“’Avatar’ asks us to see that everything is connected, all human beings to each other, and us to the Earth. And if you have to go four and a half light years to another, made-up planet to appreciate this miracle of the world that we have right here, well, you know what, that’s the wonder of cinema right there, that’s the magic.”
James Cameron
Monday, January 18, 2010
Friday, December 25, 2009
God, I love movies.
There are many reasons for this, but like many people, I have a complete connection with movies.
The best ones get me physically, mentally and spiritually. They fill me with adrenaline from fear or excitement, or they are sensual and erotic, or they are funny and cathartic, or … you get the picture. They challenge my mind or maybe they don’t, some let me put my mind in neutral and just escape. Some are puzzles and some are philosophical. But the best ones touch my soul. They fill me with awe and joy and sadness and compassion and energy and love and anger and rage and disgust … and I feel so much. Often more than what I feel in real life.
Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel talked and wrote about this often. The movie experience is unlike any other. You sit in a dark room, while an image is projected from behind you through the darkness to the screen. A large screen filled with wonder and sound that fills your head. You are immersed in the physical and psychological experience. It works for me.
In fact I crave this experience. I want it when I fork over my money and take the time to go to the theater I want it to be this type of experience. I gladly give myself over to the great directors and cinematographers so they can tell their stories to me, for me. I share that experience with them and with all the people in the theater and with all the people who see the movie all over the world.
The movie theater experience is special, almost religious and definitely magical for me.
I don’t want it interrupted by talking patrons, crying babies, cell phones, uncomfortable seats or temperatures, bad lighting, food odors, unwelcome bathroom runs and stupidity. I respect the movie makers, the actors and the experience. It is like a contract I have with them. And if they and I are lucky, I will take that experience with me forever.
This is something you cannot fully experience at home in front of your TV, even now with these awesome screens and sound systems in the living room. It just isn’t the same. But it is getting closer. Still, I will always choose the movie theater experience for the biggest and the best movies, the ones designed to take full advantage of this experience. Most are action moves, but not all. Some are sweeping romances or period pieces. Some are simply visually stunning achievements that have to be seen to be believed.
I didn’t know too much about the movie Avatar until a month or so before it came out. I saw the big TV commercial preview during a football game and I was hooked. I would definitely be giving this movie priority when it opened on a big screen near me. Then, add in the 3D experience. Would that be good or bad? What more could I learn about this before it opened?
Well, let’s start with James Cameron, one of the best directors of all time. Most of his movies are on my Best of Lists in a number of categories.; starting with Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies, and Titanic. He always takes the effects and the movie-making techniques to new levels. So I read how much work he put in to make sure that Avatar would make those same leaps, especially with the use of 3D.
As I read more about the story, the actors and as reviews began appearing, I knew I wanted to see this movie on a great screen in 3D.
But, as with most movies I see, I didn’t want to have this experience alone. I would ask my family if they would like to attend. I knew that it might not be Sharyn’s cup of tea, but she would give it a try. And I knew she realized how much this meant to me; the possibility of having a magical move experience. [By the way, I also feel this way at plays, concerts and other performances. I want to connect with the performers and let them become real within me, even for a brief moment.]
Of course, there is always the possibility that the hope and hype won’t hold true and the entire experience is a big letdown. This can happen because of the move, the audience or just my frame of mind at the time. Sometimes you aren’t ready for a movie and need to see it again to appreciate it, and conversely, sometime the second time tells you that the first time wasn’t as good as you remembered. Oh well, you pays your ticket and takes yer chances.
Harkin’s IMAX 3D, Christmas eve, chilly night. Rush there after work and picking up the family. Get tickets, doors to open in 20 minutes, almost 45 minutes before the show. Family goes to eat. I know I have to get in line to get in the theater early enough to get good seats. Line is long already. Stand outside for 15 minutes waiting for the doors to open. Young woman in front says she saw the move a few days ago and loved it. Had to see it again in 3D. Doors open, Walk up the steps into the theater as they hand me the big goofy 3D specs. Middle of the theater already full. There! The other side, near the top. I find four seats and spread my arms, stretch my legs to let passersby know that I have these saved for my family. We would have a good perch to experience the film. Not diminished in the front row or way on the side.
