Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts

22 May 2015

All about that coffee, 'bout that coffee (no tea)

by Dan Phillips

It started Monday morning when I checked in through Facebook, and received a witty reply:


That put an idea in my mind, and the rest, as they say... well, you know what they say. For you who don't do Twitter or were doing something else (like ministry), here's highlights — and, like SHST, I'll be adding updates probably until about noon Texas time:

Actually, this does it better:
(To be clear: this Michael Brown, not the Ferguson Michael Brown)
...and finally...
UPDATES

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Posted by DJP on Friday, May 22, 2015

10 October 2014

Some here, some there — October 10, 2014

by Dan Phillips

We're still on granddaughter watch. Yesterday was the due date, so this post could be updated.

But already a very full plate today! Let's launch. Tell me which ones are particularly chuckalicious, informative, thought-provoking, helpful, nuanced...oh wait, forget that. Sorry, got carried away.
  • To start on a somber note: You may know that discernment blogger and pastor Ken Silva passed away. Chris Rosebrough held a sort of online memorial for him, which you can listen to here. Reader Christine Pack of Sola Sisters, and Phil Johnson, were among those who spoke of Ken's impact.
  • Now, to the lighter side.
  • If you're in Twitter, here's a fun little game. Then plug in your favorite RPB and chuckle. BTW, the Spurgeon account gets 100% on "upbeat"! 
  • Have you heard "Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship" enough yet? I've had a few pointed words with its echoers (including Jefferson Bethke). Here's a good, full-orbed response from William Boekestein.
  • In the insightful essay Had Sex, Dumped Jesus, Joel J. Miller develops the correct causality chain in much apostasy (h-t Aquila Report). People have immoral sex; that creates painful cognitive dissonance; God or the immorality has to go for peace to reign; God goes.
  • I wish I'd gotten down verbatim what I heard Josh McDowell say many years ago. He said he'd gotten to the point that, when some teen would come to him saying "I'm beginning to have serious doubts about my faith," his first response would be along the lines of, "Oh? who are you sleeping with?"
  • This is a step aside from the usual, but it's genius. It's one of those things that, if Frank Turk actually read the posts here, he'd really like.
  • Another step aside: ah yes, World War I. That's where the good guys fought the Germans... and the tripods?!
  • Tone-change in 3... 2... 1...
  • M'man David Murray offers a video he calls the most powerful illustration of the Gospel he's ever seen. It's worth watching. I teared up. I think I get what David's saying. Yet if it weren't for David, it just isn't what I would have thought. Instead, I can't help that a bunch of questions team in my mind, at the same time that I admire this man and am moved by what he did. That probably makes me a (or IDs me as a) bad person. You?
  • Over at the indispensable DBTS blog, professor Bill Combs asks whether a person really has to be either Calvinist or Arminian, with no middle-ground. He answers, correctly, Yes.
  • Here's one way I'd put it: either God's choice of me is the result of my choice of Him, or my choice of Him is the result of His choice of me. There's no middle-ground that isn't exclusively populated by weasels.
  • We've noted a number of times how many issues The Gospel Coalition can't seem to be bothered with pro-actively. But there is one issue they're right on top of: Kevin Bauder shared some excellent thoughts on the subject, and yesterday TGC moved to prove him right yet again.
  • Because I love you, I caution you not to hold your breath waiting for the appropriately nuanced, helpful, thoughtful presentation of the other view on this question.
  • I had a comment up. Then it disappeared. Then it returned, and has been joined by some (far better) comments of dissent. At present, this is the reverse of the usual TGC situation: the comments are far better than the article.
  • I'm tempted to write (on my blog) a response-piece titled "Is the Bible A Deceptive Book of Secret Code?" I mean, what can the TGC do to me? Hate me? Ignore everything I write about topics they claim to love? Blacklist me?
  • For my part, I've thought a certain amount of the animus against such things is fueled by jealousy. I mean, think of it: what would an amill end times movie look like? Nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing happens, and then the movie ends because the filmmakers wouldn't want to show the face of Jesus.
  • So, in a way... every movie is an amill end-times movie, isn't it?
  • Before you ask: no, this isn't how they fight Ebola in Texas, so stop asking.
  • My brother from another mother Phil Johnson and I had an offstage disagreement about whether a certain literary-type thingie was witty and worthwhile, or whether it was obnoxious and offensive. Often, when I think I know what Phil will and won't find funny... I'm dead-wrong. Still. For instance, here's something to ponder: Phil sees something like this as high comedy. So, there y'go.
  • Now: how's your heart? In need of a good stopping? Perfect. I think I have just the thing:
  • If that didn't finish you: David Murray — who, I think, does not sleep — found this absolutely gorgeous and heart-stopping video of this gent biking on the Isle of Skye. If you watch as I did, you'll alternately gasp, hold your breath, yelp What?!, and murmur "oh my gosh." I had no idea a bike could do all that. Still not sure a bike should do all that. But now I know it can, if propelled by the right cast-iron legs.
  • You probably know that Jonathan Merritt did a piece on Tony Campolo's son's apostasy, if that's the right word for it. The real news story that the article broke is that someone still thinks that Tony Campolo is "an influential evangelical leader." The rest of the post is a target-rich environment for sad and unsurprised reflection.
  • That said, I say this: Francis Schaeffer was a fine and sound Christian leader, and Franky's defection is famous. Apostasy happens, and it's always the fault of the apostate, no matter how fine or how wretched a father he had.
  • Lovecraft, Cabin in the Woods, Joss Whedon, and Calvinism? What? Oh, must be Patheos.
  • Lyndon Unger doesn't think much of the movie Left Behind, only in his case it isn't because he's on the Dispie-Dissing bandwagon.
  • So Joan, who's been attending for some months, comes to you wanting to trust and follow Christ. In conversation, you learn that Joan is really John, minus this and plus than thanks to surgical disfigurement. After you've swallowed your gum, what do you say? Russell Moore gives some refreshingly nuance-free and straightforward counsel.
  • Amazing sculptures out of pencil lead make us think of God's more amazing living scultures out of microscopic material.
  • This helped and challenged me: Leon Brown on the fact that sharing the gospel can be incovenient (so deal with it, re-set your priorities Kingdomward, and get on with it).
  • Aquila Report found a very provocative perspective on dying from cancer, and on dying in general. Lacking Gospel, yet worth pondering.
  • Here is a different perspective, this time with the Gospel (and a little LCMS sauce).
  • M'man Denny Burk asks whether we have confidence in Christ that could handle Ebola.
What essential service will you contribute to your church this Sunday? Well, if you're late, here's an app that can help:



