Steve Thorngate
Night of Hunters, by Tori Amos
While it's hard to imagine many pop artists signing up to
write a song cycle based on the history of classical music, for
Amos—whom Deutsche Grammophon approached with this idea—the project
seems almost inevitable.
4x4, by Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration is a loose collective of a supergroup, primarily a collaboration between Glen Phillips and Sean Watkins.
Mainliners in film
This year's Sundance festival featured several films offering unflattering portrayals of evangelical Christianity. Alison Willmore raises a good question about independent cinema.
Churches and employment law
Today the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments for Hosanna-Tabor v
EEOC, a major case about church exemptions to employment laws.
Wendy Kaminer offers a helpful introduction.
C’mon, by Low
The usually pejorative term slowcore was coined to describe Low's general minimalism and especially the glacial pace at which the Duluth, Minnesota, trio's songs develop....
We Are Rising, by Son Lux
Earlier this year, NPR's All Songs Considered solicited Ryan Lott, aka Son Lux, for an experiment: could he write and record an album in one month? Lott agreed.
Smiley, West and Obama
It's been a while since pals
Tavis Smiley and Cornel West took up the task of challenging President Obama
from his left flank. The talk-show host and the philosopher have taken some
heat for their criticism of the president, notably from political scientist
Melissa Harris-Perry.
Christian unity in Germany
Pope Benedict to the top Lutheran bishop in Germany (paraphrased): Have you heard about these new "evangelicals"? Scary stuff—and they're growing.
The wealthy are not self-made
This week, a former Google
executive asked President Obama to raise his taxes so that more people will
have the chance to succeed as he has. It was nice to hear the president defend
the idea that individual wealth is built in part by collective investment--even if he didn't state it as forcefully as Elizabeth Warren, and even if he mostly
avoided the word "taxes" itself.
Why appeal to conscience when you can misrepresent the church instead?
Candidate John F. Kennedy: If
the time should ever come--and I do not concede any conflict to be remotely
possible--when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or
violate the national interest, then I would resign the office.