The Filmcake

July 14th – July 20th

The Atheism Tapes - This was a collection of six interviews conducted by Jonathan Miller (with Colin McGinn, Steven Weinberg, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Arthur Miller & Denys Turner) for his documentary series Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief. These extended interviews didn’t make it into that series…so they are shared here in this collection. It was all very interesting stuff. I really enjoyed the interview with Arthur Miller. I’ve never read (or seen) Death of a Salesman or The Crucible. And now I feel so completely lacking.

The other interviews were all interesting and enlightening to various degrees. The interview with Denys Turner, however, was almost completely lost on me. I’m not sure what he was trying to convey. A lazy Sunday afternoon in a semi-sluggish state resulting from the previous night festivities of your 10th wedding anniversary is probably not the best way to watch that particular interview. Whether or not I dozed off a couple of times during that interview, I’m not sure if I would have retained any more of it. Something about asking now whether god exists, but why anything exists at all…I’m…getting…sleepy…

May 19th – May 26th

Godless In America – This Sundance Channel documentary told the story of the curious disappearance and murder of American Atheists founder Madalyn Murray O’Hair. Very interesting. And sad. I knew nothing of this story beforehand but am so glad that I know of it now.

Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – We had DVR’ed the Indy Trilogy last week in anticipation of the new installment. But, Friday night after reading about the original movies in the Tulsa newspaper and perusing Indiana Jones trivia, we broke down and bought the 3 DVD set at Best Buy. It was a fun, nostalgic amusement park ride to watch these again. Like a lot of these movies I grew up with, I mostly remember them from their runs on television. It’s always interesting to see these same movies again on DVD, unedited and in widescreen. The movies really hold up more than twenty years later, partly due to their being throwbacks themselves. And, Indy is just such a great action hero…a dustier James Bond.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – We saw this one in one of the Grand Auditoriums at the Warren Theater. I have to say the look of this theater certainly added to the excitement of seeing the new Indiana Jones movie. It was the perfect place to see that sort of summer popcorn movie. That being said, I’m antisocial enough to admit to being annoyed by all the redneck families and children running around everywhere. Nevertheless, Indiana Jones is precisely the type of movie you’re supposed to see in a crowded theater. So, I am more than willing to suffer. Before too long, Sarah and I will be watching art house movies in one of the empty smaller screens towards the back. So, we should enjoy the Grand Auditorium while we can.

Anyways…the Crystal Skull lived up to my expectations. It was a lot of fun. While nothing can live up to the Raiders of the Lost Ark in my book, this new one maintained most of the spirit of the first three installments. Shia LaBeouf was good. Cate Blanchett was awesomely hammy. The whole alien slant actually worked for me because of the Lucas/Spielberg canon. If you’re a fan of the first three, or of summertime popcorn movies in general, you won’t be disappointed with this one.