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Posted by DJP on Friday, October 10, 2014

26 March 2013

Oh dear: open letter edition

by Dan Phillips

Looks like someone monetized Frank's brainchild.
That's what you get for not copyrighting.

(Background headwaters)

At no extra charge, a later Tweet:

(Added background)

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Posted by DJP on Tuesday, March 26, 2013

07 March 2013

Check your Jesus

by Dan Phillips

It's funny how terrible I always have been at predicting results. Posts that I was certain would create a broad, energetic discussion have fizzled, while posts I virtually knocked off in a few minutes become Best. Post. EVAR in the eyes of some.

Same with Tweets and hashtags. I've started some I thought would really take off (and didn't)... and then yesterday, I came up with an idea. It was pretty much offhand. Here's the first:
One of the most retweeted was:
A few others (I'm still adding):
I told Pirate Christian Radio's Chris Rosebrough, and he joined in and ran with it, along with a bunch of other really terrific contributions. The hashtag is #CheckYourJesus, and the Biblical background is 2 Cor. 11:4 -- "For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough."

Read them through, there are a lot of great contributions, and it's still growing. Here's a sampler.

It's really hard to pick, and once I've started it is hard to stop. So just peruse and enjoy.

Some sad souls tried to derail now and again with bitter little squawks, but they only set off new rounds of robust response. All in all, it's been a great ride.

Join in!

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Posted by DJP on Thursday, March 07, 2013

11 October 2012

Bad lip reading the first presidential debate

by Dan Phillips

I may or may not offer something more Bibley later but, in the meanwhile, this is simply too hysterical not to share.

