coincidence of the day

There was a guest speaker at Follen today, the minister from the Trinity Covenant church. During the discussion time afterwards, he was being grilled, more or less, on what it's like to be an Evangelical Christian who isn't on the right politically, among other topics. He mentioned a revival his parents "dragged" him to as a kid, and the concept of an altar call. I remembered that one traditional hymn at those times is "Softly & Tenderly," which I think I know because my grandmother used to watch Billy Graham services on TV.

I watched the DVD of "Junebug." In a scene set at a church supper, "Softly and Tenderly" was the hymn that was sung. I had seen a couple of previous movies in which Alessandro Nivola sang (Love's Labour's Lost, Laurel Canyon), but hadn't noticed before what a lovely voice he has. In the DVD extras, there is a short feature about him working with the music director of Junebug to choose the best pitch for him and work on the harmonies for the other two singers. The result made it clear that the extra trouble they went to was worth it.