Paul O'Donnell: October 2008 Archives

Tony Hillerman, the crime novelist whose books helped reignite interest in the Southwest and Native American culture, died Sunday at the age of 83, and even for many of his fans, his obituaries--of which there will be many--will present some startling facts.

October has been a banner month for Britney Spears fans. Her new single, "Womanizer," set an arcane record of the kind that baseball stat geeks love to cite--the song was the first to go from no. 96 to no. 1 on the Billboard chart in one week. Ten days ago the tune's video debuted, and the girl looks great, writhing nude in a sauna as she kicks out the song's syncopated refrain. We also got a peek of an MTV documentary about the singer, in which she talks about her struggles with celebrity. And though MTV's cameras catch in her eyes a glimpse of the dark places she's been, she's in comeback mode, without apology. At one point Brit lays a hand aside her face and says, "What the hell was I thinking?"

Remember when the Second Coming was imagined as an awesome but beautiful moment? What's been lost in the rise of the Rapture Right in the past two decades is the yearning for the hope that ordinary Christians--the meek, say--have traditionally associated with the end of time in their songs and hymns. That joy amid disquiet is captured--or recaptured, I suppose--in "Over the Next Hill," the first tune on "Billy: the Early Years," the heavily countrified soundtrack album for the just-released Billy Graham biopic of the same name.

If you're going to see one movie that prowls the religious landscape, asking difficult questions and taking potshots at crackpots, see Bill Maher's "Religulous." Maher is no theologian, and even his grasp of international relations isn't always firm, but this documentary, directed by Larry Charles, mixes the timing of a Chaplin short with the acidity of a stand-up act. In other words, you'll laugh a lot. You'll laugh despite yourself, no matter what you believe.