We all have our favorite Christmas films, the ones that stir good cheer and remind us of family and home. But what of Advent, the season that culminates in that celebration? What films capture the painful waiting, struggle for peace, and desperation for change that often accompany this period before the joy? Alfonso Cuarón’s violent, R-rated Children of Men (2006) […]
Heck: Beyond the Lines
It’s ridiculous, I know, to suggest the squiggly lines of a comic can make you cry. Or that a story about a man and his mummy investigating a basement gateway to Hell can make you question your identity. [Read More]
Where I Live
Where I live
rivers rise
overwhelm
while rain presses
falling
calling
Be one with us
Be not dry.
[Read More]
After the Wind Rises? (movie review)
When I hear the name Hayao Miyazaki, I think of clouds. Like the kind we see in Cannon Beach on magical evenings after the sun has set, when gold lines our horizon and pink rims giant, puffy pillars. I think of long grass, like on our sand dunes, bending gracefully before mounting winds. And I think of flying images from his films: robots, planes, pig pilots, cat busses, girls on broomsticks, skyscraper-tall gods walking through forests… [Read More]
The ‘Grand Anderson’ Hotel
You’ve heard of hotels where every room offers a different theme, right? Down the coast in Newport, they have one dedicated to great writers. So, with The Grand Budapest Hotel opening, it made me wonder: If Wes Anderson were a hotel, and his movies were rooms, which room would you book?
Emerald City DEA (short fiction)
She stood on the lower deck of the ferry. The wind beat her face and the salt stung her eyes. But she didn’t care: ahead was Seattle. Downtown’s glittering spires rose from brackish water like the tip of a submerged fantasy kingdom. Gulls screeched escort overhead, defying currents, until knifing down and whipping back out of view.
The Death Seeker (Short Fiction)
I live in a land where people come to die. Some intentionally. Some not. Take Phillip Barnes, for example. He drove his ‘95 Jeep Wrangler Sahara away from the city on August 29th. He was bipolar. Had a gun. Left his wallet home. Traffic cams showed him heading our way. No one’s […]
Into Hellfire Via Portland Frost
From the first line, I love this book, and it’s not even the first line but the quote before the first line that jump starts the whole thing. See, it’s Flannery O’Connor.
I’m haunted by O’Connor. This southern woman with pheasants on her farm who died before forty and wrote short stories about serial killers shooting good Christian grandmas and four-year-old boys drowning themselves in baptismal rivers. [Read More]
Surfing Pop Culture: Who Wants the Truth?
Does it even matter anymore that light sabers aren’t real? Or that Lance Armstrong used drugs to win races? Or that Manti Te’o’s dead girlfriend never existed? Or that faith, as the filmed LIFE OF PI suggests, needn’t be based on truth to be valid?
Surfing Pop Culture: Reaching for Smart Noir
JACK REACHER is the rare film that sharpens your senses. Exiting the theater, you find yourself walking brisker, thinking clearer, and having added energy to re-enter your life. You could call it a Red Bull film. Or a Five Hour Energy movie.