Dang! But I am soooooo going this route if I ever get hit with male-pattern baldness :-P
Artist and designer Elroy Klee came up with a rather radical notion: LEGO wigs! GeekTyrant has more pics of his work.
Great work Elroy! But I have to wonder: what was it like to tell three beautiful women "Here, I want you to wear LEGO on your head..."?
That was the first rap group that I actually found myself "liking" quite a bit.
In his memory, here is what I've always thought was one of the best music videos ever. From their album Ill Communication and directed by Spike Jonze, here in Yauch's memory is "Sabotage":
Neither will I vote against Amendment One.
Because the more I have thought about it and the more that I have seen especially during the past couple of weeks across North Carolina, Amendment One is by far the worst thing that I have ever seen on a ballot in the Tarheel State. And that's sayin' something about this place...
For this blog's readership in various and sundry places not between Manteo and Murphy, Amendment One is the measure on next week's ballot that would make the Constitution of the state of North Carolina explicitly state that marriage will only be between one man and one woman. As you can probably imagine, this is widely perceived to be a measure attempting to circumvent the legality of "gay marriage".
I've been wrestling literally for the past several weeks on how to articulate what I believe about this, and not be misunderstood. Because my stance about Amendment One is not something that could be squared away as either "conservative" or "liberal". Which will likely honk off many who can't think beyond such ultimately meaningless ideologies. But I don't care. Because that's just how I roll. I'm out to follow as best where God leads me, and not the capricious wendings of man's temporal politics.
The initial reason why I will not be voting on Amendment One is that marriage is instituted by God and is not left to us at all to define. I've no doubt that there are many well-meaning people who will be voting for Amendment One because they sincerely believe that marriage is something that "must be protected".
It's not. It's really not. Not by a political gimmick anyway. And if it must be protected that way, then we as a society have vastly bigger problems than "gay marriage" could ever be.
There is no such thing as "homosexual marriage". It's a contradiction in terms of the most obscene kind. Marriage by definition is the uniting of two entities of distinctly different yet complementary natures into a new entity greater than the sum of its parts.
What does that mean? A man cannot naturally reproduce on his own. Neither can a woman. And neither can two men unite to create new human life between themselves.
I contend that this is the essence of the universal concept of marriage: that the potential for natural reproduction exists. This is not a "biblical" concept, as I have seen many across this state argue in the months leading up to the vote on Amendment One. "We support biblical marriage"? Bah! As if only marriages performed according to Judeo-Christian standards are valid in the eyes of God. The greater balance of cultures and faiths across human history have held that marriage is between one man and one woman. Are the proponents of Amendment One willing to assert that the vast majority of people today should be legally declared whores and bastards? But I digress...
Marriage of one man and one woman is as fundamentally an aspect of moral law as is the knowledge that murder is wrong. I have seen many statues on the books defining punishments for murder: I have yet to see a constitutional amendment saying that murder is illegal. It's something that merely is not needed, or should not be needed anyway.
And "gay marriage" is already illegal according to North Carolina law. Amendment One would not be changing anything.
"But Chris, some liberal activist judge could decree from the bench that gay marriage is legal in this state and that would be it! We need Amendment One to prevent that from happening!"
If that's true, then... wow, we really are screwed. Like I said before, we'll have inherently graver issues than gay marriage if that's the case. In the mind of this writer, it will means that we as a people have surrendered that wisdom and fortitude that the Founding Fathers meant for us to have as a free people. It will be a sad acknowledgement that we no longer possess the liberty of mind that too many men and women fought and even perished that we might enjoy. If we have arrived at a place where fear-mongering and worse, fear of nebulous ideologies drive our actions, then what does that say of us as We The People?
And this brings me to the most conscientious reason why I refuse to vote on Amendment One: because as a follower of Christ, as one who chooses the renewal of the mind in defiance of the patterns of this fallen world, I will not be motivated by fear and hatred and lust for political power. And unfortunately it has been those base drives which I have long observed have been behind the push for Amendment One.
Ever wonder where Amendment One came from to begin with? You should. It originated with Return America, an organization created and headed by Dr. Ron Baity, the pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem.
I will not dare judge the condition of Baity's soul before God. However, I am compelled to wonder aloud about any man who revels so much in the use of the word "queers" against his enemies as Dr. Baity has done, including in a number of Renew America newsletters and publications (which I have on hand). I also found it curious that Baity is fond of referring to President Obama as "Hussein Obama" in his group's official literature. But again, I digress.
Do people like Ron Baity truly believe that God needs their "help" to protect marriage? Because if so, presuming that He does indicates horrendous pride on our part.
I am not going to support Amendment One because I'm a Christian and "expected" to look down upon homosexuals with loathing and scorn and fear. Indeed: I have many friends, some of whom I have come to trust and be entrusted with counsel, who are homosexual. They know that I cannot approve of their lifestyle, that I do believe it to be sinful.
But how as one saved by the grace of God do I dare condemn them as being more sinful and less righteous than I?
I can't. Nor can anyone else. Whether or not they feel empowered by public referendum.
A little over a year ago I went public with my having bipolar disorder. It is what destroyed my first marriage. Among other things it made me extremely hyper-sexual, even though at NO time was I ever unfaithful to my wife. However, let's just say that my own mind drove me to do things that I would have otherwise never have thought myself capable of.
