One of the things I came to realize over my sabbatical was that my attention to detail had been slipping. Today a lot of that came home to roost.
Most of today has been spent trying to get our diocesan youth ministry web page EYouthWNY.org fixed. That was a change in plans because the original plan had been to just tighten up one small problem area.
Except that the first solution for the problem didn't work.
And then I discovered that our entire High School Conference page was on the edge of total dysfunction and one other page had effectively disappeared because you couldn't get there and that led to two other problems...
All of which were because my attention to details on the web page had slid. I have to admit that I'm finding lots of little problems (so far no BIG ones. I didn't get to the point of really dropping the ball on anything) and it's a little intimidating. I have all this current work I need to get done and now all this...
One of the things that I got from my time on sabbatical was the understanding that I just need to breathe and start working. And things get done.
And all will be well.
Had someone who has seen the Portable Holy Space projects in person ask me if I'd be willing to have them on display at an event later this summer. Pretty spiffy. Now I just need to get the big one finished.
One more thing to do!
LOL.
Peace
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
View From the Phlipside - Lost Finale
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.
Well after 6 years it is over. The last episode of Lost aired this past Sunday. One of the most puzzling, convoluted and frankly at times annoying TV series in the history of the medium came to an end. Let us take a moment to think about it.
First, confession. I certainly qualify as a “Lostie”, those dedicated fans of the show who tuned in week after week. I don’t think I missed a total of 3 episodes during the entire run. I know all the characters and was as clear on their back stories as it was possible at any given moment. Which means to say that I was regularly, well, lost.
I’m fascinated by shows that plan their own ending. Most shows want to run just as long at they can. Others are faced with sudden cancellation and may not be able to wrap up their story lines neatly. The creators of “Lost” knew pretty much from the first season how long the show would run. All they needed was an audience to follow along for the run. It gives the story writers the ability to weave a much more complicated design into the overall arc of the show. Got a question about what just happened? Well you may not see the answer for another season or so. It gave “Lost” the chance to do something different and challenging.
So was the final episode satisfying? Did it wrap up every little detail? Satisfying I think yes. Every little detail? I had no hope of any such thing happening. The nature of the island remains a mystery. In many ways the nature of where the characters end up is a mystery as well. At the same time it was a happily ever after moment that was perhaps just a bit sappy. The fact that Hugo ended up with a girlfriend made me happy I will confess. I looked back at a prediction I made about who would be chosen to protect the island next and had both of my top picks actually make the grade. The good guys win, the bad guys lose and love conquers all. Oh and the smoke monster got his. Add in a fair amount of religious symbolism and imagery and it was pretty much exactly what I expected from the series finale.
I seem to have an affection for weird, rather off center series. I loved “Twin Peaks”, was devoted to “The X-Files” and now “Lost”. I’ll take the summer off to savor this one. But somebody better start cooking up something good soon.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
Well after 6 years it is over. The last episode of Lost aired this past Sunday. One of the most puzzling, convoluted and frankly at times annoying TV series in the history of the medium came to an end. Let us take a moment to think about it.
First, confession. I certainly qualify as a “Lostie”, those dedicated fans of the show who tuned in week after week. I don’t think I missed a total of 3 episodes during the entire run. I know all the characters and was as clear on their back stories as it was possible at any given moment. Which means to say that I was regularly, well, lost.
I’m fascinated by shows that plan their own ending. Most shows want to run just as long at they can. Others are faced with sudden cancellation and may not be able to wrap up their story lines neatly. The creators of “Lost” knew pretty much from the first season how long the show would run. All they needed was an audience to follow along for the run. It gives the story writers the ability to weave a much more complicated design into the overall arc of the show. Got a question about what just happened? Well you may not see the answer for another season or so. It gave “Lost” the chance to do something different and challenging.
So was the final episode satisfying? Did it wrap up every little detail? Satisfying I think yes. Every little detail? I had no hope of any such thing happening. The nature of the island remains a mystery. In many ways the nature of where the characters end up is a mystery as well. At the same time it was a happily ever after moment that was perhaps just a bit sappy. The fact that Hugo ended up with a girlfriend made me happy I will confess. I looked back at a prediction I made about who would be chosen to protect the island next and had both of my top picks actually make the grade. The good guys win, the bad guys lose and love conquers all. Oh and the smoke monster got his. Add in a fair amount of religious symbolism and imagery and it was pretty much exactly what I expected from the series finale.
I seem to have an affection for weird, rather off center series. I loved “Twin Peaks”, was devoted to “The X-Files” and now “Lost”. I’ll take the summer off to savor this one. But somebody better start cooking up something good soon.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
View From the Phlipside - Dan Brown
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.
I just finished reading Dan Brown’s latest novel “The Lost Symbol”. As with the previous two with symbologist Robert Langdon as the main character I found the story telling great fun and the writing and “history” rather sketchy. Which means I enjoyed them all a great deal while not taking them too seriously. But I’m doing a review of the book here today. Rather I was astounded by some of the comments I found at several places on the web that did offer reviews.
The comments broke into three main types. There were the “Dan Brown is my favorite author and you’re just mean” comments, carefully balanced by the “Dan Brown is mouth breathing moron, why would anyone read this tripe” and the “Oh lighten up people, what’s the big deal if his grammar stinks and he uses words improperly” group. To be honest I found all three groups of comments rather astounding.
First, let’s be clear - criticism of movies or books or TV or whatever is rarely about being “mean”. Any critic has their own set of criteria (I talked about mine just last week) and make their judgements based on them. Some great writers were trashed (Dickens for one) and many popular writers are utterly forgotten. A review is an opinion. There’s an unfortunate idea out there that you should only say nice things. It may make people feel good but you won’t find out what is best by only listening to people who avoid being “mean”.
As for the mouth breathing moron category this is just arrogant. It’s the mirror image of the previous. I know what I like and you don’t measure up. I’d be willing to bet that Dan Brown knows he’s writing popular fiction. That he has no illusions of writing “Great Literature”, a category for which the definition changes from generation to generation. Do I wish that Brown spent a little more time polishing his prose? Certainly. Some of his writing just smacks of college freshman trying way too hard to sound intelligent.
Finally we have the Lighten Up crowd. The ones who claim that it doesn’t matter if his metaphors limp, his sentence structure is tangled or if he flat out gets things wrong. It’s all just fun and who really cares? Well I for one think we ought to care. Using language properly is important and popular novelists who teach people that bad language use is fine add to the decline of society. That may sound a little pretentious but a attitude of “Ah, that’s good enough” is intellectually lazy and damaging to society as a whole.
So read the book, have a good time, be aware that it has its flaws and maybe drop Dan Brown a note asking for a little more effort on the next one.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
I just finished reading Dan Brown’s latest novel “The Lost Symbol”. As with the previous two with symbologist Robert Langdon as the main character I found the story telling great fun and the writing and “history” rather sketchy. Which means I enjoyed them all a great deal while not taking them too seriously. But I’m doing a review of the book here today. Rather I was astounded by some of the comments I found at several places on the web that did offer reviews.
The comments broke into three main types. There were the “Dan Brown is my favorite author and you’re just mean” comments, carefully balanced by the “Dan Brown is mouth breathing moron, why would anyone read this tripe” and the “Oh lighten up people, what’s the big deal if his grammar stinks and he uses words improperly” group. To be honest I found all three groups of comments rather astounding.
