Here’s a fun post via Adam at pomomusings.

Instructions: Use the picture you like best from the first (no clicking around for 44 pages) page of the search results on Google Image.

1. The city and state of the town you grew up, no quotation marks.


2. The town where you currently reside.

3. Your name, first and last, but again, no quotes.

4. Your grandmother’s name.

5. Your favorite food.

6. Your favorite drink.

7. Your favorite smell.

Yet again my movie post is late, school, church and getting ready for Ash Wednesday make Charlie a busy boy. But boy is this week’s installment a fun one. I just saw one movie this past week, another “horror” movie reccomended by Wil: Dead Alive. This is one of Peter Jackson’s first films as director (3rd to be exact). What’s truly amazing is that there are only three films betwen Dead Alive and Fellowship of the Ring on Jackson’s resume. I mean granted, we all know that he’s an amazing director now, but if I was the one making the decision about Fellowship and I had just seen Dead Alive, I’d have looked elsewhere.

Now, that’s not to say that Dead Alive is a bad movie. In the realm of comedy/horror the likes of Shaun of the Dead and The Evil Dead, Dead Alive is a masterpiece on or above their level. But let’s be clear, this is a comedy. Who ever saw past the turning zombies into salsa via a lawnmover to Jackson’s wider range… bravo.

Okay, I’ll actually talk a bit about this movie and give Jackson a break. Dead Alive starts off in familiar territory for Lord of the Rings fans, a rocky gorge that Aragorn & co. travel through to enter the mountain in Return of the King. This time, however, it looks more like a “demo tape” for admittance to film school than stellar filmmaking. But you already get the idea that this zombie movie will be funnier than most. Once the zombie virus is out and our New Zelander hero must do battle to keep his zombie mother at bay the laughs never stop. One of my favorite scences is when a Priest gets his kung-fu out on four zombies in a graveyard, pausing only to let slip this line, “I kick ass… FOR THE LORD!” From there on out the movie is a bloodbath. What water is to Waterworld, blood is to Dead Alive, it is the constant backdrop and compainion of every scene. But while its “gore” far exceedes such movies as Texas Chainsaw Massacare and the like, Dead Alive is able to do it in a comic way that never comes across as sadistic or evil… on the contrary the lawnmower turned zombie blender vanquishes evil…

FOR THE LORD!

Craig Keen has been preaching in chapel this week at NTS for our “spiritual deepening week.” I was able to talk to him breifly on a few occasions during the week and I can see why his students say such wonderful things about the guy. Along with a dramatic (and I mean dramatic here very positively, as in, the dramatic unfolding of) session of a NT Theology class where he and Andy Johnson taught the gospel of John in some amazingly vivid and new ways (for me. Although I hear it was all old news to Rowan Williams), his preaching this week has been really, really challenging, engaging and… well listen for yourself. His three themes were Fear, Love and finally today he spoke about Martyrdom. Just before he began preaching however, he had our chapel band play Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls.

Now even though Craig had been showing clips from some great films such as Babette’s Feast, Cool Hand Luke and Run, Lola, Run, this seemed even more out of place. For chapel that is, from what I hear this is just the kind of genius that Craig is known for… but for chapel it was a big surprise to move from The Wonderful Cross to ’90’s alt-Rock… and not just as an illustration, but really as quite possibly the most moving song of worship I’ve heard. Granted, what Craig has been speaking about (along with that NT theology class session) really primed us to hear this song anew. But it was amazing.

Iris
by the Goo Goo Dolls

And I’d give up forever to touch you
Cuz I know that you feel me somehow
You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be
And I don’t want to go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
Cuz sooner or later it’s over
I just don’t want to miss you tonight

And I don’t want the world to see me
Cuz I don’t think that they’d understand
When everything’s made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And you can’t fight the tears that ain’t coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything feels like the movies
Yeah, you’d bleed just to know you’re alive

And I don’t want the world to see me
Cuz I don’t think that they’d understand
When everything’s made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And I don’t want the world to see me
Cuz I don’t think that they’d understand
When everything’s made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And I don’t want the world to see me
Cuz I don’t think that they’d understand
When everything’s made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am

My weekly Saturday Movie Post has been bumped to Monday this week. The youth groups at our church joined with another church and we held a 30 hour famine to raise money for World Vision this weekend, so I was busy planning, leading and not-eating this weekend. One of the last things we did before we broke our fast was watch The Power of One, a great movie about the struggle for equality in Apartheid South Africa and one young man’s persistance to be a part of the solution even at very grave risk to himself and those he loved.

