This blog turns ten years old on May 11, 2014. And this post is Part Two of a ten-post series in which I’m celebrating by reflecting on some of my favorite experiences from Looking Closer’s first decade. (Did you miss Part One?)
2005 was one wild and crazy year at Looking Closer.
So much was happening, I could hardly keep up with the posts, the movies, and the mail.
And then, this happened.
Apparently it was highly unusual, in 2005, for a Christian to be writing passionately about the love of movies, instead of the condemnation of movies.
The Seattle Times made my Looking Closer adventure into a cover story for their Sunday magazine: Pacific Northwest. Award-winning writer Richard Seven spent time with me, went to the movies with me, came to one of my lectures on faith and film, and did an excellent job pulling together everything he saw and heard into a feature. Best of all, he became a friend. Since that experience, I’ve been involved in bringing him to write about Seattle Pacific University for Response magazine, and he’s won awards for his work there.
I am, to this day, grateful for Richard’s writing.
It was great to see that Seattle Times readers were grateful too.
Here are a few more of my adventures from 2005:
- Almost appearing on a TV news show… and then not appearing there… for the most hilarious reason.
- Meeting and interviewing director Danny Boyle.
- Teaching at Seattle Pacific University.
- Having the pleasure of disagreeing with Rush Limbaugh and Michael Medved in The LA Daily News.
- Discovering, via Ron Reed, a very useful definition of the word “parable,” which became the basis of my lecture on great movies.
- Highlighting Terry Gilliam’s statement on Christianity.
- Responding to the flood of angry messages sent by Christianity Today readers who were upset about CT’s movie picks for 2004.
- Covering Constantine, meeting and interviewing the cast and director, and then reviewing it for Paste Magazine.