A Different Kind of Faith

A Different Kind of Faith

Damascus, May 1497I have been sitting with scholars at the Umayyad Mosque for two weeks now. The conversations are conducted in a mixture of Arabic, which I have been learning since Constantinople, and a Latin that several of the scholars know as a courtesy to their...
Dear God: Why I Covered This Song

Dear God: Why I Covered This Song

Present Day, July 22, 2026In 1986 Andy Partridge of XTC wrote a song called Dear God. It is structured as a letter: the writer addresses God directly, describing the suffering of the world, asking how this suffering is compatible with either God’s existence or...
From the Outside: Observed Devotion

From the Outside: Observed Devotion

Present Day, July 20, 2026Observed Devotion is the track I have been carrying the longest. It predates the specific urgency of the present moment by decades. It comes from something I have been noticing since Rinaldo’s household: what religious ritual looks and...
Sanctified Hunger: Out Now

Sanctified Hunger: Out Now

Present Day, July 17, 2026The testimony is complete. Sanctified Hunger is in the world.Twelve tracks. Five centuries of observation about the oldest and most reliable mechanism of human control. The claim to divine authority. The institution that names itself...
Two Hours in a Cafe in Arles

Two Hours in a Cafe in Arles

Arles, November 1888I was introduced to Vincent van Gogh this evening by a mutual acquaintance from Paris. We sat in a cafe near the Place du Forum for two hours. He talked about color and light with a precision that was almost scientific and a passion that was...
Two Days: On Faith and Its Institutions

Two Days: On Faith and Its Institutions

Present Day, July 16, 2026Two days before Sanctified Hunger arrives, I want to say one more time what the album is not.It is not an argument that God does not exist. I do not have sufficient evidence to make that argument with confidence, and I have had five hundred...