Jason Kirk's Blog, page 6
June 1, 2022
For the last 3 months, I was bleeding out
Hello. This newsletter is where I write things way too big for tweets and way too navel-gazey to pitch to outlets. Business since I last posted here:
New Vacation Bible School episodes on Joshua (the Bible’s war-dad novel that’s slightly less worrisome, once you learn how made-up it is), Judges (with internet hero Jon Bois), and the first part of Samuel (because Sunday school didn’t just oversimplify the concept of “the messiah,” it also failed to even mention the five golden tumor rats).
New VBS ...
January 12, 2022
The single "consensus" champ of every college football season, 1869-2022
Hello! This is a version of a post that’s now appeared on at least four different websites. This is probably where it’ll remain! Ideally, I’ll update it every year. It’s probably my favorite sports blog post I’ve ever written.
If you subscribed to my newsletter because of non-sports, do pls stick around. If you’re still confused about why I sometimes do non-sports stuff to begin with, also stick around pls.
For almost all of college football’s 152 years, there was no formal top-level ...
The single "consensus" champ of every college football season, 1869-2021
Hello! This is a version of a post that’s now appeared on at least four different websites. This is probably where it’ll remain! Ideally, I’ll update it every year. It’s probably my favorite sports blog post I’ve ever written.
If you subscribed to my newsletter because of non-sports, do pls stick around. If you’re still confused about why I sometimes do non-sports stuff to begin with, also stick around pls.
For almost all of college football’s 152 years, there was no formal top-level ...
October 6, 2021
Brushed red, living in black and white
July 2000
Sup. I typed a shitload of navel-gazing1, and if you choose to read it, you’re the one choosing to read it.
Elsewhere in newer-ish stuff:
Vacation Bible School has new episodes. And some fellowshippy episodes on our Patreon.
The Shutdown Fullcast added an After Dark show, even messier than the regular show.
I’m bloggin’ at USA Today’s For The Win, co-hosting Tuesday nights on Spotify’s Greenroom, and dragging down a gambling show at OddsChecker.
Bushnell, Illinois’ Cornerston...
December 30, 2020
Comeback
Here’s a long post. No offense if it’s not your thing. It’s about how a bad movie caused an improbable chain of glad tidings. It was a horrible year for all of us, albeit with some moments of clarity we might be able to reuse, and this is about a few of mine. And obviously, there are many people in the world with bigger problems than these, especially these days.
If you’d like some normal stuff instead of a long post nobody else edited:
New Vacation Bible School fellowships on Christmas and the T...
October 8, 2020
The 10 least effective Exodus plagues
Hello, how are you? This post is associated with the Vacation Bible School Podcast, which is kind of nearly done with Exodus. Up next are an episode on the Law and an episode on the journey to the Promised Land.
VBS is supported by our Patreon, where we have some merch, a Discord chat, and some other stuff to offer our generous parishioners.
Let’s discuss one of the two most famous stories from Exodus, which we’ve discussed in somewhere between one (Moses origins) and three (Passover and “Red Sea”...
July 27, 2020
Rogue ones
Vacation Bible School’s fifth episode, on Young Moses vs. the Pharaoh, is up. Emily and I talked about the Prince of Egypt movie, the much-cooler stories behind the stories of Jethro and the plagues, Moses’ long arc as a character, and so forth.
And now, let’s discuss one more thing about this part of Exodus: Moses’ family was not the first family in the Bible to rebel.
Hot take: Original sin is a bad guess.
Eve didn’t doom us.
Eve was willing to doom herself for the rest of us, thoug...
June 24, 2020
You could just stop scheduling Liberty University football
The latest episode of the Vacation Bible School Podcast is up. We’d planned to cram the story of Joseph in with Exodus, since it explains how the Israelites wound up in Egypt, but we wanted to appreciate the Bible’s first story that feels like a story. We also review the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, along with the true canonical depiction: Veggie Tales’ The Ballad of Little Joe.
Elsewhere, we’re also close to wrapping up a full draft of The Sinful Seven, guaranteed to be ...
June 2, 2020
Fight the Power
A man wrestled with Jacob until daybreak.
When the man saw that he had not prevailed against Jacob, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.
Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.’
But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’
So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’
And he said, ‘Jacob.’
The man said, ‘Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have wrestled with God.’
— Genesis 32
The Po...
May 17, 2020
The Bible's alarming lack of platypus myths
Episode two of Vacation Bible School is up, hopefully on every podcast platform.
We’re joined by Ryan Nanni and Michael Felder to break down the insane Darren Aronofsky movie about Noah’s ark (PIRATES VS. KORGS) and the differences between growing up Catholic and Protestant (WINE VS. JUICE), along with the revelation that John Mayer’s “Drone Shot of My Yacht” accurately depicts both the Hebrew and Babylonian flood myths.
Flood myths, like the creation myths in episode one, abound all over the wor...
