http://www.mindonfire.com Religion, SF, and Other Speculative Fictions. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:54:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 Religion, SF, and Other Speculative Fictions. John Nakamura Remy http://www.mindonfire.com/kiku/moftitle.pnghttp://www.mindonfire.com yes John Remy john@mindonfire.com http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/08/28/mof-podcast-episode-06-short-story-ties-that-bind-part-2-of-2/ http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/08/28/mof-podcast-episode-06-short-story-ties-that-bind-part-2-of-2/#comments Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:01:29 +0000 John http://www.mindonfire.com/?p=1764 http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/08/28/mof-podcast-episode-06-short-story-ties-that-bind-part-2-of-2/feed/ 2 <p>[Apologies for posting this again, but I'm trying to work out some quirks on iTunes. Thanks to Mark for lighting a fire under me with his suggestion!]</p> <p>At long last, the second half of <em>Ties that Bind</em>! Because it’s been so long, here’s a link to the <a href="http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/05/05/story-ties-that-bind-part-1-of-2/">text</a> and <a href="http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/05/04/mof-podcast-episode-03-ties-that-bind/">podcast</a> posts of the first half. </p> <p>I wrote this for a writer’s group I set up a couple of years ago, and special thanks to <a href="http://amomenttothink.tumblr.com/">Isaac</a> and David for critiquing the earliest version of this. Thanks also to <a href="http://galendara.blogspot.com">Galen</a> for her helpful feedback as I’ve tried to clean this up.</p> <p>Raw mp3 file:</p> <p><a href="http://www.mindonfire.com/kiku/MindonFirePodcast-Episode006.mp3">Ties that Bind, 2 of 2.</a> (just over 30 minutes)</p> <p>As always, I’m very grateful to anyone who takes the time to read or listen, and I would love love love to hear your feedback. It is still very much a work in progress!</p> <p><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/A_man_confronted_with_an_apparition_of_the_Fox_goddess.jpg/421px-A_man_confronted_with_an_apparition_of_the_Fox_goddess.jpg" alt="Inari with a fox spirit appearing to a warrior." width="315" height="450" /></p> <p><em>Inari with a fox spirit appearing to a warrior.</em></p> <p>That night, when the Old Priest left to sit and pray by the blackened human remains in the ruins of the farmer’s hut, Miko tested the limits of her imprisonment.</p> <p>She could reach almost every part of the small temple that was her home. She could not reach the far corners of the back of the temple, but she could step outside of the main doors and move forward a few steps before she felt the sharp pressure against her wrists and ankles. Once, testing the strength of the spirit-bonds, she made a running jump, tripped when she reached the limit of her ankle chain, and only the painful wrench of her wrist bindings kept her from falling on her face.</p> <p>Through this experimentation, Miko guessed that the focal point of her binding was near the altar of the temple. Tipping over the heavy statue of Amida and feeling underneath, she could make out the anchor symbol, chiseled deep into the base. There was no way she could quickly obliterate the symbol, short of destroying the statue itself. And the idol was an ancient thing, full of power.</p> <p>“What do you think you’re doing?” The Old Priest shouted from near the entrance of the temple. Someone muttered, “Blasphemy.” and she could tell that the village headman was here as well. Why had she not heard them open the door?</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.mindonfire.com/images/kitsunemask.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p>The Old Priest’s scolding grew closer, but Miko realized that she could not hear his heavy footsteps or the plunk of his cane. Instead she heard the scraping and patter of small, clawed feet.</p> <p>“Reveal yourselves,” she said.</p> <p>The roughness in her master’s voice smoothed and its pitch increased. “Sister, the sweet little thing’s seen right through us.” It sounded amused. A woman’s soft laughter sounded from where the village headman’s voice had been.