Chris meets Wii Fit

So yesterday (which it barely is as of this writing) Nintendo released its much-anticipated Wii Fit. I had no idea what this was until Lisa was in Georgia a month and a half ago. She phoned home and asked if I could go to the local GameStop and pre-order a copy. Well you know, when you're a husband you do whatever makes your wife happy (unless you've got an "Ahab and Jezebel" thing going on, but I digress...) so I went and plunked down the money and was told it would be waiting for me on May 21st.

And then I went home and got on the Internet and found out what Wii Fit was exactly.

And then I found out that I had just committed to purchasing a ninety-dollar bathroom scale...

For the next several weeks, I found myself studying Wii Fit, wondering what the heck were we getting into. Let's start with the obvious: in the videos and all the other advertising that we're seeing for this thing, the people using the Wii Balance Board are playing with it in their bare feet. I don't know how sterile the plastic is that Nintendo uses in their products, but no doubt there's going to be some athlete's foot and other gnarly fungal infections coming from this thing during the course of heavy use among several people (like yer average-sized family). Plus, how clean does Nintendo expect this thing to be? Tonight millions of people across America are enjoying their white, pristine Wii Balance Boards. In a few weeks or even days those will start to turn an ugly, festering yellow as the skin oils from the soles of their feet (trivia: there are more sweat glands on the bottom of your feet than the rest of your body put together) permeate the boards. And according to the literature you're suppose to do this barefoot. Can't Nintendo engineer a pair of Wii Socks or something?

Well, we picked up our Wii Fit this afternoon and after Lisa finished watching American Idol tonight, I gave Wii Fit a try. In addition to the Wii Fit I also bought a silicone protective sleeve (much like those for the Wii Remotes) to go over the Wii Balance Board, and in spite of the instructions I chose to wear regular socks. 'Cuz I'm the kind of guy who likes to keep his possessions in good shape for however long I have 'em, and it seemed like the hygienic thing to do. I also wore black sweatpants and a dark t-shirt.

So how did it go?

10:12 p.m. EST: Inserted the Wii Fit disc into the Nintendo Wii system, then proceeded to synchronize the Wii Balance Board.

10:14 p.m. EST: Synchronization complete.

10:17 p.m. EST: I'm being asked to select which "Mii" to use for my personal account on Wii Fit. I use my standard "Chris" Mii, the one that kinda looks like mii... I mean, me.

10:19 p.m. EST: Wii Fit is now asking for my height and my age. Since this is a ninety-dollar bathroom scale I'm assuming that it has already precisely determined my weight.

10:25 p.m. EST: Wii Fit has just finished running me through some balance and coordination tests. It needs to do this so that it can calculate my "Wii Fit Age" and Body Mass Index (BMI). And according to Wii Fit... I'm two years younger than my physical age! Balance and posture is darn near perfect (only a few tenths of a percentage point more inclination on my right side). Not only that but my BMI is only slightly more than recommended (but according to Wii Fit I'm still in excellent shape).

10:39 p.m. EST: The original results were so good, that I ran them again, just to see if the results would duplicate. Because I want to make sure that this thing is measuring everything right for sake of accurate record-keeping. Sure enough, the results come out the same. I'm satisfied enough to proceed.

10:42 p.m. EST: Wii Fit is about to begin me on exercises and it starts off by asking me which "trainer" I want to work with.

Ooh-boy...

On the left-hand side of the screen is the 3-D rendered avatar of a buff, well-toned male. On the right-hand side of the screen, depicted equally well with Wii's 3-D capabilities, is a sultry and seductive lass who looks positively hot in her leotard!

If I choose to train with the man, I'll feel like people will wonder why I didn't choose the woman trainer. And if I choose to train with the woman, Lisa will get mad and I'll be "sleeping in the doghouse" for a week. Why couldn't Nintendo just let you work out with Mario or Toad instead? Why are they doing this to me?!?

So I broke down and chose to workout with the female trainer. May God have mercy on me...

11:01 p.m. EST: The sexy leotard-clad female trainer has told me that "You've got great abs! Keep it up!"

11:16 p.m. EST: Okay, I think that's going to be enough of the Wii Fit for a first time. All I did was a few sets of each of the four initial strength exercises, using the default number of reps for each one. Had to re-arrange the furniture in our living room some to do the things like jackknife and push-ups, and then put everything back afterward. I've set a goal to decrease my BMI over the next two weeks, to get it at the Wii Fit-recommended level for my height.

