Robert Lanham

The Website of Robert Lanham

Krampus Comes This Weekend!

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A new piece on Krampus by yours truly over at The Awl:

Christmas is nearly upon us and, with all its commercialism and saccharine rituals, it’s all too easy to forget the true meaning of the season. Thankfully, the sanctity of this glorious holiday is still appreciated in parts of Germany and Austria where good, hardworking folk remember that Christmas isn’t merely about the gifts; it’s about dressing up like a cloven-hoofed demon, terrifying children with violent, demonic folklore and drinking 180-proof licorice-flavored liquor until you puke. For centuries, our central European friends have scared the bejesus out of their children with tales of Krampus, a hairy, seven-foot-tall, horned fiend with a suggestive, Gene Simmons-esque tongue who accompanies Saint Nick on Christmas Eve to beat the hell out of naughty children with whips and branches from a birch tree.

Read it all.

Vintage Jesus Freaks Psychedelia

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Aquarium Drunkard just posted an interesting compilation of Christian psychedelia from the sixties and seventies:

This is so good. A couple of weeks back the guys at Crescere shot me an email hipping me to their latest creation; a two part compilation of super-obscure, often private press, outsider psychedelic guitar and folk music from the 60s and 70s… all with the underlying theme of the Jesus People’s Movement. From what I can tell a lot of this stuff has yet to be comped (though I’m sure it’s only a matter of time) making this collection all that much more interesting.

I was familiar with 2nd Chapter of Acts (don’t ask) but all of the others are new to me. If you can handle the proselytizing, this is certainly worth a listen and an interesting glimpse into a bizarre movement. Now excuse me while I go rock some some WinterBand.

An Ode to Vinyl Siding in Williamsburg

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The New York Times included a short quote by yours truly in this article on vinyl siding. And yes, I really do live in a pink building.

To Mr. Canfield, replacing vinyl siding that is in good shape, as some homebuyers do as soon as they have the deed, is like carelessly restoring antiques that came over on the Mayflower. He views vinyl siding facades as the key to preserving Williamsburg’s working-class traditions, which arguably has become its own facade.

“It’s not the most beautiful thing, but it’s real,” he said. “It’s authentic. It’s tied to the history of the neighborhood.”

In a neighborhood like Williamsburg where vinyl siding is as dominant as brownstone is in Park Slope and concrete is in Midtown, many residents are ready to fight with Mr. Canfield with equal passion. Real estate bloggers devote hours mercilessly photographing homes and posting online what they think are the most lowbrow examples. To the preservation-minded, vinyl siding and its close cousin, aluminum siding, are a hideous blot on the landscape.

“I can’t imagine anyone liking vinyl siding,” said Robert Lanham, who rents a floor in a Pepto-Bismol-colored vinyl-sided house in Williamsburg and praises neighbors who go back to wood. “If you have the means and time to get rid of it, I’m all for it,” said Mr. Lanham, author of “The Hipster Handbook.”

Aetheists & Agnostics Know More About Bible Than Christians

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Somehow, this doesn’t really surprise me:

Researchers from the independent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life phoned more than 3,400 Americans and asked them 32 questions about the Bible, Christianity and other world religions, famous religious figures and the constitutional principles governing religion in public life.

On average, people who took the survey answered half the questions incorrectly, and many flubbed even questions about their own faith.

Those who scored the highest were atheists and agnostics, as well as two religious minorities: Jews and Mormons. The results were the same even after the researchers controlled for factors like age and racial differences…. Fifty-three percent of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the man who started the Protestant Reformation.

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