Another One Bites The Dust...er, Snow

Okay, you can't see it that well, but up there is the art work for the Deluxe Edition of Deathly Hallows. We'll get to it in a second.

First though, I have to bit a fond farewell to Matt. Matt works at the store and is leaving for more mountainous pastures (is that an oxymoron?) in Colorado. Matt has always rocked and it's been great having him around. I think I have now lost all the folks I talk about Lost with (and in Matt's case Alias when it was on). Guess that just means even more talking to myself. Anyway, Matt and I and a former co-worker had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Bruce Campbell a few years back and I remember the day fondly. The last time I had that much fun in Springfield was at Alison's wedding. Matt will definitely be missed, but I'm glad he's venturing out to a place that will probably provide him with many happy times.

Now, art work. The Today show debuted the deluxe cover and it appears that Harry and Co. are on a dragon. He also seems to be wearing something similar to what he has on in the regular cover. Is he en route to the Gladiator-esque building or coming away from it? Also, if that's Ron, his hair seems to be a bit less red. Mmmmm...

Finally, I've taken to changing out the little blurb that's at the top of the page under the name of the blog. If you can tell me where I got the blurb from, do one of those comment thingies. I don't know that I'll have prizes, but you will have my respect and a shout out. The last one--"a bee bit my bottom now my bottom is big" was a line from the Simpsons. I KNOW at least one of you will recognize the latest line.

Crap, it's 1:10 am...bedtime. Nighty night.

Lurv in the 21st Century

As I close out my vacation, I got the chance to go see a couple of movies I want to tell you about.

First, Knocked Up. Brought to us by the seriously funny Judd Apatow (sp?) who was the genius behind Freaks And Geeks and most recently, The 40 Year Old Virgin. The premise is pretty straight forward. One night stand ends up in pregnancy. The laughs are plenty, revolving around everything from bodily function jokes and sex to losing your youth and becoming a responsible adult. Seth Rogan, who plays Ben, is given the chance to broaden his style acting-wise. He's always done a good job at playing the somewhat obnoxious best buddy, but now we get to see him take his character from being a pot smoking slacker to someone vulnerable looking for a real relationship. I know Katherine Heigel (sp) more from her time on Roswell than Grey's Anatomy. She has a solid sense of comedic timing and she convinces you that her character would fall in love with Ben at some point. I thought the argument scenes were really well done--rarely has the word "fuck" been used in such a realistic manner in my book. All the supporting characters are full and believable (and many of them harken back to the Freaks & Geeks days) and really freakin' funny. This is a great adult movie that actually had me a little teary eyed at the end.

Second up is Waitress. Adrienne Shelley (sp--I gotta remember to look this stuff up) made her writing and directing debut with this low budget charmer about a waitress in a pie shop who is less than thrilled when she becomes pregnant. This is the summer of unplanned pregnancies I guess. (FYI--a couple of you may know Shelley from her roles in various Hal Hartley movies.)Anyway, our waitress is married to an abusive lout and really, really does not feel the maternal instinct. Most of the laughs stem from her less than traditional enthusiasm over the pending birth. She ends up having an affair with her doctor, the fabulously lovely Nathan Fillion. Even though they are both married, you sort of root for them to be together because her hubby is such a dick. Ultimately, even though she spends the whole film not wanting the baby, Kerri Russell's character changes her mind the instant she sees her new daughter. I was a little disappointed that the transformation would occur so quickly, but I guess you have to forgive Shelley for wanting the end the movie on the sweet side of its bittersweet tone. Russell is great. She makes us really feel for her character. Andy Griffith has a funny role as a cranky old man that you know is going to end up being a sweetly by the end, but that's okay.

Sadly, Adrienne Shelley was killed shortly before the movie debuted at Sundance so she wasn't able to enjoy the success of the film. And, sadly, we won't get the chance to see her grow as a director.

It's back to work tomorrow, which I am less than thrilled about. But, there are bills to be paid and the usual adult responsibilities to deal with. Can't wait.

Paper cups full of yellow happiness

Today I decided to go out for a walk. Firstly, because it was quite nice outside and secondly, because I've been doing a lot of reading during my vacation (aka: sitting on my ass) so I know I'm going to be hurting when I go back to work if I don't make blood flow through my body at some point. I was about half a block away from my house when I saw two young girls and their lemonade stand. All I had on me was my house key and my walkman. That's right. You heard me. I have yet to get an iPod. Anyway, I smiled as I went by, but felt bad that I couldn't make a purchase. When I got to my apartment, I grabbed some change, took off my headphones and walked back to their little table.
It was funny. They saw me coming back and I could tell the wondered what the hell was going on. I said hello and told them I didn't have any money the first time I went by, but I really wanted some lemonade so I came back. They were both very polite and sweet. One girl held out the glass jar for me to put my money into while the other asked if I wanted a full glass. I answered, yes please and got the usual papercup of yellow happiness. I said thank you and told them I hoped they had a good sales day.
As I walked home, I thought about how my sister and I had tried once to have a lemonade stand when we lived in the country. The only people who came were our neighbors, even though we tried waving down a couple of semis that drove by. I have to admit that going back for the lemonade put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. You gotta love it when the littlest things bring the nicest results.

