Happy New Year And Welcome To My Mess

December 31, 2006 @ 10:24 am by Pressed

The last several years I’ve taken our youth group to Hidden Valley Ski resort in Eureka, MO for a fun night of skiing. That was my plan again this year, but unfortunatly Hidden Valley called me yesterday to let me know that they have closed down because of warm weather and rain. There went my plans. So now I am scrambling to plan an event for 35 to 40 teenagers at the last minute. I’m skipping Sunday School to call the bowling alley, ice skating rinks, and to check movie times. I’m trying to plan a message in my head and I have my intern getting some songs together for worship. We’ve got to come up with some group games to play tonight, I had my wife pick up some movies, and now I just have to figure out how to find time to go grab some food and snacks at Wal-Mart for when we get back to the church. This will be an interesting lock-in and it all ends at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. I think I’m getting to old for these kinds of events. *YAWN* cause I’m already tired!

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A Review of “Goldfinger”

@ 7:00 am by Pressed

Bond: Sean Connery
Produced by: Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman
Directed by: Guy Hamilton
Date Released: UK - September 17, 1964; US - December 22, 1964
Budget: $3 Million

This is the third movie in the 007 series and is said to be one of the best. Goldfinger is the movie that brought James Bond into blockbuster status.

Plot: Goldfinger (the bad guy) plans to destroy Americas gold supply by blowing up Fort Knox. He can destroy gold and then melt it out of the scraps using his lazer in order to re-use it. This film features the normal Bond themes: exotic locations, high tech gadgets, beautiful girls, mega villans, and some humor to go along with the action.

One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is the car chase scene with the Aston Martin DB-5. This car has rotating liscense plates, a smoke screen, ejector seat, oil slick, bullet proof shield, machine guns, and the wheel scythe that comes out to pop the tires of cars next to it. While it may not seem like much to our effects ladened society, in 1964 these were top notch effects. The Aston Martin DB-5 was one of the most desire cars in the 60’s, made extremely popular by the film.

The Bond series and many of the movies are based off the origional novels written by Ian Fleming. He had a way with words, especially the names he gave to the women that show up in his stories. In fact I feel dirty even thinking about the name of the girl in Goldfinger. It’s a horrible name, and yet not the first or the last of the dirty little names Fleming came up with for the girls in his stories.

Review: This is the first 007 movie that I’ve watched starring a Bond other than Pierce Brosnan and the newest one that is in theaters. While I didn’t know what to expect, I ended up really enjoying this movie. It is an excellent movie for its time period. To me the gadgets seem simple and unimpressive, but in 1964 they were state of the art effects. Sean Connery is the original Bond. The Bond that I’ve come to enjoy in these later years was most enjoyable even 40 years ago. The character is just as exciting, even though the technology has changed.

Rating: A

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A Funny Thing Happened In The Middle Of The Theater

December 30, 2006 @ 12:53 pm by Pressed

Last night I had one of the strangest experiences in a movie theater. One of my wife’s friends is getting married tomorrow so she was gone for the evening which left me home alone. I decided to call up some friends and head out to the movie theater to see Night At The Museum. Christopher, Michael, and I met at the theater to watch the late show. The place was rather empty so we chose some seats in the back row, in the middle of the theater. Directly behind us there were three seats surrounded by open space for any wheelchairs. Two guys and a lady were sitting in the three seats behind us and I noticed they were talking kind of loud and acting a bit strange for my taste when we sat down to watch the previews. I didn’t think anything of it because this is Sullivan, a town filled with strange folk.

The movie started, and I quickly forgot about those people behind me. While watching the movie I was really getting into it. It’s a really good movie and so I was really focused in, when suddenly I began to hear this hacking, gagging, gurgling noise behind me, and then a noise I can only describe as sounding like someone pouring out a big, thick pot of chili. Being a bit slow, my brain began to process this information and suddenly I instinclty leaned forward as far as I could when I realized that I was hearing someone throwing up behind me. This lady had puked all over herself and was just sitting there behind us. I kept thinking, “Oh MY GOODNESS, WHAT DO I DO!” I was thinking that her puke was going to run down the theater floor and get on my shoes, or worse I thought maybe her puke was splashing up on me. Christopher leaned over and said “do you want to move?” and at the time I was so dumbfounded that my brain wasn’t working and so I sat there and said nothing. Christopher finally just got up and moved so I followed him. As I got up I caught a glance of this lady and she was just sitting there covered from her neck down to her feet in white, thick, chuncky vomit. The guy next to her leaned over and whispered, “Do you want to go to the bathroom” and she said “yeah” and they got up and left for a few minutes. After we moved and got settled again and stopped freaking out the lady and guy came back into the theater and sat down to enjoy the rest of the film. I don’t know how anyone in the world could enjoy the film after covering themselves with loads of vomit and just sitting there.

