Author: Alex Doriot

I’ll Never

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Everyone has a pop culture blindspot.

Whether it’s for lack of time or lack of funds or just a general lack of interest we all have those movies or tv shows or books that it seems like everyone in the world has experienced except for us.

spectre1208141280jpg-398894_1280wOne of my biggest pop culture blindspots is James Bond.

This may come as a shock to you, but it’s true – I, a 29-year-old red blooded movie-loving male, have never seen a 007 movie.

I don’t really know how it happened. Maybe watching wrestling satisfied all my testosterone needs in pop culture. I don’t have any moral objection to the Bond series.

If someone were able to make a case for wanting to show me one of the movies I think I would sit down and watch one. But there’s no way I’m going to ever dive through the entire Bond history.

At this point in my life I know I’ll probably just never start watching a James Bond movie on my own. I’ve come to the realization that – even with hopefully many more happy and healthy years in front of me – I just can’t experience everything this world has to offer.

With the amount of quality entertainment in the landscape today and the incredible ease of access we have to it, at a certain point you just have to resign that there are some pop culture phenomena you’re never going to get around to experiencing.

I’m ok with never watching a James Bond movie. But there are some things that I’m not ok with never doing. Continue reading →

Run Onto The Field

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IMG_6098Last weekend I ran on the field after a Clemson football game.

You didn’t see it on the news. I wasn’t streaking or trying to tackle one of the players. It’s actually part of the tradition at Death Valley for students and fans to be able to run onto the field and celebrate with the home team after every victory.

We joined arms with the sweaty players who had just busted their tails for 4 quarters to secure a Tigers victory and sang the alma mater alongside them. We even got a selfie with Coach Dabo in the background. It was a fabulous end to a perfect day of tailgating and college football.

Now, I grew up a Tennessee fan and I never thought I’d see myself pulling for another shade of orange on Saturdays. But my wife’s family’s affection for Clemson is pretty infectious. The way the team treats it’s fans is a big part of that. Continue reading →

How To Ruin A Zombie Movie

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Zombies are hot right now.

Whereas it seemed a few years ago that every horror movie wanted to focus on vampires in the shadow of “Twilight”, now we’re being bombarded with zombie movies and tv shows in the wake of “The Walking Dead”. Chances are this Halloween as you’re counting up your candy you’ll be watching some sort of zombie-tainment.

Zombie_design_for_Zombieland,_mainEvery form of zombie-tainment follows a pretty simple formula: some sort of infestation has devastated the world’s population. The infected become some sort of half-dead lumbering creatures whose sole mission is to feast on human flesh and brains in order to survive. Those who are still living do their best to run and survive.

That’s all well and good if you want to have a hit in Hollywood right now. Just cut and paste that synopsis, toss in some sort of romantic plot amongst the group of survivors, and boom – you’ll be $100 million richer in no time.

There is, however, a way you can ruin the seemingly foolproof formula of a zombie movie: instead of attacking others, have the zombies start serving others.
 Continue reading →

Faded (A Post For Video Store Day 2015)

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For 2 and a half years in high school and college I worked at a pair of video rental stores. It’s still one of my favorite jobs I’ve ever had.

There were a lot of perks when I worked at the video store. Free rentals. Getting new movies before they were released. Easy access to giant tubs of buttery popcorn.

The most underrated perk of the job? Free movie posters.

Every month we’d get a new shipment of movie posters to plaster in the windows of the store promoting the coming attractions. Whenever new posters came in the old ones came down. Before they went in the dumpster these old posters were fair game for any of the employees to take home.

To a college kid this was a jackpot. My walls were covered by posters for “Batman Begins” and “Wallace and Gromit” – high art to a 20-year-old.

FullSizeRender(3)There was one problem. Often by the time they came off the wall many of the movie posters were faded. Continue reading →

What Would Jesus Watch – 8: Blue Like Jazz

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Welcome to “What Would Jesus Watch?”, our summer podcast series overanalyzing the over looked genre of Christian Cinema.

This week we let the listener’s pick our next film – the loosely based true story of author Donald Miller’s search for God and meaning amidst the chaos of Reed College in “Blue Like Jazz”!

