King of Cups: Rereading Tim Powers’s “Last Call”
Fantasist (and mackerel-snapper, if we’re counting) Tim Powers does high-concept tales in which hard-bitten characters struggle to learn to love one another and escape complex, unforgiving systems of...
View ArticleThe Mask of Obedience
Last year I wrote this really scattershot, unsatisfying post about “The Beauty of Obedience,” rescuing obedience as a positive term and a category you’re allowed to care about. I recognize that that...
View ArticleMusical Rosary #6–Agony in the Garden
He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will.”This one’s really short and straightforward...
View ArticleA 1987 of the Heart: I Rewatch “Less Than Zero”
…because of course I do.So this used to be on Netflix streaming, but I didn’t tell you about it then, because what am I, your butler? Anyway, you can still get it through Netflix Delayed Gratification....
View ArticleMusical Rosary #15–The Crowning of Mary, Queen of Heaven
A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.This mystery takes me back to what I said about the Scourging at...
View ArticleFrom St John of Kronstadt
Unfortunately, the Devil shelters himself behind us, and conceals himself, whilst we are blind, and, thinking we are doing everything of ourselves, begin to stand up for the Devil’s works as if they...
View Article“The Man Who Ate Liberty Valance”: I’m at AmCon
on Ravenous, a cannibal Western with a Looney Tunes win-by-losing climax–yes, I loved it:1999′s Ravenous turns up on a lot of lists of underrated horror movies. It’s hard to get people to take you...
View ArticleAltFem Magazine Launch Party: I’m There! Tomorrow!
I’m on the first panel at this conference/party to launch “an online magazine that seeks an inclusive definition of feminism that resonates with women of faith.” Uh, I’m not actually a feminist, but I...
View ArticleIt’s Called AltFem, Not CtrlFem: An Eccentric Report
Yesterday I went to the launch of AltFem, a new magazine from the people who brought you AltMuslimah and AltCatholicah, which explores the intersection of feminism and what I suppose we must call...
View ArticleFrom “Infinite Jest”
Exec. Director [of Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House (sic)] Pat M. is due in at 0900 and has application interviews with three people, 2F and 1M, who better be showing up soon, and Gately...
View ArticleA Church Home: Tim Otto’s “Oriented to Faith: Transforming the Conflict Over...
Tim Otto is a dude who believes gay marriages can be biblical and fully in line with what God wants for a couple, but he has taken a vow of celibacy as a way of living out obedience to his church and...
View ArticleOOF! Some Thoughts on the “Owning Our Faith” Video on LGBT Catholic Life
A few people have asked why I decided to participate in “Owning Our Faith,” and my thoughts on the trailer for the film. Here you go!1. What’s been released is a trailer for a longer film. The...
View Article“Obedience School”: Brian Dewan’s Utter Brilliance
a window into my id?Click here to view the embedded video.via Simone R, back in 1993. Oh those bygone days!
View ArticleFrom Jean-Pierre de Caussade, “Abandonment to Divine Providence”
For example, let’s take a piece of stone destined to be carved into a crucifix or a statue. We might ask it: “What do you think is happening to you?” And it might answer: “Don’t ask me. All I know is...
View Article“Last Year’s Horror Cornucopia: Suffering in Style”: I’m at First Things
every Halloween is self-parody Halloween:Last night I watched The Final Girls, Todd Strauss-Schulson’s 2015 slasher parody about mourning. It’s charming, touching, and mostly successful—and a great...
View ArticleFrom Hans Fallada, “Wolf Among Wolves”
One nice thing about reading so much Hans Fallada (for an upcoming review/profile) is how often I think, “Okay, that sounds a lot worse than right now.” But then there are moments like this exchange,...
View Article“Love and Death in the Multiverse”: I review “Constellations”
for AmCon. Sorry for radio silence! I will be back after Easter. Also this play closes THIS WEEKEND so most Catholics who haven’t seen it won’t–I fail at service journalism–but in case a review is...
View ArticleReading, ‘Riting and Repentance: Some Notes from the Festival of Faith and...
at Calvin College. This was a blast, guys. Here are some semi-cleaned-up excerpts from my notes. I don’t need a literary agent. I need a literary patient. This is a great poem. “The wall comes down.”...
View ArticleMasochism, Macbeth, Mayors, Marvel and More: My May Movie… Notes.
Missives? Anyway. The Duke of Burgundy: Lush flick about two butterfly researchers and their dominance/submission relationship. Some early scenes made me wonder if this would be about attention as...
View ArticleUnchosen Blessings: Gay Celibacy and Unplanned Pregnancy
Someone who knows I volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center sent me a recent article from Medicine Anthropology Theory, “Blessing unintended pregnancy: Religion and the discourse of women’s agency in...
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