Movies for People Who Like Books

Hey everybody
This started out as a conversation between my brother Andy, Erin his wife, Lindsey and I Sunday night. Been on my mind, though it's not very important in the grand ol' scheme of things.

Can you even type movies into genres anymore? I think so.

There's the big three: Comedy, Drama, Action. Every movie made fits into these three in some sort of fashion. But it's harder and harder to come up with categories for movies.

Dramedy, SciFi, Fantasy, Action comedy, romantic comedy, horror, thriller, martial arts, fantasy action, fantasy romance, tragedy-drama, triumph-drama. And of course, High School Musical.

What's the difference between science fiction and fantasy? Andy says that true science fiction is feasable, it could happen or can be somehow explain by science. So, Star Wars is a SciFi movie and Lord of The Rings is fantasy. But come on. It can't be that simple. Jabba the Hut explained by science? The Force as a feasable medium for elite corps of soldiers?

Is Terminator 2 an action movie or a science fiction movie? Is The Princess Bride a romance, a comedy or a fantasy? What the heck is Moulan Rouge?

or Pocahantas for that matter? Stereotypically fictionalized musical comedy biopic with talking animals. Where's that section in the store Blockbuster?

Alright, enough about genres. Let's get down to business.

The top ten movies I've ever seen (trilogies counted as one movie):
1. Star Wars IV-VI
2. The Godfather Pt. 1
3. Braveheart (before The Patriot and Passion of the Christ)
4. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
5. LOTR
6. The Jerk
7. Goodfellas
8. Resevoir Dogs
9. Silence of the Lambs
10. Die Hard pt. 1
(11. the most badass, adreneline-fueled, testosterone-filled movie of all time: 300)

The top ten movie MOMENTS of all time:
1. "Luke, I am your father." "That's not true, that's impossible."
2. The baptism/assassination scene at the end of the Godfather.
3. Jim Stewart and friends leaving the house in The Birds.
4. The reveal of the true Kaiser Scosa in the Usual Suspects.
5. The last twenty minutes of Temple of Doom.
6. The reveal of the real dead person in Sixth Sense (be honest, you didn't see it coming!)
7. The first sight of Jaws jaws. "We're gonna need a bigger boat."
8. E. T. taking off with the bikes.
9. The first word of Dwane in Little Miss Sunshine.
10. The first utterance of the now infamous line, "Yippie-kay-yay, motherf***er." Die Hard

Some interesting points here: Stephen Spielberg is involved in three of these, Bruce Willis for two, and, who knew, Toni Collete (Sixth Sense, Little Miss) in two.

Some movie moments that should've never been made:
Ewoks!! I know my brother will probably have some theological point to say why the Ewoks were appropriate but, please!! The empire gets destroyed by a bunch of teddy bears.

Kathy Bates' nude scene in About Schmidt. Every Ashley Judd movie. Godfather Pt. 3. Ending All the Presidents Men with a bunch of headlines. The reveal of The Village (be honest, we ALL saw it coming). Any fake birth filmed and put in the movie: Knocked Up, Children of Men, Hills Have Eyes II. Pocahantas as a half-black, half-Chinese, half-Polynesian and NO-part Native American for the kids. Filming Hannibal without Jodie Foster as Clairece Starling. Starting every Rocky movie with 10 minutes of the last Rocky movie, come on Sly.

And, most of all, the BIGGEST mistake in movie history, a genius of my generation of movie stars, Leonardo DeCaprio, starring Titanic. I sympathize with my brother who is not a Leo fan but kinda stopped watching him after that dreadful, never-needed-to-be-made, three-hour-snoozefest. Let's add 'em up: Basketball Diaries, What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, The Beach, The Aviator (show me all the blueprints), Gangs of New York, The Departed, Romeo and Juliet, Blood Diamond and Catch Me if You Can. Annnnndd....Titanic. I think we can let that one slide. If you haven't seen Gangs, Aviator, Departed, or Blood Diamond, watch them this week. You can borrow Gangs and Departed from me if you want. But, people of the world who gave up on Leo after Titanic, Andy Bryan, it's time to give him another chance.

Alright folks, sorry to ramble, but I'm sitting in class and we're off on some tangent that is in no way important to anything I will ever be tested on or need in my life. I love movies almost as much as I love music. I encourage everybody to find your local independent movie theater, the Tivoli in KC and the Ragtag in Columbia. Don't really pay attention to the Oscars, but rather watch the festivals, Toronto, Tibeca, Cannes, Sundance, for what movies are causing a stir there and find them. See EVERYTHING that Stephen Spielberg, Martin Scorcese, Quinten Tarantino and Clint Eastwood (yes, Dirty Harry) direct. Watch cheesy horror movies and Mel Brooks comedies. Listen to directors commentaries. Listen to actors commentaries (the Anchorman commentary is so funny it's like a second movie). Go to movies on a couple of afternoons a month to beat the prices but see movies as they're intended to be seen. (i'm really just typing to stretch the time out longer)

So, I'm done. I'd be interested in additions, subtractions, and amendments to my lists. Take care everybody.

