Since it opened on May 8th I’ve been to see Star Trek twice.  Given the opportunity, I would go again at the drop of a hat.  It’s just that good.  It’s been a while since I was a self-avowed Trekkie, but trust me, there was such a time.  From 6th to 8th grade I was a die-hard fan.  The Trekkie chapter in my life contributed to my remarkable awkwardness during adolescence, but it was a chapter that made me a better person nonetheless.  Napoleon Dynamite will one day be a man of great character thanks to his awkward years of living on the margin.  And I was almost that nerdy.  I would sit and draw the Starship Enterprise NCC-1701-D over and over again at lunch.  I think it’s stored in my muscle memory now.  I could probably bust out a decent sketch of it to this day.  (As a side-note from a youth ministry perspective, a childhood without these kind of social struggles generally makes for miserable people.  It is a blessing to be a nerd.  A little dose of struggle, awkwardness or suffering makes us all better.  We all know people who have gone through all of their life as the “popular” kids… it is not pretty.)

All that is to say that there was a time when I wouldn’t have missed a Star Trek film, and would have been mostly excited about the spaceships and all that other über nerdy Trek stuff.  The story and the drama was secondary to me.  Well that was in middle school.  My Trek fandom has wained so much that I haven’t bothered to watch the last few films (and from what I’ve heard I didn’t miss much).  But then J.J. Abrams was brought on board to “reboot” the Trek franchise with a prequel.  As I’ve said before, there are some artists that get a free pass from me, Abrams being one of them.  Not that it took much arm twisting to go see this film, I mean, did you see the trailer??? It was obvious that this Star Trek was going to kick butt on so many levels.  And it did not dissapoint.  Like George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise, this Star Trek just jumps right into the action, putting credits off until after the ride is over.  And the film hits the ground running.  After the first 5 minutes or so your heart is pumping because of the intensity of the action and your eyes are tearing up because of the depth of the drama.  Then *BAM* pause just long enough for the “Star Trek” title to scrawl across the screen and we’re thrown right back into the action.  I can’t say enough about this movie.  The actors were great – doing an excellent job of playing their characters and not playing the actors who played their characters before them.  Chris Pine for instance, plays Kirk, not Shatner playing Kirk.  And it worked.  They did throw a few bones to the die-hard Trekkies out there, but this film was accessible and FUN, no matter what level dungeon master you happen to be.

I forgot to mention how great Michael Giacchino’s score was.  It reminded me so much of the Ennio Morricone’s score for Eastwood’s speghetti westerns.  Lots of trumpets and kettle drums.  Soooo epic.

A few weeks ago I went and saw The Soloist, a film I had been eagerly waiting to see since this fall when I saw the trailer for it in theaters.  I cried watching the trailer.  So I was really looking forward to this film.  The day before I went to see it I happened to catch Terri Gross’ interview with Steve Lopez, the LA Times journalist played by Robert Downey Jr.  Her interview added another layer of depth to the story for me, and helped fill out some of the story that gets lost in this two hour film.

If you haven’t heard of it yet, The Soloist is based on the true story of a friendship between Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless man with amazing musical ability and Steve Lopez, a journalist for the LA Times.  Originally from Cleveland, Mr. Ayers learned the cello as a young boy and was later accepted into Juilliard.  By the time columnist Steve Lopez meets Nathaniel his life is on a very different path.  Homeless and suffering from schizophrenia, Nathaniel was living on the streets of Skid Row in the heart of LA.  Mr. Lopez came across Nathaniel playing the violin in the street and was taken with his skill.  Over the course of the next several years Lopez would write about Nathaniel for the LA Times, telling his compelling story and bringing awareness to the reality of life on Skid Row in a city that likes to ignore such things.

There are a few departures from the truth in the film version of the story.  This is always the case with true stories.  The medium of film often demands tweaking some story elements for the sake of the medium, but Mike King makes a good case for why these particular points of departure were unnecessary over at his blog.  One element of the story that they got spot-on was the portrayal of Skid Row.  Back in college a group of guys from our dorm spent a few weekends working at Central City Community Church in the heart of Skid Row and the poverty we encountered there was just as stark and shocking as it is portrayed in The Soloist.  The later it is in the month the more people line the streets until it becomes a tent city of homeless refugees in the heart of LA.  The actors portraying the homeless in The Soloist are playing themselves and I really appreciated that the filmmakers included the homeless in telling this story.

