Mike Mangione and the Union - Blues & T.O.B.

There’s a Song of Songs you’re singing
And I’ve been bleeding every line.

Aside from some shout-outs for the Kickstarter campaigns of Paul J. Kim and Gina Chavez, I realize that’s it been a while since I’ve showcased some good music. Well, you need not wait another second—pop on your earbuds for Mike Mangione and The Union!

Starting out as a solo act in the early 2000's, Mike's lonely van grew to include his brother and eventually the implements you see above. Not that the journey was as straight forward as that: he spent some time as a barista at varying locations and doing some odd jobs before settling into the seat of a traveling musician, a career we all know to be incredibly stable and secure.

Not that I'm complaining, since every ear within range benefits from the road the group travels, if for no other reason than even happy hearts can appreciate the blues. Come to think of it, blues and Catholicism are complementary, aren’t they? Not the church nor Jesus ever make any attempt to downplay the reality of suffering, not even for the faithful. Equipped with a maturity to turn our temporal anguish into music, Mike Mangione and his soul patch draw lyrics of amazing theological depth:

You give yourself bare-handed, I take what’s left with shame.
I heard Vinny came back from the desert but that boy don’t look the same.
You can count my hairs, they’re numbered, leave the tally at the door.
I heard the mother’s milk has gone sour but the fools they’re begging more.
You beg me to surrender, to make a perfect offering.
But you are asking too much baby because I’m stuck here in between.
("Somewhere Between," from the album The Offering)


With such thoughtful lyrics, you can rest assured that the T.O.B. in the post title indeed belongs. Standing for Theology of the Body, it’s the name given to the compilation of Blessed John Paul II’s teaching on human sexuality. The teaching particularly reaffirms the sacredness of marital union and our dignity in playing a part in it. With songs like “At Your Gate,” which references the Song of Songs, and “Woman in Gown,” it’s no wonder that Mike and The Union perform at Christopher West events.

Though all the members of the band are practicing Catholics and they’ve even performed at World Youth Day, their ministry, as you might call it, takes them to mostly secular venues. This certainly harkens back to the words of St. Paul, when he says, “To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some.”(1Cor 9:23) Everyone suffers, and everyone questions their existence and their place in the world; Is there any better place to sing a word of truth than in a genre and environment where all questions are asked and significant themes are demanded?

In the words of the man himself: "Search out the Catholicity in the secular and let it inspire you. You will have a bigger palette to work with, and your work will resonate with a broader audience for all the right reasons." (Colorado Catholic Herald)

More on Mike Mangione and The Union:
mikemangione.com
Music videos
Store (MP3s available on iTunes and Amazon)
Interview at Catholicrock.org

Tim Staples - Catholic Apologist

A face of calm before he unleashes truth like a broken dam.

Hey all, welcome back to Cool Cats! I’m ending my hiatus with a special treat. As mentioned in a previous post, Brandon Vogt is hosting a Support a Catholic Speaker Month, which is happening right now. As a participant, it was my good fortune to acquire the privilege to write about Tim Staples.

I specifically chose to write about Tim because, when I was a youngster, he gave a talk at my home parish and was my first introduction to the world of Catholic apologetics. It wasn’t a minute too soon, because between the internet and classmates, I was already facing such daunting questions as “Where is that in the Bible?” or phrases like “Catholics aren’t Christian; they believe in works getting you to heaven.” Key to Tim’s effectiveness isn’t only that he knows the ins and outs of Catholic answers to the above statements (not to mention he’s also the Director of Evangelization at catholicanswers.com), it’s that he once believed them.

Tim Staples was raised in a very southern and very Baptist southern Baptist church. This meant growing up in a mindset that not only was the Catholic Church not Christian, it was the whore of Babylon, oh my! He fell away from his faith during his teen years, but he came roaring back with the help of televangelists when he was 18 and about to set off for the Marines. With a renewed vigor in Christ, he participated in Bible studies and ministries throughout his military service and found his way into the Assemblies of God.

