I mispell things!
i love short films. they are just a great way to tell a story. if you can tell a good story in a 5 to 20 minutes video then you probably have an excellent grasp of what is really important to the story. there is no room for wasted space. every element has to connect with the story in a short film. good short films are wonderful things.
the above video is a short film that was a student’s senior project. it’s fun.
adam made pam watch this and then pam made me watch it. it is well worth the 4 minutes it takes to view it. our family has a couple of running jokes concerning west side story so we really loved watching this web-based parody of it.
the above trailer is for the short film “kavi.” it is a student film that ended up being nominated for a 2010 oscar in the short film category. i saw it at the q conference i went to last week and i immediately ordered a screening kit. i’ve already talked to guy over at emy j’s coffee house concerning tapestry doing a screening of the film and a discussion concerning modern day slavery afterward. i’m not sure when we will do this yet. if you have any suggestions on a date please let me know. anyhow it is a wonderful film that i will gladly loan out.
pam forwarded this video from new name pictures (an artist community from the hollywood adventist church). i think tapestry and the hollywood church would get along well if for no other reason than we both love potlucking. potlucks are a wonderful physical representation of the spiritual reality of the church existing as the body of CHRIST – we are more together as the body of CHRIST than our individual parts.
i also really like their “i’m a social justice CHRISTian” video. i think it is a very cool response.
my wife finds the coolest things.
the current terrell family (minus adam who is not home right now – darn driving teenagers) debate involves above commercial. pam and noah started debating whether the non-whippet dog is a basset hound or some weird cross breed that just looks like a basset. noah, correctly, says the dog is a really cute basset hound while pam, wrongly, believes that it is a divergent basset look-a-like. obviously pam is wrong but the debate lasted a pretty long time. i walked in on the middle of it. i added my two cents worth – basically that noah was right and pam was wrong. you would think that this would solve the debate but it didn’t. we continued to re-watch the commercial and the discussion. since she wasn’t going to give in and see reason pam ended the debate by telling noah “the jerk store call and they are out of you.”
nothing ends a terrell debate as good as a random seinfeld reference.
yesterday i finished listening to just courage: GOD’s great expedition for the restless CHRISTian
“just courage” is full of rationale and inspiration for those who wish to walk in the way of JESUS. if you want to understand the need for social justice in the world in regards to practical and real slavery in the world then read this book. haugen tells the stories of many who were stuck in the sex trade and indentured servitude. he also tell the stories of many who have been involved in helping this inidviduals reach freedom. finally haugen gives a ton of suggestions on how anyone can get involved in freeing those who are enslaved.
an added benefit to this audiobook for me was that it was one of CHRISTianaudio.com’s free books a few months ago. WOOHOO!
i finished
sweet structures the book around the mri concept that he has discussed at other points. sweet says that the dna of the church is m.r.i. (missional, relational, incarnational). this again is one of those things that drives me crazy and attracts me at the same time. i can stand lots of cute little acronym’s and dr. sweet uses them all the time. for example the opposite of the mri church is the apc church (attractional, propositional, colonial). the book is full of these little things.
yet sweet’s writing has a great deal of depth to it. the acronyms that would typically drive me nuts hit the mark instead. i love what he says on the church being missional, relational and incarnational at its core. he hammers this home chapter upon chapter. this is why i enjoyed reading “so beautiful,” it is why i have enjoyed reading several of sweet’s previous works, and it is why i will read his future works also. in some ways i think saying “i don’t like his writing style” is part of the highest compliments i can give dr. sweet. this is because i read his works in spite of his style. i read his writing because his point are so good that it doesn’t matter that i don’t enjoy the way he makes them.
it’s a good read and i would recommend it.
i love tilt & shift photography and this video is amazing. you should do yourself a favor and spend 5 minutes on it. i love the miniature look you can create with tilt & shift. even thought is it real life it looks like something you can hold in your hand. ht jason kottke.
tuesday i finished dan kimball’s book “they like JESUS but not the church: insights from emerging generations
no, it’s not a book of statistical research. it is based on his conversations with people who like JESUS but not the church that he met in public and became friends with. these conversations form the “data” that he analyses through out the book.
yes, you could dismiss “they like JESUS but not the church” because of the fact that it is not based on statistical information. you could say to yourself that since it isn’t statistically based it doesn’t fit your situation. i think you would be wrong to do so.
for me kimball’s book is more meaningful because the points of the book came out of kimball’s discussion with friends he had made. i think that was really the point of the book … CHRISTians, especially ministers, desperately need to get out of our buildings and subculture and make friends with non-JESUS followers. kimball lived this out in the manner that he wrote the book and in the manner that he ministers. he lived it out by having people who like JESUS but not the church over to his home for supper, going over to their home for supper, spending time with people where they are rather than expecting them to come to some religious building, and most importantly LISTENING to people who like JESUS but not the church.
it’s a good read.