</p> <p>“Who are you?” Miko said, unable to keep [...] [Apologies for posting this again, but I'm trying to work out some quirks on iTunes. Thanks to Mark for lighting a fire under me with his suggestion!] At long last, the second half of Ties that Bind! Because it’s been so long, [...] John Nakamura Remy 30:00 podcast,japan,shaman,fiction no http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/07/06/mof-podcast-episode-05-biblical-knowledg/ http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/07/06/mof-podcast-episode-05-biblical-knowledg/#comments Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:13:26 +0000 John http://www.mindonfire.com/?p=1685 http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/07/06/mof-podcast-episode-05-biblical-knowledg/feed/ 5 <p>Today’s episode comes with a warning: I will be reading a story full of sex and religious innuendo, or rather, religion mixed with sexual innuendo. And guilt and sweaty palms. If you find any of these things offensive, you may want to stop now. Or you may want to continue listening. Feel guilty now and confess to your ecclesiastical authority later.</p> <p>The entire episode is 15:35 long. That’s minutes and seconds, not hours and minutes. </p> <p>If you have problems listening to the podcast, here is an <a href="http://www.mindonfire.com/kiku/MindonFirePodcast-Episode005.mp3">alternate download option</a>.</p> <p>Here is also the full text of the story:</p> <p>Hi Pastor Moylan. Thanks for seeing me. </p> <p>This rain, just seems to go on, doesn’t it? No, no you’re right, I’m not here to talk about the weather.</p> <p>Well, uh, you see, I seem to have this problem. It’s with the Bible–No, no, I believe that it’s God’s word, through and through! I never doubted that, no sir! You might say that I’ve got, uh, too much love for the Good Book.</p> <p>Right, and I don’t intend to contradict you, Pastor. Maybe if I start at the beginning…</p> <p>It started, I think, with this good Christian girl named Mandy Reynolds in high school. She was beautiful, and I wasn’t the only guy interested in her, what with her Georgia accent and curly red hair and flirty summer dresses and…no, no sir, you’re right this doesn’t have bearing on my problem, not directly at least. Well, for some reason, we started dating, harmlessly at first, going to movies and football games and hugging and kissing a lot. We wanted to do more, but we tried really hard to not touch those “bathing suit zones” but we’d get pretty close, you know? And then we heard this one speaker at our Thursday night Bible Study and he was kind of like a Christian Tony Robbins guy. By the end of the night, we all signed these purity vow certificates, even the couples we were pretty sure weren’t going to stop having sex. But me and Mandy, we meant it, and the thing that really impressed us was that he said that if we always had the Good Book between us, a big one, not one of the pocket version, “ain’t no way we could have sex,” and plus we’d be mindful of the Lord.</p> <p>Right, maybe he said the mindfulness part first. </p> <p>Anyhow, looking back I think we had too much confidence, but that night her folks were out late, and we ended up in her room–yes, I know that was foolish, but anyhow, we tried to make out with her good-sized, leather-bound Zondervan NIV Personal Growth Study Bible between us. Well, uh, one thing lead to another and we were, um, grinding pretty hard against each other–fully-clothed, but with this uncomfortable book between our chests, but I guess it wasn’t uncomfortable enough to stop us, from, uh, reaching fulfillment. </p> <p>We were pretty deeply shamed, and we spent the next week doing a lot of praying when we were together, and reading from that Personal Growth Bible, but we just couldn’t stand it anymore, and I have to say that I uh, put the Good Book down my pants. I thought it would be uncomfortable enough there to keep us at least from the grinding business, but we made do, so to speak.</p> <p>We broke up after a lot of grinding and praying. Not long after I went to college, anyway. Last I heard, Mandy got pregnant and married the guy, had two more kids, and they’re divorced now. Right, that’s neither here nor there, but sometimes I think that maybe that old Bible worked, in that I never did get her pregnant, right?</p> <p>No sir, that’s not the whole of it yet. I’ll get back on [...] Today’s episode comes with a warning: I will be reading a story full of sex and religious innuendo, or rather, religion mixed with sexual innuendo. And guilt and sweaty palms. If you find any of these things offensive, you may want to stop [...] 