It’s that warm nightly glow that inhabits our living rooms and bedrooms since our early years. I, like the rest of American of my generation, grew up with that television in the background. It was there during those historic moments. I can remember watching Reagan’s assassination attempt, the Gulf War and September 11th on television in my home throughout the years.
We had a cabinet Zenith which was a pain to move when it was time to get it repaired. (Funny thing about the concept of tv repair. In today’s day and age we just trash the TV and get a new one. We are thoroughly a disposable society). I can remember taking a magnet to the TV and being surprised that it did not reset itself when I changed the channel.
At first it was just a handful of channels. 2,4,5,8 and 17. Then cable arrived sometime in 1983 and suddenly my world changed to 30 channels including Nickelodeon.
My Granny had a black and white TV and it was a long time before I finally realized there were no black and white episodes of the Brady Bunch. I was gently admonished by Granny to allow her to watch her “stories” (a.k.a. Soap Operas). To this day I have a special place in my heart for the theme to “The Young and the Restless.” While at my Granny’s house in the summer I discovered what Pinko, and “Come On Down” meant and how to avoid the Whammy.
I can remember listening to the M*A*S*H theme as somewhat of a lullaby at 11PM during my elementary school years.
TV was my babysitter as a latch key kid during my junior high years. In the summer time my sister and I were entertained by the USA Network’s block of old game shows like Bumper Stumpers and Hollywood Squares. My sister and I would fight over the programming when she wanted to watch “Little House on the Prairie” or “The Waltons” and I wanted to watch Transformers.
Sometime in high school I got a personal Watchman TV and watched Late Night with David Letterman in my bed at 11PM.
I still have the small tube TV I watched in college. It sits on my dresser in my bedroom. I’ll continue to use it until it goes out.
And now I’ve entered into the world of flat screen HD TVs, even if it is about a decade late. It is amazing. This is the best TV I’ve ever downed and I can’t imagine what life was like before all this.

I found out about Duck Dynasty through social media. I have friends who are members of the church of Christ. I also have friends who are rednecks. Subsequently, I have friends who are redneck members of the church of Christ. So I hear about Duck Dynasty frequently on all sides of the spectrum.
I sat down and watched an episode. Like most reality based shows, the episode seemed forced, with the storylines made up. This is the same reason why I don’t like to watch shows like Pawn Stars and Hardcore Pawn.
Since I kept hearing about Duck Dynasty so often, I began to be repelled by it. I thought to myself “Oh no, another Duck Dynasty post?” “Quack?” This all came to a head this weekend when Duck Dynasty members came to my alma mater, Lipscomb University, as part of Don Meyer’s Evening of Excellence. All of my friends, like ducks to water, were going….and posting about it on Facebook. Promotional video is below announcing their appearance.

And what makes them so popular among church going people? Apparently their moral stance; their family values, and their prayer at the end of every episode. Conservative Christians love that. Members of the church of Christ love that the Duck Dynasty stars are also members of the same church.
Please note, I’m not knocking Duck Dynasty due to their moral values. I think there should be more shows on TV which portray moral values. I’m just sick of hearing about Duck Dynasty everyday. Duck Dynasty will wither and fade, and where will one’s faith be? Hopefully still as strong as ever. It has been reported that Duck Dynasty stars have baptized fans. And I wonder are the fans truly committed to be faithful Christians or did they get caught up as the ultimate act of groupies.

I recently rented “Jesus Camp,” which is a documentary about a Pentecostal summer youth camp in North Dakota.
During the first few minutes of the movie, Becky Fischer, a fourth generation Pentecostal preacher had my attention. Somehow she lost all creditibility when she started speaking in tongues (and encouraged the kids to do likewise). For the rest of the time with the movie, she and her supporters seemed little more than a bad joke gone wrong.
Critics of the movie charge that Fischer is indoctrinating the kids with a political message way too early. I would tend to agree with them. Preteens don’t need to worry about overturning Roe vs. Wade. And yet throughout the movie they are fed a meal of the Christian Right’s politics with an extra helping of emotionalism thrown in for good measure.
Being familiar with the Christian Right movement, none of the actions in the movie were surprising to me. I had heard or seen this before.
During the movie it was awkward to see a young girl proselyze by making cold calls to people she met on the street. I think her heart was right, but she was going about it the wrong way.
Conversions are made primarily through close relationships and not through door knocking.