First, let’s be clear - criticism of movies or books or TV or whatever is rarely about being “mean”. Any critic has their own set of criteria (I talked about mine just last week) and make their judgements based on them. Some great writers were trashed (Dickens for one) and many popular writers are utterly forgotten. A review is an opinion. There’s an unfortunate idea out there that you should only say nice things. It may make people feel good but you won’t find out what is best by only listening to people who avoid being “mean”.
As for the mouth breathing moron category this is just arrogant. It’s the mirror image of the previous. I know what I like and you don’t measure up. I’d be willing to bet that Dan Brown knows he’s writing popular fiction. That he has no illusions of writing “Great Literature”, a category for which the definition changes from generation to generation. Do I wish that Brown spent a little more time polishing his prose? Certainly. Some of his writing just smacks of college freshman trying way too hard to sound intelligent.
Finally we have the Lighten Up crowd. The ones who claim that it doesn’t matter if his metaphors limp, his sentence structure is tangled or if he flat out gets things wrong. It’s all just fun and who really cares? Well I for one think we ought to care. Using language properly is important and popular novelists who teach people that bad language use is fine add to the decline of society. That may sound a little pretentious but a attitude of “Ah, that’s good enough” is intellectually lazy and damaging to society as a whole.
So read the book, have a good time, be aware that it has its flaws and maybe drop Dan Brown a note asking for a little more effort on the next one.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
A few reviews - Books and Movie
Read "The Lost Symbol", "The Art of the Heist" and "The English Assassin" plus watched the movie "Boondock Saints" all in the last couple weeks. A few quick thoughts:
Since there's only one movie let's do "Boondock Saints" first. My daughter is a big fan of this movie and has been urging me to watch it. Turns out Dad's not as big a fan. Let's see shall we call the movie "stylish"? No, more like "stylized". The movie follows two Irish brothers from Boston who decide that they are called by God to rid the city of its worst citizens. And they're very specific about only offing the baddest of the bad. There's actually an interesting idea in there about vigilantism and taking a stand against evil in the world. It's "Death Wish" meets "The Blues Brothers" Sadly this movie is mostly about F bombs (this may be my personal champion for dropping the bomb. It's certainly right up there) and the stylized violence that the brothers unleash. At the same time the movie has a wicked sense of humor and two pretty gritty performances by the leads (Sean Patrick Flannery and Norman Reedus) plus a bizarre and well, bizarre performance by Willem DeFoe all of which gets wasted. There's really no story here, you don't get to investigate the characters and the dialog is uneven. The brothers idea of theology is twisted and the call to vigilante justice, while having a long history in our nation, remains an exceptionally bad idea. Sorry kiddo, not a great movie.
On the book front -
The English Assassin by Daniel Silva - The second in the Gabrial Allon series (I reviewed "The Confessor" previously) I enjoyed this. It's more of the action adventure stuff following the Israeli assassin/art restorer. This time he's suspected of murder (several actually, including at least one he did), fighting the Swiss banks and the memory of World War II and the Nazi looting of wealth and art from many people including many wealthy Jews. Silva's is a good read and a fun story teller. His books perk right along with the action and just enough interesting art and history to pull it all together. I know there's about ten more books in this series so I'll probably be working my way through them slowly.
The Art of the Heist: Confessions of a Master Art Thief, Rock and Roller and Prodigal Son by Miles J Connor Jr and Jenny Siler. Here's the story of a career art thief from New England who was very, very good at what he did. From small country art museums up to the biggest (does he actually reveal a clue about the Gardner robbery? The Gardner is one of the biggest unsolved robberies of all time) Miles Connor has taken a run at them. By his own account he amassed a very large and valuable personal collection of art and swords. The one thing you WON'T find in this is any sense of remorse. This is what he did. He's sorry he hurt a couple people (emotionally, Connor used as little violence as possible) but that's about it. It's a very matter of fact, walk on the beach kind of account. He's obviously very bright and a wonderful story teller. It was an interesting read.
And last but not least "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown - The latest Robert Langdon novel takes on the arcana of the Masons. If you're a Mason you should love this book. It all but falls over itself in its fawning admiration for the group (which has gotten an bad rep that it doesn't deserve). Brown knows how to tell a story and it rips right along. It sucked me in and I devoured the book in just a couple days. Great fun just like the two previous. On the other hand Brown's writing can leave a lot to be desired. It can be awkward, his imagery can be awful, he apparently managed to completely reorganize Washington D.C. and his history is, well, creative. I actually had much bigger problems with some of the characters and plot devices in this one than the previous two. And his spiritual/theological bits are astoundingly simplistic and stitched together. As with any of his books you can get caught up in picking on the bits he gets wrong or just accept that as the price of admission and enjoy the ride. I just wish that after as many novels as he's sold he took a little more care with his craft.
On the book front -
Friday, May 21, 2010
View From the Phlipside - Rashomon vs. Iron Man 2
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.
I had an interesting time a week or so ago watching two movies that were in many ways very similar and yet had virtually nothing in common. Both movies revolved around crime, ego and a story told from more than one point of view. One challenges the intellect, the other one doesn’t much care if your IQ barely reaches room temperature. One is acknowledged a great classic, the other will likely never get that accolade. You might be tempted to say that one was a treasure and the other trash. You’d be wrong.
Movie number the first is “Iron Man 2” the most popular new movie in the world right now. It racked up enormous numbers in it’s first weekend and shows every sign of being a major hit. The true story behind the Iron Man technology is told by two very different characters with very different interpretations. The action is uptempo almost to the extreme and character and plot take a back seat to explosions and mildly witty banter.
Movie number the second is Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 classic “Rashoman”. It tells the story of a murder and assault from multiple point’s of view, the ego’s involved are almost as grandiose as Tony Stark’s and the movie sits on just about everybody’s list of “Greatest Movies Ever”. Meanwhile the tempo of this movie is incredibly relaxed. There’s very little action and it’s all about plot and character. The audience has to carefully weigh the evidence and figure the truth out on our own.
Why bring up two movies that would seem to have so little really in common? Mainly because I’m tired of listening to folks yap on endlessly about what makes a good movie and what qualifies as garbage. You hear people bellow about what’s “ART” or whether or not it made money. What they’re really saying is “What I like is good and if you disagree you’re an idiot”. There’s a different way to settle the issue and with it you’ll see why I give the thumbs up to Iron Man and Rashomon.
Back at theater school we were taught Goethe’s Three Rules of Criticism. Goethe was a 19th century genius who wrote about everything from poetry to mathematics to theology. His rules are simple - What was the artist trying to do, how well did he succeed and was it worth doing? That makes both Rashomon and Iron Man 2 perfectly successful. Sure Rashomon is the deeper, more powerful creation. But Iron Man 2 is in many ways a lot more fun to watch. Sometimes a rock ‘em, sock ‘em blow ‘em up movie is just what you need.
So relax and enjoy the movies. Goethe says it’s alright.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
I had an interesting time a week or so ago watching two movies that were in many ways very similar and yet had virtually nothing in common. Both movies revolved around crime, ego and a story told from more than one point of view. One challenges the intellect, the other one doesn’t much care if your IQ barely reaches room temperature. One is acknowledged a great classic, the other will likely never get that accolade. You might be tempted to say that one was a treasure and the other trash. You’d be wrong.
