The Matrix Has You

JMR vs. Newsweek

2008-12-17T10:48:00.001-08:00

I don't know if anyone reads this blog anymore, but I wanted to share two articles with you, if you're still out there. The first is an article Newsweek ran last week, entitled "Our Mutual Joy," that argued that the Bible supports gay marriage:

"Our Mutual Joy"

I was so frustrated as I read the article because of how grossly the authors misunderstood and twisted Scripture. I was close to commenting on the article, but decided not to because there was just too much to respond to. And (interestingly enough) the article received so many comments from both sides that they actually had to disable comments for a while because the volume was too large.

Fortunately for me, Dr. John Mark Reynolds, a professor in the Biola Torrey Honors Institute and a brilliant writer, has written a terrific response to the article. I would highly suggest it to all my readers:

"An Obvious Truth: The Bible Supports Traditional Marriage

As always, JMR's essay is brilliant and clearly shows up the false assumptions and claims of the Newsweek article while also touching on principles of biblical interpretation and even how to read old books in general. JMR vs. Newsweek: JMR wins with a knock-out in the first round!

Bathroom Vandals At Work

2008-08-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

Men's bathroom sign:

Women's bathroom sign:

My caption: "You... complete me."

An Awesome Video

2008-08-04T20:39:00.001-07:00

I know I've been posting a lot of stuff of other people's lately, and not so much stuff from my life, but this is too good to resist. (And hey, maybe you, my few but faithful readers, enjoy that more anyway.) This is an awesome video. Watch the subtitles. And if Eleanor and/or Mrs. C still read this blog, we'll have to get their input regarding Louisiana and Texas.

(Credit: I saw this on a blog I read, from a blogger who has [with this post] returned from a long blogging absence: Imprimis.)

The Word Origin Calendar Strikes Again

2008-07-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

For Christmas this past year, my mom got me a desktop calendar called "The Word Origin Calendar." Every day it provides me with the origin of a word or a phrase, and it's been very interesting thus far. This one was of particular interest, as I'd never heard it before, and I thought y'all (all, what, three of my readers) might be interested as well.

"okay, O.K. • Efforts have been made to trace this term to an African original, okeh, but this all-American term comes from President Martin Van Buren, who served from 1837 to 1841. He approved documents with the initials 'O.K.,' which stood for his nickname, Old Kinderhook, after the New York town where he was born."

Fascinating! I'll have to keep this in mind for the next useless fact competition that comes up at work....

An Awesome Comic I Just Had To Share

2008-07-20T18:39:00.000-07:00

This one's for Courtney. And for what Mark will learn soon.

(Credits: I saw it on the Language Log, and it's originally from xkcd.com.)

Official Music Video for DW's "A Savior On Capital Hill"

2008-07-14T18:31:00.000-07:00

(As seen on derekwebb.net.)

I may not agree with all the points that Derek makes in this song or video, but this is pretty clever and pretty well done. Worth a watch.

An Awesome John Piper Quote

2008-06-23T19:36:00.000-07:00

A terrific quote by one of my favorite pastors ever:

"The end of it all: the display of the fullness of His glory, magnified in the white-hot worship of a blood-bought people." - John Piper

A Quick Post Before Bedtime

2008-06-10T22:18:00.001-07:00

(Who would have ever thought that my bedtime would be 10:30 pm? If you'd told me that while I was in college, where I regularly stayed up--most nights--until 1 or 2 am, I'd have laughed.)

Work is going really well. I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I was going to; it really does appeal to the J aspects of my personality. I'm running reports, creating and closing purchase orders and invoices, updating databases. It may not sound exciting, but it's actually a lot of fun for me. And of course I'm having a great time working with Doug. The work environment is "super chill," as Mike would say: no one is afraid to just hang around and chat, some people come over to the front just to harass Doug, and I hear that "the guys" go to an Irish pub to hang out about once a week. I'm looking forward to the first time I'm invited to that.

(I added the "The place I work" link back to the "Random Stuff About Me" box in the sidebar. It's so exciting to have a workplace again.)

I'm settling into my apartment quite well too. I still have some things to unpack (lots'n'lots o' books) and things to put away, and lots of things to hang on the walls that I don't have enough wall space for, but in general I'm feeling much more at home. And the apartment has been working out very well--it's a great place. Mike and I are still planning on having an apartment-warming party once we get all our furniture, so stay tuned for that information.

And last but not least, The Listening Blog is also doing quite well. I've been getting more comments than I expected, although I'm always open for more. Some upcoming posts will include my favorite film production company video logo (the blog's worth checking out just for that), a review of the soundtrack to the movie Juno, and an interesting discussion of some extramusical sounds, complete with musical examples both visual and aural. Come check it out and tell me what you think!

Help Mike Win!

2008-06-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

Those who know my great friend and now roommate, Mike Morabito, know how much he likes to win. Now you can help him achieve this worthy goal. He's entered an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) essay contest, and he wants your comments and feedback and props on his article, which is well written and very interesting, even though it's about marketing. I don't know about you, marketing doesn't interest me much in general; but Mike's article had me hooked. And not just because I'm biased. So read his blog post, follow one of the five links in his blog post to the article, read it, and comment at the bottom, today, like right now, go!

www.moreburritos.com

The Listening Blog Lives!

2008-05-26T14:31:00.001-07:00

Yes, it's true--my latest project, a new blog, is officially being launched today!

