El Orfanato, es tan aterrador!

A weekend movie suggestion.

Last Saturday night I mentioned to Brandon and Daniel that I had stumbled upon the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (the Jessica Biel version) on the IFC channel late one night. I don't like scary movies, but I couldn't look away. I kept "last channeling" on the remote whenever it got too scary (which was often).

The conversation turned to scariest movies (Event Horizon was a consensus winner...I turned that one off in the middle I was too freaked out). I then mentioned a foreign film called "El Orfanato" that I had heard was really scary. An hour later we are at Brandon's apartment streaming the movie onto his TV via NetFlix's and I am screaming like a little girl. Think you can handle it? Then here's the trailer.

It is a SCARY movie and if you enjoy a good fright then this flick is for you. There's no gore, nudity, or other such things in the film so if that turns you off from scary movies then no worries there. BUT it is freaking scary!

Tonight we are going out for my friend Daniel's birthday (click the link...it's funny). We are going to go see "La Den Rette Komme Inn" at the Angelika Theater in SoHo. I'll let you know how it goes.

Heath Ledger

One of my all-time favorite movies is Brokeback Mountain. It completely reframed a topic that I had previously made my mind up about. The movie as a complete package is one of this eras greatest accomplishments on film. I am still haunted with the portrayal of Ennis Del Mar by Heath Ledger. I am haunted because I asked myself as I watched the movie, "how would the church minister to the needs of that person." The church as I have experienced it doesn't have an answer.

Although I didn't know Heath Ledger I am still very saddened by his death, and even more disturbed at how he will not be able to be remembered in peace. The funeral home is a block from the church and there are about 100 photographers and live camera crews around the entrance. Fame has it's price, but the cost in his death to his family is unfairly high. I am not just saddened because he was a great actor but also because he was a father. He didn't have the opportunity to fulfill his promise in either area. May God's peace descend upon the turmoil.

From A.O. Scott:

"The dismaying sense of loss and waste at Mr. Ledger’s death at 28 comes not only because he was so young, but also because his talent was large and as yet largely unmapped. It seems inevitable that he will now be inscribed in the cult of the beautiful stars who died too young, alongside James Dean, Montgomery Clift and Marilyn Monroe. Even before his death he had been ensnared in a pathological gossip culture that chews up the private lives of celebrities, and Tuesday’s news unleashed the usual rituals of media cannibalism.

Mr. Ledger’s work will outlast the frenzy. But there should have been more. Instead of being preserved as a young star eclipsed in his prime, he should have had time to outgrow his early promise and become the strange, surprising, era-defining actor he always had the potential to be."

King Kong and Old Earth

The story in my family is that my dad took me as a two or three year old to see "King Kong". Apparently for a good while after that I was petrified to go to sleep or be alone and I kept saying "the big monkey will get me" (mom can provide the correct quote). Who would take their toddler to see a movie like King Kong and expect them not to get scared!?

Well apparently the same kind of father who would take their three and half year old son to see "Cosmic Collisions" in a 360 degree planetarium theater. Looking back on it, it's pretty obvious that a completely immersive theater experience with planets exploding at high volume might be a little much for the 'Noggin' demographic.

When I was two or three I was fearful of "the big monkey," and now "old earth" is forever burned into Levi's mind. We were doing well the first two minutes of the film. The whole ceiling was covered in stars and then a comet shot across the sky. He was getting a little nervous but after climbing in my lap he sat in wonderment. Then the narrator said something like "In order to see how the moon was formed we have to go back 100 billion years ago when the earth was a molten mix of..." At that moment from behind us a huge red fiery planet comes over head with a low rumble that shook the seats. From the horizon just in front of us comes a streaking comet that's getting bigger and bigger until the red "old earth" collides to thunderous effect with the oncoming comet showering the entire theater with debris (the pic above is the moment of collision). At which point Levi screams out in absolute terror. I mean pure terror. "No daddy, no daddy." His eyes are gigantic and they are fixated on the center of the dome. Brandon is with us and we both are talking to him telling him it's ok, but he can't hear us because he is crying and screaming so loud. In fact he is louder than the explosion in the theater. I asked him if he wants to leave (dumb question) and he says yes and I carry him out of the theater with him screaming all the way.

I think I adequately explained that what we saw was just a movie and that there is no such thing as 'old earth' anymore and that we actually didn't leave NYC. He was very disoriented and very surprised that we weren't in space. Which is understandable (here is a picture of the planetarium) considering how disorienting the theater could be. So let that be known to all the parents out there. Obviously taking your toddler to see "CLOVERFIELD" isn't a good idea and taking them to any of the movies at the Natural History Museum isn't either.

