My Favorite/Best Movies of 2011

Most people do these lists sometime in the first of half of December. I never understood that. A year doesn't end until December 31st. Unless you're a critic who gets special viewing privileges, you can't really say what the best of something in a year was until the year is over. I normally do this earlier, but I got involved in a show, got busy, etc. So, without delay, here's my list of the best and/or my favorite movies from 2011.

10.

Tree of Life

I'm a film junkie. I love movies and even though there's still a huge gap in my film repertoire, I know who Terrence Malick is. Terrence Malick movies might not always make much sense, but at a pure cinematic level, they are works of genius. For a film lover, watching a Terrence Malick movie is like a baby watching the colorful mobile above his crib. There's usually some substance of a plot in a Malick piece, but it gets lost in the visuals; the story in a Malick movie isn't told through the dialogue or even the actions. It's told through the visuals. Tree of Life is his best work, yet. It deals with the grand struggle of life: that of grace (or good or love, if you will) versus nature (or evil or hate).

9.

War Horse

There really aren't very many good movies about World War I out there. The few that exist are from over fifty years ago. Leave it to Stephen Spielberg to make a good WWI movie, but instead of being about humans, it's all about a horse. If you like animals, particular horses, you'll like War Horse. If you aren't a big animal person, you will probably be indifferent to the film.

8.

Soul Surfer

Most movies made with a Christian message nowadays aren't very good. The best Christian movies, aren't really Christian movies (e.g. Signs or The Book of Eli). Soul Surfer is an exception. There is a definite Christian message in the film. The character's faith is central to their story. However, even if you aren't a Christian, Soul Surfer is a movie you could enjoy on it's own just as a movie. Christian filmmakers and those who wish to make Christian movies should take note of Soul Surfer.

7.

Super 8

I'm not a huge fan of J.J. Abrams. Beyond a few episodes, I thought Alias just kept repeating itself. I didn't think Mission Impossible 3 was as good as most people; it had a great villain that was underused. And Abrams single-handedly destroyed the world of Star Trek with his new version that makes a completely different universe; I keep wanting to know what's happening in the real world of Star Trek, but it might be 50 years or more before anyone knows.

With that said, Abrams is a good director and sometimes writer. I might not like many of his previous efforts, but the direction in them is good.

Super 8 is, perhaps, the best example of how good a director Abrams is. In style, it's pure Spielbergian, but it's full of unique twists that make it an uniquely Abrams picture. If you grew up in the late 1970s or during the 1980s, Super 8 is a movie that will probably remind you of your childhood. It's the cinematic equivalent of nostalgia.

6.

Midnight in Paris

Woody Allen is a filmmaker that seems to keep getting better with age. Allen has made some great films, but breaking free from the confines of New York City and exploring Europe, his movies have also broken free from the conventionality that stifled most of his films from the 1990s. Following a man living in present-day Paris who yearns to live in the past, Midnight in Paris was a pure joy to watch. I know there are times I've felt like I've been born in the wrong time and Midnight in Paris is the best film I know of that deals with that theme.

5.

The Muppets

I grew up with the Muppets. I mourned when Jim Henson unexpectedly died in 1990. I watched the last Muppet movie to hit theatres, Muppets in Space, in 1999 in a small theatre in Whitewater, Wisconsin with a group of co-workers from the camp I worked at that summer. For twelve years there was no new Muppets. Sure, there were a few Internet videos and an occasional appearance on the Disney Channel, but that was it. Now, they're back.

I probably would have liked The Muppets regardless of how it was as a movie. However, the movie is a surprisingly good film all on it's own. Many of the film's themes are similar to those in Toy Story 3 (which was the best movie of 2010). However, instead of told through an animated tale about toys, this one takes place in a the real world (mostly) and stars Muppets. Am I a Man or am I a Muppet?

4.

Captain America

Based upon the previews, I wasn't sure what to think of Captain America. It was the movie I was most surprised about the whole year. It's not only just a good action movie, but one that has a great character arc.

3.

 

The Artist

I'm one of those rare people who actually enjoy watching silent pictures. The Artist is an almost entirely silent movie that illustrates all the great things that can be done in filmmaking, but aren't anymore because of CGI and special effects. You don't have to have a huge SFX budget or an all-star cast to make a great movie. Heck, you don't even need sound. You just need a good story.

 

2.

