Monday, March 20, 2006
Hey Look, A Really Long Update
I haven't forgotten about this blog. I've been meaning to update for a long time now, but haven't had time. I've been busy with school, and when I'm not working just sleeping and watching movies. You know, hard work.
Anyways, I'm going to divide this post into sections so it's easy to figure out what's been going on. Are you ready to read a lot?
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The Movies:
I've been watching a ton of movies. Here we go.
American Dreamz - I got to go to a screening for this movie, which doesn't come out for another month. My actual review was published last Friday. As you can see, according to IMDB (the largest and most in-depth movie-related website on the Internet), it looks like I'm the first real person to put out a review. So that's cool. The review is here. I liked it for what it was, but I won't be surprised if it gets panned when it comes out.
V For Vendetta - I'm very much in the minority on this one. I didn't like it. Everyone I've talked to really enjoyed it. Personally, I found it illogical, undeveloped and downright boring at times. The directing and editing was sloppy. There was too much telling and not enough showing. And instead of being a good movie with a political statement thrown in, it was more like a gratuitous political statement without a good movie to back it up. I'd give it a 4/10. This review pretty much sums up exactly how I felt about it. Not terrible, but still just mediocre. A story with good potential and some terrific spiritual ideas that just weren't developed or handled properly.
Munich - Excellent film. It had some pacing problems, though I can see why it was nominated for Best Picture. I highly recommend it.
Dave Chappelle's Block Party - Funny stuff. I liked it. I would have loved it if I was actually a fan of rap/hip-hop. During the concert segments I kept waiting impatiently for the movie to focus back on Dave and therefore make me laugh.
Three...Extremes - An all right Asian horror film that wasn't quite as good as I expected. Still pretty good though, and especially notable for its directing styles. I will never eat dumplings again.
Thumbsucker - An okay independent film about a teenager who still sucks his thumb. Meh.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Definitely a movie I need to see again. It's a cult classic film, adapted from the cult classic book by Hunter S. Thompson, about a couple of stoners in Las Vegas. Terry Gilliam once again proves he is a fantastic visual director. I can't say I enjoyed it, but it was certainly interesting. I don't think I need to ever experiment with drugs now - watching this movie was like being high.
Junebug - Great film. Amy Adams deserved the Oscar more than Reese Witherspoon.
Good Night, And Good Luck - Excellent. I loved it.
Comedian - An interesting look behind-the-scenes of stand-up comedy. I liked it better than The Aristocrats.
Notorious - Saw this in film class last Thursday. It was pretty good, I suppose, though perhaps slightly overrated. Not one of my favorite Hitchcock films. Before the screening my teacher said something to the effect of, "This movie was remade decades later and retitled as Mission: Impossible 2." I thought he was joking. He wasn't. That movie is pretty much this movie with some explosions and Tom Cruise. A couple of scenes were pretty much directly lifted.
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Happenings at NC State:
Now this is what college is all about. It's about time something like this happened. If I'd known about it, perhaps I'd have joined in. Actually, no. I have to get in better shape first.
We continue to suck at sports.
Last Tuesday, I went to see comedian Demetri Martin. It was great - he brought the house down. For those of you who don't know, he's a prop comedian. I saw his routine on Comedy Central and it was one of the best stand-up routines I've ever seen. His style is very random, quickly moving from one subject to another, kinda like Mitch Hedberg. Anyways, I went with my small group InterVarsity leader, Peter. We we both almost rolling in the aisles at times. A lot of it was new material I hadn't heard before. He brought out his sketch pad, but didn't do the same jokes from his Comedy Central show with it. It was all new.
For example, he turned a page to show a drawing of a circle. "This is a pie chart about procrastination." It's his random stuff like that that really goes over well.
You can see some videos of his TV appearances over at his website. GoogleVideo also has a copy of his entire Comedy Central routine. Watch it. If you like it, trust me, that's only the beginning of how funny this guy is. If you don't like it (and some people don't), then I guess his brand of comedy just isn't for you.
He's also now doing a segment every few weeks on The Daily Show called Trendspotting, which is pretty funny. Check those out here.
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The Oscars:
It's already been two weeks since the show, so I'll go ahead and sum up my thoughts in a list.
The Good:
1)Jon Stewart - Great host. I hope he comes back.
2)Crash winning Best Picture - Woohoo!
3)The winners - No major complaints, except perhaps for Reese Witherspoon winning Best Actress.
4)Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin presenting the Honorary/Lifetime Achievement Oscar to Robert Altman - A lot of people didn't get it, but if you even know the basics about Robert Altman (such as his usage of overlapping dialogue), this was hilarious.
5)The comedy montages - Absolutely amazing. I was nearly rolling on the floor.
The Bad:
1) The incessant amount of montages - They really served no point at all except to show the world that Hollywood makes great movies. All these did was waste time. Stick to the comedy montages, the In Memorium montage, and the Lifetime Achievement montage.
2) Boring acceptance speeches - Or just rude ones like when two people won, and one of them wouldn't let the other one speak.
