Maurice Broaddus's Blog, page 60

S. Darko – A Review

It’s difficult to make sequels of certain movies, especially movies which don’t need a sequel. Movies that had their own magic, where everything came together to create a special moment, for example, E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial. Then there are movies that seem like a sequel could be made, to continue the adventures of their characters, yet sometimes even those sequels prove tricky (Blues Brothers 2000 springs to mind).

Donnie Darko is more like the former. Richard Kelly's cool cult phenomena

The Uninvited - A Review

“The Uninspired”

The Uninvited is one of those kind of horror movies that leaves me frustrated. It’s a time worn premise that could still be mined for something interesting, which languishes on the screen. It has the trappings of a horror movie, some requisite boo moments and random creepy visions, which don’t really add up to a sustainable atmosphere. When it’s not pretending to be a horror movie, it’s half a thriller, in the vein of the 90s cautionary movies such as Fatal Attraction, Pacific

Mo*Con IV: In Absentia

What connections do you see between Spirituality and ... Horror?

We've talked about scary stuff before. Way back in 2007, we published an interview with Bible scholar Marcus Borg, who is an insatiable fan of character-driven mystery novels, but we've rarely returned to the topic. We are aware that mysteries and scary stories in general are very popular with religious men and women. A number of famous religious writers, including C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton, dabbled in both faith and fright.

Plu

Mo*Con IV: The Story of (My) Christianity Part II

(Continued from Part I)

There are two kinds of writers: those who can sit down in front of their keyboards or with their pad and pen and simply start writing, letting the story and characters go where they go. I hate them. I’m the other kind, the ones who outline because we have to know where the story is going or else we’d get lost. Me viewing my life through the lens of a writer had implications on how I viewed the Bible. I started to read it as a storybook, a collection of stories. The st

Mo*Con IV: The Story of (My) Christianity Part I

Faith hasn’t always come easily to me. I’ve always been intellectually curious, things had to make sense for me. I’m trained as a scientist because I’ve always been about searching for answers. For truth. But it’s also why I don’t hold to a “everything can be explained in nature” sort of worldview. Facts only take you so far. You can assent to a set of facts, but you can’t disprove my faith with facts. You can’t argue someone into faith with facts. Plus, facts equal certainty and certai

Mo*Con IV: My Atheism Part II

(Continued from Part I)

I didn’t become an atheist because I was mad at God. You can’t be mad at someone that doesn’t exist. I didn’t become an atheist because some tragedy befell me that made me turn my back on religion and deny the existence of God like some sort of grudge. If I was mad at God I wouldn’t deny his existence because if God doesn’t exist than he’s not responsible for anything. God’s only excuse is that he doesn’t exist. That would be like denying the existence of Hitler because I

Mo*Con IV: My Atheism Part I

By Wrath James White

Good afternoon, my friends. I’d like to first thank Maurice for inviting me here and thank you all for welcoming me. My name is Wrath James White and I am a humanist, an atheist. As Maurice’ll tell you, I am about as passionate in my disbelief as he is in his belief.

Let me begin by explaining what atheism is. Atheism, simply put, means not believing in any god or gods. There’s a quote made popular by Richard Dawkins: "We are all atheists about most of the gods that societie

Mo*Con IV: Twittered

· T-minus 6 hours before I pick up my first mo*con arrival (yeah, a few come in early). this thing will become all mo*con all the time then.9:59 AM May 14th

· At airport, waiting, with great anticipation & trepidation, on @kellidunlap. She has a "special" greeting for me.4:07 PM May 14th

· *OW*4:45 PM May 14th

· And now I've whisked @kellidunlap off to a magic: the gathering tournament.6:03 PM May 14th

· And now to be greeted by @aletheakontis ...10:15 PM May 14th

· *OW* 4:45 PM May 14th

· Sudd

I'm Not Talking About Mo*Con IV ... (5/22/09 update)

Once again, there's no easy way to describe Mo*Con so go read Kelli Dunlap's blog summary.


or

Bob Freeman's summary

Tom Piccirilli’s The Brotherhood of Inspiration

Brian Hatcher's summary

Kevin Lucia's reflections

or from a fan perspective:

Sheryl Hugill's summary

Tony Tremblay's summary (through which you can almost entirely relive the con. wow.)

I have posted:
-A sample of what Mo*Con looked like on Twitter
-Wrath's sermon on atheism
-The Story of My Christianity
-The awards given in absentia (including

Star Trek

“All that you know is wrong”

Long time comic book readers are used to the idea of a history reboot. After all, characters like Superman, Batman, the Fantastic Four, and X-Men have been around for decades and as such, have accumulated a long, entangled history that makes it difficult for a newcomer to just jump into the books. There are two common ways around this dilemma: start a new book, possibly in a new universe, with familiar though not exact continuity, ala the Ultimate line (Ultimate Sp