15 yes http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/05/04/mof-podcast-episode-03-ties-that-bind/ http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/05/04/mof-podcast-episode-03-ties-that-bind/#comments Tue, 05 May 2009 06:56:33 +0000 John http://www.mindonfire.com/?p=1578 http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/05/04/mof-podcast-episode-03-ties-that-bind/feed/ 2 <p><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1428/904152882_91a0d1e40d.jpg" height="300px" width="400px" /></p> <p><em><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/st-stev/904152882/">photo</a> from St Stev’s flickr photostream (used under creative commons license)</em></p> <p>Today’s episode contains the first half of a new(ish) story: Ties that Bind. If you like Old Timey Japan, and you know you do, you might enjoy this story. You could say it’s kind of about the lone goth kid in a little village. It also has undead bunnies. You hear that!? UNDEAD BUNNIES.</p> <p>Here’s a couple of terms that pop up in the story:<br /> <em>Amida</em>: The Buddha of the Pure Land Sect.<br /> <em>Inari</em>: The Japanese kami/god of the rice harvest and foxes.</p> <p>If you’d prefer to read the text, let me know in the comments–I want to see how much demand there is for it (if it’s low, then I’ll just email it straight to anyone who expresses interest).</p> <p>Anyhow, please let me know what you think!</p> <p>If you have problems listening to the podcast, here is an <a href="http://www.mindonfire.com/kiku/MindonFirePodcast-Episode003.mp3">alternate download option</a>.</p> photo from St Stev’s flickr photostream (used under creative commons license) Today’s episode contains the first half of a new(ish) story: Ties that Bind. If you like Old Timey Japan, and you know you do, you might enjoy this story. [...] http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/05/01/first-of-may-by-the-mind-on-fire-choir/ http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/05/01/first-of-may-by-the-mind-on-fire-choir/#comments Fri, 01 May 2009 15:07:48 +0000 John http://www.mindonfire.com/?p=1564 http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/05/01/first-of-may-by-the-mind-on-fire-choir/feed/ 15 <p>It’s officially The First of May, and many of you decided to join me in celebrating spring by putting together a little cover of the infamous Jonathan Coulton song. Thanks to everyone who answered <a href="http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/04/18/mind-on-fire-first-of-may-celebration-project/">the call</a> a couple of weeks ago!</p> <p>Before I link to the podcast proper, credit goes out to:</p> <ul> <li>A <a href="http://www.shunn.net/bill/log/mp3/firstofmay-murphy.mp3">cover version </a>created to remember and raise money for the Joe Murphy Memorial Fund, which I heard on Bill Shunn’s excellent <a href="http://shunn.net/podcast/">podcast</a>. The effort was led by Paul Fischer and edited by Phil Rossi (thanks, Bill, for the clarification). </li> <li>Of course, Jonathan Coulton, the creator of <a href="http://www.jonathancoulton.com/songdetails/First+of+May">the original masterpiece</a> (which is freely downloadable!). Also, here are the <a href="http://www.jonathancoulton.com/wiki/index.php/First_of_May/Lyrics">lyrics</a>.</li> <li>Each person who contributed to our community choir (in order of appearance):</li> </ul> <p><img height="80" width="80" alt="G" src="http://www.mindonfire.com/images/fom/G.jpg" /> G (<a href="http://galendara.blogspot.com">blog</a>)<br/><br /> <img height="80" width="80" alt="John" src="http://www.mindonfire.com/images/fom/john.jpg" /> Me! <br/><br /> <img height="80" width="80" alt="Lessie" src="http://www.mindonfire.com/images/fom/lessie.jpg" /> Lessie (<a href="http://theconstancyofchange.blogspot.com/">blog</a>) <br/><br /> <img height="80" width="80" alt="xJane" src="http://www.mindonfire.com/images/fom/xjane.jpg" /> Our very own xJane<br/><br /> <img height="80" width="80" alt="Melinda" src="http://www.mindonfire.com/images/fom/melinda.jpg" /> Melinda (<a href="http://www.twitter.com/melindir">twitter</a>)<br/><br /> <img height="80" width="80" alt="Alana" src="http://www.mindonfire.com/images/fom/alana.jpg" /> Alana (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/67769880@N00/">flickr</a>)<br/><br /> <img height="80" width="80" alt="Brecken" src="http://www.mindonfire.com/images/fom/brecken.jpg" /> Brecken (<a href="http://handreach.org">handreach</a>) and her voice teacher, Izolda, not pictured, but who couldn’t resist joining because this was her favorite song by JoCo, and Gina, also not pictured, who introduced Izolda to the artist!<br/></p> <p>Thanks again, everyone, for joining in the fun! Thanks for confirming once again that the web really can bind us.</p> <p>Um, for those of you who haven’t heard the song, here’s your explicit/nsfw warning (unless you work for Rahm Emanuel).</p> <p><a href="http://www.mindonfire.com/kiku/MindonFirePodcast-Episode002.mp3">Download the podcast version.</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.mindonfire.com/kiku/FirstOfMay.mp3">Download just the song</a>.