Celebrity

A Life of Aching Beauty: Vincent van Gogh as Preacher, Failure, and Painter
Art / Celebrity / Psychology / Religion / Suffering

A Life of Aching Beauty: Vincent van Gogh as Preacher, Failure, and Painter

by Michael Nicholson on Feb 25, 2015 • 2 Comments

Originally posted on Tides of God.

PART I: FALL

Undergrowth with Two Figures is the only Van Gogh painting I have seen in real life. Several times my wife and I have sought it out on visits to the Cincinnati Art Museum. It is not one of Van Gogh’s well-known paintings. The work was completed during his almost manic period of productivity from May to July 1890 when Vincent turned out nearly one hundred paintings and drawings in the last seventy days of his life. Undergrowth with Two Figures is an island of peace in sea of turmoil. Van Gogh biographer Philip…

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Ethan Hawke on Acting Out the Death of Self
Celebrity / Film / Identity

Ethan Hawke on Acting Out the Death of Self

by Joe Nooft on Feb 16, 2015 • No Comments

The tenable success of independent films in an industry dominated by major Hollywood productions has become a hot topic as the 87th Academy Awards make their approach. The pulse of this conversation exists entirely because of two names: Wes Anderson and Richard Linklater. With six Oscar nominations between the two of them just this year, and eleven all time, Anderson and Linklater have become the godfathers of the indie family, maturing the clan into planet Hollywood’s lunar necessity.

The praise is proper, but not necessarily sought; at least not in the same way that, say, George Lucas sought success after 1977. Setting up…

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On Stages and Sincerity
Celebrity / Fashion / Film / Identity / TV

On Stages and Sincerity

by Stephanie Phillips on Feb 3, 2015 • No Comments

I have always beheld celebrity culture with a varying mixture of admiration and disdain, and both of those reactions are kicked into high gear during January and February, or what the industry regards as the culmination of awards season.

Just as the divinely-drenched (or -devoid, depending on preference) holiday weeks come to an end, Hollywood begins a series of convocations at hotels, theaters, and convention centers (and one attempt at beach-swept nonchalance) aimed at recognizing and rewarding the creative entities behind film and television. In other words, they congratulate themselves for all they’ve accomplished over the past year, and we common…

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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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