The second of our Fall Conference videos is here!
Risky Business: Jesus Meets a Control Freak – RJ Heijmen from Mockingbird on Vimeo.
Philip Seymour Hoffman Was Right: A Belated Memorial
When you work too much, you don’t experience events of life so much as you pass them by. The dry cleaning piles up. I need to take those shirts in; I do when I’m down to my last shirt. Without realizing it, the only thing in my refrigerator is a carton of curdled half-and-half and […]
Another Week Ends: Hitch, Facebook Blues, Baby Morality, Auden’s Conversion, M:I4, The Replacements, Gorey Animation, and Knowing Yule
1. By now you’ve no doubt heard that legendary journalist/polemicist/personality/Atheist Christopher Hitchens died yesterday. Hitchens was always my favorite of the New Atheists, and not just because he was the funniest. Alone of his colleagues (and I’m sure he hated being lumped in with anyone!), he seemed to object to the Gospel itself, rather than […]
Mockingbird at the Movies: Days of Thunder and “You’re Out of Control!”
Days of Thunder is such a fun movie. For any who haven’t seen it, it’s Top Gun in race cars. Literally. Despite its therefore necessary fluff and Tom Cruise preening, Days of Thunder has at least one moment of true profundity. Here it is: I would argue with Claire (Nicole Kidman) on one point: I […]
The Batchelorette and "That Guy"
[Disclaimer: I’m a dude. I mean really a dude. I love football, BBQ, and Braveheart. I roll 6’5, 235, but I do watch The Bachelorette with my wife.] Many of us are making our way through the guilty pleasure of The Bachelorette: Season 6. If you have watched a few seasons of The Bachelorette (I […]
Mockingbird at the Movies: Another Top Ten
The Top 10 Sneaky-Good Flops of the ’00s These are movies that “flopped” at the box office (i.e. made less money than was spent to make them). Some were spectacular flops, and some only barely missed making it out of the red. However, I really liked them all. Usually, financial flops that people like are […]
Scientology: The Appeal Is Not So Strange
This has been a tough month to be a Scientologist [ed note: originally posted in Oct 2009, but applies just as much to July 2012]. From the public renunciation by one of its senior members–screenwriter Paul Haggis—, to the interview-gone-wrong viral sensation by its spokesperson Tommy Davis, it seems that the Psychlos are carrying the […]
Mockingbird at the Movies: Frank T.J. Mackey and Magnolia
In the wonderful movie Magnolia (my favorite movie, for those wondering), Tom Cruise plays the incredibly distasteful Frank T.J. Mackey, creator of “Seduce and Destroy,” a system for men to manipulate women into having sex with them. During one of his seminars, he sits down for an interview with a female reporter. She systematically tears […]
