Celebrity

Francis Schaeffer on the Problem with Thomas Kinkade’s Optimistic Art
Art / Celebrity / Law / Suffering / Theology

Francis Schaeffer on the Problem with Thomas Kinkade’s Optimistic Art

by Matt Schneider on Jan 19, 2015 • 11 Comments

Several months ago I wrote a post on the well known and now deceased “Painter of Light,” Thomas Kinkade. I addressed Kinkade’s tragic backstory of suffering and how his pain never came through in his I’m-OK-you’re-OK artwork. Most of all I lamented that Christians in particular promote his brand of sentimental artwork because it is safe. What I originally thought would be an obscure post actually got a lot of attention. I was surprised that it struck such a nerve. One redditor called me patronizing: “F*ck Matt Schneider. This piece was condescending and nauseating.”

I don’t usually criticize individual artists and thinkers publically,…

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Kobe Bryant and Urban Meyer – Two Alpha Males Pass in the Night
America / Celebrity / Identity / Sports / Suffering

Kobe Bryant and Urban Meyer – Two Alpha Males Pass in the Night

by Howie Espenshied on Jan 16, 2015 • No Comments

Kobe Bryant and Urban Meyer – two guys at the top of their sports professions earlier this century (both leading their teams to multiple championships) – were in the news these past few weeks. Meyer, of course, on Monday night became only the 8th coach in NCAA history with three or more National Championships.  This was certainly the most improbable of the three as his Ohio State Buckeyes (behind a 3rd string QB) manhandled Oregon by 3+ touchdowns. Meanwhile over at Grantland, Brian Phillips wrote a definitive piece on the downward trajectory of NBA icon Kobe Bryant (h/t DZ).

Prior to…

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Bill Burr, the Boss of Comedians in Cars
Celebrity / Humor / TV

Bill Burr, the Boss of Comedians in Cars

by Matt Schneider on Dec 1, 2014 • 2 Comments

Jerry Seinfeld’s web series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, is now in its fifth season. After four hit-or-miss seasons, the show really is getting better, and Seinfeld had one his most interesting guests recently: Bill Burr. One thing I love about the episode is the chemistry between Burr and Seinfeld. By the end of the episode they literally didn’t want to end it, and neither did I. Plus Burr had some gem riffs/monologues and one-liners. Seinfeld had his share, too.

Something I love about really great comics is that they “get it,” at least implicitly. They’re perceptive about life and human nature, and they are…

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Idols of Nostalgia and the Downfall of Doc Huxtable
America / Bible / Celebrity / Film/Music/TV / News / Theology/Religion / TV

Idols of Nostalgia and the Downfall of Doc Huxtable

by Bryan J. on Nov 25, 2014 • No Comments

It’s hard to cross the Internet these days without reading an update on Bill Cosby’s falling star. As of this writing, a planned NBC comeback sitcom has been cancelled, and other new initiatives (like an ill-conceived social media meme push) have been met with anger and sarcasm. Perhaps most salient: TV Land has quietly stopped airing reruns of The Cosby Show, the sitcom that rocketed Bill Cosby to the national spotlight in the 80s. I missed the golden years of Dr. Huxtable and clan on The Cosby Show, so I’ve been discovering in tandem the tremendous legacy of hope that was Cosby’s acting work…

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Choose Your Own Narrative
Celebrity / Children / Identity / News / Politics / Relationships / Sports

Choose Your Own Narrative

by Stephanie Phillips on Oct 14, 2014 • No Comments

I engaged in a Facebook fight recently. This hasn’t happened in a while. I try to avoid commenting on the status updates and posts that particularly (and regularly) annoy me–not so much out of a sense of honor as an awareness that my blood pressure can’t take it. But when I read a comment posted underneath a friend’s status update–a comment that appeared to defend prosperity preachers and minimize the evil of ISIS in one fell swoop–I couldn’t help myself. I loaded up my verbal ammunition and fired.

For the next several hours, I went back and forth with my virtual…

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Left Hooks in Elevators: Acting on the Anger in Our Hearts
Celebrity / Grace in Practice / News / Relationships / Sports

Left Hooks in Elevators: Acting on the Anger in Our Hearts

by Howie Espenshied on Sep 12, 2014 • 4 Comments

It’s tough to admit this publicly. I’ve kicked the dog a time or two – not recently, but I have struck another living thing out of anger. I think back on that and I cringe, because it feels really dark. It can be terrifying to reflect on a time when I haven’t been able to control my anger. If I were to prioritize the sin tendencies I have in the order of how quickly I want them rooted out of me, vindictive, reactionary anger would be number one. I can’t imagine what it would be like for one of my…

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The Virtue of Irreverence
Celebrity / News / TV

The Virtue of Irreverence

by Stephanie Phillips on Sep 9, 2014 • 3 Comments

I don’t remember the first time I heard Joan Rivers crack a joke, but I’m pretty sure I remember my reaction: shock. And asking whether women were allowed to talk like that–whether people were allowed to talk like that. And, over time, a deepening appreciation for the no-holds-barred humor that perfused everything she ever did.

