Category Archives: Entertainment

Why I don’t watch ‘Game of Thrones’

Another season of ‘Game of Thrones’ has come and gone, and it seems to be as wildly popular as ever. From the comments in my social media feeds, it is clearly evident people from all values streams are unabashed fans of the show.

While I’m not going to spend time in this post ‘judging’ the people that do watch it, whether they are Christian or not, I will refer to an article from a Christian organization that does a good job illustrating why my wife and I steer clear of the show.

Have smart phones become enemy number 1 to having real relationships and productive lives?

There is a recurring trend in recent online videos to demonstrate how attached we have grown to our mobile devices, specifically smart phones. If we consider the old saying ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, then videos like the ones that follow are worth so much more.

One in particular, called ‘Look Up’ has over 27 million views (as of this writing) since it was first posted on April 25th.

The basic premise is that we’re missing out on much of life — and possible relationships — by failing to ‘look up’ from our phones.

Hunger Games ‘catching fire’ from some, but redemption shines amid human depravity, cultural excess

This past weekend my wife and I had a toddler-free evening out for my birthday, and we checked out ‘Catching Fire’, the latest installment in the Hunger Games movies. While some Christians may choose to pass on viewing this saga, I’m prepared to say that with the right perspective it should be required viewing for everyone that is a young adult or older.

Undoubtedly, viewing the Hunger Games movies is not for the faint of heart or young child. Furthermore, teens and adults alike must be mature enough to separate reality from the story portrayed, and parents should take an active role in explaining ‘who the real enemy is’ in parsing out the good from the evil.

We are ‘The Walking Dead’

Zombies are all the rage right now in entertainment. I am not immune to the draw of the zombie-pocalypse storylines as I count myself a fan of AMC’s The Walking Dead. But as I have been consumed by stories of human survival against impossible odds these past 3+ seasons now, there’s one thought I can’t get out of my head. Without God, we are “The Walking Dead” — allow me to explain.

Breaking Bad, and the paradox of ‘good’ TV

The mega TV hit Breaking Bad aired it’s series finale last night, and social media is abuzz with how things wrapped up. I have never watched the show, but it has come up on my radar a few times over the years. Therefore, I did some investigating to see if it’s something worth adding to the Netflix queue.

Things seemed promising when I found a recent commentary on Christianity Today that says “we need Breaking Bad” because the consequences of our choices (and lack of good ones) are lived out by main character Walt and his co-horts. His downward spiral is something we absolutely can’t miss, lest we spiral downward ourselves.

Duck Dynasty’s ‘Martin’ and North Woods Law cast headline Maine Sportsman’s Night

“Happy, Happy, Happy!” The Duck Dynasty craze is coming to Maine as cast member “Martin” will be the keynote speaker at October’s Maine Sportsman’s Night. The event will be an all-afternoon affair with vendors from a variety of aspects of the sportsman’s world.

Maine Sportsman’s Night will be held in Thorndike, Maine on Saturday, October 12th at Mount View High School. Tickets to the expo area are $16 each, and children under 8 years old are FREE with an accompanying adult (click to buy tickets).

Casting Crowns, Kutless, The Wrecking coming to Bangor

On Saturday, September 14th Casting Crowns, a Christian fan favorite and well known within the contemporary church community, is headlining the 2nd Annual “SoulQuest” on the Bangor waterfront. It’s 2009-2011 “Until The Whole World Hears” world tour (with title track by the same name) placed the band in front nearly 1 million fans in more than 175 cities around the world. Now out promoting their current album released in 2012 “Come to the Well”, the Atlanta-based group continues to deliver passionate, thought-provoking music such as album favorite “Jesus, Friend of Sinners”, the catchy yet reflective “Spirit Wind”, and title track “The Well”.

Joining Casting Crowns on the Bangor waterfront will be Kutless, and local fan-favorite – hailing from Portland, Maine – The Wrecking.

“Chris” Ashton Kutcher teaches Bible at 2013 Teen Choice Awards?

Chris Kutcher (aka, Ashton Kutcher) gave a speech at the 2013 Teen Choice Awards this past weekend that has gone viral. First, he somewhat jokingly called himself a fraud because his name really isn’t Ashton, but Chris. He then went on to share with the teen audience what he called “some really amazing things I learned when I was Chris.”

It caught my attention because of the wide range of news outlets praising its content. Everyone from Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, to MTV and The Huffington Post are praising the speech.

While watching the video and reviewing the text of his speech, it struck me that much of what he was saying were Biblical principles. Many people have said he was quoting Steve Jobs as a way to promote the release of his new movie. Maybe so, but whether he knew it or not, his ideas are right out of Holy Scripture.

Kutcher vs Jones on ‘Two and a Half Men’ Filth comments

Late last month Angus T. Jones, the child star who plays the character “Jake” on the CBS “hit” show “Two and a Half Men”, became embroiled in a controversy when a YouTube video of him calling the show “filth” went viral. A large part of the attraction of this story is that these comments are a direct result of Jones’ recent conversion to the Christian faith. Despite this story’s convergence with two of this blog’s topics- entertainment and Christianity- I have initially refrained from writing about it.

The show’s co-star Ashton Kutcher has now weighed in, saying he wants Jones fired immediately, and calling him a “spoiled brat”- a rather ironic epithet coming from Kutcher for sure. As more time has passed to let the story play out, and in light of this recent criticism from Kutcher being made public, I feel the desire to opine why Jones’ comments were unavoidable given his recent life change.