The Listening Blog (www.thelisteningblog.com)

I created this blog basically to force myself to listen more closely to the world around me, and to force myself to analyze what I hear and write about it. As a composer, listening to me is as essential as reading to a writer, and I feel that I don't listen analytically nearly as much as I should. So I'll be posting on this blog hopefully four to seven times a week, generally short posts, about a wide variety of topics: music I'm listening to on CDs or my iPod, movie scores, classical music, pop music, interesting non-musical sounds, composition projects I'm working on, etc. Some upcoming posts will include the musical end of the TV show Alias, two film soundtrack reviews (including musical examples), and comments on songs by Aaron Copland and Dave Matthews. Although it may become technical at times, I feel like anyone who's interested in music of any kind will find it entertaining and/or enlightening. So head on over, check it out, and leave me a comment so I know you're "listening"!

... And Then He Was Gainfully Employed!

2008-05-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

Greetings readers:
I am proud and thrilled to announce that after four months of job searching, I am finally employed! I received my informal offer over the phone and then through email, and I'm just waiting for the formal letter from HR. The company is Rauxa Direct (www.rauxa.com), in Costa Mesa, and I'll be working with my good friend (and old roommate) Doug Pierson. It's not a music job, but I'm content and I'm excited about it--and of course I'll continue to compose rocking music on the side.

Four months of job searching, and then five weeks after first sending in my application to Rauxa. Mike tells me that four months is pretty typical for today's job searcher; it seemed interminable to me. But now it's all over. He and I will be looking for an apartment in the Irvine/Tustin/Santa Ana area soon, so if you know of anything hit me up.

And in the meantime--Claim Jumper tonight with the fam to celebrate!

Wine Pairs Well With Chocolate; Or, Another Short Story For You To Read

2008-05-07T15:07:00.000-07:00

(My first short story, from July 2006, is posted here.)

Several weeks ago, Mom, Dad, Mark and I were walking out of a Chili's where we'd just eaten dinner, when we noticed a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory across the street that had just opened. Eleanor was coming down to visit in a few days, and Mom suggested I take her there before going home to drink some wine Mom had purchased for the occasion--"that could be a prelude to wine," she said. My reply was, " 'A Prelude To Wine'... that would be a great title for a movie, or a short story!" I've always been skeptical of prophecy, but apparently that was a prophetic line (albeit a self-fulfilling one). Mark was inspired to change his high school senior project film to fit that premise, although he retitled it In Vino Veritas (it's brilliant, by the way); and I was inspired to write a short story. As with the last one, read it (twice) and comment. And as with the last one, be warned that it's pretty intense. Here it be:

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

A Prelude To Wine
Thursday evening, 5:55 pm
The flame leaped in a sudden flash of light as the candle was lit. Lydia blew out the match, looked at the settings on the table. Two plates, forks, knives, napkins, glasses.... She reached down to straighten one of the forks, and saw the quick glint of light on her golden wedding ring. She smiled. All was nearly ready. She went to the kitchen and retrieved a bottle of red wine, uncorked it, came back to the dining room and poured the dark crimson liquid into each glass. The doorbell rang, and she replaced the wine bottle in the kitchen and went to open the door. There was a loud crack and another bright flash; Lydia crumpled silently to the floor. The killer dropped the gun, and slowly moved toward the table.

Thursday afternoon, 2:37 pm
A bump on the track and the subway’s loud horn shook Howard from his trance. The icy feeling that had gripped him all day had pushed him under again. He felt a fresh wave of shock as he thought back to his discovery of the morning.

He had accessed his wife’s email account on their home computer before leaving for work; he couldn’t remember why. Checking an automated bank statement, or something. He’d noticed an email with a suspicious subject line from an address he didn’t recognize, and opened it to find that his wife had been cheating on him. For quite a while, as it seemed. And not only was she having sex with this man – the email disclosed that she was confiding in him, confessing some fears she’d been having lately about the security of her job and the health of her mother. Things she hadn’t even mentioned to Howard. He felt a pain in his stomach thinking about it; but it gave way to cold as he thought again of how she had told this man, and not Howard. And as he had left the house for work, stunned into silence, his wife had had the audacity to kiss him goodbye! Lydia’s kiss goodbye was more sincere!

He couldn’t focus at work, he was too distracted. After his lunch break, he logged into her email account again from his work computer and discovered another message, this time from his wife to the man – she called him “darling,” a term she never used with Howard! – making plans for an afternoon rendezvous at their house. Rage boiled inside of him, but he tried to suppress it and return to his work. After innumerable nervous trips to the water cooler, he made excuses to his boss that he felt ill and caught the early subway back, determined to accost his wife and her lover in their tryst.

He looked out the window into the dark tunnel ahead, seeing the faint pinprick of another train’s headlight coming toward him on the opposite side of the track. The subway ride was a long one and it gave him much time to think. A pang of the love he knew for his wife overwhelmed him, but it was soon hardened. She was having an affair! A faint whisper of his conscience reminded him of his ongoing liaison with Lydia. But that was different, that was just a little sex on the side; his wife hadn’t been physically affectionate with him for a long time. And besides, the last time he’d been with Lydia they had quarreled, so that might be over anyway. But his wife! Confiding in that man! And for so long! He shivered, and as he felt the cold he slipped again into an unfeeling stupor.

