Re: hmmm.

On Thu, 27 Jan 2011, Johne Cook wrote:
> Oy vey.
> Hope you land somewhere. I like your writing very much.

Thanks.

FWIW, I just took a closer look at the new magazine's website, and the 
home page says the magazine will, among other things, "feature current 
Christian book, music and movie releases."

So the focus will be on *Christian* movies?  Yeah, if *that's* the case, 
then I don't know that I'd be very interested in it.  I mean, *some* 
Christian movies are kinda decent, and I don't mind covering them ... but 
it's just not where I want to focus my attention these days, and it never 
really has been.  (I actually once wrote an article for the newspaper 
that's being shut down, in which I said I was glad that there has never 
been a Christian movie industry to the same degree that there is a 
Christian music industry, because the lack of a Christian movie industry 
has forced Christian movie buffs to focus on "real" movies -- whereas the 
existence of the Christian music industry has all too often enabled 
Christians to ignore the "real" music that's out there.)

But maybe I'm reading too much into that one sentence.  Maybe they'd cover 
"real" movies too.  The thing is ... I have no idea what angle they'd be 
taking.  And I have little to no interest in learning anybody else's angle 
right now.  The column I wrote for the last several years gave me a lot of 
freedom and flexibility, and the editor-publisher who oversaw the 
newspaper for the last 18-ish years was someone I got along with really 
well, someone who had a great sense of humour and someone who really 
understood the need to discuss art with integrity while at the same time 
being sensitive to some of the broader spiritual concerns.  It might not 
even be going too far to say that the editor-publisher in question is one 
of a handful of people without whom I might no longer be a Christian; I 
went through a spiritual wilderness of sorts in the late '90s and early 
'00s during which a lot of things were in flux, for me -- no steady 
church, some genuine ambivalence about the details of my belief, etc., 
etc. -- but through it all, I had my work for that newspaper; it felt like 
home to me; there was a security in being affiliated with Those People.

Anyway.  Without someone like that guy in charge, I don't know that I'd 
want to be involved in a narrowly Christian publication right now.  And I 
haven't done any serious secular writing in about eight years, now; I 
*have* written an article here or there, but they tend to be about 
religion, so I'm kind of stuck in that "niche", as it were.  There *was* a 
time, though, when I was just one of many secular film critics here.

So you can see why I get a bit nervous when Bruce starts telling me it's 
never too late to change careers.  :)

And now, to fill out the kindergarten application forms for the twins... 
and then, at some point soon, I'll have to book some tests that the 
pediatrician requisitioned for my three-year-old this morning... he's got 
a speech delay and apparently there is some concern that he might need an 
occupational therapist, because he isn't *pointing* at things yet... oh 
well, at least one of the grandmothers starts taking my daughter to her 
first swimming lesson on Monday, so *I* don't have to worry about 
*that*... and I don't have to register the twins for the autistic kids' 
soccer program until March... (what, *me* with my hands full?... and I 
haven't even mentioned the stuff I have to do for *myself* yet, like read 
a book in time to record a podcast about it on Monday... etc., etc....)

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