Entries from September 2008 ↓

I have problems with feeling guilty about ridiculous things. Last week, I was incredibly blessed to receive a promotional copy of The Green Bible.

This new edition of the Bible (from a Harper Collins imprint, interestingly) is so beautiful I feel guilty that I’m going to keep it and use it as my new Bible. But not too guilty, you understand.

It doesn’t make sense that I would feel guilty about such a gift, but I guess I just don’t feel like I deserve it. But don’t worry. Like I said. I’ve decided to keep it and love it for myself. Call me selfish. Call me crazy. This is not one that I’m going to give away. It’s only $20.00 on Amazon anyway.

Besides just being an interesting concept, the book is very satisfying to hold. The linen cover feels good. The book has good weight. It opens easily and rests open. The pages are thin but substantive. And the ink is easy on the eyes.

You’ll get a sense of the concept by watching their promotional video. For example, they say the Bible has over 1000 references to the Earth. That’s more than the number of references to heaven. More than the number of references to love. Watch the video and tell me what you think.

What in the world? That’s according to a recent poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. I couldn’t find the actual poll questions, but that’s a pretty weird statistic.

It doesn’t serve the atheist community of Reason well to have one fifth of its ranks engaged is such bizarre double-think.

This is what I found when I went online this morning to think about Fireproof and the upcoming Religulous.

I admit it. That headline was a sucker punch to get you here to read my thoughts on Fireproof. Forgive me for that.

Fireproof is the latest “aggressively inspirational drama from brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick.” That’s according to a review from Variety. (I’d link to the article, but it seems to have disappeared.) The New York Times even gave it a decent review of sorts. They said the movie has “characters with a strong, conservative Christian faith who don’t sound crazy.” (What a concept!) They also say, the movie is “a decent attempt to combine faith and storytelling that will certainly register with its target audience.”

When the target audience is happy, the bottomline looks good.

I’m not sure if I’m the target audience, but my wife and I saw Fireproof last night with a sold-out crowd. I have to admit I was pretty skeptical.

Here’s how I judge movies. It’s a simple system. The quality of the movie rises in direct proportion to the number of explosions and violent deaths. Here’s how I figure it. I can see people cry in the regular world. But I never get to see people blow up. I don’t get to see buildings or cars blow up either. And frankly, I don’t want to. But in the movies, I can see people blow up and not worry about anyone’s family. It’s all smoke and mirrors, but it is sure great fun to watch.

So I was pretty skeptical about a marriage flick. Not to mention that I was already skeptical about a movie made by a church. Aggressive inspiration isn’t really my kind of aggressive.

Satchel Pootch was thinking similarly last week in her post Art with an agenda. Andy Crouch thinks about art and agenda in his new book Culture Makers.

But then I thought. What’s the risk of allowing myself to enjoy Fireproof? Sure, it’s got some bad acting. Sure, it’s got some scenes where the cinematographer chops off the top of the actor’s head.

But it has a lot of heart.

Much more heart than the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or the latest Star Wars or (God forgive us for paying for it) Space Chimps. So what if it has a moral? Aesop had morals. It’s all a matter of context. Go into the movie expecting to see crowd-sourced cinema, and you won’t be disappointed.

And as far as the business model goes, the Kendricks brothers are really on to something. They invested 500,000 dollars and now they are the number four movie in the US despite being in limited release.

Will Religulous do better? Maybe. It has higher powered marketing depending on how you define power.

But here’s the bottom line. Six million dollars above the cost of production in the first three days. Six million. Not huge numbers, but not bad either.

And eesthetically, the movie is pretty good. It even has some moments that are very good. And when I go see a movie, I’m really only expected a few moments of wow in the end. No matter what the budget, it’s just better to be realistic about how difficult it is to make good movies.

One last thought. Fireproof is at least as good as El Mariachi–the homemade Mexi-western that launched Robert Rodriguez. Should I be morally offended that neither movie is my favorite movie of all time? No.

It is a mistake for Christians to remain silent just because our art might not be good enough.

And it is a mistake to stay home just because someone is still learning their craft.

Fireproof is good. Go see it.

This is scary. And SUPER SUPER fun.

At Blogworld, Wendy Piersall’s session on selling advertising on a blog introduced me to quantcast. (Wendy runs the site Sparkplugging.com. It’s good and has a free business book. Get it.)

Back to quantcast. I figured, it would be good to go check out their data and see what the fuss was all about. Apparently, quantcast has some kind of passive way to generate demographic data for your readership–assuming you have enough readers to generate the data, of course.

