What if there were no stop signs ... and a major corporation was charged with inventing one?

I wish I could say that this couldn't happen. As someone who has working in advertising way too long I'll just say ... it's funny because it's true.



Along the lines of "what if Microsoft packaged the iPod," a favorite of mine which I know that y'all want to see again, right?

A "Rocky" Critic Responds

My toss-off surprise at how much I enjoyed Rocky hit a real nerve ... I post it here to give the other side a voice. Thanks to Jay for speaking up! Somehow I feel that Scott Nehring probably agrees as he and I quite often disagree on movies.

The uncritical adoration of the movie Rocky is one of my pet peeves of the fans of popular culture. Average people feel that life is so harsh that they adopt patently bogus heroes and products that they would never accept in other parts of their life. This is especially true in sports movies. To wit: Rocky is a horrible movie, that is loved by people starving for "uplifting underdog stories," but the same people would never accept such treacle in the lives, books, non-sports movies, or non-fiction.

Rocky is horrible because it is so fake. Most true film fans have hated the movie for this artifice from the first day of its release, and not just in hindsight of better boxing movies (Fat City released two years before Rocky is a much better dramatic and authentic movie) for tangible reasons:

• The boxing choreography is so fake, World Wrestling Federation workers think it could use some work. The gloves clearly do not hit bodies, the exaggerated reactions and head flailing, the lack of jabs or even a typical first round of "feeling-out" and circling by the fighters... it is all stomach turningly inauthentic.
• Philly boxer as underdog, why not use the story of Joe Frazier?
• Stallone cast himself in the title role purely out of vanity and career advancement. He is a horrible cinema boxer, and is way too short to have been cast as a heavyweight. It really shows in the fight scenes against Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), a real professional athlete/heavyweight boxer size. In real life, Apollo Creed would have literally killed Rocky Balboa on this size differential alone. When people pointed this out to Stallone for the sequels, he artificially enhanced his body type with steroids and human growth hormone. Again, Rocky is worse than WWF. But Stallone was still way too short to be cast as a heavyweight fighter.
• The screenplay, which earned Stallone an Oscar, is amateurish. Very amateurish. The first 70 minutes is way to slow and talky... and talky in a way that was not convincing. The words coming out of Rocky Balboa's mouth in the scenes with Adrian are artificially profound for a character that in the exposition of the movie is clearly established as being a brutish mob collector, a loser, showing signs of being punch-drunk.
• The music is a joke. Movie music is supposed to support the action on screen, not overwhelm or be better than the images. Obvious, overblown, too loud, unsubtle music is not good movie score.

Overall, the movie industry has spent the past thirty years trying to obliterate the inexplicable popularity of Rocky. Every boxing movie since Rocky is superior, and a couple are heights of cinema art. Scorsese made Raging Bull to show the true brutality of boxing, boxers and boxing culture (with much better music and much better cinematography and tremendous boxing choreography). Downbeat at times, yes; great movie art, absolutely. Ron Howard made the great Cinderella Man to correct Rocky and Raging Bull (authentic details of life pre-Depression and in the middle of the Depression, brutality of boxing, music that supports the story, the underdog story of a decent Christian man unerringly doing decent things throughout the film staying in character, tremendous boxing choreography, correct body types for the era). This "Cult of Rocky" has corrupted actual sports culture: movie and sports fans now only relate to underdogs, and not excellence or decency. Even if the underdog is visibly inauthentic.

In response, I do not necessarily disagree with much of what Jay says as I don't know a thing about boxing and don't care. Face it, that is much of the moviegoing public, hence part of Rocky's appeal. The movie is not about boxing really. As Jay points out, it is the story of an underdog who has taken the low road every time. Rocky's trainer points this out bluntly. What appeals is that when Rocky is given a chance (yes, an unbelievable chance but this is the movies so that is part of the deal sometimes) it spurs him on to fulfill his potential.

Has it been done better? Yes, undoubtedly and in many more genres than boxing movies. As we all know, many more genres than sport movies have showed us that tale. As well, it clearly should have been edited better. It would have been nice to have some of the redundancy in dialogue cleared away. And, yet, that is also what made it seem more real. Because people are redundant and stagey in real life conversation sometimes, especially when they are ill at ease as Rocky quite often is.

I have to agree about the large musical numbers, which are now dated as well as over the top. However, if one goes back and listens to the music aside from that, one finds that the music is, if anything, understated with piano being merely a support for the mood of various scenes ... and then only when desired.

Believe me, when I say that I am not a die-hard Rocky fan. I saw this in the movies when it came out. Haven't seen it since nor any of the following Rocky movies. I fully expected to see an overdone, cheesy movie that we would mock for being in any top 100 list. That is why I was surprised. It is not the best movie ever, however, as I said before, like an indy movie with a big marketing budget.