Bad Lip Reading is a YouTube channel that takes songs and clips, and supplies dialogue and lyrics as if done by a criminally-bad lip-reader. The result is that the words fit the lips... and make absolutely no sense. Or they make a kind of Bizarro, psychotic sense of their own.

The anonymous, Texas-based producer has done the presidential candidates a number of times. Sometimes a little bias seems to creep in, usually not. Sometimes the language is not such that I'd share here or at my blog, usually not.

In this case, they turn their attention to the last presidential debate. While we may not all agree perfectly on all matters political, I think we can all agree that this is hysterically funny. You don't have to have seen the debate to enjoy it... though that helps.



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Posted by DJP on Thursday, October 11, 2012

06 March 2012

Cutting use of humor

by Dan Phillips

I recently finished my second go-through of the audiobook of Spurgeon's autobiography (see here and here). Among the many things that struck me were the great man's observations on humor, taken in turn from Lectures to My Students:
Sometimes, anecdotes have force in them on account of their appealing to the sense of the ludicrous. Of course, I must be very careful here, for it is a sort of tradition of the fathers that it is wrong to laugh on Sundays. The eleventh commandment is, that we are to love one another, and then, according to some people, the twelfth is, “Thou shalt pull a long face on Sunday.” I must confess that I would rather hear people laugh than I would see them asleep in the house of God; and I would rather get the truth into them through the medium of ridicule than I would have the truth neglected, or leave the people to perish through lack of reception of the truth. I do believe in my heart that there may be as much holiness in a laugh as in a cry; and that, sometimes, to laugh is the better thing of the two, for I may weep, and be murmuring, and repining, and thinking all sorts of bitter thoughts against God; while, at another time, I may laugh the laugh of sarcasm against sin, and so evince a holy earnestness in the defence of the truth. I do not know why ridicule is to be given up to Satan as a weapon to be used against us, and not to be employed by us as a weapon against him. I will venture to affirm that the Reformation owed almost as much to the sense of the ridiculous in human nature as to anything else, and that those humorous squibs and caricatures, that were issued by the friends of Luther, did more to open the eyes of Germany to the abominations of the priesthood than the more solid and ponderous arguments against Romanism. I know no reason why we should not, on suitable occasions, try the same style of reasoning. “It is a dangerous weapon,” it will be said, “and many men will cut their fingers with it.” Well, that is their own look-out; but I do not know why we should be so particular about their cutting their fingers if they can, at the same time, cut the throat of sin, and do serious damage to the great adversary of souls. [Spurgeon, C. H. (2009). Lectures to my Students, Vol. 3: The Art of Illustration; Addresses Delivered to the students of the Pastors' College, Metropolitan Tabernacle (43–44). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.]
This is a topic worth greater focus, some time. We would see that the most frequent form of humor in the Bible is parody, satire, sarcasm. You'll not be surprised that the examples leaping to my mind come from Proverbs, which features both brief and extended send-ups of the lazy (6:6-11), the blinkingly-naive immoral lad (7:1-27), the harridan (27:15-16), the drunk (23:29-35), and of course the various kinds of fool (17:12; 26:11; 27:22). In fact,
The fact is that God moves His servants to communicate His truth, and to warn people away from deception, by all sorts of means. He moves them to employ instruction, explanation, reasoning, pleading, warning, and yes, even acerbic, sarcastic satire. Indeed, the most common forms of humor in the Bible are satire, sarcasm, and irony. [From this, p. 62]
"Dangerous tool," yes. But a tool nonetheless, and an effective one.

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Posted by DJP on Tuesday, March 06, 2012

18 March 2011

I Had Nothing to Do with This

by Phil Johnson

he music department at Grace Community Church used this white board to plan the order of service for each session of the Shepherds' Conference:

CLICK TO ENLARGE

ere's what the white board looked like after some anonymous miscreant (a seminary student enjoying Spring Break, perhaps) used it to reimagine what "The Shepherds' Conversation" might look like if we had been prone to follow the evangelical drift of the past couple of decades:

CLICK TO ENLARGE

I'm not saying how I got the pictures, either.

