. You can surely understand that, naturally, we in Oklahoma have long wanted a major league franchise (we built the Ford Center for the NHL team that became the Nashville Predators). Many feel that having a big league franchise would help to alleviate the view that much of the country (including many of the commenters on this blog) has about Oklahomans as provincial, “Slag off c**ts, f**knuts, hicks, rednexx [sic], thieves, flatlanders, horse f**kers” (whiskeychainsaw) who need their “daily crystal meth fix” (Ryan). We’re naturally tired of hearing about our “market size” when we live in a city with a larger population than Atlanta, New Orleans, Cleveland, Kansas City, Oakland, Miami, and Minneapolis (Census Bureau 2005 estimate), all of which have major league franchises, many of which with stars much bigger than KD. So we wanted –even needed- the recognition that comes from having a team.

Yet, admittedly, it feels empty. I wonder how easy it will be for me to root for a team owned by Judas and his thirty pieces of silver. It’s a little embarrassing that people here are so excited to have gotten the team so early and that Bennett is a local hero. Frankly, if Bennett had stayed until the lease was out then left, I wouldn’t feel too bad. It would be easy to say, “that’s what Seattle gets for putting six Starbucks stores within a mile of my house to steal my money.” But that’s not how I feel. I feel dirty. We are good people here, but I am afraid our desire to get something we wanted has blinded us to what it has cost others. It’s unfortunate that this is such a constant human trait. After all, even Seattle was stolen from Native Americans by the Denny party after they landed at Alki Point.

Workplace

Mick got an idea from somebody to post picture of his workspace and tag other people to do the same. I don't really know what it means to tag someone, but here's a picture of my workspace.

Bad Good Rating

Every now and then, I go onto RateMyProfessors.com to laugh at my ratings. Some people will tell you that you should never look at these sites because they are misleading. This is because, generally, only malcontents will take the time to get on to a website to "rate" their professors. But I find that, if you realize this is true and you don't care what eighteen year olds think anyway, it is fin to get on and check them out.

Strangely, the rating that I most hate is a good rating. This student liked me, gave me great ratings. If it is who I think it is, I liked him to. But, bearing in mind that I teach in the English department, and that I teach writing, you can understand why I found this troubling:

thhis is a real great prof. he really helps you. he always shows a funny
you tube video during class. you should really chose this prof. yu are only
allowed to miss class 4 times before your grade is affected. you write 4
papers during the year.

Why the "Silence of the Scriptures" Argument Just Doesn't Cut It.

The Quail Springs church of Christ has made news in conservative Oklahoma City yet again. Last time, it was because they were “yoked with unbelievers” when they , shame of all shames, held a forth of July fellowship with the Baptist church with whom they share a parking lot.

But now they have committed an even worse crime. They have decided to begin an instrumental service on Sunday morning. They will retain a traditional, a cappella service but will also have a service in which a small band will accompany the music service. This has, of course, kicked off a rash of embarrassing public debate between churches of Christ in the area. These arguments range from the tired old arguments to the strange ones that even over-educated guys like me can’t understand.

The most common argument against the use of instruments in the worship service stem from a method of biblical interpretation based on close examination of the Bible’s text (in English) and the text alone. It is a method that stresses an exclusion from consideration any non-textual theology. This argument also comes from the belief that the institution of the New Testament abolished all legal value of the Old. Because the New Testament does not explicitly command the use of musical instruments, Church of Christ thinkers have argued that instruments are in fact forbidden. Thus the “silence of the scriptures” on the issue is in fact a proscription. My favorite explanation of this is one that I was once given: “If I tell you to go to the store and buy bread, that does not mean that you are to buy bread AND butter. In the same way, we are told in the New Testament to sing. We are not told to sing AND play instruments.

The problem with the “silence of the scriptures” argument is that it fails to consider the culture that the bible was written in. Dr. Neale Pryor, one of my favorite professors at Harding University, used to tell his students, “Remember, the Bible was written FOR you. It was not written TO you.” The difference is subtle but important. I should note that Dr. Pryor wasn't talking about this issue when he said this, but what Dr. Pryor suggests is that, in order to understand and properly interpret scripture, it is important to consider the people that the scripture was written to. This means that the type of close textual-study that the C of C has valued so highly may be a very irresponsible way to come to a clear and complete understanding of scripture. We must, instead, look very carefully at the history of culture as well as extra-Biblical source material to truly understand the text. With that in mind, it might be helpful to look at Christian hymnology in the first century in order to interpret the New Testament’s silence on this issue.