Peace, BB

ROFLMAO

I think that means, rolling on the floor laughing my ass off, but I'm not a 14 yr old girl so I don't know.

The Star Wars Family Guy...holy crap!

"I made a Darth Doodie."

Oh man. Anyway, thought I'd share my response.

BB

If it's too loud, you're too old!

Yesterday, my mother, a musician with very good and eclectic musical taste, wrote her children a "new music" e-mail. And, as I think was one of her secret goal, it opened the flood gates and wrote one of the longest e-mail responses I've ever written. So, I thought that today I'd bring my love and, modestly, more than a little knowledge about music to the blogosphere.

So, here we go, modern music 101 for the baby boomer generation.

First of all, if you were a teenager or young adult in the 60s and 70s, you shouldn't have ANY excuse for not having music to listen to. You lived through the greatest musical revolution the world has ever known. There's nothing wrong with what you're listening too. The Beatles, the Stones, Motown, Aretha, late 60s folk, Bob Dylan, are classics because they are the best there's ever been and noone will ever be better. That said, some of you, like my mom, think that the Beatles Number 1's album or a motown collection is sufficient. Not so, my friends. If you're running out of music or are too familiar with your collection, than go buy more of what you love. The Beatles are the best band that's ever been and the best at total album construction. Everyone in the world should own Let It Be and Abbey Road and proabably Revolver. It's listening to songs like Honey Pie or Octopus's Garden that makes Hey Jude true genius. So, the first step if you're feeling a little stale lately is go and buy something else in the catalog of your favorites. Carole King has made more albums than Tapestry, Simon and Garfunkel more than Bridge Over Trouble Waters. Greatest Hits albums are great for quick and easy access to the sing alongs. But studio albums are where we see the best artists at their artistic best.

The second step is realizing that not all your favorite artists are dead or in prison. Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, America, Carley Simon, Paul Simon, Van Morrison, Johnny Cash (somehow), have ALL put out albums in 2006-7. So, keep up with the artists you love. All of them have websites or just go to your local store and ask somebody to show you the most recent album. These artists are still around and still making music.

Alright, so now, what's happening today? Oh, honestly, not much. We are officially in the era of hip-hop. "Popular" music is rap, r & b, dance and combinations of all kinds. This is hard for some, again like my mom, who hate rapping and can't stand the sounds of computerized beats and turn-table scratches. It's also pretty hard these days if you can't listen to a distorted electric guitar. Although, there aren't really a lot of good rock bands these days, either. This should sum up the music scene right now-the greatest selling albums of this year are High School Musical, High School Musical 2, and Hannah Montana.

But there are some gems out there that I think you baby boomers out there will like. And I'll break now into list form to keep from rambling anymore.

Norah Jones-singer, piano player, very bluesy.
Corrine Bailey Rae-singer, bluesy, R&B
Joss Stone-singer, funk, Jazz, R&B (thanks, steph) Janis Joplin-esque
The Arcade Fire-9-person band, folk-rock-bluegrass-weird awesome fusion.
Bright Eyes-singer/songwriter with band, rock-folk stuff. Awesome!
The Frames-my most exciting find this year. The movie "Once" and this Scot band.
John Mayer-guitar player/singer-songwriter. One of the new Eric Clapton's
Ray LaMontagne-pure folk, just a guy and a guitar.
Jamie Cullum-great updates of Sinatra and jazz standard stuff.
Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, and Matt Costa-the most laid back, chilled out music ever.

That's all I can think of right now. There's a lot of great music out there. Listen to the radio (not just NPR), go to festivals and local concerts, go to record stores and spend an afternoon listening to music. Find what you love, find what speaks to you. And never be bored with your music, there's something out there for everybody.

For those about to rock, I salute you.
BB

For all those who are interested

Is a Christian church without a cross in the sanctuary actually a Christian church?

By the way, I would say no. The cruxifiction and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important thing for Christian worship and in my opinion the most important event in all of history and without a symbol of that event, I don't know. It's just not for me.

Talk amongst yourselves. Well, not really, actually comment and we'll talk. No big whoop.

BB

Open Letter to DVD Distributors

You know what really grinds my gears...
Why are the main title sequences included in all DVDs of TV series? You know what I mean, I don't have cable, so when I'm home preparing sermons or doing homework and need a little noise in the background, I'll put in some Seinfeld or Family Guy or Reno 911, or when I'm on the treadmill watching the Office on the iPod, I'll just hit the "Play All" button and let it run. And lo and behold, every 21 minutes, I have to sit through 30 seconds of the theme song on every single show. Come on people. We know who the stars are, we know who created the show, we all know that Stewie says "Laugh and cry" not "Eff-ing cry" in the Family Guy theme. We want content. Take the dingding theme songs off your DVDs.
And that, is what really grinds my gears,
BB

St. Petersblog: Post-Vacation Blues

Alright, alright, alright. So, it's been a week and a half since our last night and day in Florida and I haven't posted anything, yet. But, here it is...