</p> It’s officially The First of May, and many of you decided to join me in celebrating spring by putting together a little cover of the infamous Jonathan Coulton song. Thanks to everyone who answered the call a couple of weeks ago! Before I link [...] http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/04/26/mof-podcast-episode-001-interview-with-brecken-chinn-swartz/ http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/04/26/mof-podcast-episode-001-interview-with-brecken-chinn-swartz/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:07:26 +0000 John http://www.mindonfire.com/?p=1533 http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/04/26/mof-podcast-episode-001-interview-with-brecken-chinn-swartz/feed/ 4 <p><img src="http://www.mindonfire.com/images/brecken_jana.jpg" alt="Jana and Brecken at Big Corona Beach" width="480" height="360" /></p> <p>After a long hiatus, I’m starting the podcast back up. There are a few changes, however:</p> <ul> <li>I’m abandoning the “Atheist’s Prayer” title, and rebooting this as simply the “Mind on Fire podcast.”</li> <li>The content will range widely, but will include stories I’ve written, interviews and conversations, and fun audio projects like the <a href="http://www.mindonfire.com/2009/04/18/mind-on-fire-first-of-may-celebration-project/">First of May</a> collaboration.</li> <li>My goal is to alternate the videoblog and the podcast each week, but the podcast will dominate for the next few weeks.</li> </ul> <p>This week’s podcast consists of an interview with Brecken Chinn Swartz (pictured next to Jana, above), cofounder of the HandReach Foundation, Professor of Communications, Teacher of Yoga, and all around awesome person. She and her husband left the LDS Church while he was a Bishop, and she talks about her deconversion and the spiritual and humanitarian pursuits that have replaced her work in the Church. </p> <p>Here are a couple of links to augment the podcast:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://handreach.org/english/e-aboutus.htm">HandReach web site</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2006/11/26/a_new_life_step_by_step/">Boston Globe article</a> on Brecken and Zhou Lin</li> </ul> <p>If you’re interested in giving to HandReach, I will have some links up later this week, when I launch a little fundraising raffle. Check back soon!</p> <p>If you have problems listening to the podcast, here is an <a href="http://www.mindonfire.com/kiku/MindonFirePodcast-Episode001.mp3">alternate download option</a>.</p> After a long hiatus, I’m starting the podcast back up. There are a few changes, however: I’m abandoning the “Atheist’s Prayer” title, and rebooting this as simply the “Mind on Fire podcast.” The content [...] John Nakamura Remy 44:01 religion,spirituality,mormon,atheism,philosophy no http://www.mindonfire.com/2008/02/11/an-atheists-prayer-episode-06/ http://www.mindonfire.com/2008/02/11/an-atheists-prayer-episode-06/#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:56:27 +0000 John http://www.mindonfire.com/2008/02/11/an-atheists-prayer-episode-06/ http://www.mindonfire.com/2008/02/11/an-atheists-prayer-episode-06/feed/ 6 <p>An Atheist’s Prayer is back! I started this podcast with Jana’s help about a year and a half ago, and people had many kind things to say about it. When we stopped producing them, we would receive occasional queries about when the next one would come out.</p> <p>I’ve made a couple of changes to the format. My goal is to alternate between the old format where Jana and I would share our experiences and thoughts on doubt, religion and spirituality and a new format which consists of a short monologue and a story I’ve written. I may also experiment with inviting guests on to the program. I’d like to produce an episode every week, but because podcasts require a lot of time to record and clean up, I may sacrifice the sound and content quality in favor of regular production.</p> <p>Today’s episode contains a reading of my <em>award winning</em> story, “Stones at Jizo’s Feet.” (The award was a $100 gift certificate to the UCI bookstore.) It’s the story of an English teacher in Japan and her encounter with a couple of Mormon missionaries. I promise that the story contains steamy temptation, gut-wrenching doubt and a hint of magical realism.</p> <p>I hope you all enjoy it–please let me know what you think of the podcast and the story!</p> <p> </p> An Atheist’s Prayer is back! I started this podcast with Jana’s help about a year and a half ago, and people had many kind things to say about it. When we stopped producing them, we would receive occasional queries about when the next [...]