I'm Back!

We had a great Christmas going to Arkansas. We got rest, presents, and we ate. Boy did we eat. I am convinced that if I lived in the south I would be 50lbs heavier than I am now. I know that I drank my weight in Sonic sweet tea while I was there. The ice they put in those drinks is addictive.

I will say I came across something that I have never seen despite being exposed to southern cooking my whole life. Candied bacon! I am absolutely serious. Here's the recipe (just in case Kate and Kenny want to try it). You take bacon at room temperature, put it on a cookie sheet, cover it with brown sugar, and cook it in the oven at 350 degrees. When the bacon is done let it cool on the pan and let it harden into it's candied goodness.

My 2007 Roundup:
Zeke Isbell - 7/27/07 can't really top that.
Most listened to song for 2007 (according to my iTunes): How Great Is Our God - Chris Tomlin (57 times)
Favorite Album: Tie between MuteMath's self titled album and The Shins "Wincing the Night Away"
Best Movie I've Seen: Bourne Ultimatum
Best Kid Gift Ever: Get any three-year old these and you will be a hero. (check it)
Best Electronic Acquisition: 36" Sony CRT TV. Only weighs 95lbs...but it was free (thanks Matt).
Biggest Ministry Success: "Servtainment" where serving IS the entertainment for the youth rally. And taking ten teens to Honduras.
My Favorite Netflix Obsession: Watching "The Wire" season 1.
Biggest Beat-down: Facebook - It gets more complicated and overbearing everyday.
Biggest Let-down: This blog, I know it's been pretty lame the last six months, I intend for it to get better.

As 2008 gets underway our family is taking a radical step that's going to be pretty big for our family. We are selling our car. We have had the same car for the past ten years and have never been in the city without one. For a number of reasons we have decided that now is the time to sell it and go without one for a while. So is anyone interested in a 1997 Honda Civic, with radio and tape Deck and 126,000 miles on it let me know.

What Would Jesus Buy

Just in time for the holidays right?! Oh and yes they are starting to put up Christmas decorations here in NYC.

WALL*E

Over the past week I hit the movie watching mother-load. Allison and I went to see "Harry Potter" then I took the youth group to see "Transformers." On Friday Levi and I went to see "Ratatouille." Finally on Friday night Brandon and I went saw "Rescue Dawn".

I thoroughly enjoyed all these movies each for a different reason. From this movie fest, the thing that has stayed with me was this preview that I saw prior to the showing of "Ratatouille" about a movie called "WALL*E". It should be noted that I am a movie trailer junky...I can't get enough of them.

This feature from Pixar is rumored to break the previous Pixar molds in both style and story. It's directed by Andrew Stanton who was the director for "Finding Nemo" and has a well deserved reputation for pushing the artistic boundaries of animation. You can see from the brief glimpse in the trailer that "WALL*E" is animated using a sort of 3-D animation technique that appears even more life like than previous Pixar efforts. But more than the technical aspect, the story line of "WALL*E" is said to be a real departure for Pixar and mass marketed animation movies for that matter. Not much is given away in the trailer but I found this full plot description on-line that has me even more intrigued. If it lives up to even half of what I read then this will be a movie well worth waiting a year to see, and could represent a fundamental shift in what we expect from animated movies. It's really exciting.

Testing Core Belief's

Yes I am a pathetic blogger. Joe says I should commit or give it up. Well I am committing. How's this for a jumping in topic...

Sex Offenders In Church:

The NY-Times has an article (article here) about a church in California who is dealing with this issue right now. The Pilgrim United Church of Christ has received so much attention that NPR's All Things Considered did a piece on the situation (audio here).

The gist of the story is that Mark Pliska has been to prison for molesting children, and when he recently got out he was looking for a place to worship. He went to the Pilgrim UCC because of their denominations reputation as being an open and affirming place (see commercial here).

The church has been faced with a difficult decision. How do they create a place for a child molester, who is still loved by God, within their community, and meet the needs of the children and adult victims of sexual abuse that are already in their community as well? Can a church set up adequate safety systems that would ensure the safety of both the children and Mr. Pliska? Is it worth the risk of ministering to Mr. Pliska if the innocence of a child is at stake? If this happened at your church how would you feel about a "Mr. Pliska" being in your community?

I have to hand it to Mark. It would have been a whole lot easier for him to just show up in church and not say anything to anyone. No one would have known. But the fact that he has this level of disclosure somewhat indicates a sincere desire to keep others safe at the expense of himself. That's commendable, because the scary truth is there are people scattered throughout all our churches who don't disclose this kind of sin, and even worse use the church as cover for indulging in their sin, including Pastors, Ministers, and Priests!

