Here's what I've been up to...
My first week out of school was occupied with my own little school of rock. All attendees went home with a CD containing their version of The Beatles' "Let it Be," complete with african drums, boomwhackers, guitar, group vocals, bells, and various other percussive toys. It was an interesting experiment, mostly fun, but a little draining.
My second week out of school was occupied by recovering from my wisdom teeth removal. They came out on a Monday afternoon and Tuesday and Wednesday were quite fine. I even ate a hamburger on Tuesday night. But Thursday and Friday rolled around and I was downright miserable. We left for vacation on Saturday and I was still miserable, but thankfully, halfway through the day the swelling and pain subsided and things improved quite suddenly and dramatically.
My third week out of school was occupied with a Checkeye Family Vacation, the first one of its kind in many many years. We went down to Bethany Beach, Delaware, where at one point in the week the rented house was home to 14 people and 3 dogs. The ocean was a few blocks in one direction and a canal to the bay was right in our backyard. It was a good week, and good to be together. One highlight was catching a nice batch of blue crabs on our first day there. We excitedly cooked them and Wesley and I cleaned them, whereupon our enthusiasm quickly drained when we found the disparagingly tiny amount of meat in which all of our hard work resulted.
And so, here we are. Almost July. This morning I started a new college class and I'm hoping to fill in the rest of my spare hours with people time. The trick to that is remembering everyone else still has a regular schedule in the summer, and they aren't as free as I'd like to imagine them being. I'm also hoping to get some serious reading done, but that always leaves me wishing that I liked to read a lot more than I actually do. It can be such a chore sometimes.
So anyway. What are you up to? What have you been thinking about? Want to get together?
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Re: Wisdom Teeth
Everyone who gave their two cents about recovery was right: The third day's the worst.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
No, Really, What is Happening?
From my perspective, no other current Hollywood persona is as intriguing as M. Night Shyamalan. Did he really just get that lucky with The Sixth Sense? I believe it is that amazing breakthrough film from this writer/director with a knack for suspense and surprise endings that has kept audiences coming back time and time again. Despite some decent follow-ups, never has he repeated the excellence of his first film, and many would agree that his films have been getting progressively worse.
And so, we complain and complain about his movies, but still somehow get excited about showing up for opening night every two years for his latest offering, perhaps hoping that maybe this will be the one to capture the same feeling as The Sixth Sense. This is enough to say that Shyamalan is doing something right. Despite the things he's doing wrong--and lately, there's quite a bit--he still keeps us coming back for more. Few people have given up on him yet.
That brings us to The Happening, a film proudly advertised as "apocalyptic" and Shyamalan's first rated-R feature, featuring some bizarre epidemic--supposedly caused by plants attacking large populations of humans--that forces people to kill themselves in increasingly creative ways. Mark Wahlberg, seemingly advertised as some sort of hero, is rather just one of many ordinary people trying to avoid the attack.
(Here's one more thing often complained about--What's with the deceiving advertising with this guy's films? Everybody was stunned to find out what The Village really was about. And The Happening had nothing to do with the rapture like I was told.)
The bad news first. Simply put, the movie indeed causes you to constantly ask, "What's happening?" But not in a whodunit sort of way, and not in an edge-of-your-seat-what's-going-to-happen-next sort of way. No, instead you find yourself asking, "Is this serious? Did that really just happen? Did he really just say that? Did she really just deliver her line in that way? Is it possible to make a movie this preposterous?" My wife and I spent the entire movie hoping--for Shyamalan's sake and for the sake of our $18 admission--that the surprise ending would reveal that the whole movie was a joke, a sort of film inside of a film, a spoof of sorts. We weren't that lucky, and neither was Shyamalan. It was just that bad.
The dialog is absolutely terrible. The acting is pathetic. The cinematography is cliche. The gore is tactless and hokey. The entire film comes off as incredibly cheesy schlock. By the end of it I was hoping this was Shyamalan's tribute to the campy B-side horror genre. I still think that's the strongest explanation, although I've found nothing on the web to back that up, and even so, I've never quite been sure how we could make a "legitimate" art form by making something that is simply and intentionally bad.