It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.
– Chaos Theory

In the film, The Butterfly Effect, the main character, Evan Treborn, experiences blackouts during traumatic childhood events. Also during his childhood he keeps a journal of his day’s activities on the advise of his psychologist.
Now an adult Evan rediscovers the childhood journals and how he can change the present day by reliving events in his journals. So it seems that some of those tramatic events play a huge role in present day.
This is all part of the butterfly effect…that is if you were to travel back in time to change even one minute detail, the whole future could be suddenly altered…that is all things are connected somehow by past events…by decisions one makes, no matter how inconsequental it may seem at the time.
The film itself is intriging and keeps the viewer interested throughout. And it makes the viwer wonder…is there a past event you could change, what would it be? Is there an event that had it turned out differently, would it make one less introverted, more trusting of others, less paranoid, and ulitmately make for a more fuller life? One has to wonder…
Ultimately one needs to forget about the past…as the past has a tendency to hold one back from future pursuits. Mankind is always looking back toward the past since the future is so difficult to imagine. It is this past that puts us on nostalgia trips and sometimes guilt trips.

I’ve always been a fan of movies set in the future. Back to the Future Part II, Mad Max come to mind. Along with those set in the future are those movies in a dystopia – that is a corrupt government where there is a nightmare senerio. Often the opposite of a utopian society. Twelve Monkeys come to mind.
Two of these futuristic dystopian films are in the news lately. One I’ve managed to catch via the web, while the other I’ve only seen previews of.
I saw Idiocracy via the web this weekend. It is set to be released on DVD tomorrow. Written and directed by Mike Judge, the same guy who gave us Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, and Office Space, the film depicts an unusual view of the future. Seems that Judge has a theory of how the future might be. As the smarter people decided to have less (if any children) the dumber rednecks have more and more kids. Without natural selection the stupid people reproduce at a much higher rate than the smart people, thereby making illegence less common.
After a hybernation experiment goes wrong, a very average army volunteer wakes up 500 years later to find that mankind has become stupid. This average person from the past is easily the smartest person on the planet and soon becomes a key player in the US President’s cabinet.
Judge offers some unique views of how the future might look with a dumb society…including replacing water with a Gatorade-like substance (even used for watering non-existent crops) to having Costco offering law school degrees within its massive stores the size of small cities.
Unfortunately I can easily see that dumb people are reproducting at a much higher rate than intelligent people. “They’re breeding” I tell myself when I see the 3rd or 4th child born to people who can’t handle one child. One only need to browse around Myspace (noting the netspeak) or people watch at the local Walmart store to see an example of how dumb people are these days.
I have yet to see Children of Men, only the trailer… It is one of the very few films out in recent years that I have wanted to see in the theater, rather than wait for DVD or TV. The film offers yet another bleak outlook for a futuristic society of a totalitarian police state where society is so depressed that antidepressants are given out along with rations.
What is so bleak about this society is that women have been unable to have children since 2009. The film takes place in 2027. The main character must protect a pregnant woman from the mobs and chaos.
Both Idiocracy and Children of Men are two very different movies. The former will not win any awards, but may gain a cult following much like Office Space. On the other hand, Children of Men might win an Oscar.

