A SWEET KID stands in a snowfall and talks about same-sex attraction and sacrifice for Christ. I like especially the shy little sidelong glances he sneaks toward the crucifix, taking encouragement from the sight of it. Via Mark Shea. Read more

“YOU’RE NO BOTHER TO ME AT ALL.” Via Jesse Walker. Read more

REMEMBER, YOU DON’T HAVE SUFFERING ESP. Read more

IT’S A WISE CHILD…: Saturday night I watched The Return (Возврашение), a recent Russian flick in which two boys go on a camping trip with their recently-returned, long-estranged father and his dark secrets. It’s a small movie which punches far above its weight class due to the very true-to-life performances of the two boys, whose relationship undergoes multiple shifts in power dynamics over the course of the movie, and to the color-drenched cinematography. Russia looks just gorgeous here, alive and... Read more

THE BLOGGER AT “THE GROOM’S FAMILY“ wants you to ask her anything about the intersection of Jews and Christianity! Personally I’d be interested in her take on Christianity in Jewish Terms, a very pomo essay collection from which I got much more theological meat than I expected. Read more

WHILE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING FOR THE PREVIOUS POST, I found this really nice description of the cinematography in Martha Marcy May Marlene: I could go on and on about the precise little steps the story takes in doling out, and not doling out, information, or the way the lovely camerawork always seems to be sinking forward as if we’re being sucked into an abyss, or the way the background’s focus is always fuzzy but not really in a dreamy way,... Read more

Life is melodramatic, if you look at the whole sweep of it!–one of the girls from Metropolitan, which I saw tonight for the first time Read more

“WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?” …Because the expected answer to this question is always a type of job, it reinforces the idea that the way to find identity and value is through career. Our society is already saturated with messages that the title on your business card is directly connected to your worth as a human being. When kids are bombarded by the questions about which job they’ll eventually hold, it trains them to view... Read more

COLOR PHOTOS OF AMERICAN CHILDREN, 1940S. Via Flavorwire. Last one is my favorite. Read more

A FOOTNOTE on Spinoza and The New Jerusalem. And Unequally Yoked has one post on it so far. (In the latter case, linking is not endorsing! I would not frame most of these issues the way UY does.) Read more