EXTRA: One of our readers, Ric Kolseth, made a version of the graphic that changes on mouseovers, making it easier to compare the two versions. I now have a whole new appreciation for the level of detail that went into the scheduling process for next year's "Shepherds' Conversation." If they would just add a seminar for Scot McKnight to give us a more detailed deconstruction of the question Martin Bashir kept asking Rob Bell, along with Scot's own apologia for Bell's brand of universalism, we could all sleep easier.

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(BTW, I'm still convalescing; I'll be back at the blog April 4, Lord willing. If you're waiting for me to reply to an e-mail, snail-mail letter, or any other query, I'm doing my best to catch up. Thanks for your patience.)



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Posted by Phil Johnson on Friday, March 18, 2011

24 August 2010

Blast from the Past: 26 ways in which doing IT Support is better than being a pastor

by Dan Phillips

NOTE: I'd almost forgotten this little piece from 2006. A pastor friend reminded me about it the other day. He found it chuckalicious, and I hope you will — again, or for the first time, depending on your degree of newbiecociousness.
Unusually emphatic disclaimer: This is satire (săt'īr' -- "A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit").

One hopes that every item is ponderable; the only thing I don't mean at all is the title — and I really, really don't mean the title. All clear? Tongues in cheek, then. Here goes:

26 ways in which doing IT Support is better than being a pastor

For the most part:
  1. People come to you for help — instead of assuming that, if you really knew your job, you would intuitively know they needed help, and come to them without being asked.
  2. Everyone immediately tells you, to the best of his ability, what his or her actual issue is.
  3. Everyone who asks you a question really wants to hear the answer.
  4. Everyone who asks you for help really wants to be helped.
  5. Everyone who calls you really does want his/her computer to work the very best it can.
  6. You and your callers agree that computer bugs and problems are bad, and should be done away with.
  7. When you identify viruses, spyware, unwanted popups, and crashes as "bad," and target them for elimination, the folks you help don't accuse you of being harsh and judgmental.
  8. Nobody who calls you is actually in love with the computer problems and misbehaviors they're experiencing.
  9. When you identify a computer malady you want to eradicate, nobody can wave a book or point to a Big Name who argues that it is actually the latest, greatest "thing" in computers, and should be earnestly sought after, cherished, cultivated, and spread abroad.
  10. Nobody who calls you for help thinks that he's hearing a little voice in his heart telling him that what you're saying is just so much smelly cheese.
  11. Everyone to whom you give sensible counsel will hear, heed, remember, and follow that counsel — they won't insist on "feeling an inner peace" before doing it.
  12. Everyone thinks you do crucial, important, and respectable work; nobody assumes that it is because you can't get a "real job."
  13. Everyone assumes you’re well-trained, know what you’re doing, and know at least some things they do not already know.
  14. While you are expected to be knowledgeable and competent at what you do, you are not expected to be perfect.
  15. Most times, you know immediately when you’ve helped someone; you don’t have to wait six months, six years, or six decades, to see whether your fix has “taken” or not.
  16. On the worst day, if you do even a half-decent job, you can go home knowing for certain that you’ve really helped 5, 10, 15, 20 or more people.
  17. If you don’t know the answer, it’s probably on Google. Somewhere.
  18. When you discover a new, better, more effective way to accomplish the goals you share with the folks you help, they're happy — not angry at you because it's different from "the way we've always done it."
  19. The people you help don’t care how you’re dressed.
  20. The people you help don’t care how many committees your wife does or doesn’t head up.
  21. The people you help don’t hold your children to standards their children couldn’t even spell.
  22. The people you help don’t periodically form secret committees and whisper-campaigns to get you ousted.
  23. The people you help don’t all assume they know how to do your job better than you do, while actually knowing next to nothing about it.
  24. Everyone is fairly clear on what your job actually is: fix their computer so they can get back to work, or work better.
  25. The people you help evaluate you by whether you do or do not do your actual and well-defined job effectively — not by how you "make" them "feel."
  26. The people you help aren't judging you as inferior to a beloved support technician who died ten (or a hundred) years ago.
AFTERWORD: Hope this proves to be encouraging (and chuckalicious) reading for you who are gifted as pastor-teachers, as well as thought-provoking for beneficiaries of their ministry. I've been mulling this over for many months, and decided to put it up here and now. The happy dovetailing with Phil's Spurgeon post for the week is providential. And remember to pray for Phil's preparations.

