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

Fisher of Men

Just a great little nugget from the M. Ward song Fisher of Men from his album Hold Time.

"And he put his name in my chorus like the dark before the dawn
So that in my hour of weakness, I'd remember it's his song
He's got a line in the water
He's a fisher of men" -M. Ward

Jack Reacher

 Bember Grade: Ben B+ & Amber B
  Jack Reacher: PG-13
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie
Produced by: Tom Cruise & many others

Bases off of the book series by: Lee Child

Cast of note: Tom Cruise, Robert Duvall, Werner Herzog, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, and David Oyelowo

What else was there to watch on this $5 Tuesday night at the movie theater? Not much of anything. So, Amber and I decided to go take in the new Tom Cruise adventure that most assuredly would over glorify his real talents and height. I was not let down. The short Cruise plays a retired Army Cop who is supposed to be 6 foot plus and in amazing shape, not for one minute did I believe the farce of Cruise being the intended Army Cop. I did however enjoy his character and I think Cruise stayed within his acting limits in this feature presentation.

The story revolves around five "random" shootings on the waterfront in Pittsburgh. A man is brought in on the charges of all five murders but Cruise and Rosamund Pike's character see it way differently, thus the hunt begins for the true shooter.

 Reacher grasps at the Bourne movies, but doesn't quite succeed in its storyline or cinematography. There are plenty of really great sequences of action and heart pumping thrill, but in the end we truly feel like we are left out of some serious aspects of the plot. I won't ruin it for you, but there are some serious gaps in the storyline that make you turn to the person next to you at the end of the movie and go "what was the point of that?"

Apparently Tom Cruise did his own car chase stunts for this movie. To be honest it shows. I hated the main car chase, it was slow, drawn out, and you could see and feel the cars slowing down so as not to demolish Mr. Cruise and his nice little car. In particular a moment in a tunnel when Cruise is driving into head on traffic and all the cars seem to have crawled to a snails pace to let him swerve on through.

The highlight of the film and it is a short highlight because it happens in the last 25% of the film is when we get to meet Robert Duvall's character. From the moment Duvall pops on screen the story feels like it has a pace and place. Duvall is comedic gold and plays a great grumpy old man. For Duvall's sake alone I say go watch this film, he does not disappoint.

Overall I would like to see a sequel to the film. Just for the purpose of tying up all the lose ends of the story and to see more of Cruise and Duvall working together.

Best Albums of 2012

1. Leonard, the Lonely Astronaut- Andrew Osenga

Highlight Song - Brushstroke

2. Babel - Mumford & Sons

Highlight Song - Lover Of The Light

3.Wrecking Ball- Bruce Springsteen 

Highlight Song - Jack Of All Trades

4. A Wasteland Companion - M. Ward

Highlight Song -Pure Joy

5. Land of the Living - Matthew Perryman Jones

Highlight Song - O Theo

6. Build Anyway - The Rocketboys

Highlight Song - Bloodless

7. The Carpenter - The Avett Brothers

Highlight Song - Geraldine

8.  Heart - Audrey Assad 

Highlight Song- No Turning Back

9. Young Oceans - Young Oceans

Highlight Song -  Come Holy One

10. Light for the Lost Boy - Andrew Peterson

Highlight Song - You'll Find Your Way

11. Among the Leaves - Sun Kil Moon

Highlight Song -Lonely Mountain

12. Mirage Rock - Band of Horses

Highlight Song- Knock Knock

* Click on the Album and it takes you to Amazon

Click on the Artist and it takes you to the Artists Website

Didn't quite make the cut for top Albums of 2012

1. Give us Rest- David Crowder Band 

2. Valtari - Sigur Ros

3. Dive - Tycho

4. The Lumineers - The Lumineers

5. Former Lives - Benjamin Gibbard

6. Break it Yourself - Andrew Bird

7. Night Visions -Imagine Dragons

8. Diluvia - Freelance Whales

Top Ten Movies of 2012

1. Moonrise Kingdom - Wes Anderson

2. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel-  John Madden

3. The Hobbit: An Expected Journey -Peter Jackson

4. Argo - Ben Affleck

5. Skyfall - Sam Mendes

6. The Dark Knight Rises - Christopher Nolan

7. Lincoln - Steven Spielberg

8.The Amazing Spider-Man- Marc Webb

9. Beasts of the Southern Wild - Benh Zeitlin

10. Wreck-It Ralph - Rich Moore

Isaiah 60:1-9 For Epiphany Sunday

The Glory of Zion

¹ “Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
² See, darkness covers the earth
    and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
    and his glory appears over you.
³ Nations will come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

⁴ “Lift up your eyes and look about you:
    All assemble and come to you;
your sons come from afar,
    and your daughters are carried on the hip.
⁵ Then you will look and be radiant,
    your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
    to you the riches of the nations will come.
⁶ Herds of camels will cover your land,
    young camels of Midian and Ephah.
And all from Sheba will come,
    bearing gold and incense
    and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.
⁷ All Kedar’s flocks will be gathered to you,
    the rams of Nebaioth will serve you;
they will be accepted as offerings on my altar,
    and I will adorn my glorious temple.

⁸ “Who are these that fly along like clouds,
    like doves to their nests?
⁹ Surely the islands look to me;
    in the lead are the ships of Tarshish,
bringing your children from afar,
    with their silver and gold,
to the honor of the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel,
    for he has endowed you with splendor.

Epiphany Quote from Samwise Gamgee

"There peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of that forsaken land, and hope returned to him, for like shaft clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach.” J.R.R. Tolkien