I don't believe God made me do that. It was just a symptom of something that for whatever reason, He allowed me to be born with. But as a result of it I do now see how some people could very well have a homosexual drive.
I do not however believe that is what in any way should define a person, any more than heterosexual drives should define others. As a follower of Christ I must accept that we live in a broken, imperfect world that can NEVER be made right in the hands of man. We are each, every one of us, beset with temptations and thorns in our flesh (as Paul put it). I did not want to be compelled toward pornography, but it happened and I wasn't strong enough to fight it. It is only by the grace of God that I have moved forward, and allowed God to bless me with things that I could have never found on my own.
That is why I can not condemn homosexual people. I don't know what their struggles must be like, but I DO know that they struggle with the flesh just as much as I have my own. Who am I to believe that they are any more lost than I have been?
At the same time I could never accept that a homosexual relationship could ever qualify as "marriage" in the traditional, historical and natural sense. If two people of the same gender wish to live together as "civil partners" or somesuch, then fine. That's their right. Calling it "marriage" however would put us on the slippery slope toward some attempting holy matrimony with barnyard livestock (I shall leave it as an exercise for the reader as to whether or not this has been attempted within this state). And there again, there is a terrible rot within our cultural soul if that is the case, for which a "pro-marriage" amendment would be akin to placing a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound to the head.
I cannot see any legitimate Christian love and concern, tempered with the quality of humility, in regard to Amendment One. If the same people who have most pushed this ballot measure had been living for Christ all of this time for His sake, out of a meek and humble spirit, this may not even have been an issue at all. As it is however, there is an impure motivation for Amendment One. And I absolutely believe that if the motive is impure, the work will be corrupted and in the end, do much more damage than we can perhaps understand.
The biggest reason Amendment One is on the ballot is because there are some who seek to exploit our hate, for their own gain.
But I refuse to give them that satisfaction.
Amendment One is just another political game... and I for one will not be playing it.
"You don't owe these people anymore. You've given them everything.""Not everything. Not yet."
For the first time, I am beginning to warm up to the "eight years later..." aspect of The Dark Knight Rises. Mainly 'cuz it looks like Christopher Nolan really is giving us something we've never seen cinematically before: a Batman facing his own doubts and mortality. That Nolan is apparently drawing from three of the greatest Batman storylines ever - The Dark Knight Returns, Knightfall and No Man's Land - is convincing me even more that I can accept this being the closing chapter of a trilogy, instead of that ongoing Batman film franchise that I had hoped Batman Begins would have been the start of.
'Course it goes without saying that this trailer is gorgeous, in a hauntingly subtle way that I can't remember seeing from a trailer for a comic book movie.
You can also watch it in glorious high-def Quicktime in 720P or 1080P.
How busy? I was at ActionFest in Asheville two weeks ago, and I still haven't had time to do a decent write-up about it (including pictures of me with Tom Berenger and a few other folks). Heck, I'm dying to tell y'all about just Solomon Kane (easily the finest and most faithful adaptation of a Robert E. Howard character I've yet beheld).
That's all coming soon, I think, Along with a piece that I've been wrestling with for some time now, and now is the time to finally unload it.
But since a number of nice e-mails have come in asking "where the heck are you Chris?!" and since it's been too gosh-darn long since I've posted any more photos of the lovely ladies in my family, I thought I'd make up for it.
Want to see a new picture of my ravishingly beautiful cousin Rachael?
Of course ya do! So here you go...
Hee-hee-hee!! Well, that is Rachael, whether or not you wanna take my word for it. Along with a beautiful sunrise on the coast of Florida. Two beautiful creations of God, together in one photo.
Now let me get back to work, and maybe there'll be more to come this weekend :-)
He wasn't an actor. He wasn't a singer. He wasn't a dancer. And yet Dick Clark probably made more of a positive impact on pop culture than the vast majority of entertainers put together. Between his groundbreaking American Bandstand on through his New Years Eve specials and game shows, Clark defined what it meant to be a modern professional entertainer and businessperson. The dude never quit, even when he was hit with that debilitating stroke in 2004. By all accounts, he was the most classy of people. And it goes without saying: he really was America's oldest teenager.
Thoughts and prayers going out to his family tonight.
(That's what the staff told us, anyway...)
So... did I miss anything?
So I hit the link and watched it.
And this is only the second music video to ever make me cry. I'll let it be an exercise for the reader about what the first one was.
From the album Deeper Still and gorgeously directed by Mark Blitch, here is "Unborn Grace"...
Not much, but still nice. Wondering if they filmed this Western-ish episode back in the U.S., like last year's mind-blowing "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon" two-parter.
And doesn't that town look more than a smidgeon like Hill Valley circa 1885 from Back To The Future Part III? Maybe we're gonna finally get that Doctor/Marty McFly fight that we've always fantasized about...
I'm not going to eat that Bhut jolokia pepper, or any other super-hot pepper, like I've been making plans to for awhile. I don't want to risk anything that could make me anywhere that close to being sick as a dog again. This was the WORST health-related experience of my life (yeah even worse than that flu I had in '96 that had me saying all kinds of... funny stuff).
Me go rest some more. Then I'll tell y'all about MythBusters on Tour that we saw on Sunday night :-)
The grave marker was put in place today.
And now, for the first time in my life, I know what it is to gaze upon the tombstone of a parent...
