Coming up for Blog

Trying to keep my head above water these days. Hopefully I'll get the hang of this schedule soon. A couple of interesting links for you to chew on, however.

• The New York Times magazine had a fascinating (and massive) story about Bono's humanitarian work the past few years. It's really long, but worth the time it takes to click through.
  

• Also, here's an interesting editorial on Christianity Today's site in response to the controversial claims of Steve Johnson, author of "Everything Bad is Good for You." The book is fascinating, and so is this editorial.

A review of episode 1 of season two of "Lost" will be up tomorrow. Stay tuned...

Thursday Buzz

Have to make a quick recommendation on a smashing book I'm reading for my English teaching methods class. It's called "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. I'm only about 60 pages in, but it's dynamite. A great story and absolutely flawless lyrical style. Check it out...

Christianity Today online has its review up of the new Switchfoot album. I'm working on my wife to make that my birthday present. Thanks to the guys in the band for working out the timing so that would actually be possible. You're the best.

Not many other deep thoughts for today, but definitely wanted to put in a good word for my friend Jeff's blog. He's pretty new at it too, but it's entertaining so far. Go ahead, click. You know you want to.

Week-u 1.4

High School

Braces, attitudes

Abercrombie, Hollister

Peer pressure yields clones

Week-u is a weekly haiku on a topic of McBlog's choosing...

McBlog slog...

Yeah, so the past week has been, to say the least, a whirlwind and getting anything coherent out of my head has been a challenge, as has getting on the internet for much time at all. I've been neck deep in the sand of back to school lesson plans and grad school. Emerging will be a slow process, I can tell.
For today, however, an interesting article by Jeffrey Overstreet, one of my blog mentors, with Scott Derrickson, writer and director of new movie "The Exorcism of Emily Rose." Really fascinating stuff about art and faith and holding horror movies to a higher standard.

Week-u 1.3

Anticipation - FSU/Miami

Steam rises from slice

Piled high with toppings and sauce

Quick! Turn up the game


Week-u is a weekly haiku on a topic of McBlog's choosing...

A Bayou Prayer

I've been mulling over thoughts about the topic of fear since last Friday, when we watched "The Grudge" on TV. A movie low on plot, but extremely heavy on disturbing, frightening images that brought goose-pimples to my skin on several occasions. I don't scare easily, but my skin was crawling at several moments in that movie. Any incident that elicits such a response is bound to get me thinking. So I had planned on posting an entry on fear, but never got around to it.
And then Katrina hit, and I was struck silent for several days.
A little backstory:
I grew up in central Florida, right in the middle of Hurricane Alley, but east of the Gulf Coast storms, and west of the Atlantic storms. I never actually rode out a hurricane, never had to, but definitely was in the drivers seat as Andrew bludgeoned south Florida when I was in middle school. I grew up with these things, and I knew many people who did the same. "Why don't you just move?" was always the question. It always seemed the same people faced down the storms, dealt with the aftermath, and moved on.
This is a whole different animal. We live in a media-saturated age, but I must confess the images I'm seeing coming out of Louisiana and Mississippi the past 48 hours have been truly heartbreaking. We've seen the tsunami, refugees from countries all over the world picking up the pieces when life shatters around them, but this is somehow different. It's on our continent, just a few hours in a car or plane ride to the south of us. Many of us have driven by or spent time in New Orleans. We can picture ourselves on those interstates, driving through those neighborhoods.
And it's all gone. Completely washed away.
There are those who say that tragedies like these, senseless is the word most often used, make it tough to believe in a God. It's hard to believe anything benevolent exists out there when devestation claims the lives of the most innocent and undeserving. And it's tough to argue with that on the surface. Somehow, thought, I know that's what life is really all about. And if we're being honest with ourselves, we know that, deep down, we know that life isn't about making sure the bills are paid on time, the car oil is changed every 3,000 miles, and the kids are snug in their beds. Life is about putting the pieces together and finding answers when the world is crumbling beneath our feet. What happens when our safe, tidy system inevitably falls apart? That is when the Big Questions - which have been in the back of our mind all along - suddenly loom large. It is in times like these that we realize we need something more, that our little system of beliefs just isn't cutting it. It doesn't matter how big your God is, when your world is blasted apart, we need Him to be bigger for us.
It reminds me of 9/11 in a sense - I don't know how to go about living my life, eating ice cream on the couch with my wife, when there are people wading through the water in the long night praying for just one more moment with a lost husband or mother.
But we can pray, and we can love. That's the power we do have left to us. We can't be in those places of pain right now, but our beloved Holy Ghost can be.
Pray for the broken and healing in the Mississippi Delta region tonight. God cares most of all for the widows and orphans...

What Should I Download?