Movie number the first is “Iron Man 2” the most popular new movie in the world right now. It racked up enormous numbers in it’s first weekend and shows every sign of being a major hit. The true story behind the Iron Man technology is told by two very different characters with very different interpretations. The action is uptempo almost to the extreme and character and plot take a back seat to explosions and mildly witty banter.
Movie number the second is Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 classic “Rashoman”. It tells the story of a murder and assault from multiple point’s of view, the ego’s involved are almost as grandiose as Tony Stark’s and the movie sits on just about everybody’s list of “Greatest Movies Ever”. Meanwhile the tempo of this movie is incredibly relaxed. There’s very little action and it’s all about plot and character. The audience has to carefully weigh the evidence and figure the truth out on our own.
Why bring up two movies that would seem to have so little really in common? Mainly because I’m tired of listening to folks yap on endlessly about what makes a good movie and what qualifies as garbage. You hear people bellow about what’s “ART” or whether or not it made money. What they’re really saying is “What I like is good and if you disagree you’re an idiot”. There’s a different way to settle the issue and with it you’ll see why I give the thumbs up to Iron Man and Rashomon.
Back at theater school we were taught Goethe’s Three Rules of Criticism. Goethe was a 19th century genius who wrote about everything from poetry to mathematics to theology. His rules are simple - What was the artist trying to do, how well did he succeed and was it worth doing? That makes both Rashomon and Iron Man 2 perfectly successful. Sure Rashomon is the deeper, more powerful creation. But Iron Man 2 is in many ways a lot more fun to watch. Sometimes a rock ‘em, sock ‘em blow ‘em up movie is just what you need.
So relax and enjoy the movies. Goethe says it’s alright.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
View From the Phlipside - Advertising Tones
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.
OK this may be the coolest new advertising idea I’ve heard in a while. As you can tell from last week’s comment about a recent AT&T ad I’m fairly jaded about commercials. Too many are boring, badly thought out, poorly executed or simply have no idea what they’re supposed to be doing. Which is what makes this idea so great. Plus it’s a completely new approach for a tried and true medium.
A hotel with a restaurant in Amsterdam wanted to do two things - they wanted to raise their visibility and increase the number of reservations at the restaurant. So they turned to radio and used the particular strengths of the medium to make it work. The concept is simple. They take the work out of making a reservation at the restaurant for you - this is the part I love - by dialing the phone for you with the radio ad! Oh yes they do! All you have to do is hold your landline phone up to the speaker of the radio while the ad plays and they will make your phone dial the reservation number of the Hotel Arena in Amsterdam. No tricks, it really works and it’s incredibly simple. They include the DTMF (that’s dual tone multi frequency) tones right in that ad. Those are the beeps you hear from any modern phone. Way back in the day (we’re talking 30 or 40 years ago)this was cutting edge hacker technology. People could make pay phones dial calls for free using the same basic technique. It was called phone phreaking.
What I love about this ad is, well, pretty much everything. It’s something you’ve never heard before. It’s guaranteed to generate talk about the spot and the advertiser. It’s interactive, you don’t just sit and listen to the advertisement you need to get up and get your phone to play along. And it’s inevitable that plenty of folks will do just that, JUST TO SEE IF IT REALLY WORKS! When it does that generates even more talk and early response seems to indicate that it did generate some more dinner reservations. So call it a success.
The only down side on this is that the tones won’t work with a cell phone. But you know what? When was the last time that the two old timers of electronic media managed to corner the cool factor all to themselves? The buzz created by the spot would be enough to overcome that small problem at least in the short run. It would be great if more advertising efforts showed this kind of out of the box thinking while still keeping focus on the primary goals.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
OK this may be the coolest new advertising idea I’ve heard in a while. As you can tell from last week’s comment about a recent AT&T ad I’m fairly jaded about commercials. Too many are boring, badly thought out, poorly executed or simply have no idea what they’re supposed to be doing. Which is what makes this idea so great. Plus it’s a completely new approach for a tried and true medium.
A hotel with a restaurant in Amsterdam wanted to do two things - they wanted to raise their visibility and increase the number of reservations at the restaurant. So they turned to radio and used the particular strengths of the medium to make it work. The concept is simple. They take the work out of making a reservation at the restaurant for you - this is the part I love - by dialing the phone for you with the radio ad! Oh yes they do! All you have to do is hold your landline phone up to the speaker of the radio while the ad plays and they will make your phone dial the reservation number of the Hotel Arena in Amsterdam. No tricks, it really works and it’s incredibly simple. They include the DTMF (that’s dual tone multi frequency) tones right in that ad. Those are the beeps you hear from any modern phone. Way back in the day (we’re talking 30 or 40 years ago)this was cutting edge hacker technology. People could make pay phones dial calls for free using the same basic technique. It was called phone phreaking.
What I love about this ad is, well, pretty much everything. It’s something you’ve never heard before. It’s guaranteed to generate talk about the spot and the advertiser. It’s interactive, you don’t just sit and listen to the advertisement you need to get up and get your phone to play along. And it’s inevitable that plenty of folks will do just that, JUST TO SEE IF IT REALLY WORKS! When it does that generates even more talk and early response seems to indicate that it did generate some more dinner reservations. So call it a success.
The only down side on this is that the tones won’t work with a cell phone. But you know what? When was the last time that the two old timers of electronic media managed to corner the cool factor all to themselves? The buzz created by the spot would be enough to overcome that small problem at least in the short run. It would be great if more advertising efforts showed this kind of out of the box thinking while still keeping focus on the primary goals.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Sabbatical wrap up part 3 (?)
I've lost track of my wrap up efforts. Being back in "real life" suddenly drags you in many different directions. I need to slow down and re-find some of my discipline. The good news is that at least now I know where to look.
Part of my project was to create some aids for personal prayer. It's hard sometimes (at least for me) to find that quiet place for prayer when there's so much craziness around. Riffing on an idea I'd seen elsewhere I came up with the idea of "Portable Holy Space". The roots for this idea are actually quite old. People would set up worship spaces in their homes, from a simple corner right up to a personal chapel. Doing that in the 21st Century is not a bad idea but since we are much more on the go than years gone by I wanted to look at ideas that could go with us. So I came up with the following "prototypes"
Here's how they started:
The larger two are just simple wooden boxes from a craft store. The largest is about 13 inches wide. The two smaller ones are mint tins. Everything got sanded down and painted/stained.
I'm just sharing the two smaller ones today. I haven't gotten photos of the larger ones yet. In fact the largest still needs a couple details to be finished. Hope to have them soon.
Here's what the exterior of the two tins look like now. Painted flat black because I didn't want them to get a lot of attention when in stored mode. All the painting was done with spray paint bought at the local hardware store. There were upsides and downsides to that technique. Since I was learning as I went plus I wanted to create things that would be easily replicable I went with the simplest solutions.
Here's the interior of the larger tin. This is the most personal of the projects. About a year ago I was involved in a the CREDO program supported by the Pension Fund of the Episcopal Church. Around that time I suddenly was surrounded by Julian of Norwich. Her reminder that All will be well has been a touchstone for me since. So I wanted to bring all those elements together. You can just see that there is a small black stone leaning on the lower edge below the icon. It reads "CREDO" as a reminder of that wonderful time and as the classic term for belief. The prayer shawl that it sits on was a gift from a friend from CREDO (Thanks Laura!). Like children and youth ministry you're not supposed to have favorites but this is mine.
