Mike's musings

Lunch with the bishop

Met most of the rest of the deacons in the Colchester area with our area bishop for lunch. The girls behaved very well, and we were very impressed. In fact, we ended up buying Enchanted for Jo. When I say "for Jo", Moo and the girls had seen it (several times) over, and Moo had been singing its praises since, so it was for us as much as her. And, in fact, we're watching it as I type.

Labels: films

A TV day

(backposting) And that's "television", rather than any other abbreviation. Not during the day: I had a meeting with Lee, who's recently joined the company in the UK. But this afternoon, I went and bought Boogie for the Wii. I thought that Jo might be able to use it a bit - she can - and that Miri would get there in the end. And it should also be fun for adults when we have friends over.

On top of that - and rescuing me from a complete evening just playing the game - Polly and Lee very kindly gave me the Lethal Weapon boxset on DVD. All four films. I watched the first one last night: it's easy to forget how many quotes you recognise; how much fun they are; how young Mel Gibson looks in the first one.

Labels: films, wii

Ballet, new shoes

(backposting) After Jo's ballet (Moo left her, for the first time, and she was fine), we all headed off to Freeport, as Miri needed her first pair of walking (as opposed to "cruising") shoes. Don't I know some friends who have special outfits, let alone shoes, for cruising? That's a discussion for another entry - and probably another blog.

We had lunch at an all-you-can-east Chinese, did the shoe-shopping, and headed home for a quietish afternoon. Jo finished watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which I have to say is excellent. She particularly likes the squirrel episode, and we've now got a new phrase in the family lexicon: when Jo forgets to say "thank you", we say "Daddy, I want another pony". You have to know the film.

Before I went to pick Buster up from kennels, I changed Miri's bed from a cot to a bed. We decided that it's time. Moo was a bit sad (it's another "I don't have any babies anymore" moment), but it seems like a good plan. We moved the bed guard from Jo's bed (she really doesn't need it anymore) to Miri's, and at bed time, I got Miri to sleep in around 12 minutes, which isn't bad, given how disruptive her sleeping arrangements have been recently.

So, Moo and I settle down to watch the DVD extras on C & the C F, which are, like the film, excellent. We're just about to go to bed when we hear a "THUMP". We turn to look at each other, then both say "cat".

Then the crying starts.

Yes, poor little Miri had managed to throw herself off her new bed, head first. She was fine, but spent the night with Moo in our bed, while I went into the spare room (to be joined by Jo around 0320, of course, but hey).

Labels: films, miri

Cinema trip

(backposting) We decided that a fairly safe, less-stress option for the morning would be to take the girls to the cinema. Miri, of course, would be guaranteed to sleep, Moo (who's still pretty ill) could hold her and have her sleep on her, and I could deal with taking Jo to the loo in the middle of the film (obviously). We discovered that the Cineworld Braintree - our local cinema - was showing Ratatouille, which had to be pretty safe. Unluckily, we'd forgotten how loud cinemas are, and Jo really didn't like the "crashes". She did really well, actually, but doesn't really want to go back soon.

Took Miri and Buster for a good old walk today and used the new GPS bluetooth that Moo's given me (early) for our engagement anniversary on Wednesay (I won't be around). My phone supports GPS accessories by default, and it Just Works[tm]. Great stuff. Did about 3 and a half miles, and rather tired out poor Buster.

Labels: films, GPS, illness, Jo, walk

Title post time

Today I took Miri and Jo to Halstead for the 1000 communion service. It was the day that they were due to announce to the congregation that I'm going to be serving my title there - God willing, obviously - and I thought it would be good to be there. Added to that, Moo wanted to do some cleaning, and that's a lot easier without the girls around. A good service - great hymns - and I sat next to the kids area. Jo found a 6 year-old girl to boss around, and played with her, while Miri cuddled me for most of the service and crawled around for a bit. John, my training incumbent-to-be invited me to the front, and I did a little introduction. I enjoyed the service, and although it would be good to see a few more young people there, it appears that the team is doing lots of work with younger people, most of which takes place outside standard Sunday worship, which is probably the way things work best. So, I'm looking forward to being involved in some of that, too.

