“New Girl”, my favorite comedy on TV right now, took a tremendous risk last week.
No – the show didn’t kill of any of it’s main characters. It didn’t end in some unpredictable cliffhanger. There wasn’t a game-changing revelation.
“New Girl” changed their opening credits.
This may not seem like a show-altering move on the surface. Here’s why it was. Continue reading
My dog is hearing things.
Maybe it’s just because he’s getting older. Maybe it’s because he’s still getting used to his surroundings in the apartment complex we just moved into.
But I swear it seems like he’s barking at nothing these days.
He jumps off the couch with hair sticking up off his back, trying to make me alert of invisible intruders.
I laugh at him. I feel bad for him.
Really though, I do the exact same thing. Continue reading
Who gives away the most anticipated new album of the year to the entire world for free?
Certainly not the biggest rock band in the world, right?
That would subvert the entire process we’ve become accustomed to as consumers.
That would flip the recording industry on its head.
That would be unheard of…if it didn’t just happen.
You’ve probably seen by now that after 5 years of waiting U2 finally released their latest album “Songs Of Innocence” completely free to anyone with an iTunes account.
And they didn’t just release it – it’s already sitting in everyone’s purchased music folder, waiting to be downloaded. The album is a gift to every iTunes customer, just waiting to be received.
Who could have seen something like this coming?
Actually, it sounds kind of familiar.
Sounds kind of like a God giving away His gift of salvation completely for free. Continue reading
Welcome to the POP GOD POPcast – an exploration into the lives of people seeking God in the present tense.
This week’s guest is Former Mayor of Augusta Bob Young. Mayor Young has an incredible story of confident faith which has led him all across the world. From working as a janitor in a movie theater to broadcasting for the Armed Forces to anchoring the 6 o’clock news to serving as Mayor to working for the President, Bob shares how his faith anchored him along the way. Plus we talk about his friendship with James Brown, helping clean up the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and so much more. Enjoy this deeper look inside the life of a leader truly seeking God in the present tense.
Listen to the podcast here:
[audio http://adoriot.podbean.com/mf/web/h4bcgj/Popcast21.m4a]
Or Download on iTunes Or Listen on Podbean
Check out Bob’s book The Treasure Train on Amazon and follow him on Twitter
Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, rate it, leave a comment, listen to all the other episodes, share it on Twitter and Facebook and anywhere else. I’d really appreciate it. Thanks.
I love sharing stories of people seeking God in the present tense. Let me hear your feedback. Leave me a comment and let me know how to improve things, what you’d like to hear discussed, and give me your ideas as to who you’d like to see on the next episode of the POPcast.
I listen to a lot of podcasts. Sometimes with athletes, sometimes authors, sometimes celebrities. (And yes, sometimes professional wrestlers.)
I just love hearing people share their stories. The various paths to success and unexpected detours people face along the way that lead them to their current lot in life fascinate me.
As I listen to more and more of these interviews, there’s one phrase I hear repeated over and over again by the people telling their story- 6 words that I think more of us should remember when life throws us a curveball: Continue reading
(Click Here if you can’t see the video above)
I watched the movie “All Is Lost” starring Robert Redford this past week. It wasn’t a great movie, or even a very good one. But I was really impressed by some of the visuals of Redford lost at sea, adrift in a seemingly endless ocean.
“All Is Lost” is as barebones simple of a movie as it gets. Redford’s character (whose name or background we never learn) is sailing across the ocean. One morning he awakes to a huge leak in his ship. The movie follows him trying to fix the leak and trying to stay alive.
That’s all. No other characters. Only 2 or 3 lines of dialogue across 2 hours. Just an old man and the sea.
Like I said, I was awestruck by the enormity of the ocean in the film. “All Is Lost” worked as a great advertisement against ever setting sail on my own.
As Redford’s character kept battling the elements, I kept wondering, “Why would you ever mess with the ocean?” Continue reading
The Hollywood Reporter
The Oscars will be missing something this year – the greatest actor of our generation.
What’s the deal here? I must admit I have not seen many of the Oscar nominated films this year, including “Saving Mr. Banks”. And I know there’s only so many spots that can go out there for nominations.
But have you seen “Captain Phillips”? Tom Hanks is incredible as a reserved ship captain trying to maintain order as Somali pirates hijack his boat. The last scene where Hanks finally releases all the pent-up emotion he’s been carrying through the movie is an acting masterclass.
Even as someone who expects Tom Hanks to deliver an excellent performance in every movie, I was still blown away by his work in “Captain Phillips”.
