Oscars 2015: Listen to My Discussion and Debate with Dr. Jeff Keuss, Novelist Jennie Spohr, and Producer Anna Miller
Finally... an Oscar year that brings some much needed focus to a subject sorely overlooked at the movies — great men with big dreams!
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Seek Justice. Love Mercy. Walk Humbly.
Bear with me. This isn't a movie review or a music review. This is just something that's on my mind today. I'll explain why, but first I have to write down the heavy stuff.
1 Comment8 Minutes
The Lone Bellow, U2, Bob Dylan, and Aaron Strumpel – or, How I Learned to Stop Scowling and Love Liturgy
I may have sensed, on some level, the dissonance between such prejudice and Jesus’ own teachings. But if I did, I suppressed it. That sense of superiority, of being on the right team, of having Jesus’ favor: they felt too good to give up. One of the easiest targets on my denominational dartboard was liturgy.
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Looking Closer at Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups
Terrence Malick's Knight of Cups screened at Berlinale today. Here come the reviews...
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As It Is In Heaven (2014)
Even more evidence that films about faith are alive and well in contemporary cinema (and that there is no need for a preachy "Christian movie industry"): As It Is In Heaven is an intelligent, riveting thriller that shows wisdom on the subject of cults and their appeal.
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Discover The Chrysostom Society: Meet Editor and Book Enthusiast John Wilson
In the early days, they plotted how to kill each other.
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What Breakup Record Cuts Your Heart Open? Readers Respond!
I posted a question on Facebook and elsewhere: What breakup songs or breakup records mean the most to you? What music do you find entangled in your own hurtful experiences of separation? The floodgates burst open.
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Listening Closer: Bjork’s “Stonemilker”
Sharing your heart with someone who in turn takes sledgehammer to it understandably leaves an impression.
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Looking Elsewhere: January 24, 2015
I'll conclude with a few words about the American Sniper hubbub. But first, here are some of the things that caught my attention on the Wild Wild Web in the last couple of weeks...
4 Comments8 Minutes
Listening Closer to Joe Henry’s “Sparrow,” The Lone Bellow, and Jessica Pratt
The first song of Joe Henry’s album Invisible Hour — my favorite record of 2014 — is the subject of the second installment in my new series called "Listening Closer." Plus: Two new albums well worth your time and attention.
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“Our nation was born in genocide…”
He's the great orator. Let's make a space for him to go on speaking. If you read great words from this great man today, feel free to share them in the Comments here.
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Do You Hear What I Hear?
This week, I begin a new year-long adventure: "Listening Closer." I will write about one song every week, opening it up to consider what's inside, where it came from, what it might mean, and why it has caught my attention and stayed on my mind.
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Selma (2014): My Review and a Looking Closer Film Forum
By choosing intimacy over an epic scale, by going small instead of large, by discernment and selectivity over throwing everything available to her at the screen, Ava Duvernay has surpassed all expectations with a masterfully crafted film that will become a standard by which historical films are measured.
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Overstreet’s Favorite Recordings: 2014 — Part Two [Updated Feb. 2015]
Albums I wanted to hear every week; albums I would be happy to own in a variety of formats; albums I would like to put in the trunk of my car so that I can give them away to everyone I know; albums that made a significant difference in my head and heart this year.
2 Comments62 Minutes
Win a Lucinda Williams Double Album: Tell Us About Your Favorite 2014 Album
What album meant the most to you in 2014? Tell us about it, and you may win a copy of the excellent 2014 double album by Lucinda Williams: Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone.
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Nurse Claire Nieman’s Christmas Playlist
It just made sense. Inviting people to share Christmas playlists, shouldn't I invite someone who spends her days welcoming newborn babies?
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W. David O. Taylor and Phaedra Taylor’s Christmas Playlist
W. David O. Taylor and Phaedra Taylor bring us one step closer to Christmas Eve with their own Christmas playlist.
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Looking Closer with Jeffrey Overstreet
(now the ears of my ears awake andnow the eyes of my eyes are opened)
– e. e. cummings, “i thank You God for most this amazing”