Walk with Buster, Moo, Jo and Miri. Then swimming with Jo.

Finished watching If.... Great film. I'd not seen it in ages - 20 years plus, I guess - and had forgotten most of it.

Did the ironing in front of the TV.

Jo continues to be lovely.

Labels: church, films, Jo, miri, title

Canons B1-B43

(backposting) I read all the Church of England's "B" canons today, in preparation for a weekend at London Colney with ERMC. They are all about what services should - and must - be celebrated within the Church of England, what's allowed, and what's not. My Dad's Liturgy, Order and the Law is pretty much the definitive guide, it seems, and I've inherited something of an interest. There is certainly relevance to what we can and can't do within the Anglican Cathedral in SecondLife, although part of the question we're looking at is exactly which of the canons are relevant, and which aren't: these are the Canons of the Church of England, remember, and SecondLife is international, as is the group that comprises the Anglicans on it. Insisting, for instance, that all services are conducted in English might be inappropriate: but what languages _should_ be allowed? The doctrine behind this insistence is that all attending should be able to understand (hence Welsh is allowed in Wales in certain circumstances). Most of the members of the Anglican group in SL have English as their first language, but not all: and would we want to restrict ourselves? So, these are the sorts of questions we need to tackle.

Did all the ironing, watched Samuel L. Jackson's fantastic performance in The Negotiator, went to bed around midnight.

Labels: church, ERMC, films, secondlife

Toronto

(backposting) Off to Toronto today. A later flight than usual, so no need to pack last night, but things got a little frantic in the end. Someone was coming to pick me up at 1000, and I ended up packing rather later than I'd intended. And I could _not_ find the book that I needed to take. I was aware that I'd not seen it for a while, but was pretty sure that I'd left it in my suitcase, but when I opened it up, it was nowhere to be found. Moo (and even Jo...) helped look for it, but I had to leave around 1010 without it, rather more stressed than I'd intended.

Easy drive to Heathrow, where I checked in, with an upgrade voucher meaning that I'd get to go in Business Class. Flight fine - watched Surf's Up, most of Sunshine (until it got a little too scary) and Ocean's Thirteen. Landed, through customs, went to pick up my hire car, opened one of the secondary zipped up compartments of my suitcase, and there was the book that I'd been stressing over. Oh, well.

Usual hotel, all well, food, evensong, bed.

Oh, I'm re-reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, as I've not read it for a while.

Labels: books, films, travel, work

Postmodernity

(backposting) A large part of the week's work is to be engaging with issues of postmodernity in its various flavours, so Ian and Richard started us off with general descriptions of the (alleged, in Richard's case) state of postmodernity. Richard is very eloquent, and refuses to believe that there's any such thing, despite taking many intellectual positions which are hard to imagine being possible in a non-postmodern world. It doesn't help that he tends to argue against what he sees as postmodernity: as a completely pluralist, non-critical academic movement, which believes in a clean break between the modern (then) and postmodern (now), despite this being almost the exact opposite of how most people with a postmodern bent would describe it. Heigh-ho. I refused to get too drawn in...

In the afternoon, another Ian, this time for the Moot community, gave us a very interesting talk on Fresh Expressions of church, and how they relate to our current (overwhelmingly consumerist) society. He made the point that we should really be talking more, and preaching more, about the dangers of consumerism as a creed, which I have to say resonated with me strongly. In the afternoon, Cathy led us in a discussion of high and popular culture. Although it didn't grip me, we came up with some important points, and it's to be a theme of the rest of the week.