We woke up early on Thursday to go down to the beach one more time before the check out time. The waves were much bigger than they had been all week. It's crazy to think that all the way across the Gulf, the winds from the Dean storm effected the waves at St Pete Beach. Anyway, we said our goodbye's to the beach and ocean, had another Cuban sandwich and hit the road.

On our way out of town, we returned to the shops on Corey Ave. (The place I said wasn't any better than the Plaza, and was actually pretty gaudy) Well, at Duet, that's right, not Duet's, Lindsey bought me a Ukelele for our 2 yr anniversary. It's pretty awesome, really easy to play and sounds great. Now, that's three guitars, a mandolin, a uke, a keyboard, a wood xylo, a rain stick, two djembe's, an Indian circle drum, an Indonesian gourd shaker, a Sri Lankan rattle, some hand-painted castanets, and a set of drums. (From Lynz-mandolin, uke, xylo, rs, and castanets)

Down the street at "The Shell Store" we went back to pick up a lovely little kresch for my brother for the ride to and from the airport (you're welcome!), and saw a display case of jewelry that we hadn't seen earlier in the week. And, so, I got Lynz three awesome necklaces and earrings. So, the point of all this, we'd like to redact our previous statement that shopping on corey ave isn't all it's cracked up to be. It turned out just fine!

We left St. Pete Beach and stopped at the actual St. Petersburg on our way to Orlando. We stopped for two reasons. To get a second look at a couple of stores on Bay Walk; stopping in one to get Lindsey's birthday present (let's talk about our anniversary being 10 days before her birthday sometime...) a square black glass clock with charcoal gray Eiffel tower embossed on it, and another to see the price on AWESOME shirts with 80's NFL logos. Mustoe, Andy and Caldwell, you guys would've loved these. The best were the old school Buccaneer with the knife in his mouth in bright orange and the old Patriot in the three point stance. Alas, these short-sleeve, faded-looking t-shirts were 50 bucks a piece.

Alright, real business in St. Petersburg was the Salvador Dali Museum. Awesome! Dali was one messed up dude, and his paintings are pretty messed up too.

They had the originals of Dali's 15 foot tall, 10 foot wide masterpieces and the one with the blocks and naked lady up close and then at 20 meters becomes Abe Lincoln. Crazy stuff.

Alright, we left the coast line and went inland to Orlando (ridin' high and smooth, by the way) That night we went to the Orlando outlet mall, which was a bust neither of us really in the mood. We had a great dinner at a steak place across from out hotel. Oh yeah, our hotel was the Wyndam Resort. Pretty sweet.

Our morning before the flight, we went to Orlando's best attraction....Gatorland!!!! 17oo gators and 10 crocs. I think I prefer to let the Gatorland pictures speak for themselves.

Well, folks, there you have it. Our first big trip together and shared with all of you. Thanks for stopping by and listening to our stories. Now, it's back to real life.

Keep on keeping on, BnV

St. Petersblog Day 3

Alright folks, we are currently experiencing the "third day of vacation effect", which means that we're exhausted. So, not much today. But here's a couple of things.

After blogging last night, Vee and I returned to the beach and through the light-up frisbee around. I believe the Adam's can attest to this: throwing around a light-up frisbee on the beach at 12:00am, is just about one of the coolest things ever.

OK, this morning we got up and drove down to the St. Pete Beach shopping block which, while called Corey Ave. that is awesome, isn't much greater than the Plaza or downtown Columbia. In fact, we're probably fine saying that Downtown Columbia is much better than shopping on Corey Ave, last name or no.

Dad, this, nicely framed behind the fountain, is Lindsey's favorite tree...

At noon, Lindsey's good friend Joe came down from Ocala, Fl. We spent most of the day running around with Jose and great fun was had by all.

OK, lunch: third best sandwich of my life. 1) Shrimp Po'boy in Kenner, LA with my boys, 2) Philly Cheese in Philly and 3) a Cuban from St. Pete, FL with my girl. Unbelievable!

At the beach in the afternoon, we discovered that the sharks really were dolphins (thanks for telling me to swim TOWARDS sharks, Mustoeman) because we saw 6 or 7 more and they were, no hyperbole here, like two feet from us. OK, like 25ft. But, really freakin' close and it was amazing. Joe, having lived in FL since 2001, has never had that happen.

Also, maybe from Hurricane Dean, the waves were much bigger today. I had a good time body surfing and Karate Kidding some big ones while Joe and Linds had a bottle of wine. They joined me in the waves, Joe and I taking it easy like pros, Lindsey struggling with each wave like God was breaking his promise to Noah. One did eventually get the better of her, lifting her off her feet and tumbling around, hitting bottom. She's got a nice scraped up knee to prove it. "The sea was angry that day my friends"

Florida Orange Groves and Winery was great fun. We sampled 11 wines made of every fruit you could imagine except grapes. Fruit wine is a lot better than grape wine, but I really still prefer good ol' hops and malts.

So, as you can see, big day. I'm going to sleep. But here's something for you all to enjoy.

B n V

ps. Mom, "booyakasha" is an exclamation used under sudden or surprising awesomeness; i.e. a slam dunk or a surprise pimp-pose from your baby boy.

Peace to all...

