CHECKING IN …We wrapped Act One-DC last week. It was a great month. We had a really wonderful class of writers, beautiful weather, great facilities at GWU, and a faculty that was, as always, amazingly generous and profound. I have been traveling since the program ended in CT, PA and tomorrow NY for speeches here and there. Sorry, blogging has been non-existent. I am soooooooooooooo tired the idea of typing brings tears to my eyes. …R.I.P. great Ronald Wilson Reagan.... Read more

POOR RORY I wanted to blog last week about the season finale of The Gilmore Girls. I thought it was very thought provoking and, even though it portrayed a character making a bad choice, it was a very responsible and poignant portrayal. Gilmore Girls is one of the only shows I actually watch with any regularity just for enjoyment. It’s a fun show in which the characters are quirky and over-the-top in a O’Connoresque kind of “better than real” mode.... Read more

“WILL YA STILL READ ME, WHEN IT’S ’64?” I go to a lot of writers conferences that are called “Christian”, but which in fact could be called, “Non-Catholic Christian” writers conferences. Catholic writers and publishers tend to be mostly absent on the speaker’s rosters and generally absent in the rosters of attendees. I don’t think this is from any real sense of exclusion as I am friends with many of the conference organizers, and they have impressed me as being... Read more

WWW IS SO LAST CENTURY People are emailing me to tell me that blogger has made some kind of change in which its blogs are inaccessible with the “www.” in the address. This means all of the web-logs that have links to blogger blogs have to go and delete the “www.”‘s or the links won’t work. You think they could have let us knowww, but, wwwhatever. I wwwon’t complain. Read more

SEE BARB TONITE IN DC! Sorry for the late notice… I am giving a talk that is open to the public tonight in downtown Washington, DC at the Catholic Information Center, on 1501 “K” Street. The talk is a reprise of the only talk anybody seems to want to hear from me these days, “The Art of The Passion of the Christ.” Go here for more information. And here for directions. Hope you can make it. Read more

So, I’m sitting here in the Senate Hart Ofiice Building in DC. It’s as good a place as any from which to blog. More tax dollars well spent, is how I look at it… POPE JOHN PAUL II: ‘MEDIA: IT IS WHERE IT’S AT.’ [Lifing this from blogger Sanctificarnos.] John Paul II speaking to a group in Italy yesterday: “We know well the penetrating influence that the media exercises today on ways of thinking and on behavior, personal and collective,... Read more

IT’S ART STUPID I admit it. I am now officially sick and tired of the sanctimoniousness of so many Christians who have to let all the rest of us know that they haven’t seen The Passion. I am sick of the foreboding tones with which they hint that the film contains some dark, cancerous infection from which they are keeping themselves safe and pure. I was at a party last night and had yet another exchange with “Another Holier Than... Read more

BARB ON SOLPIX Here is a new interview with me for a web-site called SolPix. I think it is primarily European. Anyway, thanks to Bob Morris for persevering with me over the course of about a month to get the interview completed. Here is a snip… It wasn’t so long ago that a character holding a Bible was a sign that person was a societal menace. Movies like Contact, Misery – too many to name really – all spewed this... Read more

AH, VALENCIA! I’m in the airport here in Valencia two hours early, of course. I came ready to check in early, figuring that the recent bombings in Madrid would mean even tighter security. But no. The Air France desk has a sign in the window, “Come back one hour before the flight.” This only proves that after these five days in Spain (and now three trips to Europe), I have still not internalized the intricacies of southern European efficiency. It... Read more

21ST CENTURY HOLLYWOOD: REASONS FOR HOPE I’m sitting in a lobby waiting for my ride to the airport. Might as well blog, right? It feels more redemptive than another losing round of Jedi Academy… Here is a snip of the talk I will be giving in Spain on Thursday. They made me write it out for the translators in advance — so I actually know EXACTLY what I will be saying. I never generally read my talks, but rather work... Read more