20th Century Fox logo looks good in 3D, so there is hope. Sound is awesome. And it begins.
For the next two hours and 40 minutes I was transfixed, in fact, I caught myself mouth wide open, jaw dropped low in gob smacked awe several times. I even had watery eyes a few times because of the beauty and pure genius I was seeing up on screen. I fidgeted with the 3D specs a few times, and the effect took a little getting used to, but that was a minor nuisance.
The bottom line: With Avatar, I have never seen a better, more beautiful, amazing and awe inspiring piece of moviemaking.
Avatar was a great movie on many levels. The visual effects and inspired use of 3D technology made it greater. I can go on and on about specific scenes and characters, and probably will at a later date. But, I loved the story’s characters and politics, didn’t think the dialogue was as clunky as some had reported, and thought the special effects were the best ever. In short, I believed.
I believed, and that is what I want most when I go to the movies. I was rooting for the good guys and angry at the bad guys, scared of the wildlife and thrilled at the plant life, the scenic vistas were realistic, hell, even the Na’vi were sexy beautiful. It was all stunning really.
I will be seeing this again. Alone (except for the other paying customers), I’m sure. But I will find the time very soon to see it again (at a different theater with different 3D technology this time, just to see the differences.)
Avatar is solidly in my Top 10 Films of All-Time right now, another viewing will let me digest it more fully and see where it should end up. Not sure if it can surpass the Lord of the Rings trilogy or Moulin Rouge, but if I could book a spaceship ride to Pandora right now I would.
The best ones get me physically, mentally and spiritually. They fill me with adrenaline from fear or excitement, or they are sensual and erotic, or they are funny and cathartic, or … you get the picture. They challenge my mind or maybe they don’t, some let me put my mind in neutral and just escape. Some are puzzles and some are philosophical. But the best ones touch my soul. They fill me with awe and joy and sadness and compassion and energy and love and anger and rage and disgust … and I feel so much. Often more than what I feel in real life.
Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel talked and wrote about this often. The movie experience is unlike any other. You sit in a dark room, while an image is projected from behind you through the darkness to the screen. A large screen filled with wonder and sound that fills your head. You are immersed in the physical and psychological experience. It works for me.
In fact I crave this experience. I want it when I fork over my money and take the time to go to the theater I want it to be this type of experience. I gladly give myself over to the great directors and cinematographers so they can tell their stories to me, for me. I share that experience with them and with all the people in the theater and with all the people who see the movie all over the world.
The movie theater experience is special, almost religious and definitely magical for me.
I don’t want it interrupted by talking patrons, crying babies, cell phones, uncomfortable seats or temperatures, bad lighting, food odors, unwelcome bathroom runs and stupidity. I respect the movie makers, the actors and the experience. It is like a contract I have with them. And if they and I are lucky, I will take that experience with me forever.
This is something you cannot fully experience at home in front of your TV, even now with these awesome screens and sound systems in the living room. It just isn’t the same. But it is getting closer. Still, I will always choose the movie theater experience for the biggest and the best movies, the ones designed to take full advantage of this experience. Most are action moves, but not all. Some are sweeping romances or period pieces. Some are simply visually stunning achievements that have to be seen to be believed.
I didn’t know too much about the movie Avatar until a month or so before it came out. I saw the big TV commercial preview during a football game and I was hooked. I would definitely be giving this movie priority when it opened on a big screen near me. Then, add in the 3D experience. Would that be good or bad? What more could I learn about this before it opened?
Well, let’s start with James Cameron, one of the best directors of all time. Most of his movies are on my Best of Lists in a number of categories.; starting with Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies, and Titanic. He always takes the effects and the movie-making techniques to new levels. So I read how much work he put in to make sure that Avatar would make those same leaps, especially with the use of 3D.
As I read more about the story, the actors and as reviews began appearing, I knew I wanted to see this movie on a great screen in 3D.
But, as with most movies I see, I didn’t want to have this experience alone. I would ask my family if they would like to attend. I knew that it might not be Sharyn’s cup of tea, but she would give it a try. And I knew she realized how much this meant to me; the possibility of having a magical move experience. [By the way, I also feel this way at plays, concerts and other performances. I want to connect with the performers and let them become real within me, even for a brief moment.]