Based on this cursory experience, I think it's safe to declare that Shigeru Miyamoto has created another winner for his company. Wii Fit is certainly not a "toy" or anything that one should underestimated. If used consistently and with moderately increasing levels of intensity over time, Wii Fit could become a fantastic - and fun - part of any exercise regimen, with the benefit of yielding tangible results. It wouldn't be wise to rely solely on Wii Fit though: regular "traditional" exercise and good diet also go a long way. And I'm not in the peak of condition by any stretch: my goal is to eventually run a full marathon like my friend Chad Austin does all the time. Wii Fit won't necessarily build me up for something like that, but it should be a good complimentary tool toward that goal all the same.

If you've got a Wii, I'll recommend Wii Fit for ya. It seems quite worth the hype. And if you're wondering about real results, check out what happened to this guy after using Wii Fit for seven weeks.

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Romanov mystery solved: DNA testing ends ninety years of speculation

It was one of the most tantalizing mysteries of the Twentieth Century. And had I not been so busy with other things, I would not have missed the announcement about three weeks ago that the last members of Tsar Nicholas II's family had finally been found...

Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia, and his family in a photo taken in 1911

Nicholas and his family, along with several faithful servants, were executed by the Bolsheviks in the town of Yekaterinburg on July 17th, 1918, a little over a year after his abdication from the throne. Rumors and legend have persisted over the decades that at least one of the Romanov children survived the slaughter. Most fancifully, it's been suggested that Nicholas' only son Alexei and youngest daughter Anastasia had somehow been secretly spared.

In 1991, as the Soviet Union was collapsing, the remains of Nicholas II and most of the Romanov family were found. After exhaustive research it was discovered that two of his children were still missing: at least one daughter, and Alexei. The Romanov enigma would endure for nearly another two decades.

And then in the summer of 2007 the remains of two children were found in the area of the Romanov execution. They matched a report by the Romanovs' executioner, who said that two of the bodies had been burned and buried separately from those of the family. For the past several months the remains have been undergoing DNA analysis.

And now we know for certain: none of the Romanovs escaped execution. It has been confirmed that the remains are those of Alexei and his sister Maria, the third oldest of Nicholas II's daughters.

I'll admit: I was one of those who ever since first reading about the Romanovs had secretly hoped that at least one of them had yet survived. And it would have been neat for there to have been this one great mystery of the previous century left unsolved, which would have always left a little room to have a glimmer of hope.

There is no hope now. Nicholas, his wife and all their issue were massacred, leaving no survivors.

But at least now, with no more doubt, they will soon be together as a family again: on Earth as they are in Heaven. As it should be.

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McCain "kind of like Jesus Christ on the cross" says GOP state chair

Sue Everhart, chairlady of the Georgia Republican Party, has said that John McCain is comparable to Jesus Christ...

Georgia Republican Party chairwoman Sue Everhart said Saturday that the party's presumed presidential nominee has a lot in common with Jesus Christ.

"John McCain is kind of like Jesus Christ on the cross," Everhart said as she began the second day of the state GOP convention. "He never denounced God, either."

Everhart was praising McCain for never denouncing the United States while he was being tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

"I'm not trying to compare John McCain to Jesus Christ, I'm looking at the pain that was there," she said.

What's worse in my mind is that Everhart is ascribing divinity to the United States: basically saying that America is like God.

So between a South Carolina church trying to connect Barack Obama to Osama Bin Laden and a Baptist minister declaring on the radio that Obama is "Antichrist", we are now supposed to believe that John McCain is like unto the Son of Man.

And some people wonder why I've grown tired of politics.

It's looking like so far as "the two major parties" go, it'll be the proverbial Hobson's choice between McCain and Obama for President this November. I won't be voting for either one of them.

And once again, I have to wonder how many self-professed Christians are going to spin this election as "a vote for Obama is a vote for evil" thing. You'd think that after two elections of voting for "God's anointed man" that most would have learned better.

Probably not. Mark my words: you'll still see Pat Robertson, James Dobson and their kind shilling for McCain and saying it's one's "Christian duty" to support him.

They had more than enough opportunity to do what they could to turn America around spiritually and intellectually. Instead they prostituted their principles so they could sit at "the king's table".

Screw 'em.

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Want a KWerky Productions update?

YEEEEEAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!!!!

So earlier tonight, this idea hit me like a bolt out of the blue. I have no idea what might have been going on in my neurobiology, the myriad of connections that led to everything "clicking" in place for this crazy notion.

Holy cow... if we can make this thing work... and I think that we can make it work...

