The Relentlessly, Delieberately Uninformed

I usually don't repost entire blog posts, but Seth Godin had an unusually good one yesterday. Godin posts lots of good stuff. I often retweet his posts. However, this post I found particularly noteworthy. You can read the whole post below. Also, you can read the post here.
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Deliberately uninformed, relentlessly so [a rant] (Seth Godin, Oct. 20, 2010)

Many people in the United States purchase one or fewer books every year.

Many of those people have seen every single episode of American Idol. There is clearly a correlation here.

Access to knowledge, for the first time in history, is largely unimpeded for the middle class. Without effort or expense, it's possible to become informed if you choose. For less than your cable TV bill, you can buy and read an important book every week. Share the buying with six friends and it costs far less than coffee.

Or you can watch TV.

The thing is, watching TV has its benefits. It excuses you from the responsibility of having an informed opinion about things that matter. It gives you shallow opinions or false 'facts' that you can easily parrot to others that watch what you watch. It rarely unsettles our carefully self-induced calm and isolation from the world.

I got a note from someone the other day, in which she made it clear that she doesn't read non-fiction books or blogs related to her industry. And she seemed proud of this.

I was roped into an argument with someone who was sure that ear candling was a useful treatment. Had he read any medical articles on the topic? No. But he knew. Or said he did.

You see a lot of ostensibly smart people in airports, and it always surprises me how few of them use this downtime to actually become more informed. It's clearly a deliberate act--in our infoculture, it takes work not to expose yourself to interesting ideas, facts, news and points of view. Hal Varian at Google reports that the average person online spends seventy seconds a day reading online news. Ouch.

Not all books are correct or useful. Not all accepted science is correct. The conventional wisdom might just be wrong. But ignoring all of it because the truth is now fashionably situational and in the eye of the beholder is a lame alternative.

I know this rant is nothing new. In fact, people have been complaining about widespread willful ignorance since Brutus or Caesar or whoever invented the salad... the difference now is this: more people than ever are creators. More people than ever go to work to use their minds, not just their hands. And more people than ever have a platform to share their point of view. I think that raises the bar for our understanding of how the world works.

Let's assert for the moment that you get paid to create, manipulate or spread ideas. That you don't get paid to lift bricks or hammer steel. If you're in the idea business, what's going to improve your career, get you a better job, more respect or a happier day? Forgive me for suggesting (to those not curious enough to read this blog and others) that it might be reading blogs, books or even watching TED talks.

As for the deliberately uninformed, we can ignore them or we can reach out to them and hopefully start a pattern of people thinking for themselves...

Pearls Before Swine and Popeye

Here's a "Pearls Before Swine" strip from Sunday, March 16, 2008 that alludes to Popeye. "Pearls Before Swine" and Popeye. I love it.

Final Thoughts About and From THE DUMBEST GENERATION

"The production of spirited citizens requires more than meditations by academics and strategies by activists, and it transpires not only in classrooms and among advocacy groups. Learning and disputation, books and ideas, must infiltrate leisure time, too, and they should spread well beyond the cerebral cliques. This is why leisure trends among the general population are so important. They log the status of knowledge principle, and when the focus on under-30-year-olds, they not only reveal today's fashions among the kids but also tomorrow's prospects for civic well-being....

"The Dumbest Generation cares little for history books, civic principles, foreign affairs, comparative religions, and serious media and art, and it knows less. Careening through their formative years, they don't catch the knowledge bug, and tradition might as well be a foreign word. Other things monopolize their attention--the allure of screens, peer absorption, career goals. They are latter-day Rip Van Winkles, sleeping through the movements of culture and events of history, preferring the company of peers to great books and powerful ideas and momentous happenings. From their ranks will emerge few minds knowledgeable and interested enough to study, explain, and dispute the place and meaning of our nation. Adolescence is always going to be more or less anti-intellectual, of course, and learning has ever struggled against immaturity, but the battle has never proven so uphill. Youth culture and youth society, fabulously autonomized by digital technology, swamp the intellectual pockets holding on against waves of pop culture and teen mores, and the Boomer mentors have lowered bulwarks to surmountable heights. Among the Millennials, intellectual life can compete with social life, and if social life has no intellectual content, traditions wither and die. Books can't hold their own with screen images, and without help, high art always loses to low amusements.

"The ramifications for the United States are grave. We need a steady stream of rising men and women to replenish the institutions, to become strong military leaders and wise political leaders, dedicated journalists and demanding teachers, judges and muckrakers, scholars, and critics and artists. We have the best schools to train them, but social and private environments have eroded....Teachers try to impart knowledge, but students today remember only that which suits their careers or advantages their social lives. For the preparation of powerful officials, wise intellectuals, and responsible citizens, formal schooling and the workplace training are not enough. Social life and leisure time play essential roles in the maturing process, and if the knowledge principle disappears, if books, artworks, historical facts, and civic debates--in a word, an intellectual forensic--vacate the scene, then the knowledge young people acquire later on never penetrates to their hearts. The forensic retreats into ever smaller cells, where nerds and bookworms nurture their loves cut off from the world.

"Democracy doesn't prosper that way. If tradition survives only in the classroom, limping along in watered-down lessons, if knowledge doesn't animate the young when they're with each other and by themselves, it won't inform their thought and behavior when they're old. The latest social and leisure dispositions of the young are killing the culture, and when they turn 40 years old and realize what they failed to learn in their younger days, it will be too late....

"Fewer books are checked out of libraries and more videos. More kids go to the mall and fewer to the museum. Lunchroom conversations never drift into ideology, but Web photos pass nonstop from handheld to handheld. If parents and teachers and reporters don't see it now, they're blind.

