Stray Observations on Skyfall

I had a chance to catch Skyfall last night alongside some other fine Messiah folk. I don't claim to be a James Bond fan. In fact, other than Casino Royale, playing a lot of Goldeneye as a kid, and a half hour of a Sean Connery edition here and there, I don't believe I have any background with the ol' 007. Now of course Bond has helped to define American culture's idea of what cool is and what masculinity looks like but that's another conversation.

Now action flicks aren't my first choice, but I enjoy a good one here and there. Coming into Skyfall, I was excited about the directing choice of Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road). When a more thoughtful approach can be brought to an action flick, I'm on board.

And to be honest, I think he (and the writers) brought some more introspection to the screen. Of course Bond was still using some pretty ridiculous gadgets and hooking up with every lady under the age of 35. But for the first time (in my limited Bond memory), a lot of thought had to be put forth on Bond's part when it came to his motivations for his role as an agent and the primary relationship explored was the one between M and Bond, not exactly a sexy relationship.

Beyond appreciating a little bit more thoughtful approach, the movie was a little slow. If felt long. There were some cliched action scenes (crashing into fruit carts, subway chases, fighting on top of a train) but there were also some beautiful shots (skyscraper fight scene, the Scottish bungalow, the island).

Javier Bardem provided a great villain that conjured up memories of Batman's Bane. I enjoyed the more philosophical middle act of the movie but, really, the movie was about Bond and M. And the final third of the movie, while beautifully shot and very deftly shot during dusk (a literal sky fall), delved into Bond's childhood in another move that conjured up thoughts of Batman.

All together, I thought it was a good installment in the Bond franchise and I continue to think Daniel Craig's portrayal is a pretty accurate representation of today's Bond.

Bazan - A Night of Beard Rock

Last night, I had the chance to see David Bazan perform in Philadelphia at the First Unitarian Church. In many ways, Bazan (and his former band, Pedro the Lion) is the voice of a niche demographic of people mostly comprised of disillusioned twenty-somethings who have been disheartened with the state of life.

His albums are deeply personal accounts of questioning relationships, oneself, God, and culture. Lyrics are often beautifully cut and dry. And depressing. Yet I think they earn him credibility for the rare moments of hopefulness.

I had a chance to see Bazan perform during my Taylor career. He slowly strummed his electric guitar in the student union in front of an audience (including myself) that wasn't familiar with his music. I later discovered a few of his albums and became deeply appreciative of him. My former experience seeing him live and his penchant for house shows had me expecting a quiet evening of listening to his thoughts.

While sticking in a few other favorites in between the A and B side of the album, on this tour, Bazan has been playing through Pedro the Lion's album, Control. The album very much focuses on infidelity within a marriage. While it doesn't shy away from the carnal, it opens with a simple internal account of describing himself at the beginning of a relationship, saying "I need you," yet also wanting to keep his options open. It's heartbreaking.

Knowing the content of the album and based off my former experience seeing Bazan live, I was expecting a relaxed show. I was off-base.

The venue, appropriately enough, was in a church basement in downtown Philly. It was kind of the anti-house-show. It was dingy and quickly became sauna hot. But it was also kind of perfect for a good beard-rock show. At one point, Bazan jumped and did the leg split thing.

In between songs, Bazan has a routine of asking the crowd, "Are there any questions at this point?" The crowd, who proved their fan-dom by knowing just about every lyric, missed their chance to really engage with him. We did learn that Bazan has a thing for mashed potatoes and Gillian Welch's voice though. But unfortunately, no substantive questions were posed and thus, not many responses worth expounding upon.

Otherwise, the show was incredible. While the bassist fixed a guitar string, Bazan performed Wolves at the Door with just his guitar and voice, reminding me of how unique and incredible of a voice he has. Much of the rest of the show was spent rocking out through Control. What was lost in slowly pondering his lyrics during his slower shows was more than made up for by the raw emotion and energy put into performing an album that he described as the "only Pedro album he doesn't hate." He and his three piece band were tight and put on a show worth checking out.