Of course, there is always the possibility that the hope and hype won’t hold true and the entire experience is a big letdown. This can happen because of the move, the audience or just my frame of mind at the time. Sometimes you aren’t ready for a movie and need to see it again to appreciate it, and conversely, sometime the second time tells you that the first time wasn’t as good as you remembered. Oh well, you pays your ticket and takes yer chances.
Harkin’s IMAX 3D, Christmas eve, chilly night. Rush there after work and picking up the family. Get tickets, doors to open in 20 minutes, almost 45 minutes before the show. Family goes to eat. I know I have to get in line to get in the theater early enough to get good seats. Line is long already. Stand outside for 15 minutes waiting for the doors to open. Young woman in front says she saw the move a few days ago and loved it. Had to see it again in 3D. Doors open, Walk up the steps into the theater as they hand me the big goofy 3D specs. Middle of the theater already full. There! The other side, near the top. I find four seats and spread my arms, stretch my legs to let passersby know that I have these saved for my family. We would have a good perch to experience the film. Not diminished in the front row or way on the side.
20th Century Fox logo looks good in 3D, so there is hope. Sound is awesome. And it begins.
For the next two hours and 40 minutes I was transfixed, in fact, I caught myself mouth wide open, jaw dropped low in gob smacked awe several times. I even had watery eyes a few times because of the beauty and pure genius I was seeing up on screen. I fidgeted with the 3D specs a few times, and the effect took a little getting used to, but that was a minor nuisance.
The bottom line: With Avatar, I have never seen a better, more beautiful, amazing and awe inspiring piece of moviemaking.
Avatar was a great movie on many levels. The visual effects and inspired use of 3D technology made it greater. I can go on and on about specific scenes and characters, and probably will at a later date. But, I loved the story’s characters and politics, didn’t think the dialogue was as clunky as some had reported, and thought the special effects were the best ever. In short, I believed.
I believed, and that is what I want most when I go to the movies. I was rooting for the good guys and angry at the bad guys, scared of the wildlife and thrilled at the plant life, the scenic vistas were realistic, hell, even the Na’vi were sexy beautiful. It was all stunning really.
I will be seeing this again. Alone (except for the other paying customers), I’m sure. But I will find the time very soon to see it again (at a different theater with different 3D technology this time, just to see the differences.)
Avatar is solidly in my Top 10 Films of All-Time right now, another viewing will let me digest it more fully and see where it should end up. Not sure if it can surpass the Lord of the Rings trilogy or Moulin Rouge, but if I could book a spaceship ride to Pandora right now I would.
It has been a long time ...
Well, I'm going to try to get back to blogging so I have a means of self-expression, even if no one will ever read it.
For now, how about this:
.
For now, how about this:
.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Finally! Some Christians with the guts to say "enough"!
Robert Marus & Ken Camp at the Associated Baptist Press write a great piece that is a challenge to Christians and asks them to think about their motives for spreading libelous e-mails:
Go read this!
Fear Not: What does virtual rumor-mongering say about Christians?
Thanks to the Internet, some gullible American Christians can engage in one of their favorite hobbies -- digging up the metaphorical corpse of Madalyn Murray O’Hair and rhetorically flogging it -- more easily than ever before.
Even though the famous atheist’s body was discovered in 1998 and positively identified in Texas -- and even though she apparently has been dead since she disappeared in 1995 -- patently false rumors about her alleged anti-Christian campaigns continue to spread. Credulous Christians who once forwarded these kinds of rumors in mimeographed chain letters or spread them on talk radio now can broadcast them around the world with the mere click of a mouse.
And, of course, O’Hair is not alone in the annals of perceived enemies of Christ about whom some Christians will spread the most ridiculous stories, not bothering to do the merest hint of fact-checking on them.
From the old Procter & Gamble Satanism libel to tales of more recent vintage about President Obama’s faith and citizenship, Internet-fueled rumors seem to run rampant. And, frighteningly, Christians seem at the very least to be as susceptible as the population at large to the habit of spreading false stories.