"If they don't respond, they're unconscionable....Adults everywhere need to align against youth ignorance and apathy, and not fear the "old fogy" tag and recoil from the smirks of the young. The moral poles need to reverse, with the young no longer setting the pace for right conduct and cool thinking. Let's tell the truth. The Dumbest Generation will cease being dumb only when it regards adolescence as an inferior realm of petty strivings and adulthood as a realm of civic, historical, and cultural awareness that puts them in touch with the perennial ideas and struggles. The youth of America occupy a point in history like every other generation did and will, and their time will end. But the effects of their habits will outlast them, and if things do not change they will be remembered as the fortunate ones who were unworthy of the privileges they inherited. They may even be recalled as the generation that lost that great American heritage, forever."

From The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein, pp. 233-236.

Larry the Croc on JEOPARDY! the final strip

Below is the "Pearls Before Swine" strip from Sunday, October 17, 2010 that concludes the saga of Larry the Croc on Jeopardy! I think Larry has become the Charlie Brown of "Pearls Before Swine".

Larry the Croc is a JEOPARDY! King?

Here is Saturday, Oct. 16, 2010 strip "Pearls Before Swine" strip in which Larry the Croc continues to amaze everyone with his mental prowess.

Kermit the Frog Under the Pressure

It's amazing what you'll come across on the Internet. I came across this video yesterday because I'm a sucker for the Muppets, particularly Kermit the Frog. The video appears to be a homeless man performing to earn a little money.

In actuality, the "homeless man" is an actor and puppeteer who filmed the video with a filmmaker friend to raise awareness and money for homeless people. You can find an interview with the two men on the CNN website that gives the inside scoop. It's a great little video and it's easy to see why it's gone viral.

Today's "Pearls Before Swine"

Here's today's (Oct. 15, 2010) "Pearls Before Swine" strip. It continues the saga of Larry the Croc on Celebrity Jeopardy!

New BACK TO THE FUTURE commercial

Next week the cast of Back to the Future is reuniting on Spike TV at the 2010 Scream Awards. In honor of the event they've re-created the original tv commercial for the movie. Michael J. Fox, Nikes, and a DeLorean. What could be better?

Snookie from JERSEY SHORE on SOUTH PARK

I don't get MTV's show Jersey Show. You can say "It's a Jersey thing," all you like but it still doesn't make sense. Why are we, as a society and culture, making a bunch of young adults who have the mental and emotional capacity of children with no morals into millionaires and celebrities? Apparently I'm not the only one that feels that way. Last night (Wed. 10/13/10) South Park didn't hold back any punches and took on the whole Jersey Shore and "Jersey" mentality. They particularly made fun of Snookie, who's real name is Nicole Polizzi. Below is how she was pictured throughout the episode.

South Park pokes fun at everything, but they really don't enjoy most celebrities, particularly those who become famous for doing nothing.

Tears of the Saints

When I was a senior in college, I wrestled with God. It wasn't the first time, nor would it be the last. Throughout my collegiate days I had been involved heavily in ministry groups. I went on three different mission trips, twice to Mexico and once to Chicago. I usually did at least one or two service projects a week. I collected food for the homeless and food pantries. I helped out at the city rescue mission. For three years, I spent several months preparing for a two hour program for inmates at the county jail.

Since I was about five years old I had wanted to act and be in movies. That had always been my dream. That was still my dream in college and still remains today. However, during my senior year in college I felt that I wanted to be a foreign missionary. I seemed suited for the work. I knew that the life wouldn't be easy, but because of my skills, talents, and personality I knew I would adapt to it and would adapt well. But, deep in my heart of hearts I knew God didn't want me to do that. I begged with him. I pleaded with him. I had an application to teach with an organization in China for two years that was filled out, but I hadn't sent in the mail. I don't know why, but the message I kept getting over and over was: "No. I want you here, Tom. Not there." It didn't make any sense to me and even now at times it still doesn't make sense. So, I never sent that application out and, as of yet, I've never become a full time foreign missionary. Instead, I've remained in the states and have ministered to the people around me in the best ways that I can.

I mention this because a little over a year ago someone sent me a link to the following video.

I cried when I watched it for the first time. It brought back a flood of memories and feelings from my own life. I had meant to post it right away, but then my dad died unexpectedly. I had never forgotten about the video and now seems as good a time as any. Hopefully, when you watch it, it will spur you into some action of your own. I know personally that not all of us are called to be foreign ambassadors for Christ. However, some of us are and we just need that extra little nudge.

Even More from THE DUMBEST GENERATION

"Because the American tradition lies in the hands of the populace, it does not demand conformity, nor does it homogenize different cultural, political, and ethnic strains in U.S. history. In fact, the opposite happens. People read and study the same things, but their knowledge amplifies differences at the same time that it grants them a shared inheritance. The more people know, the more they argue. They quarrel over, precisely, what America is about, over who the heroes are and who the villains are....

"Knowledge breeds contention, then, but that's how a pluralistic, democratic society works through rival interests and clashing ideologies. Disagreements run deep, and messy pursuits and cravings for power cloud the ideas and values in conflict. But the battles that ensue solicit the intelligence and conviction and rightness of the adversaries, and they collide armed with the ammunition of ideas and phrases, works of art and lessons in philosophy and religion, episodes from history and literature."


From The Dumbest Generation by Mark Baurlein, pp. 217-218.

The Continuing Saga of Larry the Croc on JEOPARDY!

Here's the strip from today's (Oct. 14, 2010) "Pearls Before Swine". I really hope this storyline turns into at least a two week run.

Larry the Croc and Alex Trebek: "Pearls Before Swine" and Jeopardy!

Here's yesterday's (Oct. 13, 2010) "Pearls Before Swine" strip where Larry the Croc meet Alex Trebek

Did You Know 4.0 From xplane

A year ago I saw the following video for the first time. It's from a company called xplane which has an office located in St. Louis. The information contained within is fascinating. They have been releasing videos like this about once a year so there should be a new one coming out in a few months. What do you think?

The Crocs Go On JEOPARDY

I'm a huge fan of both the comic strip "Pearls Before Swine" and the game show Jeopardy! Yesterday the strip began a storyline where one of the Crocs, Larry, stars on the Celebrity edition of the show. Below is the strip. I'm curious to see how it all turns out.

