When I was a college freshman way back in the day, a friend, dressed to the nines, wanted me to tag along while she tried out for a modeling club. Wearing jeans and a T-shirt and looking generally slouchy, I said okay. As I watched students audition, I thought, “They’re not doing it right.” When I was in high school, a relative talked me into allowing her to sponsor me in a program for her sorority. We teenage girls were to put on a show, displaying our “talents.” Mine was a silly routine inspired by “Flashdance.” It was, in a word, awful. One girl who’d had modeling lessons strutted across the stage. She stood tall and straight with her hands on her hips as she pivoted and posed. She was self-assured and calm, not to mention very pretty. It made an impression.
Back to the college modeling try-outs. The women were dressed fine, but they had no technique. Feeling cocky, as I often did back then, I signed up to audition…in my slouchy jeans, T-shirt, and white sneakers. I mimicked the girl at the sorority show. My memory is biased, of course, but I recall the judges seemed riveted. No one else at the audition had moved like that. As I “freestyled” to Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know,” I knew I’d impressed the judges. I made the club.
That’s my first and strongest impression of Whitney Houston. Her music was a constant companion during those undergrad years. She was around 22 when I was a freshman, and I wanted to be her. Somewhere along the way Houston became a slave to drugs, and her powerful voice failed. A God-given talent, lost, never to be recovered.
Whether you’re an adult or a teenager who likes to read young adult novels, you might want to check out book reviews at Chuck Colson’s BreakPoint. Editor Gina Dalfonzo created the Youth Reads section to give Christians some guidance on the latest (and popular) young adult novels.
I’ve written a few reviews for the site, and I have an upcoming short feature on sex-selective abortions.
I hear the zombie show on AMC, “The Walking Dead,” is getting hot. The second season premiere broke records. Good for them. Zombies are underrated, don’t you think?
In 2008, I interviewed the actor Jon Bernthal, who plays Shane Walsh. I’d reviewed an independent film called Day Zero for Blog Critics and wanted to talk to one of the actors. From the available actors I chose Bernthal.
Day Zero is set in the near future, and America is going to war. Three friends receive draft notices and have 30 days to report for duty. Bernthal played a cab driver, and his character’s love interest was played by Elisabeth Moss, who portrays Peggy Olson on AMC’s “Mad Men.” Small world.
Since I’m getting a number of hits for “jon bernthal,” I thought I’d reprint the telephone interview originally published at Blog Critics in 2008:
Raised in Washington, D.C., country music-loving actor Jon Bernthal went to Russia to study acting and ended up playing professional baseball. He’s no longer playing ball, but his acting career is on the upswing. In the independent film Day Zero (read the review), Bernthal plays a street-wise cab driver named James Dixon who, along with two friends (played by Elijah Wood and Chris Klein), receives a draft notice and has 30 days to report for duty. The story follows the trio as they struggle with political and personal convictions, fear, and leaving behind loved ones.
I asked Bernthal about his character, his patriotism, and his upcoming projects.
Does a story with no explicit reference(s) to Christ qualify? What if it contained a redemptive and/or sacrificial message, or focused on atonement?
Perhaps the question isn’t whether a piece of art is “Christian” or even Christian-themed, but whether we can “take joy in God’s material creation, in the colors and sounds and textures and tastes of all the good things he has created,” as Brett McCracken writes in the recently published Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide (which I reviewed for the Christian Research Journal.)
God’s handiwork is part of general revelation, God revealed in nature (as opposed to special revelation, God revealed through his word and through Christ), and there’s beauty and truth in secular pursuits. Christians can and should discuss with unbelievers spiritual and transcendent messages that may be found in secular films.
While I’d like to see more Christian entertainment in Hollywood, as Christians should be salt and light in the world, even in Hollywood, the message doesn’t have to be explicit. The Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity author C.S. Lewis talked about smuggling the Gospel past “watchful dragons” in his fiction. That’s what I’m attempting to do as I work on novel revisions (which is why draft #3 is essentially a rewrite). I’d intended to be explicit, but decided to be subtle, as I have embarrassingly high hopes of seeing the book published by a mainstream house and read by secular readers.
Movies like The Matrix and Atonement don’t qualify as Christian movies, but they contain a shadow of the Gospel, one might argue. In the third movie of The Matrix series, a man’s sacrifice saves a city of survivors from physical death, as opposed to the Son of God’s sacrifice saving the forgiven from spiritual death. In Atonement, an old woman tries to make amends for telling a lie that kept her sister and the man she loved apart by creating a happy ending in fictional form. For the Christian, Christ has done the substitutionary, atoning work for us, once and forever, on the cross.
I am a middle-aged, overgrown child. I can’t wait to see the third installment of The Chronicles of Narnia film series, based on C.S. Lewis’s books. Watch the trailer for “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”:
I rarely blog about celebrities because it seems so, you know, shallow. I make an exception for right-leaning celebrities. In 2008, I put up a post about Republican-registered Hollywood folks like Kelsey Grammer, Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Jon Voight, Pat Sajak, Angie Harmon and her husband Jason Sehorn, former cornerback for the New York Giants, [...]
I wrote this yesterday: Spoiler Warning When I first heard about “The Book of Eli,” my first impression was “must-see.” Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman in the same movie? I’m there. I avoided spoilers, but I remember seeing a headline that the movie was “friendly” to Christians and one calling it offensive or insulting to [...]
I’m an unabashed fan on William Shatner’s portrayal of Captain James Tiberius Kirk on Star Trek. I’d like to appear on his show, taking it easy and talking about the issues. I’m regressing just thinking about it. So cool. Shatner recently interviewed Rush Limbaugh. I don’t listen to Limbaugh as much as I used to, [...]
Creed: I like writing about secular bands whose members call themselves Christians. I perceive they’re trying to remain secular and keep the fanbase, but at the same time, they seek something deeper themselves and/or want to spread subtle messages to fans. I don’t have anything against overtly Christian music per se, but I find tension [...]
You Generation Y types probably have no idea who Scott Baio is, but Gen-X-ers like me should know. Baio was Chachi on “Happy Days” and spin-off “Joanie Loves Chachi,” and Charles on “Charles in Charge.” I just learned this morning, through Jill Stanek, that Baio is pro-life and a conservative. He responded to someone on [...]
Later…A man who killed a 13-week unborn child faces murder charges. Unborn life is only worth protecting if the woman carrying him wants him. Otherwise… The wanted unborn baby is protected under law. The unwanted baby is not. Does that sound right to you? Related: “old” article at Pajamas Media about NYT aborted baby photos. [...]
Update: My bad! I assumed the band only recently got back together, as others have. Not true. Lead singer Corey Glover said, “People need to know we’ve been back together for nine years. This new record should help people get the facts straight.” No, he didn’t tell me personally, but I hope to personally get [...]
A brief interruption, if I may, from blogging about ACORN employees with “contacts” in Tijuana advising a “pimp” and his “whore” how to operate a whorehouse without getting caught and smuggle girls into the country to turn tricks. (And claim the child tax credit!) I developed a weird fascination with how digital technology has changed [...]
If you haven’t read Stephen King’s The Stand, please do. Compelling reading, especially in light of the swine flu. The Stand is about a nasty bug (referred to as “Captain Trips”) that wipes out something like 99 percent of the world’s population, and survivors separate themselves into “good” and evil groups. The book, which I [...]
Perhaps the question isn’t whether a piece of art is “Christian” or even Christian-themed, but whether we can “take joy in God’s material creation, in the colors and sounds and textures and tastes of all the good things he has created,” as Brett McCracken writes in the recently published 
