Quest for a 21st Century Hero

Psalm 7 excerpt

2010-01-19T08:13:00.000-08:00

He who is pregnant with evil and conceives trouble gives birth to disillusionment.
He who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit he has made.
The trouble he causes recoils on himself; his violence comes down on his own head.

Truly, "what goes around, comes around."

Bats

2010-01-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

My comics

2009-11-24T08:48:00.000-08:00

Star Trek review: Spectre of the Gun

2009-10-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

Star Trek: The Original Series. Season 3.
"Spectre of the Gun" *

Additional title as of 1999, "The Episode the Wachowski Brothers watched and got the idea for The Matrix"

Captain Kirk, the original "Space Cowboy" (a title later awarded to Han Solo), finds himself in a foggy recreation of an Old West shootout with Wyatt Earp.

After royally pissing off an alien brain surrounded by fog, the brain transports the 5 to a low-budget recreation of the Old West. Spock determines that the alien reached into the ancestral recesses of Kirk's brain to find a suitable execution place. This spectral realm now contains the bare essentials necessary to bring about their deaths. (clever way to explain your budget constraints) Kirk tries to negotiate peace, Scotty takes to drinking Bourbon, Bones and Spock try to make a knock-out-grenade, and Chekov has a short romance with a local girl.

Each of these goes sour. The gas-bomb fails to render anyone unconscious and Kirk fails to make peace, (I mean, really, what can he expect? He's arguing with cowboys here, not sissy pajama wearing aliens). Chekov gets shot, and everything looks the worst.

Spock determines that the blue-brain aliens have created this spectral existence in the minds of the crew. Physical reality does not exist here, they are only given reality by the mind. "Chekov is dead because he believed the bullets killed him? If we do not believe that the bullets are real, then they can't kill us?" (insert long speech that was later copied and pasted into the Matrix).
Armed with this epiphany alone, the crew goes up against Wyatt Earp and his gang.

The bullets zip right through the Enterprise crew, and Kirk continues to beat the crap out of Wyatt Earp. Seeing how Kirk outsmarted them, the aliens decide to give Kirk another chance and release the crew.

With this as a foundation, it's clear that a film like the Matrix would develop sooner or later. The Matrix. Star Trek. Both starring good looking but terrible actors, featuring terrible sequels, horrible social commentary, and some philosophy 101. I bet this episode was a childhood favorite of the Wachowski bro's. Each dreamed of making a ridiculous film full of flying bullets and kung fu where the hero never got hurt. My question is: Why do bullets still hurt people in The Matrix? If gravity isn't real, if physics can be bent, if punches that can take out a wall don't kill... why can't bullets be "unreal" just as they were in this Star Trek episode?

Spock asks Kirk if he ever "wanted" to kill Wyatt Earp. Kirk explains that he wanted to, but he did not give into his desires. He said that humanity got past the violence of the old west because we "overcame our instinct for violence". With films like The Matrix increasing their violent content, I think humanity isn't overcoming too many instincts.

In conclusion: Hey, with a great flying dropkick like this, The Matrix is an obvious grandchild of "Spectre of the Gun".

Star Trek review: For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky

2009-10-25T14:35:00.001-07:00

Star Trek: The Original Series. Season 3,
"For the World is Hollow, and I Have Touched the Sky"

Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise once again combat narrow minded religious traditions and moral relativism. An asteroid on a collision course with a populated world turns out to be an ancient starship, engineered to function as a transit world. Apparently their ancestors created a sort of "Ark" to carry their people on a 10,001 year journey to a new planet. It's current inhabitants have no idea that their "planet" is in fact a hollow asteroid, preferring to cling to an ancient and strict religious tradition. This religion apparently forces them to always wear pajamas and have "obedience chips" implanted in their skulls. Their leader, a big robot called The Oracle, keeps the Pajama People obedient by promising a grand future in the new world.

