Significance of clothing in ANE (Question for readers)

Anyone that has attended Gordon-Conwell is probably aware of Gordon Hugenberger's class, Christ in the OT. In that class Hugenberger often mentioned the significance of the hem of one's garment. The hem of one's garment, Hugenberger says, was indicative of one's inheritance. It was etched into the very fabric of one's clothes. Hence the seriousness and subsequent jealousy surrounding Joseph's colorful coat.

This point makes sense of a number of passages, yet I have never seen the same point made by other OT scholars (granted, my reading in OT is very limited). Does anyone else in the OT field agree with this understanding of ANE clothing?

I welcome any thoughts or answers.

Hammer Time

Aside from being hilarious, these commercials underscore that it is often media that becomes the source of our daily salvation. In this instance, salvation from the monotony of the modern workplace comes with the arrival of Monday Night Football. We are indeed "mediated"!

from "On Earth as It Is in Advertising?"

When we expose ourselves mindlessly to popular culture, we interpret little of it wisely and we permit most of what is advertised to leave residue on our consciousness.

(from Sam Van Eman's On Earth as It Is in Advertising?, 15)

from "Mediated"

I am in the process of reading Thomas de Zengotita's Mediated.  In this book, de Zengotita describes how the deluge of mediums soaking us affect our psyches.  In the following excerpt, he describes how Times Square epitomizes our predicament.  The description is haunting, especially the juxtaposition between the virtual and real.

 

Take the new Times Square, everybody's favorite icon for the virtualization process, because that's where what is happening in the culture as a whole is so effectively distilled and intensified.  All the usual observations apply--and each observation contributes its iota to muffling what it was intended to expose, including this one, my little contribution, which consists of noticing how everything in that place is aimed.  Everything is firing modules, straight for your gonads, your taste buds, your vanities, your fears.  But it's okay; these modules seek to penetrate, but in a passing way; it's all in fun.  A second of your attention is all they ask.  Nothing real is firing, nothing that rends or cuts.  It's a massage, if you just relax and go with it.  And why not?  Some of the most talented people on the planet have devoted their lives to creating this psychic sauna, just for you.  

And it's not just the screens and billboards, the literal signs; it's absolutely everything you encounter.  Except for the eyes of the people, shuffling along, and the poignant imperfections of their bodies; they are so manifestly unequal to the solicitations lavished upon them.  No wonder they stuff themselves with junk--or trying to live up to it all, enslave themselves to regimes of improvement.  The flattery of representation has a downside, as we shall see--for the flattered self is spoiled.  It never gets enough.  It feels unappreciated.  It whines a lot.  It wants attention.  

(from Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World And the Way You Live in It, 21) 

The music of Joe Garner

A friend introduced me to Joe Garner. I have really enjoyed his stuff thus far. His music can be downloaded for free at NoiseTrade.

Here is a description of Garner's music from his MySpace site:
Recorded at a mountain studio in east Tennessee and released independently, Garner's is a sound definitely grown from the ground. Earthy, honest and plaintive; Mourning Birds beckons back to the folk ballads of a simpler time and at the same time casts a shadow of unease on its own mirth. Compiled with a handful of friends giving sparse and simple accompaniment to his guitar, Garner's first effort includes six tracks that display the enigmatic range of moods that make this burgeoning songwriter and storyteller a haunted soul not soon forgotten. Songs like 'Bury the Hatchet' and 'June and God' usher the listener into the quiet moments of human longing and the subterranean rage that either break our spirits or make us whole. These stories of squandered love and utter desperation place us as near voyeurs in the midst of lives unraveling and eroding before us. Idiosyncratic yet empathic, the images conjured up by Garner's characters evoke a time and place hauntingly too near. Other songs, like 'They're All Gone', move hesitantly out from the shadows. In his way, Garner captures a glimpse of hope's somber release, the silent joy of discovering that some of life's darker doubts and questions cannot be answered, not yet. Son to a life-long and road-weary Country 'n' Western picker, Garner comes by his music honest. While not too concerned with slaying the forefathers of his genre or recreating the wagon wheel, Joe Garner has been able to move in and inhabit the best sensibilities of a songwriting once known as Country Music, but upon its exit from the country now labeled 'Roots'. May his roots grow deeper; we'll sit and listen.