The Brewing Eudemon

One of our own tops Hollywood: Nicole Kidman is the top female in the Wood, earning $17 million per movie. I haven’t read anything about her Catholicism lately, but according to stories last summer, she has returned to the Catholic faith.

Detailed yet precise coverage of the Pope’s Turkey tour. Also.

How much do these repeated acts of love–flowing out from the papacy now for over thirty years–matter? Do they make a small dent in a hardened, modernized world? Do they re-shape everything? Are they beautiful but ultimately quixotic? My opinion tends to vacillate among those three choices, but more and more lately, I’ve been tending to think they re-shape everything.

I’m not reading a lot of nice things about Gibson’s new movie. Sample:

‘Apocalypto’ is the most violent movie Disney has ever released, with so much blood spurting out of orifices that even Martin Scorsese would blush. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to see heads and hearts removed without anesthesia, then this is the movie for you.

I doubt I’ll see it. As I get older, I remind myself more of T.S. Eliot, who wouldn’t read Flannery O’Connor because works with violence unsettled him. Of course, Eliot was rumored to be a homosexual (what poet isn’t so rumored?), so I hardly enjoy the comparison, but there it is.

I’m guessing Eliot wouldn’t have enjoyed this movie: The Sundance Film Festival announced Wednesday that Seattle filmmaker Robinson Devor’s documentary “Zoo” has been accepted into the 2007 festival’s documentary competition. The film examines the widely reported case of an Enumclaw man who died in 2005 after having sex with a horse. Then again, if Eliot was gay, this story might strike him as beautiful: “Accepting death for one fleeting (bruising) experience of love with a non-judgemental quadruped.” I wonder if the filmmaker tells the man’s story with dignity (see last paragraph at this link).

My apologies for not posting drinking news last Friday. I flat-out forgot about it, until 3:00 p.m., at which point I was at the alleys for my family’s annual bowling trip and unable to reach a computer. This week’s offering:

A book review of Extreme Brewing: An Enthusiast’s Guide to Brewing Craft Beer at Home. I have no desire to brew my own beer, but if I weren’t into the kid-raising hobby, I’d consider it. And I’d probably start with this book. It looks pretty good.

I like books, and I like beer. This site is made for me: Beerbooks.com. Beer books, beer DVDs, beer magazines, beer history. I love the Internet.

A reader wrote yesterday, asking if I give up beer for Lent. The answer is “no,” and the reason is pretty obvious: I can’t be hungover on Mondays. (For my non-Catholic readers: Sundays aren’t included in the traditional Lenten fast, so Lenten sacrifices are normally indulged on Sundays.)

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