Entries from June 2009

June 26, 2009

Mortality

I was probably 10, or somewhere close, when I first became aware of the Jackson 5. The Osmonds were in there, too. (He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother) The boy singing the lead in the stratosphere was cute as a bug, and had talent forever. I was never a big fan of the moonwalk, maybe [...]

June 23, 2009

Up

We get excited about Pixar movies at my house. And we often talk about going to see the latest Pixar movie together, but it rarely works out. The release of Up was no exception. We talked about it, suggested times, but in the end, Anjie and Daniel saw it first while I was in Chicago [...]

June 20, 2009

Making, and Making Music

Why is it that when people read my scripts, I am not terribly threatened by their response? I write as much lousy dialogue and description as anybody, and the fact that people point it out to me in the process is fine with me. It’s the nature of the work. It wasn’t really true in [...]

June 19, 2009

Inspiration

Hard to say where it comes from.  The Greeks thought it came from the gods, from the muses.  I suppose I still think it does, from God, from sources of creation and spirit that He oversees and delivers in mystery, in conversation, in idea and image.  My son is no doubt being inspired even as [...]

June 18, 2009

Emotions

Two weeks ago, our film group watched an old film that isn’t on anybody’s great list.  Equilibrium is a Matrix wanne-be starring Christian Bale who plays a bad-guy turned good guy in a world that’s decided the only answer to war is to get rid of all emotion.   Dumb movie, really, but it led us [...]

June 17, 2009

My Process of Making

I’ve discovered some things about how I go about making the work I make.   Reminds of a quote from Art and Fear (which I quote all the time) which simply says that our work is to learn how to work on our work.  If nothing else after 50 years, I’m getting hints about what that [...]

June 16, 2009

God On Trial

Sometimes people ask me to watch films, having been moved for some reason to think that I’d like them.  My friend Jimmy handed me a film in a Netflix envelope probably some six weeks ago, and I said, sure, I’d watch it.  And then life happened, and week after week, he’d ask me, and I’d [...]

June 13, 2009

L’ Desh Fresh

New Water Product…sort of. Pretty brilliant way to get the word out about the state of water availability in the world.   Go to the official L’Desh Fresh web site to see the entire campaign. Pushing back the dark…

June 13, 2009

Josh Wilson

Heard a very fine performer at the Willow Creek Arts Conference Friday morning.  Josh Wilson is a West Texan (Lubbock) who stands up there all by himself and creates full band and choir sounds with a looping station that’s just as cool as cool can be.  A fine guitarist and singer, he strikes me as [...]

June 12, 2009

Is Drama Still Effective?

That’s the question lots of people at Willow are asking. And of course, their use of the word “drama” is always a bit suspect, because we all know what we get in churches far too often when it comes to “drama.” Why the word “theatre” can’t be used tells us something. But whether an actor [...]