My intersection of faith, art, and technology. Please hold hands when crossing the street.
// February 26th, 2012 // No Comments » // Culture, Film, Review
Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo
The Artist is a charming, even buoyant movie, a silent film shot in black and white, carried by the orchestra soundtrack and the remarkable charisma of the two leads, Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, and a sidekick scene-stealing dog named Uggie. (more…)
// January 9th, 2012 // 2 Comments » // Culture, How-to, Technology, TV, Video, Worship
We’ve begun a new series at our church called Love, Sex, and Marriage, and I had the great privilege of putting the promo video together for this. It has also been made into a TV ad that’s been shown locally, along with a print media campaign. Overall, it’s the biggest media push for a series in our church’s history, because we feel the subject matter is of great interest to Christians and non-Christians alike. Here’s a video explaining a little about how it was made. (more…)
// June 12th, 2011 // 3 Comments » // Culture, Film, Review
The movie Super 8 is excellent, and tells the story of a group of kids, amateur film makers in 1979 who, when filming a scene for their homemade zombie movie, witness an incredible (and mysterious) train crash, while their Super 8 camera witnesses even more. (more…)
// June 7th, 2011 // No Comments » // Culture, Film, Review
Helmets and lens flares and hammers, oh my! Thor is over-the-top silliness, set in a mythical land of perpetual greenscreen golden sunsets with the most impressive collection of extreme helmets since 1980′s Flash Gordon. The dialogue is staggeringly bad and clichéd, so much so that it elicited occasional bursts of laughter. That being said, the middle section of the movie, set on good ol’ Planet Earth, seems to embrace its campiness, and keeps the movie from becoming a spectacular sci-fi dud. Thor and his abs have an improbable romance with Natalie Portman and her mole, which, though my mind tells me is a stupid plot contrivance, actually works to give us something (anything?) to root for in this movie. The Surprisingly Good Acting Award goes to a fellow named Tom Hiddleston, who plays Thor’s much-conflicted brother Loki with more sincerity than this movie deserves. Overall, a tolerable summer escape, but nothing more.
Rating: Only worth 3 of my 7 sentences.
// March 23rd, 2011 // 11 Comments » // Culture, Faith, Worship
Sacred Bowl, Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church
I was once accused of bringing worldliness into worship. “Cool!” I thought. Then I realized it wasn’t a compliment.
What the person was talking about, of course, was secular elements in a worship context. And it raises interesting questions about what’s appropriate in worship services, questions that have been wrestled with, I imagine, by anyone wanting to lead a worship service designed for modern people.
So I started out writing a long blog post that few of you would read. At the risk of being misunderstood, I’ve decided to simplify things to a few disjointed bullet points. Discuss amongst yourselves. (more…)
// June 14th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Culture, Faith, TV
Remember The Truman Show? The Jim Carrey movie from 1998? In it, Jim Carrey’s character, Truman Burbank, is an insurance adjuster who discovers that his entire life is one big fiction, a television show that has documented his life, 24 hours a day, from the moment he was born.
I remember when this movie came out, watching it in the theater, thinking, ”This movie’s on to something. This movie’s not just a fun fiction to watch. This is saying something.” I’ll bet if I were to watch it today, I’d realize how prescient the movie was. Granted, MTV’s The Real World had been on the air for 6 years already, an incredible trailblazer in the genre now known as reality TV. But Survivor was still 2 years away from crowning Richard Hatch as the first winner. (more…)
// May 23rd, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Culture, TV
So maybe to a lot of people, Lost doesn’t matter. And I get that. Sadly, it’s the kind of show that if you miss out early on, there’s that sense that it’s going to take a major commitment to get caught up now. Fans of Lost are real Fans of Lost. There aren’t a lot of fence-sitters here. Lost fans don’t miss an episode. And those who aren’t fans must feel very much excluded. They’ve never been to Lost world. They’re outsiders. They’re disconnected from conversations and, today, a great deal of cultural hubbub. (more…)
// May 21st, 2010 // 9 Comments » // Blogging, Culture
My Crocs