So Danielle and I got some clothes at the mall over the weekend, and along with our purchases, they threw in a CD good for 10 song downloads at CONNECT, Sony's online music store. Now for me, 10 free downloads is like winning the lottery. I have so many options I just don't know where to start. For the past few days, I've been driving myself crazy with potential options, but I think I'm starting to crack up over this. It's time to choose. Some of the potential options I've narrowed it down to are: Arcade Fire, Aqualung, Dave Matthews' last two albums, even had someone recommend Dashboard Confessional and Gavin DeGraw to me. I've added Shaun Groves' latest, Coldplay's "X & Y," and I've put Kanye West on the list, even though I think I like the idea of Kanye West more than I actually like Kanye West. Make sense?
Soooo.... those of you who know me know what I like, and those of you who don't, you really should. Just kidding. There's a list on my profile page to help out.
I'll take anything and everything.
Except Matchbox 20.
You will no longer be my friend at that point.
Seriously.

He's Monk, He's in My Head

About a month ago, I discovered USA Network's show "Monk" and I'm hooked. It's just a fabulous little detective show, and ever since I just can't get enough. For the uninitiated, Tony Shalhoub plays a former police detective who had to leave the force after his wife died. Now, he's a private investigator. Oh, and he has obsessive-compulsive disorder.
I hestiate to draw comparisons, but it's a little bit Sherlock Holmes, a little bit "Murder She Wrote," and a little bit Gil Grissom from "CSI:"
Without a doubt, though, Tony Shalhoub is spectacular, and this show is all his own. He's the perfect blend of warmth and social paranoia, and you just want to hug the guy because he's trying his hardest to live his life without letting his compulsions get in the way. I've got to hand it to the writers because every week they find a new way to get Monk into situations where you can just tell his skin is crawling out of discomfort. (For example, this week he was investigating a murder at a day-spa, lost his footing and stepped right in a mud bath.)
Anyway, suffice it to say I'll be a little bummed after the season finale this Friday at 10/9 central. Guess I have a lot of catching up to do with three seasons in the books already, though... Can you say DVD party?

When Animals Attack

Our small group from church took an overnight trip into the Shenandoah Valley this weekend. It was supposed to be a trip to bond, reflect, and spend inordinate amounts of time roasting things over a fire. It turned out to be a trip into the heart of darkness...
(cue pulsing music over opening credits)
Okay, well actually it was a great weekend, and we did all of the above, although I've never been into flaming marshmallows. But one thing that did happen was that my dog Maggie nearly got her head ripped off by a pair of vicious Siberian Huskies. We had just arrived when one of the neighbors at the cabin brought his two dogs up to say hi. I had Maggie on a leash, they were on one of those extendo-leashes, and so we agreed it would be okay to say hi.
It didn't go as planned.
First Maggie was wandering up timidly, the next she was in the mouths of one of the Huskies like one of those grizzly bears from the nature films. I thought my dog was going to be dinner right in front of me. I'd like to say I was brave, but really I was just reacting, and I ran up and made some sort of frantic gestures. The dog let go, and Maggie fled under a nearby car.
She got over the whole incident a lot more quickly than I did. (Hey, I'm writing about it, aren't I?) But she does have a nice little bruise and a bald spot on her neck to show for it. But she's definitely a tough little dog.
I hope that she sees me as her hero after all this. I think she just wants to know where her dinner is...

Week-u (A new Friday feature)

Cohort

Courage has called us
In this place four hands give strength
Where two were trembling

Just Another Manic Tuesday...

They've been extolling the virtues of public transportation here in the DC area for many years. I think it dates back to when the first realized there were way, way too many people living around here. Short of beaming people places - and I think the technology for that is still a few years off - mass transportation is the best way to keep people off the roads. But, there are those days where even mass transpo gets the great big shaft from traffic around here.
Case in point:
I got off class yesterday around 3:30, walked the seven or eight blocks to the corner where I catch my bus. I was two minutes early.
3:50 came. No bus. But there was a man in a little white pickup truck. Hmm.... I approached him. He was attaching a little piece of paper to the bus stop post with one of those twisty ties.
"No bus."
"Excuse me?"
"No bus, I-95 is all closed down today. Three tractor trailers in an accident."
"Oh I see."
A thought occurs to me: It's a long walk from this corner to my house. This is not a pleasant option.
"So, um, how do I get home then?"
He looks at me a bit surprised.
"You've got to take the Metro. Nearest stop's at Metro Center."
He points over his shoulder. "Follow those people."
I vaguely see two equally baffled commuters crossing the street.
So I hike back to Metro Center, down two escalators, and onto the train. In the words of Patty Griffin, "with a million other faces, I shoot through the city veins," and 35 minutes later I'm at Springfield, where I am told there will be a bus waiting for me to take me home. Yes, it was a bit disconcerting to see that I had passed the stop for George Washington University on my way back across DC on the Metro, but there I was. I headed down the escalators and out onto the sidewalk to wait for my bus.
It started to rain. Of course.
The bus finally came, we chugged out of the station, onto 95, and finally 75 minutes behind schedule, I was actually home.
My dog was happy to see me at least. She had peed on the floor.