What I'm Reading Right Now

Here are the books I'm reading right now (Tuesday, October 12, 2010):

Happy 10 Day!

I just realized that today is 10/10/10. Happy 10 Day everyone! Ten is supposedly a perfect number. Maybe today will be the start of something good.

I Saw An UFO

People see UFOs more often than one might suspect. I've never doubted that. However, I don't believe in aliens. In my opinion, UFOs can either be explained, are all either some sort of government (whether the U.S. government or some other country) secret projects, are some sort of secret project by some private enterprise or business. I don't think someone who claims they've been abducted by aliens to be lying. Instead, they have probably had their mind tampered by some sort of drugs (either of their own doing or by someone else, perhaps willingly or perhaps unbeknownst to them) or some form of hypnosis. If they were really kidnapped and had experiments performed upon them, it wasn't by aliens but by the government or some private enterprise.

I bring this all up because last night I saw an UFO for the first time in my life. I was on my way to Highland, IL for pick-up rehearsal for HARVEY. I had just turned on Hwy 140 when I saw this bright light.

It wasn't a star. It didn't look like an airplane. It wasn't a cloud. It wasn't a contrail. It kind of looked liked a falling star, except it never moved. It just sat there in the same place. I was so fascinated by this thing that when I got to the country road that I take to Highland, I pulled over to look at it some more and take a picture.

The object continued to just sit there. Then I saw what kind of looked like two jets coming from two different directions flying towards the object. They had a very short contrail following them that disappeared almost immediately, but instead of being white these contrails were red. The jets appeared to pass by the object, but then kept right on flying. Not long after I saw another object appear in the sky just like the first one.

I had to get back on my way to Highland, so I got back in the car and starting driving. By the time I got to Highland, I could see about five or six of these objects as well as the two jets. The jets had moved and gotten smaller in appearance, but they were the only objects to have done so. Also, I'm not sure if it was because of the quickly approaching nightfall and the lack of sunlight, but all of the white objects now appeared red. I got to the theatre for rehearsal soon thereafter and didn't see the objects again. And that is my experience seeing an UFO for the first time.

Book Review: ON THE BLUE COMET

I have never read a story by Rosemary Wells before, but when I saw the beautiful cover of ON THE BLUE COMET and read the cover, it was a book that I had to read. I mean it’s a time traveling story with trains! The story follows Oscar Ogilvie, an eleven-year-old boy living from 1931 Cairo, IL. The story actually begins a few years earlier. After the tragic death of his mother, Oscar and his father find refuge together in a Lionel toy train set that they build together. The set expands and soon takes up the Ogilvie’s basement. Oscar’s aunt think’s Oscar’s dad is insane and is wasting his money, but the father and son both know better. Then the stock market crashes in 1929 and everything changes. Oscar’s dad eventually loses his job working for John Deere. They have to sell the house and all the trains. Oscar moves in with his aunt and her daughter and his dad leaves for California to try to find a job with the John Deere plant out there.

Work is scarce and Oscar’s dad has a tough time at it first. Meanwhile, Oscar is working on improving his math grades at school. While his aunt and cousin go about their tutoring and speech lessons to wealthier families, Oscar stays at home. One day he meets an older man named Mr. Applegate. Mr. Applegate used to be a mathematics professor at Princeton, but his theories about Einstein and time travel were too advanced for the time. He lost his job and now travels around from place to place looking for work. Mr. Applegate helps Oscar with his math and introduces him to great literature. Mr. Applegate eventually gets hired at the local bank as a night watchman. Weeks before Christmas the bank reveals an impressive lobby display of trains, all of which used to belong to Oscar and his father. Mr. Applegate lets Oscar in to watch every night, showing him how to turn the alarm back on when he comes in. One night, Oscar forgets and two criminals show up to rob the bank. One of them doesn’t want any witnesses and tries to shoot Oscar. Mr. Applegate calls out for Oscar to jump and jump he does, becoming small enough to board one of the trains on the lobby display.

However, things grow more mysterious when Oscar discovers that he actually is traveling on a real train in real time from Chicago to Los Angeles. He needs to get back home and stop the robbers, but he’s not sure how. His journey takes him not only from part of the country to the other, but from one time to another, too.

ON THE BLUE COMET is a very creative and imaginative story. The story is basically a piece of historical fiction with some sci-fi and fantasy elements tied in. The settings of the story are grounded in reality. Many of the events that take place are historical, the places are real, and the famous people Oscar meets are people he very well could have met in those situations. I liked it how Ronald Reagan is never referred to beyond his nickname of “Dutch” or that Alfred Hitchcock is only known to Oscar as Mr. H. The famous people he meets doesn’t stop there because later he meets the Kennedys, J.P. Morgan, Nelson Rockefeller, Henry Mellon, Charles Merrill, and Edmund Lynch but they are all referred to by their real names.

The book is illustrated by Russian artist Bagram Ibatoulline. Until recently, I had never heard of the man, but not long ago I read Kate DiCamillo’s children’s Christmas story, GREAT JOY and Ibatoulline drew the illustrations for that book. His pictures for ON THE BLUE COMET are quite literally astounding. They are like looking at actual paintings from a different era. These pictures go along way in helping to further set the mood, tone, and settings of the story. I also liked the occasional use of the newspaper articles and hand-written letters in the book. They help augment the visual appeal of the text.

I very much enjoyed reading ON THE BLUE COMET. It’s a story that older elementary kids and early middle-school students who have an interest in time travel, history, or trains will enjoy and if someone likes all three they are sure to love it.

Last Weekend For HARVEY

This weekend is your final chance to see Hard Road Theatre's production of Harvey. It's a great show. They really don't right comedies like this anymore. Not only that, but you can see my (Tom Varner) award-winning-deserving performance as Elwood P. Dowd.

