Don't Buy Stuff

If only more people had listened to the wisdom of SNL a few years ago...

Louis C.K. on Conan

Below is a little video from the Conan O'Brien Show with comedian Louis C.K. It's a funny commentary about the current economic "mess" we're in and the spoiled generation of today. (Note: some mildly strong language.)

Grapes of Wrath

Some economists say we're in a so-called "Great Recession" now. Some even say we may head into another depression. While most say it won't be as extensive as the Great Depression, I wanted to get a sense of what life was kind of like during that time. So, I picked up a book I had surprisingly never read, The Grapes of Wrath. Several years ago, I read a Steinbeck short story and didn't care for it, so I had avoided his works up until recently. As a teacher, I recently taught The Pearl and thought it was a decent work. I decided I'd give his "masterpiece" a chance. I'm glad I did.

For me, the main idea of the novel was the flaw of the "American Dream". It's certainly not a new story; the problem of the idealism of the American dream has been written about since early in our history. The Gilded Age was one prime, popular example. Immigrants were told that everyone in America was rich and that the streets were paved with gold. When they got here they realized the harsh reality: working long hours, struggling to get enough food for the family to eat, lacking education, racism/ethnocentrism of people already here.

The Grapes of Wrath is another story of the American dream gone wrong. The Joad family, being led to believe that they could improve their lives by moving from Oklahoma to California during the Dust Bowl, pack up their lives and move west. But things go wrong from almost the beginning. Grammpa dies. Then Noah takes off. Gramma dies, and Connie bolts leaving a pregnant wife. Casy gets arrested. There's no work. "Native Californians" treat them like animals. They find work, but it quickly runs out. Tom kills another man and has to go on the run. The floods come. Rose of Sharon has a stillborn baby.

What does this tell me? Following the American dream of materialism and a comfortable life only leads to heartache, death, and misery. Yet we keep preaching it. Immigrants come all the time, most recently from Latin American countries, filled with the dreams that immigrants and migrants have been filled with throughout our history. Come and live here; work hard and you'll get rich just like every American. But what happens when they get here? Usually it's a story almost identical to the Joads'. They can't get work; their children go hungry; they live in abject poverty; they face racism and hatred at almost every corner. Are we a nation built on lies?

As you can probably tell, The Grapes of Wrath left me with a deep feeling of pessimism about our nation. Maybe we do need another Great Depression to help us return to a place of humility and understanding of much of the rest of the world.

On a similar note, after reading the book, I watched the movie version starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. For much of the movie, the spirit of the book was carried through. However, the last quarter was basically the opposite. The scenes of picking cotton and the flood and what followed (if you haven't read it, I won't spoil it; if you have, you know what I mean) were left out of the movie entirely. Rather, it ends with a long speech from Ma about how they can never be defeated. It has this very optomistic air about it; something which is never felt whatsoever in the book.

Final Grades:
The Grapes of Wrath book--A, an American Masterpiece. I'm sorry I doubted the style of John Steinbeck in the past.

The Grapes of Wrath movie--C-, not horrible, but lacking in so many areas. And Henry Fonda cannot even come close to replicating an Oklahoma accent.

Sufjan

Is Evolution a Religion?

Evolutionary Hymn

Lead us, Evolution, lead us
Up the future's endless stair;
Chop us, change us, prod us, weed us.
For stagnation is despair:
Groping, guessing, yet progressing,
Lead us nobody knows where.

Wrong or justice, joy or sorrow,
In the present what are they
while there's always jam-tomorrow,
While we tread the onward way?
Never knowing where we're going,
We can never go astray.

To whatever variation
Our posterity may turn
Hairy, squashy, or crustacean,
Bulbous-eyed or square of stern,
Tusked or toothless, mild or ruthless,
Towards that unknown god we yearn.

Ask not if it's god or devil,
Brethren, lest your words imply
Static norms of good and evil
(As in Plato) throned on high;
Such scholastic, inelastic,
Abstract yardsticks we deny.