Writing about Joan Rivers is quite a different animal from writing about Robin Williams. A few weeks ago I did the latter, and the feeling that accompanied that tribute was warmer, more familial. There was a quiet bravery to Williams, and a tenderness that inspired admiration–but…

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Joan Rivers Fought the Law…
America / Celebrity / Fashion / Forgiveness / Grace in Practice / Humor / Identity / Law / News / TV

Joan Rivers Fought the Law…

by R-J Heijmen on Sep 8, 2014 • No Comments

If you’re like me (and I hope you’re not), then the name Joan Rivers meant little more to you than “that horribly plastic old woman who can’t think of anything better to do than provide red carpet snark for E!”. Which is why, as news of her passing spread last week (having occurred during a “minor elective procedure”) it seemed at best trivial and at worst ironic, especially in light of other recent celebrity comic deaths.

And then I saw this video, from April 1967…

… and I had the following thoughts:

1. Joan Rivers used to look like a human being!

2. Wow. She’s really…

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Another Week Ends: Biblical Counseling, Jennifer Lawrence, God Help the Girl, Volunteer Pallbearers, Sly Stone and The Nobodies
Celebrity / Church / Film / Humor / Music / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Biblical Counseling, Jennifer Lawrence, God Help the Girl, Volunteer Pallbearers, Sly Stone and The Nobodies

by David Zahl on Sep 5, 2014 • 1 Comment

1. Over at The Pacific Standard, Kathryn Joyce provides a remarkably thorough look at “The Rise of Biblical Counseling”. It’s a crash course in both the history of conflicted Christian attitudes toward psychotherapy, and, unintentionally perhaps, how those attitudes are perceived by secular elites (i.e. with disdain and/or condescension). She surveys a field which runs the gamut from hardliners who would chalk nearly all mental illness up to sinful behavior (and do untold damage in the process) and more moderate, medication-endorsing voices who have the gall to insist that there may be a spiritual and–gasp!–moral component to certain afflictions, or at least, that we ignore such…

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Mining Netflix: Hook, And a (Final) Farewell to Robin Williams
Celebrity / Film / News

Mining Netflix: Hook, And a (Final) Farewell to Robin Williams

by Joe Nooft on Aug 21, 2014 • No Comments

As suggested in previous articles, I’d encourage you to pull up the film’s soundtrack on Spotify and listen while you read. Listen especially to the song entitled Remembering Childhood. It’s okay to cry.

There is a temptation, encased in sincere sentiment, to claim the work of Robin Williams for the sake of my generation. The kid film portfolio of the 1990’s, a ray of sunshine in film history that Williams often basked in, mentored me, and taught me that it was not only possible but probable for comedy and drama and pain and suffering to gracefully coexist (I wrote about this…

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The Light That Burns Brighter
Celebrity / Psychology / Suffering

The Light That Burns Brighter

by Stephanie Phillips on Aug 18, 2014 • 1 Comment

A few months ago, I wrote here about our society’s inclination toward hero-worship, especially when it comes to celebrities. A fine line exists between admiration and deification these days, and nowhere is that line more apparent than in the countless acknowledgments this past week of Robin Williams’ death. For my part, I can admit that it hit me like a ton of bricks when I read the news on Twitter: RIP, Robin WIlliams, in black and white and fewer than 140 characters. I think I even shook my head, standing there alone, and called out to my husband as I…

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O No, Captain! My Captain!: On the Suicide of Robin Williams
Addiction / Celebrity / Comics / Death / Suffering

O No, Captain! My Captain!: On the Suicide of Robin Williams

by Matt Schneider on Aug 12, 2014 • 6 Comments

In the film Dead Poets Society, Neil Perry, a young prep school boy, goes against his father’s wishes and performs in a school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The father blames the boy’s teacher, John Keating (played by Robin Williams) for Neil’s disobedience, demanding Mr. Keating stay out of the boy’s life. In reaction to the situation, that evening Neil’s father takes him home, telling Neil he plans to enroll him in military school.

Later that night Neil, unable to handle the thoughts of his possible future, takes his own life.

Of course, today this plot holds a bitter irony since one of Robin…

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