U2's tech world, a Lennon musical, and a McDonald's diet...

A fascinating - and well-written- article from Wired about the weird, wild, well, wired world that is U2's Vertigo tour. I'll be there October 19, can't wait...

Yoko interfering in a John Lennon musical? Didn't see that one coming...

A woman loses 37 pounds eating only McDonald's? But her heart is probably the size of a Whopper now...

More later, happy Monday

A word about Darfur

If you haven't already, please check out SaveDarfur.org and if you feel compelled to, sign up for their mailing list. The Darfur genocide is just starting to get the international attention it deserves and SaveDarfur does a great job getting the word out through weekly newslinks, and a growing online community.

Here's a link to an editorial by David Sarasohn that really gets this issue.

My night with 'The Frighteners'

Got a chance to watch a whole movie on TV last night, all the way through. Now ordinarily, I hate watching movies on TV, the commercials just kill the flow and nobody hates commercials more than I do. But my wife and I were checking out the TV Guide channel at about 2 minutes of 7 p.m. when I saw that Peter Jackson's "The Frighteners" was going to be on Sci-Fi in two minutes. The only other one of Peter Jackson's movies I've seen is "Heavenly Creatures," which was a) nothing like LOTR and b) a really amazing movie in its own right.
And "The Frighteners" is too. At least part b), anyway. Watching it after watching the LOTR trilogy was really interesting. It came out in 1996 and the special effects, also from Richard Taylor, are out-of-this-world, no pun intended. From the first scene when the wall/carpet demon is chasing Patricia Bradley around the house, you just know this movie's going to be at another level than all those other B-movies. And it is. But what I really loved about it is just the same Peter Jackson quirky sense of humor that flows all the way through. About 30 minutes in, you are thinking to yourself, "Okay, is this a black comedy or a full-on horror movie?" And the answer is: both. Just like in LOTR, the subject matter is so heavy and bordering on implausible sometimes that without dazzling effects and enough dry humor, it just falls flat. But you can see in this movie the same glimpses of what would make LOTR spectacular. (Well, that and a guy named Tolkien anyway).
If you get a chance to rent it, or can stand watching movies on TV, check it out.

Walkin' in Washington

So I'm a teacher now... Weird.
This is definitely a "boot camp"-type experience. We're getting a crash course in all things teaching, and at certain points, my head threatens to explode.
One of the cooler parts of this class I'm taking, though, is getting to be in DC every day. Maybe I won't eternally be one of those tourist geeks who's in awe of all the landmarks, but so far, the cool factor hasn't worn off.
My route from the corner where my bus drops me off at 14th and New York takes me past the Treasury Department to Pennsylvania, down Pennsylvania past the north side of the White House, the Executive Office Building, a Potbelly Sandwich Works (if you've been there, you know this is worth mentioning), across the street, hopefully not jaywalking to H Street, past the World Bank and into George Washington University country.
Pretty cool. I mean, each and every day, I walk past the wrought-iron fence, see the perfectly manicured grass, the stately oak trees, the fountain and the landscaping, and I think 'The White-Freaking House." How cool is that? It's somehow reassuring to me as an American to see that house, painted its smooth white color each and every morning. There are sometimes people stirring out front, always tourists milling about, and the people with their anti-war, pro-abortion, anti-genocide signs, they are all there in one vast soup of people, and there I go, walking past. The democracy moves on while I walk past, inside important decisions being made, but on the outside, it all seems to uneventful. I like that.

The Importance of August 5

It's funny how we remember certain days and dates. Of course birthdays and anniversaries, things like that. But I've developed this weird knack for remembering when certain things happened in my life. For some reason, the date sticks in my head, and like a little Post-It note, it's there, permanently. Like, for example, I will always remember that May 31, 2001 was the day I bought my first car. Coincidentally, it was also the day I went to see U2 in Buffalo on their Elevation tour. I think that has something to do with it too...
Today is August 5. It's a day that's been on my calendar for awhile now, as the final day of my work at the Connection. It's a happy day, a day of turning pages and starting a new - and hopefully long - chapter in my life. There is a spot of sadness for leaving the field of journalism, which I have been doing since college, but excitement at heading on for what I believe is God's calling on my life. This morning while I was getting ready, I remembered something I previously forgot about the significance of the date August 5.
Seven summers ago, I circled August 5 on my calendar. It was the day when I would return for college for my sophomore year. I was going to be working on the Orientation Committee and would head back a couple weeks early for team-building activities and to plan for Orientation weekend. It was a very exciting time. Next to actually going to college, it was the most anticipated date in my life. I couldn't wait for August 5.
And then a funny thing happened. About three weeks before August 5, I met this girl named Danielle... On July 21 - another date I remember - we took an evening stroll together through the hills and paths of Houghton, held hands for the first time, and something happened... Suddenly, August 5 was a day to be dreaded. It was a bittersweet time, as the days passed toward August 5.
It's weird how that came back to me today. I've been thinking a lot lately about how human the whole concept of time is. I mean, true, God ordained time when he talked about measuring creation in "days," but we really have it down to a science. Two hours until dinner, six months until the wedding, if we're not really careful we become slaves to it. I found that as much as I would like to say I've grown a ton since the first August 5, I found the last couple months I was repeating myself by forgetting to take advantage of every day in June and July, thinking only of August 5 and how it would be then that things would really get crankin'.
It's silly I know, because God doesn't see it as time. He sees the whole span of our lives spread out before him, beginning to end. We waste a day, that's one we can't have back...

