Me on CHINATOWN for its 50th anniversary.
It's a film with God very much on its mind, in dialogue with Genesis as much as it is THE MALTESE FALCON. Corruption goes all the way to the top—to the heavens.
I don't know what I expected from this incredible Vogue BARBIE feature, but it wasn't "a strong but unexamined religion angle" (please, somebody follow up)
I love this quote from Tom Cruise about the ending of ROGUE NATION. Makes me miss
@TerryTeachout1
, who always pointed out how much information a score gives the audience, without an audience even noticing.
When Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote that she had become Christian, it sounded political.
But last night she revealed what happened: a spiritual awakening after suicidal depression. Dawkins probed, highlighting “nonsense the vicar says” and Christianity being “obsessed with sin.” Then:
Just putting this out here because absolutely no one is going to get this right:
J.D. Vance is not an Appalachian. He's not from the South. And he's not an evangelical.
THE FUGITIVE: I can’t believe I’ve never seen this
A beautifully paced and plotted thriller (remarkably so, given crazy production), but its true appeal character arcs. TLJ the MVP, but Ford’s so winsome
Tom Stoppard said of this famous exchange: “God, I wish I’d written that.”
Queen Elizabeth II insisted on cutting a cake using a ceremonial sword at an event on the sidelines of the G7 summit.
When told there was a knife available instead, the monarch replied, “I know there is! This is something that is more unusual.”
The new right talks a lot about the virtues of traditional masculinity. And they have a point.
But it's instructive to note that if you, like Trump, idolize strength without reference to virtue, you end up toadying up to Vladimir Putin instead of praising Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
John Wilkes Booth was already famous—as in “fangirls fainting when they saw him” famous—before he shot Abraham Lincoln.
Must have been a terrible day to be a teenage girl. It’s like if Elvis assassinated Dwight Eisenhower.
Presentism has really started to colonize every "historical" adaptation lately - Bridgerton accelerated the effect but didn't start it. Do modern audiences really have no stomach for faithful language/behavior or is it just that producers don't know how to create it?
It’s partly historical illiteracy, but there’s more to it.
I once had an English professor claim millions were killed in the Spanish Inquisition. Repeating the story to my calculus professor, she said, “Hannah, most people don’t understand numbers.”
outside nerd world any conception of historical time basically drops off a cliff immediately
i have explained to multiple people that islam is not 1000s of years old
i also met someone who thought gandhi started buddhism. i have nothing against these people. just interesting
The only weakness is the probic vent on the back, but that's just there to remind us to always face the enemy as we fight for the greater glory of the Sontaran Empi--
The tone was set by Hirsi Ali’s obvious air of vulnerability, humility and joy, but also how much affection and respect she obviously has for Dawkins. To paraphrase one bit: “I used to mock Christianity, as you are doing now, my dear Richard, but…I regret it.”
@mattzollerseitz
"I don't watch movies. I prefer good YouTube breakdowns. That way I get the plot and the explanation, all in one place. With movies I can never forget that none of it really happened, it's just made up by the director."
What Dawkins (bless him, with his DNA tie) really wanted to drill down to was whether she thought it was all true. She still seems hesitant to move it outside the realm of the subjective but she also fits that into a newfound humility springing from spiritual experience.
Last night, I stood around chatting with Richard Dawkins about God while he handed around a plate of salted peanuts.
I am aware that sounds made up. It felt made up.
Actually, y'all, check out Expect Hope. They're doing awesome work in the Bronx helping women choose life by giving them a place to live for two years after their child's birth. They're financially struggling right now but have a waiting list of mothers.
my dad told me I couldn't watch LOTR until I read the books, so little 9yo me spent a lot of time in this reading nook, propped up by a stuffed bunny, plowing through the Council of Elrond
When I was a teenage aspiring writer I used every synonym under the sun in place of "said."
Now, as a professional book editor, I use "said" 95% of the time.
MASTER AND COMMANDER in 35mm at Nitehawk: Transcendent.
I'm always impressed by the immersive sound design of the film (whistling splinters, cannonfire, creaking rope), but seeing the helicopter panorama shots of A-list stars on mainmasts on a big screen? Incredible.
SEYTON: The queen, my lord, is dead.
MACBETH: She just died? Wow. I didn't know that...She led an amazing life. What else can you say? She was an amazing woman, whether you agree or not. She was an amazing woman who led an amazing life. I'm actually sad to hear that.
There is great pathos in President Zelenskyy's rise to power, from playing the president on TV to being president in reality. He could so easily have treated it like a part to be discarded...instead he has risen to the occasion with great courage. Surreal and incredibly moving.
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy says he remains in Kyiv, has moved his family to an undisclosed location. “I cannot tell you where they are at right now. We have information the enemy as defined me as number one target and my family as a number two target.”
MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY: simply the *best* show that everyone is sleeping on. It's sharp, charming and kind without being saccharine.
Has its own inimitable sense of humor: a sailor just introduced himself as "Officer Zhao, but my nom d'océan is Cannonball."
*Every First Doctor episode*
-TARDIS lands
-Barbara is immediately captured by enemy of the week (later: an evil warlord falls in love with her)
-Susan screams
-Ian runs off, yelling "BARBARA"
-Meanwhile, the Doctor goes shopping
Every time I see a video of Dame Judi reciting Shakespeare (as it should be done, with the rhythm!) I’m both astounded and sad that her days on the stage are past. What a thing it must have been to see her perform.
