Donna Freitas: July 2009 Archives

Are the stars of "Twilight" overexposed--or at least ridiculing Stephenie Meyer's smash hit beyond the tolerable? I'm starting to think so.

What makes the "Twilight Saga" so much fun, so utterly appealing, is the over-the-top star-crossed love between Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, and the subsequent love triangle Meyer creates when Jacob enters the picture in "New Moon." If you can let yourself go to that place where you can set aside the need for too much greater meaning, the series is one of the best reads around. And I know that any phenomenon that grows as big as "Twilight" has--"Harry Potter" would be another case in point--eventually gets merchandised to death by anyone and everyone who wants to make a buck. But is it possible for merchandise to ruin something altogether? Or at least make it so ridiculous that you can't enjoy it anymore?

I'm one of those people who enjoys conjuring my own images of the heroes and heroines of favorite stories--something that is typically ruined once a movie is made. Though, I suppose, as far as looks go (though not demeanor), Robert Pattinson is about as Edward-like as I can hope for (I also have to admit: I am getting tired of seeing his face everywhere I go on just about everything I can imagine).

I was one of those obsessed "Harry Potter" fans who, book by book, went to midnight parties each time the latest installment released in order to get my hands on a copy virtually the second it became available. For the last two books I actually secluded myself in my house--with provisions of course--until I turned to the very last page. I feared that I might be on the street with some hateful person shouting out the ending and ruining it for those of us who hadn't finished yet.

The "Harry Potter" movies, however, I have generally not liked. The first three were just a mash-up of every scene in the book. Number 4 ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire") got a tad better. Number 5 ("Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix") I more or less enjoyed.

But "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"--now this was a movie!

Anyone who reads the books knows that starting with Book Four, they begin to get progressively darker, and in many ways, Book Six has the darkest moment of all Seven. It's the book when everything gets worse (before its going to get better in the last installment). I worried that the Sixth movie would be so dark that I would not like it. However, it was fantastic! I haven't laughed that hard at a movie in ages--the film was filled with wink-wink moments when Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and friends are navigating the hilarious terrain of high school romance. The cinematography was gorgeous--it has some of the most picturesque sequences I've seen in awhile, the best of which are the darkest moments of the film (there is a scene in a cornfield that is terrifying--and worth the price of the movie itself).

I had the good fortune of going to an advance screening of the premier for "Kings"--a TV show based on the Old Testament story of David and Goliath and the succession of kings that follows--with the cast and writer, Michael Green, available for Q&A afterward. It was fantastic. And so were all the episodes that followed.

About mid-way through the season, I received an email from Michael Green who was writing to all the bloggers and reporters who had supported the show, thanking us for the good reviews, but informing us that, while the show would play out its full first season, that we would not see a second--the show had been canceled.

I felt beyond surprised and extremely disappointed.

Not only does the series have fantastic actors and looks amazing on-screen, it has something to please everyone: drama, romance, conflict, politics, war, a dash of fantasy, and, of course, all sorts of amazing, well-played out religious allusions.

Can't get enough of Michael Jackson now that he's gone? If you liked Beliefnet's recent quiz on Michael Jackson's Spiritual Lyrics, here is another quiz for you to check out: The Pop Gospel According to Michael Jackson by David Buckna. The questions are many, and span quite a range of topics, from basic trivia:

What was the first song Michael sang in public at age 5?

To hard-core spiritual questions that may stump you, like:

Also from Thriller, this song's theme echoes Proverbs 20:3 "Avoiding a fight is a mark of honor; only fools insist on quarreling." Name the song.
and

What gospel-influenced song from Dangerous resembles a lament psalm?

Don't worry--all the answers are available at the bottom of Buckna's quiz. (No cheating!)

With our economy in tatters, an interesting trend is occurring: folks who have been laid off, but even more so, those job-hungry post-grads, are turning to spiritual work to tide them over until they get that coveted investment banking job (that is, if the industry ever recovers.)

Ashrams all over the United States have seen their applications for work/live-in exchange more than double this year. Sara Eckel from the New York Times reports about why Ashrams are in vogue right now in her article, "Hard Times are Jamming the Ashrams" and how one man (among many others) who, after losing his job at Intel, signed up for a year at the Himalayan Institute, since, "in exchange for his cooking duties and an annual fee of $3,000, he gets a private room, three vegetarian meals a day and unlimited access to the institute's classes, seminars and other events."

And he's far from alone on finding Ashrams a sociable, spiritually fulfilling refuge in these economically troubled times:

Have you heard of Cullenism? Apparently, it's been around for a while now, but I just learned of it today. Yes, that's right: Cullenism, and its followers are called Cullenites. As in Edward Cullen, the star vampire from "Twilight," the...

Christian church groups and all types of faith-based organizations and communities that have jumped on the Twitter and Facebook bandwagons as an albeit abbreviated online forum for everything from evangelization to basic connection have been in the news a lot...

I've been watching "Saving Grace" since the pilot aired, and the show is so well-written, well-acted, and edgy that it converted me to become a Holly Hunter fan. Though the show's angel-spirituality side can get a bit syrupy at...

On Sunday, HBO will re-air the first three episodes of the second season of "True Blood." So if you're behind or just caught up from Netflix, or you simply love vampires, this is the night to wind down the...