St. Petersblog: Day Two

Good evening all of my friends stuck somewhere that isn't Florida!

Day two of our Floridian vacation was one of the best days of my life. We did nothing. Woke up late-went to the beach-went to the grocery store-went to the beach-went to Crabby Bill's for dinner-blogging-going back to the beach. Here's some highlights:

We have seen some wildlife off of St. Pete's Beach. This morning, as we opened the door to head down to the water, a baby lizard fell from it and into our room. In Missouri, we have mice and mosquitoes; FL, lizards. There are tons of pelicans, like this one, flying around. Now, I hate birds that aren't birds of prey. But, this little fishkiller is awesome. We watched 'em fly across

looking down and around and then WWWWWWOOOSSSHHH, straight down into the water for a mouthful of grouper.

Oh yeah, and we saw TWO FREAKIN' SHARKS. I'm absolutely, positively, like 60% sure. Just about 200 yards offshore we saw a fin comin' up out of the water. It wasn't just us. A lot of people saw it and we all got out of the water. No joke. An Englishman (I think) and I watched the water for a while but never saw it again. Crazy.

Lindsey and I both would like to thank our families for teaching us the vacation lunch. Fruits, cheese and crackers, a little sausage. Lindsey has discovered her love of fried plantains, which Brad hates, and pluots(seen here), which Brad also hates.

We've seen too many speedos but no thongs, thank God.

Saw an adorable little Latina girl whose name was, we're pretty sure, Malaria and a little Caucaisan boy who sounded exactly like a seagull.

Lindsey, along with various fruits, has discovered a calling to become a sand artist.

If that doesn't work, we can always buy shells from a wholesaler, glue all sorts of names on them and sell them for 5 dollars a piece.

We've found two sandollars and three full conch shells.

Lindsey was the furthest swimmer from shore for a short period today, a fact of which she's very proud.

Mom and Dad, remember me at the beach sitting in the sand and just looking for shells for hours? Well, turns out I still like that.

We have been doing some pondering out on the gulf as well. And we've come up with this philosophical gem: we (human beings) have NO IDEA what "big" really means. Looking out into the water, we really have no clue how big this world is or how small we are in it.

It was a great day. At one point, Lindsey asked what I was thinking and I said, with confidence, "nothing". Couldn't ask for more in a vacation...

More to follow. Hasta Manana. B n V

Oh yeah, and here's this...booyakasha!

St. Petersblog: Day One

Well, Lindsey and I arrived safely and without much incident in Orlando, Fl late this afternoon. We then rented our car (which gave us our first vacation story not 30 mintues on the ground) and drove about two hours to St. Petersburg on the coast of the gulf of Mexico.

As I said, not 30 minutes on the ground in Jeb Bush's stomping ground, we experienced our first vacation story. We found a car at a great rate online through a company called Payless Car Park and Rental. Probably the last time we'll buy anything but shoes at a place named Payless. After waiting in line for really too long, we come to counter and are greated by a very friendly man with a very heavy Western European accent. He says we have your reservation for a two-door Hyundai Sonata. Which is exactly what we wanted since it was 15 bucks a day. Our friend with the heavy accent then procedes to tell us that for very little money we could get something a little bigger, a little nicer, the same schpeal he gives everyone. Then, observant fellow that he is, he notices by our ID's that today is Lindsey's birthday (to find out which one, you'll have to ask her). After seeing this, he offers us "much more less than 50% off" on either a Dodge Charger or a Ford Mustang, for just 40 dollars more of the total cost. That offer, while generous, put us over the hundred dollar mark for car rental which we wanted to avoid. So, we politely declined saying we appreciated the gesture but we really originally wanted a compact and we're fine with that. He says ok and goes to get the keys. He comes back with a set I am familiar with, since it is in the Dodge family (see earlier post on the new wheels). So, thinking that he's either giving us the Charger-which would, frankly, kickass-or upgrading us to the sporty new Caliber, we hear him say, almost under his breath in a heavier accent than he had before, "We have your Caravan all ready, just round corner". A little shell-shocked, we turn the corner and lo and behold, there sat our vehicle for the week, a light blue '06 Dodge Caravan, complete with stow and go seating and automatic doors. So, as is natural, I get a little upset. I say some things I shouldn't, I snap at Lindsey a little bit, I get in an all around foul mood. And then, ten minutes down the road we discover that I can control the radio with buttons on the backside of the steering wheel. Twenty minutes down the road, we find the power seat controls for the driver's side and dual-climate controls (which lynz promptly turned way up on her side). Thirty minutes later we're commenting on how roomy and spacious it is and I've got the cruise control working, I'm switching stations left and right and, as fast as a dance remix of a song that's already a dance song can cheer up two dudes after driving brush around for four hours, I love the Dodge Caravan.


That's the story for today, more to come all week, so keep checking in. Below you'll find pics of our digs for the week, our first view of the ocean together, and a few of us. I failed to get a picture of the wheels before the sun went down, but rest assured, you'll see it tomorrow.

Peace,
Brad and Lindsey

Aren't we cute!!

Pandora's Blog

You asked for it, you got it.