Grizzly Man
I first heard about this documentary from my friend Wil Ryland. This film uses the footage shot by Grizzly activist and filmaker Timothy Treadwell to tell the story of a very unique and bizzare man. While Treadwell was trying to make his own documentary film about his life with the bears, his footage tells a much deeper story, about his own demons and rejection of society. Treadwell lived with Grizzly bears for 13 summers before he was attacked and eaten by the creatures he came to idolize. One of the things I found so facinating about Treadwell himself was the polar and seemingly mutually exclusive understandings he had of Grizzly bears. On the one hand he was very well educated about bears, a true naturalist who had studied them and knew so much about them and their ferocity. On the other hand he approached them almost as if they were animated cartoons that would talk to him about how much they loved him. He held these two contradictory beliefs without any sense of tension at all. This is a must for any sociology student, as the real story is about Treadwell himself and not his life with the bears.

Lord of War
Filmmakers don’t make trailers for movies, they make movies. Sometimes that’s a shame, especially when a great film is misrepresented in its trailer. When I first saw the trailer for Lord of War, I thought to myself how cheesy it looked, how it painted with such a broad and watered down brush over a serious issue (the international arms trade) that it would do more bad than good. So I just ignored it and moved on to other movies instead. Then a while after it came out on DVD people started seeking me out asking what I thought of it, when I told them I thought it looked cheesy so I never saw it I was reprimanded. Well I got that response enough that I thought like Crash, perhaps I had just misjudged a great movie. Indeed I had. The film opens with what has to be one of the most memorable opening sequences I have ever seen: the life of a bullet, from being molded in the factory to entering the body of it’s victim. And so the movie goes, showing the tragedy meeted out by “small arms” like the AK-47 all over the world. We meet Yuri Orlov, played by Nicholas Cage (who finnaly found his way into a good film, even if he isn’t amazing in it) who becomes an arms dealer very young in life selling Uzis to gangsters in the Bronx. He eventually moves up to the “big leagues” and starts selling used American weaponry after the US has pulled out of a region and left all their guns behind. When Yuri breaks into the international arms trade he starts sellling and buying from some of the worst human-rights offenders on the planet, but for him it’s all about making a buck.

The film is a good look inside what is happening around our world because of the arms trade, it opens the conversation about child soldiers in Africa as well as how the support of one group of “freedom fighters” against another is often a choice between evil and evil. If you saw it in the theaters, go rent it again for the short documentary on the international arms trade that’s found in the DVD special features. The acting in Lord of War isn’t going to win anyone an oscar, but the subject matter it covers is usually only tackled by documentaries and while they are more informative and perhaps even more condemning of the international arms trade, Lord of War, brings the discussion to the masses, especially those who would never watch a documentary but would be psyched to go see a cheesy war movie…. so perhaps that misleading trailer wasn’t a bad idea after all.

Eric posted the dialouge between Jon Stewart and Rob Corddry as they discussed Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent shooting of a hunting pal. It’s priceless. Enjoy…

Dick Cheney still hasn’t appeared in public to discuss his accidental shooting of a 78-year-old man, but there are plenty of people willing to speak on the veep’s behalf — among them, Comedy Central’s Rob Corddry. Playing the role of a “vice president firearms mishap analyst,” Corddry explained it all Monday night for “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart:

Stewart: Rob, obviously a very unfortunate situation. How is the vice president handling it?

Corddry: Jon, tonight the vice president is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Whittington. According to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush. Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush. And while the quail turned out to be a 78-year-old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face. He believes the world is a better place for his spreading buckshot throughout the entire region of Mr. Whittington’s face.

Stewart: But why, Rob? If he had known Mr. Whittington was not a bird, why would he still have shot him?

Corddry: Jon, in a post-9/11 world, the American people expect their leaders to be decisive. To not have shot his friend in the face would have sent a message to the quail that America is weak.

Stewart: That’s horrible.

Corddry: Look, the mere fact that we’re even talking about how the vice president drives up with his rich friends in cars to shoot farm-raised wingless quail-tards is letting the quail know “how” we’re hunting them. I’m sure right now those birds are laughing at us in that little “covey” of theirs.

Stewart: I’m not sure birds can laugh, Rob.

Corddry: Well, whatever it is they do — coo — they’e cooing at us right now, Jon, because here we are talking openly about our plans to hunt them. Jig is up. Quails one, America zero.

My good friend Kaz (who blogs far less than he should) jumped on an airplane to come visit me and see Kansas City during the Super Bowl weekend. We ate a lot of GOOD bbq, visited the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame… and he made me eat slice after slice of humble pie via Madden ‘06. Good times.