3) The speech by the President of the Academy - This serves no purpose, and this year all he did was whore out Hollywood, talking about how we should all go to the theaters. They seemed to do that a lot this year. Come on. The box-office wasn't down by that much. Jake Gyllenhaal had to come out and give a pointless speech about how going the theater provides an experience that "you just can't get on a portable DVD." Poor guy. You could tell he didn't want to say it and didn't believe it... he sorta paused and looked pathetic, prompting a laugh from the audience. For good reason. It was blatant propaganda from a business that needs to fix its own flaws instead of begging people to support it.
4) The length - This year the show clocked in at around 3.5 hours, which is shorter than usual. However, there's no reason it should be longer than 3 hours. Heck, once you take out the pointless montages and speech by the President of the Academy, you're probably almost already there.
Overall, a good show. Let's hope Hollywood wises up and fixes those flaws by next year.
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Spring Break:
It was really good. All I did was sit around in the mountains and sleep and watch movies. Then I went to Washington, D.C. and pretty much did the same thing. It was great. A couple of days, Souwa and I didn't even get out of bed until around 3:30-4:00. That's how lazy we were.
Unfortunately, we missed the train back. We were going to just go the next day, but Mason drove from Virginia to pick us up. That's true friendship right there. As a result, though, Souwa didn't get to see any of my campus on Sunday (which was the whole point of her coming to Raleigh), so she stayed until Tuesday.
I saw her again this past weekend. We basically just chilled, slept late, watched movies, went to the mall...
One of the movie places at the mall was going out of business, so I bought 4 movies for less than 10 bucks a piece: Gattaca, Annie Hall, and my two favorite Kubrick films (Eyes Wide Shut and The Shining). All great movies. Yay!
So yeah, I had fun with Souwa. I don't know how I'm going to survive the summer without her. But I suppose if I did it last summer, I can do it this summer...
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Movie Survival Guide:
The podcast has been going...er...not-so-great, in terms of updates. Erik has been bogged down at work. We're going to have to go back to the basic discussion/review setup for now, and forget about all the features we had planned. So I won't be doing the news with him anymore. Oh well. These things happen. He's also going to stop focusing so much on the administration side of things, including trying to get advertising, until we're in the habit of regularly producing material. Which is a good idea. We can't get sponsorship unless they see we're actually serious about it, and won't miss updates.
Souwa and I met up with the group while we were in D.C., though. That was great. We went out with Erik, Brian and Jeff to eat Mexican food. Then we went back to Jeff's house and watched Wedding Crashers, since there was nothing good showing at the theater. It was a lot of fun, they're great guys.
Erik and Jeff are planning on starting up a new type of show within the next week or two. Basically, Erik figures we can get a lot of more listeners if we try and grab a particular niche in our audience. For example, when he did the Star Wars podcast over at TheForce.Net, there were tons of listeners, simply because that was one of the only real podcasts about Star Wars out there.
So what are we aiming to do shows about now? Battlestar Galactica, of course. Aside from the official Audio Commentary podcast put out by the makers of the show, and a really crappy one, there isn't an actual BSG podcast out there. So Erik and Jeff are going to jump on that, and start putting out reviews and discussions of each episode. If they can keep up with it, I think it's going to be great, and attract a whole lot of people. I might jump in on the discussion every once in a while, when I have time, since I'm also a fan of the show. Unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time to watch it lately. Mason and I are somewhere around Episode 15 of Season 2, which had its finale (Episode 20) two weeks ago. I can't wait to get back to it.
In other news: we were going to record a podcast about V For Vendetta this past weekend, but guess what? Erik's apartment burned down. Seriously. Okay, so it wasn't that bad, but there was a fire. Basically, from what he told me, his roommate was smoking out on the balcony, put out his cigarette, and some ash was blown into a cardboard box. The box proceeded to catch on fire, followed by the rest of the balcony. Luckily, none of Erik's stuff was ruined (including his computers and electronic stuff), but he's still trying to work out the insurance issues and he'll be staying somewhere else. So pray for him and that all of those things will get worked out, so we can get the show back up and running.
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The Act:
Last you heard, The Act was finished in time for the March 1 deadline. That was correct. Unfortunately, Chad Peter (head of the NP2K forums and the guy running the festival) had a lot of stuff going on, and was unable to start posting the films. As a result, we got a two-week extension. I was hoping Andrew Cranford would use that time to fix up the editing problems the film had, but guess what? He didn't. So that kinda pisses me off. Oh well. The "producer" (aka a friend of Deej who acts in the film) of the movie wants to be sent the tapes so he can try his hand at a "producer's cut." We'll see how that works out.
Anyways, right now it's still unclear when the festival is going to start. I'm not sure if the scripts are going to be posted along with the films, but I sure hope they are. Because personally (and I know I'm biased), I think the script for The Act is much better than the final product, though the film is all right given the situations around it. I'll be sure to update when any news regarding that is revealed.