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James Bond 007 Ultimate Edition DVD Set

@ 12:21 pm by Pressed

For Christmas I recieved the James Bond 007 Ultimate Edition set, volumes 1 through 3. I guess I will have to go out and buy volume 4 for myself, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. For now I am starting at the beginning and watching each DVD and all the special features that come with each movie. Before the DVD set came out I have never seen a James Bond movie other than the ones that Pierce Brosnan starred in. I have wanted to go back and watch some of the older ones with Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton. Now I get to watch all 20 bond movies (21 counting the movie that just hit theaters a few months ago).

Each volume contains 5 of the bond movies:

James Bond 007 Volume 1 includes Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Living Daylights, and The World is Not Enough.

James Bond 007 Volume 2 includes Thunderball, The Spy who Loved Me, A View to a Kill, Licence to Kill, and Die Another Day.

James Bond 007 Volume 3 includes From Russia with Love, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Live and Let Die, For Your Eyes Only, and Goldeneye.

James Bond 007 Volume 4 includes Dr. No, You Only Live Twice, Moonraker, Octopussy, and Tomorrow Never Dies.

I’m pretty excited about watching all of the Bond series. My plan is to post about each of the movies after I watch them and to give them my own personal rating. These boxed sets of Bond come with little booklets with information about each movie, and each movie comes with an additional DVD that contains special features, deleted scenes, interviews, and loads of information. Each of the DVD’s have been digitally remastered. Even the older ones from the 60’s look great. If you are a Bond fan and can spare the cash, I don’t think you’ll be dissapointed.

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Would The Real Santa Clause Please Stand Up?

December 22, 2006 @ 11:26 am by Pressed

In view of the Christmas season that is upon us, a conversation about Santa Clause has taken place between my wife and I. The question is, will we tell our kids about Santa Clause or will we not carry on that tradition. As with most of our conversations there was a small moment of confusion and aggrivation as I spouted off at the mouth about how I think making kids believe in something that doesn’t exist is lying to them and starting off their childhood with deception and my wife came back at me with equal frustration about how Santa Clause is a part of the Christmas tradition and should be something we enjoy with our children. Once the smoke cleared we began to realize that once again it is all a question of semantics. While I am kinda hard headed sometimes and when I spout off at the mouth it is usually something that I take to the utmost extreme, I don’t always mean exactly what I say in the way it comes out. I didn’t mean that we should just get rid of Santa all together, I just don’t think we should make him out to be real when he is not.

I think that our children should be told the story of Santa Clause and that it should be just that, a story. We can enjoy the story, the tradition, and the magic of Santa without lying to them and making them believe that Santa is real, only to hurt their poor little hearts down the road when they realize that he isn’t. What is the point of perpetuating a lie to little kids who don’t know any better? We read books to them, they see movies and shows with the eventual understanding that these things are simply stories. They can use their imaginations and have fun with them anyway.

I remember as a kid I loved the Teenager Mutant Ninja Turtles. I watched the movies, I owned all the toys, I even got tickets to see their live “Coming Out Of Their Shells” tour and I bought the tape to sing to it over and over again. Everyday I would rush home from school so that I could watch the TMNT cartoon on TV. Nobody had to come along and try to get me to believe that the turtles actually existed in real life. My parents didn’t have to lie to me in order to make me believe that they were real so that I could enjoy the whole story. I loved the TMNT anyway. Just like we can love the story of Santa on Christmas.

I guess the one thing that is always fun is that the kids get to go to bed at night with the anticipation of Santa coming and bringing them lots of gifts and the excitement of them coming out of their rooms to see all the presents that were put under the tree. That tradition doesn’t have to end either. They can still anticipate all the presents that will be there in the morning. There are so many different ways to do Christmas and to make it fun without having to trick little children into believing that its true…

Am I wrong on this? What do you think??????

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