I think maybe that’s why Tom Hanks didn’t get nominated for an Oscar this year. I think everyone who’s seen “Forrest Gump” and “Saving Private Ryan” and even “You’ve Got Mail” recognizes how awesome Tom Hanks is.
So when Tom Hanks does his usual excellent work, the audience is not surprised. There’s no overwhelming movement to honor what this amazing actor is doing because the world has been recognizing his outstanding work for decades.
I think we take Tom Hanks for granted. I know I take God for granted too. Continue reading
***Last week on the blog I asked for your requests and ideas for POP GOD. This week we have our first reader-requested post from my friend Ogden, who asked for a post on Hanson’s classic song “MMMBop”. If you have a current or classic pop culture item you’d like to see discussed on POP GOD, leave a comment and I will make your request happen:
Has there ever been a song quite like “MMMBop”?
In 1997 the Hanson brothers exploded onto the pop scene with arguably the most infectious and nonsensical song of the 90s.
Everybody knew “MMMBop”. A lot of people still know “MMMBop”. Just play the video if you can’t quite remember the song and it should come rushing right back to your brain.
(Click Here if you can’t see the video above.)
You can sing the chorus right now. It’s just a bunch of nonsense bebops and dubadops.
But do you know the rest of the lyrics? Can you sing the other verses of “MMMBop”? Continue reading
I might have been the only 26-year-old male on the planet who was excited to get a crock pot for Christmas.
For a few months I had been hearing some of my married friends talk about how much they enjoyed using their crock pots and how easy they were to use. As someone who enjoys food and things that are easy, I placed a crock pot on my Christmas list.
I had never used a crock pot until I unboxed the present and prepared a bacon-wrapped chicken recipe that ended up being just delightful (check it out). As I set the timer for the first time and prepared to leave the house, I started to get nervous. Continue reading
The Doriot Family Nativity Scene was a war zone.
Every year my parents put out a handmade wooden Nativity scene. There’s a swinging fence, hay on the ground in the barn, a reverent recreation of the first Christmas.
And every year I couldn’t help but desecrate it.
The first thing I did when the Nativity Scene came out of the attic was hijack it to use with my wrestling figures. The barn became the backdrop for an epic wrestling match. I called it the annual Christmas Clash.
The Christmas Clash was the centerpiece of my make-believe wrestling federation – the biggest card of the year, my own personal Wrestlemania. For some reason I loved having this beautiful barn as the setpiece for my miniature grapplers to have their most important matches.
The baby Jesus sat in the background and an angel looked down overhead as Shawn Michaels and Diesel wrestled all around. This is what I turned the Christmas story into as a child.
What have we turned Christmas into?
The mission of POP GOD has been to seek God in the present tense of pop culture. You would think it’d be easier than ever to see God’s presence in pop culture during Christmas. But Christmas has become less a celebration of the arrival of a Savior and more of a pagan holiday celebrating generic platitudes like giving and happiness and togetherness.
God has allowed us to redefine our worldly celebration of the birth of His Son in many different ways. Still, if you look closely, you can see the spirit of Christ amongst the masses. Just as the baby Jesus was present in my Nativity Scene Smackdowns, the Lord is present in the pop culture of Christmas.
So this season on POP GOD, I don’t want to ask the question of “Where is God underneath the wrapping paper?”
Instead, I want to ask, “Where is God in the wrapping paper?”
Where is God in the minutiae of this holiday? Where is God in the cheesy Christmas songs and movies? Where is God in egg nog and Christmas Tree Cakes?
I used to think I was being blasphemous with the way I used my wrestling figures. Now I think I was just embodying what Christmas is all about – the presence of the Lord descending into our everyday lives.
As a child though, I relegated the savior to the background as my wrestling figures brawled before His birthplace. This year on POP GOD, we’ll be celebrating the presence of God in the midst of every aspect of Christmas in pop culture.
Stay tuned to POP GOD during the Advent season for a special Christmas countdown. We’ll have a new post every weekday leading up to Christmas including a few Guest Posts and a special Christmas music episode of the POP GOD POPcast.
(If you don’t want to miss anything, enter your email address in the box on the left side of the page to subscribe to POP GOD and have every new post delivered to your inbox.)
Christmas does not mean what it once did. God’s presence is in the background of how the world celebrates the season. But He is still there – if only we will look.
Did you ever misuse your family’s Christmas decorations as a child? What’s an unusual place you’ve seen Jesus at Christmas? Leave a comment below and join the Christmas conversation:
POP GOD 