Kirk, Bones, and Spock are attacked by the Pajama people. A well choreographed fight ensues, and the battle really picks up when Kirk punts off this guys hat.

-note the flying hat-

After their capture, the three are greeted by an old creepy guy passing out drugs. The creepy old dude tells a story of how he climbed a mountain and saw his planet was really an asteroid. Apparently the "The Oracle" is listening in, and starts zapping the old guy through his implant. Unable to say much, he exhales: "For the world is hollow, and I have touched the sky."

Just after this, a rare phenomenon occurs: the Queen of the Pajama people gets the hots for Bones instead of Kirk. Kirk doesn't seem too upset about it, and quickly decides he'd rather run around with Spock looking for an escape. Bones decides that being hit on by a girl wearing half a shirt isn't so bad, and decides to stick around and marry The Pajama Queen.

-note the awesome hair style-

Bones learns that the Pajama People have a Bible, containing the secrets of their creators. However, "The Oracle" will kill anyone who reads it. Determined to save the planet/asteroid/starship, Bones risks all to get the sacred text. The Oracle gets mad and turns the temple into a giant toaster oven.

-Spock examines the Pajama Bible for clues. In toaster oven.-

The Oracle tries to convince the Pajama Queen that she must reject Kirk's truth, and only believe in the Oracle's truth. She responds "is not all truth, truth?" Spock, who knows archaic languages better than Indiana Jones, deciphers the text and shuts down The Oracle. The original trajectory of the asteroid ship is discovered, and a new course is laid in.
Some comments are made about rejecting a religion of oppression for one of freedom, and everyone having unlimited access to holy scriptures.
Connections to the Garden of Eden, Noah's Ark, Heaven, and The Pope are never named specifically, but lie underneath the plots surface. The Oracle is clearly "the Pope", punishing anyone who opposes him. It seems Star Trek's critique here is not of religion, per se, but of patriarchal figures hiding the truth from their followers.

Notable Star Trek episodes

2009-10-22T19:34:00.001-07:00

Season 2
Mirror, Mirror
The Doomsday Machine
The Deadly Years
The Trouble with Tribbles
A Piece of the Action
The Gamesters of Triskelion
A Private Little War
Patterns of Force
Bread and Circuses

Season 3
The Enterprise Incident
And the Children Shall Lead
Is There No Truth In Beauty?

My First Sermon

2009-08-11T16:56:00.000-07:00

August 2nd, 2009

I apologize about the random "popping" here and there... the microphone was a little sensitive first service. I don't have the second service recording, which was a little better.

I hope it stays on the website, I don't know how long it'll be up. Thanks for listening, and enjoy.

some good, practical advice.

2009-07-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

Never walk away from home ahead of your axe and sword. You can't feel a battle in your bones or foresee a fight.
-The Hávamál (an old Norwegian text)

Wake early if you want another man's life or land. No lamb for the lazy wolf. No battle's won in bed.
-The Hávamál (an old Norwegian text)

Fire is best for the sons of men and the sight of the sun; his health, if he can keep it, and to live without shame.
-The Hávamál (an old Norwegian text)

Love is Not a Fight

2009-06-20T06:01:00.000-07:00

Love is not a place
To come and go as we please
It's a house we answer in
Then commit to never leave

So lock the door behind you
Throw away the key
We'll work it out together
Let it bring us to our knees

Love is a shelter in a raging storm
Love is peace in the middle of a war
And if we try to leave, may God send angels to guard the door
No, love is not a fight but it's something worth fighting for

To some, love is a word
That they can fall into
But when they're falling out
Keeping that word is hard to do

Love is a shelter in a raging storm
Love is peace in the middle of a war
And if we try to leave, may God send angels to guard the door
No, love is not a fight but it's something worth fighting for

Love will come to save us
If we'll only call
He will ask nothing from us
But demand we give our all

Love is a shelter in a raging storm
Love is peace in the middle of a war
And if we try to leave, may God send angels to guard the door
No, love is not a fight but it's something worth fighting for

I will fight for you
Would you fight for me?
It's worth fighting for

~Love is not a fight. - Warren Barfield

Solomon Grundy

2009-06-14T21:57:00.000-07:00

Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday,
Christened on a stark and stormy Tuesday,
Married on a gray and grisly Wednesday,
Took ill on a mild and mellow Thursday,
Grew worse on a bright and breezy Friday,
Died on a gay and glorious Saturday,
Buried on a baking, blistering Sunday.
That was the end of Solomon Grundy.

