Satan in a Chinese Restaurant

Leave it to a couple of Jewish brothers from middle America to make one of my favorite films about Jesus Christ in a long time. Hail, Caesar! expertly balances a few seemingly antithetical Americanisms here - the cult of Hollywood, and American religious moxie. (Spoiler - they’re not antithetical, turns out!) Plus, Hail, Caesar! is  just a lot of fun for anyone who loves movies, was nourished on Rogers and Hammerstein, Busby Berkeley numbers, or who as a young child secretly wished she’d be kidnapped by one of seven husky brothers and carried on horseback to a snowed-in cabin where she’d soon become a bride. Bless your beautiful hiiiidddde! So yeah, I guess...

Becoming a Mother Hen

My sons, 2 and 3,  like to pretend they are in a nest. They routinely gather their blankets, haul them downstairs, and sit in these elaborate blanket-nest constructions on the living room floor.  From this, I’ve learned two truths: 1) Kids will do anything to get out of making their beds  2) Parenting is about making safe spaces for your kids—they need to feel comforted, protected, and safe. I often think of the Christ-hen metaphor found both in the New Testament and the Book of Mormon wherein Christ compares himself to a mother hen. He wants to gather us under his wings, he wants us in his nest. In 3rd Nephi 3-6 he chastises the people for falling...

Oh, What a Lovely Day

There were so many great movies in 2015, but the one I'll be rooting for tonight is Mad Max: Fury Road.  Witness me! In an era where movies feel more and more like television, and television feels more cinematic than the movies, Mad Max: Fury Road is a movie that reminds us why we go to the theatre in the first place. George Miller's gritty steampunk song of junk metal and patriarchy and capitalism was the most exciting and fun I've had at the movies all year, not to mention a visionary piece of filmmaking.  I don't think I took a single breath for the first 30 minutes of the film. Oh for sure, it's spectacle at its most definitive, but it's not spectacle...

Who Said It - Trump or Toddler?

Well, another week has come and gone and my dream of Donald Trump physically inflating mid-debate to match the size of his uuuuuge ego has gone unfulfilled. At this point things have become so cuckoo that I feel like the version of political theatre I’m watching has morphed into community theatre absurdism. The things this guy says, eh? What a jokey-pants. The soundbites coming out of this guy remind me of another sometimes-tyrant who says similarly nonsensical, incendiary things—my three-year old toddler. Who’s up for a short game of WHO SAID IT: TRUMP OR TODDLER? 1. “Who’s that weirdo?” You probably guessed Trump, but no. This particular brand of intolerance...

He was a long man

The longest road he ever ran down was a frontage road near the Topeka turnpike. He ran from 4:00 till 8:30pm, finally stopping to inspect an injured bird that appeared to have lost half its reddish feathers in the net of something like a 4 X 4. Summer dusk all but swallowed the bird in its gasping, but he managed to spot it anyway, swept to the shoulder. He saw the wound and tended to it, sweat as thick as gelatin dripping from his brow into its blood feathers. He looked around the pavement and prairie grasses for something, for what he knew not,  but a quick scan only found piles of feed and manure in the distance, and a few crusted tin cans. Each shaking from exhaustion,...

My Yuppie Catalogs Try to One-Up Each Other

FURNITURE Mid-Century Newark Table  This dining table is made of distressed hickory and features a tobacco-finished trestle base.  Antique Driftwood Drafting Table Artisan-crafted shabby chic drafting table. Constructed of driftwood collected by survivors of domestic abuse from the Women’s Crisis Center Shelter in Keystone, Florida.  Golgotha Olive Wood Table  Reclaimed 2,000-year-old Holy Land Olive Wood table. Some of these cross beams may have supported the crucified body of Jesus Christ. Brass nail motif. OUTERWEAR St. Petersburg Pea Coat  100% vegan, sailor-inspired pea coat will keep you warm during the coldest winter doldrums. PETA approved...