I've already spoken to two people who would be involved. We'd have to be way careful about how we do this. But both of them believe it's feasible.

I'm working on a treatment to pitch to The Powers That Be(tm). It doesn't even have a working title yet. Maybe one will present itself in the next little while.

Hot darn, this idea has me stoked!! It's definitely in the realm of filmmaking, but it's going to be quite a few other things rolled into the package too.

Don't expect much more word about this. It'll have to be kept pretty close to vest over the next several months. But if the pitch flies and we can get our ducks in a row, I think the results will be pretty explosive.

Stay tuned :-)

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Rave reviews coming in for INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL

Harry Knowles is madly in love with it. Roger Ebert has given it 3 and 1/2 stars. And when it was premiered at Cannes Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull received a three-minute standing ovation.

I'm finally beginning to let myself believe that after a decade and a half of crazy rumors and false-starts, that this week we are going to see an Indiana Jones movie... and one that stands as tall as any of them.

I'm currently debating whether to catch it at the midnight showing on Wednesday night, or wait 'til Friday at the earliest to see it with Dad and Lisa. If I see the midnight premiere, I get to post a review of it all the sooner for this blog. But if I wait a few days, I get to enjoy it for the first time with my father (with whom I've watched every Indiana Jones movie in a theater) and my wife. Right now I'm leaning toward waiting, and discover it fresh with some of the people closest to me... 'cuz a memory like that is worth much more than filing an earlier report, right?

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Review of THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN

There is something very odd at work if I'm watching a film based on one of C.S. Lewis's Narnia books and the one thing I can't stop thinking about is "Dear Lord, this movie is too much like Army of Darkness!"

Not kidding folks. It happened yesterday when Lisa and I went to Greensboro to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The second adaptation of the classic Lewis fantasy series from Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media. And there is also plenty in this movie that will remind people of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and even the Harry Potter films.

But it was Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness that this viewer kept finding parallels to. Let's see: Heroes whisked away to another place and time to fight evil? Check. Modern technology used in a medieval setting? Check. Body parts chopped off and replaced? Check. Catapults? Check. Assault on a castle? Check. Ultimate evil brought back from the dead? It almost happens in Prince Caspian, so we'll count it. This movie should have just got it over with and cast Bruce Campbell as Miraz ("Hail to the king, baby.")

For the most part, Andrew Adamson's adaptation is extremely faithful to the book. I'll say that I enjoyed watching it, but I want to watch it again before I'm confident enough to say that I thoroughly loved it.

The biggest problem with Prince Caspian is that it's just so very long. Its cinematic predecessor, 2005's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was longer in screen time but there was so much going on (most of it directly taken from the original book) that the time whisked by. In contrast, there were parts of Prince Caspian that were quite tedious to sit through: Lisa had to nudge me awake during the scene where Miraz is crowned king. This movie could have had 10-15 minutes excised from it, and it would have been a far better film for it.

True to the marketing that's been done for it, Prince Caspian is a far darker movie than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was. But instead of relying on the source material alone to provide a grimmer setting, Adamson and his crew set out to up the stakes and honestly, I don't know if that works well with this kind of adaptation. There are many scenes in the film that are nowhere to be found in Prince Caspian the book, including (by Lisa's count) two extra battle scenes, one of which is the attempt to take the castle. At least one professional reviewer has observed that this movie doesn't provide much other than give the Pevensie kids a chance to hack and kill once they're back in Narnia, and with so much extra violence in this film it's hard to not relent and admit that there's some validity to such a claim. The Christian metaphor of Prince Caspian (I've always thought it was about having faith, as Lucy does when she wants Aslan to appear) is diminished as a result, when it could have been greatly expounded upon in this movie.

But in spite of its flaws, I'll say that The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is worth seeing once in these days of gloomy economy (read as: yeah burn some gas to go see it). The only other thing that I'll complain about it is that I seriously wanted to see more of Eddie Izzard as Reepicheep: that swashbuckling little mouse was the best thing about this movie! Hopefully we'll see more of him when the movie of Voyage of the Dawn Treader is made.

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"Dear Sumner Redstone, from the guy you STOLE video from ..."

In spite of what I said about no hard feelings, there ain't no way that I'm gonna let this one slide...

Many of you no doubt remember what happened between me and Viacom several months ago, regarding the first TV commercial from my 2006 school board campaign.

To quickly recap: months after the election, Viacom's network VH1 chose to use my commercial for a segment of its show Web Junk 2.0, without bothering to ask me about it. I didn't mind, heck I thought it was pretty funny. So a few days after that episode runs I posted the clip of Web Junk 2.0 running MY commercial onto YouTube, so that I could share it on this blog.

