the advent season started out tough for club vision....... i did my first funeral ever....it was for baby bethany. the ngs, a young family at vision church lost their baby girl the same day she was born. they waited a month before they were maybe ready for a memorial service. not sure if they or anyone will ever be ready. and it will be a long, long time before they will feel anything but fogginess.
i tried to lead them and their friends in mourning.....but mourning with hope because as believers, death is not the end of the story. death is only part of the story. because of the love of god, he has provided us the gift of eternal life. when we think of faith, we think of having to earn our way but as followers of jesus, we have been taught that god has paid the way for us. our part is to live in response to his love for us and to follow him in that love. the gift of life forever is for anyone who calls out to this god and who put their lives in his hands.
we have seen god's love and goodness even in these days. we trust that there will be better days. we will see bethany again. this is not the end of the story.
there was also another level of bittersweetness as this was the last time i would lead services with my boy leonard chen. more next time.
some better days came later that night: club vision gathered for our annual fake christmas traditions. tree, christmas music, decorations and u2 concert video. this year, jeremy cooked a yummy pasta for us to feast on. also some crack rice pudding from rice to riches. weiling joined us later for the concert.....we watched a show from the joshua tree deluxe box set: a 1987 show from paris. we treat these shows like wine.....last year was 2005 show from barcelona. and of course, we are excited about u2 3d, a show from latin america and austrailia to be released on jan 25. i am grateful for this version of club vision.....a little something from the parts of my life from the past two decades.....weiling from the efcon party machine, jeremy from my maryland days and steph from nearby columbia. they decorated the tree and i topped it off in my spongebob squarepants pajamas. theresa is playing guitar hero on our wii.
hoping to grow club vision, but its about receiving who god has for us and not about making it happen. the best things in life are received as gifts and not earned. the next morning, it snowed in nyc. it has snowed on some very memorable days for us on the upper, upper west side. the day we moved in! the day our furniture from maryland was delivered! and now the day after our 2007 tree. when we move stuff in, it snows.
our ugly dolls were witnesses.
but enough fake christmas. here are some real christmas advent videos we've been playing at vision....i am behind in my blogging: week 1:
week 2:
week 3:
finally.....still watching a lot of movies a few more movie reviews for the holiday viewing period:
michael clayton is a smart thriller with some good performances. good
lawyers vs bad lawyers. the little guy verses the evil corporation.
george clooney is in the middle and has to decide who he is. and he's great though hard to watch him seriously post ocean's 11-13. and the
payoff of the movie is only ok. definitely a rental.
before the devil knows
you're dead is a case study in evil and sin and what the fruits of
greed, stealing, adultery, drugs and bad parenting are. that sounds too
academic. two brothers decide to rob a mom and pop shop and things go
wrong in the worst way. it becomes one of the most depressing movies
ever. but very real. moviemakers craft their version of the world; they are telling you what the world is like.....and this is what the world is like for some one out there. luckily, i've only come into contact with this world tangentally. don't bring your daughters to this one either.
into the wild is one of my favorite fall movies. see it in the theatre for the scenary and road tripping. head west, then south to mexico and trek up north to alaska. meet new folks that you'd actually want to meet(and a few you'd avoid). directed by sean penn, it tells the story of the fakeness of society('careers are a 20th century invention'), freedom, happiness....and god? a young man abandons his live of priviledge and disapears into the wild to discover freedom, happiness.....and you know who. not all happy, happy. but moments of joy throughout. beautiful.
still busy living..... a few notable celebrations and movie reviews in the midst of it...
it was 20 years ago today.....sometime in the fall of 1987 i went to the famous astor place barber shop....three levels of barbers, celebrity sightings, live music(sometimes), buzz....an exciting place to get a haircut....i got randomly assigned to a joyous russian who went by dr. mike and i've been going to him for 20 years....over that span, he's won awards in fan polls, newspapers and magazines as a top barber...and eventually opened a shop just north of ground zero with his son. to celebrate the anniversary, we got him a cake(kosher....even the lettering was kosher thanks to steff)...and threw him a mini party.....after i got a haircut of course. go visit him but please call ahead! he takes no walk ins and is booked only by appointment. his son albert(recently featured in time out ny)and others do take day of customers with haircuts ranging from $15-20 before tip.
