The Wee Hours

Sometimes I wish I worked nights, like an overnight shift at a hotel desk or something. I'm not unhappy with my job, I just love the wee hours of the night--even though I'm often more content when going to bed early--and my 9-5 job limits my contact with that time.

I love the feeling of being up late at night or early in the morning when everyone else is asleep. I feel like the only person on a post-apocalyptic earth, and peacefully so. And I love the significance of the few human encounters that occur during those hours. There's a profound bond shared by two strangers when they are the only two stirring souls in each others' immediate lives; even if they don't speak, they notice each other in a much more meaningful way.

I also enjoy the peace of those hours. They are great times to reflect. They are also great times to create: my filter as a writer subsides and I am able to producer more interesting products deep into the night.

I think I would also enjoy work that simply allows me to wait in quiet. I could be wrong, it could prove extremely boring. But I think I would like it.

Top 5 Sports Films

My top 5 sports films. I haven't seen every sports movie, but I made a list anyway. Goooo blogs!

 5. Hoop Dreams

Widely regarded as one of the greatest documentaries of all time, Hoop Dreams remarkably follows not one but two basketball players from elementary school through their college careers. It is impressive, fascinating, entertaining (though its 3-hour run time may test the patience of many viewers) and poignant. It also affords the world a window into one of the gentlest souls it will ever encounter.

4. Happy Gimore

This is Adam Sandler’s funniest movie (face it, Billy Madison falls apart after Billy leaves Ms. Vaughn’s class). It features a ludicrous premise, a terrifically memorable antagonist (Shooter McGavin) and a hilarious use of Bob Barker. Few films are so entertaining.

3. The Hammer

I was shocked that an R-Rated, Adam Corolla-written film could be so tame. I was even more shocked that it could be so sweet and earnest. Rather than relying on crude humor and going for big, cheap laughs, The Hammer takes a less-is-more approach and goes for pleasant chuckles and moments of genuine human connection that just make you smile. It all adds up to an underdog story that you can’t help but root for. The Hammer is a real diamond in the rough.

2. Goon

Goon begins as an extremely crude and violent comedy, and it’s hilarious. But in the second act the humor fades away and it becomes a touching underdog story. The transition is so well-done that I hit a point when I realized I hadn’t really laughed in 30 minutes and I didn’t care (well OK, I cared a little bit because it was so funny, but I still liked it!) This film raises important questions about discerning and responding to your calling. It gave me a lot to think about, it made me want to be a better person, and it made me smile A LOT. Very, very few movies have done that. It also has a great “aftertaste.”

1. Sugar

This story of a Dominican baseball player in America isn’t about a baseball player as much as it is about a foreigner who finds himself in a strange new environment. Sugar communicates so much without ever saying it out loud, and it does so not due to the acting, directing, screenwriting or anything else individually, but rather through the perfect sum of each of its wonderful parts. Whenever I think of great films of all genres, Sugar comes to mind very quickly.

Spend a Life

I’ve recently been contemplating the human ability to connect with one another and the tremendous potential for harm and good that lies within it (which is brilliantly explored in the film The Descendants). I’ve come to the conclusion that the power to connect is greatly under-valued.

We are taught to stand out. From a young age, we are encouraged to pursue our gifts and we receive compliments when we do them well. The prevailing “good” message seems to be to hone our gifts despite what cultural authorities say. Stories of young people defying their parents’ wishes of having a good career to follow their own artist paths are extremely romanticized. I think that this message may also lead us astray.

I think that instead of pursuing what makes us special, we should pursue what makes us powerful. And I think that what makes us powerful is the most common ability that a person receives: the ability to love.

We are at our most capable, our most world-changing, and our most unstoppable when we love. When we forgive others we tap into a beauty that transcends our own abilities and when we care for others we offer a healing force that is stronger than medicine or art.

I don’t think it’s wrong to pursue your passions. If you love to sing, play, write or whatever, do it. Do it well, but don’t let it get in the way of your love. Don’t neglect human relationships so that you can spend time building up your own kingdom. Make your life’s work about the building of OUR Kingdom.

That’s what I think right now.

