Monday, July 24, 2006

Clerks 2- and a guide to thirtysomething 2.0 humor

Sunday before going to see Clerks 2, I read about how Joel Siegel walked out of the movie after about 40 minutes. I wondered what could have been so terrible about the movie that a reviewer (the guy gets paid to watch movies and write about them for a living.) would feel the need to walk out?

Then, while Mel and I were sitting there in stitches, laughing 'til Mel was crying and I was having trouble breathing- we noticed two sets of people get up and leave the movie! Was it the racism jokes? Was it the donkey? Maybe the cracks on organized religion?

Are we just so terribly jaded that nothing shocks or disgusts us any more? Have I become so de-sensitized that maybe there's something wrong with me? I don't think so. I think that I just have a sense of humor.

I think its because of the same old thing. The group of people who are my age are constantly misunderstood. Thats right, good ol' gen-x is at it again. Its OK for Tom Hanks to have a donkey sex scene in one of his movies, and everyone loves him- but Kevin Smith does it, and somehow its too much?

I'm not sure- but I have a theory.

I think its because "we" weren't meant to fit in. We're too young to have gone to Vietnam- but we watched a bunch of movies about it in the 80's. Some of us went to Gulf War 1.0, or Somalia.(not "real" wars in the popular media) We were in the spotlight for a few moments in the 90's, and then Columbine happened. Then, suddenly teenagers became the focus. Wedged in between Baby boomers and the next younger generation, "we" became a side-note once again.

"Our" music was alternative, which had its 5 minutes of fame and then blended into obscurity. At one time we owned Lilith Fair and HFs and Lollapalooza, and Starbucks...all of which have either been co-opted by the older and younger crowds or have gone the way of the dodo.

If you're my age, you can probably relate to being in a crowd of people older (or younger) making jokes, everyone's popping them off- and then your turn comes and you say "in my butt" for your little add-on to the joke-fest, and everyone stops laughing and says "eww, thats just kinda gross." Thats kinda what its like- they don't get us, and they never will.

The inside joke. That's the beauty and the subtlety of the whole thing. that's why Dante and Randal can be such losers, and still manage to have the ability to make fun of everyone else- because no one else gets the joke. The opposite of being around a bunch of people who don't get you, is to be in a small click of people who do get you, and to have one person that doesn't. Oh what heavenly bliss!

Ever been in a situation where everyone has seen a movie but you? Or everyone in your group listened to a radio show that you missed? The really cool thing that happens is when a click gets a hold of a particular movie and then really runs with the lines from the movie. The most common (and obvious) example, would be a group of 30 something 2.0s in a car looking for a parking place, and then one of them says "use the force, luke" Everyone in the group knows that

1. this is a reference to the 1977 film Star Wars
2. the driver is having difficulty finding a parking spot
3. the general consensus of everyone in the car is that the driver has not tried hard enough to find an available parking spot.

Its the art of the inside joke.
1. take a popular (or obscure) movie, television, or song reference
2. use the quote in a situation that loosly applies to said reference
3. share the common understanding that the quote or reference applies to this situation
4. laugh
5. don't get offended or pissed off if you a. didn't see the movie, tv show, or hear the song, or b. saw the movie, show, or heard the song and still don't get the joke or the reason why the reference is funny.

Anyway- Clerks 2 is funny, and I don't care what anyone older (or younger) says about it. I'll just be home in front of the mirror- smearing on lipstick, listening to q. lazarus doing the tuck.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

New Job and Master License


After the debacle at Unitemp/ Chesapeake HVAC- I managed to rise from the ashes once again and will start working for Amtek in Lanham, Maryland on August 1. Its funny, getting a job with a company owned by a local utility would seem like a lifetime commitment. Benefits, Retirement, security, stability...blah friggin blah!

I recently had a discussion with a slightly older gentleman who has basically had three jobs in his entire 30+ year career, where I have had three jobs in the last four years. How do you tell a guy like that- Its not my fault! Is it my fault when the owner has a heart attack and decides to get outta the business? Is it my fault when the parent company decides to close down my division?

Some of these old-school guys have a stay with the job mentality, but I'm starting to wonder if those old-school JOBS are a thing of the past...Maybe this next job will be THE ONE...

On another note, I got my MASTER LICENSE in the mail the other day! Woo-hoo, baby! (me doing a touchdown style end zone celebration)

that baby was 6 yrs in the making. I blogged about taking the test a while back, but I passed it and now Ive got that baby in my hot little hands...I can pull permits to replace/ install HVAC systems in the state of Maryland. Woo-hoo!!! Now all I gotta do is take a test in DC and fill out the forms in Virginia, contact a dozen or so counties and cities...

