The new and improved Looking Closer blog is open for business, but there will be a lot of construction over the next several months. It’s going to be strange: As I post new things, I’m also going be restoring old posts. So the blog will expand forward and backward. Please email me if you find links that aren’t working or other problems. (Please don’t report problems here in the Comments, as I hope to correct problems quickly and would rather... Read more
If you read this blog, then you need to see the big news… (more…) Read more
My review of Brave is published at Seattle Pacific University’s Response magazine. Read more
Rebellion. It may be the single most distinctive characteristic of new music, generation after generation. From Chuck Berry to Michael Jackson, from the Rolling Stones to Nirvana, from Madonna to Lady Gaga, from Bob Dylan to Kanye West, each generation’s icons of pop, rock, and hip-hop plan to shake up the status quo with a rebel yell. But the most rebellious thing I’ve ever heard a rock star say appeared in print in 2001. Robert Hilburn of The L.A. Times... Read more
Frankly, that number doesn’t mean very much when it comes to Twitter. In fact, 10,000 Tweets is probably something to be embarrassed about. But my 10,000th post on Twitter is going to be unusual… (more…) Read more
Well, once in a while, the trailer and even the reviews from my favorite critics let me down. Thanks to my friend Danny Walter for encouraging me to go see a film that all of the marketing, trailers, and reviews had convinced me to avoid. … (more…) Read more
First impression: Miss Bala is riveting, stomach-turning stuff… and likely to remain one of 2012’s most intense moviegoing experiences. Gerardo Naranjo’s film is a nightmarish, no-way-out scenario, made worse if you realize that this is the kind of story playing out every day in the territories bloodied by the Mexican drug war. We get our occasional news summaries which supply vague impressions of corruption, but here’s a story that takes you on a tour down through the circles of hell, as witnessed... Read more
I drank a Diet Coke yesterday for the first time in a couple of years. I immediately regretted it. Why? I gave up soda years ago as I read more and more about its unhealthy effects on the body, and its addictive influence. Tasting some again after a long “dry” spell, I realized that it tastes like battery acid with corn syrup flavoring, and I didn’t like the short-lived adrenalin rush. (more…) Read more
Allison Backous. Richard Chess. Lindsey Crittenden. Kelly Foster. David Griffith. A.G. Harmon. Chad Thomas Johnston. Caroline Langston. Peggy Rosenthal. Vic Sizemore. Bradford Winters. Tony Woodlief. Sara Zarr. This team of writers grabs and holds my attention almost every day at the blog called Good Letters. So it is an honor to participate with them as a contributor, in this daily endeavor hosted by my favorite literary journal, Image (a publication and a community that I can honestly say has blessed and... Read more
My review of First Position is published at Good Letters, the blog hosted by Image. Read more
Looking Closer
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In