Hugo

Hugo is like watching a fairy tale, but one that's wrapped around a mystery that's tied to the origins of cinema. It's about a boy searching for his place in the world after the sudden death of his father. I can relate to that on so many levels. Added to this are the gorgeous visuals.

1.

Drive

Drive shares something with Best Picture winner, The Artist: they are both movies where the protagonist hardly utters a word. It's a movie that the screenplay was probably only ten pages long. It's also an incredibly dark and violent movie. Yet, there is also light. The protagonist of the film sees himself as a modern-day knight, complete with white scorpion jacket for armor and a super-fast car for a horse. The film is stylized like a 1980s Michael Mann movie and moves at the same pace. It's slow and brooding. And, once again it's a tale of good versus evil. I'm not sure why, but I've been haunted by this movie since watching it.

Media Consumed: December 2011

Books Read
*Brightest Day, Vol. 2   by   Geoff Johns
*Larry in Wonderland   by   Stephan Pastis
World War Z   by   Max Brooks
Frogs are Funny!   by   Brandon Snider & The Muppets
Goosebumps #3: Monster Blood   by   R.L. Stine
*Big Nate and Friends   by   Lincoln Peirce
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership   by   John C. Maxwell
*The Walking Dead, Vol. 4: The Hearts Desire   by   Robert Kirkman, et al.

* = denotes graphic novel, TPB, or collection of comic strips

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is highly overrated.

Movies Watched
The Muppets (twice)
Bonnie & Clyde Vs. Dracula
Hugo
That's What I Am
Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows
The Adventures of Tintin
Women Haters
Alvin and Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Super 8

I loved The Muppets so much, I saw it two more times in theatres in December.

Bonnie & Clyde Vs. Dracula has a great title, but it's a horrible movie.

Hugo is another one of my favorite movies from 2011.

I felt The Adventures of Tintin was technically a great movie, but it lacked emotion.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol was a surprisingly good movie.

Super 8 was another one of my favorite movies of 2011.

Media Consumed: November 2011

Books Read
Mint Condition   by   Dave Jamieson
Squiggle   by   B.B. Wurge
The Extraordinary Catalog of Peculiar Inventions   by   Julia Suits
*Tales from the Crypt, Vol. 2     Ed.  William Gaines
Crazy 4 Cult: Cult Movie Art   by   Gallery 1988
*How's That Underling Thing Working Out for You   by   Scott Adams
*Never Bite Anything That Bites Back    by   Jim Toomey
*Cut! Baby Blues Scrapbook #27   by   Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott
Gossip Girl   by   Cecily von Ziegesar
*Cat Vs. Human   by   Yasmine Surovec
*Mo and Jo: Fighting Together Forever   by   Dean Haspiel
*Reheated Lio   by   Mark Tatulli

* = comic book collection, TPB, or collection of comic strips

Mint Condition is a book about the history of baseball cards. I collected baseball cards from 1985-1990. I found the book fascinating.

The Extraordinary Catalog of Peculiar Inventions is a book that is loosely about the DeMoulin Brothers and the crazy inventions they were making at the turn of the 20th Century. It's not as good as another book on the subject: Catalog No. 439: Burlesque Paraphernalia and Side Degree Specialties and Costumes.

Tales from the Crypt, Vol. 2 is a collection of the old "Tales from the Crypt" comics by EC comics. If you have any interest in popular culture, you should read old EC comics. The influence has been massive.

Gossip Girl was crap. I can't believe an entire series and a tv show came about because of this book.


Movies Watched
The Immortals
The Muppets
The Thing (1982)

The Muppets was one of the best movies of 2011. I was glad to see them back on screen again after a twelve-year absence.

The Immortals was pretty, but that's about all.

The Thing is one of the best sci-fi/horror movies ever. It's a great movie.

Flannery O'Connor and the Christian Artist

I am a Christian Artist. This is something I have had to struggle with for most of my life (since I realized in the first grade that I had a knack for acting and wanted to be a movie star). The World doesn't treat Christians very well and ostracizes them. Meanwhile, unless an Artist is creating "Christian" art, the Church tends to shun and ostracize the Christian Artist.

