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Feminist Filmmaking – Ida Lupino's "The Trouble With Angels"

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Mary Clancy, the ne’er-do-well protagonist of the 1966 comedy The Trouble With Angels is the Catholic education system’s worst nightmare: she is clever, irreverent, wise beyond her sixteen years, and full of “scathingly brilliant ideas.” She is sent (along with her best friend and most loyal follower, Rachel) to St. Francis Convent to be “straightened out.” It is there that she meets her foil and foe — the venerable Reverend Mother (played by the equally venerable Rosalind Russell), a stern nun with a fondness for order and cooperative, obedient young women. Shenanigans, of course, ensue.

General News

Response to FrontPage's "Rabbi of Hate" Smear

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David Horowitz’s FrontPage magazine has published an article about our recent Network of Spiritual Progressives national conference in DC under the absurdist headline “Rabbi of Hate.” I am including some representative paragraphs and comments (go here if you have the stomach to read more), and then my response on their site. Some quotes from the article itself:
Tikkun Rabbi Michael Lerner, the one-time “politics of meaning” guru to the pre-presidential Clintons until he became politically inexpedient, is now blasting away at the Obama Administration. Lerner recently convened his Network of Spiritual Progressives in Washington, D.C. for a Religious Left gabfest. And much of it was gripping [I’m glad they thought so–or did they mean griping?] about President Obama’s spiritual failure to remain ideologically pure, in the eyes of leftist clerics and activists.

Christianity

God Doesn't Play Favorites: A Religious Person Rethinks Prayer

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Crossposted from Common Sense Religion
God does not answer prayer. There, I’ve said it. I know for some my assertion is scandalous, while for others it is mere common sense. But before you summon the inquisitor to prepare the rack or brand me a heretic or rush to my defense, hear me out. I used to believe that God answered prayer.

Gender and Sexuality

Right-Wing "Feminism" Nothing New

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Sarah Palin has been drawing attention to herself again lately, this time by calling herself a feminist. Although I think it’s usually best to ignore her, in this case, I have to respond. Writing a dissertation on Nazi propaganda, I discovered — to my utter surprise and horror — that there were women in the National Socialist party who by the standards of their day would have been considered feminist. Seeing Palin in the light of their history ushers us into a better understanding of this controversial figure. My dissertation, was entitled “Motherhood for the Fatherland,” and it concerned propaganda about women and their place in society written by Nazis of many stripes.

General News

Sami Awad's vision of Palestinian nonviolence

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Sami Awad is an extraordinary man, and this video is a must see. My thanks to the Metta Center for sending this out in a newsletter a week ago, I’m just catching up. They linked to it on a blog called Compassion Junkie, in which the American founder of the Compassionate Listening Project, Leah Green, writes about her work. She is currently visiting Israel. Her May 31st headline and description for this video is:

Sami Awad, on Auschwitz, fear, and the meaning of nonviolence
The Israeli attack today on the ships trying to break the blockade on Gaza, brought great sorrow throughout the world.

Culture

Business Class Refugees: Kartick & Gotam

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Who are these guys? Whatever are “business class refugees”? And, most of all, why should I care?You should care because this album, Business Class Refugees, is a new and extraordinary music, created internationally, in ways that simply haven’t been possible till now. It comes out thirty years after “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” the pioneering Byrne / Eno collaboration which used electronic ambience, and world music behind sampled vocal tracks, but assembled painfully in the studio through analog trial and error. Kartick and Gotam, known as K&G, also weave a beating net of electronic ambience, but overlay it with a stunning selection of Indian and south Asian musicians as foreground.

Gender and Sexuality

People's Republic of China Lifts Its "Baldness Blockade"

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Baldies of the world, unite! We can now go to the People’s Republic of China, even from Taiwan. Most men who are genetically “chrome domed” are concerned about how their natural tonsure will affect romantic prospects. It turns out that visa restrictions are a possibly more pressing problem. Press service AFP reports that the People’s Republic of China has lifted its ban on visas for bald travelers from Taiwan:
The rule imposed by the southern Chinese city of Xiamen barred bald people from applying for one-year multiple-entry permits before it was cancelled earlier this year, according to Taiwan’s Travel Agent Association.

Culture

Love your Enemy: A Novelist's Dilemma

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There is an old adage: write what you know. I do not know about battle first hand. I have never lived in occupied territory. But then I have never lived in a whorehouse or witnessed a crucifixion either, and I have already written about both as though I have. A better adage might be: write what you want to know. In the case of writing about battle (at least for me): write what you are afraid to know.