Let me try to make it up to you in the next couple of weeks, with a new video blog, my list of Favorite Films of 2009 (the Premature Version), my list of Favorite Recordings of 2009 (almost ready!), more Auralia’s Colors confessions, sneak previews of Raven’s Ladder, and a marathon of interesting links.

Oh, keep an eye on Imagejournal.org. Friday, my review of Avatar should be there. You’ll also see a piece on Christmas movies there soon, and eventually my favorite films of 2009 will be counted down there.

For now, here’s a tray of appetizers:

1.

Matt Zoller Seitz begins his countdown of the Best Directors of the 2000s.

2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ridd2izV4vM

3.

Paste Magazine revised their Best Movies of 2009 list. Suddenly, AVATAR is #1.

4.

The author of the NYT bestseller Three Cups of Tea and the new #1 bestseller Stones into Schools, Greg Mortenson is to Afghanistan as Bono is to relief efforts in Africa: He’s the accessible, inspiring, humble, unifying voice. What he lacks (at least as far as I have seen) is an acknowledgment that he is following in the footsteps of Christ in his methods and perspective. But even better than Bono… Mortenson has spent so much time “on the ground” in Afghanistan that he can give you up-to-the-minute perspective on what will help resolve the conflicts there. Listen to him on Seattle’s KUOW here. And soon, I’ll provide a detailed report on his visit to Seattle Pacific University last night… which was awesome.

5.
Are you lonely? You’re probably a writer. Take some time to commiserate with Brian Volck.

6.
Coming soon.

Hi ho, Jeffrey the overworked editor here.

Blogging’s been slow, as you have probably noticed. I’ve been reviewing the proofreading edits for Raven’s Ladder, and that effort has swallowed every evening and weekend from September 8th to the present. (I do all of this, oh best beloved, in the hours after my work at the day-job. Call it “burning the candle at both ends *and* the middle.) Today I discovered that there are still major issues that need attention, so the next 48 hours are going to be a very rough ride indeed.

But I did take a two-hour break around midnight on Saturday, after 13 straight hours of proofreading review, to go to a movie.

And wow… I made a good choice.

Get out to see Séraphine on a big screen if you can. Here’s a calendar of its screenings around the U.S. (Looks like it’s already come and gone from many major U.S. cities. Bummer.)

Séraphine is the richest, most affecting two hours I’ve spent in a theater all year. Yeah, I think it’ll stand alongside The Class, Munyurangabo, Up, and Summer Hours when I make up my year-end list of favorites. I came away with that rare sense of having been blessed… blessed the way Babette’s Feast blesses me, the way Wings of Desire blesses me, the way The New World blesses me. It’s the kind of film that celebrates the act of… yes… looking closer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zn8sUIFlnw

Okay, in other news:

1.

I’ve been working on Raven’s Ladder so much that Cyndere’s Midnight feels like years ago. But here it is, nominated by a thoughtful reader for the 2009 Clive Stapes award.

2.
We’ll be watching a new Peter Weir movie in the next couple of months? Looks like it!

The next Imagenation project, a film called The Way Back, could be released on a limited basis in four months to be eligible for the next Academy Awards.

Based on fact and directed by Peter Weir, previously nominated for Hollywood’s top honours for Master and Commander, The Truman Show and Witness, it stars Colin Farrell, Ed Harris and Jim Sturgess in an account of a group of soldiers escaping from a Siberian gulag.

“We just saw the first cut of that movie,” Mr Borgerding said last week. “It looks to be a brilliant film, which all of Peter Weir’s movies are.”

The historical drama was co-produced with National Geographic Entertainment.

3.
Don’t discriminate against Jedi Knights.

4.
First Things on Christians & cussing. I hear Jeff Goldblum’s voice: “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”

5.
Congrats to Buddy Miller! Great to see a living legend finally getting some proper appreciation.

6.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHA4yiXFRtE

Hi ho, Jeffrey the Recovering Storyteller here.

