Segment three of The Kindlings Muse originated from Hale’s Ale Brewery & Pub on Monday May 22. Our subject is Irreligious Seattle and The Spiritual Book Craze. On today’s podcast in segment three our panel of Greg Wolfe, Heather Hawkins and Bryan Burton continue their discussion Seattle’s irreligiousity, taking a look at Seattle’s so-called tolerance in the process.
Enjoy. Tell a Friend. And come back for more. Soon you’ll be able to subscribe The Kindlings Muse as an iTunes podcast.

 

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This episode of The Kindlings Muse originated from Hales Ale Brewery & Pub on Monday May 22. Our subject is “Irreligious Seattle and The Spiritual Book Craze.” On today’s podcast in segment two we introduce Greg Wolfe Editor of Image a Journal of “Art-Faith-Mystery, ” Heather Hawkins a Seattle actress and Bryan Burton theologian, a graduate of Queens College in Belfast Ireland for a discussion of whether based on their personal experience, Seattle is really irreligious. Enjoy. Tell a Friend. And come back for more.

Soon you’ll be able to subscribe The Kindlings Muse as an iTunes podcast.

 

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This is the very first official Kindling’s Muse Podcast. It is the introductory segment from the 90-minute Kindlings Muse Broadcast originating live from Hales Ales Brewery and Pub (http://www.halesales.com/) on Monday May 22. Our subject is “Irreligious Seattle and The Spiritual Book Craze.” On today’s podcast I answer some frequently asked questions about The Kindlings Muse. On tomorrow’s podcast you will hear: Greg Wolfe Editor of Image a Journal of “Art-Faith-Mystery” Heather Hawkins a Seattle actress. Bryan Burton theologian, a graduate of Queens College in Belfast Ireland.

Enjoy. Tell a Friend. And come back for more. Soon you’ll be able to subscribe The Kindlings Muse as an iTunes podcast.

Last night as we launched our new live event/podcast/broadcast, The Kindling’s Muse (TKM, I came as close to childbirth as I guess I ever will.

It was messy. Everyone who was there will agree a baby’s first sounds are a little scary and the little critter learns to crawl before it walks. We got off to a late start (10 minutes) and when we played the pre-recorded introduction to the show, we could hear the music but not the rich basso profundo of Ron Turner. We thought it was because of a last minute switch to stereo recording from mono, but a ½ hour later and a lot of buttons pushed and cables checked, we discovered the culprit: a chair tangled with a cord unplugging it from our system! I hear the newborn is as messy as the birthing process! Next come the dirty diapers, spitting up and crying though the night!

It was paced poorly. Mom wants baby now, but delivery can go on forever! I tried to move the conversation too quickly and it kept us from getting very deep with our stellar panel (Bryan Burton, Heather Hawkins, & Gregory Wolfe). Pacing also prohibited us from getting to MOST of the audience questions and comments (We’re going to post them with the podcast so everybody can see the kinds of audience reaction we were getting).

TKM has a face only a mother could love. Every baby is beautiful to mom and dad and we were able to see glimmers of beauty in the newborn TKM. We had a great crowd, good venue (Thanks to Mike and Kathleen Hale), the panel was superb, intelligent and engaged. Robert Deeble’s music was spot on and Jeff Berryman’s reading of the late poet laureate Stanley Kuntz’s “The Layers” was inspired.

The kid has potential. When our son was a child I liked to play a little song titled “I am a Promise.” It went something like this: “I am promise, I am a possibility I am a promise, with a capital P, I am a great big bundle of potentiality. And if I listen and hear God’s voice and if I promise to make the right choice, I can be anything, anything God wants me to be!” And that is how I feel about “The Kindlings Muse.” I believe there is a need for intelligent, imaginative, hospitable explorations of ideas that matter in contemporary life, and as Stanley Kunitz said in The Layers:

In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
Live in the layers,
not on the litter.

Though I lack the art to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written,
I am not done with my changes.

Yours for the pursuit of God in the company of friends, Dick Staub.

And so the preparations are made and the plan will be executed (such a harsh word!) Tonight we will give birth to our new, live show, The Kindlings Muse at Hales Ales Brewery and Pub in the Fremont District of Seattle. By Thursday there should be a podcast posted at our new website (location announced tomorrow).

Our theme tonight is Irreligious Seattle & the Spiritual Book Craze. Not a bad topic after one of the bestselling books of all time, “The Da Vinci Code,” filled theatres in the critically panned movie based on the book. Our panel is Bryan Burton, theologian, actress Heather Hawkins and Gregory Wolfe, editor of “Image, A journal of Art, Faith and Mystery.” Local singer & songwriter Robert Deeble will sing and Actor Jeff Berryman will read a poem of the late Stanley Kunitz.