This is the smallest of the PHS, meant to be small enough to slip into a pocket or even the smallest purse. It's barely 3 inches tall. I had two major problems doing this one. First the paint on the flame just would not sit flat. After three attempts I realized I actually kind of liked the crackle effect and so left it. The other problem was gluing the cord for the cross. I had hot glue to work with and you can see that it never quite worked cleanly. Since I took this picture several suggestions have been made to improve it and I'll probably try a different kind of glue just to clean up the look. The cross is one I received at the Episcopal Youth Event and it hangs freely in the space. The concept I think is a total success. Still need a little work on the execution.
As I said I haven't finished the larger box which I decided to going in a completely different direction. Again the concept I think was great the execution will be better the next time I try one. The smaller box is very simple and straight forward. Photos of them soon.
Peace
Part of my project was to create some aids for personal prayer. It's hard sometimes (at least for me) to find that quiet place for prayer when there's so much craziness around. Riffing on an idea I'd seen elsewhere I came up with the idea of "Portable Holy Space". The roots for this idea are actually quite old. People would set up worship spaces in their homes, from a simple corner right up to a personal chapel. Doing that in the 21st Century is not a bad idea but since we are much more on the go than years gone by I wanted to look at ideas that could go with us. So I came up with the following "prototypes"
Here's how they started:
Here's what the exterior of the two tins look like now. Painted flat black because I didn't want them to get a lot of attention when in stored mode. All the painting was done with spray paint bought at the local hardware store. There were upsides and downsides to that technique. Since I was learning as I went plus I wanted to create things that would be easily replicable I went with the simplest solutions.
Here's the interior of the larger tin. This is the most personal of the projects. About a year ago I was involved in a the CREDO program supported by the Pension Fund of the Episcopal Church. Around that time I suddenly was surrounded by Julian of Norwich. Her reminder that All will be well has been a touchstone for me since. So I wanted to bring all those elements together. You can just see that there is a small black stone leaning on the lower edge below the icon. It reads "CREDO" as a reminder of that wonderful time and as the classic term for belief. The prayer shawl that it sits on was a gift from a friend from CREDO (Thanks Laura!). Like children and youth ministry you're not supposed to have favorites but this is mine.
As I said I haven't finished the larger box which I decided to going in a completely different direction. Again the concept I think was great the execution will be better the next time I try one. The smaller box is very simple and straight forward. Photos of them soon.
Peace
View From the Phlipside - Tough Times at Microsoft
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.
Wow, it’s been a rough couple of weeks for the folks out in Redmond Washington. There’s been so much squawking about Facebook’s privacy issues that you may have missed a couple of rough news items about the wonderful world of Microsoft.
The year started out pretty good for them with the launch of Windows 7. The early response to the new operating system was surprisingly good. And they seemed to move off the shelf pretty quickly. As the follow up to the launch of the latest version of production suite Word it looked like they were on a roll. Well, maybe not.
First of all it seems not everyone is thrilled with Windows 7. For example the folks at HP had been working on a new tablet computer like the iPad that would use the new Microsoft OS. The concept was debuted by the software giant’s CEO Steve Ballmer back in January at a major industry trade show and the products were expected to roll out by mid-summer. That was till HP decided that 7 was a power hog and just wouldn’t work in a tablet type computer. What will they use instead? Probably some Google Chrome based stuff and maybe the operating system used by the Palm devices. HP just bought Palm with those kinds of projects in mind. Since HP is the largest vendor of personal computers in the world that a big hit.
But maybe not as big as this. Microsoft hangs its hat on three primary standards - the Windows operating system, Word and Internet Explorer. And number three there is showing serious signs of weakness. The Internet Explorer web browser has dominated the market like very few other products ever has. Just a few years ago Internet Explorer was the browser choice of nearly 90% of computer users world wide. But the latest surveys show it sliding below 60%. Most experts expect that slide to continue and for IE to lose the overall lead to someone else, like Firefox.
There are lots of reasons for the slide. Some folks just don’t like Microsoft, some prefer the greater flexibility that other browsers offer, some dislike the seemingly constant security breaches in IE (which to be fair is targeted more often BECAUSE it’s the most popular browser out there), some folks just want to be different. At the same time IE stopped being cutting edge a long time ago. If you want the most innovative way to surf the web you are not likely to choose the product out of Redmond.
In the end it may not turn out that bad for Microsoft. HP may discover that it’s a lot harder than they thought to come up with a successful operating system. And getting knocked off their pedestal may just push Internet Explorer to get back into the game. Anything that develops a solid competitor for the iPad and improves my browsing experience is fine with me.
Sometimes bad news might actually turn out to be good news.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
Wow, it’s been a rough couple of weeks for the folks out in Redmond Washington. There’s been so much squawking about Facebook’s privacy issues that you may have missed a couple of rough news items about the wonderful world of Microsoft.
The year started out pretty good for them with the launch of Windows 7. The early response to the new operating system was surprisingly good. And they seemed to move off the shelf pretty quickly. As the follow up to the launch of the latest version of production suite Word it looked like they were on a roll. Well, maybe not.
First of all it seems not everyone is thrilled with Windows 7. For example the folks at HP had been working on a new tablet computer like the iPad that would use the new Microsoft OS. The concept was debuted by the software giant’s CEO Steve Ballmer back in January at a major industry trade show and the products were expected to roll out by mid-summer. That was till HP decided that 7 was a power hog and just wouldn’t work in a tablet type computer. What will they use instead? Probably some Google Chrome based stuff and maybe the operating system used by the Palm devices. HP just bought Palm with those kinds of projects in mind. Since HP is the largest vendor of personal computers in the world that a big hit.
But maybe not as big as this. Microsoft hangs its hat on three primary standards - the Windows operating system, Word and Internet Explorer. And number three there is showing serious signs of weakness. The Internet Explorer web browser has dominated the market like very few other products ever has. Just a few years ago Internet Explorer was the browser choice of nearly 90% of computer users world wide. But the latest surveys show it sliding below 60%. Most experts expect that slide to continue and for IE to lose the overall lead to someone else, like Firefox.
There are lots of reasons for the slide. Some folks just don’t like Microsoft, some prefer the greater flexibility that other browsers offer, some dislike the seemingly constant security breaches in IE (which to be fair is targeted more often BECAUSE it’s the most popular browser out there), some folks just want to be different. At the same time IE stopped being cutting edge a long time ago. If you want the most innovative way to surf the web you are not likely to choose the product out of Redmond.
In the end it may not turn out that bad for Microsoft. HP may discover that it’s a lot harder than they thought to come up with a successful operating system. And getting knocked off their pedestal may just push Internet Explorer to get back into the game. Anything that develops a solid competitor for the iPad and improves my browsing experience is fine with me.
Sometimes bad news might actually turn out to be good news.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
View From the Phlipside - Ernie Harwell
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.
Time to take a moment to pay homage to one of the last of a dying breed, literally. Last week marked the passing of Detroit Tiger’s broadcaster Ernie Harwell. He died very shortly after announcing his retirement last fall due to an inoperable cancer. The fans in Detroit lost a familiar voice. But all of broadcasting may have lost even more.