we went to our final concert of the year with club vision....mute math at irving plaza! another amazing live set....the best bands for my money are my irish boys, arcade fire, the killers and these guys. mute math are set to tour with matchbox 20 and alanis morrisette across the country but tickets will be nearly double, triple or higher. the days of $15 tickets for this band maybe over.
before the concert, i was threatened into selling an extra ticket to a scalper. i scouted the area for some real fans and avoided those who had the look and feel of greed and profit. finally deciding on some teenage kids, i proceeded to start the transaction when one of the scalpers came and accused me of racism for not selling to him. as the dispute escalated he made veiled threats about a gun and then finally a real threat. my 'this is not worth it for a $15 ticket' alarm went off. the teenage kids seemed to have the same look on their faces and gave me the nonverbal cue to sell to this thug. afterwards, i apologized to the kids about it but they were totally cool and reaffirmed that the situation was starting to get crazy. i still wonder if i did the right thing.
for halloween, we didn't dress up but we wanted others to! we originally got this costume for brian but tried it out on donovan here. brian was in a bad mood at church sunday so he didn't get to put it on. but donovan looks funny here....and not very angry or threatening. i think brian will make a better hulk but he has to get his gear on first!
fall means more intelligent movies which makes me happy and we've been able to sample a few.....
beowulf in 3d imax the cgi was at a new high but its still in a in between stage...right before it gets really, really good. the story is standard and very lusty for a "cartoon" so think pg anime and not mickey mouse. don't bring your young daughters or any of your daughters, unless you're willing to squirm through some breast and penis references. i saw it on 3d imax which makes any movie good....but i'm looking forward more to u2 3d in imax. but that's a given. if you can see it in this format, go! but if, you can't...then just rent.
no country for old men this is a brutal violent movie that portrays humanity as it is. sorta. pulp style. but people's greed, personal codes of conduct, sense of survival and foolishness are on full display. it was enjoyable to watch but ends with several wordy monologues that leave some threads unresolved or unsatisfying. at the end of my screening, some one asked out LOUD: what the F was that? the movie does create one of the most memorable and haunting villains in cinema history. for most people, this is a rental. for indie snobs and artsy fartsy types, its a must on the big screen. you can determine which you are.
margot at the wedding i like the review in the print ads that goes if you are looking for a warm, fuzzy, heartfelt family movie, then stay the hell away. another review said it was the most emotionally mature movie about emotionally immature people ever made. this is a painful movie to watch because the people are so self centered and emotionally vacant but like another review i read said: if you allow yourself to be honest, these people are very much like you. if you can stand looking in the mirror, perhaps a rental. if your thanksgiving was painful enough, you can skip this. right after we saw this movie, theresa and i had one of the worst fights we ever had. it will set you on edge.
gone, baby, gone of the four movies here, i would watch this again. and perhaps over and over. after the sox won again, i celebrated and mourned by watching this movie about the city of boston. its a thriller, kidnapping, murder mystery...but its really about the people of boston and life in boston. it reminded me of my boston and brandeis days. casey affleck was great as was the top notch cast. some jumps in logic but it's smart and will have you guessing until the very end(really!) and talking after its over. what would you do? i would consider owning this but most will be satisfied with a winter rental on a snow day.
whoops. i guess that's what happens when you go on "world tour".....you stop updating. a busy october with ministry and a very full life apart from ministry. i have a few updates to summarize the month. here's the comic and video game version. up first was a trip out to brooklyn to see adrian tomine...a rarity among rarities: a respected asian american graphic novelist who is frequently reviewed and referenced in the new york times. in fact, he is a regular in the new yorker magazine with one of his covers voted as a readers' favorite! his new graphic novel, shortcomings, had just been released and he had a signing, q and a, wine and cheese tasting and usual schmoozing at book court.....he had a long line of folks waiting for him to sign but i asked if he would do a sketch. he politely said sure if i was willing to wait until after all the books were signed. so towards the end, after all the books were done, there were 2 or 3 of us who got sketches too.
