Tonight’s the night! The classic animated Halloween PEANUTS special, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” is on tonight, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.
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The Original McFly
“Back to the Future” is an iconic 80’s film. It launched Michael J. Fox’s movie career, which only went downhill after this first movie. “Back to the Future” was the most successful movie he ever made.
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Voice of Rudolf Passes Away
Her name was Billie Mae Richards, and her 1964 performance as the voice of Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer has been a Christmas tradition for millions for nearly 50 years. She died today at her home near Toronto, Canada. She was 88 years old. Read the report here. RIP.
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New Ken Burns Documentary on Baseball
I just heard that Ken Burns has a new documentary on baseball that will be airing on PBS later this month. According to PBS’s website, it’s a two-part, four-hour documentary titled “The Tenth Inning,” and it comprises a new chapter in Burns’s Emmy-winning 1994 series titled “Baseball.” This latest chapter tells “the tumultuous story of the national pastime from the 1990s to the present day. Introducing an unforgettable array of players, teams and fans, the film showcases the era’s extraordinary accomplishments and heroics – as well as its devastating losses and disappointments.” There’s a trailer that you can view on PBS’s website. It’s set to air September 28 & 29…
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Hollywood vs. the Heartland
Robert Duvall recently sat for an interview with Christianity Today. I found this exchange to be pretty interesting: CT: Why do you think Hollywood has a tendency to mock Christians and preachers? Duvall: Well, it’s not just Christians. I mean, I’m a Christian. But they mock the interior of the United States of America, the heartland. They don’t go out of their way to understand what’s really there. I think his analysis is remarkable. It’s the “heartland” that Hollywood likes to lampoon, not just heartland religion. He sees the real divide to be a cultural one, not a merely a religious one. This observation is correct so far as it…
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Culture War at the Movies
Christopher Benson notes at the First Things blog that the culture wars have entered the American cinema. Below are four trailers of new movies covering the topics of same-sex “marriage,” Darwinism, and evangelical scandal. Besides being expressions of the current culture war, there is something else that these movies have in common. It appears that all of them come down on the side of the secular left on each of these issues. This is not surprising for Hollywood, but it is nevertheless a sign of the times (1 Chronicles 12:32).
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First Baptist Meets Lenny Kravitz… Literally!
On June 25, the youth choir from FBC Lewisville, Texas was in New Orleans doing an open-air performance of Lenny Kravitz’s song “Fly Away.” Guess who happened to be nearby, heard them singing, and came over and joined them? You guessed it. Lenny Kravitz himself. The whole thing was caught on video and posted to YouTube (see above). The Dallas Morning News has a report on the encounter. This never happened on any of the church choir tours I went on in high school. But then again we weren’t singing Lenny Kravitz songs!
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The Final Act of Lost
The “Lost” finale was pure genius. I say this with no hyperbole. It was the best ending to the best show in the history of television. In my last post, I had two predictions about the final act: (1) good and evil will be sorted out, and (2) someone important will have to die. Both of those predictions were born-out in the finale. Good and evil were embodied in Jacob and his nameless brother, and their epic conflict finally came to an end in the battle between Jack and “Locke.” When Jack killed “Locke,” the good finally prevailed. Someone important did have to die in order to save the island.…
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Jennifer Knapp on Larry King
The singer will appear on “Larry King Live” tonight along with Clay Aiken, Ted Haggard and others. Here’s Mark Moring’s report on one of CT’s blogs:
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Country Music, and Antinomianism
The Towers recently interviewed Russell Moore about his love of country music. It’s a fascinating piece, and you should read it. I thought one exchange was particularly insightful and prophetic: Towers: Americans are said to live within a contradiction in which a deep religiosity exists alongside a fairly pronounced ethical Antinomianism and many see country music as reflecting that paradox. Do you agree with that? Moore: Yes, but I don’t think it’s American, I think it’s Southern Baptist. Most of the country music that we hear is coming from a person who has either been redeemed through a Southern Baptist version of Christianity or damned by a Southern Baptist version…