William Ernest “Ernie” Harwell broadcast baseball games for 55 years. At the end of his career he was ranked among the top 20 of all time. To get to that point his career took some interesting twists and turns. At the very beginning he had the distinction of being the only broadcaster ever traded for player. The Brooklyn Dodgers needed someone to do their radio broadcasts while the regular announcer Red Barber was in the hospital. Branch Rickey sent a catcher to the minor league team that held Ernie’s contract. Harwell is represented in no less than four Halls of Fame including Cooperstown. Because Tiger’s games were broadcast on on of the old clear channel AM stations his voice was well known all over the country.
The loss of a great announcer is something worthy of note. The real loss is of a style of broadcaster. Today’s baseball play by play guys come from a television background. Their approach to the game is more technical and spare. Harwell is one of the last of the radio generation, announcers who were trained to tell the story of the game. Very often a game that they weren’t even seeing but reconstructing from news wire reports. They developed a love of language that seems to have faded with the years. Their broadcasts were distinctive and could even be beautiful. Harwell wrote poetry and songs about the game he loved. I can’t imagine the current generation feeling comfortable doing that. Some of the old timers hung on too long. By the end of his career in Pittsburgh “The Gunner” Bob Prince was painful to hear. Ernie kept the story of the game beautiful right to the end.
Ernie Harwell began the first spring training broadcast of the season with a section of Song of Solomon : "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
For a moment let the birds cease their singing and let the voice of the turtle fall silent. Ernie Harwell died at his home in Michigan at the age of 92.
Call that
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
Time to take a moment to pay homage to one of the last of a dying breed, literally. Last week marked the passing of Detroit Tiger’s broadcaster Ernie Harwell. He died very shortly after announcing his retirement last fall due to an inoperable cancer. The fans in Detroit lost a familiar voice. But all of broadcasting may have lost even more.
William Ernest “Ernie” Harwell broadcast baseball games for 55 years. At the end of his career he was ranked among the top 20 of all time. To get to that point his career took some interesting twists and turns. At the very beginning he had the distinction of being the only broadcaster ever traded for player. The Brooklyn Dodgers needed someone to do their radio broadcasts while the regular announcer Red Barber was in the hospital. Branch Rickey sent a catcher to the minor league team that held Ernie’s contract. Harwell is represented in no less than four Halls of Fame including Cooperstown. Because Tiger’s games were broadcast on on of the old clear channel AM stations his voice was well known all over the country.
The loss of a great announcer is something worthy of note. The real loss is of a style of broadcaster. Today’s baseball play by play guys come from a television background. Their approach to the game is more technical and spare. Harwell is one of the last of the radio generation, announcers who were trained to tell the story of the game. Very often a game that they weren’t even seeing but reconstructing from news wire reports. They developed a love of language that seems to have faded with the years. Their broadcasts were distinctive and could even be beautiful. Harwell wrote poetry and songs about the game he loved. I can’t imagine the current generation feeling comfortable doing that. Some of the old timers hung on too long. By the end of his career in Pittsburgh “The Gunner” Bob Prince was painful to hear. Ernie kept the story of the game beautiful right to the end.
Ernie Harwell began the first spring training broadcast of the season with a section of Song of Solomon : "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
For a moment let the birds cease their singing and let the voice of the turtle fall silent. Ernie Harwell died at his home in Michigan at the age of 92.
Call that
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
View From the Phlipside - Fred Rogers
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.
I honestly don’t know whether to laugh or scream about this next story. It offends me on so many levels, personally and professionally. In the end let it serve as a teaching moment for us all to remember that we really need to take a look at the facts rather than just accept what’s dropped in front of us.
A story from 2008 has floated back to the surface. It began with a quote from a Professor at Louisiana State University who claimed that he had figured out why so many of his students were so self centered. It was Fred Rogers’ fault. The folks at Fox News picked it up and added the word “evil” to the story, as in Fred Rogers is evil and to blame for all the shortcomings of our young people.
Now Mr. Rogers and I share a hometown. He’s beloved down in Pittsburgh so my hackles went up right away. Then I started looking into the story and I got mad. You see the LSU professor (a Finance professor by the way) had decided that Mr. Rogers telling kids that they were “special” had turned them into selfish brats. He had no evidence for this beyond his own students but it’s been treated as if he’d conducted a scientific study. Now if you ever watched Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood you know that the “You’re Special” thing was a very small part of the whole show. Large portions of the rest of the show were in fact about NOT being selfish. But some folks picked up the ball and ran. It was so simple, so obvious. Mr. Rogers destroyed our children. Along the way we’ll conveniently ignore that at the height of his popularity Mr. Rogers was seen in exactly 8 per cent of American homes. Eight.
It offends me that ANY supposed news organization would have given the time of day to this story. They ran down a man’s reputation after he was dead and couldn’t defend himself. It was a cheap and shallow stunt that obscures the real problems facing our young people.
There IS a concerning rise in self centeredness among our youth. Studies say that above average scores on tests for narcissism have increased 30% in the last 25 years. The reasons are complicated and strike close to home. You see as parents we need to take some share of the blame. Why not? We’re the folks raising these kids.
Let’s start by teaching them not to cop out with cheap, sleazy answers that let us off the hook. And let’s avoid smearing the name of a good man who only wanted to be...our neighbor.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
I honestly don’t know whether to laugh or scream about this next story. It offends me on so many levels, personally and professionally. In the end let it serve as a teaching moment for us all to remember that we really need to take a look at the facts rather than just accept what’s dropped in front of us.
A story from 2008 has floated back to the surface. It began with a quote from a Professor at Louisiana State University who claimed that he had figured out why so many of his students were so self centered. It was Fred Rogers’ fault. The folks at Fox News picked it up and added the word “evil” to the story, as in Fred Rogers is evil and to blame for all the shortcomings of our young people.
Now Mr. Rogers and I share a hometown. He’s beloved down in Pittsburgh so my hackles went up right away. Then I started looking into the story and I got mad. You see the LSU professor (a Finance professor by the way) had decided that Mr. Rogers telling kids that they were “special” had turned them into selfish brats. He had no evidence for this beyond his own students but it’s been treated as if he’d conducted a scientific study. Now if you ever watched Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood you know that the “You’re Special” thing was a very small part of the whole show. Large portions of the rest of the show were in fact about NOT being selfish. But some folks picked up the ball and ran. It was so simple, so obvious. Mr. Rogers destroyed our children. Along the way we’ll conveniently ignore that at the height of his popularity Mr. Rogers was seen in exactly 8 per cent of American homes. Eight.
It offends me that ANY supposed news organization would have given the time of day to this story. They ran down a man’s reputation after he was dead and couldn’t defend himself. It was a cheap and shallow stunt that obscures the real problems facing our young people.
There IS a concerning rise in self centeredness among our youth. Studies say that above average scores on tests for narcissism have increased 30% in the last 25 years. The reasons are complicated and strike close to home. You see as parents we need to take some share of the blame. Why not? We’re the folks raising these kids.
Let’s start by teaching them not to cop out with cheap, sleazy answers that let us off the hook. And let’s avoid smearing the name of a good man who only wanted to be...our neighbor.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
View From the Phlipside - Pure Imagination
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.