Since a freshmen in college when I first read one of her short stories, I have been a fan of Flannery O'Connor. I wish she would have lived longer so she could have written more. Recently I came across an essay O'Connor wrote entitled "Catholic Novelists and Their Readers." Below are just a few excerpts worthy of sharing. You can read the whole essay here.
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"Every day we see people who are busy distorting their talents in order to enhance their popularity or to make money that they could do without. We can safely say that this, if done consciously, is reprehensible. But even oftener, I think, we see people distorting their talents in the name of God for reasons that they think are good—to reform or to teach or to lead people to the Church. And it is much less easy to say that this is reprehensible. None of us is able to judge such people themselves, but we must, for the sake of truth, judge the products they make. We must say whether this or that novel truthfully portrays the aspect of reality that it sets out to portray. The novelist who deliberately misuses his talent for some good purpose may be committing no sin, but he is certainly committing a grave inconsistency, for he is trying to reflect God with what amounts to a practical untruth....

"Whatever the novelist sees in the way of truth must first take on the form of his art and must become embodied in the concrete and human. If you shy away from sense experience, you will not be able to read fiction; but you will not be able to apprehend anything else in this world either, because every mystery that reaches the human mind, except in the final stages of contemplative prayer, does so by way of the senses. Christ didn't redeem us by a direct intellectual act, but became incarnate in human form, and he speaks to us now through the mediation of a visible Church. All this may seem a long way from the subject of fiction, but it is not, for the main concern of the fiction writer is with mystery as it is incarnated in human life.

"The novelist is required to open his eyes on the world around him and look. If what he sees is not highly edifying, he is still required to look. Then he is required to reproduce, with words, what he sees. Now this is the first point at which the novelist who is a Catholic may feel some friction between what he is supposed to do as a novelist and what he is supposed to do as a Catholic, for what he sees at all times is fallen man perverted by false philosophies. Is he to reproduce this? Or is he to change what he sees and make it, instead of what it is, what in the light of faith he thinks it ought to be? Is he, as Baron von Hugel has said, supposed to "tidy up reality?"
Just how can the novelist be true to time and eternity both, to what he sees and what he believes, to the relative and the absolute? And how can he do all this and be true at the same time to the art of the novel, which demands the illusion of life?...

"There is no reason why fixed dogma should fix anything that the writer sees in the world. On the contrary, dogma is an instrument for penetrating reality. Christian dogma is about the only thing left in the world that surely guards and respects mystery. The fiction writer is an observer, first, last, and always, but he cannot be an adequate observer unless he is free from uncertainty about what he sees. Those who have no absolute values cannot let the relative remain merely relative; they are always raising it to the level of the absolute. The Catholic fiction writer is entirely free to observe. He feels no call to take on the duties of God or to create a new universe. He feels perfectly free to look at the one we already have and to show exactly what he sees. He feels no need to apologize for the ways of God to man or to avoid looking at the ways of man to God. For him, to "tidy up reality" is certainly to succumb to the sin of pride. Open and free observation is founded on our ultimate faith that the universe is meaningful, as the Church teaches....

 "This is no superficial problem for the conscientious novelist, and those who have felt it have felt it with agony. But I think that to force this kind of total responsibility on the novelist is to burden him with the business that belongs only to God. I think the solution to this particular problem leads us straight back where we started from—the subject of the standards of art and the nature of fiction itself. The fact is that if the writer's attention is on producing a work of art, a work that is good in itself, he is going to take great pains to control every excess, everything that does not contribute to this central meaning and design. He cannot indulge in sentimentality, in propagandizing, or in pornography and create a work of art, for all these things are excesses. They call attention to themselves and distract from the work as a whole....

"The fiction writer has to make a whole world believable by making every part and aspect of it believable. There are many Catholic readers who open a novel and, discovering the presence of an arm or a leg, piously close the book. We are always demanding that the writer be less explicit in regard to natural matters or the concrete particulars of sin. The writer has an obligation here, but I believe it can be met by adhering to the demands of his art, and if we criticize on this score, we must criticize by the standards of art. Many Catholic readers are overconscious of what they consider to be obscenity in modern fiction for the very simple reason that in reading a book, they have nothing else to look for. They are not equipped to find anything else. They are totally unconscious of the design, the tone, the intention, the meaning, or even the truth of what they have in hand. They don't see the book in a perspective that would reduce every part of it to its proper place in the whole....

Promoting Gillain Marchenko

I recently came across the writer Gillian Marchenko. She's an author who's struggling to find an agent and a publisher for her book. Here's what her website had to say about her and the book she's written, Krasata.