Judi Dench was on Graham Norton last night to push her new book about her life and work with Shakespeare. After making the point we quote Shakespeare daily without knowing it, this happened:
@Nicole_Cliffe
J.M. Barrie once directed a (tragically lost) silent film starring G.K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw as cowboys. Read the full (totally bonkers) story of how it happened here:
Deep dive on the theology of Indiana Jones, a series where, once, pulp fiction *gets* the weight of glory.
"In Raiders, both the heroes and the villains approach the Ark like it’s magic or science. They discover it’s neither. It’s reality."
I’d also say I didn’t really find her argument that campus chaos is a result of Islamism filling the moral vacuum that atheism left convincing. Maybe a little.
Though it was really fun to hear her emphatically say “G.K. Chesterton was right!”
So...the 1619 Project was "just asking questions," I guess? Even if she hadn't made the claim that 1619 was the true founding (which she did, in a previous tweet), this is a tedious intellectual dodge.
My sister had to recreate a piece of art for her college art history class, so she enlisted my history nerd brother and harnessed all that homeschooler creative energy that resulted from lots of time living just with siblings out in the country.
@WASPmexicano
I’m sure you’ve heard this, but I love the story of a hectoring woman who’d asked G.K. Chesterton during the war, “Young man, why aren’t you out at the front?”
To which he replied, “Madam, if you look at me from the side, you’ll see that I am.”
They get into an argument about proper timing of classical music at a concert, exchange names for a duel, make up, and go to sea together on a 14-gun sloop
The underlying question of many (most?) modern films is whether one can be powerful and good at the same time.
Given that most moderns answer that question "no," this explains why you see the rise in both impotent niceness and cruel edgelording--in films and elsewhere.
I think this is true, though I wonder what the breakdown is between church-going/non-church-going Christians who are deep in Trump cultism.
The Christian conspiracists I've known haven't attended church in years. Hillbilly Elegy highlights how much of Appalachia doesn't attend.
if you were or are the friendly gent (blue coat) who was in the shop half an hour ago and left a big jar of bees on the table in the poetry section, please come back and reclaim your jar of bees. if you aren't, please rt until we find him
#FindTheBeeGent
Actually, I'm starting to feel bad about dunking on this. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. One thing I'd note is I'm not convinced it's written in good faith, but rather as one in a line of anti-Christian clickbait articles.
Watching THE AVENGERS with my roommate - it's aged well. After all, it's about a premodern strongman attempting to exploit his Western enemies' domestic political divides as he conquers the world. 1/
Another professor (of biology) claimed Charles Darwin delayed publishing The Origin of Species because he was afraid of being burned at the stake.
I knew that wasn’t true, of course, because I’d grown up on the bedrock of a good education: Masterpiece Theatre period dramas.
"They put themselves here for what? Because it was the right thing to do... they were not gaining territory, they were not here for riches, they were not here to conquer anything. They were really here in order to mend the future." Tom Hanks reflects on the heroes of D Day
C.S. Lewis—who died the day before episode 1 of Doctor Who aired—would probably have been happy to know that a stray phrase in The Last Battle, envisioning a stable “bigger on the inside,” would eternally live on as a description of the Doctor’s ship.
When I was quite young, I used to extemporaneously preach sermons to my relatives. Halfway through one such homily, my grandmother asked:
"Hannah, how could Jesus walk on the water?"
I paused, stumped for a theological answer. Finally, I said:
"He was real skinny."
What's a childhood anecdote that says a lot about you?
Mine is that when I was 8 my friends and I went door to door selling homemade keychains so we could buy Bibles for our bullies.
DUNE may have jargon, slow pacing, Malicky visions, but it's beautiful (i.e. not ugly), spectacular. No strong language, excessive violence, sex. Takeaway: Audiences will put up with a lot of weirdness for a big, earnest, family-friendly epic that doesn't equate art with ugliness
As good as The Searchers is, I always prefer John Ford in his smaller, more intimate endeavors, like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. He knows exactly how to twist the knife for moments of immense, quiet pathos.
Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Pelagius the wise? I thought not. It's not a story the Christians would tell you. It's a Gnostic legend. Darth Pelagius was a Dark Lord, so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create free will
*Every Ninth Doctor episode*
-TARDIS lands where it's supposed to
-This is the planet AVEDSITHSDAFIH you pronounce it backwards
-2000s British pop references
-Oh, look, more stupid apes. Everyone is an idiot except for me. I'm so lonely.
*Every Tenth Doctor episode*
-Doctor fanboys over something
-Running with teeth clenched
-HUMANS!
-The Gallifrey Blues
-If we flick this switch it'll kill the Sontarans. Well, it might. Weeeell, it could create a space-time breach that'll destroy all of reality but
@DavidAFrench
Appreciate the subtle anti-climax of pairing the drug dealer with "disgruntled former staffer."
"So I sold Nancy heroin, and Joe, here, well, he's upset that Nancy didn't answer email promptly."
So I see Civilization VI is free right now - should this be my next step in becoming a 𝖌𝖆𝖒𝖊𝖗
(I mean, it's free, so I'll probably get it regardless, but have any of you guys played it?)
Day 1 of quarantine: I'll write King Lear. Learn a new language.
Day 6 of quarantine: I can play one verse of Folsom Prison Blues on my guitar and I'm contemplating dying my hair blue.
*Trump voice* used to be you never could find Waldo—they’d say to me, sir, where’s Waldo……..where’s Waldo—but now no one ever—the deep state, the cameras—no one ever has to ask—they should really ask where’s Hunter but—so many cameras and now it’s just…there’s Waldo
I'm pretty grumpy about certain sorts of Christian nationalism - and I don't say the Pledge for conscience reasons -
but lemme tell you, when a friend invited me to an anti-America party on the 4th, I was like: