Tim DeRoche's Blog, page 2
August 26, 2019
Hans Zimmer’s inspiration for the best movie theme in film history
Listen to this gorgeous piece of music that Spotify teed up for me yesterday. Does it sound familiar?
Do you hear it? One of my favorite movies of all time is True Romance. And that movie features one of the best themes of all time — You’re So Cool composed by Hans Zimmer.
I’m not the only one who has called out the similarity. And Wikipedia calls You’re So Cool a “cover version” of Gassenhauer!
And now I desperately want to see the Terrence Malick film Badlands, which apparently uses Gasse...
August 21, 2019
Apollo 11 and Mother Country
My daughter Neve and I saw the incredible IMAX movie Apollo 11 last week. And the emotional climax of this very emotional movie is the playing of this song by John Stewart, the folksinger and alum of my alma mater Pomona College.
Despite already being a John Stewart fan (check out the amazing album “Bombs Away Dream Babies”), I had only discovered this song earlier this year. And it made my day to hear it in the movie.
The kicker is that the Apollo 11 astronauts actually did play a tape of th...
July 10, 2019
How do you write a scene like this?
It’s not about the words.
And it’s not even the most wonderful thing in the movie.
That would be the performance of Elizabeth Perkins.
The post How do you write a scene like this? appeared first on Tim DeRoche.
How do write a scene like this?
It’s not about the words.
And it’s not even the most wonderful thing in the movie.
That would be the performance of Elizabeth Perkins.
The post How do write a scene like this? appeared first on Tim DeRoche.
May 25, 2019
Sneak preview of Daniel’s illustrations for our new kids’ book
Coming in May 2020. If you like Edward Gorey, Edward Lear, or Shel Silverstein, we hope you’ll check this one out.
The post Sneak preview of Daniel’s illustrations for our new kids’ book appeared first on Tim DeRoche.
Finished a first draft of the new book yesterday!
This one isn’t quite as whimsical as Huck & Miguel. But I have been utterly fascinated by this subject over the last two years, and I think you will be surprised by some of the things we’ve uncovered. Public education is governed, in large part, by a set of little-known laws that dictate who’s eligible to go where. Look for this book in early 2020. Credit to Daniel Gonzalez, of course, for the incredible cover.
The post Finished a first draft of the new book yesterday! appeared first on Tim D...
April 23, 2019
Religious not spiritual?
Pew Research reports that there’s been a 40% increase — just from 2012 to 2017 — in the portion of Americans who consider themselves “spiritual but not religious.” The percentage of people who label themselves as religious has dropped in just five years from 65% to 54%. The trend isn’t surprising, but the speed is extraordinary. If this rate were to continue (which it won’t), then there wouldn’t be any religious people left by 2042.
But I’m also looking at the bottom category of “religious bu...
April 22, 2019
The most interesting idea you’ve never heard of
On this Easter Monday, I’m reflecting on the most interesting new idea that I encountered in the last year (new to me, not new to the world). This is Rene Girard’s interpretation of the Christian crucifixion myth. I’m using “myth” to mean a story that tells us about who we are and how to interact with the world. I believe Girard is a practicing Catholic, but his theory should be no less interesting to the non-believer.
What I love about this idea is that it cuts across many different discipli...
April 20, 2019
“I would have expected a big religious revival to explode any minute now”
On EconTalk, Harvard historian Jill Lepore says something that I’ve been thinking — that we are overdue for a religious revival. Russ Roberts asks her about the revival of nationalism and nationalism’s attraction as a “feeling of tribal belonging.” Here is her response:
I think it has a lot in common with religious revivals… I would have expected a big religious revival to explode any minute now, because religious revivals tend to happen in the aftermath of a very significant… sea-change in t...
April 17, 2019
“People who would like to do the right thing, but who just can’t get it up.”
I think what most people seem to be tired of are the sort of lint-headed, wooly-minded – what a lot of people call do-gooders – people who would like to do the right thing, but who just can’t get it up. That kind of candidate is going out of style.
That’s Hunter S. Thompson, describing the failure of George McGovern to beat Richard Nixon. Almost 50 years ago. And yet…
Jimmy Carter in 76
Mondale in 84
HW in 88 and 92
Al Gore in 2000
John Kerry in 2004
Mitt Romney in 2012
HRC in 2016
Ronald Rea...
