Some disagree, but one of my favorite things about comedy acting is to see actors struggle through scenes trying not to crack up at each other. These moments are notorious in live shows like like television variety series The Carol Burnett Show and Saturday Night Live as well as in live improv. One of the reasons I enjoy them so much is I don’t feel as weird being one that also will spontaneously find something funny and have a hard... Read more
Even though we live in a society where air travel is common, we sometimes still have to stop and marvel at the miracle of us earth-bound humans inhabiting the skies. How does a plane gather enough speed to propel not only myself but 300 others into the air on a controlled path to another destination? That childlike fascination was what interested me most about the film Amelia, which profiles legendary female pilot Amelia Earhart. Set in the 1930s, it chronicles... Read more
Hi friends, you may have noticed a little more action on this blog lately. I’m going to try and revive it somewhat, using it as a place to share longer thoughts than Facebook or Twitter allow for. Perhaps even sometimes the posts will be more political than either of those, if only for the reason that I try to live more peaceably on those sites. Those of you who know me personally know that I have opinions that I don’t... Read more
Barely having remembered the book from my childhood, the movie version of Where The Wild Things Are wasn’t particularly enticing to me, but I was curious nonetheless. Being criticized more often for being a starry-eyed movie lover than a critic, I wondered how bad it could be. Critics were gushing over it and it has some type of hip soundtrack. Besides, I’d see it at my favorite theater for half price and eat potato skins. Perhaps the omen of the... Read more
Such a great song. I thought you might enjoy it. http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5090122&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1Third Day and Brandon Heath perform Rich Mullins “Creed” in the studio from Garrett Viggers on Vimeo. Read more
Earlier this summer, I was summoned to jury duty for the first time in my life. As an avid viewer of legal dramas and Judge Judy, my excitement nearly got the best of me. Unfortunately, I had to send my regrets due to an impending out-of-town business-related trip. Much to my surprise, however, I received another golden opportunity last month, which I attended this past Monday. With only three court visitations in my life, one of which was a high... Read more
What if you were given a peek at yourself six months in the future? Would that visual snapshot bring you hope or sorrow? If you saw impending national or personal tragedy, would you feel incapable of stopping it or remain hopeful that it could change before that day arrived? In the new ABC drama FlashForward, which premiered Sept. 24 and airs on Thursday nights, a fictional world is grappling with that unlikely scenario. Somehow, everyone in the world blacks out... Read more
At what point does technology begin to replace the real human experience? Perhaps I’m the wrong person to ask, being the Facebook junkie, Twitter-holic and Wii Sports lover that I am.In Surrogates, the latest in a long line of films to tackle the tech-run-rampant theme, moviegoers are presented with this dilemma in a future world inhabited by sleek robots connected remotely to the sloppier, human versions of themselves who “plug in” at home and live daily life vicariously through their robotic... Read more
Sci-fi thriller District 9 zooms in for a close-up on injustice of a different sort—where the victims are extraterrestrials. Science fiction has always been ripe ground for political allegory and the new film District 9 builds on that foundation with a spin on apartheid and refugee treatment—the subjects in this case being extraterrestrials living in Johannesburg, South Africa. Produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Neil Blomkamp, the film opens as a pseudo-documentary, explaining the arrival 20 years ago of... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In