Left to my own devices

I saw Ang Lee's new motion picture Life of Pi over the Thanksgiving weekend. The movie has generated some buzz, partly for its stunning visuals, but mostly because of its approach to religion & faith. It is the latter portion that I'd like to discuss. Just a friendly warning: If you haven't yet seen the film, and are thinking of going, then don't continue reading. Y'all know the drill. Life of Pi is bookended by present day scenes featuring a struggling author at the home of an adult Piscine "Pi" Patel, who is telling him a story in hopes that it can give the author something good to write about. The story is of Pi's upbringing in a zoo run by his father, of his search for God by studying and experiencing various religions, and of his survival alone at sea for several months. That's the nuts & bolts of the film (adapted from the novel by Yann Martel), but it doesn't really tell you much about it.

It's Thanksgiving weekend here in the U.S. and, while it definitely conjures-up cozy scenes of turkey dinner with family (and then perhaps some shopping and movie-gong later on), this particular holiday also reminds me of the death of Melanie Thornton, lead singer of the Euro-dance group La Bouche. Thornton died in a plane crash on Thanksgiving weekend of 2001. I remember seeing the news of the crash (and her death) on the TV while visiting family in Kansas.

WARNING: If you haven't yet seen Skyfall -- and plan on doing so -- then don't read any further. Otherwise, carry on.

Our latest Pic of the Week is none other than sexy & intelligent British actor Ben Whishaw. He's been acting for years, but has recently been featured in two prominent films: Cloud Atlas and Skyfall . Quite the talent. Enjoy.

I love music. Many different types: classical, operatic, film scores, rock & roll, R&B, pop, electronic, etc. etc. For the purposes of this blog post, I'm going to focus on pop music. You know, music + lyrics. Songs. So many of them out there, so many of them satisfying, for so many reasons. Pop songs can take us into a plethora of emotionally-sensitive territories. Today, I want to discuss a favorite aspect of pop songs: the contradictory lyric.

I've been thinking recently about e-books. This is mostly because I've been wanting to get a mini-tablet, and have been considering the e-reader tablets ( Amazon Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble Nook HD ) along with the more traditional tablets ( iPad Mini, Nexus 7, Samsung Galaxy Tab , etc.). I'm a Barnes & Noble fan, so their newest 7" tablet has been appealing. Yet, I hesitate. And then a tweet this morning, from @IndyStories , really drove the point home. Here it is: Why are some people still opposed to ebooks? They’re the same people that wouldn’t let women vote, because it would “disturb” things.