Thursday afternoon, 4:43 pm
At the end of the block, Howard parked his car and killed the engine. His drive back from the subway station had been a silent one, and now his movements were cool and calculated. He wanted no advance notice of his arrival. He walked the block, went noiselessly up to his own front door, and slowly opened it and entered. A noise startled him, but he realized it was the TV in the living room. As he moved past it, he briefly and unthinkingly noted the televangelist speaking from a plexiglass pulpit. He was reading from a thick Bible: “...our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deli....” Howard paused, and heard muffled sounds coming from the bedroom upstairs. He silently opened a closet door. Feeling around on the top shelf, he lifted some sheets and retrieved a handgun.

As he slowly climbed the stairs, avoiding the one that always creaked, he checked and verified that the gun was fully loaded. A left turn at the top of the staircase revealed that the bedroom door was closed, but he could now clearly make out his wife’s voice. He opened the door, saw the couple in bed and calmly fired two bullets into each of them. Crossing to the far side of the room, he crouched down beside his wife. She looked scared and confused, but saw him staring unmoved and unfeeling back at her. He noted that she was slipping away quickly. As her eyes glazed over and began to close, she whispered one word. “Lydia....”

He started. She knew about Lydia! How? How could she know? He’d never been stupid enough to email Lydia the way his wife had done.

Howard slowly stood up and moved back to the other side of the room to look at his wife’s lover. Another shock – it was Lydia’s husband! He knew him from Lydia’s pictures and a chance meeting the couples had had once at a social event. Now he would have to kill Lydia too. He felt no regrets for killing the man, but since Howard and Lydia’s quarrel last time she would probably want to make up with her husband. Forgive as forgiven, or something like that. Glancing out the window, he put up his hand to block the setting sun from his eyes. He turned away from the bedroom, walked downstairs and returned to his car.

Thursday evening, 5:56 pm
Lydia reached down to straighten one of the forks, and saw the quick glint of light on her golden wedding ring. She smiled. All was nearly ready for the dinner she had prepared for her husband. She went to the kitchen and retrieved a bottle of red wine, uncorked it, came back to the dining room and poured the dark crimson liquid into each glass. She then removed a small vial from her pocket and emptied the contents into the wine glass nearest the door. That stinking bastard of a husband of hers was finally going to get what was coming to him. She knew he was cheating on her, but that didn’t matter much. What mattered was Howard. One sip of that red wine, and her husband would be dead, and then she and Howard could be together. She knew he didn’t care much for his wife; if he did, why would he be sleeping with Lydia in the first place? She smiled again and replaced the vial in her pocket. It would be over very soon.

The doorbell rang, and she replaced the wine bottle in the kitchen and went to open the door. “Howard?” she said in surprise. Howard fired a single shot; Lydia crumpled silently to the floor. He dropped the gun, and slowly moved toward the table. He did not even feel the cold now. Noting without thinking the candles and the perfect place settings, he sat down in the chair nearest the door. He lifted the wine glass to his lips, and drank.

The End

AJ's Listening Page, Volume 2

2008-04-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

Here's my listening page #2! Sorry to be a week late--I haven't been listening to as much music as I should be lately. I'll try to do better next time. Oh, and in response to Mark's and Nicole's comments on my last listening page.... Since "inquiring minds want to know," okay, no, there's no way I could narrow my list of favorite songs down to just twenty. I was just trying to make a point. X&Y absolutely rocks. That's all.

In The Car

River of Worship - Live at Harvest 2/22/08 - Jeff Mercer Band
This is the CD that was recorded when we played at the Harvest singles ministry in February. (My blog post about it, in case you missed it, can be found here [under point #3]). I don't listen to this because it's a recording of me--my acoustic guitar plays a relatively minor role, especially in the fun little details I listen to and in my singing along. But I listen to it because it's just a really rockin' CD. Jeff is a great singer, pianist and worship leader, and his passion ignites the performance of all the musicians around him. I'll be listening to this CD for a long time. If you didn't check out the River of Worship Myspace page the last time I posted about it, go here, listen to the songs and leave Jeff a comment: http://www.myspace.com/riverofworshipmusic.

On The iPod

Belshazzar's Feast by William Walton
This is one of my favorite choral pieces of all time. It's an extended (36-minute) piece for mixed choir (guys and girls) and orchestra, with various texts from the Bible dealing with the Jewish exile to Babylon, Belshazzar's feast in which he sees the writing on the wall, and the fall of Babylon. I sang it in my first semester with the University Singers choir at Cal State Fullerton, under the baton of John Alexander (the link is to a Cal State Fullerton faculty info page--he's not at the school anymore but the page is still there), and the better I got to know the piece the more I liked it. It has its big loud sections about the destruction of Babylon, and its hushed a cappella sections: "How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" Walton's word painting is excellent (including some just-not-quite-normal chords on the word "strange" in the aforementioned a cappella passage), and his use of unifying recurring motives is brilliant. There's a fun section in the middle, during the feast, where Belshazzar is saying "Praise ye the god of gold, the god of silver, the god of brass, the god of iron," etc., where the orchestra mirrors what the choir is singing--the "god of silver" is played with a silver xylophone, the "god of brass" gets a brass fanfare, etc. It's a powerful piece that leaves the listener very satisfied at its end. I'd recommend it to anyone, although some of its more adventuresome harmonies may be difficult to swallow for untrained ears. (Hmm... sorry to mix sensory metaphors there....)

