Nominees for the 69th Golden Globe Awards

It's the time of the year to go to the movies!  The Golden Globes are just around the corner and the nominees are out.  Unfortunately, I have seen very few films this year.    What films from 2011 do you recommend? 

Best Picture, Drama:
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

Best Picture, Comedy/Musical:
50/50
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Carnage
Midnight in Paris
My Week With Marilyn

Best Actress, Drama:
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Actor, Drama:
George Clooney, The Descendants
Brad Pitt, Moneyball
Ryan Gosling, The Ides of March
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar

Best Director:
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
George Clooney, The Ides of March
Michael Hazavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Best Supporting Actress:
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
Octavia Spencer, The Help
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help

Best Supporting Actor:
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Albert Brooks, Drive
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method
Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Best Actress, Comedy:
Jodie Foster, Carnage
Charlize Theron, Young Adult
Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
Kate Winslet, Carnage

Best Actor, Comedy:
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Brendan Gleeson, The Guard
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 50/50
Ryan Gosling, Crazy Stupid Love
Owen Wilson, Midnight in Paris

TV Series, Drama:
American Horror Story
Boardwalk Empire
Boss
Game of Thrones
Homeland

Best Actor, TV Drama:
Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Kelsey Grammer, Boss
Jeremy Irons, The Borgias
Damian Lewis, Homeland

Best Actress, TV Comedy:
Laura Dern, Enlightened
Zooey Deschanel, New Girl
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Laira Linney, The Big C
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

Best Actor, TV Comedy:
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
David Duchovny, Californication
Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory
Thomas Jane, Hung
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes

Best Actress, TV Drama:
Claire Danes, Homeland
Mireille Enos, The Killing
Julianna Margulies, Good Wife
Madeleine Stowe, Revenge
Callie Thorne, Necessary Roughness

Best Screenplay:
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
George Clooney, Grand Heslov, Beau Willimon, The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxwon, Jim Rash, The Descendants
Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, Moneyball

Best Original Song:
"Hello Hello" (music by Elton John, lyrics by Bernie Taupin), Gnomeo & Juliet
"The Keeper" (music and lyrics by Chris Cornell), Machine Gun Preacher
"Lay Your Head Down" (music by Brian Byrne, lyrics by Glenn Close), Albert Nobbs
"The Living Proof" (music by Mary J. Blige, Thomas Newman, Harvey Mason Jr., lyrics by Mary J. Blige, Harvey Mason Jr., Damon Thomas), The Help
"Masterpiece" (music and lyrics by Madonna, Julie Frost, Jimmy Harry), W.E.

Best Supporting Actor, TV:
Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
Paul Giamatti, Too Big to Fail
Guy Pearce, Mildred Pierce
Tim Robbins, Cinema Verite
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

Best Supporting Actress, TV:
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story
Kelly MacDonald, Boardwalk Empire
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Sofia Vergara Modern Family
Evan Rachel Wood, Mildred Pierece

Best Animated Film:
Rango
The Adventures of Tintin
Puss and Boots
Winnie the Pooh
Arthur Christmas

TV Series, Comedy:
Enlightened (HBO)
Episodes (Showtime)
Glee (FOX)
Modern Family (ABC)
New Girl (FOX)

Best Foreign-Language Film:
The Flowers of War (China)
In the Land of Blood and Honey (USA)
The Kid with Bike (Belgium)
A Separation (Iran)
The Skin I Live In (Spain)

Best Mini-series:
Cinema Verite (HBO)
Downton Abbey (PBS)
The Hour (BBC America)
Mildred Pierce (HBO)
Too Big to Fail (HBO)

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Keller: Reaching your City with the Gospel

Tim Keller talks about the importance of cities throughout history and the biblical call to reach our cities. Unlike any other place, the urban core is a broad collection of culture, innovation, and need.

Here, Keller, gives a biblical theology of the city, how fast they change, and how urban churches should look. This talk encourages us with a redeemed perspective of the “why”, “what”, and “how” of reaching our cities.

This talk was given at Christ+City 2011 held in the very place that I fell in love with the city, Chicago!


Reaching your City with the Gospel from Christ and City on Vimeo.