A month and a half later, I was notified by YouTube that Viacom had demanded that the clip be removed, and YouTube was acquiescing with the order. Viacom actually claimed that I was violating its copyright... when it had violated my copyright to begin with!

Of course, I couldn't believe the rank hypocrisy of the situation. "Chutzpah" is the word I used to describe it. And it really wasn't a question of whether or not I wanted to fight it: the circumstance more or less obligated it. I filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act counter-claim with YouTube, while the case engendered considerable media attention. Two weeks later Viacom yielded and the clip was restored to YouTube. I still gotta thank a lot of good people, especially the folks at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, for providing considerable support during that whole fiasco.

You'd think that Viacom would have learned a lesson from all of this, right?

Jazz at All Thats Evil was the first to pass along some remarks made last week in South Korean by Sumner Redstone, the CEO of Viacom. Here's the link that Jazz sent from Inside Online Video, which cites John Dvorak's take on Redstone's remarks.

To wit...

[According to Redstone] When you post a clip of The Daily Show on YouTube, for example, that may indeed have a positive effect on the show and its ratings, but it’s not your decision to make. In the world of the media giants, a fan has no special privileges and is not part of the marketing department.

As a fan, your job is to watch a few ads (or buy a ticket), enjoy the show, tell your friends about it, and get out of the way.

And here's a quote directly from Redstone...

During a question-and-answer session after the speech, Redstone took a swipe at popular video-sharing site YouTube, which his company has sued.

"We cannot tolerate any form of piracy by anyone, including YouTube," he said.

Viacom sued YouTube and its parent Google Inc. in March last year, claiming that the Web site is rife with copyrighted video from Viacom shows and seeking more than US$1 billion in damages.

Mr. Redstone, I don't know if you realize this or if you even care, but I am a person that your own company not only STOLE video from, but chose to PROFIT from that theft!

And you have the audacity to tell the world that using the most miniscule segments of video, without asking the original copyright owners for permission or even caring enough to inform them that it's being used, is "theft" and "piracy"? When most people who post clips onto YouTube never make a cent for their efforts while you run a multi-billion dollar company that does the same thing for profit?

Sumner Redstone, shut the hell up, sir!

For all your talk of "cannot tolerate any form of piracy by anyone", you don't give a damn about YOUR OWN COMPANY committing piracy already!

Hell, Viacom never even offered me an apology for when it stole (I wouldn't ordinarily categorize using my video as "theft" by anyone else but Redstone's comments throws this into whole 'nother territory) my video.

Previously I regarded this whole thing as a misunderstanding, and that I was glad we were able to resolve this amiably and "go our separate ways".

But now, after reading Redstone's remarks in Seoul, I have to seriously wonder if I made a mistake in not pressing this further. Parse that as you will...

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Best quote from tonight's LOST...

"Jesus Christ is not a weapon!"

-- Mama Reyes

If only more people understood that...

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LOST: Two minutes after "There's No Place Like Home" Part 1

One of the most intense episodes ever, even though there wasn't much hard action.

The final moments of "There's No Place Like Home" Part 1 made it clear though: watching Locke and Ben and Hurley at the Orchid, the discovery at the freighter, Kate and Sawyer being marched through the jungle at gunpoint by Richard and the Others, all set to Michael Giacchino's beautiful score...

To borrow the title of a chapter from A Tale of Two Cities, they are being drawn to the lodestone rock. Everything is in place, and the final moves are being made. Things are in motion that cannot be made to stop.

In two weeks it all converges together. And there is going to be one helluva conflagration when it does.

I seriously teared-up watching Hurley introduce Sayid to his parents. And then Sayid's joyful reunion with his beloved and long-lost Nadia. The scene where Sun confronts her father: like Lisa said, "You go girl!" Sun definitely grew in her time on the Island. And then there was the memorial service for Christian Shephard, where Jack finally discovers something that we the viewers have known since last season...

So much to absorb. I'm probably going to watch it again off the DVR before hitting the sack.

I'll say it again: Lost might be the greatest work of fiction to ever grace the television medium. This one episode was rife with everything that makes it work so perfectly. And the two-hour conclusion in two weeks already promises to be epic.