So, I'm flipping through the channel's the other night and I stop on the O'Reily Factor, you know, for material. Turns out, Ol' Pompous Ass himself and I have something in common. There's a clip from the movie Jesus Camp circulating the airwaves this week for the release of Harry Potter. This angry, bitter lady screaming at a large group of pre-teens saying "If this was Old Testament Times, Harry Potter would be burned for witchcraft!!!" She actually used the term "warlock" as if referring to a real thing. Come on people. What about God's gifts of creativity and imagination? What about inspiring millions of kids to love reading? How many millions of kids has Numbers inspired lately? As both Bob and John Stewart pointed out on the same night, this is just rediculous. This kind of fanatacism really isn't worth a comment. But what happens when anyone goes to a public stage, says "I'm a Christian", and then procedes to say something hateful, or homophobic, or mysoginistic, or insane like "Harry Potter's evil", people start thinking that ALL Christians are like that. I just wish someone would get to level of public address and say once and for all, Yes, I'm a Christian and I happen to be just as lost, confused, scared, happy, joyous, doubtful, right, wrong, peaceful, angry, MESSED up as the rest of humanity. In other words, I'm a Christian and I'm a completely normal human being.

So, I'm flipping through the channels the other night and come across a story on Christian products. This is perfect because I also saw Michael Moore on The Report talking about his movie Sicko. It's perfect because the points are the same. There are two things that definately should ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH PROFIT: medicine and faith. The message of Jesus Christ is not for sale. If you have t-shirts, hats, mugs, stickers, posters, computer games, mouse pads, action figures, little magnetic plastic fish or anything else with a "trademark" or a "copyright" behind the name or message of Jesus...please go to your nearest Goodwill store and drop everything you've got on the back steps.

So, I'm flipping through the channels the other night and catch a rerun of the Daily Show and I finally hear put to words what made me feel so weird about the Annual Conference's new insurance policy. John Stewart said, referring to the Catholic Church's most recent tangle, "I want you all to really hear me, they had child abuse insurance!" My friends, you don't get insurance for something that you never expect to happen. You hope it won't happen, but you guess it probably will someday. The United Methodist Church has sexual and child abuse insurance. Fabulous.

I heard my two favorite lines in rock n roll history today from one of my favorite bands, Clutch:
"Condolezza Rice is nice but I prefer A' Roni"
"I've got your number, I steal your thunder, I got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm"
Thought I'd share.

Be careful what you wish for, BB

Summer, Summer, Summer-time!

Hey folks! As I told my brother after the first three times he told me to "freakin' blog already", I try very hard to not let any important or intelligent thoughts to enter my head during the summer months. However, since I've been told by at least six people now to "freakin' blog already" I thought I'd appease the masses.

Here's a few things I've been thinking about recently.

THINGS I'M EXCITED ABOUT:
My new car: a 2007 Dodge Caliber, silver, with avg. 25mpg, auxillary hookup for the iPod, plenty of space for people and cargo and 17,000 miles-it's by leaps and bounds the nicest car I've ever had.

My happy, peaceful, crawling-all-over-the-place nephew, who's a month ahead of development schedule, who reaches for you when you walk in, who laughs when you tickle him, who hauls himself up with just your fingers for help and who just loves life so much.

The Simpsons movie: the most anticipated movie ever!! After twenty years, it's finally here.

Feeling like a lazy slob when I don't work out three days a week. I'm the last person anyone would have expected to EVER feel this way, but here we are.

Dad's new hair; it's about time you stopped parting those four hairs up there.

My current project to listen to every Beatles album. Not the greatest hits or the anthologies, but each album front to back how they were meant to be heard. Mustoe, I seem to remember at some point questioning your devotion to the Fab Four. Now, I must apologize and thank you for opening my eyes to true genius. Now, if you could just stop being a wuss and put some metal in your rotation, we'll be even.

THINGS I'M NOT SO EXCITED ABOUT:
Two things concerning the United Methodist Church-1. This Holsinger or Holstetter or something who's up for surgeon general I think, which has brought into light a paper he wrote in 1991 about the detremental and unnatural physical and psychological effects of homosexuality. This paper includes descriptions of the damage done to the "anus" and "rectum" and an explanation of the unnatural nature of homosexual using the image of male and female pipe couplings in plumbing to shed light into the complex and mysterious world of human relationships. And who was the benefactor and recipiant of this scientifically sound paper? Why the United Methodist Church, of course! This has put us right in the middle of the conservative bigotry and homophobia after being relatively seen as an open church for years. Distinguished delegates to General Conference (which in this readership is pretty much Dad) the time is now! It is time to stand up and say as a church that we will be loving, welcoming, embracing of all God's children!
2. The conference new young adult ministry, MC2, of which I recently tried to become a part. As I learned, there's really no room for me to help because this will mainly be a student-led ministry focused on campus ministry alone. Apparently, the only young adults the conference is failing to reach are college students, and there's no room for ACTUAL young adults, working as pastors, who are willing to help out and be an active voice in reaching and ministering to young adults.