As a side note, just read that the DVD for Lost season 3 is scheduled (right now anyway) to come out on Dec. 11. Ugly Betty is set for Aug. 21. I know you are all scrambling for your calendars as we speak...er, write.

Get The Young Ones First

I've been putting off watching this movie for some time now. I kept bumping it down on my Netflix list. But, since I'm in the midst of vacation and would have the time to really process the flick, I figured I should watch it now.

If you don't already know the gist of this movie, Jesus Camp is about a woman who runs a ministry of Evangelicals called Kids On Fire. Her aim to is minister to born again Christians at a young age. She says (to paraphrase) it isn't indoctrination, it is faith. She also says that she is not going after the children politically, but if you watch the movie there seems to be nothing further from the truth. We follow several children as they go to her camp that was held since 2002 up in North Dakota. Ironically, it was held at a place called Devil's Lake. You can't make this stuff up.

The youth minister pulls no punches in her attempts to lead her flock. This is not a stupid woman. She tells us that kids today need to be visually stimulated. She searches through the toy departments at stores looking for items she can use to preach to the kids. The sermons employ music, video, and high drama to put forth her message. Like all good propaganda, it is made to entice, motivate, and play on one's fears. The first sermon we see at the camp closes with her telling the kids she senses that there are some children there that say one thing when they are in church and others when they are at school or out in public. She calls these kids hypocrites. She says "we can't have phonies in the Army of Christ."

Don't get me wrong. One of the major issues I have with organized religion is it's almost inherent hypocrisy. (Note: these are just my opinions here, I could be completely wrong and be on my way to hell for all I know) But, it was really disturbing to see this woman accusing kids as young as pre-schoolers of not having complete devotion to the Lord. In a bit of a ludicrous moment, she holds up her bottled water and asks the kids to come forward so that their disbelief may be washed away by the water of the saviour.

Before the kids arrive at the camp, she goes around (seemingly without irony) and prays over everything from the seats to the equipment. She asks God to bless the Power Point presentations! Apparently, the Devil likes to make mischief by screwing with the weather, knocking out the power, and ruining the graphs needed to put forth the message. This woman is insane. More frightening, she is completely devoted to her cause.

Towards the end of the camp, the group pulls out a life size cut out of George W. and lays hands on the cut out! They pray and lapse into speaking in tongues. I felt like I was watching old footage of Jonestown at different moments. The highlight was the big end of camp finale which revolved around telling kids why abortion was wrong. Imagine, all this and go-carts too.

The kids make for an interesting bunch. One girl, Rachel, is very,very sweet. She is so joyous about going to church and really getting into the sermon. She mentions she's thinking of being someone who does nails so she can sit down with people and spread the word of God while working on their hands. She prays when she's bowling and asks God to help her ball get to where it needs to go. You can't help but think, that in less extreme hands she would turn out to be a really good person. And, she might do so anyway. But.

She goes up to people on her own to ask if they know God. She is doing her best to spread the word. In a really funny scene during the end credits, she and another couple of kids are walking around and they come upon a group of three older black men sitting in a park. She very sweetly asks one man "if you were to die today, where do you think you would go?" He answers confidently, "Heaven." She asks, "Are you sure?" He sort of chuckles and says, "Yes." She doesn't really know what to say to that so she and her friends say good bye and walk away. As they are leaving, she turns to her friend, and without sarcasm says "I think they're Muslims." Ha!

Levi is home schooled and wants to be a preacher. He gets to talk to Ted Haggard after a sermon when he and his family go to Colorado Springs. Ted asks him if he is a good preacher and the kid says that people seem to be paying attention to him. Ted then asks if people listen because of his content or because he's a kid. Ted suggests, somewhat jokingly, that the boy ride that kid thing till he's 30 and by then the content will catch up. There is a lot of slime in Haggard's appearance and I guess we shouldn't be surprised. About 2 months after the movie came out, Haggard admitted to buying meth from a guy and being gay (although he says he didn't have sex with the guy who sold him the meth). Not that long ago, Haggard claimed he had been "cured" of his homosexuality by something like a week of intense prayer, etc. Sure.

Oh, the home schooling stuff scared the crap out of me. Just gotta say.

The documentary is really interesting and depending on your views, disturbing. I certainly was aware that beliefs like this exist, but it is another thing to see a collective consciousness rise up in front of your eyes. I've watched my fair share of doc's and it felt like the directors just let their subjects talk and be as they are. I didn't get the feeling that there was an overt manipulation of the piece through creative editing. To be honest, the only way to not alter the piece would be to release all of the footage, but that's not really possible. Editing is always going to happen, but I got the sense that the directors and editor did stay true to the piece and what was presented to them through the interviews, etc.

This film is definitely worth seeing and talking about. As a side note, a bit after the film was released in theaters, the camp grounds used by the group were ransacked. Due to the damage, the people that own the land couldn't let it out so currently the camp has no home. The filmmakers have stated they feel bad about what happened to the camp.