The loft at Hale’s should be packed as registration had to be closed off and we are now accepting Standing Room Only guests, and it looks like a good mix of locals and friends. Among the crowd will be donors who helped fund this venture, Jennie Spohr, our producer is making last minute adjustments and Carlo, our audio guy is packing all the equipment up the stairs and into the loft in an attempt to achieve a flawless audio event taped into a new pro-tools unit through a new Apple Powerbook (not the intel version, pro-tools won’t run on it yet!)

The concept of the show is simple. Produce an event (and out of it a podcast and radio show) that is an intelligent, imaginative and hospitable exploration of ideas that matter in contemporary life. Invite people of varying beliefs on the panel and in the audience and build on what we have in common while voicing our differences. Get beyond the hostile talk and frivolous talk to talk about stuff that matters listeningly.

What is listeningly, a word I guess I made up? Let me illustrate this way. Late in life John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson with whom a strained relationship had developed, “You and I ought not to die, before we have explained ourselves to each other.” I’d like people to listen to and explain themselves to each other. Maybe I’m just an old 60’s idealist, but if so, Fremont, is the right place for such a conversation to happen because it has always been independent thinking, cordial and countercultural.

I guess today I’m like an expectant mother. Something will be born tonight, but we’re not sure what. I’m starting to feel birth pangs and like a first-time mother, I’m experiencing a variety of emotions as I head towards the inevitable moment of delivery: uncertainty, excitement and some dread of the unknown.

Check in tomorrow to hear the news.

Yours for the pursuit of God in the company of friends, Dick Staub.

PS. And remember, “these are the best of times and the worst of times, but they are the only times we have.” (For Now).

 

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In 1999 I sat in the conference room at a company called Post Effects in Chicago. (This is where Bill Kurtis produces all his A&E shows). Among those gathered at my invitation were Marty O’Donnell (Bungee-Halo), Rand Miller (Myst/Riven), Jim Reardon (Rolling Stone writer), Lou Carlozo (Chicago Tribune entertainment writer) and Tom Beaudoin (author of Virtual Faith-The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X). Not attending, but also in the loop were author Anne Lamott and NPR commentator Frederica Mathewes-Green.

I had just left my Chicago-based nationally syndicated talk show and was kind of fed up with talk radio, which in my view was increasingly polarized and argumentative, offering a bland stew of political talk, hostile talk and frivolous talk. Meanwhile serous writers like social philosopher Charles Handy were writing books like The Hungry Spirit which opens with these words. “In Africa, they say there are two hungers, the lesser hunger and the greater hunger. The lesser hunger is for the things that sustain life, the goods and services, and the money to pay for them, which we all need. The greater hunger is for an answer to the question “why?” for some understanding of what that life is for.” Where, we wondered, are these deep, core issues discussed?

Our little group had two things in common: we were thoughtful creatives and we agreed that there was a need for places where people of differing views and backgrounds could engage in intelligent, imaginative, hospitable explorations of ideas that mattered in contemporary life. We were also media professionals who realize we live in a superficial age that markets to the lowest common denominator. The middlebrow culture that once existed between academic elites and mere mortals is disappearing along with the distribution channels that once served them.

We intuitively sensed the web would fill that gap somehow, so seven years ago we started to explore ways to facilitate a meaningful conversation online. The arrival of podcasts means our time has come. The name “the kindlings,” grew out of our identities. Look at the definitions of kindling and muse: Kindling: material to light a fire; to produce warmth & an illuminating glow. Muse: to spark one’s creative thought; engage in meditation; to consider thoughtfully. We wanted illuminating conversation (musing) sparked by the stuff of everyday life (kindling). We are the kindlings and our conversation is The Kindlings Muse.

In a media age characterized by the confluence of polarization and trivialization, The Kindlings Muse will offer an intelligent, imaginative, hospitable exploration of ideas that matter most in contemporary life as sparked through our personal journeys and through our shared cultural experience in art, movies, books, music and events.

Over the next few months The Kindlings Muse will be released as local event featuring a live audience and round-table of thoughtful creatives and gadflies discussing ideas, beliefs and values shaping life today and originating from the center of the universe, Seattle’s Fremont District, at Hales Ales Brewery & Pub (May 22, 2006, June 19, 2006 and every Monday beginning September 11, 2006). For more information contact: kindlingsmuse@halesbrewery.com.

We will also produce The Kindlings Muse Podcast and the nationally syndicated The Kindlings Muse Radio Show (September 2006). Stay tuned more is on the way!

Dick Staub