I haven’t checked my Google Analytics lately but when I did today I came across a surprising but awesome revelation! Chuckp3.com readers have finally embraced Firefox! For the first time Firefox was the most often used browser (with 53.4%) and Internet Explorer 6, aka the worst browser in the world, was used by just over 10% of readers!

Just another example of the Kingdom of God breaking into this broken world of ours.

For those of you who haven’t switched yet, do so now and join the revolution.

And if you just love Microsoft that much, at least do the decent thing and upgrade to IE 7.

I’ve been sitting on this post for a while now, I saw There Will Be Blood back in January with Kaz and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Blood was so good, so memorable on so many different levels its hard to know where to begin talking about it. But here goes…

Protagonist (the hero)
This brutal bio-pic of fictional oilman Daniel Plainview has no classical protagonist. To be sure Plainview is the driving force of the film and thus he is the protagonist, but there are no heroes in the classical sense, no “good” characters with the exception of H.W. who is visible in much of the film but has a mostly background role. Plainview’s most notable nemesis, the pentecostal boy-preacher, Eli, is just as twisted a character as Daniel himself and Daniel’s “brother” Henry Plainview/Brands we find is just a posing conman.

Unconventional story arc
While films like Eastern Promises and No Country for Old Men have raised the bar for unconventional story arcs this year, it’s certainly true that Blood was unconventional in its own way. We begin with Plainview picking away at the earth deep in a hole in the desert and end with him as a wealthy oil tycoon. But what lies in between didn’t feel as much like character development as it did character intensification. Daniel doesn’t have any a-ha moment, any crisis that particularly changes his course. He is ambition embodied. He is drivenness in human form. Like many tracks from the score, Daniel’s is not so much a tale of “beginning, middle and end,” but rather of snowballing intensification. If there is a climax in the story it is Daniel’s “conversion” moment but this changes nothing about where Daniel was headed or where he will end up. It is an emotional climax for us the viewer, but it is simply one more step along Daniel’s ever intensifying journey of greed and conquest. The film ends, not after the story has been neatly tied up, but after one of the most shocking moments in the story.

Acting
Daniel Day-Lewis gives what has to be one of the best performances I have ever seen. His character will be burned in my memory forever. Paul Dano’s (who played the older brother in Little Miss Sunshine) portrayal of the young preacher Eli Sunday was nuanced so well that it always keeps you guessing as to how much he buys into his own message, just terriffic.

Score
Jonny Greenwood’s (from Radiohead) score provided the snowballing and ever-intensifying context that the film swam in. In scenes where visually there might not have been much to make you anxious the soundtrack kept thumping that theme home.

Poetic Justice?
During the film we come to really sit uneasy with both Daniel and Eli’s characters. Both have moments where they are taken down a notch by the other (final tally Daniel 2, Eli 1). In all three cases I found myself taking some satisfaction in their being brought low by the other while never really rooting for the one doing the humiliating. Daniel does get the last laugh in a haunting scene where Eli is coaxed into making a dramatic pronouncement of unbelief with all the pentecostal flair he could muster to match exactly in the inverse the “getting saved” scene he made Daniel put on before the church.

I feel like I just scratched the surface on what was undoubtably one of the best films of the year. Oh and… “I. DRINK. YOUR. MILKSHAKE! … I DRINK IT UP!” I couldn’t resist.

Now that the writer’s strike has ended we have been promised 5 more episodes of LOST to add to the 8 currently in the pipe. The season has been (mostly) saved! But I just found out today that the Office will return April 10th… when? Thursdays at 9pm.

That’s right, the ONLY two good shows on network tv are going to be on at the same time. I guess that means Fridays will be my new day to watch the office.

I like Barack Obama. Since his speech about faith and politics at Sojourners Call to Renewal I have been a “supporter” of Barack’s. Barack embodies a lot of things that are important to me. Things like his diverse cultural background, the way in which he’s in touch with life in Africa, his honesty about his faith and even his doubts and questions, his roots as a community organizer in Chicago. His values overlap with my own more than any other major candidate I’ve seen in my lifetime.

I really hope that Barack is elected president.

But I won’t be voting for him. I won’t be voting for him because I am tempted to really believe in him. I am tempted to put hope in Barack Obama. And it’s no mistake that Obama’s campaign has seized on this. They constantly use the words “believe” and “hope.” And if I was indignat about Bush hijacking Christian hymns for his own speeches I must deconstruct Obama’s use of the words “hope” and “believe” in light of what those words mean to us as followers of Christ.

But let’s be honest, we’ve become so cynical and polarized about politics in the US. People really do want someone/something to believe in. Obama’s vision really is a fresh drink of water in the midst of the desert this country is in with all our corruption, war-mongering and trampling on our poor. Plenty of people are desperate for change. I am one of them. But that’s just it – if I’m desperate for change there is but one king who can really bring about change. I’m talking about the king of kings. In all my political obsession I am so tempted to take my eyes of Christ and his project of radical change, his project of renewing creation and putting things right. I’m tempted to glance to the side and take notice of Barack Obama and maybe hope that he can change things. If I put my hope for change in Barack I’m committing idolatry. I’ve given up my hope in God to make things right and I’ve put them in Barack.

Now if I were a bit more politically detached I’d vote for him. But precisely because I am a political junkie and I am tempted to think “oh, if only Barack were president” that I cannot vote for him. For me it is a matter of spiritual discipline that I will abstain from voting in this election. My absence at the voting booth will be a tangible practice to remind me who’s really in charge, who my real king is.

Now, as I’ve said, I’d really like to see Obama become president. But let’s be honest, voting really is the laziest and smallest way to be politically active. If Barack and I are on the same page (and I hope we are) then I’ll do a lot more good by working for that kind of kingdom change than I will by voting for it.

This one goes out to Kaz.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBu3N8_U4WE&rel=1&border=1]

So if you’re like me the above image is confusing. What’s a pledged delegate and what’s a “superdelegate?” Turns out a pledged delegate is what all these state primaries and caucuses are about. So if we go by what the voters in the different states have done, Obama is up by 13 delegates. But that still leaves “superdelegates.” Superdelegates are elected party officials, like govenors, congresspeople, ex-presidents (Bill Clinton is a superdelegate) and the like. There are a total of 796 superdelegates out of the entire 4,049 delegates up for grabs. That’s just shy of 20% of the total. Securing a superdelegate means convincing powerful individuals to vote for you. Hillary Clinton is leading in superdelegates by 86!

Apparently this all came to be so the Democratic party could keep “amateurs” out of the running for the party nomination. How is this Democratic?

Improv Everywhere agents cause a scene in Grand Central Station.