Entertainment

Some advice from Slate for the next time you're a guest on The Colbert Report:

Act your age.
Laugh uproariously.
Embrace the theater.
Go on the offensive.

From an article of the same title by Ricardo Baca in the Denver Post:

Much of Christian music's integration into the pop culture mainstream comes via the rockers who happen to be Christian - as opposed to the Christian rockers who wear their faiths on their sleeves and crosses around their necks. Each group of musicians is writing about what makes them tick, but one crafts its art with more subtlety, yet its intentions are never fully hidden by metaphor.

Is it a conversion tool? Or is it simply art? Indie rockers from Dave Bazan (Pedro the Lion), Jeremy Enigk (The Fire Theft, Sunny Day Real Estate), Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel) and Sufjan Stevens have developed secular followings regardless of their faiths - and it's not always an easy road with certain listeners turned off by any mention of a god. Which is where Page France comes in. The Maryland band's music is soft and sweet, melodic and melancholy, literate and lush - and heavily laced with Christian symbols, ideals and history.

"David Bazan from Pedro the Lion won't even say he's a Christian because of what (evangelical Christianity) has come to mean culturally," said Beaujon. "Part of the cost of the political polarization is that Christianity has become a really loaded term, and it's hard for people to reconcile the basic fact that rock 'n' roll came out of the church."

Many bands, including The Fray, who hail from Denver and are enjoying nationwide popularity, purposefully avoid religious issues in their music regardless of their devout faith. Other musicians' message is a baseball bat to the head. Then there are those in the middle - Page France, Stevens, Bazan & Co. - whose moderate approach leaves them scrutinized from both sides. "Dave Bazan has been pigeonholed, and I worry about Page France in the same sense," said Lewis. "Here's a band that makes beautiful music. They're just being sincere, but when you go into a public sphere, you have to be ready to deal with that."

Though I've always been an avid fan of music, I've never been an avid listener to contemporary Christian music. Pedro the Lion and Neutral Milk Hotel are two of my favorite bands ever. I listened to Page France on myspace. It sounds OK.

Last Wednesday I finished watching this documentary. From the film's page on HBO's web site:

Daniel Pearl and Omar Sheikh were both highly educated individuals from privileged backgrounds who saw the world very differently. Pearl was a humanist who became an accomplished journalist and spent most of his career reporting from the Muslim world as part of a quest to promote cross-cultural understanding. Sheikh was radicalized by events that he regarded as the global persecution of Muslims, and became an Islamic militant who chose a deeply violent method to achieve what he believed in. After 9/11, their paths crossed in Pakistan, with tragic consequences.

I remember hearing about Daniel Pearl at the time of his kidnapping and murder. I didn't realize that he was purchased from his original kidnappers by another group that filmed his murder and left his body for the original kidnappers to dispose of. Of course, this is a very sad story. I give the film 4 out of 5.

According to an article on Slate.com, the British TV comedy Saxondale is coming to America in Americanized form. Feeling un-hip because the first time you saw the The Office was on NBC? This is your chance to get ahead of the curve by watching the British Saxondale on BBCAmerica before it gets Americanized for the US TV market. This will be the third British show that I enjoyed that later on came to the US in mutated form. The first two were The Office (of course) and Teachers. I didn't even bother to watch the Americanized Teachers (which lasted only 6 episodes) because I thought the British version was kind of marginal itself. I'm still waiting for the Americanized versions of Shameless, The Catherine Tate Show, The Robinsons, Little Britain, The Kumars at No. 42, Waterloo Road, Love Soup, The Thick of It, The Street...or even seasons 2 through 4 of the British Teachers.

Heroes seems to be all the rage. I gave up on it after a few weeks, but maybe I'll try to get caught up. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was rumored to be on the verge of cancellation. NBC says that, on the contrary, three additional episodes have been ordered...but it does seem like the show may be not long for this world. (All of this Studio 60 news via Slate's "Today's Blogs" column.)