Coldplay

I do not claim to be a music critic. I know what I like and I like less and less new music these days, secure in the old alt country standbys and venturing into some occasional new rock and roll and even less frequently rap.  I keep up with few bands and purchase even fewer new CDs. Bands like Wilco, Son Volt, U2…these bands require release day purchases and concert tickets. So too do Coldplay. I’ve held off on writing about Coldplay’s newest album Viva la Vida since its release because, quite simply, I don’t often review albums. However, I could not ignore the fountain of spirituality flowing from this new album. Seeing them in concert over the weekend, helped push me through the writer’s block. [Read more]

Del Toro Interview…

As I mentioned in the previous post, I thought the recent Hellboy II was much better than its predecessor.  As a friend of mine and I discussed, it’s like the producers tried too hard to make the comic book into a movie the first go round, and with the second, they finally realized that they had a great director in Guillermo del Toro and decided to let him run with it.  Here’s a great article from USA Today about the visionary filmmaker, his religious influences, and his upcoming work.  Follow the link after the jump. [Read more]

Gotham Knight

The past two weeks have been all about the sequel:  Hellboy II trumped Hellboy and, if all the arly reviews are any indication, so will The Dark Knight, apparently the Godfather II of comic book movies, which would automatically place it in the running for the greatest action movie of all time.  To get ready for The Dark Knight, I have been re-watching Batman Begins, a truly great film as well.  I also checked out the newly-released collection of animated short films called Batman:  Gotham Knight. [Read more]

La Misma Luna

Occasional pop theology contributor and Judd Apatow devotee, Wendy Arce, provides a review of the recent film, La Misma Luna (Under the Same Moon). Read on. [Read more]

The Afterlife and The Sopranos

This fall, I will be taking a course entitled “Nonviolence, Power, and Evil” in which we will discuss and apply theoretical responses to evil vis-a-vis The Sopranos. At the end of the semester, we will then choose one of these models and apply it to a real-world situation. I am intrigued by this course because I feel that the framework could easily apply to another great HBO series, The Wire, or nearly any television drama. For various reasons, I never watched The Sopranos in its original broadcast and am now spending many summer evenings catching up on all the good times that I missed. While I am reflecting on ideas of evil, violence, and power, other issues inevitably emerge, especially in light of having read Will Willimon’s Who Will Be Saved? which I reviewed yesterday. [Read more]

A Dose of Theology…

William H. Willimon’s newest book, Who Will Be Saved?, is an extended sermon in praise of the height, width, and depth of God’s love for the cosmos. As such, it is a staunch reaction to any concept of Christian salvation that would limit God’s loving reach for all by dictating “who’s in and who’s out.” As a recovering Southern Baptist accustomed to extended altar calls and evangelism training that stressed a personal relationship with Christ based on human faith, belief, or response, Willimon’s thoughts on Christian salvation, steeped ever so deeply in Scripture, are a joyous celebration of God’s work for us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. [Read more]

They’ve Done It Again…

Having been involved with a new documentary, Renewal, about the religious environmental movement, I am more aware of how environmentalism is represented or addressed in popular culture.  From the moment I first saw the trailer for the new Pixar miracle, WALL-E, I was intrigued by its dark, enviromental implications.  When the voice over mentioend that humans had left earth and a garbage compacting robot was left behind to clean it up, questions abounded.  What happened?  What did we do or not do?  Can we come back?  The film does not answer most of these questions, but it is yet another vehicle for Pixar to make possible the impossible. [Read more]