If it makes you feel any better, Jay, it did make me want to watch Cinderella Man ... and I have never been interested before. So perhaps you could look at Rocky as a "stepping stone" movie if that helps at all.

Now, on a very loosely related subject ... who else has found Carl Weathers (who played Apollo Creed in Rocky) to be absolutely hilarious in Arrested Development?

Tobias Fünke: Do you see me more as the respected dramatic actor or more of the beloved comic actor?

Carl Weathers: Whoa, whoa, whoa. There's still plenty of meat on that bone. Now you take this home, throw it in a pot, add some broth, a potato. Baby, you've got a stew going.

Tobias Fünke: Yes, that's fine, but I would like to focus on my acting, Mr. Weathers. I did give you my last $1, 100.

Carl Weathers: Let me tell you a little story about acting. I was doing this Showtime movie, Hot Ice with Anne Archer, never once touched my per diem. I'd go to Craft Service, get some raw veggies, bacon, Cup-A-Soup... baby, I got a stew going.

Tobias Fünke: [pause] I think I'd like my money back.

UPDATE
TO has some good comments about Rocky and reality in movies.

Book Review: The Shack

The Shack is a book I was peripherally aware of but never intended reading. It is one of those "inspiring" Christian novels that seem to be always floating out there in conversation and on blogs. I rarely am interested in them as they usually have both sloppy writing and sloppy theology. (Hey, let's tell it like it is ... we hoe a Catholic row 'round here!)

Then a friend told me how much she liked it and lent me her copy.

Essentially, The Shack is the story of a family that has suffered the tragedy of having their six-year-old daughter kidnapped and murdered by a serial killer. They are suffering from all the reactions one can imagine, from intense sadness and guilt to extreme anger with God for allowing this to happen. Mack, the father, finds a mysterious card in the mailbox one day. It appears to be from God and invites him to come to the shack where the last evidence was found of his daughter, a blood-stained dress. When Mack gets there he encounters the Trinity in a Narnia-style adventure that strives to inform about God and our relationship to Him.

With one eye open for things that would lead me away from Church teachings, I plunged in. This is clearly a book written by someone who has not studied the craft, but who is passionate about how we can better be in a relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I found much to praise, inspire, and ponder in the first two-thirds of the book. The author's own obvious enthusiasm is communicated to the reader in an imaginative setting that helps the reader to grasp a bit better the Trinitarian God, Jesus as fully human and fully God, and our relationship to God as humans. At times this dips far enough into sentimentality while making a point that it leaves the reader wincing. However, overall I was intrigued and swept up in the way that love and relationship with God were being expressed and explained to Mack. I especially enjoyed the personification of the Trinity and that of Wisdom. (On a side note, I would be very curious to hear from any well-catechized Catholics who have read this and could comment on how this view of the Trinity falls into line with Catholic teachings.)

There were some glaring problems in the last third of the book, however. One such problem is in the author's lack of honesty in story telling when Mack finally asks Jesus about his daughter's fear and suffering at her kidnapper's hand. In a story that is supposedly about how one deals with true evil in the world, the answer glossed over any semblance of reality in a fashion that practically screamed "I can't answer this so let's just not deal with it." The author lost a golden opportunity to do some real good in giving people a chance to wrestle with this issue.

Additionally, when Mack leaves the shack and reenters reality, the family's story is sped to a satisfactory conclusion a la, "a shot rang out and everyone fell dead." As the essence of the book is found in the shack this can be understood but it left a somewhat unfinished feeling for this reader.

However, as I was not expecting much literary virtue from the author in the first place, my main problems came from the divergences between his representation of Christianity and mine as a faithful Catholic. The book suddenly takes a turn into an almost New Age mentality and I'm not just talking about the night scene where Mack is given the gift of "true sight." There is a repeated disdain expressed especially by Jesus for churches and religion as "institutions" and "buildings." Jesus tells Mack at one point of his love for his bride, the Church. He then explains that he isn't talking about what people call "church" but about every person who believes and has a relationship with him ... including Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus. While I am on board with the idea that other faiths have relationships with God (as is the Catholic Church), as a Catholic I know that we have Jesus present with us in the Eucharist. This is not simply symbolism but true presence, body and blood, soul and divinity. That is the entire reason for the Church and for any Catholic church building in the first place ... as a meeting place with Jesus in physical form. Even taken from the Protestant understanding (as I am aware of it) this is a clear disdain for the church as "community," which is what God has been talking about for a good portion of the book. Despite the "broken world" explanations given to Mack, one winds up with the feeling that if we would all waft through life just loving God and being all that we can be, then eventually we'd all wind up holding hands and singing together.

