Florida is a great place, but…
I take a shower, dress for work, climb in our non-air conditioned van for the mere 1/2 mile commute to the church when I find that the battery is dead.
Reposition cars, connect jumper cables, charge battery, start van, detach cables, reposition cars. All with 80 degrees and 80% humidity.
Bottom line: I need another shower.
Can’t complain about the consistency, however, as shown by this forecast from my Google weather widget:
Florida is a great place.
This week’s posts are heavy on movies. (I’ve resisted the BIG EVENT, the one that my wife and daughter and a zillion others took in at midnight last Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.)
This post, a curious one, is a movie riddle.
Last Friday night, Barb and I chose two movies, knowing next to nothing about either of them. However different the films were (and they were very different), they shared this in common: very early in the film, the audience is given the idea that the lead male character is to die by the end of the film.
So, here is the riddle: what two movies (both released in 2008) did we watch?
[Note: IMDB lists 24,525 movies released in 2008, so you might not want to try the browse method of finding the answer!]
“So [Paul] reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”–because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.” (Acts 17:17, 18)
“So there was a Jew, a Buddhist, an African-American, and a Presbyterian sitting on a porch…”
Sounds like a joke.
But it’s not, and I have no punch line. What it is is a description of what I got to do Tuesday afternoon. I got to ‘reason…in the marketplace with those who happened to be there.’ My reasoning was not persuasive like Paul’s, and I’m sure the word babbler came to a mind or two. But I did speak of the centrality of the resurrection, as Paul would surely have done, and tried to get my new friends to understand some things they may not otherwise have heard.
I was meeting a young man who had been brought to our small group by a visitor to the church. He and I only got to speak for a short time before we found ourselves in conversation with one student, and then that conversation was soon joined by another.
The conversation was wide ranging and really kicked into gear when they asked and found out that I was a pastor. I’m much more comfortable asking than answering questions. But what a wonderful challenge to try to give expression to historic Christianity in a context where it does not normally sit well.
My new friend and I will meet again, and at a place where we can really talk. But I’m reminded of what HPC associate Geoff Henderson recently posted: in an age when the world does not come to the church, the church needs to go to the world. That is the punch line, if there is to be one.
While the movie Knowing is on our minds, here is a question for you: what is your favorite Nicolas Cage movie?
I began scanning his IMDB filmography, and apart from being amazed at the diversity of his roles, noted a couple that I really liked… but one stands out as my favorite.
Of all he has done, what has been your favorite?
Later I’ll reveal mine.
I hate to pile posts upon posts, and it seems I’ve been posting a ton recently, but I can’t let this one go without linking it.
Forty years ago today, men walked on the moon for the very first time. I woke up this morning pondering the amazing image seen last night replayed on TV of an engineer working on the original design of the F1 engine, five of which were used to launch the Saturn V rocket into space. He was sitting there with a pile of papers and a slide rule.
That’s how this magnificent machine was built.
With that in mind, I just read this post which expands upon the wonder of this accomplishment of a dream. It’s a fascinating (and short) read.
It contains a link to a site where NASA is streaming in real time, forty years delayed, the actual continuous audio between Mission Control in Houston and the Apollo crew. Fascinating, though, as I type, I think the astronauts are sleeping. Not a lot being said!
So, sorry for all the chatter here at Somber and Dull lately. But I couldn’t leave this one be. I’d like to grow reflective on this, and speak of the passion and creativity involved in pursuing dreams, and of not letting one’s dreams die… but I’ve said enough.
Recently we watched the movie Knowing with Nicolas Cage. This film is hard to discuss without giving away details, so if you’ve not seen the movie and intend to, and like to enter the experience without any preconceptions perhaps not reading any further would be a good idea.
I have had debates with both my resident daughters after seeing this film regarding the identity of the silent creatures we see on film. Are we to see them as angels or as aliens?
These creatures appear on the scene just prior to the world’s final conflagration, and though their intentions seem ambiguous throughout the story, by the end you learn that their goal is to rescue off the dying planet human pairs to populate other, younger, and more flourishing worlds.
So, are they angels or demons? Is this a Noah story or something else?