A Steves Weekend

This past weekend, my good friend and recent supervisor Steve Austin was in town/campus. He and Steve Ivester (from Wheaton College) flew in to have a conversation with Messiah's leadership director Ben Taylor on some best practices and sharing about how each other's schools conducted student programs. And yes, it was great to call them Ben and the Steves. And it was a pleasure to host Austin for the long weekend.

So while they were hard at work for a few days, it was great to talk in person with Austin in the evenings and then, on the weekend, to have a chance to spend some quality time with Ben, the Steves, and the entourage of friends.

Here we are at my new favorite Messiah area breakfast place, Home 231.
(photo credit to Amy Vanderwerf)

It was refreshing to have a close friend in town for a few days. Being in a new place, you adjust and are known in a specific context. But it's nice to converse with someone who has known you for a while. Steve has known me pre-marriage, as an undergrad and grad student, as a friend on the weekend, and as his GA working in TSO. In many ways, close friends can identify things in myself before I can even put a finger on it. It's a way of being known. And isn't that what we're all longing for?

So I enjoyed the weekend sharing more of my current life and being understood. And I look forward to more of that with friends at Messiah and the surrounding area.

For a few more photos, check out the Facebook album. 

Eric Metaxas - The Million Dollar Man

As a student described him after his chapel lecture, Eric Metaxas is the Million Dollar Man. I had a chance to hear Metaxas share last night (via video feed - I'm finding Messiah commonly has a "sold out" problem) about Bonhoeffer and his experience writing his biography and then this morning about the influence of William Wilberforce in the abolition of slavery in Great Britain. Metaxas speaks with a quick wit and isn't afraid to linger on a joke but he seamlessly moves into convincing and inspired accounts of Christ's work in his own life and in the lives of those he's written about. If you ever have a chance to hear him speak, make the effort to be there.

While I wouldn't quite label him the "Million Dollar Man," Metaxas does have a lot going for him. From a Yale education to writing for Veggie Tales to his biographies to being featured in national media outlets such as The New York Times and CNN, he's dabled in enough areas of culture to be well known, safe, and respected enough to be invited to lectures on Messiah's campus as well as the National Prayer Breakfast. In some ways, he may be championed by Evangelical circles as the guy that has a lot of influence and is a committed Christian. Thus, the Million Dollar Man.

But I think it goes deeper than that. In many ways, he's what we at Christian colleges salivate over, embodying what we hope all of the students we work with someday reach. He's deeply committed to his craft of writing and writing well. He's nominally interested in writing biographies but absolutely loves the ability to tell the stories of individuals who inspire him personally. He's unabashedly committed to Jesus being at the center of what he does but isn't suckering people into his works with a bait and switch way of sharing the gospel. His historical figures' stories stand alone and are impressive accounts of research, narrative, and inspiration.

So I respect Metaxas. I think he's good for our culture. I think he's good for curious college intellectuals who are trying to sort out their vocation and how it relates to their faith.

Oh, and as evidenced by his leading of Amazing Grace at the end of chapel, he has a really good singing voice.

A Few Things from the Last Month

Oh my. Well we've been here in Grantham, PA for the last month+. A new place always has its challenges yet the Messiah crew has been very welcoming. We tend to compare everything to our Taylor experience. I know this is a bad habit but it's hard not to when you've spent a considerable amount of time elsewhere. So there's a constant compare & contrasting, pro & con-ing of everything from the college campus, student affairs department, nearness to the closest Target, number of concerts passing through, etc. So while we're still adjusting, we're content where we landed. A few things of note include...

Our cat! We got Eleanor a few nights ago. She's a Maine Coon kitten (12 weeks), loves to cuddle, likes to explore, hasn't made any messes outside her litter box, and is only a little afraid of the dish washer. She also enjoys sitting on the keyboard of my laptop. Perhaps she can have a guest post soon. We miss her terribly when we go out and feel like new parents with a newborn more often than not.