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Three New Things for "Generation X." Remember how in 1993 it was all the rage to talk about the coffee swilling Mcjobs generation? Im not really sure how you slice and dice it, or where you draw the lines but if you're anywhere close to my age, here's three new media pieces for you:

1. http://www.jpod.info/ This is the new book by Douglas Coupland centered around a pessimistic dissilusioned group of people who work for a video game development company. Through a glitch in the personnel computers, they all have the same first letter of their last name and wind up in the same workgroup- thus the title "Jpod"

2. http://www.clerks2.com/ Even though after Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back Kevin Smith said he was done with the Jay and Silent Bob movies, the boys are back with a sequel to the movie that started it all. I guess Jersey Girl changed his mind!

3. http://wip.warnerbros.com/ascannerdarkly/ This movie, based on a Philip K. Dick Novel is about a futuristic society in which drugs, paranoia, and government testing blur the lines between reality and multiple personality. An interesting piece of this film is that it uses interpolated rotoscoping, to make Robert Downey Jr, Keanu Reeves, Woody Harrelson, and Winona Ryder blur the lines between reality and cartoon.

Friday, May 26, 2006

Blogging on the go

Blogger has set it up so that I can email blogs to my blog. So now I can bloggity blog blog all bloggin day long! Isn't that bloggin' cool!

Ok, Two movies that I haven't seen but still wanna blog about.

1. The Davinci Code
2. The x-men

Three things I gotta say about the Davinci code are; first If there is anything the Catholic church should know better than anyone by now- the best way to raise interest and awareness about something is to officially ban it. Every book the church blacklisted during the reformation became bestsellers in their day Does anyone remember The Last Temptation of Christ? That sleeper sold 10 times the number of tickets is should have because the Catholic Church banned the stupid thing. The best way to battle the Davinci Code, just friggin ignore it. Trust me, it will go away. Second, It doesn't matter whether Jesus got married or not. The truth is that he had a key mission, he fulfilled it, end of story. I mean none of us protestants with any common sense believe that Mary stayed a virgin her whole life... Third and finally- They toned down the fact that the assasin was an albino because they didn't want to offend the albino community. Apparently you're allowed to say that Jesus isn't the Son of God, and claim the Catholic Church is a big fat liar, thats been covering up a 2,000 year old Lie about their God and Savior- but you can't portay albinos in a negative way?..Hollywood blows my mind...

Now on to the important thing- The X-men. So Halley Berry wasn't gonna be in it unitl she heard that the director was gonna change and that there would be more character development for the Storm Character. Woohoo, cuz thats what we wanna see is the chick that makes it windy and can hurl the occasional lightening bolt. Screw that!!! We wanna see claws and laser eyes, and car crushing...and more of half-nekkid Rebecca Romijn in blue paint...We don't care about Storm's character development! Besides there already was a good Halley Berry/ Hugh Jackman moment. It was in Sordfish, and Halley Berry was topless!

I am an old-school x-men fan... Would it have been to much to ask for a cameo of Bishop? How about just one friggin Sentinal for cryin' out loud...but a mutant war- still gotta go see it.




Monday, May 15, 2006

Hip Hop Week

Allright everyone, its national hip-hop awareness week. Colleges and Universities all over the US have events, concerts, and rallies scheduled . Head out to your local scene and support hip hop.
My myspace page this week is a tribute to old-school hip hop from back in the day!

Friday, April 21, 2006

oh johntindale

My Myspace page is my second tribute to the Cohen Brothers movies. My first was for the Big Lebowski, with John Turturro in his "Jesus" character. accompanied by the Gypsy Kings singing Hotel California in Spanish.

This one features the video Man of Constant Sorrow from the movie soundtrack attributed to the Soggy Bottom Boys. The song was actually recorded by Dan Tyminski, a menber of Allison Kraus and Union Station

My dad was from West Virginia, and we woke many Sunday mornings listening to Stained-Glass Bluegrass on 88.5 WAMU. This movie features a rich soundtrack full of blues, bluegrass, early country and gospel music from the depression era South.

If you haven't seen this movie, or any other of the Coen Brothers movies, go straight out and buy them, don't even bother renting- because you'll want to watch them again later.

