Books, Movies, and a Wedding

July 4th, 2005 | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) |

I haven’t had much to do the last week, but I have gotten alot done. Mostly watching movies and reading books, but in other areas, too.

I told my brother that I would treat him to see Star Wars Episode III over a month ago, but I either haven’t had the time or the money until this last week. We were going to go on Wednesday, but because of time constraints and limited showing times, we ended up seeing War of the Worlds instead. War of the Worlds was a great movie. It was sort of like Independence Day from a civilian point of view. Lots of action and awesome special effects. We saw Star Wars on Saturday. Everyone that I have talked to said it was an awesome movie even though you know exactly what is going to happen. I would very much agree.

I mentioned in my first new post that I wanted to see the movie Crash. Sunday evening, I saw the movie with my mom. What an incredibly powerful movie. There is a description of the movie in the aforementioned post. It deals bluntly with the problems of racism and prejudice in a very moving way. I think that if I were still enrolled in the Film & Religion class I took a year ago, I could write a 10 page paper about this film.

I rented the movies Hostage and Coach Carter this weekend as well. Both are pretty good movies, Coach Carter being the better of the two, in my opinion. It was like a modern, urbanized Hoosiers. Who wouldn’t like that?

Don’t think I’ve been spending all of my time letting my mind rot in front of various screens, though. I’ve been reading a lot as well. This last week I bought and read One of a Kind : The Rise and Fall of Stuey “The Kid” Ungar, The World’s Greatest Poker Player, the tragic story of who is perhaps the greatest natural card player of all time. Stu Ungar, if you have not heard of him, won the 1980, 1981, and 1997 World Series of Poker, the most prestigious poker event in the world. He was truly a “gambling man,” betting away most of his poker earnings (nearly $30 million) on sports, horse racing, and everything else imagineable. He once bet $500,000 on a single round of golf. His lavish lifestyle and addiction to cocaine eventually got the best of him, and he died in 1998.

I finished David Crowder’s Praise Habit, which I was reading slowly as a devotional during the past few weeks. Although I am well aware of Crowder’s abilities as a songwriter and musician, I was a bit suprised at his talent for writing. After a few introductory chapters, Crowder goes through a few selected Psalms and deconstructs them, giving his insight into their meaning. His message is not new, but it is certainly refreshing. He reminds us that

Our condition is the same. Our habit is the Christ. He is what covers us. He is what identifies us. We wear Him into every moment, and when we live with this awareness, we praise Christ.

With the impending realease of the big-screen adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I bought a book called Finding God in the Land of Narnia. I have read the Chronicles of Narnia several times, the most recent being last summer, and am well aware of the Christian allegory contained in them, but I thought it might be a good idea to read up on the topic. I would be reading this book right now, but I am reading Harry Potter 4: The Goblet of Fire. I began reading the Harry Potter series several summers ago, but for some reason I stopped after the third book, even though I absoluetly adore the books. With Harry Potter 6 right around the corner (10 days), I still have books 4 and 5 to read. Hopefully I can finish both books before the release of number six. Ten days to read 1,500 pages…

The biggest thing that happened the last week, without a doubt, was the wedding of my older brother, Skip. He married a wonderful girl named Whitney on Saturday. The wedding was outside, at Whitney’s parents’ house and it was gorgeous. I kept thinking to myself that it looked like a movie. There were a ton of friends and family present, and I heard some of the funniest things. It is well known by now in my family that I plan on going in to ministry, but just because they know it doesn’t mean they get it. At one point an uncle of mine said, “aren’t you a reverend or something?” One of Skip’s friends said to me, “so what the f*** are you gonna do?” When I told him I was going into youth ministry, he said, “oh, that’s noble.” Ahhhhh…

Anyway, congratulations to Skip and Whitney Bouma. I love you guys and I hope that you have a wonderful life together. Also, I might need a place to crash when I graduate.