This film is powerful.  It’s moving.  And yet it left me with one really huge lingering question… is it a beautiful story because Nathaniel Ayers is such an amazing musician or is it beautiful because Nathaniel Ayers is a child of God?  Can we come to embrace the homeless in the way that Steve Lopez embraced Nathaniel, even if there is nothing extraordinary about them?

My prayer is that we will.

If you’d like to see the real Mr. Lopez and Mr. Ayers check out the following videos.

The Detroit Lions, long-standing holders of the worst NFL logo have such and ugly look that Detroit fans have taken it upon themselves to design a new logo.  According to a March 10th post on Uni-Watch, a blog featured on ESPN.com that obsessively studies “athletic aesthetics” the Detroit News held a public competition for a new look for the Lions.

I recently heard on Sports Center that the Lions will be wearing new uniforms next year, but I can’t confirm if it’s just new jerseys or if the team really is donning a new logo.  But, rumors abound that there will be a logo change in 2009.  Either way, the Detroit News held an amateur competition for a new look.  And here’s the winner by Lonnie Walker…

For all you Point Loma Nazarene University Alumni… does that look familiar?  Does it look eerily like our very own PLNU Sea Lion?  Like this…

It’s one thing to check out the work of other artists for inspiration, it’s another thing entirely to take their work and simply tweak it and call it your own.  If it came down to it, I can’t see how this logo would ever pass muster from a legal standpoint.  I will say this, at least our Lion is looking at his prey, the Detroit Lion seems to be thinking about something else.  Anyway, for now this is just an amaetur competition, but keep an eye on it because we can’t let a lousy NFL team steal our logo!

If you don’t have a long commute or simply use an iPod rather than the car radio then chances are that you are not an NPR junkie like myself.  It makes me sad that you don’t listen to NPR.  Hey, I like to rock out to my iPod too, but NPR is like Jamba Juice – it tastes good and is good for you!  NPR has become my main (if not sole) outlet for news and information, and continuing education.  On Fridays I know that I’m going to learn something cool about Science thanks to Ira Flatow.  I’m always interested by the guests and conversations on the Dianne Rehm Show.  Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett has far and away the most intelligent conversations about religion and Fresh Air with Terri Gross is reason enough to turn off the iPod and check out your car’s radio.  Unless of course you podcast these shows like I do.  Then they’re with you anytime you want.

BUT far and away THE best reason to check out NPR is a show from Chicago called “This American Life.”  Be warned, TAL is addictive.  I first encountered TAL driving around Kansas City when I was in Seminary, and before I knew it I was hooked on whatever story was being told.  I have a distinct memory of being so captivated by a story of a little American girl who became pen-pals with Manuel Noriega that I sat in my car in the parking lot of Blockbuster for 45 minutes listening to the story.  I couldn’t get out of the car to go rent a movie for fear that I would miss even a minute of the story.

This began to happen more frequently until I figured out what that crazy show was that kept me trapped inside my car, so that I could just subscribe to the podcast and not fear being trapped in my car again.

The next distinct episode I remember hearing was about prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and stories of how they got there.  It made my blood boil.  I haven’t missed an episode since.  TAL is why I donate to NPR now.  But what IS This America Life?  Is it a news show?  Is it just stories?  Well it’s hard to say, but usually they have a theme for the week and bring us several stories relating to that theme.  Most are true, some are audio from stand-up comedians, it really is rather unpredictable.  Some weeks there is one story that is just so compelling that the whole hour is devoted to it.  For instance they’ve done three shows now explaining the economic collapse “for the rest of us” who don’t speak economic-ese.  The first episode “Giant Pool of Money” explained the sub-prime mortgage crisis in a way that was both incredibly understandable and fun (or at least funny).  There latest economy episode explains the banking crisis we’re in now.  That episode is called “Bad Bank” and it will enlighten you to what the heck is going on in our world right now and why we might care… again done in a way that was ridiculously easy to understand and fun to listen to.

So seriously go check out This American Life right now.  Then subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Then give them like $5 or $10 a year to help pull your own weight and pay for the bandwidth.

This Christmas I’m joining a movement with Christianity called Advent Conspiracy.  Advent Conspiracy is a new way to engage the season of Advent and Christmas itself.  Rather than getting caught up in a consumer-driven mindset for Christmas that is fueled by captialism Christians all over the world are rethinking Christmas and the way we celebrate it.  We are choosing to honor the birth of Jesus by spending less money on gifts (and asking for less in return) and instead of buying motorized tie-racks that will quickly be forgotten we are putting money into clean water projects throughout the world.