I saw an episode of 30 Days, Morgan Spurlock’s new show on FX. You’ll remember Morgan from Supersize Me, the movie which convinced quite a few people to stop eating McDonald’s all together.
The premise of this show is the fish out of water concept. Take a person and put them into a totally different environment for 30 days.
So this particular episode show a Christian from West Virginia living as a Muslim for 30 days. He had to participate in everything a typical Muslim would do for 30 days. He lived with a Muslim family, ate Muslim approved food, and participated in Muslim rituals.
And during all this I discovered something about Muslims:
Islam promotes Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
What other religion would systematically compel their followers to pray 5 times a day at specific times. And have a certain way of praying. Prostraiting oneself on the floor…toward Mecca. Which makes one think, are you worshipping Allah or Mecca?
Also Muslims have to eat approved meat. It’s somewhat like Kosher meat that Jews have to eat. However at slaughterhouses, when slaughtering the animal, the butcher must turn the animal’s carcass toward the east and utter a phrase in Arabic just before killing it. Why this is so important to God, I don’t know. But I just seems a bit compulsive to me.
Part of the show dealt with everyday Muslims refusal to condemn, or even apologize for extremist views. The typical Muslim view is that these extremists are the fringe group. However Muslim leaders don’t seem to urge compromise. If anything they look the other direction while embassies are burned over Danish editorial cartoons.
Still the concept of a religious rules being very very close to OCD, is not foreign to some Christians. Unfortunately some Christians tend to look at their religion as a set of rules which MUST be followed or else one ends up being punished in Hell. I used to look at life that way. What I missed was the concept of grace. You’ll never be good enough for heaven. But you are made perfect through God. So live your live the best you know how and don’t let rules get in the way.

Monster is the tragic story about how a woman can degenerate to a shell of a human being who becomes a serial killer.
Aileen was a prostitute in Florida. She has almost no friends, except for Thomas, owner of a bar who she sometimes frequents. It is Selby, a lesbian who befriends her due to sexual interest, but also because she too needed a friend.
During the time of Selby and Aileen’s relationship, Aileen kills one of her Johns who was abusive to her. Initually it was self defence but somehow after the initual wounding it eventually turned into anger. Just weeks later Aileen sees the headlines in a local paper saying the police had no idea who did it. Aileen knew that she could kill a man and get away with it.
And so the killing spree began. Whenever Aileen needed money to live her dream, she killed one of her customers. Maybe it was out of desperation. Maybe it was out of revenge toward her abusive father. Together Aileen and Selby traveled around as nomads living in hotels and cheap apartments. Initually Selby was too naive to know what was going on. She regarded Aileen as some type of hero figure in her life, something she never had. Aileen too, saw Selby as a true friend, whom she never had.
What impacted me so much about the movie was how ugly the deep underworld can become. And how one human being can sink so low into killing people just to stay alive in a sense.
Initually it is unclear Selby’s role in the movie. She is the dimissive follower in the movie. She always looks to Aileen for advice and direction. Yet eventually we see Selby taking the law into her own hands and deciding to testify against her.
The real Aileen was excuted in 2002 for killing 6 men throughout 1989 to 1992. She refused her last meal and opted instead for a cup of coffee.
Charlize Theron transformation is phenomenal. She played Aileen in such a believeable fashion. We feel her pain. We see the struggles she goes through. Charlize gained 30 pounds for the role. No doubt heavy makeup was used to make such a beautiful woman into such a monster.

