Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
On Tuesday, Adam posted a blog entry titled “57 Channels (and Nothin’ On)” That’s, of course, a reference to the Bruce Springsteen song. So I thought I’d just keep the tuneful inspiration alive by giving a nod to classic David Bowie today. He sings, “Just gonna have to be a different man.” And today Plugged […]
Mapping Our Muddled Minds
In a recent interview with mega-Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings, Time magazine’s Belinda Luscombe asked about our growing dependency on GPS maps. The context was Jennings’ new book, Maphead, which is subtitled, Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks. Her question: “Does it bother you that we use maps much less now that we have […]
Factoring in the X’s
The X Factor is back on TV tonight. And I wish I could say I was happy about that. I do. I really wish that. Last Wednesday, Simon Cowell made his not-quite victorious comeback to star-search TV on Fox. The ratings weren’t stellar, but an hour into the premiere, with tears oozing from my eyes, […]
Movie Monday: X-Men First
Just because X-Men was the fittest of the flock and more than just survived the weekend box office race does not mean that Darwin was right. Let’s just get that out in the open right away. But mutations made lots of money nonetheless as X-Men: First Class snagged an estimated $56 million. Not that it […]
Still Hearing the Bells Ring
“Hear the bells ringing/They’re singing that you can be born again/Hear the bells ringing/They’re singing Christ is risen from the dead.” Those splendid lyrics bounce through my head at least once a year to this day even though it’s been almost 35 years since Keith Green recorded Annie Herring’s words and they began their determined […]
Jack Jumps Over the Torture Shtick
From the beginning I’ve watched 24. Most of the time it’s been a Plugged In project—to keep tabs on a show that was pushing torture scenes into the mainstream of TV’s prime time. Sometimes, though, I’ve found myself watching it for personal reasons, too, because as anybody who has watched much 24 will tell you, […]
Where’s That Horn to Toot?
Somewhere between the release of Miley Cyrus’ racy new video and Iron Man 2′s $128 million weekend, Plugged In learned it won the Evangelical Press Association’s Award of Excellence for best online publication. Paul Asay, one of our associate editors, also earned recognition for his Not Just a Movie series we published last year. It […]
Forget About Fangs, ‘Twilight 2’ Is All About the Abs
The line snaked around the lobby, out the door and around the corner of the theater. Music blared from competing radio stations booths. There were still two hours to go before the advance screening for The Twilight Saga: New Moon started in Denver. I knew it was going to be a interesting night, as much […]
3, 2, 1, Launch!
In the dark ages of 1990 when Focus on the Family launched what would soon become Plugged In, Edison’s light bulb was the light bulb, maps were made of paper, MySpace was what you violated in a crowded elevator, and even websites were, for most of us, those hard-to-reach, spider-infested corners of your basement. Just […]