Once I read The Internet Monk's review and discovered that the author is of the "emergent church" persuasion much more about the problems I had became clear. I encourage you to read the Internet Monk's review which reflects much of my own reaction to the book. Here's a bit, but please go read it all.

Young is not a master of elegant prose (though his descriptions of the indescribable are well done), but he is wonderfully passionate about the love of God. This is a book that will leave certain aspects of the Gospel indelible impressed on the reader: the nature of the Trinity, God’s personal love for us, the meaning of trust and forgiveness, and the constant creative presence of the Holy Spirit. Young takes many chances, and while not all of them pay off equally, those that do are pretty magnificent. ( I can’t remember setting in a classroom and being moved to tears by a novel before, certainly not one in the “Christian” market.)

Those inclined to look for emerging church error or general heresy won’t be disappointed, and I am sure Young enjoys some of this theological and traditional mischief. I’d recommend putting up the doctrine gun for the duration of this book, and letting the story entertain and explore. This isn’t a confession or a catechism, but it is something a lot of people will read and absorb. It is difficult to not be drawn into the central character’s “Great Sadness,” and the transforming experience that sends him back into the world a changed man is one all readers will find themselves envying. If you can read this book as what it was meant to be, and not as a chapter of someone’s Systematics, it will work on the level we most need such a story: our own sense of intimacy with God.

Internet Monk's review

I did enjoy this book and definitely am going to reread it, if for no other reason than many of the things in it are true and inspiring. However, this is a work of fiction and the reader is warned not to swallow the author's occasionally dubious theology whole and adapt it as their own. As the Internet Monk says, it is a work that can help inspire our own intimate relationship with God. If we take that message and actually use it in our prayer and daily life, not merely read it and feel good, then The Shack can be of great use to any Christian.

Update: The Paragraph Farmer has an excellent review that answers my questions about where this book falls in comparison with Catholic theology. Do go read it if you are interested in this book.

Worth a Thousand Words

Big Morning Sun
Shown by permission of Visual Thoughts, where you will find many other gorgeous photos.

A Rediscovered Movie

Rose rented Rocky from the library.

You know, I don't think I have watched that since I saw it at the movies.

It was such a hit movie and the main clips (and songs) so ingrained in our popular culture that I'd forgotten what it was really like. These days one would call it a little indy movie that had big marketing dollars behind it. It was refreshingly good and the music when the two big songs weren't blasting was quietly and perfectly done with a bit of piano ...

Rose was astounded that it was so good.

A wonderful surprise.

Who I'm Praying for Today ...

Bogusza Nina (from The Crescat)

• Saint Superman
• My friend C, who has lost her job and is taking care of her sister while she goes through chemo therapy. And, of course, for her sister's health.
  
• CB's health and good recovery from her bypass surgery
  
• Mike and Kristy and their unborn baby
• Tammy's friend, Alice.
  
• My special intention
  
• Lisa's grandmother's health and for her family
• The Beyond Cana marriage enrichment retreat
• Our priests and clergy
  
• Abortion providers, Lord open their eyes and hearts
• Strength, joy and peace for oppressed Christians in China, Asia, and the Middle East. Also that their oppressors may have their eyes opened to the truth.
• Plus a whole lot of previous intentions mentioned here and for the intentions mentioned around St. Blog's Parish.
  

Updated daily. Check comments box for requests others may have added.

Worth a Thousand Words

A bruidhinn air a fon! from Flickr Scotland
which I recommend you visit to see many other gorgeous photos.

"What will you do when both kids are gone?"

[meaning, gone to college...]

My usual answer to that is a blank stare and then, "We'll have fun!"

Of course, it is more complicated than that. Isn't everything?

Thinking of moving Rose to college (Hannah gets moved to A&M the week before) gets different reactions at different times.

The funny thing is that those sudden realizations always surprise me.

For instance, talking with Tom's brother and sister-in-law on Saturday, they mentioned that no one ever wants to go on a vacation in October. This was in reference to getting people together to share a beach house in Galveston next year.

I thought, "Well, of course, because of school." Then like a jolt of electricity going through me, I realized that we actually could go somewhere in October if we wanted!

Not that we will have the freedom from work and certainly not the money, what with two kids in school. But we could. We are no longer tied down by the school year in that way.

So that was a glorious moment of freedom beckoning.

On the other hand, this morning I stopped at the grocery store on the way to work. Loading up on freezer bags, Glad wrap, and aluminum foil, I had an impulse to grab a couple of packages of brown paper lunch bags. You know, so Rose would have them for school lunches.