Photos

This week I’m launching something new on my blog, the Saturday Movie Post. Every Saturday I’ll take some time to post about films I’ve seen the previous week, thoughts on film in general, etc. So without further adieu…

An 80’s Thriller That Didn’t Suck
I saw Spoorloos a.k.a. The Vanishing recently at the reccomendation of Wil Ryland, in the comments section of a previous post where I asked, “What Are Your Favorite Scary Moives?” This late 80’s Dutch/French movie starts off with a quaint lovers road trip but soon one of the main characters… vanishes (surprise). Much like the excellent Donnie Darko, The Vanishing appears to waste a lot of time with realatively mundane content for a horror/thriller movie… but like Darko the end of this movie made me think that the slower, middle part of the film was just giving me a false sense of security. This is one deliciously dark film.

The Oscars
This year I was really impressed by the crop of films nominated for Best Picture. I’ve seen all but Munich so far but to be fair, it just came out and I have been planning on seeing it since it has (thus keeping with my yearly “see all nominated films before they are nominated” goal). I thought that Jarhead and Syriana would have been given more consideration for the Best Picture category but 2005 was such a strong year for intelligent great filmmaking that they didn’t make the cut (not a bad problem to have for those of us in the audience!). But seriously folks, I really did feel like Jarhead was my generation’s Full Metal Jacket. Speaking of Donnie Darko, best pic nom. Brokeback Mountain and Jarhead… Jake Gyllenhaal is racking up quite the resume.

Well Eric tagged me so I shall do my duty as “tagee”…

Four Jobs I’ve Had
1. Youth Pastor
2. Barista
3. Assistant Resident Director of college men’s dorm
4. Freelance Graphic designer

Four Movies to Watch Over and Over
1. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
2. Three Amigos
3. Lord of the Rings trilogy
4. Star Wars trilogy

Four Places I’ve Lived
1. Artesia, New Mexico
2. San Diego, California
3. Ocean Beach, California
4. Kansas City, Missouri

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch
1. LOST
2. The Colbert Report
3. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
4. Inked

Four Places I’ve Been on Vacation
1. Vancouver, Canada
2. Rio de Janiero, Brazil
3. the Grand Canyon
4. Ensenada, Mexico

Four Websites I Visit Daily
1. Apple.com
2. flickr.com
3. iStockphoto.com
4. Blogs (several, see those whom I am about to tag)

Four Favorite Foods
1. A California Burrito with Guacamole from Santana’s
2. Almost anything New Mexican with Green Chile
3. Carmel Latte (does that count?)
4. Bacon Turkey Bravo & Brocolli Cheddar Soup from Panera

Four Places I’d Rather Be Right Now
1. San Diego, California
2. The Cook Islands
3. Austraila
4. New Zeland

Four People I’m Tagging
1. Kaz Trypuc
2. Will Pardue
3. Wil Ryland
4. Scott Savage

The first part of Bush’s speech tonight was centered around “national security.” National security as an idea and most of the points contained within this portion of the speech depend on making we the people feel afraid of “them.” “They” are no longer just al Queda but “terrorists” in general. This general and undefined threat works better when it is vague, because the threats are everywhere and so the primary (if not only) goal of the government is to “protect” your “security.” That’s about as specific as Bush wants to get. The problems start when we ask questions, when we demand specifics for his generalities. Who is a terrorist or dangerous threat? Well Quakers are a threat for starters. Cindy Sheehan was arrested for wearing a “Stop war” t-shirt while attending the State of the Union speech. See, “national security” is really a big job! National security is all about protecting “freedom.” Freedom from seeing anti-war t-shirts included!

“Freedom,” as Bush uses the word might as well be a filler word. When used so often and for God only knows how many purposes it completely looses its meaning. What does “freedom on the march” really refer to? An agressive unilateral neoconservative foriegn policy? That doesn’t roll off the tounge like “freedum’s on the march.” What does “enemies of freedum” mean? Anyone who voted against Bush’s social security policy? Al Queda? Unions? Ang Lee? The only thing we are supposed to know is that freedom=good and enemies of freedom=bad. It’s really that simple, so please don’t go asking any pesky questions that might force him to admit what he’s really talking about.

Do you disagree with Bush’s policy in Iraq? Then there is a new word that they have for you, Isolationist. Awesome! New talking-points. Bush’s use of isolationism was perhaps one of best examples of a straw-man fallacy I’ve seen. If you find 28,000+ Iraqi and 2,000+ American dead in Iraq morally indefensible you must be for “cutting and running” and “isolationism.” Using the language of isolationism Bush made it clear that there is only one way to deal with the Middle East: his way. To do it any other way is “without honor.”

And of course there was the constant stream of nationalism and civil religion that I usually object to in these things. As a Christian I found the whole thing to be sad and lacking any of the comitment to truth, the passion for loving others and the pursuit of justice and reconciliation that constitutes the Kingdom of God.

After doing quite a bit of work on websites this past year, someone pointed out to me the obvious: I need my own professional design site. Well as of today, I’ve got a nice clean simple site dedicated to my graphic design buisness.

design.chuckp3.com