Far too long have sages vainly
Glossed great Nature's simple text;
He who runs can read it plainly,
'Goodness = what comes next.'
By evolving, Life is solving
All the questions we perplexed.

Oh then! Value means survival-
Value. If our progeny
Spreads and spawns and licks each rival,
That will prove its deity
(Far from pleasant, by our present,
Standards, though it may well be).

C S Lewis

2 Movies--A Contrast

We recently saw two "Christian-themed" movies, Fireproof and Bella. While each film is by no means perfect, one of them stands far above the other in terms of artistic merit. To help guide this system, I'm going to set up some of the benchmarks for what make a film "good art". Of course there is some subjectivity to this. But there are some objective standards by which we can judge art to be either good or bad. (For a more in depth explanation of this, read Ken Myer's fantastic book All God's Children in Blue Suede Shoes.) It's also okay to like "bad art", but it must be recognized as such.

Theme

Fireproof
The central premise of this movie was the importance for sacrifice, humility, and patience in marriage and family. This idea is agreeable enough, even though many people won't necessarily agree with it. B+

Bella
Life is precious. It's something that must be treasured at every opportunity and regarded as sacred. The theme was "not abortions are bad", but that the gift of life should be idealized. A-

Plot/Conflict

Fireproof
There are some interesting moments in this film. The scenes of saving people from fires were very exciting and well constructed and added some necessary tension aside from the main conflict of the film. For the most part, the primary conflict of the film felt real; many couples do struggle the way they do. However, many unnecessary elements to the conflict were added in that horribly detracted from the overall storyline. C

Bella
This movie is one of those exceptionally slow films. Not that that's entirely bad. The main conflicts came through getting to know what was going on in the heads of the characters. We learned about what shaped them and why they were acting in certain ways. We had to learn what was causing their struggles. At the same point, though, the pacing of the film created some overly slow moments that should have been avoided. B

Characters/Motivations

Fireproof
Unbelievable. That's about the only word I could use to describe the motivations of the characters of this movie. At every step they were doing something, they seemed to be doing almost the opposite of what that character was being built up to do. Nothing any of the characters did seemed natural or normal for them. It was horribly counter intuitive. There was a sense that the characters were lying to me throughout the whole movie; not good for a movie that dubs itself "Christian". F

Bella
Once you learn the stories of the two main characters, it all kind of makes sense. I wasn't entirely convinced of their actions, but enough to make the story work. I think the family could have been developed a little more fully. To make some of the family scenes work a little better we need to know more about the parents and little brother. B

Script

Fireproof
Well-intentioned but horribly flawed. The problem was that the authors were trying to teach a lesson rather than let us experience the world through the eyes of another. Throughout the entire film I felt like I was being preached at rather than being allowed to come to the conclusions on my own. That was an insult to my intelligence. Most movie-goers are generally smart people. Don't tell us what to think, but allow us to come to certain realizations on our own. Movies should contain a high degree of subtlety to create their tone. This movie thinks that the audience is stupid and in need of something. While that may be true to a degree, don't treat them as such. This movie went horribly wrong. F-

Bella
Exquisite. This was probably the best element artistically of this film. We're never preached at. Instead we are allowed to look inside the heads of two people for an hour and a half and discover what makes them tick. It's soft, subtle conversations and movements that allow us to better understand them and the theme. It's a well-crafted piece of art. A

Acting

Fireproof
There was acting in this movie? It looked and sounded like the people were reading from a piece of paper that was hanging just in front of them. Yes, I know that many of the people were volunteers from the church that produces these films. But that does not preclude it from being discussed from an artistic viewpoint. Kirk Cameron is okay at times. He seems a little more natural than the others. But he's far from perfect. I had difficulty listening to the other people go through the motions. They didn't act, they just read. Again, just abysmal. F-

Bella
Profound. The two leads did an excellent job. They did a fine job creating chemistry as the movie progressed. I also enjoyed the father, a prototypical immigrant. Some of the other actors weren't quite as convincing, especially the two brothers. I didn't fully feel their emotions. B

