Sometime ago, when apparently there was nothing worthwhile to be seen, I watched a sketch comedy show which poked fun at the sorts of…
The Mill and the Cross (Lech Majewski, 2011)
The story in a painting In 1564, the Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569), painted The Procession to Calvary (or The Way to…
Leonard Cohen, “Banjo” (2012)
A Broken Banjo Bobbing On Leonard Cohen’s latest album, Old Ideas (2012) he records a song simply named, “Banjo.” It’s a simple, unadorned song,…
The Hunger Games (Gary Ross, 2012)
When trust is a matter of life and death The story is set in some unidentified period in the future. The United States has…
Tom Waits, Bad as Me (2011)
You're the same kind of bad as me I was listening to Tom Waits’ latest CD, Bad as Me (2011) recently, and suddenly a…
Three Theories of Everything (Ellis Potter, 2012)
Wondering whether things make sense I am going to recommend a book in this piece—recommend strongly that you read it—and perhaps the best way…
The Sunset Limited (Tommy Lee Jones, 2012)
“To be, or not to be, that is the question...” Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1. I admit it: Cormac McCarthy fascinates me. In the…
The Music of Bruce Cockburn
A psalmist for our day Bruce Cockburn is a superb guitarist, a fact evident on his albums and especially in his live performances, and…
Blasphemy and Free Speech
Editor’s note: The following is adapted from a lecture delivered at Hillsdale College’s Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in…
The Book Thief (Markus Zusak, 2005)
In 2005 Markus Zusak published The Book Thief, a novel about a young orphan in Nazi Germany living in a small town near Dachau.…