The bluehavens

Tom in the Box nails it again:

(Hint: this is satire.)

(Hmmm, if this image doesn’t load for you, here’s the original link: http://tominthebox.blogspot.com/2010/01/breaking-news-episcopal-church.html

I grew up on the anime series Starblazers in the ’70s. My brother and I would rework our lives in order to make sure we caught each episode each week, even if it was one we’d seen before. So, I’m quite happy to read at SF Signal that a live-action movie of it is being made in Japan.

Some thoughts on Avatar (which I haven’t seen):

Most of the commentary I’ve seen/heard can be boiled down to either (a) “This is a great movie — maybe the greatest ever! — and the visuals are a real eye-treat!” or (b) “The theme of the movie is problematic once you get through all the cliches — but the visuals are a real eye-treat!”

There’s a trend here: the visuals must be a real eye-treat. Maybe I’m officially an old-fart, even before my 40th birthday later this year, but for me the eye-treat is only a secondary virtue of a story. The story itself must be good before I’ll get all excited about a movie. I’d rather have a good, non-cliched story with poor visuals than the inverse.

I’ll probably see Avatar eventually, although I’ve managed so far to avoid Titanic and other huge blockbusters I’ve been told I “have to” see. To be honest, though, I wasn’t all that excited about it from the trailer. The story looked awful and the visuals looked so… fake. I was reading a blog last week (sorry — can’t remember which one it was) and the author was stating how the violence in Apocalypse Now was so much more moving to his college students than what they encounter in the huge SFX spectaculars of today because it wasn’t computerized. When something blew up… it blew up! Even those that we’ve brought up with these fake effects (which can be quite stunning at times) still recognize that they are fake. Pre-CGI effects felt more real, more like the reality we experience, even when it was a 7-foot tall Wookiie or a monster shark or aliens visiting a park in Wyoming.

“All our entertainments, good as they may be in themselves, can all too often function like sedatives that mask our awareness of some underlying tedium in our reality.” - Richard Winter

From Brandywine Books.

In 2009, I read a total of 109 books. (That is, I completed 109 books. If you notice, I finished a mammoth book on Jan 1, so I obviously read most of it in 2008.)

Like with 2008, I ended 2009 thinking that there wasn’t much memorable with what I read for the year, but looking back at the list, I see there were quite a few noteworthy books out there:

• Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series
• The first two parts of Jana Oliver’s time-travel series
• Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld and Boneshaker by Cherie Priest both showing how steampunk should be written
• Shakespeare by Another Name
• The Case for Gold by Ron Paul
• Not with a Bang but a Whimper
• Adopted for Life by Russell Moore

The problem is that there were enough ‘meh’ books that those seem to dominate over the good reads. For 2010, I’m going to try to avoid the ‘meh’ books as much as possible, or just give up on them sooner: there’s not enough time for mediocrity.

Some other stats:

• 29 books (or 27%) were from the library (that’s what the red means on the list)
• 39 books (or 36%) were SF/F
• 3 books (or 3%) were mystery
• I read 11 books (or 10%) aloud to my wife through the year
• I read more in the first half of the year (62 books, 57%) than in the second half

Lars Walker has some great observations about how irony is lost on us these days. A must read.

One thought about the instance of Avatar being a technological wonder about the evils of technology: Is this just a pandering of our tech-benumbed souls to the idea of the Noble Savage? Are we even aware of this, or is it all just palliative, to make us not feel so bad because, hey, we can relate?

At last, someone who gets the obvious.

And along the same lines (clickthrough if my blog cuts it off):

I’m reading Derek Thomas’ contribution to the Let’s study series on Revelation. Speaking of the letters to the seven churches, he writes:

Many of the churches emerge as compromised rather than committed. There is praise, too. But there are serious areas of concern. Sexual immorality and idolatry are the chief problems in at least two of teh churches (Pergamum, Thyatira). In both, false teaching had led to false behaviour, as it always does.

Sobering application, there.

Ordinary Means is one of the better podcasts out there. It’s a group of Presbyterian pastors who chat monthly on various issues about how to live a more Godly life through the ordinary means of grace. Really inspiring.

This month’s episode is an interview with Mars Hill Audio’s Ken Myers. It’s chock full of really good discussion on how culture affects who we are. There’s also discussion about the local Mars Hill about midway through. A great listen. Highly recommended.

I was just reading a blog post about RHB’s new book, Essential Truths in the Heart of the Christian and it struck me that FAQs are this generation’s catechism.

I know, not a deep insight, but I haven’t finished my coffee yet this morning.

(And, btw, I think I just accidentally deleted some comments — I get so many comments I have to mark as spam that I sometimes overextend and delete real comments. My apologies if your comment has disappeared.)