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My Sunday Presentation at Decatur Book Festival

Thanks to Bill Monk for the video!

My Decatur Book Festival Saturday presentation

Thanks to Bill Monk for the video!

Hollywood screenwriters keep pulp (short) fiction alive | EW.com

Hollywood screenwriters keep pulp (short) fiction alive | EW.com: "The short stories in places like The New Yorker can be lovely, evocative pieces — but they don’t usually involve an insanely jealous trapeze artist or a serial killer escaping from the back of an FBI agent’s sedan during an earthquake. That’s a pity. But pulpy, plot-driven tales about circus artists and killers (and killer circus artists) are the main offering at Popcorn Fiction, a month-old literary site where a bunch of Hollywood screenwriters are trying to revive a languishing genre, one story at a time. As with most anthologies, the stories are a mixed bag. But early highlights include “Lightning in a Bottle,” a variation on the old saw about a jazz musician (this time a drummer) who sells his soul to a mysterious stranger for the perfect jam, by Craig Mazin (a co-writer of Scary Movie 3 and 4), and “A Best Friend Named Rick,” about a newly sprung ex-con struggling to stay straight, by Nichelle D. Tramble (a story editor on the NBC drama Mercy)."

Seeing the Future: Can Religion Evolve and Survive in a Changing World? | Religion & Theology | ReligionDispatches

Seeing the Future: Can Religion Evolve and Survive in a Changing World? | Religion & Theology | ReligionDispatches: "Since the fall of Secularization Theory, which claimed that belief in God would slowly recede in the face of science and technology, we still must ask: Is there a future for formal, organized, institutionalized religion as we presently recognize it in rapidly globalizing, postindustrial and postmodern world? Here's what religion will have to do for humans to survive and flourish."

BREAKING: Disney to Acquire Marvel for $4 Billion

BREAKING: Disney to Acquire Marvel for $4 Billion: "The Walt Disney Company has announced it will acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction worth 4 billion dollars."

Christian Nerds Unite! United Methodeviations

Christian Nerds Unite! United Methodeviations: "Until a few years ago, I hid a shameful secret. I read comic books. Oh, sure, when found out by others I would try to ennoble my guilty pleasure by calling them “graphic novels,” but the honest truth is I love immersing myself in the Marvel and DC universes whenever I can. The reason I am no longer secretive or ashamed is simple: I am not alone. I have been amazed to find out that a large number of clergy and laity leaders in our church are comic book nerds JUST LIKE ME! For many church leaders, Spider-Man, Batman, Wolverine, Spawn, and Wonder Woman provide as much inspiration (if not more) than Wesley, Borg, Wright, and Warren. (Though some seem to think that Rick Warren wears tights, a cape, and can fly…)"

Classic Television Showbiz: All in the Family

Classic Television Showbiz: "Probably the single best sitcom episode of the nineteen seventies, written by Steve Allen Show regular (and Don Adams' writer) Bill 'Jose Jiminez' Dana. This is Classic Television Showbiz's 2000th Post!"

Defying Gravity Defies Sci-Fi Conventions | RD Blog: The Devil's Advocate | ReligionDispatches

Defying Gravity Defies Sci-Fi Conventions | RD Blog: The Devil's Advocate | ReligionDispatches: "A primetime sci-fi soap opera takes on issues of secular vs. spiritual—in space."

A Valiant last stand - Prince Valiant

A Valiant last stand | Philadelphia Inquirer | 08/23/2009: "A dismal end is foretold for the knight of the Singing Sword - not by the hand of the evil Mordred, but with the fate of print newspapers."

Krugman - All the President’s Zombies - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - All the President’s Zombies - NYTimes.com: "Washington, it seems, is still ruled by Reaganism — by an ideology that says government intervention is always bad, and leaving the private sector to its own devices is always good.

Call me naive, but I actually hoped that the failure of Reaganism in practice would kill it. It turns out, however, to be a zombie doctrine: even though it should be dead, it keeps on coming.

Let’s talk for a moment about why the age of Reagan should be over."

American Brokenness: A Lament | Politics | ReligionDispatches

American Brokenness: A Lament | Politics | ReligionDispatches: "Something about America died this summer. We should grieve its end.

What exactly has passed away? From where progressives sit, that's easy. It's the illusion that the nation could transition easily from conservative governance to liberal."

Cover Ups | Chip Kidd - The Moment Blog - NYTimes.com

Cover Ups | Chip Kidd - The Moment Blog - NYTimes.com: "You’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but that advice sometimes goes out the window at a comic book store. With racks and racks of new issues, a great cover is sometimes the best way to hook a new reader. And when you want your book to pop out, who better to turn to than the esteemed graphic designer Chip Kidd?