Performances are this Friday, October 8th and this Saturday, October 9th at 7:30pm at the Elementary Auditorium, 1800 Lindenthal Ave., Highland, IL.

You can buy tickets at the door or reserve them by calling 618-654-7748. Ticket prices are $8 for adults, $7 for seniors, and $6 for children.

Come on out and see the show. It's a night you will enjoy and a performance you won't regret seeing.

Too Young For Facebook

This past Sunday Aisha Sultan, a reporter for St. Louis Post-Dispatch, had an interesting column in the new" Home & Away" section. The column was about young children who have Facebook accounts. In the column, Sultan quotes Doug Terfehr who says his family has found a safe and useful way to merge family and Facebook.

According to Sultan, "Terfer says most of his family lives out of town, so he and his wife created an account for their 7-year-old son a year ago as a way for him to keep in touch with relatives. They post pictures of the kids' special events, and grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins can comment.

"It's almost like getting a letter from grandma and grandpa all the time, " he explained. It was too cumbersome to e-mail photos with attachments and not an interactive experience for the children....

"It works great for us," he said because it gives his children a way to relate to far-flung extended family and develop a relationship with them."

My reaction to all of this is instead of making a Facebook page for your six-year-old (the age of the boy at the time they created the account), why not sit down with him and write a letter with him to the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins? Why not have the kid draw a picture showing something he's done to send to grandpa & grandma? Why not actually print off a few of those digital photos for the aunts & uncles so they can frame them? And if everyone wants to keep in touch, why not call them up on the telephone once a month? These things would take just as long as it does to do things "safely" on Facebook, are safer, would be appreciated much more by the relatives, and would be a lot better quality time spent with your child than being online with them.

In short, kids that young don't need to be on the Internet and they definitely don't need a Facebook.

You can read the entire essay here.

More Thoughts From THE DUMBEST GENERATION

"Few things are worse for adolescent minds than overblown appraisals of their merit. They rob them of constructive self-criticism and obscure the lessons of tradition. They steer their competitive instincts toward peer triumphs, no civic duty. They make them mistrust their guides, and interpret cynically both praise and censure. They set them up for failure...

"The twenty-first-century teen, connected and multitasked, autonomous yet peer-mindful, marks no great leap forward in human intelligence, global thinking, or "netizen"-ship. Young users have learned a thousand new things, no doubt. They upload and download, surf and chat, post and design, but they haven't learned to analyze a complex text, store facts in their heads, comprehend a foreign policy decision, take lessons from history, or spell correctly. Never having recognized their responsibility to the past, they have opened a fissure in our civic foundations, and it shows in their halting passage into adulthood and citizenship. They leave school, but peer fixations continue and social habits stay the same. They join the workforce but only to realize that self-esteem lessons of home and class, as well as behaviors that made them popular, no longer apply, and it takes them years to adjust. They grab snatches of news and sometimes vote, but they regard the civic realm as another planet. And wherever they end up, whomever they marry, however high they land in their careers, most of them never acquire the intellectual tools they should have as teenagers and young adults....the knowledge and culture traits never catch up....

If young people don't read, they shut themselves out of public affairs. Without a knowledge formation in younger years, adults function as more or less partial citizens. Reading and knowledge have to enter their leisure lives, at their own initiative....

As the rising generation reaches middle age, it won't re-create the citizenship of its precursors, nor will it ranks produce a set of committed intellectuals ready to trade in ideas, steer public policy, and espouse social values on the basis of learning, eloquence, and a historical sense of human endeavor. This is one damaging consequence of the betrayal of the mentors that is often overlooked."

From pp. 201-203 of The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein

It's a Small World at the Taco Bell

Stephan Pastis, the animator and creator of "Pearls Before Swine" wrote a hilarious blog entry a couple weeks ago about his experience at a Taco Bell drive-thru.

He writes, "The drive-thru lane that wraps around my Taco Bell is narrow with high curbs on either side.

If you filled it with water and put multi-ethnic singing midgets along its sides, you’d have the “It’s A Small World” ride at Disneyland."

To see what happens read the whole thing here.

From Ray Bradbury

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."
--Ray Bradbury

Check This Out: Jurassic Park the Musical

Several days ago, a friend of mine sent me a link on Facebook that led me to the following videos. Basically, a group of college students in Lincoln, Nebraska got together in the Spring of 2009 and put together a musical in the backyard of a house. The show was JURASSIC PARK: THE MUSICAL and around 250 people attended. A video of the show was made and has now been posted on the Internet, as well as a short documentary about the experience. I'm doing what little I can to help the videos go viral. The show is hilarious. The show is brought to you in three parts followed by the documentary. Enjoy and pass the word along.

Jurassic Park the Musical Part 1 from Mark Hennings on Vimeo.

Jurassic Park the Musical Part 2 from Mark Hennings on Vimeo.

Jurassic Park the Musical Part 3 from Mark Hennings on Vimeo.

The Making of Jurassic Park the Musical from Mark Hennings on Vimeo.

Book Review: THE ART OF DREW STRUZAN

E.T., the Indiana Jones movies, the Star Wars movies, the Back to the Future trilogy, the Goonies, Harry Potter, and Frank Darabont’s Stephen King adaptations are all movies that Drew Struzan created all the promotional art. From the late 1970’s until his retirement at the end of 2008, Struzan was THE movie poster artist. His artwork came to define some of the movies he helped promote.

THE ART OF DREW STRUZAN isn’t a collection or treasury of all of Struzan’s movie posters. Instead, it is more akin to an author’s favorites or best-of collection. Struzan worked on the movie posters and promotional materials for around 200 different films; only 40 are collected here. In addition, there are a series of sketches, some in black and white others in color, as well as comments from Struzan about each of the movies. The book contains a forward by Frank Darabont that laments the fall of the movie poster artist and the rise of digital and PhotoShopped posters.

