Summer Movie

Ok, so it isn't your usual summer blockbuster...it's a three and a half hour masterpiece by Russian filmmaker Andrey Tarkovskiy! I watched it a couple of nights ago and was blown away by both its scale and imagination. At its heart, it is a film about the role of the artist in a time of horrid, senseless violence - a dilemma Tarkovskiy knew all too well growing up under the grotesque oppression of Stalin.

Andrei Rublev may seem a daunting task at three and a half black and white hours, but Tarkovskiy is too skilled a filmmaker to allow the audience room to grumble. This is not to say that the pace is quick (far from it), but rather that Tarkovskiy and cinematographer Vadim Yusov employ so many innovative and unique styles of capturing the images that it is hard not to be engrossed throughout. Many of these shots can clearly be seen to have inspired modern filmmakers such as Peter Jackson and Terrence Malick.

One of the most memorable scenes is a recreation of the crucifixion of Christ in a Russian winter:

Despite a headache, being supremely tired, and misjudging the length of the film by about an hour (oops), I was riveted. What more can I say?

Thanksgiving

**Nota Bene: I had written this poem about a week ago (well...50% of it is Scripture, so I guess I didn't really write it), and didn't think too much of it since. Then, tonight, when discussing Charles Williams' novel War in Heaven, this verse came up repeatedly. Throughout the novel, characters are repeating incantations in order to converse with the supernatural in a demonic sense, but the one pious character uses Psalm 136 almost as an Invocation of the divine, and thus I added to my title a bit.**

Thanksgiving: A Christian Invocation

This body was given me by my mother,

            though it was not hers to give.

O give thanks to the Lord; for He is good:

            because His mercy endureth for ever.

This breath is lent me by the earth,

            though it is not the earth’s to lend.

O give thanks to the Lord; for He is good:

            because His mercy endureth for ever.

These thoughts will be thought by greater intellects,

            though they will not be theirs to think.

O give thanks to the Lord; for He is good:

            because His mercy endureth for ever.

Shark Week!

That's right, folks. Tomorrow begins an all new shark week. Get ready to have your minds blown.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/shark-week/

And on a completely unrelated note, check out Wade Robson being his usual crazy self:

Novelties

Five opening sentences from novels yet to be (or never to be) written:

1. Sarah was crying again, but something was peculiar about these tears: they moved in the reverse fashion, rising from her lap, gathering along her cheek, and inserting themselves into her eyes; everyone was taken aback, but this soon faded as each couple filed their way out of the house backwards and in reverse order of their arriving, and Samuel was left to wonder what on earth that gypsy had slipped into his drink at lunch.

2. The blood was draining quickly, but he had just enough time to drag his near corpse of a body from the dining room to the front door to write a message in his own blood, "Joseph Carpe" but his hand slipped for the last time and rendered the message unreadable.

**Has anyone written a novel where the murderer is known to the reader but not the victim? I'm sure its been done, but for some reason I can't think of by whom at the moment. I think that would be a fun one.**

3. It wouldn't be until years later, in a conversation with Jim Needham on the event, that Jonathan would truly realize the gravity of his mistake in asking Mother Martha if her nonexistent baby was to be a boy or a girl.

4. Charles had always been fond of children, but this was simply too much for even him to handle, he thought as he attempted to forcibly walk out of the walk-in pantry in which he was currently imprisoned.

5. Jack had never given the idea of a twin brother any thought, but now it dominated his mind as the only explanation for this imposter who stood before him in poor dress, and with unmistakably familiar features, who had apparently been responding to the name Jack for weeks, giving the real owner of that name quite a bad reputation for slovenliness.

This is what happens when my job requires me to fold brochures for several hours...

Ansel Adams Decor

If there is one thing I regret about my past year at college it is that my dorm room was almost devoid of art. I had music covered by my record player, film covered by my (always in progress) collection of films + netflix, literature covered by my bookshelf and nearby library, but art was sadly given a minor role in my room. Given that I am living on a hall with scores of young men I have given up the idea of appeasing my sense of smell. Perhaps some day...

Growing up my home has always had various paintings and photographs hanging about, and I was missing that aspect of my life a lot this year. One of my families and my favorite photographers being Ansel Adams, I have decided to rectify my lack of art by hanging one or two of his photographs about.

Here are the few I'm deciding between at the moment:

If anyone has any opinions, feel free to share. I also found a website that does fairly nice prints of paintings on canvas, but they are also fairly expensive...so I might have to stick with this for now.

I Don't Know

How I get any reading done in this house...

This is Calvin.

Star Gazing

As we gaze at the blazing of the stars
Engulfed in beauty from our moving cars
They gaze at us and wonder at the mirth
Of sacred weddings and supernatural birth.
Each takes his ancient constellation seat
With care not to destroy us with his heat
And watches as the miracle of life
Upends the tears of momentary strife.
Each sings the joyful song of the creation
Over the birth of every new-found nation.
All saw the fall of man, the rise of Rome
All saw Christ turn a stable to his home.
This world is not a stage, we are not players
Our work is real beneath the gazing suns
We wait with folded hands and fervent prayers
Till Christ return to take us as God's sons.