The latest Real World/Road Rules Challenge is afoot on MTV. This time its the Gauntlet 2. The setting is the Caribean island of Tobago with a pirate theme. I perceive MTV is trying very hard to make it seem like Survivor.
After the usual competition to choose team captains, the real drama happens in the last 5 minutes of the episode. The cast does what any group of publicity seakers do. They get drunk and have sex with each other. This is nothing unusual because it seems to happen on every RW/RR Challenge.
Jo, who appeared on the Real World San Francisco gets very upset at the activites of her fellow costars. She freaked out; called home; and went in to get her bags. Ruthie, yes Ruthie – the same person who practicially drank herself to death on Real World Hawaii – tries to reason with Jo on why she is so upset. Jo refuses to talk to Ruthie because she feels she doesn’t have to give a reason for leaving. In true BMP style the episode ends with a cliffhanger, with the next episode showing Jo calling the police.
What the cast members and many viewers don’t understand is that a large part of the Real World San Francisco focused on Jo’s restraining order against her ex-husband. Obviously she has had substantial conflict with an ex-lover which might have even turned violent. No wonder she has negative feelings toward the mix of sex and drunkeness which was exhibited in the house that night. Jo should have never showed up to this Gauntlet.
The sad thing is that I indentify with Jo. Maybe we all have at one point in our lives. I’ve wanted to leave perceived hostile situations before. The thing is that it is perceived to be hostile. Perception and reality is much much different. Others might have wanted to help Jo, but they just didn’t know how to handle it. They don’t know her background. As Timmy put it, “I don’t know Jo from a ham sandwich.” And so we see that ignorance and drunken orgies rule the Gauntlet.

Ghost is one of those movies which guys don’t readily admit they watch. It’s like Steel Magnolias on that sense. In any case I watched it on ABC’s Family channel. ABC’s Family Channel is the same channel which used to be Pat Robertson’s station which played the 700 Club which usually talked about how bad and raunchy television had become. Now we see Ghost with the clay phallic symbol and a sex scene between the two main characters. But I digress.
Whoopie Goldberg as Olda Mae Brown really made the movie watchable. Anything else would have just a silly love story with a theme song from the 50s. Whoopie won an Oscar for her role. How the mighty have fallen…to the center square on Hollywood Squares, usually reserved for washed out C list celebrities. Alf anyone?
Demi Moore as Molly did nothing for me. Mostly she just sat around and cried alot. No character development whatsoever.
What is interesting is Ghost’s portrayal of the afterlife. We see the murder (Willy) and the thief and co-conspirator (Carl) dragged off to the netherworld by the shadows. Something we’d totally expect. Yet Sam, who lived with his girlfriend (a sexual relationship outside of marriage) is shown going to an area of light. No mention of Sam’s religious belief. We only know that he loved Molly and would do anything for her.
Hollywood’s portrayal of the afterlife might not always be scriptually accurate, but who am I to judge? Sam might have been a saint. Sam’s heavenly departure was predictable, and yet satisfying for the movie’s conclusion.

Some have charactized the Star Wars prequels as being Lucas’ last chance to cash in on his franchise. The original Star Wars movies were classics. The prequels are overdone with S.E. and computer graphics, while the dialogue is terribly lacking. “I have a bad feeling about this…” was used once again in Revenge of the Sith.
I’ve now seen all 6 Star Wars movies. While I found the prequels forgettable, I did find some interesting things about Revenge of the Sith’s commentary on war and political relations in general.
In the movie the Republic is in a bitter war against the Sith and their droids. Just like today’s world our United States republic is in a war with insurgents in Iraq and with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Many see these wars (at least the Iraq war) was unjust and corrupt. ROTS patterns this view in subtle commentaries within the dialogue. Some examples:

Anakin Skywalker: “Sometimes I wonder what’s happening to the Jedi Order. I think this war is destroying the principles of the Republic.”
Padm� Amidala: “Have you ever considered that maybe we’re on the wrong side?”
Anakin: “What do you mean?”
Padm�: “What if the democracy we thought we were serving no longer exists, and the Republic has become the very evil we’ve been fighting to destroy?”
Anakin: “I don’t believe that, and you’re sounding like a Seperatist.”
Padm�: “This war represents a failure to listen. Now you’re closer to the Chancellor than anyone. Please, ask him to stop the fighting and let the diplomacy resume.”

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“If you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy!”
–Anakin Skywalker

Compared to this real life quote:

“Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
-George Bush, State of the Union Address (September 21, 2001)

Maybe movies mimik real life?