The evening held clips (one clip from the body of the film, then crucifixion and lead-up) from three films about Jesus - or not. They were:

• The Gospel according to St Matthew (English title), by Pasolini
• Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ
• Monty Python's Life of Brian

Although I know the third, I'd never seen any of the others, and they were certainly thought-provoking (though I'm unconvinced that either Jesus or Pontius Pilate spoke Latin with a modern Italinate accent...). I'm glad to say that we didn't watched the 7 minute scourging scene from the Gibson version, which is supposed to be extremely harrowing.

We started singing today: a piece of Christopher Tye, which went pretty well for a first off, though the tuning was shocking. That'll fix itself as people get more happy with the notes, I think. We had a good mix of singers, including some new faces to the group, which was excellent.

Also started singing some madrigals - hope to do them at the Review.

Labels: ERMC, films, music, postmodernity, singing

Squeaky toy

Last night, after watching some of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, we went upstairs to go to bed. I stood on a squeaky toy in the bathroom, and don't think I'll ever live down how high I jumped. Moo says that the particularly special thing was the fact that I was naked (or "nudey-rudey" as Jo would say) added some poignancy. Without wanting to spoil the film, it's about a very big snake...

Got my Wii age down to 41 yesterday.

Today it's 28! I rock, clearly.

Labels: films, wii

Hot Fuzz

Hot Fuzz, with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, is another great film from the makers of Shaun of the Dead. We've watched some of the extras, and we're on the first of the commentaries. It's one of those films (like Shaun of the Dead) with lots of references to other films. It's also hilarious - watch it. Lots of (gratuitous) violence and (gratuitous) bad language, and some major, major British actors.

Labels: films

Christianity at the Movies

Because I'm a soft, bleeding-heart liberal with no backbone, I'm uncomfortable with blanket condemnations of anything. And films ("movies", for non-British readers) are one of those things that we Christians sometimes leap to condemn very quickly: when it suits us, anyway. It's difficult not to think about condemnation when the papers here in the US are full of the death of Jerry Falwell - a founder member of the so-called Moral Majority over here.

I feel that, like many texts - by which I mean pretty much any type of interpreted object - films are very slippery. They move, and change, and - for some reason I'm not quite sure - they seem to morph into different things more often than books, for instance, do. A film seen twice or three times is a different kind of thing to a book read twice of three times, it seems to me. I tend to react differently to viewings - more than I would to multiple readings - possibly because of the immersive quality of films, and probably also because of the use of music. So, films change their meaning - in as much as anything has meaning, of course - their referents are more difficult to pin down. This means that a film may "mean" one thing to one person, and quite a different thing to another - and that this significations are quite liable - and likely - to change between viewings.

I'm not going to try to suggest that some films - like some books - are not morally compromised: this is a particular danger and power of any medium which is so immersive. Nor is the opposite danger to condemnation not something against which we should guard: March of the Penguins is _not_ an advert for creationism. But we should be careful.

Sorry for a rather random post, but that's just what came to mind.

Synchroblog

Today is a "synchroblog" on the subject of Christianity and movies. If you've liked what you read here, or, more particularly, if you didn't, and you'd like to read some other opinions, please visit one of the other participating blogs:

• Adam Gonnerman pokes at The Spider's Pardon
• David Fisher thinks that Jesus Loves Sci-Fi
• John Morehead considers Christians and Horror Redux: From Knee-Jerk Revulsion to Critical Engagement
• Marieke Schwartz lights it up with Counter-hegemony: Jesus loves Borat
• Mike Bursell muses about Christianity at the Movies
• Jenelle D'Alessandro tells us Why Bjork Will Never Act Again
• Cobus van Wyngaard contemplates Theology and Film (as art)
• Tim Abbott tells us to Bring your own meaning...?
• Sonja Andrews visits The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:Christ in Spaghetti Westerns
• Steve Hollinghurst takes a stab at The Gospel according to Buffy
• Les Chatwin insists We Don't Need Another Hero
• Lance Cummings says The Wooden Wheel keeps Turning
• John Smulo weaves a tale about Spiderman 3 and the Shadow
• Josh Rivera spells well with Christian Witchcraft
• Phil Wyman throws out the Frisbee: Time to Toss it Back
• Sally Coleman rushes up with Making Connections- films as a part of a mythological tradition
• Steve Hayes ponders The Image of Christianity in Films
• Kim Paffenroth pondersNihilism lite

Labels: films, synchroblog

Weird meme

Thanks to Sally for tagging me. Here are 6 weird things about me.

