Archive for the ‘music and film’ Category

Leave me alone

I am not one for following celebrities. I find the scene irritating and shallow. Not to mention fickle. Today’s darlings are tomorrow’s sources of mockery. Elevated or torn to shreds by tabloid one-liners. Airbrush or not to airbrush? Depends on whether people love to love them or love to [...]

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Dig it

We recently acquired Nick Cave’s new album “Dig Lazarus Dig”. I found it somewhat jarring at first. I think I prefer Cave’s ballads – to me they best suit his sultry voice and brooding subject matter. But I have to say it is growing on me. And once again he [...]

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Thy will be done

I have just finished watching Capote.  A disturbing film on many levels.  The moment that has prompted this post is disturbing indeed, the final moments of a killer’s life before he himself dies at the hands of another.  A priest prays strongly as the fearful yet calm man’s face is shielded in black and the [...]

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Lest we forget

We have had a German theme to our tv viewing since Christmas. My brother-in-law gave us the documentary “Hitler’s Medics” – a gruelling insight into German science – thorough, dispassionate, and in some cases, utterly horrifying. Some of their research and findings gained from Jewish victims is influential today, and brutally raises [...]

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U2 can be a prophet…

In biblical times the prophet was a weird beast – someone who dined on locusts and wild honey, dressed in the skins of wild animals (if they dressed at all), someone whose peculiar actions made people stand up and take notice as they communicated God’s messages to His people. I believe God still speaks [...]

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Everything is illuminated

Last night I hired the movie "Everything is Illuminated" starring Elijah Woods of "Lord of the Rings" fame. To be honest, I struggled for a fair while to get the baleful image of Frodo out of my mind. However, the lack of hairy feet, no long locks of hair and and the absence [...]

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God is in the house

On the weekend I read an interesting article in The Age (Saturday's A2) called "Digging to the soul", by Chris Fotinopolous. He quotes Nick Cave as saying "God deserved much better than what He has been getting". A bit of a sad indictment on Christian music, yet something about it resonates truth for [...]

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Hotel Rwanda

I have just finished watching Hotel Rwanda on DVD. I am overwhelmed by the horror of it. The senselessness of slaughter resulting from colonially orchestrated racial tension. The exodus of many Westerners, including the ministers of religion. The apparent impotence of the rest of the world, bystanders.. One comment hit [...]

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The case of the missing Beatles box

The Beatles had enjoyed superstardom long before I had any inkling of their existance. I have vague memories of playing "We all live in a yellow submarine" on my recorder at school, but that sums up my early Beatle recollections.
Lennon was assassinated on the 8th of December 1980, but I can't recall it happening. [...]

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Narnia

This afternoon I went to see Narnia. It was probably not as good as I had anticipated, as far as big block-buster special effects movies go. The lion was not always believable, and it didn't feel other-worldly enough for the vividly imagined Narnia of my childhood. The children acted fairly well, certainly [...]

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