Culture Watch
The first time I played Waterdeep's new album for my housemates, they were up and dancing within seconds.
What are my favorite things for listening to, watching, and perusing? Well...
Filmmaker Michael Moore loves to pick at the sores of America's self-delusions, and he's really good at it.
Mohandas K. Gandhi, political liberator of India and Hindu spiritual master, sought to translate Jesus' Sermon on the Mount into a practical political philosophy.
A propensity toward evil within religious communities always provides warning signs, says Charles Kimball, professor, Baptist minister, and expert analyst on the Middle East.
Alcatraz is Not an Island is a powerful documentary (which airs Nov. 7 on PBS)
When this book was published, the Committee to Protect Journalists had just named the West Bank as "the worst place to be a journalist."
I don't usually read memoirs. There are just so many of them out there, and the whole genre seems to have become self-indulgent or uninspired.
Since Sept. 11, country music stations have blared songs like Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." and Aaron Tippin's "Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly"
Spokane Indian Sherman Alexie often snaps "that's personal" during interviews, yet the characters in his books and films closely follow his own life growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation...
Leaving out my all-time favorites Carlos Santana and John Coltrane, whom I've written about for Sojourners, here are a few cultural artifacts I'm currently excited about.
John H. Timmerman's incisive look at poet Jane Kenyon could use a snappier title because, more than a "literary life," it is a quintessential modern American spiritual journey.