Rumor has it that Clooney and the Coen Brothers are working on a new project called "Burn After Reading" Im sure it will be another gut-busting trip.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

post-modern, post-congregationalist

I gave up my membership and leadership postion as an elder in a church in October of 1999. It all started because I had what I believed to be a legitimate gripe against my pastor, and according to our own bylaws, my co-elder. It wasn't an easy choice, and it was one of the most difficult times in my life.
I attempted to follow the Biblical model for confronting him- I talked to him in private. I shared my concerns:
1. I felt we weren't stewarding our resources when we overextended ourselves financially, bouncing checks, etc.
2. I felt we were manipulating and controlling our congregation under the guise of "discipleship"
3. I felt that while we were giving everyone else the keys to "managing life effectively" I had a hole in my soul that was getting emptier and deeper by the minute
This didn't go over too well, and he ignored and dismissed everything I said.
I went to the next step. I voiced my concerns in a private elders meeting. Again I was dismissed and basically "blown-off"
I took the final step and flew to a conference put on by our denomination. I paid for the trip myself, and met with the leaders myself. They flew my pastor into the meeting, and ignoring our church's by-laws, assumed that our church was subject to the traditional model of leadership and cited "spiritual authority, and denied my right to confront my pastor.
So, in a classic Ron White moment, WE decided that it would be best if I resigned. I was lost, I didn't know where to go. What do you do when you were a leader in a church, involved in national and international ministry, and now your'e out of a job, out of a church, and out of your social network of friends.
My wife was unable to cope with the whole situation, and found that it was easier to confide in some guy at her job than it was to confide in me, so I soon lost her as well.
I tried, but couldn't find a church that fit. After all I just spent 10 years customizing a church that fit me, how was I going to be able to fit into someone else's? I didn't handle the whole thing too well. I freaked out. I went a little crazy. After all, my whole identity was wrapped up in this thing- I was CHURCHBOY for crying out loud.
I didn't realize that in all of this pain and agony, failure and misery I was on the forefront of a new revolution in the church. I wasn't a backslider, a drop-out, a loser- I was simply a post-congregationalist. I wasn't an anomaly, I was a revolutionary, I was at the forefront of a new trend in the church.
I gotta tell you, it ain't easy. At first I felf guilty being seperated from the church. I wished some days that I could just take it all back, and put things back the way they were. All the control and manipulation wasn't that bad was it? I mean it wasn't so bad when my pastor asked me to sign bad checks and knowingly lie to creditors was it? It wasn't so terrible to promise a bunch of stuff to a fellow ministry and then lie, cheat, and steal to deliver substandard material. It wasn't so bad that we were killing ourselves for my pastor's view of "success?"
I didn't do everything right. As a matter of fact I did alot of things wrong. I figured that since I had basically been excommunicated, I was basically a spiritual "dead man walking" and that I could do whatever I wanted. I was confused. All I did was stand up for what I believed was right.
I don't know where things are going to go from here. I don't know where I fit into this concept of a wall-less church. Over the last few months I have been waking up, and formulating a plan.
I still believe in God, and in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This relationship has become more real to me lately, since I have been pursuing it without someone pressuring me into it. I believe in the Bible, but I'm not a fundamentalist, nor am I a infallibilitist.
You gotta understand that before my excommunication I made myself an expert on church growth, small-groups, preaching styles, church administration, generational studies, contemporary worship and trends facing the church.
I withdrew for a while. I went into hiding. I shut down emotionally, spirittually, but I have begun to wake up. Traditionally, a person like me would walk into a church, fall down at the altar in tears, spend some time in counseling, and then be back in the network again "doing church."
I don't want to go back to the way we did it before. I'm not a baby-boomer, and I refuse to participate in Ward and June Cleaver's fake idealistic church. Americans are stressed out. We don't need to stress them out further by putting forth an idealized unrealistic relationship with God.
I want to get real. I want to face reality. I want to be a Christian, and I want to do whats right. I have things that I have learned over the years, that once I get my head straight, I plan to share these things with others. We are on the verge of something new, and exciting- a little scarey, but I think that as always, with every reformation, there comes a renaissance, and I love art.


comments and commentary welcome-
http://www.barna.org/
http://www.theooze.com/main.cfm http://www.faithworks.com/archives/a_churchless_faith.htm
http://emergent-us.typepad.com/

Monday, February 27, 2006

Its finally over



Was it just me, or did it seem like the US Olympic team was a bunch of whiny b#$%es this time around? To steal a phrase from the junkies, the whole thing was more than a "little hurting."
The key to saying hurting is in the pronunciation. its "herrr-Ting" you overpronounce the "herr" and the "t" so it comes off as I said before, "herr-Ting"
Lets start with Michelle Kwan- So you pulled a groin muscle, and you gotta go on live TV to skate around for a minute, fall, and then skate over to your manager/ trainer in tears...You know what? Just don't show up! Bow out gracefully, let some other kid get the spotlight, take some time off, and then go talk to the Disney on Ice people. You can always be a judge on the next installment of Skating with the Stars.