I always think of it as the “car commercial syndrome” because it seems like the automobile market makes a habit out of it. It’s those commercials that cruise along, usually with beautiful video and impressive music, without ever mentioning what exactly it is that is being advertised. At the very end you’ll get a quick look at a logo or a few choice words telling you what wonderful product you should have fallen in love with this time. The problem is that I usually remember the beautiful visuals and or the stunning audio and completely forget who the spot is for.
Most recently I have been grooving to a TV ad that uses music from a favorite movie. You’ve probably seen it. It features what look like children’s drawings of monsters and aliens peeking around buildings at this young guy who looks rather depressed. The soundtrack comes from the original Willy Wonka movie. It’s Gene Wilder, who played Willy, singing the song “Pure Imagination”. I realized recently that I had been watching that ad for weeks now, singing along with the song (which is a favorite from that movie) with a smile on my face. The spot made me feel good, it made me happy. The downside was that I had absolutely no clue who or what the spot was actually advertising. Turns out it’s for AT&T. I went back and watched the spot on YouTube just to see if I had just missed something. Nope.
Having looked at it I’m not sure now what the connection is between imagination and creativity and my fifth birthday (that’s from the commercial) and my cell phone company. I know AT&T is more than just my provider but that’s how I think of them. And this ad doesn’t change that. Except by adding some confusion along the way.
My bet on these spots is that some clever Melvin at the ad agency really wanted to do something “creative” and then did a very good job selling the benefits of being “creative” to the client. Plus by the time you finish playing the song they’re probably smiling just the way I did. And the deal is closed.
Somewhere along the line everyone forgets that the purpose of advertising is simple. It’s to make the client buy, not smile. If you don’t know what you’re supposed to be buying then the commercial, no matter how clever or creative, is a waste of time and money. Commercials that don’t make clear the message and how it relates to the advertiser and the consumer are a dead loss. Believing anything else is pure imagination.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
I always think of it as the “car commercial syndrome” because it seems like the automobile market makes a habit out of it. It’s those commercials that cruise along, usually with beautiful video and impressive music, without ever mentioning what exactly it is that is being advertised. At the very end you’ll get a quick look at a logo or a few choice words telling you what wonderful product you should have fallen in love with this time. The problem is that I usually remember the beautiful visuals and or the stunning audio and completely forget who the spot is for.
Most recently I have been grooving to a TV ad that uses music from a favorite movie. You’ve probably seen it. It features what look like children’s drawings of monsters and aliens peeking around buildings at this young guy who looks rather depressed. The soundtrack comes from the original Willy Wonka movie. It’s Gene Wilder, who played Willy, singing the song “Pure Imagination”. I realized recently that I had been watching that ad for weeks now, singing along with the song (which is a favorite from that movie) with a smile on my face. The spot made me feel good, it made me happy. The downside was that I had absolutely no clue who or what the spot was actually advertising. Turns out it’s for AT&T. I went back and watched the spot on YouTube just to see if I had just missed something. Nope.
Having looked at it I’m not sure now what the connection is between imagination and creativity and my fifth birthday (that’s from the commercial) and my cell phone company. I know AT&T is more than just my provider but that’s how I think of them. And this ad doesn’t change that. Except by adding some confusion along the way.
My bet on these spots is that some clever Melvin at the ad agency really wanted to do something “creative” and then did a very good job selling the benefits of being “creative” to the client. Plus by the time you finish playing the song they’re probably smiling just the way I did. And the deal is closed.
Somewhere along the line everyone forgets that the purpose of advertising is simple. It’s to make the client buy, not smile. If you don’t know what you’re supposed to be buying then the commercial, no matter how clever or creative, is a waste of time and money. Commercials that don’t make clear the message and how it relates to the advertiser and the consumer are a dead loss. Believing anything else is pure imagination.
Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Sabbatical wrap up Part the second
The re-entry phase to "real life" has been almost as challenging as the sabbatical itself. Especially coming off the week at Holy Cross it's hard to settle into the groove of get up, go to work, deal with details, come home, eat dinner, go to bed, repeat.
Suddenly nothing looks quite the same. Now each part of my day is upgraded somehow to an event worthy of consideration. Why do I do this? What is the "profit" of it? Suddenly house cleaning has a new place and a new respect. Yes, respect. Housecleaning isn't something that is forced on me, a chore, one more "job" to be done. It's something that needs to be done (unless I want to live in filth and mess. Which I don't). Beyond that by doing it I offer the same to the rest of my family and friends. My daily workout is no longer a chore that has to be endured. I gain because I feel better. My family gains because I'm healthier and generally in a better mood when I do. It is a gift to my wife who gets a better looking, stronger husband. There is literally nothing in my day that can't be analyzed this way. The results are surprising. Suddenly I'm less interested in watching TV just for something to do (my daughter is cheering at this) because there are things I can do that will be more fun, better for me and will "profit" my various relationships much more than yet another re-run of NCIS which I've probably seen at least five times already.
Every part of my life is just that. Part of my life, a small segment of a larger whole. My life is not a hodge podge of disparate items stuck together. Or least I don't want it to be. Now I try to find the pieces that work together, that support each other, enhance each other. The final product feels better, more logical, more...what's the word I want? It feels smoother. It feels like it belongs together. It feels RIGHT. That's an important feeling for me.
For years I suffered anxiety attacks. They mostly woke me up in the middle of the night. One thing was consistent. The feeling of profound "wrongness" of the world in those moments. I described it for years as a "Twilight Zone" feeling. If you know the classic TV series you remember that many, many of the stories were about people who found themselves in situations that seemed normal but were just that tiny bit "off". That sense of wrongness has been a part of my life for a long time.
Now I find the beginnings of this opposite feeling, this feeling of things being "right". The process isn't complete. I'm still analyzing parts of my life, still sorting the pieces and considering their place in my present and future. Hanging onto that feeling of "right" is the center of my thoughts these days. When something begins to move me away from it I quickly stop and look at what's going on. Things that had begun to slide out of my life are re-surfacing (like music. How did I spend so little time with music for the last 10 years? It was a reaction to the bad ending of my time in radio but I cut myself off from something that I love. Not any more.)
Through it all I find myself bathed in a feeling, immersed in a way that I don't ever remember having before. It is a daily feeling of happiness, a happiness that has infused itself into the daily routines of my life. Don't get me wrong. My life was not all misery before only now to be transformed by my sabbatical. The happiness that was there too often would be dragged under by an undertow of discontent and instability. As I slowly begin to clear away the detritus of those issues I can more clearly see the happiness that has always been there. In the midst of the struggles that every life must face there is happiness to be found if we are willing to open our eyes, if we are willing to accept it. It doesn't mean that we will not continue to strive to be the best expression of our gifts, to be the best expression of God's intent for us. Rather it changes the definition of what success looks like in that striving.
And that's where I'm headed right now. It feels good.