Let’s consider things that we know about the first-century church and their attitudes toward instrumental worship. The oldest Christian hymns in existence date from the early second century. Interestingly, they contain instrumental interludes. This means that by the early second century, instruments were clearly in use in Christian churches, not just as accompaniment, but as featured soloists. It’s reasonable to assume that this practice did not grow full fledged after the end of the first century.
We also know that Jewish Christians patterned their worship after the synagogues, which saw the use of instruments as mandatory. We must assume that the Jewish churches would have retained the use of instruments in worship as well. In fact, there was a great variety of worship styles in the synagogues and presumably in early churches as well. Temple worship included expensive, melodic instruments while the poorer synagogues often used only tambourines and cheap drums. But it is clear that they used at least these small instruments. This fact, more than any other, complicates the “silence of the scriptures” argument. This is because the New Testament writers are constantly chiding the Jewish churches for elements of the old law that they kept that were either no longer acceptable or no longer required in the new Christian church. However, they never corrected the Jewish church’s use of musical instruments. Instead, it seems that the practice was allowed to continue. The leaders of the early church clearly do not proscribe the use of instruments. If anything, then, the New Testament’s silence on the issue supports, rather than restricts, the use of instruments in the worship service. Knowing that the practice was going on, the apostles (Jewish Christians all) remained conspicuously silent on the issue. Our best educated guess is that many first century churches remained a cappella for financial reasons if for no other, while others would have carried on using instruments of different varieties depending on the individual congregation. We know for certain that worship in the first century was infinitely varied and the apostles saw no need to homogenize them. Instead, with few and important exceptions, churches carried on worshiping as they saw fit.

At the least, the silence of the scriptures suggests that the issue is totally unimportant. This possibility is almost as frightening as the last. This is because, if the issue is not as completely pivotal as we think it is, I have this horrible fear that before the judgment seat of God, my savior may say to me, “What have you done? People were dying all around you and I was begging you to go to them. But you were too busy arguing over trivialities.”

Jeff Sees a Legend

Tonight, I went to OCU and heard a lecture by Edward Albee. For those of you lug-heads who don't know who Edward Albee is, here's his Wikipedia entry. Mr Albee is the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, two Tony awards, and was one of two playwrites ever to receive a special lifetime achievement Tony (the other was Arthur Miller). Tonights lecture was suppoed to be comething about the Creative Proces and Imagination or something but he never got to any of that. The lecture was brilliant any way, and I thought you might like to hear some of the nuggets of wisdom from one of our greatest writers.

Albee on his background:
He said that he began writing poetry when he was eight and never got good at it. He wrote two novels as a teenager that he said, "I like to think that these are the worst novels a teenager cold have written." He also tried his hand at the short story. He wrote a first line which he thinks os w wonderful line. It was, "Everything in Rome is uphill." He then said that, unfortunately, everything after that in the story went downhill.

Mr. Albee told us that he had written a sex farce at thirteen which his adopted mother had thrown away. He called her, "my first critic." About his ineffectiveness in writing the poem he said:

"My knowledge of farce was academic; my knowledge of sex, singular."

He told us, and I had not known this before, that "Zoo Story," his first sucessful play, had its world premier in Berlin and it was performed in German. He went to Germany to see it and, though he couldn't even understand it, he watched the audience react and knew that he was a playwrite.

About the power of theatre in society he said:

Theatre is and always has been an active aggression against the status quo...If
you don't like what you see, change.

And further:

In a democracy, we can have anything we want but, in a democracy, we get exactly
what we deserve.

I have very few answers about anything, but I have a great many questions about
many things.

Creativity is merely the need to do something about the experience

And this is my favorite 1) because it's great and 2) because Edward Albee autographed the page of my notes on which it is written:

I like to go to universities because there are young people there, and I
like to corrupt the young.