Category: Art

Art, Children, Christianity, Competition, Culture2 Comments

Life Coaching with Napoleon–Dynamite, that is.

Gary Furr

Napoleon Dynamite.  It’s been seven years and I still laugh at this movie.  I have it on DVR so I can speed through to favorite moments.  A friend and I were laughing as we sent quotes back and forth this week. Napoleon Dynamite: Do the chickens have large talons? Farmer: Do they have what? Napoleon Dynamite: Large talons. Farmer: I don’t understand a word you just said. His dialogue is so painfully true to life.  I knew kids just like him, and he talks like them.  The humor is not cruel, slapstick, humiliation or vulgarity–it’s recognition and insight into irony.  … Continue reading Life Coaching with Napoleon–Dynamite, that is.

Art, Christianity, Country Music, Jesus, Music, Spirituality, Theology and Life4 Comments

Lessons from JC (Johnny Cash)

Gary Furr

A new friend from New York reminded me of the Cash bio I read a few years back.  Like everyone, I loved  “Walk the Line,” the bio-pic of the life and love of Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter Cash that came out years ago.  It is not a true biography, really.  Robert Streissguth’s JOHNNY CASH: THE BIOGRAPHY is where you get more than the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version. Johnny’s story was, of course, about a many coming out of hard times, his well-known descent into drugs and alcohol that ruined his first marriage and nearly destroyed his career … Continue reading Lessons from JC (Johnny Cash)

Art, Music, Pilgrimage, Rock and Roll, Theology and Life2 Comments

Elvis–tragic hero, addict, mystic

Gary Furr

Just finished a bio of Elvis Presley I picked up a few years back and had sitting on my shelf by novelist Bobbie Ann Mason.  Elvis is one of those figures whose presence is culturally ubiquitous, so the danger is greater that we think we “know” him, only to discover that we do not know this person at all. I felt the sadness that so many musical biographies have evoked in me in recent years—bios of Johnny Cash, Bill Monroe, the Carter family, Eric Clapton, the great blues singers and Hank Williams.  One common thread in this tapestry is the … Continue reading Elvis–tragic hero, addict, mystic

Art, Christianity, Culture, Music1 Comment

Art, Worship and All That Jazz: Inspirations from a Jazz Legend

Gary Furr

I’ve met two people in the past ten years who made me believe the bass was the most wonderful instrument in the world.  Got to know Dave Pomeroy when he played here a several years back with the put together acoustic jazz group with Rob Ickes (of Blue Highway) on dobro and Andy Leftwich, fiddle and mandolin player from Kentucky Thunder (Ricky Skaggs). The other man is a legend I met a few months ago when a member took us to a little jazz dinner theater here.  A group was playing called the Sonny Harris Trio—drums, piano and bass.  The … Continue reading Art, Worship and All That Jazz: Inspirations from a Jazz Legend

Art, Competition, Music, Perfectionism, Writing2 Comments

10 Qualities of a pERFECTionits

Gary Furr

1.  Perfectionists cannot stand it when something is not completed.  For example, when a person… 2.  There is a rigidity about things always having to be a certain way or else they become very upset.  Things cannot be out of order, altered from their usual place, etc. 4.  If you’re going to do your best, you can’t always worry about pleasing everyone else (“You know you shouldn’t be writing this blog.  I told you to major in something else in college.  You’re an idiot.  Nobody cares what you think.)  Pay no attention to that voice in my head… 3.  Practice … Continue reading 10 Qualities of a pERFECTionits