Peace
Suddenly nothing looks quite the same. Now each part of my day is upgraded somehow to an event worthy of consideration. Why do I do this? What is the "profit" of it? Suddenly house cleaning has a new place and a new respect. Yes, respect. Housecleaning isn't something that is forced on me, a chore, one more "job" to be done. It's something that needs to be done (unless I want to live in filth and mess. Which I don't). Beyond that by doing it I offer the same to the rest of my family and friends. My daily workout is no longer a chore that has to be endured. I gain because I feel better. My family gains because I'm healthier and generally in a better mood when I do. It is a gift to my wife who gets a better looking, stronger husband. There is literally nothing in my day that can't be analyzed this way. The results are surprising. Suddenly I'm less interested in watching TV just for something to do (my daughter is cheering at this) because there are things I can do that will be more fun, better for me and will "profit" my various relationships much more than yet another re-run of NCIS which I've probably seen at least five times already.
Every part of my life is just that. Part of my life, a small segment of a larger whole. My life is not a hodge podge of disparate items stuck together. Or least I don't want it to be. Now I try to find the pieces that work together, that support each other, enhance each other. The final product feels better, more logical, more...what's the word I want? It feels smoother. It feels like it belongs together. It feels RIGHT. That's an important feeling for me.
For years I suffered anxiety attacks. They mostly woke me up in the middle of the night. One thing was consistent. The feeling of profound "wrongness" of the world in those moments. I described it for years as a "Twilight Zone" feeling. If you know the classic TV series you remember that many, many of the stories were about people who found themselves in situations that seemed normal but were just that tiny bit "off". That sense of wrongness has been a part of my life for a long time.
Now I find the beginnings of this opposite feeling, this feeling of things being "right". The process isn't complete. I'm still analyzing parts of my life, still sorting the pieces and considering their place in my present and future. Hanging onto that feeling of "right" is the center of my thoughts these days. When something begins to move me away from it I quickly stop and look at what's going on. Things that had begun to slide out of my life are re-surfacing (like music. How did I spend so little time with music for the last 10 years? It was a reaction to the bad ending of my time in radio but I cut myself off from something that I love. Not any more.)
Through it all I find myself bathed in a feeling, immersed in a way that I don't ever remember having before. It is a daily feeling of happiness, a happiness that has infused itself into the daily routines of my life. Don't get me wrong. My life was not all misery before only now to be transformed by my sabbatical. The happiness that was there too often would be dragged under by an undertow of discontent and instability. As I slowly begin to clear away the detritus of those issues I can more clearly see the happiness that has always been there. In the midst of the struggles that every life must face there is happiness to be found if we are willing to open our eyes, if we are willing to accept it. It doesn't mean that we will not continue to strive to be the best expression of our gifts, to be the best expression of God's intent for us. Rather it changes the definition of what success looks like in that striving.
And that's where I'm headed right now. It feels good.
Peace
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Review -Angel Time by Anne Rice
I doubt I'll read any of the rest.
Rice is best known for the vampire series that stars the vampire LeStat. In 2004 she announced that with her return to her childhood Roman Catholicism she would only "write for the Lord" from then on. It appears that the books written in that time have sold well but not as well as her previous output.
Honestly I found the book slow going at first. She seemed to be in no great hurry to get into the flow of her story. When we finally get down to it the concept still seemed interesting. Toby O'Dare is a young man with great tragedy in his life. For reasons that never seemed obvious to me he discovers he's a natural hit man. To the point that as a young man with no particular violent background he takes out some Russian mobsters with amazing ease. He's hired by the U.S. government to be a kind of black ops hit man. The character development struck me as very thin and the plot fairly unbelievable.
Then an angel appears with the goal of saving Toby. Again rather astoundingly it takes very little to take this stone cold killer and turn him to weeping repentance. Malchiah (the angel) then gives Toby the chance to time travel to the Middle Ages to help a Jewish community in Norwich England facing persecution. To be honest this is the best section of the book. The characters have more depth and the story moves nicely. I won't spoil the rather thin surprise at the ending.
Unfortunately I just don't buy the transformation shown in Toby. The story lacks any feeling of reality, the story line is thin as are the characters (sadly we get very little from the character that I found most interesting Malchiah. She makes some interesting points about the differences between humanity and angels). The book struck me as weak. The middle section about the English Jews is based on history. In the notes at the end of the book Rice acknowledges that she came across the history and wanted to write a story about it. That portion works but for me she never made the connection between the two stories and the wrap around story was poor. The book didn't impress me as a mystery or as Christian fiction. I've seen a variety of reviews that seemed to be impressed with the book. I honestly can not imagine why.
Friday, May 7, 2010
They are WRONG!!!
The folks at How Many of Me say there is only one Jay Phillippi in the United States. They are wrong. There's at least one other and he's a Facebook friend of mine. I am very insulted on his behalf.
Well of course they forgot HIM. Surely you don't think they overlooked ME?!?!?!?!
Well of course they forgot HIM. Surely you don't think they overlooked ME?!?!?!?!
| HowManyOfMe.com | ||
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Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The danger of not dealing in facts - Mr. Rogers is evil
I want you to watch the first segment of this video clip from Fox News. That way you'll see what was actually said rather than relying on me:
So a couple points:
Fact two: Thirty plus years ago when I was in college I remember plenty of people begging for extra credit or a little leniency to bump a C grade to a B or a B to an A. So this is hardly new and novel behavior.
Fact three: According to "Pittsburgh Magazine" (as quoted in the Wikipedia article on Fred Rogers) at the peak of his popularity "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood" was seen in 8% of homes. EIGHT PER CENT. The man had an astounding influence given the fact that 92% of households didn't watch.
Fact four: There is a study on the rising levels of narcissism in college students done by San Diego State University. I can find no indication that Professor Chance from LSU is associated with it in any way except he thinks Mr. Rogers is responsible at least in part. The study itself apparently says that there has been a 30% increase in the number of students who score above average on a standardized test for narcissism (a self centered point of view).
Mr. Rogers comment that "You're Special" was a couple seconds out of each program. The rest of the program dealt with topics like getting along with each, taking care of each other, going to school and how things worked. Somehow all the rest of that gets pushed aside by the simple statement - "You're Special".
Amazing.
So let's take a look at this from the point of view of faith. Created in the image of God. Part of the divine creation of which, we are assured, God is mindful. Important enough, valued enough that God sent his only son to die for us.
Not that you're special or anything.
There is a different between being special (which by the way is defined in part as "important in own way") and being entitled. Every human being is special, beloved of God. Every human being should be able to grow up with that feeling of specialness and uniqueness. What message would be sent in its place? That you are common, unimportant and defective. That your primary goal should be making up for your shortcomings. That at least seems to be the argument of two of the talking heads in the Fox clip.
None of which is consistent with the Gospel.
Is there work for us to do on ourselves? Absolutely. It is to develop our gifts and to become the best expression of all that makes us special. Because each of us is different (special) each of us will bring something slightly different to the table of life. In exploring the specialness of ourselves we become more fully human and closer to the ideal that was created within us from our earliest days.
Is there reason to be concerned about our young people? There always is and always has been. So that's nothing new. Am I concerned about the effects of "helicopter parents" and parents too intent on making things easy for their children rather than helping them learn and grow? I absolutely am. Our kids need to understand limitations on time and desire. They need to know no limits on love. They need to work for things so that they will understand the value of it better. They need to be given opportunity and held responsible for their commitments. That's what a parent should do in my opinion.
What our kids don't need is to hear us involved in this kind of badly thought out, poorly informed and borderline slanderous discussion of a man who is no longer around to defend himself. They don't need to live under the lash that tells them only - "You're not good enough, keep working".