i asked adrian if he had ever been to the small press expo in bethesda. with a little remorse, he said that the small press expo was one show he needed to add to his tour to go to.
while adrian tomine did not make the small press expo....we did! it was our first small press expo(spx) since 2004. 2005 was the year we moved to the city and in 2006, we were in hawaii for the cony's wedding.
the spx is a comic show for indie comics and the best part is the access to the artists....you get to make friends! in that first pic is metaphrog, john and sandra, who made a return to the show after missing the last two years as well! we are long time buddies and we invited them to stay with us when they are in nyc. we had a swell time....i got 60 something sketches(as opposed to 5-6 at the new york comic con).
some other friends we made were matthew and robbi of idiot books...easily the most interesting and innovative stuff at the show. not really comics but great, great art by robbi who illustrates crazy thoughts by her husband matt. they even have a subscription service for their odd books:8 books over the year for a set price. they also have an entertaining blog at thebarnstorming.com the name comes from the fact that they really live in a barn.
after weeks of waiting for nintendo world store in nyc to stock chibi robo for the ds, i gave in and went to walmart in germantown, md to pick up the game for my sweet t. its a game where you play a robot who cleans(that's the kind of stuff she likes) in the original, you clean a house. in this sequel, you clean a park. the japanese are nuts! and the koreans love it!
it's a walmart only exclusive as the label says but the nintendo store vowed to carry it because: "we ARE the nintendo store". shortly after i bought this, the nintendo world store did stock it as promised. oh well.
we also picked up ddr for the wii and promptly shared it with our friends at peggy's birthday get together. as the night wore on, club vision got lazier and lazier with more and more people playing the 2 player game....then playing while sitting....then playing while doing whatever mike was doing. an indirect factor i'm sure was the consumption of the house wine.
sometimes people ask why i rarely talk about ministry on this blog. its mainly because i think about ministry so much that i don't need to talk about that here too! the other big reason is that i find that i do have a life outside of ministry and i want to share that. there's so much i love and want to do besides ministry. i don't get those ministry guys who who only talk shop! sometimes, it's so masturbatory. get a life!
quick movie reviews and world tour update....... after the darjeeling limited opened the new york film festival last friday, leonard, liz, norman, stephanie, t and i went to the regular not filthy rich but still slightly privileged and snobby people opening on saturday. it was only playing in two cities in the states and in new york, it was only playing in two theatres. luckily for us, it was playing at the theatre we frequent. it was quickly sold out so our friends dave and susan could not join us. leonard might have thought i was a nut for snagging tickets on thursday but it paid off as t shows off her other booty.
the complaint of the movie was that it was more of the same...like its a bad thing. do critics mean.....more of the same magic from wes anderson? yes! its quirky and a bit weird but magical all the same. critics are somewhat obsessed with seeing or feeling something new...i'm content with the same magic. what's also the same is that wes anderson characters still speak the truth....stuff you never hear out loud but what people are feeling inside and afraid to speak and be so vulnerable; so it rings true though you've never heard people talk like this before. wes' movies reflect a world that is off center.....and it turns out that the world is ours.
i also got to see this, this week:
the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford......if you don't like slow epic movies where little happens, don't go see this movie. if you do like watching people especially people you rarely get to meet like the psychopath and robber jesse james, this will be a treat. it was very beautiful to watch.....the timing surreal. but i can't recommend it to most people because they will be bored.
up next....bladerunner: the final cut! also....only in two cities....and only in 2 theatres in the world! we'll be seeing it monday.....call me to find out which show....and see my last entry about the coupon! it works! i love living in nyc.....! but i will be visiting out and about.....hope to see you soon!
oct 6-8 camp mariah oct 8 the ziegfeld oct 12-13 bethesda, md: the small press expo rockville: angelo's baltimore oct 19 irving plaza oct 27 baltimore oct 31 NYU nov 22-24 baltimore nov 24 rockville: angelo's dec 26-30 philly: achtung! 07 of cmc 07
