Pop Culture Roundup

Believe it or not, I'm still reading This Odd and Wondrous Calling, which you may remember I started way back at the end of November. It's one of those books that I pick up, read a chapter, and then leave alone for a while. That's not really a commentary on the content or quality of writing, I just haven't been in a hurry to read ministry books in this season of my life. Nevertheless, Lillian Daniel has a good chapter about pastor spouses, including some good observations about the differences in expectations if said spouse is male or female.

Mad Men is growing on me. The first few episodes, I couldn't really get past some of the cultural stuff that was apparently considered appropriate in that time period. Having watched a few more episodes now, the characters are starting to grow on me as I see more of their depth and insecurities beginning to come out. A lot of the office people are still pretty two-dimensional, but I imagine that that will change the more I get into the series.

The 2012 WWE Royal Rumble is this Sunday evening. It is one of my favorite wrestling events of the entire year, as it features a match where 30 guys enter, one every few minutes, and the only way to be eliminated is to be thrown over the top rope and both feet touch the floor. The winner gets a world title shot at Wrestlemania. There will be some other matches as well, but they normally don't turn out to be classics by any means. A returning Chris Jericho and Randy Orton are two of the draws of the match. I'm betting on one of them to win.

Ingrid Michaelson came out with a new album this week called Human Again. I haven't listened to the whole thing yet, but here's a new song from it called "Ghost:"