Branding: Are We Marked for Life?

Several times a semester, my church hosts a discussion called Theology at the Forge, which takes place at Forge & Vine, an eatery in downtown Columbia. TATF is designed to take us outside the walls of the church and engage in conversation about how our theology and our worldviews come to bear on some of the biggest political, social and cultural issues of the day. I'm leading tomorrow night's discussion, entitled "Branding: Are We Marked for Life?" Below, you'll see a description of the event. If you're in Columbia tomorrow night around 7, meet us at the Forge and join the dialogue.

Experts tell us that by grade school, American kids are familiar with hundreds of logos. Whether it’s swooshes or golden arches, companies and advertisers work together to create unforgettable images that build customer loyalty. But branding is about more than just selling a product. It’s about selling a way of life. From culturally accepted catchphrases to commercials which debate what kind of computer best represents us, branding has left an indelible mark on our society, affecting the way we view our money, ourselves and each other. Are the brands we buy simply harmless economic choices or do they reveal something about our personality and beliefs? Is it ethical for companies to try and create lifelong customers through marketing in schools? And what of upstart movements to make pervasive branding a thing of the past? The answers to these questions may reveal more about our own brand of thinking than we realize. Bring a few friends, an opinion and an open-mind, and grab a table, food and drink in the upstairs lounge at the Forge & Vine downtown. All ideas are welcome.

Pop Culture Fridays: Only 2 more weeks...

Exactly two weeks from today, I will be in the most glorious haze...

I will just have seen this great performer (in an equally great venue) the night before and will be heading into a weekend where I will get all the documentary fun I can handle...

Until then, I wait in eager anticipation with Adams & The Cardinals' latest to tide me over. Here's an excellent performance from Letterman's show...this song, "Cobwebs," is my favorite off the new record. What gets lost (just ever so slightly) in the live setting here is the beautiful, percussive, bell-like quality that Adams and Neal Casal get from their guitars. Great song.

Randall Balmer on The Daily Show

Author/scholar Randall Balmer was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night discussing his book God and the White House. You can read more about/watch the interview from the Faith in Public Life blog where I posted it earlier today.

Last year, I read and enjoyed Balmer's helpful history Protestantism in America (co-authored with Lauren Winner); while I'm not always in lock step with his politics or his theology, I always find Balmer's analysis insightful and thought-provoking.

Pop Culture Fridays: What Lost Teaches Us About Community

I may be one of the 6 people left in America who hasn't seen an episode of Lost. The concept seems fascinating; there is no good reason I have missed the show. A combination of grad school busyness and a bent toward situation comedies is probably, at least in part, to blame. This far behind, I have had a hard time finding the motivation to catch up.

Still, the impact wasn't lost on me when reading Regina Nigro's analysis of how the show paints an important picture of community. In America Magazine, a Catholic publication, Nigro writes that the popular drama has reinforced the oft-neglected concept of interdependence. Specifically, Nigro suggests "The “live together or die alone” credo has been a steady refrain throughout the show’s run, underscoring what has become a central theme: the value of living in community."

The show not only presents discussion on this theme but bolsters the theme in its very structure. Nigro writes: "The significance of individual choice extends even to the show’s narrative style. "Lost” employs parallel storytelling (juxtaposing a character’s pre-crash flashback with a current island crisis), providing several points for meditation on the nature of good and evil, people’s obligations to one another, the power of love and the endless struggle between faith and doubt. Placing moral crisesin the context of a struggle for survival lends a sense of urgency to the choices made..."

She continues:"...While “Lost” is too nuanced for simple allegorical mapping, the island is essentially our world writ large. While we are not plagued daily by murderous polar bears, an ominous “smoke monster” or creepy forest whispers, the island setting merely makes the challenge of living in community more apparent. The consistent message is that treating each other with dignity, respect and love is paramount; and it is no coincidence that every second chance awarded is oriented toward living together, not dying alone."

In every discipline I've studied (theology, politics, journalism, etc.), it has become glaringly apparent that perhaps our greatest sin, both individually and socially, is the sin of self-absorption, irresponsible independence and isolation. Our politics fails when leaders only look out for their interests; our communities struggle when neighbor will not lift a hand to help neighbor; we cannot be an instrument of God's grace or truly experience spiritual communion when we are only out to please self. John Piper speaks of our trading God's glory for lesser things; this "exchange" comes in the service of our self-glorification and contentment.

What Nigro sees in Lost is a lesson for our everyday lives and for the larger-scale decisions we make. When we give up our rights to ourselves, we are not losing, we are rather gaining. We become embedded and ingrained in community rather than setting ourselves up for loneliness, despair, spiritual emptiness.

It has famously been said that no man is an island. Perhaps it is the very purpose of the men and women on this TV island to remind us of that.