New Song @ Nobrow: Gospel in Life Conversations

The Gospel in Life Conversations

Join us at New Song @ Nobrow as we discuss Gospel in Life.  Gospel in Life is eight weeks of discussions on the gospel of grace and how it is lived out in all of life—first in our hearts, then in community, and out into the world.   .

Join us on the 2^nd and 4^th Sundays of the month through February (Except for Nov. 27 and Dec. 25) for a short video presentation followed by a time of discussion.

Topics for Discussion:
October 9 - City: The World That Is
October 23 - Heart: Three Ways to Live
November 13 - Idolatry: The Sin Beneath The Sin
December 11 -  Community: The Context for Change
January 8 - Witness: An Alternate City
January 22- Work: Cultivating the Garden
February 12 - Justice: A People For Others
February 26 - Eternity: The World That Is To Come

New Song @ Nobrow meets at Nobrow Coffee & Tea (315 E. Broadway)

Sundays at 6:30 PM

Tim Keller on Churches and Race

Tim Keller on the question of "What do we lose with racially homogenous churches?"

Veritas Forum - Q&A with Tim Keller on the Reason for God

Tim Keller answers questions from Martin Bashir and Columbia's David Eisenbach on the Reason for God at the 2008 Veritas Forum. Check it out!

N.T. Wright on Reading the Bible as a Whole Story

Sufjan Stevens, "Get Real, Get Right"

Sufjan Stevens, "Get Real, Get Right" Live Visual from Deborah Johnson, CandyStations on Vimeo.

What Story is Shaping Our Lives?

"To miss the grand narrative of Scripture is a serious matter; it not simply a matter of misinterpreting parts of Scripture. It is a matter of being oblivious to which story is shaping our lives. Some story will shape our lives. When the Bible is broken up into little bits and chunks — theological, devotional, spiritual, moral, or worldview bits and chunks — then these bits can be nicely fitted into the reigning story of our own culture with all its idols! One can be theologically orthodox, devotionally pious, morally upright, or maybe even have one's worldview categories straight, and yet be significantly shaped by the idolatrous Western story. The Bible loses its forceful and formative power by being absorbed into a more encompassing secular story."

-Al Wolters, Creation Regained, p. 125

Artwork by Makoto Fujimura

http://zondervan.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54fc7cbdb883401538f229b19970b-300wi

For Noelle

Because my 2-year-old daughter is constantly requesting the Avett Brothers live at Bonnaroo 2010 videos, I have decided to put these three, I and Love and You, Laundry Room, and Salina, together here so that they are easily accessible.  Enjoy them Noelle! I hope you all also find as much joy in these as Noelle does!

New Song @ Nobrow presents The Reason for God Conversations

The Reason for God Conversations

Join us at New Song at Nobrow as we discuss some of the major objections to Christianity. On Sunday nights through June 26, we will be viewing and discussing The Reason for God: Conversations on Faith and Life. This is a series of conversations that are helpful for thinking about and processing objections to Christianity.

Each week we will look at one particular objection such as, “Is the Bible a myth?”, “Why does God allow suffering?”, and “How can God be full of love and wrath at the same time?” A discussion of our own will follow the short conversation presented in the video.

New Song @ Nobrow meets at Nobrow Coffee (315 E. Broadway) on Sunday nights at 6:30 PM.

NS@N is a ministry of New Song Presbyterian

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Introducing...Luke Justice Peach!

Melissa and I are happy to announce the arrival of our son, Luke Justice Peach!  Luke was born on Monday, May 16, 2011 at 1:00 PM.  He weighed in at 7 lbs. 9 oz. and 21 in.  All of us are doing well as we take on this exciting new transition!  We have already experienced the grace and kindness of God through our friends, our family, and our church family.  In the midst of it all we are being reminded of God's goodness and love.

Woody Allen, Relationships, and Why Film Matters

My frequent conversations over coffee with one particular friend of mine almost always equate to talking about the latest films we have seen. The conversations often move toward talking about some of the films that we have placed in the category of “all-time best films.” However, the films that we most often end up coming around again and again to are films by Woody Allen.


