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Sorry for the delay in postings. It took me a while to upgrade to the latest version of Movable Type. It was touch and go there for a while. I'm looking to change over to Wordpress, now.

Entry posted by byscuits at 07:33 PM | Comments (0)

Top Movies of 2005

Updated 01/16 - rearranged movies in preferential order
My favorite films seen in the theater this year:

1. Junebug - How to describe Junebug... Well, it's an independent film, so if you're familiar with those, that statement tells you something. The story is of a Chicago dealer in outsider art that travels to a rural part of North Carolina, where her husband happens to be from. They stay with his family, and the movie is really about this interaction and whether you can really ever go home. The performance of Amy Adams is more than deserving of an Oscar nomination for best supporting. (Edit: Yeah, I think this movie is my favorite of last year. It certainly had the greatest effect on me.)
2. King Kong - Pure entertainment in the grand Hollywood style of old. Here's my recipe for a great movie: give Peter Jackson as much money as he wants and let him make whatever film he wants. Hopefully the rights to "The Hobbit" can get ironed out. Won't someone please think of the children?
3. Walk the Line - The biopic about the life of Johnny Cash, Walk the Line is amazing, as is the soundtrack. I originally thought they had to be doing some sort of digital overlay with Cash's voice on Joaquin Phoenix's, but it turns out it's all natural. I'm now fully obsessed with Cash and his music.
4. Serenity - This movie is from the Firefly TV show that Fox was terribly irresponsible with. There's no real way to describe the universe of Firefly and Serenity without turning people off to the show, so I'll just say this: watch the series, then watch the movie.
5. Pride and Prejudice - I spoke on this movie in an earlier blog posting, which does a good job of covering my opinion on the matter. All I have to add is that I love all movie incarnations of this work, but am having a very hard time with the book. None of the main characters appear to be obsessed with the idea of romance, but the author Jane Austen seems to be overly so. At this point, I have no plans on finishing the book.
6. Batman Begins - The first Batman movie that is actually about Batman himself. The only thing bad about this movie is the presense of Katie Holmes, but her presense is forgivable in this great flick.

The films I missed but wish I saw:

1. A History of Violence - We need to see more of Viggo on screen.
2. Syriana - Ah, oil and corruption. This movie intrigues me from top to bottom.
3. Munich - The story of the what happened after 11 Isreali athletes were murdered at the 1972 Munich Olymic games.
4. Good Night, and Good Luck - These days I'm terribly interested in McCarthy. This movie is about how Edward R. Murrow brings him down.
5. Broken Flowers - They need to keep putting Murray in more films, too. But maybe he can play a new role sometime, something other than a despondent middle aged man.
6. Murderball - From the IMDB description, "A film about quadriplegics who play full-contact rugby in Mad Max-style wheelchairs." Cool.
7. March of the Penguins - Don't know how a French movie got on this list, or got to be so very nice.

The films I saw but wish I missed:

1. 2046 - This movie was a total mess. Apparently I hate Wong Kar Wai films with every fiber of my being. Well, I think my pinky might not be quite seething...
2. Turtles can Fly - There was a lot that I really liked about this movie, but many things that just ate at me. Maybe it wasn't even the movie I didn't like, but the possible reality of these fictional characters. But in the end, the movie just seemed so hopeless and sad. Not since Oprah's Book List "A Fine Balance" have I felt so emotionally used.

Entry posted by byscuits at 10:48 AM | Comments (8)

New Albums

I've still got quite a few photo albums to post (yes, the wedding one is coming), but here are a few recent ones.

Gandys Beach, NJ - View the slideshow
Yep, it's my beach. Well, sort of. Okay, not at all.

There's a place down in Cumberland County, South New Jersey, called Gandys Beach. As far as I've been able to tell, all Gandys in America trace back to this part of Jersey.

One weekend, I up and decided to go see my beach. So in the middle of winter, I picked up a friend in Philly and we went down to this summer retreat to check things out. It was mostly deserted by this time of year, but we found a home that wasn't yet empty. So I knocked on the door, and we started a very nice conversation with some total strangers. I found out they were sticking around just for a couple more weeks before fleeing down to Florida. They eventually invited us into their home on this chilly day, and we talked about the Gandys and their beach.

I hope to come back this summer.

The Grace Street Compassion Service 2005 - View the slideshow
What is a Compassion Service, you ask? It's a time once a year just before Christmas where we as a church get together for a few things. We bring and wrap Christmas presents for local families, bring and count change for a Bolivian orphanage we have a partnership with, and bring and sort clothes to be donated. It's a lot of fun, and is one of my favorite services of the year.

You can also see the 2004 Compassion Service here.

Entry posted by byscuits at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Over Desire

The majority of my recent theology comes through Timothy J. Keller, the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. He creates a tightly coherant approach to Christian theology as applied to modern life in the city. His sermons appear online through redeemer.com, and I cannot recommend them highly enough.

An idea that was introduced to me through Dr. Keller is that of "over-desire". He asserts that the vast majority of sin is not due to a desire for things that are evil, but an over-desire for things that are actually good. Think of a child that steals something from a candy store. His desire for candy is not evil in itself, rather the child's acceptable desire for candy outweighs his desire to be honest.

Keller goes on to describe self-control not as learning to ignore your desires completely, but as properly ordering the desires of your heart. I might currently want to spend all the money that comes in my paycheck, but my desire to graduate college outweighs that desire. I may want to stay home and play videogames all day, but I more desire to be productive and earn a living.

The logical conclusion of this line of thinking is that each person must have something they desire more than anything. It is impossible to not have something we desire most. This ultimate desire of our hearts orders all the other desires in our life. This ultimate desire is the god that everyone has. When we choose to let Christ be our ultimate desire, all our other desires can become properly ordered. This reordering is a lifelong process, a byproduct of our relationship with God.

I believe Keller is completely accurate. This gets away from the problem of appearing to always condemn evil, and often along the way condemn the person or ourselves. Instead, we can focus on right desires in life and how they might be properly ordered by our relationship to Christ.

I look at my own life, and realize I am a virtual epidemic of over-desires. In the past several years, many desires have been reordered and even replaced in some cases. But the process at times feels so very immature. Then again, who am I to put myself in the place of God and decide where I am in this process? It is not for me to reason.

Entry posted by byscuits at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)