The book is a bit larger than an average book, but smaller than most art books. It’s about 9”X12” in size with a black cover. The writing is easy to read and a person can read the entire book within a few hours or less.

Besides the artwork, some of which hasn’t appeared before in the other two Struzan books available, what I liked most about the book was Darabont’s foreward and Struzan’s comments. Which is to say, I liked the entire book. Even though it’s a book about the work of a particular movie poster artist, it provides a glimpse into the business side of motion pictures and how that often conflicts with artistic side of the movie business.

This is an excellent book that any visual artist or movie fan will enjoy and is almost a must-have for either one.

Mitch Albom On Obama & South Korean Education

A few weeks ago, Mitch Albom had a very interesting essay in the Detroit Free Press about some of President Obama's comments on education in the United States as compared to that in South Korea. Albom became famous for a little book he wrote called Tuesdays With Morrie . That was a good book, but then Albom went to write a series of other books, all bestsellers, that were mushy, pseudo-spiritual tripe. So, I'm not really a big fan of Albom. However, I concur with most of his sentiments (everything until the sappy end) in the essay.

In the past few weeks Obama and his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan seemed to have been making a push towards lengthening the number of hours students spend in school as well as the length of the school year. As Ablom points out, even if every school in the country does that, it will not help improve the quality of education in our high schools. In South Korea, everyone still cares about education, unlike here in the U.S. where education is now seen as a "right", not a privilege.

"What you don't hear is cheerleading squads. What you don't hear is spring break trips to Cancun. What you don't hear is classes to boost self-esteem, to celebrate an ethnic group, to explore the arts. What you don't hear is Glee or High School Musical or other coolness-driven entertainment fantasies about high school fashion, sex, talent, or jockdom.

How are our kids supposed to mimic these kids when this place doesn't look anything like the American school system?

...One of the questions I was asked by the media here was, "What do our children have to do to become global leaders?" That's not a common question in the United States--not to a visiting writer, anyhow.

...How are American kids going to copy that? We're not disciplined enough, we're not hungry enough, and, most important, either parents don't say it enough, or if they do, kids ignore them.

That also doesn't happen in Korea. Respect for elders is paramount in Korean society."

Read the whole essay here.

R.I.P. Stephen J. Cannell

I just found out that Stephen J. Cannell died a couple of days ago from complications from melanoma (skin cancer). A lot of people might not know who Cannell is, but at one time he was one of the most powerful tv executives around. He created two of my favorite tv shows that I watched as a kid: The Greatest American Hero and The A-Team. He was the creator of a lot of other shows too, including The Rockford Files, Hunter, Hardcastle and McCormick, Wiseguy, The Commish, and Renegade. He was a producer who was very hands on with his projects: he wrote many of the shows he produced, he directed a lot of them, and some of them he even acted in.

R.I.P. Tony Curtis

Actor Tony Curtis died yesterday (Thurs. Sept. 30, 2010). Curtis acted in a lot of movies, but the two I've seen I remember him in the most are Some Like It Hot and Spartacus. From what I've seen in the pictures, Curtis was a talented actor who never quite got his due.

A year and a half ago I had the opportunity to meet Curtis in Chicago. He was very friendly and seemed to enjoy signing autographs and the attention he was getting, though he was prone to wandering (particularly his hands on ladies bottoms and bosoms). Apparently, he died in his sleep at home. Rest in peace, Mr. Curtis.

LeBron James Says Racism Is Now Why He Is Disliked

LeBron James says that racism is a "factor" in why he is now considered one of the most disliked athletes in professional sports. I've never been a fan of James; I think he's highly overrated and one of the most egotistical athletes ever to play basketball and I don't think he has enough talent to live up to his hype. However, let's give credit where credit is due. In his special "The Decision" broadcast on ESPN this past summer, James donated all of his proceeds from the event to the Boys and Girls Club of America. James is also a talented athlete. He's a good basketball player who has leadership potential.

However, racism is not the reason James is no longer in the favor of public opinion. It's all about loyalty, something James has shown he has very little, and money, something James has shown he adores. He could have stayed with his home team, in the state he grew up in. That would have been the loyal thing to do. Cavalier fans have supported James when others abandoned him. He was Cleveland's favorite son. But, he got greedy and despite having a multi-million dollar offer from the Cavs, he jumped ship and went to Miami, a place who was able to offer him more money.

I would not have liked James if he stayed with the Cavs, but I would have respected him a lot more. But not only did he abandon his home team, he did it on a cable special in front of the whole world. It's a little too much of, et tu Brute? Now James claims that the reason his decision is so unpopular is because of racism. That's just plain stupid and makes things even worse. The only way James will ever gain favor again is if he actually starts living up to his hype and wins and wins big.

HARVEY

Classic Rabbit Tale in Highland

Hard Road Theatre Productions, in association with the Highland Arts Council and sponsored by First Mid-Illinois Bank & Trust, is presenting “Harvey” at the Highland Elementary auditorium, 1800 Lindenthal Street, October 1, 2, 8 and 9 at 7:30pm and October 3 at 2pm. Mary Chase’s fanciful tale of a delightfully eccentric man and his tall white rabbit friend was first produced on Broadway in 1943 but is best remembered as a Jimmy Stewart movie in 1950. The story revolves around Veta Simmons’ effort to have her brother, Elwood P. Dowd, committed to the Chumley Rest Home and hopefully rid the family of the shame he and the “imaginary” rabbit Harvey have brought. Comic complications arise when the rest home staff attempts to determine who should be committed. The distinguished Dr. William R. Chumley soon finds himself under Harvey’s spell.

