FIRST THINGS: Interview with an Ex-Vampire Novelist

 FIRST THINGS: Interview with an Ex-Vampire Novelist is an article that gave me some insight on how art can bring about the conversion process.  It took writing 27 books for Anne Rice to learn the things that helped bring her to Christ.  I like how she characterizes some of the current scandalous biblical scholarship.  It seems to me she is a bit misguided in the area of politics.  For the best explanation of how to vote in a informed manner consistent with Catholic Moral teaching and fundamental human rights read the Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics.

Earthquake Coverage

We had a 5.4 Earthquake yesterday (07/29/2008) here in Los Angeles and TV coverage during events like this is dismal at best.  We had all channels covering it most of the day.  This is totally unnecessary.  Nothing really happened, some things fell, but that's about it.  All they needed to do was come on, make an announcement, and return to regular programming.  I bet all the people that wanted to watch the soaps in LA were really mad, I know I was, they pre-empted General Hospital! !   I had to wait until 10:00 to watch it on SoapNet! ! !  They could have run GH at the normal time and have a ticker at the bottom informing everyone news of the earthquake and nothing big happened.

This is LA and we have strong buildings, not straw huts like a lot of places that get earthquakes.  Some places an earthquake of this size would kill thousands of people, but basically nothing happened here, just some minor things.

I know some have good intentions but it's really all about the hype and trying to scare us so that we'll be ok with the government taking more of our money.  Don't Be Scared!

An American in Paris - A Refreshing Feeling

I was flipping channels this evening and came across the movie "An American In Paris" and thought I'd seen it before but I never had and right from the beginning of the movie,  from the first notes of music, it just gave me a good feeling.  It made me really realize how much entertainment has devolved.  It is amazing the drastic difference in the past fifty years.  The mid sixties is when the de-evolution started.

The biggest change I felt watching the movie is the quality of music.  I normally am not a big Gershwin fan, but most of the music in the movie was very uplifting to the soul, unlike the music of this day and age.  There has to be something that can be done to re-beautify the music and movies of this day and age.

KUSC is making classical music relevant

This is a good article on the state of Classical music in LA and in the USA.  I like Rich Capparela and Dennis Bartel.  Long Live Classical Music.

KUSC is making classical music relevant - Los Angeles Times

Bo Diddley, Who Gave Rock His Beat, Dies at 79

The guy known for his square guitar is gone.  I always thought that was pretty cool. 

Bo Diddley, Who Gave Rock His Beat, Dies at 79 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

Speed Racer review

We saw the movie Speed Racer this weekend and it was actually pretty good.  It wasn't as good as the original series in the 1960's but it definitely could have been worse.  It had a relatively good story with the message that cheaters never prosper.  My children (boys 11 & 9) liked it and as I am sure, as most kids, liked the action and didn't care about the story which was kind of confusing at the beginning because they went back to the past, forward to the future, to the present, future, present, past, future, etc.  Boy it got confusing at times, probably too confusing for my 9 year old.  The racing was kind of strange to me, the cars were constantly going sideways, "drifting", and constantly spinning around bouncing and crashing into each other with little or no damage.  But that's what my kids liked.

Get your kids away form the terrible cartoons of this age and get the original version on DVD for them to watch.  The 5 seasons of the original Speed Racer TV series are available here.

     

                      

If you haven't caught the newest in the Speed Racer series, they have been showing Speed Racer - The Next Generation on TV and it is actually pretty good also.  They already have it on DVD if you want to check it out.

Iron Man Review

I saw the movie Iron Man last night with my 11 year old son and he said it was probably better than Spiderman 3. When asked, he said it was basically the effects and action parts that he liked, when I asked him what he thought about the story, he said "Boring, especially at the beginning."

My opinion of it is that I expected a little better movie. The anti-war theme is a bit tiring; can't they come up with anything new instead of the same old propaganda? They give the impression that weapons are bad in anyone's hands instead of the fact that they are bad only in bad peoples hands. They also give the false impression that all weapons contractors sell weapons to both side because they only care about the money and power. Yes, I am sure there are a few contractors that may be like this, working both sides of the fence, but if the exception is always shown as what is the norm, the normal end up getting viewed as being bad when it shouldn't be. It is definitely a great good vs evil message that needs to be heard.

It could be because I am jaded by Hollywood making the same kind of movies all the time. It's all about the money anyway.