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Posted by DJP on Tuesday, August 24, 2010

11 June 2009

Book giveaway contest: just get some Just Do Something!

by Dan Phillips

As I may have mentioned, I'm engaged in writing a book. I may further have mentioned that I need to free up some time to do so. One way I came up with was to do like Chicago, and make with the Greatest Hits here at Pyro, in the weeks to come.

"So," I think to myself, "why not use our readers' input — and make it fun at the same time?"

Hence: contest!

Through Moody Press' generosity, I have four copies of Kevin DeYoung's terrific new book Just Do Something (which I may have mentioned liking tremendously) to give away to four luc... er, blessed readers.

Here's the terms, rules, provisos, whereupons, and peradventures:

PREMISE: it won't be fair. I can't think of a way to make it fair. Oh, I'll try. But I'll fail. Everyone will hate me, except for four people. Just accept that. It'll be kind of a sovereign choice — which, for this blog, is fitting... except without the attendant flawless wisdom, knowledge, goodness and justice.

How (and what) to enter:
  1. Use this meta to recommend that I repost one particular post, and explain why. One recommendation per comment.
  2. The post may be from this blog or mine own, and should be at least six months old; preferably older.
  3. In honor of the book's thesis, explain your choice. Give your rationale. Make a persuasive case. Don't say God told you to pick it. (A thousand sets of fingers go slack, disappointed.)
  4. Enter as many times as you like. (But only one book per winner!)
  5. You may recommend a post that has already been recommended by someone else. Who knows? Your case could be more persuasive.
  6. Deadline is midnight tonight, Earth time, PT.
  7. Sometime tomorrow I will update this post with the names of the four winners — though I will probably take up more than four recommendations. The winners will need to email me with their real-live names and addresses.
  8. What I will be looking for is the most persuasive, contentful, and creative. Funny is good, but in no way required. Working in the title of a Chicago song (particularly not a top forty hit), ditto. I'll tell you the truth: I expect it to be really hard for me. We have terrific readers who are terrific writers... and who go a little nuts at the thought of books, let alone free books.
  9. No relatives.
  10. Nobody named "Frank" who is smarter and more articulate than I and/or who has ever bumped one of my posts or derailed one of my meta's. (Probably not a necessary proviso, as entrants would have to have read some of my posts.)
There you go. Have fun.

Just write something!
UPDATE: and now, the winners

First, thanks to everyone who made a legit entry. They were all good, and all helpful.

How I did it. My dear wife handed me a lifeline of a suggestion (thanks, Valerie!), which I modified and used. I picked one name outright for my own inscrutable reasons, then I picked fourteen of the best, wrote them on identical pieces of paper, prayed, and picked three at random (— "random" from my perspective, that is).

I may or may not use all of the suggestions of the winners; I'm leery about reposting a multi-part post, and if I try to edit it down to one I'm sort of defeating the purpose of reposting. But I guarantee I will consider ALL the suggestions and their rationales when I pick my posts.

This was really hard. Please don't make it harder by asking me anything beyond what I've shared.

These four folks need to email filops@yahoo.com with their snail-mail addresses:
Philness
Scott
Witness
Jude
Thanks to everyone!

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Posted by DJP on Thursday, June 11, 2009

27 March 2009

On my lameness

by Dan Phillips (with apologies to Milton)

This is an instead-of post. It's lame!

I could just not tell you what should be here, and then you'd not be mad at me. Or, at least, not for that. But, fool that I am....

I'm reading through a book presenting three views on God's will, and one of the chapters is written by the elder and junior Blackabys. Since last weekend I've been, ahem, strongly motivated to write a post expressing my thoughts on, and evaluation of, that chapter.

Taming my response down to post-size and form is a bit like harnessing a volcano. Twice I've tried, and twice I've just run out of time.

Life happened, family-issues happened. Two pressing time-sensitive issues happened. One I won't tell you about yet (maybe never; only if it's a "happy ending"); the other you can see today over at my blog. Since about 2/3 of you don't go there daily, I thought I'd tell you about it very briefly.