If anyone knows where I got this from, I will be impressed.

graduation?

2009-05-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

Am I really going to graduate? Is this for real?

this feels so... surreal.

well. I won't graduate if I don't finish this paper. so.. on I go.

the human condition.

2009-05-12T20:52:00.000-07:00

"If we could just get everyone to close their eyes and visualize world peace for an hour, imagine how serene and quiet it would be until the looting started."

It's sad, but this is the true human condition.

Interview with Craig Horner, star of Legend of the Seeker

2009-05-11T21:42:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed reading this interview.
my favorite part:

Are people here in the U.S. starting to recognize you? Have you had any funny run-ins with fans?

This nice little gentleman pops out of a massage parlor yesterday and says to me “Are you the Seeker?” I was like “Yes, I am.” How is cool is that? As a kid, you dream that when you grow up, someone will come up to you and say “Are you Batman?” and you go, “Yes, I am.”

I've recently become enthralled with Legend of the Seeker. There's just something very fun and likable about it. I am looking forward to seeing how they wrap up the first season. Even though it's a cheesy show, it would be every kids dream to be a star in that show. Riding horses, wielding the Sword of Truth, being "The Seeker"... Craig Horner admits that he's really living out a childhood fantasy and I like that about him.
I suppose the closest experience I've had with that is my work with Drew and his films... and Romeo and Juliet. I never thought Romeo was that cool. Actually I thought he was a pansy and never wanted to be that character. Then I realized that was just the Leonardo DeCaprio interpretation. When left to my own thoughts, Romeo was really a heroic character. He was impulsive, very foolish, but also admirable. Romeo sees folly in the family fued, falls in love with someone his culture tells him to hate, overcomes hatred with love, shows kindness to enemies, defends his best friends honor, and marries Juliet before pursuing her sexually. (something meaningful in today's culture). While his suicide is a hasty and foolish decision, Romeo doesn't see it that way. He sees it as "I dedicated my life to her, and now I'm going to be with her." While it's not something to emulate, there is a very admirable quality behind the motive here. Marriage is serious, and it's for life.

There's been moments in the Drew movies as well... Professor Alexander, the Time Traveler. That was certainly a heroic role. Traveling through time, fighting Morlocks.. that's about it. haha. But then the sequel! which we wrote... haha. Sword fighting, freeing slaves, fighting in battles... yeah. that was pretty epic. And of course there's the Swordsmen... pretty heroic. more sword fighting, opposing evil, fighting for my brother, winning the princess and the crown, etc. etc. Ending with.. what was the name of the guy in Faron? General Palidran, right? Yeah... I think he was supposed to be a little bit of an anti-hero in conception. Or at least, a flawed authority figure for Faron. But compared to the character of Faron himself... well, in my eyes, Palidran was pretty much the real hero of the film. Faron was just too fickle and selfish to be deserving of the prophecy. Heh, that's probably just my character's perspective bleeding over into my own. Oh well, it was still an entertaining flick.
Those are all good memories that I can look back on. I've had my few years of fame. People coming up to me at Wal-Mart and saying: "Hey, you're that guy from Faron, right? Dude! You were really good! You should keep doing this stuff!"
Maybe one day I'll pick it up again. Maybe, someday, I'll have that chance.

Rebirth

2009-05-10T07:51:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,
I have restarted this blog. I felt that it was time to move on and leave some elements of my past behind me. My hope is to bring more positive and interesting things to the table.
Thanks everyone.