The cast includes Tom Varner (Sorento) as Elwood P. Dowd; Sheila Riggs (Highland) as Veta Simmons; Hank Crider (Highland) as Dr. Chumley; Mitch England (Highland) as Dr. Sanderson; Gentry Herlitz (Staunton) as Nurse Kelly; Tinah Edwards (Collinsville) as Myrtle Simmons; Tim Albaugh (Collinsville) as Judge Gaffney; John Taylor (Highland) as Wilson; Linda Collman (Greenville) as Mrs. Chumley; Mary Knebel (Pierron) as Mrs. Chauvenet; Hugh Gallagher (Edwardsville) as Lofgren; and Myra Juenger (Collinsville) as Miss Johnson. John Goldsmith of Greenville is the director.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $7 for seniors and $6 for children and can be reserved in advanced by calling (618) 654-7748. Tickets may also be purchased at the door.

Hard Road Theatre Productions is a non-profit theatre organization committed to providing the larger Highland area with high-quality, affordable, live productions. For more information about Harvey , Hard Road Theatre, or further ticket information, visit the Hard Road website at www.hardroad.org.

Why Don't American Boys Read?

Why don't boys read? According to Thomas Spence of the Wall Street Journal, "The appearance of the boy-girl literacy gap happens to coincide with the proliferation of video games and other electronic forms of entertainment over the last decade or two. Boys spend far more time "plugged in" than girls do."

Many in the educational establishment have tried to answer the question and, thereby, solve the problem by the wrong method: by deciding to "meet them where they are. For elementary- and middle-school boys, that means books that exploit love of bodily functions and gross-out humor.”

Spence explains why this is wrong and provides a solution to the problem. Read the whole article here.

The SESAME STREET Controversy or How Elmo Destroyed SESAME STREET

Sesame Street is in the midst of a controversy right now. Some footage of singer Katy Perry singing a cleaned-up version of her song "Hot N Cold" with Elmo was released before the episode aired. A lot of parents saw the footage and complained, basically, that there was too much of Perry's cleavage showing. Sesame Street has now decided to pull the segment altogether. This has raised some controversy because in recent years the show has parodied such adult cable shows as True Blood and Mad Men and people didn't really complain about that. I don't think there were as many complaints about those shows for two reasons.

The first is that many parents of younger children don't really know what True Blood or Mad Men are. Those shows are cable shows and a lot of people with children don't have much time to devote to tv, especially shows that appear on premium cable networks (you have to pay more money each month to get AMC and even more for HBO). I know that those shows are available on DVD and members of those shows have graced numerous magazine covers, appeared on countless talk shows, and have multitudes of websites devoted to their characters. Still, unless you're an entertainment junkie or work in the industry, if you're a parent you really don't have much time for such drivel. You're too busy going to work, raising your kids, and taking care of your home. The shows you watch are probably mostly animated cartoons and educational shows. The magazines you read, if any, are more likely to be Good Parenting instead of Entertainment Weekly. The websites you visit are probably have lots of info about child-rearing and basic medical advice, not fan websites. You just don't have time so when you see a segment on Sesame Street called "True Mud" that's about a grouch who wants mud for a mud bath, you probably think, "That's kind of lame. I don't remember Oscar ever taking a mud bath. That wasn't a very good segment." You then never think anything of it. Now, if you happened to be an entertainment junkie or worked in the business, then when you see such a segment you would probably think it was clever, but risque for Sesame Street. Except, if you're a woman who watches one of those shows.

Which brings me to point two. The audiences of shows like True Blood and Mad Men are mostly women (around 70%). People get very attached to their tv shows. I can remember as a kid my Mom was addicted for awhile to Days of Our Lives. Heck, even my grandma had a soap opera she used to watch all of the time until she forced herself to break that addiction. I've never missed an episode of Survivor. I get it. When you become attached to a particular show, you become protective of it. The majority of the people who watch True Blood are women so if you happen to have a child and are watching Sesame Street when a segment called "True Mud" airs, you're probably going to think, "Oh, how cute. They're parodying True Blood. How clever of Sesame Street." Since you're a fan of the True Blood, you know it's not a show that kids have any business watching and that even a parody of it shouldn't be airing on Sesame Street, but since you're a fan of the show you call it cute and clever.

Katy Perry is a pop singer who appears all over the place. She's doesn't appear for just a few weeks on a premium cable show. She's all on the talk shows, both morning and late night, of all the major networks. Her videos are some of the few that still play on MTV. She's seen on VH-1 and sang a song at the Kid's Choice Awards on Nickleodeon. Her face has been on all kinds of magazines. But, Katy Perry is female and for whatever reason, a lot of females seem threatened by her. So when Katy Perry appears on Sesame Street wearing a dress that female ice-skaters wear, people complain.

Personally, I think it's all a crock. Sesame Street shouldn't be doing parodies of "True Blood" or "Mad Men" and even if she is a pop-singer sensation, Katy Perry shouldn't ever appear on the show. I grew up with the Muppets. Some of my favorite shows of all time were The Muppet Show, Jim Henson's The Storyteller, Fraggle Rock, and Sesame Street. The stuff that appears on Sesame Street now would never have even aired on a children's show. It might have gotten some play on The Muppet Show, but definitely not Sesame Street. Sesame Street was a safe place. Guest stars were actually rare on the show. The cast of characters was relatively small, just a few humans and a handful or two regular Muppets. Oh, and Cookie Monster ate cookies, not fruits and vegetables.

I think that changed whenever Elmo came on the scene. He's extremely annoying and somewhat obnoxious. He's the Barney Fife of the Sesame Street universe. Elmo didn't exist when I watched Sesame Street and I'm convinced the nature of the show changed when he came onto the scene. Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Oscar, Grover, Cookie Monster, and the Count all had to step into the background and let Elmo take the spotlight. And take it he did, Elmo is all over Sesame Street now. Quite frankly, I think Elmo is representative of a great deal that's wrong with education and child-rearing in America. Elmo is allowed to run rampant all over the place. Sure, he's good-natured, polite, and tries to do the right thing, but he keeps popping up in places he shouldn't be. Elmo shouldn't be the center of attention. He shouldn't have his own segment and appear in the majority of the regular Sesame Street segments. He should be contained, disciplined so to speak. Instead, he's pretty much been given free reign, just like a lot of the kids in America today.

