Da Vinci Code and Christians on Television

I reenter the blogring after a brief hiatus with this:

Why didn't anybody tell me the Da Vinci Code sucked? I mean, in all the talk and controversy surrounding this movie, seriously i don't know a magazine or news program that DIDN'T talk about it, no critic ever mentioned that it was a bad movie. The dialogue is awful, the plot is too convaluted to provide any good dialogue. The actors have to spend to much time explaining what's going on. "It's the codex, oh and by the way, this is what exactly a codex is....." Ugh. The plot also means that none of the characters ever develop. I didn't care about any one person in this movie. Not one, except maybe the best character Silas, who they kill off before the end of course. And the one way to save the film, Silas following Tom and Sophie to the Abbey and having a final confrontation of good and evil, was blown when Silas, a professional assassin and fixer for Opus Dei who whips himself with a cat-o-nine and wraps some spike thing around his thigh to feel Christ's suffering, gets killed by some beat cops. WHATEVER!! Killing off the only interesting character in the film led to the disappointing, anticlimatic ending that everyone with half a brain had figured out the whole time. After Silas died....nothing happened. the whole rest of the movie, nothing happened. I know that I'm not a critic. I liked T3: Rise of the Machines. But i know a failed movie when I see one. Dry dialogue, no character development, and no climax qualify as BAD MOVIE.

There was something else too. Everybody check out Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on NBC. One of the leads, the female whose name excapes me now of course, is a devout, sort of conservative Christian. But get this, she's not crazy. There's a Christian on television who's not depicted as a raving lunatic or pious fathead. She's struggling with how to be faithful living in a secular and even skeptic world of Hollywood comedy. She curses, she has premarital sex, she has a since of humor. In other words, she's a REAL PERSON. When most Christians on TV are blowhards like Pat Robertson or bleeding heart softees like the dad on Seventh Heaven, this girl, whatever her name is, is the closest thing to a real christian I've seen. Just a regular person, trying to be faithful but also trying NOT to be a dork, or a Jesus freak, or a NeoCon Crusader, just trying to be real. Plus, it's a great show.

Alright, peace. BB


ps: not that i want to throw my hat into the ring in the whole marriage talk but here's my point: the STATE should not use the BIBLE as its reasoning for a ban on gay marriage. Our government should be run by rationality, by people of faith or not, and any rational person can see there's NO REASON THAT HUMAN BEINGS SHOULD TELL OTHER HUMAN BEINGS THEY CAN'T GET MARRIED.

Kindness Addendum

Well, after posting about the Kindness Campaign last night...I hear that Vee gets pulled over at 8:30 in 15 degree weather for going thirty miles an hour in a school zone. Cops who pull people over for ten miles an hour or less, especially if the total out-of-control speed is THIRTY!!, are just doing it to be jerks. They're mad because they're up early, or their boss is a jerk, or they just get off on the power of it. I see people pulled over a lot around town, and it seems to me that there's more important things for the cops of Kansas City, one of the highest per capita murder rates in the country thank you very much, to do than to bother people who are going 55 instead of 45 down 71. It's a freakin' Highway, it says so on the sign. Everybody speeds. Especially cops. I'm glad you met your quota this month guys, oh wait, did you hear about the double homicide last night on Troost? No, you were stopping the menace to society speeders? I see.

Ok, minor set back. When you go out of your way to be kind, you're not always going to feel the love thrown back at you. We have to get over that. Lower our sholders and power through. Bite our lips, grab onto something and give it hell. Whatever.

I'm still calling on the regulars and cursory readers of Bustle to begin the Kindness Revolution. Be neighborly. Be helpful. Be curteous.

You stay classy, Blogosphere.
B

Kindness

I have to say right off the bat that this post was inspired by a South Park episode.

What ever happened to people being nice to each other? I owe someone a thank you. The second to last time I was in Columbia, I was having trouble with my wiper motor. The kind of trouble that required me to tie a string to a cluster of wires, run that string out of the top of my hood, through my open window (it was the first ice of the year!), and into the cab of the car so that I could pull the wires tight when the wipers went out. Anyway, as I had pulled over to readjust my ingenious solution, a girl of about my age pulled over and asked me if I needed any help. A girl, alone, stopped to ask me, a guy alone, with a dark Blazer in the dark night in an ice storm, if I needed any help. Well, whoever you are, thank you.

I didn't know how much this act of kindness touched me until tonight. If I didn't choose South Park over SportsCenter tonight, I never would've known. But, it did touch me. Because, it was so unfamiliar. I really didn't even know what to say or do other than mumble "No" and "Thanks" because I am so unaccustomed to kindness.

We live in a world in which you can't help anyone change a tire because THEY might abduct YOU, or they might think YOU are going to abduct THEM. I see a young woman, or old woman, struggling with groceries I don't even consider asking to help, because I'm afraid of what she'll think of me.

Some people say we should practice random acts of kindness. Not so my friends; I propose the start of a strict, rehearsed, and habitual campaign of kind acts done for people who you may or may not know. Who's with me? Do something nice for someone today. Completely uncalled for kindness.

You can change the world with your own two hands...
BB

Agency-Mt. Moriah

After two months of waiting and a postponment by the bishop, I've finally found out that I'm going to the same churches that we thought I was going to from the very beginning. Agency and Mt. Moriah are two small churches just a little south of St. Joseph, MO. From all I've heard, they are made up of many young professionals who don't want to live in St. Jo or KC, they want a young pastor and the facilities and resources of both churches are solid and well taken care of.

I'm still waiting on a lot of details, and getting frustrated a little bit, but I'm pretty excited about news from friends like Steve Campbell and Phil Nemier and folks from school who know the area who all think I'll be a good fit and happy with my ministry at these two churches. I'll be moving to the south St. Jo area, living in small house there, and making a little more money than I'm making now. Of course, I will keep my little corner of the blogosphere informed as I get more info. And, for those of you in Missouri, look forward to a moving date!

Thanks for thoughts and prayers for me and Lindsey through this time of anticipation and now transition.

Peace, B

Incubus

This is a post for the Adam's: What happened to Incubus?? Now, you and I have disagreed on this for three albums now, but come on guys. I'm all for artistic development and following your heart in creating your music, hell I even liked the new, short-haired, martini-drinkin' Metallica. But, Incubus has consistantly put out three ablums with two or three good songs on them and the rest are cleverly disguised Clay Aiken songs. This new one has three good songs, Light Grenades, Diamonds and Coal and something else I can't remember right now. The rest of the songs are boy band songs. Boy band lyrics, boy band melodies, boy band harmonies. Four songs use the One-two-three-one-two-three-one-two-one-two pattern.

Come on guys, it's time to fess up. Mustoe, I know you have a not-so-secret boy crush on Brandon Boyd. Caldwell, we've been with these guys since the beginning. But, come clean, they just don't rock anymore. In the words of the Bob Rock produced, slowed-down, best selling heavy metal album of all time, Black album.....It's Sad But True.

Peace, B