As I mentioned before, we're in a first year hall*. Close to 300 students. I have 8 enthusiastic and delightful RAs. They're a different crowd than my hipster filled IFC group from the last few years but this year's group of students have their own set of lovable characteristics. I look forward to deepening those relationships. I also look forward to more time with the rest of the hall. It's a slight adjustment knowing that I won't be getting close to all of them... but I do want to make meaningful relationships... I just need to figure out where and how to do that. Oh, and all the first year students have some massive game day on the first weekend. Footage of the day could probably be used for some sort of Vizio TV commercial, emphasizing the color quality of the HD screen.

Lastly, we live close to Harrisburg, PA, the state capital (and about a Marion distance away). During the few visits we've made, we've enjoyed it's quirkiness without being totally sold on it's incredibility. At first glance, it seems it may be a city being gentrified by some cool, young 30-somethings who are passionate about urban renewal. But then we've realized that the row of bars/restaurants, well-kept cathedrals, and a few neat spots like Midtown Scholar (pic below) have been residing simultaneously along side rundown buildings and pockets of poverty for quite some time now and there's no real upswing on the horizon. All that to say, we're excited to explore the city, perhaps attend a church downtown, and become more accustomed with the occasional city life. 

There it is. A few snapshots of our life at Messiah. Obviously there's plenty more. But that'll come in future blogs or, more likely, future conversations. 

*We use the term "first year" for it's inclusion of both transfer students and the gender inclusive terminology as compared to "freshmen."

Keep On Moving

I'm very happy to announce that Jorjette and I will be heading out to Grantham, PA early next week to move to Messiah College and, more specifically, Naugle Hall. Messiah is pretty great - they have a fantastic Residence Life program, a kick-butt soccer team, they're near a number of East Coast cities, and they have an African elephant skeleton on campus. While moving can be stressful, we're excited to get settled into our new place on campus.


While the summer has been somewhat frustrating in that we didn't have very clear direction on what we would be doing in the fall, it has been a time where I have been reminded of the Lord's faithfulness to me. I suppose that may be easy to say now as I have a clear direction and plans. But even a month ago, when I was jobless and wondering what I would do if nothing worked out by the fall, the Lord was close and I had to continually repeat the ol' Scott Gaier-ism, "my value is in Christ."


That's not to say I have really enjoyed the process. I hated it, actually. It sucks not knowing what you're going to do. But then, in mid-July, I was in talks with two schools that would easily be at the top of my wish-list of schools at which to work. The term over-abundance often came to mind. 


So there you have it. It's onto a new place, new people, new traditions and stories.

Frederick Buechner's "Telling Secrets"

After finishing Frederick Buechner's Telling Secrets, it's safe to say that I have an intellectual crush on this guy. His Telling the Truth was fantastic and I look forward to reading more of his many books. And who knows, maybe I'll try out some of his fiction.

With Telling Secrets, there's much to love. He describes his journey of airing out his (painful) internal self. Through experiences both with his parents and as a parent, he learns that healing can come from the honesty of telling secrets.

As I describe it, his writing sounds cheesy and cliche but that couldn't be further than Buechner's style. His prose draws me in and turns those simple concepts from cliche to profound; not by manipulating words but by being honest and direct.

--

There are many great thoughts such as...

Telling our secrets - 

"...what we hunger for perhaps more than anything else is to be known in our full humanness, and yet that is often just what we also fear more than anything else. It is important to tell at least from time to time the secret of who we truly and fully are - even if we tell it only to ourselves - because otherwise we run the risk of losing track of who we truly and fully are and little by little come to accept instead the highly edited version which we put forth in hope that the world will find it more acceptable than the real thing" (p. 2).

Finding meaning in struggle -

“Events happen under their own steam as random as rain, which means that God is present in them not as their cause but as the one who even in the hardest and most hair-raising of them offers us the possibility of that new life and healing which I believe is what salvation is” (p. 31).

And our pursuit of Jesus -

"Peter really did not know who Jesus was, did not really know, and neither do any of us really know who Jesus is either. Beyond all we can find to say about him and believe about him, he remains always beyond our grasp, except maybe once in a while the hem of his garment" (p. 85).

