As of today, Stylus Magazine is closing its doors (more info at The New York Observer). Arguably, most folks think of Pitchfork when they hear the phrase “online music journalism” (and not without good reason). However, Stylus was easily on par with its more well-known peer, and oftentimes even better, covering even more obscure and deserving artists with less snark and narcissism.

I don’t think that online music/media/cultural journalism is necessarily dead, but today’s departure of Stylus from the field is certainly a very sad event. And to mark the “momentous” occasion, the Stylus staff has posted numerous articles and recollections, including their “year-end” lists and a guide to their best and brightest writings.

In his recent—and much discussed—list of the best “Christian” albums of all time, Brett McCracken included Over The Rhine’s Ohio, of which he wrote “there are about six songs from this album that should be sung in churches every Sunday.” High praise indeed, and it got me to thinking about songs that I wish were sung on Sunday mornings in lieu of the usual “praise & worship” fare.

I’ve been on a bit of a 16 Horsepower/Woven Hand kick lately, and as I was listening to Consider The Birds today, I realized that “To Make A Ring” easily fits that bill.

Nothing in this world
Gives me a reason to doubt
I want to enter Him
Of my flesh I want out
I have been given to follow the sun
Forever ‘round the throne
Forever ‘round the throne

Listen
Judgement will not be avoided by your unbelief
By your lack of fear
Nor by your prayers to any little idol here
He owns all those cattle
He owns all these hills
Forever ‘round the throne yeah
Forever ‘round the throne
Forever ‘round the throne yeah

Crow eye come see
Crow eye come see
The Lord will not be mocked
Not by you or me

Power glory honour
Be unto my King
We will weave our hands
Weave our hands
We will weave our hands together to make a ring
Forever ‘round the throne
Forever ‘round the throne
Forever ‘round the throne yeah

Power, glory, and dominion
Be unto the King
We will weave our voice
Weave our voice
We will weave our voice together
Together and sing
Forever ‘round the throne
Forever ‘round the throne
Forever ‘round the throne

Forever

Of course, to do this song justice, you’d need to bring in some pounding tribal drums, a creaking violin, a mandolin or two, and buckets of wheezy, old-timey drones and atmospherics. Oh, and you’d have to convince the congregation to opt for a slightly charismatic air, what with all of the hootin’ and hollerin’, and not be afraid of sounding dark, otherworldly, and spooked out (like David Eugene Edwards).

Then again, this is Old Testament, God walking the Earth, prophets crying out for justice and mercy, fire falling from the sky, smoke and darkness kind of stuff. The lyrics drip with fear and reverence, mystery and awe, salvation and damnation, praise and humility, sin and holiness—truth that sends shivers down the spine and brings tears to the eyes.

Or, as Edwards puts it:

It doesn’t matter what you do—how good you are. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done—how bad you are. Salvation is of the Lord, and we think it is of us, if we behave a certain way or eat the right food—basically that God is not sovereign. If there is a God, which I think that a lot of people are ready and willing to admit whether they are Christian or not, it really doesn’t matter. It’s of no consequence if there is a God, because it’s all up to them anyway. Whatever means they choose, meditating or going to the psychologist, they use whatever faith they have as another tool, just like if they were taking a medicine. Basically, my job is to tell people that they are hopeless. Hopeless without Christ.

Amen, amen, and amen.

Forget about Kirk versus Picard. That’s just nitpicking. The real debate is Joel versus Mike: which one of the hosts of the cult classic “Mystery Science Science Theatre 3000” was the best? Now that’s a debate for the ages.

I’ve always been more of a Mike fan myself, but only because I’m most familiar with the show’s latter seasons. However, if I started working my way back through the MST3K archives—which I hope to do someday before I die (or go blind)—and became more familiar with Joel’s tenure, that opinion could easily change.

Or it might be changing sooner than that. Joel Hodgson is coming back with a new enterprise entitled Cinematic Titanic where—get this!—he’ll be riffing on bad movies. And he won’t be alone. Trace Beaulieu (aka Crow T. Robot and Dr. Clayton Forrester), J. Elvis Weinstein, Mary Jo Pehl (aka Pearl Forrester) and Frank Conniff (aka TV’s Frank) will also be along for the ride.

They’re currently working on their first victim, er, title, which according to Hodgson, makes ‘Manos the Hands of Fate’ look like ‘Santa Claus Conquers the Martians’ in a car wreck with ‘Eegah!’ with notes of peach. The plan is to have the release out in time for Christmas. In addition, the crew will be doing a live performance for their world debut in December, for I.L.M/Lucasfilm employees and guests.

