Who among us has not had their faith challenged? What are we to tell the person who, for whatever reason, has lost faith in God? Teacher of the Year: The Mystery and Legacy of Edwin Barlow examines how a young boy destined for the clergy became a soldier in WWII. After killing numerous […]

read more from this topic.....

I was startled to find this important editorial in the NYTimes:

A Final Verdict on the Presidential Salute

After a couple of paragraphs explaining the writer’s expertise in saluting, and another couple of paragraphs on the history of presidential salutes, we come to the conclusion:
(President Obama’s) salute, it struck me, was impeccable in every way.
Huh?
It’s true that […]

read more from this topic.....

There are very few people in the rock, particularly Metal genre that do not recognize the name Blaze Bayley. He really hit the radar when he became the front man, and vocalist for Iron Maiden.
His story is far more compelling that of just Iron Maiden, his first real chance at stardom came from his time […]

read more from this topic.....

Ah, Halloween is here, and the TV channels are full of stories of witches and ghosts and goblins of all sorts.
Most of it is harmless fun: art and literature helps mankind be able to confront the evils around them in a way that strengthens their ability to hope that confronting the more real evils around […]

read more from this topic.....

In professional wrestling, specialty matches or “gimmick” matches, are usually fought to end a storyline rivalry. In a regular contest, combatants are required to wrestle within the rules, and if they don’t, they are disqualified. Whereas in “gimmick” matches, there are no rules and the wrestlers can legally use any objects around the ring. In […]

read more from this topic.....

You may or may not know that the largest film industry in the world is not Hollywood, but Bollywood: the film industry of India. But do you know which country has the second largest film industry in the world?
Nollywood.
The Nigerian film industry.
According to Wikipedia the industry is a $250 million dollar industry which produces […]

read more from this topic.....

After striking a well-appreciated chord with audiences everywhere in the highly praised Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the voice of Neil Patrick Harris is in almost as high demand as the actor himself. And last week in a special episode of the animated series Batman: The Brave & The Bold Harris’s voice made an impressive appearance […]

read more from this topic.....

Every so often, those scary undead creatures of the night arise from their coffins and suck more cash out of the public, whose appetite for vampires and other paranormal creatures never dies.
We are hot and heavy into another wave of vampire culture, sparked by the immense popularity of the Twilight young adult romance novels and […]

read more from this topic.....

“The greatest concert that never was”
It is hard to watch and talk about the new documentary, THIS IS IT, which chronicles the last few months of Michael Jacksons life without feeling some tinge of sadness and a little bit of media sensationalism. Granted the film was created with the full support of Jackson’s estate but […]

read more from this topic.....

Ah, how quickly the grandchildren grow up. The grandsons have changed from computer game freaks to college geeks, and the granddaughters are now budding teenagers, on the threshold of being a woman.
In the past, the “Themes” for birthday parties were various Disney princesses; now little girls are starting to grow up, so the Theme of […]

read more from this topic.....

Ah, a British paper just pooh poohed the British victory at the Battle of Agincourt, saying that Prince Hal was not outnumbered 4 to 1, merely outnumbered 2 to 1.
Actually, the author misses the point, which is that the elite knights of France got slowed down by the mud and were massacred by ordinary British […]

read more from this topic.....

After the success of both Alan Weisman’s 2007 novel The World Without Us - an investigative and imaginative exploration of what would happen if humans suddenly disappeared from the face of the Earth - and the subsequent 2008 feature-length History Channel documentary Life After People, it’s no surprise that the History Channel spun the underlying […]

read more from this topic.....

I have loved the work of Ryan Reynolds ever since I first saw him on screen.  He’s hilarious, he’s one of the best looking guys out there and he is married to Scarlett Johansson.  What could possibly get better than that?  He has monumental talent when it comes to being a comic actor, but it […]

read more from this topic.....

In an incredibly chilling move, the White House tried to freeze out Fox News from interviewing Obama’s Pay Czar, while granting interviews to all the other major news organizations.  As the video notes, often the White House makes a particular official available to all the groups, one after the other, but today’s event broke with […]

read more from this topic.....