Then it hit me. I don't need to buy those any more. It was a strange feeling to stand looking at those paper bags and be fighting back a few tears. (In fact, it is crazy that I am typing this and fighting some tears right now.)

So the moments of future possibility are balanced by the price to be paid in missing loved ones.

Which is why it is very important for me to live in the here and now. My imagination is altogether too good at taking over ... I have to keep it on a short rein.

The Grammar of Love

Because love is quite often not about feelings, Another Espresso Please shares these home truths with us. Once again, I praise God's wisdom in making the family our learning ground on both sides of the equation, for husbands and wives, for parents and children. This is a hefty excerpt but there is more so do go read it all.

... And because I am so dense, God had to send me MORE children to teach me this.

So He did. And I learned. It was not easy.

I learned that when you are overwhelmed with the change of family, from three to five children and all of them young enough to be very needy...love becomes stretched. Or it seems like it does, or did. Not necessarily stretched in an immediate 'bring them into the cushion of my embrace'...but can be stretched in the sense of "oh my goodness, how do I do this and I'm not FEELING any flutters or torrents of emotion, unless you count the flutters behind my burning sleepy eyes and the tears about to flood!"

And I cried. And I was shocked and despairing at my utter failing.

As a mom. As a person. I didn't love enough, somehow, I thought.

I didn't FEEEEEEL the feelings that they say you are supposed to feel, I thought.

I wasn't being lifted. I was sinking, I thought.

I wasn't really.

I was learning, and growing, and loving.

Thank God, literally, for the graces bestowed on the sacrament of marriage.

Instead of wondering what was wrong with me, or worst of all, scoffing it all off my husband smiled at me, unconcerned, although of course, concerned.....

I would follow him around the house, carrying one or two of the babies, saying, "Yeah, I know, I love them...but, it's so much, so much to do.....will I feel it? Will I love them enough????"

Because I knew. I found out - how shallow and needy I am (still).

Because it was about me.

He would smile at me. Then he would take one and hold her.

And he said, "Just DO for them."

"Huh? Are you not watching me, that's what I'm doing!"

"That's right. That's just right" he would smile.

And when he would see my eyes about to pool over, and me look at him in dismay, he would remind me, "DO for them, the feelings, the depth of feeling, will come. That's what makes the truest love. DO for them. Don't worry. Do for them." ...

A Place to Report Email Spam Related to Child Pornography

A reader was good enough to alert me that there actually is a place where you can report email spam related to child pornography.

I get a LOT of spam on my work email account -- they use Yahoo business service. Too many of them are porn spam.

But this evening I received a spam advertising Web sites for child pornography. I won't go into details of what it pitched, but it listed 5 Web sites with Russian domains.

I was so disturbed by this, I couldn't just delete it (which I do with the rest of the spam). After some research, I discovered that it is possible to report cases on even email spam related to child pornography.

In case anyone else might receive this kind of spam, I thought it would be good to at least let them know it can be reported.

The CyberTip line of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children will collect reports of child pornography spam.

I applaud this reader's initiative. I am fortunate enough to not have this sort of thing coming through our email filters but I know it is an increasing problem so am happy to be able to tell about this resource.

Angels and Subways

Jane shares another angel story ... one that any mass transit users may want to keep in mind.

Only Aggies Would Pull This Off ... at World Youth Day

Of course, Aggie Catholics is on the job showing us that you can count on Aggie Catholics to be everywhere. Hilarious. And very cool...

Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog

Joss Whedon's latest brilliant venture.

Go. Watch. It.

NOW!

An online 3-part mini-series/musical. First 2 parts are up now, third premieres on Saturday. And it is only going to be up through Sunday. I've only watched the first act and it is hilarious.

I am going to either have to either pay the season pass fee at iTunes or ... I hear tell of a possible dvd. I must have it!

For more eloquent talk about his new favorite supervillain of the year, read Jeffrey Overstreet's praise of Joss Whedon and this venture.

Explicit Language Warning
I just watched Act II and there is an explicit word used, completely unnecessarily in my opinion ... the whole thing is still a hoot but anyone bothered by offensive language probably will want to skip this one.

Worth a Thousand Words

Paso Robles Vineyard by Belinda Del Pesco.
Click through the link for more gorgeous art.

Pedestrians in Chicago

You know, we wondered why so few drivers ever even glanced at Chicago pedestrians ... meaning us last week when we were attempting to use crosswalks ... much less slowed down for them OR stopped. A timely story shows it isn't the lack of laws but the same old story ... "Aha," we said when spotting this in our paper this morning (though just try to find it on the DMN website ... so here is the link to the AP story at Yahoo):

CHICAGO - So why did officer Grace Delgado try to cross the road? To remind motorists that they must stop whenever someone steps off the curb into a crosswalk.