The Good Fight

For a time I had decided to boycott violent films. My media studies, observations of children (especially boys) fantasizing about violence, and the presence of violence in the world led me to categorize violent entertainment as inappropriate content. No exceptions. For a while, that boycott kept me from watching my beloved X-Men in their new film, X-Men: First Class, but I recently gave in, watched the film, and was thoroughly enchanted.

I credit the film’s success to its focus on Charles Xavier. What fascinates me about Xavier is his commitment to peace and that he risks his own life to defend those who hate him. His virtue is almost Christ-like and his reluctance to fight is heavily rooted in Just War Theory: a theory that is at the core of my personal view of violence in the world and media. Xavier’s pacifistic philosophy was enough to redeem the X-Men in my eyes, but I still find flaws in the X-Men’s distribution.

Not all of the X-Men share Xavier’s nonviolent philosophy and that is the primary conflict of the series. The battle of wills in X-Men is complex and requires a mature, contemplative audience. However, the X-Men and other superheroes are often marketed to children in the forms of cartoons and action figures. Children will catch the explosions and the punches, but miss the debate on violence’s merit. We need to take a step back and consider the risk we are taking by packaging such mature content for immature minds.

The Descendants

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is a motion picture worth (I can’t be the first person to ask that, can I?)? When it comes to Alexander Payne’s The Descendants, the answer is quite a few. And if I tried to put the film’s rich message on the nature of human connection into words, so much would be lost in translation (which is funny because it’s based on a novel). I don’t know how much of the insight is from the novel (I’ve never read it) and how much is originally Payne’s, but insights do abound.

Films that prompt so much thought and conversation are very rare, and are to be cherished. None of the performances, dialogue or production stand out because they all work together to support the story and its message, just as the elements of a great classic film should. And this is a great film. Each of its elements form a beautiful tapestry about human relationships. We are capable of doing tremendous harm and tremendous good to others, and The Descendants explores that with such grace.

Midnight in Paris

Sometimes settling for something simple, instead of being extremely ambitious is an admirable thing. Such is the case with Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. It doesn’t aspire to be anything extravagant, just a clean, compact, well-acted, cleverly-written pleasant film. Its message about dealing with feelings of discontent is similarly not groundbreaking, but extremely welcome. It’s sheer brilliant escapist fun. This refreshing, fun piece of art seems so easy, but I think Allen just has a lot of practice.

Jesus in the Top 40

“Jesus Walks” by Kanye West and “Coming Home” by Diddy Dirty Money are two of the most Christian hip hop songs to infiltrate this millennium’s Top 40. I have found the songs to be both beautifully confident Christian messages and troubling artistic expressions.

One reason for my troubles is the coarse lyrics: each song contains the word “shit.” I don’t believe that Christians are obligated to remove all expletives from their vocabularies—I believe that there are much bigger fish to fry, AND I believe that there are times and places for profanity—I’m just slightly puzzled by the inclusion of profane language in public messages (pop songs) with such clear associations with to the Christian faith.

Another reason for my troubles is that the very same albums on which Kanye and Diddy make such powerful Christian claims, feature some morally questionable songs. Kanye’s “The New Work Out Plan” is a celebration of sexual promiscuity featuring lyrics like “Tell me who’s invited // you, your friends and my dick.” Diddy Dirty Money’s “Ass On The Floor” repeatedly instructs its audience to (take a guess) “get your ass on the floor.”

I have often felt slightly disappointed listening to “Jesus Walks” and “Coming Home”. I felt as though the artists botched opportunities to make great art honoring our Lord. I felt as though the artists should have taken a little more responsibility when associating with a humble, Holy Savior.

Then the grace of God softened my heart.

The message of Jesus is one of grace. The Christian victory does not lie in the work of Christians, but the forgiving work of Christ. We are not instructed to fix ourselves. We are called to come to Christ as we are, broken and flawed. The songs “Jesus Walks” and “Coming Home” are two of the best examples I’ve witnessed of that behavior. I don’t think the songs validate the messages of the entire Kanye and Diddy canons, but I do think that the complete and utter submission on these two songs is something to be celebrated.

And it’s nice to be able to consider these songs worship because they are SO much better than most other “Christian” music.