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Books:
I actually managed to get a little reading done over Spring Break. Here's a couple of books and topics you might find interesting:
Speaking My Mind by Tony Campolo - I loved this. Campolo is an evangelical Christian, and this book deals with issues dividing and surrounding evangelicalism. He says a lot of things that are hard to hear, but that I think Christians need to hear. A lot of churches (particularly Baptist ones) have prohibited him from speaking to their congregations, because they feel he is too liberal. Agree with what he says or not, I think you at least need to give his opinions some thought. He asks some very good questions. Questions such as:
Is evangelicalism sexist? - Yes, a lot of the time. I grew up surrounded by conservative Christians, so I took ideas like "Only men should be pastors" for granted, without ever really thinking about them. Over the past few years though, I've thought about it a great deal more, and come to realize the error of my ways, so to speak. There really is no reason why women shouldn't be ordained or given the same rights as men. The only major Christian denomination that says otherwise is the Southern Baptist Convention, and ironically, they used to have no problem with women serving actively in the ministry. Now they do. Something seems a bit fishy to me...
Are evangelicals handling the homosexuality issue in the wrong way? Campolo certainly thinks so, and I definitely agree. I have grown more and more "liberal" in my stance of homosexuality over the past year, and I've actually done research on the subject and talked to people other than conservative Christians about it. Maybe homosexuality is a sin. Maybe it's not. Maybe when the Bible says "homosexuality" it is referring to all homosexuality. Maybe it's only referring to heterosexuals who have homosexual sex, rather than innate homosexuals. I don't know. All I know is that the idea that homosexuals choose to be that way is absurd. All scientific evidence (not to mention common sense) points to the opposite. I also know that we shouldn't be so quick to judge. Because, believe it or not, we get it wrong some times. Can God really condemn a homosexual who chooses to remain celibate, or one who chooses to be monogamous and have a Christ-like relationship? I don't know, but my gut says no.
The fact is, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that very few people are exclusively heterosexual or homosexual. Sexual orientation seems to exist along a continuum (one of Alfred Kinsey's few ideas that has survived criticism). People closer to one end of the spectrum or the other view themselves as heterosexual, or homosexual. People closer to the middle identify themselves as bisexual. But hardly anyone is exclusively one or the other. To be perfectly honest, I've observed thoughts and impulses of my own that seem vaguely homosexual in nature. It's not a major thing, but it's there. If I had to rate myself on Kinsey's scale of 1 to 6 (1 being exclusively heterosexual and 6 being exclusively homosexual), I'd probably rate myself around a 2-2.3. It's not bisexual. It's not homosexual. But it's not exclusively heterosexual. And I bet most people are more like that than they realize, being somewhere not exclusively on one end of the spectrum or the other. There's nothing wrong with it, though I can't deny it would be easier if we were simply one or the other. But the world isn't that black-and-white.
The bottom line is that there's still a lot we're just now learning about homosexuality and sexual orientation. To judge people based on that is foolish and not Christ-like. Homosexuals are people, too. And we should treat them as such.
Is there a second chance for people who die without Christ? This was perhaps the most fascinating chapter in the book for me. It's simply something I've never thought about before. It's pretty much cemented into our brains as Christians that if you die without having accepted Christ, you're going to hell. But Tony Campolo presents some other ideas, with biblical evidence to back it up. Although he doesn't present a clear point of view on what he himself believes, his arguments give you a lot to think about.
For example, he mentions the idea that many theologians have professed that after die, people without Christ go to hell, but it's not for eternity. Rather, it's sorta like purgatory, where they suffer for a time relative to the amount of sins they committed while alive. Then, Jesus goes into the depths and rescues them, taking them to heaven.
He also mentions the idea presented by C.S. Lewis in "The Great Divorce" (great book) that involves people being able to go back and forth between heaven and hell as they please. For people in hell, hell will not be a terrible place. Rather, they will enjoy it, for it will be filled with all of the sin they enjoyed on Earth.
The most interesting thing Campolo talks about is that there might be more credibility to the "universalist" theory (the idea that everyone can get to heaven, no matter what your religion) than first appears. And though I'd hesitate to fully believe in that and call myself a universalist, I think there might be something to the idea that it's possible to find Christ without being a Christian.
For example, Campolo talks about a missionary friend of his who went and talked to a Buddhist monk, and proceeded to tell him about Jesus Christ and salvation. When he was done, the monk looked at him and said (I'm paraphrasing), "As you spoke, I felt the presence and heard the voice of the spirit I worship. It was shouting, 'He's talking about me! That's me!' I've already encountered this Christ of yours."
Does one have to know and recognize Christ as Christ in order to follow and serve Him? I don't think so. What about indigenous Indian groups who have never heard of Jesus? What about people who died in the Old Testament, before Christ? What about Hindus and Buddhists who believe in an impersonal Being and Spirituality that lies behind the universe? What about Muslims, who believe Christ was a prophet rather than the Son of God, and who believe salvation is possible through works? Will they all go to hell?