Heck, we might have to throw a party here for it! Anyone wanna come? I'll have plenty of DHARMA food to munch on :-)

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"There's No Place Like Home": LOST Season 4 finale begins tonight

One year later and I still can't believe (a) how sense-shattering the ending scene of last season's finale of Lost was, and (b) that I was way slow on the uptake. Lisa figured out first that instead of Lost's usual flashback, that the entire episode had been a flash-forward and we were seeing what became of Jack after he was rescued.

Here it is again: the final scene of "Through the Looking Glass", perhaps the most stunning conclusion to date for a television series' season finale...

This year's season has tantalized us with plenty of clues about what happened after the rescue, but one thing remains elusive: why does Jack want to get back to the Island so much? How did he and the rest return at all? And with what horrible price did that return to the outside world come at?

Tonight at 10 p.m., ABC will broadcast Part 1 of "There's No Place Like Home", the finale of Season 4 of Lost. Some things that have been promised by the producers for this year's season-ender: the return of the Oceanic Six (Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Jin and Aaron) to their loved ones and the story the world is told of their survival, the revelation of who is in the casket that we saw at the funeral home from "Through the Looking Glass", full-blown war between those on the Island and the assault group from Charles Widmore's freighter, the Orchid (a DHARMA Initiative station, of which all we know is from its "orientation film" that was shown at Comic Con last year), and perhaps the Temple, which was hinted at late last season. Hopefully we'll also have an answer to the big question that came up at the end of last week's "Cabin Fever": namely, how the heck is Locke going to move the Island?

Watch carefully and enjoy, fellow Losties: there's no new episode next week, and then Part 2 of "There's No Place Like Home" airs the week after. Then no more Lost until next January.

I'll try to post thoughts from this one later on tonight :-)

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CHILDREN OF EDEN Update: 38 Days to Opening Night

I've a few nights off from rehearsal for the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of Children of Eden ('cuz those are being used to focus on the solo numbers and I don't have one of those). In the past few sessions we've finished going over all the choral pieces. I'm still amazed at how much work we've done in so relatively short a span of time.

The last major song from the show that we took on was "Ain't It Good" from Act II. I've thought for years that "Generations" might be the most complicated song from Children of Eden but having done "Ain't It Good" now, I'm pretty confident that it might be the more difficult of the two. But by the end of the night last night we'd put together a very rousing rendition. "Ain't It Good" is the kind of style associated with gospel music from traditionally black churches, which I've always enjoyed listening to and this is the first time in my life that I've ever had the opportunity to sing like this. All this number needs now is members of the cast doing cartwheels across the stage, like the church scene from The Blues Brothers. But even without that (I don't think the stage would be big enough) this might wind up being the hit song of the entire show.

Something that I'm doing as personal preparation for this is that each night I've been reading Genesis chapters 1 through 9 again, and trying to "get into the heads" of Adam and Eve and Noah and even God (who's called Father in the production). Even though I'm playing none of those characters, during the songs that accompany the plot I think it's helping to bring some nuance and emphasis as I sing them. Could that be called "Method Singing"? :-)

There's one more practice for the music itself, and then we begin blocking on stage next week.

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Classic GARFIELD AND FRIENDS: "Truckin' Odie"

I've been scouting around for this one a way long time. First airing in November of 1991 on Garfield and Friends, here is one of the greatest Garfield cartoons ever (and a real highlight of Lorenzo Music's vocal abilities): "Truckin' Odie"...

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Gas now $3.75 per gallon in Reidsville, North Carolina

Spotted it earlier this afternoon while en route to a client.

Humorously, the price of gas in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV is $3.59 a gallon. When I told Mom she suggested that perhaps the makers of the game should have it auto-update via the Internet so that Liberty City will have high gas prices, too.

Seriously though, it seemed like just yesterday (actually it was about nine years ago) that gas was about ninety cents a gallon. It's now well over 400% that.

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"HEYYYY YOUUU GUYYYYYSSS!!!" PBS is turning on THE ELECTRIC COMPANY again

Previously (like, 1977) on The Electric Company ...

The cast sings "That's All" for the final scene of the very last episode of the original The Electric Company

As it turns out, that's not all!

Before this day is over with, somewhere in New York City, the first filming will have been done for PBS's updated version of The Electric Company. The first episode is scheduled to air in January 2009.

Here's a taste of what's to come: Chris Sullivan as new character Shockwave...

The original The Electric Company was produced from 1971 to 1977, and then had repeats until 1985. Some years ago I found that the educational cable channel Noggin was showing repeats. I tuned in every time it was on, and was blown away by how consistently good this show was more than thirty years after it first aired. The Electric Company was created by Children's Television Workshop (today called Sesame Workshop, which is also producing the revived series) as something of a "companion piece" to Sesame Street. The Electric Company's format was geared toward helping older children learn to read, and as such it featured considerably more "mature" comedy (i.e. without Muppets, although Big Bird and Grover from Sesame Street did wind up visiting the show a number of times).

