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Idol Chatter

Sure, Thanksgiving is over, but the holiday entertaining season is just beginning. Break out the Yule logs, whip up a bowl of eggnog, bake some gingerbread cookies, and hold the fruit cake. Have trouble getting in touch with your inner Martha Stewart? Don’t worry. Hachette Book Group has provided Beliefnet with 5 sets of books…

In “Milk,” Gus Van Sant’s new political bio-pic starring Sean Penn, there are frames within frames, some of them intended by the filmmaker, some the accidents of history. There is Harvey Milk, played by Penn, talking into a tape deck at his kitchen table, narrating the story we’re watching. Wrapped around that story are the…

The first Sunday of the advent season comes a little early this year, right on the heels of Thanksgiving, and if you are looking for some inspiration to usher in this time of expectation and hope, I have some great books for you to try. For the last few years I have made a point…

In searching for a not wholly traditional Thanksgiving-themed movie for my DVD pick, an often overlooked indie movie from a few years ago quickly came to mind. “Pieces of April” , a film which features a pre-Tom Cruise Katie Holmes playing a frazzled young urbanite making her first Thanksgiving dinner for her estranged family. “Pieces…

Okay, I can hear the cards and letters (or posts) comin,’ because Idol Chatter is usually a generous and congenial part of the Beliefnet blog network, and we usually take a pretty open position in embracing our culture and the arts relative to our faith journeys. But every once in a while, art doesn’t transcend…

A few weeks back I posted about how people are turning to yoga for comfort during the economic downturn. Apparently, now people are turning to psychics for economic advice–predictions about the stock market, that is! Ruth La Ferla reports in her New York Times article, “Love, Jobs & 401(k)s”: On a good day last summer,…

Germany has made no secret of their complete and utter distaste for Scientology in recent years. Last year, government officials dared to ban Tom Cruise from filming on location because of his Scientology affiliation. But that was really only one minor incident in the government’s surveillance and investigation of the organization in an attempt to…

When rock goes up against religion, why does it always start with heavy metal? The New York Times recently reported on an all-girl rock band in Saudi Arabia that has a hit with their song “Pinocchio,” a wail about love gone wrong. They aren’t Muslim rockers, per se, but in the Middle East’s most conservative…

I like blogging for Idol Chatter a lot, especially since it gives me great excuses to go to the movies and watch TV on a regular basis. But I wouldn’t exactly call the experience of posting about themes in pop culture and spirituality online a meditative practice. But some people do. In the article “Haste,…

I recently got the chance to speak to singer Joan Osborne, who–even if you aren’t a fan–you probably know from her hit 1995 single, “One of Us.” [Oh, you know the words: “What if God was one of us/Just a slob like one of us/Just a stranger on the bus/Trying to make his way home.”]…
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