Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog

Nick Cave – Far From Me

The musician who has journeyed with me since my young adult years.

Like U2, Cave and his music / art attract academic papers, essays and engagement. The latest being The Art of Nick Cave: New Critical Essays, published in March of this year. It covers a great range of material. In February 2013, there was also the release of the latest album from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the very understated and brilliant Push the Sky Away. And in March 2014 we have the release of Mark Mordue's 446-page biography of Cave, Tender Prey: A Biography of Nick Cave to look forward too, if you're a fan.

Emotional Intimacy – Part 2 of 2

Earlier in week I highlighted a conversation between Robert Augustus Masters and interviewer Tami Simon. 

Here’s part 2 of that interview. Simon’s and Masters speak about the importance of mutual transparency in relationships, how we can engage in “connected catharsis,” the telltale signs that reveal when we are using spiritual bypassing to avoid emotional experience, and how we can start to identify and work with our own shadow material. 

Part 1, here. Part 2, here. 

Emotional literacy, and the Development of Relational Maturity.

Robert Augustus Masters is an Integral psychotherapist, relationship expert, and spiritual teacher whose work blends the psychological and physical with the spiritual, emphasizing embodiment, emotional literacy, and the development of relational maturity. 

In Part 1 of this podcast conversation, Robert and the show’s host Tami Simon, discuss emotional literacy and how it is lacking in our culture today. They consider differences in cultural conditioning between men and women when it comes to expressing emotions and the need to develop a toolkit to identify and work skillfully with anger. (70 minutes).

You will find the podcast conversation here.

Seth Godin: The Art of Noticing and Creating

“…The difficult part of seeing is setting aside what you are sure you already know…” 

~ Seth Godin, The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?. 

I finally caught up with Internet entrepreneur and thought leader Seth Godin’s interview earlier this year on On Being. In the interview Godin is typical Godin and covers a lot of ground. Here’s an excerpt: 

“…Godin: Well, I've never been shy about talking about the professional failure, because I wouldn't trade any of it. After I luckily sold my first little book for not very much money, I then decided I might be able to do that for a living — and got 900 rejection letters in a row. And then for the next seven to 10 years, my company was basically on the verge of bankruptcy the whole time… 

But what [we] all had in common, particularly in the early days, was this sense of, as Brené [Brown] as talked about, being caught out as a fraud and having the world say, you know, we figured you out, and you don't deserve any success. And it's all over. And when you hear that — and so many of us are capable of hearing it just from the slightest negative response, just from the smallest slight — we then decide it's all over. Then the question is, what are you going to do with that feedback? And I think this again goes back to my parents. Because what the habit I developed was that that's not "a no," that's a "no for now." That's not a "this will never work." That's a "this didn't work." But I learned something about what might work for next time. And so there was, you know, the cold fear, the deep emptiness in the pit of your stomach because there's 50 or 100 people who are counting on you to pay them. Or the fact that you've worked on a project for a year or two years or three years, and now it might just be over. And the question is, is that something that we flee from, or is that something that we use to tell us that we're alive?...” 

You can find the interview here.

David Whyte: Exile, Vulnerability and Human Perception

He’s featured a bit on this blog, but one of my favourite poets is David Whyte. Sounds True recently re-broadcasted a conversation between David and his host, Tami Simon. Here’s the “promo” for the conversation: 

“…Tami speaks with David about how each of our lives unfolds as a great conversation with reality, which is the source of originality. David also shares some of his poetry, and explores how our innate sense of exile is actually a core human competency, how vulnerability enhances our perception, and what it might mean to tap into the invisible support that is always available to us. (61 minutes)…” 

You’ll find the conversation here.

Tim Costello, Hope, Faith, Aid and Development

Having had the privilege of having a couple of great meals with World Vision Australia Chief Executive Tim Costello it was great to find this short little video on Jason Goroncy’s blog ealier in the week. Tim is talking about the role of faith in aid and development. Thanks Jason.

p.s. If you haven’t read his little book Hope: Moments of Inspiration in a Challenging World it’s worth it. Lot’s of short reflections, including one on his experience with Bono from U2. It’s a book I haven’t read from cover-to-cover, but is one I randomly dip into, reading a chapter or two at a time.

Here’s another video clip, more specifically on the book Hope

Mission in the World of Art.

The March 9, 2013 edition of the Nomad podcast featured artist / Jesus-follower Alistair Gordon: 

“…Ally is an accomplished artist who exhibits around the world, and who is also a follower of Jesus. Apparently following Jesus and being a professional artist is a rather tricky thing these days, so we spoke to Ally about this tension and what mission in the world of art might look like.” 

You’ll find the podcast here. 

Terrence Malick: To The Wonder

The Guardian, in February this year reviewed Terrence Malick’s latest film To The Wonder. Like his earlier The Tree of Life it get’s mixed reviews (a lot of reviewers strongly dislike it).  I really appreciated The Tree of Life (see here), and so I’m looking forward to seeing To the Wonder, as much for it’s style – the way Malick structures his films; the way they work – as for it’s content, and for the ways it explores some universal human themes. 

Here’s how The Guardian reviewer closed his review. 

“…The absence of God and the presence of love are the two poles of this created world; a world perceived in a trance or delirium, and in which the problem of God gives an inexpressibly painful kind of meaning to the immediate, agonised problem of finding a complete knowledge of another human being. Both Paris and the mid-American heartland look like something from another planet, something witnessed, in delirious detail, under the influence of a powerful drug. There is a rich excess in this movie, and the sensual profusion is not completely absorbed into its texture. Yet only a film-maker as intelligent and idealistic as Malick could have created this kind of surplus value…” 

You can read the complete review here, and if you do so, there’s also an 8 minute filmed conversation about the film. See also Jonny Baker (here) who alerted me to the film. Thanks Jonny. 

Tom Wright Interviewed

I haven’t had much from Tom Wright up on this site for a while, and having had to think during the week about the relation between the “academic” and the “church” and between “theology” and “exegesis”, I thought I’d put a relatively recent interview (approx. 9 mins / not high quality) with Tom Wright @ St. Andrew’s University in Scotland. It’s nothing “heavy”, but is introductory.

First Comes Love: A Documentary

This was a fascinating radio interview. An interview with New York filmmaker Nina Davenport. I’d love to see the film; but sadly, not always easy down here at the bottom of the world.

“…The film taps into the zeitgeist topic of how the modern family is being re-imagined in the early twenty-first century. They say it takes a village to raise a child. In Nina’s case, that village is populated by urban sophisticates who have delayed procreation for as long as possible and are late in confronting its joys and chores. Nina is unflinching at exposing her inner and outer self as a case study. She’s refreshingly frank and funny about the trials that women endure [including issue with men] in order to get pregnant, give birth and manage the early years of parenting…” – Thom Powers.