Lawrence Webb

As the subtitle indicates, this present book shows Revelation is a book of hope rather than fear. People often import popular notions about things that simply are not in the book, such as Antichrist and the Rapture. Or they exaggerate elements such as the Battle of Armageddon. Professor Lawrence Webb's writing style as a religion editor and radio speaker will help casual readers and church lay members discover what actually is in the book and what is not. Admittedly, Revelation is not an easy read: A red dragon knocks a third of the stars out of the sky with his tail, and a seven-headed beast has the mysterious number 666. An army of locusts from the bottomless pit look like horses but have men's faces, women's hair, lion's teeth, and tails that sting like scorpions. A human army marches two hundred million strong. With all this, you may not recognize hope. But hope is what Revelation is about. In chapters 4-5, John has a vision of God, worshiped by all His creatures. And Christ is “a Lamb standing as though it had been slain.” In 11:15, before the decisive battle of Armageddon even begins, we are told, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever." Visions of great disasters unfold, but in the final revelation of God's new heaven and new earth, all is beauty and bliss forever. The future is in the hands of a loving God who will wipe away all tears (21:4), and Jesus Christ is declared “King of kings and Lord of lords” (19:16).

A Book of Hope

Revelation

Joshua Gleich

Hollywood on Location is the first comprehensive history of location shooting in the American film industry, showing how this mode of filmmaking changed Hollywood business practices, production strategies, and visual style from the silent era to the present. The contributors explore how major studios came to embrace location shooting as a standard procedure.

An Industry History

Hollywood on Location

Johan Andersson

How has American cinema engaged with the rapid transformation of cities and urban culture since the 1960s? And what role have films and film industries played in shaping and mediating the “postindustrial” city? This collection argues that cinema and cities have become increasingly intertwined in the era of neoliberalism, urban branding, and accelerated gentrification. Examining a wide range of films from Hollywood blockbusters to indie cinema, it considers the complex, evolving relationship between moving image cultures and the spaces, policies, and politics of US cities from New York, Los Angeles, and Boston to Detroit, Oakland, and Baltimore. The contributors address questions of narrative, genre, and style alongside the urban contexts of production, exhibition, and reception, discussing films including The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), Cruising (1980), Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), King of New York (1990), Inception (2010), Frances Ha (2012), Fruitvale Station (2013), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), and Doctor Strange (2016).

Film and Postindustrial Culture

The City in American Cinema

Every experience of life holds potential for learning spiritual and moral lessons. This book looks at four areas of creative expression - stories, songs, poems, and plays - and discovers Life Lessons with spiritual and moral significance. As a Christian minister, retired university professor, lover of music, community theater actor and director, writer and editor, the author says he finds theological relevance in these four arts areas. Some contain strong, direct expressions of Christian faith, others are less direct, and still others have no obvious connection with God or things religious. Even so, he has learned from each story, song, poem, and play and offers a Life Lesson from each. Stories include The Shack and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Songs include Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" and "We Shall Overcome." Poems include works by William Cullen Bryant, John Milton, John Keats, and Rudyard Kipling. Theater offerings include Broadway musicals, Fiddler on the Roof and Cabaret, and straight plays, Inherit the Wind and Death of a Salesman.

In Stories, Songs, Poems, Plays

Life Lessons

Christmas is a most wonderful time as we think once again on the season's true focus: the birth of the Baby whose life, death, and resurrection have reshaped history. The reflections in this collection found their inspiration in a variety of sources: * Songs of the season, old and new, sacred and secular, from Canada, Britain, and the U. S., including two new carols by the author * A Christmas quote from "Hamlet" * Soldiers who stopped fighting to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day * John Grisham's seriocomic novel about a man who tries to skip Christmas * Grumblings of a grade school boy who is forced to take a bath * Rheta Grimsley Johnson's newspaper column comparing Christmas with marriage * A Holiday visit to a bombed-out British cathedral * A painting in a London church basement * A three-year-old's first part in a pageant * A family Christmas letter telling about the young husband's bout with cancer * Classic Christmas stories: Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," Henry Van Dyke's "The Story of the Other Wise Man," and O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" * A play about men who remember Christmas while they are prisoners of terrorists * A few personal memories from the author's childhood, youth, and adult years *The title essay is taken from the plainest of tree decorations--a clear plastic disc with these words: "Once for a shining hour, heaven touched the earth." The book is written "with the prayer that the readings will provide food for your thoughts -- some of which you may need to chew on a while -- and that they will enrich your Christmas."

Reflections for Christmas

Once for a Shining Hour

Location shooting has always been a vital counterpart to soundstage production, and at times, the primary form of Hollywood filmmaking. But until now, the industrial and artistic development of this production practice has been scattered across the margins of larger American film histories. Hollywood on Location is the first comprehensive history of location shooting in the American film industry, showing how this mode of filmmaking changed Hollywood business practices, production strategies, and visual style from the silent era to the present. The contributors explore how location filmmaking supplemented and later, supplanted production on the studio lots. Drawing on archival research and in-depth case studies, the seven contributors show how location shooting expanded the geography of American film production, from city streets and rural landscapes to far-flung territories overseas, invoking a new set of creative, financial, technical, and logistical challenges. Whereas studio filmmaking sought to recreate nature, location shooting sought to master it, finding new production values and production economies that reshaped Hollywood’s modus operandi.

Cinema and audiovisual media are integral to the culture, economy and social experience of the contemporary global city. But how has the relationship between cinema and the urban environment evolved in the era of digital technology, new media and globalization? And what are the critical tools and concepts with which we can grasp this vital interconnection between space and screen, viewer and built environment? Engaging with a rapidly transforming urban world, the contributions to this collection rethink the 'cinematic city' at a global scale. By presenting a global constellation of screen cities within one volume, the book encourages juxtapositions and comparisons across the North and South to capture the global city and its dynamics of exchange, hybridity, and circulation. The contributions examine film and screen cultures in a range of locations spanning five continents: Antibes, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Busan, Cairo, Caracas, Copenhagen, Jakarta, Kolkata, Lagos, Los Angeles, Malmö, Manila, Mumbai, Nairobi, Paris, Seoul, Sète, and Shanghai. The chapters address topics that range across the contemporary film and media landscape, from popular cinema, art cinema, and film festivals to serial television, public screens, multimedia installations, and video art. Contributors: Chris Berry, Yomi Braester, Jinhee Choi, Pei-Sze Chow, Thomas Elsaesser, Malini Guha, Jonathan Haynes, Will Higbee, Igor Krstic, Christian B. Long, Joanna Page, Lawrence Webb.

Lawrence Webb

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