The day Gillian Marchenko was told her daughter had Down syndrome, she was standing by her crib alone in the former Soviet Union and let go of of her baby’s hand and ran out of the room. Not only did she run from her child that day, but in the months to follow, Gillian also ran from the God whom she had known on a first name basis since she was 15 years old. Gillian dove into a staggering grief over the child she expected and hid in fear of a brokenness that she had, come to find out, carried with her all her life.

KRASATA (“beauty” in Russian), a Memoir of Motherhood, Down Syndrome, and Surprising Beauty starts with a mother whose faith nearly breaks by the birth of her daughter with special needs. With humor and inspiration, spanning two continents, the story ends with the unexpected beauty of an unwanted child pointing her mother back to what matters most. KRASATA is about redemptive love both between mother and daughter, and child and God.

Gillian recently won most promising new writer at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference in California.

In the past, I have done small things (such as liking someone on Facebook, putting in a blurg on this blog, following on Twitter, etc.) for author's who are trying to find an avenue into the mainstream. Over the past decade I've read around 100 books written by self-published authors or printed by smaller independent publishing firms and have written about most of those books on different sites.

I have not read Marchenko's book so I can't say if it's good or not. The material sounds interesting and I think it would be a book I might enjoy, but since I haven't read it, I can't say. I'm writing about this now on my blog because the author is having a contest for a $100 Amazon gift card and that would really help me out and allow me to get some gifts for family member's upcoming birthdays. So, yeah, this is a shill post, but it's one for a person who's just looking for her break, something I can really relate with.

Book Review, Graphic Novel: THE WALKING DEAD, VOLUME 1: DAYS GONE BYE

Even though “The Walking Dead” comics have been published for years, I hadn’t read any of them until I learned about the AMC series that was being helmed by Frank Darabont. At the time, I still had this strange habit of wanting to be familiar with the source material before watching an adaptation on the screen. I’ve never been a huge fan of the horror genre, but at the time I was on a bit of a horror-kick and had just read a bunch of the old EC Comics as well as Stephen King’s nonfiction horror treatise, DANSE MACABRE. That’s the state of mind I was in when I first read THE WALKING DEAD, VOLUME 1: DAYS GONE BYE. However, even if I hadn’t been on a horror-kick, I think I would have found the book fascinating because of the fascinating premise and the great storytelling.

THE WALKING DEAD, VOLUME 1: DAYS GONE BYE follows Southern police officer Rick Grimes. Rick was involved in a traffic job gone bad and ended up in the hospital in a coma because of it. When he awakens, he finds that the hospital is deserted. There’s no one around. There are several dead bodies and half eaten corpses, but no people. Oh, and the cafeteria is full of zombies. While facing the shock of the situation he’s in, Rick discovers that his family is missing and other than a bunch of zombies, the town is deserted. After being knocked unconscious by a squatter living in his neighbor’s house, the events of how the world changed are revealed to Rick. A zombie infection has swept the world and the walking dead now rule. Most people in the area fled to Atlanta where the government said they would be safe. Rick travels to Atlanta to seek his family and discover if they are still alive.

Usually, even the most-cliché-riddled zombie story can be entertaining; there’s nothing quite like reading about or watching a group of survivors trying to fend off a massive horde of the undead. However, THE WALKING DEAD really isn’t about zombies. The series is about the normal humans and how they react to the horrible extraordinary circumstances around them. A zombie apocalypse is a very extreme situation. It allows for both the best and the worst of humanity to be displayed. DAYS GONE BYE is a perfect example of that. Rick literally awakens to a world gone mad; the citizens he risked his life protecting before he went into a coma are now trying to kill him and eat his internal organs. His wife and son are missing and other than a vague heading, he doesn’t know where they’ve gone. In DAYS GONE BYE, Rick is an example of the best that is in humanity. It remains to be seen how the constant strain will affect Rick. Also, DAYS GONE BYE doesn’t even touch how such extreme circumstances can bring out the worst in humanity (from what I’ve heard, that comes later in the series). Despite these variables, DAYS GONE BYE introduces a wonderful group of characters and sets the stage for a great saga set against the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse.

Book Review, Graphic Novel: COWBOYS & ALIENS

Two gunslingers, Zeke Jackson and Verity Jones, are hired to escort a caravan to Silver City, Arizona. On the way there, they are attacked by a group of Apache Indians. In the middle of the skirmish, an alien spaceship crashes into the dessert, ending the battle. The head honcho of the alien is a green-ugly named Rado Dar. He almost immediately eradicates some of the Indians and decides that if all of his confrontations are this easy, Earth will be an easy planet to conquer. While Dar is killing Indians, Zeke and Verity escape. The duo makes it to Silver City, only to discover that the town has been mostly abandoned since the silver mines were emptied.