Oh by the way, I married that girl named Danielle and Orientation weekend was one of the most memorable leadership experiences of my life. But I won't say I didn't shed a tear or two leaving her in early August...

Shutterbug Grace

Wanted to share an amazing find...
Monday morning, my editor Mike called me while I was on my way to an assignment and told me he needed a cover shot for our upcoming Newcomers Guide. It had to be representative of the area I cover, and he wanted me to go to a nearby park. And, oh yeah, he reminded me, it had to be "spectacular," in the words of my publisher. Now, considering I'm not a photographer, just a guy with a camera and an artistic bent, and considering I have a tiny little point-and-shoot digital, that was a tall order.
I showed up at the park, walked down to the lakeshore, and this is what I saw...

Grace is many things to me, but what an unexpected reminder...

Mad Eye and Switchfoot

Couple of quick tidbits...
The Leaky Cauldron has this interesting photo of Brendan Gleeson as Mad Eye Moody in the upcoming "Goblet of Fire" Harry Pottery movie. The eye looks different than I'd thought, but he does look appropriately cracked ...

Fans of So-Cal rock can circle September 13 on their calendar. Switchfoot's new album, "Nothing is Sound" releases on Columbia. The band's website has a track listing and clip of the first single, "Stars."

Say it Ain't So...

OR

???

I'm more than a little antsy about this one.
E! Online's Kristin is reporting a major character will be leaving Alias early in Season 5. Could it be Michael Vaughn? Marcus Dixon? We will see, but it most certainly shouldn't be Jack Bristow. Without him, no show. Recent casting moves have years have been a little iffy to begin with, so I'm not that convinced the Abrams Brain Trust will make the right call on this one...

McBlog's Quick and Dirty Review... "The Aviator"

"The Aviator," 2004
Summary: Leonardo DiCaprio's nasal Texas twang and Martin Scorsese's lush directing make this like a ride in a bi-plane at its best moments.
Thoughts: That this movie succeeded despite my aversion for DiCaprio is really saying a lot. I've generally thought he plays the same smooth, upstart-type in most of his movies (Titanic, Catch Me If You Can), but this is definitely a stretch for him. And the fact that he pulls off Howard Hughes with an Oscar-worthy performance without having every second of his performance scream "Give Me An Oscar" (see Will Smith in the bloated "Ali") is very admirable. He becomes the man, neuroses and all.
But what I liked best about this one was the all-encompassing love for all things aviation. I know, the film's called "The Aviator," not "The Neurotic, Reclusive, Womanizing Loony." But I just wasn't expecting to feel so caught up in the sequences when Hughes takes to the sky, especially that wham-bang crash scene. Maybe it's a guy thing, or an Icarian thing, but I dug it. It didn't move my emotions a whole lot, but this movie gets way closer to the sensation of flying than that "Soarin'" ride at Disney World.
Recap: Definitely worth a look, for high-flying adventure and spot-on period recreations (and Cate Blanchett as Katherine Hepburn.)

The End is Near

The End is Near. I've been seeing the signs nearly since Thanksgiving, but now the final week of my life as a journalist is upon me. It's amazing about us humans, we are led all along by strands of love and grace, so obvious we can't ignore them, yet we still get anxious and scared. I can't help but wondering if I'm doing the right thing or making a big mistake. I know it's just cold feet. I felt the same thing when I married Danielle, transferred colleges, all of life's Big Decisions. I guess that's why I need to have certain verses tatooed on the fabric of my soul, so there's no possible way I could ever ignore them.
One of my co-workers asked me if I had senioritis last week. It was an interesting way to put it, knowing that I still had stories to file before I left the paper. And I actually kind of did, just lacking a little bit of motivation, I guess. I mean there's always that survival instinct to get the job done. That is definitely there. And thank goodness for that! More on the Big Move later...