During his final year, however, he encountered something that many cradle Catholics haven’t even seen: a Catholic who knew his stuff. This fellow marine was Matt Dula, and he sparked Tim’s journey to prove the Catholic faith wrong. ‘Course, you can see how well that turned out.

Tim immediately followed his conversion with entrance into the seminary, and though he knew maybe halfway through that it wasn’t his true calling, he remained there for six years. Let’s all be thankful for this, because it surely gave him the necessary knowledge for his calling of apologetics without whisking him away to the serious time-eating obligations of a priest. The resulting fruits include the DVDs Why Be Catholic and The Bible Made Me Do It, as well as his book Nuts & Bolts: A Practical Guide for Explaining and Defending theCatholic Faith and speaking tours related to all of the above.

It's worth noting that Tim gives special thanks to his protestant brothers and sisters for helping him form an authentic relationship with God, and indeed we all should only approach other Christians in a loving manner should the opportunity for apologetics arise. Yet, apologetics isn't just trying to prove to other Christians our own Christian existence, it's showing ourselves the well grounded roots and teachings of the church we attend!

You might recognize from the clip above: "I led many Catholics out of the Catholic Church, I never met a single Catholic who was either willing or able to defend his or her faith."

More about Tim Staples:
Other books, talks, etc.
Journey Home interview
CatholicAnswers.com

Want to kick something?

Then help fund Paul J. Kim's new album through Kickstarter. In case the hyperlink's not clear enough, go to the url http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/735466391/making-music-with-paul-j-kim. Or click HERE. Really, refusing three different hyperlinks to visit the same site is bad luck. So, please, take the time to learn more about this talented young man if you haven't already and proceed to help bring good music into the world.

Support Some Cool Cats!

Okay, abysmal Photoshop aside, I want to let you know about an opportunity to vote for Catholic Speakers over at Brandon Vogt's website. Brandon is the author of The Church and the New Media, which has been featured on EWTN's Life on the Rock and has made a splash in the Catholic blogosphere. 

Right now, the list is some 250 and needs to be whittled down to 100. After that, during the month of September, those 100 will be promoted through "Support a Catholic Speaker Month." You get 15 votes,  so if you're not sure who to vote for, put a check next to the Cool Cats Eduardo Verastegui and Fr. Leo. Seriously, Eduardo only has 4%? Please, do me a favor and remedy that.

Time out!

Lolsaints.com. This is what I leave with you while I go offline for a while. Part of the reason is that I want to preserve my existing list of future Cool Cats, and the other part is...well, mainly I want to build up my list before returning. I know, I know, you're all bursting into tears as you read this. Just find a cat. It'll make you feel better, trust me.

Gene Luen Yang - Comic Artist

Don't let the smile fool you. He gets smeared with ashes just like anyone else.

If you’re experiencing geekcaine withdrawals from the closing of this year’s San Diego Comic-con, then I have just the remedy. Gene Luen Yang is an award-winning Chinese-American comic artist and writer whom you should check out RIGHT NOW if you want to relieve that emptiness inside.

In all seriousness, Gene is a dream-come-true for Christians aspiring to do cool things on the nerdier side of life. Though comics may not be vilified today as they were in the decades following their inception, any involvement with them is unlikely to earn you a high-five with your priest, Sunday school teacher, or beams of praise from your German-Catholic grandparents. Gene, himself born to strict and devout Chinese parents, knows this and has written an insightful article entitled “Telling the Old, Old Story.” It details the commonalities between the histories of Christianity and the modern comic medium, going as far to say they’re complementary:

...(John of Damascus) suggests that our tradition of visual art grows from the very heart of the gospel. When "the Word became flesh and made a dwelling among us" (John 1:14), God expressed the desire to make what was once invisible (the Word) visible (flesh).
…
To respond to the Incarnation -- the making of the invisible visible -- we must express the Incarnation visually. In other words, we must make comics.