But that’s not what has me amazed.

They also have a public “panel estimate” of many, many sites.

I won’t publish a blogpost about what I’m thinking of doing because it seems like an invasion of privacy. It seems like some kind of betrayal of the sites to compare them based on panel estimates. Maybe not a betrayal. Maybe just something that would irk them.

I’m thinking you could research the traffic and demographic estimates for all of the major Christian publishers. Yikes. You’d find that the top publisher may not be the top site for web traffic.

Then, you might wonder what that means for the future.

The name of this blog is “good word editing,” but lately I’ve talked more about conceptual editing than mechanics. And I’ve talked a bit about poetry.

In an email recently, someone asked, “How do you edit poetry? How do you know what to cut and what to keep?” Then I read Randy Ingermanson’s discussion of anapests yesterday and got to thinking about how much I love poetry and meter.

First, I won’t claim to know how to write great poetry or edit great poetry. I’m an amateur poet at best. I also won’t bore you with my theory of imagery and metaphor right now. Instead, I’m going to assume you read good poetry (subscribe to Poetry Magazine and 32 Poems) so you understand the basic principles of the form.

That said, there are two main tricks I’ve learned to use when I edit a poem.

First, trust the reader. I let the poem sit for a few days, then return and look for the moral. If I’ve stated the moral as clearly as an Aesop’s fable, that’s the first thing I cut. In poems, I never tell the moral. The power is in the image. Trust the truth of the image alone. If you capture an honest picture or an honest image, it will be more powerful than any truth you can impose on it.

Second, edit for meter. This is a little trickier and takes some explanation.

I prefer to write blank verse, so my poems often have meter but not end-rhyme. (End rhyme is when the words at the end of the lines rhyme in some kind of repeating pattern AABB, ABAB, or something.)

Here’s how I do it.

I print a copy of the poem that is double spaced. Sometimes I also write it out by hand and skip lines. Then, in the space between lines, I scan the meter and try to make sure there are five feet per line. Usually, I approximate iambic pentameter. I figure iambic pentameter was good enough for Shakespeare so it is good enough for me.

Iambic pentameter means the dominant metrical foot is an iamb, and that there are five (penta) iambs per line. Anapestic pentameter would have five anapests. Dactyllic pentameter would have five dactyls. Vermicious knid pentameter would have five vermicious knids.

(Vermicious knids aren’t really metrical feet, but they should be.)

And don’t stress yourself out. Writing with a dominant meter is hardly an exact science.

The dominant meter of a poem is like the drum beat of a song. Think about it. You have the regular beat that occurs most of the time, and the variations on that beat that occur throughout the poem. Like the special drum riff in a song. Any time you vary the meter from the dominant pattern, the variation is going to receive a slight emphasis.

The drum riff is cool because it sticks out. It is where the beat changes. The rhythm is different.

Remember the SNL skit where Christopher Walken called for “More Cowbell“? That cowbell is the dominant meter–and it’s funny because the song doesn’t vary the meter at all. It drives that cowbell like a freight train, baby.

So, next time you want to edit a poem, “trust your reader and scan the meter.” (Hey, I’m a poet!–bonus points to anyone who can scan that little line of poetry.) Try to shoot for some kind of pentameter, five feet per line. To keep it easy, limit yourself to the basic feet, iamb, trochee, dactyl, anapest, and spondee.

Here’s a quick key to the examples below:

“~” and lowercase =  unstressed syllable

“/” and UPPERCASE = stressed syllable

| = mark to show the separate metrical feet

Here is a simple explanation of the five basic metrical feet with examples that I’ve tried to scan for you.

i-AMB (unstressed, STRESSED)

~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ /
“but SOFT | what LIGHT | from YON- | der WIN- | dow BREAKS?”

TROCH-ee (STRESSED, unstressed)

/ ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~
“ONCE up- | ON a | MIDnight | DREARy, | WHILE i | PONdered, | WEAK and | WEARy”
 
an-a-PEST (unstressed, unstressed, STRESSED)

~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / 
“the imMOR- | tal deSIRE |of imMOR- | tals we SAW | in their FAC- | es and SIGHED”
 
DAC-tyl-lic (STRESSED, unstressed, unstressed)

/ ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~ / ~ ~
“PICture your | SELF in a | BOAT on a | RIVer with | TANGerine | TREE-ees and | MARMalade | SKII-ii-es.”