Anyway, last year while watching the three-year old son of a good friend of mine, I watched the first episode of Sesame Street that I had seen in over a decade. I was flabbergasted. The show had several regular features, including "Elmo's World", that were basically like mini- episodes. There was very little original animation and there were way too many guest stars (not including the "Elmo's World" actors there were 3 guest stars on the show that day). The quaint, simplistic, educational show of my childhood was gone. It remained in name only. The soul had been sucked away, replaced by a vapid void of hyperactivity and listlessness. And that is why Sesame Street now parodies a show like True Blood.

Joaquin Phoenix Was Acting the Whole Time

Remember about a year and a half ago and Joaquin Phoenix appeared on David Letterman with a scruffy beard and was acting all bizarre. It was shortly after he made the announcement that he was "retiring from acting" and had decided to pursue a career as a hip-hop or rap musician.

As it turns out, it was all faked. It was just one big stunt.

I told you. Joaquin Phoenix was acting the whole time.

I'm not sure why Phoenix wanted to do the gig. His announcement came just two years after his Academy Award-nominated performance in Walk the Line. As for Casey Affleck, he's trying to prove himself more as a filmmaker and the more talented of the Affleck brothers, so I can see why he was interested in the stunt.

So, there you have it.

Why Porn Shops Don't Have Windows

Thanks to Justin Taylor for this. The following is taken from a message from John Piper entitled "Do You See the Glory of God in the Sun?"
________________________

Do you know why there are no windows on adult bookstores? Or do you know why there are no windows on certain kinds of nightclubs in the city?

I suppose your answer would be, “Well, because they don’t want people looking in and getting a free sight.”

That’s not the only reason.

You know why? Because they don’t want people looking out at the sky.

You know why? The sky is the enemy of lust.

And I just ask you—you think back on your struggles. The sky is a great power against lust.

Pure, lovely, wholesome, beautiful, powerful, large-hearted things cannot abide the soul of a sexual fantasy at the same time.

I remember as I struggled with these things in my teenaged years and in my college years —I knew how I could fight most effectively in those days. And I’ve developed other strategies over the years that have proved very effective. And one way of fighting was simply to get out of the dark places, get out of the lonely rooms, get out of the boxed-in places, get out of the places where it’s just small me and my mind and what I can do with it, and get out where I am just surrounded by color and beauty and bigness and loveliness.

And I know that when I used to sit in my front yard at 122 Bradley Boulevard with a notepad in my hand a pen and trying to write a poem—at that moment my heart and my body were light years away from the sexual fantasizing I was tempted by again and again in the late-night, quiet, secluded, in-house moments.

There’s something about bigness, there’s something about beauty, that helps battle against the puny, small, cruddy use of the mind to fantasize about sexual things.

And then turn it around: it works this way too. We know from experience that if we give way to sexual fantasies and yield to lusts and dwelling on unwholesome things, our capacities for seeing the sky are cut in half. And then cut in half again. And then cut in half again—until you’re just a little worm on the ground as your language and your mind is nothing but smut. It can happen to anybody!

And so I just commend to you: don’t let that happen. Battle lust—among all the other weapons that you’re given in Scripture—battle it with the upward glance of the magnificent blue and the thunder and the lightning and the sunrises and the sunsets and the glory of God. And say to yourself, “If I give way in this hour to that kind of thinking, I won’t enjoy this, I won’t have a large heart, I won’t have a capacious mind, I won’t be a noble person—I’ll just be an old gutter person.” Preach to yourself like that! And then give yourself over to the ministry of the sky. And let it help you free from lust.

Graphic Novel Review: STAR TREK: SPOCK-REFLECTIONS

Beginning just before the release of the movie STAR TREK, IDW began publishing Star Trek comics that are notable not only for their artwork and stories, but for their appreciation and adherence to the Star Trek’s universe history. For instance, STAR TREK: COUNTDOWN was the Star Trek story that should have been the next Star Trek movie.

STAR TREK: SPOCK-REFLECTIONS is a supplemental tie-in to the STAR TREK movie. The story follows Spock as he secretly travels from Romulus to Earth and back to Romulus. Along the way, the reader sees flashbacks from Spock’s life illuminating why he is now on Romulus attempting to bring the teachings of the Vulcan philosopher Surak to the Romulans. Though the book is about Spock and his reflections and is a loose tie-in to the movie STAR TREK, the story brings together elements from various other Star Trek movies and wraps them up nicely.

The story unfolds at a slower pace than many other Star Trek stories, but that fits because the focus is on the character of Spock and not plot. There doesn’t have to be great battles, large explosions, or massive firefights. Instead, the events unravel one at a time, at the end revealing a glimmer of what has made Spock who he is.

Like STAR TREK: COUNTDOWN, STAR TREK: SPOCK-REFLECTIONS contains some beautiful illustrations. The layouts done by David Messina, find a nice balance between a classical Star Trek style and the new sleek and flashy Star Trek look. It’s a nice combination of old and new.

Star Trek fans will probably enjoy STAR TREK: SPOCK-REFLECTIONS as well as anyone who has an interest in Spock.

Book Review: FINDING OZ

Once upon a time I was cast in a production of THE WIZARD OF OZ and began doing some research not only into Oz, but into the man who created that world, L. Frank Baum. One of the books I read as part of my research was FINDING OZ.

The book is flows smoothly and is rather easy to read. The premise of the book is that many of the characters, events, and places in THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ were inspired by people, events, and places from Baum’s own life. FINDING OZ attempts to illustrate just what all those people, events, and places were. The book begins with Baum’s familial background and his birth and follows his life until just after the major success of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ.

Though the story moves along very smoothly and is filled with facts, as a biography the book isn’t very good. FINDING OZ is filled with suppositions. For instance, when discussing a time when Baum went to meet his future wife, Maud Gage, the author makes all kinds of suppositions from the probabilities of the things they would have worn, to how Baum would have arrived, to what songs were sung, to how long Baum spent at the house, etc. I realize these suppositions were included to keep the book smoothly flowing. However, they aren’t factual and I felt that they took away more than they added.