Between this and Mike Nelson’s RiffTrax, there’ll be plenty of bad movie riffing to last us for a good long while. Which is fine by me. Via

• Stereogum has a preview track from Sally Shapiro’s Disco Romance, which finally arrives in stores today.
• How did I miss this? Ceremony have a new release out on Safranin Sound entitled Disappear. You can hear a few tracks on their MySpace page, and they sound great. Prepare to kiss your eardrums goodbye!
• Brett McCracken compiles a list of the best “Christian” albums of all time.
• Andy Whitman has put together a 4-disc list of the “best songs of 2007”. He also takes a dig at music publicists, thereby reaffirming his status as one of my favorite bloggers.
• Apple geeks should get a clean pair of drawers ready: John Siracusa offers up his ultra-thorough review of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: ...I’ve chosen to delve deeply into the aspects of Leopard that are the most interesting to me while also trying to provide a reasonable overview for the non-geeks who’ve decided to take the plunge into an Ars Technica review.
• The new version of GMail has been released into the wild, though not everyone has it yet (I don’t). Improvements include: better performance and usability, prefetched messages (for increased speed), and a new contact manager. You can see some more screenshots here.
• Believe, indeed… the Halo movie is still in pre-production.
• Speaking of Halo, Neil Blomkamp’s Halo shorts have been compiled into one single clip. If you’ve got the time (and bandwidth), download the large version (it’s real purty). If not, here are the small and medium versions. Via
• The Sci Fi Channel will be hosting an exclusive special on the long-awaited Mass Effect. Looks like I need to hit up my cable-endowed friends.
• Whaaaaa?!? Fox is developing an American version of Spaced?!? And without the input of Edgar Wright?!? And McG is producing?!? Sigh… I don’t see what good can come of this.
• Stylus has compiled a list of the top films of the millennium... so far.

As odd as it seems, my favorite moment in The Darjeeling Limited, the moment that I found most intriguing, captivating, and affecting, was its closing credits. And I say that with nary ounce of snark or disdain.

Wes Anderson’s latest ends with a shot of our protagonists—three estranged brothers played by Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman—gazing out the window before they shuffle down the hall to the dinner cabin for a drink and a smoke. The camera pans until it’s parallel with the train, and we spend the rest of the credits watching the gorgeous Indian countryside pass by and the hypnotic sway of the train cars while Joe Dassin’s “Les Champs-Élysées” and later, a haunting piece of Indian music, plays in the background.

Why do I find that particular bit of the film so intriguing, especially considering everything that occurs beforehand? Because I find myself wishing that, as beautiful as the countryside was, the camera would swing back into the train, head down to the dining car, and hook back up the brothers. Who, now freed from the film’s artifice and constraints, might actually be involved in a conversation that remotely resembles something human.

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I picked up the 3-disc “ultimate edition” of Casshern a couple of years ago. I had been blown away by the look of the trailer, and the movie did not disappoint. Though not quite the all-out action fest hinted at by the trailer, and sporting some sizable flaws, I still found Kazuaki Kiriya’s debut film incredibly fascinating and even moving.

From my review:

So does Casshern live up to hype?  I’d be lying if I said that it doesn’t stumble disappointingly in places, usually when Kiriya attempts to push his pacifist message to near-mythical heights. But I count it to Kiriya’s credit that Casshern actually does pack an emotional punch by its end, concluding things with a very melodramatic, yet quite touching denouement - especially given the film’s traumatic and uber-apocalyptic climax.

I once saw a review of Donnie Darko (itself another stunning debut) in which the reviewer remarked that the film may be too ambitious for a debut feature, but ambition and imagination still trump mediocrity any day of the week. That easily sums up my opinion with Casshern.  Any way you look at it, there’s no denying that Casshern is an extremely ambitious film, probably one of the most ambitious I’ve seen in a long time.  And the fact that this was Kiriya’s first film (not only did he direct, he also wrote the screenplay, edited the film, and was the cinematographer), and that he made it with only $6 million, only adds to that impression.