It’s my first real day off since completing Raven’s Ladder. I plan to rest. Write reviews. And see movies. 500 Days of Summer and District 9, to be specific. My friend, painter Laura Lasworth, loved the first one, and blogger Mark Shea, who I encountered in the grocery store parking lot yesterday, was very impressed by the second. Can’t wait to see them both.

But first, some notes…

1.

Alissa Wilkinson is so lucky, having both the time and the geographic fortune to get to see the new Hirokazu Kore-eda film Still Walking. The film reminds her of Rachel Getting Married and Summer Hours… and that’s high praise, as far as I’m concerned. Report at Filmwell.

It’s a quiet, buoyant tale of a family gathering to celebrate the memorial of a loved one’s passing, and without giving much away, I can say that in its cheerfulness, its celebration, and its dark moments, the film has much to say about treasuring loved ones before it’s too late, about regret and what it does to people, and about the nature of memory. At one point, a photograph of the missing loved one is actually carried into the family photograph that’s being taken, reminding us that, as one character says, “People might die, but they are never really gone.”

2.

History teachers, take note: Michael S. Smith had found a movie for you.

The story of Jack Johnson, the first African-American boxer to win the heavyweight title, is in many respects a microcosm of this larger dilemma of race within a democratic society, and Ken Burns’ documentary about Johnson, Unforgivable Blackness (which I recently watched for the first time), is a fairly illuminating look at the connection between the life and the history.

3.

No Depression has pulled a great interview with Joe Henry from their archives.

4.
Wow. Annie Young Frisbie, critic for Christianity Today, gives Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” 3.5 stars out of 4. I suspect the CT editors are going to get some very interesting mail this weekend…

So, here’s an assortment of news, links, and highlights from my re-entry into “the real world.”

1.

Lo… the Dawn Treader…

(via)

2.

This week, three different people have asked me, in person or by email, for tips on becoming a published writer.

When I responded with the question I’ve learned to ask first — “Well, what do you write?” — all three answered, “Well, nothing yet. But I want to….”

Okay, tip #1 is… oh, never mind.

3.

I’ve seen two films that will likely end up in my short list of 2009 favorites at the end of the year: Lorna’s Silence, by the Dardennes Brothers, and a smart, riveting thriller called Tell No One that weaves The Fugitive together with Vertigo and The Bourne Identity. I also saw The Soloist, which, despite winning performances by Downey Jr. and Foxx, was another case of potential being crushed beneath the weight of Hollywood razzle-dazzle.

4.

I watched trailers for Avatar, The Wolf Man, and Gentlemen Broncos. As far as trailers go, if I were to rate them as to whether or not the footage presented makes me want to see the movie, I’m surprised to say that the Avatar trailer places a distant third.

5.

I’m still savoring the new Joe Henry album, Blood from Stars. I’m also applauding Paste Magazine’s post on five of Joe Henry’s favorite books, a lit that includes both Alice Munro & Flannery O’Connor.

6.

Sara Zarr got a Starred Review in Publisher’s Weekly for her third novel in as many years: Once Was Lost.

7.

I ran into my friend Craig Detweiler… sort of… as we were both quoted in this Collide article on the value of criticism.

8.
Reforging the sword: Now “Excalibur” (1981) is getting a remake. By Bryan Singer (“X-Men, X-Men 2″). The original starred young Helen Mirren, and marked the film debut of Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, and Ciarin Hinds. What legends will rise in this one, I wonder.

Hi ho, Jeffrey the Blogger here.

This weekend, I’ve moved into revising the last eight chapters of Raven’s Ladder. So… no 4th of July vacation for this guy!

Anne and I skipped the fireworks show last night so I could keep working. We felt a little bit sorry for ourselves, so to cheer ourselves up, we packed up our laptops and went down to Richmond Beach, the beautiful stretch of coastline 10 minutes from our house. We sat on some benches at a viewpoint over the water and I started working.

The sunset was glorious… like a 45-minute long firework. A pure beacon of gold over the mountains, which was appropriate, considering I was righting about a bright beam of light shining over the mountains of the Expanse.