I also didn’t like how the author tried to find a real-life reason for all of the major events, places, and characters in Oz. As Baum clearly points out in his own introduction to THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, the story is supposed to be an American fairy tale. It’s not a parable or an allegory. We do know that there are certain things that did inspire Baum’s tale, for instance his niece Dorothy who died at an early age, the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, and Baum’s experiences selling china (the Dainty Chinaland chapter in THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ all makes sense now). However, not everything in the novel was inspired by something else. Sometimes a story is just a story, and I often felt while reading FINDING OZ that the author forgot that.

The book also ends rather abruptly. It spends a great deal of time on Baum’s life leading up to the publication of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, but very little time on the events of his life after that. Baum wrote many other books and though none were as successful as the first Oz book, he was one of the most famous and successful authors of his time. He went back to the Oz books because the public demanded them. If people, places, and events in THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ were so closely based upon real-life, were the people, places, and events of the sequels also based upon real things? The author never comes near that question and FINDING OZ basically ends after the success of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ.

That’s not to say FINDING OZ is a terrible book because it’s not. The book is entertaining and is occasionally informative. For instance, the author makes it clear that Baum did not base THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ upon Populist politics of the day as several historians and theorists have suggested in the past. In fact, Baum was a staunch lifelong Republican. The book also gives a great deal of insight into Matilda Gage and her relationship with her son-in-law.

FINDING OZ was a mixed-bag for me. The structure flows as smooth as a novel, but the major faults of the book kept me from enjoying it as much as I have similar-themed works of non-fiction.

Crazy Love--Chapter 7; Faith

Luke Warm Christians?

Is there such a thing as a luke warm Christian? I've heard a couple of handfuls of sermons about luke warm Christianity during my life. Those sermons usually disturbed me because most of the time the speakers talked about how not to be a "luke warm Christian". The problem I had is that there is no such thing in the Bible. You're either a Christian or you're not. There is no in between. Why deceive people into believing they can be something that doesn't exist?

"Mother Goose and Grimm" and THE WIZARD OF OZ

Media Consumed: August 2010

Books Read

*Problem Identified and You’re Probably Not Part of the Solution Scott Adams

Stephen King Goes to the Movies Stephen King

The Dumbest Generation Mark Baurlein

*The Storm in the Barn Matt Phelan

+Frankenstein Mary Shelley

Cliffs Notes on Shelley’s Frankenstein Jeff Coghill

Stuff Christians Like Jonathan Acuff

#, + Harvey

* = denotes book of comic strips or graphic novel

+ = denotes a work previously read

# = denotes a play

I found The Dumbest Generation to be highly informative. It provides the best statistical and data available illustrating that children’s increased use of the Internet, cell phones, etc. are actually causing the majority of the youth in America to become less intelligent.

I started re-reading Frankenstein two years ago when I was teaching it. I never finished re-reading the last chapter until now.

Stuff Christians Like is both funny and thought-provoking. It laughs about things contemporary Christians tend to do, while at the same time using satire to raise important issues.

Harvey is a great play and I read it in preparation for the production I’m acting in and producing.

Movies Watched for the First Time

Who Done It?

The Other Guys

Astro Boy

Who Done It? is another Abbot and Costello picture. I remember seeing part of it years ago on tv. It’s a funny murder-mystery story.

The Other Guys is Will Ferrell’s best movie in years and is hilarious. Ferrell doesn’t get to do the typical things he usually does and is more restrained. Mark Wahlberg is actually the funny man in the pic with Ferrell being the straight man.

Astro Boy was an enjoyable animated feature. It didn’t have a message or moral, but was just a colorful piece of high-tech animated fluff.

Media Consumed: July 2010

Books Read

The New Yorker: On the Money Ed. Robert Mankoff

1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You Cary McNeil

*The Wizard of Oz Graphic Novel Adapt. Michael Cavallaro

Finding Oz Evan I. Schwartz

* = denotes a graphic novel

July was kind of a slow month, reading-wise for me. I was in the midst of a musical and spent a large part of my free time (especially during the last two weeks) on the show. Of the four books, the only one I can give a solid recommendation for is 1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You. The book is filled with facts about all kinds of things. If it doesn’t kill you, it truly will make you stronger.

Movies Watched for the First Time

Tenure

Despicable Me

500 Days of Summer

The Lonely Guy

*Hold That Ghost

Inception

Pardon My Sarong

*The Dreamer of Oz

Tenure was in interesting little film. It’s not a full-fledged comedy and the drama isn’t as serious as one might think. It doesn’t fit definitely into one type of genre. I tend to like movies like that.

Despicable Me was a complete joy. Steve Carrell’s voice is unrecognizable and the Minions are adorable.

I liked the way 500 Days of Summer was told, but I hated the story.

I watched several Abbott and Costello films the past couple months in preparation for my role as Lion in The Wizard of Oz. Hold That Ghost is one of the duo’s earliest best. Pardon My Sarong wasn’t quite as funny, but it’s still has plenty of classic Abbot and Costello humor.

Inception is a great movie that’s ruined by an indecisive conclusion (Chris Nolan should have had some balls and made a choice one way or the other). It’s by no means the best movie of the year (Toy Story 3 is that), but it does break some ground effects-wise.

Lastly, The Dreamer of Oz is a made-for-tv movie starring John Ritter. I saw the film when it first aired on television. It was on the The Wizard of Oz DVD I own so I watched it again in some final preparation for the show.

"Pearls Before Swine" Tribute to Charlie Brown

STAR WARS Prequels Parody

Thanks to Jack Hager for leading me to this Star Wars tribute/Queen parody.

After the Lion Got His Courage

--From Parade magazine Sun., Aug. 8, 2010