Film Friday – 2010 in Review One of my favorite holiday films is the comic melodrama Family Stone (2008), the story of a family’s Christmas reunion. Despite their determination to put on a happy front, the family must face up to a number of underlying tensions. Foremost among these is the mother’s terminal cancer, which […]
Monthly Archives: December 2010
Lit and Shared Political Conversations
2010 in Review Politically speaking, 2010 was a loud year for the United States, with many partisan voices in full throttle for much of it. There was also some substance. Here’s a look back. The most cataclysmic event was the January 14 Haitian earthquake, which prompted me to reflect on how literature is always inadequate […]
Posted in Uncategorized Comments closed
Moments of Perfect Being Lie All about Us
2010 in Review The 1981 film science fiction film Escape from New York shows an entire city transformed into a maximum security prison from which no one can leave. Kurt Russell, of course, tries. The 1990 Bill Murray film Quick Change has three bank robbers successfully pulling off a heist in New York and then […]
So You Screwed Up–No Big Deal
Ten members of the Scott Bates clan have gathered in my parents’ Tennessee house, and two more, along with two beagles (Kipling and Beckett), are on their way. While the Christmas festivities have for the most part been joyous, we have had one moment of friction. Luckily, literature came to our aid. I keep the […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged C. S. Lewis, Family, Perfection, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Voyage of the Dawn Treader Comments closed
Inside These Wrappings, a Brighter Life
Spiritual Sunday Yesterday we had a white Christmas in Sewanee, Tennessee, where I am visiting my parents. The world was brown when we went to bed and white when we awoke. The symbolism of Christmas snow lies in the promise of wiping everything clean and starting anew. Grace appears to enter our fallen world. That’s […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Messiah (Christmas Portions), Christmas, James Baldwin, Mark Doty, Music, Religion, Sonny's Blues Comments closed
A Roc for Christmas (Annual Bird Count)
Sports Saturday I don’t know whether bird watching is officially considered a sport but, what with Christmas falling on a “Sports Saturday,” let’s say it is. That way I have an excuse for writing about the annual Christmas bird count. Every year, between the middle of December and the first week in January, bird watchers […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Roc for Christmas", Birds, Christmas, Nature, Scott Bates Comments closed
Our Greatest Christmas Movie
Film Friday It’s Christmas Eve, which gives me an excuse to write about what I consider cinema’s greatest Christmas movie: Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s a Wonderful Life is a variation of the archetypal Christmas story, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Both feature extraterrestrial spirits. Scrooge is shown how the world will become […]
War or Lucasta: Which Is Worthier?
“You are off to blog rather than snuggle with your wife?” asked my wife incredulously as I slipped out of bed trying not to wake her. Which of course brought to mind a poem that I could blog about: To Lucasta, Going to the War By Richard Lovelace Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind, […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "To Lucasta Going to War", Cavalier poets, Honor, love, Richard Lovelace Comments closed