And then… we heard something like a heavy gasp. We looked out at the water and saw something we haven’t seen in 8 years of living here: A whale! Breaching, spouting, playing, sending spray up into the Puget Sound sunset.

I’ll take that over fireworks any day!

So, it’s the Lord’s day today, just as it was the Lord’s Fourth of July. Here are a few scattered notes that have “breached” on Sunday so far…

1.

The New York Times asks, “How is Jeff Tweedy today? What’s up with Wilco these days?” Tweedy responds with a scandalous claim sure to dismay rock-and-roll fans around the world. “I was never at my best when I was at my worst.“ No, reckless behavior and unhealthy lifestyles are *not* the recipe for great art.  (Thanks to David Neff for the link.) For what it’s worth, I’m really enjoying the new album.

2.
David Dark posts some wise words from one of my favorite filmmakers: Jim Jarmusch.

3.
Phil Eaton, president of SPU, has a few strong words about Bernie Madoff and Dante, and he’s stirred up some disagreement in the process. After you read that, read his follow-up comment here.

4.
Where did Bono get the inspiration for the lyrics to U2′s “Magnificent”? A very respectable source: The Virgin Mary.

5.
And it’s J.D. Salinger for the win!

6.

The horror… the horror!

A trailer that makes me want to go to the movies again. I want a whole franchise about this guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hxi-z3ZZBI

I’m facing a week so overburdened with work, it’s dispiriting, so I’ll keep this short.

Here we go…

1.

Reviews for Public Enemies are coming in. I’ve seen it. You should too. I’ll have comments on the film soon. Right now, it’s all Raven’s Ladder all the time.

2.

You’ve probably read this story by now, but just in case you missed it, here’s Steven Greydanus recounting the story of the girl whose dying wish was Up.

3.

Who was the real Spartacus?

4.

A handwritten Bible, in the handwriting of 31,173 people.

5.

David Brooks:

Evolutionary psychology has had a good run. But now there is growing pushback. Sharon Begley has a rollicking, if slightly overdrawn, takedown in the current Newsweek. And “Spent” is a sign that the theory is being used to try to explain more than it can bear.

Hi ho, Jeffrey the Blogger here.

Last night was fraught with technical difficulties. I don’t know whether to blame Microsoft Word for Mac, or my Macbook, but I fought the dreaded spinning pinwheel for a couple of hours before I could get through to my manuscript and keep working. Sigh.

This morning is better. I’m enjoying good coffee and a hearty breakfast at Laughing Ladies Cafe (formerly Hotwire Cafe) and working on THE chapter… the one that gives the book its title: Raven’s Ladder.

Meanwhile, I’ve learned a couple of interesting things…

1.
Yet another new Sam Phillips song will be a bonus for those who pick up the July/August issue of The Believer.

2.
Happy Catholic has posted a Top Ten List of books that Catholics should read. I was surprised and delighted by one of those titles….

3.
Yes, it’s that time. We’ve reached the half-way mark, so I’m watching as music critics post their favorite albums of 2009 so far.

Here’s my list, in alphabetical order:

• Leonard Cohen – Live in London (The perfect Cohen treasury.)
• The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love (Ya gotta take it all at once, but it is so worth it.)
• Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – A Stranger Here
• Dave Matthews Band – Big Whisky and the Groogrux King (No, I can’t believe it either. I didn’t know they could win me over.)
• St. Vincent – Actor (Such a technicolor trip. I so admire her efficiency. None of these songs wear out their welcome, even though they’re stacked as high as a seven-layer cake with sonic sweetness and frosting and gumdrops.)
• Aaron Strumpel – Elephants
• Allen Toussaint – The Bright Mississippi
• U2 – No Line on the Horizon
• M. Ward – Hold Time
• Wilco – Wilco (the Album)

Honorable mentions include

• Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
• PJ Harvey and John Parish – A Woman a Man Walked By (STRONG CAUTION: There’s some sick and twisted stuff here, but there are also some very strong songs. So this is not a recommendation. This is more like a confession.)
• Iron and Wine – Around the Well
• Eleni Mandell – Artificial Fire
• Amadou and Miriam
• Laura Gibson – Beasts of Seasons
• Andrew Bird – Noble Beast
• Buddy and Julie Miller – Written in Chalk

What are your favorites so far?