For many reasons Allen’s films have made their mark on us both. Perhaps it is the way that Allen’s films touch the human heart stirring it to wrestle with love and loss, happiness and sadness. Perhaps it is the way that Allen beautifully portrays the vastness of human relationships with all of the highs and lows as he so wonderfully did with Annie Hall (1977). Perhaps Allen’s films have impacted us because of the various ways he makes us laugh with humor that is sometimes melancholy as in Sweet and Lowdown (1999) or incredibly quirky as in Play It Again, Sam (1972). Or perhaps Allen has marked us with his films because of the ways his self-absorbed characters who over-analyze everything remind us of our own humanity.

On more than one occasion my friend and I have failed to come up with the one film that we agree is his finest. Sometimes I am quick to say Annie Hall, but just then Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” pops into my head, and Allen’s ode to the city, Manhattan (1979), seems to me to be Allen at his best.

In recent years, Allen has shifted his attention from his beloved New York to Europe. Match Point (2005), which was set in London, was Allen’s incredible introduction to his new found continent. Later he would take a journey over to Spain for Vicki Cristina Barcelona (2008). And now, this spring, Midnight in Paris. While, this film opened the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, I wait for it with anticipation.

One of the biggest reasons for my excitement about Midnight in Paris is not just the film itself but what kind of conversations it might generate and what kind of human camaraderie the film might inspire even if it ends up missing the high mark of a Manhattan or Match Point. See, I realized something while attending a film class during my first year of college. For the first time it became real to me that good cinema and good art in general does something to us as humans. It brings our own humanity to the surface and we can't help but to share the experience with somebody else.

Great film, like any great art, when humanly engaged can move us with laughter, crush us with sadness, and inspire us with hope. Many films have had a vivid effect on me, lasting sometimes for hours after I’ve watched it. Sometimes the impact lasts for days, and many times, years. But what is often the most meaningful is when the impact from a film can be shared by another, in relationship. What I have began to realize, more and more, is that well beyond the theater, film matters!


Check out the Film Comment interview with Woody Allen here.

For your anticipation, Kent Jones' review of Midnight in Paris can be found here.

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IAM Conversations: Sara Zarr

Author Sara Zarr was interviewed by Christy Tennant over at IAM Conversations. Check out the interview here. 

Sara is the author of three novels for young adults: Story of a Girl (National Book Award Finalist), Sweethearts (Cybil Award Finalist), and Once Was Lost (a Kirkus Best Book of 2009, Utah Book Award winner, INSPY winner).  He fourth young adult novel, How to Save a Life, is due to be released in October.

She also writes short fiction and essays which have appeared in Image Journal as well as various other places. 

Sara is a fantastic writer and all around awesome person!  Check out her work and visit http://www.sarazarr.com/.

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New Song @ Nobrow Featured in byFaith Magazine

New Song @ Nobrow is featured in the cover story of the current issue of byFaith Magazine. Check out the article Extending Grace to Wary Skeptics: How a Utah Church Seeks its Guarded Neighbors.


Thanks to Nobrow Coffee for not only serving Salt Lake City's finest coffee, but for the hospitality that you have show us!

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James K.A. Smith Interview

Calvin College Professor James K.A. Smith was interviewed on WGVU's Common Threads about his book Letters to a Young Calvinist: An Invitation to the Reformed Tradition.  Check out part 1 here and part 2 here.   
In these interviews Smith addresses how there is a lack of understanding of Calvinism for many who are fixated on the doctrines of election and predestination and see these as what defines the system of doctrine. Rather, these doctrines flow out of the core of the tradition which is that God is gracious and that we are saved by his initiative.  He also addresses the pride and arrogance found among many who embrace the Reformed tradition and how this is utterly ironic since the theological system is based on grace.

Smith also talks about how he is seeking to bridge the English and Scottish stream (Westminster tradition) and the Continental stream (Dutch Reformed) of this tradition.   His vast experience among many traditions including the Pentecostal tradition has informed him in ways that I think are very helpful for all of us. He points out ways that the Pentecostal tradition can inform the Reformed tradition.  Furthermore, Smith addresses the issue of tradition and points out that the Reformed tradition is indebted Augustine. 

Smith states that one of his purposes with this book is that people would come away with a sense of generosity toward one another. What about you?  In what ways have you been influenced in your generosity toward others through involvement with different cultural or religious traditions? 

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