Renewing Your Mind by R.C. Sproul - "God Is Love"
Okay, this isn't technically music, but it's what I listened to on my iPod last night. Renewing Your Mind is a daily radio program produced by Ligonier Ministries, the ministry of R.C. Sproul, and they have a daily podcast of the program. R.C. Sproul is a PCA minister (we went to his church when we visited Florida on the road trip), lecturer and author, and has taught classes, seminars, and conferences for way more years than I've been alive, and has written way more books than you can imagine, and he's awesome. Most of the time the Renewing Your Mind broadcasts aren't delivered in an especially dynamic, passion-charged way--because they're really lectures--but his teaching is so direct and clear that it's life-changing anyway, and his passion for teaching God's people about God's character is obvious. The episode I listened to last night was the first in a series entitled "Loved By God," and it was a lecture on 1 John 4:7-11, which contains the famous phrase "God is love." Sproul talked about the magnificence of the love of God, while also cautioning that God's love must be understood in the context of His other attributes, such as justice, sovereignty and holiness. Many people proclaim that God is a God of love to the detriment or even ignorance of His other characteristics, and Sproul did an excellent job of tempering an awesome exposition of God's love with an enlightening discussion of its relationship to His overall character. If you're interested in listening to some of Sproul's talks, go to his ministry's website, www.ligonier.org, and click on "Video" or "Audio" in the media center box. A search for "R.C. Sproul" in the iTunes store will turn up the daily podcast.

That's all for now! Look for an exciting post here in the next couple of days--another story like the story I wrote two years ago. And in the meantime comment!

Hold Please, Your Readership Is Very Important To Me....

2008-04-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

I'm planning to post another Listening Page this Sunday; I'm also waiting to hear about a job possibility; and pending that job I'm waiting to move. Currently circling in a holding pattern.... In the meantime, check these out:

My Literary Ramblings. This is my cousin Nicole's first blog, so head on over, leave her a comment and welcome her into the blogging world.
Jason & Nolan Livesay. These twin brothers, both of whom have been involved in LifeHouse (Nolan wrote all the music for their current show, The Rise of King David), are amazing. They're amazing vocalists, amazing violinists, and amazing composers. If you click on the "Live Music" link on their homepage, and then click "albums / media" (or, as a shortcut, if you just click here) you can watch some incredible videos of their violin performances, especially the "Best of JASON & NOLAN live!" and "Devil Went Down to Georgia." Your face will be rocked off.
Isn't this cool? I discovered the HTML code for making an unordered list....

AJ's Listening Page, Volume 1

2008-04-06T16:57:00.001-07:00

Ever wonder what an on-his-way-to-being-famous composer listens to? Well, now you'll know. Inspired by Mike's recent post about his mix-of-the-month club, I've decided to start posting blog entries of stuff I'm listening to, in two categories: "In The Car" (the CD currently in my car's CD player--I don't have a changer so you'll only get one at a time) and "On The iPod." I'm hoping to post maybe every other week, and to keep it consistent I'll try to post on Sundays. So, I hereby present to you... AJ's Listening Page, Volume 1!

In The Car

X&Y - Coldplay
I decided on the trip that this was my single favorite album of all time. I like Coldplay's two previous albums, as well (Parachutes and A Rush Of Blood To The Head), but this is a masterpiece. I could go on for probably more than a full post's length, but I'll restrain myself this time. The musicianship of the whole band, and the compositional brilliance of the songwriting (both in lyrics and music), is in evidence through every minute of every song. In aesthetic and artistic terms, the meshing of the lyrics and music is the best on any album I've ever heard; and there is never a note, a chord or a musical line out of place anywhere. The other thing that makes it my favorite album of all is that there are no songs on the album that I dislike, which I cannot say for any other albums I might consider (even U2 albums). This in addition to the album having multiple songs that would probably make my top 20 song list of all time, including "Fix You," "A Message," "Swallowed In The Sea" and "Kingdom Come." Tracks 1-4, 8, and 11-13 are pure brilliance; the rest are just amazing. Okay, that's enough for now. On to...

On The iPod

(I think I'll usually try to keep this category to three songs or albums in each edition. As per proper punctuation rules, italics indicate either a complete classical work or an album, while "quotes" indicate an individual song [as you will note in the paragraph above].)

Fratres by Arvo Pärt
Pärt is an Estonian composer of minimalistic music, particularly a style known sometimes as "holy minimalism" (and ridiculed sometimes as "Holy minimalism, Batman!"). This is one of his best-known works--a hauntingly beautiful piece for four cellos. It's one of those pieces in which the composer sets up a pattern, writes the beginning, and then lets the rest of the piece write itself (I hope to write a piece like this someday, it just seems too easy). In this particular piece, he writes a chord progression which begins at a very high pitch; then he repeats the progression nine times (I think), and each time the progression starts on a different, lower pitch, until it ends in the deep middle-low range of the cellos. The piece is about 10 minutes long, but it never gets boring because of the balance of repetition (the same general progression) and contrast (different chords in the progression in different ranges). When I saw Shakespeare's Richard III at Cal State Fullerton a few years ago, this piece was used very effectively as background music; it was especially clever because the title of the work, which is Latin for "brothers," captures the fraternal conflict at the center of the play. It's a really cool piece.

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565 by Johann Sebastian Bach (performed by Ton Koopman in the version I'm listening to)
This is that famous organ piece that conjures up Halloween-style spookiness for most people, but it's a great piece of music notwithstanding. This version, performed by Netherlands conductor and organist Ton Koopman, is the only version I've ever heard where the performer plays trills on the long notes of the opening. It's certainly within contemporary performance practice of the 18th century, but I've never heard it done on this particular piece before. According to the Wikipedia article linked on Koopman's name above, he has been criticized by some for overuse of ornamentation, and in addition to the opening there's certainly a lot more ornamentation than I'm used to. But like I said, historically speaking it's legit, and I like this version, though perhaps not as much as the version I listened to growing up. Funny how the first recording you hear of a particular piece tends to stick in your head as your default interpretation--I've noticed this with several classical works. But in any case, this is an interesting recording of an excellent piece.
(NOTE: I wanted to put up MP3 samples contrasting Koopman's opening with the traditional one, for those of you not familiar with the piece, but since I purchased the file from the iTunes music store it's in m4p protected format [not to be confused with mp4], and the only legal ways to circumvent that protection involve personal use. Putting the sample on my website for YOU to listen to doesn't count as MY personal use, so unfortunately I guess you'll just have to investigate it on your own.)