I don't think so. Some will, of course, but I don't think they all will. The Bible says that God wants no one to perish. Will He condemn someone who is searching for the Truth, looking for spiritual enlightenments and contact with the divine, if they find it but don't recognize it as the Christian God? I don't think so. Perhaps He, the God I serve, is the same Force some people find during Buddhist meditation and practice. Perhaps He is guiding some Muslims in their serious search for meaning and their desire to do good. Perhaps he is the Spirit behind the animals and the trees and the sun that Native Americans worship. The Bible says that if you seek, you will find. As far as I can see, that means that if honestly look for the Truth and salvation, regardless of your religion, He will help you find it.
Who knows? A great professor of mine (Mr. Lehmaan) said that he thought that when the day comes and we're all standing before Christ, and He divides the sheep from the goats (as described in Matthew 25), there will be a lot of surprises. We'll look around and be like, "I thought that guy was gonna make it. And I thought that guy was on a bullet train to hell. Wow!" I think he might have been on to something.
Anyways, on to another book...
Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller - I didn't get to finish this one, but what I read was really good. Miller has been recommended to me by a lot of people, and I fully recommend him to people looking for some interesting thoughts and insights on God and Christianity. In the parts I read, he compared God with Santa Claus, life with a circus, and focused a great deal on the importance of the fact that Adam and Eve were naked. Good stuff.
I recently bought another book by Tony Campolo and Brian McLaren (who has a book I really want to read called A New Kind of Christian) called Adventures in Missing the Point. I think it's similar to Speaking My Mind in that it deals with their thoughts on a lot of controversial and important issues. Hopefully it will be just as good and thought-provoking.
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Upcoming Stuff:
I've got some tests to study for. And a scene analysis to write for film class within the next ten days. And movies to review and podcast about. And a sociology project to do, which will involve two hours of observation, so I can write a report about gender issues. I have no idea where I should go to investigate things. I'd go to a strip club if I wasn't afraid it would hurt my testimony - there's some really crazy power struggles and gender relationships going on there that we've read about. Writing a paper about it would probably be really easy simply because of the sheer scope of details. Maybe I'll go to a gym or a mall or something.
This weekend I'm going to a hockey game with my Southwestern team. I don't have to pay, so hopefully it'll be fun.
Tomorrow I'm going to Theology on Tap. Woohoo!
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Miscellaneous Stuff:
Brokeback Mountain has inspired a plethora of gay-themed fake trailers for other films. A lot of them are just downright hilarious. Check these out:
Brokeback to the Future - Looks like there was more to the Doc and Marty relationship than first met the eye...
The Empire Brokeback - The same goes for C3PO and R2D2...
Romance of the Jedi - As well as Anakin and Obi-Wan...
Harry Potter and the Brokeback Goblet - And Harry and Ron...
The Brokeback Redemption - And Andy and Red...
There are also a whole lot of great fake trailers out there not related to Brokeback. I can't remember if I've posted links to some of these before, but here are a few.
Shining - Turns The Shining into a family film.
West Side Story - As a zombie film. Extremely well put together.
Sleepless in Seattle - As a horror/stalker film.
Frank Miller's Forrest Gump - Forrest Gump + Sin City = Really cool.
And now for another random link:
Snakes On A Plane teaser trailer - This is going to be the best film of all time, provided they stay with the necessary B-movie feel.
I've registered for classes. As of now, the classes I'm taking next semester will be:
Biology of the Modern World - Your typical biology class, with lab. I need to start getting these stupid science requirements out of the way.
Fitness and Wellness - I have to meet a PE requirement, the options for which are all really boring. Hopefully this class will at least be easy.
Ethics and Gender - The Honors class I'm taking as part of the Honors program. I'm far enough along in meeting my General Education Requirements that none of the options could really help with those, and this was the one that sounded the most interesting. I think it's pretty much dedicated to the topic of homosexuals and gay marriage. Should be fascinating.
Obligatory Caldwell Class - I have to take a class as part my receiving the Caldwell scholarship. I think this is just going to be about leadership and stuff like that. Hopefully it won't be too bad.
Introduction to Elementary Chinese - Not only am I taking this just because I want to learn Mandarin, but because I'm going to try and study abroad next spring in China. This could come in handy.
History of Film to 1940 - Um...it's about the history of film to 1940. It was the only film class available that I was eligible to sign up for. I'd much rather study film since 1940, but at least I'm pretty much guaranteed to learn something. I know hardly anything at all about the roots of cinema.
I'm doing NetFlix now, and that started working out very well. Unfortunately, now it seems like the movies are arriving a few days late. I'll have to see how this continues to work out...
Since I've joined the Film Committee, I've gotten a sneak peek at some of the short films that will be shown at this year's Pinwheel Film Festival here at NCSU. Some are really good, others are just mediocre. But it's really inspired me to try and submit something next year, since I'm positive I could get in (your film has to really suck not to be accepted). I wonder if I can find time to write a script this summer, maybe at night? We shall see.
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That's all I have for now. Knowing my luck, I'll post this and then think of something I forgot to mention. Such is life.