What most people will probably remember The Electric Company for though was the cast. What other show in television history can boast of having Bill Cosby, Rita Moreno, Morgan Freeman, Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks, and Joan Rivers? The regulars also included Luis Avalos and Jim Boyd, who never ceased to crack me up with his character of J. Arthur Crank.

Head over to The New York Times website to learn more about the new series. And I can't think of anything better to celebrate the return of The Electric Company than with the original intro from 1971...

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BANDIT RUN 2008: Because they're thirsty in Atlanta and there's beer in... Ohio?

Chad Austin sends along this neat story from the Atlanta Journal and Constitution about a Georgia guy who's a devoted fan of the 1977 film Smokey and the Bandit (which was the #2 top-grossing movie that year by the way, after a little art-house film called Star Wars). And Tyler Hambrick not only wound up buying a Trans-Am like the one Burt Reynolds used in that movie, but last year for the movie's 30th anniversary he re-created the epic journey from Texarkana, Texas to Atlanta, Georgia.

And tomorrow, Tyler Hambrick and about sixty carloads of his close friends are going to do it all over again, this time going from Columbus, Ohio to Atlanta.

Here's the official website for Bandit Run 2008 and here's a map of the route. Looks like the Bandit convoy is going to be going through Asheville after they enter North Carolina, then going west on 74 through Waynesville, Sylva and Cullowhee before heading south on 441 into Georgia. I used to travel those roads all the time when I lived out that way. It's almost enough to tempt me to stand on the side of the road with a "GO BANDIT(S)!!" banner :-P

Oh yeah, Bandit Run 2008 has a promo video too...

Good luck with your "beer run" folks! And I hope that your own movie recreation goes a lot better than what happened to those guys who tried to imitate The Road Warrior in Texas three years ago ;-)

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A night of John Williams music with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and Michael Krajewski

It all started several weeks ago when Eric Wilson asked if I knew of any concerts featuring the music of John Williams: the composer of music for the Star Wars movies, the Indiana Jones trilogy (soon to be quadrilogy), Jaws, some of the Harry Potter films and too many other things to mention. I told him that I knew Williams sometimes conducted concerts featuring his work but I didn't know of any around here off the top of my head. I did attend a concert of Star Wars music performed by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra at Star Wars Celebration II and I told Eric that it was quite a treat, especially when they played "Duel of the Fates".

As it turned out, Eric was madly doing a Google search for such a concert. And he found one! And lo and behold, there was one scheduled for May 10th!

So long story short, two nights ago Lisa and I, along with Chad Austin and his girlfriend Koren, hooked up with Eric and his wife Kira and their two sons Jake and Ben for dinner at the Red Robin near the new Target store off New Garden Road in Greensboro. And then we headed off to Westover Church to enjoy "The Music of John Williams" performed by the the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Michael Krajewski.

The concert began at 8 p.m. Greensboro Symphony CEO Lisa Crawford took to the stage and welcomed everyone and thanked those who worked to make this concert possible, and she especially made mention of "the 501st Legion" which probably didn't register with a lot of folks in attendance...

Mr. Krajewski noted that 2008 is an Olympic year so it was fitting that the concert started off with the "Olympic Fanfare and Theme", which Williams composed for the 1984 Summer Olympics (and which has subsequently been used for every television broadcast of the Olympics). This was followed with the overture for 1972's The Cowboys (one of John Wayne's later films). And already, we were thrilling to hearing John Williams' music performed by such an amazing orchestra... and a terrific conductor! We all agreed afterward that Michael Krajewski not only did a beautiful job in conducting the concert but he brought a lot of wit and humor to the show as well.

After the music from The Cowboys, Krajewski remarked that the next John Williams piece became world famous for only two notes from it, and how since he lived not far from the beach that every time he came near the water he - along with everyone else who has seen the movie - hears those two notes in his head and thinks of sharks. So it was that the orchestra began playing the theme from Jaws, and for emphasis the two giant screens in Westover's sanctuary were displaying that still from the movie where the shark breaks the surface as Brody is tossing chum into the water.

Following the "Theme from Jaws", Mr. Krajewski discussed the history and importance of music in motion pictures, beginning with the live piano that was often played during silent movies. He also related the anecdote about Hugo Friedhofer, the composer for Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat, who was told during production that there would be no need for his music after all because "where would the music be coming from in the middle of the ocean?" Friedhofer told the producer to go ask Hitchcock about "where would the cameras be coming from then?"