Kidd, a longtime comics fan, has designed several logos and cover treatments for DC Comics, and he’s working on a Batman story that will be published next year. He’s also participating in a panel discussion called “Comics: From Every Angle” at the Bryant Park Reading Room today at 12:45. The Moment caught up with him to talk about his DC Comics work and other items of comic-book geekdom."

Episcopal Cafe on the Newsweek article

The Lead

Who Cares about the Episcopal Civil War? | Newsweek BeliefWatch: Lisa Miller | Newsweek.com

Who Cares about the Episcopal Civil War? | Newsweek BeliefWatch: Lisa Miller | Newsweek.com

Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Kindle

Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Kindle: "I really took to both the Kindle and the Sony Reader: the Sony Reader for its sleekness, touch screen, night light, and overall design, and the Kindle for the insane convenience of e-mailing manuscripts directly to the Kindle, where I can download them wirelessly and read them anywhere. E-reading has changed my life and I feel like it's the way of the future.

You know which e-reader I like the best?

Um. Would you believe the iPhone?"

The Amazing! Incredible! Uncanny Oral History of Marvel Comics | Maxim.com | Maxim.com

The Amazing! Incredible! Uncanny Oral History of Marvel Comics | Maxim.com | Maxim.com: "The company that brought you the likes of Spider-Man, Wolverine, and the Hulk turns 70. Like every good superhero, Marvel comics has quite an origin story."

Marvel's iconic web-slinger to soar with the other stars once again in the 83rd Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! | Marvel.com News | Marvel.com

Marvel's iconic web-slinger to soar with the other stars once again in the 83rd Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! | Marvel.com News | Marvel.com: "Marvel's iconic web-slinger to soar with the other stars once again in the 83rd Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!"

Reader's Digest To File For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection

Reader's Digest To File For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection: "The publisher of Reader's Digest, the country's most popular general interest magazine, said Monday it will seek Chapter 11 protection from creditors amid declining circulation, an industrywide advertising slump and large debts."

Britain publishes more UFO files, but few answers - Yahoo! News

Britain publishes more UFO files, but few answers - Yahoo! News: "The National Archives on Monday released the government's complete file on the 'Rendlesham Forest Incident' of December 1980, one of Britain's most famous UFO sightings.

It was among more than 4,000 pages posted online Monday documenting 800 alleged encounters during the 1980s and 1990s. Over the past three years the Ministry of Defense has been gradually releasing previously secret UFO papers after facing Freedom of Information demands."

'SPIDER-MAN' BROADWAY SHOW PRODUCTION PUT ON HIATUS AFTER MONEY RUNS OUT - New York Post

'SPIDER-MAN' BROADWAY SHOW PRODUCTION PUT ON HIATUS AFTER MONEY RUNS OUT - New York Post: "SPIDER-MAN has vanquished Green Goblin, Electro, Doc Ock and Lizard.

But when it comes to the greatest supervillain of them all -- The Riedeler -- Spidey has met his match.

The $45 million 'Spider-Man,' directed by Julie Taymor and written by Bono and The Edge, is caught in my net, and I can report today that escape is virtually impossible."

Brian McClaren: WWJD | The Beatitudes Society

Brian McClaren: WWJD | The Beatitudes Society: "An Open Letter to Conservative Christians in the U.S., On Health Care"

Krugman - Republican Death Trip - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - Republican Death Trip - NYTimes.com: "President Obama is now facing the same kind of opposition that President Bill Clinton had to deal with: an enraged right that denies the legitimacy of his presidency, that eagerly seizes on every wild rumor manufactured by the right-wing media complex.

This opposition cannot be appeased. Some pundits claim that Mr. Obama has polarized the country by following too liberal an agenda. But the truth is that the attacks on the president have no relationship to anything he is actually doing or proposing."

The lost art of reading -- latimes.com

The lost art of reading -- latimes.com: "The relentless cacophony that is life in the 21st century can make settling in with a book difficult even for lifelong readers and those who are paid to do it."

Budd Schulburg preached a powerful sermon 'On the Waterfront'

Episcopal Life Online - OPINION: "Old movie buffs had reason to mourn Budd Shulberg this past week. He wrote the screenplay for the 1954 Academy Award Best Picture, On the Waterfront. Besides being a movie about mob corruption on the docks of New Jersey, On the Waterfront preached a powerful sermon --especially pertinent to an Episcopal Church determined to focus on mission -- on how we are to live; not hidden in the church, but alive as the church in the world."