Overall Effect

Fireproof
Dangerous. This movie was made to be watched in churches and that's where it should stay. At least there people would know a little better what they were getting. And frankly, most of the people who saw this in the theater were already regular church attenders. Most non-Christians I know who would or did see this movie would be horribly offended at the mediocre art they had just seen. While they MIGHT respect the message, they would not be able to get over how bad it was artistically. I suspect that it probably pushed more people away from faith than actually toward it. As Christians we MUST demand the very best art, not this pile of junk. If we want to bring people to faith, we have to show them the very best in beauty and truth and excellence. Being done on a shoestring budget with volunteers is no excuse for a movie like this to be released to the general public. F-

Bella
Excellent. The thing that struck me the most were the subtle things. There's a strong emphasis on the importance of the family. This was created with some little things, like the train going by the "Family Dollar" store and the snapshots of families together. It was a quiet, thoughtful movie that should be relished and pondered. A

Final Grade

Fireproof
Absolutely horrible. If you are a Christian, watch with much caution. Do not take non-Christians with you or suggest it to them without properly and framing it in it's full context. Let them know that watching it will be like going to church. While you may agree with the theme of the movie, don't be deceived into thinking that it makes this movie good. Artistically, it is a very bad movie. F

Bella
Very fine. While it has some flaws, Bella is a fantastic little film. It can be enjoyed by many. B+

Is this the end?

For the last 15 years, Starflyer 59 has been the musical equivalent of a best friend. It's felt like every album that Jason Martin has made has paralleled some important event in my own life. Silver has that youthful, immature, raw, passionate sound. In 1993, when the album came out, I was 18 years old with that same kind of raw energy. Then Gold, the ultimate break-up album came just as I was breaking up with my then-fiance. The Fashion Focus featured the song "I Drive a Lot" when my life was like a long road trip. The reflections on Old were nearly identical to the thoughts I was having at that point in life.

Dial M is another of SF59's introspective albums. This time the recurring question seems to be, "What's really important?" With his own family and the death of his father, he is even more inward. While no one in my family has died, I am preparing for my own family and have repeatedly been asking myself this question as well.

Jason must be hanging out a lot more with his brother Ronnie, too. Dial M has more of the sounds of The Brothers Martin, his recent project with Joy Electric brother, than of the more traditional guitar-laden sounds we're more used to.

The songs, as usual, are brilliant but enigmatic. If there's always been one thing about SF59 is that they refuse to be nailed down. They don't want to follow convention or to be typecast. As the opener "Minor Keys" says, "Thru the speakers, and thru the walls / my sounds will travel in spite of it all". "The Brightest of the Head" is a reflection on the effects of selfishness. It says, "a crooked tongue makes for crooked speech / God forbid what I thought, forgive what I think." And later, "to live is Christ, to die is gain / I try and I try, I try and I try." Very simply and very poignant.

(For all album lyrics, go here.)

But now I have to wonder, is this the end of the journey? Is the friendship coming to an end? That's not to say that I am no longer a fan, but I wonder if SF59 is hanging up the guitar. The somewhat less cryptic "I Love You Like the Little Bird" may hint at the future of SF59.

I've made up my mind
This is the time to relegate
No need to remind that scans
Are unkind a lot of times
But I've tried, I've tried to write
What was in my head, what was in my head

Sometimes I feel, I feel so obsolete
Because the kids want a faster beat
And if I was free, free to leave
But it's my kids, they need to eat

I love you it's true
I love you like the little bird
No need to remind that life is unkind
A lot of times

Priorities. Jason Martin obviously loves making music. And I believe that as long as he has creative energy, he will always be producing. At the same time, however, it's also obvious that he understands his responsibility as a husband and father, and no matter what, that will always take precedence. If he does stop putting music out there, I will miss it greatly; but I will also respect the decision he has made to put his family first.