Chinese New Year

I currently am the Youth Director at a Chinese Church here in Oregon. And today is Chinese New Year. So welcome to the year of the Snake and happy New Year!!!

Here is a bit of a definition: the Chinese festival marking the start of the new year, beginning on the second new moon after the winter solstice and ending on the full moon fifteen days later. It is marked by visits to family and friends, special meals, fireworks, and gift giving. Also called Spring Festival.

  Note: not my picture...pilfered it off the Internets.

Validation

Also showed the students this one. This is a great conversation starter for how to make a difference in the world we live in. And how we should live out our daily lives.

Kid President - Pep Talk

 

Showed this to the students on tonight. Good conversation starter.

Atlas:Sleeping At Last

Band: Sleeping At Last

Album/EP: Atlas:Darkness 

Songs:   

1. Overture

2. Woodwork

3. I'll Keep You Safe

4. Bad Blood

5. Uneven Odds

Bember Grade: A Must Own, 5/5 

 The latest project from Ryan O'Neal and his Illinois based band Sleeping At Last is brilliant. Very few recording artists today have the creativity, foresight, vision, and artistic brushstrokes that Mr. O'Neal

 has.

I have been a fan since the release of Ghosts in 2003. Ever since, Sleeping At Last has been producing and creating music on a level that gets better progressively. Music that causes you to laugh, cry, ponder, muse, and run towards glorious things. Sleeping At Last gets more ambitious with each new project. If you are not familiar with Yearbook, you should be, an EP released each month, with the name of that month as the title. I was impressed then, and with this new project I am bound to be even more impressed. While Sleeping At Last are very ambitious in their art, they do not concede to ever create bad art. In fact, Ryan is creating some of the most thought provoking and intricate lyrics of any artist of our time. This new project, which we have no time table for its end or how many EP's will be released has just begun. 

It begins with Darkness, as I believe the World began. The Darkness EP is phenomenal. Mr. O'Neal is a wonderful wordsmith and his music just moves the lyrics along like a stream in our ears. Where we are going, I cannot yet see. What I am sure of is that Ryan has trekked far enough into the future that this stream will end somewhere in an ocean of beauty and light, and the listener will be completely satisfied in what he finds and hears throughout this journey.

Do yourself a favor and go buy the EP. It is well worth your time and your ears and heart will thank you for it.

Jackson Browne Concert

Went with my wife and parents last night to see Jackson Browne in concert. This concert has been on my lifelong to do list for a few years now. I may have come late to the party, but I am here now and here to stay.

Jackson has crept into my top five artists of all time these past few years. I have snatched up everything that he has put out and soaked it all in. Jackson is one of the better singer-songwriters of our time.

Many of you will recall his well known album Running on Empty and perhaps envision Forrest Gump running because he just felt the need to run. To be honest I don't go to that album much and neither did Jackson in the show. He went to the classics.Jackson Browne, Late for the Sky, For Everyman, and The Pretender. Of course His one rule is that if someone calls for Running on Empty the band must immediately play the song. So, when someone shouted it out, they went right into and the entire theater erupted in song.

One of my concerns coming to this show was that I had heard that Jackson had been losing a little bit of his voice control. Totally not the case, he actually sounded pretty dang good. Hitting all the old notes and the new ones too.

My only complaint was the show was described as an acoustic show, which if you have heard Jackson's solo stuff it is really good, this was not the case. He even made a joke about it. With a drummer, electric guitar, bass player, and him on acoustic at that point, he looked out into the crowd and said "Acoustic?" I laughed pretty hard at that, so did my father. This is not that big of a complaint though, Jackson and his band put on a stellar performance. I would go see him again in a heartbeat.

Funny of the night:

A woman who was in our vicinity, had a little too much to drink and was shouting out song suggestions all night. That was fine, everyone was shouting out suggestions. The funny was when my wife leaned over and asked, "Why is she asking for BEEF STEAK?" It took me a moment to register, but I realized the woman was in fact not shouting for the song "BEEF STEAK", but for one of Jackson's classic songs, "THESE DAYS." I laughed pretty hard at this, and will continue to laugh at it for many years to come.

So Jackson, here's to us meeting again. And perhaps you can play that classic song of yours, "Beef Steak."

Zero Dark Thirty

Bember Grade: We choose to not grade this film
Zero Dark Thirty:  R
Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow
Written by: Mark Boal 
Cast of note: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Ehle,and  Chris Pratt

My wife and I walked out of the theater after seeing Zero Dark Thirty and we both decided then and there that you really can't give a grade for this movie. We just didn't feel right trying.

For those of you that don't know, this movie is about one woman's  manhunt of Osama Bin Laden. And that is exactly what it is, a 2 hour long manhunt. So, if you like manhunts, this is the movie for you. The problem is, it left me really upset.

Kathryn Bigelow does nothing new with this film as far as a director goes. In fact she pretty much sticks to the same film making style that won her an Oscar in The Hurt Locker. This movie does not deserve any awards come Oscar season. We have seen this before, maybe not the story, although how hard is it to make up a story about a real man who killed a bunch a people and then spend an entire movie trying to justify spending ten years hunting Bin Laden down.

Jessica Chastain brings nothing to the table as well. Jennifer Ehle however is actually the more interesting storyline to follow and has better character development. Honestly, from what I have written so far, you would think I hated this film, not so. I actually was amused by this film and it caused a great bit of conversation after I watched it.

The best part of the film is actually talking about it afterwards with friends and family. This film brought up serious JUSTICE issues for me. I disagree with how everything went down in film and in the real world as well. I may be one of few men who actually didn't believe that shooting up Osama and his family was the right thing to do, but I will stick by it. No man has the ability to judge any other man, especially when it comes at the hands of an anxious soldiers gun. I believe each man has a right to fair trial, although Osama wouldn't have gotten one in the states or anywhere else in the world, he still deserved it. As a believer in Jesus and His Father, I cannot agree with this story or how things went down. It leaves me unsettled. I was one of the few who did not cheer when Osama was killed, I actually cried and had a heavy heart for another loss in this world.

Argue with me, agree with me, be indifferent, but you can't tell me this movie didn't make you think.

Top Ep's of 2012

1. Rehearsals -The Digital Age

2. Bringing In The Darlings - Josh Ritter

3. State Hospital (explicit)  - Frightened Rabbit

4. Advent - Young Oceans

5. Continued Silence - Imagine Dragons

6. Ahoy! - Punch Brothers