It takes some serious misguidance to turn an Oscar-winning actor into the character we see in The Happening. Literally every line causes the viewer to wince with discomfort. Is it Wahlberg? Or is it just that there was literally no good way to deliver the lines that had been written for him? When Be Kind Rewind came out earlier this year, I heard many people suggest that Michel Gondry get some help writing his scripts. I'll agree that they need help, but I also think Gondry has different intentions with his films than creating a stellar, flawless screenplay. We need to get Shyamalan some help with script writing much sooner than Gondry.
I ended up giggling through most of the movie, and not because it was supposed to be funny. Again, if it was Shyamalan's intent to create a campy B-side flick, then so be it, he succeeded. But regardless of his intent, it was bad. Really bad.
There's a bit of good news, though. Shyamalan is a master of suspense, and there's no doubt about that. I jumped out of my seat more than once, and when I arrived home to my dark apartment, a shiver went down my spine and I rushed to turn on the lights. If you're looking for a good scare, this is a decent place to turn.
And I have to say I enjoyed myself. Between giggling at the bad parts and jumping at the scary parts, it was a good bit of summer Blockbuster fun.
But most importantly, I admire that Shyamalan consistently tries to say something with his movies, another facet making him one of the more intriguing filmmakers today. While most critics are looking at the environmental themes of The Happening--save the honeybees and the trees before it's too late--I think Shyamalan has some much deeper statements to make. Love conquering evil is an obvious theme, but perhaps too obvious. There's also the point about science being unable to prove and explain everything. But the most poignant statement is his dark caricature of Christians. The last woman left to help Wahlberg and his friends is a woman living in isolation who recites the twenty-third Psalm, has all sorts of religious paraphernalia on her walls, and wears a cross necklace. When she claims that "the world doesn't care about her, so she doesn't care about it," it forces the Christian viewer to think long and hard. How much of this caricature is Shyamalan's bitter misperception and how much of it is deservedly true?
So in short, it was a terrible movie. But if a director can cause people to think and talk this much time and time again, and keep us repeatedly coming back for more, maybe he is doing something right.
And so, we complain and complain about his movies, but still somehow get excited about showing up for opening night every two years for his latest offering, perhaps hoping that maybe this will be the one to capture the same feeling as The Sixth Sense. This is enough to say that Shyamalan is doing something right. Despite the things he's doing wrong--and lately, there's quite a bit--he still keeps us coming back for more. Few people have given up on him yet.
That brings us to The Happening, a film proudly advertised as "apocalyptic" and Shyamalan's first rated-R feature, featuring some bizarre epidemic--supposedly caused by plants attacking large populations of humans--that forces people to kill themselves in increasingly creative ways. Mark Wahlberg, seemingly advertised as some sort of hero, is rather just one of many ordinary people trying to avoid the attack.
(Here's one more thing often complained about--What's with the deceiving advertising with this guy's films? Everybody was stunned to find out what The Village really was about. And The Happening had nothing to do with the rapture like I was told.)
The bad news first. Simply put, the movie indeed causes you to constantly ask, "What's happening?" But not in a whodunit sort of way, and not in an edge-of-your-seat-what's-going-to-happen-next sort of way. No, instead you find yourself asking, "Is this serious? Did that really just happen? Did he really just say that? Did she really just deliver her line in that way? Is it possible to make a movie this preposterous?" My wife and I spent the entire movie hoping--for Shyamalan's sake and for the sake of our $18 admission--that the surprise ending would reveal that the whole movie was a joke, a sort of film inside of a film, a spoof of sorts. We weren't that lucky, and neither was Shyamalan. It was just that bad.
The dialog is absolutely terrible. The acting is pathetic. The cinematography is cliche. The gore is tactless and hokey. The entire film comes off as incredibly cheesy schlock. By the end of it I was hoping this was Shyamalan's tribute to the campy B-side horror genre. I still think that's the strongest explanation, although I've found nothing on the web to back that up, and even so, I've never quite been sure how we could make a "legitimate" art form by making something that is simply and intentionally bad.
It takes some serious misguidance to turn an Oscar-winning actor into the character we see in The Happening. Literally every line causes the viewer to wince with discomfort. Is it Wahlberg? Or is it just that there was literally no good way to deliver the lines that had been written for him? When Be Kind Rewind came out earlier this year, I heard many people suggest that Michel Gondry get some help writing his scripts. I'll agree that they need help, but I also think Gondry has different intentions with his films than creating a stellar, flawless screenplay. We need to get Shyamalan some help with script writing much sooner than Gondry.