Then there was Bode Miller. How much did Nike pay him in endorsements? Two DNFs, a disqualification and the 5th and 6th place is the best you can do. Nice move, pansy. Then I love the way the commentators "spin" it, "Well, there's the mark of a very intense athlete, its all or nothing for Miller." You don't even have the decency to finish skiing down the damn hill when you realize you're not gonna win? Grow up. Can you imagine this guy on the playground in dodgeball. "You're out, little Bode- don't cry, when everyone gets out we'll start another game." Who names their kid Bode anyway?
Then there was that Wier kid. I'm sorry you don't hold a press conference to tell the world that the other pansy is going to beat you before the competition even starts. Thats why we call it a competition. You are COMPETE-ING. You have been training your whole life for this, so you can BEAT the other GUY. Don't get me started. Say it with me, Herrrrrr- Tinggg.
Finally, we come to the girl who tried to showboat on the last jump in the women's downhill snowboard race, caught a bad edge, and came in second when she clearly had the gold. What was her name? Jacobellis-whatever.
I think there needs to be two more parts added to the pre-olympic qualifying. A really hard puch in the arm, and a wedgie. I'm sorry Weir, you scored a .05 in the arm puch for the audible whelp you let out, and the tears and the little girl scream during the wedgie segment cost you 2.7 points.
Gimmie a break. These candy-asses are America's best? These whimps are supposed to inspire me to stand in the street yelling "YOU ESSS Ay, YOU ESSS Ay, I don't think so, sparky. I guess this is what happens when a generation grows up on Barney, and non-competitive or judgemental primary school sports and grading systems. Jimmy can't read or write, or throw a ball, but he is very helpful and kind during sensitivity time.














Say it with me, "Herrr- Ting." Now you're getting it.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Dayona 500, Baby!

Well, its the start of another NASCAR season, and the Daytona 500 fired it up yesterday. Bon Jovi entertained the crowd, and that girl from The Black Eyed Peas sang the National Anthem.
Nevermind all that, though. My driver, Rusty Wallace retired last year, and it was wierd, because my gut-reaction is to get excited when I see the no. 2 car moving up in the standings. "Cool- oh wait, thats Kurt Bush..."
Anyway- it was a little tough to keep up, aside from the fact that I don't have a favorite just yet. I think some of the rookies have a good shot, there's JJ Yeley and Denny Hamlin, both driving for Joe Gibbs, and David Stremme, and Reed Sorenson from Chip Ganassi racing. There's also Brett Sherman with BAM Racing, and Clint Bowyer is driving for Richard Childress.
While Tony Stewart, Dale Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth stayed with their cars and sponsors, 43% of the drivers have switched cars/ owners/ sponsors, making it a little tricky to watch the race and understand what was going on.
Finally, the commercials yesterday were pretty good, though- Will Ferrel wondering why NASCAR Day isn't a Federal holiday, The Chevy Drivers toasting themselves by dumping beers on their heads, UPS trucks doing laps around the track, and Denny Hamlin driving a personnel car through the airport at high speeds topped my list. I won't say that they topped the Super Bowl commercials, but they were up there for contention.
The announcers did a pretty good job describing rules, exlpaining restrictor plate racing, and sorting out the drivers/owners/ sponsors thing. They did a reasonable job keeping us informed as to what was going on.
and Jimmie Johnson's pit chief was suspended earlier in the week for cheating. Apparently NASCAR officials spent 3 hours yesterday inspecting the car after the race.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that Jimmie Johnson won?

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Rollin' Thunder, Baby!

meet the bowling team!
yours truly
Felicia
Abby

Mel
Kevin
fun with rabbit ears!

Monday, January 23, 2006

The System of the World

Allright, so now I'm finished with The System of the World by Neil Stephenson, and this time its a lesson in economics with England setting up the modern system of banking and finance as we know it, and with good 'ol half-cocked Jack playing the role of the villain.
We're introduced to the trial of the pyx, and re-introduced to alchemy and finance, while Daniel Waterhouse comes into his own as an older, wiser natural philosopher who's had some time to think. All this and Stephenson's clever use of logic, and mathematics-as-a-study-within-its-context makes for a fitting conclusion to this epic three- part novel.
Sir Isaac Newton plays an interesting role in the forefront in this book (as opposed to playing supporting roles in the two previous novels). Newton is the Master of the mint, in charge of assuring the quality of British coinage, and Jack Shaftoe- the French backed counterfitter- the nemesis of Newton.
Newton and Liebnitz finally get to have their discussion, and wind up talking about predestination- which was a bigger deal in their time than the secular reader might catch today. Their discussion ends in the same way that two protestants would end today when they have two opposing views, they agree to disagree.
Rather than run ships all over the world, as in the first two stories, Stephensons keeps the story confined to England, and London proper- and as an hvac mechanic, I have a soft spot for his mention of the invention of "the device for raising water by fire" the first steam-driven well-pump, the precursor to modern boilers, and mechanical engineering.
Overall, I'm still massively impressed by The Baroque Cycle and I owe it to an advertisement glued to the wall of the London tubes.