Just under 4,000 people die every single day because they do not have access to clean drinking water.  Experts say that it would take 10 billion dollars to solve this crisis and make sure that everyone had access to clean safe drinking water.  And every year Americans spend 450 billion dollars on Christmas.  We feel like there’s something just not right about that.

So I encourage you to spend less on Christmas this year, give more money to clean water projects (like Living Water International), and give more presence to your loved ones this year.  Celebrate the birth of Jesus by saving someone’s life this year.

Kara and I went all out for Halloween this year.  She’s been reading Dracula recently so naturally she went as a vampire princess.  I finally pulled off the zombie costume I’ve been thinking about doing for a few years now.  We spent the night in Allentown, NJ where I pastor.  Allentown is serious about Halloween, they do it right and everyone in town gets involved.  I mostly roamed around the streets, stumbling, falling down, moaning and occasionally groaning BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINS.  People loved it.  The combination of the realistic makeup and throwing myself fully into zombie character made it a lot of fun for the people I ran into (sometimes literally).  Thanks to Indy Mogul for the super helpful tutorial on how to do the zombie skin effect right.  Who knew toilet paper was the key!?  For more pictures of tonight check out my set on flickr.

To make the night even more memorable Kara and I decided that we needed to go out to eat in full costume.  So we headed over to the Americana Diner to get some Fried Calamari.  Wow did we turn heads in the restaurant!  One guy sitting behind Kara looking at me stared the entire time we were there.  He didn’t steal glances, he repositioned himself for a good long stare.  As we left I turned onto the road that would take us home to Princeton, only I didn’t realize that it was a No Right On Red light.  So, you guessed it, a cop pulled me over and I got to hand my licence and registration to an officer in full zombie getup.  He laughed and let us go.  Not TWO BLOCKS down the road I got pulled over again, this time because I hadn’t turned my lights back on from being pulled over 30 seconds ago.  Same thing, the cop laughed and let us go on our way.  What a night.

When I was in Seminary back in Kansas City, I used to sneak off to a church called Jacob’s Well on Sunday nights.  I eventually became friends with a few of the pastors on staff and have come to think of it as one of my home churches in many ways.  Even out here on the East Coast I still think about Jacob’s Well and pray for them.  I keep in touch with a few of the people involved there so I feel like I’m still connected in some small way.  Well something happened this week that has really reignited that connection for me.

Last week Kara was in Kansas City for the 2008 Emergent Conversation – “Reclaiming Paul.”  The event was hosted at Jacob’s Well and she brought back a gift for me – the newly released album from the worship band.  Songs From Jacob’s Well by Mike Crawford and his Secret Siblings has brightened by week.  One incredibly powerful song in particular (Words to Build a Life On) that has been a part of my journey the past few years has finally found its way onto a recorded format.  So it’s pretty much been on constant repeat in the car lately.  These songs remind me so much of the time I spent at Jacob’s Well, listening to them half way across the country makes me feel like I’m there again… or at least like I’m still connected with that community.  It doesn’t hurt that the music and lyrics are both works of art.  Not cheesy, cranked through the grinder mush that so much Christian music tends to be these days.

You can get the 2-disc album here.  Coming soon to iTunes.

Last week we adopted a Boston Terrier from a Boston Terrier Rescue agent here in New Jersey.  Our little guy is 3 years old and the family he was living with just didn’t want him anymore, so we were glad to give him a good home.  We’ve named him Hagrid.  Hagrid came to us already housebroken so training him has been pretty easy.  His only vice so far is wanting to get to the table during dinner.  Otherwise he’s amazing.  He doesn’t bark unless there’s reason to, he’s great with other dogs and people and he’d just as soon sleep on your lap while you sit on the couch as he would wrestle with you playing tug-of-war.  He has certinaly made life in our little appartment more interesting.  We now deal with the daily realities of getting “slimed” by Hagrid, but luckily he does all his business outside.

We’ve been compiling quite the photo album on flickr, check it out here.

I’m switching from to WordPress within the week. Be sure to check back at www.chuckp3.com to make sure your feed is still working. I should be able to continue posting to the same feed, so those of you using a reader should be alright… but just in case check back to make sure.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR matey! Avast me hearties, this be a verrry special day indeed. Today is the best holiday of the yearrrr, International Talk Like a Pirate Day. So dawn yer fanciest skull and crossbones and go scare some scallywags with yer swarthy pirate talk!

For the storrrrry of how this holiday began, rrread this article.

And here be an instructional video for ye scurvy dogs who know not how to speak like a pirate.