In an unusual undercover operation, Delgado posed as a pedestrian on a busy street while fellow officers waited for drivers to barrel past her in violation of a law that requires them yield at crosswalks, even if there is no stop sign.

Chicago this year joined a growing number of big cities and small towns that are sending officers into traffic to make motorists pay more attention to pedestrians.

"People, they don't care," said Delgado, whose bright pink baseball hat and orange blouse made her especially tough to miss. "It's 'Get out of my way.' The whole mentality is 'Get out of my way.'"...

Thank you Dallas Library ... and Andrew!

Hannah's movie-loving pal, Andrew, exhorted Rose to check out the library's movie offerings. Exhorted is exactly the right word and he was so adamant that she actually did what he told her. She told me that they had a huge number of movies.

Now, I had seen people checking out movies but they were usually older ones and, therefore, I wrongly thought that the selection was not very good. Picking up Rocky and Jaws dvds for Rose, I suddenly thought of television series that we never had enough time to finish before our two days' rental was up.

Calloo, callay! My requests for Arrested Development (season 1) and Battlestar Galactica (season 2.5) are "active" and will soon be winging their way to my nearest library.

Excitement abounds!

(Yes, I realize I am easily pleased ... which I consider to be a good thing!)

A Prime Example of Why the Chinese are Renaming Items on Menus Before the Olympics

Although usually they are eliminating euphemisms. They might want to add some to this ... found at Engrish.com.

Chicago Tales: Getting There

We drove to Chicago.

It was 16 hours (ugh!) but infinitely cheaper than flying four people there and back. All four of us took turns driving so that helped out on the load.

Also, our family does well on car trips together. Because, you know, we like each other's company.

We all prepared mightily for the trip. Tom had a Gilbert & Sullivan track ready for us as we pulled out of the driveway (that will only make sense to people who love The Simpson's episode where they move to Terror Lake as much as we do). We completely cracked up over that surprise.

I had various podcasts ready ... to see which were hits, you can check out Forgotten Classics where they all get a mention in the latest episode.

Rose had various song mixes which she had prepared for her camping trip in west Texas. We chose ones with names like "Happy" or "Summer" or "Jazz & Blues" and very carefully avoided the "Alternative" mix CD.

Also I bought Barguments. It provided us with three solid hours of laughter and good-natured arguments. We got through about half of the book and probably will embark upon the rest when we return in August to move Rose to college.

Sample questions that provided a good deal of conversational fodder:

You're stuck in an elevator for two hours. Would you rather be alone or with a stranger? (Can you believe I was the only person who would rather have been alone?)

Name the five best bands of all time. (This sparked much conversation but none of us were so dedicated to only five bands that we could produce a definitive list.)

If you could collect royalties from any single invention, which would you choose? (I picked Post-It notes)

We discovered that none of us cares enough for alcohol to make any questions like "Choose whether to give up wine or chocolate for life" interesting at all. We easily surrendered alcohol.

Every book like this has a few tasteless questions but this did not have many and whoever was reading simply skipped them. Highly recommended.

One of the Best Descriptions I've Read of How Parenthood Pushes You

It turns out that life is nothing like I thought that it would be. Parenting is completely different as a matter of fact. Babies can be cute and fun for 1-3 minutes at a time, but for the most part they are land mines just waiting to be triggered. Sometimes I understand why a minor exorcism is involved in alot of the early sacraments that you get as a child. Parenting and being a husband has pushed me far past what I though that my boundaries once were. In fact, I've pretty much given up wondering where that line is and just go with it.

Tim echoes quite well how Tom and I felt when Hannah was a newborn. Go read it all. Throw in major colic and Hannah's tendency to never sleep more than 4 hours at a time ... and you've got our lives as new parents.

Being pushed like that is part of what made us the people we are today. Marriage started the pushing (and continues it on the way) and children turned it up a notch.

Do we love our kids and our family?

Undeniably yes.

We wouldn't have it any other way and feel genuine pity for people who don't have what we do. However, there is no denying that a lot of the time, "It don't come easy."

That is partly why I firmly believe that families are ordained by God as society's foundations. There is nowhere else that people can truly see honestly sacrificial, genuine love being lived day in and day out by ordinary people ... their parents, brothers, sisters, and hopefully ... themselves.

Worth a Thousand Words

Corner Bakery

Another from a great favorite of everyone's, Karin Jurick. Check out her site for the original as well as many other great paintings.