Later, the cowboys are attacked by aliens and are chased off a cliff where they are rescued by some of the Apache Indians they ran into earlier. The cowboys join forces with the Indians to defeat the aliens. They form a plan of attack and find an unexpected ally in Dar’s assistant. Together this alliance fights together to keep Earth free from a planned invasion by Dar’s homeworld.

The title of COWBOYS AND ALIENS made me highly interested in reading this book. I like good Western stories and I like good sci-fi stories. I thought with a title like that, even if the story wasn’t that great, it would at least be interesting. Thankfully, it is a good story. There are a few clichés, but there’s also some originality. For instance, I liked the fact that one of the main cowboys is actually a cowgirl. There aren’t too many Westerns that include a strong female as one of the lead characters.

The only drawback with the comic I had is that the comic does a lot of browbeating to the reader with the comparisons between the evil aliens being like the settlers. It was a little offsetting, particularly in a comic entitled COWBOYS AND ALIENS. The good thing is that the soapboxing only lasts for a short while until the action gets going.

Though the title might sound hokey, COWBOYS AND ALIENS is a highly entertaining and enjoyable comic. It’s not difficult to understand why Hollywood was so eager to adapt it into a movie.

Media Consumed: October 2011

Books Read
The Dragon's Tooth by   N.D. Wilson
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by   Ransom Riggs
*Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking by  Philippe Coudray
Real Steel by   Richard Matheson
*Yellow Rose of Texas  by   Douglas Brode & Joe Orsak
*Zig and Wikki in Something Ate My Homework by   Nadja Spiegelman
Wreck the Halls by   Jen Yates
In the Land of Believers by   Gina Welch
The Boxcar Children #113: The Box That Watch Found   inspired by Gertrude Chandler Warner
*Puns of Steel by   Scott Hilburn
*Ziggy by   Tom Wilson
The Boxcar Children #115: The Great Detective Race   inspired by Getrude Chandler Warner

* = denotes a graphic novel, TPB, or collection of comic strips

October was a productive reading month. There are several title worth mentioning.

The Dragon's Tooth was an exciting young adult novel that is really unlike any young adult novel I've ever read before. The book has elements of steam punk, adventure, and fantasy. The marketing tried comparing it to Harry Potter, but the book felt more like a serious version of A Series of Unfortunate Events. I can't wait to read the next volume in the series once it's finished.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children wasn't quite as exciting as The Dragon's Tooth. However, it was interesting, nevertheless. The book is different because there are a series of photographs scattered throughout the novel that are important (and in some cases essential) to understanding the story. The photographs are real discarded photographs. The book has been optioned for a movie that is currently in pre-production.

Real Steel is a collection of previously published Matheson stories. It's Matheson so it's worth reading; even his garbage is better than much of the dreck that passes for literature nowadays (ahem, Shades of Grey, Twilight, etc.).

In the Land of Believers is a memoir about an agnostic of Jewish descent who spent two years of her life integrating herself into Thomas Road Baptist Church to learn more about how the "opposition" thinks. It's a good book to read, whether you be a Christian or not. However, though I enjoyed the book, I liked the similarly-themed, The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose better.

The Boxcar Children #113: The Box That Watch Found is a good piece of children's fiction that features geocaching as key to the plot.

Movies Watched
The Smurfs
The Spine Tingler
Brother's Justice
Drive

Anyone who is interested in movies should watch The Spine Tingler. It's a documentary about filmmaker William Castle.

Drive is one of the best movies released in 2011. It has very little dialogue, incredibly violent, and stylized. It's like watching a 1980s Michael Mann movie. Plus, despite the violence, there is a morality to the tale and the story is one of a man who is a modern day knight. 

Book Review, Graphic Novel: THE SHARK KING

Written and illustrated by R. Kikuo Johnson, THE SHARK KING is a Toon Book loosely based upon a Hawaiian myth. A woman named Kalei falls into the ocean and is saved by a handsome young man. They fall in love and are married and soon Kalei is pregnant. The night before their son is born, her husband runs away and she discovers a secret he has been keeping from her: he is the Shark King. The next day, their son, Nanaue is born. Nanaue grows at an incredible rate and has a voracious appetite. His mother soon discovers he has a shark mouth on his back and he can swim like no other creature in the sea. Nanaue begins stealing fish from fisherman just before they are netted.  This leads to trouble for Nanaue.