Various songs by Céline Dion
I know, I know (as I duck the rotten tomatoes from my readers), the truth comes out: I'm secretly a Céline Dion fan. Not too much, but just enough. I remember hearing her songs on the radio when I was younger (back in the days before I disowned radio), and just recently I bought seven of them from iTunes for old times' sake. And now, as a (more) mature composer, I still enjoy them. They're not great songs, by any means, but they're catchy and fun to listen to and I really like Dion's voice: it's powerful and versatile and very distinctive. An article by the excellent culture writer Gene Edward Veith in World Magazine several weeks ago compared "pop culture" to junk food: It's okay to indulge in junk food every once in a while, as long as your primary diet is substantial and healthy food. Translation: It's okay to enjoy Céline Dion as long as the other artists on my listening page are as good as Coldplay, Pärt and Bach.

Comments are welcomed, encouraged and solicited. Please feel free to comment on the first three items as well as dissing me for liking Céline Dion.

Recent Blogs of Note

2008-04-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

A quick update on some of the blogs I've been reading lately. My attention to these is more sporadic than the blogs currently in the sidebar, which is why these latest won't be added there; but you should still check them out yourself anyway.

1. Eleventary. This is a new blog by George Grant that has as its premise that each post (not including the title) must be exactly eleven words. The blog's tagline is "An Exercise in Compositional Conciseness, Preciseness, and (Sometimes) Not So Niceness" (which also has eleven words--count 'em!). Try commenting on one of his posts, using eleven words, and you'll find that it's not as easy as it seems. There's nothing too profound or crazy here but it makes for a fun read.

2. The Scriptorium Daily. This is a blog sponsored by Biola's Torrey Institute; my brother Mark is currently taking Torrey's high school course and will be entering the official Torrey Institute at Biola in the fall. The professors write on a very wide range of topics, from politics to theology to art to culture to Super Smash Bros. Brawl to the drawings of one of the authors' seven-year-old son. I haven't found an RSS feed, and even if I did I probably wouldn't add it to my Google Reader because there are multiple posts per day. But I wish I had time to read all of it because it's all brilliant. My favorite contributors are John Mark Reynolds, who has offered some amazingly insightful comments on the upcoming election and literature and love and marriage and--well, suffice it to say he's awesome (he's also the one who wrote a review of Brawl); and Fred Sanders, Mark's personal favorite, who is just as brilliant and even funnier. Check it out.

3. Inland Traveler. This is the latest blog by Carolyn Burns Bass, Marge's mother and one of my favorite bloggers (you may remember her brilliant blog, Fun With Blanks). "CBB" is writing a weekly column for the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper, which will be posted on the Inland Traveler blog. So go along for the ride!

Alright, I'm done for now. I've typed "< a href="http://blahblahblah">" so many times I'm about to turn into an "a href" myself. Whatever the heck that is.

Movie Review: Heavyhandedness and Horrible Humor Haunt Horton Hears A Who

2008-03-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

Before beginning this review, in the interests of full Disclosure I have a few Disclaimers to Declare. A short time ago, following a link on Stephen's blog I read this article by Lou Engle regarding the then-upcoming movie Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who!. Engle "prophesies" that this book and movie is (albeit unwittingly) an allegory about ending abortion, specifically about young people (represented by Jo-Jo in the story) raising their voices in defense of the unborn (somehow also represented by the Whos). I don't know Engle and I've never heard him speak, so I can't say much, but I think this article is not a little far-fetched. I appreciate his belief in God's sovereignty, and how God can use people even without their knowledge to accomplish His ends, but I think some of Engle's connections are pretty ridiculous. He believes the antagonistic kangaroo stands for the "kangaroo court" that legalized abortion in 1973; he offers this explanation for the line "In the Fairfax Apartments (Apartment 12-J)": "12 = government; J = Justice"; he sees the line "The time for all Whos who have blood that is red" corresponding somehow to the "Blood," presumably of Jesus; and (one of my favorites) he interprets little Jo-Jo's exclamation of the nonsense word "YOPP!" as an acronym for Young Ones Praying and Prophesying. I admit that I could be wrong that this is going too far, and it's possible that Engle is correct, but I think that most of that stuff is laughable. And because Engle argued so intensely for this book being used by God to end abortion in our generation, I have to confess that that made me slightly prejudiced against the movie. More than that, I know that movies made from books tend to be far inferior to the books themselves, so I figured that this movie would be no different. SO, all that to say, I wasn't at all sure that the movie would be very good as I entered the theater last night to see it. But I wanted to keep an open mind, and I hoped that the movie itself would dispel my unfavorable expectations.

I wish I could say that it did, but (as you've already gathered from reading the title) it did not. In fact, it was much worse.

To be fair, I feel like everyone else who saw it with me (the people who were left toward the end of C-Pat's birthday party) enjoyed it. Mike said it was one of the best animated movies he's ever seen, and he's likely to buy both the soundtrack and the movie; Courtney thought it was cute. And I remember Jessica telling me that she really liked it. Unfortunately, I must beg to differ.