Fox News should be ashamed.
Peace
So a couple points:
- There is a certain amount of tongue in cheek here but I believe two of the three commentators do basically agree with the essential point
- One of the commentators does appear to argue with some emotion against the proposition
- This is, in my opinion, one of the most idiotic conversations I've heard in a very long time. Especially when you look at the facts.
Fact two: Thirty plus years ago when I was in college I remember plenty of people begging for extra credit or a little leniency to bump a C grade to a B or a B to an A. So this is hardly new and novel behavior.
Fact three: According to "Pittsburgh Magazine" (as quoted in the Wikipedia article on Fred Rogers) at the peak of his popularity "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood" was seen in 8% of homes. EIGHT PER CENT. The man had an astounding influence given the fact that 92% of households didn't watch.
Fact four: There is a study on the rising levels of narcissism in college students done by San Diego State University. I can find no indication that Professor Chance from LSU is associated with it in any way except he thinks Mr. Rogers is responsible at least in part. The study itself apparently says that there has been a 30% increase in the number of students who score above average on a standardized test for narcissism (a self centered point of view).
Mr. Rogers comment that "You're Special" was a couple seconds out of each program. The rest of the program dealt with topics like getting along with each, taking care of each other, going to school and how things worked. Somehow all the rest of that gets pushed aside by the simple statement - "You're Special".
Amazing.
So let's take a look at this from the point of view of faith. Created in the image of God. Part of the divine creation of which, we are assured, God is mindful. Important enough, valued enough that God sent his only son to die for us.
Not that you're special or anything.
There is a different between being special (which by the way is defined in part as "important in own way") and being entitled. Every human being is special, beloved of God. Every human being should be able to grow up with that feeling of specialness and uniqueness. What message would be sent in its place? That you are common, unimportant and defective. That your primary goal should be making up for your shortcomings. That at least seems to be the argument of two of the talking heads in the Fox clip.
None of which is consistent with the Gospel.
Is there work for us to do on ourselves? Absolutely. It is to develop our gifts and to become the best expression of all that makes us special. Because each of us is different (special) each of us will bring something slightly different to the table of life. In exploring the specialness of ourselves we become more fully human and closer to the ideal that was created within us from our earliest days.
Is there reason to be concerned about our young people? There always is and always has been. So that's nothing new. Am I concerned about the effects of "helicopter parents" and parents too intent on making things easy for their children rather than helping them learn and grow? I absolutely am. Our kids need to understand limitations on time and desire. They need to know no limits on love. They need to work for things so that they will understand the value of it better. They need to be given opportunity and held responsible for their commitments. That's what a parent should do in my opinion.
What our kids don't need is to hear us involved in this kind of badly thought out, poorly informed and borderline slanderous discussion of a man who is no longer around to defend himself. They don't need to live under the lash that tells them only - "You're not good enough, keep working".
Fox News should be ashamed.
Peace
Monday, May 3, 2010
Sabbatical reading
Couldn't spend all of my time working on the paper or worshipping so I took advantage of the small but diverse library at Holy Cross. Between Tuesday and Saturday I bumped off the following books:
The Lighthouse by P.D.James - This is one of her Dalgliesh series of which I may have read one before (maybe an audio book?). Set on a fictional island of the coast of southern England it's something of a locked room mystery with a bit of SARS thrown in for good measure. James has a sterling rep and lived up to it as far as I'm concerned. Even though I had to kind of "fill in the blanks" on some of the ongoing relationships (nothing like starting in the middle of a series. I believe this is #13 in the Dalgliesh series) it was well written and sucked you right in. Really enjoyed it.
The second book was also an interesting story but wasn't nearly as well written. Does that make sense? The book was "The Templar Legacy" (the title alone should tell you all you need to know) by Steve Berry. Berry has written two other books that apparently sold pretty well and this one made the NY Times Best Seller list. It's a very "DaVinci Code" kind of story about the secrets of the ancient monastic warriors known as the Knights Templar. Their actual story is interesting but not nearly as convoluted as the author would have you believe. His real short coming is some truly awful, trite pieces of writing scattered through the story. I'm not sure who should be more ashamed the author or his editor. In the end the story is interesting enough if fairly standard. He makes some "statements" about Christianity that I thought were idiotic and shallow but hey it's fiction. If you need to fill empty hours, want a reasonably well told story and are willing to laugh at the author's shortcomings (if he just worked a little harder at his writing he'd be pretty good. He knows how to tell a story) you'll like it. Apparently the main character is now the hero of a series of books. I might just give another one a chance.
Sabbatical wrap up Part first
While my sabbatical time is at an end I still have some things to share here. I'll try and move them along over the next couple weeks.
On the whole it was wonderful. A time of rest, a time of reflection, a time of learning and of growth.
But now it's back into the office. Only to realize it's not quite that easy! I took a lot of stuff home with me because I would need it during the sabbatical (I was right on about 60% of what I took home). But I forgot to pack it up and bring it back in! Not having my mouse is the biggest annoyance. Plus when I re-installed my operating system I wiped out all the network settings and drivers to use the network printers. Ah well, those can be re-entered.
On the other hand I completely forgot to back up my e-mail application and so I've lost all of the stuff I'd held onto. Most of which I don't even remember having and can't imagine I'll truly miss.
So in many ways this has been a time of shedding things. Things unneeded and things that did nothing to move farther along in my journey. Mostly things that tied me to the past. Now to work on not collecting anew.
I don't know if I sound or look any different but I feel different. It's not the "mountain top" feeling exactly that you get after a great emotional high like a Happening or Cursillo/Koinonia weekend. It's a feeling of peace. A kind of peace that brings great joy.
I'm likin' it. and I want to keep it.
More to come.
Peace
On the whole it was wonderful. A time of rest, a time of reflection, a time of learning and of growth.
But now it's back into the office. Only to realize it's not quite that easy! I took a lot of stuff home with me because I would need it during the sabbatical (I was right on about 60% of what I took home). But I forgot to pack it up and bring it back in! Not having my mouse is the biggest annoyance. Plus when I re-installed my operating system I wiped out all the network settings and drivers to use the network printers. Ah well, those can be re-entered.
On the other hand I completely forgot to back up my e-mail application and so I've lost all of the stuff I'd held onto. Most of which I don't even remember having and can't imagine I'll truly miss.
So in many ways this has been a time of shedding things. Things unneeded and things that did nothing to move farther along in my journey. Mostly things that tied me to the past. Now to work on not collecting anew.
I don't know if I sound or look any different but I feel different. It's not the "mountain top" feeling exactly that you get after a great emotional high like a Happening or Cursillo/Koinonia weekend. It's a feeling of peace. A kind of peace that brings great joy.
I'm likin' it. and I want to keep it.
More to come.
Peace
Saturday, May 1, 2010
It is Done
The first draft of the sabbatical project writing is complete. I will have to add a short bibliography but I'm not worried about that. I have accomplished what I came here to do. The feeling is one of great joy. Whatever judgement of value comes is of no concern. This is a good expression of who I am and my gifts.
Time to rest.
And time to come home.
Yes, time to come home.
I can not tell you how wonderful I feel.
Peace.
Time to rest.
And time to come home.
Yes, time to come home.
I can not tell you how wonderful I feel.
Peace.
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