pomo update 19.0
launch party, performative trads, & step-parents
Zine 4
Get your copy of the zine vol. 4, featuring him, Chris Marino, Bridget Ruffing, Brandon Taylor, Sean Thor Conroe, Carlos Egaña, John Milbank, Jonah Howell, Joe Enabnit, et al.
And get your tix for our launch party on 5/21 at KGB where Matt, Jonah, Sean, Carlos, and Chris will be reading excerpts from their pieces, and where attendees get a FREE copy of the zine!
Other events
The Metropolitan Review is hosting a reading party on 5/19 at KGB feat. Stephen Adubato, Ross Barkan, and other friends of pomo. Get tix here.
Our friends at Arthouse2B will be hosting a series of events in the coming weeks:
5/22-23: Studio Child performance of “ghostcreator”
6/12-14: Annual Artist Retreat
You need to read books again
Jack from the Book Club from Hell pod joins us to discuss why he loves reading books so much, and his suggestions for people who want to get back into reading after being addicted to their phones. Listen on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube.
pomo people elsewhere
Kristian Josifoski translated a poem by Blaze Koneski from Macedonian into English in POETRY
Stephen wrote about why you should not receive Communion on the tongue (unless everyone else is) in America Magazine
latest from no pomo
Liberal Idealism vs. Conservative Realism
people who lean left and lean right possess different pieces of the puzzle (I also believe that both “sides” have shortcomings and limitations). This is why rather than cancelling each other, we need to be collaborating with each other, learning from each other, tempering each other out—sharing our different pieces of the puzzle that come with our unique sensibilities, and working together to assemble the puzzle that is the Common Good.
MOTOMAMI was more profound than LUX
People keep asking me to write more about Rosalia’s LUX…but honestly, I don’t have much to say about it. Surely, it’s interesting, it’s creative, it’s moving. But I don’t think it’s as profound, as culturally important, and spiritually loaded as MOTOMAMI. It disappoints me that people seem not to recognize how incredible that album was. IMO, we should still be talking about it, rather than making a big fuss about LUX.
going to the Breezy Bowl was something of a pilgrimage…I mean, not really but kinda. If anything, it was an opportunity to reflect on how far God has brought me on my journey in the span of 18 years. (Also, I went to the concert with 2 friends who have played a crucial role in my spiritual journey.) I almost cried while singing my heart out to deep album cuts from Exclusive, as it brought me back to that time when I was a little 15 year old in search of meaning, hope, purpose—and was bowled over with gratitude for how far God has brought me in my journey.
It is deeply unnatural for a child to have to treat some random guy or lady as if they are part of the family, if not also a mother or father figure. What’s worse is when parents demand that their child be nice to the person they are dating, and get mad at the kid if they have an attitude around the partner. A child has absolutely no obligation to roll out the welcome mat for some random adult you are allowing to enter into their life and home. How utterly presumptuous!!
From the archive
Since the schizo vs. autist thing is back in the media cycle, we thought we’d repost this old one about how Orthodox Christians are more schizo and Catholics are more autistic.
Western spirituality breeds rationalistic neurotic autists while Eastern spirituality breeds magical-thinking psychotic schizos. In general, “the West” is commonly associated with rationalism and legalism, and “the East” with the mysterious and exotic. And I’d argue that the apophatic, mystical, poetic imagination of the so-called East describes various eastern cultures and religions, including Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
The Met Gala made us think back to our discussion with Tara Isabella Burton and David Odyssey about the cult of celebrity. It was a great one!