Unfortunately, North America has been denied a domestic DVD release… until now, that is. Go Fish Pictures finally released Casshern on DVD earlier this month. IGN has just posted their review of the DVD, giving it an 8.0 rating:

Without any doubt, Casshern is a compelling piece of filmmaking. Why it took Dreamworks this long to finally release it on DVD is beyond me. Casshern is a gripping blend of social commentary, science fiction and noir, wrapped around an emotional story of personal sacrifices and family. As much as it is an anti-war film, Casshern seldom strays far from its more gut-wrenching story of a family torn apart by circumstances, giving a usually metallic-cold and impersonal sci-fi film a chance to prove it has heart.

A few things worth noting, however, about the Region 1 DVD.

First, the DVD contains the “director’s cut” of Casshern, which is thirty minutes shorter than the original Japanese version. (Amazon erroneously lists the runtime as being only 80 minutes, or over an hour shorter.) A shorter version is not necessarily a bad thing, though. The original film is very uneven in places, so a little judicious editing here and there could do well to tighten things up and cut away some of the dross.

Second, the DVD doesn’t contain any DVD extras—not even a trailer. Which is a real disappointment. A film as unique and groundbreaking as Casshern practically demands some extras, like a feature or two exploring the “digital backlot” techniques used to create the film’s stunning visuals. And in this day and age, shouldn’t trailers be a given?!?

On a related note, Twitch has been reporting on Kiriya’s next efforts. One is a martial arts fantasy film called Goemon that will be filmed in Japan and the second is an alien invasion film will be done for Warner Brothers here in America. Suffice to say, I’m very eager to see both of them. Based on what I saw in Casshern, Kiriya has both style and skill to burn, and I can’t wait to see what amazing visions he comes up with next.

• Steve Greydanus (of Decent Films fame) has been posting a series of articles on materialism and morality over on Jimmy Akins’ website. You can read the first installment here and work your way from there.
• The reviews for In Rainbows are still rolling in. Here’s Michael Henaghan’s: ...it’s refreshing to know some things will never change; Radiohead’s uncanny ability to make delightful, challenging music. When the dust finally settles over their choice of distribution methods, one criticism that can never be leveled at Radiohead is their lack of ingenuity. For the record, In Rainbows will most certainly be on my year-end list. It’s already one of the most listened to albums I’ve picked up so far this year.
• Mental Floss has posted a couple of comics that Calvin and Hobbes’ Bill Watterson did back in college.
• John Gruber offers up his review of OS X 10.5 Leopard (Leopard is chock full of… little things that won’t be promoted on the box cover or mentioned in mainstream media reviews, but which, taken cumulatively, epitomize why Mac OS X keeps getting better with each major release.) as well as some Leopard installation tips.
• Paul Burdick gives a little bit of info concerning the future direction of ExpressionEngine and its requirements.
• “Why Enterprise Software Sucks”: The people who buy enterprise software aren’t the people who use enterprise software. That’s where the disconnect begins. And it pulls and pulls and pulls until the user experience is split from the buying experience so severely that the software vendors are building for the buyers, not the users. The experience takes a back seat to the feature list, future promises, and buzz words.
• What’s that you say? You’re itching for some Japanese turntablism? Turntable Radio‘s got what you need. 90 minutes of it, to be precise. Via
• The Superest is a weblog run by two illustrators who come up with superheroes that trump one another. In a word, brilliant! Via

From Philip Yancey’s excellent Reaching For The Invisible God (emphasis mine):

I think of God’s style as “ironic.” A more straightforward approach would respond to each new problem with an immediate solution. A woman gets sick; God heals her. A man is falsely imprisoned; God releases him. Rarely does God use that approach, however. An author of great subtlety, he lets the plot line play out in perilous ways, then ingeniously incorporates those apparent detours into the route home. Thus Paul gives thanks for his “thorn in the flesh” because it advances, rather than impedes God’s work through him; and Joseph can look back on his harrowing life and say to his cruel brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.” Although Joseph never denied his horrible past, nor minimized the trauma, he ultimately saw it as part of a meaningful story that served purposes greater than he could imagine at the time…

It should not surprise us that a sovereign God uses bad things as the raw material for fashioning good. The symbol of our faith, after all, which we now stamp in gold and wear around our necks or chisel in stone and place atop our churches, is a replica of a Roman execution device. God did not save Jesus from the cross but “ironically” saved others through Jesus’ death on the cross. In the Incarnation, God’s power stream of redeeming good from evil was stealthily underway.

It’s been over well over four months since Zion Church—that beautiful eighty-year-old fixture—burned to the ground. And yet, Zion Church—the people, the ministries, and the outreach—are still going strong, and in some ways, are in a better position than ever before.

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