Heart Song
Soaring
Everything was kind of muffled. Nasty head cold turned into both ears becoming infected. The anti-biotics are helping but all of the pollen in the air is making the process seem longer and a little bit confusing. Am I still sick? Or is it now just about having bad allergies?
Who really cares… it all feels bad.
Last Friday night I thought about going up to Starbucks and drawing for a little while but my ears … blech. I needed to go to the store instead. So I popped some DayQuil, pulled on a sweatshirt over my t-shirt, baseball cap, wore flip-flops and jeans … jumped in the car for .6 miles and headed in to the store.
I felt like a total middle aged bachelor on a Friday night. All I cared about was getting some kettle corn popcorn, diet 7-up and … whatever else was on my mental grocery list. Buying groceries and renting the movie Precious … those were my big Friday night plans.
I walked in the door and went to get a buggy and I noticed someone had left a two gallon jug of milk in one of them stacked several deep. Not only did someone forget that jug of milk, someone else had shoved more carts in line without even noticing. I dug the jug out and took it up to customer service.
In Effort to prove NYC Folk are Nice, Man Gets Carried Across Manhattan
I love this video. It is about a man wanting to prove that New Yorkers are actually nice and will carry him from one end of Manhattan Island to the other. Hilarious. Laughed out loud several times. I think my favorite part are the little kids attempting to help out.
The Book of Eli – Movie Review
Last night I went to a very nice theater in downtown Orlando to see The Book of Eli. My eight word review is:
Hallelujah! … oh ok … now that was gross. Hallelujah!
I will do a general review and then a more specific review after the jump so as to not reveal any spoilers for those that haven’t seen the movie.
I loved it. I love artsy symbolic movies. I love action movies. I love obvious good vs. evil movies. I love epic movies, self-sacrifice movies and movies with a really good twist I didn’t see coming. Big Hollywood said the twist was silly. When the twist was revealed I literally shed a tear or two. I thought it was beautiful … absolutely heart-wrenching and definitely close to the level of the plot twist at the end of The Sixth Sense that completely changed the context of the whole movie.
I love Christian movies because at least they are trying to put the eternal transcendent into artistic form and that is just simply not an easy thing to do. This is very much a Christian movie. It’s about the last Bible on the post-apocalyptic earth and the voice of God leading a man on a journey of faith to secure the Bible well into the future.
I tried to impose some literal interpretations of the symbols onto the movie and they might be worth exploring (I’ll do so a little after the jump.) Yet after sleeping on it I think the overarching symbolic message is that The Word of God is alive and powerful to bring Light and Life to men. It is worth fighting off the world system, powers of darkness and personal despair in order to protect it as we go on our life’s journey. God’s word will survive because He has ordained it to be so and for no other reasons. Others will try to abuse it for power but only those who have “eyes to see” will actually be able to receive the true life giving power of the Holy Spirit inspired and empowered scriptures.
The Word of God is worth dedicating our lives too and sharing with others who might not “look” or “act” like church folk, but have a pure faith and an undeniable spiritual zeal to know the Truth. We can abide in and embody The Word, emulate Christ and pass off this noble, sacrificial and beautiful faith to others so they might take it back “home” to those still left in chaos and bondage.
Everything I wrote in the two preceding paragraphs are symbolized very very well in the movie.
That was the general review. More, including spoilers, after the jump.
Black Friday 2009 Cost me $5.88
Yummy
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4lPn43COcg&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1]
These the pictures from today. I went to Best Buy but didn’t take any pictures there. And I probably should have because it was CRAWLING with people. ALLL over the place. When I went in there was a HUGE mountain of $99 flat screen monitors. It was down to 7 when I left.
I totally wanted to buy one but my inner dialog went something like this, “WOW! What a GREAT DEAL! REALLY decent resolution even though I have NEVER heard of the manufacturer! But, Randy you have no reason to buy one … but I really wanna’ … no … I have ZERO need for one. But I could FIND a reason … no you can’t. YES I could … no … shut up and leave.”
I left.
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men – Movie Review
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URCMDgdKMWk&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&border=1]
The movie contained elements that were misogynistic, crass, at times juvenile, man hating simplistic, surprisingly deep, unexpectedly emotional, often disturbing, intricately layered, funny, refreshingly honest, full of consistent foreshadowing, symbolism and narration … You walk away going … that was actually a really well made film.
One scene, where a man is describing his father, who has been a washroom attendant his whole life, was brilliant … simply brilliant. When the scene ended I literally said out loud, “That was brilliant.”
I also love that most of the wisdom that comes forward, comes from the invisible made visible narration of the servants in the movie.
Of course my own Christian sensibilities wanted to say that there is SO much more to men than this humanist/rationale had reduced them too. Even so, the movie is commendable because it doesn’t shy away from the fact that men are both simple on one level and yet infinitely more complex than the secular stereotypes placed on them. It’s hard to explain. And of course I thought it was a great expose of what sexuality and emotional intimacy (and the abuse thereof) outside of marriage can do to hurt people.
I also love that there was no nudity and most of the sexual talk wasn’t detailed or explained in an erotic manner.
There are a couple of scenes that do come close to that line but even there the sexuality isn’t the main focus. The men’s perceptions, reactions, observations … some of them were heartbreaking.
One was hilarious. (shown in the trailer.)
Honestly, I watched it after some recommendations to do so expecting that I would turn it off at some point. I not only didn’t turn it off, I found it quite thought provoking.
New Art – Growing (Test)
So I messed around painting this during the afternoon and while watching Snakes On A Plane.
STOOPID Movie, I am laughing through most of it but when the snake popped up out of the service area below the pilots … SCARED the snot out of me. I laughed so hard. I like that it’s not gross (it’s the tv version.)
OH… and I was messing around with some strange rubber brushes I got like a million years ago with this one. I like the hair brushes better. I put the (Test) on this because I was just messing around and not really trying to produce a final piece.
Ok… cool…. got it get back to the snakes ::: laugh :::
Grey Gardens – A Movie Review
There is this special rate going on with HBO and whatnot around here so I signed up. I have never had a “movie” package on my cable subscription longer than a week so we will see how this goes. Anyway, I saw an advertisement on Grey Gardens a month ago (Movie video trailer after the jump) and really wanted to see it so … with the special package rate I got HBO and watched the movie last night.
The story is about Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy’s (Jackie O) eccentric relatives “Big Edie” and “Little Edie.” The very cool thing is that while these relatives where a side story in the glamorous and tragic life of Jackie O … this movie makes her to be the side story as it focuses on the almost glamor and very tragic lives of Big and Little Edie Bouvier Beale.
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