Music and Spirituality | Fr. Basil Cole, O.P.

The Ignatius Insight just published an article from Fr. Basil Cole Music and Spirituality | Fr. Basil Cole, O.P. | Ignatius Insight | Ignatius Insight that is very insightful and very much needed in this Society Gone Madd!  I've read his book Music and Morals which really helped me, he is just awesome.  Now he connects Music and Spirituality to the tune of St Thomas Aquinas - my favorite saint.  Part of spirituality is using your mind, but people today seem to believe whatever they feel is ok.  When music (or any of the arts, I believe) causes feeling a certain way for a prolonged period of time it is bound to have it's effects.  Please consider reading the article (which I think can be applied to all forms of the arts), it may change your life, like his book Music and Morals did mine. 

A Christian at the Movies

First Things has a good article - A Christian at the Movies that chronicles some of the things that have happened in Hollywood to cause it's deterioration.  There is also good information on Dr. Ted Baehr and his MovieGuide web site and Christian Film & Television Commission. The article notes, interestingly, that since around the turn of the century Hollywood has released an average of 33 movies with strong positive Christian content each year.  Though the article questions his rating system, it has some good information to ponder.

An American in Paris - A Refreshing Feeling

I was flipping channels this evening and came across the movie "An American In Paris" and thought I'd seen it before but I never had and right from the beginning of the movie,  from the first notes of music, it just gave me a good feeling.  It made me really realize how much entertainment has devolved.  It is amazing the drastic difference in the past fifty years.  The mid sixties is when the de-evolution started.

The biggest change I felt watching the movie is the quality of music.  I normally am not a big Gershwin fan, but most of the music in the movie was very uplifting to the soul, unlike the music of this day and age.  There has to be something that can be done to re-beautify the music and movies of this day and age.

Speed Racer review

We saw the movie Speed Racer this weekend and it was actually pretty good.  It wasn't as good as the original series in the 1960's but it definitely could have been worse.  It had a relatively good story with the message that cheaters never prosper.  My children (boys 11 & 9) liked it and as I am sure, as most kids, liked the action and didn't care about the story which was kind of confusing at the beginning because they went back to the past, forward to the future, to the present, future, present, past, future, etc.  Boy it got confusing at times, probably too confusing for my 9 year old.  The racing was kind of strange to me, the cars were constantly going sideways, "drifting", and constantly spinning around bouncing and crashing into each other with little or no damage.  But that's what my kids liked.

Get your kids away form the terrible cartoons of this age and get the original version on DVD for them to watch.  The 5 seasons of the original Speed Racer TV series are available here.

     

                      

If you haven't caught the newest in the Speed Racer series, they have been showing Speed Racer - The Next Generation on TV and it is actually pretty good also.  They already have it on DVD if you want to check it out.

Iron Man Review

I saw the movie Iron Man last night with my 11 year old son and he said it was probably better than Spiderman 3. When asked, he said it was basically the effects and action parts that he liked, when I asked him what he thought about the story, he said "Boring, especially at the beginning."

My opinion of it is that I expected a little better movie. The anti-war theme is a bit tiring; can't they come up with anything new instead of the same old propaganda? They give the impression that weapons are bad in anyone's hands instead of the fact that they are bad only in bad peoples hands. They also give the false impression that all weapons contractors sell weapons to both side because they only care about the money and power. Yes, I am sure there are a few contractors that may be like this, working both sides of the fence, but if the exception is always shown as what is the norm, the normal end up getting viewed as being bad when it shouldn't be. It is definitely a great good vs evil message that needs to be heard.

It could be because I am jaded by Hollywood making the same kind of movies all the time. It's all about the money anyway.

Great May for Movies!

May is going to be a great month for movies.  The 2nd of May Iron Man opens.  May 9th Speed Racer begins.  May 16th the next in the Chronicles of Narnia series - Prince Caspian.  May 23rd is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie. 

I do hate it though that they bunch all the good movies together.  It's so much money to go to them all in one month.  After years of only one or two good movies in a whole year I guess I'll take a month of good movies.