An Avengers Pro/Con List

I just caught the new, indie flick The Avengers. You should check out your local art cinema to see if it's playing.

As somewhat of an outsider when it comes to superhero movies, I made a well thought-out pro/con list of this latest blockbuster. The list was internally formulated during the last 53 minutes of the 142 minute movie.

Pro: Robert Downey Jr.

Con: Samuel L. Jackson

Pro: Scarlett Johansson

Con: Scarlett doesn't have a super-power (don't pretend she does)

Pro: Kitschy one-liners said right before, during, or right after kicking a bad dude's butt

Con: Having to sit in a theater where people laugh out loud

Pro: The name Loki from Asguard

Con: The name Lookie at his Ass-guard

(This pro/con could easily be vice versa'd)

Pro: Jeremy Renner

Con: Not The Hurt Locker or The Bourne Legacy

Pro: Perfect fast-paced summer action flic

Con: 142 minutes (Steve, if Dark Knight was a half hour too long, this was an hour too long)

Pro: Did well to meld 6 different superheroes

Con: Too super-humanistic (hey-o!)

Pro: Joss Whedon

Con: Not Christopher Nolan

All joking aside, my very under-developed comic book nerd side enjoyed this one. Still, looking forward to another comic book movie slated for release later this summer.

My Friend, John Steinbeck

Now that I've finished the Dragon Tattoo series, I'm now onto a different era, genre, and style. I've just started John Steinbeck's Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters. I'd safely say I'm a Steinbeck fan and reading his daily musings while writing what I consider to be my favorite novel is pretty interesting. Translated to today, perhaps it's like the well-done extras found on your favorite DVD. The format includes letters that Steinbeck wrote to his friend and publisher, written in the same book as the original text for East of Eden. Thus far, the subject includes mundane weekend activities with his deepest hopes for the book in the next breath. It's pretty great. Here are a couple quotes.

"Even if I knew nothing would emerge from this book I would still write it. It seems to me that different organisms  must have their separate ways of symbolizing, with sound or gesture, the creative joy - the flowering. And if this is so, men also must have their separate ways - some to laugh and some to build, some to destroy and yes, some even creatively to destroy themselves. There's no explaining this. The joy thing in me has two outlets: one a fine charge of love toward the incredibly desirable body and sweetness of woman, and second - mostly both - the paper and pencil or pen (Steinbeck, 1969, p. 11)."

"Work finished for today and the Hamiltons are in. I do hope they are well in. I've worked long today but happily. And now Elaine [his wife] and I are going to Macy's to look at some grass rugs (Steinbeck, p. 17)."

Dragons! Tattoos!

"When it comes down to it, this story is not primarily about spies and secret government agencies; it's about violence against women, and the men who enable it"

After a week and a half spent on the beaches here in Southeastern Michigan, I've finished Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and have thus finished the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. I thoroughly enjoyed the series although I may have to agree with Lehr in thinking the (American) movie outdid the first novel. Here's hoping the next few movies are put into production and live up to the first.

While I agree with the quote up top, I do wonder why, if this is what Stieg was really trying to get at, why he spent a solid 400 pages on spies and government agencies. And his style of writing can be a bother - rather dry and heavily including the smallest of details. I suppose the style is supposed to mirror Salander's (the girl with the dragon tattoo) mind, but it gets tiresome. 

Either way, he highlights the still under-acknowledged issue of violence against women. I'm not sure if this is a counter-balance to the issue or not but Stieg's picture of sexuality is pretty fascinating. The dominance that men taken over women is pretty blatant but Salander's response borders on similar levels of dominance.

As sexuality is often used as a form of power, it's also regarded rather flippantly between many of the main characters. It is a rare instance when sex is partnered with commitment or attachment. Perhaps it is more of my reaction against a looser European view of sexuality, I don't know.

At any rate, and perhaps in contradiction to my style critique, the series is a page-turner and perfect for a summer read. I only wish Stieg were still alive and able to comment on his novels.