Quote of Da Moment:
"I keep a lighter in my back pocket all the time. I'm not a smoker, I just really like certain songs."
--Demetri Martin
Anyways, I'm going to divide this post into sections so it's easy to figure out what's been going on. Are you ready to read a lot?
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The Movies:
I've been watching a ton of movies. Here we go.
American Dreamz - I got to go to a screening for this movie, which doesn't come out for another month. My actual review was published last Friday. As you can see, according to IMDB (the largest and most in-depth movie-related website on the Internet), it looks like I'm the first real person to put out a review. So that's cool. The review is here. I liked it for what it was, but I won't be surprised if it gets panned when it comes out.
V For Vendetta - I'm very much in the minority on this one. I didn't like it. Everyone I've talked to really enjoyed it. Personally, I found it illogical, undeveloped and downright boring at times. The directing and editing was sloppy. There was too much telling and not enough showing. And instead of being a good movie with a political statement thrown in, it was more like a gratuitous political statement without a good movie to back it up. I'd give it a 4/10. This review pretty much sums up exactly how I felt about it. Not terrible, but still just mediocre. A story with good potential and some terrific spiritual ideas that just weren't developed or handled properly.
Munich - Excellent film. It had some pacing problems, though I can see why it was nominated for Best Picture. I highly recommend it.
Dave Chappelle's Block Party - Funny stuff. I liked it. I would have loved it if I was actually a fan of rap/hip-hop. During the concert segments I kept waiting impatiently for the movie to focus back on Dave and therefore make me laugh.
Three...Extremes - An all right Asian horror film that wasn't quite as good as I expected. Still pretty good though, and especially notable for its directing styles. I will never eat dumplings again.
Thumbsucker - An okay independent film about a teenager who still sucks his thumb. Meh.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Definitely a movie I need to see again. It's a cult classic film, adapted from the cult classic book by Hunter S. Thompson, about a couple of stoners in Las Vegas. Terry Gilliam once again proves he is a fantastic visual director. I can't say I enjoyed it, but it was certainly interesting. I don't think I need to ever experiment with drugs now - watching this movie was like being high.
Junebug - Great film. Amy Adams deserved the Oscar more than Reese Witherspoon.
Good Night, And Good Luck - Excellent. I loved it.
Comedian - An interesting look behind-the-scenes of stand-up comedy. I liked it better than The Aristocrats.
Notorious - Saw this in film class last Thursday. It was pretty good, I suppose, though perhaps slightly overrated. Not one of my favorite Hitchcock films. Before the screening my teacher said something to the effect of, "This movie was remade decades later and retitled as Mission: Impossible 2." I thought he was joking. He wasn't. That movie is pretty much this movie with some explosions and Tom Cruise. A couple of scenes were pretty much directly lifted.
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Happenings at NC State:
Now this is what college is all about. It's about time something like this happened. If I'd known about it, perhaps I'd have joined in. Actually, no. I have to get in better shape first.
We continue to suck at sports.
Last Tuesday, I went to see comedian Demetri Martin. It was great - he brought the house down. For those of you who don't know, he's a prop comedian. I saw his routine on Comedy Central and it was one of the best stand-up routines I've ever seen. His style is very random, quickly moving from one subject to another, kinda like Mitch Hedberg. Anyways, I went with my small group InterVarsity leader, Peter. We we both almost rolling in the aisles at times. A lot of it was new material I hadn't heard before. He brought out his sketch pad, but didn't do the same jokes from his Comedy Central show with it. It was all new.
For example, he turned a page to show a drawing of a circle. "This is a pie chart about procrastination." It's his random stuff like that that really goes over well.
You can see some videos of his TV appearances over at his website. GoogleVideo also has a copy of his entire Comedy Central routine. Watch it. If you like it, trust me, that's only the beginning of how funny this guy is. If you don't like it (and some people don't), then I guess his brand of comedy just isn't for you.
He's also now doing a segment every few weeks on The Daily Show called Trendspotting, which is pretty funny. Check those out here.
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The Oscars:
It's already been two weeks since the show, so I'll go ahead and sum up my thoughts in a list.
The Good:
1)Jon Stewart - Great host. I hope he comes back.
2)Crash winning Best Picture - Woohoo!
3)The winners - No major complaints, except perhaps for Reese Witherspoon winning Best Actress.
4)Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin presenting the Honorary/Lifetime Achievement Oscar to Robert Altman - A lot of people didn't get it, but if you even know the basics about Robert Altman (such as his usage of overlapping dialogue), this was hilarious.
5)The comedy montages - Absolutely amazing. I was nearly rolling on the floor.
The Bad:
1) The incessant amount of montages - They really served no point at all except to show the world that Hollywood makes great movies. All these did was waste time. Stick to the comedy montages, the In Memorium montage, and the Lifetime Achievement montage.
2) Boring acceptance speeches - Or just rude ones like when two people won, and one of them wouldn't let the other one speak.
