Do tunes every get stuck in your ears? I call sticky tunes ear worms. Here are the worms traveling through air, time, and the culture right now that are pleasing to my ear. What are your ear worms? Hum (A Prius for Everyone) (Do you know who sings this?) Well, it’s a nice idea. I’d like to think everyone could afford a Prius. But they are giving away this tune for free and it’s stuck in my head via a... Read more
Dragons come in many forms. And so do heroes. This feature-length documentary from filmmaker Ben Moses chronicles the stories of key activists – and their close supporters – working for freedom and democracy in five countries: Robert Patino of Venezuela, Esraa Ahmed Fattah and Ahmed Maher of Egypt, Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia, Morgan Tsvangerai of Zimbabwe, and Viktor Yushchecko of Ukraine. Their stories are marked by incredible courage and sacrifice. Mr. Moses took his inspiration for the documentary from Larry... Read more
In the last month or so, a narrative film, a documentary and a poster on Facebook came across my desk. The films were sent for review, but the Facebook poster (or image) arrived in my newsfeed this morning, unbidden, a “share” from my youngest sister. “Weaving Life” a documentary on The Life and Death of Peacemaker Dan Terry – is a film from MennoMedia that will air on participating ABC stations beginning Oct. 21 (check local listings). It is the story of... Read more
Director/writer Andrea Arnold’s anti-romantic narrative is a journey to the center of human darkness that perhaps for the first time depicts what Emily Brontë was trying to say in her 1847 story, Wuthering Heights — her only novel. Mr. Earnshaw (Paul Hilton) brings home to his bleak farm a black child he found wandering the streets of Liverpool because it is the Christian thing to do. He has the boy baptized and names him Heathcliff (Solomon Glave/James Howson). The child bolts,... Read more
There’s a lot to like about this midlife transformation movie about a bowling champion who sacrifices himself for his neighbor and perseveres once he sets his sights on doing something good for the world. It’s never too late to change. It stars Kevin James as Scott Voss, a lazy Boston high school biology teacher who takes the line of least resistance toward life, getting a date with the school nurse Bella (Selma Hayek), and teaching. He is constantly in trouble... Read more
“The Flat,” an award-winning documentary, follows the story of Israeli documentary filmmaker Arnon Goldfinger, whose 98-year-old grandmother died in Tel Aviv a few years ago, sparking a search to understand who the woman really was. Along with Goldfinger’s mother, Gerta, his siblings and his cousins, he begins to go through the woman’s flat, especially her papers and photographs. In the flat, which Goldfinger describes as “Berlin in an apartment,” they discover dozens of pairs of aged evening gloves, dress... Read more
Bob Revere (Marshall R. Teague) is a patriotic pharmacist who takes care of a band of benevolent patriotic bikers in rural small-town Mt. Columbus, somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, USA. His newly married son goes off to war, leaving his pregnant wife, Kari (Nikki Novack), behind. When the young man is killed in action, Kari takes her newborn son, Christian, to Los Angeles. Fast-forward 14 years. Kari brings Christian (Hunter Gomez) to the Reveres’ for Thanksgiving, and they stay... Read more
Last night Sister Marie surprised us by making supper according to what St. Hildegard of Bingen (1089- 1179) might have served for her community of nuns back in the day – or a slight variation thereof. First Sister Marie told us about the one-day retreat she attended last weekend to prepare for this coming Sunday, October 7, when Pope Benedict VXI will name Hildegard a Doctor of the Church. She spoke about Hildegard’s “viriditas” because Hildegard knew that if we... Read more
“Fourth of July parade, 2011, Independence, Calif.,” by photographer Craig Semetko, from his project “America — E Pluribus Unum” (©Craig Semetko, 2012) I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the way images, entertainment, the news and language are socializing us into accepting a perpetual... Read more
In 1995 I returned from two years of graduate study at the University of London’s Institute of Education, MA in tow. I proposed that my community begin the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Boston with a good media library. At that time the budget was healthy and almost every Sunday after mass I went to the Barnes & Noble store at Chestnut Hill to savor a great cup of coffee as I browsed their excellent collection. On my second visit... Read more
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