The plastic covering is to protect the cement until it fully cures. It's not visible in the photo, but the base of the marker has the names of my sister and I, noting that we are Ruby and Robert's children. In the background you can also see the tombstone belonging to my grandmother and grandfather.
I still haven't broken down and cried like I had expected to long before now. Was it because I was there for her at the end, as she slipped away from us? Did that make it easier to accept her passing?
Or could it be that, my faith is much greater now than it has been ever before in my life? I like to believe that. That I sincerely do know that this marker, it doesn't signify Mom's final resting place at all. Mom isn't here at all. She's somewhere else, in the company of all the family that have gone on before. Waiting for us to join her. Waiting for me someday.
And yet, I will probably find myself at this marker a fair number of times for the rest of my life. I can someday bring my children to it, and tell them all about the grandmother that they will not have had the pleasure of meeting yet.
Once more, I have to thank the fine staff at Wilkerson Funeral Home for their exceptional service to our family, which included the very fast installation of the marker (we only ordered it last week).
I've never seen a movie theater as packed with kids during a school day as I saw today at the Grande in Greensboro for the 1:15 showing of The Hunger Games. There were six or seven girls in costume as Capitol citizens (including one as Effie, complete with shocking pink hair). It was nearly a sold-out show and the showings tonight were already sold out when I bought my ticket.
The film adaptation takes a scarce few liberties with Suzanne Collins' megaselling novel. Those are so minor that you generally won't miss them (I was a bit let down that the muttations during the climax at the Cornucopia didn't resemble the deceased tributes). But the film also adds considerably more to the narrative that we didn't see in the book, particularly with Donald Sutherland's portrayal of President Snow: positivalutely one of the most menacing and chilling villains that I've seen in quite awhile.
If you liked the book, you're going to love this. If you haven't read the book yet, I think you'll still get plenty of thrill out of The Hunger Games. It's a beautifully shot movie (filmed entirely here in North Carolina, with Charlotte playing the Capitol and the mountain area used for District 12 and the Arena) that brought to life the look and feel of Panem's despotic realm. Jennifer Lawrence is spot-on perfect as Katniss: the girl who volunteers for the Games in place of her younger sister. I genuinely came to empathize with Lawrence's Katniss, and even knowing how the book ended I caught myself wrought with fright when the Hunger Games begin. From the getgo it is a brutal contest. Maybe even unsettling for some people. Children killing children with such savage relish isn't something that I like to think most audiences are used to.
A very, very solid movie. One that treats its viewers with intelligence and respect. I'm looking forward to seeing it again this coming week.
So now that I'm back...
1. Elton John at the Roanoke Civic Center last week was the most electrifying concert that I've ever been to. From the moment he took to the stage he performed for darn nearly three hours without stopping. It has to be said: this man is show business personified.
2. The season finale of The Walking Dead, I watched with my girlfriend Kristen and her mom. All three of us were screaming throughout and I dang nearly went berzerk with giddy excitement when we got our first look at Michonne (with those two zombies in tow). Going out of Season 2 by showing us the prison, well I don't know what else to say: Bring on Season 3 and the Governor!
3. Congratulations to one of my best friends Steven Glaspie on his engagement to his sweet and lovely girlfriend Allison! Steven went all-out for his lady. Remember that diamond that Superman crushed from a piece of coal in Superman III? Yeah it's like that.
4. The next few months will prove to be interesting. Parse that as you will.
Here's the official poster for the festival...
The opening night's film is gonna be Solomon Kane, and ActionFest will close out with Wu Xia. I've been looking forward to seeing Solomon Kane for awhile now and I've only heard insanely good stuff about Wu Xia.
Punch here for the press release that just went out. And I'll be seeing you at ActionFest! Go there, or perish in flame. It's your choice. But, not really.
Viral videos do not bring down bad guys.
Charities do not bring down bad guys.
Silly little bracelets do not bring down bad guys.
Celebrities sure as hell do not bring down bad guys.
When push comes to shove, YOU having the will to say "no" brings down bad guys.
YOU defending yourself and your loved ones brings down bad guys.
YOU being vigilant brings down bad guys.
If all else fails, YOU being the one who aims the gun and pulls the trigger, brings down bad guys.
Americans seem too unwilling to care about their own children here when they are being controlled. Why should they care then about children being controlled by someone they've never heard of before, in a country that many if not most Americans probably couldn't find on a map?
I'm not saying that what Kony has done isn't evil. But there's only so much that any of us can do... and God has given us plenty of responsibility already. Responsibility that for the most part, we have shirked horribly. Perhaps even unforgivably.
Could it be that the greatest part of the "Get Kony" movement is because we have been made to feel helpless to do anything about our own situation, and are desperate to latch onto whatever it is that can make us "feel good" and empowered?
People, we've been empowered all along. We aren't free by the whims of man, but by the grace of God.
Now, when the hell are we going to finally realize that there's no shame in admitting that?
And what are we going to do about it?
Oooh-kaaaaay. That's certainly a bold turn away from what I guess everyone was expecting. I don't know which is the bigger shock: the Lone Ranger wearing black or Johnny Depp apparently trying to simultaneously channel Captain Jack Sparrow and Alice Cooper.
But hey, this movie can't possibly be worse than the last time a Lone Ranger film was attempted, right?
