If you haven’t seen this than it’s worth the watch. In the end you’ll feel both stunned and sad at the level of Tom Cruise’ brainwashing.

Here’s a good follow up.

One of the best movie review sites - www.rottentomatoes.com - pointed me to my favorite movie of last year. Without knowing anything about the movie ‘Once’ Jess and I decided to check it out purely because it had a high rating on the aforementioned site.

Once is actually an unconventional musical and a very unconventional love story. It’s unconventional as a musical because the characters don’t burst into song at random times like musicals of the past. The story chronicles the music collaboration of two different individuals who actually have talent in real life as well. The songs in the movie are as emotional as any I’ve heard, simple, and powerful. To see why the love story part is unconventional you’ll have to watch it.

The story behind the story is just as compelling and life proves to imitate art. You can read about that here but don’t do it before you watch the film.

It’s being reported that the government might actually give us some of our money back! In some kind of weird effort to stimulate the economy, Congress is considering giving tax payers back $600 per person, $1200 per couple, and possibly $300 per child.

So what would you do with yours?

Seriously, it’s some of the worst religious garbage I’ve ever seen.

On that note I stumbled across a free on-demand Christian TV based out of the UK today. I’m still exploring it but so far no dudes on gold thrones or ladies with big pink hair. It’s called Premier and you can check it here.

Who-da-thunk that former President Bill Clinton would be stumping for his wife in my little old home town of Eureka, CA. Well it’s true and for those of you who live in Humboldt make sure and take advantage of this momentous occasion.

Finished another interesting book last night - although I should preface the interesting part with; interesting primarily to entrenched evangelicals or people who have grown up going to church.

A New Kind of Christian by Brian Mclaren is a fictional diaologue between a Pastor and Science Teacher (who is actually a former pastor). Through their dialogue they wrestle with issues of cultural Christianity and the challenge to be a new kind of Christian in a post-modern world and what that may look like.

This book resonated with me on a lot of levels and had I read it when it was written several years ago, probably would have rocked my own theology pretty good. The call to get out of the church [building] and be agents of social change is one that has been rippling through the American church lately. The biggest catalyst of this new kind of thinking about Christian life has been because of people like Mclaren and what is being called the Emergent conversation or movement. Books like A New Kind of Christian don’t seek to give all the answers but ask a lot of questions that are indictive of the upcoming generations approach to spirituality.

Who should read it? If you’ve grown up in the church but have always felt like some things are a bit off or if you are currently a leader in the church than this book will challenge your thinking about “Christian culture”.

I haven’t been doing a lot of reading since the summer but recently read a short book called “I sold me soul on eBay“.

The author is an atheist who decided it may be beneficial to his life to consider a religion (other than the one he grew up with - Jainism). Instead of picking from a plethora of religions himself, he decided to put the decision in the hands of eBay customers. The winning bidder turned out to be a Christian pastor, doh! The author was than asked to visit over a dozen churches and write his critique of them.

The book - while not a great piece of writing - is a great look into the church from a nonreligious persons point of view. The author who calls himself a ‘friendly atheist’ takes a very even keel approach to his critique and offers a lot of good advice to those who profess to be followers of Jesus.

I honestly can’t remember the last time I wore holes in the knees of my pants but it was probably close to 18 years ago. In the last couple of months I’ve worn holes in two different pairs of jeans. The reason…I spend a lot more time on the floor these days playing with my one year old. I guess, as my Dad would say, “life is coming full circle”.

Does anyone really listen to music for the lyrics? These days true music artists are hard to come by as most Top 40 music can be found in the mall food court, literally and figuratively. Whereas music that sounds good - both produced and live - is rare. It used to be that you wouldn’t sell a record unless you had good music, good lyrics, and you were as dynamic on the road as on the radio. Not anymore.

Jess and I were listening to a song by Colbie Caillat on the radio the other day. She has a rich voice and the song had a pleasant feel to it – then I actually listened to the lyrics. Check out a sampling from the #7 song on the Billboard Hot 100.

#7 Colbie Caillat – Bubbly
I’ve been awake for a while now
You’ve got me feelin like a child now
Cause every time I see your bubbly face
I get the tinglies in a silly place

Yikes, “…the tinglies in a silly place”. It only gets better though. Check out the #1 song.

#1 Flow Rida – Low
Did I think I seen shorty get low
Ain’t the same when it’s up that close
Make it rain, I’m makin it snow
Work the pole, I got the bank roll
Imma say that I prefer them no clothes
I’m into that, I love women exposed
She threw it back at me, I gave her more
Cash ain’t a problem, I know where it goes

There’s nothing better than rapping about paying a stripper to sell your records. Stay classy Flow Rida!

I’ll admit that I’m a music consumer and I often enjoy a Big Mac as much as a steak. The reality is as a consumer culture we think little these days of content and just go with our gut. Imagine if we actually ate based on the content of the food or listened to music based on the depth of lyrics? Colbie and Flow would probably be working at the Golden Arches.