I did a review of the moving Knowing over at my hangout. A day or so after it went up, I was contacted by someone connected with the movie, asking I'd like to interview Ryne Pearson, the writer of the original screenplay on which the movie is based. After a brief (for me!) deliberation, I accepted, and spent yesterday's lunch hour in an enjoyable chat with Pearson, followed by working on the interview for much of the rest of the day's free(ish) time.

Then throw in horrible traffic, looking at refrigerators, taking my tiny tot to Cub Scouts, a chat with Frank about a bipedal annoyance or two, and... the groaning realization that I was going to come up lame on the Blackaby-view post. Again.

And I don't want the post to be lame. I feel very strongly about what I want to say. I want it to be just-so. Phil and I chatted about it. I think we see it just about the same, and I think I crisped his goatee as I gave breath to my response to the article.

So, um, sorry. Pray for me. Next week!

Still upset with me? Ooh. Maybe you could use this?



(You laugh. But tell me she doesn't make more sense than Deepak Chopra.)

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Posted by DJP on Friday, March 27, 2009

15 March 2009

On Sanctified Humor

Your weekly dose of Spurgeon
posted by Phil Johnson

The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from The Spurgeon Archive. This week's excerpt is not by Spurgeon himself but is part of an introductory note (written by Spurgeon's wife or assistant) to the chapter on humor in Spurgeon's Autobiography.
     Spurgeon's humor would make an interesting study. It's fairly well known that Spurgeon suffered frequently from a deep melancholy. Ill health in his later years exacerbated his bouts of depression. And yet his keen sense of humor was never far below the surface.
     Here Susannah Spurgeon (or possibly Joseph Harrald) comments on the distinctive style of humor Spurgeon was known for:


is fun was always pure, with an emphasis; and he showed how it was possible for the highest spirituality to find a fitting exemplification in the brightest and cheeriest character. Some of his most intimate friends have often said that there was not the slightest incongruity, after one of his brilliant witticisms which had set the whole company laughing, in hearing him say, 'Let us pray,' for both the merriment and the devotion were sanctified.

OK. I'm convicted by that. I'll be the first to confess to my deep shame that my forays into the realm of fun' 'n' satire haven't always been so sanctified that "let us pray" would be a fitting follow-up to my punch line. That would certainly be a safe guideline and a simple test by which to gauge the appropriateness of what we say and write, right?

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NOTE: The Spurgeon portrait accompanying this week's Dose o' Spurgeon was provided by Robert Bucknell, of Bucknell Arts in Reno. It's a new portrait of Spurgeon in oil on canvas, and it is the best painting of Spurgeon I've seen, next to those that were done in Spurgeon's own lifetime. See the Bucknell Arts website for information on how to order a print for yourself or for your pastor.


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Posted by Phil Johnson on Sunday, March 15, 2009

20 February 2009

A Bagatelle on the Virtue of Joy

by Phil Johnson

on't make the mistake of equating levity and humor with the fruit of the Spirit. They aren't the same thing. Obviously, joy can produce laughter, but laughter is a fruit of joy, not the essence of joy.

In fact, modern society is filled with jokes but almost totally devoid of real joy. Have you noticed that some of the angriest people in the world are our best-known comedians?

Laughter is often used these days to mask the utter absence of genuine gladness. Postmodern culture has made mirth and merriment cheap substitutes for authentic joy. We in the church must not make that same mistake.

I enjoy humor as much as the next person. Perhaps even a little more. But just because something is funny doesn't mean it's good.

Just a thought.
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Posted by Phil Johnson on Friday, February 20, 2009

10 January 2009

Danish Humor

posted by Phil Johnson

ou'll get most of the following video just fine, even if you don't know Danish. It's an excerpt from Victor Borge's 80th birthday concert at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen in 1989. This was one of his most famous concerts, coming near the end of his performing career and about a decade before Borge died.

Here's an excerpt from Borge's obituary mentioning this concert:

Borge became an American citizen in 1948, but thought of himself as Danish. It was obvious from the numerous affectionate tributes and standing ovations at his 80th birthday concert in Copenhagen in 1989 that Danes felt the same way.