3) The speech by the President of the Academy - This serves no purpose, and this year all he did was whore out Hollywood, talking about how we should all go to the theaters. They seemed to do that a lot this year. Come on. The box-office wasn't down by that much. Jake Gyllenhaal had to come out and give a pointless speech about how going the theater provides an experience that "you just can't get on a portable DVD." Poor guy. You could tell he didn't want to say it and didn't believe it... he sorta paused and looked pathetic, prompting a laugh from the audience. For good reason. It was blatant propaganda from a business that needs to fix its own flaws instead of begging people to support it.
4) The length - This year the show clocked in at around 3.5 hours, which is shorter than usual. However, there's no reason it should be longer than 3 hours. Heck, once you take out the pointless montages and speech by the President of the Academy, you're probably almost already there.
Overall, a good show. Let's hope Hollywood wises up and fixes those flaws by next year.
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Spring Break:
It was really good. All I did was sit around in the mountains and sleep and watch movies. Then I went to Washington, D.C. and pretty much did the same thing. It was great. A couple of days, Souwa and I didn't even get out of bed until around 3:30-4:00. That's how lazy we were.
Unfortunately, we missed the train back. We were going to just go the next day, but Mason drove from Virginia to pick us up. That's true friendship right there. As a result, though, Souwa didn't get to see any of my campus on Sunday (which was the whole point of her coming to Raleigh), so she stayed until Tuesday.
I saw her again this past weekend. We basically just chilled, slept late, watched movies, went to the mall...
One of the movie places at the mall was going out of business, so I bought 4 movies for less than 10 bucks a piece: Gattaca, Annie Hall, and my two favorite Kubrick films (Eyes Wide Shut and The Shining). All great movies. Yay!
So yeah, I had fun with Souwa. I don't know how I'm going to survive the summer without her. But I suppose if I did it last summer, I can do it this summer...
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Movie Survival Guide:
The podcast has been going...er...not-so-great, in terms of updates. Erik has been bogged down at work. We're going to have to go back to the basic discussion/review setup for now, and forget about all the features we had planned. So I won't be doing the news with him anymore. Oh well. These things happen. He's also going to stop focusing so much on the administration side of things, including trying to get advertising, until we're in the habit of regularly producing material. Which is a good idea. We can't get sponsorship unless they see we're actually serious about it, and won't miss updates.
Souwa and I met up with the group while we were in D.C., though. That was great. We went out with Erik, Brian and Jeff to eat Mexican food. Then we went back to Jeff's house and watched Wedding Crashers, since there was nothing good showing at the theater. It was a lot of fun, they're great guys.
Erik and Jeff are planning on starting up a new type of show within the next week or two. Basically, Erik figures we can get a lot of more listeners if we try and grab a particular niche in our audience. For example, when he did the Star Wars podcast over at TheForce.Net, there were tons of listeners, simply because that was one of the only real podcasts about Star Wars out there.
So what are we aiming to do shows about now? Battlestar Galactica, of course. Aside from the official Audio Commentary podcast put out by the makers of the show, and a really crappy one, there isn't an actual BSG podcast out there. So Erik and Jeff are going to jump on that, and start putting out reviews and discussions of each episode. If they can keep up with it, I think it's going to be great, and attract a whole lot of people. I might jump in on the discussion every once in a while, when I have time, since I'm also a fan of the show. Unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time to watch it lately. Mason and I are somewhere around Episode 15 of Season 2, which had its finale (Episode 20) two weeks ago. I can't wait to get back to it.
In other news: we were going to record a podcast about V For Vendetta this past weekend, but guess what? Erik's apartment burned down. Seriously. Okay, so it wasn't that bad, but there was a fire. Basically, from what he told me, his roommate was smoking out on the balcony, put out his cigarette, and some ash was blown into a cardboard box. The box proceeded to catch on fire, followed by the rest of the balcony. Luckily, none of Erik's stuff was ruined (including his computers and electronic stuff), but he's still trying to work out the insurance issues and he'll be staying somewhere else. So pray for him and that all of those things will get worked out, so we can get the show back up and running.
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The Act:
Last you heard, The Act was finished in time for the March 1 deadline. That was correct. Unfortunately, Chad Peter (head of the NP2K forums and the guy running the festival) had a lot of stuff going on, and was unable to start posting the films. As a result, we got a two-week extension. I was hoping Andrew Cranford would use that time to fix up the editing problems the film had, but guess what? He didn't. So that kinda pisses me off. Oh well. The "producer" (aka a friend of Deej who acts in the film) of the movie wants to be sent the tapes so he can try his hand at a "producer's cut." We'll see how that works out.
Anyways, right now it's still unclear when the festival is going to start. I'm not sure if the scripts are going to be posted along with the films, but I sure hope they are. Because personally (and I know I'm biased), I think the script for The Act is much better than the final product, though the film is all right given the situations around it. I'll be sure to update when any news regarding that is revealed.
