It should go without saying that art is a powerful thing. When it is done well it can easily change the way we see the world, subverting our perspective in a way where other forms of communication would struggle or fail. We are surrounded by well executed art, yet it is an exhilarating rarity...

If you were going to introduce the Star Wars saga to someone who has never seen the movies, how would you do it? Since there are two trilogies that were not produced in chronological order a true dilemma emerges. I just read a brilliant article by Rod Hilton addressing this topic. I highly...

I’ve written a number of pieces about Christian hip-hop over at Evangelical Outpost, as well as entrenching myself in the genre as a reviewer (both written and in podcast form) for The Christian Manifesto. When I was asked to write a few guest posts here at The Two Cities, I really wasn’t...

Some Spoilers Ahead (I’m not really sure what counts as a spoiler these days) It is so hard to live up to the hype. Nolan made us like Batman again with Begins and he showed us what the potential of super hero movies were with The Dark Knight. So much so, that people complained the movie...

I’m usually a step behind most pop-culture phenomenons. So true to form I just finished my reading of The Hunger Games series and watched the first movie. Here is my one-sentence synopsis of the series for those who care to know: The first book sucks you in, and the last book,...

Have you seen Prometheus yet? If you haven’t you may want to stop reading. However, if you’ve decided you don’t want to see Prometheus, then consider this blog post an invitation. I was able to see Prometheus on June 1 since it had an early release in the UK. I’ve been...

Maybe you’ve never heard of mewithoutYou. That saddens me. This post-hardcore melodic folk band from Philadelphia is certainly one of my favorites. Their 5th studio album, Ten Stories, was just released on May 15, 2012. This is their first album released after their record-label...

Last week was the first Conference engaging with the Harry Potter series at a high academic level.  We know, hard to believe huh?!  Well, yours truly from The Two Cities, John Anthony Dunne and Nathaniel Warne, were among the lucky few selected to give papers at this landmark event.  The...

This Thursday and Friday (May 17 and 18) the School of English at the University of St Andrews will be hosting an international conference on Harry Potter called, “A Brand of Fictional Magic: Reading Harry Potter as Literature.” Today I am leaving Las Vegas to return to Scotland...

Last weekend, numerous people throughout the country collectively invested $200.3 M into 2 hours and 23 minutes of their time. This investment was the purchase of a movie ticket to escape the world of reality to play in the super-hero fantasy world of The Avengers. I’ll confess: I tossed a...