In the concert at Copenhagen's Tivoli gardens, Borge played variations on the theme of "Happy Birthday to You" in the styles of Mozart, Brahms, Wagner and Beethoven—all executed with such wit that the orchestra was convulsed with laughter that a woman performing a piccolo solo was unable to draw breath to play.

"Playing music and making jokes are as natural to me as breathing," Borge told Reuters in an interview after that concert.
The "woman performing a piccolo solo" is actually playing a recorder (not a piccolo). She is Michala Petri, famed Danish recorder virtuoso. She makes stunning recordings with her husband, Danish lutenist and guitar player Lars Hannibal. She's been performing to critical acclaim since she was a teenager.

I love the spontaneity of her performance with Borge, and the brave way she perseveres, even when he starts playing in a different key. The video is not subtitled, so I've included below the video a quasi-translation and keyed it to the time code for you:



To the concertmaster:
0:04: How does it begin?
0:08: Oh, you have to use the bow?
0:13: Please do that again.
0:17: You are very nervous; your hand is shaking!
0:22: One more time, please. You may shake, that is all right!
0:36: Yes, that was right!

To Michala Petri:
0:45: Does this key suit you?
0:48: What a great shame; I cannot stand that key.
2:26: Does this mean I have to play it all again?
3:56: You chose it yourself.
4:06: It sounds great. I am very happy about this. You spoil my birthday completely!
4:26: We try one more time; if it does not work I may take the flute from you.
4:38: Did you never consider playing the cello?
7:42: Is there a doctor here?
8:03: Would you like a glass of water?
8:20: I do that every morning.

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Posted by Phil Johnson on Saturday, January 10, 2009

22 November 2008

"Mamma Don't Let your Babies Grow Up to Be Pastors" — discuss

by Dan Phillips

Some really good folks are really loving this:

I'm having a set of differing reactions.

A lot of you are pastors and pastors' wives.

What's your response, and why?

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92 comments
Posted by DJP on Saturday, November 22, 2008

03 November 2008

Kids?

by Phil Johnson

oug Pagitt calls us "kids" and falsely claims we are proudly Platonists and Aristotelians. (This after claiming he can't remember ever calling anyone a Platonist.)

But:
  1. We're all older than Pagitt is.
  2. Not one of us gives a hang for Aristotelian or Platonic categories in theology.
  3. Contrary to what Pagitt claims, we have never applied those labels to ourselves.
  4. Nor can those terms be accurately applied to us.
  5. We're not particularly fond of Aquinas, his natural theology, or his Aristotelian syntheses, either.
But in the interview those comments were extracted from, Pagitt manages to sound like both a nihilist and a wag. He also makes it pretty clear that he is not particularly interested in what's semantically accurate or theologically correct, as opposed to what he "feels." So, it's no surprise that he so badly misrepresents us.

The above audio excerpts came from an interview conducted by Chris Rosebrough on his "Fighting for the Faith" podcast. (I hafta say, however, that Chris wasn't doing much fighting here. Perhaps because the interview was made on Pagitt's dime). The interview is nevertheless very eye-opening. Listen to the complete broadcast here.

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53 comments
Posted by Phil Johnson on Monday, November 03, 2008

06 May 2008

You need this guy at your church this Christmas

by Dan Phillips

"Christmas?" you say. "Isn't it a little early?"

Trust me. You'll thank me for giving you time to book this man.


(Mainly, I saw this and thought, "Oh, Phil would love this.")

Nor is that the only Yuletide tune in his repertoire:


I'm thinking that, at the Heita3 household, life must be fun, and the grocery bill high. (Obviously, I can't vouch for all the video's... especially the parts in Japanese.)

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28 comments
Posted by DJP on Tuesday, May 06, 2008

28 February 2008

John Piper is... funny!

by Dan Phillips

DISCLAIMER: anytime anyone even seems to be criticizing Piper, all the Pipeheads do a dogpile. This isn't a criticism! It's a chuckle. If you don't like it, ask for a ticket refund at the box office and move on!

I've been challenged by the sessions I've heard from the Desiring God Pastor's Conference for 2008, groaning under my dissimilarities to their wonderful fathers, seeing too much of myself in their shortcomings.

