A few weeks ago, cultural critic and jazz musician Ted Gioia wrote a must-read essay that lays out today’s dismal cultural situation. His thesis: “2024 may be the most fast-paced—and dangerous—time ever for the creative economy.” Continue Reading...
Latest Posts
April 18, 2024
Civil War: A Shallow and Dangerous Fantasy
The new film Civil War may want to be edgy, timely, even thoughtful, but it has nothing to offer beyond surface-level thrills, which makes its grisly portrayal of war feel more like a romanticization of the worst in humans than a warning against it. Continue Reading...
April 17, 2024
Is Apple a Monopoly?
We all know that person who always seems to have the latest Apple gadget. In many ways, Apple products have become a status symbol. While there is a dedicated and loyal group of Apple fans who believe there are no other options and those who view these products as an external signal to the world that they are superior, most of us consider an array of factors when deciding which products to buy or streaming service to select. Continue Reading...
April 16, 2024
The Religious Ransom of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
I’ve watched hundreds of westerns over the years, and 48 years ago even wrote my doctoral dissertation on the politics of the genre from 1948 to 1962. I wasn’t surprised when movie watcher Hannah Long early this year called The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) the best western ever made: John Ford’s film makes the top 10 on just about everyone’s list. Continue Reading...
April 12, 2024
“Saint Christopher”: Hitch at 75
He would, of course, have blanched—or barfed—if you had ever addressed him that way (probably the only blasphemy he’d refuse to utter). Yet is it really any more outlandish than the conversations we had about another adamantly avowed atheist? Continue Reading...
April 11, 2024
The Campus Free Speech Wars Begin at Home
At the Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills, I recently attended the premiere of a new documentary, co-produced by Substack and FIRE, that attempts to explain the mental health crisis facing college students in America. Continue Reading...
April 10, 2024
Beyoncé and the Neglected Downtrodden
Given that contemporary pop music is stagnant, Beyoncé’s country-inspired album Cowboy Carter was bound to be something of a sensation. Its chief significance is not aesthetic—the recordings are simultaneously too slick and underdeveloped. Continue Reading...
April 09, 2024
Man and Machine in World War II
Tom Hanks was the moral conscience of America in the ’90s, so far as Hollywood was concerned, and audiences largely concurred, because he’s like a new Jimmy Stewart: he exudes moral integrity and childlike innocence. Continue Reading...
April 03, 2024
Winston Churchill: His Histories and History
My library, a relatively small one by university standards, has over 150 books dealing with Winston Churchill, one of the Big Four of World War II, which included FDR, Stalin, and Hitler. Continue Reading...
April 02, 2024
Sigmund Freud, C.S. Lewis, and a Great Madness
Ambiguity is, in a neat mental onomatopoeia, a difficult word to define. But to begin to understand a piece of art like the film Freud’s Last Session, define it we must, and religious artists would do well to try to understand the film. Continue Reading...