Years ago there was a wildly popular book called Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Daniken. von Daniken postulated that the world has been visited by aliens in the past, and that much of the religious imagery used by various religions, but especially in the Jewish and Christian heritage is a reflection of that alien presence. So what the biblical writers record as ‘angels’ might very well have been alien visitors.
Seeing the connection?
In looking for something else a few weeks ago I noted that the 17th best selling book at Amazon.com currently is this book. It comes in at #305 overall. I wondered, “What’s up with this?”
I don’t know if the movie Knowing spawned a new interest in the book, or if the resurgent popularity of the book and its thesis formed the impetus for the movie. Though some viewers see Christian supernatural themes in this movie (the main character is a man estranged from his hard core preacher father – we preacher fathers can be quite hard to deal with – and his childhood faith), in my opinion, the filmmakers were channeling von Daniken and not Noah.
In other words, to the question ‘Were they angels or aliens?’ my answer is, ‘Yes’, which is as a thesis, ultimately, a denial of angels.
I’d love to hear others weigh in on this film.
(Note: the film is currently #1 in online download from the iTunes store)
I was fourteen in 1970, when four students were killed at Kent State University in a protest over the Vietnam War, and I lived in a community and context where questions about the war were not an issue. So, I never questioned it.
In 1974 when I turned 18, with a #11 draft lottery number, I applied for conscientious objector status, not that I opposed in any way the then winding down war, but because I had a misunderstanding of the biblical teaching on conflict and war.
The Vietnam War was never more for me than scattered images on a television screen interrupting my carefree high school and early college years. For many others, of course, this war was much more.
So, at the time, the name of Robert McNamara was nothing more than an occasional name heard on the TV news. I did not know him as a major architect of the American presence in that war (as the American Secretary of Defense from 1961-1968). Much that was later by some seen as offensive and immoral in this war has been laid at his feet.
McNamara’s recent death has brought his name back to the forefront of public conversation, and has renewed interest in a movie I think I’d like to see.
Errol Morris is a documentary film maker. Several years ago, I watched his movie Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (not yet available on DVD) about a man who was an expert on execution techniques, served as a consultant to the various state prisons where executions were performed, and was, late in life, recruited to the cause of those who deny that the holocaust ever occurred. Though it sounds like heavy fair, it was a fascinating film.
Morris as well produced a film based upon a series of interviews with Robert McNamara. The film, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, received strong critical praise, winning a number of awards, including the Oscar for best documentary feature. Admittedly, the film elite will be favorable to anything remotely critical of an unpopular war. But having seen Morris’s work before, I’m persuaded that this is not a Michael Moore fantasy. Morris lets people speak for themselves.
I think that given the current debate over the ambiguous nature of war, and the recent death of McNamara, now would be a good time to watch the film. I have it on order, and intend to sit down and watch it sometime in the next two weeks.
I don’t want to do this alone. If you would like to sit with others to watch and discuss (civilly!) this movie, let me know! If there is interest, I’ll arrange a time when we can do this together.
And if you have seen the movie already, post your comments below. I’m interested.
As I continue to make my way through Anna Karenina, I was wondering if there is a good movie version?
My experience is that Hollywood has little success with Russian novels. I have yet to find a good film version of Crime and Punishment. The version with the most promising cast (Ben Kingsley, Patrick Dempsey, Julie Delpy) was really, really bad.
IMDB lists 20 attempts at AK. Most intriguing to me are these:
1935 – Greta Garbo and Basil Rathbone
1997 – Sophie Marceau (Princess Isabelle in Braveheart) and Sean Bean (Boromir in LOTR)
Then there is the 1948 version starring Vivian Leigh. I can hear it now: “Frankly, Anna, I don’t give…”
Wouldn’t a silent version be interesting?
Any suggestions?
“Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I’m afraid, even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later when they were grown up, they were so used to quarreling and making up that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently.” – The Horse and His Boy, C. S. Lewis, page 224
This photo, from the AP website,
is accompanied by this caption:
“American League’s Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees is congratulated by American League manager Joe Maddon of the Tampa Bay Rays after scoring during the first period of the MLB All-Star baseball game in St. Louis, Tuesday, July 14, 2009. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)”
First what?
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