The next piece of the evening is one that Krajewski noted is the one that Williams has regarded as his single favorite bit of composition from his long career: the "Flying Theme" from E.T. the Extra-terrestrial. And you know how you gauge how well an orchestra is playing? It's if they succeed in making your eyes well up with tears. Folks, I have to declare that this indeed happened to me during the E.T. music: that particular score has always been very moving for me to hear, and to enjoy it in a live performance was especially overwhelming.

Krajewski then addressed the audience again, and said that there was something he never understood about when George Reeves played Superman on television: it wasn't just the fact that bullets bounced off of him but then he ducked whenever the bad guys threw their empty guns at Superman (I never thought of that before). It was also that nobody - not even Lois Lane "who's supposed to be this ace reporter" Krajewski noted - ever figures out that Clark Kent and Superman are the same person! "I tried this with my wife once," Krajewski told us, and said he tried putting glasses on and passing as a whole different person but "it didn't work".

And with that, the orchestra began playing the "Love Theme" from 1978's Superman. Can you believe it's now been almost 30 years since that movie came out? The screens then showed the Superman-garbed Christopher Reeve, who really did make us believe that a man can fly. This is another piece that I've always enjoyed over the years, and was thrilled that it was included on the program.

Fast-forward twenty-three years, and we came to the next bit of John Williams music: "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. A terrific performance in its own right. But then an actress dressed as Hermione Granger casually walked on stage as the music played, before getting chased through the sanctuary by Dolores Umbridge and Argus Filch! A very neat touch, and that was only the beginning...

Now the concert shifted gears dramatically, and the strings section got a chance to shine with what there is little doubt is the most haunting music that John Williams ever composed: the theme from Schindler's List. Mr. Krajewski remarked that this was not only a film that many people doubted Spielberg could pull off (because he was famous for considerably lighter fare about aliens and dinosaurs) but there was also wonder about what Williams would do with such a powerful film also. It didn't get mentioned during the show, but I've heard Williams say in an interview that Schindler's List was the hardest film he ever scored and also the one that moved him the most to work on.

Now, this one, "Theme from Schindler's List", it breaks me hard every time. And you wanna know why? I'm not gonna share the details here 'cuz that's not the point of this post, but at least twice in my life I've encountered Schindler's legacy... including meeting (long before the movie ever came out) one of the Schindlerjuden. And yes, I know that there were some historical liberties taken with the film Schindler's List. But so far as conveying the tragedy of the Holocaust, I still know of no other film that has ever come close. And the score by John Williams, with its Eastern Europe style that is both mournful and brimming with hope... has there ever been a film score so profoundly moving? I honestly don't know if there has been. This is at once John Williams' finest and most definitive piece, and also the one beyond all reckoning with anything else from his repertoire. Just as Schindler's List stands far apart from anything else of modern filmmaking, so too does its musical score. And I don't know if that's ever been said nearly enough. Mr. Krajewski and the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra got extra-hard and well-deserved applause for their performance of this piece.

Then the tone of the show tilted wildly. Eric and I could hardly believe this next one, 'cuz just a few hours earlier he was telling us how he always loved Spielberg's movie 1941: a film that I've always thought has been horribly misunderstood. Well, the next piece of the evening was "March from 1941"! Me and Eric could hardly contain our giggling at getting to hear this performed live. Incidentally, Krajewski told us that in spite of how poorly 1941 fared in contrast to his other films, that Spielberg regards this as his favorite Williams-composed march. As the orchestra played the screen filled with the image of "Wild Bill" Kelso chomping on a cigar. Think about that: John Belushi's huge mug glowering down from the front of a church sanctuary. Definitely a sight that will be forever etched in my gray matter...

Then came the intermission. We took the time to stand up and stretch, and we talked about how good a show it had been already. About ten minutes later the lights dimmed again. Mr. Krajewski took to the podium and without warning, the orchestra launched into the "Raiders March" from Raiders of the Lost Ark! Not long after they started playing, none other than Indiana Jones - complete with bullwhip - crept his way onto the stage and among the musicians. It wasn't long before he hefted aloft the famous golden idol from the South American temple at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Everyone cheered! And I was seriously expecting to witness some half-naked Hovitos chase Indy across the stage. That didn't happen and I didn't see any snakes, either :-) After the piece finished, Krajewski reminded us that a new Indiana Jones movie was about to come out: "I think it's going to be called Indiana Jones and the Search for Medicare", he joked.

