Spring Book Sale

To celebrate the launch of our new online bookstore, we're offering a 10% discount on all books purchased at HJ Books through the end of May. Just browse around, and enter coupon code LAUNCH at checkout for the discount on your entire order.

If you've been waiting to pick up any of our books or scripts, now's the time!

Hollywood Jesus Once Again

On February 16, we officially rejoined the staff of HollywoodJesus.com as consulting editors. In this part-time paid position, we have assumed editorial oversight under the direction of webmaster David Bruce (as usual). HJ's transition to new website technology last May proved to be a difficult one, and there were, unfortunately, some casualties along the way.

In early February we got a call from the website's owners checking our availability to return to the site -- and we agreed, on the condition that we would be editing only, and not writing for the site. Past the Popcorn will continue to be published as usual, and our PTP staff will remain separate (though we all hail from HJ originally).

While Greg works to get HJ's technical and workflow issues resolved, Jenn is stepping up by taking over the lion's share of PTP's editorial flow.

We're excited to be doing the kind of writing we want to do at PTP, and also excited about helping to get HJ past some difficult bumps.

Reviews, Articles, and Conferences

In addition to the complete lineup of reviews, interviews, and commentary we've been regularly running at Past the Popcorn, here's a rundown on other things that Greg's been up to lately:

• The HollywoodJesus.com Lord of the Rings coverage republished (Feb. 1).
  
• Guest editorial at theonering.net about the proposed Hobbit movie (Feb. 5).
• "Ethics, Hollywood, and the Church: Who Cares?" at thinkchristian.net (Feb. 16).
• "On Movies, Morality, and Film Ratings" in Christian News Northwest (Oregon regional, March issue, print only); reprinted online at PTP this month.
• One Ring Celebration, Burbank, March 10-11. Three papers presented: "The Scouring of the Shire: What We (and Jackson) Missed in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings," "The Hobbit: More Than Just a Fuzzy Children's Tale," and "Why We Should Care About The Children of Hurin." The talk on "The Scouring of the Shire" was a reworking of the lecture Greg delivered at Notre Dame in November of 2005. Outlines of his talks on The Hobbit and The Children of Hurin are available online in PDF format.
• Northwest Christian Education Conference, March 23-24. Two workshops presented: "Bibliodrama: Improvising Bible-based Scripts" and "The Eyes Have It: Blogging and Forum Administration." Greg will also be moderating a panel entitled "Hollywood and Spirituality," which will also feature Jenn as well as PTP writers Kathy Bledsoe and Mike Smith.