He also makes an astute observation that our beloved stained glass windows are just a graphical representation of a story, in other words, a very expensive comic.

I hate reading clockwise.

As fascinating as you probably think that all is, you should check out Gene’s work from the library, or buy it if you’re one of those people with money. His most well-known is American Born Chinese, which won an Will Eisner award as well as being a finalist for the National Book Awards in the category of Young People's Literature, which is rare for a comic book (maybe unprecedented, too lazy to look up). It interweaves an ancient Asian narrative, in which a monkey king travels to India to retrieve the Buddhist sutras (Journey to the West), with the identity-bending experience of a young boy living between two cultures. Superimpose a Christian interpretation of God onto the braided narrative, and you have a reflection of Gene’s life as well as that of his fictional characters'.

That guy's always in control. What's the deal?

In the end...I decided I wanted to do an Asian-American telling of this (Journey to the West). Christianity has had a profound effect on Asian American identity. I feel like it’s a particular style of Christianity that emphasizes where Western Christian morality and a Confucian-based moral system intersect. You visit any college with Christian groups or clubs, you’ll usually find a lot of Asians in those groups. -Gene Yang in an interview with talkingwriting.com

He openly admits that his religion is one of the most important aspects of his identity, the other being his heritage (talkingwriting), and you can certainly pick up subtle hints of that in all his work. It shows up in the form of philosophy, or theology if someone took out deliberate Judeo-Christian references to God and his works. This investigation into morality is very apparent in the collection Animal Crackers, The Eternal Smile, and Level Up. In other words, in pretty much everything he does.

Seriously, buy it so you can pretend to have a ridiculously large Game Boy (story's good too).

If by any chance Gene sounds too intellectual or not geeky enough to be your mentor in spirit, you should know that he's in charge of writing the Avatar: The Last Airbender comic continuation. Yeah, the series is in good hands.

More on Gene Luen Yang:

Geneyang.com

The Comics Reporter interview

Dark Horse and Avatar

The Millions interview  (Great insight about race representation)

and

THE ROSARY COMIC BOOK

The Amazing Nightcrawler - Superhero

...most people were afraid of me. But I didn't hate them. I pitied them. Do you know why? Because most people will never know anything beyond what they see with their own two eyes.
- X2- X-Men United

Why? ‘Cause it’s comic-con. And he’s awesome, and German, and as far as I know, the only Catholic superhero. In any case, Kurt Wagner, AKA the Nightcrawler, is a very rare, positive, and accurate depiction of Catholicism in mainstream media.

Making his debut in 1975’s Giant X-Men #1, the Nightcrawler has BAMF'd his way through forty years of comics, three animated series, multiple video games, and a key role in a major motion picture. It all started when a shape-shifting mutant, Mystique, hooked up with an actual demon, Azazel (you may recognize him from X-Men: First Class). Since Nightcrawler's blue skin and pointy ears blew Mystique's cover as a non-mutant, she abandoned him to a river, where he was later picked up by a traveling circus.

Among the ranks of freaks and geeks he had somewhat of a safe haven despite his monstrous appearance, but as a mutant, he knew he would always be an outcast to the rest of the world (pitchforks and torches gave him that impression). Despite his demonic ancestry, he would go on to find solace in God, even living in a monastery for a time. His exemplary faith is so compelling that some of the X-Men (Storm, Jubilee, and even Wolverine) have to pause to contemplate his words. Below, a video that better illustrates his origin and his interesting effect on Wolverine:

Cutting through the twists, turns, and multiple histories typical of a comic character, Nightcrawler was later recruited to join the X-Men by Professor Xavier, whose mission it is to alleviate the majority population's fears of mutants by using their abilities for good. Nightcrawler's abilities include hyper agility, teleportation/inter-dimensional travel (BAMF!), and his feet allow him to walk on walls. He also has an awesome tail, is a prankster, and loves a good swashbuckling adventure.

More on Nightcrawler:

Wikipedia page

A collection of sketches

Watch X-Men The Animated Series on Netflix!