The Catholic Church: For the second time in my life, I went to a Catholic mass and sat through a communion service of which I could take NO PART and listened to the congregation sing One Bread, One Body. One of the great old hymns about how communion brings us all together sung in the context of the "one true church". At the end of the service a young adult (imagine that) from a national group that organizes Pro-life walk-a-thons came to the lecturn and urged us all to go and protest the KC Planned Parenthood building for all the EVIL that goes on inside. We then sang the closing song...They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love. "We will walk with each other, we will walk hand-in-hand"-unless you're not Catholic. "They will know we are Christians by our love"-unless you have to go through the heart-wrenching and impossible decision to get an abortion, then you'll know we are Christians by our picket signs!

Well, there you go. Those are the summertime innerworkings of the brain of Brad.

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make...
Peace, B

The Genius of Pearl Jam

I've been listening to a lot of Pearl Jam for the past couple of days. Now, I know that most of my readers are friends and family and some of them have no interest in my ramblings concerning rock and roll, but I can't contain myself.

Pearl Jam is genius. If you have even a cursory interest in modern rock, in modern music, you need to go out and buy Ten, VS., and Vitology, three of the best albums of the 90s and Ten is one of the best albums ever. If you consider youself a musician, you need to go to iTunes, click see all albums, and buy them all! As far as guitar tandoms go, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready are right up there with Lennon and McCartney, Richards and Wood, James Hetfield and Kurt Hammet, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford and all the other great songwriting duos. If you think you're a guitar player and don't know Yellow Ledbetter, you are NOT a guitar player. And if you fancy yourself a lyricist, or a rock melody writer, there's no one better right now than Eddie Vedder. His words, his melodies, his phrasing...pure rock and roll gold. And, when Matt Cameron joined on drums, they became an unstoppable post-punk, post-metal, post-new wave, rock tour de force.

Evenflow, Alive, Jeremy, Black, Daughter, Betterman, Nothingman, Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town, Yellow Ledbetter, Alone...simply some of the best songs ever written. So, if you want anything to do with post-80s music, do yourself a favor and listen to Pearl Jam. You won't regret it.

I will hold the candle, 'til it burns up my arm...I'll scream my lungs out, 'til it fills this room...
Peace, BB

More Reflections and Call to Action

OK, so I got a little heated in light of the VT tragedy. I didn't mean to be insensitive or callous. I'm simply trying to make sense of how this could happen like everyone else. I grabbed on to the gun control issue as a way of coping, of grieving. We have 20,000 laws dealing with guns in our country, so I don't know if one more will make any difference. My entire point, which you can see if you look past the wild ranting of an angry man, is that it's too easy. I don't think hunters and self-defense gun owners would argue that or should they have any trouble with federally mandated waiting periods and more extensive background checks. 90% of global homicide victims die in the United States. (alcohol, tobacco, and firearms website) 9 of 10! It's too easy, that's all I'm saying.

But, I'm not going to talk about this today. No gun control debate this time. Here's an idea: I'm responsible. Through my brother's blog http://www.entertherainbow.blogspot.com I've been reading some discussion as others try and deal with this in their own ways. Some private, personal reflections and some professional editorials. And here's the thought that stuck: I'm responsible. We all are. I asked Lindsey what she thought about the national day of mourning and she said a very wise thing: it's because we all felt this, we all know what sitting in french class is like, the innocense, and we all felt this. We all need to feel this, we need to feel the pain of the victims, their families, AND the survivors. Imagine going back into that classroom this week. There's a girl who was a freshman at Columbine High School when shooters massacred her classmates and now she's a student at Virginia Tech. We need to feel this. We need to feel the darkness in this young man's soul; we need to feel the anger, confusion, maybe illness, in his head that drove him to take so many human lives including his own.

But here's the kicker: We need to feel this not only when it's good, hard-working American college students; not only when it's 32 people and our talking-heads are foaming at the mouth to get some new angle on the story. Everytime one of our human brothers and sisters is killed by, or even affected by, violence, we should feel it. Whether it's a bunch of innocent college French students, a young man on 12 st. gunned down in the streets, a soldier who knew the risks she was taking joining an all-volunteer military, or a native citizen of Sudan executed by their own government's hired-gun...we should feel them all. Deep inside, we should feel them. But, so often, I glance over the headlines of human lives lost, I get impatient with the stories on the news because I wish they would get to the weather already. Two lines come to my head: Jack Johnson "Why don't the newscasters cry when they read about people who die? Least they could be descent enough to put just a tear in their eye..." Our newscasters are paid and trained to deliver the facts without emotion, we want them to, that's their role. It's not our role! We should feel it. Second: Obi Wan Kanobi "I sense a great disturbance in the force." Ben felt the life force created by every living being disturbed whenever evil grew in power and strength. Every time one of our human family is victimized by violence, evil grows in power and strength. We should all be so connected, so filled with the love that God has for creation, that we feel a disturbance in the ties that bind us together every time one of our beloved falls. Every time.