(And in case you're wondering, blame falls on my girlfriend Kristen for finding this. It wasn't me who stumbled upon it, honest!)
Ready? Brace yourself...
He started out at Boeing, and then was hired by CBS to create animations of the Apollo program as NASA was preparing to land a man on the moon.
Some years later McQuarrie was approached by a filmmaker named George Lucas, who was planning a movie about a galaxy far, far away and needed to populate it with a unique assortment of heroes, villains, robots and spaceships. And had it not been for McQuarrie's visual conceptions, what was at the time merely "Star Wars" might never have been picked up by any studio.
But thanks to Ralph McQuarrie, it was. And in addition to creating the looks of Darth Vader, Chewbacca and R2-D2, McQuarrie would go on to further flesh out the look and feel of the Star Wars saga. He also worked on the original Battlestar Galactica series and then again for Lucas and Steven Spielberg when they set out to produce Raiders of the Lost Ark. Along with many other movies and television series.
The sad news this morning is that Ralph McQuarrie passed away this weekend, at the age of 82.
Thoughts and prayers going out to his family this morning.
Thank you, Ralph, for sharing your talents and visions with us...
I've known John for most of my life. He's a solid dude and everyone around here is proud of the success he's had as a farmer. It's really good to see him getting coverage like this on behalf of farmers everywhere. But I want y'all to click on the link and see the full photo taken by Ted Richardson. The entire pic of Dad and John sitting on the tailgate of Dad's truck, it's just a classic pic about modern farming. I'd even say "award worthy" :-)
And then there's this lil' baby...
After a precipitous drop, the coaster would take its passenger through a series of ever-tightening loops that increase the forces on the person's body, starving him/her of oxygen until death results.
Read more about the Euthanasia Coaster here.
Can you imagine one of these things at Disney World? Well, maybe under Michael Eisner...
Playing as a Native American with a tomahawk, scalping British soldiers during (presumably) the American Revolutionary War. Now there's a direction that I can't remember video games ever taking.
Kinda makes you wonder what a Nintendo adaptation of The Last of the Mohicans would have been like, huh?
Thanks to good friend Drew McOmber for spotting this!
So what's it like? Imagine that Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro collaborated on a movie together. That is the best I can describe The Last Circus.
Here's the trailer...
I think I needed something this off-kilter and screwball ultra-violent right now. With a healthy dash of historical drama thrown in for good measure. This kind of movie appeals to that visceral "id" creature within me. I wound up ordering the Blu-ray based on the trailer and good word-of-mouth alone: in retrospect, definitely a good purchase! Looking forward to showing The Last Circus to some of my friends :-)
(I learned some new stuff reading that. Like: because of a deal brokered by Saint Patrick, today is the one day during four whole years that the lady gets to propose to her man! And if the dude says "no" he's obliged to give her a new dress and some gloves.)
And over at io9.com there's the strange but true tale of how there was once a February 30th.
As jazzed as I am about The Dark Knight Rises, the more that I see of The Avengers, the more it's looking like the superhero movie that we always dreamed as kids of seeing but thought we'd never get to have.
The Avengers assemble on May 4th.
I have never quite figured out exactly what The Monkees were supposed to be. Where they actors who could sing? Were they singers who could act?
Whatever they were, they were always entertaining, extremely funny... and waaaay more talented than a bunch of "performers" that I could pick out of today's pop culture.
Jones leaves behind a wife and four children, and millions of fans across five decades. Thoughts and prayers going out to his family this afternoon.
Later on, she performed a Bolero (one of the tougher ballroom dances to do, I'm told)...
And yes, your friend and intrepid blogger has taken up some ballroom dancing as well. Maybe someday soon there will even be photo/video documentation of it. If you're good. And if I'm good :-P
If only Uggie had been nominated for Best Supporting Actor, then it would have been spot-on perfect.
Okay, we've done that now. I'm thankful that we got to fix that. But that's the only good thing that came out of last night's screening of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D(?!?).
Yeah, a Star Wars movie in 3D. I know, it looks good on paper, buuuuut...
Now I have to be honest: there are some parts of the movie that look far better in 3D than they deserve to be. The podrace sequence, f'rinstance. But I'm inclined to believe that's only because it's already moving so fast that your eyeballs are being vicariously assaulted before your gray matter gets time to register the sensation. Unfortunately a movie consumed with things like boardroom meetings and bureaucratic theatrics makes the 3D a tedious thing to sit through. That's when the 3D works at all.
Because there are loads of times during Star Wars Episode I's 3D edition that the 3D isn't there to begin with! Trust me folks, I took off my 3D specs a number of times during the second half or so of the movie and, I couldn't tell ANY difference at all between the 3D conversion and the 2D original that I have seen about 9 times already on the big screen. And then there is what was likely the most significant reason why my visual cortex felt burnt afterward: the schizoid use of 2D and 3D elements simultaneously. I saw plenty of that during the Coruscant scenes in particular before giving up and letting myself just watch the darn thing.
The Phantom Menace in 3D adds nothing particularly enjoyable to the experience of watching a Star Wars movie in theaters... and that's something that I've never had happen to be before, in over thirty years of going to see Star Wars flicks at a cinema. Taking a movie shot in standard 2D and converting it into 3D has proven time and time again to be an expensive and glorious mess. I had hoped, sincerely hoped, that Star Wars Episode I would be the breakthrough movie that put an end to the never-ending parade of 3D post-production disaster. Heck, we've known this was coming for years before Avatar ever came out. In Industrial Light and Magic did I trust.
