Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate
Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz
Streets of Philadelphia from Philadelphia
Hallelujah from Shrek
Eye of the Tiger from Rocky II
What do all of these movie theme songs have in common, other than making their composers supernaturally wealthy?
Each of these songs expressed the mood and the message of a film in a way that elevated our experience of watching it from great to transcendent. They captured the hearts of a nation and ensured that these films would live in our collective unconscious forever.
If the last 12 months of your life were made into a major [...] Continue Reading →
My family already knows what I’ve bought them for Christmas. It’s the same gift I bought each of them last Christmas, and the Christmas before.
Books.
Don’t worry, the kids will get other goodies this year (like healthcare and school tuition, for example) but nothing trumps books.
My family also knows I probably bought their books from one of the indie booksellers near our home. Indie booksellers provide knowledgeable and personalized customer service, benefit local economies, contribute to protecting the environment, and foster community in ways big-box chains do not.
Indie bookstores also provide the natural climate in which people are most apt to [...] Continue Reading →
One of my best friends is a gifted arranger and composer named Rob Mathes. His credits are too long to list but they include co-producing Sting’s new box set and musically directing both the Concert on the Mall for the Obama inauguration and the annual Kennedy Center Honors. Every now and then I’m privileged to perform with his band.
A year ago Rob and I were sitting in a Starbucks in Connecticut, drinking lattes and catching up when he turned his gaze toward the ceiling.
“Do you hear that?” Rob said, his expression darkening.
“Hear what?” I said.
“Listen,” he said, glaring at the [...] Continue Reading →
In the second to last chapter of my book Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me: A Memoir… of Sorts, I describe a life-changing experience with my kids at the Dorset Quarry, a beautiful swimming hole near our summer home in Vermont. Toward the end of that story I write about asking an artist to paint a scene capturing the events of that incredible day.
“I commissioned a local artist to paint an oil of the quarry on a typical summer’s day, brimming with people of seemingly every tribe and nation. If you look closely in the left-hand corner of the [...] Continue Reading →
This video of the King’s College Cambridge all-male choir singing “O Magnum Mysterium” was filmed live on Christmas Eve 2009.
The contemporary American composer Morten Lauridsen wrote the musical setting. The English translation of the Latin text is:
O great mystery
and wondrous sacrament,
that animals should see the newborn Lord
lying in their manger.
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy
to bear the Lord Jesus Christ. Alleluia!
My question: Can contemporary worship arouse the same sense of transcendence, awe, and mystery I feel when I watch this video? Have you been to a church that pulls it off?
I’ve never been [...] Continue Reading →
Jesus, My Father, The CIA, and Me
“When I first discovered the grainy picture in my mother’s desk—me as a towheaded two year old sitting in what I remember was a salmon-orange-stained lifeboat—I was overwhelmed by the feeling that the boy in the boat was not waving and laughing at the