I was unfamiliar with the myth of Nanaue before reading THE SHARK KING. After reading the book, I did some research and discovered that Johnson portrays Nanaue in a much more favorable light in THE SHARK KING than according to the Hawaiian myths (in the original stories, Nanaue develops a taste for human flesh and kills people and is eventually captured and killed himself). This version of the myth works for a graphic novel geared towards young children. Instead of being a creature to be feared and hunted, in THE SHARK KING Nanaue is portrayed as a playful and mischievous child who the reader comes to emphasize with.

 
The art in THE SHARK KING is graceful and seeped in Hawaiian influence. The illustrations aren’t overly cartoonish, nor or they too realistic.

I really enjoyed THE SHARK KING. It was a story I was unfamiliar with and has given me a desire to search out other Hawaiian myths. Perhaps Johnson will bring other Hawaiian myths to life in future works.

Repost: The Tao of Iron Man

One of the blogs I read regularly is one entitled "The Hurting" written by Tim O'Neil. He has a great new post out today entitled "The Tao of Iron Man."  If you're a fan of Iron Man, you must read it.

Book Review, Graphic Novel: EYEWITNESS: UNKNOWN GOD

Beginning where ACTS OF THE SPIRIT left off, RISE OF THE APOSTLE continues the adventures of Terry Harper, an internationally renowned archaeologist known as "The Bone Man", as he attempts to leave the Middle East and return to the United States. Terry continues to find that he has "spells" where he enters an unconscious state and finds himself to be living besides Biblical figures, in this case the Apostle Paul. Meanwhile, and international conglomerate is determined to kill the "Bone Man" and prevent his discovery from reaching the knowledge of the public.

As was the case with the previous books, RISE OF THE APOSTLE contains graphics that are just as good as anything in mainstream publishing. The action is rooted in historical and real-life subject matter.

The author does take some liberty in filling in events not actually described or as precisely described in the Bible. However, he explains why he does this in the afterward to the story, calling it his "Ten Commandments Strategy" (named after the famous Cecil B. DeMille film).

The book also contains some violence, but none of it is unnecessary and fits very well with the exciting story being told.

Overall, an exciting graphic novel representation of the story of the Apostle Paul's early days as a Christian tied into a gripping tale of international espionage and world domination.

Book Review: THE WIZARD OF OZ GRAPHIC NOVEL

Published by Puffin Books and adapted from L. Frank Baum’s classic American fairy tale, Michael Cavallaro has placed the story in a more contemporary setting and drawn this graphic novel version of the story in a magna-style. Dorothy, Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodsman don’t look like they do in the usual adaptations of the story. In this version of the story, Uncle Henry and Aunt Em don’t live in a farm out in the Kansas prairie, but in a contemporary suburban-style home in a Kansas city. The Scarecrow is dressed in baggy jeans and a hoodie while the Tin Woodsman looks like a rejected robot from an old Japanese cartoon.

In terms of story, this adaptation follows Baum’s story rather well except it completely deletes the chapter of the Dainty China Country. Cavallaro isn’t the first to do this and he won’t be the last. Personally, even though that chapter has an odd feel to it compared with the rest of the story, I find it’s one of the more humorous parts of the story: there’s a ton of comedy going on.

Personally, I like Marvel’s graphic novel adaptation of the story better. However, this one isn’t bad. Reluctant leaders might enjoy the book as well as anyone who enjoys classic literature and magna.

Happy Easter!

Visionaries Vs. Revolutionaries

A couple months ago, Jack Hager reposted this from Kevin DeYoung. With Easter tomorrow, it just seems right to re-post again, now.
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"It's sexy among young people - my generation - to talk about ditching institutional religion and starting a revolution of real Christ-followers living in real community without the confines of church.

Besides being unbiblical, such notions of churchless Christianity are unrealistic. It's immaturity actually, like the newly engaged couple who think romance preserves the marraige, when the couple celebrating their golden anniversary knows it's the institution of marriage that preserves the romance.

Without the God-given habit of corporate worship and the God-given mandate of corporate accountability, we will not prove faithful over the long haul.

What we need are fewer revolutionaries and a few more plodding visionaries..."

What I'm Reading Right Now