But no, I cannot recommend Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D. Neither can I see myself going to any of the other Star Wars movies set to be released in 3D, one a year for the next five years.
Now if George Lucas wants to produce a new Star Wars film trilogy, and actually shoot them in true honest-to-goodness stereo camera setup THREE DIMENSIONS, I'll gladly see those in the theaters a dozen times over. But turning 2D into 3D?
Who'da thunk that I'd leave a Star Wars movie... any Star Wars movie... cringing about having watched a steaming pile of bantha poodoo.
Doug Powers notes that the mainstream media is giving President Obama a "free ride" about the ridiculous price of gasoline, when it blamed George W. Bush for it at every opportunity.
(Longtime readers will know that I have never been a fan of either Obama or Bush. They're the two worst Presidents in American history, in my book...)
I juxtapose these two seemingly unrelated items before you, good readers, because I remember plenty of times during Bush's presidency when too many Christians simply "rolled over and took it" when he and his administration violated the Constitution. Not only that, but practically sang praises to the man (and even praying to Bush in at least one instance). So too, do I know fully well how many if not most of the "mainstream press" have a significant bias toward the Democrat party and for what are considered "liberal" causes.
Every day, bit by bit, I watch America die before my eyes because we the people will valiantly fight for what's right when it is in our favor but will feign ignorance and indifference when it is not. Who knows: we may not have this ObamaCare crap if a lot of us had chosen to take a stand against certain politicians during the past decade.
First thing's first: the Third Annual Popcorn Sutton Tribute is set for August 3-4, once again in beautiful Maggie Valley, North Carolina! That's right this year it's gonna be a two day event! I'm currently planning to be there for all of it.
Wouldn't surprise me at all if next year's is a three-day extravaganza, given how Popcorn's life and times continues to gain legions of admirers. And there are gonna be even more after this article in The New York Times about Popcorn's life and likker. There's a terrific photo of Mrs. Pam Sutton holding a jar of Popcorn's original moonshine.
Meanwhile, attorney Will Cheek notes that three years after his passing, Popcorn has achieved a victory of sorts. Namely, that distilling liquor is now legal in Cocke County, Tennessee (where Popcorn lived).
And though it's nearly a year old, I'm led to direct y'all's attention to Arianna Armstrong's essay "Portrait of a Moonshiner", which is packed with a bunch of biographical information about Popcorn Sutton that I didn't know previously (like how Popcorn's father's name was Vader Sutton, and how Popcorn would use his daughter's baby bathtub to mix the ingredients for his likker).
At the rate things are going, it wouldn't surprise me if Popcorn Sutton's Tennessee White Whiskey was soon just as big a household name as Jack Daniel's and Jim Beam. Hey, non-drinker though I be, I'd be totally fine with that :-)
Up 'til now, my only real exposure to the Clue franchise was the 1985 film, which had three different endings. I got introduced to that back in college, by roomie/now filmmaking partner "Weird" Ed Woody. I told him then that Clue was always a game that I'd wanted to try but never had the chance.
That finally came on Sunday afternoon. It was raining hard in Norfolk (while everyone back home was getting snowed hard upon) and instead of going out, the four of us opted to stay in and watch movies, play games and such. And so it was that Clue was brought out.
I didn't know anything about the actual rules, but I quickly was brought up to speed. For my piece I chose Mrs. Peacock, only because she was already on the side of the board that I was sitting on.
And I didn't win. That honor belonged to our friend Grace. But I had a heck of a fun time! Lord willing we have some children ('cuz Clue needs 3-6 players) I'm definitely gonna invest in a copy of this game.
So that's one more thing scratched off my "Must Do Before I Die" list. Now if I can only see a real tornado. And live long enough to see Elon's basketball team go to the NCAA Tournament...
But Lent was something that I was feeling led to observe this year, for a number of reasons. So at the suggestion of some friends, I am choosing to give up video games and root beer.
The video games, I'm not worried about. It's only the seriously narrative-based games that I seem to indulge myself in, and the last time I did that was Batman: Arkham City. Though I'm curious as to how long I can go without the original StarCraft (which I plan to elaborate upon in the near future).
It's the root beer which I'm cautious about.
It's like this: I don't drink soft drinks hardly ever. At home, I'm a true southern-bred boy, drinking good ol'-fashioned sweet tea. Whenever I go out to eat or to a movie, I drink root beer. If root beer isn't available, I go for some other soft drink. Because no restaurant or movie theater seems to ever do tea the way it's supposed to be.
Knowing this, my girlfriend Kristen keeps her fridge well-stocked with A&W Root Beer whenever I'm dropping by. And I usually wind up drinking more of the stuff than I'd intended. Because, well, root beer is delicious!
But for the next forty days, I'm going off the stuff.
We'll see if I can do this. Hey, if Kristen could be completely off chocolate for Lent one year (I'm still hoping pictures will show up of this 'cuz my mind refuses to acknowledge it) then going without root beer should be easy enough :-)
“The lesson that I learned from this is not to help people, because helping people is just going to get yourself in trouble,” McKinney said.McKinney's classmate Breana Crites was having an asthma attack during a gym class last month. Alyssa McKinney let Crites borrow her asthma inhaler. It might have saved Breana Crites' life, or at the very least kept her from being hospitalized.