If I had to sum up the movie in one word, that word would be "stupid." How art thou stupid, movie? Let me count the ways:

1. The humor. It wasn't even random-stupid humor which is funny to some people but not to others (e.g. Napoleon Dynamite or The Office). It was just plain lame and unfunny. Tired, worn-out jokes we've heard a million times before and were funny maybe the first ten times. Which brings me to my next point:

2. The clichés. There was hardly anything original in this movie, and hardly anything was presented in a clever or fresh sort of way. Besides being uninteresting, they made watching the movie tiresome, and I found myself wondering--during the climactic scene, no less--how much longer I'd have to sit and continue watching it.

3. The messages. As the review in our local newspaper asked: "Why is the kangaroo so angry?" I don't understand why the kangaroo is so upset about Horton believing in the Whos; her reasoning (which she shares with a mob who gets angry unrealistically quickly) is, "He's teaching the children to use their imaginations!" This would be a funny line if it weren't so blatantly stupid. Does anyone really think that even a villian would say this? The kangaroo may be authoritarian and closed-minded but she's not stupid enough to say something like that. And the mob. They have even less reason to be upset than the kangaroo does, and they're ready to lynch Horton just because he hears voices. I'm all for movies showing up how easily people get caught up in blind followings (portrayed well, for example, in Monty Python's Life Of Brian), but this is ridiculous. The message that Engle (rightly) attaches to is "A person's a person, no matter how small," but that comes across much more strongly in the musical and the book than the movie. And when the Mayor tries to warn the city council that Whoville is facing its impending doom, they push a smiley-face button which first puts him under a glass jar and then escorts him out with some boot-kicks in his rear. Why are they so intensely focused on making sure that nothing bad ever happens that they have a smiley-face button? The idea of an authoritarian regime perpetuating the myth of a false utopia is a perfect example of how heavyhanded the movie is--does that intense of a subplot, even when it tries to present itself in a funny way, really fit into a movie that's supposed to be whimsical?

4. The music. (You knew this was coming, didn't you?) If I had to score this movie, I would make it sparse, fun, and whimsical. John Powell's score uses a large orchestra with lots of powerful brass and drums, and ridiculously over-the-top triumphant fanfares more suited to a sports drama than a children's story. It was one of many heavyhanded elements that detracted awfully from the movie. According to his IMDB page, Powell has scored a bunch of animated kids' movies including Ice Age 2, Robots, Shrek, and Chicken Run, and has been a prolific composer of all kinds of movies since the late 1990s. I don't know if this was just a random miss for him, but you'd think he'd have gotten the hang of it by now. The musical setting of the one line "A person's a person, no matter how small" in the musical Seussical shows more understanding of Dr. Seuss than this entire score does.

5. The characters. I have nothing against Jim Carrey and Steve Carell--in fact I generally like them--except for the fact that they tend to play exactly the same characters in every one of their movies. But they are miscast in this film, for that very reason. Horton (Carrey) is a silly oaf and the Mayor of Whoville (Carell) is incompetent, narrow-minded and unsympathetic. In the book, if I recall, Horton is good-hearted and simple but not idiotic, and the Mayor is harassed because his message is unbelievable, not because his personality is. And Jo-Jo, who in the book is just a "very small shirker" who doesn't raise his voice at first, in the movie is cast as the Mayor's misunderstood and semi-rebellious son, with emo-style hair and moodiness, who looks different from every other Who. Why?

6. The animation. I have to confess that the animation, in and of itself, was very good, and Courtney in particular said that it was one of her favorite aspects of the movie. But it wasn't Dr. Seuss. It was slick, smooth, airbrushed and picture-perfect; it lacked the bold strokes, goofiness and simplicity of the original drawings. Of course, I know that they weren't trying to animate the original drawings; but (I must qualify this) to a certain degree the medium says something about the message, and the animation certainly betrayed the movie's disconnect with Seuss' original ideas.

These last three points display the movie's greatest weakness: its complete misunderstanding of its subject material. It takes a great story by one of the greatest children's authors of all time, Dr. Seuss, and makes it into a slickly-packaged Disney-style movie, and a bad one at that. I understand that they were making their own movie, but if they had such a great affinity for Dr. Seuss (which they apparently do since they put his name in the movie's title), why did they stray so far from the spirit of the good doctor's story? Perhaps the best example is a scene in which Horton is traveling to Mount Nool to provide the Whos with a safe place to live, and imagines himself to be a daring hero. This initiates a sequence that is a spoof of manga/Pokemon-style animation, with intentionally over-the-top exaggerations and comic-book-type fighting. It's mildly funny, but ridiculously out of place even in this ridiculous movie, and is a poor parody, not a reflection, of Seuss' imagination. Although Seuss weaves important messages into his stories (e.g. "A person's a person, no matter how small"), he does it in such a way that the stories remain fun, funny and whimsical. This movie is none of those things, but rather tiresome, lame and heavyhanded, which sometimes makes it seem like it's trying too hard. The very end is a good example: Horton postulates that even his world, which is unimaginably large to the Whos on the speck of dust, may be only a speck to another, even more unimaginably large world. A worthy sentiment which is not too badly portrayed. As he finishes, the camera pulls out until the world upon which Horton and his friends stand is only a speck floating through space with other specks... until one of the characters from the previous scene floats by, herself as large as the specks. The movie undermines its own message for the sake of a cheap joke.

