Glide, Phish and the Pursuit of Happyness

My most recent Nashville Free Press article is all about the fascinating church in San Francisco called Glide, which is, interestingly, the name of a Phish song that comes eerily close to my thoughts on this church.

George Clooney’s Smug and South Park’s Hybrid Smug Create the Ultimate Smug Storm in “Smug Alert,” South Park Episode 1002

This episode is awesome and hilarious. On the one hand, I love the way it makes fun of San Francisco. I’ve been living in San Francisco for about 7 months and it really is a great city but holy shit am I tired of hearing about how great it is from every San Franciscan. These [...]

Zen Talk: Everyone Must Take His or Her Own Path

“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.” – Basho
What a great message. Many people think they should follow in the footsteps of giants, as it were, taking the path that they took in order to, presumably, arrive at the same end. Basho, [...]

Book Review: You Suck, A Love Story, by Christopher Moore, Though Funny, Isn’t His Best

As it happens, that review would be based on a previous review of a book by Moore which I thought was incredible, and titled, Lamb or The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Best Friend. That book was truly sensational and written as a new gospel of Jesus’ life from the perspective of his childhood [...]

Around the World Pic: Zen-like Japanese Tea Gardens in San Francisco

Personally, I didn’t find the Japanese Tea Gardens particularly relaxing. I was being a little sour and not that thrilled to be there, but it was cold and there weren’t any great places to sit and do nothing without being asked if you wanted some Tea. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not a nice [...]

Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vauhn Have Fun in Four Christmases

It seems to me that a movie so obviously related to Christmas might have been coming out a little early when released on Thanksgiving. However, that’s the way of the world (which is to say, America) these days. Once Thanksgiving hits (though this year I’d say it came mid-November) the Holiday Season is upon us.
Typically [...]

San Francisco, George Clooney and South Park’s Hybrids Collide in a Smug Storm in South Park Episode 1002, “Smug Alert”

Goodness gracious is this an awesome episode. Mr. Broflovski gets a hybrid and becomes so high and mighty that he moves his family to San Francisco where everyone loves the smells of his and her own farts. To get his best friend back to South Park, Stan writes a song that inspires everyone to become [...]

“Something Wall-Mart Comes This Way,” South Park 809, Teaches That We Are the Soul of Wal-Mart

“If you want it to go away, all it takes is a little self control and personal responsibility,” Kyle tells people about how to get Wal-Mart out of South Park.
A lot of people don’t like Wal-Mart because they think it’s a big, giant, evil company. Moreover, it destroys local businesses by undercutting their prices. Well, [...]

“Night of the Living Homeless,” South Park Episode 1107, Pisses Me Off

Why does it piss me off, you ask? Because I recently moved to California and at the end of the episode, the solution to the problem of all the homeless people in South Park (spoiler alert!) is that they are led to California where people are nice to the homeless.
I’m not advocating that people be [...]

Topical Tuesday: If I Could Have Been the Author of Any Book it Would Have Been…

Slaughterhouse 5!
First, I jumped at the Bible. Oh to have written the Bible. But hey, I’m one guy in one place and that was written by dozens and dozens over the course of 1000 years so for the sake of keeping it a fascinating text, I let my dream of writing the Bible go.
My next [...]