Catholic commentary on culture, media, and politics.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Memed with no prior warning!

I was reading personal email when I should have been working, when Barbara Nicolosi at Church of the Masses memed me upside the head. It's a funny "I Confess" rant.

And, as Barbara's hylemorphic male equivalent, I am impelled to offer my own list:

I confess to sinfully enjoying the bitter over-reactions of RadTrads (radical Traditionalist Catholics).

I confess to hating John Michael Talbot. (Can we hear more than two chord progressions in 30 years, John Mike? And aren't you a married guy and not a monk?)

I confess to never reading a line of Dostoevsky apart from what's quoted elsewhere.

I confess intense apathy toward pro basketball, especially the Lakers.

I confess to being on the verge of being clinically diagnosed with ADHD, formerly known as Adult ADD).

I confess to wondering why it is that Jews exert such a massive cultural and political influence outlandlishly beyond their proportionate numbers.

I confess to believing that someone will misconstrue the last one as anti-Semitism.

I confess that my first attempt at performing magic publically, at age 14, resulted in every trick failing due to lack of practice and sheer nerves.

I confess to winning $137,000 on Fox's short-lived It's Your Chance of a Lifetime, and then losing 80% of it in bad stock choices.

I confess to wondering if I could still be hired as a stuntman.

Finally...I confess to covertly gnashing my clean Canadian teeth over Barbara's apparent vow to keep me off her blog roll.

And I hereby meme Dom Bettinelli and Kathy Shaidle.

6 Comments:

Blogger Sr. Marianne Lorraine Trouve said...

I was relieved to realize I'm not the only one who has wondered why all JM Talbot tapes sound the same...

5:59 PM

 
Blogger Patrick said...

Hi Sister. Exactly. Don't get me wrong. I like "The Lord's Supper" and most of "Come to the Quiet." After that, it's unbelievably repetitive and same ol'.


Also, he markets himself and his CDs with lush pastoral pictures of him alone, sitting on stone walls, strolling through feilds in his Francsican garb. He's married to a musician named Violet. He's not a layman. Not a monk. Not a priest. But I wonder how many of his album customers know that.

I saw JMT at Franciscan University at what was supposed to be a concert. It was on his vocation, his story, etc etc. He talked non-stop, with very few songs, and his wife sat in the audience, perhaps as surprised as I was that he never mentioned her once.

And I thought the wife WAS the huisband's vocation.

Now I've written a rant. My bad. Many people love the guy's music. God bless 'em all.

10:58 PM

 
Blogger Meg Q said...

I've gotta ask - what did he say his vocation was, if not "married layman"? "Musician"? Or what? (Sorry coming to this so late, referred by Kathy at relapsed catholic)

8:57 PM

 
Blogger Patrick said...

He said nothing about his vocation, per se, although that was the gist of the title of his talk.

He waxed nostaglic about being in Mason Proffit (sp) an obscure 60s country-rock band, he played a few songs, then talked about founding the quasi-monsatic lay community in the Ozarks, then a song more, then more anecdotes about his wild drug days, and tales of his first marriage (that later ended), more about his music, etc etc.

What irks me is his donning the Franciscan robes, and clearly pitching his wares as a monk. Every CD cover in 25 years features him in some idyllic setting, alone with his guitar, looking awfully "priestly" and somberly groovin' to his world of solitude. His latest album is titled "Monk Rock." I can't take it!

But...

...a layman he is, married to a musician named Violet. Go to johnmichaeltalbot.com and see for yourself. His wife -- his true vocation -- is virtually invisible. You get pages and pages of his exploits and good works (and plenty of sappy "spiritual maxims"), but only one picture of Violet, standing with him, and not named as his wife.

I'm not saying he's not a generous man, or a big phony, but his self-marketing is highly misleading, bordering on deceptive.

11:36 AM

 
Blogger TCYM Lounge said...

Patrick Coffin
You crack me up.

1:59 PM

 
Blogger Patrick said...

Tcym, as the immortal King said so well, "Theng ya, theng ya verr mush."

6:20 PM

 

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