I truly believe that this problem is going to become bigger not smaller over the next several years. With the easy accessibility of hard core pornography by anyone able to use a computer, younger and younger minds are having their sexuality formed and twisted by the vilest of images. And these twisted, abusive, and criminal pornographers are often based internationally so it's hard for them to be brought under any sort of regulation or justice.

On a related note, there is a new movie coming out about international sex trafficking called Trade. Not sure if I could actually see it, the trailer was hard enough to sit through. But then again hiding from the truth doesn't make it go away, I just wish a movie like this wasn't rooted in reality.

Need Help Procrastinating

Here are two websites a friend of mine sent to me over this last week. They are pretty cool so I thought I would pass them along. You've already wasted this much time coming to my blog, what's another fifteen minutes right!?

First is the internet radio site called Pandora.com. Pandora was born out of the Music Genome Project which attempts to take the unique musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and singing and vocal harmony - and build associations with other songs based on those criteria. For example I typed in MuteMath, a band who I just discovered and really like, and then Pandora would play one of their songs, and follow it up with songs that are similiar in charecteristics by other artists.

I have really enjoyed this a lot, it's super cool. The only draw back is that you can only listen to a certain number of songs before you have to register. It's still free, and the benefits of registering are great but I haven't registered yet.

Next is liveplasma.com. LivePlasma allows you to see a map of connections for your favorite music artists, movies, directors, and actors. Say you are interested in watching films that have a Darren Aronofsky quality to them. You would simply put in his name and then a map would appear of the films he has done as well as connections to those films that other people might have. Definitely a fun thing to check out.

Ooops....

Just in case you have been living in a "Church of Christ gossip cave" over the weekend, here's the video of the out and out rebellion on the Harding University campus. Friday night HU had Robert Randolf come and perform a concert. During one of his songs he encouraged the crowd to come up on stage and dance. He apparently does this every time he plays this song. Of course dancing isn't looked upon too highly by the higher ups at HU so the kids were put between a rock and a hard place. This of course was noticed by the local TV news station who did a report on it. You can watch the news report here.

So here it is the "Woodstockian" chaos of Harding University. I bet chapel was awkward this morning.

The Athlete

Happy Monday!

Levi and I have made another video, and we had a lot of fun doing this one. If you would like this movie for your video iPod, just right click on this link and choose save as, download, or whatever your particular browser options are. It's has a higher quality resolution. Anyway, enjoy...

Best of 2006 - Movies

Here are all the movies that came out in 2006 that I saw:
Curious George
Running Scared
Inside Man
Akeelah And The Bee
Mission: Impossible III
The Devil Wears Prada
Superman Returns
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Miami Vice
Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby - The most overhyped movie of the year!
The Departed
Marie Antoinette
Casino Royale

Favorite movie of the year is...

THE DEPARTED
I had so much fun at this movie. Everything was spot on, and Alec Baldwin was just hilarious. DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack, Wahlberg, and the rest of the cast were just fantastic. I thought the girl was the only weak link (Vera Farmiga), but she didn't bring the movie down by any means. So do I recommend this movie? Absolutely, but with a strong caveat. There is more swearing in this movie than what you would hear in the halls of a high school, and there is also a lot of violence...a lot of violence (not as bad as Passion of the Chirst, we'll see if Mel Gibson can top it with Apocolypto). But it's Scorsese so you should know what you are getting into when you go. I will say that the violence is different than in a movie like "Running Scared" which I thought was one of the most disturbing movies I have seen in a long time. I fast forwarded most of it.

Anyway, The Departed is my favorite film of the year, but there are so many films that I didn't get to see this year. The list below are the films that I really wanted to see, but haven't yet. Anyone see any of these and think that it could knock The Departed out of the top spot?

Films I haven't seen, but really want to.
Why We Fight
Dave Chappelle's Block Party
Thank You For Smoking
V For Vendetta
United 93
Down In The Valley
Da Vinci Code, The
Break Up, The
War Tapes, The
Cars
Heart Of The Game, The
Wordplay
Scanner Darkly, A
An Inconvenient Truth
Little Miss Sunshine
Half Nelson
Science Of Sleep, The
Jackass: Number Two
Last King Of Scotland, The
Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, A
49 Up
Half Nelson
Little Children
Man Of The Year
Prestige, The
Babel
Volver
Fast Food Nation
For Your Consideration
Apocalypto - Seeing during Christmas
Blood Diamond
Dreamgirls
Good German, The
Pursuit Of Happyness, The
Rocky Balboa
Good Shepherd, The
The Fountain - Seeing during Christmas
Children Of Men - Seeing during Christmas

Up next...Why I am a better parent than you are.