But for that act of Good Samaritanship, Alyssa was placed on ten days' suspension (with the possibility of expulsion if the school "administration" judges she makes one measly further "mistake) and Crites was expelled for the rest of the year.
Superintendent John Borman had this to say...
“I think absolutely the suspension was appropriate.”People like B
They'll still be insisting "But we were only following orders" right up to the moment that they're thrown against the wall.
Tip o' the hat to Scott Bradford for directing our attention to this latest instance of public education insanity.
It's The Tree of Life that I haven't been able to stop thinking about for the past 48 hours.
It's up for Best Picture during the Oscars this coming Sunday night (along with The Artist - a movie I've seen twice in theaters, this is the second Best Picture nominee this year that I've caught). And I can understand why. It's jaw-droppingly beautiful to oggle and admire. Writer/director Terrence Malick was able to woo Douglas Trumbull himself to come out of retirement to do the visuals for The Tree of Life. Trumbull was the genius who pulled off those still-incredible effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Coincidentally, it took me more than 15 years to finally "understand" 2001. It might take just as long to wrap my brain around The Tree of Life. Because like 2001, The Tree of Life is the kind of movie that you can watch with your eyes, ears and mind wide-open but when you wake up the next morning you're going to forget what exactly it is that you spent all that time paying attention to.
I need to watch this again. I'll probably be buying the Blu-ray of it soon. As much as my gray matter felt pulped and spindled after watching The Tree of Life (our host put on Drive afterward and that provided some much needed mental refreshment) I want to say that there was a poignant, haunting beauty in this movie. I would even say that after the events of my own life of late (my mother's passing, coming to terms with bipolar disorder, recovering from a divorce among other things) that watching The Tree of Life was... a healing experience, in ways I can't figure out quite how just yet.
I can't think of a cinematic paraphrase of the Book of Job. But that's what The Tree of Life (which quotes from Job at its beginning) is becoming to me. A movie that dares to ask God "Why?"... and gives us His answer.
So I'll recommend The Tree of Life to this blog's readers. And I'd be interested to know what others think of it too.
It was the first orbital flight around the Earth by an American. Glenn made three orbits over the course of nearly five hours, before safely splashing down in the Atlantic.
Just think: it was only seven and a half years after Glenn's flight that we were walking on the moon.
How come we can't do cool stuff like that anymore? I mean, we use to make it look so easy...
I met John Glenn on Halloween Night in 1988. He came to my high school to campaign for the incumbent congressman from our district. Wish I'd gotten a photo of he and I together, but I do still have his autograph.
Anyway, here's wishing John Glenn a very happy anniversary of his pioneering flight! And hey, he's still looking in good shape at 90! I bet he'd be up for a trip to the International Space Station (if his lovely wife of 70 years will let him :-)
Seems like the only thing that I missed was the ONLY snow my area has had this entire winter!!
Ahhh well, after the past few years' worth of ice and blizzard, a little respite may be a good thing.
This one is definitely from way back. For one thing you can hear Mr. Hooper (the actor who played him passed away in 1982) and for another, there's no way that a sketch like this would be broadcast on Sesame Street today. Ahhh those were the days...
So here is Bert and Ernie in "What Time Is It?"
So I'm gonna pitch the case to y'all that in my opinion, Addy Miller deserves to win a Shorty. Because she's an incredibly talented young actress who is also immensely sweet and nice in real life, and she always takes time to interact with her growing number of fans.
In case you forgot who Addy is, here's a reminder...
Yup, she's the "little girl zombie" that Rick Grimes shot down in the very first scene of the very first episode of AMC's megahit series The Walking Dead. And word is that she's gotten involved in a bunch more great projects since then!
Here's a pic from a few months ago, when Kristen and I got to meet Addy at Woods of Terror near Greensboro...
Now ain't that the most precious-lookin' little cherub who ever played a flesh-eating undead ghoul?? :-)
Anyhoo, if you've got a Twitter account (which all the cool kids have these days) here's the link to Addy Miller's nomination page at The Shorty Awards. I'm asking all my online peeps to click on over and give her some support! She's doing very well so far, but every little bit helps.
And thanks!! :-)
It must also be noted that in the past week or so a significant number of Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Eastern Orthodox, Pentecostals, Seventh-Day Adventists, and members of many other denominations have rallied support behind their Roman Catholic brethren.
It should thus be noted that Barack Obama has pulled off something that has not taken place in about nineteen hundred years of church history:
He has unified the body of Christ, and found them to be of one accord.
Okay, scratch that... 'cuz there's now a new heavyweight champion of the hot pepper scene!
(I am already determined to find some of this stuff. No I'm not suicidal...)
New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute performed quantitative analysis of a variety of superhot peppers from around the globe. How powerful is the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion?
During harvesting, senior research specialist Danise Coon said she and the two students who were picking the peppers went through about four pairs of latex gloves.Read more about this potent pepper here. I'll no doubt be purchasing some seeds in the near future. Expect some YouTube'd hilarity to ensue shortly afterward (much to my girlfriend's chagrin :-)"The capsaicin kept penetrating the latex and soaking into the skin on our hands. That has never happened to me before," she said.