FullSizeRender(2)Join Alex and Kate on this all-new episode as they break down the 2012 film which Alex has a very personal connection with. There’s so much to talk about here and we try to cover it all including a comparison of the ways this movie speaks to a Christian’s experience in college as opposed to a movie like God’s Not Dead. We share our favorite quirks about the movie’s version of Reed College, highlight the some of the movie’s truly unique characters and conversations and discuss what it really feels like to be in the minority when it comes to being a believer. Plus we offer our dream cast for the movie with Hollywood stars and open up a session of K8-Tracks on this week’s “What Would Jesus Watch”! Continue reading →

How To Fix A First Season Failure

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Muppets-TV-Show-2What’s wrong with The Muppets?

This question has been the topic of discussion on all sorts of major entertainment blogs and sites after the first few episodes of the new ABC mockumentary show starring pop culture’s favorite felt creatures.

The ratings have been strong for the series that reveals the behind the scenes mishaps of The Muppets putting on a new late night talk show starring Miss Piggy. But the response online has been mixed, mainly due to the show’s slightly more racy sense of humor and storylines focusing on romantic and sexual relationships.

If you’ve already chosen to give up on “The Muppets” I respect your decision. Life is too short to watch TV shows we don’t enjoy.

As for me: I’ve seen the first few episodes. I’ve heard the criticism. And as for now I’m not giving up on The Muppets. Continue reading →

Monday Morning Music: The Next Storm

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I’ve always enjoyed the rain. While others get depressed by storm clouds in the sky I tend to find them soothing.

In fact, I think it’s kind of funny when people freak out about a little precipitation. I know some people who won’t leave the house or drive their car if they see a rain drop.

And to be fair these people are probably more sane and just living more safely than I am, so I can’t really fault them.

It’s just that I don’t think hiding from bad weather is any way to live your life. So if you’re staring into storm clouds this week, maybe you could use a little Monday Morning Music to motivate you to step outside: 

Continue reading →

3 Plus Ways To Reboot Your Relationship With God

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Are you suffering from reboot fatigue?

It’s a new phrase for the current entertainment landscape where it seems you can’t get on Twitter without reading about a new reboot or remake of a classic TV show or movie.rebootsystem

You’ve seen the stories about shows like “Full House” (now redubbed “Fuller House”) and “The X-Files” coming back to our screens. Shows you didn’t even realize anyone cared about are being relaunched for a new generation to not really care about them all that much.

(Me? I’m just over here waiting for a new “Double Dare” series. Come on – we need more Super Sloppiness on our screens.)

Though I may be suffering from a little fatigue from reading about reboots and relaunches and remakes every day, that doesn’t mean they’re a bad thing.

You might say they’re just a side effect of our MORE MORE MORE binge watching culture. Instead of being satisfied with a great story we demand another and another.

But I think something deeper is going on. I think the reason we love reboots and remakes is because we are relational. Continue reading →

What Would Jesus Watch – 7: Dial A Prayer

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Welcome to “What Would Jesus Watch?”, our summer podcast series overanalyzing the over looked genre of Christian Cinema.

poster212x312This week we follow in the footsteps of John Oliver’s recent expose and explore the story of a woman looking for faith inside a questionable ministry as we explore the movie “Dial A Prayer” on this all-new episode. 

Join Alex and Kate on the latest episode as they break down this overlooked gem from earlier this year starring Brittany Snow and William H. Macy. This movie raises a lot of interesting questions about spiritual issues and we get deep discussing our feelings on the power and purpose of prayer. Plus we talk about whether or not this is a Christmas movie, the misleading poster, Brittany Snow’s breakout performance, the surprisingly shocking twist, and try figure out exactly what the business model of the Prayer Center is. All that as well as our Prayer Requests and K8-Tracks on this week’s “What Would Jesus Watch”!

If you haven’t seen “Dial A Prayer” before you’ll definitely still be able to enjoy the podcast. But if you’d like to prepare before watching you can check out the trailer below and find the movie on Netflix, iTunes, or at your local video store:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjn0DuP-hJ8 Continue reading →

11 Lessons From My Resume

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photo 2-7As I enjoyed the Labor Day holiday this past weekend I had a chance to read an article in my hometown paper where the great columnist Bill Kirby shared lessons from some of the many jobs he worked over his life. I thought it would be interesting to go back and do the same for my years in the workforce.

Though I’m only 29-years-old at the moment I’ve amassed a good size resume and I believe there’s at least one lesson to be learned from every job I’ve had over the years. So, with full credit to Mr. Kirby for the idea, here’s one lesson from every job I’ve had since I started working at age 16:

1) The Masters Tournament (First week of April 2002):

The Job – 4 straight 14 hour days in a concession stand at the most popular golf event in the world.

The Lesson – The paycheck is not always worth the work. Continue reading →