Monthly archive December, 2008
Family Best
Sharlet: It's a New Year's treat to have my book, The Family, included on the top 10 list of 2008 books featured on "The Writer's Voice" ...
The Smart Set
Tim Townsend of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch responds to the Religion Newswriters Association’s dull list of top ten list of 2008 religion stories with a smarter list of local Missouri stories he expects to be covering. It’s too heavy on leadership issues for our tastes, but it’s the right approach: All religion is local. Consider,...
Beyond the Best
13 dispatches from the forgotten frontiers, crooked paths, and cul-de-sacs of religion reporting in America.
By Jeff Sharlet
Last week, I rounded up my favorite religion-related stories of 2008, and, over at Religion Dispatches, my favorite religion-related books of 2008, along with "best of" lists from a number of Revealer contributors. For the quiet week...
A Well-Wrought Urn
“It’s not the vase, it’s what you put in it.” That’s what Carlos Williams, the missionary hero of this WaPo story, tells a wino he wants to reel into his new church. It’s not a bad motto for religion reporting, either. It’s not the religion that matters, it’s what you put into the story, the...
Death Match: Mickey Rourke vs. Mel Gibson
It should come as no surprise that The Wrestler is a religiously-inflected flick — nearly every review uses “resurrected” to describe Mickey Rourke — but Gabriel McKee connects the blood spatters on his SF Gospel blog.
Ignoring Their Religion
Why is Rick Warren being given a pulpit at the inauguration? In large part because the press has already given him a free pass. A media establishment that defines itself as "moderate" in all things -- as if moderation wasn't a political pose -- needs religion it can define as good (read: innocuous). This, of...
Travel the Spaceways
And Oxford Americanize your ears.
By Jeff Sharlet
Every year I plug the annual Oxford American Southern Music Issue here on The Revealer because A) I love it; B) I usually have a piece in it, which is independent of me loving the only music magazine that always cares as much about the words on the page...
Brown-Eyed Jewish Soul
A maverick Jewish record producer with an ear for black music teams up with artists considered behind the times to produce albums -- actual vinyl -- that reinvigorate mainstream pop. This isn't Cadillac Records...
What We Cared About, 2008
Some of the most interesting texts of 2008, selected by the contributing editors of The Revealer.
Annual "Best Book" lists should usually be read as a review of the best publicity jobs of the year -- the books that make the list, as wonderful as they may be, are most often those backed up by dedicated...
Dreaming of Oz in Mumbai
S. Brent Plate: In the wake of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai, one of The New York Times most emailed articles last weekend was by NYU journalism professor, Suketa Mehta, entitled "What They Hate about Mumbai." Professor Mehta waxed romantically and defiantly about his city...
Kosher collapse
Elizabeth Dwoskin details the collapse of a kosher empire for the Village Voice. This is one of the best reports on the Agriprocesser scandal we’ve seen, the only one to seriously venture into the Orthodox Jewish community’s support for the kosher meat supplier following revelations of its brutal treatment of its workers. Some of the...