So, why are Christians so willing to believe unsubstantiated rumors? And more troubling, why are Christians, who should hold the highest standards of truth-telling, so eager to spread such rumors -- and even downright libels?
...
The advent of the Internet only made the rumors easier to spread and harder to correct.
Rumors about what people love to hate
Rumors like the ones tied to O’Hair become more powerful when they tap into the hostility and distrust toward government that is widespread among conservative Christians. It’s easy for the average evangelical to believe any rumor that fits this larger political paradigm.
Factor in a contentious presidential election and the stakes go even higher. During the 2000 campaign -- the first in the age of widespread Internet access -- dutiful Christian culture-warriors worked overtime.
...
Things only got worse in the 2008 election. With one candidate deeply distrusted by the Religious Right having a background unlike any presidential contender before him -- a nominally Muslim father from Kenya, a freethinking American mother who raised him in the United States and, for a time, in Indonesia -- the rumor mills worked overtime.
Many of those e-mails seemed marketed directly to fearful Christians. One frequently forwarded message -- also debunked by Snopes -- identifies Barack Obama as the son of a black Muslim from Kenya and a white atheist from Kansas.
...
Some Christians are so willing to believe rumors that reflect well on their heroes and poorly on their opponents that they abandon even a modest concern for the veracity of the rumors. Yet the Bible clearly prohibits “bearing false witness” and spreading rumors and gossip. Perhaps Christians who spread such rumors think they serve a greater purpose, as if the end justifies the means, some ethicists speculate.
The real truth
Ethicist Tillman called on Christians to examine their biases and prejudices, which he described as “tough exercise,” because it forces Christians to explore the influences that shaped them.
Gullibility may grow out of fear and anxiety, he added. And that directly relates to what people believe.
“I suggest to my students, ‘Tell me something about your fears, and I will tell you something of your theology,’” Tillman said. “Dealing with our fears -- an action usually dismissed or ignored -- may be one of the keys to understanding just which e-mails we forward and those we don’t.”
...
The key to confronting such bad habits among Christians is proper spiritual formation on the ethics of truth-telling, gossip and rumor-spreading, experts said.
...
“If we are gullible, we need some help to sort out the nonsense we should question from the truth that we should spread.... If we are fearful and envious, just too quick to gossip or criticize, we need that deep love that calms our fears and removes the need to impress others. That love comes from God through Christ, but the Holy Spirit often communicates it to us through our good spiritual friends.”
...
“In general, we need to help Christians act like Christians in public life and not just in private life, and not to get sucked into the polarization, partisan idolatry and demonization so common now in media and government,” Gushee said.
...''
Go read this!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
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To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.
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Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Deism Ain't Dead
Loved this post and the poll about changes in religious beliefs ... Yes, Andrew Sullivan, Jefferson may be smiling ...
The Return Of American Deism
After this ghastly revival of literalist, self-help fundamentalism, there's a shift in American religion:
The rise of the Nones is usually decried by religious leaders as a sign of secularization or atheism's ascent but get this: 51% say they believe in God.
Now some of those folks might just be religious people in between churches. So the Trinity folks asked them to describe what kind of God they believed in.
24% say they believe in "a higher power but no personal God." That would mean about 3.6% of Americans could be considered Deists, making them more common than Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, or Mormons.
Barry Kosmin, one of the authors of the study, points out that an earlier study that looked at Nones as well as those who did "affiliate" with a religion found that 12% were Deistic. That would make Deists bigger than all of the aforementioned groups combined, and one of the largest spiritual groupings in America.
Somewhere Jefferson is smiling.
.
I want to go to Okinawa
Watch this full screen, it is so damn beautiful.
Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world - (song is Please don't go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.
.Wednesday, September 23, 2009
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Thursday, September 17, 2009
Delayed Gratification
We've talked about the "Marshmallow Experiment" a lot in our house over the last few years.
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Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.
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Monday, August 3, 2009
Sharyn and I celebrated our
Sharyn and I celebrated our 4th anniversary with an awesome dinner at Morton's on 5th Avenue ... walking through NYC on a beautiful night!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
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