Aarik Danielsen's 2008 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack or The Audacity of Rock

I commemorate the end of every year with a year-in-review CD, compiling all the music that captivated me most and best expresses the year I had. It took me a bit longer to cull everything I loved from 2008 but here is the final tracklisting (I don't usually make dual-disc mixes, but this was a good year...):

Disc 1:
1. coldplay:: lovers in japan/reign of love
2. death cab for cutie:: cath...
3. yesan damen:: monuments to ambition
4. beck w/cat power:: orphans
5. break and repair method:: calling all electrical prints
6. anna ternheim:: little lies
7. jakob dylan:: will it grow
8. matthew perryman jones:: when it falls apart
9. jenny lewis w/elvis costello:: carpetbaggers
10. my morning jacket:: alumnium park
11. the black keys:: I got mine
12. lucinda williams:: tears of joy
13. the war on drugs:: a needle in your eye #16
14. fleet foxes:: mykonos
15. the decemberists:: valerie plame

Disc 2:
1. snow patrol:: take back the city
2. m83:: kim and jessie
3. r.e.m.:: man-sized wreath
4. tv on the radio:: golden age
5. ryan adams and the cardinals:: cobwebs
6. john mellencamp:: my sweet love
7. ray lamontagne:: you are the best thing
8. the hold steady:: sequestered in memphis
9. old crow medicine show:: highway halo
10. giant sand:: stranded pearl
11. bon iver:: creature fear
12. the national eye:: the farthest shore
13. scouts:: whiskey echo lima lima
14. coldplay:: death and all his friends

Pop Culture Fridays: Springsteen Takes Tampa

Hang around this blog long enough and you will get a sense of my bordering-on-ridiculous admiration for Bruce Springsteen. It's not a huge logical jump, then, from that statement to my excitement that he will be headlining the halftime show at Super Bowl 43. Not every Springsteen fan feels the same, however.

In a Sports Illustrated piece that came out this week, Joe Posnanski discusses the reactions of a few confused Springsteen devotees. Some point to the feelings of discomfort with stadiums The Boss has historically expressed. They wonder why someone who hated playing stadiums because of the inherent disconnect (due to venue scope and size) between audience and performer would play on the biggest stage of all...

I, on the other hand, am unconcerned. For one thing, I am never bothered by the chance for a real artist to display his skill on a platform usually reserved for lowest common denominator-type performers (think of the N'Sync/Spears halftime show of a few years ago or the infamous Timberlake/Janet Jackson experience).

And, while it might be a bit more awkward and histrionic a setting, I'm not worried about Springsteen's ability to connect. On stage, Springsteen is a populist preacher, a true man of the people and I have every confidence that his ability to make disciples won't be hindered by the pyrotechniques or dance squads the NFL is likely to toss into the mix.

"Living Just Enough for the City..."

The Pew Research Center released a new study today, finding that 46% of those surveyed "would rather live in a different type of community from the one they're living in now." The study found that attitude most popular among those who live in cities.

Other interesting findings/conclusions include the following:

• "Even though the survey shows that many Americans have a bit of wanderlust, it also finds that most are satisfied with where they live now. More than eight-in-ten rate their current communities as excellent, very good or good."
• 23% of those surveyed "say the place in their heart they consider home isn't where they are living now."
• "...most city dwellers think the grass would be greener in a suburb, small town or rural area."
• "...most young urbanites consider cities the place to be, while most middle-aged urbanites would like to live elsewhere."

Also, only 23% of those polled see the city as their ideal community type (the most popular answer was found in the 30% who idealize the small town).

I find this all so fascinating because it relates directly to issues with which my wife and I have been wrestling. As I prepare to graduate from the Missouri School of Journalism in May, we've been tossing around options for the future. We eventually decided to stay here in Columbia because we're interested in working for the good of this city and investing heart and soul into it. We're tired of watching well-intentioned people flee to the suburbs in the name of "safety" and "space," abandoning urban, cultural centers and leaving them to atrophy.

I am definitely intrigued by the idea of "new urbanism" and the trend (which this research supports) that sees young, hip professionals moving back to the city in droves. I will unpack these ideas more in future posts; you can be sure this is a topic I'll return to faithfully. For now, let me just say that I have grown to love where I live (I took the Pew survey and found that 94% of people rated their communities lower than I did mine!). And while I appreciate the culture and enterprise here, it's more than a love of eateries, bars and concert venues. It's seeing people I recognize downtown and stopping to talk; It's getting to know the specific needs of my community and seeing how I can help; it's visualizing the potential my city has to become an even better place to live.

The Pew study found that by a 3-1 margin, most people prefer living somewhere with a slower pace and that a majority want to live somewhere "where neighbors know each other well." I'm saying that the two don't have to go together---we can know our neighbors, know our community in a more urban setting. At least, I believe we can---I wouldn't be staying here if I thought otherwise.