I ended up giggling through most of the movie, and not because it was supposed to be funny. Again, if it was Shyamalan's intent to create a campy B-side flick, then so be it, he succeeded. But regardless of his intent, it was bad. Really bad.
There's a bit of good news, though. Shyamalan is a master of suspense, and there's no doubt about that. I jumped out of my seat more than once, and when I arrived home to my dark apartment, a shiver went down my spine and I rushed to turn on the lights. If you're looking for a good scare, this is a decent place to turn.
And I have to say I enjoyed myself. Between giggling at the bad parts and jumping at the scary parts, it was a good bit of summer Blockbuster fun.
But most importantly, I admire that Shyamalan consistently tries to say something with his movies, another facet making him one of the more intriguing filmmakers today. While most critics are looking at the environmental themes of The Happening--save the honeybees and the trees before it's too late--I think Shyamalan has some much deeper statements to make. Love conquering evil is an obvious theme, but perhaps too obvious. There's also the point about science being unable to prove and explain everything. But the most poignant statement is his dark caricature of Christians. The last woman left to help Wahlberg and his friends is a woman living in isolation who recites the twenty-third Psalm, has all sorts of religious paraphernalia on her walls, and wears a cross necklace. When she claims that "the world doesn't care about her, so she doesn't care about it," it forces the Christian viewer to think long and hard. How much of this caricature is Shyamalan's bitter misperception and how much of it is deservedly true?
So in short, it was a terrible movie. But if a director can cause people to think and talk this much time and time again, and keep us repeatedly coming back for more, maybe he is doing something right.
Wise(less)guy
In a few minutes I depart to have my wisdom teeth removed. Even though I have an incredibly low pain threshold, I am more worried about the insurance trouble I may get into than the procedure itself. I have two wisdom teeth that, to my knowledge, are not impacted, and there's no way I'm going to pay for them to be taken out. We'll see if everyone else involved cooperates. Maybe I'm overly paranoid after seeing Michael Moore's Sicko.
I'm hoping in the coming days I'll be coherent enough to watch a lot of movies, read a lot of books, and write here on several topics. The most pressing blog topic is a response to M. Night Shyamalan's latest: The Happening. And there's definitely a lot to say.
I'll wait to write until after the drugs have worn off.
I'm hoping in the coming days I'll be coherent enough to watch a lot of movies, read a lot of books, and write here on several topics. The most pressing blog topic is a response to M. Night Shyamalan's latest: The Happening. And there's definitely a lot to say.
I'll wait to write until after the drugs have worn off.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
School of Rock
I am teaching a day camp this week where we sit in Mr. Diehl's music room and play every instrument we can get our hands on and then record some music using Garageband. It's a dream come true for me.
But after the first day, I realized the whole thing was a bit optimistic, and now I'm in over my head. It's a nice idea and all, but if an 8, 9, 10, or 11 year-old has no sense of rhythm, I have very little idea of how to give him one. It's hard to play the drums without a little bit of rhythm. Perhaps what might be even harder is when a kid has a sense of rhythm but so sense of tempo. When 8 year olds are clapping together, they inevitably get faster and faster and faster, and they love it. That's fun and all, bu it's hard to record some music without keeping a steady tempo.
Four more days...we'll see what comes of it.
But after the first day, I realized the whole thing was a bit optimistic, and now I'm in over my head. It's a nice idea and all, but if an 8, 9, 10, or 11 year-old has no sense of rhythm, I have very little idea of how to give him one. It's hard to play the drums without a little bit of rhythm. Perhaps what might be even harder is when a kid has a sense of rhythm but so sense of tempo. When 8 year olds are clapping together, they inevitably get faster and faster and faster, and they love it. That's fun and all, bu it's hard to record some music without keeping a steady tempo.
Four more days...we'll see what comes of it.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Poppins and Presbyterians
Erica and I ventured into the Big Apple this weekend with both sets of parents. We rode in with my parents who came with us to a musical. We rode out with her parents who were attending a high-class black-tie evening wedding.The main reason for our trip to New York was to see our friend Jeff perform in Mary Poppins at the New Amsterdam Theater. For a while now, we've been telling people that, "oh, yeah, we have a friend who's on Broadway right now." Telling people is one thing. Seeing it in person, on the other hand, watching him dance all over the place on that huge stage with amazing sets in front of a packed theater with his head shot and bio inside the actual Playbill, all of that was completely surreal and utterly thrilling. Friend included or not, the show was really great. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it all that much, but I really realy did.