In particular, I was listening to the question and answer session. In response to some question, Dr. D. A. Carson (whom I had the pleasure of meeting and hearing in person last year) says "I think The Pleasures of God is the most important book John Piper has ever written."

Nice!

How does Piper respond?

A few minutes later, on the way to responding to a question, he almost (not quite) sniffs in passing, "I think God Is the Gospel is the most important book I've ever written."

That just cracks me up.

See, I try to put myself in Piper's place. In this daydream, I'm in some public venue with D. A. Carson (which, I know — dream on!), when, out of nowhere and in response to some question that had nothing to do with me, Carson says, "I think 25 things I've learned is the most important post Dan Phillips has ever written."

And I?

Next time I have a chance to speak, of course, I humph,"Well, I think my series on dealing with Proverbs is the most important post I've ever written!"

Right! That would totally happen!

No, I'd probably not be able to speak for the rest of the evening. I know I'd be impossible to live with, like, forever.

My thoughts would be, (A), "Don Carson has read anything I've ever written?!" — followed by, (B), "Don Carson remembers something specific that I've written?!" — followed by, (C), "Don Carson remembers something specific that I have written, and thinks that it is important?!!"

That's me. Not Piper!

Just cracks me up.

Different vessels, different makeups, different men. Same Lord.

(Also, it may indicate why the Lord could never trust me with that sort of notoriety.)

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53 comments
Posted by DJP on Thursday, February 28, 2008

05 February 2008

Make Me Smile

by Phil Johnson





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31 comments
Posted by Phil Johnson on Tuesday, February 05, 2008

23 August 2007

By Special Request

by Phil Johnson







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114 comments
Posted by Phil Johnson on Thursday, August 23, 2007

18 August 2007

Night-Caps Recommended

Your weekly dose of Spurgeon
posted by Phil Johnson

C. H. Spurgeon


The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from The Spurgeon Archive. This excerpt is a short satirical piece Spurgeon wrote for the January 1884 issue of The Sword and the Trowel. We post it for the benefit of whoever suggested Spurgeon was too nice a postmodernist to ever employ sarcasm:


   CERTAIN Dr. J. Mortimer Granville gives a word of advice about dreams. He says:

"Many persons who are not by habit 'dreamers,' are dreaming a great deal just now, and wondering why they do so. The answer is very simple. When cold weather sets in suddenly, and is much felt; at night, the head, which is uncovered, has the blood supplied to it driven from the surface to the deep parts, notably the brain, the organ of the mind. The results are light sleep and dreams. The obvious remedy is to wear a nightcap, or wrap the head warmly, at least while the cold weather lasts. It is a 'faculty' idea that we of this generation suffer more from braintroubles than our predecessors because we leave the head exposed at night, and the blood-vessels of our cerebral organs are seldom unloaded."
This paragraph is affectionately commended to certain Expounders of Prophecy, Fashioners of New Theology, and Propounders of Theories concerning Perfection in the Flesh.

We are getting a little overdone with their dreamings. Let the brethren try night-caps during the present wintry weather.

Dr. Granville is quite right about the fact that people are dreaming a great deal just now; we can hardly take up a pamphlet or a religious newspaper without saying to ourselves, "Here's another dreamer!" This is a great pity; for there are people about who accept these visions as gospel, and we are in a fair way to be driven away from solid truth into a dreamland of either fanaticism or unbelief.

The remedy suggested by the worthy physician might at least be tried. Our fathers were wont to encrown themselves with a tasseled triangle, which was enough to frighten any burglar out of his senses; but then they did not dream as our rising generation is doing. A red bandanna was a very picturesque head-protector. Could such a thing be bought in these degenerate days?

At any rate, let something be done to stop this dreaming. Our philosophical youths, who wear the cap of Liberty by day, have only to keep it on by night, and their cerebral organs, being delivered from the rush of blood, will be unloaded, and enjoy a little rest.

The worst of it is that, if some of our theologians give up their dreams, they will have nothing else left.

C. H. Spurgeon


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4 comments
Posted by Phil Johnson on Saturday, August 18, 2007
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