—THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED. Check out the input from Steven Greydanus.— … at least, that’s the allegation made in a student editorial in SPU’s student newspaper The Falcon on the issue of division within the church. If the student’s report is accurate, well, I can only applaud. I’ve been reading Catholicism and Fundamentalism, by Karl Keating, and Evangelicalism is Not Enough, by Thomas Howard (who has long been one of my favorite writers), and both of them go a... Read more
Wednesday specials: THIS YEAR’S DEMILLE Lecter will get some lovin’. DOES ASLAN HAVE A THEME? Listen to clips from the first Narnia soundtrack here! WALTER SEZ: GO SHOPPING! After stirring things up with his controversial post about Wendell Berry, now Adam Walter’s stirring a different pot… he really liked Shopgirl! IMAGE ANTHOLOGIZED CONGRATULATIONS to Greg Wolfe and Image journal! You’ll find the following news in their new Image Update. Every year, Image is proud to publish some of the highest... Read more
I sat spellbound a few nights ago basking in the glow of Aerial, the new double-album from Kate Bush. Apparently, I’m not the only one. This is a delightful surprise in an otherwise unremarkable year in music so far. Read more
I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire yesterday and am hard at work on my review. You can warm up for this year’s edition of “Christians for Harry Potter versus Christians against Harry Potter” by reading Russ Breimeier’s new article, posted today at CT Movies: “Redeeming Harry Potter.” Have any of you come to appreciate Rowling’s stories more as they’ve progressed? Or has your enthusiasm lessened? Or have you never been hooked by them at all? Read more
Over at GetReligion, Terry Mattingly’s paying attention to see if “Walk the Line” will tell the true story of Cash’s redemption. And apparently, they’re disappointed. For years, Cash prowled the stage on amphetamines and wept as he sang “The Old Rugged Cross” — often in the same show. Things got better after he married June Carter in 1968, a meeting of souls made in heaven, but worked out in the flesh under the parental gaze of Ezra and Maybelle Carter.... Read more
I promised a report on the live Bruce Cockburn show in Seattle on Wednesday, so here it is at last. Bruce played an intimate set in the beautiful Nordstrom Recital Hall, a smaller venue adjoining Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle. He was meditative, less talkative than usual (probably because this is the tour promoting his instrumental collection Speechless.) But his guitar playing was as transporting and gorgeous as ever. When he sang, the songs focused on travel, vehicles, change, violence,... Read more
Wednesday’s specials: YOURS, MINE, OUR FAITH Huh. Peter T. Chattaway mentioned today that, lo and behold, Dennis Quaid’s a Christian, and now I wish I’d had a different list of questions when I attended the film junket for In Good Company. He grew up Baptist, and married a Baptist girl from Texas. Whaddaya know. He has some interesting comments here, and I’m just baffled that I haven’t picked up on this before. AERIAL AMAZES, CHAOS “SENTIMENTAL” Josh Hurst on Kate... Read more
Wow. When videos as wild as this one actually get produced, and as perfectly as this, well… it should just send other music video directors and bands home with their heads hanging. Read more
Jason Bortz, whose short documentary on aid to Africa called Scratching the Surface was recently in the spotlight at Christianity Today, has written a piece for The Other Journal about his experience. Check it out here. People have asked if it was difficult to take a film crew to Kenya to film a documentary dealing with the pandemic of AIDS and the seemingly ineffectual efforts of a handful of people to stem the tide of affliction and disease. Our documentary,... Read more
In Phase Three of my plans for world domination, this month I’ll begin publishing a monthly column–Response onScreen–in SPU’s online version of Response Magazine. I’ll post the link when the first edition goes live near the end of November. It will focus on new big screen biopics–Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, and Walk the Line (which I’m seeing on Tuesday.) Early next week, I’ll be catching that elusive train to Hogwarts to check out the latest film in the... Read more
Looking Closer
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