Children’s books have the option (usually not available to adult or YA novels) of leaning in on visuals and mood, rather than linear plot. This is what happens in Pippa and the Singing Tree by Kristyn Getty and illustrated by P.J. Lynch. This approach obviously has to be done well, as it doesn’t have any action to lean on. Fortunately, Pippa and the Singing Tree lands this nicely. Because there’s no plot there’s not much to spoil–this is an extended (for a children’s book)... Read more
How do we view ourselves and how does that match up to reality? That’s actually kind of a tricky question, and one which is delicately handled in Sonia and the Biggest Block Tower Ever by Kathryn Butler and illustrated by Samara Hardy. In this short story, Sonia wants to stand out from the other kids. In order to do so, she begins to build a block tower and quickly lets her imagination build it up to the heavens. (I kept expecting it... Read more
I’m normally something of a completist with it comes to reading classic works. Certainly abridgements and collections have their place, but why not read all of Plato’s Republic, the church fathers, or the complete works of John Flavel? (Seriously, Flavel is solid gold.) But I’ll admit that even I struggle when it comes to John Owen. His writing is… difficult, to say the least. And yet, I’m still delighted that Crossway keeps coming out with the reissue of the Works of John... Read more
As we continue to predict what the future of media will look like in our chaotic 21st century, one thing to keep our eye on is animation. There has already been a revolution or two in this field–particularly with the development of CGI and the collapse of Disney as the sole animation studio in the country (yes, I know about Hanna-Barbera and Don Bluth–but look up where their animators came from, or went). Now any nerd with a computer can... Read more
Amazon has released the first three episodes of Reacher, and as with past seasons and versions, so far it is excellent. Beginning with a twist (and no, I’m not spoiling anything–it is both obviously a twist and quickly revealed to be one), we are thrown into a world of mystery, secrecy, and bodybuilders larger than Jack Reacher (no, seriously). Through the first three episodes the show has done a good job of both building the mystery and keeping it on a... Read more
As we continue to think about what entertainment will look like in the media landscape in the coming years, especially as our culture continues to fragment, I want to off-road for a second into non-electronic media. As broadcast and streaming fragments, I think we are going to see a renaissance of live performances. Or maybe in the wake of the Eras tour, we’re going to see more of a renaissance of live performances. There are two reasons for this: first, as media... Read more
I have never lived in an America without Saturday Night Live, and while my parents technically remember such a time by far the vast majority of their lives has involved hearing “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” on the occasions they tuned in to NBC on Saturday nights at 10:30 (because that’s how Mountain Time roles–it also meant I could watch without having to stay up all night). Now SNL has turned 50, and on Sunday(!), February 16 they ran... Read more
As we continue to think about the future of media in a fragmented world, there is a real opportunity that everyone knows about, that has been around basically as long as media itself, and that few have successfully capitalized on. This is the potential of genre-specific fiction. There has of course always been a whole spectrum of genre fiction out there in visual media. Melies’ Trip to the Moon (Science Fiction, 1902) or Porter’s Great Train Robbery (Western, 1903) show that... Read more
This series thinking about the future of media is wide ranging, as evidenced by the fact that I want to spend one post talking about the archaic technology of television. And I say “archaic” only partly ironically, in that TV obviously still exists. But the reality is that most of us aren’t watching it live, and we’re certainly not setting any schedules around it the way we used to. Aside from a handful of special events like the Superbowl (and even that... Read more
As we continue to think about what the coming new world order for entertainment will be, one question that’s almost (but not quite) a side-note is: what will happen to movie theaters? This isn’t a new question of course. The old stage theaters that had seen their day (especially in small towns) were dealt with, as were drive-in movie lots. Still, it feels different to see the big screens themselves collapsing. So what will happen to these buildings? Obviously simply... Read more
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