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Books:
I actually managed to get a little reading done over Spring Break. Here's a couple of books and topics you might find interesting:
Speaking My Mind by Tony Campolo - I loved this. Campolo is an evangelical Christian, and this book deals with issues dividing and surrounding evangelicalism. He says a lot of things that are hard to hear, but that I think Christians need to hear. A lot of churches (particularly Baptist ones) have prohibited him from speaking to their congregations, because they feel he is too liberal. Agree with what he says or not, I think you at least need to give his opinions some thought. He asks some very good questions. Questions such as:
Is evangelicalism sexist? - Yes, a lot of the time. I grew up surrounded by conservative Christians, so I took ideas like "Only men should be pastors" for granted, without ever really thinking about them. Over the past few years though, I've thought about it a great deal more, and come to realize the error of my ways, so to speak. There really is no reason why women shouldn't be ordained or given the same rights as men. The only major Christian denomination that says otherwise is the Southern Baptist Convention, and ironically, they used to have no problem with women serving actively in the ministry. Now they do. Something seems a bit fishy to me...
Are evangelicals handling the homosexuality issue in the wrong way? Campolo certainly thinks so, and I definitely agree. I have grown more and more "liberal" in my stance of homosexuality over the past year, and I've actually done research on the subject and talked to people other than conservative Christians about it. Maybe homosexuality is a sin. Maybe it's not. Maybe when the Bible says "homosexuality" it is referring to all homosexuality. Maybe it's only referring to heterosexuals who have homosexual sex, rather than innate homosexuals. I don't know. All I know is that the idea that homosexuals choose to be that way is absurd. All scientific evidence (not to mention common sense) points to the opposite. I also know that we shouldn't be so quick to judge. Because, believe it or not, we get it wrong some times. Can God really condemn a homosexual who chooses to remain celibate, or one who chooses to be monogamous and have a Christ-like relationship? I don't know, but my gut says no.
The fact is, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that very few people are exclusively heterosexual or homosexual. Sexual orientation seems to exist along a continuum (one of Alfred Kinsey's few ideas that has survived criticism). People closer to one end of the spectrum or the other view themselves as heterosexual, or homosexual. People closer to the middle identify themselves as bisexual. But hardly anyone is exclusively one or the other. To be perfectly honest, I've observed thoughts and impulses of my own that seem vaguely homosexual in nature. It's not a major thing, but it's there. If I had to rate myself on Kinsey's scale of 1 to 6 (1 being exclusively heterosexual and 6 being exclusively homosexual), I'd probably rate myself around a 2-2.3. It's not bisexual. It's not homosexual. But it's not exclusively heterosexual. And I bet most people are more like that than they realize, being somewhere not exclusively on one end of the spectrum or the other. There's nothing wrong with it, though I can't deny it would be easier if we were simply one or the other. But the world isn't that black-and-white.
The bottom line is that there's still a lot we're just now learning about homosexuality and sexual orientation. To judge people based on that is foolish and not Christ-like. Homosexuals are people, too. And we should treat them as such.
Is there a second chance for people who die without Christ? This was perhaps the most fascinating chapter in the book for me. It's simply something I've never thought about before. It's pretty much cemented into our brains as Christians that if you die without having accepted Christ, you're going to hell. But Tony Campolo presents some other ideas, with biblical evidence to back it up. Although he doesn't present a clear point of view on what he himself believes, his arguments give you a lot to think about.
For example, he mentions the idea that many theologians have professed that after die, people without Christ go to hell, but it's not for eternity. Rather, it's sorta like purgatory, where they suffer for a time relative to the amount of sins they committed while alive. Then, Jesus goes into the depths and rescues them, taking them to heaven.
He also mentions the idea presented by C.S. Lewis in "The Great Divorce" (great book) that involves people being able to go back and forth between heaven and hell as they please. For people in hell, hell will not be a terrible place. Rather, they will enjoy it, for it will be filled with all of the sin they enjoyed on Earth.
The most interesting thing Campolo talks about is that there might be more credibility to the "universalist" theory (the idea that everyone can get to heaven, no matter what your religion) than first appears. And though I'd hesitate to fully believe in that and call myself a universalist, I think there might be something to the idea that it's possible to find Christ without being a Christian.
For example, Campolo talks about a missionary friend of his who went and talked to a Buddhist monk, and proceeded to tell him about Jesus Christ and salvation. When he was done, the monk looked at him and said (I'm paraphrasing), "As you spoke, I felt the presence and heard the voice of the spirit I worship. It was shouting, 'He's talking about me! That's me!' I've already encountered this Christ of yours."
Does one have to know and recognize Christ as Christ in order to follow and serve Him? I don't think so. What about indigenous Indian groups who have never heard of Jesus? What about people who died in the Old Testament, before Christ? What about Hindus and Buddhists who believe in an impersonal Being and Spirituality that lies behind the universe? What about Muslims, who believe Christ was a prophet rather than the Son of God, and who believe salvation is possible through works? Will they all go to hell?