And now, speaking of our human connection, I need to make a commercial. This Friday evening, starting at 5 or 5:30 there is a rally for peace in the Darfur region of Sudan in Mill Creek Park, near the plaza. If you've been glancing over these headlines like I have been, I've done a little research. Darfur is a region in the African country of Sudan. Now, there's been civil war and infighting in Darfur for years, but there's never been anything on the scale of what's going on now. The Sudanese military, alongside the government-funded mercenary militias called Janjaweed, have marched through Darfur, killing over 400,000 people and displacing over a million. I looked up the difference between displaced and refugee. Refugees are people who have crossed a border into another country and the UN has declared them refugees, meaning they were forced out of their own country AND meaning that they have certain rights within the new country. Displaced means that they haven't left the country, usually because the army that displaced them has closed the borders. These are people whose homes are gone, destroyed, and whose ONLY source of survivals needs comes from the very little humanitarian aid that other nations can get in to them. If anyone has seen Hotel Rwanda or The Last King of Scotland (both excellent movies, must sees), This is happening right now in Sudan. We, the US/the UN, didn't do anything in Rwanda and hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered. We didn't do anything to stop Edi Amin, and hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered. If we don't do anything now, millions of people are going to die. But, dadgummit, we had to stop Saddam Hussien and his unbelievable access to weapons of mass destruction!
So, if you're in the KC area this Friday evening, please come down to the park next to the plaza, to help show support of those brothers and sisters who have lost their lives and lost their homes.

Alright, folks. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad, mad world. I didn't even talk about our Attorney General saying "I don't remember" 71 times under oath and our president saying "If anything, I'm more confident in him" afterwards. Idiots.

Peace, my friends, B

Random Notes

Yesterday was Earth Day, so suck it, Neptune!!

But seriously, I know I'm known to take some lengthy breaks from the blogosphere, but I thought that last one was pretty good! I am a needy, attention-starved, approval-seeking baby child. I need your comments to give my online rantings some kind of validation!

Where are all you people??

BB

An Unremarkable Sale

As we mourn the loss of 32 people at VTech, I'm thinking about the two instances this year that have brought gun control to the front of my mind. One is, of course, the story of this guy who bought a gun and ammunition in an "unremarkable sale" (according to the owner of the gun store) for 571 bucks and five weeks later killed 31 people and himself. The other is a gun crime that happened in KC to someone I know. That's never happened to me before.

My friends, it's too easy to get a gun. Background checks, criminal records checks, psychological evaluations...nobody actually does them. One of the things Borat showed us about our country is the readiness of gun enthusiasts to talk about killing, ANYTHING, even Jews!! It's too easy. OK, you want to talk to me about the bill of rights, fine. The bill of rights came out of a particular time and place, a time and place with very peculiar circumstances. It was a revolutionary time, it was a scary time, it was war time. AND, people still hunted for food. Hunted for survival. So, the 230 year old "right to bear arms" doesn't make a lot of sense in a time in which people are getting killed in SCHOOLS, children are getting killed in schools, wives/daughters/mothers are being killed in their homes, brothers/fathers/husbands/sons are killing each other on the street over territorial feuds or the color of their clothes. OK, you want to talk to me about the whole "if we strengthen gun control only the criminals will have guns", fine. I'M FINE WITH THAT!! That's what makes them criminals. I want to think that the rest of us are different than criminals, are better than criminals, should live to a higher standard than criminals. Cops and robbers, people. That's they way it's supposed to be. When you're a kid, you don't play robbers and citizens protecting their property. (part of the problem is America's sense of ownership and the right to property, entitlement, but that's another blog for another time) NO, you play cops and robbers. Let the men and women who give their lives to protect us protect us.

it's too easy. It's too easy for a preacher's wife who's fed up with the pressures of being a preacher's wife and the too high expectations of her husband to get a gun and shot him more than once while he was IN BED! (self-defense, my ass) It's too easy for an 18 yr old kid from 12th st. KC to get a gun and blast some other poor kid because he "disrepected" him. It's too easy for a FREAKING 13 YR OLD to shoot up his school with his step-dad's hunting rifle. It's too easy for a disturbed, troubled, desperate young man, to walk into a store, slap down a NON-CITIZEN ID, and, for less than a bicycle, less than a good camera, less than a new set of tires, less than my Missouri taxes, purchase something that was only designed for, who's sole purpose is killing human beings.

I could go right now, drive out to our favorite neighborhood health-benefit-denying superstore, buy some underpants, the new Kings of Leon cd, stop by the McDonalds to get a double cheese burger, maybe a washing machine...AND AN INSTRUMENT OF DEATH AND TORTURE THAT WAS ONLY EVER MEANT TO KILL ANOTHER HUMAN! If that makes sense to you, I'm sorry. And, feel free to explain your position to me, but I will never understand it.

Rest in peace, my friends. May God give us the strength to learn from your sacrifice. B

Weight vol. 3

Well, the results are in. At least, some of the results are in. I've been working out 4 days a week, using mainly weight-training stuff I learned from my own personal strength coach, who also happens to be my best friend. I've been progressing nicely, moving up in the weight i lift each week and already seeing results in my arms and chest. I'm not quite as jiggly as I was when I started this whole thing! and, mom you'll be glad to know, I'm getting those scary trap. muscles back.