4.

Good heavens! Looking Closer reader Gaith has begun an ambitious new online endeavor: The Complete Calvin and Hobbes Blog. In an email to me, he says, “Though it may be madness, my goal is to review each and every strip, once daily.” Wow. Anne and I often read from our complete Calvin and Hobbes treasury before we sleep. It seems to tune any strings that have gone wrong inside our minds and hearts during the day. So I highly recommend a frequent diet of Watterson’s gift to humanity.

A good Thursday to you all.

1.

In the next week, I’ll be posting a series of pieces about Munyurangabo and director Lee Isaac Chung. The first, an essay contributed by Chung himself, is now posted at Filmwell.org.

2.
Also online today: CT Movies has published my commentary on two films: “Departures” and “The Song of Sparrows”.

And, speaking of “departures” …

3.
David Carradine has died. At IFC, David Hudson is compiling the tributes and developing reports. Chris Willman has posted a reflection on a recent, memorable live appearance.

It’s a perfect late-spring day in Seattle: Mid-70s, breezy, bright.

Wandering today, I’ve already enjoyed a conversation with Kristin Wilhite at my favorite coffee stand, The Grinder, and a Thomas Merton reading on contemplation with my Seattle Pacific University coworkers. In a few hours, we’ll be celebrating some coworkers’ birthdays, but first, I’m wandering over to the offices of Image journal to deliver a book to Julie Mullins, who is preparing this summer’s Glen Workshop, the week-long arts conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico… the most exciting week of my year.

In the meantime, here are a few highlights of my browsing…

1.
A whole new region of David Lynch-land is open for business: The Interview Project. What a promising beginning. I was reminded of this quote:

“If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in.”
— Frederick Buechner (Whistling in the Dark: An ABC Theologized)

2.
In other news, The Onion has posted an article that will enrage Christians everywhere… if they don’t notice that this satirical piece actually serves to remind us what Christ was really like, and what he has really done.

3.
I’m happy to find this 1966 commercial online.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlJVLnHzehw

The commercial stars one of the many Jim Henson characters who are currently on exhibit at the Jim Henson’s Fantastic World exhibit in downtown Seattle’s Experience Music Project. It’s a wonderful exhibit. When I meandered happily through on Saturday morning, I had the privilege of meeting Jim’s daughter Heather in person. What a thrill. (I came home with a particularly detailed and interesting souvenir…)

4.
I’m happy to see that an abridged version of my review of Summer Hours was posted today at Image.

UNTIL NEXT TIME:

Tonight, I’m going to chain myself to my desk until I’ve revised another two chapters of Raven’s Ladder. I’m on Chapter Nine of the revisions, and it’s going very well. This story is my favorite of the the series so far, but I’m trying to trim it down to a size that will allow you to carry the book around in your backpack… instead of on a forklift.

1.

Radiohead’s recording a new album with Nigel Godrich. That headline makes me happier than almost any music I’ve heard this year so far.

2.

I don’t have a link to give you: Just news. Criterion is releasing my favorite Whit Stillman film, The Last Days of Disco, on DVD this August. It’s been out of print for a long time. I have one of those rare DVDs from its original release, and I keep it locked in a fireproof safe.

3.
In June, I’ll be visiting Dallas, Texas and speaking at this event.

4.

I’ve written a review of Lake Tahoe inspired by the format of Lake Tahoe. Instead of a continuous flow of text, it’s a bunch of excerpts of my thoughts interrupted by blackouts. You’ll find it at Filmwell.

5.

A flashback that will thrill some, trouble others…  http://www.newsweek.com/id/196011