This week I fell in love with Tom Hiddleston (again), some nerdy news surfaces, and a scientific approach to faith. Click “Read More” to check out these Internet marvels for yourself!
Sunday Summary
Sunday Summary #3: What’s on the Internet
Three of my favorite topics represented today: Christianity, feminism, and Harry Potter. A good week for the Internet.
1| Guillermo del Toro Interview with The Mary Sue
Guillermo del Toro did an interview with The Mary Sue about Crimson Peak and his habit of making movies with competent women taking up most of the screen time. I was initially interested in the movie because of Tom Hiddleston, but now I have an even bigger reason to get over my fear and watch the gothic horror/romance film!
2| How I Pray by Nicole Cliffe
The Toast is a new website I discovered because of my friend Elizabeth. They cover a lot of topics, but this article by Nicole Cliffe about becoming a Christian and falling in love with prayer. This is exactly the kind of Christian blogging I want to emulate, because she writes with passion and clarity, but never once alienates her potentially non-Christian audience.
Prayer has been one of the pleasant surprises of becoming a person of faith. It’s something I truly enjoy, and has been weirdly transformational to my life, I guess? I wish neither to oversell nor undersell it to you as something to do (I’m not a particularly talented or motivated evangelist, you may have noticed.)
When I first became a Christian (July 7th, 2015, The Jesusversary), Mallory’s dad told me that he thinks God gives a spiritual starter pack to new converts, like how sometimes you can get a way better deal on your phone plan if you’re a new customer instead of an existing one. That there will be long seasons in your life where you feel like God is ghosting you, and you’re just plaintively texting into The Void. That you just won’t feel like there’s anyone on the other end of the line. And those times will come and go, in the average life of a believer, but for this first six months to a year, many people get to feel great nearness in their prayer life, and it’s a gift.
3| 29 Hilarious Tweets About ‘Harry Potter’
These kinds of lists are exactly what I want from BuzzFeed, 24/7.
Sunday Summary: What’s on the Internet (1)
I’m trying something different! Instead of my StumbleUpon Sunday series, I’m going to branch out and talk about anything that has caught my attention on the Internet over the previous week. If anyone else wants to do it, grab the picture and link back to ItIsTrish.
Articles
1| Harry Potter Post-It Notes
#PotterItForward Fans of Harry Potter are leaving post-it notes in the HP books to future generations, briefly sharing the impact of the series on their lives and wishing new readers well. This is…so cute. My heart hurts.
2| Review of Ryan Adams’ 1989 Cover
The Atlantic helped me sort through my feelings about Ryan Adams’ cover of Taylor Swift’s 1989. I like his album, I’m glad it gives me an excuse to listen to her songs for ANOTHER year without stopping, but it’s missing some of Taylor’s magic.
The general trend on the album is for tracks that once communicated confidence in the face of uncertainty—Swift’s big, brash pep rallies for the soul—to become tentative and sad and wistful….
Another example: “Out of the Woods,” stretched here to six minutes and adorned in REM-ish guitar chiming. It presents the lyrics’ desire for stability as passive pining—moving and relatable, yes, but the kind of emotion we’ve heard in rock ballads for decades. The original, though, was truly weird: booming gated drums, stentorian backup chanting, Swift’s jumbled, repetitious chorus, all of which conveyed a blend of hope and neuroticism—the feeling that bliss is so close yet so elusive that you can’t stop thinking about it. Next to that, Adam’s campfire profundity feels generic. Maybe that’s why she left the likes of it behind.
3| A Spiritual Discussion of Busyness
Sometimes being an American Christian feels like a whirlwind life busy with ministry, service, and no free time. Relevant’s article insists that this is a wrong way of living, and encourages us to imitate Jesus’s slower pace, because
Jesus was never rushed. He wasn’t overwhelmed by life, even though He had an enormous mission to complete in a very short period of time.
4| The Silmarillion Recaps
The Mary Sue is doing a series recapping The Silmarillion in the most delightfully informative way. So far they’ve shared the stories of Jerk Elves and Really Shiny Jewels, Beren & Luthien, Werewolves, and Half-Godesses, and Dragons, Curses, and Incest Oh My! with gems like:
Fëanor is now High King and, more because his jewels were stolen than that his father was killed, he goes into a rage. He blames the Valar for Morgoth’s deeds, which is convenient since one could just as easily argue that if he hadn’t been such a paranoid, covetous douchecanoe, it would have been a lot harder for Morgoth to manipulate him and get his hands on them jewels. In any case, Fëanor rallies a great deal of the Noldorian elves to go to Middle Earth to get back three rocks he refuses to share with anyone. So it had to have been some speech.
If you don’t want to read The Silmarillion after these recaps, you’re a lost cause.
Videos
This music video from Lady Gaga and director Catherine Hardwicke is SO IMPORTANT. It’s hard to watch, not shying away from college sexual violence, but internalized messages (made external with markered messages scrawled on their bodies) transforming from damning to empowering is so beautiful. Kudos to Gaga for taking on such a hard topic, addressing it with sensitivity, and offering hope in a dark situation.
I am an Apple girl, but this Windows 10 commercial (as seen repeatedly on Hulu) is perfection. The inclusiveness of this video astounding, both in showing children from all over the world and in showing talents from a wide range of skills. I am in love with the scene of the girl deciding not to jump off the diving board while the narrator talks about future leaders, reminding us that bravery doesn’t come all at once. And I LOVE the deliberate choice to have the narrator say, “We just need to make sure she has what she needs.” Male pronouns as the default are subtly limiting, and I love that little girls might see the commerical and imagine themselves as “the ones who will do great things.”
(Picture from Wikipedia)
It Is Trish 