I don't think so. Some will, of course, but I don't think they all will. The Bible says that God wants no one to perish. Will He condemn someone who is searching for the Truth, looking for spiritual enlightenments and contact with the divine, if they find it but don't recognize it as the Christian God? I don't think so. Perhaps He, the God I serve, is the same Force some people find during Buddhist meditation and practice. Perhaps He is guiding some Muslims in their serious search for meaning and their desire to do good. Perhaps he is the Spirit behind the animals and the trees and the sun that Native Americans worship. The Bible says that if you seek, you will find. As far as I can see, that means that if honestly look for the Truth and salvation, regardless of your religion, He will help you find it.
Who knows? A great professor of mine (Mr. Lehmaan) said that he thought that when the day comes and we're all standing before Christ, and He divides the sheep from the goats (as described in Matthew 25), there will be a lot of surprises. We'll look around and be like, "I thought that guy was gonna make it. And I thought that guy was on a bullet train to hell. Wow!" I think he might have been on to something.
Anyways, on to another book...
Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller - I didn't get to finish this one, but what I read was really good. Miller has been recommended to me by a lot of people, and I fully recommend him to people looking for some interesting thoughts and insights on God and Christianity. In the parts I read, he compared God with Santa Claus, life with a circus, and focused a great deal on the importance of the fact that Adam and Eve were naked. Good stuff.
I recently bought another book by Tony Campolo and Brian McLaren (who has a book I really want to read called A New Kind of Christian) called Adventures in Missing the Point. I think it's similar to Speaking My Mind in that it deals with their thoughts on a lot of controversial and important issues. Hopefully it will be just as good and thought-provoking.
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Upcoming Stuff:
I've got some tests to study for. And a scene analysis to write for film class within the next ten days. And movies to review and podcast about. And a sociology project to do, which will involve two hours of observation, so I can write a report about gender issues. I have no idea where I should go to investigate things. I'd go to a strip club if I wasn't afraid it would hurt my testimony - there's some really crazy power struggles and gender relationships going on there that we've read about. Writing a paper about it would probably be really easy simply because of the sheer scope of details. Maybe I'll go to a gym or a mall or something.
This weekend I'm going to a hockey game with my Southwestern team. I don't have to pay, so hopefully it'll be fun.
Tomorrow I'm going to Theology on Tap. Woohoo!
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Miscellaneous Stuff:
Brokeback Mountain has inspired a plethora of gay-themed fake trailers for other films. A lot of them are just downright hilarious. Check these out:
Brokeback to the Future - Looks like there was more to the Doc and Marty relationship than first met the eye...
The Empire Brokeback - The same goes for C3PO and R2D2...
Romance of the Jedi - As well as Anakin and Obi-Wan...
Harry Potter and the Brokeback Goblet - And Harry and Ron...
The Brokeback Redemption - And Andy and Red...
There are also a whole lot of great fake trailers out there not related to Brokeback. I can't remember if I've posted links to some of these before, but here are a few.
Shining - Turns The Shining into a family film.
West Side Story - As a zombie film. Extremely well put together.
Sleepless in Seattle - As a horror/stalker film.
Frank Miller's Forrest Gump - Forrest Gump + Sin City = Really cool.
And now for another random link:
Snakes On A Plane teaser trailer - This is going to be the best film of all time, provided they stay with the necessary B-movie feel.
I've registered for classes. As of now, the classes I'm taking next semester will be:
Biology of the Modern World - Your typical biology class, with lab. I need to start getting these stupid science requirements out of the way.
Fitness and Wellness - I have to meet a PE requirement, the options for which are all really boring. Hopefully this class will at least be easy.
Ethics and Gender - The Honors class I'm taking as part of the Honors program. I'm far enough along in meeting my General Education Requirements that none of the options could really help with those, and this was the one that sounded the most interesting. I think it's pretty much dedicated to the topic of homosexuals and gay marriage. Should be fascinating.
Obligatory Caldwell Class - I have to take a class as part my receiving the Caldwell scholarship. I think this is just going to be about leadership and stuff like that. Hopefully it won't be too bad.
Introduction to Elementary Chinese - Not only am I taking this just because I want to learn Mandarin, but because I'm going to try and study abroad next spring in China. This could come in handy.
History of Film to 1940 - Um...it's about the history of film to 1940. It was the only film class available that I was eligible to sign up for. I'd much rather study film since 1940, but at least I'm pretty much guaranteed to learn something. I know hardly anything at all about the roots of cinema.
I'm doing NetFlix now, and that started working out very well. Unfortunately, now it seems like the movies are arriving a few days late. I'll have to see how this continues to work out...
Since I've joined the Film Committee, I've gotten a sneak peek at some of the short films that will be shown at this year's Pinwheel Film Festival here at NCSU. Some are really good, others are just mediocre. But it's really inspired me to try and submit something next year, since I'm positive I could get in (your film has to really suck not to be accepted). I wonder if I can find time to write a script this summer, maybe at night? We shall see.
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That's all I have for now. Knowing my luck, I'll post this and then think of something I forgot to mention. Such is life.
Quote of Da Moment:
"I keep a lighter in my back pocket all the time. I'm not a smoker, I just really like certain songs."
--Demetri Martin
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 3/20/2006 08:54:00 PM 