It was like an instant of enlightenment for me. Something I had known, but didn't know how to express it, suddenly became crystal clear. Matt didn't have to go any further, I could see it so vividly: the "conflict" between left and right, in reality, always takes away from individual liberty and gives more and more power to the government!! The only thing the "left" and "right" are fighting over is who gets to control the government. Neither "side" will ever admit that what they seriously want is control over We The People.
Chuck Baldwin is a commentator who I have enjoyed reading for quite some time, and in his essay this week he writes about the fraudulent "conservative vs. liberal" paradigm. Here's an excerpt...
There may have been a time when the words “conservative” and “liberal” meant something, but that time is no more. Today, “conservatives” in government are doing as much to promote Big Government, as are “liberals.” In fact, if one were to honestly evaluate the twelve years of the George Herbert Walker Bush and G.W. Bush administrations, one could say that “conservatives” even eclipse “liberals” in promoting Big Government. Under the two Bushes, the federal government expanded (and even exploded) to levels that for-real liberal Democrats could only dream about.It's one of the finest pieces that I've read in awhile, anywhere. And I'm gonna tremendously recommend that it's worth your time to read it, too.Let’s get realistic. Just because a politico says he or she is “pro-life,” or “pro-family,” or “pro-marriage,” etc., does not mean that they are going to do anything to help save the country. Come on, folks; think! “Conservative” Republican administration appointments have dominated the US Supreme Court since the infamous Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions that effectively legalized abortion-on-demand. And we are no closer to overturning Roe and Doe after almost forty years of electing “pro-life conservatives” than we were the year after the Roe and Doe decisions were rendered. And for the first six years of the 21st Century, “conservative” Republicans dominated the entire federal government, and still the Roe and Doe decisions stand.
(snip)
Both “conservatives” and “liberals” look to the federal government to establish and enforce their parochial agendas. “Liberals” look to Washington for the establishment of “social justice,” while “conservatives” look to Washington for the establishment of “military justice.” The net result is the federal government keeps getting bigger and bigger regardless of who controls the White House, Congress, or Supreme Court.
“Conservatives,” whether Christian or not, are just as culpable in the expansion of Big Government as are “liberals.” In fact, when it comes to the expansion of military adventurism, “conservatives” are the most culpable. And when it comes to the ever-burgeoning police state that is currently taking shape in the United States, “liberals” and “conservatives” are equally to blame. Let’s face it: both “conservatives” and “liberals” are in the midst of an intense and illicit love affair with Washington, D.C...
I mean, I remember going to school every day with a lunchbox packed with a sandwich, a small bag of potato chips, a thermos of lemonade and sometimes a brownie or slice of cake. Around the holidays Mom would also usually throw in a bag of Chex snack mix (we've always called it "trash" because "there's all kinds of good junk in it!). So did millions of other children around the country. And we certainly didn't seem to suffer from malnutrition, rickets or plague.
In 2012 however, those individually-prepared meals packed with love would almost certainly have had our parents taken away in handcuffs by Department of Social Services. That seems to be the general direction we're headed according to this story from Carolina Journal Online, which reports on government run amok in the schools of the little burg of Raeford in the eastern part of this state...
Preschooler’s Homemade Lunch Replaced with Cafeteria “Nuggets”I think every parent in that school should pack the same identical sub-nutritious menu in their children's lunchboxes for a solid week, and make these government ninny-nannies' heads collectively explode from frustration.
State agent inspects sack lunches, forces preschoolers to purchase cafeteria food insteadRAEFORD — A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because the school told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious.
The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the person who was inspecting all lunch boxes in the More at Four classroom that day.
The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs - including in-home day care centers - to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home.
When home-packed lunches do not include all of the required items, child care providers must supplement them with the missing ones.
The girl's mother - who said she wishes to remain anonymous to protect her daughter from retaliation - said she received a note from the school stating that students who did not bring a "healthy lunch" would be offered the missing portions, which could result in a fee from the cafeteria, in her case $1.25.
"I don't feel that I should pay for a cafeteria lunch when I provide lunch for her from home," the mother wrote in a complaint to her state representative, Republican G.L. Pridgen of Robeson County.
The girl's grandmother, who sometimes helps pack her lunch, told Carolina Journal that she is a petite, picky 4-year-old who eats white whole wheat bread and is not big on vegetables.
"What got me so mad is, number one, don't tell my kid I'm not packing her lunch box properly," the girl's mother told CJ. "I pack her lunchbox according to what she eats. It always consists of a fruit. It never consists of a vegetable. She eats vegetables at home because I have to watch her because she doesn't really care for vegetables."
(snip)
John Hayward at Human Events has some more thoughts about this ridiculous situation.
Having a designated person inspecting each and every lunch brought from home? Seriously?
In the weeks since Lucas announced he was retiring from blockbuster filmmaking (time will tell about how serious he is about that) I've been led to consider his magnum opus anew, particularly the prequels. And at last, I'm wondering what the chronological first half of the Star Wars would have been like had it been... well, different. For the first time I'm finding myself agreeing with a lot of observations: that the prequels are too heavy on politics and too light on action, that we don't come to know and love Anakin enough to sincerely care when he falls to the Dark Side, that there is no character analogous to Han Solo a'la the "regular working guy" that we feel that we can relate to. I could also go into the written dialogue, the over-emphasis on origins and Jar Jar Binks, but those dead horses have been beaten enough already...
