05 May 2009

young clergy stuff

while this is a slight break from the normal (if you can call it that) fare on this blog, i found out about some developments with fellow young clergy in the UMC that i wanted to share and support here.

in some way, i guess this isn't such a huge break because over the past couple of years i've found myself saying "that's preposterous" about many things involving young clergy. we seem to be told simultaneously "you're the future of the Church, and we need you so badly" and "we don't care what you have to say right now. wait your turn - pay your dues, and then you can talk...but only if you sound just like us." i think more and more people are attentive to this kind of schizophrenic behavior, but even though we recognize the problem, few seem to know where to begin working on a solution.

i firmly believe that when you arrive at such a place (i know something's wrong, but i don't know what to do), you should start praying regularly (hopefully you are already). i was thrilled to hear yesterday that a group of young clergy are committing themselves to forty days of prayer about young clergy issues. i believe this will be done primarily through different blogs with a different young clergyperson offering a prayer each day.

anyway, i hope you will join those in prayer and spread the word by all means possible. be sure and visit www.umcyoungclergy.com for more information about this and other developments.

01 May 2009

miscellany

a new word needs to be found to capture the total lack of writing i've done on this thing in 2009. slacker doesn't even begin to cover it. i'm not really sure why - plenty of preposterous things keep happening left and right. there's certainly no lack of material. and i've been meaning to write stuff for a while. i have been actually writing more in a journal (the ink and paint kind), so i guess that's something. also blogging more on the other blog. still, i can and must do better. so, for the fall back - movie reviews!

"knowing" (or as i want to call it, "the knowing")
i'm still in utter disbelief about the fact that one of my cousins (who i have always looked up to and thought the world of - and really still do) thinks nicolas cage is one of the greatest actors of all time. i mean, don't get me wrong, i've liked some of his movies. some i've even loved. but he's been a on streak lately...well i just think he doesn't know how to say "no" to something. i don't know. however, i must say i liked this movie. pretty much everyone i saw it with hated it, but i enjoyed it on a certain level that's hard to describe. it kept my attention and kept me entertained, and there was good action and a few decent twists. without giving too much away, i liked what they did with the whole "ezekiel and the wheel" thing (Old Testament nerd that i am). of course, i then had "ezekiel saw the wheel - way up in the middle of the air" stuck in my head for the rest of the night (choir nerd). so yeah, as far as my rating goes, i'd say "rent it."

"seven pounds"
so hard to say much about this one without giving huge stuff away - which of course had already been done to me before i saw it. i wish they actually had those mind eraser things like in "men in black" - at least as it relates to people ruining movies for me. anyway, i thought it was amazing. it was admittedly a very "will smith" movie. i don't even know how to convey what i mean by that, but you'll either get what i'm saying or you won't. i thought it was beautifully done - especially the scenes and the score. it's how a great modern movie should look and sound. there were a couple of twists i really liked - although i wish they'd stuck with them in the credits (you'll see). even though some stuff was ruined for me, i liked that what i found out came in little doses along the way. for some reason i never liked rosario dawson until this movie, so there's that. i like that it had "little things" like the relationship between will smith's character and the motel manager. good to see barry pepper back in something - i feel like he was in everything, and then all of a sudden, gone. anyway, i'm going on and on cause i can't really say anything more. it's really great - i think. so since it can't get my top rating of "see it in the theater" (unless it's just now getting to china or something - although i think it'd be the other way around) make the next strongest financial commitment and get it on dvd.