1. despite being a complete spelling fascist, I find it very difficult to spell the word "weird", and had to look it up and correct myself when I first wrote the heading for this post
2. "both sides" - if I burn myself, or hurt myself, on one side, I tend to react by doing the same to the other side. Moo calls this "both sides", and it's often an unconscious thing. I know that it's actually related to low-grade OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), but Moo still calls me "freak boy" (OK, it's not the only reason)
3. the title "geek" is a positive one for me
4. I have a little piece of gristle on the top of my right ear that led schoolmates of mine to call me "Spock"
5. I can read Latin (well enough to read the Vulgate and Harry Potter, at least). I don't write or speak it very well, but could probably brush it up if I had to do so
6. I cried at the end of the final Lord of the Rings film. Not because it was the last one, but because it was _moving_. Oh, and when Boromir died in the first one, obviously. Neither of these has led Moo to feel that she's wrong in calling me "freak boy"

Labels: films, me

More recovery

(backposting) Still with the temperature, but no hallucinations today. Which was nice.

Oh - yesterday was Moo and my 14 year engagement anniversary. I gave her some very random books and bits and pieces, including this book, which is hilarious (and not what you may think):

Moo gave me three DVDs

• Scooby-doo - watched this today, and enjoyed it despite myself
• March of the penguins
• Ultraviolet

I'm being very good, and only checking work email once a day. How's about that?

Labels: films, Moo

If you're going to San Francisco...

... be sure to check with your boss whether he actually _did_ arrange an upgrade for you. Oh well, paid a small fee for some extra legroom, which helped, had a bit of a sleep, read, listened to some music, and watched the excellent film The Queen, in which Helen Mirren really stole the show. Rather a lot funnier than I expected, too.

So, it's 0207 tomorrow (or 1807 here, depending on your view of time), so time for a freshen up, then hopefully meet some colleagues for a beer and some food.

Labels: films, travel

Back at ERMC

(backposting) Last day of holiday (not counting weekends), and I had a nice lazy day, sleeping in to 0915, which is pretty good, but less amazing when you realise that I didn't actually go to bed until around 0115 this morning, due in part to watching some of the excellent and funny The 51st State (also known, it appears as "Formula 51"), which I look forward to renting and watching in full in the future. Put the bins out, printed out my essays and the materials for the weekend, all that kind of stuff.

Then off to London Colney for an ERMC weekend on "Judaism and Mission" and "Ageing". Not, you might gather, the most consistent of topics. Had a decent drive - despite some frankly disgusting weather - and arrived in plenty of time to make a rehearsal for some Taizé music that I was going to cantor. I ended up part-directing it too, and it went very well. I was even asked if I'd done any Taizé recordings, as I'd had one of the members of the course in tears (of joy: I checked). I was also surprised to discover that I apparently have the ability to glide. This will be surprising to anyone who knows me as a clumsy git [tm], but there is a particular style of walking with head "on top" (Alexander technique showing through there) and very balanced which allows for a certain amount of grace. When moving around in church, I think I adopt it subconsciously (it works very well in a cassock, thinking back to the days when I processed around a lot), and I'd done so while moving between positions this evening.

A session on ageing, and then to the bar. Sarah ended up trying to volunteer me to have a charity back wax. Then chest wax. Then leg wax. I'm not interested. Quote of the evening:

"But what about all those poor children?"

"If those poor children really want my leg hairs, I'll shave them myself, and they can stuff whatever duvets and pillows they want."

Labels: ERMC, films, quotes, singing, sleep