The next bit of music is one that most people have never heard of in its entirety but everyone has listened to part of at least once: the theme music for NBC Nightly News. It's actually called "The Mission" and Williams it turns out has always appreciated having it enjoyed in its entirety. It's a very good piece in the classic John Williams style, and maybe someday there will be a broadcast of NBC Nightly News that features this entire score and not so much bad news: an event that John Williams has said would be "a good news day".

Then came the part of the evening that I think it's safe to say was the highlight of the evening: the music that Williams has composed for the Star Wars movies. Krajewski informed everyone that across the span of six movies and almost thirty years, Williams wrote more than 14 hours of original music for George Lucas' epic space opera: "So I hope you went to the restroom during intermission," Krajewski quipped. He then said that in addition to six movies that there might be a seventh Star Wars movie coming out called "The Sith Hits the Fan". Some mild groaning at that one, heh-heh... :-)

The "Main Theme" from ever Star Wars movie was the first bit of saga music to be performed, followed by "The Flag Parade" From Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. "Anakin's Theme" came next, and then the piece that Eric said weeks ago he was most giddy about hearing performed live: "Duel of the Fates". Even without a choral accompaniment, it's plenty powerful. During "Duel of the Fates" an actress in Princess Leia's outfit from Episode IV: A New Hope - complete with hair buns - made an escape across the stage from fully-armored Imperial Stormtroopers, who then engaged in a blaster fight with Rebel soldiers. This was the first appearance by the 501st Legion during the show and judging from the reaction, it was a huge crowd pleaser.

Then came "Imperial March". The Stormtroopers returned to the stage. And then none other than the Dark Lord of the Sith himself, Darth Vader, angrily strode across the stage, stood on the conductor's platform and stared down Michael Krajewski. Vader personally conducted the final strains of "Imperial March". And it must be said: Darth Vader is not only dangerous with a lightsaber, he's pretty adept at conducting an orchestra too!

When Krajewski finally regained his position (because nobody is going to dispute when Darth Vader wants something) he led the orchestra with "Yoda's Theme" from Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and finished the Star Wars portion of the program with "Throne Room" from A New Hope. As "Throne Room" was winding down, a wild assortment of Stormtroopers, Jedi, generic Mandalore Supercommandos, TIE Pilots, Royal Guards, and Imperial Officers arrived for the finale...

But that still was not the end of the show! After Mr. Krajewski had taken a bow, he left and just as quickly returned, and in an encore led the orchestra in a performance of the "Theme from Superman". During the main chords of it a guy in a Superman costume leaped from the stage, ran to the back of the sanctuary and returned with a "damsel in distress" in his arms.

I'd say that between the musical talent of the Greensboro Symphony, the conducting skill and good banter of Michael Krajewski, and the theatrics by the 501st and everyone else, this turned out to be quite a show. I told Lisa on our way home that it was by far one of the best evenings that I'd enjoyed in quite a long time.

'Course, having good friends to share it with certainly went a long way, too! Here we all are after the concert (in front of what Chad and I realized after this pic was taken is the baptistery of Westover Church)...

(left to right: Eric, Jake, Koren, Chad, Ben, Kira, Lisa, me)

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A philosophical problem

What if there was a way to really have physical immortality?

Would you want that? Would you choose to accept it?

What if you wound up with immortality, and found out too late that it was more a curse than it was a blessing? Would you then spend the rest of your existence trying to find a way to be mortal again?

Three thoughts on the subject: the first is that immortality is possible but it's not something meant for this material realm. 1st Corinthians 15:50 teaches us that "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God". I'm now taking this to mean that physical immortality in the state of matter as we know it is something fully counter to God's intended order for the cosmos and concordantly, the pursuit of such a condition would be abomination. What then would be the ramifications of actually achieving this very thing?

The second is that the moment a person might become immortal, he or she would cease to be a part of the human narrative and experience, and would become something completely unnatural and alien.

And of course the most damning thing of all about immortality: it would probably happen in such a way that you could not let others share the "gift", and if there are a lot of people in your life then you would be condemned to watch them all pass away, to whatever is waiting on the other side, while you have to remain here and never be able to join them. Your own life without real fear of having to ever taste death, weighed against ultimately being alone and never seeing your loved ones again...

Would you choose to live for yourself in this carnal plane until the end of the Earth, or would you choose to die in the course of time and so ultimately move on, to where the ones you care about are waiting?

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