I have to concede however, that Sexton is making a lot of good points here. Particularly about how the prequel trilogy is increasingly relevant in light of the culture of our time. And I'm feeling compelled and ready enough to offer up my own theory about the prequels.
Here's what I think really happened: once upon a time, there really were going to be nine or even twelve Star Wars films. In retrospect I think that twelve would have been too many, but a "trilogy of trilogies" sounds better, and has a nice operatic ring to it. Following The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, I do indeed believe that that was the plan.
But one thing happened which threw those plans into turmoil: Marcia Lucas left George.
Look folks, I know what kind of a blow a divorce can deal. I've experienced it firsthand. It's something that you wouldn't wish for anyone to have to go through. Three years later and I'm only now beginning to be able to really pick up the pieces and move forward, hopefully toward bigger and better things that God might have in store. More than anything else, divorce crippled me creatively. I'm working on two new film projects now, the first in a long time. But even with smaller gigs like that, it has been a massive struggle.
I can only begin to imagine what kind of a blow that was to George Lucas: a man who not only has been creative his entire life, but has built a multi-billion dollar empire upon it... along with all the responsibilities of creating industries employing hundreds, if not thousands of people.
Many people argue that Return of the Jedi was the weakest installment of the original Star Wars trilogy. If it was, considering what George Lucas was going through in his personal life at the time, then we should be thankful that Return of the Jedi came out as good as it did. Personally, I think it's a powerful and fitting conclusion to the saga... but had Lucas not been hit hard with the divorce, I would bet good money that there would have been an Episodes VII, VIII and IX. Eventually.
So how does this relate to what we got with the prequels?
It was almost a dozen years after Return of the Jedi before George Lucas sat down to work in his office to begin writing Episode I. And during that span of time two other things happened in his life. The first is that he became older, wiser as a person. The second is that he became an adoptive father. He now has three children. When a man becomes a father, however that comes about, his thoughts begin to turn toward "What kind of a world am I leaving my children?"
It's not a far hop at all from that to "What kind of a world am I going to leave behind, at all?"
Lucas' love of history is well documented. The dude gets the meaning of works like Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In the lead-up to Episode III Lucas was quoted a lot for remarking that "all democracies eventually become tyrannies".
And that is what drove the prequels to become... what they are. A cautionary tale about decadence and corruption. A warning, against the folly of forsaking wisdom and patience for power and control. A tragic morality play about how even those things with the best of intentions can and will fall because of all-too-human frailties.
It takes the better part of two whole movies to set the board for that, but by the time Episode III comes around, there is no denying that the creator of Star Wars... has a message, for all children as much as for his own.
Think I'm wrong? Well, stop for a moment and think back to all the times in the past number of years that Padme's line has been quoted: "So this is how liberty dies: with thunderous applause." I've seen that line used in more than a few places just during the last few weeks, in regard to any number of matters.
I don't think that George Lucas sold out or "got lazy" or anything like that so far as the prequels go. He simply made the Star Wars movies that he, being the best of the person that he could have been at the time, felt led to make. Three movies intended to give pause and consideration as much as they were meant to entertain.
In the end, the prequels are a product of the evolution and growth of their creator as a person. I don't know if he could have tried to channel "the old George" for sake of his audience... and I honestly don't know if anyone had or has the right to expect that of him.
Or to expect that of any person, for that matter.
Four Arrested After Exorcism Goes Bad - UPDATEDSounds like these folks have been watching Constantine way, way too many times :-P
By: Erika OdellRussellville, AL - Four people in Franklin County have been arrested after what Sheriff Shannon Oliver calls an exorcism gone bad.
54 year old Dianna Brewer, 39 year old Christie Wahl, 36 year old Ginnie George and 20 year old Zachary Bryant are all charged with 3rd Degree Domestic Violence.
According to Franklin County Sheriff's investigators it all started Tuesday morning when deputies were sent to a home on Highway 61 in Spruce Pine on a domestic violence call. When deputies arrived, they found the front door wide open, with a Bible lying on the front porch and saw a scuffle inside. That's when they learned there had been a dispute when George and Wahl accused their mother, Diana Brewer of being Satan.
Officials said that the daughters held a mirror in front of Brewer and told her to look in and see that she was Satan, and that they were going to perform an exorcism to drive Satan out.
Reports show that George said that she was holding a two year old in her arms when Brewer started hitting her and struck the child in the forehead. That's when investigators said that both daughters began hitting and pushing, causing the fight to escalate...
Saint Valentine was a Christian who was imprisoned, gruesomely tortured, and finally beheaded on orders from Emperor Claudius II of Rome on February 14th, 270 A.D. Now's the time to make things right by remembering this fine lady...
Florence Green died on February 4th, at the age of 110. She would have been 111 later this month.
And she was the very last living person who served during World War I.
Born on February 19th 1901, Florence was 17 when she enlisted in the Women's Royal Air Force in September of 1918: just two months shy of the armistice that ended "the war to end all wars".
The last living combat veteran, Claude Choules, passed away in May of last year. And it was a year ago this month that Frank Buckles, the last surviving American "doughboy", departed us.
Read more about Florence Green's long and remarkable life here.
But still... a real hoverboard!! Now we can all die happy :-)