SPON-DEE (STRESSED STRESSED, used for emphasis only)
/ ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / /
“Í say | MóRE: the | JUST man | JUSTices; / KéEPS GRáCE”

If you all are interested, I can post a poem I’m working on to show you how this works.

Some folks do this crazy thing called LiveBlogging. I’m not into that. I like a little more time for reflection and processing. Like, you know, 12 hours or so. This morning, I’m thinking through the highlights of what I learned yesterday at BlogWorld and GodblogCon and I thought you might be interested.

So I present for you the Ultimate Las Vegas Smack Down: Tall Skinny Kiwi vs. Technorati! In one corner, we have the reigning champion…

Technorati and the State of the Blogosphere

The first event I attended was the keynote address by the CEO of Technorati. (Six Apart spoke too.) Beginning tomorrow, Technorati will be posting their State of the Blogosphere report all week.

He said, “Blog content means authoritative and opinionated voices—with a loyal audience who really values that voice. Blogs are media… All blogs are not created equal.”

Some Interesting Stats

I give these here with the warning that they are ball park and have not been closely examined yet. We’ll have to watch the details as they come out this week:

• 1.2 million blogs have registered with Technorati. (Do this if you haven’t yet.)
• Technorati has 133 million blog records. (But a lot of these are dead or spam.)
• 7.4 million blogs posted in last 120 days.
• 1.5 million blogs posted in last 7 days.
• 900,000 posts went live in 24 hours.
• 76,000 blogs with Technorati Authority of 50+ (Do you know your Tech Authority?)

Here’s the statistic that everybody was talking about though.

Looking at the top 10% of revenue earning blogs, the average annual revenue was $19,000. They were posting an average of 81 times per month.

Do the math. That’s an average of $4.50 per post. Dreadful.

I think I’ll stick with hobby blogging and nonprofit blogging.

Which brings me back to the Ultimate Las Vegas Smack Down. In the challenger’s corner, we have…

Andrew Jones, Tall Skinny Kiwi

Apparently, Andrew Jones inspired Darren Rouse to start blogging back in the 1990s. That’s right. Andrew was blogging before there was such a thing as blogger or typepad or wordpress or livejournal.

Even comments didn’t exist.

Here’s what Andrew said, “Church 2.0 isn’t about bringing the old church structures into the internet. It’s about starting with the platforms and seeing how we can use those to encourage each other.”

I’d say that idea applies to all institutions. Business 2.0 can’t bring the old structures of business onto the internet. Marketing 2.0 can’t rely on old structures. Media 2.0 certainly can’t. Movies 2.0 (according to Mark Joseph) might actually shake up Hollywood the way iTunes has already shaken up the big music labels.

Of course, Andrew is a missional guy. So he brought it back to this:

“The first reformation turned hearers into readers. This reformation is turning readers into writers… We blog to give ourselves away. This is the heart of ministry. In giving ourselves away, we become part of the gift economy.”

And the winner is… ?

I’d like to say Tall Skinny Kiwi, but it’s not that simple. There are real problems with publishing in a gift economy, for sure. How does my poetry have any value for instance if I put it online for free? I mean, simply the fact that I’ve made it freely available somehow cheapens it for new readers.

I guess that just puts a heavier onus on me to write truly great poetry. (Oh well. I guess you’ll just have to settle for cheap poetry at GoodWordEditing.com. If you want the greatest new poetry, subscribe to 32 Poems or Poetry Magazine.)

So that’s it. Today I’m going to play poker with the b5media people and focus on how to be a good steward of the sites God has given me.

Bonus Highlight

One more thing to leave you with before I head onto the tradeshow floor. Chris Alden from Six Apart had a good reminder for everyone:

Publishing used to be really hard—in tv, radio, print, and even on the web. But industries change when it becomes much easier to use and much less expensive. New abilities are changing the way we blog as well—from comments to RSS feeds to all sorts of tools that help us connect. That’s the bottom line.

This isn’t about technology. It’s about human connection and finding other people who care about the same topic we do.

Why do I do that? After grabbing Starbucks and logging on, I found myself sitting next to Paul Chaney and Jim Turner of the International Blogging and New Media Association. I had emailed Paul and volunteered to help out however I can with IBNMA if they can use me.

Paul says, “You’re one of those godbloggers aren’t you?”

I don’t know why that makes me bristle. Paul certainly didn’t mean it as an accusation. But I’m like Peter, quick to qualify myself on a dark morning. Not that I betray myself or my faith, but I don’t speak with confidence. In some sense, I have trouble believing Matthew 28 in my gut. Jesus said,

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I talk about editing from time to time–because I’m an editor and this blog has the word “editing” in the title. And I wish I could edit myself this morning. If I had my conversation with Paul, I would strike through some of the things I said. I would write in things that were more honest. Less feable. More confident in the authority that is in God who is in me.

