>HOLY CATS THIS LOOKS GREAT. I was already kind of excited for this aliens-vs.-the-council-estates flick, but now I want all of it, right now. Read more

THE FLYING MONK: Daniel Mitsui is running a series on “Early Catholic Aviators”–like, really early. The first known serious flight attempt in world history occurred about a thousand years before the Wright brothers, in western England. Then, a young Benedictine monk leapt with a crude pair of cloth wings from a watchtower of a church abbey at the beginning of the 11th century. This monk, known to history as Eilmer of Malmesbury, covered a furlong – a distance of approximately... Read more

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:releasing those bound unjustly,untying the thongs of the yoke;Setting free the oppressed,breaking every yoke;Sharing your bread with the hungry,sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;Clothing the naked when you see them,and not turning your back on your own.–Isaiah 6-7 Read more

TRUST FALLS: My Inside Catholic column, on trust, mistrust, and conversion. I’m honestly not really satisfied with this one, but you all might find something interesting or useful in it–and there is fire, so hey. Please ignore the headline, which is a sardonic hangover from a completely different earlier draft. Read more

While Noboru wandered through private dreams Tsukazaki stood at Fusako’s side, and the heat of his body in the sultry chart room was beginning to oppress her: when the parasol she had leaned against a desk clattered suddenly to the floor, she felt as if she herself, fainting, had fallen.–Yukio Mishima, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, tr. John Nathan Read more

I SWAN TO MAN: Some thoughts on the Matthew Bourne Swan Lake, as viewed via Netflix. First, I loved this. It had a lot of images I want to stow away in my mental Mombi gallery of heads. The look of this production is iconic for a reason! The opening dream sequence replaces the “bright boy called Death” with a mature swan/man, in a little boy’s dreams–a really stunning, disturbing, enthralling image. Adulthood, aggression, masculinity, otherworldliness and the sublime are... Read more

HOLY CATS! (Sorry.) I haven’t watched the linked YouTube video, since I’m pretty sure it would freak me out even at age 32. Read more

APPARAT CHIC Can this be real? Via PES. Read more

“Yes, I’m cured,” she said sadly. “I shall never be green again. It was lovely while it lasted.” “It’s nice grown-up, too,” Grant said comfortingly, and went away down the stairs.–Josephine Tey, To Love and Be Wise Read more

ONE MAN SAYS NO TO HARSH INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES. Matthew Alexander led the interrogation team that tracked down al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2006. Alexander, a critic of the harsh techniques employed by the military during the administration of George W. Bush, says he used strategic, noncoercive methods of interrogation to find al-Zarqawi, which he wrote about in his book How to Break a Terrorist. In his second book, Kill or Capture, Alexander — a pseudonym for the author —... Read more