Smiling Skulls: On Death and Diversion
With sinister skulls on their black Metallica and Megadeth T-shirts, the teenagers who snaked alongside me in the queue to ride the Screamin’ Eagle roller coaster at Six Flags in St. Louis, Missouri,...
View ArticleA Feast for Hungry Eyes: An Interview with Sam Phillips, Part 1
Many songsmiths have struggled to navigate the commercial wilderness that arose in the aftermath of the music industry’s collapse. Singer-songwriter Sam Phillips, however, has played the part of...
View ArticleA Feast for Hungry Eyes: An Interview with Sam Phillips, Part 2
Continued from yesterday. Chad Thomas Johnston: The website for The Long Play shut down on May 1st. Did you achieve what you hoped to with this project? Sam Phillips: I did. It was so much fun, and...
View ArticleFast-Food Funeral Procession
The line lurched forward one vehicle at a time, halogen halos radiating from headlights. Although it was eleven o’clock at night, I could not help but think of the funeral processions I saw as a boy,...
View ArticleThe Choir: Children of Krakatoa
On August 26, 1883, the people of Perth, Western Australia, paused to register what historians have referred to as “the loudest sound ever heard.” Almost 2,000 miles away, a volcanic eruption on the...
View ArticleWhy Should Darkness Seem Truer Than Light?
In her memoir, Pieces of Someday, my friend and periodic “Good Letters” guest writer Jan Vallone shares the story of the time her writing instructor—“an aging Clint Eastwood” named Professor...
View ArticleDaniel Amos’s “Dig Here Said the Angel”
Dedicated to Billy Corgan, who challenged Christians to “make better music” and branch out beyond U2’s musical blueprints in an interview with CNN in September. I challenge you to buy and bury yourself...
View ArticleThe Afflicter of the Comfortable
Last December, a woman at church used Jedi mind tricks, or something very much like them, to persuade me to participate in our house of worship’s Christmas play. “Okay, I can do that,” I said, the...
View ArticleThe Treasure in the Trash
As much as I associate Kansas with The Wizard of Oz, I have yet to come across one canary-colored brick in my eight years as a Kansan. There are, however, a number of historic red brick sidewalks and...
View ArticleBlessed Are the Tentmakers
For my daughter, Evangeline Sofia, who celebrated her first birthday on the second day of October. “Can you build me a tent in the living room when you get home, Chad?” My wife Becki made this request...
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