57 Channels (and Nothin’ On)
I was watching the Broncos play the Raiders on Sunday afternoon (go Tebow!) when a DirecTV commercial caught my attention. I wasn’t paying much attention until a voice at the end of the ad trumpeted that anyone who signed up now would receive (among other things) 47 premium movie channels for free. Now, my wife […]
Evaluating Our Screen Time
Last week, Common Sense Media published the results of a new survey about young children and how much screen time they’re getting these days. In short, they’re getting a lot of it. Chalk it up to the proliferation of screens of all kinds. Once upon a time, the only flickering pixels attracting eyeballs were television […]
Of Sex and Singing, Part 2
Yesterday I posted on a spat of sorts between Maroon 5’s Adam Levine and American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe over how American Idol and The Voice differ when it comes to handling contestants’ sexuality. I’d like to now add this: Our postmodern culture has relegated all things sexual to the sovereign will of the individual. […]
Of Sex and Singing, Part 1
A little over a month ago, two high-profile folks in the music industry got into an interesting argument about the place of homosexuality in our culture. And I think it’s a conversation that deserves a bit more scrutiny: What it says about our society is pretty telling … though not in the way it might […]
Turning Off the Television
Turn off the TV. That’s the blunt message from the American Academy of Pediatrics to parents of children under the age of 2. And even though the organization has been delivering essentially the same message since 1999, new research in the last 12 years prompted the AAP to reiterate their stance in a statement issued […]
Cutting Loose, Then and Now
It’s easy to get all misty-eyed about the past. After all, we don’t call them the “good ol’ days” for nothing. But memory is a funny thing. And sometimes we don’t remember things quite as clearly as we might think. Nor, for that matter, were the so-called good ol’ days always as “good” as we […]
Having the Courage to Be Preached To
If you’ve tuned in to any kind of Christian media in the last week or so, you probably already know that the latest movie from Sherwood Pictures, Courageous, opens today. I saw the film myself a couple of weeks ago to review it for Plugged In. And when I was done watching it, my overriding […]
Justin and Selena’s Big Date
You’re the most popular 17-year-old on the planet. You want to make an impression on your girl. What do you do? Well, if you’re Justin Bieber, you rent Los Angeles’ Staples Center—that’s right, the 20,000-seat home of the L.A. Lakers—for … an intimate dinner for two. After girlfriend Selena Gomez’s Sept. 23 concert at the […]
Nevermind, 20 Years Later
September 24th marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most influential rock albums of all time, Nirvana’s Nevermind. Kurt Cobain and Co.’s plaintive, searing, brooding, sarcastic, angst-drenched and out-of-tune blast of grunge put a stake in the heart of hair metal, became the theme music for a disenchanted generation and ushered in a sea […]
Angry Birds Does Hitchcock Proud
If you haven’t noticed, hostile avians are everywhere. I’m not talking about the kind Hitchcock made famous, of course. I’m talking about their digital descendants in the wildly popular casual video game Angry Birds. A couple of weeks ago at church, I noticed that one of my 4-year-old son’s friends in the row in front […]