So this post is my penance, I suppose. I’m not sure I believe in penance, but reading Gene Wolfe always warms my heart toward traditional Catholic ideas like that. (And I’m ready Gene Wolfe right now. Pirate Freedom, of course. It ROCKS.)

Here’s what I believe when I sit down at a table and think it through. My heart is in my fingers on the keyboard, not in the tongue of my mouth.

TheHighCalling.org is sponsoring the Godblog track of BlogWorld 2008 in Las Vegas because we believe that we are called to glorify God in all that we do. It’s really the way I’ve come to interpret the passage above from Matthew 28.

I’m not out to convert the world or baptize them. I’m just here to teach and obey. I’m not a bad teacher, I’ve learned. That’s the piece above that God has called me to do. All authority, all authorship of creation, has been given to God, therefor I go in to all the world that I can.

Being bound by space and time, I can’t go everywhere or be everywhere. But I can be in Kerrville. And I can be online. And I can be at TheHighCalling.org and HighCallingBlogs.com and here at GoodWordEditing.com.

And if I’m wrong about all of this–that’s okay with me. I’m not out to push my understanding of the truth against all odds. I’m just going to share what God has done in my life.

Future updates today will be on my Twitter page if you’re interested.

Argghhh, what better day for this bilge rate to be sailing off to Las Vegas to stay in Treasure Island than International Talk Like a Pirate Day? Me own boy is sitting across the table there wearing his Calico Jack Rackham Jolly Roger, ready to fly the sheets off to school.

Then me and my Jenny be flying the steel to Vegas. See you there, mateys!

I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know that it has been one heckuva week for me as I’m scrambling to get ready for BlogWord and Godblog.

I’ve got my schedule printed–including meetings with several members of HighCallingBlogs.com, people I’m looking to recruit as bloggers, people I’m looking to recruit as writers, and people I’m just hoping to meet so I can say hi–Darren Rouse, Guy Kawasaki, and Brian Clarke have all had a big influence on the way I understand social media.

And of course, there are the exhibitors that I plan to visit:

• b5media and their ongoing poker game with Darren Rouse. That’s a conversation that I need to think through carefully. I have tremendous respect for Darren.
• cocomment is something that I think will finally work for us (here’s my cocomment feed, sort of)
• buzzlogic looks promising as an ad solution, but I’m still not sure where we stand on our desire for ads
• crowd science may provide some good statistics, but I already get statistics from google. So they’ll have to explain that. Also, they have some blackhat jokes on their homepage that made me wonder about them.
• disqus will need to tell me how they are different than cocomment. I need to install their plugin here before I go to blogworld.
• International Blogging and New Media Association looks like something I could help with. I plan to attend their organizational meeting.
• Fast Company is a brand I need to learn more about. For instance, why do we need one more LinkedIn type social network?
• intense debate is another cocomment and disqus challenger.
• Kithbridge is someone who looks like it thinks about RSS the way I do. I’d like to talk to them.
• Lijit is another brand I have been hearing about that I plan to investigate. I want to understand what these people are doing exactly and how it could overlap with HighCallingBlogs.com.
• MarketLeverage is a group that also presents to the Direct Marketing Association, so I’m interested to talk to them about how they see DM applying to social media in the future.
• mindtouch looks like an interesting wiki approach to project management, but I don’t see how it is necessarily better than google apps–other than the wildly raving endorsements from technology bigwigs.
• Outbrain looks like it has developed a social widget. Not sure how it applies to us, but I’m curious.
• PRWeb is something I’ve long admired since I read an incredible case study about it in Scott Meerman’s book The New Rules of Marketing and PR. (GREAT book by the way.)
• Technorati. Sigh. I haven’t been actively researching there in some time. But I need to go see what’s new. So much to do. So little time.

That’s the audacious promise Walt Whitman makes in the beginning of the American epic “Song of Myself.” I know I rant about Whitman around here all the time, but this time I have a reason.

Hurrican Ike has displaced my Uncle Bill and Aunt Merrie from their home in Galveston. I can’t do much for them–but I know Uncle Bill loves Whitman. So I’m going to record Whitman for Uncle Bill. The rest of you are welcome to listen too. Or read along at with a cool annotated version of the text from Virginia Commonwealth University.

 

 Song of Myself 1-6: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download