A few months ago, I was spending some time with my sister, just sitting around and watching classic television on WGN America.  In my opinion, that is the best channel out there for viewing those sometimes regrettable television shows that were a huge part of our collective past.  So, in the course of watching television, […]

read more from this topic.....

The Jonas brothers are pretty much omnipresent these days.  The three of them are all over the place and it looks as though their cultural influence is only growing.  First there was the CD and then the appearances on different television shows and then the tour and the movie about the tour show.  I thought […]

read more from this topic.....

This past Friday, an episode of Degrassi The next Generation aired an episode entitled “Shoot to Thrill”. This episode involved a girl named Ali and her boyfriend Johnny. Ali took some pictures of Johnny and a stuffed animal promising never to share them with anyone. As the episode went on, we saw how poorly Johnny […]

read more from this topic.....

I always like it when characters from one television show make an appearance on another television show.  It’s a great kind of nod to another show and it really brings in a whole lot of different facts than can be played off of.  The first instance of this I can remember is when the Bionic […]

read more from this topic.....

President Obama was brought up in Asia, yet he seems clueless about Afghanistan, and of the geopolitical problems in this area.
The press is even worse, preferring the simplistic out of date explanations of the “Afghanistan is Viet Nam” meme, or the “Stop the war” meme, or stressing civilian casualties “reported” by Taliban linked sources without […]

read more from this topic.....

Here is the latest update, all programs are subject to change, but this is about as accurate as we can be.
Friday October 23
10:00am central – An interview with filmmaker Michael McWillie. Michael’s new movie is on a screening tour prior to the DVD release on Nov/3. Gravestoned is quite the ‘B’ horror flick. Made mostly […]

read more from this topic.....

I am really not a fan of scary movies at all.  I can watch exploitation movies until the cows come home, but when it’s straight up scary, I can’t deal with that.  The movies of Eli Roth and Rob Zombie have never been a big deal for me, because they’re fun and evil and just […]

read more from this topic.....

Here is the number one clue that this DVD is going to be incredible – major funding for it was provided by none other than the National Science Foundation.  This project is also connected to the American Museum of Natural History.  Both of those groups are very great and have managed to be attached to […]

read more from this topic.....

The six television shows that are included in this DVD are some of the best out there when it comes to children’s television.  My personal favorite is none other than Thomas and all of his tank engine friends.  With winter fast approaching (at least where I live), your children are going to be indoors a […]

read more from this topic.....

With the obvious success of Spike Jonze’s live-action adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s infamous children’s book Where the Wild Things Are (which came in as #1 this weekend with a healthy $32 million opening weekend), it’s no surprise that there’s a reawakened interest in the story behind the movie. Originally published in 1963, Where the Wild […]

read more from this topic.....

Prior to seeing the commercials for this new diamond edition of this movie, I did not know that this was in fact the first full-length animated movie that was made by Walt Disney.  I hadn’t seen this movie in years, prior to just rewatching it a couple of days ago.  However, if I had seen […]

read more from this topic.....

The legislation California Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law recently is widely known to restrict the actions of paparazzi and penalize the organizations that purchase photos taken illegally.
But what is less understood is the strong language the California Legislature used in the wording of the bill. The following are quotes from the text of the new […]

read more from this topic.....

Designed for speed, this 2008 release is aimed for folks who want time saving designs. As editor Judy Crow notes in her welcome on page three, “With societies busy schedules, today crafters are looking for fast, simple projects with great end results. The designs in this book are ideal for the crafter on the go!”
 
The […]

read more from this topic.....

Well, another week and more news on the Peer Abuse front. This week, its great news and involves someone finally taking a group of bullies by the horns.
In California, there is a serious problem with the paparazzi who try and do what they can to get photos of celebrities without their consent. When I say […]

read more from this topic.....

French cinema seems to be highly associated with independent cinema and foreign films, at least in the minds of most American citizens.  Some of it certainly comes from a place of Francophobia, but much of it is because a lot of French filmmakers have been before their time and they tell stories of such light […]

read more from this topic.....

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if a movie is being bad ironically or is just plain bad.  More often than not, that is a really bad sign for the movie.  But with all the meta-references that go on in independent cinema and the overwhelming amounts of irony out there in the ether, sometimes you just […]

read more from this topic.....