Focus Friday: Adventures in Odyssey—Not Just for Kids Anymore
Almost as far back as I can remember, I’ve been a big fan of radio. One of my earliest radio memories is of me in bed with a small transistor radio, covers pulled over my head, listening to Top 40 hits on a Glasgow, Mont., AM station. Fast-forward in time to my early junior high […]
When $70 Million Looks Cheap
A few months ago, rapper Dr. Dre (aka Andre Young) and Interscope Geffen A&M chairman Jimmy Iovine announced they were giving a very generous $70 million to the University of Southern California. The plan is to set up an entrepreneurship program in hopes of training young people who will create the next big tech […]
T-Pain Tweets the GOSPEL
A couple of days ago, I received a call from my friend Greg Stier, who oversees the Dare 2 Share ministry, one of the leading evangelistic outreaches to teenagers today. One of the ministry’s most eye-catching initiatives is, without question, the video “Life in 6 Words: The GOSPEL.” You can watch it right here. [View:http://youtu.be/Ymfh6RJezQ4:550:0] […]
Was I Put on This Planet to Play?
Recently I ran across an article about video games written by a woman named Jane McGonigal—a gaming expert with a PhD who wrote a book titled Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. Amazon.com described the book this way: With 174 million gamers in the United States […]
Finding Walter While Flying Around the App Store
Maybe you’re among the 4 million folks who’ve viewed the YouTube clip of the one-year-old girl trying to pinch and swipe her way to new visuals by touching pictures in a magazine. [View:http://youtu.be/aXV-yaFmQNk] Judging by comments posted below this popular video, you’d be convinced that quite a few consider it poor parenting to let a […]
How Not to Abuse Your Children (With Movies)
One of the most baffling things to me about parenting in this day and age is the fact that many moms and dads who would take a bullet for their children don’t think twice about “abusing” their kids when it comes to entertainment. I put “abusing” in quotes because culturally we don’t consider it child […]
How ’24’ May Have Changed America
A few weeks ago, I spent a couple of days on the set of a faith-based movie being filmed in Waxahachie, Texas, called Hoovey. If you’re not familiar with Hoovey’s true story, don’t feel bad. I wasn’t either. But I got up to speed quickly. It involves a high schooler with a passion for basketball […]
Short Films, Eternal Impact
One of the entries in my prayer journal is that God will raise up talented young (and older) people to help redeem the arts. By that I mean I’m asking our Creator to give us not more preachers and missionaries (although I ask for that, too), but strongly committed individuals who will use their writing, […]
A Home Run From ‘Dad Matters’
I saw a fantastic post on Focus on the Family’s Dad Matters blog that I want to share with you. It deals with an inspiring movie, Home Run (out tomorrow) and the topic of fatherhood, one of the film’s themes. (I’d love this post even if it wasn’t written by Leon Wirth, my boss here at […]
Roopa Raju, Annika and Not Today
Roopa Raju began working roughly 10 hours a day as a rag picker when she was just a little girl. What’s a rag picker? Well, in India today, many of the 250 million Dalits (formerly called the Untouchables) rummage through the nation’s trash, looking for anything that can be recycled, bartered, eaten or sold. On […]