I suppose I must concede the fact that I may be way off base, because I seem to be the only person who feels this way. A quick glance at Google's compliation of reviews gives the movie 4 out of 5 stars, with 22 positive reviews, 10 neutral ones and only 1 negative. Rotten Tomatoes, another review compiler, shows it at 78% positive from a total of 110 reviews. It also shows this tagline: "Consensus: Stays true to the spirit of Dr. Seuss' classic story." In my view this could not be further from the truth. I suppose this is either a sad Commentary on our Culture's Critical Commentators... or a sad commentary on my Proclivity to Pontificate Peevishly on Pessimistic Points.

Any comments? Agree or disagree? Why?

This Is For All My Artist Friends (Who Don't Read My Blog Anymore)

2008-03-27T19:39:00.000-07:00

(Except for Eleanor--she's the only artist friend left who still reads it....)

I saw this today on Dr. George Grant's blog, Grantian Florilegium, and thought it was awesome, and thought I'd pass it on to all of you. ("All" of you! As if I had lots of readers! Ha! ha!)

(This is my first experiment with embedding video. Isn't it exciting?)

I Just Discovered My New Motto

2008-03-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

I found it on this website. Here's my new motto:

Audio, video, disco.

(It's Latin, of course, and it means "I hear, I see, I learn." But as long as they look like English words, nobody has to know....)

Now, back to AJ's regularly scheduled life....

2008-03-17T17:20:00.001-07:00

I promised in my last post that I would blog about my life soon. Unfortunately, now that I sit at my computer to do so, I realize I don't have much to write about; but I'll give you what I've got.

1. Job searching. I'm still looking for a job. I'm still hoping for something music-related, but at this point it's about time to start exploring other options. I haven't really had any leads, except with a small recording studio in L.A. that I don't think will turn into anything. The economy being how it is, and me having the little to no experience I have... put two and two together. And if you know of any jobs, send 'em my way.

2. Hangin' with the girlfriend factor. This doesn't happen nearly enough as I wish it did, because gas is freakin' expensive and my lovely Eleanor is far away from me in Fullerton. But we see each other sometimes once a week, sometimes once every two weeks, and I fall more in love with her every time. I hung out with her and her family yesterday; we were supposed to take a boat to Catalina Island to attend a surprise birthday party for her cousin. But because of expected bad weather, they wouldn't let anyone make the trip twice in one day, so if we went out to the island, we'd have to stay overnight. We went out to brunch instead with the other cousins and her aunt and uncle who were supposed to go over with us; so it worked out okay for us. But I feel bad for her cousin who was trapped on the island and whose birthday party was forfeited by bad weather.

3. Hangin' with m'friend Jeff. I certainly love my family and love hanging out with them, and I'm grateful to my parents for letting me stay at home while I'm looking for a job, but I think I would be certifiably insane by now if I didn't have Jeff to give me a reason to get out of the house. Jeff is the "assistant worship director" at the church we used to attend in Redlands (before the house church); he also leads a monthly Saturday night worship service--the "River of Worship"--at the church. In addition to just hanging out with Jeff and his wife Carmen, I've played guitar for him at some River of Worship events as well as a few other worship things, like chapels for a Christian high school and Christian Community College. He's a great musician and a terrific worship leader, and it's always a pleasure to play with him.

The most exciting thing Jeff and I have done recently is gotten the chance to lead worship with the River of Worship team for the singles' ministry at Harvest, the Riverside megachurch. We had the good fortune to have a really good sound tech working for us, who recorded the whole service. Jeff did a lot of editing to an already good recording, and he's posted the songs up on the River of Worship Myspace page. This will probably be the only time I'll ever promote a Myspace here on my blog, but the recording is really good and you should check it out: www.myspace.com/riverofworshipmusic. The acoustic guitar that you hear is me; Jeff sings and plays the piano. Give him a bunch of views and song plays and leave a comment and make him happy.

4. Composing rocking music. I just last week finished my latest composition, an art song for bass/baritone voice and piano called New Hope. The text is by my uncle Tom; you should check out his blog because it's cool, and you should check out New Hope in particular because it's the text of my piece. I'm trying to put up the information about the piece on my website but my host server is down for maintenance or some crap like that; I'll let you know when it's back up. I have a couple more composing projects waiting in the wings, and I'll post about them as they begin to take shape.

So that's about it. Check out Jeff's Myspace and comment, check out Uncle Tom's blog and comment. And comment here too. I was reading over a bunch of old posts a few weeks ago, and I used to average 5 comments a post, 7 sometimes, and I even got 12 or 15 occasionally. Why doesn't that happen anymore?

UPDATE, 10:55 pm: My host server has apparently resolved its troubles, because I was able to get on and update my site. So go to the Music page and check out the info on New Hope!

Star Wars: Episode IV According To A Three-Year-Old

2008-03-10T16:34:00.000-07:00

This is one of the funniest YouTube videos I've seen in a long time - a three-year-old girl summarizing Star Wars.

Star Wars according to a 3 year old.

Be sure to click the "more" link under "About This Video" on the right - it has some funny information.

After you've watched that video, if you have two more minutes to spare, watch this version, with clips of the movie spliced in:

Star Wars according to 3 year old (with clips)

In a few days a blog post actually related to me and my life--instead of just relaying funny stuff from the internet--will be forthcoming, I promise....

