Cricket.

Cricket.

Cricket.

My own blog bores me.

Really. When I look at it, read it, write for it, and then reflect on what inspires me, what sets me on fire, what makes me laugh and full of joy and intensely in love with life, there’s no fire here. If someone were to do a cursory read of my blog, they’d probably be bored, too. At the very least, they wouldn’t have a very complete picture of who I am and the way I desire to live.

I am absolutely not having a pity party or fishing for blog affirmation here. Just follow me here. Let’s walk and talk. I just realized recently that my blog doesn’t reflect my personal mission and creativity very much. Sure, there are flashes, pieces, scraps of my polyphonically creative soul (too self-aggrandizing?), but it’s a far cry from expressing the essence of what inspires me.

So what inspires me? 

Humor & Wit

Ever since I saw a live Second City performance in Chicago (thank you Kim!), I’ve become addicted to great comedy, comedy writing and improvisation. I think humor is a universal language, so if we use our wit more in our work and apostolate, we gain more friends (as long as it’s in charity). Who are my favorite writers and comedians (I withhold political/ moral judgement from most here because they are SO talented and often make universally good points with their comedy)? Tina Fey (and the writers of 30 Rock), Peter Sagal & the writers of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, John Stewart, Nick Thune, Maria Bamford, Steve Higgins, Jimmy Fallon & the writers of Late Night, Kristin Wiig and the writers of SNL, Joel McHale, Brian Regan, and I’m probably leaving some out….[Update: I did. I just added Peter Sagal & the writers of my fav radio show.]

Examples of humor and wit that I love

If you have not seen Saturday Night Live’s commercial parodies, some of them are amazing. Their “Annuale” parody of Seasonelle (now Seasonique, I believe), the four times a year birth control pill is *stellar*. If liberal mamajamas like Fey can see that suppressing your fertility for “convenience” might not be healthy, who *can’t* get on board with making fun of birth control? The sketch– if you’ve not seen it (sensitive viewers, there’s a crude part where Wiig goes over the top crazy–fast forward):

I have a notebook of ideas of how to promote NFP and/ or make fun of contraception, spurred by my love of what the now defunct Project Plus did with anti-Pill ads on their Virginia campus. Here’s one of the Proejct Plus ads (well worn, sorry):

When have you seen an NFP ad like *that*? There’s nothing high tech or overly stylistic about it–it’s just witty, funny and TRUE.

 Awesome, fresh design that’s not trying too hard or selling out

I am a design nerd and snob. That’s probably redundant. While I don’t have a fine arts/ graphic design degree, my natural creativity combined with a few design, merchandising and photography classes make me passionate about how things appear. Words and images are so very important, and it’s important to stay on top of design, writing and advertising principles and trends. Let me again qualify that I am far from being a design professional with a capital “P”, but I like to think I have decent awareness and taste about most things visual.

Knowing that the Christian Church is THE community of the Incarnation and a great mother of the arts, why are our design and communications standards so very, very low? Yes, poverty and lack of resources is a reason (“the poor you will always have with you”), but that’s not good enough. You know how many things you can do well for free? Free, I say! Most of the things I’ve done in print, design or web are free or fairly low cost, so in my opinion there are very few excuses for still using clip art from the 90′s and doing everything in Times New Roman with way too much text.

Though I happen to be a self appointed design/ social media nerd, I also know this is not just a young adult thing. Or is it? What do you think? To quote my recent interview with Fathers for Good,

…Although the target market for NFP was largely (though not exclusively) young adults, there was a distinct un-young staleness to it all. My well-formed Catholic peers think the culture of Humanae Vitae is beautiful, relevant and exciting, so why was NFP promotion so uninspired?

Do not mistake what I am saying: I am NOT trying to compromise my morals and ideals for the sake of relevance like some coffee shop church or postmodern middle age pastor trying too hard to be cool. We need to be authentic and true to who we are and frankly, how old we are. But that doesn’t mean that it all can’t be cool and inspiring. My favorite examples of churchy people who have got their design and artistic ducks in a row (you should bookmark these if you haven’t already):

• Grassroots Films (If you’ve not heard of their most notable films, the short “Fishers of Men” and the feature “The Human Experience”, and their vocations web site NYPriest, you may be actually living under a rock.)
• Larknews (This is the Protestant version of the Onion, and I love it. I want to make fun of my Church like this!)
• Creative Minority Report: If you’ve not read these guys in Catholic news and blogging all star virtual lounge, you should. They’re not strictly satirical and ironic, but they certainly dial up the funny on the blogosphere.
• And many more….. What are your favorite funny, hip and well designed religious or NFP-related designers, artists and web sites? Not merely adequate or decent, mind you, but the really inspired people. Who are they?

For those with sensitive souls, don’t watch this. However, I think witty writers like Tina Fey catch onto the fact that the direction contraceptives are taking are not only unnatural, but friggin’ wicked turn, and the side effects can’t be good.

View it on Hulu here: