First Things RSS Feed - Travis LaCouter

Weird Lessons from Macbeth

Mon, 05 Oct 2015 00:00:00 -0400

Justin Kurzel’s new film adaptation of Macbeth benefits from gorgeous cinematography and a highly effective—even overpowering—soundtrack. The scenery and costumes are luscious without seeming showy, and the whole production moves along at a neat clip, clocking in at just over one hundred minutes.

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The Spiritual Discipline of the Club Sandwich

Mon, 11 May 2015 15:30:00 -0400

There is, of course, something tiresome about those people who only ever order the same thing at restaurants. It can evidence a striking lack of originality and even a childish attachment to things that are known. Which makes all the more awkward my confession that I am one of those people who usually orders the same thing in restaurants, though not, I hope, for bad reasons.

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Picturing Mary, Seeing Satan

Tue, 17 Feb 2015 12:08:00 -0500

Washington, D.C.’s National Museum of Women in the Arts has since December hosted an exhibit focused on the Virgin Mary. Boasting works by Italian masters like Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Titian as well as many gems by lesser-known artists, Picturing Mary portrays the Holy Mother as Queen of Heaven, embodiment of the Church, Christ’s sorrowful mother, and comforter to the faithful. These works taken together beautifully illustrate the rich variety of roles Mary plays in the lives of the faithful and the universal power her image still holds.

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Birdman’s Sly Metaphysics

Mon, 10 Nov 2014 12:26:00 -0500

There’s a uniquely delicious scene about halfway through Alejandro González Iñárritu’s most recent film, “Birdman: Or, the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance.” Michael Keaton’s Riggan Thomson, a washed up former action hero film star trying to gain respectability on Broadway, lays into a cold-blooded theater critic from the Times deadset on torpedoing his play before she’s even seen it. Riggan explodes: “everything is labels to you,” he spits out, denouncing the safety and shallowness of her erudite hit-piece. Too many adjectives, not enough nouns, Riggan asserts. This disdain for “labels” is a theme: one of the first things the audience sees in the film is a placard on Riggan’s dressing room mirror that reads: “A thing is a thing, not what is said about that thing.”

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Cleaning Up the Bible

Fri, 25 Jul 2014 12:52:00 -0400

A California book designer is cleaning up the Bible. By removing unsightly chapter and verse designations, striking footnotes and cross-references, and using thicker paper stock, Adam Greene is hoping to present the Bible as a piece of literature rather than a encyclopedic compendium. Greene, a faithful Christian, undertakes this project ( Bibliotheca , as he calls it) for anyone who wants to “enjoy the biblical library anew, as great literary art.”

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Seinfeld’s Comedy of Custom

Thu, 26 Dec 2013 00:00:00 -0500

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Buzzfeed as a Cultural Battleground

Thu, 29 Aug 2013 00:00:00 -0400

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In Praise of Catholic Studies

Mon, 24 Jun 2013 10:50:49 -0400

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