ALOLCats

2008-03-05T16:00:00.000-08:00

LOL Cats is a sometimes lame, sometimes hilarious site that posts funny pictures of cats with often funnier captions. I'm happy slash sad to say I wasted a few hours on this site several days ago, but just so you, my faithful readers, don't have to do the same, I picked out some of the best for you. (All photos are courtesy of LOL Cats and are copyright of their respective owners.) Here you go; enjoy!

One of my favorite types of pictures/captions is "Invisible" things:

Sometimes the cats are just in funny positions:

But the thing that is really funniest to me is the captions and how they're written. I despise Internet-speak when it's done by ignorant people who can't type, but when it's done well by people who know what they're doing it can be hilarious.

There are some really funny video game ones:

And a parody of an RPG:

But my favorite ones are these of the next type. I'm not always sure what it is about them, but I thought they were awesome.

The spelling in this one is just awesome:

And now for my four most favoritest! Number Four...

Number Three...

Number Two (ominous and hilarious)...

And my favorite, Number One...

I hope you enjoyed these half as much as I did. And look, now you don't have to waste hours on this site picking out good ones! Aren't I such a nice blogger....

You Know You're From Redlands...

2008-02-27T19:27:00.000-08:00

Maybe this is kinda messed up--one, because I'm going to quote people without citing who they are, and two, because I don't support groups on Facebook anyway--but I ran across a funny group on Facebook today called "You know you're from Redlands...." Here are some of the best ones (edited for spelling, punctuation and grammar, of course):

#4. People from RHS [Redlands High School] say REV [Redlands East Valley] is ghetto, while people from REV wish they had been eligible to go to RHS (they tried to use their aunt's address) and take their anger out by beating RHS in sports.

#5 (this one's for Mike). If you went to RHS you kind of regret it, just because you can't TECHNICALLY say you went to the same high school as Landon Donovan. If you went to REV you tell everyone you went to high school with Landon Donovan.

#7. You would be very upset if they decided to tear down the Redlands Post Office, and you might be convinced to march in protest. This would become the most politically charged event in Redlands in about 100 years.

#13. The smell of orange blossoms makes you suddenly misty-eyed.

#18. Del Taco at 2 am is the shadiest your town ever gets.

#21. Going the 7 miles to get In-N-Out is an epic journey. A lot of shit can happen in 7 miles. You make the weenies who were too lazy to go with you regret they missed all the cool stuff that supposedly happened along the way. Next time, you get Bakers.

#31. When everything closes at 10 o'clock regardless if they say they are open 24 hours.

#39. When the food court at the mall consists of "Hot Dog on a Stick."

#50. When you call everyone in your phone book just to find a party on a Friday night... because the only other thing to do is hang out in a parking lot.

#51. When the only reason you come home from college is to get Bakers and Cuca's.

#53. You drive down Citrus, Grove, or Orange and don't see (hardly) any orange trees or groves.

#57. You know what that R on the hill stands for.

#58. You can't figure out why people are excitedly saying "Let's go to the mall!"

#63. You don't think there's anything strange about going shopping in a "Doughnut Hole."

And, my personal favorite (and dedicated to Eleanor):
#55. You know you're from Redlands when your college friends come to visit over break and you give them the "grand tour," which takes three and a half minutes, and then are left with absolutely nothing to do.

Ah. So true.

Train Thought For The Day

2008-02-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

Every good happiness and joy we experience in this life is really just a foretaste of the infinite joy and satisfaction we will experience in God in the next life. And in the same way, every sinful deception that promises happiness and joy, but lets us down and leaves us unsatisfied and empty, is really just a foretaste of the infinite emptiness and unsatisfaction we would experience without God in the next.

"untitled 3 is my title
for this appendicular poem,
pointed only by this particular moment.
I put all pretense to rest.

hello sinners,
are you sinning less?
I tell you,
it makes no difference.
But listen now to this:

The Logos
was not only a man.
He is The Logos,
Who by Him(self)
became a man.

I hope you reverberate
and have no peace, sinners,
while you sin.
By OLogos,
I behoove you
to pray the same for me."

- Aaron Little

Well, I've finally made the switch...

2008-02-13T11:54:00.000-08:00

... from Safari to Firefox as my default web browser.

It was a tough decision. I've used Safari ever since I've had my computer (seeing as Internet Explorer ::spits:: was the only other alternative that came with it), and I've always loved it. I like the way it looks, it had all my customizable settings just the way I liked them, it had all my bookmarks in the right place....

But it was time for a change. I've run into several websites that don't work properly on Safari, and since the primary alternative for those sites besides Firefox is Internet Explorer ::spits::, Firefox seemed the best way to go. It seems to run faster on my computer, somehow. And Firefox is like the Google (products) of web browsers--young, hip, postmodern and edgy.

There are still some things I don't like about Firefox. I think that the way Safari looks is sharper--the big icons for back, forward, reload, etc. in the top left corner of Firefox look silly to me, like large print. It was slightly annoying to take the 10 minutes it required to transfer all my bookmarks over. And it lacks some nice Mac shortcuts that Safari had: like pressing the down key to go to the end of a line of text, or being able to type the first letter of a button in a dialogue box along with Command to push that button instead of having to click it. But I'm afraid I'll have to go without such things. ::sheds a single tear for Safari::

Goodbye, Safari; rest in peace. Hello, young hip edginess.

UPDATE: I think I may have jinxed myself. Ever since posting this, Firefox has been running unnaturally slowly and I've had various kinds of problems. It's also started to put a text cursor wherever I click on a page, even if it's on a button (and it stays there for a while, since it loads slowly now), which is really annoying. Killer.