Photos

It's been a while since I put some photos up. Here are some recent ones that I found laying around - quite a variety too.

Booked Solid

I've recently come into quite a few new books. I've also started reading some of them (what an Idea!). But I find myself mostly overwhelmed with how much I want to read - a good place to find yourself I suppose. Unfortunately, here's the long list of books I've only recently gotten from good ole Paperbackswap and have yet to read (this isn't even all of them):

• Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis by George Sayer
• The Meaning of Sports: Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football, and Basketball by Michael Mandelbaum
• On Becoming Baby Wise by Bucknam and Ezzo
• Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest by Beck Weathers
• Does God Have a Future?: A Debate on Divine Providence by John Sanders
• Cold Mountain by Charles Fraizer
• Jihad vs. McWorld: How Tribalism and Globalism Reshaping the World by Benjamin Barber
• Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 by Garrison Keilor
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
• Nickle and Dimed: On (not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

On top of that, here are a few I've picked up myself or been gifted:

• Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (started reading last night)
  
• The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (I have read half of this one)

Other books I am currently reading, picked up and read the intro to, have picked through:

• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
  
• The God Who Risks: A Theology of Providence by John Sanders
• Simply Christian by N.T. Wright

I have gotten better at finish ones I start. Here are my most recents:

• Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
• Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
• A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright
• The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash by Dave Urbanski
• The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

Is it possible to have too much access to books and information? I'm not sure. All of these, plus I have three magazine subscriptions (Paste, Relevant, and National Geographic). Add on reading I do for and at work. Then consider all the music I buy and listen to, the podcasts subscriptions I have (eight at last count).

Really, this is a lot of media and information. Too much?

A Letter of Concern

Dear You-Know-Who-You-Are,

I'm struggling. Truth be told, after a few go-arounds with you, I just don't know if I'll be able to muster up good feelings towards your offerings. Where's the you I knew and loved? If that's you, if that's truly you hidden somewhere in the caterwauling in the midst of Viva la Vida, well, then please just step out and reveal yourself, because except for here and there (far too sparsely), I can't seem to find you. I'd've preferred it that you just stand up and be yourself. Much appreciated.

Adam

The Bishop

5 Things and 1 More

Five Albums in My "To Listen To" Playlist:

• Eric McKeown - Grand
• Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
• Sleeping at Last - Keep No Score
• Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
• Jon Foreman - Summer (EP)

I'd like to start doing lots and lots of lists (can be top ten, or eight, or fourteen):
movies to watch on a tuesday, books from middle school, habits i'd never admit except on a blog, words i mispell, etc., et al.

Give me ideas/suggestions/prompts and I'll do them.

Fond Farewell

Tim Russert died this week. He was one of the best.

We'll miss you Tim.












"It's just a shame. Tim was a regular guy with [a] perpetual smile he wore naturally all the time. Tim was always the same...genuine."

Rockin' Out

While driving in the car, Stacey said this to me:

"Adam, quit playing (air) piano and drive home."

Movies - Spoiler Alert

Be forewarned: I am going to review three movies I've seen recently.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Grade: D)
I sincerely wish George Lucas would have kept the original title he intended: Indiana Jones and the the Saucer Men from Mars. Then, at least, I would have stayed away and known it was going to be horrible. I went in with low expectations, mind you. I did not expect it to be as good as the original trilogy. And the more I think about it, and the more I talk about it, the greater a chance the grade will fall from D to F (it started at a C - oh how the mighty have fallen).

There are far too many stupid things to point out in this movie (stupid and over-the-top, even for an Indiana Jones movie). The script was boring and unoriginal. The introduction of the new character (i.e. Mr. LeBouf) was somewhere between lackluster and a pile of dung. Cate Blanchett was fine - would have been better with a script. The stunts were horrible and refused to even get my unbelief off the ground (and moving toward a suspended state). From surviving a nuclear explosion in a refrigerator, the vine-swinging-catch-up-to-a-Jeep scene, to the three waterfalls (not ONE, not TWO, but THREE consecutive), there is no imagination, no mystery, no mythology built in to them (the perfection of these things are best illustrated in the invisible bridge from a previous IJ).

All in all, don't see it - even from Rebook...I mean, Red Box.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Grade: C+)
The get points for effort, that's for sure. Overall, a decently made movie - certainly improving over the movie making aspects of the first one: the battle/fight scenes were much better (though, why do they always happen with a bright, sunny day - isn't it basic Movie Making 101 to set the mood with environemtn [i.e. at least grey skies, if not stormy])

In the end though, I give it a C+ because the books are so near and dear to my heart. I love them endlessly, and even though I haven't read Caspian in some 4 years, there is just something missing from the series on screen. I may be siding with Clive, that they simply shouldn't be made into movies. There's just something missing.

V for Vendetta (Grade: B)
The best movie of my past two weeks, no doubt. It was a good movie, like may folks said it would be. Good subject matter, pretty good script. Great performance from Miss Nattie Po. I don't know that I'll rave over this one - it may or may not crack into my Top 50 (which does need updating). All-in-all, glad I saw it. Not a B movie, but a B movie.