And so, this is where I get to brag: back in my high school acting days, I shared the stage with someone who is now a Broadway performer.
There were plenty of other things that happened during our stay, but the other part that was (oddly enough) equally as thrilling was attending church this morning at Redeemer Presbyterian where we experienced a moving service and heard the teaching of Tim Keller. So far, the people I've told this to have kind of blanked out and glazed over. Do a YouTube search and you'll find out I'm not the only one who's heard of the guy and his ministry.A diverse congregation, excellent classical worship, good teaching throughout the liturgy of the service, and a beautifully stated sermon on the understated topic of hospitality from Hebrews 13. (Perhaps I'll share some of those thoughts on hospitality soon.)
I walked away encouraged--absolutely excited, really--about what God is doing in the city.
Friday, June 06, 2008
The Annual Post Marking the Start of Summer
Yes, another school year has come and gone. And I like that I still live my life in terms of school years.
And what a year it has been! I have used the word "refreshing" to describe it on several occasions. While I don't plan on being a teacher for the rest of my life, I think this year showed me I could handle doing so if I wanted to.
And that's because I found out that education can work. Teaching can happen. The amount of growth that happened in these children over the course of one year was astounding, and to know I had some small part in making that happen is humbling. Shy kids spoke up, timid kids gained courage, sensitive kids grew tough skin, mean kids became nicer, loud kids contained their loudness at the right times. And even though they learned a whole lot about US history and the nervous system and finding the percent of a number and ee cummings, it's these other lessons, these developing processes of maturity, that matter most.
There is very little cynicism here, because there's no room for it. The system is working.
It's easy to dismiss this success to a number of contributing factors: the parents care, the families are rich, they have any number of resources and life experiences at their fingertips. And this is true; these things make a teachers' job unimaginably more doable. And in view of my previous experience, I would even say that it makes the job "easy." I would not hesitate to say this year was incredibly easy after former experiences.
But that's not to say that creating a successful school is easy. To create a culture of good citizenship and avid learning takes years of work. And it takes hard work to maintain it as well.
But it can be done. That's the bottom line. It can be done.
Can it be done in the public school system? That's a question to debate for a while. There are countless obstacles making it incredibly difficult. But with the right principal, setting the right tone, hiring the right teachers, I would say that yes, even with No Child Left Behind and state testing and limited budgets and absurd restrictions and inept parents and kids who could care less and any other excuse you might want to include here: yes, it's possible. Not easy by any stretch. But possible.
And what a year it has been! I have used the word "refreshing" to describe it on several occasions. While I don't plan on being a teacher for the rest of my life, I think this year showed me I could handle doing so if I wanted to.
And that's because I found out that education can work. Teaching can happen. The amount of growth that happened in these children over the course of one year was astounding, and to know I had some small part in making that happen is humbling. Shy kids spoke up, timid kids gained courage, sensitive kids grew tough skin, mean kids became nicer, loud kids contained their loudness at the right times. And even though they learned a whole lot about US history and the nervous system and finding the percent of a number and ee cummings, it's these other lessons, these developing processes of maturity, that matter most.
There is very little cynicism here, because there's no room for it. The system is working.
It's easy to dismiss this success to a number of contributing factors: the parents care, the families are rich, they have any number of resources and life experiences at their fingertips. And this is true; these things make a teachers' job unimaginably more doable. And in view of my previous experience, I would even say that it makes the job "easy." I would not hesitate to say this year was incredibly easy after former experiences.
But that's not to say that creating a successful school is easy. To create a culture of good citizenship and avid learning takes years of work. And it takes hard work to maintain it as well.
But it can be done. That's the bottom line. It can be done.
Can it be done in the public school system? That's a question to debate for a while. There are countless obstacles making it incredibly difficult. But with the right principal, setting the right tone, hiring the right teachers, I would say that yes, even with No Child Left Behind and state testing and limited budgets and absurd restrictions and inept parents and kids who could care less and any other excuse you might want to include here: yes, it's possible. Not easy by any stretch. But possible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)