I've also been trying really hard to eat better. Lots of eggs, whole grain cereal, salad when I can. One Mountain Dew a day. Ice Cream has been replaced by 100% real fruit frozen yogurt bars.

And what does this all mean? I've lost 5 pounds in three weeks...Ta Da! Ok, not huge results. But, it's something. and since I have been focused mainly on weight training and muscle growth, not cardio and weight loss (cardio work is probably my second least favorite thing in the world to do, next only to changing guitar strings) I HAVE been building muscle, which weighs a lot more than fat. So, in the end, I don't know how much weight I'll lose or if I'll meet my 215 goal. But, if i'm bigger, stronger and more solid, I won't care.

Here's the problem. I love eating. It's not just something I do, it's something I love doing. Also, I'm addicted to Mountain Dew, which is just empty unusable calories. So, I do cheat. Not a lot, but it happens.

But the good news: I see results in muscle growth already and I'm down to 233 from 238. Now the danger becomes plateau-ing, where your body catches up to the breaking down of muscles your doing and the results stop. So, that's the next challenge...

Not so jiggly, B

Next General Conference

Here's an interesting question: Why the HELL are America the Beautiful and My Country tis of Thee is our United Methodist Hymnal? Just a thought...
B

Listen all Ya'll it's a Sabatoge

Psychological post for you today, stemming from a convo we had in Pastoral Care...

What kind of self-sabatoging powers does our ego, or super-ego, have over our id?

Case study: A person is so used to being pesimistic, negative, glass-half-empty. This person's comfort zone is the meloncholy (sp?). Can happiness frighten that person so much that some part of that person tries to remedy the situation with self-sabatoge, subconsciously attacking the cause of said happiness? And how, as care-givers (pastoral or otherwise), can we get a person like this to accept happiness, embrace happiness, to know that being happy is ok, is actually preferrable? Especially if the sabatoge is coming from somewhere deep underneath the surface, and, many times, the person is unaware until its too late.

One of my more intellectual questions here on The Bustle. Let me know what you think.

BB

Clapton is a god!!!

I have just returned from MY BEST CONCERT EVER!! Eric Clapton is simply breath-taking, awe-striking, dumbfounding, flabbergasting. Just listen: Running on Faith, Layla, Wonderful Tonight, Cocaine, Crossroads and much much much more. The dude played for three hours!!! It's difficult to put into words. Seeing someone who is not only the BEST person alive at what he does, but also loves doing the thing your watching him do more than anything else in the world, it is absolutely transcendental. It takes you to a whole other place.

I've seen Metallica from the front row. I've seen the original Black Sabbath. I've seen Tool, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson I've been to awesome, intimate shows and watched Martin Sexton, Trevor Hall, Robert Randolph, and Splitlip Rayfield from inches away. Nothing compares. NOTHING.

Nothing anyone can ever say is ever going to top this. Watch:
Oh, you went on a cruise? I just saw Eric Clapton play Wonderful Tonight...
You got a promotion, that's great!! I just heard Eric Clapton play Layla...
Wow, you just ran a marathon, impressive. I just saw Eric freakin' Clapton play Cocaine...
You just flew around the world in a hot air balloon, no way..I was there when Eric Clapton and Robert Cray played Crossroads!!!!

I SAW ERIC CLAPTON PLAY LITTLE WING!! Probably one of the top five songs ever written (not to mention Layla, Wonderful Tonight, etc.) played by one of top five guitar players ever...LITTLE WING PEOPLE!

But, I have to say it wasn't all good. As is known to happen from time to time, something pissed me off. No one stood up! I know. I stood up as soon as Slowhand took the stage and was prepared to stand the entire time. But, Lindsey and I were the only ones in our section that were standing. So, to be "polite" we had to sit down. Then I looked around. No one in the upper deck was standing. No one I could see in the lower deck was standing. A few full torsos were visible from the floor seats, but-listen to this-there were people sitting down IN THE FRONT ROW! I wanted to scream but no one would've heard me. That's Eric Clapton up there people; he doesn't have to earn our ovations. He's Eric Clapton, he's a living legend, he's probably the greatest guitar player living in the world today, and he's playing for US...Oh, you don't know this song? You really want to hear Tears in Heaven? Get off your lazy ass and get on your feet, that's ERIC CLAPTON!! Eric Clapton, from the Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominos, THAT Eric Clapton.

I finally couldn't contain myself anymore and I stood. I stood from Little Wing, the sixth song, to Crossroads, the last. I turned to my fellow concert goers and said something like that's Eric F~~~ing CLAPTON! Five or six people stood, but no more. I just don't understand it, Kansas City. I am ashamed, tonight, to call myself a Kansas Citian.

WE SAW ERIC CLAPTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BB

hahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Tonight, my faithful friends and neighbors, I'm going to see Eric Freakin' Clapton!!! Just wanted any body that drops by the Bustle this evening to know how much cooler I am than you....

Expect a detailed and flabbergasted description of the show tomorrow.

I Shot the Sheriff, B